1) My blog (Imperfect Happiness...started as a happiness project) plus my initials.
2) Walk, cook, drive, housework, sometimes puzzles.
3) The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones.

@Eggs #WondrousWednesday

1) Nope. 20 years ago, my spouse once had to wear a pair of my underwear on top of his clothes when he lost a sports-related bet with a friend. That's as close as I've gotten.

2) The MC plays squash in this one. I suppose many of Irving's novels would work for this prompt.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

Okay, so this book just had a scene in which the characters have a detailed conversation about which trains and buses are best to take, and now I keep picturing the characters as the cast of SNL's The Californians.

Time notation in this novel is different than I've seen it before. I've been able to find an explanation for "point format" (using a point rather than a colon between the hour and minute), but I'm not sure about the absence of the zero before a single-digit minute (1.7 vs 1.07). My hypothesis: That the zero as a placeholder is an addition that came about after digital clocks were introduced.

Does anyone have insight into this history?

While it was pleasant to spend a couple of days with Netflix true crime shows, I am very glad that I have enough energy and focus to read a bit today! Although I'd read that the more recent strains aren't supposed to mess with your sense of smell as much, I'm definitely not able to smell or taste like usual. But with a teen just back from sleepaway camp, maybe it's not all bad that my sense of smell is diminished. 😂

Interesting list! I've read 37 of these. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html

What do you think of the list? I wonder how different it would have been had The New York Times asked a different group of people, say, middle school English teachers or recreational crossword puzzle solvers?

They also talk about it on The Daily podcast, if you prefer listening to things like this.

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

1) A date night with my spouse last Saturday.
2) Snuggle time with Silo on Sunday.
3) My spouse picked up the DVD of Pride and Prejudice, just in time for me to watch while isolating this week.
4) Two new plants arrived in the mail.
5) I saw a huge, beautiful mushroom on my brief morning walk.

Day 3 of fever and fatigue and all the other fun stuff, and I need a change of pace. Which of these would be most likely to grab my wandering attention and divert me enough to forget both the nagging worry that I won't be able to come up with questions for the tagged for #CampToB by August 7 and that I won't be well enough to start teaching my class this coming Monday? Or maybe I should just binge-watch The Simpsons?

I've enjoyed several of Stephen Graham Jones's novels, including the first in this trilogy, but the last few books of his that I've read have been kind of one-note and very drawn out. It feels like Jones has something he's working through, like these are successive drafts of the same story that could be incredible if edited together to demonstrate a clear character arc, but they're all published before they have a chance to reach completion.

Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy are helping me through my illness. And my spouse is pleased that quarantining means that I'm watching it by myself.(He was not impressed with the Jane Eyre movie a couple of weeks ago. Can you believe that I married a person who doesn't know the difference between Mr Darcy and Mr Rochester?)

This is my view of my too-hot tea and overly ambitious (and dangerous in an earthquake) book stack as I quarantine myself from the rest of my household with my very first bout of COVID. While so far it's not as bad as when I've had the flu, it's not fun and it's definitely good that I've avoided it for the past 4+ years. I'm achy and energy-less so I'm listening to the tagged on audio while pitifully scrolling on my phone.

My 14yo found a book by Gore Vidal that he enjoyed in a used bookstore while we were traveling last week. We brought it home with us, and he took it with him to camp to finish. The day he left for camp, I picked up this novel and saw it was dedicated to Gore Vidal, which isn't actually significant but feels like it is. That's kind of how this book is: so many small moments in an apparently ordinary day that resonate with meaning for George.

"I thought Agatha Christie wrote murder mysteries?" my spouse asked when I summarized the plot of this one.

"Sure, but she also wrote novels about international intrigue, and this is one of those."

I'm not a fan of the "international intrigue" novels, but I do enjoy getting a glimpse of what people thought about things in the times they were happening, especially since there are so many parallels with the present. This one offered that.

Home from traveling and at the hair salon getting the boy-teen cleaned up for camp and a really cool musical performance opportunity that came up for him. This is such a busy summer, just one thing after the next! It's nice but tiring.

In other news: The dialect in this novel is really slowing me down. The interactions are clearly funny, but I feel like the sloth from Zootopia with how long it takes me to get the jokes.

1. Hiking! Preferably at higher altitude and/or northern locations so it's cooler. If the hiking is part of a road trip, even better! I love flying then taking road trips!

2. I actually get very little reading done on vacation. I need something that grabs my attention because I'm often exhausted by the time I get the chance to read.

@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday

The magical library---with its intricate voice-activated dioramas of scenes from literature, and desks on which unfold a multi-media experience when a book is set down just so upon them---is just one of many awesome word-oriented exhibits at Planet Word in Washington, DC. We had such a blast there! If you're in town, I highly recommend visiting. (Their gift shop is also extremely tempting, and the cafe downstairs is delicious.)

