What's this one about now?

I've had extra time to read lately.

I've read a book or two I wasn't crazy about simply because it was there. Usually, if I don't like a book I'll abandon it and move on. But I'm a captive audience presently. Now is the time to test my endurance and tolerance.

Reviews and blurbs about books delight me. Especially reviews that validate how I feel and what I think about a book. Which has been the case with Caroline Zancan's We Wish You Luck.

May 8th, 2019 4:53 AM

If you haven't yet read Drew Magary's account of the medical emergency that knocked him out literally you should because he's a terrific writer. For those of us die-hard Magary fans the months he spent away from the keyboard due to a mysterious and obviously serious injury, was a quiet and dark time. But nowhere near  the amount of quiet and dark he and his family were experiencing.

By no means do I want to equate Magary's experience with what David and I went through earlier this month. It will never compare but will in the sense that, like Magary, it was a moment when the lights went out and as humans we all experience such moments.

At my Granma's Funeral

Last year, at the age of 90, my paternal grandmother passed away. A funeral mass was said for her at a church in our hometown in California.

At some point during the mass (perhaps while we were "Our Fathering") the church's side door, off to the side of the lectern, creaked opened and a woman walked in.

This woman was not dressed for an occasion such as a funeral. (Had I left the house dressed the way this woman was that day my Granma would have told me to turn around and put on something decent..) The woman was also carrying a can of Coke.

She made her way to a front-most pew, not already occupied by my entire immediate family, where she began to genuflect and pray. The deacon's eyes nearly popped out of his head and if the priest noticed he sure didn't show it. The priest's voice never wavered and I don't remember seeing him even flinch.

I felt my whole family stiffen then begin to sway ever so slightly in panic and bewilderment. In sheer incredulity at this stranger who just happened to come in and proceed to pray before God and my Granma's ashes.

My hands rested on the back of the pew in front of me. I closed my eyes briefly and I too began to pray:

"Don't move. Just nobody move. Please don't move."

Gradually, I felt my family settle and we returned our focus to the altar but in my peripheral vision I could see the woman continue praying, nothing more than a mumble really. All the while she was seemingly oblivious to our presence but steadfastly held on to her Coke. You have to admire such devotion.

When she was finished she genuflected once more and instead of exiting the way she had come in, she decided to take the scenic route: down the main aisle of the nave, past row after row of my extended family, and out the vestibule. There she was met by the morning sunshine and a quiet weekday sidewalk. Now, finally, everyone at peace.

Showing up for the Dead: A review of "From Here to Eternity"

The publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, provided me with a free, advanced copy of this book for

Now that's a good cover!

review.

Caitlin Doughty is one of those writers (one of those people in general) who in my eyes can do no wrong. I am a Caitlin Doughty fangirl. Telling people you are a fan of an author is a sentiment easier to convey rather than exclaiming: "I'm a big fan of books about death and dying!" Let me tell you: admissions like that don't often land well in conversation.

Other admissions that don't sit well:
Acquaintance: "Hey, what are you reading and giggling about over there at the lunch table?"
Me: "A research facility in North Carolina that is composting donor bodies."

*crickets* 

Sugar Detox Day 5: The Teeth Gnashing and the Rage

Today is Day 5 on a 21 Day Sugar Detox.

I hate the word "detox." This sugar detox is also no carb, low carb whatever I don't even know

Do you see these snacks? I can't have any of these snacks.

anymore because I have a headache. A headache they say will go away by Day 5. That's nice. My headache started on Day 5. You know what would fix that headache? SOME CARBS!

Oh, did you like carbs? Did you spend the last seven years cleaning up your diet so the only cracker you can eat is a Triscuit?  Because a Triscuit only has three ingredients and no HFCS.

Sorry. None of that here!

How about a tortilla?  Can I have that?

Nope!

You can have guacamole! BUT NOT TORTILLA CHIPS! Well, wtf? Am I suppose to just eat the guacamole straight out of the bowl with my hands? You can have kale chips! *death stare*

I swear someone needs to invent one of these detoxes for a Mexican.

A First Novel

The other day I was updating my "To Be Read" (or TBR, as my fellow book addicts call it) list with a book from an author I thought I had read before. The title of his first novel sounded familiar so I popped over to Amazon to check if I had read it.

What follows is the description for the book:

"A Scandinavian tourist visiting a small, often-overlooked Greek island encounters a community bound by religion, ritual, and superstition, and everyone involved is transformed by the experience. A first novel."

I noted on my Fb that this description did not help me at all to remember. Furthermore, what is with that little "A first novel." tacked there on the end?  Is it an apology? Because you know how first novels can be sometimes.

How Target Became My Happy Place

Target used to be just a place to me.

It was a place my brothers and I went when we were bored: "Hey, you want to go poke around at

A future TargetExpress. Now you can live even closer to a Target than I do!

Target?" and it was a place to buy toilet paper and toothpaste.  Over the years they have undergone major re-branding and are now the go-to shop of basic bitches everywhere. But I missed a lot of those years (and designer capsule collections) when we moved to Ohio.