Anticipation of a Thing
Almost as good as the the thing itself... and sometimes even better.
Hello Friends,
One more sleep until Santa comes and the anticipation is just as exciting as the day itself. There will be boxes to unwrap and toys to put together and batteries to add. We will eat french toast for breakfast and tri-tip for dinner and then we will fall asleep snuggled in our contentedness.
And then what?
I’m one of those people that love that weird week in between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It feels like the whole week is a fresh start, and I love a fresh start. I like to do simple things through out the week like take donations to Goodwill, clean out my email inbox, and set up my planner, yes I still have a paper planner.
Mostly, I just love the anticipation of the year ahead. What books will I read? Where will I travel? What will I celebrate? What will I mourn? Who will I spend my time with? what will I spend my energy on, or not? What will I stop, what will I start?
I like to write it all down and then see if I can turn any of it into a project. Like I did when I ran every street in Santa Barbara or when I completed NaNoWriMo this last November.
I hope this week brings you joy and contentment. I hope you have the time to tap into your creative brain and see what’s there and daydream about what’s next. I hope you are safe and healthy and happy.
This is where I am today,
Emily
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Just Finished
Big reading week for me!
The Best Worst Christmas by Kate Forster
A quiet, sweet Audible Original. This is my first ever Christmas Romance… or really any Romance and it was exactly what I wanted exactly when I wanted it. It is filled with all the lovely things avid Romance readers talk about when they talk about Romance: past lovers, a misunderstanding, things left unsaid, and two people who finally realize how silly they have been all these years.
Also, London, cutting down a Christmas tree, and a reindeer that bites the man who can’t get his act together and tell the woman he still loves her on the butt… or should I say bum.
I think Christmas Romance is my new tradition.
Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
Newlyweds Sam Stadler and Annie Potter say goodbye to New York City and move to Sam's hometown town to be near Sam's mother who's health, both physical and mental are declining. Sam is a therapist and everything is going just fine until a young French patient shows up and Sam disappears into thin air.
I picked up the book because it looked like a good suspense novel, then I thought I read it wrong because it read more like a rom-com. Halfway through a major plot twist had me questioning everything. This book brings the "unreliable narrator" to a whole new level. Then I got worried I picked up a torture novel (it wasn't) Then I plowed through the last 100 pages in two days, including reading until 3 am.
This book explores how wounds from our childhood shape the choices we make as adults and that the fear of turning out to be just like your parents can have some pretty scary consequences.
J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton
Kinsey Millhone is 34, still living with Henery Pitts in Santa Theresa (Santa Barbara) CA. Wendell Jaffe has been dead for five years and his wife has just collected on his life insurance. It was believed he committed suicide after a Ponzi scheme he was running came crashing down. The only problem is that Wendell Jaffe was just spotted in Mexico alive and well.
Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is tapped by her former employer California Fidelity (the company who paid the life insurance claim) to fly down to Mexico to verify the tip.
We also learn more about Kinsey's family, namely that she has one. Kinsey's parents were killed in a car accident when she was young and she was raised by a stern aunt. Her aunt died when Kinsey was in her twenties. She has always prided herself on being a loner but apparently, she's lived an hour away from a grandmother, and a host of cousins for the last 20 years and never knew it. - they never tried to reach out either. one conversation she had with a cousin had me yelling expletives… more
Links to Ponder
Joanna Ganes made a lot of Christmas cookies (Instagram)
When your novel is about to be published, your dog needs to be put down and you find a lump in your breast (Cup of Jo)
Ten minutes to a better mood (Runner’s World)
27 Holiday Romances in case you want to start a reading tradition of your own (Bookshop.org)
Mel Brooks ruins a perfectly good genre and ends up making my favorite movie of all time, Spaceballs. (Lit Hub)
The legend, Joan Diddion has died at 87. I only know of her, always a little intimidated, but I bought A Year of Magical Thinking this year and I will be my next read. (L.A. Times)
What if There’s No Such Thing as Closure? “It is not closure you need but certainty … some doubts may linger for you, but that is the nature of loss. Its ending is never perfect, even in the best of times.” (New York Times)
The case for reviewing every book you read. (Book Riot) Even if it’s just for your own eyes. (Modern Mrs. Darcy)
9 podcasts that focus on mental health (The Good Trade)
Describe yourself in five words (Cup of Jo)
What are you reading or listening to this week? What have you created that wasn’t there before? Post your response in the comments below or tag me on Instagram @emilykathleenwrites