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Welcome to my weekly update for September 13, 2020!
I don’t have any hiking pictures to share this week. We stayed in and away from potential crowds the whole Labor Day weekend. A freak windstorm blew through Oregon on Tuesday, keeping us in again. My husband worked the rest of the week. Huge wildfires ignited all over the state during the windstorm anyway. Air quality is bad, outdoor recreation sites are closed, and we’re closer to the evacuation areas than we would like. It’s a little stressful. We’re just staying inside and keeping an eye on the news. Please keep the people of Oregon, California, and Washington in your thoughts and/or prayers while these fires are raging.
Posted:
The Night Witches by Garth Ennis et al.–5 Stars–This graphic novel tells the story of a fictional woman serving in the very real “Night Witches.” These almost-forgotten Soviet women would glide over German camps at night and drop bombs. While this is violent enough to be a trigger for some, I found the story of these women inspiring and important to remember.
Origin by Dan Brown–2 Stars–I do enjoy Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon books as quick, suspenseful reads even though I think his actual writing could be better. Despite the usual fascinating conspiracy theories, an overly-long exposition and a predictable ending meant this was a 2-star read for me.
Top Ten Books for My Younger Self–I chose fun middle-grade reads that I would have enjoyed even more as a younger reader as well as some books that I think might have gotten me to start traveling earlier and maybe even guided me toward a different career path.
Read:
Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes #1) by Andrew Lane, read by Daniel Weyman
Hiking Oregon’s History: The Stories behind Historic Places You Can Walk to See by William L. Sullivan
Currently Reading:
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris, read by Roy McMillan
On Hold for Now:
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen–I ran out of time on this library check-out so I’m on the waiting list again.
Watching:
Psych, included with Amazon Prime (I’m not an Amazon affiliate)–Shawn has Sherlockian powers of observation but he prefers to pretend that he’s a psychic when he helps out local police with cases. Straight-man Gus is the perfect foil for Shawn’s over-the-top performances. This show is a bit silly but it’s a lot of fun.
Up Next:
I received so many “hold available” notifications from the library last week, I panicked and skipped my turn on all of them! Oops. I’ll have to check out a couple of other things until it’s my turn again. Stressful times = quick, mindless reads for me. Any recommendations?
What did your week look like?
Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post, and Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon.
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.
34 Comments
My friend and her family are up in Washington and we have family in Portland too. I hope everyone is staying safe. Hugs
I’m reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me” right now. It’s so good and it’s got me on a history kick. I hope you get it back soon!
Thanks! I hope your family and friends are safe. One of my friends from high school raved about Lies My Teacher Told Me so I checked it out. Too bad I couldn’t renew it but at least I’m rising up the lists again.
It sounds very scary, please stay safe!
We don’t really have fires like this back home so I find it scary! Luckily the fires are starting to be a little contained (3% is better than 0% contained, right?) and we have rain in the forecast. Hopefully the firefighters can start to make some headway soon.
Stay safe up there. I’m in California (in the SF Bay Area) and the fires have been getting worse every year. Fire season just lasts longer in general than I remember it, and the fires are bigger and more dangerous.
Stay safe in California! It sounds like the fires are even worse down there. This is all new to me so I think it’s super scary!
It’s been getting worse, so it’s new and scary to all of us I think. When I was growing up, fires of this magnitude were talked about as “once a decade” kind of disasters. Now they’re just about annual. 🙁
I also stayed away from the Labor Day crowds. I like hiking, but not with 10000 other people. Stay safe. I hope you have a good week!
I like to hike to get away from people so hiking with holiday crowds has never appealed to me. It was definitely out of the question this year!
Jen I do hope the fires will not come near you, they are just terrible and so many homes and people lost, and those firefighters with not enough resources to contain something like this. Take care and if you have to go – GO!
Thanks! Officials have been slowly walking the evacuation areas further away from us so that makes me feel better. My husband came home from work the first bad day and couldn’t find anything. I had packed everything in our RV away so we were ready for a quick escape! And we weren’t even in a “get ready to evacuate” zone. I wasn’t taking any chances!
