© 2020 Book Chatter | Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

We had some lovely weather between May and July but last week we hit (116) and more of the same this week along with the fires have made the air quality absolute muck. Look at that sky. What color IS it?

Right Now:

I’ve got nothing huge planned today. We will typically pile into the car and just drive somewhere. Anywhere. I spend the entire week at home working so a change of scenery is usually in order but we have driven everywhere and driving far away doesn’t make sense if you can’t do much when you get there. I am dying to go to a museum but they are all closed right now.

This Week:

I don’t have anything scheduled for this week and I am going to just sit back and enjoy it. Yes, I have work but after this week all the appointments that this time of year brings with it, are beginning to make an appearance on the calendar again. Speaking of which, it’s time to consider planners for 2021 but I don’t see that Passion Planner has any coming out! I hope they do. Usually by now they make a big cover reveal announcement but I’ve seen nothing. I sent them a message but so far, no reply.

Reading:

I finished and reviewed The End of the Day by Bill Clegg. It was not a win for me. However, I am currently reading The Vanishing Half and loving it. That completes my summer reading list!

Soon, hopefully, the RIP Challenge will begin and then I joined this September read-along so there is something to look forward to.

Watching:

I’ve not been watching much TV but I did watch some of the Democratic National Convention and it left me feeling hopeful.

The one thing I have been watching is baseball! Me! My husband has been glued to the set because he missed sports so much and since it’s been on in the background, I have been getting into it. I will sit there with my book but I understand the game a lot more now. I also catch myself counting how many times they touch their face. I can’t help it.

Grateful for:

Dolly Parton announced a new Christmas album that is coming out in October! I am so there for it. I love Dolly.
Hallmark Christmas shows. I guess I have been watching something. I had some recorded from last year because I discovered them so late but they are truly, wonderful to watch during a pandemic. So warm and inviting.

Have you shifted to a fall mindset yet? Our weather prevents it but as soon as school starts, I always think of fall. I don’t go out often but when I do, I see fall everywhere in the stores. I like it.

The End of the Day
By Bill Clegg
Gallery/Scout Press, 9781476798202, September 29, 2020, 320pp.

The Short of It:

I was super excited for Clegg’s new book after loving Did You Ever Have a Family, but I had trouble connecting with these characters.

The Rest of It:

Blurb from the publisher:

A retired widow in rural Connecticut wakes to an unexpected visit from her childhood best friend whom she hasn’t seen in forty-nine years.

A man arrives at a Pennsylvania hotel to introduce his estranged father to his newborn daughter and finds him collapsed on the floor of the lobby.

A sixty-seven-year-old taxi driver in Kauai receives a phone call from the mainland that jars her back to a traumatic past.

Here’s the deal, this is a novel but it reads like a collection of interconnected short stories. I was mildly interested in each of the characters but I struggled to find how they were all connected with each other. It took a very long time for me to see the common threads. But, Clegg’s writing is often very thought-provoking so even though I struggled with the story itself, I still found myself enjoying individual sections. It just never came together for me as a novel.

I had very high hopes for this book but with the pandemic and my current state of mind, I found myself a little frustrated trying to put it all together. Sadly, it was not a win for me.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…