Life Update, Reading Update

Hello out there and welcome to my tiny corner of the online world!  I just finished a fantastic book, so I figured I'd better hop on and tell you all about it!

But first, a life update.  I'm proud to now be the Director of Philanthropy at Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal.  October of 2022 was a strange month of change and transition.  Strange, but luckily not difficult.  

A thought:   We want to teach the next generation both that it's okay to feel their feelings and take a beat to recuperate, but we also want them to be resilient and know when it's time to push forward.  That seems like a fine line to me, but important.  What do you think?

Enough naval gazing!  You're here for the book talk!  

If you're ready to read about pandemics again, you MUST grab The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (the author of the fabulous Room).  She actually finished this up just prior to the onset of COVID-19, so I'm sure she dealt with many potential readers holding off until they could even approach the topic (like me!)  A shame, as this was a solid gold fast read about a maternity ward in Ireland during the height of the 1918 flu.  Plus, look at that cover!

Since we last talked, I also finished:
Lessons by Ian McEwan - McEwan is an acquired taste, and this was both depressing and incredible.
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson - Read it for the setting of 1920's London, but I was expecting more from Atkinson.
The Socrates Express by Eric Wiener - This author charmed and fascinated me in The Geography of Bliss, but mostly bored me in this one.  
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman - Cheesy romance done well.  Not usually my genre, but it's nice to insert some fluff here and there!

Next up, I'm going to tackle the final book in Backman's Bear Town trilogy.  What are YOU reading?

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