A life of books . . .
This was a very cultural month or perhaps I made an effort more than I have the past few months. I’ve noticed a lot more public artwork around the city and haven’t taken a single photo of it, maybe I’ll try to get some for next month’s Culture Corner. Instead you get to relieve two amazing events and my virtual rock-starness.
Above you can see my tickets for the Harvard Bookstore Margaret Atwood reading and the Boston Lyric Opera’s performance of The Magic Flute.
**If you notice this posting, I’m back posting this. Work has been SO busy that I’m two posts behind and there’s no telling how many more I’ll fall behind. I was able to grab a few moments tonight to quick post these two posts.**
This month was split between really good and really bad when it came to working out and keeping it healthy. My workout streak passed 70 days and then I got sick and have missed almost two full weeks. On top of that I started to eat salads without fruit (see above right) which was a big step for me and they were pretty good, but then in contrast to that I ended up eating really poorly while sick and while work has gotten ridiculously busy (I’m in the middle of three 50+ hour weeks) I’ve been eating out more than I should, but I’m getting back on the ball this coming week, fingers crossed.
I honestly thought doing monthly recaps might make the year go buy significantly slower, but boy was I wrong. Every time I go to write one of these my first thought is holy hell where did _______ go? And this month’s post is no different. I’m trying to figure out where summer and September went and what I’m going to do knowing October, November and December are going to be even busier!
On the reading front, I had a fun month. I didn’t read a single challenge book and don’t feel any guilt at all. I read what I wanted when I wanted and thoroughly enjoyed it, including FINALLY getting around to reading Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling. (Which was great and I can’t wait until another is released!) I read a total of ten books and two short stories. Of those SEVEN were from the library and three were galleys. I think my favorite read of the month was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake triology: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam. I went and saw Ms. Atwood speak and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’ll recap that in this month’s Culture Corner. The trilogy and hearing her speak once again reminded me how much I love her and I think I’m going to make an effort to finish reading her other novels I haven’t read yet.
When this publishes I will have worked out and/or walked for 47 days in a row! No clue why other than I don’t want to break the streak now that I’ve got one. I could also say part of it is this monthly recap which keeps me honest, but it could also be that I’ve started to actually see results.
Not only are my hands no longer baby smooth (my friend Caroline freaks out about that, but I just treat my hands properly or something), but I actually get blisters and they have callused from all the lifting and pull ups and other exercises. I don’t know how many inches I’ve lost overall, but my clothes are definitely starting to get too big (including my belts). I did measure inches at one point, but they were the same to I didn’t worry about it. However, the awesome news is that I’m hovering at about the 20-25lbs (9-11kg, 1.4-1.8st) lost mark since January. Which is very exciting, I have a personal goal for my high school reunion in October and it’s totally within reach.
Click here to continue reading, but I do have to warn you there is a picture of my feet…yeah.
So I felt really guilty about reviewing either one of these short stories/novellas on their own so I squished them together and counted them as one book. Total they are barely 50 pages, but I’m including them anyway. The first, In Another Life, is an ARC from the publisher and I received nothing for my honest opinion; the second, Karma is the 2013 Boston Book Festival 1 City 1 Story selection.
I would’ve read this ages ago if I would only have realized that it was a novella/short story. For some reason I assumed this was a standard 150-200 page love story type novel. Regardless I am glad that I read it, even if it was only 28 pages.
They say that the hardest thing to write of all forms of writing is a short story. Now I don’t know who they are or whether this is true, but I can say I have read really bad short stories and amazing short stories. I think a lot of authors struggle with the finite amount of space and telling a complete story within the short story structure. And although E. E. Montgomery does a great job with this as a short story (or novella as the publisher says), this story would only have been better if it had more meat to it. I will say there were golden passages that made my breath catch and made me want the love the two characters had such as
Click here to continue reading.