reading notes, entry 3...

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande.

A few reasons why I loved this book:

*It was well-written and informative.
*But even more importantly, it was insightful, passionate, and thoughtful...and it never felt heavy-handed.
*It reaffirmed my love of essays.
*It made me think about issues I'd never before considered.
*It reminded me that there are always more than one side to a story.
*While the essays all fit his overriding theme of what it takes to be a good doctor (his opinion is that there are three major qualities--diligence, doing right, and ingenuity--and the essays were divided into sections based on these qualities), there was a wonderful variety of topics covered, from the care of soldiers in war zones to doctors who participate in executions and from the continuing battle against polio to the state of childbirth in the United States, to name just a few.
*I was impressed with the author's honesty, and with his humility.

A couple things I am grateful for:

*I already own his collection Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science.
*I'm not a doctor.

*****
So May is "medical/psychological issues theme month." And yes, as always, we're (by we, I mean Chris and I, as happily for me, he decided to join me in this themed reading experiment) trying to keep the themes very broad...so issues such as dealing with trauma and the like are also included. I gathered up the books from my shelves that jumped out at me for this month:

I haven't even raided Rich's shelves yet. Of course, let's face it--I don't actually need to. It's already the 8th day of the month...and yeah, I've finished *one* book. I think I'm going to read A Cool Moonlight by Angela Johnson next. It's pretty short though, so is there anything in that pile that you'd strongly recommend for after that?

the week that flew by way too quickly...

It's funny how time can be so hard to pin down. While I feel like I've been away from the online world of blogging and emailing and twittering for endless ages now, it also feels like this past week has flown by in an instant.

The internet is such an amazing thing. How can I possibly express the gratitude I feel for the connections and loving friendships that have enriched my life so very much? Eva has definitely become one of the family...and there are so many little smiles stored in my heart, little glimpses of this fact. Annie and Eva picking out clothes, Max pestering Eva to play badminton, Gray being contrary with Eva, Eva busting on Rich...all these little moments of ease and comfort. :)

It seemed simultaneously a busy week and week where not much happened but living and loving. We went thrifting. We went to the library. We hit the coffee shop a few times. We ate out a few times. We walked around a fun section of downtown. We visited a city park. We talked. A lot. We cooked. We ate. We drank chai--Eva makes the best chai. Ever. We talked. A lot. We played badminton. We watched Gray and Annie practice Aikido, and witnessed Gray earning his yellow belt. (Yay Gray!) We played word/drawing games. We talked. A lot. We read. We squeezed in some school. And homework. We wrote down book recommendations. We knitted. And crocheted. We talked. A lot. We survived yet another septic system problem. And sunburn. And a complete week of unseasonably warm weather.

I was rather sporadic in my picture taking, but I'm grateful that I captured at least a few moments from our week:






I think I was in serious denial all day about the fact that Eva was leaving this afternoon. It hit me really hard about ten minutes before they had to leave for the airport. But I am consoling myself with the thought that tomorrow I will get to do some blog reading and catch up with my other friends that I've been missing so much. You all have been posting, right???

tidbits and babblings...

...I screwed up. After a couple weeks of finally feeling more human, I pushed limits I shouldn't have pushed, and now I have crashed spectacularly. A day jam-packed with non-stop chores following a night with just a few hours sleep was recipe for disaster. Even sadder, I didn't come close to finishing my to-do-before-Eva-arrives list, and now I've just got to admit that I'm not going to. :( Note to self: Next time have clean-a-thon before read-a-thon. Note to fibro: You suck. Note to Eva: Don't bring a white glove. :P

...Every single year, I'm surprised and delighted anew. One day the trees are still nothing but brown, and the next morning you wake up and there is this sudden profusion of green! Literally overnight. :)

...I love how my fingernails can be such a sign of the fun things I'm up to. Yesterday it was dirt dirt dirt I was cleaning out from under them. This morning it's bread dough.

...That dirt I just mentioned--yep, some of yesterday's labors involved the garden. Rich and Gray got the strawberry patch planted. :) And Rich and Max got four blueberry bushes planted. :) And Rich and I got some of the "4-6 weeks before last frost" seedlings planted. :)

...That bread dough I just mentioned...now two wonderful loaves of sourdough bread. Mmmm...

