What's Making Me Happy This Week

(Shamelessly stolen from NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, which also makes me happy each week.)



Sun!!

It's been very rainy lately, so a morning bright with warming sun was wonderful. The kids enjoyed the park, and I tried to pretend I was someplace tropical....





I've mentioned before that I'm a little bit obsessed with NoiseTrade, and since I play the piano myself I'm always interested in new artists in that genre. This particular album has been in heavy rotation at my house this week.





You remember Will Wheaton, right? Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: TNG? Well, he's all grown up now, and hosts a series of podcasts, one of which is the always entertaining Table Top, where he assembles a random group of people and they play a board game. This week's episde was especially entertaining because it featured one of my favorite authors, John Scalzi. Enjoy!


What's making YOU happy this week? Let me know in the comments - I love finding new stuff!

Book Thoughts - The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
published 2012
audiobook read by Mark Bramhall

Synopsis from publisher -

At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit at the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase.

Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Just as the girls begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, and the shattering tragedy that follows will set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them but also to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.

My thoughts -

This novel was absolutely mesmerizing in it's simplicity. This is not a novel that relies on heart-pounding action or page-turning adventure to keep the reader engaged. While there are certainly moments of edge-of-your-seat tension, this is a novel of relationships - relationships between unlikely people brought together by unusual circumstances, and relationships between broken people and the land that sustains and nurtures them.

Coplin's prose is beautiful - elegant and wild like the land she describes, she makes the orchard and the hills as much a part of the story as Talmadge and Della. Her descriptions are never overblown, but perfectly contained to allow the reader to see each scene, each character, each moment of the story along with her.

“Her hair gathered at her neck, its color in the lantern light like young oak. How like the orchard she was. Because of her slowness and the attitude in which she held herself - seemingly deferent, quiet - it appeared even a harsh word would smite her. But it would not. She was like an egg encased in iron. She was the dream of the place that bore her, and she did not even know it.”

Coplin's characters are heartbreaking. They are everyday people trying to weather overwhelming trials, and they are not always successful. They come together as an unlikely family, and they struggle to hold on to each other. These characters will invade your heart and burrow into your soul, and they will live in your thoughts long after the last page of the novel has ended.

I am confident this will be one of the most memorable reads of my year. It was absolutely stunning, and I know it will be a novel I will revisit in the years to come. Highly recommended - don't let this one pass you by.

Finished - 5/31/13
Source - audiobook from the public library
MPAA rating - PG-13 - lots of really bad things happen, but never in a gratuitous manner. I would absolutely give this novel to a mature teenager to read.
My rating - 10/10

What's Making Me Happy This Week

(Idea shamelessly stolen from NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, which also makes me happy each week.)


Downton Abbey - The Musical?!?!?! I am SOOO in!






"Who cares if I am right about things or I'm a better person than you are if all it gets me is anger and bitterness?" 

My mom told me awhile back that you can choose to be angry, or you can choose to let it go. I'm trying really hard to learn to let it go, and this post made a lot of sense to me this week.


Noisetrade Summer Mix Tape

I love new music - finding new artists to love is one of my favorite things. I've been using NoiseTrade a lot recently, and today they sent me a link to a download of their 65-song Summer Mixtape. I've been having a BALL listening to this collection - there is some great stuff here. All you have to do to access these 65 songs is like their page on Facebook - worth it, as far as I'm concerned. Happy listening!



And.....This!!!

I jokingly mentioned to my sister that she should get me a signed copy of the latest novel by one of my favorite authors when he was near her city - and she did! Best thing that has arrived in the mail in months. This was a fantastic surprise - I really do have the best sister ever!!




What's making YOU happy this week? Share with me in the comments - let's keep the happy flowing.