Death is Now My Neighbor

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

The penultimate in the Inspector Morse series, Death is Now My Neighbor by Colin Dexter might have some foreshadowing for Morse’s last book.

Morse’s latest case might all hinge on the house numbers in a cul du sac.

Death is Now My Neighbor is the 12th in the Morse series and it doesn’t give away the fact that it is the second to last in the series too easily. I wonder if it was known, and if the final book will be clear, that the next book will be the last in the series? I really liked this installment bc it shows a closeness between Morse and Lewis that has been growing over the entire series in more of a stark light than earlier books. I also liked that the mystery in this book hinged on a small detail that only someone who thinks outside the box could see. That’s often how Morse solves his crimes, or at least knows that he can solve the crime. He often spots a small detail or oddity that no one else pays mind to, but not in a super obvious way that some mystery series do. Since Morse can be wrong (a lot), the reader is often not sure which small aside will become important. I would recommend this book to those who are reading all the Morse mysteries, those who like books about male relationships, and I would recommend this series to all those who want to read classic detective series.

What is a series that you have completed, or are on the last book of the series?

This book can be seen in my May Wrap Up.

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September in Review

I think most years, September is my favorite month of the year. in 2021, I think it went too fast to really appreciate it. We worked, and enjoyed local’s Summer, we saw cats, and flowers, and traveled around our state. But the month flew by.

People (adults) always say that time moves faster as you get older. Now that I’m an adult, I find that to be true. Why is that and how can I make it stop?

Don’t get me wrong, Sept is still in the running to be my favorite month of 2021. We’ll see if another month can beat it. The weather will be hard to top.

Sept was a busy month, but we explored, read, rested, and hung out with cats. The beach was a major theme, but #SeptemeberSwims were at a minimum, unfortunately.

I often think of the Star Trek Next Gen movie where the planet they visit have a way to slow time, stop and live in a moment, and stretch the feeling and experience. In September, there were several moments I would have slowed and lived longer in.

Let’s find those moments in October.

The Loved One

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

The Loved One is the first Evelyn Waugh book I have read and I can’t wait to read more! I found this at my lacal book shop, and picked it up solely for the cover.

A satirical look at life, death and movie making in this semi dystopian look at near future California through the eyes of a British Poet, The Loved One is a must read black comedy and a modern classic.

I really had no idea what to expect when I picked up The Loved One at The Asbury Park Book Cooperative. I just knew that I kept hearing about Evelyn Waugh but had no idea what kind of writer he was. It’s also true that I loved the cover enough to not need to know anything more about the book. I read this book quickly after picking it up, and you can see a lot of my thoughts in a video that I did for the 1900-1950 readathon. I loved this book. It was dry, witty, satirical, and dark. It’s follows a British poet who originally came to LA to work for the movie studios. He quickly becomes disillusioned with the studio attutudes and mentalities, especially after his mentor commits suicide. But Dennis Barlow, the poet, finds more pleasure and inspiration from his lowly job at a pet mortuary. He aspires for his career to move into as opulent and sacred grounds as the premier person mortuary, Whispering Glades. When he gets to actually visit the Glades, he falls in love with the grounds, and one of the lovely cosmeticians. I would highly recommend those who read modern classics, readers who like light dystopian, satires, and books about death.

Have you read any Evelyn Waugh? Who is a modern classic writer you have never read but want to?

This book can be seen in my May Wrap Up.

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1 More Month of Zero Waste | September 2021: Education!

We have already learned a lot about a zero waste, plastic free and low impact lifestyle in the last 8 months of our 1 More Month of Zero Waste project. We have decluttered, audited our trash and recycling, we’ve made switches away from plastic by using reusable bags and water bottles, we made ourselves kits to bring these things around and increase our potential for reducing our waste. We’ve talked about best practices, putting aside our own conveniences and that a lot of becoming more zero waste starts with our mindset.

Now it’s time to teach others.

Your challenge is to go forth and share your finding from the last 8 month with someone else. Tell your friends about your challenges, tell you parents about the low impact movement, share your zero waste kit with your coworkers, help you children make better less wasteful choices. Whatever and how ever you share, you got it right!

The second part of this months challenge is to learn something new. Has something come up in 1 More Month of Zero Waste that we didn’t delve into enough? Have you come across something that we haven’t discussed that you need to learn more about? This month, let’s deep dive into anything and everything that interests us in the zero waste, low impact movement.

What will you teach and what will you learn this month?

