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Welcome to my weekly update for August 11, 2024!
Well, I certainly didn’t mean to disappear for six months but, you know, life. The last time I posted, my husband, a travel nurse, was working near our home in North Carolina. We wrapped up that work assignment in May and took a couple of weeks off. During his vacation time, we visited New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia; visited my husband’s younger brother, his wife, and their five beautiful cats in Pennsylvania (we hadn’t seen them in five years!); and went to Niagara Falls and Toronto.
My husband is working in Schenectady, New York this summer, which is near Albany, the state capitol. We’ve been to Montreal, the Finger Lakes region of New York, and Cape May, New Jersey on long weekends.
We went to the drive-in movies last weekend, which was the first time we’ve watched a movie on a big screen since before the pandemic! We watched Despicable Me 4 because we love that franchise, and decided to stick around for Twisters. My husband is among the cult following for the original Twister and didn’t have high hopes for a remake. It was okay. It wasn’t as bad as we expected but it could have been better. The sprinkles of rain on our windshield added a bit of a 4-D effect.
I usually share pictures from my travels but I don’t even know where to start this time. Instead, I’m just going to post this picture of a unique Little Free Library I recently stumbled on in Troy, NY. It’s a repurposed newspaper stand! With the box of my leftover pizza on top. Oops. Anyway, I love it!
All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2024
Posted:
Since my last update in February, I’ve posted
Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree–4.5 Stars
“Pages to Fill” (Legends & Lattes #0.5) by Travis Baldree–3 Stars
Read:
Oh, quite a bit. I’m at 64 books for the year so far and I’ve read most of those since my last post. Here are some standouts in no particular order:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
Benediction (Plainsong #3) by Kent Haruf
Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch, illustrated by Christopher Noxon
The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands by Jon Billman
How to Astronaut: An Insider’s Guide to Leaving Planet Earth by Terry Virts
This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Making It So, written and read by Patrick Stewart
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Currently Reading:
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by Patrick Prugne
Head to Head (Claire Morgan #1) by Linda Ladd
The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co. #2) by Jonathan Stroud, read by Katie Lyons
The River by Peter Heller, read by Mark Deakins
What did your week (or six months!) look like?
Hosts:
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?
20 Comments
It sounds like you’ve been doing some fun site seeing and traveling! The fingers lakes area is really beautiful this time of year (my daughter is in grad school at Cornell) though I’d say avoid it in the winter!
You’ve read some really good books lately, too. Have a great week and it’s good to have you back.
I thought I remembered that your daughter is at school in Ithaca. My husband’s cousin lived in NYC for decades but moved away maybe seven years ago (he’s currently in sunny San Diego). When he found out we visited the Finger Lakes, he told us to avoid them in the winter too 😀
You’ve read some good looking books. I really enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry.
Great to see you back. But you have had some great travels over the time. You’ll know the whole country so well. I see a few books here I’ve read like Legends and Lattes which I enjoyed.
I’m glad to see you back! 😀 It’s crazy how like just happens. It seems like even though you’ve been busy, you’ve had a pretty good six months.
I loved the original TWISTER movie as well. I still haven’t seen TWISTERS because it just doesn’t look like it’s going to be as good. I’ll probably watch it when it comes to Hulu, Netflix, or another streaming service. I love that you got a bit of a 4-D affect with the rain.
I hope you have a great week! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Welcome back! Sounds like you have been quite busy. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Toronto is one of my favorite cities, for food and family. Happy reading.
We had a really nice time and wish we’d had more than a day to spend there. Maybe we’ll get back eventually.
Welcome back!! Sounds like you’ve been pretty busy. I lived in Albany for 5 years while in pharmacy school and my brother was at RPI at the same time. I understand Troy is much improved since those days! We’ve spent a lot of time in the Finger Lakes region over the years, too…. so beautiful, especially in the fall. I look forward to hearing more about your travels and your reading!
I feel that Troy, Albany, and Schenectady are a bit scruffy but hopefully they’re swinging into better times. I just saw that they film The Gilded Age, the HBO show, in Troy and found that interesting. We haven’t watched the show but it’s on my list. We loved the Finger Lakes and would love to go back, especially in the fall.
So great you are having some travels. NY is a nice more northern place for hot summer. Glad you are finding some good books too.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
This is the first summer we’ve spent on the east coast since the summer of 2019. I find that I’ve lost my tolerance for humidity in that time! And it’s not as humid here as it is back home in NC, where I spent 40 summers. Oh well. Our bodies are strange things sometimes.
Jennnnnnnn! Welcome BACK! I look forward to seeing pictures from your amazing travels whenever you have the time and energy to share them.
That repurposed newspaper stand is adorable! I love it!
I need to bookmark your post and come back and add some of these books to my TBR. I see some interesting titles! The Israel one for sure.
What a welcome! Thanks! 🙂 I highly recommend the Israel book if it’s a topic you want to learn about!
Jen, I’ve been missing hearing about your travels and your reading. I bet you could write a dozen posts and not fully update us on all you have been doing and reading. I hope you will share with us more soon, and that you won’t wait so long between posts in the future!
Hopefully it won’t be so long between posts next time!
You have been having a great summer! That area of the United States has always appealed to me.
I have been wanting to read The Cold Vanish for a while. Maybe this upcoming winter will be the time!
The Cold Vanish was good but after reading it, I told my husband that I need to always be in front when we’re hiking in single file because I don’t want to mysteriously disappear! But then he might be the one who disappears and I don’t want that either. Maybe we should tie ourselves together with rope so we’re together, whatever happens? 😀
All your travel sounds very interesting. I can see why you don’t have time to write about it.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
It does seem that I have to choose between writing or doing things and lately I’ve obviously been choosing doing things.