Puzzle #17 - Ravensburger - Scenic Overlook - 500 pieces

Puzzle #17 of 2023
Finished February 28, 2023

Ravensburger Scenic Overlook - 500 pieces

It has been a slower puzzle week.  Just put together the border on this one and hope to get back to it this weekend or the week coming up.  So far so good!  I have been wanting to do this one for awhile... reminds me of all our western travels with Mama and Daddy and my own family.  Saw it is by Ken Zylla... I do like his stuff.

Finally sat down today to work on this puzzle that I framed out several days ago.  It was very enjoyable and quick.  Too easy, really, but that is okay.  Hard to find that balance of what I want between hard and easy.  I enjoyed the scene and like Ken Zylla images.  He always has cool cars which I love.  :)  And boy have we stopped at scenic overlooks like this many times over the years!  I respectfully disagree with his 'tourist trap' sign.  Yes, that may technically be true, but I don't mind it.  :D  Wall Drug DOES have great donuts!  And clean restrooms!  ha!  And when you are out west, you WANT places to stop!  So there you go.  :D  This puzzle may even whet my appetite for travel again.  That would be something!!  :)

Puzzle #17 of 2023
Finished February 28, 2023

Ravensburger Scenic Overlook - 500 pieces

The Lazy Genius Way

The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn't, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi

February 2023 - Well Read Book Club

I read this for my Well Read Book Club and I did enjoy it.  I would have loved to read it at age 25... much of what is in it I guess I had slogged through life and figured out on my own.  But her descriptions and advice are solid.  Wouldn't it have been nice to not have to just slog it out?  :)  Even so, I found myself nodding my head and even shouting 'Amen Sister' more than once!  

She has a clear way of writing and sharing that doesn't make you feel 'less than'.  She continually states that some people like one way and others like another way.  None are wrong.  She just tries to help you determine what is really worth it to you to do deeper.  And how to make other parts of your life less consuming.  Finding that good balance between being lazy or being a genius and trying too hard.  Good points and an engaging book.  Even our roomful of 50+ women found many helpful hints and had lots to talk about.  

Her mantra is "Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't."  I like that! 

This is definitely a great book to give as a gift to a new young Mom.  In fact, I paired a copy of this book with Michelle Obama's The Light We Carry for a few wonderful young women I know.  

Notes/Highlights from the book - 

...but as a self-righteous perfectionist, I was obsessed with keeping score, avoiding failure, and being impressive. Comparison and judgment were par for the course.

When you care about something, you try to do it well. When you care about everything, you do nothing well, which then compels you to try even harder. Welcome to being tired.

Little did I know you can be just as exhausted from not trying as you can from trying too hard. Managing apathy and survival mode takes as much energy as managing rules and perfection.

Our culture is obsessed with being real, but we’ve been using the wrong measuring stick.

I’m all for letting go of perfection, but we’ve somehow conflated order with being fake.

I want to stop judging women who have it together, assuming they have something to hide. I want to stop applauding chaos as the only indicator of vulnerability.

You can be real when life is in order and when it’s falling apart. Life is beautifully both.

Constant decision-making is one of the reasons you don’t have energy for things that matter to you.

Stuff is the enemy of clean, and the more stuff you have, the harder it is to clean your house.

I do appreciate her simple take on recipes - something I have long worked toward.  I love sheetpan meals but admit that some of her tips took my sheetpan chicken up a notch!  (oiling underneath the skin of the chicken and placing the chicken on top of the veggies instead of nestled down within)

Check out her famous recipe here...

https://www.thelazygeniuscollective.com/blog/change-your-life-chicken

The Light We Carry

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

Read February 2023 - Books With Friends

Wonderful book!  I just love Michelle Obama and her ability to be so very 'real' but also inspiring and encouraging.  I have bought copies of this book to give to several others, particularly younger people.  

In The Light We Carry, Michelle discusses some tools she has honed over her lifetime for dealing with anxiety and uncertain times with courage, grace and resilience.  These tools are both powerful and yet somewhat 'simple' - meaning totally doable.  That is the recipe for success.  She talks about, among many other things, The Power of Small (do the first small thing and proceed from there), Decoding Fear (I love her description of being comfortably afraid), the importance of partnering well (I'm so thankful to my own parents for doing this part so well and stressing the importance of that one decision in my own life).  She also gives us a clear picture of her remarkable mother, Marian Robinson.  Oh, how I love this woman!  In many instances she reminded me of my own mother.  While Mrs. Robinson and my Mama had very different backgrounds, there were overlaps that formed and shaped them.  One was recognizing adult behavior that was unhealthy and vowing not to repeat it.  Another was her total practicality and competence.  I laughed out loud about her dealing with the toaster fire.  :)  What a wonderful woman and what successful parenting.

