We lost power one evening this past week, very abruptly and for hours, which reminds me to strongly recommend an item I LOVE WITH ALL MY DARKNESS-FEARING HEART:
(image from Target.com)
General Electric Power Failure Nightlight (Target link) (Amazon link). It’s a nightlight—but it charges itself at the same time, and if the power goes off it comes on automatically, using that charge. We have one at the top of the stairs, for normal nighttime safety and for power-outage safety. We also have one in our bathroom, and it’s enough light to brush your teeth and get ready for bed in a power outage. You can also unplug it and use it in flashlight mode.
So basically it is awesome, and I have ordered two more, and might order a couple more after that but also might not, because it would have been nice if they had come on automatically all over the house, but on the other hand let’s not get carried away: I had a set of LED pillar candles (housewarming gifts from dear friends) I could switch on right away, and also a couple of wax/jarred candles I still had on the counter because IT CAN TAKE SOME OF US AWHILE TO PUT AWAY THE FINAL CHRISTMAS TIDBITS OKAY, and so very soon we had a nice amount of light. Plus of course we all had the flashlight mode of our phones, so there is no reason to GO OVERBOARD as I am absolutely planning to do. (It was just SO PLEASANT, moments after being plunged into abrupt darkness, to have these BEACONS shining forth helpfully, as if they’d waited their entire lives for this moment—and it made me want MORE BEACONS.)
Two more meh books for the pile, though I did finish both:
(image from Amazon.com)
The Burgess Boys, by Elizabeth Strout (Target link) (Amazon link). This was a re-read, and I’d remembered that I hadn’t liked it as much as some of the author’s other books; but there was a mention of some of the characters in ANOTHER Elizabeth Strout book I was reading, so I thought I’d try it again. I’d say it still has too much sad/upsetting/traumatic stuff to be worth the good writing and good plot and good characters—but also that it wouldn’t be a mistake to risk it if you generally like Elizabeth Strout books, all of which contain a certain level of sad/upsetting/traumatic.
(image from Amazon.com)
The Operator, by Gretchen Berg (Target link) (Amazon link). I was intrigued enough by the plot (1950s telephone operator routinely eavesdrops on telephone conversations, and one day hears something scandalous/shocking about her own family) that I kept going for fully half the book despite finding the writing uneven, and the characters odd and one-dimensional and boring, and the author’s commentary on her characters intrusive and snarky; and despite feeling that our wait to hear the Scandalous Reveal was drawn out for FAR longer than ANYONE could POSSIBLY think was wise. And then the Scandal as initially presented was so…relatively unterrible? I mean, a surprise for sure! But it was treated as if it were absolutely devastating in every way, to everyone involved, in SUCH an over-the-top, dramatic, we-are-all-ruined, deliberately-misunderstanding-the-situation-for-higher-drama way that it managed to talk me out of finding it dramatic at even the level it deserved.
(It’s hard to explain this without spoilers, but let’s say the scandal was that a character’s teenage child had DONE DRUGS!! But then this turned out to mean that the child had had one inhale of a joint at a party, without realizing it was a joint. And then ALL the characters acted as if this would mean the family would need to LEAVE THE STATE to avoid jail time and/or being cast out of the community and/or the child being put in foster care, and as if the child was now drug-addicted and would need to go to rehab, and as if this incident might mean their extended family would never speak to them again—and then gradually the reader realizes that the AUTHOR does not think the characters are over-reacting! and the over-reaction is not the point of the story! It doesn’t take long before even a reader vehemently opposed to all drug-use finds themselves thinking things like, “Well, I mean, it’s just a single hit of pot, and it was an ACCIDENT, and I think probably everyone/everything is fine here and we can simply move forward with our lives without making such a big deal of this? I mean, I know this is set in the 1950s, but…even in the 1950s would it have been THIS bad?” While the characters in the book continue to thrash and wail and panic and blow everything out of proportion, chapter after chapter.)
I almost didn’t keep reading, but then I wanted to find out if it was ever going to explain why there was such an overreaction, so I kept reading, and I guess I would say I was glad I did. It never did justify the overreaction, but the author built a pretty entertaining house despite the foundation resting on sand.
BUT THEN: I got to the Author’s Note at the end, and it turns out this was based on something that really happened to the author’s grandmother. So…perhaps that was what was wrong with it. I was reminded of a Richard Russo book or short story, where the narrator, a college writing instructor, is talking about how sometimes a student’s story will be soundly criticized by other students in the class for being unrealistic and/or seeming untrue and/or not making sense; and, as they’re talking, he’ll see a smug angry expression growing on the face of the student in question, and he’ll know what’s coming: and indeed, the student will say triumphantly that ACTUALLY, this REALLY HAPPENED, so that shows what the critics know about anything!! And the narrator explains to the reader that what the student doesn’t realize is that that makes the situation FAR WORSE: the student has managed to take something ACTUALLY TRUE, and make it SEEM FALSE. Anyway, I think if the premise appeals to you, it’s worth trying, but I’d get it from the library.
I have those nightlights all over my house and travel with two of them and I agree with you, best night lights. When our air conditioning was leaking into the walls, the repair guy was like “does anyone have a flashlight?” and I had this thing popped out of the wall and in his hand in seconds and both repair guys asked where to buy one because they are the best. I think that sentence is too long.
Oh! That looks like a good item to include in an “Off to College” box for my child! Awesome.
We take nightlights with us when we travel since there are never any low lights or windows in hotel bathrooms and no one wants to be blinded and fully woken up when they have to pee in the middle of the night. After leaving a couple of them behind though, we just take cheap dollar store ones with us now.
We have rechargeable motion-sensor LED lights under all our kitchen counters, in the pantry, and in my little closet that doesn’t have a light, and I love them so much. They can be switched to stay on if needed, but I don’t know how long that charge would last. I do recommend them though, for general handiness for areas where there is not a plug.
The book about the operator made me think of a woman I know, an older woman who was a telephone operator in Houston in the early 60s. She told me once that when JFK was shot, she was the first person in Houston to hear the news–she was the operator who took the first phone call about it. Now I think I should ask if she ever overheard any juicy scandals!
My mother was a telephone operator for 7 years until she married my Dad. She would have lost her job if there had been any hint that she shared things she overheard. I asked her once many years later if there was anything she heard that would have been considered scandalous, but she said she couldn’t tell me even if she had. I think it was more boring than anything.
These look amazing! We have very rare power outages, but they DO happen, and every time someone in my household grumbles about the lack of usable lighting, and every time I suggest buying something that we could use in just such a situation! and every time this other person says that it would be a waste of money. But these sound awesome and I want them.
The example of pot smoking reminds me of how much attitudes about that have changed in just a few decades. I remember when Bill Clinton was running for president and was asked if he had ever smoked pot he said, yes, once, but he “didn’t inhale,” which, as if. Then when Obama ran, if I remember correctly, there where actual photos of him holding what was obviously a joint and most people said, “meh.” Which reminds me of when a student asked one of my high school teachers if she had ever smoked weed, and she snorted and said, “I went to college!” Touche.
After I read your post, I *needed* to know the secret. So I googled until I found a spoiler-y review on Goodreads and yeah, meh. I would assume back then most people would clutch their pearls over this secret but not tear them off and run screaming into the night. I just finished The Man from the Train for my book club, though, so my sense of “truly awful” is probably pretty warped right now.
The Burgess Boys was my least favourite Strout book BY FAR. I read it a while ago so can’t totally remember it, but I remember feeling disappointed.
I didn’t even read the rest of the post before I hit the link SO HARD for that light! I HATE power outages! Thanks!!