I managed to read 40 books this year!! I’m so proud of myself! Gods know this will NOT happen in 2019, but I am pleased to have read the bulk of what I laid out for myself and even to reread a couple. :)
There won’t be a list for 2019 for obvious reasons, but I hope you’ve enjoyed my short reviews. Thanks for following along!
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I’m moving over the few books I didn’t get to or finish from 2017. And it looks like I need to go to the used bookstore!! I read almost everything I bought last year! 27 books!
As it was last year, the books I have started are in bold. I’ll give my opinion and a short description of the books I read. Anything not bold is in queue. So far, I’ve got about 43 books lined up!
Close Range, Annie Proulx – Started this book Dec 2017. It’s a collection of short stories all having to do with cowboys on the range. Many are set in the early 1900s. Not what I usually read, but so far, they are so well written that I’m really enjoying the book! ** OMG! I just finished this book [Jan 24 18] and guess what the last story is?? BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN! Yep, this is the short story that the movie was based on. I love finding gems like this from a random book! I highly recommend this book. Really great characters and stories.
Ready Player One – Didn’t re-read before the movie, but the movie was great, will re-read Ready Player One this year. BTW, this audiobook is read by Wil Wheaton, who KILLS. If you like audiobooks, DO THIS ONE.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by ND Tyson
I picked up Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson at Costco and LOVED IT! It’s a slim book (cuz you’re in a HURRY, get it?) and you will read it in his voice. It’s great, you should read it for SCIENCE.
Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd by Mark Blake. It’s the out of print version, the new version is called Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. It’s just OK so far. Very English and very dry. This is my treadmill book. Abandoned. Too dry. Who cares where these people went to primary school? Not me. HARD PASS.
We hit Goodwill yesterday! I got 21 books for the queue!! I’ve included the books I’ve already read for this year in the stacks. As always, I count cookbooks and restaurant books, since they are relevant reading for me. My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor – It’s the book that the TED talk is about. The TED talk is here. MEH. Just do the TED talk. The book devolves into some sort of lecture on how everyone should try to control their brain parts and feel the love. I stopped reading it.
The Nasty Bits, Anthony Bourdain – Started this one! I love Tony’s sarcastic wit! Finished 4/23/18. Pretty good, but not as good as Kitchen Confidential, IMO. [RIP Chef Bourdain 6/8/2018]
We lost Professor Hawking today, March 14, 2018. I think he’d be pleased to pass on Pi Day. RIP, Prof Hawking. You made a difference and you’ll live forever thanks to your amazing mind!
SH posted on FB, asking for scientific themed haikus. The winner gets a copy of his book and personal inscription. Here’s mine:
Light older than Earth
Shimmering beyond ages
Stars are forever
I’m going to attempt to list every book I read this year. This includes cookbooks and graphic novels. I’ll give a rundown of each book as I finish it. No description means it’s in progress. [Updated Dec 18 2017, 27 books this year! NOT BAD!]
KINDLE! I don’t read much on Kindle but I am reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman and I just read Dead Trees Give No Shelter by Wil Wheaton. The Gaiman book is an entertaining collection of vignettes. The Wheaton novelette is a really great short read. Speaking of Wheaton, if you’ve not listened to Ready Player One read by him, DO SO. It is incredibly well done!
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood – SLOW. OMG so slow. It’s very literary, you know, florid descriptions and language. But SO HARD to get through. And very long.
The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen – Short book, sort of a mystery/ghost story. Pretty good.
China Dolls, Lisa See – The 2nd book by her I’ve read. She’s kind of an Amy Tan knockoff (one of Tan’s proteges). I like her mix of history and fiction. I learned a lot about WWII treatment of Japanese from this book. The other book I read from her last year was Dreams of Joy, which was set in the late 50s when the New Society (Communism) took over China. This book had some VERY disturbing things in it about how the people of China suffered during this time. But again, historical fiction is a great way to learn history.
The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout – This is a family history kind of story. It’s depressing and slow. Not very good.
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh – I didn’t think I was going to like this one, but I did. It weaves the story of an orphan girl’s life with the Victorian tradition of using flowers to convey messages. Every flower (and other plants) has a meaning and this book uses these meanings to tell the story. Clever and overall a good read.
Blackwood Farm, Anne Rice – This 2002 novel is more of the Vampire series but with a ghost story twist. It’s long and full of her usual verbose style. It’s written in first person as a story told to the reader, a style she’s used before. It’s long and just OK. Lestat makes an appearance, so there’s THAT.
The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook, Patricia Tanumihardja – Got this for Xmess, but read it in January. Awesome recipes of every kind of Asian comfort food. Tons of soups and noodle dishes.
