I can’t believe that February is nearly here. I come to you on this cold, dreary morning full of reading mojo. I swear, I am on fire right now with my reading. My “picker” has been spot-on. The last two books I picked up in the morning and finished the next morning and they were good too! That is why I am stressing a little over my next read. I don’t want to break the chain. We are supposed to get three days of heavy rain so a good read is a must.
I am thinking about this one, or that one. The latter is a review copy and comes out in March.
I am leaning towards the Yu book. I liked his previous book How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
Other than that, things around here have been okay. Some of you sent me vegetarian recipes to try and I am so grateful. I needed a little inspiration. My favorite quick meal right now is curried lentils made with a splash of coconut milk over brown rice. My daughter enjoys this too so it makes for a nice, quick lunch. I do have the Moosewood cookbooks buried in my kitchen somewhere so I will dig them out soon and this gem, by the same author, The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest. It was my first vegetarian cookbook, purchased a decade ago and it has a lot of easy recipes. Tasty too.
The college audition process continues. For the most part, she is done. There are “walk-in” auditions being posted by some schools so she is carefully watching that list to see if she wants to audition for any others but now we wait.
What are you going these days? With all this rain we are getting, it actually snowed for a bit the other day, walking may not be in the cards for the pup and I. Tell me how you are keeping busy.
Book Chatter 
I love your chatty posts. It’s been raining here for about 10 days, off and on. Kind of yearning for the sun, at this point, but I’ve turned all the lights on and painted, much of the time. My reading has been great, too — quality-wise, although not in quantity. I get you. When you’re on a roll, you want to keep it going.
Ten days of rain would do me in. I need some sunlight in there somewhere. It is supposed to rain but now my weather app says tomorrow… not today. I am looking out my window and there is this huge dark cloud beyond the mountains so someone is getting rain.
The sun just came out! Yippee! Yeah, 10 days is too much. My mood gets stormy, after a while.
I really hope you pick another good one. Who is this “picker?” I need one of those. LOL
I have read a lot of poetry but that’s a volunteer hazard.
I hope you have some great vegetarian recipes to share as my dad needs to really move away from meat even though he doesn’t want to. I need to find some to use. 🙂
My picker must be fined tuned from lack of sleep or something. I probably jinxed it now.
I really appreciate your book recommendations and reviews! I’ve read many good books as a result, especially books that I might not have discovered on my own.
Fun post! I’ve read several good books in a row, too (not quite as quickly as you did!) and am worried about my luck changing. I ended up starting The Warmth of Other Suns and it’s excellent so far. We’re in our dry season now… the weather has been perfect. Hoping that continues!
We really need rain but with all the fire areas, when too much rain hits then there are mudslides. Extreme anything is never good for California. I am glad your weather is nice though! I just wish I could get warm. My house is pretty drafty. I have the heat on but to make it comfortable for me down here, my daughter ends up roasting upstairs. So I am sitting here under blankets. Even the pup went upstairs to be warm. Can’t blame her.
Maybe this year will fly by, until we can go out again!
I love months where all my books are 4 or 5 star reads. January’s almost been that way for me. For a rainy spell, I can’t think of anything I’d rather read than the Cazalet Chronicles.
Did your daughter have any success with the eye mask? I’ve found a weighted one too on https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=weighted%20mask#internal=1&page=0&pid=88270962198&sortDirection=&sortKey=&suggest=1
It actually helps, too, but I have to stay on my back while I’m falling asleep, else it slides off.
My daughter cannot find her eye mask. Will have to pick one up. However, the last few nights she’s forgotten to take the med the doc prescribed and was able to sleep ok. The med was an allergy pill that has a calming effect but I suspect she is like me and meds do nothing. Ask me about my two surgeries where I felt everything. Seriously.
Glad your reading is going well (mine as well). I bet you and your daughter will be happy to have the auditions and interviews over. From no rain to too much is not a good thing. We had 2′ of the pretty snow last night which was nice.
Snow, eh? Is that unusual for your area? We had flurries yesterday and it was only around 32, but nothing stuck. We’ve had snow here before, but not much in the way of accumulation. Certainly not like we used to get in Nebraska. And, they got 14+ inches there yesterday. I sure don’t miss that. We’ve had rain for several weeks, but there’s almost always a little break in it. Just enough to run get the mail or go for a quick walk.
My reading has been pretty good this month. I’m on a roll, too!
Snow is not typical for us. Every five years or so, we get some during a fluke weather event. Monday’s flurries were brief. It’s been about 37 degrees at night. Only 48 now which leaves me absolutely freezing. Heater is on but the upstairs is too hot if I make it warm enough downstairs.
I just finished Interior Chinatown today in two hours. Now I am deep into that other book, Are We There Yet. Apparently feeling like a popsicle makes me read faster.
The award sticker on the front cover says it is promising. I’m on fire with my reading in 2021 so far, too. I hesitate to choose my next read. I want it to be good.
I kid you not. I just finished Interior Chinatown. Quite different. Very good. A little odd.
I also have Enchanted Broccoli Forest on my cookbook shelf! I loved their recipes decades ago when I first became a vegetarian. Now we mostly use the NY Times and our meals definitely have a middle eastern slant to them. Lots of lentils (last night was an Iraqi soup that was delicious), couscous, and veggies.