I gave this 5+ stars for sure!

The Light We Carry official trailer (with Oprah)

You can see the full version of The Light We Carry on Netflix at this link...

https://www.netflix.com/watch/81657245

Short GMA interview with Michelle Obama 

Here is the full Robin Roberts (20/20) interview with Michelle Obama and friends found on Hulu. 

https://www.hulu.com/series/michelle-obama-the-light-we-carry-a-conversation-with-robin-roberts-739bd691-d7db-492a-a7b4-8df85d8c5951

The Power of Small - Michelle Obama (excerpted from the book)

The Light We Carry - Michelle Obama (excerpted from the book)

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Read February 2023

This month I read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I thoroughly enjoyed it and especially loved the ‘voice’ of the octopus. It was a pleasant read after the super heavy Tattooist of Auschwitz.

I read this for Well Read Book Club and thoroughly enjoyed it. Who wouldn’t love that octopus? He was so perfectly written - I could picture every scene with him perfectly. About the storyline - yes, I had read some critiques about how there were too many coincidences... but that was just the beauty of this particular story. It was meant to be that way! And I loved all the full circle connections and relationships. And of course I loved the redeeming qualities of the story - I’m a big fan of people getting their lives together and living happily (mostly?) ever after.


Some highlights from the book...

Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.

Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?

She understands what it means to never be able to stop moving, lest you find yourself unable to breathe.

Some trees aren’t meant to sprout tender new branches, but to stand stoically on the forest floor, silently decaying.

Humans are the only species who subvert the truth for their own entertainment. They call them jokes. Sometimes puns.

The Visitors: A Novel

The Visitors: A Novel by Sally Beauman

Read February 2023 

I was in the mood for one of those long meandering books like a good Rosamunde Pilcher or Maeve Binchy.  But since I have pretty much read all of those, I pulled this one out.  It rose to the top of my selections based entirely on its (mostly) Egypt locale.  I really did enjoy this book a lot, but admit that I took my time reading it.  I even stopped halfway through to finish up my other book club books by their deadlines.  But I really enjoyed all the details surrounding the excavation of King Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.  Having visited that site (and others in Egypt) myself, I could truly picture the area and feel the heat and smell the Nile.  

This book spans the globe with action taking place in England, Egypt and even the US.  The time period of 1922 through the war years provided the ‘epic’ part of the read (that I do enjoy).  :)  And I was fascinated by the character development.  I loved Lucy’s spunk and determination in spite of all odds. 

Coming back to update 3/13/23 - I am liking this book more and more after finishing it.  I keep thinking about it and realize it was a very good book.  

Update again on 7-26-23 - Definitely giving this book a 5.  I just read The Collector’s Daughter based on the life of Eve Carnavon and was so glad I had read The Visitors - it certainly gave more depth to the current book. 

Notes and Highlights - 

bit late, you’ll say – but better late than never, don’t you agree? I always wanted to be a writer – I wrote poems as a girl, you know, and my, oh my, how I fussed over the scansion and the rhymes! Then, somehow, I lost the habit, and all my splendid ambitions went underground. Never, never let that happen to you, Lucy, dear . .

never attempt to come between two people who love one another. Anyone who does that will always and inevitably lose.’

‘How hard it is, being old, too many memories,’

Times change, of course, and what we value – the way we value, alters. How do we decide this is worthless, and that is a treasure? Unless the object concerned is of gold, of course, whose value never declines, whose glitter can never be resisted.

Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Read February 2023 - Zoom Reading Circle

Hidden Figures was appreciated by all but was a tougher technical read than many of us had thought it might be. However, all that technical information was foundational for telling the remarkable stories of these incredible women. Their individual stories were powerful and inspiring and I truly do feel that the book and the movie go well together - each offering something to enhance the other. The book gives the depth and the movie highlights the inspirational story and heart. I am definitely going to re-watch this movie soon! And may have to add to the list The Right Stuff, as well!  

(by the way… if any of you have a chance to watch an old HBO miniseries called From the Earth to the Moon - produced by Tom Hanks - I HIGHLY recommend it! It played on HBO for 12 nights back in the late 1990’s I believe and is probably my favorite of all the ’space race’ movies/series that I have seen. Each episode is written and directed by a different team and yet they go together so well to tell the story of all the years of the space race.) Just as an aside…

Book club score - 3.8 

But the movie version received a universal 5 from each of us!  :) 

Article about Katharine Goble Johnson’s death at 101

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/science/katherine-johnson-dead.html

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Read February 2023 - Zoom Reading Circle

As we probably imagined, The Tattooist of Auschwitz was a difficult read but many felt an important one. Several of us mentioned learning new aspects of the holocaust that we hadn’t considered, including the horror of drawing Jewish persons into doing jobs that were harmful to fellow Jews. The atrocities were almost more than our minds can take in. Ultimately, I appreciated the hopefulness in the good of humanity that Barbara re-directed our attention toward. I appreciate her thoughts of holding both the weight of the evil and the strength of the good & hopeful together.