Another bookstore on my travels! This one has a lot of used books, and I needed way more time (and room in my luggage) than I had to really make the most of my visit.

(Can you tell where I used Magic Eraser to edit out people I didn't know?)

Second bookshop of this trip, but the first I got a decent photo of! Thanks to @wanderinglynn for the recommendation! I got my dad a birthday present there (then confused him by handing it to him two weeks before his birthday). This is such a sweet shop! Very browsable and super-friendly staff.

Travel day! Spent the 5+ hours on the plane trying to nap then giving up and watching Amelie, and now I'm trying to get some reading in on the hour-long train ride. The train is not nearly as air conditioned as I expected it to be. 🥵

I like to keep track of California wildfires while we're traveling and as my second-born prepares for camp (we saw one large fire and one small fire in the past two weeks, and now I'm on edge). This picture from the CalFire incident map isn't of the precise areas of concern for us right now, but it made me think of the title of the tagged book.

July #bookspinbingo card, ready to go!

In retrospect, I should have assigned the chunkster Palo Alto to two spots. I might fix that to give myself some encouragement as I'm not quite halfway through the 28-hour audiobook. The book is...comprehensive.

@TheAromaofBooks

No bingo for June, but I did finish my #bookspin (but not the #doublespin, even though my fatigued brain led me to outline that title as though I'd finished it).
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Taking down, washing, drying, and putting back up our curtains (well, our landlord's curtains) while listening to the tagged book. I'm really liking it! (Both the cleaning and the audiobook, but more the latter than the former.)

This is a complicated pick for me. I really enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2, I liked Part 3 a lot (except the last paragraph...major eye roll), and I pretty much hated Part 4. I love what July has to say about aging in a female body, about the challenges of intimacy and breaking out of ingrained patterns of behavior that separate us, about trauma and how poorly our culture deals with it. The things I disliked are more specific and spoilery. #CampLitsy24

#bookspin list for July! I might switch some of these out depending on when things come in on hold. I'm traveling the first part of July, so I'm trying to get ebook and audiobook versions of some of the books I have on my physical shelves so I can take them on my phone/Kobo and have plenty to read without having to pay for an extra bag to carry all of my books (and so I have room to buy some at new-to-me bookstores). 📚📚📚🧳🧳🧳
@TheAromaofBooks

Despite the feeling of being a tourist or anthropologist reading about close-knit familial relationships and the a-little-too-extended ending, I really enjoyed this novel. I love the flow of Phillips's writing, and the way the characters veer along their poorly chosen paths had me reading with my hands over my eyes (figuratively). #CampLitsy24

I've seen 50/140 of these, which is more than I expected as I haven't watched a lot of new movies during the past 10 years. The pandemic shutdown helped, though. 👍

Three faves:
1) Spiderman: Homecoming
2) Thor: Ragnarok
3) Rogue One

@dabbe #TLT #ThreeListThursday

I admit, the mystery in this one was a little tough for me to follow at times. This isn't a bad thing, though, as it's due to the intricacy with which Sayers writes her plots. Plus, the mystery was less important to me in this one than the relationships between the characters, especially since I read a later book in the series and know where some of them are headed. And I just love Miss Climpson!

Photo of a delicious (mild) poison.

This book is much different than I expected it to be (in a very good way). Instead of being a self-help time management book, it's more like an exploration of existentialist philosophy and how we can open up our lives to greater possibility by realizing and embracing the finite amount of time we each have on this planet. I borrowed it through Libby, but I'm ordering a copy to own and read through again.

Photo: Spotted towhee on a coastal hike

Apt photo to go with the tagged book (although I guess jellyfish would be more "strong venom" than "strong poison"). Still sneaking in a few minutes of reading each evening once the adventures are done for the day.

Aspirational home library. This could double as my dining room and living room, so unlike William Randolph Hearst, I wouldn't need the other 114 rooms and three cottages, just this room, a couple of bedrooms, a bathroom or two, and a kitchen. Totally reasonable, IMO.

Back with another vacation pic from the second stop on our road trip: a soaring turkey vulture. We were hoping to see a California condor, but no such luck this time. We did get to hike along cliffs and through a cave, though, and that rocked. And I even made some progress on the tagged book!

I'm spending most of my time the past few days walking among giants. When I'm not hiking or playing LOTR Trivial Pursuit with the family, I'm perusing The Cabins of Wilsonia, the follow-up to the tagged book that's not in the database.

Although occasionally the message overpowers the story, and there are a couple of minor characters I'm not sure are necessary, overall this is a powerful story powerfully told. It's like Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow as a novel. The ending gave me chills.

"Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up...But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what only lives for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment... Life's bounty is in its flow. Later is too late."

82/100 Not too shabby!

Three of my faves from the list:
1) The Sixth Sense
2) The Matrix
3) The Silence of the Lambs

And three faves not on the list:
1) Office Space
2) Slingblade
3) The Spitfire Grill

Edited to add The Big Lebowski, one of the best movies of all time!

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

I figured out when I saw David Sedaris live in Raleigh in the late 90s or early aughts that hearing him read his essays is probably the best way to experience them, so although I will read his books in print from time to time, I prefer the audiobook versions. Sedaris is a little the curmudgeon in these essays, but he's self-consciously so, which works. As usual, the essays are hilarious, poignant, or squirm-inducing (and sometimes all three).

I alternated between the print book and audiobook on this one. I really like it on a word-and-sentence level, and the imagery is vivid, which I love, but the overall meaning eludes me. This is possibly the point, but it also makes the novel a little too slippery. I still love Oyeyemi's writing, but this one doesn't quite hit for me.

The drawing for my 100K #ClearMyShelves Giveaway is complete!

Thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate by entering the giveaway, by sharing the giveaway posts, and by leaving sweet comments!

Winners: I'm tagging you individually in the comments, along with the books that will be heading your way shortly. I'll email you when your book is on the way, but if you have questions/concerns in the meantime, please email or leave me a comment!

My first time playing #5JoysFriday!

☀️ My firstborn came home from college for the summer, and we immediately went on a family hike and saw blooming thistles.

☀️ This morning, the dew revealed dozens of spider webs on the hill behind our house.

☀️ Camille demonstrated how to lounge.

☀️ I made dangerously yummy granola.

@DebinHawaii

Just about 24 hours left until the drawing for my #ClearMyShelves Giveaway!

I'm celebrating my 5-Year Litsyversary and 100,000 Litfluence by holding a drawing for ten gently read books (mostly hardcovers)! Drawing will be on Friday, June 7.

Enter and share!

https://forms.gle/NxzqAKwMKFPSgu33A

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

The ending of this one was, frankly, alarming. But aside from that alarm and the fact that the mystery is convoluted, and the moral seems almost to be "trust no one," I liked the novel overall. I really appreciate how Wimsey seems like just a silly guy, but he's actually empathetic and kind and complex. It's his character (and Sayers's style) that keeps me reading this series. I just hope this kind of ending doesn't happen often.

I got 86/100, thanks to my parents having the cable movie channels during most of the 1980s.

Three enduring faves:
1) Ghostbusters
2) Steel Magnolias
3) Ferris Bueller's Day Off

But I have fond memories of SO many more (especially 9 to 5, Airplane, Terms of Endearment, and Mr. Mom. And I was with neighbors watching Octopussy at the theater while my brother was being born.)

#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe

Just two more days until the drawing for my #ClearMyShelves Giveaway!

I'm celebrating my 5-Year Litsyversary and 100,000 Litfluence by holding a drawing for ten gently read books (mostly hardcovers)! Drawing will be on Friday, June 7.

Enter and share!

https://forms.gle/NxzqAKwMKFPSgu33A

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

Audiocooking (granola, chicken, Brussels sprouts, NOT all mixed together) to the tagged book, which is leaving me feeling a little drunk and a lot like I need to visit Prague.

Today is devoted to trying to get the second page of this tune under my fingers and maybe starting to think about dynamics and style rather than just panicking about notes. Therefore, this is my entry for #TuesdayTunes: https://spotify.link/hslnv4k49Jb

@TieDyeDude

I love how consistently Miss Marple is underestimated because of her appearance and gender. If she weren't a goodie, I bet she'd make a great murderer. This one has some overlap in detail with the Sayers novel I'm reading right now, so I got confused a couple of times about which clues went with which story. Once I got it straight, though, this was a pleasant listen.

Just a reminder about my #ClearMyShelves Giveaway!

I'm celebrating my 5-Year Litsyversary and 100,000 Litfluence by holding a drawing for ten gently read books! Drawing will be on Friday, June 7.

To see the offered books (mostly hardcovers) and enter: https://forms.gle/NxzqAKwMKFPSgu33A

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

My somewhat moody (thanks to the sunlight) June #bookspinbingo card.

I don't have any predictions for how my month in reading is going to proceed. I guess I'll figure it out as I go.

@TheAromaofBooks

Update on my 100K #ClearMyShelves Giveaway: After doing more research into international shipping of books from the US, I am thrilled to announce that this giveaway is now international! (The only exception is countries where USPS international service is currently suspended.)

So if you're interested in entering the drawing for one of these 10 books, fill out the Google form by June 7, 2024: https://forms.gle/EebWf6hXY9jvR7FN9