July Reads (9)

One star = did not like it at all

Two stars = eh, it was okay

Three stars =  liked it

Four stars = really, really liked it

Five stars = absolutely loved it

2-Star (3)

**Letters from Peking (Fiction, Pearl Buck)

This book about an American woman (living in Vermont) married to a Chinese man (living in China) started off strong but fizzled a lot towards the end.  And it was a tiny little book so it felt more like a short story to me.

**Queen of Hearts (Fiction, Kimmery Martin)

I had high hopes for this book.  I heard good things like "it's Grey's Anatomy meets Friends"....except.....it wasn't.  It was just very long and took forever to just get to the point.  It started off somewhat strong, but then went downhill from there.  Beautiful book cover though.

**Silver Sparrow (Fiction, Tayari Jones)

This book had such promise (two mothers, two daughters, one father....one mother/daughter knows about the other mother/daughter but the other mother/daughter doesn't know there's a 2nd family, etc.).  But it just fell flat.

3-Star (2)

***The Secret Life of Violet Grant (Beatriz Williams)

I enjoyed this book.  It is part of a trilogy about sisters during World War II.  I'm not sure if I will continue with the series.  The book dragged a bit sometimes, but the writing was good and it was actually quite funny in some parts. 

***A Speck in the Sea (Non-Fiction, John Aldridge)

I had never heard about this event which took place in 2013....the rescue of a fisherman off the coast of Montauk.  It got a bit wordy when talking about the mechanics and logistics of fishing boats and fishing, but I still enjoyed it.  I learned a few new things too.  Like...when a person who has been in the water for hours and hours, and then find out they are going to be rescued (as in...they see the helicopter coming their way), the relief can cause their blood pressure can drop dangerously low to the point of fainting, so the Coast Guard rescuers are trained to act extremely quickly.  In this case, the Coast Guard rescuer broke protocol and just jumped in with his face mask and water shoes and left the wet suit behind.  I also learned that fisherman boots when turned upside down can be used as buoys with trapped air inside.  John's boots saved his life.

4-Star (2)

****One (Fiction, Sarah Crossan)

This is the first Sarah Crossan novel I've read, although she's a pretty popular YA novelist.  I loved it.  It's about Tippi and Grace, who are 16-year-old conjoined twins (named after Tippi Hedren and Grace Kelly, two beauties in famous Hitchcock films).  It took me only a few hours to read this book because it's written kind of in poetry style.  Sometimes a single page will have four lines on it and that's all.  I'm not sure if this is how Crossan writes all of her books, but it was refreshing!

****Why We Get Fat (Non-Fiction, Gary Taubes)

VERY informative.  A little too scientific for me, but I learned SO much and I definitely want to re-read this one.

5-Star (2)

*****Us Against You (Fiction, Fredrik Backman)

I have a special place in my heart for Fredrik Backman because of THIS piece that he wrote on his personal blog about his struggle with anxiety and depression:

http://www.fredrikbackman.com/2018/07/02/something-about-the-anxiety/

Before his latest book, Us Against You, I read 2 other of Backman's books:  A Man Called Ove (which was good....but not 5-stars) and Beartown.  Beartown was REALLY good book about a small town somewhere in Sweden called Beartown.  And Beartown lives, breathes and dies by ice hockey.  And when something tragic happens, it rips the town (and the team) apart.  The book wrapped itself up pretty well, but then Backman dropped a sequel, called Us Against You.  This book was the same characters (still playing hockey in the aftermath of what happened in the previous book), and he introduced some new characters as well.  Backman writes beautifully.  I had my highlighter out the entire time I read Us Against You and I don't think I've ever highlighted a book so much.  It was excellent.  And yes....you definitely need to read Beartown first.

And, I follow him on Instagram and yesterday he announced that he is writing a third book.  He did say though that he didn't know when (due to his mental health) and to please be patient with him.

If you're unfamiliar with Backman, start with A Man Called Ove.  It's an easy, heartwarming read.  And then read Beartown.  Beartown is much more gritty though, just as a heads up (it is not heartwarming).  But it's worth the read.  And if you love (or even like) Beartown, DEFINITELY read Us Against You.  This book made me cry (and usually books don't do that to me).  It's just SO. GOOD.

*****A Lite Too Bright (Fiction, Samuel Miller)

Okay, here is the blurb straight from Goodreads:

Arthur Louis Pullman the Third is on the verge of a breakdown. He’s been stripped of his college scholarship, is losing his grip on reality, and has been sent away to live with his aunt and uncle.

