So my older nephew turned 21 yesterday. 21! Who let that happen? How is that even possible? (and the other nephew turns 18 next Thursday! 18! Otoh, since he was diagnosed with leukemia at 11 months, we are all thrilled that he recovered and thrived, and we don't say things like, "How did this happen!?" because we're just so glad that it did.)
Anyway! He likes sugar cookies, so that is what I'm making for him, but does anyone have any great recipes for them? I have a couple from the internet, but it's been years since I made sugar cookies. What are your favorites?
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I have been all discombobulated this week about what day it is - though I am pretty sure today is finally Friday! - so I missed the Wednesday book meme on Wednesday, 'cause I thought it was Thursday. So I'm just gonna do it now:
What I just finished
I finally finished The Second World War by Antony Beevor, which was a military history of the war, a little dry at times, but educational. (I still like Inferno better.)
I also read Half-Off Ragnarok, the third Incryptid book by Seanan McGuire. I enjoyed it, though it's fairly predictable. And while I get why Alex had to be the narrator of this particular story, I don't feel like he's got a voice distinctive enough from Verity's to make the first person narration really work. I find this with a lot of first person narration, though. After you read a couple books with it by the same author, they do start to blend together unless there's something really distinctive about the voice. I guess I'm a little tired of it, too? Which isn't the book's fault. It's a fun book.
What I'm reading now
Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings. Though as I mentioned the other day, this book only tackles the first year of the war, which I didn't really know when I picked it up. I also feel like maybe I should have read a full overview of the war first? I don't know. It's interesting so far, but while the political and military leaders all come off poorly for various reasons, it's hard not to feel terrible for the soldiers, and also to want to slap some of these guys who seemed stuck in the 19th c. and had no idea what they were walking their men into. Being marched into battle with trumpets and drums! Wearing white gloves! What the fucking fuck? I guess it's easy to look back and know that sheer unmitigated horror none of them were prepared for was coming, but you have to wonder what they thought was going to happen when they sent poorly trained and barely armed men against heavy artillery.
What I'm reading next
As always it's a mystery to me. I did pick up a couple of free ebooks and there's all the other things that have been piling up while I've been on this military history spree, so who knows?
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