Yellow Wallpaper

I feel like my last post left things hanging--I did feel sick the next day (Wednesday), but finally on Thursday I felt a little more like myself and by Friday I was feeling great. Last weekend was a good one--the sun came out and we had some nice weather, and I was able to get things done. On Saturday morning I went to the temple, in the afternoon I went to see a movie ( Manchester by the Sea ), and in between I ran some errands and cleaned my house.  I realized last month that too often my weekends when I don't have kids are all spent consuming--running errands to buy things or seeking out entertainment. I don't think that's a horrible thing, since I need to maintain my house and feed my family, and I need to relax as well. But I also sometimes worry that I'm not using my time as well as I could. Even though it's been a few months since I finished school, the amount of free time I have without homework still feels a bit overwhelming. There is a lot of potential t...

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain I kept waiting for this book to get more interesting, and it didn't. The author hewed too closely to historical events and I felt like she was expecting readers' knowledge of Hemingway's life to provide the tension that is lacking in the book. I had trouble really connecting with the characters and felt like the whole thing just plodded from event to event without much tying things together or creating an actual plot. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult  I will confess that I generally pick up Picoult's books with fairly low expectations--my experience with her books has been mixed, and for me the main draw is curiosity about how crazy the plot will get before the book is over. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, especially with Picoult's ability to create three separate characters who all have compelling stories. Yes, I'm troubled by some of the cliches in the book and the over-the-top drama of the plot, but it was sti...

According to my blog and Facebook, I have gotten sick during February or March for at least three years in a row now. I wonder what it is about this time of year that makes it easier to get sick? I've also been trying to remember if I got sick this often when I used to stay home with kids. I think I did, but it wasn't as noticeable because it didn't disrupt the routine as much. Getting sick two or three times a year is probably fairly reasonable. No matter how many times it happens, however, I feel stressed about because I have to miss work and other stuff. I also can't fight my suspicion that maybe I'd stay healthier if I took better care of myself. Maybe I should try working harder on that (after I get better). Early last week, P.Bibby came down with a runny nose and cough. She spent Tuesday out of school with her dad, and then I stayed home with her on Wednesday. I started to get a sore throat on Thursday and I haven't felt good since. I've been dealing...

Swing Time by Zadie Smith This is the first time I've read anything by Smith and I mostly liked it. For me, the strongest aspect of the book was the writing. There were many points where I paused and thought "I love this phrase", and the bits of social commentary sprinkled throughout were just as compelling as the quality of sentence construction. The plot was a little hard to follow and the central conflicts were a bit muted, making it hard to want to keep reading at times and leaving me a bit unsatisfied at the end. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss This was our book club pick for the month and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've seen comparisons of the book to Harry Potter, but I think that's a little weird since they don't have much in common besides a young protagonist at a school for magic. The tone is completely different in this book and it has a different structure--I love the nested story conceit and Rothfuss does great things with it. Desp...

January has never been my favorite month and this year wasn't much of an improvement. First of all, January is way too long. We even had five Sundays this month so it felt like things were really dragging. The weather was really cold and extra snowy--which is great for keeping away the inversion and excellent for this summer's water prospects, but terrible for travel and everything else. Thankfully we're now in February, which is not only the shortest month of the year but also the month for Valentine's Day and P. Bibby's birthday and other wonderful things.  Actually, January this year really wasn't bad other than being excessively cold and snowy. I started doing yoga a few weeks ago and have mostly kept up with my goal of doing it for five days every week. One of these days I want to be able to go to bed early, get up early, and ride the exercise bike vigorously for half an hour before work. That isn't happening at all yet. However, I decided to start sm...

I've never set specific reading goals before, but I feel like last year I didn't read as many of the books I wanted to, and I read too many books that were fun but not satisfying. I also tend to read too many similar books and want to branch out and challenge myself a bit. I've seen a few reading challenges around on the internet, but would rather create my own. Here are some of the goals I have in mind: At least three books in Spanish Five books in translation from other languages Three Mormon nonfiction books Two books of poetry One nonfiction book every month Read all the Whitney finalists in the adult categories I don't think I'll set any goals in relation to movies, other than to watch more of them. Also, in the past I haven't blogged about movies I watch with the kids, but I'm going to change that and start listing them. When they were younger and I was at home, we watched and re-watched a lot of shows, but now that they're older we do...

(Previous years: 2015 , 2014 , 2013 , 2012 , 2011 , 2010 , 2009 , 2008 , 2007 ) This year I read a total of 89 books this year--it felt like I had read more books than previous years, but that's actually right around my annual average. I read 69 fiction books and 20 nonfiction books, which is right around my average as well. Every year when I add things up, I'm surprised I don't read more nonfiction. Nonfiction books usually take longer to read than much of the fiction I read, so that's probably part of the problem. Once again, one of my goals for this coming year is to change the ratio and up the number of nonfiction books I read. This year's ratio of author genders also holds no surprises: 61 books by women and 28 books by men. I think the type of fiction I enjoy tends to be female-dominated, and this explains much of this ratio. I am going to write another post about my reading goals for this coming year, since I'm going to try creating my own personal...

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley This was a quick, romantic read that made me want to spend time in Cornwall. Without giving too much away, there is a time travel element that I wasn't expecting and at first didn't like, but after deciding to just go along with it, I really enjoyed the book. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor I read this for a book club and we haven't had a chance to discuss it yet. I'm looking forward to talking about it with other people who have a love for O'Connor so I can perhaps learn to appreciate her writing and stop feeling guilty that I just don't get it. Girl at War by Sara Novic One of the things I found most disconcerting about this book was that it felt historical in the sense that books about the first or second world war feel. However, the events in it took place during my lifetime and I remember clearly when they were part of the daily news cycle. It's a sobering reminder that violence and war are still happ...

