The Week in Review: 08.25.2017

Between the Covers

Finished last week:

It’s no secret that we’re football fans around here.  We prefer college – specifically the Virginia Tech Hokies – but do keep up with a few NFL teams so I was excited to pick up THE FOOTBALL FANBOOK: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BECOME A GRIDIRON KNOW-IT-ALL by Gary Gramling.  This book is loaded with stats for young football geeks as well as those new to the sport.  It also explains strategies of the game and includes trivia about players and teams.  There are even tips on watching a game and there’s an easy recipe included.  I really appreciate the fact that Gramling includes a page titled, “Lose With Dignity” that gives tips on how to be a good sport.  Now that football season is upon us, you’ll want to grab a copy of THE FOOTBALL FANBOOK for all the young sports fans in your life.  I thought it was terrific and I’m way past the target audience.  (Review copy provided by Blue Slip Media.)

FIERCE KINGDOM by Gin Phillips starts as Joan and her four year old son are getting ready to leave the zoo at closing time.  As they near the exit, Joan realizes something’s not right – a couple of gunmen are killing people – so she quickly turns around and heads back to the zoo to hide.  Luckily, she and Lincoln visit the zoo often so she knows its layout well.  As Joan figures out what she needs to do to survive and to save her son, she has to make some tough decisions.  This story that could have been snatched from the headlines grabbed me from the start and never let go.  The moral dilemmas Joan faces as she works to save herself and her son and the unexpected twists along the way kept me invested in this book the whole time.  Even though it’s a tough read in places, I really liked FIERCE KINGDOM.  Cassandra Campbell does a great job narrating the audio version of the book.  I found a lot to think about as I listened to this book and wanted to talk about it so I’m sure it would make a great book club pick.  (Review copy provided by Penguin Random House.)

Currently reading:

• THE BLINDS by Adam Sternbergh
• WATCH ME DISAPPEAR by Janelle Brown
• BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S WISE WORDS by K. M. Kostyal

On the Screen

Not a thing.

Off the blog

• We were in the path of totality so this week’s solar eclipse was a very big deal around here.  There were a lot of visitors from out of town so we were very busy.  There were lots of parties and I loved seeing everyone from the shopping center come outside to watch things.  The eclipse itself was awesome.
• I played trivia with some friends on Wednesday and we came in first.
• Carl and I have been shopping for a new car for a while and finally bought one this week. I hate the whole car buying process so I’m glad that’s over.
• I walked at least three miles every day and averaged almost 19,500 Fitbit steps a day.
• It’s been 14 days since Carl’s iCloud account was hacked with ransomware, taking out all of his Apple products.  Apple Support has been giving him the runaround, promising  they’d have his iPhone and iPad up and running Monday and telling him he’d have to take his Mac to the Apple Store for resolution.  Monday came and went without the promised return to service.  He got his Mac back late last night and we should know soon whether their solution worked.  This has been a frustrating experience to say the least and we’ve been very unimpressed with Apple Support.

How was your week?