Sunday Salon....WELCOME, IAN edition

Don and Ian. Don was supposed to be watching the Seahawks football game, but was admiring Ian instead.

Weather: Beautiful day. Sunny and warm. It was cool and rainy the past week but we hear that summer-ish weather will be with us this coming week. There is still time to enjoy being outdoors.

Me and Ian, on the day of his birth

Welcome, Ian. Our grandson was born on Sept. 13th to our daughter and son-in law, Rita and Daniel. Ian weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs. 9 oz. after a relatively short labor. The new family is adjusting well. I've been on grandma duty most days...making meals and helping with laundry and offering my limited advice, but mostly doing baby-admiring whenever possible. Right now Ian and his parents are visiting us, their first time since his birth, for brunch and football game viewing (Go Seahawks!) We already love this little guy so much and are so proud of his parents.

Our daughter with her baby. Such a little snuggler.

In addition to baby-admiring, I've been reading. About the only other thing I've been doing these past two weeks is reading and listening to audiobooks. In fact, in the past two weeks, since my last Sunday post, I've finished a record-breaking ten nine books. It helps that almost half of them were audiobooks that I listened to as I drove back and forth from Rita and Dan's home everyday. It helped that I had committed to a reading challenge to read books from my to-be-read (TBR) list, which ends today.

• News of the World by Paulette Jiles...(Audiobook) Set in Texas during the few years after the Civil War. Two misfits and thrown together by circumstances beyond their control and they come to rely on one another for support. Read my review by clicking on the hyperlinked title. both Don and I really enjoyed this book.
• The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein...(Print) Set in Scotland in the late 1930s before WWII. It is part historical fiction, part mystery, and part coming-of-age tale. This is the second best YA book I've read all year. Once again click the title (hyperlinked) for my review.
• The Biography of the Beatles by Bob Spitz...(Audiobook) Feeding my Beatlemania I listened to an abridged version of the 900+ page book. I'm not quite full yet, but getting closer.
• Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden...(Print, did-not-finish). The plot is set during the Civil War when freed slaves were allowed to drown at Ebenezer Creek by the Yankee soldiers who were supposed to be protecting them. The book was written in a very confusing fashion so I decided to abandon it mid-book, though I am interested in the topic.
• The Ordering of Love: New and Collected Poems by Madeleine L'Engle...(Print) I started this book over six weeks ago. I found a poem in it which I adapted as An Ode for Ian.
• The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby...(Print) A quick YA read set in a community on Vancouver island. Two high school students, Charlie and John, vie for the one fashion scholarship to attend an arts school. I liked this book a lot, and I didn't expect that I would. I read it very fast, in one day.
• H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald...(Audiobook) A memoir. The author's father dies and in an effort to deal with her grief, Helen decides that she should train a goshawk, the largest hawk in Britain. The book isn't just about the training, but also about memories, grief, acceptance of self, and surprisingly, about T.H. White, the author of The Once and Future King, who also trained a goshawk back in his day. I liked this audiobook but I am not sure I would recommend the book to casual readers.
• Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson...(Audiobook) Sci-Fi, novella, satire. Anderson has a funny, yet depressing novel here about our world when aliens take over. I laughed and moaned. Short. Only 3+ hrs of listening.
• The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe...(Audiobook) Mary Anne Schwalbe, Will's mother, has cancer. The two decide to start a two-person book club so they can discuss books while they wait for her appointments. This book is so tender and thoughtful. It is an upcoming book club selection, and yes, the irony is not lost on me. I highly recommend it.
• Wonderful Tonight by Pattie Boyd...(Print) Pattie Boyd was married to both George Harrison AND Eric Clapton. She was the muse for several well-known songs by these famous musicians. This book is about her life and what it was like living with these famous, but troubled men. I've wanted to read this for a long time but selected it now because of my current Beatles-craze.

Currently reading:

• The Once and Future King by T.H. White.  After reading H is for Hawk, I decided I need to read this classic book which has been on my TBR pile for years. (Print, 5%)
• Cries of the Spirit: More Than 300 Poems In Celebration of Women's Spirituality edited by Mary Sewell. (Print, 9%)

Ian and his dad. Love!

Inside these lines: NFL's response to the Trump speech saying that NFL players who don't stand for the National Anthem are Sons of B**ches and should be fired. I think this is a class act from the NFL---calling for unity and good sportsmanship. Click this link.

Luna, the dog, is not getting the attention she craves.