Weekly Update

Welcome to my weekly update for September 19, 2021! We didn't do much after my sister left last weekend but we drove up to Fairbanks for this weekend (more about that next week). The fog had Anchorage socked in when we left but as we drove further north, the air became crystal clear. We had spectacular views of Denali and the fall color! Posted: Time and Again by Jack Finney--3 Stars Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney--4.5 Stars Ten Books with Numbers in the Title Read: Nothing. I can't even begin to guess the last time that happened. But I've got a couple of dense printed books on the go and I downloaded my audiobook fairly late in the week. Currently Reading: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda Bogin The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog (Amelia Peabody #7) by Elizabeth Peters, read by Barbara Rosenblat Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker Up Next: At this rate, who knows? I would like to read a couple more banned books for next week though. What did your week look like? Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Welcome to my weekly update for September 12, 2021! My husband and I shared a wonderful week with my sister. She flew home last night. We did realize that a lot of tours and excursions end on Labor Day in Alaska, so I don't think she was able to visit as many places as she would have liked. But we did take a cruise around Kenai Fjords National Park, take her to the Alaska SeaLife Center, hike quite a bit, and revisit some of my favorite places like The Musk Ox Farm and the Reindeer Farm. Slideshow: All images copyright © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2021 A tufted puffin at the Alaska SeaLife CenterThe town of Seward as seen from across Resurrection Bay (See that mountain in the middle? That's Mount Marathon. Racers run up and down that beast in "the toughest 5K on the planet" every 4th of July. I wouldn't even consider hiking something that vertical, much less running it. Alaskans are a different breed of tough, that's for sure.)Eklutna Lake is actually a gorgeous milky blue color but on this still morning, the fall colors reflected so vibrantly, it was impossible to see the color of the water. It's beautiful either way.Fall color at Crow Pass Posted: Nothing posted last week. Read: I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.  Reticence (The Custard Protocol #4) by Gail Carriger, read by Moira Quirk Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangeo, & Me by Ellen Forney The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller with John DeSimone Currently Reading: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda Bogin Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of…

Welcome to my weekly update for September 5, 2021! My sister arrives for a weeklong visit this evening (Friday)! I'm so excited to see her! We don't have many specific plans but we are going to leave tomorrow to spend the weekend in Seward. She asked to do a sightseeing cruise and to visit the Sea Life Center. Other than that, we'll just play it by ear. She likes hiking, aquariums, zoos, gardens, and museums, which is all the same stuff I enjoy doing, so we'll fit in some or all of the above. Last weekend my husband and I noticed "termination dust" on the mountains--the first snowfall of the season. There may have been earlier snow up there that we didn't notice though. It melted as the day passed but it definitely feels like fall here. We haven't had any snow down near sea level in Anchorage yet and that's just fine by me. We went for a drive Sunday on Hatcher Pass and then hiked to Gold Cord Lake. What a beautiful area! Several people have mentioned Hatcher Pass to us but we read that it was a gravel road so we've been hesitant; we're driving a tiny, low car that I affectionately call "Matchbox Car." We didn't want to drive over any nasty potholes and damage anything. But the road was paved for about 19 miles! All that worrying over nothing. By the time we finished our hike, we decided we should head back to town for dinner, so we never even drove onto the gravel. Oh, and the deadline to apply to be a judge for the Cybils Awards has been extended to September 10. If you review books for children and/or young adults, you should consider applying! Slideshow All images copyright © Jennifer G. at…

