I tip my glass of lemonade this week to Wilbur the French bulldog for three reasons:
1. I love animals, especially dogs;
2. We all need joy from uncommon places this year; and
3. He is a rescue dog!
Therefore, Wilbur gets the Lemonade of the Week for being elected Mayor of Rabbit Hash, KY at only 6 months old!
In a tradition that dates back to 1998, Rabbit Hash has again elected an animal as Mayor. While it is a ceremonial position and not political one, it does raise funds for the local historical society by charging $1 per vote. People worldwide were able to vote online and this year they raised nearly 23,000 dollars.
The Rabbit Hash mayoral election coincides every four years with the presidential election. The previous mayor, Brynn the Pitbull, held the position from 2016 to 2020.
Congratulations to Wilbur on his achievement and to the second-place dog Jack Rabbit, a therapy dog, who will serve as Ambassador of Rabbit Hash. We wish them a peaceful term.
Yes, I finally finished the book, all 517 pages. This one was definitely a challenge for me. I’m not going to review it, just give a few thoughts and discuss a quandary that I have with the book. I will try not to give spoilers for those interested in reading it.
My first thought about this book is that it is a little heavy handed in creating an arc between this book and the trilogy. It really goes out of its way to tie the two stories together, that I was rolling my eyes at some of the connections (i.e. a character brings up Katniss – the vegetable – to Snow, The Hanging Tree song and the In The Meadow song that Katniss sings). I think the book was meant to describe Snow’s relationship with our protagonist Katniss, where the layers of contempt he has for her comes from and in that it does a decent job. But my struggle with the story is that I had very little empathy for Coriolanus Snow and it didn’t compel be to push through the book at a faster pace. That was my experience. If you have read it, I would like to hear what your experience was like in the comments!
Let’s be clear, I’m not saying don’t read it if you plan to because I would never discourage someone from any book. I believe that every reader brings their own perspective to a story and it will either draw you in or not and the reader should choose their own path with said book.
Now on to my quandary… I added the The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to my “Books read by year list” and went to add it to my book list under Suzanne Collins name and with the rest of the trilogy when I realized I had removed the trilogy from my library (as confirmed by my Removed from Library list 🤦♀️). So do I add it in to my book list or set it aside and pass it on – what to do what to do? These are the questions that keep me up at night! Story unfolding 😁.
In other news I started reading Peace Talks and that was like slipping into a comfy pair of pajamas and visiting with friends. So much so that I’m almost done with it! If you like supernatural fiction you should check out Jim Butcher’s Dresden series – just don’t start with this book or you will be lost (it’s the 16th book in the series). Storm Front begins the series if you’re interested and local libraries are great for finding the older books in a series
Also, I would love it if you would share with everyone what you are reading in the comments.
Let me start with by stating that I love my little girl Reese, who will be ten years old next May. Reese was very much a “daddy’s girl” back when my ex lived with me. Sometimes I think she still is, even though he’s been gone for 2 years.
We have an unusual relationship as a result of my ex-leaving. There are days when I swear she thinks that her “daddy” wanted to take her with him but the mean parent made her stay with her. Kind of like Hope Floats only the animal version, but maybe I’m projecting.
What I wish I could tell her is that I chose her because I knew that much change would have been too much for her. And because I loved her enough want to keep her even though my life would be so much easier if I hadn’t.
So, what are her quirks?
Let’s start with barking and charging the door when the doorbell rings (whether in real life or on tv), when someone enters the house or if she thinks someone is entering the house. Common for a lot of dogs, but there’s more!
She does not like new people in the house, even by invitation. If they look at her or, god forbid, talk to her, she will growl or bark at them and then run away. She has to accept you on her terms, even then she reserves the right to bark at you upon entry.
And now that we have to leave whenever my house is being shown to a prospective buyer, she will run into the house upon our return barking her head off to scare the invisible people she thinks are in the house.
Next, she runs laps around the house if I start the oven, when the oven beeps to let me know it’s hot, at the timer one-minute left to cook sound and, if I don’t catch it in time, when the timer goes off. These laps are also reserved for the microwave and popcorn popper.
She has a sixth sense for times I’m going to turn on the garbage disposal and barks and runs when I do. If I pull a can out of the pantry, she starts to whine because she thinks I’m going to use the can opener, which is not always the case, and barks the entire time I use it. She actually knows the sound of the freezer opening because she will come to the kitchen no matter where she is in the house in hopes of getting something to eat. What makes it weirder is that I have never fed her from the refrigerator/freezer ever, but she is still there waiting.
Then there is my phone. I have resorted to keeping it on vibrate because any noise it makes, she starts barking – ringer or notification, it makes no difference. Even on vibrate, she barks when I answer the phone or pick up the phone or if she thinks I’m going to pick up the phone after it has vibrated, which she will also bark at on occasion (usually when it’s left on a table where the vibration is more noticeable). Oh, and when I listen to Reality Checked on Sirius, she comes running at the opening music – but only for Reality Checked, no other show I listen to.
But the piece de resistance is when I sneeze – then she thinks we are under attack. And I never sneeze just once. She starts with the high-pitched barking that will eventually settle into a frenzied whimper until I blow my nose where all is right in her world again.
I tell you all of this for two reasons: first, when I say my dog is crazy, people think I’m joking. I think this shows I am not. Second, in spite of all of her nervous ticks (which can be grating at times), I would still choose her again and adjust my life, because it was right for her, and I will always do what’s right for my animals.
