Book a Week 2018 - BW27: July Quest across the Alps

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday and welcome to week twenty-seven in our Open Roads Reading Adventure. Greetings to all our readers and everyone following our progress. Mister Linky is available weekly on 52 Books in 52 Weeks  to share a link to your book reviews.

Grab your backpacks and your hiking boots and get ready to go mountaineering, armchair style, for our July Quest Across the Alps. We are heading to the Alpine Mountains in Europe which runs through 8 Countries:

Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

 Whether you  take a guided or self guided tour through the region, go on a video quest for Alpine literature with Valere Staraselski, Ales Steger, Helena Janeczek, and Bernhard Aichner.  Learn more with Literature of the Alpines, Eight books inspired by chilly Switzerland,  Rick Steves Recommended Books and Movies of Switzerland and Austria, and NPR's This Trip Through the Alps is a Little Bumpy.  Also travel in the footsteps of our author choices of the month with Umberto Eco and Simonetta Agnello Hornby.  

Our Blossom Bookology flower of the month is Edelweiss which is the national flower of Austria  and a national symbol for Switzerland of rugged purity. There are a number of directions to go for this month's challenge.    Read one book per letter using either the title and/or the first or last name of the author.  Yes, you can mix it up.  You may read a book with the name of the flower, color of the flower in the title, or on the cover.  Another possibility is a book which takes place in the time period or flower's country of origin or has some cultural significance and/or symbolism of the flower.  The choices are unlimited.

Our Brit Trip is taking us to Fosse Way where we start in Cornwall.  Located in the southwest corner of England it is surrounded by beaches and is one of the sunniest locations in England. Not surprisingly it also has a higher than average percentage of retired people as its population. It is also the setting of the English fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer.

Rabbit trails: St Michael’s Mount,  Royal Albert Bridge by Isambard Kingdom Brunel,   The house that inspired ‘Rebecca’,  The Cornwall of Daphne du Maurier  

Whether you are traipsing through the mountains or strolling the beaches, remember to stop and smell the flowers as we welcome in July and another new armchair travel adventure. 

 What are you reading?

 Link to week 26

[Robin M]

Good morning, my lovelies.  I'll post a June wrap up later.  Currently reading James Rollin's Ice Hunt, as well as Julie Ann Walker's 9th book in her Black Knight's Series - Wild Ride

Nonfiction wise, delving in to Alan Alda's  If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

Also getting back into writing mood with Writing the Life Poetic by Sage Cohen and Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit

[Kareni]

I finished re-reads (one at 2:00am when I couldn't sleep) of Anne Cleeland's Murder in Retribution  and  Murder in Hindsight.  I enjoyed them both once again.  Do start with the first book in the series, Murder in Thrall, as this series is best read in order.

Regards,
Kareni

[Loesje22000]

I finished The Miniaturist, a Mary Kondo book, the Choir and a study in Death...

 

[Negin]

I'm still catching up on reviews from books that I read while we were away. I haven't gotten much reading done in the past week. I've been far too busy and too tired. 

While on vacation, I read The Geography of Genius - 3 Stars - I read Eric Weiner’s “The Geography of Bliss” several years and loved it. In that book, he travels the world searching for places of happiness. “The Geography of Genius” follows the same formula. Here he searches for certain places and time periods of genius and innovation. Since I love travelogues, I enjoyed those parts most of all. He visited seven places where a genius golden age has flourished: Athens, Florence, Hangzhou, Edinburgh, Calcutta, Vienna, and Silicon Valley. I particularly enjoyed the Florence part, since we had just been there. Here are two pictures of our museum day there. 

   

 

I enjoy Weiner’s humor and conversational writing style, but all in all, this book wasn’t as compelling as I had hoped. I have to admit that genius doesn’t interest me that much. I think that it’s often overrated and there is more to life than mere genius. Yet it was certainly thought-provoking and led to some interesting conversations with my husband, things that may not interest you and that you may not agree with, but I thought to share anyway. We believe that everything we have is ultimately from God and that the source of all learning is the knowledge of God. We also believe that there are holy spirits and angels that inspire people to know and realize things and/or to create things. All these things are ultimately used for the benefit of mankind. We talked about how these geniuses were inspired by God whether they were aware of it or not, although we believe that most were aware of it. I know that Michelangelo was. The point is that they didn’t come up with all their genius on their own. Sorry for rambling a bit!

