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Book a Week 2017 - BW16: Homonym and Synonym


Robin M
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Happy Sunday and Happy Easter to all who celebrate.  Welcome to week 16 in our 2017 adventurous prime reading year. Greetings to all our readers and those following our progress. Mister Linky is available weekly on 52 Books in 52 Weeks  to share a link to your book reviews.

 

 

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I have homonyms and synonyms on my brain today as my brain wonders about the wonders of words as we wander through this universe we call earth.    Think about words spelled the same or that sound the same but have different meanings. Such as  son and sun, write and right, tale and tail, night and knight, coarse and course, medal and meddle,  cache and cash.   How we may fold our clothes or fold at cards.  Go to court or give permission to the boy next door to court your daughter.  Do you need to bail out the boat or bail out your brother?   Are you here or can you hear what is happening or are you searching for the South Pole or your fishing pole?  Where on earth am I going with this, you ask?  I don't know as I've lost my train of thought. It's gone off the rails… 


Oh yes, I have a mini challenge for you

Think about words relating to Easter and/or Passover. Spiritual or secular words related to the occasion or Sundayish.   Then read a book with that word or words in the title.  At first I picked a variety of words and had fun following rabbit trails as I also looked up synonyms for each word. Then I went back to the simple and choose light which lead me to Louise Penny's # 7 in her Inspector Gamache series, A Trick of the Light which I've been wanting to read for a while.


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As well as Jayne Ann Krentz's paranormal suspense - Light in Shadow.  Both of which are now in my virtual stacks.  *grin* 

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Join me in the Homonym challenge and have fun following rabbit trails!

 

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The Story of Western Science – Chapter 11

 

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What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 15

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I finished Devon Monk's Dead Iron, the first book in her steampunk series Age of Steam.  It was a mixture of steampunk and horror as the creepy villain was very evil and the action nonstop to destroy the world.  Currently reading a new to me author paranormal  -  One Way Fare by Barb and Hannah Taub.

 

Superpowers suck. If you just want to live a normal life, Null City is only a Metro ride away. After one day there, imps become baristas, and hellhounds become poodles. Demons settle down, become parents, join the PTA, and worry about their taxes.

Null City is the only sanctuary for Gaby Parker and Leila Rice, two young women confronting cataclysmic forces waging an unseen war between Heaven and Hell. Gaby and her younger brother and sister are already targets in the war that cost their parents' lives. Should they forsake the powers that complete their souls and flee to Null City? Meanwhile, Leila has inherited a French chateau, a mysterious legacy, and a prophecy that she will end the world. Gaby and Leila become catalysts for the founding and survival of Null City. 
 

It just would have been nice if someone told them the angels were all on the other side.

 

 

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I finished Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.  I really enjoyed it.  It's historical fiction about a young slave girl sold to a nasty loyalist woman in 1776 New York.  It covers almost a year of time including the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

 

I also finished A Man Called Intrepid by William Stevenson.  It's about William Stephenson (random that the author and subject have essentially the same name) who was code named Intrepid during World War II.  It's about the stuff that happened behind the scenes working to defeat Hitler.  Sometimes it's really long-winded, but mostly it's really good.

 

And that (finally) completes March's birthstone of Aquamarine.

Alex: The Life of a Child

Queen Victoria's Children

Upstairs at the White House

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

A Man Called Intrepid

Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body

Rupee Millionaires

Into the Shadows

The Not So Secret Emails of Coco Pinchard

Edgewood

 

:hurray: Congratulations on completing Aquamarine!   

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Happy Easter! What a pleasant few weeks it's been, insulated from the chatter in my head of the Intertubes, and what a wise idea I had in weekly exempting the Book a Week group from my abstention. How good to see our country, long polarized and striving with neighbor against neighbor, locked in entrenched political animosities, brought together as one by the so aptly named United Airlines! I slightly regret that I missed the opportunity to post my own experience of two decades ago, when UA tried to have the entire planeful of passengers (of which dh and I were two) arrested - since when we have avoided their flights, and were entitled to the schadenfreude of seeing them receive their corporate comeuppance.

 

This week I finished Hardy's Return of the Native - noticing some aspects of Hardy's heathen-Christian tension and interactions that I hadn't previously - and continued in a little collection of lectures on English Satire. I need to give The Comedy of Errors a quick review before we go see it performed, and then I'll start on Grand Hotel, which arrived serendipitously the very day I finished Hardy. Jane, we used to say of my dear German grandma that she didn't so much wrap packages as take them hostage, which thought recurred as I cut through your thick tape around the book - yet every spot in which brown paper had been left exposed, the post office somehow contrived to rip away, as if they felt challenged by your conscientious wrapping to see what damage could nevertheless be inflicted. Your cautious taping, like my grandmother's, is thoroughly vindicated.

