Book a Week in 2015 - BW2

[shukriyya]

OUAT, I keep thinking of you while I'm reading 'Solstice Wood'. I think you'd like it though I'm not quite finished with it but so far I'd say it's a book you might enjoy.

[Onceuponatime]

OUAT, I keep thinking of you while I'm reading 'Solstice Wood'. I think you'd like it though I'm not quite finished with it but so far I'd say it's a book you might enjoy.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[idnib]

I finished Hard Road West and then started 1Q84 last night.

 

I'm really liking 1Q84, even though some of it doesn't make sense to me. And I don't mean the mysterious plot. I'm wondering if Aomame is such a professional and has a can't-miss appointment (trying to be vague here), why she didn't leave more time to get to her location. Geez, get there a couple of hours early and hang out at a cafe or park nearby.

 

Regardless, it's very enjoyable. I thought I would start a chapter at 11:00p just to see how it starts out and what the style of the writing is. It's an easy read and the next thing I knew I was in the fourth chapter and I stumbled off to bed, bleary-eyed.

 

I'm still chugging away at Ulysses. The reading schedule is 12 weeks long so I should just make a macro to type that for me.

[Kareni]

This is its own thread but I thought I'd post here for those who don't venture into the chat room beyond our cozy little BaW realm. Mysterious book sculptures of Edinburgh :: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-30697553

 

What stunning art!  Thanks for sharing the link, shukriyya.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Finished two fiction books - Red Rising and The Emperor's Blades. Enjoyed both.

 

 

Your enjoyment of these titles (which my daughter would probably enjoy) makes me wonder if you might like a book that she enjoyed.  It's available free to Kindle readers:

 

The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker

 

"Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed. Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills... or someone wants her dead."

 

 

The author also has this book free to Kindle readers:

Balanced on the Blade's Edge (Dragon Blood Book 1)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Last night I finished the book that my book group will be meeting to discuss tomorrow.  It was a poignant read in large part because the author died at Auschwitz only a short time after penning this work.

 

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping "suite," collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death. The first, "Storm in June," chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans. The second, "Dolce," set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers. In a workbook entry penned just weeks before her arrest, Némirovsky noted that her goal was to describe "daily life, the emotional life and especially the comedy it provides." This heroic work does just that, by focusing—with compassion and clarity—on individual human dramas. (Apr. 18)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

It should prove to be an interesting discussion.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

 

[Jane in NC]

Last night I finished the book that my book group will be meeting to discuss tomorrow.  It was a poignant read in large part because the author died at Auschwitz only a short time after penning this work.

 

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping "suite," collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death. The first, "Storm in June," chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans. The second, "Dolce," set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers. In a workbook entry penned just weeks before her arrest, Némirovsky noted that her goal was to describe "daily life, the emotional life and especially the comedy it provides." This heroic work does just that, by focusing—with compassion and clarity—on individual human dramas. (Apr. 18)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

It should prove to be an interesting discussion.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

I for one give Suite Francaise the thumbs up.

 

 

[NoseInABook]

I finished a A Few Demons More last night. Woo for actually finishing a book instead of bouncing around. I got two essential oil books in the mail and have cracked open Gentle Babies by Debra Raybern already. It should be interesting to see what she has to say. I read a couple more chapters in The Golem and The Jinni last night and I think I'm going to try to stick with this one as my fiction book until I'm finished. 

[mumto2]

As someone in the deepest trenches of this stage of life, the description and reviews of this book made me want to throw my laptop across the room!!

 

Hot flashes literally create enlightenment? Yeah right.

The only enlightenment I have discovered is that I have read a ton of books very late at night! :lol:

[LaughingCat]

 I thought I could do it, but every time I try, I hear a BaW composite voice telling me I'm 35 and probably only have time to read another 3000 books in my life.

 

What!  :scared:  I am way past 35 so if you only have 3000 books left then I only have......  Lalalalalalala - I can't hear you! I can't hear you! Lalalalalala!

[Kareni]

The only enlightenment I have discovered is that I have read a ton of books very late at night! :lol:

 

See?  That glow comes in handy ....

 

Regards,

Kareni

[NoseInABook]

DH brought home The Strange Library for me. So much for The Golem and The Jinni being the only fiction. ;p

[shukriyya]

I just picked up 'Ahab's Wife' from the library. Seriously? The tome is a behemoth. Almost 700 pages of tiny print. The font is lovely, the color of the pages a warm ivory, the page edges slightly jagged in that old-fashioned way, the cover art is evocative and the subtitle, The Star-Gazer, equally poetic but oy, the length. That combined with my anticipatory feelings about it based on several reactions here, Stacia and Jenn in particular I recall disliking it intensely...well, it's a bit of a mixed bag isn't it?

 

I'll likely wrap up 'Solstice Wood' this evening if I can tear myself away from zentangling. Ds made another lovely one today :D So much fun!

[NoseInABook]

Why, yes, The Strange Library was bizarre. But I enjoyed it! I'm going to have my husband read it next. 

 

I also finished Gentle Babies by Debra Raybern but it's more of a guide to have at home so I dunno if it counts. Eh, I'll count it. 

[idnib]

I'm way too excited that DH is taking the kids out to dinner and I can read for pleasure at an early hour. I don't like to be interrupted while reading so I usually start around 10p.

[Angel]

Yesterday Aly and I had to spend some time at the library because we had a house showing.  While she did school work, I read The Strange Library by Haruki Murukami.  I loved the typewriter font and felt the physical book itself was a great little package.  However, it was a strange tale. I didn't  find it terribly spooky or creepy, though, and I'm a wimp.  When I finished it, I thought, "That's it!?!"  Where was the rest of the story?  Was I missing some profound meaning?  I actually had a theory halfway through the book about what was going on but was not even close.  After mulling it over for a day, I think that many short stories are abrupt, leaving questions unanswered.  It doesn't make me want to read one of his chunksters, though I found his writing easy to read.  I would hate to put that much time into a book that is 7x the size and still come out with that unsettled, unfinished feeling.  I'm glad to say that I read a Murakami, even though it's a short one.  

 

01.  As You Wish by Cary Elwes (non-fiction)

02.  The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (January Author, BaW rec)

[Robin M]

Robin, how about THIS one?

 

Now that looks interesting but familiar. I may have read it way, way back when. Looks good so adding to my wishlist. Thank you.

 

[Robin M]

As someone in the deepest trenches of this stage of life, the description and reviews of this book made me want to throw my laptop across the room!!

 

Hot flashes literally create enlightenment?  Yeah right.  

 

:lol:    Right there with you doll!

 

[aggieamy]

Why, yes, The Strange Library was bizarre. But I enjoyed it! I'm going to have my husband read it next. 

 

I also finished Gentle Babies by Debra Raybern but it's more of a guide to have at home so I dunno if it counts. Eh, I'll count it. 

 

Definitely counts!  Sometimes reference guides are harder to read than anything else. 

 

 

 

Finished:

 

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon - I did not like this book at all. Dog is the biggest literary jerk since Edmund sold his family out to the White Witch for some Turkish Delight. 

 

 

I stumbled across this Vintage Mystery Book bingo the other day and thought it sounded like fun.  If anyone wants to do it along with me they're welcome to.  We can compare at the end of the year and see how we did.

 

http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2014/11/2015-vintage-mystery-bingo-reading.html

 

 

[SophiaH]

I picked up Murakami's "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" and "After the Quake" from the library out of curiosity. I read Chapter 1 of Wonderland, and I'm still undecided if I'm going to really going to tackle the Murakami challenge. "After the Quake" is much shorter and seems to be based more in reality since it is loosely about stories surrounding the 1995 earthquake. I may retreat to that one if Wonderland doesn't work out. I'm going to give it a good try, though. :)

 

I'm trying to finish up "Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe" by Stephen Freeman. Brilliant book, but I've been taking it in small chunks to be able to contemplate what I've read. I'm nearly done though, so I'm gonna go ahead and push through to finish it.

