On My Nightstand February 24 2023

My neighbor’s cat supervised me while i read outside a few days ago

Happy weekend everyone! We’re on another wild weather roller coaster. It was 80 Thursday, and we have snow in the forecast this weekend. I hope the flowers survive.

My daughter’s party was fun last weekend, and we ate so much cake. We all gave up sweets for Lent and we were all so overloaded on sugar no one misses them yet!

This weekend I’m hoping for some quality reading time in between kid’s sports which started again last week. Work has also been a lot which makes it hard to concentrate on reading at night.

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

What The Moon Saw by Laura Resau - I’m reading this for a book club. It’s not what I would pick out on my own, but that’s what books clubs are for!

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings - I’ve only listened to about the first 20 minutes of this when I was walking this morning, but wow! I am into it!

Murder With Fried Chicken and Waffles by A.L. Herbert - This cozy mystery takes place about 10 minutes from where I live otherwise I probably would have bailed. Cozies just don’t seem to be my thing any more.

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On My Nightstand February 19, 2023

Good morning everyone! It’s a long weekend, but our schedules are starting to get packed with sports again. My son has lacrosse and my daughter has ice skating on Monday. I truly love watching them practice and play, but all the driving cuts into my reading time! We’re also celebrating my daughter’s birthday. It was in December, but so close to Christmas we haven’t been able to have a party until now. This is her first party in two years due to Covid, so when she wanted to order a two tier cake that feeds 46 for a party of 12 people I said yes! So it will be a rush to eat 46 servings of cake between now and Ash Wednesday. Goals!

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead - One of my kids insisted on having this at a book fair a few years ago, and then never read it. I decided I should at least read it before we give it away!

Dearie by Bob Spitz - Julia Child is so fascinating, and I’m enjoying this biography.

Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi - This just came in from the library so I haven’t started it yet, but the premise sounded so relatable. A woman in a mostly male office fakes a pregnancy so that she doesn’t get roped into all of the extra chores.

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The 2021 Audie Award Finalists

I was introduced to The Audie Awards as a new book blogger and it’s become an obsession ever since. Starting in January I check the website over and over until the finalists are announced. Last Tuesday was the day I finally saw the list, and I am really excited to start listening my way through.

I was happy to see favorites Louise Penny and N.K. Jemisin get nods for two books I loved last year: All The Devils Are Here and The City We Became. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the short story collections, and I’m patiently waiting for my turn to listen to Barack Obama’s memoir on Libby. (Six months and counting.) But my very favorite category is History/Biography and I will listen to all of them by the end of the year.

The nominees are:

The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne and Tamara Payne, narrated by Dion Graham, published by Recorded Books

Deep Delta Justice by Matthew Van Meter, narrated by Brad Sanders, published by Hachette Audio

His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham, with an afterword by John Lewis, narrated by JD Jackson, published by Penguin Random House Audio

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Making of a Legend by Colin Duriez, narrated by Simon Vance, published by Oasis Audio

Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine, narrated by Janina Edwards, published by Audible Studios

The Lincoln Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, narrated by Scott Brick, published by Macmillan Audio

I can’t wait!

REVIEW: Paul McCartney: The Life by Philip Norman

This is my second review for The Armchair Audies.

This biography of Paul McCartney starts like a lot of biographies of stars starts - with a forward detailing the author's relationship to a star and his or her work. And so I will start this review. Like most liberal arts students I went through a Sergeant Pepper phase in college, but when I think of Paul McCartney I think of my Dad's music more than mine. That may have clouded my ability to listen to 30 hours and 44 minutes of the details of Paul's life on audiobook.

I enjoyed the history of the Beatles, and a more R rated view of their time in Hamburg that Malcolm Gladwell made famous in Outliers. I also really liked learning the backgrounds behind their songs. Fans had a tendency to make all of the songs about drugs. In many cases they were right (Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds), but they were also wrong sometimes (Fixing a Hole was about DIY, not heroin.)

But then things start to drag. The breakup, tax troubles, Yoko troubles, and drug use seem to go on forever. Many parts are repetitive as well. We must have heard about the meatloaf Linda McCartney used to make before she became an animal rights activist five times. By the end I was repeatedly checking the counter to see how much more I had to go.

I did love the narrator for this audio book. The accent was perfect. It sounded like someone who could have grown up in Liverpool with Paul.

I'd recommend this book if you're a super fan, but otherwise skip it.

Review: Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

I got a lot more laundry done than usual this weekend because I was listening to the audiobook version of Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson. This book about the least famous Kennedy child was heartbreaking, but also inspiring. Her birth was rough, and Rosemary suffered from intellectual disabilities. After a failed lobotomy in her early 20's Rosemary spent her life hidden away from her public, and even her family for a time. It's hard not to judge Joseph Kennedy for what happened to Rosemary, just as much as it's hard not to admire what her brothers and sisters, especially Eunice and Ted, did later in life to better the positions of disabled people.

If you like biographies of underappreciated people try:

Five Facts I Never Knew About the Wright Brothers

I started listening to the audiobook version of David McCullough's The Wright Brothers, and I'm hooked. It's the kind of audiobook that has you driving around aimlessly just so you can listen to it a little bit longer. I'm amazed that there is so much that I didn't know about these famous brothers. Here are my top five favorite new to me facts about the Wright Brothers:

1. We think of them as geniuses, but at the time most people thought they were crazy.
2. They lived in a tent while they built the first plane.
3. They learned to fly from watching birds.
4. They gave leftover plane material to a local to make dresses for her daughter.
5. There was a Wright sister, and she was awesome.

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