Weekly Video Round Up #34

9/6 - August Vlog Style Reading Wrap up | August 2021 | 9 books I read in August | Women in Translation

9/9 - 1 Month of Zero Waste | September 2021 | Education | Free and Easy Zero Waste | Beginners ZW

9/10 - August Readathon Recap | 4 Readathons, 10 books | 1000 Doors | BookTube Spin | HIBearNation | WIT

9/12 - Recently Acquired Books | Many Great Books from Local Books Sales | Modern Classics, Mystery Series

Confess, Fletch

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

Confess, Fletch is the second in in the Fletch series by Gregory Macdonald.

Fletch returns to the states, engaged to a baroness and enlisted to find his betrothed’s father’s missing paintings. He is quickly wrapped up in a second mystery and funs afowl of Inspector Flynn. Flynn suspects there’s more to Fletch than meets the eye, but Flynn has secrets of his own.

This book takes place a few years after the events of the original Fletch book, which confused me quite a bit. There is a book that details the time between the first two books, but it was written later. I have chosen to read these books in published order rather than chronological. There are a few instances in this series where that might confuse me, I think. There are other places in the order where McDonald wrote prequels or books that fit in between books he had written previously. Once I got into the flow of the story, I really enjoyed this installment, even though it’s very different in tone to the first book. I like that Fletch was smart in this book, but also lucked into a lot of things. I loved the introduction of Flynn and definitely want to get the books that follow him, as this book acts as a sort of backdoor pilot. Overall, I found this to be a satisfying mystery, following several threads and mysteries as seems to be common in Fletch books. I will certainly be continuing with this fun and sassy 70s style series. I would recommend this book to those who read the first in the series, those who want to get into the series but don’t want to start with the first book (as I think this works fine as a standalone), and those who like swinging 70s style books.

Who is your favorite irreverent lead in a series?

This book can be seen in my May Wrap Up.

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*editor’s note: I’ll be posting some blogs that have photos already, while I deal with the photo issues I’m encountering. This might mean that some books and other articles might come out of order.

Weekly Video Round Up #33

9/1 - Three Sci Fi September Recommendations | Sci Fi Comedy, Sci Fi Social Media, Sci Fi Jaws | 2021

9/3- 1000 Door Weekend Readathon Reading Vlog | Weekly Reading Vlog | Booktubers Prompts Choose My Books

9/5 - TBR ASMR #12 | Bookshelf Tour ASMR | Sci Fi Books, Sci Fi September, Space Opera September

The Baron in the Trees

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino was one of the first books I heard about on BookTube that sounded really interesting! I was super lucky to find this book used in my local book shop.

When the eldest son of a nervous lower baron gets fed up with his quirky family, he decides to live in the trees and never set foot on the ground again.

The Baron in the Trees is an Italian historical fiction by Italo Calvino written in the 1950s. It takes place in the late 1700s and we are introduced to the Baron’s family one night at dinner. Each family member has their own issues. The dad is a nervous fame and image obsessed aging aristocrat. The mum is ex military and treats everything like a battle. The eldest sister is masochist and subjects the family to weird food and disturbing delicacies. The older brother, Cosimo, is fed up with the whole family, besides his younger brother, Biagio. The youngest brother seems to be the most normal of the bunch. Cosimo leaves the table, takes to the trees and never returns to set foot on the earth again. The rest of the story is told by Biagio as he learns stories from his older brother and tells them to the reader. This book has a fairy tale, or fable-esc feeling to it. It is broken up into smaller stories, some of which build on each other and some that could be considered stand alone adventures. Many of the stories end tragically and over the read can get a little repetitive. I really liked this book and it was interesting to read a modern classic that was translated from the Italian. It was interesting to read a book that encapsulates so many genres that I normally don’t read. Although this is a novel, it almost reads like short stories or fables, it’s a historical fiction, it’s an Italian modern classic. I would recommend The Baron in the Trees to those who like adventure stories, especially those that follow young men coming of age, readers who like fable or fairy tale like stories, any people wanting to read more modern classics not from the USA.

Are you a modern classic fan?

This book can be seen in my May Wrap Up.

More about books here:
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Weekly Video Round Up #32

8/26 - The Summer Book Tag | Recommending books I read in the last three months | Summer Prompts

8/28 - 1 More Month of Zero Waste | August 2021 Check In | How are you doing with your Zero Waste Kit?

They Do It With Mirrors

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

They Do It with Mirrors is the 6th book in Agatha’s Christie’s Miss Marple series.

When Miss Marple is visiting a girlhood friend in from America, Marple is unexpectedly requested and implored to make a visit to her friends sister, who lives in England. Upon arrival, Miss Marple quickly sees that there is more that meets the eye.