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I finished Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. This is an excellent collection of essays. I'm going to have my teen ds read it. I did not quite agree with everything she says, but that just made it all the more necessary to me. I understand everything she says. I truly appreciated her showing me a bit more about being a minority and what it means to be a minority woman.  Highly recommend. 

 

 

Robin, I'll have to look through my TR list and see what I can come up with for Easter related words. 

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... I slightly regret that I missed the opportunity to post my own experience of two decades ago, when UA tried to have the entire planeful of passengers (of which dh and I were two) arrested - since when we have avoided their flights, and were entitled to the schadenfreude of seeing them receive their corporate comeuppance.

 

Your experience sounds interesting, indeed.  Feel free to share more details now!

**

 

This is not free but might be of interest to fans of the Boxcar series ~ 

The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One Through Twelve by Gertrude C. Warner

 

"The first twelve mysteries in the celebrated series about four orphaned siblings who will do anything to stick together.

 

The Alden children—Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny—are on their own. Brave and resourceful, they find a rusty, abandoned railroad boxcar in the woods, make it their home, and start a life of adventure.

 

Since its debut, the Boxcar Children Mysteries has been one of the most beloved and popular children’s collections of all time, and the first of the series was named one of the top 100 children’s novels by School Library Journal. This set includes the first twelve classic stories, following the Alden kids as they get to know their estranged grandfather, face down trouble, solve mysteries, and strengthen an unbreakable bond. The basis for an animated series, these tales are a delight for kids of all ages, and a perfect introduction to a timeless and cherished series."

**

 

A one day only currently free American classic for Kindle readers ~

 

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

 

"The quintessential story of the American frontier 

 

Set during the French and Indian War, The Last of the Mohicans is the second installment in James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales and one of the greatest action stories ever told.

 

When the Munro sisters and their traveling party are betrayed by Magua, a Huron guide, the skilled and courageous woodsman Natty Bumppo—better known as Hawkeye—and his Mohican comrades Chingachgook and Uncas come to their rescue. The thrilling adventures that ensue, from the siege of a British fort by French forces to the clever infiltration of a native village to the dramatic final showdown atop a rocky cliff, are an entertaining and sincere tribute to a way of life that was already vanishing from the American wilderness."

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I never did get to last week's thread, but then I didn't read much either. And somehow the thread is less intimidating when there are 5 posts instead of 3 pages to read through! I've been working on Hidden Figures which I was going to pick for my book club, but seeing how slow it's going for me (it's a good book, but nonfiction just takes longer), I'm thinking of offering them a choice. I picked up The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in the library after seeing it in the un-put-down-able thread. Sounds light a lighter quick read which may suit all of our lives better. Etched in Bone also came available from my hold list, so I'll be working on those three this week.

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Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is the sort of book that I would have given to my son when he was in high school for the sake of the discussion that would follow.  Warning: our more gentle readers may be offended by some of Noah's language although I think that his first hand experiences with apartheid and in post-apartheid South Africa rise above the occasional use of a "naughty" word.  The book is dedicated to his mother, truly a remarkable a woman.

 

I have also finished the wonderful tome, In Praise of Defeat, by poet Abdellatif Laâbi.  He was born in Morocco, spent ten years in prison there for "crimes of opinion", and now resides in France.  I recently learned that this book has been short listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize.  It deserves recognition.

 

This book of poetry concludes with an essay on the role of the writer in society.  Here are the last two paragraphs:

 

 

So write for as long as you have the strength.  What leaves your fingers will not feed the hungry, nor give back life to a child fooled by a bomb that he took for a toy, nor convert the predators of this world to virtue. Your writing will not repair the planet nor reduce inequality, nor put a halt to wars or to ethnic, moral, and cultural cleansing.  But you can be sure of one thing:  it will never be a lie piled on other lies, a spark of hate feeding the firestorm of hate, a sprinkle of intolerance spicing up the chill smorgasbord of intolerance, or a speculator's share placed in the stockmarket of corruption.

 

If you write, it is to honor the pact made with yourself as soon as you became fully conscious.  The greatest failure would be to lose face some day--your human face.  And in the end, why in the world ask yourself all these questions, why torture yourself with all this accounting?  For you writing is a sort of prayer begging life to keep visiting you.  So if you write it is because you are still alive.  Who could hold that against you?

 

Stacia--I know you are a fan of  Abdellatif Laâbi.  Should I send you this book or is it destined for our BaW poet, Crstarlette?

