Last week I couldn't get ahead. I had to go to Mountain Home Monday for the eye doctor....and that wore me out into Tuesday where I got little done and took a nap in the afternoon. Wednesday I did laundry, cleaned litter boxes, cleaned the frig and made a menu, grocery list, and ordered groceries. Thursday I picked them up. Friday it stormed, I think and Saturday I cleaned and yesterday I cooked. I made broccoli cauliflower salad, parmesan chicken (Hellman's mayo recipe), and some rice Krispie treats.
The lawn guy will be coming later this week to clean my gutters and do the first mowing. It's been raining since last night but stopped long enough for me to get the garbage out to the street and take my neighbor some of the salad I made.
Today is the 4th so I'm working on my birthday start ...............Ida Mae Crow............
I finished reading Heartbreak; a scientific journalist's research on how heartbreak can affect your health...literally. It was very good except for details of her sex life which I wish she would have left out! I was interested in reading this as she got sick after her marriage of 25 years ended and I got sick after my marriage of 21 years ended....
Amazon st
ates:
"When her twenty-five-year marriage suddenly
falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But
when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she
sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the
frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts
so much—and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong.
Soon
Williams finds herself on a surprising path that leads her from
neurogenomic research laboratories to trying MDMA in a Portland
therapist’s living room, from divorce workshops to the mountains and
rivers that restore her. She tests her blood for genetic markers of
grief, undergoes electrical shocks while looking at pictures of her ex,
and discovers that our immune cells listen to loneliness. Searching for
insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health,
she seeks out new relationships and ventures into the wilderness in
search of an extraordinary antidote: awe.
With warmth, daring, wit, and candor, Williams offers a gripping account of grief and healing. Heartbreak
is a remarkable merging of science and self-discovery that will change
the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in
and out of love.
I also finished reading the first 2 books of the Watervalley series....I enjoyed them very much...similar to Mitford series which is my favorite...........
Tucked away in the rolling Tennessee countryside is the
charming community of Watervalley, whose inhabitants are quirky and
captivating and more surprising than you might expect…
As an
ambitious young doctor with a penchant for research, Luke Bradford never
wanted to set up practice in a remote rural town. But to pay back his
student loans and to fulfill a promise from his past, he heads for
Watervalley, Tennessee—and immediately stumbles into one disaster after
another. Will he be labeled the town idiot before he’s even introduced
as the new doctor?
Very quickly he faces some big
challenges—from resuscitating a three-hundred-pound farmer who goes into
cardiac arrest to not getting shot by a local misanthrope for
trespassing. He expects the people of Watervalley to be simple, but
finds his relationships with them are complicated, whether he’s
interacting with his bossy but devout housekeeper, the attractive
schoolteacher he consistently alienates, or the mysterious kid next door
who climbs trees while wearing a bike helmet.
When a baffling
flu epidemic hits Watervalley, Luke faces his ultimate test. Whether the
community embraces him or not, it’s his responsibility to save them.
And he’ll soon discover that while living in a small town may not be
what he wants, it may be just what he needs…
Welcome to the timeless charms of small-town Watervalley, Tennessee—where young Dr. Luke Bradford is beginning to feel at home…
When
he comes to the aid of a woman at the grocery store, Luke is fascinated
to learn she is Estelle Pillow, the cheery sister to his prickly
housekeeper, Connie. Estelle wants to open a bakery in town—and Connie’s
disapproval of the venture stirs up a whirlwind of emotions between the
siblings. But Luke’s attention is soon diverted when he learns about a
long-ago double murder.…
During World War II, an unknown traveler
arrived in town, and before the day was over, he and the local baker
lay dead near the bandstand at the local lake. The incident has since
been exaggerated into Watervalley lore—with the newcomer rumored to have
been a German spy. As Luke pieces together exactly what happened, he
realizes that the consequences of this event have rippled painfully into
the lives of townsfolk he has come to know.
As winter gives way
to spring, Luke keeps busy at the medical clinic and enters a tentative,
exhilarating romance. And when his support of Estelle’s bakery collides
with new revelations about the old murder, Luke witnesses the true
power of reconciliation working in the hearts of those he holds dear—a
revelation that will change his life.
Now, I'm reading another National Geographic magazine, my non-fiction is Grant..........I've always been interested in him as I grew up close to Galena where his home was. I just recently learned that he spoke at the Town Hall in Hanover, my hometown, when he was doing his first recruiting for troops for the Civil War. I visited his home several times growing up. This book is over 1,000 pages but so well written that it's hard to put down.
The #1 New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2017
“Eminently readable but thick with import . . . Grant hits like a Mack truck of knowledge.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
Pulitzer
Prize winner Ron Chernow returns with a sweeping and dramatic portrait
of one of our most compelling generals and presidents, Ulysses S. Grant.
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often
he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as
the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these
stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow shows in his
masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of
the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying
speed and frequency.
Before the Civil War, Grant was flailing.
His business ventures had ended dismally, and despite distinguished
service in the Mexican War he ended up resigning from the army in
disgrace amid recurring accusations of drunkenness. But in war, Grant
began to realize his remarkable potential, soaring through the ranks of
the Union army, prevailing at the battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg
campaign, and ultimately defeating the legendary Confederate general
Robert E. Lee. Along the way, Grant endeared himself to President
Lincoln and became his most trusted general and the strategic genius of
the war effort. Grant’s military fame translated into a two-term
presidency, but one plagued by corruption scandals involving his closest
staff members.
More important, he sought freedom and justice
for black Americans, working to crush the Ku Klux Klan and earning the
admiration of Frederick Douglass, who called him “the vigilant, firm,
impartial, and wise protector of my race.” After his presidency, he was
again brought low by a dashing young swindler on Wall Street, only to
resuscitate his image by working with Mark Twain to publish his memoirs,
which are recognized as a masterpiece of the genre.
With
lucidity, breadth, and meticulousness, Chernow finds the threads that
bind these disparate stories together, shedding new light on the man
whom Walt Whitman described as “nothing heroic... and yet the greatest
hero.” Chernow’s probing portrait of Grant's lifelong struggle with
alcoholism transforms our understanding of the man at the deepest level.
This is America's greatest biographer, bringing movingly to life one of
our finest but most underappreciated presidents. The definitive
biography, Grant is a
grand synthesis of painstaking research and literary brilliance that
makes sense of all sides of Grant's life, explaining how this simple
Midwesterner could at once be so ordinary and so extraordinary.
Named one of the best books of the year by Goodreads •Amazon • The New York Times• Newsday• BookPage • Barnes and Noble • Wall Street Journal
The fiction book I am reading is another Hannah Swenson mystery..........
The
yuletide season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, guarantees a white Christmas,
delectable holiday goodies from Hannah Swensen's bakery, The Cookie
Jar—and murder …
The Cookie Jar's busiest time of the year also happens to be the most
wonderful time … for Christmas cookies, Hannah's own special plum
pudding—and romance! She also gets a kick out of “Lunatic Larry Jaeger’s
Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot,” a kitschy carnival taking place
smack-dab in the middle of the village green. But then Hannah discovers
the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office …
Now,
with so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas
ticking away, Hannah's running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge
who doesn't want her to see the New Year …
Includes Hannah’s favorite Christmas dinner recipes!
I hope you are all well and getting a little taste of Spring!
Happy Trails!!!
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