 

Also grabbed the 1st Jack Ryan book and the next Patterson book in the Women's Murder Club series. :blush:

[shukriyya]

 

 

 

Finished:

 

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon - I did not like this book at all. Dog is the biggest literary jerk since Edmund sold his family out to the White Witch for some Turkish Delight.

:lol:

[Nan in Mass]

I just finished Book from the Ground.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13551564-book-from-the-ground

The first few pages were very slow and there were a few places where I had to retread several times in order to understand what was going on, but I zipped happily through the rest of it which I thought was interesting. I really like the idea of the book and I think it worked, at least for me. I most of it on a day when I was alone, as a break from drawing, which made for a very nonverbal day, one where I didn,t even use words to think. It was an accidental combination but a fun one.

 

Nan

[shukriyya]

I just finished Book from the Ground.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13551564-book-from-the-ground

The first few pages were very slow and there were a few places where I had to retread several times in order to understand what was going on, but I zipped happily through the rest of it which I thought was interesting. I really like the idea of the book and I think it worked, at least for me. I most of it on a day when I was alone, as a break from drawing, which made for a very nonverbal day, one where I didn,t even use words to think. It was an accidental combination but a fun one.

 

Nan

 

I will need to...muse on that. I spent the evening zentangling and I don't think words entered into things much though I would not have framed it that way until seeing your phrasing of it. All the ways to think without using words.................................

[Nan in Mass]

Shukriyya, lovely tangles! And I am glad so you liked the McKillip. It seems like nobody but my clan has ever heard of her, which is odd because we all adore her so much.

 

Nan

[Guest]

I will need to...muse on that. I spent the evening zentangling and I don't think words entered into things much though I would not have framed it that way until seeing your phrasing of it. All the ways to think without using words.................................

 

I'm not sure I *can* think without words.  I can have thoughts that go deeper than I can find words for, but even when I'm not actually talking, most of my experiences are accompanied by an inner dialogue or narrative, or string of thoughts, all with words as key components.  And when I do a jigsaw puzzle, or when I used to try to draw, there would be even more words.  I'd tell myself stories or enter into a mental discussion with someone, or start working through thoughts about something.

 

How can there not be words?   ..I've just finished writing a (mercifully brief) paper on mirror neurons, and I'm exhausted, but fascinated by this glimpse of the existence of an interface with the world that I cannot even begin to envision.

[Rosie_0801]

When I was studying Auslan, I had to learn to think as a silent movie.

[mumto2]

Definitely counts! Sometimes reference guides are harder to read than anything else.

 

 

 

Finished:

 

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon - I did not like this book at all. Dog is the biggest literary jerk since Edmund sold his family out to the White Witch for some Turkish Delight.

 

 

I stumbled across this Vintage Mystery Book bingo the other day and thought it sounded like fun. If anyone wants to do it along with me they're welcome to. We can compare at the end of the year and see how we did.

 

http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2014/11/2015-vintage-mystery-bingo-reading.html

Since I plan to read Sherlock Holmes this year will tentatively say yes. These Bingo card challenges always intimidate me.

 

The dc's were even more appalled ay Edmund when they tried Turkish Delight...a sweet no one was willing to finish. That doesn't happen often in our house!

[Rosie_0801]

A promising opening line from Randa Abdel-Fattah's "No Sex in the City:"

 

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a student visa must be in want of an Australian wife."

 

 

It worked for Jane, anyway.  :laugh:

[Nan in Mass]

I'm not sure I *can* think without words. I can have thoughts that go deeper than I can find words for, but even when I'm not actually talking, most of my experiences are accompanied by an inner dialogue or narrative, or string of thoughts, all with words as key components. And when I do a jigsaw puzzle, or when I used to try to draw, there would be even more words. I'd tell myself stories or enter into a mental discussion with someone, or start working through thoughts about something.

