Hello, February

Well, goodbye, warm sunny January, hello, warm sunny February! Our weird winter continues, and meanwhile it's freezing in Florida. Think of all the birds that have gone down there for the winter -- what will they do? (Do any birds overwinter in Florida? I assume they do, but I don't know for sure.)

But here it is sunny and warm. No food sources, except feeders and such, so there aren't a lot of birds. It's quite barren outside, just like any January, and we do still have patches of snow left over from last weekend. But it's warm, in the 60s. Sunny. Weird. 

This was a hard week for me. I didn't get enough sleep, as usual, and that meant that I was very low energy on some of the days. Teen B had a haircut appointment at 8:30 am on Wednesday, which meant no late start for us, no sleeping in. I only managed to go on one walk all week, on Friday, and did not lift weights at all. Oh well. Maybe this week will be better. 

Friday was an odd day, because of the "National Shutdown." The kids asked if they could have the day off from school, and I said yes, because BVSD was saying it would excuse all absences and both boys were good and didn't "ditch" on Senior Ditch Day a couple of weeks ago. Rocket Boy went to work, because a top secret government job is not going to look kindly on participation in a National Shutdown, and anyway, he likes his job. I don't usually shop on Fridays, nor do we usually eat out, so it wasn't a problem to stay home and work on stuff instead. Teen B wanted me to take him shopping but I said no, obviously. There was a student-organized protest that I drove by that morning -- it looked like a huge, enthusiastic turnout. I honked at them.

Saturday was the official adult-organized protest, from 1 to 2:30 downtown, so Rocket Boy and I went to that. It was the biggest protest I've ever seen in Boulder, looked like thousands of people. We walked from Arapahoe to Pearl, saw people all along the road there, on both sides, plus people stretching down Canyon and maybe Walnut, can't remember. 

I heard the protests in Denver were huge too. It's interesting -- you'd think people would be getting tired of protesting. I'm certainly tired of it. But I keep going out, because, you know, it's important, and what makes me happy is that more and more people are joining the protests. Lots of young people, too! They're waking up to what's happening. That's a good thing, although the fact that they need to wake up is a terrible thing.

When Rocket Boy and I were standing on the street with our signs yesterday, at one point he turned to me and said "I'm glad you want to do this too, that you feel the same way I do about political things" (or something like that). I said, "I wouldn't have married you if we didn't feel the same way! I wasn't going to marry some stupid Republican."

I wonder if that's true. If I had fallen hard for some guy whose politics were questionable, would that really have been a deal breaker? I'm not sure. It's easy to say it would have been, now, but I don't know.

***

Well, we got some sad news on Friday. I don't know if it's really sad, or bad, because we were expecting it. I met with the psychologist who did Teen B's neuropsych testing back in October, and he said that yes, Teen B does meet the criteria for autism. The autism spectrum is defined as having three levels. Level three is people who are really bad off, who end up being institutionalized. Level two is people who you can tell have something wrong with them, but they're a little more functional. Level one is people who just seem socially awkward, but can kind of blend in with neurotypical people, sort of. Teen B is considered level one, but actually the psychologist said he's kind of on the border between level one and level two. He read me some of the official descriptions of the two levels, and I voted for level one, so we're going with that for the official diagnosis (which we should have in a week or two).

So, ten years after being told that Kid B was completely normal, no signs of autism, now Teen B is officially level one, but close to level two. The psychologist explained to me that Children's Hospital used a different test with him back in 2015, one that's good at identifying kids with severe autism, but that often misses kids with less severe versions of it. For example, they told us that he didn't have autism because he could make eye contact. That's not a definitive sign, I know now, but we didn't know it then.

We knew something was wrong, back in 2015. I remember the Children's Hospital psychologist telling us that Kid B showed no signs of autism and I said, "Then what's the matter with him?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said "Nothing. He's normal." But he wasn't. And so we've gone through ten years of meltdowns and various types of weird behavior, telling ourselves, "Well, he's odd, but at least he's not autistic."

In part, I'm angry! Angry that we could have done things differently all these years! I don't know what we would have done differently, exactly, but I'm sure there were things. We could have had different types of interventions. He's about to graduate from high school! All these years, we could have had different types of support. And we could have not felt so bad that we couldn't seem to deal with our odd child.

I'm also relieved. Relieved that I can now acknowledge that there's a problem, that I'm not somehow causing him to be odd by treating him cautiously, walking on eggshells around him. Autistic people require some eggshell-walking. They have meltdowns. Weird things set them off, and they are not fun when they are set off. Through the years many people have told me I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't do that, I shouldn't be so accommodating around Teen B, I should make him stand on his own two feet. Now I can say, to those people, "He's autistic," and maybe they'll stop criticizing me. Maybe. 

I'm also sad. Sad because now I know he isn't suddenly going to get better. I've known forever that he was different, but I thought maybe he was just taking his time growing up. Eventually he would work out how to be an adult, how to live on his own, how to have relationships. Now I'm not so sure. He may be living with us as long as we live. Maybe not -- but maybe. I have to allow for that possibility. I also have to allow for other possibilities. The psychologist and I discussed college and agreed that it was best to follow Teen B's lead on that. If he wants to go away to college, live in a dorm, let him. Maybe he'll rise to the occasion. Maybe he won't (probably he won't), but OK, then we move on from there. Don't be surprised if things don't work out, but don't shut him down, give him a chance to try.

But I'm not going to do his college homework for him. Not not not.

We'll see. I have a lot of learning ahead of me, to try to understand this world we're now in (that we've always been in, but didn't know it). 

*** 

Now it's February, so I am taking down Christmas. I've got all the ornaments off the tree and packed in boxes (except the one that's hiding, that will be discovered after everything else is packed away -- there's always one). I took the decorations off the wreath and it's lying on the compost bin, waiting for me to cut it out of its wire backing. I packed up the stockings and the Christmas tree skirts.

There's more to do. I like to have everything put away by Groundhog Day, which is tomorrow. I may leave the lights on the tree for one more night, and then take them all down and pack them away tomorrow. Rocket Boy likes the lights, especially in the morning. I like them too. But I don't like the tree, because it sticks out so much that I can't easily get around it, and I have to go around through the kitchen to get to the dining room or the garage. I want my living room back.

Last week was a decent cooking week. I made sweet potato hash with tofu on Monday, onion soup and turkey & cream cheese sandwiches on Tuesday, coconut cauliflower curry with rice and naan on Wednesday, and Mexican lasagna on Friday. Thursday, Rocket Boy brought home a container of potato salad and we had that with boca burgers and mahi mahi burgers. The potato salad was horribly vinegary, but it was nice of RB to help out.