My favorite take-home concept: A culture cultivates what it values. It makes me rather depressed about the country that I live in and what it values. 

Some of my favorite quotes. Sorry that there are so many. 
“What is honored in a country will be cultivated there.”

“This less-is-more phenomenon holds true not only for individuals but for entire nations. A good example is the “oil curse,” also known as the paradox of plenty. Nations rich in natural resources, especially oil, tend to stagnate culturally and intellectually, as even a brief visit to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait reveals. The citizens of these nations have everything so they create nothing.”

“We are at our most creative when we have something to push against. Creativity does not require perfect conditions. In fact, it thrives in imperfect ones. The block of marble from which Michelangelo carved his masterpiece, the David, had been discarded by other artists. They considered it defective, and they were right. But Michelangelo saw that defect as a challenge, not a disqualifier.”

“For the Greeks, Brady explains, virtue and genius were inseparable. You could be the greatest poet or architect in the world, but no one would consider you so if you were an arrogant jerk. I marvel at how that differs from our modern view of genius. Not only are we willing to overlook character flaws if the character in question produces brilliance, we have come to expect them from our geniuses. Think of Steve Jobs and his famously peevish personality. Only a true genius, we conclude, could get away with that. That’s not how the Greeks saw it. A man was judged not only by the quality of his work but also the content of his character.”

“Great civilizations rise to greatness for different reasons but collapse for essentially the same reason: arrogance. No civilization, no matter how great, is immune to this “creeping vanity,” as professor of education Eugene Von Fange calls it. Here he is describing the decline of classical Athens, but his words could just as easily apply to any golden age that has begun to lose its bloom. “Soon, their sons, coddled in the use of all the great things their fathers and grandfathers had pioneered, became as helpless as newborn babes when faced with the harsh reality of an aggressive and changing world.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to see signs of this creeping vanity in the Valley. Bling has reared its shiny head, and that is never a good sign. You’ll recall that this was the case in Athens, too; the city’s decline can be traced almost exactly to a concomitant rise in luxury, and a taste for gourmet food. When it comes to golden ages, bling is the canary in the coal mine.”

“Some education is essential to creative genius, but beyond a certain point, more education does not increase the chances of genius and actually lowers it. The deadening effect of formal education manifests itself surprisingly early. Psychologists have identified the exact year when a child’s creative-thinking skills plateau: the fourth grade. This brings us to a remarkable finding. While the number of degrees conferred and scientific papers published has grown exponentially in the past fifty years, the “rate at which truly creative work emerges has remained relatively constant,” says sociologist J. Rogers Hollingsworth, writing in the journal Nature. We are experiencing a flood of expertise, and even talent, but no bump in creative breakthroughs.”

“Socrates says. Recognizing your ignorance is the beginning of all wisdom.”

“We may be inspired by nature—a walk in the woods, the sound of a waterfall—but something about an urban setting is especially conducive to creativity. If it takes a village to raise a child, as the African proverb goes, it takes a city to raise a genius.”

“Many a genius has done his or her best thinking while walking. While working on ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dickens would walk fifteen or twenty miles through the back streets of London, turning over the plot in his mind, as the city slept. Mark Twain walked a lot, too, though he never got anywhere. He paced while he worked, as his daughter recalled: ‘Some of the time when dictating, Father walked the floor . . . then it always seemed as if a new spirit had flown into the room.’”

“’People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and the challenge of the work itself—not by external pressures.’ She warns that many schools and corporations, by placing such emphasis on rewards and evaluation, are inadvertently suppressing creativity.”

“The problem with paradise is that it is perfect and therefore requires no response. This is why wealthy people and places often stagnate.”

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.

 

[Violet Crown]

Happy Sunday in July! In virtual BritTripping this week, if I were reading a book set in Cornwall, it would be Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes, a melodramatic serialized minor novel. One installment ends with the hero (conveniently named "Henry Knight") dangling off a cliff (to be rescued by the heroine's knickers in the next issue), which Wikipedia claims as the source of the word "cliffhanger."

In fact, what I finished this week was Edinburgh writer Muriel Spark's Collected Stories and Iain Crichton Smith's novel Consider the Lilies. Spark's stories, generally told in the first person, are strange and sometimes disturbing, occasionally drifting into the supernatural without devolving into genre fiction, and really defying genre altogether. Reading them all at once was probably a mistake as some of them were too similar in theme or plot development. But much recommended, especially for anyone who liked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Which reminds me, at Grassmarket in Edinburgh we passed the Miss Jean Brodie steps, named as such just last month at the 100th anniversary of Spark's birth. We honored her by consuming gelato from the milk bar next door.

