{ The Outlook for Earthlings by Joan Frank - TLC Book Tours }

 

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Regal House Publishing (October 2, 2020)

The Outlook For Earthlings traces a difficult friendship across a lifetime. Melanie Taper is rule-bound, timid, self-erasing. Yet in unguarded moments she demonstrates such deadly insight into human foibles as to suggest a strength that has, for dark reasons, deliberately hidden itself lifelong. Scarlet Rand is rash, willful, abrasive—vexed by “demure” traits and “small fussing motions.” Shocked by Mel’s passivity and near-archaic saintliness, Scarlet disbelieves it. Their friendship suggests to each a final frontier, a saving sanctuary. Yet at its core each woman takes a secret, moral offense at the other’s inmost nature—and her choices. Against the deadline of the illness which is slowly destroying one of them, a reckoning must occur.

The Outlook for Earthlings considers the limits of friendship—and of witnessing. It asks how we may finally measure a life—and who should do the measuring.

Purchase Links

Regal House Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Joan Frank

Joan Frank is the author of ten books: eight of literary fiction and two essay collections. Her recent books are WHERE YOU’RE ALL GOING: FOUR NOVELLAS and TRY TO GET LOST: ESSAYS ON TRAVEL AND PLACE. A MacDowell Fellow and recipient of many honors and awards, Joan also reviews literary fiction and nonfiction for the Washington Post.

Find out more about Joan at her website.

 

REVIEW:

The story follows Melanie and Scarlet.  Two young girls born in the 60s who meet on a school bus and forge a friendship and bond that will take them through their childhood, all the way to adulthood.While they do have similarities in that they both came from pretty dysfunctional upbringings, their way of being and their personalities themselves are pretty different.Joan Frank explores the ins and outs and innermost thoughts and feelings, tied to female friendships. 

 

Though they remain friends, each takes a different path in life.  One goes the traditional route and marries, has children, while the other takes to the road and travels as a journalist.20 years later they come together again, and though happy to see each other, each can't help but look a bit sideways at the choices the other one made.  

 

Whether we admit it or not, as we grow, the people we were in our teenage years, become different people as we experience life and all it's ups and downs.The trick is to be respectful and to understand that not everyone will act and react the same way we do, or the way we expect them too.

 

Outlook for Earthlings takes a brilliant deeper look into what it means to be a friend, to set aside whatever judgement we may feel we need to pass on their life choices, and rather focus on being supportive and understanding.If you enjoy books about friendship, then this one needs to go on your shelf.

{ What am I going to post about? }

 

    I think these are thoughts every blogger has had, at one point or another. Especially if you've been blogging as long as I have. I was about to sit down and start typing and that thought popped into my mind.  It seems to do that a lot lately, maybe because I'm not used to blogging consistently.

 

    So what I did was sit for a moment and think back to when I first started and many years after. I never had an issue wondering what I was blogging about on that day, I just took pictures, sat down and the words flowed. What was it that made it so easy back then as opposed to today? 

 

     And then it hit me. I wasn't putting any pressure on myself to come up with any sort of theme or subject I had to discuss.

    If you go back and read my earlier posts, I really just took photos of my every day life and shared it every morning or evening. Whatever I was doing, is what I was sharing. Why do we make things so much more difficult for ourselves? Isn't it crazy? 

    I then realized that I need to just sit and talk about my day, no matter what hapened, big or small, exciting or boring. The point here, and it has always been the idea, is for me to keep a record of my life that I can one day pass on to my children, or even read myself, when I'm old. 

 

    So with that in mind, I grabbed my camera this morning, and just took photos as I went about my day.  I was just thinking yesterday that I haven't been recording some of our biggest battles the past few years, or important dates etc. 

    What that means is that when I get to transfer my posts to my blog books, there are going to be chunks of time throughout the years, that there is nothing to show. That's sad to me. But it's also life. No use crying over spilled milk right? 

 

    I'm just going to jump right in and sit down every night or every morning to talk about my day and if I have photos to share too, even better. I don't know if it's because of the horrid year we've had, or what, but I am actually quite looking forward to Christmas. 

