Sunday, January 30, 2022

The Sunday Post #292

 

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book ReviewerReaderbuzz, and Book Date.



The Sunday Post #292





On The Blog Last Week






On The Blog This Week


  • On Tuesday I read popular books and see if they deserve the hype.
  • On Wednesday I show you February book releases.




In My Reading Life


Last week, I only finished one book because I spent way too much time at the vet, but it was my first 5-star book of 2022! Home by Toni Morrison seems simple on the surface. It's about a brother and sister who are learning to cope with major changes in their lives. The brother has just come home from the Korean War and is living in a mental hospital. The sister has left her husband and accepted a new job. One day, the brother gets a letter from a stranger that says his sister's life is in danger. She'll die if he doesn't go to Georgia and rescue her. That's where the story begins.

How did I make it through 11 years of college without having this book forced upon me? If you want to learn how to write, you have to read Home. The writing style is poetic. The author is able to accomplish so much with so few words. This is a tiny book that feels huge. Every sentence is necessary. There's no fluff or filler. My copy is only 150 pages, but I feel like I know these characters. I badly wanted them to overcome their problems. I was scared and frustrated by their ignorance. They're so real that you love them and hate them at the same time.

Home doesn't have much of a plot, but the characters and writing style make it worth reading. Parts of it are extremely bleak. It's a book about racism, poverty, war, and mental illness. Not happy subjects. The characters knowingly and unknowingly get themselves into a lot of trouble. If you can handle depressing, character-driven literature, please read it! It's worth your time, especially if you want to be a writer.



I'm still reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. This one is adult historical fiction about a group of young men who have just been released from a work farm. They're trying to figure out what to do with their new freedom. I'm thoroughly enjoying this book. It reminds me of the adventure stories I read as a young teen. The characters are gallivanting around the US and making bad choices. So far, it's an entertaining novel about a road trip gone wrong.





In The Rest Of My Life


Five things that made me happy last week:

  1. Baby Brooklyn's arm has healed! She spent Christmas at the hospital because she was jumping on the couch, fell off, and broke her arm. She had a cast for a month and learned nothing from the experience. She still jumps on the couch every chance she gets.
  2. Doughnuts!
  3. I got new sunglasses.
  4. Who watched Archive 81 on Netflix? I had a hard time getting interested in it, but I really liked it by the end.
  5. I started playing Wordle. It's fun, but I'm bad at it. I need to Google strategies because it always takes me all 6 guesses to figure out the word. What are your favorite words to guess?




I won't annoy you with my wordle victories




Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!







33 comments:

  1. Just started playing Wordle too and love it!

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  2. Brooklyn learned nothing. HA! You slay me. Is there really a strategy to Wordle? It's all about how good your first guess is. Then you can check out lists of five letter words and guess from there.

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  3. Thanks for your rave review of Home. Sadly, the only Toni Morrison I've read is Beloved. I should probably add this to my list of books to read before I die.

    I haven't tried Wordle and I probably shouldn't try it, not even once, because I tend to become...well, obsessed is the word...obsessed with games.

    Brooklyn!

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  4. Yay for Baby Brooklyn! I need to read something by Toni Morrison. I got hooked on Wordle this past week myself. The first episode of Archive 81 was good, I need to watch on. Have a great week!
    Lisa Loves Literature

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  5. I tried wordle..I'm going to have to take a closer look at that one.

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  6. I'm like the only one not playing Wordle lol

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  7. Glad you enjoyed Home. I have not read anything by Toni Morrison, but probably should have.

    Have a great week!

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  8. it's the second time i have visited a blog today and wordle was talked about. hubby had asked me about it a week or so ago. i guess i am behind the times, living in my own little world, but i will be checking it out
    sherry @ fundinmental

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  9. LOL - Wordle - the name is so amusing. It's the latest craze. Both of your books sound so good. Happy donuts and reading.

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  10. I started playing Wordle last week and am completely hooked! Congratulations on your first 5-star book of the year - I had mine last week, too. I'm hoping to read something by Toni Morrison next month... was thinking about Sula, but may try Home instead. We'll see what's available at the library. Glad you're still enjoying The Lincoln Highway, too.

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  11. I also got new sunglasses (prescription) that will work well with my biking and jogging. They make such a difference!