....Hoping everyone has a lovely week.

Dewey's read-a-thon update five...

Managed to make it up until 1:00am, which might sound wimpy to most, but it's an accomplishment for me. Unfortunately I woke a bit before 5:00 feeling like crap, just wanting to go back to sleep. But after two hours of unsuccessfully trying, I decided to just get up and read for the last hour of Dewey's Read-a-Thon. And yeah, of course, now I wish I'd just gotten up when I woke up--could have put a much bigger dent in my final read-a-thon book.

So maybe I didn't get as much read as I would have liked, but I had a great time...and that matters so much more.

Unfortunately, today will not be nearly as fun--we've designated it a Family Clean-a-Thon day. Yeah, ugh. But at least it's for a good reason--we have a special guest coming to visit. Eva will be arriving late Tuesday afternoon and staying for a week! :D

Okay, guess I should be off to shower and begin making lists of everyone's tasks for the day.

So hope everyone who participated had as much fun as I did on our very special day to celebrate reading and to celebrate a wonderful woman who brought so many of us together and who did so much for this awesome community of readers and bloggers!!!

*****
Final tally:

Books I've read from:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
--Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman
--Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson

Books I've finished:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
--Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman

Mini-challenges I've participated in:
--Scuffed slippers and wormy books--Book Spine Poetry

Dewey's Read-a-Thon update 4...

...and almost guaranteed to be the last. All those high hopes of staying up super duper late...yep, they're crashing down around me. I'm not giving up quite yet, but I suspect I won't last much longer. Especially considering the horizontal position I've switched to reading in.

But the good news is I did finish another book! Yep, Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm has moved to the finished pile. :D

I think I'm going to start Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson. His itty bitty chapters and the suspense-ish factor give me some hope for making it another hour or two. Or then again maybe not...

*****
Books I've read from:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
--Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman

Books I've finished:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
--Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman

Mini-challenges I've participated in:
--Scuffed slippers and wormy books--Book Spine Poetry

*****
Loads of luck to all you diehard night owl readers! And thanks again to all the wonderful people who made this happen! It's been awesome, as usual! :D

And Dewey, you will NEVER be forgotten...and you will be FOREVER LOVED!!!

Dewey's Read-a-Thon update 3...

Well I fear the distractions just won't end. Let's put this bluntly, shall we? Max is exhausting. :P Ahhh, but Rich and Gray arrived home a while ago so they are now the target of some of his non-stop chatter and, "Let's do this," "Watch this," "Can we do this?" Sheesh--you'd think he was three-years-old or something. :P

Another distraction:

Max and I found a milk snake in the flower garden. He was hiding so this was the best look we got at him. So pretty. We also found a tree frog while we were moving logs out in the back yard from the tree we had to cut down earlier this week, but I didn't have my camera then.

Anyway, I have managed to read 10 tales from Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. Determined to finish this book...and maybe maybe maybe another tonight. Yeah, like that maybe is ever going to happen.

*****
Books I've read from:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
--Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman

Books I've finished:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer

Mini-challenges I've participated in:
--Scuffed slippers and wormy books--Book Spine Poetry

Dewey's Read-a-Thon update 2...

Okay, *finally* finished my second book. It's really bordering on cheating saying that--as this was another really short book, and another that I was already halfway through. But hey--they're both now finished thanks to Dewey's Read-a-Thon, right? :)

Honestly, I'm not doing all that well with the reading here. Along with the distractions of family, I am allowing myself to be forever distracted with twitter and instagram and the like. Oh well--it's all still read-a-thoning.

*****
Books I've read from:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer

Books I've finished:
--The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli
--A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer

Mini-challenges I've participated in:
--Scuffed slippers and wormy books--Book Spine Poetry

*****
And now off to make lunch with Max. A non-thrilling lunch of boxed mac and cheese. *sigh* But that's what I get for letting Max decide what we should get for read-a-thon lunch. :P

*****
MORE HAPPY READING ALL!!!