Five Frugal Things -- Smokey Skies & My Rachel Rosenthal Box
1) Portland began receiving wildfire smoke yesterday, and although it's not as dramatic as what he had in 2020, it's still an unhealthy breathing environment.
I took the above photo yesterday wondering if the orange cast would show up, and I would have to say that yes, it did!
My husband went down to the basement and grabbed four furnace filters and assembled a Corsi-Rosenthal box. (Although I refer to it as a "Rachel Rosenthal" box, which was my great grandmother's name!) These straightforward air purifiers can be built "using locally sourced components for a fraction of the price of a commercially manufactured air purifier." I call that a non-consumer win!
Of course our windows are closed and we're enjoying an indoorsy day.
2) My husband and I left the house for an appointment yesterday, which happened to be close to a Blue Star Donuts location. I opened my Too Good to Go app to see if if they had any offerings -- Bingo! $6.99 for a mystery bag of donuts, which may not seem like much of a bargain, but their donuts are normally $4.85-$6 apiece!
Our bag contained four donuts, including this "lemon and lime curd" one, which was my first choice. (I'll always choose a powdered donuts, which may be a "Flowers in The Attic" reflex.) It was amazing!
My husband chose a "raspberry rosemary old fashioned."
These last two went home with our kiddo to share with their partner. ("Chocolate Bergamot" and "Matcha Crumble?") Four people all enjoying delicious treats for just $6.99 is not too shabby.
3) Dinner was a light affair and I repeated the rice/spicy Korean tuna/cucumber/pickled onion menu from a few days ago. Nothing could be easier.
Sadly only one of the tins is emblazoned with a dreamy BTS pop star.
4) The kids and their partners are converging for our weekly family dinner and I'm keep it frugal. I'm making two batches of soup, plus grilled cheese sandwiches. I've mixed up the dough for artisan bread and pulled a loaf of gluten-free Franz bread from the freezer.
One of the soups is red lentil, which is always a hit.
I'll add spinach right before it's served. Worry not, it'll thicken.
I'm also making black bean soup, which I've yet to concoct. I want to have everything completed at least a couple hours before everyone arrives, as soup is always a couple degrees better once the flavors have had a chance to commingle.
Every meal needs to accommodate a vegetarian, plus my daughter who can't eat gluten. It's a weekly challenge.
5) I finished reading Homebound and was in the mood to jump into my next book. I needed a "banned or challenged" book, so I grabbed Deenie from my stack of Judy Blumes. Note the 95¢ price, strongly indicating that this is my childhood copy.
Read it cover to cover in under and hour and a half!
Now all I have left are these eight literary categories to "black out" my Powell's Books bingo card:
- Author/main character with a disability.
- Everyone's talking about.
- In translation.
- Your choice.
- Novella or short story collection.
- Nonhuman characters.
- Set in the Pacific Northwest.
- Trans character.
I'd love your suggestions. I'm saving "Everyone's talking about" for Yesteryear, but otherwise am open to ideas.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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Book suggestions:
Set in the pacific northwest: The Cold Millions
In translation: Three Bags Full
Three Bags Full also works for non-human characters
That's a great one!
Mystery series by Jeffrey Deever, with Lincoln Rhymes as quadriplegic crime solver.
Great characters, sometimes gory murders.
In translation --
Yuko Mishima's THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA
or SPRING SNOW. Weird guy, amazing writer.
Or... A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by Solzhenitsyn. Also amazing.
Nonhuman characters -- WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame. Love that book!
Lincoln Rhymes, quadriplegic crime investigator, series by Jeffery Deever.
That sounds interesting! Looking for it in my library. I came to recommend Tru Biz for the same category (deaf and hard of hearing)
Interesting, although I'm still just reading books by women.
THE Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia is a beautiful book. Translated from spanish.
Enjoy
Patricia
Author/main character with a disability - If you're in the mood for a super light romance - Out on A Limb was sweet (very predictable, but sweet and easy).
I've earned a fun romance after having just read multiple "our planet is dying!" books.
I agree! And Convenience Store Woman was a great book (in translation), and also featured a main character who definitely reads as on the spectrum, although I don’t believe she (the main character) would recognize herself as such.
The Pretty One by Keah Brown for disabled author - absolutely fabulous and wonderful collection of essays.
May I please recommend Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton for "Nonhuman characters" or "Set in the Pacific Northwest" (it would qualify for either). And it's currently available at the Multnomah Library! It was one of my favorite reads last year!
I have some sun tea brewing outside while I'm chilling out--yes, CHILLING out -- in my bedroom. Outside temp: 102. Inside, 77. With the ceiling fan, it's quite pleasant. I'm also running a floor fan by the floor vent, one that tips upward, in order to fling the air conditioned air up and out into the room. Usually at this time of day, 3 pm, it would be stifling hot in this room. Three cheers for the window insulation!