I’ve been working my way thru all of Christie’s Miss Marple series on audio book. I was happily surprised when Miss Marple is in this book prominently and from the very beginning. This is pretty rare for her books as they never follow a set formula in each story. Each book has a mystery of course, usually a closed cast of characters, in a finite location. But sometimes Miss Marple is a prominent character, sometimes she is on the sidelines, sometimes the police are investigating, occasionally it’s another amateur sleuth. Also, Miss Marple tends to be an outside observer to these mysteries, an old biddy, a gossip, but not a friend or family of those directly impacted. In They Do it With Mirrors, Jane Marple is reunited with a family that she was close to as a girl. There are many new players here, as well, but for the most part, Jane has a real stake in the goings on bc she wants the best for her fiend. I liked the police detective in this one, as he knows the value that Marple offers and that is a rare opinion for the local PD. There were also quite a few interesting side stories, some of which are our red herrings. I like when Marple’s involvement effects more than the outcome of the crime. She is a observer on all aspects of human nature, both the good and bad. I would recommend this book to those who like satisfying endings, mystery lovers, and of course Agatha Christie fans.

Are you reading any series? Do you read them all in a row? Or do you just fit them in when you are in the mood?

This book can be seen in my April Wrap Up.

More about books here:
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The Daughters of Cain

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

The Daughters of Cain is the third to last book in the Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter.

Morse is lead down a twisted path when he stumbles on a murder that has the local police stumped.

I have to be honest, this was one of the more forgettable of the Inspectory Mosrse novels that I read aound this time. I was reading them pretty close together and I have blurred them together. I do know and remember that this murder involves a scholar and mysterious artifact. And a bunch of ladies and how they come together to solve a problem. Morse is invariably smitten with at least one of them, and inevitably disappointed. Being the third to last Morse novel, there is little foreshadowing to what the end of the series will be. I like that although these novels can hit fairly predictable beats, each one does have an interesting crime and solution. I am glad that I have all the Morse novels on audio so that I can go back and reread the ones that were less stand out in my memory. I would recommend The Daughter’s of Cain to those who are working their way thru the Morse books.

Have you read this far in the series? What are your thoughts on the later books?

This book can be seen in my April Wrap Up.

More about books here:
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(Bi) Weekly Video Round Up #31

8/11 - 1 More Month of Zero Waste | August 2021 | Zero Waste Kit | Carry Reusables | Easy Zero Waste

8/13 - Recently Acquired Books and Little Free Library Tour | Used Books | NJ Libraries Book Haul

8/15 - Books and Life Tag | Am I a Book Weirdo? | Mini Bookshelf Tour | Reading Tag

8/20 - BookTube Spin 2021 | Spin 3 Reading Vlog | Part 1 | Two Books, One Author | The Old Man and the Sea

8/23 - September Plan with Me | Monthly Reading and Videos | Minimalist Bullet Journal | Sci Fi September

New Orleans Beat

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I got New Orleans Beat for .25 cents at one of my favorite local used books shop. I chose this Julie Smith book bc it takes place in New Orleans.

Skip Langdon has had to fight for her place in the New Orleans Police Department but she is good at her job and gets results. When she is called to an accidental death of the computer savvy son of an unconventional family, Skip doesn’t believe it is an accident. When she starts to delve into the mysterious world of online communities, Skip finds far more than meets the eye.

This book is seemingly a simple cop mystery book. But it tackled a lot of interesting themes, including interracial dating/relationships, woman in careers usually reserved for men, gay rights and gay parenting, navigating long distance relationships, online communities and relationships of people revolving around online communities. This book is also very dated in a lot of those ideas. Especially revolving around the online communities, this book shows it’s age right away. The mystery was pretty cozy and I really liked that we see other aspects of Skip’s life. She has complex relationships with her on again off again long distance boyfriend, her community, her coworkers, and her best friend who has recently adopted his sister’s children. Skip becomes a defacto aunt to these kids and this responsibility informs some of her life choices. I feel that this book, although outlandish is some story aspects (as you would assume from a cozy mystery), has a lot of emotions and conversations surrounding these relationships that feel very genuine. In my quest to read books about New Orleans, I’m always looking for books that feel like NOLA to me and this book really fit the bill. I really enjoyed how the city is a big part of the story and you get a good feel for the geography and the atmosphere. I do want to back and read the rest of this series, hopefully more in order. I don’t think you can’t read these out of order, tho. New Orleans Beat worked fine as a stand alone. I would recommend this book to readers who like cop mysteries, and especially those with strong female cop characters, those who want to read books set in New Orleans and people who are interested in reading early internet books.

Have you started a mystery series lately? What is your favorite cozy mystery?

This book can be seen in my April Wrap Up.