 

I will continue to read volume 3 of Knausgaard's My Struggle on his boyhood.

 

And I want to remind everyone that I will be leading a read-along of Maugham's novel, The Razor's Edge, in May.  The book is divided into six parts. I think we should aim for two parts a week (roughly one hundred pages).  This will allow busy homeschoolers with limited time an opportunity to participate in the discussion.

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I read Monet's House: An Impressionistic Interior - 5 Stars - This coffee-table-type book is just gorgeous. It’s a detailed look at Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny, outside Paris, but also includes lots of interesting tidbits about Monet’s daily life and his family.

 

We visited Paris several years ago and although I really wanted to visit Monet’s House outside Paris, we weren’t able to do so. I’m truly looking forward to hopefully visiting there soon. I would also love to incorporate some of his color palettes and ideas into our own home.

 

Some parts that I thought were particularly interesting:

 

“Meals in the Monet household were timed to the minute. Since Monet did much of his painting from life in the open air, every moment of daylight was precious to him, and he had his breakfast soon after dawn, usually alone … He would eat roasted meat, broiled chitterling sausages, some Stilton (the most Gallic of British cheeses), French bread, and Normandy butter with marmalade, accompanied by both china tea and a glass of milk. Lunch followed punctually at 11:30 A.M., and dinner at 7 P.M. A gong was struck twice to summon everybody, and lateness was not tolerated.â€

 

“Lunch and dinner usually consisted of at least three courses, including a salad, but desserts in the evening tended to be less elaborate affairs than those made for lunch. Paul, the butler, served the dishes in rapid succession since Monet did not like to wait too long between courses.â€

 

“As an early riser, Monet hated going to bed late and preferred to entertain guests at lunchtime.†

 

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MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay – nothing to write home about

1 Star

Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

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This week I finished Hardy's Return of the Native - noticing some aspects of Hardy's heathen-Christian tension and interactions that I hadn't previously - and continued in a little collection of lectures on English Satire. I need to give The Comedy of Errors a quick review before we go see it performed, and then I'll start on Grand Hotel, which arrived serendipitously the very day I finished Hardy. Jane, we used to say of my dear German grandma that she didn't so much wrap packages as take them hostage, which thought recurred as I cut through your thick tape around the book - yet every spot in which brown paper had been left exposed, the post office somehow contrived to rip away, as if they felt challenged by your conscientious wrapping to see what damage could nevertheless be inflicted. Your cautious taping, like my grandmother's, is thoroughly vindicated.

 

Hah! But the book arrived one day earlier than the post office initially said it would!

 

I saw The Comedy of Errors last night, a fun show.  Admittedly my favorite Shakespearean plays are the histories which are not performed with frequency in this part of the world.  So I'll take whatever Shakespeare I can!

 

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Welcome back VC!

 

 

I finished Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey. : The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle.  While it's clear that the author (who happens to be the current Countess of Carnarvon) is a fan, but Almina seems to have truly been an amazing woman. She ran a state of the art hospital in the castle (much like on Downton Abbey) during WW1 and accompanied her husband on his Egyptian tomb excavations. She was unfortunately ill and unable to be there during the opening of King Tut's tomb. As I said, the author is starstruck by Lady Almina, and there are plenty of stories of her having had affairs, but that doesn't take away from the good she did and her colorful (if privileged) life.

 

 

I finished Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. This is an excellent collection of essays. I'm going to have my teen ds read it. I did not quite agree with everything she says, but that just made it all the more necessary to me. I understand everything she says. I truly appreciated her showing me a bit more about being a minority and what it means to be a minority woman.  Highly recommend. 

 

 

 

 

Do you think a 19 yo guy who is a feminist would like it? I'm wondering if ds might be interested.

Edited by Lady Florida.
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And I want to remind everyone that I will be leading a read-along of Maugham's novel, The Razor's Edge, in May.  The book is divided into six parts. I think we should aim for two parts a week (roughly one hundred pages).  This will allow busy homeschoolers with limited time an opportunity to participate in the discussion.

 

The Kindle version is available at my library. I added it to my wish list and am hoping it will still be available in a few weeks. 

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I finished 6 books this week:

 

Hindergroen:

Columns written by a well known presentator on the Dutch television.

I didn't know she translated musicals into Dutch, and I liked all the new words she used and I didn't know.

 

Hindergroen was too short for Bingo Squares so 'A year in the Provence' came instead of it.

Enjoyable reading!

 

I read Dune and Georgette Heyer for Bingo Squares and liked them much better then I thought I would.

 

I read 'dit kan niet waar zijn' for the financial square.

A book about the bank crisis trying to explain how it could happen.