Welcome to my weekly update for August 29, 2021! I wrote last week about the flooding that affected so many back home in western North Carolina on August 17. Six people died and lots of families lost their homes. Please continue to keep the region in your thoughts and prayers. If you're willing and able, you can make a donation to assist the flood victims through United Way of Haywood County (the county that had the most severe flooding). My thoughts and prayers are with those in Tennessee who had even worse flooding just days later. On to happier news now. My husband's cousin and his wife visited for a long weekend last week. We had a great time with them! We all splurged and took a "flightseeing" tour to Lake Clark National Park to watch brown bears fishing for salmon. Words can't express how beautiful this park is! Our bear guide took us out on a pontoon boat, where we watched the bears fishing on the shore of Crescent Lake. Lake Clark is the third-least visited national park in the country because there aren't any roads that lead to it. We had reservations for a fancy dinner at Alyeska Resort on Saturday night, at a restaurant named Seven Glaciers because of the view. When we drove home, a huge yellow moon was rising over the mountains and reflecting in the water. It was gorgeous! My husband and I tried to remember the last time we saw the moon. We think it was probably in late May/early June while we were still in Sarasota! But it's been getting dark at night in Anchorage for several weeks now. The sun is already setting around 9:30. And now my sister and her best friend from college arrive for a weeklong visit on…

Welcome to my weekly update for August 22, 2021! If you've been around here much, you probably know that my husband and I travel with his job. You might not know that our permanent home is in the mountains of western North Carolina (near Asheville). Anyway, on Tuesday, Tropical Storm Fred came roaring up over 500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and caused catastrophic flooding throughout western North Carolina. It's bad, folks. This kind of event happens sometimes. I think (and I'm not a meteorologist, so this is just a guess) fast-moving storms come in, either from the Gulf or the Atlantic, blow over the relatively flat lands, hit the mountains, slow down, and dump all their moisture. But, like other catastrophic weather events in the 21st century, it does seem to be happening with more regularity. I would guess the last time we saw something like this was with Hurricane Ivan in 2004, a few weeks before our outdoor wedding. As I write this on Wednesday evening, 35 people are missing. Luckily our house, and the houses of our family and friends, are not in flood plains. But plenty of other people lost everything. I've seen videos of mobile homes literally floating away down the street. One acquaintance on Facebook had to evacuate her house when she realized that her private bridge was about to wash away. You can see photos and videos on the Charlotte Observer website. Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers. This is still pretty early in hurricane season. Hopefully this will be our only flood this season. Posted: Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward--5 Stars Ten of My Favorite Places to Read Read: Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt The Giver (Giver Quartet #1) by Lois Lowry, read by…

Welcome to my weekly update for August 15, 2021! We've had a rainy week in Anchorage so we haven't ventured out much. We did go to the Alaska Botanical Gardens last Saturday. It was small but beautiful! My husband's cousin and his wife are flying up from San Diego on Thursday to spend a long weekend with us. We were practically locked down with them last winter when California shut down around Christmas. We had a great time together despite the lockdown so we're excited to see them! We've got some big plans! Hopefully the weather cooperates. Botanical Garden Slideshow All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2021 General View The cabbage and vine (not sure what it is) are actually planted in the truck bed! My husband was proud of his bumblebee pictures. They sure loved this comfrey! (I think it's comfrey) A pair of magpies made from locally sourced materials. One is white, representing light/day and the other is black, representing dark/night. You can read more about them on The Myth Makers' website. Monkshood, which, along with fireweed, seems to grow everywhere in Alaska. Isn't that a perfect name? Posted: Stormsong (The Kingston Cycle #2) by C. L. Polk--3.5 Stars A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak #1) by Dana Stabenow--3 Stars Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic--4 Stars Ten Secondary Characters Who Deserve More Love Read: I read a lot of novellas and graphic novels last week, so this isn't as many pages as you might think. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward Whiskey When We’re Dry by John Larison, read by Sophie Amoss The Night Masquerade (Binti #3) by Nnedi Okorafor Arabian Nights (and Days) (Fables #7) by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, et al. All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells…