I hope you stay safe. It’s finally a bit cooler hear so I’m getting outside for my walks again which makes me feel better.
I think it’s good for everyone’s mental health to get outside every day. I’m glad it’s been cooler so you can get out!
I hope the fires stay away from you. Mindless reading for me means rereading old favorites. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Old favorites are a great idea! I posted about Beverly Cleary’s books today, which gave me the urge to re-read some. Maybe I’ll take that route.
I was in the middle of the Australian bushfires last year so I know how you feel. All I can suggest is to be prepared and be safe.
I hope you’re enjoying Where Dreams Descend.
Wishing you a great reading week
Those fires looked absolutely terrifying! I’m glad you and your family are okay!
It was a crazy week, wasn’t it?! I hope this isn’t the new normal for the Oregon coast. I’ve lived through earthquakes in California and tornado warnings and straight-line winds in Nebraska and Texas, but this fire situation is the scariest thing I’ve encountered! I hope you get to enjoy the rest of your stay in Oregon. We should be getting some rain this next week!
We’ve enjoyed Oregon so much! It’s beautiful! It’s just stressful and scary to watch the fires now. I’ve been watching the forecast. I hope they’re right about the rain! Stay safe!
My sister lives in Springfield and evacuated to Eugene. The air quality is so bad as to be hazardous there. Stay indoors, for sure. I had a hard time staying positive this week. My Sunday Salon post
It must be so scary to evacuate! I’m glad she got out, as that’s the most important thing, but I hope her house is okay too. This has definitely been a depressing week.
I’m so sorry that you are suffering from those terrible wildfires. I’ve been worried about all the people in California who had them, and now it seems they are also in Oregon and even farther north. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
We stayed far away from the Labor Day crowds, too. My sister is starting to plan a hiking trip for her and her husband and my husband and me for November. I hope this works out. We are hoping there won’t be many people on the hiking trails.
If you find any mindless books, please let me know, too.
November seems like a good time to hit the trails. I hope it works out for you. Thanks for thinking of us. Being from the East Coast, these fires are pretty foreign to me. I will definitely let you know if I find mindless books!
Yes, we are definitely too close to the fires here, too, and after all the isolation and movement to outdoor venues due to COVID, it feels like a double whammy, doesn’t it?
Enjoy your reading…and stay safe. Here are my WEEKLY UPDATES
It really does feel like a double whammy. Fire season was on my radar and I wanted to avoid it but it seems to have started early from what I understand? Regardless, we’re in Oregon until October 24 so here’s hoping these fires are contained soon. I hope your fires don’t creep any closer either.
Urg! The weather conditions sound absolutely horrible! I hope the winds die down soon and the air quality improves. Enjoy your books this coming week.
Apparently Portland has the worst air quality among “major cities” of the world right now. Not fun. We’re just glad we aren’t closer to the fires and feel so bad for those who’ve had to evacuate and are left wondering if their houses and businesses are still standing.
So sorry to hear of it… What a wretched situation for everyone caught up in it:((.
I hope things settle soon and the year gets better. Everything we hear from the US has been a scary and I hope you are staying safe.
I say that 2020 is the year that keeps on giving. I could really do without these fires!
I hope you are safe! I can’t imagine how terrifying wildfires must be. It seems the whole west coast is burning!
I’m an East Coast girl; we’re just in Oregon for 6 months with my husband’s job. These fires are crazy to me! I can’t imagine dealing with this yearly! I guess they’re in different places every year but it still has to be nerve-wracking. I guess it’s all in what you’re used to. The locals here probably think the same thing about hurricane season back home.
Stay safe! What I’ve been seeing of the fires out West is scary and unbelievable. Hope you are unaffected. And same here with Labor Day. We stayed home and just enjoyed not being out and about, a little different this year but with the virus we just didn’t want to chance anything.
Be well!
Thanks! The virus is exactly what kept us home. We feel safe out hiking on weekdays but a weekend AND a holiday felt like tempting fate. These fires are definitely scary to me. North Carolina is home (we’re just in Oregon for 6 months with my husband’s job) so this is all new. We had some big wildfires a few years ago in NC but nothing this close to me personally. It’s crazy.