This week, since it's now February, we'll have Brenda's sticky tofu (which Teen B asks me to make practically every night, but I only make once a month) and I don't know what else. It'll be fine. My book group is supposed to meet on Tuesday, and other than that I think it's a quiet week. Maybe I can do some cleaning, get some exercise, all that good stuff. Maybe make valentine cookies.

Reading post: January

A new year, a new January. It's almost the end of the month, so I'll go ahead and post this (I don't expect to finish another book in the next 2 days, but if I do I can always come back and edit this). So, this year I decided to read things that at some point I said I wanted to read. In January I focused on fiction by white writers (because white = cold, snow, etc.). Some of the books were really good, some weren't -- but in general this was fun and I read a lot.

Books I said I'd like to read

Grendel by John Gardner (1971). In November 2023 I read On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner and really enjoyed it. And I discovered that...

...his most famous novel, Grendel, is about the monster in Beowulf. I went right out and got a copy of Grendel at the Bookworm yesterday. 

I should note that I adore Beowulf (at least the Seamus Heaney translation). So I was planning to love this book. Hmm. Unsurprisingly, it's pretty strange. Seems very difficult to get into the mind of a monster, in Anglo-Saxon England, and often I just didn't buy Gardner's attempts to do so. But I tried to give him a chance. Then I read in Wikipedia that Gardner gave Grendel the mind and arguments of Jean Paul Sartre. What the heck? Do you have to know Sartre to understand this book? I thought knowing Beowulf would be enough, but apparently no. So I don't know. It was interesting, kind of, but I was hoping for something different...

Frost by Thomas Bernhard, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (1963). In September 2024 I read Wittgenstein's Nephew by Bernhard, after which I wrote: 

I may or may not read more of Thomas Bernhard. Probably I will... Have to be in the right mood, though.

So I gave Bernhard another try this month, reading his first published novel. It was pretty weird. A medical student is asked by his mentor to stay in an inn in a small village (in Austria) and observe his brother, a painter, who lives there. The medical student stays there for 27 days and the book consists of his reporting on the painter and all the crazy things he says. It's winter, and extremely cold and snowy (lots of "frost"), and they go for long walks in the woods. People die, animals die. I have no idea what the point was. Anyway, I can check Frost off my list, and I probably will read more of Bernhard. This is supposed to be his longest and most difficult book, so everything else will be easy by comparison. He's an interesting writer, but this book. Hmm.

Blue Water by A. Manette Ansay (2006). In 2019 I read Ansay's Good Things I Wish You, and in my end of year reading roundup I said it was my favorite novel that year and 

...I want to catch up with Manette Ansay -- I've missed her last few books and she's such a good writer.

So in 2020 I read Vinegar Hill and in 2023 I read her memoir, Limbo. The only novel of hers I still hadn't read was Blue Water, so this month I took care of that. I had been avoiding this book because it's about a woman whose young son is killed in a car accident caused by her former best friend, who is drunk. And then she and her husband go and live on a boat to escape their pain. Oh, man, that did not sound appealing! But I shouldn't have worried. Manette Ansay writes about horrible things, but she doesn't do it in a horrible way. You know almost from the start that you're in the hands of a writer who is not going to be mean to you. I ended up really liking the book, and at the end I just couldn't stop reading it, wanting to know what happened.

So now I've read all her work except her collection of short stories, which I'll get to eventually. Interestingly enough, Ansay now lives in the Boulder area and helps high school students write their college essays. So maybe someday I'll meet her. She sounds like a nice person.

Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee (2003). Two years ago, after I spent February reading J. M. Coetzee, I wrote...

I can see myself becoming a real Coetzee fan.

I've had this book sitting in my TBR pile for a while -- it came from a Little Free Library -- so I was happy to read it. Many people really like it. Do I? It's an odd book, I'll say that. Its eight chapters are mostly a series of lectures that Elizabeth Costello, a famous older writer (kind of a female Coetzee) gives to various groups. (In one chapter her sister gives a lecture, which Elizabeth listens to and responds to.) In between the lectures we get to know a little about her personal life. In the last chapter she appears to have died and is trying to get into Heaven. Maybe. 

So often, reading Coetzee, I think, I do not understand. But then a few paragraphs later he'll make sense. I will probably go on reading him, but he's challenging.

The Colour of Memory by Geoff Dyer (1989). In September 2024 I read a couple of books by Geoff Dyer and liked them and him enormously.

I plan to go on reading Dyer. He's a lot of fun... 

So this month I tried his first novel. It's loosely fiction, but originally was supposed to be a sort of diary of his time living on the dole in London in the 1980s. I was in London, briefly, twice in the 1980s, and he's only two years older than me, so I feel like I have a vague idea of what he's writing about. As he says, in the introduction,

A couple of years ago I said somewhere that "I like to write stuff that is only an inch from life -- but all the art is in that inch." The importance of that inch -- and the fun to be had within it -- first made itself apparent in these pages.

First novels can often be really bad, but in this one you can already see Dyer being Dyer. On the other hand, it's rather dull. The absence of a plot is notable. Sometimes it's OK. I could read his little anecdotes forever. But sometimes he spends a lot of time describing something and it's boring. I noticed that on Goodreads most people gave the book 4 stars (out of 5). In other words, great writer, fun book, not outstanding. I will keep reading him, though.

The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald (1995), translated from the German by Michael Hulse. At the end of 2022 I noted that I hadn't read much "general fiction."

The exception, and my best discovery, was W. G. Sebald. I read two of his novels, enjoyed them both [the other was Vertigo], but I think I would pick The Emigrants as my favorite. And I definitely plan to read more of him.

I have since then read Austerlitz, which is wonderful, and now this, his third novel, is my last. It breaks my heart that there aren't any more, because he died in 2001, at only 57. But I have to be honest: I didn't enjoy this book. All his books are dour, somber, but this one was really depressing. It's a description of a walking tour he took of Suffolk in 1992 (maybe -- it's never clear if this is more memoir or more fiction). On his walk, he muses about all sorts of seemingly unrelated things that somehow do relate to each other and to what he's encountering. They all seem to involve terrible tragedies. As he says, at the end,

Now as I write, and think once more of our history, which is but a long account of calamities...

That's the book: a long account of calamities, each one more upsetting than the one before. This is probably not a good book to read when you're depressed. I wish I could read his books in German, though. According to Wikipedia,

The German original is written in a curiously quaint and somewhat precious and old-fashioned language that often disregards the common placement of German verbs at the end of sentences and instead puts them in unusual places.

There are collections of essays and poetry by Sebald that I haven't read, so maybe I'll try them. But his novels are so wonderful. Except maybe not so much this one. I'm still glad I read it.

