“It’s Monday! What are you reading?” is a weekly event hosted by Sheila at Bookjourney to share with others what we’ve read the past week and planning to read next.
Last week, The Husband was away in a Chicago hotel for a work thing from early Tuesday morning until Friday night. The kids were of course excited to see him on Saturday. Then on Sunday morning he left for a leadership something or other week-long thing at Wharton that his company decided to send him for.

I am just feeling grateful for (1) my mum extending her stay here for one week to help with the kids this week and (2) that this travel thing only happens once a year. The October Chicago thing is a yearly office event but this Wharton thing is completely new – and also very last minute – and thankfully (hopefully?) just this once.

After several days of more ‘American’ food, the Husband was craving for some Asian food. So it was off to Mitsuwa supermarket in San Jose to eat ramen for lunch (we were at least 20 people deep in the queue 15 minutes before the stall even opened). At Mitsuwa, we also made sure to pick up stuff to make sushi as well as sashimi. My mum also wanted to give MochiCream a try, so we got four different types – black sesame, red bean, sakura and peach. Oh and other things we picked up were red bean buns from Clover Bakery. These are really stuffed with red bean paste, and so much better than the kind you get in the Chinese bakeries! Oh and because the ramen stall is located in a food court, we also got some black sesame and matcha ice-cream. The kids were too impatient to eat it so no pictures. Actually, it’s more like the 4yo was impatient to eat the ice-cream, the 2yo just wanted the waffle cone.

(Sometimes I think my 2yo is just like an old man, he says things like, “I don’t want ice-cream, it’s too cold for me!”)

 

I didn’t manage to write up a library loot post last week but here’s what I got for the kids. Their favourite is definitely the Peppa Pig (we don’t have that many Peppa Pig books at home), but I thought Bus Ride was rather cute, as well as Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas.

 

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

Summer of the Big Bachi – Naomi Hirahara

For RIPX and Diversiverse

Mendocino Fire – Elizabeth Tallent 

For an upcoming book tour

The Book of Three – Lloyd Alexander

I finally bought my own copies of this series! My sister and I had a set, which is of course still in Singapore, but I really wanted to reread this, as well as own them! So I got them from Book Outlet during one of their sales.

Watching:

I just watched the final of the Great British Bakeoff! It was so lovely and emotional! If you like it, or even if you’ve never watched it really, you should read this long read from the Guardian about the genius of the GBBO!

Bake Off is pure English pastoral: it is Delius, Vaughan-Williams and Blake. It is Miss Marple. It is the National Trust. It is the first tableau in Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics: a village cricket match played out in a green and pleasant land. It is the England that then prime minister John Major vowed would never vanish in a famous 1993 speech: “Long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools fillers and – as George Orwell said – ‘old maids bicycling to holy communion through the morning mist’.” Major was mining Orwell’s wartime essay The Lion and the Unicorn, whose tone was one of reassurance – the national culture will survive, despite everything: “The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings and the misty skies.”

 

 

Eating:

Nothing at the moment. We did have leftover sushi for dinner. And yes, it does keep ok. This time we made it mostly with crab sticks and cucumbers, but if we make it with avocado, we try to finish those on the day it’s made.

Drinking:

Water

Cooking:

We picked up some Asian eggplant from the farmers market, as well as some bok choy. So the bok choy will go in noodles and as a stirfry on its own. The eggplant I will attempt to sneak into a bolognese type sauce to eat with pasta.

Browsing:

The reviews for Diversiverse!

How professional readers read for pleasure (Lit Hub)

I haven’t seen Fresh Off the Boat yet, but I thought this article about the ‘revolutionary kissing’ was amusing – and also true.

Amazon has released a list of 100 SF/Fantasy books to read in a lifetime. Of which I have to comment: Where’s the NK JEMISIN???

Last week:

I read:

Comics! I somehow did not finish reading a book but boy did I read a lot of:

Lots of Lumberjanes issues

Runaways Volumes 2 to 4 – Brian K Vaughan and Adrian Alphona

 

I posted:

#Diversiverse and #RIPX : Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan

#Diversiverse and #RIPX : Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho