In between Words with Friends, I read. A lot.

This must be what retirement is like, only without any real friends. No one to hug, no one to share Happy Hour Fried Calamari with, no one to visit while doing a load of laundry. But tons of time to play games on the device!  And tons of time to read!  And sleep and eat and bake and walk the dog.  

In the past two weeks I have read six books.  Here they are, not because you want to know but because I want to tell you and share something, anything, with a human being instead of with my dog who has become irritatingly unresponsive to my attempts at conversation.

Non-fiction:  "Boom Town" by Sam Anderson.  Good book about Oklahoma City.
"The Unwinding of the Miracle" by Julie Yip-Williams. Memoir about a young woman's life and subsequent death from colon cancer. (Good but sad, maybe not the best choice in these days of deaths from the coronavirus.)

Fiction:  "Blue Moon" by Lee Child.  The latest in the Jack Reacher series.  OK, a good trashy read but not the best of the series.
"The Cruelest Month" by Louise Penny.  One of the Inspector Gamache series, an intelligent mystery, well done.
"Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman. This was on my bookshelf, it's OK.
"Weather" by Jenny Offill.  This is a current release and got good reviews but is rather odd. A quick read,  however.

Now I have to figure out what to read next. Fiction or non? Trash or something more important?  But really, what is more important than trashy novels in the time of incarceration  lockdown seclusion? There is too much serious news on TV, on the front page of every newspaper. Why not read a spy novel or a murder mystery or a goofy book about a dog and his tennis ball.  (Well, OK, I draw the line at books about dogs and their balls.) 

As for baking, here is what I made yesterday:  No-Knead Bread from the NY Times archives.  Very easy, costs about fifty cents to make, flour, yeast, water, salt.  Yeast is hard to find right now because I am hoarding it, of course.  If you decide to make this, let me know because there is one simple step to make it even easier than it actually is. And I can tell you that step if you like......


Two days ago I made this foccacia, really easy and good.




This just proves that one can be productive while having no contact with the outside world.

Hang in there, folks. It's gonna be a long, lonely, bumpy ride.

xoxo