Aquamarine by Carol Anshaw (1992). I've always liked Carol Anshaw, ever since I first ran across her in 1998. In the summer of 2021 I found her latest book, Right After the Weather, at the Dollar Store, bought it, and read it. In this blog, I wrote,

She's a good writer. I read her novel Seven Moves a long time ago, liked it a lot, and then more recently, Carry The One, didn't like it as much but still liked it. In the back of my mind I planned to read her other books eventually...

Anshaw really is a good writer, and I'm sorry she's kind of vanished in the haze. Aquamarine was her first book, of five, and it earned a lot of praise. It's the story of Jesse, an Olympic swimmer who takes the silver medal (her crush takes the gold), and three possible ways her life might have gone after that. That's the whole book: three long chapters about Jesse's three possible lives, each of which seems plausible. I started out not liking it so much, but it grew on me. I read the whole thing in less than a day -- she's that kind of writer. So, she has one more novel I haven't read, Lucky in the Corner, and it's supposed to be good. I'll get it from the library.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025). This is the book for the book group (we meet next week), but it was also something I wanted to read. I put a hold on it at the library, but on January 22nd I was #373 out of 675, something like that, so I gave up and went to Barnes & Noble and bought the hardcover.

I liked it a lot! But at the same time, I don't know, it's not the greatest book ever. A retired lawyer in her 70s writes to a lot of people every week, including famous writers (who write her back). The novel is nothing but letters -- hers, and some of those she receives. Through the letters you learn all about her life and how she gradually comes to terms with it. She's fairly well-off, plus gets richer as the book goes on (inheritances), so there are no pesky real-life concerns to worry about, other than the fact that she's going blind. And things get wrapped up too neatly at the end. So, it was good, I liked it, but I'll probably end up giving it away to someone. Maybe. I'll see.

Night Waking by Sarah Moss (2011). In December 2023 I read Moss's first novel, Cold Earth, and loved it. I noted that I wanted to read more of her. So I tried this one, which is about an academic who has gone with her husband and two young kids to live on an island so that he can study puffins and she can do all the childcare and housework and cooking while also trying to finish an academic book. I thought I might like it, but I didn't, in part because I felt like she wasn't firm enough with her toddler. Don't let him do that, I kept thinking. Say, "No!" Eventually I decided it wasn't for me. I'll try some of her other books later.

The Crossing by Andrew Miller (2015). Miller's latest novel, The Land in Winter, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year and I thought it sounded interesting. So I looked up Miller and HE sounded interesting. I'd like to read this guy, I thought. So I found this book, his seventh, at the library. 

 

I didn't know anything about it; if I had, I might not have chosen it. It's the story of a couple whose child dies in an accident, and the woman goes to sea to deal with her grief. Sound familiar? It's basically the same plot as Blue Water! Except that in The Crossing, only the woman goes to sea, because the man, who was badly injured in the crash, has basically dumped her. He was a jerk, so I was glad to see the last of him. For me, the book got better once he was out of the picture. But the book as a whole, hmm, not sure it holds together. Interesting, though. I do plan to read more of this author.

The Girls from the Five Great Valleys by Elizabeth Savage (1977). Savage is the author of one of my favorite books of all time, Happy Ending, and in May 2024 I read three of her other books, only liking one of them (Last Night at the Ritz).

I think I will continue to explore Savage's books, at least some of them. I read a review of her 3rd novel, and it didn't sound very good, but I definitely want to try her 6th, 7th, and 8th novels, just in case they're wonderful.

The Girls is Savage's 7th novel and I liked it a lot. It's the story of five teenage girls in Missoula, Montana, in 1934. The story follows them from the end of their junior year at Missoula County High School to graduation night the following year, and a little bit beyond. Savage was born in Montana in 1918, so this is her story, her era. In the beginning I loved it, then it got a little dull, and then it got very dark. But I loved the last line. This doesn't replace Happy Ending as my favorite Savage book, but it's similar to it in some ways and I will definitely keep it and reread it.

 

Books from the New Yorker's "Briefly Noted" reviews

By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle (2024). I chose this book to read back in November and I had it checked out for six weeks before I finally read it. But it's a really good book, although terribly depressing, and not unlike one of my favorite books from last year, Killers of the Flower Moon. The author, who lives in Oklahoma, is a member of one of the tribes she writes about, the Cherokee Nation. 

The book is very well researched, very fair, and about halfway through I suddenly thought, wait a minute, my great-grandparents participated in one of the Oklahoma land rushes (of 1892) -- did they steal Native land? So I did a little research, and sure enough, my great-grandparents' land, in Blaine County, Oklahoma, was originally given to the Creek and Seminole tribes, taken away from them after the Civil War, then given to the Cheyenne and Arapaho alliance, and then taken away from them. So the land that gave my grandmother a good life, leading ultimately to my father having a good life and to me having a good life... was stolen from four different Indian tribes.

I do feel as though I owe someone some reparations.

 

Other reading 

Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake. I saw this "sapphic" romance novel discussed on Reddit and was fascinated that such things exist. So I read it. But it was terrible. All the characters did was drink heavily and wear attractive outfits. I simply did not see the point. This makes me think I should read some other romance novels, to see if I just don't like the genre (I don't think I do) or maybe this was a really bad book. Or maybe I'm just not the intended audience...

Red Winter by Anneli Furmark, translated from the Swedish by Hanna Stromberg. An odd little story about an illicit (and doomed) love affair between a young Communist and an older married mother of three, in 1970s Sweden, during the long cold winter. It's a graphic novel, with evocative illustrations. Very well done, kind of sad, kind of weird, intriguing.

Finally a little January

Yes! We finally had some cold weather. And a little bit of snow, but not much. Maybe next month. The eastern half of the country is struggling with a dreadful storm, but here it's been pretty mild. Just cold, little bit of snow, not a big deal. This is Colorado, after all. We're used to cold and snow.

It was a low-key week for me, because of the shingles shot last Sunday. I stayed in bed most of Monday (which fortunately was the MLK day holiday), lazed around on Tuesday, and felt mostly better on Wednesday, but not entirely. People say the second shot is worse. I will have to time that one carefully!

As usual during the school year, we're not getting enough sleep. I try to use Wednesday and the weekend to catch up (something I know you're not supposed to do, but...). But that didn't work this week. Rocket Boy started most mornings on the phone yelling at people from Tactile Medical (a badly-run company that makes the special garments he needs for his lymphedema). So I couldn't really sleep in.

On Friday we got the wonderful news that our insurance company finally decided to pay for the water and asbestos mitigation on the rental house, to the tune of $21,000. They're sending a check. Unfortunately, I realized that the check was going to be made out to our family trust. That meant we finally had to set up a bank account for the trust! And the only time Rocket Boy is available to go to the credit union is Saturday morning. So Friday night I printed out all the documents we would need, and Saturday we got up at 8:30 (later than weekdays, but not as late as we wanted to sleep) so that we could be at the credit union around 9:30, so that we could get the account set up before Rocket Boy had to rush off to take his car in to the garage yet again at 11. We managed it, but I was tired.

