Yellow Wallpaper

Once again, this month I only read Whitney finalists except for one book for my book club. I read all the finalists in the adult fiction categories and I'm curious to see how the awards turn out this year. Tres Leches Cupcakes by Josi Kilpack I have really enjoyed reading Kilpack's culinary mysteries. Sadie is a fun character and Kilpack's writing is polished and engaging, making these the perfect books to curl up and escape with for a few hours. I didn't like this one as much as Banana Split because I felt like the mystery wasn't very clear for most of the book and I felt like Sadie didn't have a very clearly defined character arc. Code Word by Traci Hunter Abramson The Saint Squad books by Abramson are also great for a fun little escape for a few hours. The writing isn't unique in any way and I could guess the plot of this book from the first few pages, but it wasn't a bad read at all. Deadly Undertakings by Gregg Luke The best I can sa...

1. Disbelief A few weeks ago I decided to randomly look around at possible library jobs in my area. I do that sometimes; I have only been in my current job for a year and was planning on staying longer, but I am always curious about what is available out there. Weird, I know. I saw a job listed at the other university library (not the one I work at). It was in an area of the library that I had not ever worked in before and I wasn't sure if my experience would be applicable, but the pay scale was better and it looked like it was something that would be interesting and that I would be good at. I filled out the application online and then got called in for an interview the next week. I felt like the interview went well; I used to be pretty bad at interviews, but I have gotten a lot better as the years have gone by. It also helps that I have been doing some interviewing at my current job so now I have a better perspective on what works well and what doesn't. I interviewed on a ...

Last weekend we went down to Vegas to visit my parents for a few days. The kids had Spring Break, and since I had to take time off work to be with them anyway I thought a trip would be fun. It mostly went well; we listened to a  Harry Potter audiobook during the drive that kept everyone entertained. The weather was warm and sunny, but not horribly hot yet. Spending a few days in the warm sunshine was great for everyone, though it made the cold and snow here in Utah a bit more unbearable after we got back. Since this is a good time of year for being outside there, we took advantage and spent a lot of time doing nature-related activities. One day we went to Springs Preserve and spent hours in the museum there learning all about the history and ecology of the desert. It was a lot of fun; the kids could have spent all day in the museum I'm sure. The next day we drove out to Red Rocks and spent time at the visitor center learning even more about the desert, then did some hiking and...

Somehow I didn't get around to publishing my reading roundup in February on time, so I decided to save it and do both months together. Almost all of the books I've read during the last two months have been finalists for the Whitney Awards . I have a few more to read during the next month so you'll be seeing some more reviews of those next time. If I Lie  by Corrine Jackson This was an interesting book, even though I figured out the complication in the plot fairly early on during my reading. The main character was almost just a bit too unpleasant for me, but her prickliness was understandable given the circumstances. Mostly, I liked it and thought it was a good, quick YA read. Shadowed by Stephanie Black I thought I'd be proactive and read this before the Whitney finalists were announced, since Black has been a finalist for most of the last few years. Then after I read the book I realized that she wasn't eligible this year. Oops. I actually thought this book...

OK, folks, I've got a bad case of the tomorrows. Every day I think "tomorrow I will eat better" or "tomorrow I will start exercising" or "tomorrow I'll clean out the closets" or "tomorrow I'll write in my journal" or "tomorrow I'll teach the kids how to cook and create a chore chart" or "tomorrow I'll write a decent blog post." I have yet to figure out when tomorrow is coming, because it hasn't happened yet. Anyone got good ideas for getting out of a procrastination rut?

Just when you start to forget what short sleeves and bare feet feel like, you wake up one day and realize that the sun is shining and the air feels clear and warm(er). I can tell that I have overcome my California childhood and acclimated to Utah because the temperatures have been in the 50s lately and I have stopped wearing socks. Well, until today when winter weather came back and I got my coat out again. Spring in Utah is pretty fickle. Last week was Spring Break at the university I work for; what that meant for me was the execution of a rather big project. We have a satellite campus that is about 45 minutes away, and last week we needed to inventory and relabel all the books that are in the small campus library branch. There were about 10,000 books total, so each day two of my coworkers and I drove up with several students and spent about six hours a day re-labelling books. It was an adventure and a lot of hard work, but mostly went smoothly. That took us through Th...

On Friday morning I experienced another run-in with one of the Annoying People at Work. I know all of us have had to work with at least one Annoying Person. They are varied in their presentation, but generally make life difficult. This person complains and makes the atmosphere negative, no matter what we try to do. After dealing with this person I went back to my desk and began to complain to two of my coworkers. While I was in the middle of my little diatribe, the Annoying Person came walking by and we immediately stopped talking. Of course Annoying Person noticed and said something, and of course I felt really bad because I was acting like a petty little junior high student instead of a professional. Then yesterday in Primary we began learning the song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". And I had to sing the line "If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?" about twenty times in a row. I felt bad. Because it's true--this person is difficult a...

Friday night I didn't want to come home from work because the kids were here. I just wanted to come home to an empty house and not have to fix anyone dinner or anything. It didn't help that I was out of groceries and out of good meal ideas. Finally I decided to make creamed tuna and serve it with leftover rice that was sitting in the fridge; it was a major hit with the kids, surprisingly. Everyone had two helpings. Last night turned out to be a better night than I thought it would after all. I realized the other day that part of why I feel like I have blogging writer's block lately is because I spend so much of my time at work, but I can't write about work. My job is not great for many reasons, but I don't dare blog about it. I'm also still trying to figure out my emotional balance in order to not let my job dominate my life. It's hard sometimes. For a while I was only listening to NPR in the car. Then last year I switched to listening to pop music on th...

