Groundhog Day

Hey hey, lovely readers, I haven't been in the mood to blog, and guess what? That's perfectly OK, since blogging is a hobby, not a job. What a concept. It took me years, plus a year-long break, to finally see the light. Guess what I have been in the mood for? Painting! Ta-da! This weekend I got back into it, painted a new picture I am very pleased with (will put it on IG soon), and fixed the grass on an older painting that was bothering me. I have ideas for new paintings too ~ I've quit doing tutorials though, as I find it tedious to listen to another person's voice, and instead I use random pictures I find on art sites as inspiration.

I have read a few books since my last post. The first was My Perfect Daughter, a thriller by Sarah A. Denzil. This was a selection for my in-person book club, and we are meeting next week for a discussion and potluck lunch (note to self: pick up cole slaw and cornbread). I did not like this book and gave it only two stars. Basically, the plot was utterly preposterous, and none of the characters were the least bit sympathetic, despite their horrific circumstances. I guessed very early on that the husband was going to be a bad guy, so that was no shock, and the other twists I didn't expect weren't interesting. Naturally, the story was told in the irritating now/then format, with the "now" being in present tense.

Next I read Olive Days by Jessica Elisheva Emerson. This novel, which I would classify as literary fiction, satisfied the requirement on my 2025 Reading Challenge that there is green on the cover (silly, eh?). The story is about an Orthodox Jewish woman in Los  Angeles who feels trapped in an unhappy marriage and begins to cheat on her husband. She annoyed me a lot, probably because in some ways she reminded me of myself way back when. We follow her saga as she falls madly in lust/love with her art teacher who falls for her as well and wants to leave his own marriage and convert to Judaism. He also annoyed me, as did pretty much all the other characters. Yet, I enjoyed the book! Isn't that strange? I found the characters complex and the writing very lush and philosophical, while at the same time I was all ugh why are you doing this dumb thing? But people do do dumb things, and Emerson explored their motivations in great depth. Four stars.

I also loved The Drowning Woman by Robin Harding, a thriller about friendship and betrayal. It was hard to put down this book ~ I fell asleep reading it Saturday night and grabbed it first thing Sunday morning to gobble up the rest. The characters were unique, and the twists took me by surprise. I don't want to give anything more away, as I highly recommend this story and hope you read it too. This book was one of the "challenge" reads for February for my online book club, and soon I will read the main book. Four stars for TDW (not five because it was written in present tense for no good reason).

Tonight I began to watch Here on Netflix, but it was boring, and I fell asleep. After I woke up on the sofa, I exercised and decided to write this post. Now, I will actually go to bed.

PS: I had avocado toast for lunch today in Los Angeles with my daughter and granddaughter, and it may have been the tastiest one yet. Or maybe I simply haven't ordered it for a while.