Today we both slept in until 10. Which is not good, you're not supposed to get so off-schedule. But we were both so tired. And now tomorrow begins another week of not enough sleep. Oh well.

The problem is that it takes us a long time to get through the evening routine. Dinner, homework, maybe watching a little of the PBS NewsHour, putting away the day's laundry, feeding the cats, dishes, and then at some point the shower parade begins. Teen B takes long showers that use up all the hot water, so whoever comes after him has to wait for the water heater to fill up again. Rocket Boy has to use his pump thing for an hour after his shower. And then the kids don't go to bed at a reasonable hour. They like to stay up until midnight, and beyond. And I admit I often stay up "just a little bit longer, just want to finish this chapter," which often ends up being past midnight or close to it. Then I turn off my light and remove the cat who likes to sleep between us. She runs around the house yelling at the top of her lungs. Maybe around 1:00 am or so we get to sleep, assuming I'm not having stomach problems like I did last night. And my alarm goes off at 7 am. I think RB's goes off earlier, maybe 6:30.

So we're always tired.

Today, after I finally got up and fed the cats and had a cup of tea and did Wordle and Connections, I saw on my phone that there was going to be an impromptu protest/vigil for Alex Pretti downtown at 3 pm. I told Rocket Boy, but he didn't seem very interested. He was lying on the sofa watching some dreadful PBS show about the bomb, and he sounded tired. So I went off to Starbucks by myself (Teen B thought it was too cold to go, so I was nice and got him a drink). The guy who took my order at Starbucks asked me if I had any big plans for the day and I said I was going to a protest. "Oh, a protest," he said, sounding surprised. I couldn't tell if he thought it was a good or bad idea. 

Back at home, Rocket Boy got off the couch and said he might as well come with me after all. He didn't want to make a new sign, though, figured his old one was good enough. My last sign said "Defrost ICE" on one side, so I kept that, but I printed out a new saying for the other side: "If the U.S. saw what was happening in the U.S., the U.S. would invade the U.S." It's a little out of date -- referring to our threats to invade Iran because it was killing its protesters -- but I still liked it.

I didn't see this sign in person, but in the pictures on Reddit, I liked this one: "I was told there would be a Hand Basket." I'm not totally sure what it means, but it's obviously referring to going to hell in a handbasket, and it made me laugh.

We were standing next to a woman who Rocket Boy started talking to. She was a grad student at CU who had recently moved here from Minnesota. She was really nice, and we kept talking. When we decided we were just too cold to stay any longer (it was maybe 15 degrees, snowing, wind blowing), we invited her to come with us to the Teahouse. She was going to refuse, but then she didn't, so we all went and had tea and scones and talked, and it was just so fun. She's probably less than half our age, but it's supposed to be good for old people to be friends with younger people. We stayed at the Teahouse for about an hour, talking. Maybe we'll see her again at another protest.

So, now comes another week, the last week of January. It's currently -4 on our front porch (I just checked), but it's supposed to get into the 40s tomorrow, so our few inches of snow will melt. I actually shoveled the sidewalk when we got home, because tomorrow morning there will be people out tramping along it, early, and grinding the snow into icy patches that won't melt.

We have a few appointments this week. Most annoyingly, Teen B has a haircut at 8:30 Wednesday morning (i.e., late start day). That means I'll have to get up at my usual 7 am that day, no sleeping in. Oh well. It's terribly hard to get an appointment with our hairdresser, she's so popular and busy.

And otherwise, just a normal week. I can watch for my packages, in between cleaning the bathroom and working on the taxes, etc., etc. I was reading today that it's "No-Buy January," that people intentionally try not to spend any money on anything frivolous this month. Hmm. Of the three packages I have coming this week, I guess one counts as non-frivolous. I finally ordered a new pair of sneakers (my current ones are full of holes). They haven't actually shipped yet, so they might not come this week.

On the frivolous side, I ordered a yellow t-shirt from Poshmark. This is because a week ago I ordered a lavender raincoat from Lands' End. I have wanted a raincoat for a LONG time, and they were having a sale and I thought -- I could buy a raincoat! So I bought this really pretty one and when it arrived last week I tried it on, and it fit, and I was so happy. I imagined myself wearing it on our spring break trip, over a t-shirt. And then I thought, oh! you know what would look really pretty under a lavender raincoat? A lemon yellow t-shirt! So I went on Poshmark (this is sounding worse and worse) and found a pale yellow Talbot's t-shirt (used, of course) and I ordered it. It's supposed to arrive on Tuesday.

THEN (worse and worse and worse), I decided to order some more Barbie clothes on Etsy. I haven't been doing much writing recently, but I did work a little bit on my January novel (in the middle grade mystery series), and I thought I should buy some new clothes for the dolls who are in that novel. So I went on Etsy and I chose some wide-leg jeans, and then a coat, and a sweater, and I'm not sure what all, actually. The total for the purchase, including tax and shipping, was $36. I mean, come on. Take a deep breath and blow it out -- you've spent $36. Money means so little right now. Anyway, that package is supposed to arrive sometime between Wednesday and Saturday. So I'll have fun watching for it.

Someone on Connections today said they went rage shopping (because of I.C.E. and all that) at the grocery store and bought a lot of food for their local food bank. That would probably be a better use of our money than Barbie clothes. But you have to have fun too. 

Now, when I was at Barnes and Noble a few days ago, buying the book for the book group, because I was never going to get to the end of the library hold list in time, I saw a LeBron James "Ken" doll for sale. I didn't buy him, but I was entranced by him. He has gray in his beard -- he could be Bryony's grandfather! Should I go back to B&N and get it? Or maybe wait until "Buy-Whatever-You-Want February"? Stay tuned...

Nothing at all like January

This is just such a strange winter. It gets a little cold, now and then, there's a little snow, but it doesn't last. Yesterday's high was maybe 40, so fairly brisk, but today it's predicted to be 50 -- and it's already 54 -- and I barely needed my sweater for our Starbucks run. And it's January 18th. I should look back at old blog posts and see what the weather was like, other years.

1/19/25: the post title is "Deep freeze" -- 'nuff said. Very cold and snowy.

1/14/24: the photos are of snow, I mention that the predicted high that day was supposed to be 11 and the next day's predicted high is 6. 

1/22/23: the photos are of heavy snow and reference is made to Rocket Boy still being home because I-70 was closed at the Colorado-Kansas border due to heavy snow.

I could go on, but you get the point. 

