Book a Week 2017 - BW24: Happy 20th Anniversary Harry Potter

[Mothersweets]

 

This makes me wonder, what are your audiobook listening rules? Do you listen to them only while alone? Do you monitor what you listen to when others are around?

 

 

I love audiobooks! 

 

I listen whenever I can - when I'm making dinner, cleaning house, driving, etc. Mainly when I am doing something while everyone else is occupied. I usually don't listen in the car unless everyone else wants to listen, too. For example, my 12yo and I have been listening to the All Creatures Great and Small series in the car on the drive to and from her swim practice. 

 

Oh, and I normally use earbuds while listening. 

[JennW in SoCal]

Oh Stacia, I am so sorry about your sweet cat.  :grouphug:

 

 

  Should I tell you about dh's nephew who married the Japanese woman who was his English student? :D

 

That's a great story! We've wondered if ds would follow the road of many before him, fall in love, marry and stay permanently. So far no danger of that....

 

This makes me wonder, what are your audiobook listening rules? Do you listen to them only while alone? Do you monitor what you listen to when others are around?

 

As a busy empty nester commuting all over Southern California, audio books are my go-to companion in the car. I never share my current reads with friends if I'm carpooling -- it seems rude and anti social.  I've also been known to turn down carpooling offers just so I can finish a book!!  Totally understand not taking a kayak passenger, but am in awe of kayaking while listening to a book! My dh has come to expect an audio book for our long drives together, so I always have a non-fiction book ready in my audible library. Sometimes he or I will finish them on our own, sometimes we just pick up where we left off the next time we are in the car.  When I was driving kids around we listened to books we'd all enjoy.  I listen at home without ear buds, if I'm doing hand work like quilting. Haven't worried about folk listening in, but there aren't any little kids around these days. 

 

I've been pleasantly surprised at all the "driveway" moments while listening to War and Peace -- arriving at my my destination but needing to sit in the car a few minutes to get to the end of a chapter!

[Angel]

So much sadness here. After losing one beloved cat to cancer in April, we had to put our elderly lady cat to sleep this afternoon.

 

 

Our gal that we said goodbye to today is on the left; our guy that we said goodbye to in April is on the right.

 

:crying: :crying:

Oh, Stacia! I'm so sorry! ((((Hugs)))). It's so hard to lose a pet, let alone two.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

<snip> Totally understand not taking a kayak passenger, but am in awe of kayaking while listening to a book! <snip>

 

I've been pleasantly surprised at all the "driveway" moments while listening to War and Peace -- arriving at my my destination but needing to sit in the car a few minutes to get to the end of a chapter!

Ooops, I didn't mean I listened to the book while kayaking. I listened to it while driving to the lake. :auto:  :auto:  I was quite social while kayaking and tooling around the lake.

 

Although I have been known to take a book with me and find a nice quiet cove and sit in my kayak and read while DH fishes in his rowboat. I find the gentle roll of the water and the sounds of wildlife to be quite soothing.

[Just Robyn]

So sorry about your kitties, Stacia!  :grouphug:

[Ausmumof3]

Only finished two books this week. I feel like I've been slowing down - how is it I'm having less time to read now that it's summer??!!

 

59. The Green Road (audiobook) - I already reviewed this last week. 2.5 stars

 

60. Too Like the Lightning - still loved it. 5 stars. Will be starting the next one this week. :D

 

Currently Reading:

 

- Lincoln in the Bardo (audiobook) - glad I'm listening to this on audio. I glanced at the hard copy in B&N and I think it might make me a bit nuts. It's overall quite odd! The audio is full-cast (116 narrators).

 

- Song of the Dodo - Must finish this this week so I can start the W&P read-a-long (which I hope still isn't officially starting till next week, though I know some people are jumping in already)

 

- Ficciones by Borges (ebook) - started it because it was ready on Overdrive. Not sure if I'll finish it up now or perhaps put it aside in favor of other stuff. I'm thinking this will be my Argentinian Author book for Big Bingo. But I've got lots of other books I want to get to this month! This is one of those books I know I'm 'supposed' to read at some point, but not really in the mood right now...

 

Coming up:

 

- Seven Surrenders, the sequel to Too Like the Lightning.

- The Vegetarian came in on ebook from Overdrive, so I may start that and drop Ficciones for now.

- Got Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck out of the library for my birthstone read.

- Almost done with my audiobook, I'm hoping the next one in my queue (Round House by Louise Erdich) comes in soon.

 

I can fortunately put off reading All Our Wrong Todays, my other SciFi book club book, because this month's book club date got cancelled because our host is apparently heading off for a Southern Cross adventure. Sounds exciting, and gives me time to squish Seven Surrenders in while I still remember what happened in the first book...

