Yeah, it’s one of THOSE days. I mean you don’t care about the GG fumbling an egg carton and breaking a couple eggs. Or me ordering little cartons of dehydrated hash browns from Amazon because Kroger doesn’t have them and Plum NEVER has them. Don’t judge, they are good camping food and work in a pinch when the Chief Cook and Bottlewasher fails to purchase “real” aka frozen hash browns for holiday breakfasts. So how about books?

I have started my fourth book for this year. My first book was Mrs. Dalloway, a re-read and one that I have kind of a strange relationship with. I first read it a gazillion years ago when I was in college or thereabouts and was working through some “classics”. Not sure it “classifies” as a “classic” exactly but anyway. The stream-of-consciousness writing style kind of drives me crazy and I remembered very little from my long-ago experience with it. Actually I wonder if I finished it the first time… I got more out of it this time.

What led me to choose this book was that on NYE, I finished The Hours, which puts the story told in Mrs. Dalloway through a few wringers with an interconnected trio of stories. A shadow story that follows Mrs. Dalloway’s story (with a few twists), plus a story based on the author’s life, plus a third story that, well. I’m outta words to describe. At any rate, after I read The Hours, I had to read Mrs. Dalloway again. I gave both books four stars (Goodreads). I was not an English major but I know enough to know that the writing was pretty dern good even if it isn’t my favorite style. (The Hours is a BIT less stream-of-consciousness than Mrs. D.)

Then I jumped onto a couple books by a Japanese-American author. The Book of Form and Emptiness and A Tale for the Time Being. The latter was also a re-read

Alert! Alert! Our pod thingy just made a big popping noise and the music died!

Okay all clear. We’re back in business.

So… Even though I remember liking the book a lot, I couldn’t remember much about it except a temple high up on a Japanese mountain, a woman living on an often stormy island in the PacNW, and a troubled teenager and her troubled family. I’m glad I re-read this one and think I “got” some things I may have missed the first time. I gave both of these five stars. The last time I read A Tale for the Time Being I only gave it a four.

And now… The ninth Outlander book is finally out and I have been kind of putting it off but I jumped into it! It’s been a few years since the eighth book and I have had to google Outlander fandom a couple times, like WHO is THAT character? But the author also incorporates little mini-refresher courses on what took place in previous books. When I was a grade-schooler at Stinkin’ Linkin’, EVERY fall I would complain to The Commander, “All we do is REVIEW!” Friends, this baggy old kayak woman is grateful for the previous plot reviews provided in this book.

I’m sure the Outlander series is not everyone’s cuppa but I feel like I have rediscovered some old friends.

OMG P.S. HB to my twin sister-in-law. In a lot of ways we are nothing alike but somehow we are also soul mates. I guess when identical twins pick partners, even when they pick them YEARS apart, they pick partners that are alike in some of the ways that count. Love you, TBG.

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