November Plant Update

November felt like am month where we got back to plant observations, even tho looking back I didn’t have too much saved. This month was mostly temperate, but turned cold for some days and right before the end of the month. We caught many beautiful sunsets and twilight times as the days got shorter.

Sunset Lake, Asbury Park.

Sunset Lake, Asbury Park.

6th Ave Beach, Asbury Park.

6th Ave Beach, Asbury Park.

Cormorant Tree.

Cormorant Tree.

The sun setting on Old Man’s Beard.

The sun setting on Old Man’s Beard.

These flowering trees are either out of season or very very confused.

These flowering trees are either out of season or very very confused.

Cattails going poof.

Cattails going poof.

Sometimes the backs of buildings are the best.

Sometimes the backs of buildings are the best.

Bayhead, NJ

Bayhead, NJ

So there were more expanses than plants observed this month, but we had a great time looking. What are plants doing in your area?

Through a Glass, Darkly

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I have no clue where I got Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy but it must have been a book sale or thrift shop. It’s a British imprint which I don’t know until I read it.

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Dr Basil Willings girlfriend, smart and clever Gisela von Honenems, has taken a new job at a boarding school upstate. When her friend is forced to leave, ghostly visions appear, and people start dying, Gisela decides it’s time to seek Dr Basil Willing’s help!

I had never heard of this book or author before reading this and I had no idea what it would be about or that it was part of a series. Basically I had no clue about anything about this book. But I loved it!!! written in 1950, this book reminded me of PD James’ work, especially the Cordelia Grey mysteries. This book had a noir-ish aspect, but also a high society detective aspect. It was set partly in upstate, partly in Manhattan, and on the Jersey shore, which is awesome! Although I guessed the ending, it was the kind of mystery that you don’t mind guessing and finding out you’re right bc you want to know the motivations and the “how did they do it?” motivations. One of my favorite parts of this book was that there was a paranormal or supernatural facet, which I totally wan’t expecting and this characteristic of the book was what really kept me guessing. I might have felt very invested bc I had never heard of this author or lead detective. I was really delighted by how this book was written and really surprised that this author is mostly unknown. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes detective mysteries like those written by Agatha Christie or PD James, those who like mysteries with a paranormal bent, readers looking for a new series to follow, and those interested in female authors of the 1920s-1970s.

Have you ever heard of Helen McCloy? I very much want to read more from her!

This book was featured in my October Wrap Up.

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The House of Silk

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I have two copies of The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, and I’m not sure where I got either of them.

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At the end of his life, Dr Watson decides he can share some of the more precarious and scandalous cases he worked on with Sherlock Holmes. The House of Silk might be the most violent and scandalous of them all.

Like I said, I’m not sure where I got this book or when it first showed up on my radar. I don’t even remember what compelled me to pick it up when I did. I do know that I love Sherlock Holmes and Holmes stories. This one was officially endorsed by the Arther Conan Doyle estate and I had seen a few other books by the writer, so I was excited to read it. There were things I really liked about this book and things that I really didn’t enjoy. I made a full review (spoiler free) over at my booktube channel. The most striking thing about this book was how much and how well Horowitz emulated Conan Doyle’s writing style in prose. But another striking thing was how much it is different in plot than the original stories. This book was a weird mix of classically holmsian and distinctly too modern to be a true Holmes novel. Overall I really enjoyed it but there were a lot of tough subject matters brought up that made it not the most fun read. I would not recommend this book to those that do not want to read about violence, trauma, rape, and child abuse. But I would recommend this book to readers who like Holmes variations, mystery lovers, and books where the writer copies the style of another writer.

Are you a fan of Sherlock Holmes? If so, how do you feel about Holmes variations?

The House of Silk was mentioned in my October Reading Wrap Up and in my first Stand Alone Review.

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The Murder at the Vicarage

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I found this audio book of The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie for free on the internet. I was delighted to find that it was read by Richard E Grant.

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The Vicar in the town of St Mary Mead is scaniliized when the town grouch is found dead in his study. The vicar is wrapped up in the mystery and takes a stab at solving it. Luckily, Miss Marple is also on the case.

This was the second Agatha Christie book I have ever read and it was a good one!! I didn’t know at the time that it was the first in the Miss Marple series. I think I lucked out by now having read the first in the Poirot series and the first in Miss Marple. Now that I’m thinking of it, I actually listened to both of them… Interesting. I wonder how I will feel when I physically read a AC book? I’ll find out soon, as my mother has just given me 2 Christie books she has unhauled. The Murder at the Vicarage was hilarious! There were many parts where I laughed out loud and many more where I was broadly smiling! This was a fast paced and interesting mystery that kept me on my toes. I did not guess the ending but I was perhaps most surprised at how little Miss Marple, who is one of Christie’s most well known ameture detective, was actually in this book. This book is narrated by the vicar and he is mostly driving the action with sly Miss Marple only coming in to neatly wrap up the mystery at the end. She pops in and out in other places in the book, but only for a few pages at a time and for most of the book, she only seems like a very small side character. So far, having read one Poriot book and one MM book, I think I liker her mysteries better just for the shear silliness. I would HIGHL:Y recommend this book, and especially this audio book, to anyone who likes mysteries, those who want to explore older mystery/crime writers and novels, anyone who watched the BBC series and those who love a bumbling lead character, a gossipy village setting, or a seemingly impossible death!

Have you read any Agatha Christie? Do you prefer Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot?

This book was in my October Wrap Up.

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

A friend recommended The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks many, many years ago. I distinctly remember buying this book when I lived in NYC. Pretty sure I bought this in the barnes and nobles on West 4th St right by the subway station. I used to stop there on my way to work when I worked in the west village and very fond memories.