Welcome to my weekly update for August 8, 2021! We took it a little easy last weekend but we did visit The Musk Ox Farm and a Reindeer Farm. At The Musk Ox Farm, the oxen are kept in their pastures and we were only allowed to view them from the opposite side of a fence. Their hair is combed and/or shed in the spring and sold as qiviut, "the finest wool in the world." We felt some samples and it is unbelievably soft! And expensive. The Reindeer Farm is more of a petting zoo and they had all kinds of animals. We were allowed to feed and pet the reindeer! They're so soft! And actually smaller than I expected. Their backs weren't even as high as my waist and I'm an average 5'6" (168 cm) tall. They had several spring babies that were absolutely adorable! They also have a couple of moose (rescued as orphans), a bison (who was sulking because she was on a diet), a couple of yaks, a family of elk, and several alpacas, including a baby! Oh my goodness; so much cuteness! Both farms have fun social media pages if that's something you're interested in. Alaskan Animal Slideshow: All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader, 2021 I've included wildlife pictures from my cruise around Kenai Fjords National Park this week as well. Musk Ox Reindeer Yak Sea Otters Dall Sheep Mountain Goat (These are shaggier, have a goatee, and have black horns in comparison to Dall Sheep) Steller Sea Lions Tufted Puffin Black Bear (Taken with a zoom lens from a safe distance. Please don't EVER get close to a bear) Bald Eagle Posted: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy--3 star review Ten Covers That Made Me Read the Book Read:  Stormsong (The Kingston…

Welcome to my weekly update for August 1, 2021! One of my friends visited us here in Alaska from July 18 - 26 and we were so busy that I missed posting last week. She hasn't been on a real vacation since 2014 so she wanted to make this one count. She sure did! We both love to hike so that's what we [...]

Welcome to my weekly update for July 18, 2021! Today is my 43rd birthday and one of my good friends arrives for a weeklong visit! It should be a great day! My husband asked me what I learned in year 42, the year that should have been the answer to "Life, the Universe, and Everything" (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference). I told him that I learned that masks and vaccines are the answer to everything. I may not have learned any secrets of the universe in 2020/21 but 42 is a year I definitely won't forget. We went on vacation to Homer, Alaska and Denali National Park last week. We're actually still in Denali as I write this. I was worried about rainy weather but it hasn't been bad. Homer was cool and overcast but the rain only came through overnight. We can deal with that. The weather in Denali has been great. We actually saw Denali (Mt. McKinley) on Thursday. It's a monster! It's crazy how much higher it looks than all the peaks around it! (For those who don't know, it's the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet or 6190 meters). The sky has been too hazy since then for us to see it again. We've read that only 30% of visitors actually see the mountain because it's usually hidden behind clouds so we're happy that we saw it at all. I haven't even started to sift through my Denali pictures yet but here are a couple from Homer. Images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader The first picture shows the little town of Homer ("Halibut Fishing Capital of the World") and Kachemak Bay State Park. I took the second picture at Grewingk Glacier, which feeds a lake of the same name. It was so…

Welcome to my weekly update for July 11, 2021! We didn't really do anything for the holiday last week but my husband is off this week. We spent the holiday weekend making plans for our vacation and for trips with our family and friends when they visit. Everyone we know seems excited to visit us in Alaska! We're looking forward to welcoming them. Unfortunately, the weather for our vacation week looks cool and rainy so we've booked our hotels in Homer and near Denali National Park but we haven't made many other firm plans. We'll have to take it day by day. I consider myself to be an average housekeeper but I can't relax in a space I consider to be "mine" until I've done a deep, deep, deep clean. So I've spent a ridiculous amount of time scrubbing our little studio apartment. My husband says it's a good thing we normally live in our RV while he's working; I'd kill myself cleaning if I did this every three months! He's not wrong. So I've finished a lot of audiobooks while I've been tracking down every last dog hair (the former renter had at least one long-haired dog) but I haven't sat down to review anything in a while. Posted: Ten Books That Have Been on My TBR the Longest Read: The Umbrella Academy: Dallas by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá--4 Stars The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, read by Del Roy--3.5 Stars Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy--4 Stars Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett, read by David Colacci--4 Stars Currently Reading: Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly, read by Lulu Lam…