Consider the Lilies was a bit of a disappointment. Usually I love prose written by poets, but Smith let his nationalist feelings and anti-Calvinist sentiments take over this short novel about an old woman forcibly removed from her home in the Highland Clearances. A very good and poetic scene where she crosses a moor to get to her priggish minister's house includes an encounter with a dead sheep (no, really, it's poetic) that echoes one of Crichton Smith's poems I recently read. Not sure which came first, the poem or the novel's scene, but it was effective in both poetry and prose. Still, I think I'll leave this one in the rental when we leave.

Still reading through The Canterbury Tales. Wife of Bath done; a good chunk of the way through the Clerkes Tale, Chaucer's version of Petrarch's story of Patient Griselda. By the time we BritTrip to Canterbury/Kent, I'm going to have earned my way there.

[Mothersweets]

Hi everyone! Hope your Sunday is nice and relaxing. 

Finished this last week - Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue (Poor Relations book 5) - listened to this, the narrator is great and the story nice and easy to listen to. I see now that there is one more in the series so I'll be listening to that in the coming weeks.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Shlitz. Another YA that I finished last week. Interesting story with an appealing protagonist, I really like this author's YA novels. My 11yo dd has been reading them along with me and is enjoying them, too.

Almost finished with this one - Death at Gallows Green (Kathryn Ardleigh, #2)  by Robin Paige. I think Amy is reading this series, too? I am enjoying the mysteries and the writing is good. 

Another one I am almost finished with! Belgravia by Julian Fellowes. A jaunt into 1830s English society written by Mr. Downton Abbey. Lots of intrigue and inheritances and upstairs/downstairs stuff. 

Now I'll go back and read through this week's thread. ?

[Matryoshka]

Finished two books this week, if I include the one I just finished this afternoon. :)

56. The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart (audiobook) - A non-fiction book about the lowly earthworm.  Actually enjoyed it very much. 4 stars.

57. The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish (ebook) - This book pulled me right in, and I ended up reading the second half of this almost 600-page book in one go this morning.  Set in both 1600s and 2000s London, switching back and forth.  And yeah, I finally read a book set in England and it's someplace I've already been.  :P  4.5 stars.

Currently reading:

- Diez mujeres / Ten Women by Marcela Serrano - For Amira's readalong - I'm also really enjoying this one.

- The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz - This one's been slower going 

- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (audiobook) - a memoir about both running and writing that I'm enjoying more than I thought I would

- No Time to Spare by Ursula LeGuin (ebook) - just downloaded this book of essays; very much looking forward to it.

[mumto2]

I completely hopped off the Brit Trip bus and literally ran around the American South last night and early this morning reading a page turner called If I Run by Terri Blackstock.  It was Great......it opens with Casey cleaning blood off her shoes, packing a bag, and abandoning life as she knows it because no one will believe her.  This is part of a series of three that a quilt blog friend read in one big gulp, they were so good she blogged about them.  I would probably read them all at once too if I could but I have holds..........grrrrrr https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26263487-if-i-run  Something to look forward to!:)

I finished The Norfolk Mystery last night too.   This one I didn’t love at all.  It was billed as a cozy but had some really uncomfortable bits.  When I started it this time my kindle remembered that sometime in the past I abandoned this one after the first chapter.  It did improve but the cozy bits were more odd than cozy,  it just didn’t mix well for me.

Still listening to my Daisy Dalrumple.......Murder and Mistletoe.  They are spending Christmas in Cornwall on a distant relative’s estate so I am actually still on the bus!

Mothersweets, so glad you are enjoying Robin Paige’s books.  ?

[-M-]

Hello, BaWers! Here's my mid-year review.

From page 69 of The Hole (Hye-Young Pyun; 2017):

It was impossible to capture the trajectory of life in a map. Without one, there was no way of wrapping your brain around it all, and yet he was skeptical as to whether you could ever represent the world through maps alone.

But it was meaningful. Someone had taken these invisible trajectories that could not be studied with any sort of accuracy and had tried anyway to turn them into a tangible space. He found it boring sometimes for the same reason. A world that could not be understood perfectly, could not be explained unambiguously, and was interpreted differently based on political purposes and conveniences was no different from the world he was already living in. And yet, the one way in which maps were clearly better than life was that they improved with failure. Life itself was merely an accumulation of failures, and those failures never made life better.

