May’s Mutterings: Rants and Ramblings
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Book review: A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn
A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really loathed the heroine (and narrator) of this series, Veronica Speedwell, after reading the first book in the series. But I liked the author’s previous works enough to read the next two books of this series. This particular one (#3) is my…
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Book review: A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell My rating: 4 of 5 stars “A Woman of No Importance” is about the life of Virginia Hall, who despite being a woman, an American, and disabled (a prosthetic leg), managed to outwit and…
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Book review: The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss My rating: 4 of 5 stars The premise of this book is fascinating: Mary Jekyll (daughter of “Jekyll and Hyde” Jekyll) through a fortuitous set of circumstances discovers other “daughters” of infamous men (Diana Hyde, Justine Frankenstein, Beatrice Rappaccini, and Catherine Moreau) and works alongside…
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Spring break 2019: Disneyworld
We were once again fortunate enough this year to have our college-attending daughter share a spring break with our high school son. After some consultation with the entire family, we decided to spend spring break at the happiest place on earth (aka Disneyworld). It has been many years since we spent an entire week at…
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Our First 10K
Before you get the idea that we’re runners or anything, understand that we don’t run races, we run/walk them (4 minutes running, 1 minute walking). That method pretty much rules us out of any runners of the year type of awards. That being said, in the winter, Jim needs a motivating exercise event. When the…
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Book review: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff My rating: 4 of 5 stars The authors set up the book with 3 Great Untruths that they think are endangering future generations. These Great Untruths are (i) what doesn’t kill you makes…
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Vaping: Facts & Thoughts
For those of you who have been living in a cave the past few months in order to survive the winter, vaping is technically inhaling water vapor into the lungs. The term is more commonly in reference to an electronic cigarette. A device heats up nicotine liquid that then turns into water vapor, which you…
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Deer Valley 2019
We are creatures of habit, even if we prefer to call them traditions. Tradition dictates that during Presidents’ Day weekend, we join our ski-loving friends in Deer Valley for a weekend of skiing. To be sure, our family can best be described as 2 non-skiers, 1 reluctant skier, and 1 enthusiastic skier. The enthusiastic skier…
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Movie review: Green Book
I seldom see serious movies in the theatre, mostly because if I am going to go to the bother of showing up at an appointed time and putting up with sticky floors and talkative movie goers, I had better enjoy the movie. (Which is why I generally stick with Disney/Pixar/Marvel movies in the theatre.) But…
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Honolulu January 2019
I expect that everyone is tired of hearing of our trips to Honolulu and how glorious of a paradise it is. If so, then this is an easy blog post to skip. I just wanted to commemorate our annual 2019 trip-without-the-kids (to Honolulu, of course). And also to point out without (much) gloating, of course,…
Got any book recommendations?