Sunday News #1

Sunday Post and Sunday Salon are blog news memes hosted at Caffeinated Reviewer and Reader Buzz, respectively. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and other things.
Feeling

I’ve been feeling a little bit overwhelmed this week as school started on Monday. It always takes me a couple of weeks to get the hang of my new schedule. I’ve changed my classes around a couple times this week too so everything has been in flux, which hasn’t helped with my anxiety.

I’ve also been getting over an infection so I’ve been feeling sick from the infection and gross from the antibiotics. Thankfully, I took my last antibiotic on Friday morning and I’m starting to slowly feel better.

Blogging

I haven’t blogged much because of school and I’ve missed it, which is a good sign. I’ve been visiting and commenting on blogs, though, which I enjoy doing.

Reading

I’m currently reading HOW TO: ABSURD SCIENTIFIC ADVICE FOR COMMON REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS. It’s hilarious. I love it. I also love that everything I learned in my physics class last semester is showing up in this book.

I’m going to start reading PRINCE CASPIAN today. It’s due back to the library in a week and I want to make sure I get it read before I have to return it.

Listening

I watched Cruella on Disney+ with Corey this week and I’ve been listening to “The Baroque Ball” ever since. I love it. I want to know who sings it, but I can’t find it online. It’s only associated with the composer of the Cruella score, Nicholas Britell, and he definitely doesn’t sing it.

Watching

I discovered a couple new shows this week as I was sitting brain dead after school. The first show I found was a new cooking competition with Gordon Ramsay. I Gordon Ramsay. It’s called The Next Level Chef. It’s like a combination of Masterchef and Cutthroat Kitchen, if you’ve ever seen either one of those.

The second show I discovered is called That’s My Jam. It’s a game show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. It’s a music game show with celebrities and they try to earn points so they can win money for charity. It’s a lot of fun. My favorite so far has been episode two. It had Josh Groban who had to sing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” switching from a baritone to a high voice in the middle of the song and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt who had to sing a pop song as a member of The Cure. It was hilarious.

Loving

I joined Book of the Month for only $5 because a friend had a referral link. She got a free credit and I saved $10. Everybody wins. I’m excited to get my first book in a few days.

Book of the Month seems like an awesome book subscription. You get to choose between five books. If you don’t like any of those books, you can choose a past book. If you’re behind on your reading, you can put the subscription on hold and not be charged the months you’re on hold. And, the only thing that comes in each box is a book. You don’t have to worry about having a ton of book swag cluttering up your house.

If you want to look into it, click here so you can join for $5 if you decide you want to. (Disclosure: I’ll get a free credit if you join with this link.)

Wanting

I want a cobb salad from Chick-Fil-A, but Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays in my neck of the woods.

Needing

I need everyone at the school to wear a mask so I won’t get COVID. I’m triple vaxxed and I wear a mask, but I’m afraid that I’m going to get COVID because of someone who doesn’t take the pandemic seriously. Hardly anyone wears a mask in Utah and the COVID numbers are rising because of the Omicron Persei 8 variant (Omicron Persei 8 is a Futurama reference, so I had to tack on the Persei 8 for funsies).

I talk to my therapist about my anxiety and fear and he says, it’s understandable AND all I can do is cope ahead by doing everything I can do to protect myself, which I’ve done and continue to do. Le sigh.

At least the school mandated everyone be vaccinated before they could register for this semester. I just wonder how many people fudged their info.

How was your week? Anything exciting happen?

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Narniathon: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

There are spoilers for THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (LWW) in this post.

Narniathon: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

As I stated in my post Joining the Narniathon21, I’ve decided to participate in a reread of The Chronicles of Narnia hosted by Chris over at Calmgrove. I’ve wanted to reread the series for a couple of years now as I want to see if my feelings, for THE LAST BATTLE in particular, are the same after a reread. I won’t say more than that as I want to discuss those feelings when we read THE LAST BATTLE.

I first read the Narniad 14 years ago as an adult. I read it with a couple of friends and they told me to read it in chronological order rather than published order. Even though it was my first time reading the books, I was familiar with the story of LWW as I had watched a TV adaptation with my mom when I was a teenager.

One of the things that I always thought was weird about LWW (from the adaptation) was how abrupt the ending was. I had always thought the TV people didn’t have the budget to end the story properly. Nope. I was very surprised to find out that the book ending is just as abrupt and that the adaptation was actually quite faithful to the book. The ending is the thing I least like about LWW.

The thing I like the most about LWW (or the Narniad in general) is the Christian allegory. I’m not sure if I knew about the allegory when I watched the adaptation, but I know I knew about it when I read the Narniad 14 years ago. During this read, certain parts of the allegory made more of an impact on me. Of course I understood Aslan’s sacrifice the first time I read LWW. This time, I noticed the wording surrounding the Deep Magic regarding Edmund’s treachery. CS Lewis termed the Deep Magic as “law” and when the White Witch and Aslan discussed what to do about Edmund, the White Witch said the law stated that anyone treacherous belonged to her. It immediately brought to mind an image of Satan and Christ bargaining for a wayward soul.