It’s there that Arthur discovers a journal written by his grandfather, the first Arthur Louis Pullman, an iconic Salinger-esque author who went missing the last week of his life and died hundreds of miles away from their family home. What happened in that week—and how much his actions were influenced by his Alzheimer’s—remains a mystery.

But now Arthur has his grandfather’s journal—and a final sentence containing a train route and a destination.

So Arthur embarks on a cross-country train ride to relive his grandfather’s last week, guided only by the clues left behind in the dementia-fueled journal. As Arthur gets closer to uncovering a sad and terrible truth, his journey is complicated by a shaky alliance with a girl who has secrets of her own and by escalating run-ins with a dangerous Pullman fan base.

Arthur’s not the only one chasing a legacy—and some feel there is no cost too high for the truth.

And here are my thoughts:

1.  This book is classified as YA, although I cannot for the life of me understand why.  Maybe because the main character is 18 or 19 years old?  Other than that....to me, this book is FAR from YA.

2.  I listened to this book for free on audio, but when I finished it, I went and bought a copy.  There were so many parts that I wanted to highlight but you obviously can't do that on audio.  Beautiful words like this:

"I feel my body outside itself, looking in.  Some days I'm the passenger; some days I'm the captain; and some days, I let chemicals steer the ship."

"The curse of feeling everything, is that you're painfully aware when you feel nothing."

3.  The author of this book is 27 years old, and the lead singer of an alternative band called Paradise Fears.  And this is his debut novel.  UNBELIEVABLE.

4.  This book tackles so many issues....mental health (big time), mystery, family relationships, travel.  The list goes on and on. 

5.  A pretty important and pivotal portion of this book happens in Nebraska.

6.  Just when I thought I had it figured out and had even started thinking I knew what was real and what wasn't real....there was another twist.  And then another one.  And then another one.  While there are some slow parts, this book is just....I have no words!

Total Books Read: 9 (2 non-fiction, 7 fiction)

Formats

Kindle: 

Audio: 5

Real Books: 4

DNF (Did Not Finish) 3:

Gods in Alabama (Fiction, J. Jackson) - content

Holding Up the Universe (Fiction, J. Niven) - lost interest

Spectator Bird (Fiction, W. Stegner) - lost interest

Tent Rocks

A couple of weeks ago, my nephew from Nebraska came to visit.  We mostly just ran around town and hung out at home and we had a great time!

We only did one ‘touristy’ thing and that was Tent Rocks.  Tent Rocks is about an hour northwest of Albuquerque.  It is a cluster of rock formations that are the result of volcanic eruptions that happened 6-7 million years ago.  They vary in height, from a few feet to 90 feet high.

There are a couple of different trails you can take to the top.  We chose the difficult one, which is 1.5 miles each way.  Trekking up a narrow canyon with a 630 feet climb. 

Once you get to the top, you get a great view of the mountains and the Rio Grande Valley.

I’m not going to lie, it was a very difficult hike for me.  But I did it!  I would like to do it again sometime, but maybe on a cooler day (it was about 100 degrees when we went).

Anyways, we had a great time and it was nice to do something that was new for all of us.

Ductless

When I first moved to New Mexico, there were a few terms that were new to me.  Like ‘swamp cooler’ and ‘evaporative cooling’.  And ‘refrigerated air’.  What the heck?  And ‘air conditioning’ or ‘central AC’ are not terms used here AT ALL.  Weird, right? 

Refrigerated air is the same as central air.  A swamp cooler (or ‘evaporative cooler’) however, is an outside unit that is hooked up to water and it uses that moisture to cool your house.  That’s what most people have here.  There are pros and cons.  The pros are that it is inexpensive.  And….that’s pretty much the only pro.  The con list is much longer.  It doesn’t completely cool.  You can’t control the temperature at all.  There are literally just switches (they look like light switches) to flip it on and off.  That’s it.  Well, I take that back.  There’s a ‘high’ and a ‘low’.  Those are your options.  It will cool the house down somewhat, but when it’s 100 degrees outside, your house is going to be about 80 degrees inside with the swamp on.  I’m not kidding.  And upstairs?  Hahahaha…..much warmer.  The other con is that every year, you have to ‘prep’ the cooler.  So when it’s fall and you don’t need the swamp cooler anymore, you (or one of the many companies around town that will do it) have to drain it, unhook it, cover it up, etc (honestly I have no clue what is involved).  And then when summer starts, it needs hooked back up, etc.  Kind of a pain, especially if they’re on the roof (which most of them are).  You have to leave the windows cracked for it to work.  So if there’s heavy pollen in the air, or ANY kind of smoke (in the land of wildfires), that will come into your house.  As well as dust, dirt, the occasional lizard, etc (I’m not kidding).  So it’s not ideal.