 

How can there not be words? ..I've just finished writing a (mercifully brief) paper on mirror neurons, and I'm exhausted, but fascinated by this glimpse of the existence of an interface with the world that I cannot even begin to envision.

I might not have realized that I do this if I hadn,t spent some time living in a French immersion situation when I spoke only a little French. I spoke just enough that I could think in French but not enough to think everything I needed to think. That left me noticing that I was just thinking with no words. Or with just a word here and there. I do it quite a lot. It feels sort of like when you get stare-y when you are sleepy. At the rate you read books, Eliana, I would guess that when you read you aren't hearing every word aloud in your head, and yet you have thoughts about what you read, right? I think that is probably an example. Or when you just don,t think something is a good idea but you can,t put it into words until later, which I suspect is a universal parenting problem. The words bubble up later but it doesn't,t mean you haven,t thought about it. At the time I first noticed it, I was surprised by it until I realized that animals think with no verbal words, and deaf people, and small children. My dog will follow me up the driveway, then when I stop at the car, she,ll think, oh wait - we aren't going for a walk after all - in that case, I want to duck into the woods a sec first and then I want to get my stuffed squirrel to take with me so I will be comfortable and have something to do while I wait for you. All with no words. : ) Years later, I read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and that gave me another way to think about what was going on. (I like her second book better, though. I am rereading it now. I don,t think she has it completely right and she doesn't,t answer all the questions she asks, but it is still interesting.) My family has talked about this quite a lot and we think some people use words to think more than others, and some of the word people will go to extreme lengths in order to shut the words off for a bit, especially during the teen years when the inner dialog might not be very comfortable. Drugs do this, and some kinds of meditation. And then some of us just are pretty empty-headed to begin with, like me.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

A promising opening line from Randa Abdel-Fattah's "No Sex in the City:"

 

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a student visa must be in want of an Australian wife."

 

 

It worked for Jane, anyway. :laugh:

LOL

[Mom-ninja.]

Man, when will multiquote work again?! 

 

Angel, I would love to do our school work at the library. I'm jealous. However, my middle ds is way too distractible it never works. It's a battle not worth fighting. 

 

 

 

I think that opening line by Austen is one of the most popular co-opted opening lines ever. 

[shukriyya]

Nan, your description of non-thinking thinking has me musing on the way the heart might 'think'. I feel certain that an organ as refined and unerring as the heart must have a whole system of contemplation informed by a perception that doesn't arise as linear thought-form... 'Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point'

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, I was so inspired by Tamar Adler's cookbook (rereading) that yesterday I spent the whole late afternoon in the kitchen, simmering a pot of beans, a pot of meat bones, vegetables.  It all came together into a fabulous meal, with another almost prepared for tonight.  It gave me a good long time to listen to The House of the Seven Gables.  So many words that man uses!  He will never say in one sentence what could be said in five.

 

It was a very blissful afternoon.  Confession: this is why I so rarely cook with my children.  In the kitchen with an audiobook is my version of introverted paradise.

[shukriyya]

Hey, Rose, next time you're cooking you need to put the word out here so we can all show up with wine, other comestibles and our book(s) of the moment. It's a BaW tradition :D Though your afternoon sounded so peaceful you might'nt have appreciated us rowdies appearing ;)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Hey, Rose, next time you're cooking you need to put the word out here so we can all show up with wine, other comestibles and our book(s) of the moment. It's a BaW tradition :D Though your afternoon sounded so peaceful you might'nt have appreciated us rowdies appearing ;)

 

Oh, y'all are welcome to come over tonight!  Yesterday's bone broth will get repurposed into a soup, drizzled with olive oil and parmesan shavings and served with garlic bread.  Just bring the wine and books. And chocolate!  ;)

[Angel]

Eliana: I'm not sure I *can* think without words.  I can have thoughts that go deeper than I can find words for, but even when I'm not actually talking, most of my experiences are accompanied by an inner dialogue or narrative, or string of thoughts, all with words as key components.  And when I do a jigsaw puzzle, or when I used to try to draw, there would be even more words.  I'd tell myself stories or enter into a mental discussion with someone, or start working through thoughts about something.