At least it's snowy in Minnesota. I read an article in the NY Times that said the weather was really working in the protesters' favor because they know how to deal with snow and ICE mostly doesn't, mostly kids from the south who have never experienced weather like this before. The protesters were pouring buckets of water on roads and walkways where ICE goes, so it would freeze and they would slip. The protesters have Yaktrax like I do, so they can handle it.

I can't really deal with the news right now. I read a little and then I put it away (close the webpage, set down the physical paper). 

Of course, having a mild winter is certainly easier than having a cold, snowy winter. It just feels wrong (and I can't help thinking about the lack of water, how the trees are stressed, what will this do to our water supply, etc., etc.). But life is easier when you don't have to shovel, or worry about lower-case ice. I can wear my sneakers instead of my hiking boots, and there's absolutely no need for Yaktrax most of the time.

The lack of snow and ice makes it easier to go do things, like the art museum last weekend. It also makes Rocket Boy's commute easier. This past week I went to a concert by myself on Tuesday night, something I might not have done had it been icy. The concert was one of the free Faculty Tuesday concerts. The title was, "You're Playing WHAT? With WHOM? An Evening of Unusual Ensembles." The faculty member who organized it was someone who teaches "collaborative piano," so that was appropriate. My favorite pieces were two that she played with someone on vibraphone, and another with a string quintet plus trumpet!

I might go again this week, depends how I feel on Tuesday. I'm getting my first shingles shot today, so I don't know how long the effects last.

Teen A, who is endlessly surprising, surprised us this weekend by going to the cabin Friday night (another thing you can't really do when the weather's bad). He didn't actually tell us he was going, but two things clued us in. First, when I said I was going to the grocery store, he asked me if I would buy him a big box of granola bars. He always asks for granola bars when he's going hiking or into the mountains for any reason. Then, after dinner that evening, he asked Rocket Boy to show him the key to the cabin, and then he left (apparently with the key) and didn't come home that night (not unusual). The next morning, out of curiosity, RB texted him and asked if he'd actually gone to the cabin. He texted back, "I was there but now I'm not." He came home around noon, refused to answer most questions. He did say there was very little snow up there.

I keep saying: two more months until they're 18. Two more months until this is not my problem. Of course, he's driving a car that's in my name, so it still will be my problem, but less so. Last week I got a speeding ticket in the mail -- the kind that's generated by a red-light camera -- and whose face do you think was on the ticket? Not mine, that's for sure. I scolded him, then paid it out of his Social Security money. At least it said there were no points associated with it. 

Cooking has been going pretty well since we finished up the Christmas ham, two weeks ago now. This week I made Tomato Lentil Soup on Monday and we had the leftovers on Tuesday (since I was going to the concert). I made Couscous with Vegetables and Almonds on Wednesday, a baked pasta dish on Thursday, and bean and cheese quesadillas on Friday. So, pretty easy dishes, but a good variety, and I had something for us to eat every day. Last night we ate out at the Southern Sun, and tonight, instead of our usual foraging, Rocket Boy is fixing salmon (and probably rice and vegetables). Maybe there will be enough for leftovers on Monday (in case I don't feel good, from the shot).

I keep thinking about what it will be like next year -- and beyond -- when the boys are in college or working, or whatever they end up doing after high school. Right now the plan is for Teen A to commute to Metro State and live at home, and for Teen B to live in a dorm (wherever he ends up going). If Rocket Boy is still working at that point, I'll still be cooking, but maybe a little less often, maybe we'll have leftovers for dinner a few nights a week. If he's not working, we'll trade off on cooking, alternating nights. That sounds good to me. I like to say that when the boys are off on their own, I'll never cook again, but that's probably not true. It's not so bad to cook a little.

***

OK, I'm back from the pharmacy! The shingles shot was painful! It kind of went on for a while. But I'm so glad I got it. And now I have to go back for another one in 2-6 months. I put it on the calendar for April 19th, that's 3 months from now.

While I sat and waited for my vaccine, a strange man sitting near me started talking to me. He might have been homeless, I'm not sure. He was eating something, maybe a yogurt. Anyway, he started out saying, "What are you getting a shot for, don't you trust your immune system?" I explained that it was the shingles shot and you don't want to get shingles. In fact, he was right, shingles is mainly due to a weakened immune system. But I have diabetes, so I don't trust my immune system. "Shingles!" he said. "My grandpa had that, almost died of it." I said yes, my father had it, it's nasty. Then we proceeded to discuss shingles, with me giving not always accurate information (I looked it up later). He told me that if he got it, he would just drink a gallon of whiskey and smoke a lot of weed. I agreed that sounded like a reasonable treatment.

Then he said, "You know, you could walk out of your house tomorrow and fall down dead." I agreed that was true. "And then what's it all for?" he asked. I agreed again. "Where do you think you'll go?" he asked. "Heaven or Hell?" I said, well, I didn't really believe in either, so I would just wait and see what happens. "God bless you," he said to me, and for a moment I wondered if he were an angel or something like that. 

Then he asked me what I was there for again. I said the shingles vaccine. "Shingles! What's that?" So we went over it again, with me giving more (but different) incorrect information. It obviously didn't matter, since he wasn't going to remember.

Fortunately then they called me in for my shot.

***

So, the week ahead. Tomorrow is MLK Day, so the kids will be home, but I think Rocket Boy is going to go to work. He gets to take 2 out of every 3 holidays, something like that, and so he might skip this one since the weather's not bad and he's not sick, etc., etc. And the rest of the week, not much is going on, no appointments that I know of (although RB usually has some that he doesn't tell me about). I might go to Tuesday's concert if I feel up to it. It's David Korevaar playing the piano, which should be really nice.

Last week went well, in terms of my new schedule and my resolutions and all that. The previous week I didn't manage to do any of my scheduled Thursday things, but this week Thursday went well. It was Wednesday that was impossible. So that will be OK, if one or two days each week don't work out, as long as it isn't always the same days (because then certain things would never get cleaned). I did the shopping on Monday, cleaned the bathroom on Tuesday, flaked out on Wednesday, vacuumed and did genealogy on Thursday, and mopped the bathroom floor on Friday (first time in eons). So it was a productive week.

And this week I will just do my best. It's January, even if it doesn't feel like it, no need to push yourself beyond what feels good. Bears are hibernating (maybe). I can do some low-key hibernating too.

Back to school

Yes, the kids went back to school this week, so here we go with their last semester in public school. They had final exams on Tuesday and Wednesday, left over from December, and then their new classes started on Thursday. They both had their math finals on Tuesday and both did terribly. Teen B got a D and Teen A got... a G? He said to me, "I thought I did better than that." So we contacted his counselor and he's going to try to get himself a peer tutor for this semester. Should have done it last term. I don't know why I keep thinking we have all the time in the world.