I finished 'dethroning mammon' too, a reflective book about money and finances from a christian perspective.

A book that I definetly want to reread during summer to think the book through.

 

I also finished #4 in the Konrad Simonsen serie by Hammer & Hammer.

I liked the serie very much!

So thank you mumto2 dor sharing your scandinavian mysteries!

Unfortunetly the other books are not translated and I cannot read Danish :(

Sigh.

As the serie refers to other volumes I'm curious to know what will happen with some of the persons of this Volume

(I'm feeling some are coming back....)

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I might try the Laabi poetry book. I can't promise I'll make it through an entire book of poetry (or even anytime soon). But, I can also send it on to crstarlette when I'm finished. Or vice-versa, perhaps, if crstarlette has time to enjoy it sooner.

 

 

Whoever gets it first should know that this is a project.  The book is 824 pages long, granted French on most of the left facing pages.  But it is a chunkster of a book nonetheless.

 

Don't plan to read it in a hurry.  The poetry is simply too luscious to be gulped. This is a savor.

 

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I am currently enjoying Wolf Hall (a re-read), persevering with Gulliver's Travels, reading White Rage and The Walnut Mansion (which I think Jane and Stacia would both enjoy), and chuckling through The Life Changing Magic of not giving a F*ck, which is a funny life-coaching book based on you-know-what.  She calls her method the NotSorry method. It's pretty funny but has many kernals of truth. 

 

I feel like I haven't done a book list update in a long time, so I'll at least include a list of my April reads today:

 

80. Epitaph for Three Women - Jean Plaidy. This went along with our Shakespeare history marathon, it covers the time period from the end of Henry V through roughly the first Henry VI play. It tells the stories of Katherine of Valois, Joan of Arc, and Eleanor of Gloucester. It also works for my "author uses a pen name" square, is this is also Victoria Holt and Phillipa Carr, among others - all are pen names for Eleanor Burford. I read quite a few of her books as a teenager, but I had never read this one.

79. A Man for All Seasons - Robert Bolt. I really enjoyed this play, which is very sympathetic to Thomas More. I'm now re-reading Wolf Hall which is . . . not. It's an interesting juxtaposition

78. The 8 Hour Diet - David Zinczenko - along the lines of The Complete Guide to Fasting, this book recommends intermittent fasting. I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now and it's working well for me, and I've lost a couple of pounds.

77. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett - I read this for my Philately square (yes, I had to look that up)  ;)

76. A Colony in a Nation - Christopher Hayes. An examination of white privilege from a historical perspective, written by a liberal white guy. 

75. Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America - an examination of white privilege from a very personal, spiritual, moral perspective, written by a black preacher & college professor

74. Spaceman of Bohemia - Jaroslav Kalfar - my outer space square

73. The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters - S and I read this aloud together. I will confess we focused more on the ecology section than the microbiology section, but both were interesting

72. Utopia - Thomas More. Some interesting ideas. Much tedium. But written by a saint: check.

71.  The Complete Guide to Fasting - Jason Fung

70. Henry IV Part 2 - William Shakespeare

69. The tale of Paradise Lost - Nancy willard

68. Exit West - Moshin Hamid

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I finished Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. This is an excellent collection of essays. I'm going to have my teen ds read it. I did not quite agree with everything she says, but that just made it all the more necessary to me. I understand everything she says. I truly appreciated her showing me a bit more about being a minority and what it means to be a minority woman.  Highly recommend. 

 

 

Ahh, I'd been eyeing this, so I appreciate the review.

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I managed to finish three books last week for a total of 39 and checked off two more bingo squares. I also abandoned The Golem and the Jinni. I just couldn't get into the audiobook. I may try again later with a print version.

 

Long Term Reads

📚ESV Bible - finished First Kings, working on Second Kings

📚History of the Ancient World - read chapters 33-36 covering Egypt from Tut to Rameses II as well as the decline of Mycenae

📚From The Beast to the Blonde - I finished chapters 17-20. I'll be happy to finish next week.

 

Finished Last Week

📚One for the Money by Evanovich - I checked this one out from Overdrive simply because there were so many books in the series available. It was entertaining enough to give 3 stars.

📚Murder With Peacocks by Andrews - This is my local author bingo square book. It was entertaining and a lot funnier than I expected.

📚The Invisible Library by Forman - Finally finished this for my steampunk square. 4 stars.

 

Currently Reading

📚Bloody Jack by Meyer - I picked this pirate'a tale for my seaworthy bingo square. It will be my audio book for the week.

📚The Power of Habit by Duhigg - This is my current nonfiction read. I'm only a couple of chapters in.