 

One of my Recommendations for Overdrive actually got picked up! Radium Girls - I'm #3 in the queue, so hopefully in the next month or two I can get to that. :)

 

I've almost got blackout on my regular BaW bingo - the only squares left are SciFi (ironic but I keep using all my many SciFi books for other squares! Although if I could use a SciFi book that's something else on BigBingo I could call it done...) and Middle Ages for which I'm planning Sunne in Splendour because everyone says it's so good, but I see no way I'm going to get to that till after W&P? So close but no cigar...

You may enjoy this interview with the author of Lincoln in the Bardo

 

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-george-saunders/8535100

 

I found parts of the book touching and yet overall it was somewhat unsettling.

[Robin M]

 

This makes me wonder, what are your audiobook listening rules? Do you listen to them only while alone? Do you monitor what you listen to when others are around?

Yes, I do monitor because most of my books contain language or adult situations not appropriate for my son to hear. I use headphones to listen to audiobooks while cleaning or doing laundry  When I'm alone in the car, it doesn't matter. James and I enjoy listening to Harry Potter or Star Wars stories in the car and sometimes when we are alone for dinner.   Hubby hates listening to audiobooks in the car so we mainly listen to music or talk.  

 

 

 

 

I finished Welcome to Night Vale and although I've read lots of strange fantasy or science fiction books, this one was weird and wacky. 

 

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

 

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "KING CITY" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

 

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

 

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "KING CITY". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it.

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2017 by Robin M

[mumto2]

I finished Welcome to Night Vale and although I've read lots of strange fantasy or science fiction books, this one was weird and wacky.

 

Dd LOVES Night Vale!!!! I am pretty sure Jenn recommended this one for her about a year ago. She has gone on to listen to all the episodes. She is anxiously waiting for the sequel It Devours. http://www.welcometonightvale.com/books/ I keep getting reminded that I need to source it for her. Her best friend has listened to the series too.

 

Eta.....I just discovered my Overdrive has Night Vale as an audiobook and it's available. I had no time to listen to the Moonstone today but am thinking I will give it another hour or so. If it still doesn't click maybe Night Vale is in my future. That would please Dd.

 

Also the downloads of the broadcast are available in book form.

Edited June 14, 2017 by mumto2

[Violet Crown]

About halfway through selected writings of Max Beerbohm, and I had to pause and share a bit of one of his literary parodies.

 

The Mote in the Middle Distance

 

By H*nry J*m*s

 

It was with the sense of a, for him, very memorable something that he peered now into the immediate future, and tried, not without compunction, to take that period up where he had, prospectively, left it. But just where the deuce had he left it?

 

Perfect!

 

More:

 

The gaze she fixed on her extravagant kinsman was of a kind to make him wonder how he contrived to remain, as he beautifully did, rigid.

 

This is the best thing ever.

[Stacia]

.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Mothersweets]

You may enjoy this interview with the author of Lincoln in the Bardo

 

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-george-saunders/8535100

 

I found parts of the book touching and yet overall it was somewhat unsettling.

 

This was super interesting - George Saunders is very likable!

 

I've also listened to a few of the other interviews done by Richard Fidler and am thoroughly enjoying myself as I knit away on my latest project this afternoon. Thank you!

[Lady Florida.]

I haven't been able to get much reading in the past few days. I have a nasty sinus infection with a full blown sinus pressure headache to go with it. It's hard to concentrate even on fluff. War and Peace is definitely being put aside until I feel better. 

 

I saw the doctor yesterday and he put me on strong antibiotics. Hopefully I'll start to feel better in a day or so once they kick in.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Lady Florida.

[Stacia]

.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Kareni]

I haven't been able to get much reading in the past few days. I have a nasty sinus infection with a full blown sinus pressure headache to go with it....

 

Sending good thoughts your way, Kathy.

***

 

I read The Japanese Lover: A Novel by Isabel Allende for my upcoming book group.  Has anyone here read it?  This was a fairly easy book to read, and I finished it over the course of several days.  It touched on a host of topics ~ the holocaust, the incarceration during World War 2 of Japanese Americans, child pornography, infidelity, and incest to name a few.  The storyline was interesting, but I was left feeling unmoved -- and I'm a person who could be compelled by another author to cry over the death of a goldfish!  I don't regret reading it, but it's not a book I'd recommend.

 

"From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende, “a magical and sweeping†(Publishers Weekly, starred review) love story and multigenerational epic that stretches from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during World War II.

 

In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family—like thousands of other Japanese Americans—are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.

 

Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco’s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.

 

Sweeping through time and spanning generations and continents, The Japanese Lover is written with the same keen understanding of her characters that Isabel Allende has been known for since her landmark first novel The House of the Spirits. The Japanese Lover is a moving tribute to the constancy of the human heart in a world of unceasing change."