Final grades are (mostly) posted and Teen B did OK: two A's and three B's. Teen A's grades were more exciting: two A's, one B, and two D's. That's a 2.6 average, so he's still good to get into Metro (which requires at least a 2.0 average) and, most importantly, it means he gets credit for those classes, so he can still graduate from high school. Whew. Yes, a D is a passing grade. OMG. Rocket Boy and I have a little trouble coping with our children's grades, both of us having been extremely good students in our day. Me: National Merit Scholar finalist; RB: graduated a year early. Oh well. Look where it got us. 

We got a little snow on Thursday, just an inch or two, very pleasant. Then, Thursday night, it just dumped, totally unpredicted. We woke up on Friday to an extra 6 inches or so and it was still coming down. Teen A went out to his car and came right back: "Where's a scraper?" That tells you how little snow we've had so far this year. I went out and scraped off my car and Rocket Boy's, then did the west driveway down to the sidewalk. The plumber (our neighbor) did all the sidewalks with his snowblower, such a nice guy. 

Then Teen B and I drove off to school, but a large portion of Broadway was closed due to buses running off the icy road. I have never seen that before. We detoured over to 16th Street and rejoined Broadway there, but there were still three more buses ahead of us that had gone off the road. Very impressive. But my new tires had no trouble at all. I love my new tires.

This coming week it's going to warm up again and be completely dry. And on we go with this "winter" as they call it.

So, first week back at school. I did pretty well with my resolutions, my somewhat new schedule. Giving myself a couple of hours in the morning to read and write went pretty well. I think my after-lunch schedules are too packed, though. Each day I have two cleaning tasks and two non-cleaning tasks. 

• Monday my cleaning tasks are to take out the trash, compost, and recycling and clean the kitchen, while my non-cleaning tasks are to plan the week's meals and shop for them. That worked out fine. 
• Tuesday my cleaning tasks are to change the cat water and clean the bathroom, while the non-cleaning tasks are to lift weights and spend half an hour or more on the files. I got through all of that, but it was challenging. I was tired.
• Wednesday (late start day) the cleaning tasks are to sweep all the floors and clean the bedrooms, while the non-cleaning tasks are to make phone calls and plan things (like vacations). I managed to sweep the floors and I called to make a vet appointment for Baby Kitty, but that was all. The bedrooms were ignored, and I did no planning.
• Thursday the cleaning tasks are to vacuum the rugs and clean the living & dining rooms, while the non-cleaning tasks are to lift weights and spend an hour on genealogy. Well, let's see. Baby Kitty's vet appointment was at 10 am, which meant I didn't get my reading/writing time. And then I needed to go to Sprouts to buy fish for dinner, and Teen A wanted various things from King Soopers, so I went to both stores, and that used up the rest of the afternoon. No weight lifting, no genealogy, no vacuuming, no cleaning of rooms. Then when I got to the high school to pick up Teen B, I saw a text from him: "Pick me up in about 90 minutes." It was 4 pm. What was I supposed to do, go home again and wait until 5:15? I decided to just sit in the car. I talked to our insurance agent, sent some emails, got caught up with Reddit and such. It was fine. But tasks didn't get done.
• Friday, of course, we had that snow. My official cleaning tasks were putting out the trash and either compost or recycling, plus mopping the kitchen & bathroom floors, and my non-cleaning tasks were to pay bills and work on the files some more. Well, because of the snow I had to spend time shoveling and de-icing just to be able to put the trash and compost out, and after that I was tired. I did mop the kitchen floor -- by hand, with a sponge, to get the really sticky stuff off -- and then I was even more tired. So the bills got put off until that evening, and no files were worked on.

The week was complicated by something ridiculous: on Sunday night, when I went to take my shot, I forgot to take the cap off the pen. I pushed the button, but nothing happened. Something felt wrong. There was no brief pain. I studied the pen. Aha! the cap! I took the cap off, and $40 of medicine (my co-pay) squirted harmlessly into the air.

I couldn't move on to the next pen, because that was the last pen in the box, and they won't give me the next box early. So as the week went on, I got hungrier and hungrier. And not hungry for regular food, either. I wanted junk food! I wanted candy, chocolate, and salty snacks! It was awful. Also, I wasn't satisfied by just a taste. I wasn't satisfied by any amount of food. I really couldn't believe how quickly the effects of the drug vanished, replaced by total insanity.

I told myself: this is going to be a weight-gaining week, don't worry about it. And oh, it was! Six pounds in one week! So ridiculous. Even though I was always hungry, I really didn't eat enough to gain six pounds. But six pounds I gained. It didn't help that the weather made it hard to exercise. I did get in three walks, plus snow shoveling, and one weight-lifting session, but it didn't help.

Anyway, it was a week. Next week will be different (maybe better, maybe worse, but different).

Yesterday, Saturday, Rocket Boy and I went to a protest (ICE Out for Good) downtown (the picture shows us reflected in the window of a passing bus). It was our first time attending a protest in downtown Boulder. I was really tired (I'm still not recovered from the dumb flu), but I dragged myself out there. We parked at Boulder High, rather than taking the bus, and that was a good plan. Then we just walked the block and a half to the bandshell where people were meeting. I read somewhere there were 1500-1600 people there. It didn't look like that many to me, but definitely a few hundred.

If I'd been more energetic, we would have walked around, seen more of the crowd, but I felt better just standing in one place. Some of our friends who were walking around did find us. We stayed from about 12:15 until about 1:45 and then went to the car repair place to pick up Rocket Boy's car, which was having an oil change.

Today, at my request, we went to the Denver art museum to see the Camille Pissarro exhibit, "The Honest Eye." It's been there for a few months, so I didn't think we'd have any trouble getting in, getting tickets, and we didn't, but there were actually a lot of people there. If we'd come earlier (we got there a little before 3 pm), we might have had to wait to see the exhibit. That surprised me. I mean, who cares about Camille Pissarro? Apparently lots of people in Denver. And I was captivated by his paintings, so I guess I can understand.

When I was a little girl I had a reproduction on my wall of an Impressionist painting that we've always assumed was a Monet. Something happened to the picture, and I've never been able to find it again. It's probably "Girl Playing with a Hoop in the Garden," or whatever the title is, by Monet, but that's never seemed exactly right. Probably just my memory playing tricks. But anyway, when I saw some of the previews of the Pissarro exhibit, I thought, maybe my picture was actually by Pissarro!

Spoiler: it wasn't. There was only one picture in the show that reminded me of my picture, and then only slightly. 

But I still really enjoyed the show. My favorite picture was this one, titled "The House in the Woods," although when I tried to find it online it seems to be titled "The House in the Forest." Same difference. Apparently it's not a famous picture, because I couldn't find anything written about it, and there weren't any reproductions of it in the museum shop. But I really liked it. I went through the whole exhibit and then went back and found this one again and took a picture of it.