My friend's daughter is getting a place of her own, so I was asked if I had any dishes to spare. Oh boy, do I! I cleaned out some kitchen cabinets and culled a lot of clutter and much mismatched miscellaneous that has needed to go. A whole box full! What she can't use/don't want, she can donate; her new apartment is close to a Goodwill donation station. They will give her a 20% off coupon for her donation(s) and then she can use it to buy something better.
Meanwhile I am using the opportunity to clean out some cabinets and storage drawers. Using clean but old/unused/outdated large desk calendar pages as drawer liners. Turned upside down, blank side facing up. No one will ever know it's not shelf paper.
Fru-Gal Lisa, I have loved your Saga of the Bedroom - it sounds as if you are in the home stretch if not actually finished with all the improvements and additions. Glad to hear that you not only are cool, but that you have your room arranged how you want it rather than how you can avoid hot or cold. Brilliant!
The used desk calendars for drawer liners is inspired, too! Kind of like putting a time capsule away, if you have written on them... whenever you re-do you might have a trip down memory lane.
For the non-human character, may I suggest the Shady Hollow series by Juneau Black? This is the cozy series for anyone who ever wished there were grown up books with animal characters running bakeries and living in trees. Just leave all knowledge of animal husbandry behind when you read this as the MC is a fox who crushes on a bear.
For a short story collection, I would recommend Hap & Leonard by Joe R Lansdale. Full of morally charcoal characters and violence, but only has needed, I thoroughly enjoy them. There is a tv series that you can watch for free - maybe on Tubi? Or Roku.
Trans character--Anita Kelly is the author--you'll need to read the blurbs to know which book it is. Character with a disability--I love The Ha-Ha by Dave King. Non-human characters--Thorn by Intisar Khanani.
Love and Other Disasters is the Anita Kelly book.
Thanks!
Surely Tales of the City (or any of the series) for a trans character. Absolutely adored the whole series.
Thank you to all who had kind words for me as I set out to give blood yesterday! Unfortunately, it did not go well for me. I had a pretty bad vasovagal response -- which I've had before, but not from a blood draw. I am taking it easy today and wondering if I should do this again. It was pretty scary. And I may be getting too old for this.
Books --
I recommend Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), The Body (King), Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, We'll Prescribe You a Cat, This is How it Always Is (Frankel).
Disability, novella, non-human, Pacific Northwest, translation, trans.
Beth W,
Sending you a virtual hug.... On the side where you didn't get stuck. Hope you feel better soon.
Beth! I’m so sorry to hear about your vasovagal response. I used to get them frequently with blood donations and I hated them. A few things helped me not have them anymore: I don’t squeeze the ball as often as they tell you to, I get a juice box ahead of time from the snack station and drink it while I’m donating, and there is a leg muscle exercise they gave me a sheet for which I start as soon as they insert the needle and I keep doing throughout. It keeps the blood flowing to my brain and keeps that terrifying vasovagal response at bay.
Thank you so much! Maybe with these tips I can keep donating!
I hope you give it a try again, Beth, since you have inspired me!
Would Pet Sematary by Stephen King fill the bill for non-human characters? That book creeped me out & gave me a few nightmares.
My recommendation for a book is by Eileen Garvin: The Music of Bees. It’s set in Hood River and has a main character with a disability. Absolutely loved this book!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night is a great book and the main character is a boy with autism. It’s layered and very well written.
The Cape Doctor by E.J. Levy is a historical fiction about an Irish girl who assumes a male persona in order to become a doctor. They end up serving in the military and South Africa and were only discovered to be female at death. Fascinating and very well written.
I enjoy reading books about people who are differently abled. I am excited to see what others recommend. Here are three I recommend:
"Hidden Valley Road" by Robert Kolker about a real family with several members who developed schizophrenia. Researchers were able to learn a lot about the condition due to the shared genetics and exploration of nature/nurture.
"The Country of the Blind" by Andrew Leland is part memoir, part history of blindness.
I enjoyed "Cassandra in Reverse" a fictional story featuring Cassie, a neurodivergent character. I am not sure if she would be considered to have a disability.
Hi, Beth. I just donated yesterday so your message resonates. I have chronic low blood pressure and experience vasovagal response frequently. Katie from Buffalo's tips are all great. Also, if your city or town has several donation centers, pick the one that allows extra time to relax after the donation and provides snacks healthier than little cookies. Or just take those with you. You likely do this, but a reminder to tell staff we have VVR history. Drink lots of plain water before, during and after. And have a friend escort you - just in case. My partner has benefited from a blood transfusion, and I know how vital donations are. Thank you for truly sharing of yourself!
Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult has a trans character.
I really loved Annabel by Kathleen Winter for a trans character book.
Translation: A Man Called Ove, then you can watch the movie and compare!
I recently re-read Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Lathe of Heaven," which is set in Portland.
Not sure if the characters are "main enough," but one character (the brother of the protagonist) in "The Pull of the Stars" by Emma Donoghue is permanently mute from shell-shock in World War I, and the protagonist's assistant has a badly scarred arm from a kitchen burn in childhood. The book is set in an Irish maternity ward during three days in the outbreak of the Spanish flu. It is riveting.
Calamity Club!
LOVED The Calamity Club!!
For those who buy gas in Indiana, including people driving through, the governor's tax exemptions which started in April will run out of time this week.
Starting Friday, gas will be 60+ cents a week more than it has been.
Correction: The governor has declared a new state of emergency, Ukraine instead of Iran, and has put the exemptions back for 30 days.
Orlando by Virginia Woolf for trans character.
How about A Second Chance for Yesterday by R.A. Sinn for the book with a trans character?
For short stories collection: A Manual for Cleaning Women, by Lucia Berlin
That is such a good book!
Katy, dud you find the missing light fixture? The suspence is too much!
For trans characters, I reckons anything by Anna-Marie McLemore. Maybe Lakelore doesn’t have one, but the main character has severe ADHD which could go for “with disability”
I’m a librarian and here are my quick recs:
1) Author/main character with a disability. - “Get a Life, Chloe Brown” or other novels by Talia Hibert
2) Everyone's talking about. - The Odyssey in any translation, tho I recommend the one by Emily Wilson
3) In translation. - See above!
4) Novella or short story collection. - Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells or The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
5) Set in the Pacific Northwest. - Jonathan Evinson’s novels, including West of Here, Lawn Boy, This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, Legends of the North Cascades, and more!
Novel set in Pacific Northwest: Heart of Winter by Johnathan Evison (the audio is good in my opinion.
If you have not read “Welcome to the Great Mysterious” by Lorna Llandvick, it would be great for Main character with a disability.
Trans character: Mad honey
Character with a disability-
The War That Saved My Life
(I love YA fiction:)
Trans character-
Red, White and Royal Blue
(Also set in alternate political reality and imho laugh out loud funny)
If you can’t get through Yesteryear (it was a rare did not finish for me) maybe Calamity Club for that category.
Have you read Wildwood? It would cover non-human characters and set in the PNW.
So some book suggestions for your Bingo card
Author/main character with a disability.-Wonder
In translation. Poetry by Neruda
Novella or short story collection. Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger
Nonhuman characters. Watership Down. All the rabbit behaviors (except them being able to talk) are actually real. The author used a scientific book about rabbits when he wrote the story.
Trans character. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
I loved Watership Down. Also Franny and Zooey! Classics.
If Watership Down doesn't suit, try The Tales of Despereaux...mouses (I'm terrified I will die before I have read everything ever written! ) My mom had to send a note to school librarian so that I could check out more than two books a week!
You made me laugh out loud about the number of books you were allowed from the school library. I grew up in a household of avid readers: if mom didn't get us to the library regularly, we were re-reading the classics (Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Swiss Family Robinson..) in the basement, or the world book encyclopedias, or I snuck Mom's books off her pile and read FAR above what was considered appropriate for my age (BIG EYES).
Watershed Down was very challenging for me when I read it, which was when, to my eyes, it was all about bunnies (and why were there mean animals?). I still feel the physical responses I had then, when I think of the book now. Wow, the power of words...
Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros = main character has a disability (and is totally bad-assed) and there are dragons (non human character). Warning - there will be 5 books in the series, and only the first 3 have been written, and they each end on cliffhanger. With all that said, a thoroughly enjoyable and fast-paced read. lots of pages, though.
And I, too, am anxiously awaiting news on the light fixture.. did you have it in a frankenbox tucked in a corner? Had you already sold it? is it hanging up in plain sight??
Non-human character and PNW: Remarkably Bright Creatures
Trans character (and a recent post has it on your "to-be-read" list): This I How It Always Is
Both women authors!
Sharyn McCrumb writes great short stories, often set in the Appalachian Mountains.
Beautiful Remarkable Creatures for the nonhuman character? Of course, a rread of Charlotte's Web works.
A great read anytime...The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek and sequel The Bookwoman's Daughter. By Kim Michelle Richardson.
Yes!! this is a good one!! Remarkably bright creatures is so good!!!
