- Visiting my parents in California for a few days
- Eating at my favorite seafood restaurant in CA, "The Crab Cooker"
- Spending a day at the beach (the real, ocean-rimming beach -- not the pathetic thing that lake-goers call the beach)
- A monstrous sunburn on certain parts of my formerly pasty Midwest body
- Visiting my brother in Santa Barbara and meeting his girlfriend (thankfully, I liked her -- unlike his ex!)
- Being the 6th person to hear and see the score for a new choral/orchestral work that one of my dad's friends wrote -- based on the 1st chapter of Job!! Fascinating and moving.
Unfortunately, immediately after I returned to Illinois, my vacation took a turn for the worst -- my iPhone disappeared. I think I dropped it somewhere in the courtyard or foyer of our apartment complex, and someone picked it up... and decided not to return it. I'm still holding onto a little bit of hope that it will still be returned, but in the meantime I am grieving this little loss.
However, I've been making good progress on my book quest, and since I still have a week left of vacation (at my in-laws' lake house), there might be more progress to come!
In my last post, I mentioned that I was not impressed, thus far, with Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. Well, I ended up really enjoying the book! During the first part of the book, I thought it was going to be a bunch of sentimental nonsense, but it turned out to be a bit of a mystery story, with wonderful twists and turns! I can imagine that in its day it would have been an on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller. I loved the way Wilkie Collins experimented with different narrative voices, and I especially loved the way he took his time unfolding the "answers" to the many mysteries raised in the plot. It's still a bit melodramatic in parts for my taste, but all-in-all a very enjoyable read. I *think* I understand why it's on the list -- if Wilkie Collins had lived to see movies, he would have written a darn good thriller flick.
I finished another book too (The Remains of the Day), but I'll save my reflections on that for tomorrow.
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