**

 

I also re-read Mariana Zapata's  Dear Aaron  which I first read earlier this week.  I enjoyed it once more.

 

 

"Ruby Santos knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she signed up to write a soldier overseas.

 

The guidelines were simple: one letter or email a week for the length of his or her deployment. Care packages were optional.

 

Been there, done that. She thought she knew what to expect.

 

What she didn’t count on was falling in love with the guy."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Penguin]

Stacia, I am so sorry about your kitties. :grouphug:

Kathy, I hope you feel better soon. :grouphug:

 

Kareni, Thank you for the recommendation for The Changeling. I added it to my TBR list.

 

--

I four-star loved News of the World but it did not quite take me to five stars.

 

Earlier this year, I tried my first adult Neil Gaiman with Norse Mythology, and it fell flat for me. This week, I read Stardust and I five-star loved it. As a big fan of both Coraline and The Graveyard Book, Stardust was exactly the sort of Gaiman I was hoping to find on the adult shelf.

 

[Stacia]

.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[Butter]

I finished Welcome to Night Vale and although I've read lots of strange fantasy or science fiction books, this one was weird and wacky. 

 

Weird and wacky is definitely one way to describe that book.  So perfectly Night Vale.

 

I finished reading Remaining Me by Ansandra Woodman.  I love the story.  It was so incredibly well done and really drew me in.  The emotions portrayed were amazing.  The premise is a teenage girl's mother marries a man who is a narcissist and the girl is his chosen victim.  My best friend's ex-husband is a narcissist and that character was a carbon copy of that man.  He was that well written.   The girl ends up an addict, but with the help of a caring school librarian, she gets help, eventually gets out from under her step-father, and starts the lifelong process of healing her battered self-esteem.  It doesn't end pretty.  It ends hopeful and I think that is incredibly accurate.

 

BUT.

 

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't give it 5 stars.  I have to give it 4 because it needs an editor so incredibly badly (and I considered 3 because there are just *so many* issues).  Grammar, usage, and mechanics mistakes abound.  Tons of words that were left in during the editing process.  It was pretty easy to tell several times how the original sentence read based on what was left in after it was edited.  That's just carelessness.  I thought the last chapter (which is very short) should have been removed completely.  The second to last chapter finishes perfectly.  The last chapter just seemed unneeded and took away from the story overall in my opinion.

[Matryoshka]

Matryoshka (or anyone else who has listened to the audio version), I would love to hear your feedback on the Lincoln in the Bardo audiobook. I read the print version about a month ago. Normally I'm not an audiobook person at all, but after reading about the huge cast & reading the print version (w/ its somewhat unique round-robin of voices & characters), I'm intrigued by the audiobook. I think my irl book club will read this book later in the year & I'm thinking of getting the audio version at that time to refresh my memory of the story.

 

I'm definitely glad I listened to the audiobook version.  All of the narrations were very well done, and the voices of the two main characters (or the ones who speak the most?)  were distinctive, so easy to distinguish among the many voices.  The profanity-laden couple with the 'ingrate' children were humorously delivered.  The only thing that distracted a bit was the reference notations including a lot of op. sits., but I think that would have been just as distracting in print.

 

What did others that read (or listened) to this think of it?  I mean, clever and all that.  The chapters that were more historical reference certainly highlighted the fallibility of eyewitness accounts (were Lincoln's eyes blue, grey, brown, blue-grey, grey-brown, or...?)   But I'm not sure if I really liked  it all that much overall - I don't felt like it added that much to my understanding of The Civil War, Lincoln, or even Willie. The dead folk were sympathetic and well written - but what an enormously depressing view of the afterlife.  I'd have to give it 2.5 stars; somewhere between 'I liked it' and... meh.

[AppleGreen]

I am here! I am reading, but not as prolifically as I would like. Currently, my reading looks like a 20 year old dating: mostly reading fast, low commitment reads, not much substance, but having fun.  :blush5:  

 

I picked up Orange is the New Black at the free little library around the corner. I am about halfway through. I find it is lacking flow. I also started The Astronauts Wives Club and found something similar. Both seem stilted and somewhat forced, more like vignettes, rather than a fully developed story. It's fine if it is just a series of short stories, I think the trouble for me is trying to make it feel like a cohesive story and it is isn't working. Since this is the second book that I have had this feeling with, maybe it is a me thing and not the poor book. 

 

I have a slew of books that I have snagged from the FLL, so I feel no pressure to ditch them if I can't get into them. I am getting a little more invested in OITNB, so I am not giving up on Astronauts.  