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Oliver Sacks, a renowned neurologist, is most well known for his l-dopa trials, some of which were documented in the movie Awakenings, writes about more of his interesting case files.

I read a few of these case studies way back when I bought the book (15+ years ago???), and they really stuck with me, so I was excited to pick this one up again. The studies are conversational and really put across the fact that Sacks was more interested on how these people could live with their disorders and damages, rather than what the damages were. Although there is a lot of technical talk in each chapter, there is also a lot of description that make it easy for a leman to read and understand. Each chapter also has a little bit of end notes, mostly written for the book, far after the actual case, which were a wrap up of the case, notes, or observations on the case. I liked the way this books was structured very much and I think it made an otherwise heavy or hard to read book very assessable. This book was written quite a while ago and a lot of the terms and language used was very outdated. It was a little shocking to see the “R” word so frequently and easily used in a medical/clinical book. There is are quite a bit of problematic things in this book, but one must look at it as coming from a certain time. It would not make sense to go back and change the language in this book, but I found myself needing to pause every once in a while. I would recommend this book to anyone interested on medical, neurological, or clinical observations, those who like to read short non fiction case studies, and readers who are interested in the different was the brain can work.

Have you read this book or any book by Oliver Sacks?

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Life Admin Day 11/25/2020

Well, it’s been a long time since I have had a proper LAD and I need one! A Life Admin Day is a day (or a few hours of a day or a few hours over a few days) set aside to get your sh*t together and complete some annoying but necessary life tasks.

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Here’s what’s on my itinarary for today:
Marty pills (6am)
Marty surgery (8am)
Visit Gus (cat sitting)
Call my car insurance and sort out car
Call DMV if needed
Pay Bills
Look into eye doc bill from 2018
Find razor blades
Find doc, make appointment (me + chris)
Afternoon walk
Clean out fridge
Make soup
Film
ZW vid
Tag vid

Some of the things on my list are fuin, but most of them are things that I just need to get done. Many of these things are things that I HAVE to get done by the end of the year. I’ve known about them for a long time, but keep putting them off. Surprise, surprise it’s almmost the end of the year and I’m running out of time!

I often add these big tasks to my LAD list and also my more mundane tasks that I also need to get done that day. Sometimes breaking up the big tasks with more routine projects breaks up the bigger list and makes it feel more doable. LAD tasks are also sometimes things that can’t be totally finished in one day, so adding things like doing the dishes, etc… help me feel like I got a lot accomplished.

What are some projects, tasks and to-do items that you have been putting off in 2020? What do you need to finish by 2021?

~edit~ Editing Mo, jumping in here to say that this Life Admin Day was a total bust! Nothing in my day went the way I was planning and I was only able to cross off 3 or 4 tasks. This is why I often set my LADs up to have two days in a row to complete my goals. This time I’m not able to do that bc of the holiday. While this is terribly unsatisfying, it is a good lesson to not procrastinate and/or set up more regular Life Admin Days in order to complete all those pesky life tasks.

TBR, Read Shelf, Mood Reader, DNF

In this series I explain terms used in the low impact movement, lifestyle terms, and other verbiage that I use on my blog and in my daily life. Here they are defined simply, in case they are new to readers. In some cases, I have done some research on them, but these definitions are mostly what I understand them to be and how I use them.

So clearly, BookTube (the offshoot of YouTube that’s all about books) is my new thing. Getting into a new niche community always comes with language that you learn as you go along. BookTube has those in spades. But they are not only for use in BookTube. These words and phrases can be used by all readers.

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TBR
This term is used a lot on BookTube. Quite plainly it stands for “To Be Read”. This term refers to books you own and want to read (Physical TBR), books you’ve heard of and want to read (Mental TBR), or any number of lists or places where there are books that you want to read. Readers keep TBR lists, TBR shelfs, TBR spreadsheets. Readers have life time TBRs, monthly TBRs, or TBRs of specific styles and genres.
Personally since I have a lot of books that I have accumulated from thrifting, library sales, or books found or given to me, I only consider the books I’m actively planning on reading my TBR. I keep these on a shelf or two and swap them out either after reading, or after deciding I’m not ready to read them yet.

Read Shelf
This term is pretty self-explanitory, but often gets a little confusing bc when spoken it sounds like “red shelf”. A Read Shelf is where one keeps all their already read book, books that they have read or completed. Some readers only store books that they have actually read here, some put all the books on they own on these shelves. Some people are collectors and find their favorite editions to collect, some collect whole series whether they have read them or not. Many reader keep every book they have ever read but there are people who only keep what they enjoyed and get rid of low star reads. Just like collecting, each reader has their own flare for how they organize and decorate their Read Shelves. Alphabetical, by genre, by color, be length, are just a few ways people organize Read Shelves.
I try to keep only physical books that I enjoyed, culling every few months. I keep my shelves organized alphabetically.

Mood Reader
Again, this term is pretty clear. Mood Reader refers to a reader who chooses what to read by the mood they are in. Many readers make a TBR and stick to it or read to accomplish some goal, but mood readers read what they feel like reading when they feel like.
I’m definitely a mood reader, so I like to peruse my TBR piles, but what I pick depends on how I feel.

DNF
Standing for “Did Not Finish”, this term is used to describe a book that one started reading but didn’t finish. There are many reasons why someone doesn’t finish a book but some of the most commonly referred to in BookTube is not liking a book and stopping reading it, not being in the right mood for a book, or starting a book when you are already reading other which take precedence. DNF can be “ for now” or forever.
I don’t generally DNF, I try to finish all the books I start. But I will sometimes DNF for now. If I’m really not vibing with a book, it’s better for me to put it down for a while then struggle thru.

Do you use any of these reading terms or were they new to you? What other BookTube or reading terms do you use?