Happy Winter Solstice

It's the shortest day of the year here and the official start of winter. I'm celebrating with some friends by taking a Harbor Lights Cruise tonight out of Huntington Beach. That should be fun and will give me the chance to wear my silly hat with a pompom on top. If I get any good pics, I'll post them on IG; haven't updated there since Gatsby's dx. He's doing the same ~ meaning he is playful and loving and seems fine, except he has lost a bit more weight even though he seems to eat and drink as he ever has. 

This week I read What the Nanny Saw by Kaira Rouda. Not that it matters, but she is married to our one-time District 45 Rep Harley Rouda (D) who was defeated by Michelle Steel (R) in 2020, and Derek Tran (D) flipped her seat back in the November 2024 election by a super skinny margin of 653 votes, which is .2% ~ not two percent, but two tenths of a percent. Every vote counts, peeps! Anyway, the book was OK, and I gave it three stars. The suspense/thriller aspect was enjoyable, but the characters were all unlikeable, so I didn't get invested in it. We have the usual trope of ultra wealthy folks behaving like entitled aholes and their children imitating same. Yawn. Does anyone really care that the nanny is also a bad actor? Not me. It seems Kaira writes what she knows as all the books I've read by her so far feature rich people being horrible. It's now a stereotype, and I'm thinking of adding it to my strike list.

I also read Daughter of Deceit by Victoria Holt, and this one was fabulous, so I awarded it five stars. The characters were complex and interesting, with none being all good or all bad, and it was fun to discover new facets to them. This book had everything, but it wasn't a "thriller," just a compelling love story laced with multiple mysteries and a bit of murder. I'm so glad I found another great book by Holt, as I was beginning to despair that they were all going to be threes going forward. I'm currently reading her novel The Landower Legacy, and so far it also seems promising.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!