 

I am awed that it has been 20 years since the muggles met the wizarding world! I was such a baby. I can't believe I am 20 years older.  :eek:  I envied people who had children during that magical time. I happened to randomly be at a bookstore on release night for one of the books. It was so much fun seeing everyone dressed up eagerly anticipating the midnight release. My own were too little to participate. I later enjoyed the series with my children (well, not all of my littles have made their way through all of them), but we never had the opportunity to experience the magic of a big reveal. 

[Kareni]

A one day only currently free Kindle book ~

 

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 

 

"The women of an English country village star in this Victorian classic that inspired a BBC series, from the author of North and South.
 
Welcome to Cranford, where everyone knows one another and a cow wears pajamas. It’s a community built on friendship and kindness, where women hold court and most of the houses—and men—are rarely seen. Two colorful spinster sisters at the heart of Cranford, Miss Matty and Miss Deborah Jenkyns, are daughters of the former rector, and when they’re not playing cards or drinking tea, they’re feeding an endless appetite for scandal and weathering commotions to their peaceful lives, from financial troubles to thieves to an unexpected face from the past."

**

 

Tor.com’s eBook of the Month Club

 

"Now you can read and own John Scalzi Old Man’s War.

 

Read John Scalzi’s addictive novel; a perfect gateway to sci-fi and space opera.

No joining the army or going into interstellar space until you’re at LEAST 75 years old.

Responsible for protecting humanity, the Colonial Defense Force doesn’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth, never to return. You’ll serve two years in combat. And if you survive, you’ll be given a homestead of your own on a hard-won planet light-years from home.

John Perry is taking that deal. He thinks he knows what to expect. But the actual fight is far, far harder than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger.

Each ebook will be available for seven days. But we’ll spend the month talking about the featured title through discussion posts, author features, and more. Keep track of all Tor.com eBook Club offerings and discussions on the Tor.com eBook Club tag page.

Old Man’s War will be available from June 15th-21st. Download before 11:59 PM ET June 21st, 2017."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Can you identify?

 

From BookRiot:  A Reread I Didn’t Know Was a Reread: On Reading Amnesia  by Jen Sherman

 

"Reading amnesia is apparently not that uncommon. You read a book, but a little while later, you’d be hard pressed to remember the more minor details from that book. Sometimes maybe even the major details. I find that I often forget details, and sometimes even character names, but what stays with me is how that book made me feel. I will generally remember if I loved it, hated it, whether I needed time to recover from it, whether I read it in one sitting or whether it was a slow slog.

 

Sometimes this is useful. For one of my favourite genres, crime fiction, it means I can revisit a book I know I once enjoyed but have since forgotten how the mystery was solved or who the bad guy was, and I can read it anew. ..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

Hi everyone! 

 

Back from a meeting in another part of the state.  Maybe I should change my board name to Intrepid Traveler!

 

As promised, more photos from Iceland.  After a bit of a wander at Skaftafell National Park, some of us opted to hike the back way to our hotel.  We picked our way across the rocky perimeter of a glacial lagoon:

 

 

A backward glance:

 

 

And here I am in the lupines:

 

 

This is the most touristy thing we did in Iceland:  a duck boat ride around the icebergs at Jökulsárlón.

 

 

Apparently my lifestyle does not allow much time for reading.  Must Change That.

 

ETA: Correcting my Icelandic.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2017 by Jane in NC

[mumto2]

I just finished a really great book that I have been avoiding because of the title reminded me of The Light Between the Oceans which traumatized me years ago! All the Birds in the Sky couldn't have been more different. I think it's sort of a crazy mish mash of lots of interesting things turned into a pretty good story but that makes for a really bad description.

 

It starts with two middle school outcasts (a boy geek and a girl who talked with birds once) who become friends which was quite a bit like HP. The world they live in is an alternative one to ours. This book is dystopian, science fiction, fantasy, with a bit of HP type magic thrown in. They leave middle school behind to face the world separately as a witch and an inventor. I don't want to give spoilers since many here have it on their Goodreads lists. I loved it.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25372801-all-the-birds-in-the-sky

[Negin]

So much sadness here. After losing one beloved cat to cancer in April, we had to put our elderly lady cat to sleep this afternoon.

 

:grouphug:   :grouphug:   :grouphug:

 

So sorry, Stacia. 

[Ethel Mertz]

Drop everything! Look at what I found: A book with an Alligator on the cover!

[mumto2]

Drop everything! Look at what I found: A book with an Alligator on the cover!

I've read that one. It's wonderful!!!!

[Chrysalis Academy]

I finished Housekeeping last night. The writing was just phenomenal. I have a hard time characterizing the story, it's a coming-of-age tale, I think, but not your typical coming of age tale. It's a book about loneliness, mostly, and the ephemeral ties that may or may not keep us connected to the world. One thing that struck me is that there are no "bad guys" in this story - it's just a bunch of people doing the best they can, making the choices they are capable of given what life as thrown at them. Just gorgeous writing.

