Yet another topsy-turvy day in New York State. Every day brings new restrictions, but I'm in full agreement that they're necessary, though I feel badly for anyone who must suffer one way or another as a result.
Our local businesses struggle in the best of times, largely because we don't have tourism 12 months of the year. We've just entered one of our leanest times (from the end of skiing until June). So last night we got take-out from our favorite restaurant that normally only serves in house. And that take-out includes alcoholic beverages! Restaurants are temporarily permitted to sell all alcohol on a take-out basis, including spirits. Never thought I'd see the day, but Governor Cuomo is trying to do everything possible to mitigate the losses the restaurants and pubs will suffer. So in addition to our meals, we ordered carry-out draught beer and I decided to get some Amaretto DiSaronno, just because I could. We'll keep patronizing our favorites because we would hate to lose them.
Now for the MEME.
I have 3 separate one-foot-high stacks of books that prevent me from opening the bottom drawer of a tall bureau in my bedroom. This bottom drawer holds summer clothing, so I'm good for now.
Today at the bottom of one stack I uncovered The Overstory by Richard Powers. Because this novel depicts the inter-connected experiences of nine Americans with trees (and forests), I was immediately interested in it, though I haven't read it yet. Since we moved to the Adirondacks, I have become a tree nut. A bona fide tree-hugger, in fact. And I study trees, observe them endlessly, especially the trees in the forests I roam.
The Overstory was published in 2018, and was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in that year (the link is to a BBC interview). And in the spring of 2019, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Reviews from readers are mixed. Outdoor people, environmentalists, and forest nuts like me are wild for it, while others don't like it at all. I hope to read it this spring. Evidently, Powers was inspired to write it after his encounters with redwoods in California.
Another surprise in the stacks was Arthur Conan Doyle: His Life in Letters. I found this lovely hardcover edition at a library book sale and paid just a dollar. I haven't read it, and as I paged through it today and read the introduction, it seems that many of the letters were written to his mother throughout his life. Evidently Mary Foley Doyle was full of stories herself, a creative person, who encouraged Doyle throughout his literary career until her death. ACD often noted that her gift for story-telling was passed on to him, that some of her stories made his hair stand on end, and that she was influential to his work always.
My final discovery for this evening is Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which was so carefully produced by the Kansas Historical Society. Blogger has been having fits for the past ten minutes. I'm going to close, and I'll add more info tomorrow. To all a good night!
