Saturday, September 30, 2017

Goodbye September, Hello October - Books, Life and Cats



What a pitiful month September was for me and books. I only read (5) books which I'm pretty sure is the lowest number read in the 16 years I've been tracking.  I felt easily distracted and just found it easier to watch television or play games on my phone instead. Here's to a more exciting October for me and books.

The little one's continue to love preschool and kindergarten, a loved one is recovering nicely from hernia surgery and the best of the fall foliage here, is yet to come. It had been fairly warm here, humid almost until yesterday when cooler temps hit which will help speed up the pretty colors of fall.

September Reads

  1. Before, During and After; Richard Bausch (ARC) 4/5 (Sept/2017
  2. Little Fires Everywhere; Celeste Ng (eGalley) 5/5 (Sept/2017)
  3. Death of a Busybody; George Bellairs - 4/5 (eGalley) Sept/2017
  4. The Old Man; Thomas Perry (audio) 4.5/5 - Sept/2017
  5. Almost Sisters; Joshilyn Jackson (audio) 4/5 (Sept/2017) (no review yet)
Our book group met to discuss Station Eleven (read and reviewed in January of 2015. I didn't reread it but, the discussion was lively and everyone was surprised by how much they enjoyed it.

New Books


Thanks to Candlewick Press, I received these lovely children's books.

  1. The Twelve Days of Christmas: Panorama Pop-Up
  2. Christmas Decorations: Press Out & Color; Kate McLelland
  3. Windows; Julia Denos
Plans for October

Book group pick is The Muralist; B.A. Shapiro, still reading: The Deep Dark Descending and Never Coming Back; B.A. Shapiro. I dare not make any more reading commitments based on my recent slump.



Freckles, our 14 year old cat is not doing well.  Once playful and a lover of all food, he is now just moping around and turning his nose up on every food offering, including deli turkey.  He is a bad vet patient and at his last visit 2.5 years ago, he tried to bite the vet and they were unable to perform a full exam.  Now, his weight is down from about 15 to 11 pounds -- we will be taking him back for an exam and blood work -- hoping he will cooperate.  After losing our sweet Lily this past year, I hope its something easy like a thyroid issue.  Purrs for Freckles please.

Have a Great Month Everyone.

12 comments:

  1. Ugh - I'm sorry your September was terrible for reading. Mine is about the same. At least you had some 4 and 5 star reads in there!

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  2. So sorry to hear about Freckles.

    Easily distracted is the story of my life lately.

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  3. Diane, I hope Freckles feels better soon--sending extra purrs your way! Sometimes I play Words with Friends instead of reading; it's great fun!

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  4. Diane, I'll keep your cat Freckles in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you enjoy October. I'm loving the weather cool down here in VA.

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  5. Sorry to hear Freckles is not doing well... fingers crossed it's something easily treatable.

    Reading slumps seem to be contagious. Let's hope October is better for both of us. For the first time ever, I haven't finished a book all month. Just over halfway through a long Trollope novel now, but an empty page in my reading journal for September :(

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  6. We all send our very best purrs and prayers to dear Freckles.

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  7. I have been a horrible reader this year. I am much more easily distracted by the TV and games than I have ever been before. I also catch up on sleep during the weekend, so I'm sleeping half the weekends away. So far that seems to be about as much as I can do. I'm sorry to hear Freckles isn't doing well. I hope that the vet has some relatively good news. Purrs for Freckles!

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  8. Sending good thoughts for Freckles.
    I love the look of the ornaments book!

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  9. Raya's symptoms were much the same and it was thyroid. She's on meds for the rest of her life. And I don't call my lessening of reading a 'slump' rather 'grandmothering' haha

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  10. I was down in September books read as well. Best wishes for your October reading and for your cat.

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  11. I am reading Little Fires Everywhere and loving it. The Almost Sisters is on my "up soon" stack.

    So sorry about Freckles not doing well.

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  12. I only managed to read ONE book in September. I think we're all distracted with the news these days...

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