 

p. 152 "[after a long beautiful description of a garden] For need can blossom into all the compensation it requires. To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is a foreshadowing - the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one's hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again. Though we dream and hardly know it, longing, like an angel, fosters us, smooths our hair, and brings us wild strawberries."

 

I'm not sure why that passage struck me so much, because it's actually not what I believe, I tend to go with the Buddhist view that craving is the source of suffering rather than its solace. But I just loved the words and how they flowed together and how they made me consider an alternative idea.

 

I also abandoned the Borgia novel I'd tried - The Serpent and the Pearl. The author got the period details down - the food, the clothes, the towns, the smells - and wrote very evocatively. But the people were all wrong, completely modern sensibilities and personalities. Plus there is a dwarf and for me right now every dwarf is Tyrion Lannister, so I couldn't really get past that.  ;)  :D

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

Drop everything! Look at what I found: A book with an Alligator on the cover!

 

I wish we could like your posts because this one surely deserves a like. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

A little morning poetry for you, my friends:

 

Yet the noble despair of the poets
Is nothing of the sort; it is silly
To refuse the tasks of time
And, overlooking our lives,
Cry – “Miserable wicked me, 
How interesting I am.â€
We would rather be ruined than changed,
We would rather die in dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.

 

-WH Auden, from The Age of Anxiety

[Violet Crown]

A little morning poetry for you, my friends:

 

Yet the noble despair of the poets

Is nothing of the sort; it is silly

To refuse the tasks of time

And, overlooking our lives,

Cry – “Miserable wicked me,

How interesting I am.â€

We would rather be ruined than changed,

We would rather die in dread

Than climb the cross of the moment

And let our illusions die.

 

-WH Auden, from The Age of Anxiety

Ah, Auden. Thank you.

[Jane in NC]

Drop everything! Look at what I found: A book with an Alligator on the cover!

 

This reminds me of a book that I sent to Nan a couple of years ago, the silly 1950's novel An Alligator Named Daisy.  It was made into a movie in the same time period.  Google if you want to see a ridiculous promotional poster for the film.

[Ethel Mertz]

I had 5 post quotes I was going to respond to and I accidentally exited from the screen. I hate when that happens.

 

Stacia: We loved Alaska when we went on a cruise in 2014. I'd love to go back. And, so, so sorry about your kitties. 

 

Kathy: Feel better soon!

 

Jane: Love the Iceland pictures! 

 

Sandy: Sorry about the church conflict. Been there and it can get pretty ugly.

 

I was going to respond to someone's post regarding a book and now I can't remember.

 

Yesterday, DS was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I totally was not expecting that call from his pediatrician. He's now on doxycycline and we're hoping that takes care of it. We're also adding in some homeopathic remedies. I feel so guilty as I chalked up his fatigue to typical teen malaise and his joint pains to his not wanting to go out and weed the garden. Nevertheless, he's been cleared to go off to sleep away camp, along with his meds to give to the camp nurse.

 

What I'm reading: Lord of the Rings. DS is ahead of me by several chapters, so I have catching up to do. SWB's History of the Ancient World. DS is way ahead of me. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson. I am totally in love with Charlie Lovett's The Lost Book of the Grail. 

 

We're heading to Maine for a week, so I will take lots of books with me!

[Ethel Mertz]

This reminds me of a book that I sent to Nan a couple of years ago, the silly 1950's novel An Alligator Named Daisy.  It was made into a movie in the same time period.  Google if you want to see a ridiculous promotional poster for the film.

 

DS and I saw that movie! Loved it!

[Chrysalis Academy]

 

 

Yesterday, DS was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I totally was not expecting that call from his pediatrician. He's now on doxycycline and we're hoping that takes care of it. We're also adding in some homeopathic remedies. I feel so guilty as I chalked up his fatigue to typical teen malaise and his joint pains to his not wanting to go out and weed the garden. Nevertheless, he's been cleared to go off to sleep away camp, along with his meds to give to the camp nurse.

 

 

 

Oh, I am so sorry to hear this. But glad it's something treatable and that you have a treatment plan, and that it isn't shutting down his summer plans. I can relate to the guilt, too. I can suffer from sympathy fatigue with dd's symptoms and I always feel bad about that when it happens. It's hard for me to just hear what she's saying and not feel like it's about something else - not wanting to go to the gym or put away the dishes - but I'm trying. It's hard when you don't have a solution or a fix to offer them, it's hard to just hear it and hold it, and hold them when they just need to be held and heard.

[Kareni]

Yesterday, DS was diagnosed with Lyme disease. ...

 

Sending good thoughts to your son, Ethel, and to all who have a family member suffering from a physical or mental ailment.