I feel like I'm still trying to figure out what my priorities are and how to best use my time. I know this is a universal problem and that no one has the time or other resources needed to accomplish all that they would like. It's just that I used to feel like I had a better handle on things and now the last two years of my life feel like a constantly shifting landscape I'm still trying to navigate. Last night I worked late and didn't get home until 9:30. My original plan had been to go right to bed by 10:30 and catch up on sleep. Instead, I started chatting with a friend on Facebook and we played a round of Words with Friends. I stayed up later than I had planned to. On the one hand, I needed the sleep. On the other hand, I also needed to talk to someone. For a while now I've been debating the value of my time, because I spend a lot of time chatting online with this particular friend. I value our friendship. I need connections in my life and I don't feel like ...

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman I love a good historical novel that I can really escape into; this one one really fit the bill as far as the plot went, especially for the first part of the book. I really liked the characters and the action in the beginning, until it became clear that there really wasn't a good way to resolve the story. I still have mixed feelings about how the book ended. Generally, I liked it quite a lot but it was not an easy read. Blame by Michelle Huneven This book surprised me. I was expecting a different tone and style of writing based on the fact that I found it through Amazon when it was suggested as a similar book to another one I read last year. Despite the fact that the plot seems like the sort of melodramatic problem novel that I sometimes enjoy as a guilty pleasure, the quality of writing was much higher than that and the story more complex. Once I got used to the fact that I was not reading the book I had expected, I really enjoyed i...

Monday seems to be my new day for posting. Happy Monday to everyone out there in blog land. I actually like Monday morning; it's the day I go in to work late so I can stay later in the evening. Once I get the older kids off to school I have a few hours to run errands, catch up on housework, and recover from the weekend before starting a new week. (Don't ask me how I feel about Mondays later tonight. A busy morning followed by 8 hours of work usually leaves me exhausted by 10).  I've been re-learning a few lessons these past few weeks: 1. Not everyone is going to like me or like the things I do. I recently got called to be in the Primary presidency as the secretary. While I'm thrilled to be in a more active calling and I love being in Primary with the kids, I'm remembering what it is like to serve in a presidency and to be more exposed to the gossip/complaints/opinions of those in the ward. I've been running into similar problems at work,...

I don't pay any attention to football, college or otherwise, and hadn't heard of Manti Te'o until his "fake girlfriend" story hit the news this week. I find the story oddly fascinating and have spent the week reading all kinds of articles about similar internet scams (good links here and here ). The interesting thing to me is that so many people lie on the internet for no other reason than boredom, loneliness, and curiosity about how other people will react to them. There usually isn't any kind of tangible physical gain for the perpetrators, and often there isn't a tangible loss for the victims. It almost seems worse to me, though, to be stealing things like trust and intimacy rather than money. These types of stories make me a little uncomfortable too because they bring to the surface the feelings I have underlying many of my internet interactions: is this a 'real' event? We are sharing ideas and writing intimately about ourselves, and my mind ...

I kept waiting to post on my blog until things calmed down a little. And of course, they never did. I'm trying to convince myself that life will never just go along smoothly in any semblance of a 'normal' routine, and as I look back at the last seven years I've been writing on this blog I realize more and more that this is true. It has been harder during the last eighteen months doing this by myself; I miss having a partner to go through this with. Someone to help hold down the fort and clean up the messes, and give me a hug at the end of the day. But, I'm here and I'm doing it and most of the time I think I'm surviving all right. December and the holidays went well from what I remember. The kids got great presents this year that they actually love and use. Buying presents is hard because I never know if the kids are going to like them or not. Some things I thought they would love have been total duds and others have worked out better than I imagined. Li...

(previous years: 2011 , 2010 , 2009 , 2008 , 2007 ) I read 97 books last year. I didn't think the total would be that many since my reading has slowed a lot during the last six months, but I read a lot at the beginning when I was reading Whitney finalists. 80 of the books I read were fiction and only 17 were nonfiction. That's a much smaller ratio than I have had in the past. It's partly due to all the Whitney finalists and also due to the fact that this year I have favored easier, fluffier books. I've still read some good ones, but I've been on a light reading kick for a while and nonfiction doesn't always fit into that very well. Only 27 of the books I read were by men and 70 were by women; that ratio has also been changing year by year. I think in this case the books by women category was weighted so heavily because I've read fewer nonfiction books (I tend to read more fiction by women and nonfiction by men), the Whitney categories I read tend to be d...

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell This book was slow to start for me; Mitchell's writing style is dense, there were a large number of characters, and the author drops you into the action immediately without a lot of explanation of what is going on. After a taking a break from the book a few times, I managed to get into the story and I really liked it. It was nice to read a good, meaty book for a change. Code Name: Verity by Elizabeth Wein This book was surprisingly meaty as well. I'm not sure why it's been marketed as YA because the characters are not teenagers and the story isn't necessarily a teenage-oriented one. Either way, it was a fabulous book with great characters and a really unique writing style. And it's one of the few books I've found that actually passes the Bechdel test . One of my favorites this year. The Winds and the Waves by Dean Hughes Dean Hughes is one of my 'comfort food' authors; I know I can alwa...

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson I'd heard a lot of good things about this book, but I wasn't that impressed by it. It wasn't bad and it wasn't good--just a light little read for a Sunday afternoon that left me feeling kind of 'meh'. Are You My Mother? by Allison Bechdel I really love Bechdel's Fun Home and looked forward to reading this follow-up. It was just as poignant and insightful, but in a different way. Despite the fact that it is a graphic memoir (and be warned, there are a few graphic scenes), the text is quite dense. It is much more self-referential and more complex than Bechdel's earlier book and took a lot more work to read. Several weeks after reading I still finding myself thinking about it--that to me is one of the signs of a good book. Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green I wanted to like this book much more than I did. The plot was interesting and most of the characters were well fleshed-out. But the author decided to j...