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Bookish Talk, Life

Sunday Matters: Headed to Surgery

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Sunday Matters

Last month I shared a Life Update and since then I’ve been anxiously waiting for these two surgeries to be scheduled. They are next week, 1/9 and 1/10. Cannot wait. It’s weird to be eager for brain surgery but let’s go.

These steroids to control swelling have kept me up for two weeks. No sleep but I am not even tired. Just a little on edge.

I would appreciate prayers heading into this, good thoughts, all of it. Prayers that it is benign. Smooth recovery and no complications. My daughter will be down for the surgeries but has to be back at school on 1/15.

In the meantime I’m reading and just resting. This last week a few more symptoms popped up. I’m isolating to avoid COVID too. That is the last thing I need.

Have a great weekend. It’s cold here but I am cozy and well.

Book Review

Review: Happiness Falls

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Happiness Falls

Happiness Falls
By Angie Kim
Hogarth, 9780593448205, August 2023, 400 pp.

The Short of It:

Unfortunately, this one didn’t pull me in.

The Rest of It:

It started off very strong. A close-knit family with a special needs son. A brother, a sister and mom and dad. All, trying hard to find some way to communicate with fourteen year old Eugene after he returns home in a panicked state without his father.

What happened? Calls are immediately made but go unanswered. What about their possessions? Eugene is completely unable to provide an explanation.

The family immediately contacts the police. Was there an accident? After some preliminary search some items are found but in water and damaged. How did it get to the bottom of a stream? What about the notebook they found with the words Happiness Quotient? What was dad working on?

The author does a good job of presenting enough information to keep it interesting. But the communication research that takes place in preparation to communicate with Eugene pulled me out of the story.

There are cause and effect charts, and just a lot of small findings that lead up to the surprising conclusion. I felt that the story lost its way mid-point. The family’s frustration and their inability to really get along make it a tense reading experience.

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