May’s Mutterings: Rants and Ramblings
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Book review: The Cecilia & Kate Novels by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
The Cecilia & Kate Novels: Sorcery & Cecilia by Wrede & Stevermer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Instead of starting a new series, complaining about starting a new series, and not finishing a new series, I decided to read ALL THREE of the books in this series consecutively. (No applause necessary.)The conceit of this…
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Book review: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee
A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book (the first in a series) is based on a clever premise: what if there was a female detective agency and what kind of women would be part of that effort? And off we go, launched into the story. A…
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Book review: Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Sunshine by Robin McKinley My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really dislike vampire novels. I find them clichéd and silly (other than Bram Stoker’s Dracula, of course). And, if it weren’t for the fact that Robin McKinley is one of my favorite fantasy writers, I wouldn’t have read this one either.But I’m glad I…
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Christmas 2020
In an act of foolhardiness, we decided to go to Hawaii for Christmas. This was foolhardy for several reasons: first, Hawaii has imposed some stringent covid testing requirements in order to be permitted to come; second, there were no non-stop flights to Honolulu due to the lack of flights, which added another wild card to…
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Thanksgiving 2020
As with everything this year, Thanksgiving was a little different than usual. Instead of the usual 20+ guests crowd, we had 11 people total, 9 adults. Everyone had tested negative before they arrived. (The new prerequisite: don’t bring a side dish or flowers—bring a negative test result.)Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 11 is barely cooking Thanksgiving…
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Book review: “Wintering” by Katherine May
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May My rating: 4 of 5 stars We all have times when our preferred action is to crawl into a dark hole and never come out again. Grey skies and cold, dreary weather makes us even more likely to burrow. In “Wintering,” the…
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19th Birthday Disneyworld Trip
Because Marcus (wisely) decided to take a gap year instead of attending college in the fall, we decided that his birthday needed celebrating and what better place to celebrate someone’s birthday than at Disneyworld?Disney felt very safe with hand sanitizer and hand-washing stations everywhere, socially distanced lines, and everyone masked. (And when someone—usually an adult—wasn’t…
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Graduation Celebration – Pandemic Style
We had a high school senior last year, and graduation in June happened virtually, as it did for so many others. The school did its best by having the high school administrative team personally deliver our son’s diploma and by putting on a lovely virtual graduation. But we were determined to have some kind of…
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Book review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have never read anything by Sarah Maas before, but this book looked interesting and so I thought I’d give it a try. I am so glad I did! The book is best described as a romance tucked inside…
Got any book recommendations?