Memes: The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop
As it gets harder sometimes to chat or interact with aging friends my age and even younger, I am more attracted to nonfiction reads that try to decipher our brains and what can happen as we grow and get older. I hope to be enlightened about myself as well as about others.
The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of our Brains by Pria Anand is an ARC from NetGalley, which will be published June 10, 2025.
In The Mind Electric, neurologist Pria Anand reveals—through case study, history, fable, and memoir—all that the medical establishment has the complexity and wonder of brains in health and in extremis, and the vast gray area between sanity and insanity, doctor and patient, and illness and wellness, each separated from the next by the thin veneer of a different story.
Remembering the cruise we never took - to Havana - that was bought, paid for, and was then canceled in 2019 by a new ban on travel to Cuba by the president at the time. I'll try some of these recipes instead, I guess.
The Old Havana Cookbook by Rafael Marcos, published December 1, 1999. Among the recipes included Ajiaco (famous Cuban Stew), Boiled Pargo with Avocado Sauce, Lobster Havanaise, Tamal en Cazuela (Soft Tamal), Quimbombo (okra), Picadillo, Roast Suckling Pig, and Boniatillo (Sweet Potato Dulce), along with a whole chapter on famous Cuban cocktails and beverages.
All recipes using local foods, seafood, and tropical fruits and veggies.
An interesting take on outsiders seeing the other side of the coin when it comes to groups, families, organizations, businesses, etc.The book has created a new category of people - otroverts. Those who don't feel part of any type of group.
Book description: The book details the otrovert personality – someone who feels like an outsider in any group, regardless of its members - revealing all the advantages of being an otrovert and ways otroverts contribute to the world. Otroverts are embraced and often quite popular. Yet they never feel like they truly belong.
I'm not sure I'm an otrovert. Do you know anyone who fits this description? Are they lucky or not?
I'm still reading fiction and mysteries, of course! I finished this one and rated it a 4 on Goodreads and will write a review later on.
Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill, August 19, 2025; Poisoned Pen Press; NetGalley. Set on the Orient Express in Paris, the famous train is filled with detectives and crime writers on vacation, fascinated by the history of the setting for mystery writers such as Agatha Christie.
Of course, there are murders on the train, and the writers and detectives set out to solve the crimes even if it means it has to charge one of their own.
I'm in the middle of reading Our Last Resort by Clemence Michallon, July 8, 2025, Knopf, NetGalley. It's a mystery thriller and psych suspense novel.
Frida and Gabriel are staying at a seculded resort in the desert of Utah, reuniting and reminiscing about their childhoods growing up in a cult family from which they later escaped. They see a murder on the grounds of the resort and try to solve it themselves, with flashbacks to their lives growing up in the cult.
I'm intrigued by the murder mystery as well as by the description of life in a cult led by a misogynistic and narcissictic leader.
That's all for me this week. What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop
I have a Cuban cookbook called Clarita's Kitchen. It's fun to try new cuisines. I agree completely about the importance of keeping the brain stimulated. I will look for this book by Anand when it's published. My library may have it preordered. I do Suduko, crosswords, word games and read like it's my job to keep my mind active. It's important for any age bit I am pushing 70 this June so I do what I can.
ReplyDeleteAn otrovert is a completely new idea to me. I will think about whether I know anyone who is such a person. And I would very much like to read The Mind Electric. It does get harder and harder to talk to my friends who are getting older.
ReplyDeleteThe Mind Electric sounds intriguing. I'm meeting with a friend tomorrow who has Huntington's Disease. He's managed to hold things together in a remarkable way, but he's distressed by current events and wants help to figure out what to do about it. I hope I can navigate between available opportunities and his current capabilities.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great mix. I love that the cookbook is in there. Otroverts could also be plagued with social anxiety - they don't feel part of the group but the group considers them part of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting area to study! I have had so much difficulty with memory ever since I had chemotherapy 10 years ago. I hesitate to make new friends as this seems to be a point of humor for them. I’m blessed to have great support with my long-term friends and my group of retired teachers – my “Golden Girls”! 😊
ReplyDeleteMe! I'm the otrovert. And an introvert. If one can be both.
ReplyDeleteI agree about The Mind Electric, I've thought that myself as I've gotten older. And ooh Five Found Dead sounds fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI've added 'Not Belonging' to my Wish List. Looks *interesting*. I think I'm definitely an otrovert...! As to reading... I expect to finish 'First Steps - How Walking Upright Made Us Human' by Jeremy Desilva tomorrow. Up next will be 'Fifteen Hours' by Mitchel Scanlon which will be my first Warhammer 40K book.
ReplyDeleteOur Last Resort sounds really interesting. So does The Mind Electric. I am fascinated by how brains work and function and heal; my son had two brain bleeds at birth, very high grade, and since then we have been thrown into a whole new area of learning.
ReplyDeleteThe Mind Electric looks good. I haven't read any NF yet this year.
ReplyDeleteMary @Bookfan
Five Found Dead is one I want to read!
ReplyDeleteOtrovert is a new concept to me. I'm not sure that I do know anyone in that category, but I would need to know more to be sure. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteWhat interesting sounding book selections. I've never heard the term otroverts. I often don't feel like I belong in groups but then I look around and think others are going through the motions like I am and I'm comforted that I am not alone.
ReplyDeleteMy Sunday Salon: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/sunday-salon-spring.html
It's interesting you say that, Harvee. I find I am drawn to articles about dementia and keeping the brain healthy. The Gift of Not Belonging also sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletehttps://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2025/03/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-mailbox_0933839950.html
Great assortment of books. I'm trying to read more nonfiction and have set a goal of 10 nonfiction books for the year. I'm a bit behind but hope to catch up. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
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