Author/main character with a disability: oldie but goodie: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime
In translation: The Ferryman’s Wife.translated from Norwegian, and a love letter to the dignity of so-called small and unimportant lives in a rural Norwegian county. Also a love letter to, of course, the ferryman’s much-missed wife. It’s the story of his last day on earth, which he is fine with, and what he picks up first in his old ferry is the ghost of his beloved dog, and then all the other characters he’s known throughout his life on the fjord. Not a big book, and I so loved it.
Your choice: aaaugh,so much to recommend!! apologies if they’ve been mentioned before: Stockholm Sven, Everybody Always Sees the Ants by AS King, The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers, just for starters 🙂
Novella or short story collection: Holly Black has a new anthology coming if you like fantasy
Nonhuman characters: Kazuo Ishigiro’s Klara and the Sun, but I have a feeling you’ve read that. Otherwise Anne Leckie’s Radich trilogy ( very Murderbot-adjacent)
Set in the Pacific Northwest.: another oldie but goodie - Snow Falling on Cedars
Trans character.: you must, must, read Woodworking by Emily St James, about a high school English teacher who finally comes out as trans, with the reluctant support of the only openly trans student at the high school. Often darkly funny, and some delicious skewering of conservative hypocrisy
And mad props to the other readers who suggested the Hap and Leonard series, and anything, I mean ANYTHING, by Kira Jane Buxton! Feral Creatures is an all time favourite. Also, if you like Brit police procedurals, Simon Mason’s Wilkins series.
Ok, I’ll shaddup now 🙂
Charlottes Web for non human characters? 🙂
Also, thanks for the recommendation of Deenie. I need a YA book for my Summer Reading Bingo card. Right now I'm working on a book set in Scotland, The Subtle Pleasures of Indiscretion by Alexander McCall Smith. That one will go toward "a book set abroad" or "a cozy mystery".
Over $300 dollars for $0 dollars using insurance cards monthly allowance.
Made my own GF cornbread rather than spending $5.99 for a box mix.
Got a book on the healthiest foods on the planet for $1 as opposed to buying it new for $29
Doing yard work daily instead of hiring someone
Using the gym daily plus lots of walking
Free concerts in park every Tuesday and we can walk from our house
Splurged on lunch out for our 49th anniversary and worth ever penny of it.
I've been enjoying Jean Meltzer's books - so far, her main characters have some sort of disability.
Trans character...Rules for Ghosting. Jewish trans male with ghost in funeral home they help run. Was silly and fun and meaningful.
translation.. Before The Coffee Gets Cold. I know you like time travel books
character with a disability...The Rosie Project. disability/neurodivirgent
Everyones talking about...Project Hail Mary. If you have not already read it. Excellent
Non Human - Remarkably Bright Creatures
Such a good book, I read it last year.
For a translated work, I suggest An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten Marlaine Delargy (Translator).
It's a short story mystery collection featuring a rather interesting elderly woman. And there's a sequel if you like it.
For translation, please look out for a copy or ebook of 'Circles in the forest' by Dalene Mathee. It is a South African classic, and everyone's high school literature setwork. Originally written in Afrikaans, it was translated to English by Ms Mathee herself.
Book recommendations:
Non-Human Character or maybe Trans Character: Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison - It's a resetting of some Sherlock Holmes stories as urban fantasy. Holmes is replaced by an angel and Dr. Watson is a woman who attended medical school and served in the army as a man and refuses to return to living as a woman.
Short story Collection: When is Black Future Month by NK Jemisin - I forgot that it was all by one author because the stories and styles are so varied.
"Slow and Cerebral" by Zachary Fennell is a very good book by a man with cerebral palsy who completed a marathon. Even better, this man is a librarian in the Cuyahoga Country (Ohio) public library, so I got to tell him in person how much I enjoyed his book!
Novella or Short Story: Any book by Claire Keegan or "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang .
For a book by an author with a disability: Highly recommend “Sitting Pretty” by Rebekah Taussig. It’s a fantastic memoir about navigating young adult life and motherhood as a wheelchair user.
I'm currently reading Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada, translated from Japanese. So far, it's written primarily from the perspective of Otaha Higuchi a young woman who lands a job at a library on the outskirts of Kyoto. The library is only open at night, patrons can only read the books there--they're no available for checkout--and the holdings are made up of the libraries of various authors (not necessarily the authors' books, but the books they owned). Some of those authors are still living and others have died. There's also a cafe at the library and the menu items are all inspired by meals in the books. It's quirky, and feels like it's been translated (though that might be less so for you since you're so familiar with Japanese culture), but easy reading for these hot days!
Oops, mistyped the main character's name. It's Otoha, not Otaha.
Nonhuman characters: Eyes of the impossible by Dave Edgars