When we bought our house, we knew it had a swamp cooler instead of refrigerated air (Central AC).  Most houses here have swamp coolers.  ‘Refrigerated air’ or central AC is a luxury.  For dry climates, most places have swamp coolers (because they don’t work when it rains).  And it makes sense that they used a swamp when they built the house….our house is ginormous and to cool it via Central AC would be an astronomical cost each month.  At first we looked into converting the swamp to refrigerated air, but that still didn’t make sense.  Because with refrigerated air, you don’t have much control.  You can close certain vents in rooms, but that air is still going to try to force it’s way in.  And there’s a few rooms in our house that we just don’t use on a daily basis.  So why pay to cool those rooms every day? 

Because hubby researches everything (bless him), he decided on ductless heating and cooling units.  With ductless units, you can control the temperature of every room in the house.  So we can completely shut off the heating/cooling in Amy’s room, the gym, the library, the dining room, the front room, etc (the rooms we don’t use much).  We can just turn units on as we need them.  Or….you can leave them on always, but set the temperature higher if it’s a room that you rarely use.  There’s little remote controls for each unit.  There’s a unit in each room (except for bathrooms/hallways) and then we have 3 larger ceiling units:  one for our kitchen, one for our master bedroom, and one for my mother-in-law’s kitchen.   

Ductless systems are the primary systems used in Europe and Asia and have been for the past 30 years or so.  Once again, we are way behind the times here in America.

The initial equipment and set up is insanely expensive (we budgeted it in with the addition build-on).  But after that….it’s incredibly efficient.  Our electric bill should lower as well as our gas bill in the winter.  We won’t be paying to heat and cool our 4,000 square foot house when we only use like half of it.  The maintenance is minimal.  Each unit has a filter, however they are re-usable.  Once every couple of months you just remove the filter, wash it, and pop it back in.

The installation was quite the process though.  First, they had to pull out all of the existing duct work.  Then they had to wire everything for the new units.  There were random holes in the walls and the ceilings with various tubes and wires coming out of them.  Then they had to install the large units outside.  We have 3 of them.  One is on the side of the house, and two are on the flat part of our roof (you can’t see them and I forgot to take a picture of the one on the side of the house…it’s not large though).  Then the tubing for each unit had to be connected to one of the larger units.  I think.  I’m not exactly sure how it works, can you tell?  Ha ha.  But what I DO know is that each unit is controlled individually.  Which is amazing.  And they are whisper quiet. 

It was an interesting experience though.  I never knew what I was going to be coming home to.  Every day there would be various holes in the walls with various things coming out of them.  I wish I was exaggerating.  It was interesting and unsettling and kind of comical.  It took about a week and a half.

See?

Right now we are in the process of getting the holes where the existing vents and ducts were all sealed up, patched over and painted (to match the existing paint colors).

But the house is COOOOOOOOL!  It’s soooooo nice.  My library upstairs is no longer an oven!  And bye bye window air conditioner units!

I’m officially a fan of the ductless cooling.

Addition Update #6 (final interior)

This will be the final update for the INTERIOR of the addition.

I present to you, my mother-in-law’s kitchen:

This is her front door, and to the left is her sliding glass patio doors (that currently lead out to a patch of dirt...the patio is not done:

This door is the laundry closet.  She has a full-size washer and dryer in there (stacked).  We hung up her antique rug-beater on the door.  It belonged to her grandmother!

Her little kitchen cart, which acts as her baking station (she's highly allergic to gluten, so she is armed with a bread-maker and all kinds of alternate flours - coconut, rice, almond, etc.).  This also holds the dog food and dog treats.  We hung her needlepoint that she did in 1995 over the cart.

View from the hallway:

This door holds her tank-less water heater, as well as her trash can and large container of dry dog food.  She might add some additional shelving in the future, because there's room for it.  The hallway you see leads into her great room (which is a combined living room/office).

There are a few more things that need tweaked...like her washing machine needs balanced.  We paid to have the appliances installed, so they need to come and balance them.  Also, Lowe's ordered the wrong refrigerator.  If you look closely, it's a 'black' stainless steel.  It doesn't quite match the dishwasher and stove in color.  The other one will not be delivered for another month or so, so they told her to use the wrong one until then.  Not a big deal. 

So, although it took wayyyy longer than we were hoping, we are very pleased with the final result.  I love it!  I'm jealous!  But more importantly, SHE loves it.  In fact, she texted me this morning and it just said "Guess what!  I'm eating breakfast at my KITCHEN table in the KITCHEN!!!".  She was so excited!  :)  

And of course, there is still outdoor work to be done.  But as of now, she has a fully functioning kitchen and laundry room!