“Leave footprints of kindness for others to follow”
motto – Tierra de Animales
Ricardo Pimental operates a sanctuary in Cancun, Mexico called Tierra de Animales, that houses hundreds of animals. He recently went above and beyond for his animals during a category 4 hurricane. Back in October of this year, Delta bore down on the Yucatan peninsula and Ricardo’s animals were in jeopardy. His solution – bring them inside his home for the night! Approximately 300 dogs, several rabbits, chickens and even a hedgehog weathered the storm indoors, as a flock of sheep huddled on the house’s patio for protection. While I’m sure this isn’t normal protocol for such a situation, he knew it was the right thing to do. And, all animals survived, despite the beating the house took, thanks to Ricardo Pimental. So we raise a glass of lemonade in his honor today.
First, I had hoped to finish The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes but I still have a hundred or so pages to go. While I am beginning to bond with the characters a bit more and the story is good, I haven’t hit that sweet spot in the book where I just can’t put it down.
You see, for me, there is always one point in the story where it grabs hold of me and I will read obsessively until I’ve finished (drove my ex crazy sometimes). This just isn’t that kind of book for me. Some books will have that moment and some won’t and that’s ok. It just takes me longer to finish and the piles continue to grow (more on that later).
As for my growing obsession, I realized after last week’s blog I needed another list. This list is a list of books I’ve found in the library or have been recommended to me that I hope to read one day. I realized the list was necessary to compile when I found different notes around the house with book titles on them. I’m really bad about writing theses kind of things down and just sticking them wherever, so I thought “I need a list!”. The obsession is real my friends. Now if I could only get paid for it…
A few books on my “to be read eventually list” include:
The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones
Providence – Max Berry (I read and enjoyed his book Lexicon, so I will probably start a power read through his books someday).
Circe – Madeline Miller
However, before that happens (hence the eventually part of the name) I have three pressing books next: Jim Butcher’s two latest books in the Dresden Files series– Peace Talks and Battleground and Rick Riordan’s The Tower of Nero. And then a three-book series that my parents gave me, so it may be a while.
(Note: Jeopardy was a topic on my list and I thought that today would be a good day to write about it.)
I have been a fan of Jeopardy for years just like many of you. No game show has made me feel incredibly smart and incredibly dumb at the same time. I’m usually strongest in the movie/tv categories, books were so-so for me because there are so many of them and then author trivia on top of that? Sports I am halfway decent at. Miscellaneous categories were a mixed bag. But boy oh boy was I in trouble with history, religion, science and geography. I mean who is good in all of the subjects that Jeopardy has in its catalogue? Ok there is Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter, but they’re anomalies.
My favorite moments of Jeopardy are the moments when the players are completely stumped on a clue that is so obvious to me. In those instances, I feel like the smartest person in the room (of course I’m usually the only person in the room, not counting the dog 😁). Bonus points if I know the final Jeopardy and the players miss it! There is a sweet sense of victory in that, until the next night when I can’t answer a single clue to save my life. See? Smart and dumb at the same time.
But the best part of Jeopardy was Alex Trebek. He exuded kindness through the TV every night he was on. He could be shady with the comments on occasion but never in a mean-spirited way and he could laugh at himself. Most importantly, he wanted everyone who played to do well.
Humble and gracious to the end, he is the epitome of a class act. Jeopardy will go on, but it will be forever changed without him. Rest in Power Alex Trebek.
I mean I really am obsessive about them. I have all of the works of the authors in my library catalogued, notated with marks for books I own (listed as paperback or hardcover) and/or read, and those that I have collector’s editions of. If books are removed from my library, I have a spreadsheet for those as well, so I don’t buy them again. I have a list of upcoming new releases that I want, sorted by release date and a list of books I’ve completed reading by year (this is a more recent undertaking and includes books that I check out from the local library).
I also get emails from: Barnes and Noble, Simon and Schuster, Penguin Random House, Knopf Doubleday and Subterranean Press (their books are not my typical genre, but a few of my favorite authors will publish with them so I keep the emails coming). Then I receive emails from a few independent bookstores – Foxtale Bookshop, Porter Square Books and Books on Broad (my local shop). FYI Foxtale Bookshop and Porter Square Books do virtual author events, so you might want to check them out. Cemetery Dance is another independent press that you can get books from as well.
I am currently working my way through the Hunger Games prequal – The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds by Suzanne Collins, which I bought last spring. It’s funny the young woman at the bookstore said it took about 8 Chapters before she really got into it and I’m on that same path. Now let me clarify that I just picked the book up about a week ago, not that I’ve been working on it since last spring. I’m not that slow of a reader 😁. But if you’re like me, you have a book stack (or three) that is constantly shifting depending on your mood. So now it’s The Ballad’s turn and while I’m enjoying it, I haven’t quiet fallen in love with the characters as I did in the original Hunger Games Triology. It probably doesn’t help that you know what kind of person president Snow becomes by the trilogy which is probably coloring my impression of the younger version. I am also struggling with his first name Coriolanus! By brain slows every time the name shows up because it’s trying to pronounce it in my head (yep the voices are real when I read 😂). Let’s just say it doesn’t roll off tongue easily. If you want to comment – no spoilers, please.
I’ll update you in a week and I will have, hopefully, finished it, cataloged it and put it in its rightful place on my shelf.
“Reading gives us someplace to go, when we have to stay where we are.”
My Lemons My Lemonade 