I have no photographs from yesterday. How did this happen?
Yesterday morning I drove out to visit my people and half way down the road, I discovered that my body is not ready for the driver’s seat yet. But I had promised so I continued. When I got home, I did only critical things like waters then I banished myself to the couch (without moving) for two hours. By then it was almost dark and very slowly I went to feed out. Eleven eggs yesterday and a sore Celi.
I Am fine standing, lying, sitting on the edge of a chair, I can even bend a little more but no car. No shopping (Oh the horror if it! Laugh.).
My eldest son said to me a few days ago.
“You know what your biggest problem will be?”
“What darling” I said, the phone in one hand and the poker for the fire in the other.
“You will feel better and think you Are better.”
“If I feel better I won’t be better?”
“No, you will still be healing. And you can easily break the bone all over again if you are not careful, especially when it has only just finished knitting. Then you will be less than better. ”
“Does it do cable?” I opened the fire door and poked at the embers to let in some air.
“What?”
“The knitting bone. Can it do cable, I have always been useless at cable. I can knit and purl but cable.. “. I hung the poker back up with it’s other cast iron sisters on the special cast iron daddy stand. And studied the fire wood pile left for me by some sweet soul who thinks the fire box is three inches longer than it actually is.
“Are you listening to me?” he said.
“Of course I am listening darling, you are the master of the broken bone. We all listen to you when it comes to broken bones and then breaking them again. How is your floating collar bone anyway. Aha.” I spied a nice fat piece just the right length. ” So how will I know when I am better?”
“You have to listen to your body. Then add two weeks.”
“I am listening to my body and it says it needs a drink.”
“You can’t drink and take pain relief.”
“I know, that’s why I cut down” I picked up the piece of firewood one handed and swung it into the fire box. It flew in sideways knocking a handful of embers flying out onto the floor.
“On the drinking?”
“No darling, what a horrible thought, the pain relief.” Licking my fingers and picking up the embers that had flown out, I threw them back in. My mouth tasted sooty. I pulled myself up and kicked the last few little fire starters onto the tile. I bashed the wood a few times with the wood fire door then latched it shut.
“You shouldn’t drink and take pain meds, Mum.”
“I know darling. I don’t drink ALL day.”
A paternal pause. “Well, remember what I said. This is going to take time. You have to be patient.”
“I know darling but patience is so tedious. I can’t just lounge about like some kind of Roman whore-house mistress forever. My hair is not right for a start. I have nothing to wear. ”
“One more week at least. Ask The Fellowship for another reading list. They are all good readers.”
“Ah. Now that is an excellent idea.”
Do you remember our last reading list? You all wrote your suggestions and then I created a page for all of us to print out. Wait there, I will find it – so you can see where we left off last year. Here it is – 95 books to read. And yes I have about read them all now, it was a year ago after all.
So if you have a book you recommend – put the title and author in the comments lounge today or tomorrow. And I will make us a new list. And copy it into the next days post. Just in time for the holidays. That should keep us out of trouble for a while!
Oh, I am looking forward to this!
your friend on the couch,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
109 responses to “So: What are you reading?”
Your son is a genius
Bottoms Up.
Just finished We Are Water by Wallly Lamb. No clue what genre it falls under, but it’s a book about why his characters do strange things. A great people study!
What a good son! You know he’s right! I’ve just read The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. A friend had left it ages ago and I didn’t think I wanted to read it, but picked it up during my convalescence when I couldn’t drive to the library. It turned out to be such a good read, I was disappointed when it ended and kept checking to make sure I hadn’t missed a chapter or two. And a trilogy of the fantasy kind but a very good story The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. And Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series are a good easy mystery/action read.
Janet Evanovich – Any of the Stephanie Plum novels… the newest is Takedown Twenty
All of this series are named by number, but each is a stand alone story with the same main characters and ongoing plot lines. Such fun to read and hard to put down
You’re a stubborn woman, you need to listen to your son, but are you going to? I’m not putting money on it.. 🙂 Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling). PS. Get it on kindle, so you don’t have to hold up an actual book for hours. 🙂
You are too funny C! Humor helps healing too along with the pain killer/wine combo…my personal favorite! 🙂
The book Teardown…Memoir of a Vanishing City is about the rise and fall of a once great city, (Flint, Michigan), General Motors and middle class America. It was especially meaningful to us having grown up in Flint in the 50’s and 60’s but also represents the plight of many other American cities today!
Brother of the More Famous Jack by Babara Trapido.
I hope you are heeding your son’s wise advice! I just read How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, a sort of rollicking feminist memoir that made me laugh and also had a few a-ha moments in it. I’ve just gotten my copy of the Goldfinch. Donna Tartt writes a good, suspenseful novel. Her book The Secret History was a real stunner.
I love the idea of just resting and reading! My current books are The Bones of Paris by Laurie King (an excellent detective novel) and One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson (I saw that another of your readers suggested this one as well). Laurie King and Bill Bryson are two of my favorite authors. Purely by coincidence, the detective novel is set in the 1920’s and of course the Bill Bryson book is about 1927.
Feel better, take care of yourself! My newest favorite book is Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.
Hmmph! Glad your son is saying what I did ~ hope you’ll listen to him!!!!!! Am reading two books at the moment. You’d love the first ‘Changing Gears’ by Greg Foyster ~ autobiographical story of a young advertising executive opting for a sustainable lifestyle: the book is of his cycling trip from Tasmania right up to Cairns with his partner, mainly meeting and staying with people like you and Big John. Don’t think it is available on e-readers yet? The second is ‘Prisoner of Tehran’: again an autobio by Marina Nemat of the story of her survival in an Iranian prison. Harrowing, but wellwritten . . . Highly spoken of by Globe, Newsweek etc . . . Good if you can nimmerse yourself in some reading . . . more chance of thet ‘knitting business’ being successful!!
The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester. I read this before Wikipedia, but think it would have been better to have read it after. He also wrote “Krakatoa” and “A Crack in the Edge of the World” (which I have read and enjoyed), as well as several others that I have not yet read, but am sure I would enjoy if I did.
And listen to your son!
Lovely book suggestions already made.
For Scandinavian style escaping the pressures of materialism I enjoyed The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna and Doppler by Erland Loe. Both quirky.
Thank you Karen for my Yule present suggestions 🙂 ! Have just hopped over to our ‘Booktopia’ [best online firm I know Down Under 🙂 !] and ordered both!! Being Estonian-born and somewhat of a growing alternate these sounded just right!!!!!
Enjoy them Eha, I am feeling all warm inside at the prospect of seeing the whole list of suggestions, great idea Celi.
Game of Thrones!!! Start with book one and you will be finding a way to a book store to find the next one and so on til you finish them all!!! Order them online if you must! They will help you to behave!!!!!!!! All you will want to do is lie around like a Roman Hoooah House Mistress!!! And you will enjoy it! Trust me! LOL Poor sweet Celi…I know how you are feeling….it is the pits!!!! Only the pits!!!! Damn and all the other expletives…I don’t want to shock the other ladies!!!! But say them all and that will help too! Forget the pain pills and like your son says…let your body heal! Okay…I did my duty…Love you and have a nice hot toddy! Pain pills always made me feel worse.
Huge huge huge (((hugs))))
Ha! – loving your post – who is mother henning now, right! Twofer for Ya – #1 – The Wishing Thread (knitting themed) and #2 The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe by Mary Simses. Take Care and Here’s to Healing:)