    I am already thinking, planning, figuring out what I'm going to cook and so on. Thanksgiving however, we are giving a miss this year. Neither my husband, nor I, are in the mood to celebrate. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot to be thankful for, but it is also the first year without my sweet mother in law and it's going to be a really difficult day for us. 

 

    Anyway, so today I took Jasmine to work in the morning, then pottered around the house a bit. FYI, before I continue, can I just say that I am really disliking this new blogger layout? 

    I really wish they would stop messing with things or at the very least allow us the option of continuing with the old interface. I am so completely lost right now, can't find half the things I need to post, to change the template. Anyone else? 

But back to what I was saying. I reorganized some of my kitchen cabinets. I don't know why but I feel that as time goes by, the layouts I pick at first, stop being functional so I have to go back in and change, throw out some things, move others around and so forth. 

    However, I was dealing with some cramping (women stuff), and Curt gave me some pain meds to take after my lunch. I came to sit on my bed just to ease the cramping and woke up 2 hours later with a sore neck. LOL I completely conked out for 2 hours with both the cat and the dog with me. By the time I woke up, it was time to get dinner started. 

    I have been filming my meals this week for my Weekly Meals video, so it takes a bit more setup when I got into the kitchen, instead of just walking in, making the meal and sitting down to eat. But I do enjoy making the videos, so it's all good. We ate dinner, then had to run back out to pick up Jasmine. So not exactly a lot going on today, it was a bit of a laid back one, especially for me.

    Wanted to get the recipes on the blog, and ended up not even getting around to that, so it's on my list for tomorrow.

    See, this is what happens when you stop doing something for so long.  Jeez it's hard to get back on track, but I'll get there.

    I hope you enjoyed my little glimpse at my day, and I guess this is what you can expect moving forward, more hodgepodge, random posts with snippets of what I'm doing.  I don't think I've ever been able to stick to a specific topic, I always jump from this to that and back again.

    To be fair, isn't that how we talk in real life?  Does anyone ever sit down to chat with a friend, and stick to just one thing?  I know I don't and half the time I wonder how we even get onto some topics  Hahaha

    Well friends, I am going to end his one here.  It's almost 9 o' clock, and I am going to watch a quick video on Youtube, read my Bible and go to sleep.

{ Getting back on track }

 

    It is 7:16 PM and the sun is almost completely set.  That's Fall right there, waving excitedly and letting us know that they have arrived safe and sound.

    The days have started slowing down, the mornings have began to feel cold, and our trees are changing color.  There is no going back to summer now, although, Texas is trying to hold on to warm temperatures still, but within the next few days that will be a thing of the past.

 

 

    Usually around this time of year, I pull out one of my wicker baskets, and fill them with beanies, mittens, scarves and so forth. When I went to go look, I realized that I really need to knit and crochet new ones. The older ones are really ratty and just not looking very good anymore. 

 

    I had some yarn from my birthday haul, that I wasn't quite sure what to do with because though it is beautiful, the skeins are pretty small so though my first choice would have been a blanket, there was not enough for one. I decided to use all 5 skeins and just make another Infinity Pavement Scarf. 

 

 

 

    I made one about 6 years ago, but have since lost it, well, didn't lose it, I let Curt's aunt take it to try and make one for herself and she just never brought it back Hahahah I think she may have loved it a bit too much, and that's alright, but it meant that I didn't have one anymore. 

 

 

 

    I just grabbed the 5 skeins I had and did a color block scarf. The result is quite stunning. The colors go brilliantly together and the scarf is not only long which is my preference, but so soft. I can't wait to wear it. 

 

    We are slowly trying to get back into our normal routine. Honestly, we haven't been ourselves, or following our usual schedules, since the end of May. I won't say that I am a stickler for routines, but our lives have been so up in the air and tossed back and forth, that we are craving some familiarity at this point. 

    And so I am picking up the camera more, cooking more, baking, pottering around the house, crocheting, reading, and trying to watch period dramas that I so love. It all feels a bit out of place right now. 

 

    The sweet familiarity of our old routine, but intermixed with the feeling of it all being brand new. Life, whether we want to admit it or not, has changed, and now it's a matter of learning to live with this new normal. 

    How are we otherwise?