The jacket copy suggests that The Hole evokes the work of Shirley Jackson and Stephen King. While I appreciate the assertion, I thought this meditation on the horror of finding blank emptiness at the center of a career, a marriage, a life was more philosophical than the comparisons to psychological thrillers suggests.

This was the book I completed before heading to bed last night, so I have completed sixty-eight books so far this year:

27 novels
10 plays
18 non-fiction titles
13 graphic fiction works
18 works published this year

My complete list is pasted at the end of this post. Here are a few notes.

Even better on rereading:
■ Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro; 2005. Fiction.)
■ Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke; 1953. Fiction.)
■ Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; 2011. Graphic fiction.)
■ Mrs. Caliban (Rachel Ingalls; 1983. Fiction.)

Forgot how wonderful this writer is:
■ Memento Mori (Muriel Spark; 1959. Fiction.)

For those who loved The Elementals (Michael McDowell; 1981):
■ The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell; 2010. Fiction.)

A new-ish author who deserves the hype:
■ Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng; 2017. Fiction.)
■ Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng; 2014. Fiction.)

Fabulous story for a long car trip:
■ American Kingpin (Nick Bilton; 2017. Non-fiction.)

Honorable mention:
■ The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.)

The most engrossing book I've read so far this year (not including rereads):
■ Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.)

Honorable mention:
■ Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Grann; 2017. Non-fiction.)
■ An Abbreviated Life (Ariel Leve; 2016. Non-fiction.)
■ After the Eclipse (Sarah Perry; 2017. Non-fiction.)
■ The Hole (Hye-young Pyun; 2017. Fiction.)

LIST TO DATE:

January
■ Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro; 2005. Fiction.)
■ An Enemy of the People (Henrikson Ibsen; 1882. Drama.)
■ The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (Margareta Magnusson; 2018. Non-fiction.)
■ The Perfect Nanny (Leila Sliman; 2018. Fiction.)
■ Saga, Volume 8 (Brian Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ Postal, Volume 6 (Bryan Hill; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ Bitch Planet: Triple Feature, Volume 1 (Kelly Sue DeConnick; 2017. Graphic fiction.)
■ Descender, Volume 5: Rise of the Robots (Jeff Lemire; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (Paul Tremblay; 2016. Fiction.)
■ Fire and Fury (Michael Wolff; 2018. Non-fiction.)
■ You Deserve Nothing (Alexander Maksik; 2011. Fiction.)
■ The Woman in the Window (A.J. Finn; 2017. Fiction.)
■ Inheritors (Susan Glaspell; 1921. Drama.)

February
■ Killers of the Flower Moon (Dan Grann; 2017. Non-fiction.)
■ Shelter in Place (Alexander Maksik; 2016. Fiction.)
■ Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke; 1953. Fiction.)
■ Landscape with Invisible Hand (M.T. Anderson; 2017. Fiction.)
■ Emilie (Lauren Gunderson; 2010. Drama.)
■ Memento Mori (Muriel Spark; 1959. Fiction.)
■ Alive, Alive Oh! (Diana Athill; 2016. Non-fiction.)

March
■ Briggs Land, Volume 2: Lone Wolves (Brian Wood; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ Dead People Suck (Laurie Kilmartin; 2018. Non-fiction.)
■ Instead of a Letter (Diana Athill; 1962. Non-fiction.)
■ The Walking Dead, Volume 29: Lines We Cross (Robert Kirkman; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ A Moon for the Misbegotten (Eugene O’Neill; 1947. Drama.)
■ Mary Stuart (Friedrich Schiller; 1800. (Trans. Peter Oswald; 2006.) Drama.)
■ Educated (Tara Westover; 2018. Non-fiction.)
■ Candide (Voltaire; 1759. (Trans. John Butt; 1947.) Fiction.)
■ hang (debbie tucker green; 2015. Drama.)
■ Dying (Cory Taylor; 2016. Non-fiction.)
■ The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell; 2010. Fiction.)
■ Injection, Vol. 3 (Warren Ellis; 2017. Graphic fiction.)
■ Letter 44, Vol. 5: Blueshift (Charles Soule; 2017. Graphic fiction.)
■ Letter 44, Vol. 6: The End (Charles Soule; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ Exit West (Mohsin Hamid; 2017. Fiction.)

