My New Kindle!

 Christmas this year was a bit stranger than usual in that Mother wasn’t really “present” for the holiday. It’s never been her favorite even when her brain worked for her, but now that it’s questionable at best, we just didn’t bring the holiday to her attention. So it kind of snuck up on her. She apologized on Christmas Day for not getting us anything (we were totally okay with that) and gave each of us an envelope with a card and some money in it, telling us we should get ourselves something special “from Mom”.

I decided that with the money she gave me (and a few of my own dollars) I would get myself a new Kindle! My old one was like 7 years old and getting tired. So I took advantage of the Boxing Day Sales and ordered myself a brand new one! By accident, I ended up getting the teal colored one: I actually intended to get the black one. Oh well.

Shipping to Alaska is always questionable, for some reason, and sure enough the package containing both my shiny new Kindle and the fancy cork cover I got for it got lost somewhere. I think the robot on the other end of the chat session I initiated eventually said something about an accident on the road between them and me. Regardless, I requested a new pair be sent to me, and two weeks later they arrived.

Bryan worked on getting it registered to my Amazon account for probably two weeks. The darned thing just would not work. I tried to return it for yet another one, but was told that Kindles are “un-returnable” so we were stuck with the one that didn’t work. Thankfully, the original one I’d ordered eventually showed up! We were finally able to get that one connected to my Amazon account, so I am up and running.

The fancy cork cover I ordered was yet another disappointment. I apparently did not read the fine print closely enough and ended up with a cover that was too small for my shiny new Kindle. Upon closer inspection I found that the cork covers do not come in the size I need it to be, so I ended up ordering a nice leather one instead; it’s scheduled to arrive sometime next week. Unfortunately the original cork cover is also “un-returnable” so I will just have to eat the cost of it and chalk it up as a lesson hard learned: READ THE DISCRIPTIONS CAREFULLY!

Don’t even get me started on the protective screen covers I got: how something so simple can be so complicated is beyond me. I did eventually get the darned thing on, however, so I am now good to go.

Since I effectively ended up with two kindles and two covers, I do have to send one pair of them back. I plan on doing that sometime this week. Amazon gave me until mid-March to return them, so I’m not in a grand rush.

My TBR Shelf

I got the newest book by Eowyn Ivy yesterday, Black Woods Blue Sky, and I’m really excited about it. Her other two books (The Snow Child and To The Bright Edge of the World) were both extremely good, and I have heard good things about this one. My excitement for her book has nothing to do with the fact that: 

1. She’s married to a guy I went to school with, and 
2. She lives up in the Chickaloon territory which is exactly where I want to buy property – although those two facts certainly help.

Our family celebrates the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod where we draw names and give that person a book and some chocolate on Christmas Eve so they can spend the day of Christmas reading and eating chocolates. This year, my niece Annalise drew my name (she’s maybe 4 years old) and was quite excited to find an author who has the same name as I have. She gave me The IT Girl by Ruth Ware. Luckily, I am familiar with this author and like her work – so this will be a great read, I have no doubt.

I’m really excited about the two books by Kris Farmen. He is a local author who writes about Alaskan history. I have three other books by him: Turn Again, The Blue Ticket, and The Devil’s Share. If you’re interested, I highly recommend them all, but urge you to try The Blue Ticket first. The two I have on my shelf will be devoured in a week most likely – he’s just that good.

Two books on this shelf were given to my by my partner’s daughter for Christmas last year: Interpreter of Maladies and Atlas of the Heart. She actually gave me five books that year, and I’ve read three of them. I simply have not gotten around to reading these remaining two yet, but totally intend to as they all have significant meaning to her and she wanted to share them with me.

This year’s Christmas gift from my Partner is Fourth Wing. He says it’s a gamble buying me books because he never knows if I’ve read them already or not: I do read a lot, so the hesitancy is valid. He lucked out this time as I have not read this one yet. It’s the first book in a series, so I will be happily occupied with these characters for quite some time.

Eat, Poop Die was recommended to me by the scientist I worked with in Iceland last year. Not only does it have an interesting title, but the subject matter will be thoroughly fascinating I have no doubt. She actually recommended several other books as well, some of which will probably end up on this shelf at some point in time.

Mother has been an avid reader her whole life, and passed that love of books on to pretty much all of her children. Letters From Happy Valley was a gift from her; she found it on the Freebee table at the Senior Center and picked it up for me. I think it will be a quick read, but it sounds interesting.

The End of Migraines offers up “over 150 ways to stop your pain”, or so the cover says. This is not a book to sit down and read cover to cover, so really it shouldn’t even be on this shelf. I do flip through it occasionally, and have tried one or two of the suggestions they offer. I will move the book to my shelf by my computer along with the one directly on top of it that has no words on the spine. That one is actually a travel guide for Iceland, and since that trip has come & gone already, it doesn’t need to be on that shelf either.

Last year's trip to Patagonia prompted me to purchase Riding Into the Heart of Patagonia in an effort to learn as much about the place as I could in a short amount of time. So short, it turns out, I did not have time to actually read the book. Maybe it will be all the better now that the trip has come and gone, since I will be more familiar with the place, and will perhaps be able to recognize certain place-names? We'll see.

The Empire of Ice was given to me several years ago; I think it was a birthday present from my friend Tammy. It sounds like a very interesting historical novel, and I look forward to reading it. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I bought myself The Silent Patient but I have no idea how long it’s been on my TBR shelf. It really does sound interesting and I will get it read one of these days. It’s just taken me a while to get around to it.

Several years ago, my partner and I took one of our little mini-vacations up in Healy, staying in a dry yurt for three days. We loved it there: the yurt had everything we could ever possibly need and our host was very gracious and welcoming. It turns out that she and her partner had once spent 4 months traveling by foot around New Zealand. Between Each Step is their story.

And because my TBR shelf is too small, these next 6 books are technically “on the shelf” even thought they don’t actually fit on the shelf. I’ve already read the first of the series, The Hangman’s Daughter, but will probably read it again just to refresh my memory of it. These books only just recently came in to my life via my partner’s mother Lita. She and I both share a love of historical fiction, so I’m sure these will be a delightful read.

What’s on YOUR list to read?