I write a lot of things in my head and never manage to actually get them down somewhere more permanent. Sometimes I wonder if other people live like this, with a constant stream of narration in their own heads. I don't usually talk to myself directly and I feel weird doing that, but I like to comment on my day, analyze things, and describe them to other people. I've always liked to process things out loud, and since getting divorced this has been a lot harder since I don't have anyone around to do this with. Hence, trying to get back into blogging and journaling. I just need to sit down more often to write out the things I'm thinking.  We had a good Christmas this year. I hadn't been feeling much of the Christmas spirit since our schedule was compressed and the kids and I were at work and school through the 22nd. During the earlier part of the month I was also still recovering from my surgery, and so we didn't do very many festive things like we usually do. I ...

I spent half the month recuperating from surgery, which explains the massive number of books I read. A few of these books were one-day reads. I don't plan to repeat this number in December.  Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner It took me a while to realize that the focus of this book was really the protagonist and not the central mystery. In fact, the mystery itself had a rather anticlimactic resolution that I mostly figured out. The pace of the book was slower than I expected, but in the end I liked it and if the author writes another book about the same characters, I would read it. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan I've never surfed, or had any desire to surf, despite growing up in southern California surrounded by surf culture. However, a number of positive reviews convinced me to give this book a try, and now I think it's one of the best I've read this year. It is a long, dense book, and there were times when I didn't quite understand ...

I had my gallbladder surgery just about ten days ago, on the seventeenth. The surgery itself went smoothly as far as I can tell (since I don't remember any of it). It was done at the outpatient center attached to the local hospital. I didn't have to show up until eleven, so I had some time in the morning to get the kids off to school and clean my house before leaving. A friend dropped me off, I checked in, and they got me all prepped for surgery (I'd love to have one of those systems that pipes hot air into my pajamas for my bed at home, it would be awesome). There was about an hour delay so I got to watch an episode of Law & Order while I waited--that's my go-to show for lounging around hotel rooms and hospitals. Then they wheeled me into the operating room and an hour later I woke up back in the bed. For the next few hours I drifted in and out of consciousness. I was surprised by how hard it was to wake up, since the only other time I've had general anesthesia...

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller One difficulty in writing historical fiction is making the characters at least somewhat relatable to modern readers, while still realistic enough for their setting. One thing authors often do is to make the protagonist some kind of outcast or rebel, which creates conflict and makes them more interesting to current audience. However, this can create a character whose behavior doesn't really fit with the time period. If a book is well-written I can just go along with it and enjoy the story, but sometimes it bugs me. Now that I type all that out, I'm not sure that was really the problem with this book. The main character was pretty immature and didn't really change much before the end of the story. I did feel like the historical details of the setting were well-done, however. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Jahren is a compelling writer and I loved the scientific vignettes about t...

I am now totally done with school--and it feels weird. This semester I had to complete the last requirement, which was creating an electronic portfolio. The portfolio had to include fourteen sections based on the program's learning outcomes; for each section I had to write a short essay describing my understanding of the topic and provide examples of my learning from assignments I'd completed. It was both harder and easier than I had anticipated. Once I did a few sections it really became easier to write the rest of them, but the writing and revising took a long time to do. I'm so happy to be done, and yet it's taking a while to sink in. I think that's because I don't really change my routine much--it's not like I was actually going to class or anything. However, over the last two weeks I've really felt a burden lifting off my shoulders. I no longer have to fit homework in during my free time or worry about completing assignments. It's amazing to rea...

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson Although the beginning of this book was a bit slow, once the various parts of the story started coming together and the narrative picked up a bit, I really enjoyed it. It was a great conclusion to the trilogy and, as always, I was very impressed with Sanderson's skill in worldbuilding. Before the Fall by Noah Hawley This book was not what I expected it to be--I thought it would be a quick thriller that I wouldn't remember after a few weeks. Instead, it surprised me with how well-written it was, and with its focus on characters rather than on just getting through the plot. There was a central mystery, but by the time it was resolved, it didn't feel as important as getting to know all the various characters had been.  Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley This was the first book I've read by Tessa Hadley, and it will probably be the only one. There were many moments where here writing was beautiful, and there was strong characteriz...

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson I really liked Simonson's first book, although it had a contemporary setting rather than a historical one like this book. Like her last book, this one's great strengths are its characters and its setting. There are, however, a lot of characters in the book and some of them are more effectively realized than others. I also thought the book had a lot of hot-button issues crammed into it (war crimes, refugees, suffrage, homosexuality, class conflicts, etc) in a way that felt a little strained at times. However, despite those shortcomings, I had a great time reading it, and I still think about the characters and their little village more than a month after ending the book. I've seen at least one review recommending this book for fans of Downton Abbey, and I think that's a great comparison. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson I read most of this book while finishing the fourth book of Harry Potter with the kids, and...

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson I've heard about this book for several years, but the way it was described didn't really catch my attention. I had focused too much on the 'time travel' aspect and worried that it would feel contrived or gimmicky. Instead, the book pulled me in and I had a hard time letting go (I think I still have a book hangover a month later). The repetitious aspects of the story actually worked to deepen my connection with the characters--I was invested in their choices more and more, each time we reviewed them. One review that I read called this book something like a 'love letter' to early twentieth-century England, and it really is in many ways. It's not always a 'pleasant' book and doesn't shy away from grim details, but it is 'lovely' in the sense that it creates a world and characters that are deeply loved and love each other. It's one of my new favorite books and the one I'm going to be recommending to...