What did YOU buy today? March 2020

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What did YOU buy today? March 2020

1ReneeMarie
Redigeret: okt 7, 2021, 8:55 pm

One ARC: * Once We Were Here by Christopher Cosmos (pub 10/20; historical WWII fiction set in Greece)

And, for the facts, I bought:
* The Impeachment Report: The House Intelligence Committee's Report on Its Investigation into Donald Trump and Ukraine

2ReneeMarie
Redigeret: okt 7, 2021, 8:55 pm

Five more ARCs:

* The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves (pub 4/20; contemporary fiction)
* Conjure Women by Afia Atakora (pub 3/20; historical fiction)
* Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles (pub 4/20; historical fiction)
* The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls (pub 4/20; historical fiction)
* First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn (pub 5/20; historical romance)

3Yuki_Onna
mar 18, 2020, 3:03 pm

Oh boy, I wanted to go to my local bookstore today to buy some books - aaaanndddd: As of today, all bookstores in town have had to close - and they'll have to stay closed for an undetermined time because of the Corona-crisis. All shops that are 'not indispensable' - that means everything apart from petrol stations, pharmacies, drugstores and grocery shops - have been forced to close.
I feel like living in wartimes or in a dystopia - and God knows how much I hate dystopian fiction. Schools and libraries have been closed for nearly two weeks now.
I feel pretty lost and sad without my favourite bookstore - I need steady book-supply from a 'real' shop, not from the internet.
And what about the economy? How many of the smaller shops will be able to survive this?
It feels like living in a nightmare.

4ReneeMarie
Redigeret: okt 7, 2021, 8:57 pm

>3 Yuki_Onna: My bookstore is still open, but our hours have been severely slashed. Since we're attached to a mall and the mall is closed, many of our customers probably don't realize we're open. Even with all the employees who because of health conditions or fear have decided they don't want to work, I'm still losing hours. I've been trying to survive the last few years on 26 hours per week. Next week I'll have 16 or less.

Two more ARCs:
* _Daughter of the Reich_ by Louise Fein (pub 5/20; historical fiction)
* The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story of Family and Survival by Jeremy Dronfield (pub 5/20; history, of course)

5Yuki_Onna
mar 22, 2020, 11:18 am

>4 ReneeMarie: ReneeMarie: Oh, boy, I hate the situation right now. Let's hope it will go back to normal soon!

Are you still allowed to open? In Germany there's this situation that the shops are FORCED to close by the government. The police will close any shop that's not 'relevant for the system', i.e. everything apart from the above-mentioned pharmacies, drugstores, gas stations and grocery stores. That's what scares the hell out of me. It impairs our personal freedom and living in Germany doesn't feel like living in a democracy any more.

Keep up the good work, ReneeMarie! Bookstores aren't 'relevant for the system'??? I couldn't disagree more.

6ReneeMarie
mar 22, 2020, 9:27 pm

>5 Yuki_Onna: Individual stores in general haven't been shut down in my state.

Restaurants are required to stick to delivery or takeout. Self-serve food is gone from mini-marts. Malls where people can congregate are as a whole shuttered. And I think I heard that hair and nail salons are shuttered.

At the bookstore we've been sanitizing multiple times a day. We have hand sanitizer available. We are to wear gloves when we work a cash register. We've taken out all seating, not only in the cafe but also in the rest of the store. And we've asked each other and our customers to practice "social distancing."

My biggest fear is when I take the bus to get to work or to the store where I buy groceries. Multiple people breathing (and last Thursday some jerk riding the bus despite coughing up a storm) in a confined space. I try to keep my winter scarf over my face. Don't know if that helps. Because of the proximity to so many stupid people, I'm checking my temperature several times a day.

I'm taking multivitamin and probiotics daily. I've upped my intake of fruits and vegetables. And I'm trying to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep nightly. I should also be meditating.

What I'm NOT doing right now is reading. I can't concentrate on anything. I'm binge watching TV shows instead. Lots of CSI Miami lately. A few episodes of the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. A couple of flavors of NCIS.

A few of the books I'm *trying* to read:
* The Cape Ann by Faith Sullivan
* Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
* A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor
* The Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart
* The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph by Frances Sheridan

And now, to bed. Be safe, everyone.

7Yuki_Onna
mar 30, 2020, 10:01 am

>6 ReneeMarie: ReneeMarie: The situation you describe sounds pretty awful... But it's about the same here. I'm not too concerned about myself, though. Update: We (the colleagues at office and I) were sent home from work last week. A colleague of ours was tested positive on the virus and so our office got closed and were were sent home. We are to stay home for two weeks now.
Now is the perfect time to get a lot of reading done! :) I'm trying to make the best of the situation.

One book I ordered online from a little bookstore: Strangers by Taichi Yamada

I wish you all the best, try to relax and divert your mind as well as you can!

8ReneeMarie
apr 2, 2020, 2:37 pm

>7 Yuki_Onna: I think the reason I was having trouble reading was that I wasn't sure what was going to happen. But Wisconsin was put under a "safer at home" order about a week ago.

So I'm off work through at least April 24th. My employer is going to pay us either one or two weeks' salary depending on length of employment. After that I can use personal time off and vacation.

And the government has decided to send money to citizens. Between everything, I should be fine for two months. I'm officially "furloughed" on 4/12. At that point I would be able to apply for unemployment, but I may not unless my time off goes over 2 months.

Two days ago I got a call from my manager offering me the chance to come back and help fill the online orders. I have the most seniority there (25 years), so they offered it to me first. Between my age, the idiocy of some bus riders, and my relative, if temporary, financial security, I passed.

I was hoping that someone who didn't have as much safety net as I did would eventually get asked and say yes. I was thinking specifically of a coworker who also rides the bus and who's on food stamps. But I told the manager that if everybody said no, ask me again. The 4th person he asked said yes, but it wasn't the food stamps coworker.

I have finished 4 books since the last message I sent:
* The Cape Ann by Faith Sullivan
* A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor
* The Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart
* Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

All are library books. It's unlikely I will be buying any books until the bookstore opens again. Even if I have the money, I don't like buying online and I don't have anything shipped to my apartment.

Next on the pile:
* The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (ARC)
* The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (library)
* The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph by Frances Sheridan (mine)
* A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig (library)
* The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum (library)
* Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (bookstore checkout)
* The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer (ARC)
* Fugitive Slave in the Gold Rush by James Williams (mine)
* Story Genius by Lisa Cron (mine)
* Creating Characters by Dwight Swain (mine)

Good luck everybody.

9varielle
apr 4, 2020, 6:21 pm

It’s not arrived yet, but I bought on line The Time of Contempt which is the next for me in the Witcher series. If I had dreamed they would close the bookstores I would have stocked up.