All posts by Sherry

The Wife Between Us

Author: Greer Hendriks & Sarah Pekkanen

I was confused – very confused – and then I thought the whole thing was just silly.

The first part of the book was excellent. The story follows Vanessa, Richard’s ex-wife, and Nellie, the woman he is about to marry.

In part two of the book we find out that Vanessa and Nellie are the same person. We get a clearer picture of Richard and Vanessa’s attempts to break up the engagement of Richard and his new love.

By then end of the book it was just too much that Vanessa’s therapist was Richard’s first wife.

I’ve revealed a lot of the twists in the book but I don’t think it matters as I wouldn’t suggest you read it. That being said, it did get a lot of good ratings on Goodreads.

Goodreads Rating: * *

I’m Your Man

Author: Sylvie Simmons

It took me forever to read this biography; I was travelling a lot and it is a big book (533 pages not including the Notes) so too heavy to pack. It was the movie Marianne and Leonard that prompted me to pull the book off the shelf.

At one point early in the book I commented that I kind of wished I hadn’t started it because I didn’t think Leonard was the nicest of men. He led a very interesting life and he wrote and recorded so many books and albums that I’ve never heard of. I admit that when the author got to some of the newer albums (ones that I have) I enjoyed the book more.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Do I still remember?

Saturday, November 16, 2019

It’s been so long since I did a post that I wonder if I still remember how. I’ll give it a try and see how it goes.

I had a wonderful week on Texada. The quilting retreat (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) was awesome – we always have such a good time. Our group project was an easy one – a scissor fob – so it didn’t take up too much sewing time. My fob doesn’t fit the scissors that I use for sewing but I’m sure it will fit the ones I use for cross stitching. I was the first one out on the strip poker game (meaning I lost all my loonies) but I won one of the draws and came home with a bundle of batik fabrics. The food was excellent and we all agreed that it didn’t really matter what we ate – we didn’t have to prepare it or clean up afterwards.

I spent the rest of the week (until today) working my way through to finishes on many of the things I pieced over the weekend. I can’t show you any photos as the Texada Retreat is my start for my Christmas gifts. I still have a long way to go before I’m done but I’ve made a good start. My wood stove skills continue to improve and there was only one morning when I burnt quite a patch off one of my fingers trying to adjust the wood in the stove. With the stove going all day long my space is quite toasty.

Last night was our Texada House Concert. I said to Pat that I feel quite removed from the tour as the cafe where we hold the show takes care of almost everything. The performers didn’t even stay with us last night as we assumed they needed two beds and we only have one. Apparently they slept in an RV with just a queen bed so I guess we would have been okay. The next one isn’t until February so there is a long break.

I took the ferry “home” this morning as there was a work party scheduled at the Hall. The renovations are done and we wanted to give everything a good dusting, scrub down, and put all the dishes back into our new kitchen cupboards. There were a couple of small rooms on either side of the stage that we cleared out – there were boxes for the garbage, boxes for the thrift shop, boxes for recycle, boxes everywhere. The place looks fabulous and we’ll be showing it off to the people who gave us the grant in a week or so.

On my way to the Hall I stopped at one of the big craft fairs going on this weekend. I was picking up something specific from one of the vendors but had a quick look around the rest of the booths. It was so crowded you could barely get down the aisles. I stopped at a new-to-me vendor and picked up a Christmas gift. That’s another list I should make – December is full of birthdays as well as Christmas.

And now that I’m home there is so much needing to be done. The piles that I left before I went to Deloise’s quilt show are still piled up – what happened to the cleaning fairy? I brought boxes back from the Retreat and boxes home from the Hall. I have so much computer work that needs to be done that I had to make a list so I wouldn’t forget anything. I’m not convinced that even if I got everything done on my list that I still wouldn’t have forgotten something.

At Risk

Author: Alice Hoffman

Eleven-year old Amanda has been diagnosed with AIDS which she contracted through a blood transfusion. The story tells a bit about her journey to death but it focuses more on her family and friends and how the diagnosis affects them. I would have liked to have more background on the other characters as they were all very interesting – the astronomer father, the photographer mother, young brother, estranged grandparents, her doctor and a local medium.

I had some difficulty with this book but a bit of research has helped make more sense of it. I read it on my Kindle (the book went to Kindle in 2014) and I didn’t understand why the timeline from diagnosis to death was so short. Surely by 2014 there was more knowledge about paediatric AIDS. But the original book (hard cover) was published in 1998 so the research and treatments weren’t so well known and the difficulties and discrimination Amanda faced were understandable.

Goodreads Rating: * * *