Les Diners de Gala, Salvador Dalí – An art book that happens to have recipes. It’s a collection of the recipes that Dalí’s wife Gala used for various dinner parties. Some of the recipes are very weird. But I didn’t get it for the recipes, it’s a beautifully done large coffee table book. I love it!
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Joshilyn Jackson – Eh, it was just OK. Kinda predictable, but it’s an ok beach read. I did like its Southern hillbilly roots and the insight into just how dysfunctional Southerners can be.
Carthage, Joyce Carol Oates – A twisted tale of family drama. I identified with one of the main characters, Cressida, in that we are both misunderstood by our families and we share a strong disdain for our families. Her escape and return resonated with me.
Hyperbole and a Half (hardback collection), Allie Brosh. A collection of her online blog/comics with commentary. LOL hilarious at times. A good read.
Haul from Half Price Books
Peony in Love, Lisa See – It’s a bit one note, but OK. It’s a story about a Chinese opera and a girl who dies and becomes a ghost that haunts the man she was supposed to marry. Not much history other than the practice of foot binding (“lily feet”) and the Peony opera.
Wildflower, Drew Barrymore – Meh. It’s a collection of short essays from Drew’s life. She is a lunatic. Poor thing. Pisceans are always weird, but she is OUT THERE. She had no discernible upbringing, so I guess it’s the outcome of that. And her father was nuts, too. It’s a good summer read.
Magical Thinking, Augusten Burroughs – A funny memoir! I think I’ve read it before, but it’s still good the second time!
Dreaming in Chinese, Deborah Fallows – I found this book fascinating. This lady spent several years living in China and it’s her description of what it’s like to try to learn Chinese. Very insightful and a good read if you’re a language nerd like me.
What Comes Next and How to Like It, Abigail Thomas – This is a delightful little memoir that is written a lot like blog posts. I identify with Abby and her take on the world is much like mine.
Waiter Rant, The Waiter (from the website) – This is taken from a blog, but the writing is very good. The author’s insights into restaurant culture is spot on. Good read.
Thai & South-East Asian Cooking (cookbook, various authors) – I’ve already perused this one, but not read it through. Nicely illustrated and lots of soups, which are my current obsession.
Haul from Ollies! Moar Books!
Hungry Heart, Jennifer Weiner DELETED. NOT INTERESTED.
All Fall Down, Jennifer Weiner – UGH. This book is about some privileged white mom with a whiny brat of a kid. No wonder she’d addicted to Oxy. Had to abandon this one. Doesn’t bode well for the other Weiner book.
Woman of the Dead, Bernard Aichner MOVED TO 2018 LIST
The Japanese Lover, Isabel Allende – I’ve started this one and I love it. Allende has a beautiful way of writing. This is an exquisite novel. I cried at the end. I highly recommend this one!
Close Range, Annie Proulx (not pictured) – Started this book Dec 2017. It’s a collection of short stories all having to do with cowboys on the range. Many are set in the early 1900s. Not what I usually read, but so far, they are so well written that I’m really enjoying the book! MOVED TO 2018
Haul from Goodwill!
Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, Julia Child – Great cookbook/cooking how-to. It’s Julia! Of course it’s good!
Out Stealing Horses, Per Peterson – This was a rather bleak book, set in Norway. It’s translated from Norwegian, actually. It’s a good, twisty story but a little slow. Worth a read, tho.
A Cook’s Tour, Anthony Bourdain – Great book! Written from when he was shooting his Food Network series. Very colourful and entertaining.
Willful Creatures, Aimee Bender – A delightful collection of strange short stories. Interesting points of view, interesting characters, just good, engaging short story writing. Loved it!
Something Chinese that I got because it’s pretty. No, I won’t be reading this since I can’t read Chinese.
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels – A historical novel about a Polish boy who escapes the camps and is discovered by a Greek man who smuggles him out of Poland, back to Greece. Lots of history of the Nazis and their influence in Greece during WWII, which I really had not thought of. Also lots of history embedded in the narrator’s remembrances of his family and what they went through during the war. A dry and literary book, but still interesting for the history that you learn while reading it.
Tweet Heart, Elizabeth Rudnick – UGH. NO. This is a kids book. Geared for high schoolers. Couldn’t tell that from the description on the back. Did not read this, obviously.
Where the Past Begins, Amy Tan – OMG such a GREAT book! I really love Amy’s writing anyway, but her memoirs are always touching and this is no exception. I cried at the end. She is one of our best writers and you should read every word of every book she writes.
The Prudhomme Family Cookbook, Paul Prudhomme – This is from 1987 and it’s chock full of really great recipes! I’m glad I picked this up at a yard sale! It’s family recipes from all his brothers & sisters and parents and grandparents. Great collection!
