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Hi Everyone,

I'll start a post this week. I did not post last week. I was on an 11 day trip/visit with my 94 YO mom. We drove her 1800 miles to see my siblings and several of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It all went as planned and she had a good time. We drove 2600 miles and it is good to be home for a bit now.

With Mom we listened to all of The Thursday Murder Club and then started The Man Who Died Twice. We didn't finish that so we sent her a paperback copy from Amazon that arrived the day we left to go home. She's enjoying it and we enjoyed it a second time around.

I also finished listening to Dark Matter. It was an interesting story. I only gave it 3 stars because there were a few spots that really annoyed me. Once or twice the main character acted in a way that was both out of character and seemed gratuitous. It almost seemed to be in there to create a chase scene for a movie. And that part of the book also had an "it's all about me" feeling. But it was an interesting concept underneath.

I started listening to Starter Villain. I'm not too far into it yet but as everyone has said, if you like Kaiju Preservation Society, you'll like this. I like KPS and am enjoying this too.

I'm still dabbling with Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. It is slightly starting to feel too dense and repetitive so I may start skimming a bit more.

For neighborhood book club, I'm reading Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury. I'm about 30% through and not seeing what the hype is. Like nothing has happened in the book yet. Memoirs are not a genre I like much. Everyone on the email has been raving and I'm not feeling it.

QOTW:
I picked from Bonafide Book Worm that is likely silly for this group: Would you rather never read a book again or never watch a movie again?

For me it is easy as I don't care about movies. I'd rather read books most every time. I enjoy movies but books are far more important to me.

I just got back from vacation, too! I didn't actually read that much, since we did a lot of outdoor stuff (and the ubiquitous jigsaw puzzle found in the cabin).

Nature at Your Door: Connecting with the Wild and Green in the Urban and Suburban Landscape - This is by a professor from the local university. I actually bought it, because someone from the library booked her for the wrong date for an Audubon Society talk, but when she hadn't shown, someone she knew texted her and she rushed over and did it anyway with slides prepared for a different group. I decided she deserved some extra money for that. The book is written in a style that I suppose is derived from academic writing, but it was somewhat irritating to have "in this chapter, I will" and "I have now shown" all the time. Ultimately I'm not really sure who the audience would be; for most people who'd pick it up, it's rather preaching to the choir, and if you found someone who didn't think there was wildlife in cities, I don't know that they'd bother reading about all the studies described. I'll probably keep my copy though. It's signed!

I'm still plugging through A Night in the Lonesome October. It is somewhat promising that it has Sherlock Holmes in it (if not by name), but he hasn't really done much yet.

QOTW: Yeah, I also watch very few movies, so that wouldn't be a huge loss. If we were to add TV it would be harder, but I guess I'd still keep books.

Life has been insanely busy lately so I've had very little time for reading (plus I can't find my kindle!). I had one finish - I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. It was excellent, but a very difficult read with content warnings galore (happy to elaborate if someone needs). I had heard that it was funny, and I don't know who is reading that and laughing because I didn't see any humor in it at all. I was expecting something like Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, and it most definitely was not at all similar.

I have The World We Make and The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century both on ebook loan for a few more weeks, so if I can't find the kindle I'll have to read them on my phone, which is annoying but better than not being able to read them at all?

QotW: yeah, that's kind of a no-brainer. I love a good movie but I couldn't live without good books.