 

How can there not be words? 

 

:iagree: and  re the bolded:  I thought I was the only person who did this!  Especially the mental discussion.  

 

Mom-ninja:  Angel, I would love to do our school work at the library. I'm jealous. However, my middle ds is way too distractible it never works. It's a battle not worth fighting. 

 

I'm the one who is way too distractable!  :lol:   Though dd seems to be plenty distracted by me when I'm puttering around upstairs while she is doing schoolwork at home  :glare:  We left the library and I mentioned that the first 15-20 minutes were really loud, but she didn't think so.  I'm an only and I always did homework/studying in a quiet atmosphere.  I can't think straight if someone else is talking/doing something.  But that may be because I'm just too nosy!!  I want to have fun, too!

[Angel]

I have got to stay off here today!  I'm leaving for a scrapbooking/shopping weekend with my cousin tomorrow and I HAVE to get ready!  I will be Margaret from Sense & Sensibility (Kate Winslet movie version)  "Don't say anything important while I'm gone!!!"

[Nan in Mass]

Shukriyya - If you want a discussion of what language of the heart might look like, read Drawing on the Artist Within.  The author explains her search for a universal visual language with which we are all born which can be used to express emotions, among other things.  Interestingly, when I was at the science museum drawing the tortoise yesterday, I was coopted to take part in an experiment having to do with sounds associated with sights across cultures.  They couldn't have picked a more interested participant lol.

 

Language of the heart?  Shukriyya, if you asked my family, they would say that it sounds like ummmmm to them lol.  When it is important and I have to consult my heart, I stare into space and say ummmm (to keep anyone from talking to me) and after a bit, I know the answer.  I can't vocalize the reasons until they bubble up, usually about 24 or 48 hrs. later.  When they do, they arrive all nicely reasoned and super important and everyone says, "Oh wow, you are right."  It is annoying only to be able to tell people "because I want to" or "because I don't want to" or "because I don't think that is a good idea" meanwhile, but the big lesson of my thirties was to learn to trust that.  I was brought up that one had to supply logical reasons (one of which could be "because I can't deal with it right now") for everything.  It took awhile for me to learn that I HAVE logical reasons, really good ones, which can't be put into words.  Life with teenages when you are built this way is really really not fun.  Sigh.  Dancers speak a language of the heart.  So do musicians.  (My husband and I made a really fun discovery when we were 16: I picked songs for the music and ignored the words, he picked songs for the words and ignored the music, and yet we still picked the same songs.)  I always wanted to learn sign language because it seems so expressive to me.  I think it is probably an illusion, because I live in a clan who is really sensitive to tone of voice (another language of the heart?) and we all have to be really careful not to yell and we all have to listen to what somebody SOUNDS like rather than what they say, because despite being alarmingly straight forward, all the nuances are in the tone.  Shukriyya, have you read The Five Love Languages of Children?  I think it has some useful, if somewhat limited, ideas.  What about dreams?  Doesn't psychology say that they are a language?  I've never been too sure about that, but certainly, one thinks while one is asleep.  I wake up with the solutions to a problem or a question all the time.  Or they pop into my head when I haven't been thinking about them, in which case, I think I must have been thinking about them in the background, without words.

 

Angel - I think you think without words all the time but you don't realize it. : )

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Oh - and my son showed me this this morning.  We were struck by how much each library matched its location.  And it gave me some ideas for book storage.

 

25+ Of The Most Majestic Libraries In The World

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

25+ Of The Most Majestic Libraries In The World

Though they are losing ground to the e-book and the audio book, libraries were once central hubs of human intellectual progress. There's something about them that s...

 

View on www.boredpanda.com

Preview by Yahoo

 

 

[Jane in NC]

While I sometimes think in words, I also think in patterns.  Here is a simple example.  Most mornings I do the Kakuro puzzle (an arithmetic puzzle) in my newspaper.  Sometimes I think about the actual arithmetic (sums) but often I look at the numbers and think only in intersecting patterns.  To me those sums are words; the patterns do not require words.