I’m also much more well-read this time around and I noticed that Lilith, Adam’s first wife in Jewish lore, was mentioned as part of the White Witch’s heritage. I felt like Captain America in Avengers:

I actually really like the Lilith lore and I love reading stories that include her in them. Do you know anything about Lilith? Have you read any other books that include her lore in them?

I wasn’t a reader as a child. I despised reading. In fact, my reading adventures didn’t begin until about 14.5 years ago. I wonder if I had read LWW, or any of the Narniad for that matter, as a child if I would’ve liked them more. I’m also curious if reading them for the first time in chronological order has any bearing on my feelings about the books. What do you think?

Have you read THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE? Did you like it? Why? Why not?

P.S. My two favorite characters from LWW have always been Lucy and Aslan. I think it’s obvious why Aslan’s one of them. Lucy’s one of them because I relate to her the most. She and I are both the youngest in our families, seen as small (her in stature, me in manner) but fierce, wear our hearts on our sleeves, think of others, and are especially fond of animals. Who’s your favorite character?

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Bout of Books 33 Wrap-up

Bout of Books is a week-long readathon held every January, May, and August. It’s low-pressure. There are optional reading sprints, Twitter chats, and Instagram challenges.

That’s it! Another Bout of Books has come and gone. I had a great time focusing on my reading this week and participating in the Instagram challenges each day. I also enjoyed visiting other blogs from the linky on the Bout of Books blog and those who commented on mine.

I hope everyone who participated had just as much fun as I did. Thank you, Amanda and Kelly, for all the hard work you put into making Bout of Books as much fun as it is each and every time!

Don’t forget that the next Bout of Books is May 9 to 15, 2022.

Instagram Challange

Here are the pictures I took each day.

Totals

I had a great week. Here are my totals!

Pages Read: 750 pages
Hours Read: 12 hours 12 minutes
Books Finished: KEEP MOVING by Maggie Smith; ANXIOUS PEOPLE by Frederik Backman; and THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE by CS Lewis

How was your week? Did you meet your goals?

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Review: Anxious People

Review: Anxious PeopleTitle: Anxious People
Author: Fredrik Backman
Genre(s): Contemporary
Pages: 346
Source: Library
For: Trim Your TBR Challenge
Rating:
Sexual Content: 0 Flames

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There's content in this book that may be triggering to some readers. I've tried to include the possible triggers in this book at end of my review.
Goodreads Synopsis

A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Humorous, compassionate, and wise, ANXIOUS PEOPLE is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope--the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

My Thoughts

I’ve never been interested in reading Fredrik Backman’s books. They sounded boring to me. Then my IRL book club read ANXIOUS PEOPLE back in September and the discussion sounded interesting. Fortunately, I didn’t pay attention too much so I wouldn’t be spoiled because I decided to add it to my Unofficial Trim Challenge list and its number was chosen for January.

I’m so glad I decided to act opposite of my initial inclination and read ANXIOUS PEOPLE. I absolutely adored this book. I was giggling from the outset and I was hooked from the first time I sat down on Monday and started to read the book. I loved how it was written, that we got the story in parts. It reminded me a lot of TRULY MADLY GUILTY by Liane Moriarty (but better executed). I wanted to keep reading so I could figure out how everything would play out.

After I finished reading ANXIOUS PEOPLE, I felt almost spiritually moved and like Backman had spoken to me through his characters on a deep personal level. Backman made me feel a gambit of emotions for every single character, including the grumpy know-it-all who thrived on causing conflict. It made me love every single one of them. He even made me have feelings for bridges.

I’ll definitely look into Frederik Backman’s other books now and see if I like any of them as much as ANXIOUS PEOPLE. It was such a treat to read.

Have you read ANXIOUS PEOPLE? If so, what did you think about it?

Trigger Warning

There is a trigger warning for suicide and suicidal ideation.

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Review: Keep Moving

Review: Keep MovingTitle: Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change
Author: Maggie Smith
Genre(s): Non-Fiction, Memoir
Pages: 224
Source: Library
For: Book Club
Rating:
Sexual Content: 0 Flames

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Goodreads Synopsis

When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem Good Bones, started writing daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, KEEP MOVING celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?

My Thoughts

KEEP MOVING is my IRL book club’s pick for January. I picked it up from the library yesterday and I read it really quickly, in a few hours, as it’s mostly pages of affirmations.

Don’t wait for your life to magically come together–it’s your work to do. Every day, every moment, you are making your life from scratch. Today, take one step, however small, toward creating a life you can be proud of.

I liked a lot of the affirmations, like the one above, but my favorite parts of the book were the parts where Smith went into more detail, where she talked about her losses from losing her grandmother, two miscarriages, and divorce. Those were the times I felt a kinship toward her. Even if I hadn’t experienced loss quite the same way she had, I could still empathize with her and think of ways to apply her advice to my own life.

I really liked her perspective on things, especially when she talked about serotinous pine cones and how they only open and spread their seeds in the midst of fire. Or, how she likened trauma and loss to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold. The ceramic piece is beautiful because of its brokenness instead of in spite of it.

I wasn’t sure I’d like KEEP MOVING, but I’m glad I read it. I gave KEEP MOVING 3 stars because the ratio between affirmations to the parts I actually wanted to read was too high. Otherwise, I would’ve given it 4 stars.

Have you read KEEP MOVING? If so, what did you think about it?

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