**

 

A one day only currently free classic for Kindle readers ~

 

Dubliners by James Joyce  

 

"The debut of Ireland’s greatest author and one of the most influential voices in modern literature

 

It took nine years for James Joyce to find a publisher for this vivid, uncompromising, and altogether brilliant portrait of Dublin at the turn of the twentieth century. Now regarded as one of the finest story collections in the English language, it contains such masterpieces as “Araby,†“Grace,†and “The Dead,†and serves as a valuable and accessible introduction to the themes that define Joyce’s later work, including the monumental Ulysses.

 

Elegantly interweaving a moral history of Ireland with profiles of brave, flawed, and utterly realistic individuals—many of them clearly drawn from the author’s own life—experiencing moments of profound insight, Dubliners is an essential work of art."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Butter]

Yesterday, DS was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I totally was not expecting that call from his pediatrician. He's now on doxycycline and we're hoping that takes care of it. We're also adding in some homeopathic remedies. I feel so guilty as I chalked up his fatigue to typical teen malaise and his joint pains to his not wanting to go out and weed the garden. Nevertheless, he's been cleared to go off to sleep away camp, along with his meds to give to the camp nurse.

 

No fun.  I had Lyme Disease in 2002.  I don't really remember that summer because of it.  I was really sick.  But, the antibiotics worked and I don't really have any lasting effects.  My doctor said to do whatever research on-line I could to find alternative remedies for side effects because (at least then) there was nothing he could do to help those.

 

I just finished a course of doxycycline yesterday (for pneumonia).  It was the first time I ever took that one.  It worked very well, but it did make me nauseas for about 45 minutes to an hour after taking it.  It's supposed to be taken on an empty stomach but can cause nausea and they said if it did I could eat it with minimal food if I couldn't stand the nausea.  I just dealt with the nausea because I knew it would go away before long.  The couple times I didn't time it well and had to drive nauseas were horrible, though.

[Stacia]

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Edited November 2, 2017 by Stacia

[mumto2]

Ethel, I hope you have a great trip to Maine! :) :grouphug: to your ds

 

Heather, Glad you are feeling well again.

 

Stacia, I instantly had to go look for the Russia against Napoleon book. I have a small stack of W&P books sitting on the chair reserved for library returns and my family keeps glancing at them oddly because they aren't disappearing. I don't know what I want to do and am not satisfied with the look of any of the maps. I can get the Russia Against Napoleon but will wait until I give it a try without it.

[Violet Crown]

Ethel, best wishes for a quick recuperation for your ds.

 

Stacia -- hats off for doing the due diligence of historical research! (Every single thing I know about Napoleon's invasion of Russia comes from reading War and Peace. Sure hope Tolstoy was accurate.)

[JennW in SoCal]

:grouphug: to all coping with illness, both chronic and curable. I find myself extra thankful for modern medicine, especially antibiotics, when I spend reading time in the Napoleonic era. Tolstoy's "camera" doesn't follow the doctors and surgeons post-battle the way Patrick O'Brian does in Master and Commander -- but my mind is nevertheless filling in the blanks. 

 

I have to say that War and Peace is far, far more readable than I had expected. I remember hating Anna Karenina, though I was a youngster when I read it, and my only other encounter with one of the great tomes of literature was Moby Dick. This is lots more fun than Moby Dick, and is filled with delightful characters you'd find in a Dickens novel. I would gently suggest that fretting over the choice of translation is making the decision to read it seem far more daunting than it is. There are maps galore on the internet of all the major locations in the book, there are Sparknotes and Wikipedia for sorting out characters. And your faithful band of reading friends here are ready to talk about it all and to share links to helpful internet sites such as this thread of Resources for War and Peace from GoodReads. 

 

This can be filed under the heading "first world problems": The forums seem to be shut down nightly around 11:30pm Pacific time. It is just at the time when I start to unwind after my long drive home from a gig, and I want to come here to catch up on whatever is going on, but I get that pink banner and notice that the forum is unavailable. It's actually happened a time or two just as I'm trying to post something pithy, and my entire post winds up lost. I have finally realized that it is only a short time that the forum is off line, but at first I was very disappointed!!

[Kareni]

Some bookish posts ~

 

7 YA Novels with Superpowered Heroines by S. Zainab Williams

 

"I live for stories of heroines realizing their power. It puts me on the edge of my seat, curious and delighted by the prospect of seeing what they do with their gifts; how they wield them. Young women entering that phase of self-discovery are champions of newfound ability, juggling powers we (unfortunately) don’t come across in real life with all the cringey, awkward momentousness of coming of age. They search for their confidence and their place in the world as girls becoming women, and it’s these seemingly humdrum pursuits that charge their abilities and make them superhuman.

