Things For Break

It's kind of bragging on my part, but we are officially on winter break right now. That means my husband has a cold, complaints about grades are filling up my inbox, and I have a stack of library books on the counter that I'm going to read while bundled up under the blanket on the loveseat, preferably with a cat on my lap. 

So here's my list of things I desperately want to get done during break.

1) A handful of work items, including prepping a new manual and writing syllabi for next semester.

2) Call the car window guy about a crack we've already had repaired that is newly spiderwebbing on our windshield. There's also a new chip on the windshield. I have to decided if a six-year-old car with 162,000 miles is worth a new windshield.

3) Make a baby blanket for a new baby in the family (my husband's cousin's wife had a baby girl). 

4) Read a bunch of books. Do you know want to know what books I have from the library right now?  Let me tell you.

Moonglow by Michael Chabon - This is a book club book and I'm about two-thirds of the way through it at this point and I love it so far.

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink - Bestest Friend recently had a Facebook post asking for non-fiction book recommendations and I was a bit shocked at how few I could come up with that weren't work-related for me. I am going to make it a goal to read more non-fiction in the next year and this is a book I've been meaning to get to for quite some time now.

The Waste Lands (Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King - I'm reading this series because The Angry Taoist has been talking to me about it for over a decade at this point. I found the first book a bit tedious, but truly enjoyed the second book (it was quite a page turner!), so we'll see how the third one treats me.

 Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - When my husband saw this on the counter, he just said, "she's a giant bigot" and left it at that. The blurb on the front cover says "loved by conservatives and leftists alike," but something tells me that this one is going to be thought-provoking if nothing else.

In the Woods by Tana French - I've actually borrowed this one from the library before and never got past the first chapter, but I was newly re-energized to read it after listening to an episode of Overdue about it. Craig was enthusiastic about it, so I'm going to give it another go.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson - There was audible gasping at my last book club meeting when I mentioned that I had not read this book. Apparently when you live this close to Chicago, it's required reading. Who knew? I'm on a true crime kick right now anyway, so I think this will fit in nicely with my current pop culture intake.

And those are seriously my only goals. I think I can do this, kids!