 

Jenn thinks often in musical patterns that don't require words, I suspect.  In fact, the hardest thing that I had to develop when taking piano lessons as an adult was the translation of notation to left hand, right hand and foot motions simultaneously.  There is no time to think in words.  This becomes muscle memory but thought is still happening.

 

 

[Cleopatra]

I picked up Murakami's "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" and "After the Quake" from the library out of curiosity. I read Chapter 1 of Wonderland, and I'm still undecided if I'm going to really going to tackle the Murakami challenge. "After the Quake" is much shorter and seems to be based more in reality since it is loosely about stories surrounding the 1995 earthquake. I may retreat to that one if Wonderland doesn't work out. I'm going to give it a good try, though. :)

 

I'm trying to finish up "Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe" by Stephen Freeman. Brilliant book, but I've been taking it in small chunks to be able to contemplate what I've read. I'm nearly done though, so I'm gonna go ahead and push through to finish it.

 

Also grabbed the 1st Jack Ryan book and the next Patterson book in the Women's Murder Club series. :blush:

 

Welcome, Sophia!  You seem to have a great list of books either on-the-go or waiting to be read.  I loved Till We Have Faces ~~ Lewis is a favourite of mine.  On the Incarnation I've read twice and To The Lighthouse was wonderful ..... so far my favourite Woolf.  As for Unbroken, I keep getting it out of the library, not getting to it and having to take it back.  It's high on my TBR though.

 

If you want to friend me on Goodreads, you'll find me listed as Cleo and my photo is of the Pont du Gard bridge in France.  

 

As Robin mentioned, a couple of us are reading through the WEM biographies list on Goodreads in the group Well Trained Mind Readers.  You're welcome to join us or even just jump in for a book or two here and there.  We're finishing up Descartes' Meditations and in February will start Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners followed by The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson.  And, of course, anyone else is welcome too!   :001_smile:

[aggieamy]

I woke up this morning with two major project deadlines tomorrow and kind of dreading trying to get everything done today.  Then I called into to talk to the two different project managers and both projects deadlines have been postponed a week.  Yay.  It's the adult equivalent of a snow day!

 

Poll:  What will aggieamy do with her new found day of freedom?

*Work to get ahead on the projects so she isn't stressed next Thursday

or

*Spend the day cooking, reading, and going on a hike with the kids

 

:laugh:

 

Well, I was so inspired by Tamar Adler's cookbook (rereading) that yesterday I spent the whole late afternoon in the kitchen, simmering a pot of beans, a pot of meat bones, vegetables.  It all came together into a fabulous meal, with another almost prepared for tonight.  It gave me a good long time to listen to The House of the Seven Gables.  So many words that man uses!  He will never say in one sentence what could be said in five.

 

It was a very blissful afternoon.  Confession: this is why I so rarely cook with my children.  In the kitchen with an audiobook is my version of introverted paradise.

 

 

Agreed!  It sounds splendid.

 

 

I have got to stay off here today!  I'm leaving for a scrapbooking/shopping weekend with my cousin tomorrow and I HAVE to get ready!  I will be Margaret from Sense & Sensibility (Kate Winslet movie version)  "Don't say anything important while I'm gone!!!"

 

Okay.  Nobody talk about anything Angel is interested in until she gets back.  This is a good time to talk about sad books and books written by Kurt Vonnegut.  

 

 

Since I plan to read Sherlock Holmes this year will tentatively say yes. These Bingo card challenges always intimidate me.

The dc's were even more appalled ay Edmund when they tried Turkish Delight...a sweet no one was willing to finish. That doesn't happen often in our house!

 

 

A tentative yes makes me happy.  I'm thinking a big Agatha Christie push will get me through the bingo card. 

[Kareni]

Yesterday I read with pleasure Amy Harmon's book  Infinity + One.  I've previously read and enjoyed the author's  Making Faces.