    I haven't joined the Wordle craze (yet?) so none of the posts make any sense to me :-)

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  12. I'm glad her arm is better but she's probably too young to learn from it, I guess. I also started wordle. My best thought is to think about double consonants like how to combine two consonants since it is likely to happen with 5 characters. R and L like DR SR SL PL etc. And end of word ones CH CK GH and so forth. I always try to figure out the vowels first and sometimes it seems like there is only one but Y can be used that way.

    Anne - Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post

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  13. Yay for Brooklyn being all healed! It doesn't surprise me that she hasn't learned from her ordeal, though!

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  14. Me me me! We're two eps away from finishing Archive 81. Its definitely a slow burn.

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  15. Okay, first off, I love that quote at the top of your post. I say "No worries" all the time - perhaps it is a feeble attempt to pretend I actually have none. LOL!

    My daughter is reading a Toni Morrison book for her AP Lit class right now (Song of Solomon), so I've been hearing a bit about it. I really need to read it too.

    I've been playing Wordle for about two weeks now and I've been enjoying it. (I did miss one day when we were on a college visit, so I lost my streak.) My major strategy is just to try to have popular letters and at least two vowels in that first word. I tend to focus on verbs first because then it makes the rest easier. I've gotten it on the 4th try 7 times, the 3rd and 5th try 4 times each, and once on the 6th, so the strategy seems to work decently well.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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  16. Yay for the healing. And Wordle lol- like some of the above commenters I feel odd man out. :)

    I saw Archive 81 on Netflix but haven't tried it yet.

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  17. I just started playing wordle this week. Well, actually I've been playing an app called Wordle and wondering why there were no green and yellow boxes. I just found out this week that that is a different wordle and now I'm playing the right one. My tip is to choose a word with common and non-repeating letters and always start with that (mine is RINSE). It took me a few tries, but now I usually get the word in 3 guesses. - Melinda @ A Web of Stories

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  18. I am reading THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY right now also. It is slow going for me. I find that I read about ten or twenty pages at a time, though I do enjoy the story-telling.

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  19. I really liked Archive 81 - I was really pleased with how it turned out. :)

    I've also started playing Wordle - and I guess I've been pretty lucky with it.

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  20. I really want to watch Archive 81 but I haven't started it yet! It seems right up my alley! I've avoided Wordle and I don't think I'm going to get around to playing it, but I'm glad you're enjoying it!

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  21. Home sounds great, I'll have to check it out. I'm so glad your daughter is all healed up.

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  22. I pick a different Wordle word every day, more often than not it gives me no letters so I’m a bit more thoughtful about my second choice. Usually I’ve got it in four, I lost my streak though when I did my monthly disk cleanup that clears cookies etc

    Wishing you a great reading week

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  23. We started Archive 81 but couldn't get into it. Maybe we will keep going.

    I am glad to hear that Baby Brooklyn's arm is all better!

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  24. I discovered Wordle this week too. I like the challenge of it. Glad the Brooklyn's arm is healed too. I haven't read Toni Morrison but the book does sound intriguing.

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  25. Aw, Baby Brooklyn. They never learn! I'm loving Wordle too. And I'll have to check out Archive 81.

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  26. Home sounds like a tough read. Good, but tough. I feel like I'm the only person not playing Wordle. lol

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  27. Home sounds like a great read, I'll have to look into it. I'm glad Baby Brooklyn's arm is better! And dougnuts always, always make me happy, too.

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  28. I like playing Wordle. I try to use words that have the most "common" constants and vowels. So I do like, trash, or storm, or lemon. Have a great week!

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  29. Oh I had to laugh about Brooklyn. Sounds just like what my kids would do. Glad she is feeling better though! I have not started playing Wordle and right now am refusing to learn anything about it. I think I would be terrible at it too. Have a great week!

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  30. I am enjoying Wordle too. I am glad that you can only play once a day because I tend to get a bit obsessed by such things too.

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  31. I need to try Wordle ... so I can wordle my way into avoiding to do other things. I heard the Lincoln Highway is a pretty good read .... I will put it on my list. A road trip gone wrong, oh yeah!

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  32. So many are reading Towles' books. I hope you ultimately enjoy it.
    I'm also addicted to wordle, I play the English ad the French version, lucky me

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