    The kids are ok.  I have my days, and my husband is not really talking about it.  He is not ready to deal with the loss of his mom.  So he sets it aside, deep within him and doesn't go there.   

    Grief is a strange thing isn't it?  We all at some time in our lives, experience it, but we don't all deal with it the same way.  

    So, he knows that I'm here, and he has told me that when he is ready to talk about it, he will come to me.  Until then, I am letting him get through this however he needs to.

    I've loaded up on books, some are for review s they were sent by the publishers, one was sent by my brother in South Africa, and others I picked up at my local Christian store.  I tend to do a lot more reading in the cold weather seasons than in the summer.

    In that pile, aside from my Study Bible, are the books I picked up at the store, as well as the book my brother gave me which is Trump's Pro Christian Accomplishments:

A divine revelation of Heaven and Hell by Mary K. Baxter

Trump's Pro Christian Accomplishments by Steve Cioccolanti

A Prairie Girl's Faith: The Spiritual Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Stephen W. Hines

Lazarus Awakening:  Finding your place in the heart of God by Joanna Weaver

Heaven: Your real home....from a higher perspective by Joni Eareckson Tada 

90 Minutes in Heaven: A true story of death and life by Don Piper

The Refuge by Ann H. Gabhart

 

    Tomorrow I will share with you the books I have received for review.  Have quite a few really good ones on the shelf as well.  Now where to find time to read them all?  Isn't that a good problem to have though?

 

    I am also getting back into full time cooking, which means quite a few new recipes to try and share with you. This one is so simple, only has 3 ingredients and was delicious. It will be up on the food blog tomorrow, along with tonight's dinner which was also a new recipe I tried. 

    I also still need to show you my fall/winter garden, so need to grab the camera and get out in the veggie area.

    I hope you are all doing well.  I miss visiting your blogs and catching up.  I haven't even had time to visit the Happy Homemaker Monday participants.  Blimey.

    Anyway, I am going to end this one here, brush my teeth and get into my warm comfy bed.  Have a wonderful night friends, I'll see you all tomorrow.

{ Happy Homemaker Monday - 10/05/2020 }

Good morning dear friends.  How are you on this chilly Fall day?  

I must say, I am loving the cooler temperatures.  There is something about waking up to misty roads, crisp air and changing leaves on the trees.  

I hope you've had a restful weekend, mine was good but I didn't get as much rest as I was hoping for.  We had to run errands on Saturday, and then yesterday we went over to my brother's house because my husband needed us all to get together, to record a bible study group for his degree.  It was quite interesting and made us all think about our lives, the kind of people we are and if we are being righteous people, as well as what we need to change within ourselves.  

Anyway, this is going up a little later than usual, I've had a bit of a crazy morning, been rushing around and am now finally sitting down to type up the post.  

Thank you all for joining in each week, I truly do appreciate it.  

Have a blessed week. 

♥♥The Weather♥♥
Lots of sunny days ahead.

Monday - Abundant sunshine, 82
Tuesday - Sunny, 87
Wednesday - Sunny, 90
Thursday -  Sunny, 89
Friday - Sunny, 87
Saturday -  Sunny, 90
Sunday - Sunny, 92


♥♥How I am feeling this morning♥♥
A bit tired.  Bit sniffly, but that is expected with the weather change. 

 

♥♥On my mind♥♥
Nothing in specific, though I do want to start getting more blog posts up, so been thinking about that.  

 
♥♥On the breakfast plate♥♥
Had a cup of coffee and two small slices of bread with plain butter on them.          


♥♥On my reading pile♥♥
Book of Psalms in my Bible.  

President Trump's Pro Christian Accomplishments - my brother sent me this book to read, it's quite good. 

A Divine Revelation of Heaven and Hell by Mary K. Baxter.

Also, picked up some books at the Christian store, will show them to you later this afternoon in a different post. 

 
♥♥On my tv♥♥
 My Portuguese Soap *Quer o Destino*
Vlogtober on Youtube


♥♥On the menu this week♥♥

Monday - Slow Cooker Texas BBQ Chicken, Macaroni and Cheese

Tuesday - Deep Dish Taco Pie, Salad

Wednesday - Crack Chicken Pierogie Pie

Thursday - Fried Sausage and Potatoes

Friday - 3 Cheese Sausage Alfredo, Garlic Parmesan Skillet Bread

Saturday - Sweet Heat 7 Up Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes

Sunday - Sweet and Sour Pork

♥♥From the camera♥♥
I love my candles but with a kitten in the house now, I'm having to be extremely careful of when I light them.  