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Mad Cat Capsule | Buying Pants and Finding a New Style

One of the reasons that I started a capsule wardobe, many years ago, was bc I felt I had lost touch with my style. I wasn’t sure what my personal style was anymore. I wanted to find a style that worked for me without constantly buying clothes and buying into trends.

All these years later, I find myself on a parallell journey. I’m still staying away from trendy things, but I have fallen into a trend of sorts.

I’m sick of wearing jeans.

It took a long time in the pandemic to get to this point for me. But I really only want to wear comfortable pants. Ideally somehting as close to pajamas as possible. You know, “going out pajamas”.

So lately I went on a thrifting quest. To find some comfy pants that are not jeans and are not skinny legged. And are high wasted, and have pockets (front and back). Is that really asking too much?

Oh, and also, they have to fit my style. But what is my style when it comes to pants like that? I guess I’ve got to find out, now.

I bought about 10-12 pairs of pants but swiftly whittled it down to only a few. Even some of those I might not end up keeping. Many of the thrifted pants simply didn’t fit. Some were not the leg I was after, or were too cropped (not a huge fan of that), some were the wrong material or didn’t have enough pockets.

When thrifting, I don’t tend to try things on in the store. The prices are cheap enough, and I usually know my style well enough, that I can pick out with out trying on and know I will get about 80% accuracy. I don’t mind supporting local thrift shops and I don’t mind donating back what I don’t end up using. But clearly when trying to find a new style my level of accuracy goes way down. I only got about 20% accurate with this venture. For this outing I felt lost, and I lost sight of some of the details I usually make sure to always check (the fabric, the pockets, etc….).

Finding new pants will be an ongoing journey. I have a few now that I like and are in a new style. I have to wear them, see what I like and what I don’t, learn about this new aspect of my style. I’ll let you know what I find out!

2021 Quarterly Goals | June and July Check In | Throwing Out the Q2 Finale (Apr May Jun)

In 2021 I have decided to make quarterly goals instead of monthly goals. But I still want to check in monthly so that I can take a look at my progress and be mindful of my goals. Here are the goals I’m working on for Q2 (Apr, May, Jun):

10K steps (but really tho)
cleaning schedule
yoga/stretching/exercise 15 min a day
tiktok and reels
be outside more
eat better/lose weight

Ok, so let’s throw out these quarterly goals. I did work on some of them in June, but barely. You can see from my posting the May version of this blog a few days ago (only 3 months late), that these quarterly goals have not been a priority for a while now.

This year I made quarterly goals instead of monthly ones. I thought this might give me more time to ruminate on them, complete them and dive in. I thought perhaps it would help my goals to get more time for them, without repeating them constantly when I create these posts or my monthly bullet journal spreads.

Maybe it was the year, my life at this time, or what, but quarterly goals just don’t seem to work for me right now. Will they work for me in the future? Maybe! Who knows!

So what’s the state of my goals in 2021? I’m not really sure. I’m considering going back to monthly goals for the last few of the year. What have you found works for you in 2021? How have you set and completed your goals? I’d love to hear more about how you’re doing in 2021.

1 More Month of Zero Waste | August 2021

Last month the blog took an unplanned break so we didn’t talk about Plastic Free July. How did you do? What challenge did you set for yourself? What issues did you face? If you didn’t participate in Plastic Free July, it’s not too late, you can make August Plastic Free instead!

Something that will help you greatly on your zero waste and plastic free journey is a zero waste kit.

A zero waste kit is super easy to put together, and doesn’t require that you buy anything new. Usually a ZWK is any collection of items that will help you on your journey during the day and during the week. Some things that you might include in a ZWK could be

flatware - this can be only a fork, or a full on set! Fork, spoon, knife, spork, sharp knife, straw, chopsticks, etc… Whatever will help you use reusables instead of opting for a disposable that will end up in landfill.

napkin - you can use this as a napkin instead of taking a paper napkin that will end up in the trash. But you can also use it to clean, mop your brow, wrap left overs, or use it as a bag…. plus more. What else can you use it for? to dry a seat, to sit on on the grass, to cover your head in the sun? The possibilities are vast.

a reusable bag - for groceries, for retail, for carrying anything, just in case you need it.

a water bottle or coffee cup - for water, for coffee, for juice, for soup, to keep things warm, to keep things cold…

a jar or storage container - to keep other things in or get take out, or pick up interesting leaves, or birds nests, or whatever you might need a container for.

What else can you think to put in your zero waste kit? What will most help you avoid waste in your day to day life?

For August, make your kit, bring it with you, use it, and enjoy creating less waste!

