55. The Answer is No: A Short Story by Frederik Bachman

listened on Audible, only on Audible

68 pgs. (Short story) (1:49)

2024
Adult Short Story HUMOROUS
Finished 12/31/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.91
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary anywhere (translated)

My comments: This story is a riot that tries to answer the question: what is it to be happy?  It is ridiculously silly in its satire and really cracked me up.

Audible synopsis:  In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

• Goodreads synopsis:  Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?

  
  Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
  
  Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.

54. The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani

listened on Libby

416 pgs. (12:17)

2025
Adult CRF
Finished 112/30/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.86
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Lake Como, NJ AND Italy - Tuscany

My comments: I loved listening to this, Mira Sorvino does a wonderful job and kept me listening even when I thought it was getting a little too long.  Jess tells her entire story, and in doing so keeps going back in her memories to conversations and moments in time with her family.  This technique worked really well for me, and I feel I got to know Jess - and her tight, eccentric Italian-American New Jersey shore family very well.  The second half of the story is set in Tuscany, Italy, which I didn't really like as well as the first part, though both told the story of an Italian family with strong, firm roots in Italy.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the beloved New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, a “dazzling” storyteller (Washington Post), and a “comedy writer with a heart of gold” (NYT), comes a novel about one woman’s quest to build her own life before it’s too late. 

Jess Capodimonte Baratta is not living the life of her dreams. Not even close.
 
In blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, “the perfect husband," Jess moves into her parents’ basement to hide and heal. Jess is the overlooked daughter, who dutifully takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. Despite her role as the family handmaiden, Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her confidant, her dapper uncle Louie, who believes she can do anything (once she invests in a better wardrobe).  
 
When the Capodimonte and Baratta families endure an unexpected loss, the shock unearths long-buried secrets that will force Jess to question her loyalty to those she trusted. Fueled by her lost dreams, Jess takes fate into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home, Carrara, Italy.
 
From the shadows of the majestic marble-capped mountains of Tuscany, to the glittering streets of Milan, and on the shores of enchanting Lake Como (the other one), Jess begins to carve a place in this new/old world. When she meets Angelo Strazza, a passionate artist who works in gold, she discovers her own skills are priceless. But as Jess uncovers the truth about her family history, it will change the course of her life and those she loves the most forever.  In love and work, in art and soul, Jess will need every tool she has mastered to reinvent her life.

Fed by the author’s cherished Italian roots comes a bighearted, hilarious novel of the the story of one woman’s determination to live a creative life that matters, with enough room left over for love. With a one-way ticket to Italy, Jess is determined to write a new story on her own terms--this time, in stone.

Dex Appeal - Rolodex Cards

    

Christmas 2025 Dex Appeal #1 Collaged

Christmas 2025 Dex Appeal #2 Stamped and Colored

Christmas 2025 Dex Appeal - How they were packaged and sent

Tags and Journal Cards

2.5 inch circle tags (except for two, lol)

Punched To and From Christmas tags

Christmas Tree tags

ATCs

APC Colorful Collage

26.1 Created January 2025

     26.1.1 (2SpY) Mary G

     26.1.2 (3SpO)  Sheila I

     26.1.3 (4SpBr)

     26.1.4 (5SpW)

     26.1.5 (6SpGO)

Gretchen Blooms ATCs

25.6 Created December 2025

     26.6.1  cag

     26.6.2  Sheila I

     26.6.3 (blue) Mary G

Renata Celebrates ATCs

25.5 Created December 2025

     25.5.1  cag

     25.5.2  (No Sugar skull or Dia De Los Muertos)

                   Stacey

     25.5.3

    

Fiona Sings ATCs

25.4 Created December 2025

     25.4.1   cag

     25.4.2  Jackie H

     25.4.3  Jill A

     25.4.4  Melissa S

     25.4.5  Holly C

Beatrice Reads ATCs (MudPud page)

25.3  Created November 2025

     25.3.1  Katie

     25.3.2  Stacey

         25.3.3  Sheila I

         25.3.4  Lyndsay P

         25.3.5  Mary G

            25.3.6  cag

            25,3,7  Angela C

     

Colors of Fall ATCs 

25.2.(1-9) Created September 2025

     25.2.1  P. J. J

     25.2.2  Staci S

     25.2.3  Susan C

     25.2.4  Yvonne B

        25.2.5

        25.2.6

        25.2.7

        25.2.8

        25.2.9

8/2025 ATCs  

25.1.(1-9) Created August 2025

     25.1.1  Mary G (8/25)

     25.1.2  Debra A (8/25)

     25.1.3   Heidi M (8/25)

     25.1.4   Alyssa T (8/25)

        25.1.5

Any doubt that I'm a junk journaler?

Christmas Bookmarks and Pockets for My Brunch Friends

Christmas Ephemera

 I've had a blast making miscellaneous ephemera this week, some to go out in swaps and some to insert into Christmas cards.

Double pockets with tags

More double pockets with tags

Christmas Hidden Paper clips with tabs

Christmas Tree Tags

"Beatrice Reads" - A New ATC Series

 I love my AALL stamps, and I've decided to make a series of ATCs using the three I already have.  I finished the first two and gave them to Stacey and Katie, and now I've sent these three out to Sheila I, Lyndsay P, and Mary G in JJCV.