Slowly getting used to being without my cow cat. It’s been hard. Shasti is cute, but just no substitute. Shasti has decided to be a house cat. I had to actually shove her out the door this morning! She stayed out for 10 minutes and came back in to play and use the litter box. What is it with girl cats and coming IN to pee? LOL
Operation Osteoporosis is still chugging along, although I think I’m starting to feel the omeprazole becoming less effective. I had reflux this morning, for the first time in about a month. Boo! If it stops working, I guess I’ll have to try another drug in that category. Ugh, I don’t know. Suck.
DragonCon is around the corner. No idea what I’m going to wear. I may have to buy another pair of jeans since the ones I got a month ago are already getting loose. Yay! The scale is still wacky; one day I’m 209, the next day I’m 214, so I’m going with the trend and saying I’m at 209, which is about 3# down from when I posted the video Aug 2. No idea about the weight, but my clothes are definitely fitting differently. I eat what I please, but it’s still restricted to about 4-5oz. Protein is still a challenge. Still drinking a shake or eating a protein bar every day.
On the drinking front, I FINALLY got drunk last Friday!! I’ve discovered these wine spritzer things by Barefoot wines that are yummy, so I take that and add a bit more wine to it. Works like a charm! I’m SO happy to have broken through the drinking barrier! I still do NOT get drunk on less volume, which is kind of a bummer, because it takes me a LONG time to get there. Also, it helps if I don’t eat. Which is, of course, NOT a problem! :P
The provisions for DragonCon will be Vitamin water, wine and protein bars. I actually recommend Premier Protein bars for anyone doing cons. They are 30gm protein, very little sugar and palatable. The shakes are good, too, but they have to be cold. You do NOT want to drink those warm. EW.
The arcade game business is starting to get a little action. We had a meeting with a potential client on Monday. We hope they decide to go with us. They had previously spoken to another company who talked a good game but ultimately did not have ANY classic arcade games, oops. Seems to me that the TYPE of game should have been the FIRST thing to ask about, not the last, but whatever. The bad news is that this company is one of those that splits the game profits and doesn’t charge anything to install the games, so the client had a preconceived notion that the games would cost nothing. I hope we got past that barrier by reminding them that if they rent from us, they KEEP all the proceeds from coins and we take care of the games for free. I’m not sure we did. We’ll see.
Which brings me to a small rant about these other game companies. They use the old model of coin operated games that splits the coin profits in lieu of actual rent. Well, what if the game earns $100? Then you have rented out that game for $50? Screw that. It’s not worth it to us. We would rather just rent the games and let the renter decide if he wants to deal with coins or just do free play. We think free play is the way to go, since people will play more and therefore eat and drink more at your bar. It certainly works for My Parents Basement. They LOVE having the games on free play! But if they want to deal with coins, great, deal with the licensing and all that and KEEP your profits. The games might pay for themselves! But for our part, we just want to make a certain amount for each game, so we can figure out how long it will take for the game to pay for itself. That way we can set goals for the company and manage our money better. I just wish the Old Skool guys would STFU about splitting coins and get out of the business – they mess up our groove. We have a modern model of running an arcade shop that we think will work just great for all involved. The Old Skool ways are outdated now that full on arcades are nonexistent. Sure, you could make a living off splitting coins in the old days, but now people have 4 or 5 games, not 40. This is why we created our model. I just hope the new clients will go for it. ::fingers crossed::
OH speaking of DragonCon, we are a part of the ARCADE that will be in the gaming area of DragonCon this year!! The gaming area is in the Atlanta Mart and the arcade will be in the middle of that, so I’m told. We’ll have Simpsons and Sharpshooter there for sure, and perhaps the Gauntlet II, but it died (of course) so probably not that one. ALL the games will be on free play! There’ll be 15 or so arcade games and several pinball games. COME SEE US!! We’ll likely be at the arcade area during the day for much of the con. Keep an eye on our FB (playeronearcadeservices) or Twitter (@playeronearcade) feeds for all the deets.
The hours for the arcade at DragonCon are as follows:
>>> Friday: 1pm to 7pm
>>> Saturday: 10am to 7pm
>>> Sunday: 10am to 7pm
>>> Monday: 10am to 5pm
We hope to see everyone at Con! (Yeah, right, that never happens, but we can dream!)
So the earrings I made and subsequently sold to my friend Josie did not stay together. Boo! I used cold weld to attach the wires and that, obviously, did NOT do the trick. It was these:
I clearly did not use enough cold weld. SO, I refunded Josie’s money and will repair them and send ’em back. Nick has some silver solder and he is sure he can fix them. While I like the idea of having the wires attached, that was not the original plan. I’d planned to make them standard dangles, but I forgot to drill the holes in the clay before I fired them. Oops! Live and learn.
I’m also testing out the graphic for crossposts. I can’t understand why it’s fine for TEV but screwy for my site. ? Argh.
