Sara sent this Paul Bunyan postcard from her time in Minnesota and suggested in a multiverse scenario, we could travel to all the Paul Bunyan roadside attractions in the US. She suggested the name of our trip should be Summer of PB.
I’m game. Now we just need to access that multiverse scenario.
Antares is looking sleek and old as he hangs out on my bed.
Sara suggested that this postcard was a message that I should procure myself some Salt and Straw. (I did not procure myself some Salt and Straw.)
She also sent this very pretty Rivers of Idaho postcard with the message that we would both be in Idaho soon. At the same time. Stay tuned for those pictures.
Sara had a big pile of tasks to get through before she jetted away for a few weeks.
She also wanted to send the postcard to alert me that the new postcard stamps have (finally!) arrived. No more barns! It’s time for sailboats!
This was a very important service announcement. I was not a fan of the barns.
Matt and I went to see No Hard Feelings at Studio One Theaters and Matt lounged for the camera.
Blurriness brought to you by the dim lighting in the theater.
Matt and some friends from his gym did the Rugged Maniac today on a beautiful day, and I dusted off my athletic supporter skills. Here are the foursome at the start.
Matt gets an assist over the wall.
And he slides down.
Finishers!
A First Time for Everything
Dan Santat
Read for Librarian Book Group
Santat takes us along on the trip to Europe he took in middle school. So much freedom those kids had!
Some Kind of Hate
Sarah Darer Littman
A very interesting premise that was bogged down by stilted dialogue and annoying omissions. Here are two: How does one make a spiked bat? How do you block security cameras? It seemed as if the author didn’t want to give us that information, but the show-don’t-tell rule still applies to things you don’t want your readers to do.
Different for Boys
Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix
Read for Librarian Book Group
A very of-the-moment book what with the self-censoring black bars across text to make a point. But also succinctly and briefly examines and explores being gay in high school.
Nigeria Jones
Ibi Zoboi
Nigeria’s grown up in “the Movement” a Black separatist household. Her mother is gone, and she’s navigating life and coming to terms with what she believes rather than what her father believes.
Saints of the Household
Ari Tison
Read for Librarian Book Group
Two brothers each give their perspective of the last semester of their senior year of high school and the aftermath of a fight. To find their way, they connect more with their Bribri (Indigenous Puerto Rica) heritage.
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Angeline Boulley
Read for Librarian Book Group
I love a main character who is an underachiever, and Perry is one such character. She also fully knows herself. That’s why learning more about NAGPRA rocks her world. This book is also a good mystery and readers will benefit if they have recently read Firekeepers Daughter.
Buffalo Flats
Martine Leavitt
Read for Librarian Book Group
Rebecca and her family are “settling” Canada in the 1890s and this book abounds with pioneer details and a sprinkling of love interests. This is a slim book that packs in a lot of detail.
I was Born for This
Alice Osman
A famous 18-year-old trio is wrapping up a word tour in London. Angel is a superfan who is finally going to meet the band. Told in alternating perspectives from Angel and Jimmy, one of the members of the band, we get a thorough examination of celebrity from both sides.
Romantic Comedy
Curtis Sittenfeld
An engaging book that hit all my pleasure zones. So much so that I read it again immediately after finishing it. Aside from hanging out with a female writer of a sketch comedy show, I wrapped Sittenfeld’s long paragraphs and observations of subtle things around me like the warm blanket they are.
“It was a belated realization to have, but it occurred to me that perhaps this was how grownup conversations worked—not that you communication didn’t falter, but that you both made good-faith attempts to rectify things after it had.”
Curtis Sittenfeld, Romantic Comedy
Once More with Feeling
Elissa Sussman
This is a serviceable romance that unfortunately was next up after I read Curtis Sittenfeld’s book Romantic Comedy. While the main romance was served up as usual, I never got the feeling the main characters had anything to do with starring in a Broadway play. Whereas with Sittenfeld’s book, I felt like I was sitting in the writers’ room at a sketch comedy show.
Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence
Ken Auletta
A deep dive into Weinstein and his various enablers. It includes his trial in New York City. Detraction: the book put a big focus on the size and condition of Weinstein’s body in a way I didn’t love. There are many gross things about Weinstein. There’s no need cast his body, which is similar to bodies of a wide variety of people—the majority of them good and kind people, as gross.
Sara wrote me four postcards and posted them on the same date. They arrived on the same date!
On this postcard, Sara sent some postcard fun from a quiet Sunday in her house.
This arty card came from Yachats. Sara also bought a bunch of older cards for 25 cents each. I enjoy the wallpaper-like background, the bird and the enthusiastic-but-waffling message.
This card is very pink. And very message-y. Sara says hi.
Sara sent this postcard from Eureka Books (I’ve been there too!) to marvel over the letter I sent to her house in Arcata, but which was delivered to her campus mailbox, for some unknown reason.
This very small bunny has been zooming around the back yard. It’s so fast and continually in motion that I can’t get a good picture of it.
But it’s so tiny and cute! I’ve never seen a rabbit this small.
Friend Jan sent me this pretty winter view of Edinburg Castle. She said she fell in love with Scotland.