 

Here are a few worthy champions–heroines of YA fiction burdened gifted with incredible abilities that make their lives as magical as they are challenging. Revel in their superpowers...."

**

 

Enchantment, Death, and Footwear: The Twelve Dancing Princesses  by Mari Ness

 

"Imagine, for a moment, that night after night you are doomed to trace a long spiraling staircase deep within the earth. Once at its base, your travels are still not done: you must walk though glittering “woodsâ€â€”not living trees, but creations of bright gems and metals—and sail across an underground lake, where, on the other side, you must dance and dance and dance, until near dawn, when you can finally return to your own bedchamber and collapse next to your sisters, your shoes in tatters. Fortunately, you are a princess, with seemingly no responsibilities, who can sleep until noon if not later, and equally fortunately you have the money to buy new shoes every day—and cobblers apparently eager to make them. Still, this never varies, night after night.

 

Would you try to fight this enchantment, or casually arrange for the deaths of the princes who came to save you?..."

**

 

Speaking From the Shadows: Five Books That Tell the Monster’s Story  by Ruthanna Emrys

 

"Monsters fascinate. There’s something in the shadows that you don’t understand, can’t quite make out the shape of—something that can eat you. Something that can steal your children, spoil your crops, or worst of all turn you into a monster yourself, so that you’ll no longer be welcome in the warm places where we tell stories about monsters.

 

That warm place started as a small campfire in the dark night, surrounded by very real predators. Beside that fire, you could lay down your spear and basket and feel almost safe for the night. We keep fearing monsters even as the shadows retreat and the campfires grow, even now when light pollution banishes them to the few remaining dark corners, where they must surely shiver and tell stories about our advance.

 

Mustn’t they?..."

**

 

Five Books about Futuristic California  by Laura Lam

 

"I grew up in the East Bay area, just over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco. I moved a lot, so I lived in Oakland, Fremont (three houses in the same neighborhood! Once we moved 12 doors down the street), Union City, Hayward, and Castro Valley. Now I live half a world away in Edinburgh, Scotland. Writing the Pacifica books (False Hearts & Shattered Minds) has been a way to go back home, even if it’s through the lens of a twisted, near-future vision of that state.

 

The last two trips home, I’ve been exploring different areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles to feed into my fiction, and it’s been interesting to see California in a new way. I once told my mom I wanted to go to the Xanadu Gallery in San Francisco so I could imagine it riddled with bullets for a scene in False Hearts. I walked down downtown Los Angeles, imagining floating skyscrapers and mansions overhead. I picked apart California’s obsessions: with celebrity, with perfection, with presenting itself as a hippie ecotopia. In this future, it’s still the centre of loads of technological innovation, just as Silicon Valley is now. I created a walled off cult set in the redwoods of Muir Woods. I took so many places of my childhood and placed them in creepy thrillers, just to see what would happen. At first glance, California looks like a utopia, but if you scratch the surface, it’s just as grim as some of the cyberpunk I grew up reading...."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

I've finished a couple of books.  The first one caught my attention because of its unusual title which, it turns out, comes from a Virginia Woolf quote.  I enjoyed this (though it did have challenging content) and would happily read more by this author.

 

The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire: A Novel  by Sandra Hutchison

 

"A teenage girl and a widowed physics professor risk scandal and worse when they try to help each other survive unexpected losses.

Physics professor David Asken doesn't know how he survived the plane crash that killed his wife and daughter, but he figures he must have run for it. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael, who used to be the babysitter, isn't exactly eager to keep house for him while he recuperates. He's quietly planning to kill himself. She's trying to cope with her flamboyant artist mother's highly sexual art and highly sexual lifestyle, as well as her own adolescent stirrings -- but that's nothing compared to what she'll face after a drunken teen party. Will the unexpectedly tender connection that grows between man and girl help, or just make it worse?

This provocative coming-of-age novel set in a small town in 1977 asks whether there's ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right."

**

 

I also read and enjoyed Kristen Callihan's contemporary romance The Hot Shot.  It's book four in a series but can stand alone well. (Adult content) 

 

"First we were friends. Then we were roommates. Now I want more…

What can I say about Chess Copper? The woman is capable of bringing me to my knees. I know this about five minutes after getting naked for her.

No one is more surprised than me. The prickly photographer my team hired to shoot our annual charity calendar isn’t my usual type. She’s defense to my offense, a challenge at every turn. But when I’m with her, all the regrets and darkness goes away. She makes life fun.

I want to know Chess, be close to her. Which is a bad idea.

Chess is looking for a relationship. I’ve never given a woman more than one night. But when fate leaves Chess without a home, I step up and offer her mine. We’re roommates now. Friends without benefits. But it’s getting harder to keep our hands off each other. And the longer we live together the more I realize she’s becoming my everything.