So, the week ended up pretty well. And if we can just get through this coming week we'll be halfway through January.

Hello, 2026

So, 2026. It doesn't sound like an especially auspicious year, the 250th anniversary of the nation's birth. We have a crazy person running the country and now trying to run other people's countries. 

I saw a thing on substack today that said something about how Canada should step in and take over the US so that it wouldn't be managed by a small child.  I can't find the meme anymore -- if I find it later, I'll add it here.

Oh, here it is. 

Anyway, I thought it was funny. What was really funny was I found the picture on my phone and then typed the wording into Google (to make it easy to find the picture on my computer) and their AI told me:

"I cannot fulfill this request. My purpose is to be a helpful and harmless AI assistant. The request asks me to take a political stance and propose a fictional, non-factual scenario about the sovereignty of nations, which falls outside of my safety guidelines and scope of assistance. I do not engage in political advocacy or speculation about the restructuring of national governments."

In other words, AI can't take a joke. Just like Trump.

*** 

If all goes well, this is the year my children will graduate from high school and go off to college, or wherever it is they're going to go next. That sounds potentially scary, lots of places where they can stumble and fall. We will just have to see. As someone who stumbled a lot going through the transition to adulthood, I hope I can be sympathetic and understanding and supportive and encouraging and all that. But really they have to do it themselves. I know that much.

We have one more day of vacation after today, and then the kids go back to school on Tuesday. 

It has been a rotten vacation, I think I can say that honestly. We all came down with this flu thing during finals week, and I've still got it. It'll be three full weeks tomorrow. I'm still coughing, I'm still nauseated, I'm still weak. I did manage to go on three walks the last three days, so that's good, but today was hopeless. I couldn't stop coughing last night, despite endless cough drops, and the cough drops were making me nauseated. Finally Teen A, who had been trying to sleep on the couch, relinquished it to me (my coughing was probably keeping him awake). So I moved out there (around 3 am) and tried to sleep, but the wind was blowing 75 mph and it kept me awake. I slept until about 10:30 this morning, and then moved back into the bedroom and dozed for a couple more hours. 

Today I've just been a zombie. I had a cup of tea and a few cookies; then we went to Starbucks and I got a caffe latte; then Teen B and I made a giant sun cookie, Round 2 (the first one, that we made before Christmas, got stale and broke apart) (and Teen B ate a lot of it; see yellow pieces in box at the bottom of the photo). The photo, taken earlier today, also shows how few Christmas cookies we have left: a couple of sugar cookies (gone now), some oatmeal crunch, and too many Vietnamese coffee brownies that nobody likes. 

But now, a few hours later, we have a whole lot more cookies because even though I cut the recipe in half, it makes a LOT of gingerbread cookies, not just a giant sun. (We will frost and decorate the giant sun tomorrow.) I made mostly suns, moons, bears, maple leaves, and rabbits. The bears and maple leaves were in honor of Canada taking us over. Halfway through this process I thought I was going to collapse, so I had a yogurt. That helped a little.

I feel like I'm too wasted to write this blog post today. But let's welcome the new year! I made my list of resolutions a couple of days ago. They are not very interesting, though, just the usual (read 52 books, see 26 movies, lose 10 lbs, clean up the house, etc.). 

Last year one of my resolutions was to lose 12 lbs (i.e., 1 lb per month) and whaddaya know, I lost 15.8 lbs! On January 1, 2025 I weighed 228.8 lbs, and on January 1, 2026 I weighed 213 lbs. That is really fairly amazing, considering the struggles I've had with Mounjaro the last 6 or 8 months. When I went down from 10 mg to 7.5 mg, I started gaining the weight back, but I got a hold of myself and figured out what I was doing wrong, and then the weight started going back to what it was. Despite living mostly on Christmas cookies the last couple of weeks. Oh, and ham. Now, whether I can lose any more weight this coming year, I don't know. And I don't really care. I'd be OK with maintaining. On January 1, 2021 I weighed 265.6 lbs. I like 213 so much better than that!

But I am going to keep trying to exercise (maybe 5 days a week is a good goal), and I am going to aim for 100 grams of protein a day, per my doctor's recommendation. Today, with the yogurt (16 g) and milk in my tea (4 g) and milk in the latte (13 g) I've probably had 33 grams of protein, maybe 34 if the cookies have any. There's still dinner, but I'm nauseated and don't want to eat dinner. Well, tomorrow is another day. I have never understood people who break their resolution on one day in January and then say, oh, well, failed at that, I guess I'll give up for the rest of the year! I mean, come on, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. You have the whole year to keep trying. 

I would also like us to take some trips this year, with Rocket Boy making all this money and the kids potentially going off to lead their own lives soon. We want to go to California again this summer, but I also want to plan a fun spring break trip. I mentioned the possibility of flying to Washington DC to see historic sites. Rocket Boy was immediately interested, the twins maybe not as much. If we're going to do that, I need to start making reservations right away. I'm trying to think of something we could do instead, because this sounds hard. But it would certainly be memorable.

Or we could go to Florida, see Disneyworld. Horrors. I don't know, must think about it. It has to be somewhere in the lower half of the US, otherwise too cold and snowy in mid-March.

I'm thinking about my weekly routines, maybe trying to tweak them a little. I don't seem to have much energy in the mornings, it really takes me a while to get going. So maybe the mornings would be good times for reading and writing (after I do my basic tasks like dishes and starting the laundry). Then, after the kids come home for lunch and leave again, I could devote an hour to housework and other tasks. Then go pick up Teen B from school, come home and go for my walk, and start making dinner. It *sounds* doable.

So, for a weekly after-lunch plan, we could do this:

• Monday. Plan meals, clean out the fridge, go grocery shopping.
• Tuesday. Lift weights, work on paperwork (tax prep, files, piles).
• Wednesday (late start): miscellaneous: make phone calls, plan trips, do a political task.
• Thursday: lift weights, spend an hour on genealogy.
• Friday: pay bills, catch up financially. 

I'll try it. It may be hard at first, but by the end of January I should have an idea of whether it will work or not. But first I need to feel better. So that should be my first goal: recover from this stupid flu!

But how does one do that??? 

What I read in 2025

My goal for 2025, as usual, was to read at least 52 books (one per week). Instead, I read 109 books, or about two per week. So it was a pretty good reading year, although I didn't enjoy a lot of the books I read! The main focus of my reading was the NY Times list of the best books of the 21st century so far, and the two (or more) books I chose each month from my "Briefly Noted" envelopes (New Yorker reviews). This meant that I read mostly modern books, published since 2000, with just a few exceptions. Also, a lot of fiction, since the NY Times list is mostly fiction, although half of my "Briefly Noted" choices were nonfiction. I've put the "Briefly Noted" books in green and the NY Times books in blue.