 

I haven't decided what fiction book to pull off my stack for the week.

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My daughter's ten day visit flew by, and she's now on her way back to Seoul for year four.  We really enjoyed our time with her.

 

(Jenn, you'd asked how long it took for her to adjust to the time change.  The first couple of nights, she had a couple of hour or so long periods of wakefulness.  After that, she was fine.)

 

 

... I always have given my dc books (& candy) at Easter & Born a Crime was one of the ones I gave to ds. (I plan to borrow it from him & read it too. :lol:

 

We gave our daughter her basket a day early for packing purposes. I included the book Fated (Alex Verus Book 1) by Benedict Jacka.  She's had her first flight and a layover and told me that she's already finished the book. She enjoyed it and is ready for book two. 

 

"Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future--allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Missed getting into last week's thread, but here are the 2 most recent reads, both mysteries:

 

The Lighthouse (PD James) -- the last Dalgliesh mystery

The Marx Sisters (Maitland) -- enjoyable premise; solid writing

 

I'd not read much James before, and the 2 I did read (Children of Men (excellent), and Death Comes to Pemberly (a not-that-great "fan-girl" work -- a mystery and Pride and Prejudice) ), were not her standard stuff. She's certainly not a "huggie-feelie" kind of writer, and I think her delivery was too clinical for me. I did guess right off the bat "who dunnit", but mostly because of the "pattern" that mystery writers set up. It took me quite awhile to get into the book, and I never warmed up to Dalgliesh or his underlings, so I probably won't be adding James to my list. But, hey, I was given the book, so a free read is good! ;)

 

Enjoyed The Marx Sisters quite a bit. Again, I guessed fairly early on, and again because of the typical "pattern" of suspects and who ends up being guilty, but I was okay with that, as I was enjoying the historical connections and ideas set up by the book -- 3 elderly sisters, being murdered one at a time, are Karl Marx' granddaughters and seem to have an unpublished final work by Marx...

 

 

Completely unrelated to books: made stuffed grape leaves and tzatsiki last night to go with our marinated, grilled leg of lamb for dinner tonight -- yum! :) And we're not even Greek or Mediterranean. No one likes ham here, and everyone loves gyros, falafel, etc, so we have our own traditional dinner thing going... ;)

 

 

 

ETA -- PS

Hey! Does The Lighthouse count for the mini challenge, with light in the title??  :laugh:

Edited by Lori D.
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I'm listening to The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. As long as you're willing to do some major suspension of disbelief it's a fun book.

 

Last year I dropped out of the group read of The Voyage of the Beagle, but I always intended to get back to it. I'm not sure what made me pick it up again but I've been reading it the past few days and have been able to get back into it. 

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The Kindle version is available at my library. I added it to my wish list and am hoping it will still be available in a few weeks.

 

 

 

Jane, Pretty much what Kathy said.

 

 

I

I also finished #4 in the Konrad Simonsen serie by Hammer & Hammer.

I liked the serie very much!

So thank you mumto2 dor sharing your scandinavian mysteries!

Unfortunetly the other books are not translated and I cannot read Danish :(

Sigh.

As the serie refers to other volumes I'm curious to know what will happen with some of the persons of this Volume

(I'm feeling some are coming back....)

 

 

Eventually I plan to go back and read this series at least the ones with English translations. I think I can do quite a few between all my libraries. I looked a few weeks ago....

 

 

 

My daughter's ten day visit flew by, and she's now on her way back to Seoul for year four.  We really enjoyed our time with her.

 

(Jenn, you'd asked how long it took for her to adjust to the time change.  The first couple of nights, she had a couple of hour or so long periods of wakefulness.  After that, she was fine.)

 

 

 

 

We gave our daughter her basket a day early for packing purposes. I included the book Fated (Alex Verus Book 1) by Benedict Jacka.  She's had her first flight and a layover and told me that she's already finished the book. She enjoyed it and is ready for book two. 

 

"Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future--allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

I have Fated on a hold list already. I'm glad to hear she enjoyed it. I also have a book called Charming on hold https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333338-charming?from_search=true which i know I requested at the same time but no idea what I was reading to generate those choices.

 

I just fininished Mourn Not Your Dead by Crombie https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211144.Mourn_Not_Your_Dead?ac=1&from_search=true. The crime was a bit predictable in that I knew who did it from the minute the character was introduced but the main character story line made me happy. I ended up giving it four stars. I read it for the diamond challenge.

 

I need to go look for spring words....

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I'm listening to The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. As long as you're willing to do some major suspension of disbelief it's a fun book.