 

"When two unlikely allies become two unwitting outlaws, will two unforgettable lovers defy unbeatable odds? Bonnie Rae Shelby is a superstar. She’s rich. She’s beautiful. She’s impossibly famous. And Bonnie Rae Shelby wants to die. Finn Clyde is a nobody. He’s broken. He’s brilliant. He’s impossibly cynical. And all he wants is a chance at life. One girl. One boy. An act of compassion. A bizarre set of circumstances. And a choice – turn your head and walk away, or reach out your hand and risk it all? With that choice, the clock starts ticking on a man with a past and a girl who can’t face the future, counting down the seconds in an adventure riddled with heartbreak and humor, misunderstanding and revelation. With the world against them, two very different people take a journey that will not only change their lives, but may cost them their lives as well. Infinity + One is a tale of shooting stars and fame and fortune, of gilded cages and iron bars, of finding a friend behind a stranger’s face, and discovering love in the oddest of places."

 

I did not find the book at all offensive; in fact, I enjoyed it very much and think that many conservative readers might also.  Conservative readers might appreciate this review from I Am A Reader which addresses the content.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[SophiaH]

Thanks, Cleo! I'll look you all up over there. The Mary Rowlandson narrative was one of my favorites from my college lit days--I'd enjoy another read-through of it, for sure!

 

I haven't read all the previous posts, so I may have missed someone mentioning this but has anyone taken part in The Documented Life Project over at Art to the 5th? I thought about incorporating quotes or my book for the week into a weekly journal like that...I'm a list kind-of person and not really artsy, although in my dreams I'd like to be. :D But I'm more in the vein of Austin Kleon's logbooks rather than The Documented Life Project, but maybe I can meld the two??? If anyone is journaling about the books you're reading, I would love to see/hear about how you are doing it if you'd like to share. :)

[JuanitaL]

I'm going to try to give this a go again this year.

 

So far I've read The Happiness Project (saw it at the library and remembered the title from here) and Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley (I'm pretty sure I either saw this author here or it was in a cozy mystery link from here). I think I'm on my 3rd Agatha Raisin book and I'm already a little tired of her.

[Nan in Mass]

Thanks, Cleo! I'll look you all up over there. The Mary Rowlandson narrative was one of my favorites from my college lit days--I'd enjoy another read-through of it, for sure!

 

I haven't read all the previous posts, so I may have missed someone mentioning this but has anyone taken part in The Documented Life Project over at Art to the 5th? I thought about incorporating quotes or my book for the week into a weekly journal like that...I'm a list kind-of person and not really artsy, although in my dreams I'd like to be. :D But I'm more in the vein of Austin Kleon's logbooks rather than The Documented Life Project, but maybe I can meld the two??? If anyone is journaling about the books you're reading, I would love to see/hear about how you are doing it if you'd like to share. :)

 

Awhile back, we were talking about the book of illustrations, one a page, that someone published for Moby Dick and talking about how we might do something like that.  A bunch of us are working on zentangles and I'm working on (or trying to - really slow progress) a picture-a-page project.  I know some people have talked about having a common book.  If you want to learn to draw, may I suggest Draw Squad if you want to draw imaginary things, or Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you want to learn to draw things you are looking at?  For most people (there Creekland, I qualified it lol) it is just a matter of practice.  Fill three sketch pads and you will find you are able to draw fairly well. : )  Anyway, I would be interested in looking at those journal entries.  Do you have a link?  Or will a search pull up what you are talking about?