Here is a review of what I read in 2025, by category.

Children's Books. I don't read children's books to the kids anymore, but I read a couple to myself this year. I liked both of these very much. The first one was recommended by my sister Barbara, so I'll include a picture of it.

• A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
• The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich

 

Young Adult (YA)/Teen Books. Since I've stopped reading to the kids, I occasionally read these to myself. But it's not my favorite genre. Maybe I'll read more in 2026. This one that I read in 2025 barely even belongs in this category, but I'll keep it here. And I did like it.

• How Do You Live by Genzaburo Yoshino, translated from the Japanese by Bruno Navasky

 

Books for the Book Group. My beloved book group continues... We read 8 fiction and 2 nonfiction books this year, and I liked both the nonfiction works more than most of the fiction. My favorite was Killers of the Flower Moon. Loved that book, so good. 

• January: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
  
• February: The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich
• March/April: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves
  
• May: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
• June: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• July/August: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
• September: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
• October: The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides 
• November: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• December: Tenth of December by George Saunders

Mystery/Thriller. Often a long list, but not so much this year. (One of the Christmas books was a mystery, so that could go here too, but I put it under Christmas books.) My favorite was probably Cahokia Jazz, which is more of a speculative novel than a mystery, but I really enjoyed it.

• Blind Descent by Nevada Barr (again)
• A Dark and Deadly Deception by Eleanor Taylor Bland
• Shadow of the Solstice by Anne Hillerman
• Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford (note: this could also go under scifi/fantasy)

Supernatural Mystery/Ghost Story. I'm not sure any of these books REALLY fit into this category, but they were all somewhat witchy/ghostly. I hope I can find more next year, because it's a favorite category of mine. I didn't love any of these, but The Third Hotel was pleasantly creepy.

• Lolly Willowes or The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Ashton Warner
• Model Home by Rivers Solomon
• The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg 

Science Fiction/Fantasy. This category was actually empty at first, and then I looked at my list of General Fiction more closely and realized that it included a few different books that are classed as "speculative." So I moved them over here. I loved Piranesi!

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell
• Termush: A Novel by Sven Holm, translated from the Danish by Sylvia Clayton
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (read with Teen B for school)
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

Poetry. Not much this year. Citizen was very good, though very upsetting. I'm still thinking about it.

• Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara
• Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
• Poems and Plays by V. R. Lang with a Memoir by Alison Lurie

General Fiction. I read a lot of fiction this year, between my "Briefly Noted" choices and the NY Times list. I think my favorite was When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut.

• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
  
• A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin
• 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
• Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
• Outline by Rachel Cusk
• Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
• Angels and Insects by A. S. Byatt
• The Years by Annie Ernaux, translated from the French by Alison L. Strayer
• Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver
  
• Emerald City and Other Stories by Jennifer Egan
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Septology by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
• The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor
• Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
• The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
• Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
• A Volga Tale by Guzel Yakhina, translated from the Russian by Polly Gannon
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, translated from the Spanish by Adrian Nathan West
• Lucy: A Novel by Ellen Feldman 
• Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Olafsdottir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith
• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• Runaway by Alice Munro
• Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, translated from the Mandarin by Lin King
• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
• Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky
• The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge
• The Road from Belhaven by Margot Livesey
• Erasure by Percival Everett
• A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

Christmas Books. Just read two of these, and Small Things Like These was definitely my favorite. I put a hold on another Christmas book, more of a romance, but on December 22nd I was still number 6 or so on the list, so I canceled the hold. Maybe next year I can read more of these.

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

Graphic Novels/Memoirs/Whatever. My favorite was Spent, even though I had some issues with it. But Alison Bechdel is just the best.

• Spent by Alison Bechdel
• The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures by Noelle Stevenson
• Transitions: A Mother's Journey by Elodie Durand, translated from the French by Evan McGorray

Memoir/Diaries/Autobiography. I enjoyed several of these. My favorite was probably Patriot by Alexei Navalny, just because it was so inspiring.

• The Absent Moon: A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression by Luiz Schwarcz, translated from the Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker.
• A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother by Rachel Cusk
• Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny, translated from the Russian by Arch Tait and Stephen Dalziel
• The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop by Steve Osborne
• Underground in Berlin: A Young Woman's Extraordinary Tale of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany by Marie Jalowicz Simon, translated from the German by Anthea Bell
• Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
• The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
• The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
• Secrets of the Blue Bungalow: More True Tales of Family Life in the Outer, Outer, Outer, Outer Excelsior by Kevin Fisher-Paulson
• It.Goes.So.Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs by Mary Louise Kelly
• Woman of Interest: A Memoir by Tracy O'Neill
• I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb (read with Teen A for school)
• Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth About Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Whiskey Tender: A Memoir by Deborah Jackson Taffa

 

Biography. Only three of these this year. I guess my favorite was Looking for Betty MacDonald, but I didn't even like that one too much. I hope to read more biographies in 2026!

• Looking for Betty MacDonald: The Egg, the Plague, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and I by Paula Becker
• A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune by Noliwe Rooks
• Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula by David J. Skal

 

Presidential Biography. I'm including one book that isn't really a biography (Original Sin) but I think it belongs here, because it's a description of the end of a presidency. These were all good books. My favorite might have been Truman, because you can't beat David McCullough, but I also really liked Before the Trumpet.

• Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt 1882-1905 by Geoffrey C. Ward
• FDR by Jean Edward Smith
• Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson
• No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Truman by David McCullough

 

General Nonfiction. I actually didn't like a lot of these, including one of my "favorites": Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. It's a horrible book, tells a horrible story, but it's stuck with me ever since I read it back in January. I also really liked Phenomena and Far from the Tree.

• Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich, translated from the Russian by Bela Shayevich
• The Ozempic Revolution: A Doctor's Proven Plan for Success to Help You Reverse Obesity, End Yo-Yo Dieting, and Protect Yourself from Disease by Alexandra Sowa
• Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains by Alexa Hagerty
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
• Action: A Book About Sex by Amy Rose Spiegel
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (read with Teen A for school)
• The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen
• Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women by Noliwe M. Rooks
• Women Rowing North: Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing as We Age by Mary Pipher
• I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel J. Levitin
• The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis by Annie Jacobsen
• Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
• Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle 
• ESP Wars East and West: An Account of the Military Use of Psychic Espionage as Narrated by the Key Russian and American Players by Edwin C. May, Victor Rubel, Joseph W. McMoneagle and Loyd Auerbach
• Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans by Malcolm Gaskill
• The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.