 

Last year I dropped out of the group read of The Voyage of the Beagle, but I always intended to get back to it. I'm not sure what made me pick it up again but I've been reading it the past few days and have been able to get back into it.

Did you find my post on shoulders on the other board? Good luck!

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... I also have a book called Charming on hold https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333338-charming?from_search=true which i know I requested at the same time but no idea what I was reading to generate those choices.

 

I'll look forward to hearing what you think of Charming. It does sound intriguing!

**

 

I recently finished the contemporary romance  A Sure Thing (The Donnigans) by Marie Harte.  It was a pleasant read, but it's not likely a book I'll be re-reading.  (Adult content)

 

"Meet the Donnigans

With the eldest Donnigan brothers adjusting to civilian life, their younger sister constantly in trouble, and their little brother clueless about life in general, falling in love is the last thing on anyone's mind...

 

Can this Bossy Badass Marine...

The Marine Corps was everything Landon Donnigan ever wanted in life...until a bullet sent him home with a medical discharge. Teaching a self-defense class at the gym is old-hat for a Marine, but when he meets sexy Ava Rosenthal, his combat skills are useless for protecting his heart.

 

Be her Mr. Right?

Ava can take care of herself and likes quiet, bookish men-not muscular warriors who think women need to be coddled. But Landon is more than he seems, and when they come together, the results are explosive."

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Your experience sounds interesting, indeed.  Feel free to share more details now!

**

 

 

Since you asked .... This is the best of my recollection from two decades ago. There had been a blizzard in the Northeast, and now that it was over, all the airlines were trying to get planes to airports where travelers had been stranded, to get them where they needed to go. The day before, some passengers on the west coast whose plane had been taken off to the Northeast rioted at the airport, so presumably airline personnel were on edge.

 

Dh and I were on a UA flight to Austin, with a brief late night stop at Houston, where most of the passengers were deplaning. Shortly before we landed, they announced that the plane had mechanical problems and that the dozen or so Austin passengers were to deplane in Houston, and immediately board another UA plane waiting at another gate. But of course there was no other plane, and our plane immediately took off for the Northeast, with our luggage.The UA employees at the desk continued to lie to us ... there was another plane coming shortly (there wasn't) ... our luggage had been taken off and was in baggage claim (it wasn't) ... then they got panicky and refused to speak to us at all or give us any information. At that point the laid-back demeanor of some tired Austinites began to give way to irritation and insistence that we be told what was going on and what arrangements, if any, UA was going to make. A few minutes later, several officers of the Houston Police Department (which in the 90s had a scary and well-deserved reputation) showed up.

 

After some quick questions, one of the HPD officers, a great big guy, started shouting at the United employees: Don't you EVER call us again and report your passengers are rioting; There's no riot here; It looks to me like there's some people angry that you've stranded them here. The employees quailed. The HPD left. Dh found us a rental car and we drove to Austin. Our luggage showed up the next day. We've avoided United since.

 

Robin, I'm going to take up your challenge, I think, by fitting in Strindberg's 1901 play "Easter" between Comedy of Errors and Grand Hotel.

Edited by Violet Crown
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...I have homonyms and synonyms on my brain today as my brain wonders about the wonders of words as we wander through this universe we call earth.   

 

Word play is something I enjoy.  Your mention of homonyms and such reminds me of a few books I've enjoyed in the past.  I'll list them here in case others might be interested ~

 

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Yesterday, on the way to an Easter rehearsal at "white church", I finished the audio version of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. What an extraordinary book, and what an extraordinary mother he has. If you've read it you will understand what I mean by "white church" -- I'm going to think of that term and chuckle every time I head to church now! 

 

I'm in book limbo at the moment. I've got a Murakami and several other titles sitting in a neat but dusty pile, have several titles on my kindle but am not quite in the mood for any of them. All the copies of News of the World are out at the library but The Razor's Edge is available, so perhaps I'll start with that.  I had started the 2nd Wheel of Time book but just don't really care to spend any more time with any of those characters.  

 

 

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Since we have been talking about books our older dc's really enjoy....Last year a BaWer recommended Welcome to Night Vale to my dd. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129410-welcome-to-night-vale She has really enjoyed the book and the broadcasts. So much so I have been asked to make sure I find the second book It Devours when it is released this fall. She has already reminded me twice in the past month. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28208687-it-devours

 

Btw, a few of her friends love the book too!

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Finally finished Gulliver's Travels!! It took me forever to get through it this time. I think I'll suggest dd read just books 1 & 4 - I think she'll get a kick out of the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos.  Now I'm on to Candide, another re-read. I'm enjoying the satire even more this time, and he sure has a lighter touch than Swift. So much violence - makes you realize that gratuitous violence is not a 20th century invention - but I suppose it is all in service of satire.  I'm reading these for the Utopian & Dystopian lit class GC recently released, Shannon and I are going to to do next year, but I'm trying to narrow down the book selections and figure out which ones we'll actually read. 