 

Nan

 

ETA - After investigating a bit, I think you might like Draw Squad or one of the zentangles books. : )

[Runningmom80]

Just finished reading Ray Bradbury's writing essays from his Zen in the Art of Writing and feel like I have been given my marching orders for Bradbury's Book Camp for Writers. Zen is a short but powerful book and lights a fire under you with his passion and zest for life and writing. In his essay How to Keep and Feed the Muse he says: What is the Subconscious to every man, in its creative aspect became, for writers, the Muse. How do you feed your muse? Read poetry every day which will flex your muscles and expand your senses. Consume essays, travel through the centuries. Learn and fill up your senses with the shape and size of the world, every color, smell, texture and sound. Read Short Stories and novels. Not only those who write the way you think but those that don't. It all serves to stimulate your Muse's tastebuds. And while you are feeding your muse, you have to keep it shape. And you do that by writing 1000 words a day for the next ten to twenty five years.

 

So fire away with your recommendations on poetry and essays.

 

In the middle of Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland...it's delightfully strange as usual which is his normal.

Adding Zen to my reading list! I'm gearing up for a return to school for an MFA in creative writing. I need some motivation!

 

 

I'm halfway through All the Light We Cannot See. It's really great! It's a larger book, but I think I'll finish by this weekend.

 

I find this thread inpossible to keep up with. If my posts seem out of sync, that is why. :)

[LostSurprise]

I have a lot of early childhood memories, so although I think primarily in words now I have a lot of sense memories of thinking in pictures. In 6th grade I used to do an exercise to help me remember what it was like when I was younger. I also associate visual thought with emotion. There's an interesting connection. 

 

 

 

Done with 1177BC: the Year Civilization Collapsed. I think it's a good synthesis of modern archaeological and historical thought on the mid to late Bronze Age. I learned a lot about all the primary players in the eastern Mediterranean and I thought the mystery was interesting. What caused the major civilizations of the Bronze period to collapse, all with 75 years (or so) of each other, right before the advent of the Iron Age? Cline did a good job not falling into imaginative thought and helping you realize just how little straight information of the period we have. Also, how much ancient history is serendipitous archaeology and the logical examination of a 100 details. Despite the decent historical outline, I thought this was a bit dry, and Cline never did expand his thesis much. A good paper on the systems collapse of interconnected Bronze Age societies or a decent book on late Bronze Age trade and communication, not really both. 

 

Almost done with Why Children Succeed. This is trying to be a Malcolm Gladwell book (even references him on one or two pages). I found the initial section on poverty, stress, neuro-biologic response, and executive function very interesting, but ultimately it doesn't really hold the promise of the title or beginning chapters. There's a lot about character here...most of which we can probably all agree with in one way or another. How we respond to things does help us succeed or undermine our efforts to get the things we want. Certain character traits can be developed. A lot of the anecdote was also interesting in a passing way. It's nice to see teachers and schools struggle with these issues and try to help kids in poverty. I think it's simply too large of a topic for Mr. Tough and he hasn't done much more than try to bring together some interesting articles he's done under too broad of a topic. Fast read though, for those who are interested, only 200 pages or so and mostly anecdotal. 

 

 

[Angel]

Kareni: I did not find the book at all offensive; in fact, I enjoyed it very much and think that many conservative readers might also.  Conservative readers might appreciate this review from I Am A Reader which addresses the content.

 

I really appreciate when you give this kind of insight!  Thanks for the link!.  I'm always looking for blogs that will give me a content review!

 

aggieamy:  Okay.  Nobody talk about anything Angel is interested in until she gets back.  This is a good time to talk about sad books and books written by Kurt Vonnegut.  

 

You are amazing!  Yes!  Talk about all the sad books you want and Kurt Vonnegut  :lol:  I'm good with that!  By the time I get back Sunday we will be on a new week.

 

Angel, who is taking a quick break to shovel some lunch in before going back to planning and packing my scrapbooking stuff....

[Onceuponatime]

Words are food to me. When I hear a new one, I automatically begin to think of all the ways it relates to other words I know, even in other languages. I enjoy their nuances and symbolism. This comes easy to me, numbers - not so much. With them, I have to think carefully and slowly to make sure I am not missing something important. They tire me out. Sudoku looks like torture to me. I like cryptic crosswords, even though they can be very difficult.

 

I read The Strange Library. It wasn't so bad, but I'm still scratching my head. ??? The prison meals were awesome, lol.