The Society of S

One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

The Society of S was one of my basement box books, no clue where I found this ethical vampire novel by Susan Hubbard.

This book follows the coming of age of a young girl who has been secluded in her rambling victorian home with her sciencetest father, the absence of her mother always looming over them. Where did her mother disappear to and what is the Society of S?

I had no idea what this book was when I included it in a try a chapter video. Here’s a hint, this book and it’s sequels are called the Ethical Vampire Series. Haha. So I had no clue what to expect and I enjoyed my reading of this book, but I also had a lot of issues with it. I liked the solitary vide of the beginning of this book, where our main characters grows up mostly in isolation. I liked the mystery of what kind of science her father does and the surrounding his assistants. I didn’t realize that this was a young adult novel until I started reading. But once I started it was pretty obvious. There were some scary or adult themes in aspects of this book and in the end it is a coming of age story. We watch as this cloistered young girl finds out about life and herself and searches for answers and meaning. While I enjoyed my reading experience and can see some good aspects of this book, over all it was not particularly well written or well paced. I liked that this book takes the vampire trope and makes it less angsty, less sexual, and less scary for young adults. There are instances of all those things in this book but they are toned down by todays standard. That being said, I would recommend this book to young readers who enjoy lighter vampire novels, those interested in exploring more vampire tropes by lesser known authors, and people who read any and all vampire books.

I read this book for a try a chapter video which you can see here. Have you ever tried a chapter to decide your next read? How do you determine what your next book will be?

This book can be seen in my April Wrap Up.

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2021 Quarterly Goals | May Check In | Q2 (Apr, May, Jun)

EDITOR’s Note: I’m not sure at all why this blog never got published. I’m trying to catch up with the many blogs I missed over the last few months, so decided to post this blog that was written back in May.

More of my quarterly goals blog posts will be coming soon.

In 2021 I have decided to make quarterly goals instead of monthly goals. But I still want to check in monthly so that I can take a look at my progress and be mindful of my goals. Here are the goals I’m working on for Q2 (Apr, May, Jun):

10K steps (but really tho)
cleaning schedule
yoga/stretching/exercise 15 min a day
tiktok and reels
be outside more
eat better/lose weight

Oh man, so April went by quite fast, with a lot of change and upheaval. I feel like my quarterly goals really went by the wayside. I’m not yet feeling very inspired by these goals like I do some other months or quarters. I hope to pull up in the last few months of the quarter and get into my goals more seriously.

The goals I did ok on this past month were walking 10k steps: I feel that I did get a bit better at this although I’m still nowhere near as good as it as I was this time last year. I also did ok at being outside more. The weather is finally getting to be where I would expect it for this time of year, so we have been in the garden, taking walks, or chilling in the back yard a little more.

The other goals that crept up a little were eating better, we have been eating take out a lot, but we also ate more fresh veg and at least it was in our minds to improve our eating. I didn’t really follow my cleaning routine, but felt pretty happy in April with how much cleaning I got done. I also did explore tiktok a little so that’s some kind of progress.

Although, my goals need work, but I’m excited for the quarterly goal potential to keep working on them. How have your goals gone this month?

Weekly Video Round Up #30 - 7/19 - 2/25/2021

I’ve gotten a bit far behind on my Weekly Video Wrap up. So let’s skip the descriptions and just get you the link to the videos!

7/19 - Booktube Spin 2021 | Spin #2 Reading Vlog

7/20 - Recently Acquired Books | Revisiting my first Haul | New Books

7/25 - 1 More Month of Zero Waste | July Check In

7/28 - All the Agatha Christie Books I Own

7/30 - Free Little Library Tour | 16 FLF in NJ | No Talking

8/2 - 1 More Month to Zero Waste | July Check In #2 | Plastic Free July

8/4 - TBR ASMR 11

8/6 - Vlog Style Reading Wrap Up | July 2021 | 9 Books in July

Phew, that’s a lot of videos to catch up on!

Mad Cat Garden | July 2021

July in the garden fiiiiinaly saw us getting to harvest some good veggies!! We got tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, ground cherries, tomatillos, and more! At the end of the month we are deep into tomatoes season and so happy to be there. Bc we seed forage, some of the veggies we grew are a surprise! I think these weird round peppers we grew are actually jalepanos, but they are like xmas baubles!

Every morning, me and the cats look out on this view to start the day.

A non edible plant that grows naturally in our yard/garden are these “deadly” nightshade. Such a beautiful plant! But do not eat!!

Someone else has been enjoying the tomatoes as well!! By the jaw marks, I think this is a possum!! Whomever it is, they come around each night and take one bite out of all the low hanging tomatoes.

How is your garden growing?