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A one day only currently free German classic for Kindle readers ~

 

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  

 

"Goethe’s classic story of tormented love and destruction

Told through lyrical and impassioned letters to his friend Wilhelm, this novel follows the ardent young Werther to the German countryside, where he delves into artistic pursuits and basks in the simplicity of village life. But Werther’s tranquility is shattered when he meets the captivating Charlotte at a ball in a nearby town. Every bit his equal in temperament and intellectual interests, Charlotte quickly becomes Werther’s singular obsession. He falls inextricably in love despite her engagement to another man. Overtaken by his affection for Charlotte and unable to extricate himself from the unrequited love, Werther must make peace between his artistic temperament and the harsh realities of the world.

Among the first—and most notable—examples of Germany’s Sturm und Drang movement, The Sorrows of Young Werther was enormously influential upon its publication in 1774, creating a cult of personality around the tragic figure of Werther and causing a sensation in Europe’s literary community."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

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I had a light reading week last week. We spent several days with DH's family as Easter is the big reunion weekend for them. Egg hunts, water balloon fights, hay rides, baseball, and lots of food. A fun time for all. DD2 was playing on the hay bales and I took this photo.

 

 

 

Books read last week:

  • Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. Science Fiction. Colonists on a planet plagued by a species-destroying virus try to save themselves from annihilation. The BAW bingo read for a single word title.
  • Exoplanets by Michael Summers and James Trefil. Science-Astronomy. How scientists detect exoplanets and determine their element composition. A fascinating read about carbon worlds, wandering planets, archipelago planets, and water worlds. Even here in the solar system, scientists now believe that some of the moons around Jupiter and Uranus might have life, similar to the bacteria around deep sea vents here on Earth, due to the heat generated by tidal heaving. If you have a high school student interested in astronomy, this is a perfect read.

I started then set aside Convergence. I initially thought it would illustrate intersections between various science fields, like Life on the Edge did with quantum physics and biology. But the first few chapters focused on history and I found it couldn't hold my interest. It's an interlibrary loan due in a few days so I'm returning it. I might come back to it later.

 

I'm nearly finished with Deathless by Catherynne Valente, the Tor.com free book for April. Set in the early twentieth century, the novel reimagines Russian fairytales in a more modern setting, keeping the dark elements. It's adult, but very well done. Thus far, I'm enjoying it more than the Bear and the Nightingale, mainly because it stretches the boundaries of what a fairy tale can be.

 

Everything I have in my stack books seems to more dark and horror focused, but I'll try to find something light to read this week.

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Did you find my post on shoulders on the other board? Good luck!

No I didn't, but I'm beyond frustrated right now. We've been at the surgery center 4-1/2 hours and dh is still waiting. The doctor changed the order of surgeries but no one told us. We live almost an hour away, so I thought I'd need to stay nearby for the 2 hour operation. If they had communicated with us I could have gone home. Now it's too late. I'm taking a break from my book to check the boards and social media. They do have a nice cafe so I'm going to get some lunch.

 

On the plus side i made a good deal of progress in Dodge City.

Edited by Lady Florida.
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Erin--what a sweet photo! How do you manage to read as much as you do with that bundle of energy?

Both DS4 and she keep me busy for certain. I read in fits and starts with a book always near at hand. We have mandatory quiet time every day and the kids are in their rooms by 8 pm. They also like to snuggle with me on the couch "reading" their books while I read mine.

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No I didn't, but I'm beyond frustrated right now. We've been at the surgery center 4-1/2 hours and dh is still waiting. The doctor changed the order of surgeries but no one told us. We live almost an hour away, so I thought I'd need to stay nearby for the 2 hour operation. If they had communicated with us I could have gone home. Now it's too late. I'm taking a break from my book to check the boards and social media. They do have a nice cafe so I'm going to get some lunch.

 

On the plus side i made a good deal of progress in Dodge City.

Oh no! I am so sorry! We waited less than half an hour and I found even that difficult.

 

Here is what I wrote in week 15. It isn't terribly encouraging, I am afraid, but hopefully it will be useful. Beware the meds. Keep ice on. Don't retear it. Here is what I wrote:

 

You wrote, "Your surgery was on your shoulder, wasn't it? Dh is having rotator cuff surgery on Monday. It's his right shoulder and he's right handed, and recovery will be 4-6 weeks. It's going to be an interesting time. Sleeping will be tricky at first because he's supposed to keep the arm (in a sling) elevated. He's thinking he might need to sleep upright in the recliner for a few nights, or maybe even longer. He took one week off work but will play it by ear to see if he needs to take more time off..."

