Books Read in 2020

 Despite the upheaval that my family went through in 2020, I was able to get some books read although it was far less than I usually read.  I'd just come home so exhausted from my job I wouldn't even have the energy to read let alone be creative.  This year I have a more to look forward to and the adventures that come with it but I plan to make plenty of  time for reading in as many forms as possible.

BOOKS

The Air Raid Killer - Frank Goldamm

A Longer Fall - Charlaine Harris

The Hand on the Wall - Maureen Johnson

The Master Quilter - Jennifer Chiaverini

Gwendy's Magic Feather - Richard Chizmar

7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton

The Tea Master and the Detective - Alietle DeBodand

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire

In The Shadow of Spinthrift House - Seanan McGuire

Ghost Money - Stephen Blackmoore

The Perfume Collector - Kathleen Tessaro

If It Bleeds - Stephen King

The Last Curtain Call - Juliet Blackwell

One Hell of a Ride - Seanan McGuire

No Place Like Home - Seanan McGuire

Married in Green - Seanan McGuire

Wave of Terror - Jon Jefferson

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix

The Neighbors - Ania Ahlborn

This House is Haunted - John Boyne

The Mystery Girl - David Gordon

A Tale from Paleface Creek - Robert F. Morneau

Granddaddy Gift - Margee King Mitchell

Duke Ellington - Andrea Davis Pinkney

Watch The Stars Come Out - Riki Levinson

Boom Town - Sonia Levitin

STORIES

The Fifth Step - Stephen King - Harper's Magazine Feb 2020

Batman and Robin Have an Altercation - Stephen King - Harper's Magazine Sept 2012

Everything But The Squeal - John Scalzi

AUDIBLE

Becoming - Michelle Obama

The Burnout Generation - Anne Helen Peterson

The Mystery of Alice -  Lee Bacon

The Last Emperox - John Scalzi

Camilla - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Educated - Tara Westover

2020

 2020 was a terrible year for most people.  For us it was incredibly stressful even before the pandemic hit.  In October of 2019 my husband lost his job when his position was eliminated.  We thought he would have a new job by the first part of 2020.   In the meantime, and this is going to sound crazy, we followed through with a trip we had planned to visit our daughter in Japan.  We spent Christmas and New Years with her (two and a half weeks total) and it was awesome.  But the job my husband had interviewed for, that we thought was a done deal, fell through.  

In November of 2020 my husband's father died unexpectedly.  He was then dealing with his grief, trying to manage his father's estate, and trying to find a new job.  I've never seen him so lost as I did in the months to come.  

By March 2020, just as the pandemic was getting a foothold, I had found a job.  I worked as a scheduler for a local hospital chain.  In the months that followed I learned to book mammograms, CT scans, ultrasounds, MRI's, and much more.  It was a difficult job keeping all the information for the 8 different hospital locations straight - each location had different rules for the different tests.  It was all draining for me as an introvert to talk to people all day long and my empathy continually got the better of me.  Everyone calling in had something serious going wrong in their life.  I'd come home absolutely exhausted.  But it was a job and it provided insurance and income for my family - that's what mattered.  

At home my husband at first had trouble with this role reversal (there was also this deep depression as well).  He had never filed for unemployment before.  Luckily he filed before the crush from the pandemic and lock downs.  He began keeping house and making dinner.  If I'm honest, he did a much better job of keeping the house clean and he's a better cook than I am.  He also had to keep track of the appointments and services for our son.  He began to see what it was like for me while he worked.  It was eye opening for both of us.  We were doing everything we had to do to stay afloat until better days come.

In January of 2021, after applying for over 200 positions across 63 different companies, my husband was offered a position as a Research Agronomist in Minot, North Dakota.  He's been there since the end of January.  We will be moving there as a family in a few days.  I look forward to this new adventure in an area of the United States of America that I've never been to.  Hopefully, I can get back to this blog and more creativity in the coming year!

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