The Sunday Salon: Another vacation calls

Anyone else happy that it's the weekend? It's been a crazy busy week here (so, what's new?) but more so because we are reaching a big deadline in our project at work. Suddenly, there's a lot of things to iron, issues to sort out, postponed items to consider, etc, and an overtime schedule is becoming the new routine now. Much as I'm looking forward to the deadline being behind me, the zeal currently gripping the team feels exciting too.

Next week, we have two convocations in the family. The husband's brother and my brother are going to throw their caps to camera-clicking moments. We'll be driving down to Raleigh this weekend to stay with our lovely friends there and head over to Winston-Salem for the first convocation. Then we'll be heading north to New York to celebrate the second. We'll be spending the rest of the week in New York and may make a trip to the Niagara Falls as well. This is going to be our second vacation in as many months and I'm really looking forward to the break. It's going to be a long vacation-less period after that.

Last night, I started reading Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and so far, it's engrossing. I know it's been a hit or miss book with most liking the concept but then getting tired by the repetitiveness. I'm curious to see how it will fare for me. I just finished Ben Winters' The Last Policeman, which I loved immensely. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series, when they release.

What are your plans for today? We'll be heading out for some shopping after lunch and spend some time today doing some cleaning chores (yawn) but other than that, I hope to get some good reading time.

The Sunday Salon: Happy "Birthday" Rue!

One year ago, this day, the husband and I walked nervously into the local Humane Society to get a dog. Before that, we spent a few minutes in the car asking each other if this is it, if we were really sure. Neither was willing to decide either way so we just drove to the shelter. After all, who knew if we'd even like one. Our plan was to get a big dog, like a lab or a retriever. That is, until we saw one of them jump so high that I suddenly started worrying for my table-high possessions and the TV. Besides, we were still living in an apartment then and had no plan to upscale our living. (As an aside, so much has changed in a year!) That's when we met Rue. She was napping in a corner while her relatively more boisterous (a word that's forever part of our life now) 3-month old companion came to greet us. We liked her and that's how this clueless couple ended up with a dog that's naughty, crazy, Marley-ish, cute (especially when she turns those eyes on you), photogenic, spoilt, super duper boisterous but very adorable.

Although her real birthday is in July (she'll turn three this year), we will probably celebrate May 5th itself. This morning, my dad made her a birthday cap that we struggled to put on her. We managed to snap a photo before she thrashed it off her head.

Rue can't wait to get that bugging thing off her head.

I had baked a carrot-peanut butter cake for her, which my mom helped carve into a shape as close to a bone as possible, and then topped it with peanut butter.

Rue's cake. (The humans "helped" finish it even though
they complained that it wasn't sweet enough)

A few photo moments ensued. Clearly, the humans in the house were more excited and enthusiastic than the dog. who was very confused as to what was happening and why we were punishing her with a silly dunce cap. Thankfully, all those worries vanished after she got a whip of the peanut butter.

Yummy, .. wagging tail .. ohmydogliness,  ... tongue stuck ..
this is ... tongue stuck .. awesome.
 ... tongue stuck ..  More!  ... tongue stuck .. .. wagging tail ..

We gave her a squeaky duck (which, at this moment, lies in the bedroom in defeated tatters) and a tug rope (which is on its way to joining the duck). Right now, she is one contented dog. Happy "Birthday" Rue!

Slow going in March and April

I didn't quite see the point of putting up a monthly recap post, considering I've had a few patchy months of reading. When I resumed blogging yesterday, the husband even jokingly asked me if I even had anything to blog about since I haven't sat down with a book in a long time. But I do like these recap posts a lot - they can be a kind of milestone marker when I can pause and feel pleased or disappointed in my reading, and also make a lot of reading plans for the next month, every one of which I forget about as soon as I hit 'Publish'.

Both March and April were slow reading months for me and May is likely to be the same thing. I'm hoping that June will turn things around. But if not, never mind. These are what I read in the last two months:

Three of those books were seriously awesome. I couldn't quite get enough of The Dinner. Night was so profoundly moving that I immediately went to B&N to buy the next two books in the trilogy. As for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - I thought it was well-written, well-researched and one of the most intriguing nonfiction books I've read. On the other hand, Tina Fey's memoir was a bit of a disappointment. I had listened to half the audiobook more than a year ago and remember liking it then. Somehow, this time, it just fell flat on me.

Wish I could read this again: The Dinner by Herman Koch
Most disappointing read: The Magic Circle by Jenny Davidson - I really wish I had finished this book - I am still curious to know how it ends but the book was just not captivating me.

What I hope to read in May
One of my most awaited books this Spring has been Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. I have seriously high expectations for this book and hope that it will meet them. My hold for this book just came through so within the next two weeks, I'm hoping to curl somewhere with this book. Other than that, I want May to be a month of random reading. I tend to enjoy books more when I know very little about them, and with that plan in mind, I had picked three books from the library (I don't even remember their names now - which makes me want to start them now). The Great Gatsby is also releasing this month (and I haven't read the book yet). I'm torn between planning to squeeze in a quick read before I go to the theater and just walking into the theater with no idea of what the book is about.