Would love any tips on dealing with cats and candles, plants etc. 

♥♥Looking around the house♥♥
I am currently sitting on my bed (of course), working on this post.  I have my bedroom windows open and the fresh crisp air is coming in.  Feels so good.

Curt had to pop into work, so he took Jasmine to her workplace first so that I didn't have to go out.  I love my husband.  

Nick is still asleep, I mean, he is 17 after all and that seems to be what they all do at this age. 

 
♥♥New recipe I tried last week, or one that we really enjoyed♥♥
Made a slow cooked spaghetti casserole on Saturday.  It was so good, and nothing really special about it.  I basically browned my ground beef, added in the jar of spaghetti sauce, then added half the meat mixture to the bottom of the slow cooker.  Topped it with a box of spaghetti noodles that I broke into thirds, then topped with the remaining meat mixture.  Added in a cup of water, and finished it off with 2 cups of cheese.  I cooked it on HIGH for 2 hours, and it was really yummy.


♥♥To relax this week, I will♥♥
Read more and I really want to get some crochet in as well. 

 

♥♥On my prayer list♥♥  

My nephew Colby, he had surgery on his leg last week and is now going through the long process of healing.  For an 18 year old who is used to going to school and out with his friends, it is very difficult to find himself stuck in the house, without being able to do anything. 

We are all going through the grieving process, but I do worry about my husband.  He is not talking about it, not thinking about it and doing his best to just ignore the fact that his mom just passed.  He told me he is not ready to face it yet.  I'm surrounding him in prayer and just supporting him however he needs. 

President Trump as he battles Covid, and every one else not just in this country, but all over the world who are currently fighting this virus. 

 

Almanac 2021 - TLC Book Tour

 

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (September 22, 2020)

The essential annual for the 21st century, this high-energy almanac is packed with facts, photos, infographics, time lines, and maps–the perfect stocking stuffer and book to browse all year long. 

 

A guide to the world like no other, this vivid and comprehensive book offers the best of National Geographic and more: science, nature, history, world cultures, geography, and the environment, illustrated with amazing photography, fascinating infographics, and maps created by expert cartographers. Highlights this year include the James Webb telescope, launching in 2021; a brand-new wildflower guide; a guided tour of the moons of our solar system; a beautiful infographic on jellyfish; and a feature on lithium, central to the work of recent Nobel prize-winning chemistry.

Divided into lively chapters including Exploration & Adventure, Life on Earth, and The Science of Us, this year’s almanac features top photos from National Geographic’s celebrated Instagram account and geniuses past and present including Jane Goodall, Amelia Earhart, and acclaimed conservationist Kris Tompkins, dedicated to preserving much of Patagonia.

With new discoveries on every page, this cutting-edge book–called a “category buster” by Booklist–brings you, as Publishers Weekly puts it, “all the things that National Geographic does best.”

Purchase Links

Penguin Random House | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

*******************************

 REVIEW: 

I have been extremely lucky to have been able to review the Almanac the past 2 years.  It is a book I absolutely love, for the myriad of information contained within it's pages.

I am a person that loves all sorts of subjects, and don't really like to stick to just one.  With the Almanac I feel that in one book, I can travel the world and learn about so many different topics.  It's almost like flipping through TV channels.

This is one of those books that would make a brilliant gift for a husband or son.  

Gorgeous photography, a tour of our solar system, tornadoes, the human body, diving the antarctica, the James Webb telescope which looks into folding mirrors, birth of stars and systems and even microshutters.  

There is a really good timeline of the human evolution, neandetherals, ancestors and so forth.

This is a book that you can really get into and never be bored.  And what's best?  This Almanac has quiz masters spread out that ask you questions about the information contained in the different chapters.  It is so neat, and really does make you think.

I have to give it a huge thumbs up again.  I think I'll be adding it to my christmas gift list.

 

Thank you to TLC Book tours and National Geographic for providing me with a review copy.