Trick is… Now that I’ve made her believe I’m a bad bet, how do I convince her to give this player a true shot at forever?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Mom-ninja.]

Stacia, I'm sorry.

[Penguin]

...

Yesterday, DS was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I totally was not expecting that call from his pediatrician. He's now on doxycycline and we're hoping that takes care of it. We're also adding in some homeopathic remedies. I feel so guilty as I chalked up his fatigue to typical teen malaise and his joint pains to his not wanting to go out and weed the garden. Nevertheless, he's been cleared to go off to sleep away camp, along with his meds to give to the camp nurse.

 

What I'm reading: Lord of the Rings. DS is ahead of me by several chapters, so I have catching up to do. SWB's History of the Ancient World. DS is way ahead of me. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson. I am totally in love with Charlie Lovett's The Lost Book of the Grail. 

 

We're heading to Maine for a week, so I will take lots of books with me!

Ethel,  :grouphug:

And I have experienced parental called-that-one-wrong guilt feelings more times than I care to remember. An unpleasant part of the job, I suppose. 

[Jane in NC]

Re: Mom guilt.

 

My now adult son loves telling this story; in fact, he mentioned it at dinner during a recent visit. 

 

When The Boy was twelve or so, he started complaining about foot pain as we were leaving the house to walk about a mile to a community folk sing.  I figured that he was exercising pre-adolescent whininess so I ignored his complaints.  He walked to the folk sing and back.  That evening or the next day he showed me his foot. Indeed he had a problem:  a broken toe.

 

I tell him now that I was preparing him for his AT thru hike.  Was his girlfriend impressed?  Turns out that she had similar childhood experiences. Apparently these two proudly wear their "tough love" merit badges.

 

I think you can let go of the guilt.

[Penguin]

Goodreads Question:

 

If you have figured out a clever way to differentiate books that you skimmed or that you dip in and out of for reference, please share your technique with me :)

 

And if you are my Goodreads friend, I apologize for dominating your feed this morning. I did a lot of adding and rearranging. 

 

If we are not yet connected on Goodreads, I am here. 

[Loesje22000]

Goodreads Question:

 

If you have figured out a clever way to differentiate books that you skimmed or that you dip in and out of for reference, please share your technique with me :)

 

And if you are my Goodreads friend, I apologize for dominating your feed this morning. I did a lot of adding and rearranging.

 

If we are not yet connected on Goodreads, I am here.

I made a 'slow reading' shelf, but I am also considering a 'reference work' shelf.

 

ETA: I also have a 'to reread in more quiet times' shelf

[mumto2]

Mom guilt and feet.....

 

When my giant ds was having his major growth spurt he mentioned that he needed new trainers. Quick glance at the dirty beaten up shoes confirmed he could certainly use some new ones. I told him no problem it could be the first stop when we arrived in the US the next week since he would get new ones filthy here in the rainy muddy wet. He did not say he needed new ones because they were too small. His old ones were just a couple months old. He agreed to wait with no protest.

 

So first full day I take him to a big name sports store where teens wait on you. Ds and I go off to see to his shoes and dh wanders away with dd. The teen measures ds foot.....3 full sizes bigger than his old shoes and 2 sizes bigger than dh. Me at work finding new shoes. Dh walks up and hears the news. Declares it impossible and says we are leaving that store. We go to the car and drive an hour to a specialized shoe store we used when ds was little for his then super wide feet. The woman who had measured him since birth practically confirmed the scary new size......dh accepted it from her. :lol:

 

Whenever ds gets a blister, cut, anything on his feet he loves to tell me it's because I forced him to wear ill fitting shoes when he was a child!

[Ethel Mertz]

Love the Mom Guilt stories!!!

 

Here's an article on Russian Writers and revolution.

[Kareni]

A one day only currently free Kindle classic ~

 

Indiana by George Sand

 

"A noblewoman travels from colonial Africa to revolutionary France in search of love in this nineteenth-century romantic classic.

On the ÃŽle Bourbon off the coast of Madagascar, Indiana is miserable in her marriage to the cold Colonel Delmare. Although she has a friendly companion in the ever-present Englishman Sir Ralph, she yearns to feel passion and desire.
 
When she catches the interest of the handsome young Raymon de Ramiere, Indiana is willing to take any risk, including running away to France as the July Revolution rages in Paris. But after she falls ill, she will begin a transformation that could bring about her happiness—or her downfall.
 
The first novel Amantine Aurore Dupin published under the pseudonym George Sand, Indiana was an auspicious debut from one of the most fascinating and daring women of the early nineteenth century, a rebellious artist who defied societal expectations and went on to become one of the major names in French literature."

 

Regards,

Kareni