So that's my tentative plan for this month. What are you reading?

Fleeting thoughts: Navigating Early / The Fault in our Stars

After a long break, I'm still catching up on my review backlog. I'm seven reviews behind and while I have a lot to say and share about most of those, there are some that I don't have a whole lot to say without being repetitive.

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool: Navigating Early was a delightful little book packed with a lot of surprises, wonder and beauty. I don't remember all that much about this book now and looks like I didn't take any notes on my reading experience but I remember how much this book warmed me when I read it. At the end of WWII, Jack Baker's navy father moves him from Kansas to a boarding school in Maine, where Jack meets the strangest of boys, Early Auden. To Early, the number Pi is more than a number - it is a boy who travels the world using just the Pole star for guidance. When the two boys embark on a trip to find the great bear that has been terrorizing people for a while, Early compares their story with that of Pi's. As astonishing as Pi's story is, Jack is even more astonished by a lot of things they see en route and also by how much more seriously he feels compelled to take Pi's story.

I picked this book to read mainly because Vanderpool won a Newbery Award for her Moon over Manifest. I tend to have a lot of success with Newbery winners. That said, Navigating Early didn't quite reach my expectations but I soon discovered that my not loving this book much had to do with not discovering one essential fact about Early. I won't reveal what that is but it has to do with his "disorder" (I don't know how I could have missed it - the signs were everywhere). But once I came to know it, the whole story took on a very different meaning for me and that's when I began to notice the sheer power of this book.

I received this book for review from the publisher.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: This book doesn't really need any extra publicity. It's one of the most loved books from last year and after finishing it, I could see why. I didn't love it as much, but I definitely would highly recommend this book for this reason - despite being about cancer, there is so much strength, humor, power of the human spirit and most importantly, genuine people in this book. Cancer is no stranger in my family and it's still not a word we would utter carelessly or unfeelingly around here. I don't know who the author used as reference for the book and I cannot honestly state that he got it right but it felt very right to me.

There were a lot of times I couldn't read past a word or sentence - you know that feeling of something stuck in your throat and you can't swallow because there is so much emotion in your heart that there's no space for an extra lump there. That's how it felt often when I was reading this book. Not because of how sad the book is. Quite the opposite - it was actually cheery and I felt guilty many times of laughing or smiling. I did see the end coming early in the book but that didn't make me disappointed in the book. The only thing that bugged me was how cheesy the book was initially - I really wish I didn't feel bothered by adolescent urges and desires and in fact, I don't - however, I do think there are some authors who get that aspect right while some just suck at it (sorry!). Ultimately, I would recommend this book only if you really can handle crying (a lot).

I borrowed this book from the good old library.

The Sunday Salon: An Impromptu Long Break

Hello? Anyone there? I'm still here.

Boy, it's been about three weeks since I posted anything. Last I hollered over here, it was to announce a trip we were making to Miami and Orlando, to check some beaches out and to drink Butterbeer. Something came up during the trip that took away my interest in books and reading but I think it's all finally returning back.

Poor little thing - it must be tired of
its boring job of posing in photos.

The Florida trip was quite fun. The husband's brother just got a job in Miami but when we went there, he was just being interviewed. We spent a couple of days going around Miami - love the beach over there. We went one morning to the Gator Park to check out some gators and take a bragging rights photo holding an alligator (their skin feels creepy! all leathery and scaly).

The Universal Studios was even more fun. Some of the rides were downright madness - we did the Hulk roller coaster ride at least two times. It's been a long time since I sat in a real loopy winding crazy roller coaster and so this was a lot of fun. The Harry Potter section in the park - which is the main reason we went there - was really very well put together. I loved how we could walk into Honeydukes and get Chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans, Peppermint Toads, Fudge Flies, and many many more. It was hard choosing what to get but I eventually picked the Chocolate Frog and got the Helga Hufflepuff card. (Harry Potter readers will get the reference.) Can you guess how very much like an excited schoolgirl I was inside there? The poor darling husband indulged my fancies as well. The main Harry Potter ride wasn't that big a deal for the amount of hype this place gets but I still thought it was quite charming. You could actually pretend that you're sitting on a broom and having the ride of your non-Muggle life. Butterbeer, on the other hand, was just a soda drink mixed with a faint sweet tasty hint of something frothy on top. I thought the drink was consistent with the way it was described in the books, but there was still a part of me that wished it wasn't soda (which I don't drink).

Chocolate Frog

For the last two weeks, I haven't really read much. I did finish an audiobook (Tina Fey's Bossypants) and put down countless books after reading a page. I just picked up Appointment in Samarra two days back which is - not the best choice of books to read at this time since it moves really slow but is - interesting enough to make me want to read it.

I can't wait to get back to blogging and catching up with whatever I missed.