Leslie's Bookcase

celebrating books & the literary lifestyle

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A Post About a Chair

This post is from my own archives from a different, older blog. Watching This is Us and Rebecca’s memories of cradling Randall as the sun came up reminded me of savoring my own children in a certain chair.

(From 2014)

I am writing this so I can throw away an old chair.

When I moved to Dallas, Texas after college not knowing a soul in that city, I bought a small chair/loveseat set at Pier One for $500 total – a lot for me at the time, especially for something so itty bitty, but it fit perfectly in my first itty bitty apartment at 17878 Preston Road.  

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MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019

As has become tradition (I am now at the end of my fourth year of running this blog) I enjoy looking back on my year of reading to remember and recommend my favorite books of the year. To keep my process consistent from year to year I only consider books published within the past year.

My five favorite books of 2019:

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‘THE LIGHTEST OBJECT IN THE UNIVERSE’

I added The Lightest Object in the Universe: A Novel to my fall reading list because I liked the idea of a apocalyptic novel with hope.

A debut novel by Kimi Eiselle, it tells the story of two people who were beginning to fall in love when the $hit hits the fan. The power grid in the United States is down, and they can’t communicate (or do most anything the same way they used to). So one starts walking across the country to find the other.

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‘A WARNING’

Following his or her shocking, bombshell essay in the New York Times last year, an anonymous senior official in the Trump administration has gone into more detail in this new book: A Warning.

Our first question is: Who is writing this book? After reading it, I cannot tell you who it is though I expect we will know soon enough, surely this person will come clean and claim some fame sometime in the next 1 – 5 years when we have a new president.

I can tell you that the author is a lifelong republican. He or she is deeply trusted in the administration. He or she sees Trump on a daily basis, when he emerges each morning from his “prime tweeting hour.” He or she began to question loyalty to the President after John McCain’s death and what he or she saw as the President’s “spite” towards a dead man. He or she has a great interest in history. This person claims to have stayed in the administration to try and guide the president’s impulses as best as one can. However, this author wants Donald Trump voted out of office in November of 2020 and has written this book to help that cause.

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‘THIS TENDER LAND’

Only a couple times a year (if I’m lucky) do I read a book that is nearly perfect to me like This Tender Land: A Novel by William Kent Kreuger.

By perfect (to me) I mean that every day I am thinking “All I want to do is read this book.” Also it has to provide artistic value (more on this below) and hit me emotionally.

This book is set in 1932 Minnesota when four kids flee a horrible home for orphaned Native American children and set off in a canoe towards the Mississippi River. Their intended destination is St. Louis, and along the way they meet other adrift Americans and lost souls, some good and some bad, but most are, as in real life, complicated. It is written as a memoir, from an older man looking back on this astounding, hazardous adventure.

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NEW BOOKS TO READ THIS FALL & WINTER

It’s already November and I hate to say it but I’ve not been super excited about too many of the books I’ve read thus far in 2019. I think (hope) I’m yet to find my favorite book(s) of the year. Maybe it will be on this fall and winter reading list below, which includes sequels and more fantastical than usual (for me). Although I gravitated towards all the tantalizing new fiction, I did include a memoir and some non-fiction about an insect!

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THE LIEUTENANT’S NURSE

I’m excited to tell you about yet another new work of WWII historical fiction, The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sara Ackerman.

Previously I have recommended lots of this genre set in Germany, Poland, England, and France, but this is the first book I’ve read since From Here to Eternity that is set in Hawaii, right before and during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

On November 28, 1941, Eva Cassidy travels to Hawaii aboard the SS Lurline to start a post as an Army Core nurse and meet her likely fiancé who is stationed there. But when she meets the dashing Lt. Clark Spencer on the ship and learns that the United States may be closer to war than she feared, her future becomes more complicated.

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KEY WEST WITH KIDS

I’ve been to Key West before, so I know it’s not considered a family vacation spot. However, we were all going to be in Florida anyway, and I’ve been missing my favorite quirky island. Who knows when I would be so close again??

So we took our kids to Key West!

We found a lot to do there as a family. The kids complained it was “too much walking” and “too much stuff for adults.” Ha, yes, have to agree there. But we (all) still had a great time!

Here’s what we did in Key West with kids:

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OUR TRIP TO LEGOLAND FLORIDA

When I’m not reading, I’m planning vacations. I like to share our experiences in case I can help someone else. Plus it’s fun for me to relive my vacation while writing this.

Today I’m going to tell you about the first stop during our fall break travels, LEGOLAND in Florida.

Because it’s near Orlando, LEGOLAND has a reputation as an add-on to Disney World, and compared to Disney it doesn’t get much love. But we just went to Disneyland last year and my kids (who love building Legos) are at the upper range of this park’s audience (ages 2-12), so we decided to make LEGOLAND a primary destination and even stay on property. I’m so glad we did!

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