 

Same here. My surgery was February 3. I was told that I wasn't allowed to go sailing for six months after surgery. So we counted back from when we would be sailing and that left February. I was told I couldn't do anything with the arm for six weeks after surgery and it had to stay in a sling. I started physical therapy two weeks after surgery. The physical therapist said it takes three months for a tendon to heal and then I'm not allowed to do anything but dress or feed myself until the three Mark month mark with my right arm. What does your husband do for work? My physical therapist had an absolute hissy fit at the idea of me doing typing or writing or any fine motor skills until the three month mark because he said that it would diminish blood flow to the tendon and the tendon needs blood flow to heal. Tendons apparently are very slow to heal anyway. Then he scared me with the information that 50% of the people we tear within five years . So I'm following his directions. Have exercises that I have to do every day. I was told that I would be allowed to roll this summer but that I can't hold on any ropes or do anything that stresses that arm. I was told that it will be a year before it's normal again if I do my exercises. Shoulder is appear to be really slow. Some of all this depends on how badly you tore your shoulder. It also probably depends who your physical therapist is. We hunted around and found supposedly the best surgeon for this in our area and we're working with his physical therapist so I have a fairly high confidence that what he's doing is the right thing. But I also know that he's very conservative in his estimates of how long it is before he wants me to move that arm around. He wants me to move it around so it doesn't freeze up but he doesn't want me to do anything with it. Other than the exercises that he gave me. I'm gonna post this and then can get back to you because I don't want to lose what I've written so far.

 

eta row and haul. and going to, not gonna. silly microphone. the worst was when it wrote nipple instead of maple when I was talking about blossoms to my mother.

 

eta 2 i slept a lot during the day the first week. you might look for an appealing audiobook. holding up a book without being able to switch hands gets tiring

 

Continuing...

 

How fast you recover seems to have a lot to do with how good the nursing is when you first are recovering. At least from my small sample size. It seems like the people who have spouses who are super diligent about feeding them their medicine and keeping the ice on their shoulder do better.

 

I threw up the heavy meds and the surgery messed up my stomach for 5 weeks. I hated the sling and we had to cut the foam down. I am small. I couldn't have managed a recliner even if we had one. I used my son's bunk and lots of pillows to stay upright at night. Sleeping was really uncomfortable. I still am not supposed to sleep on my back. Brushing my teeth leftie was miserable. Feeding myself was ok. I can only just now get my right arm high enough to turn the key of my car. It didn't hurt that much, all in all, but I was/am mightily uncomfortable, especially the first 5 weeks. See if you can get them to give you antinausia medicine. That was important. Surgery messes up your stomach. I know it wasn't the meds because I took the ones I didn't throw up for long after I stopped taking the nausea meds.

 

And that is probably way more ghan you wantedto know. Good luck! Keep ice on it 24hrz a day for the first few days is my best tip. And do ghe excersizes.

 

Nan

 

Sleep on my side. Sorry about all the typos. Mic is less than accurate.

Edited by Nan in Mass, 14 April 2017 - 05:18 PM.

Edited by Nan in Mass
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Both DS4 and she keep me busy for certain. I read in fits and starts with a book always near at hand. We have mandatory quiet time every day and the kids are in their rooms by 8 pm. They also like to snuggle with me on the couch "reading" their books while I read mine.

 

We had mandatory quiet time when my son was the same age, back in the day of dial-up.  I usually spent an hour or so reading "news groups"--anyone remember those? It was a form of adult conversation for me around 1995.

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Thanks Nan. I don't know how I missed your reply, and I did look for one, but admittedly I got behind on BaW shortly after I posted my question.

 

Dh works in the space industry but in communications. Unfortunately that means a lot of computer time. He's thinking he'll have to do a lot of one handed typing.

 

Thanks for the info on spouse support. He's terrible about following doctor's orders so I'm going to have to be the mean nurse. :)

 

BTW. they finally took him at 2:05. Fortunately there's a friendly coffee shop in downtown Melbourne so I haven't had to spend the entire time at the surgery center. And if I get tired of sitting here, the downtown area is a great place to window shop.

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I finished The Little Book of Hygge! I liked this Benjamin Franklin quote he ended with: "Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom." If anyone would like me to send this book on, let me know!

 

 

This week I'm planning to start Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. This was recommended to me by a friend from book club. I also need to find our next book club selection The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. I haven't read any of her books but she has been on my to read list.

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