Book club rated this a 4.

Here is an article I found that talks about the two main characters in this book, Lale and Gita Sokolov. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-42568390

Puzzle #16 - Bits & Pieces - Marvelous Garden - 500 pieces

Puzzle #16 of 2023
Finished February 19, 2023

Bits & Pieces Marvelous Garden - 500 pieces

Marvelous Garden - Oleg Gavrilov - Decided to try this one from Bits & Pieces.  This was actually one of the very first puzzles I ordered last year!  Then I ignored it because it was a Bits & Pieces puzzle and I wanted no part of them anymore.  :D  Pulling it out now is quite interesting.  First of all, the pieces don't seem as wonky to me as the 300 piece Bits & Pieces do. Second - this is a tough one because of the image and somewhat because of the wonky shapes but not in the way that I felt B&P puzzles were a year ago.  Slowly working my way through it - and enjoying it.  Have some pieces that I will be quite intrigued to discover where and how they fit in.  (thought they were edge pieces but maybe not?)  So far, enjoyable.

This was a bit tough, actually!  It was fun to put together, though.  Ready to be finished, but it wasn't frustrating.  All those peacock feathers were tricky!!  Pretty finished puzzle.  Enjoyable.

Puzzle #16 of 2023
Finished February 19, 2023

Bits & Pieces Marvelous Garden - 500 pieces

Puzzle #15 - Falcon - Greetings from Scotland - 1000 pieces

Puzzle #15 of 2023
Finished February 15, 2023

Falcon Greetings from Scotland - 1000 pieces 

This is a lovely Falcon puzzle but I was so sad to discover that Falcon must only put posters in the multi-sets.  There is no poster in this puzzle.  So, while the pieces are sturdy and nice, and no puzzle dust, and a fun image, it is frustrating to have no poster.  Especially when the box cover has whole sections of the puzzle covered by their name and logo.  ugh.  I hate this so much!  I literally cannot see the top left corner of the puzzle at all.  Why don't they include posters in all their puzzles?  I had decided Falcon was about my favorite and was planning to order a lot more. But for now, I will enjoy the puzzles, but won't buy any more unless I can get them in sets.  :(  This is a fun puzzle and of course I love that it is Scotland.  Have a few new places that I would like to visit now.  But it is getting a bit challenging at this point in the game... :)

Finished this one today.  Parts were quite challenging!  But the pieces were so nice - color and weight and fit. Enjoyed it a lot.  But missed that gorgeous heavy-weight poster. Alla Badsar is the artist for this puzzle.

Puzzle #15 of 2023
Finished February 15, 2023

Falcon Greetings from Scotland - 1000 pieces 

Puzzle #14 - Falcon - Corner Shops The Toy Store - 1000 pieces

Puzzle #14 of 2023
Finished on February 12, 2023

Falcon Corner Shops The Toy Store - 1000 pieces

This is another one from the set of 4 Corner Shops series from Falcon.  Just as delightful as the Hairdresser was!  Great thickness to the pieces, wonderful heavy-weight poster, bright image that is clear to see, challenging but not frustrating.  A few false fits but easily figured out.  I am a sure fire fan of Falcon from here on out.  which is great because I really love their puzzle images!  No puzzle dust, as well.

wonderful, thick poster

Puzzle #14 of 2023
Finished on February 12, 2023

Falcon Corner Shops The Toy Store - 1000 pieces

Puzzle #13 - Vermont Christmas Company - Venice Cafe - 550 pieces

Puzzle #13 of 2023
Finished on February 11, 2023

Vermont Christmas Company Venice Cafe - 550 pieces

Image by David Maclean - definitely an old favorite.  :)  

Another puzzle with almost zero puzzle dust.  The last several I have done have been like this... makes the puzzle dust from White Mountain and Ravensburger really stand out as gross!  This is a nice puzzle.  Nice sized pieces, loose fit, but okay.  Sure wish there was a poster.  At least the image on the box is good sized.  The 550 piece puzzles from VCC are simple and easy but fun.

Was a fun puzzle all around.  Glad to put it together.

Puzzle #13 of 2023
Finished on February 11, 2023

Vermont Christmas Company Venice Cafe - 550 pieces