April
■ Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng; 2017. Fiction.)
■ Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng; 2014. Fiction.)
■ Black Hammer, Vol. 1: The End (Jeff Lemire; 2017. Graphic fiction.)
■ The Female Persuasion (Meg Wolitzer; 2018. Fiction.)
■ If We Were Villians (M.L. Rio; 2017. Fiction.)
■ American Kingpin (Nick Bilton; 2017. Non-fiction.)
■ Fractured (Catherine McKenzie; 2016. Fiction.)
■ Harmony (Carolyn Parkhurst; 2016. Fiction.)
■ Lazarus X+66: The End (Greg Rucka; 2018. Graphic fiction.)
■ An Abbreviated Life (Ariel Leve; 2016. Non-fiction.)
■ With or Without You (Domenica Ruta; 2013. Non-fiction.)

May
■ I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This (Nadja Spiegelman; 2016. Non-fiction.)
■ I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamara; 2018. Non-fiction.)
■ A Higher Loyalty (James Comey; 2018. Non-fiction.)
■ The Rules Do Not Apply (Ariel Levy; 2017. Non-fiction.)
■ After the Eclipse (Sarah Perry; 2017. Non-fiction.)
■ The Best We Could Do (Thi Bui; 2017. Graphic non-fiction.)
■ The Perfect Mother (Aimee Molloy; 2018. Fiction.)

June
■ Red Clocks (Leni Zumas; 2018. Fiction.)
■ Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá; 2011. Graphic fiction.)
■ Mrs. Caliban (Rachel Ingalls; 1983. Fiction.)
■ Suddenly, Last Summer (Tennessee Williams; 1958. Drama.)
■ Sometimes I Lie (Alice Feeney; 2017. Fiction.)
■ Buried Child (Sam Shepherd; 1978. Drama.)
■ The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.)
■ Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.)
■ Macbeth (William Shakespeare; 1606. Drama.)
■ Royal City, Vol. 2: Sonic Youth (Jeff Lemire; 2017. Graphic fiction.)
■ Sorry to Disrupt the Peace (Patty Yumi Cottrell; 2017. Fiction.)
■ Macbeth (Hogarth Shakespeare) (Jo Nesbø; 2018. Fiction.)
■ Hamlet (William Shakespeare; 1602. Drama.)
■ The Lying Game (Ruth Ware; 2017. Fiction.)
■ The Hole (Hye-young Pyun; 2017. Fiction.)

 

[Kareni]

Currently free for Kindle readers ~

non-fiction: 

Summer of '49  by David Halberstam

 

Lombard Street  by Walter Bagehot

 

LGBT short:   Coming Home  by  Jay Northcote

Regards,
Kareni

[JennyD]

Hello, I haven't posted a few weeks due to travel and other things.  Since I last posted I have read:

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Food Lab.  I usually don't count cookbooks as reading but this is a 900+ page doorstop of a book devoted to the science of cooking.  I found it utterly fascinating and picked up what I now consider to be The One True Kale Caesar Salad recipe.

Jean-Luc Bannalec, The Fleur de Sea Murders..  Third in a series of mysteries set in Brittany.  Very entertaining.

Satchin Panda, The Circadian Code.   Nonfiction quick read about the science of circadian rhythms and how they affect one's health.  I have been very into this concept of imte-restricted eating lately and this book has inspired me to be more diligent about both my bedtime and limiting screen time close to bed.  

Amy Dickinson, The Mighty Queens of Freeville.  Memoir by the writer who took over the Dear Abby column.  I got this book out of the library because i was interested in reading her second memoir (which I saw in a bookstore) and thought I should read this one first, but it was pretty meh.  Not sure if I will read the second one after all.

Joanna Trollope, Balancing Act.  British domestic fiction by an author I reliably enjoy.  

Caitlin Macy, Mrs.  I loved this author's first book, The Fundamentals of Play,  which I read multiple times way back when I was young and impressionable.  The characters in this book are, once again, affluent and wealthy New Yorkers, except now everyone is grown up and married with kids.  I have limited patience for this genre these days but Macy is a really good writer, and this book has moments of the same sharp psychological insight that I found so compelling in her first book.  (In an odd coincidence, when I got to the end of the book and read the acknowledgements, I noticed that the author thanks someone I worked with many years ago.)

 

[Mothersweets]

3 hours ago, mumto2 said:

I completely hopped off the Brit Trip bus and literally ran around the American South last night and early this morning reading a page turner called If I Run by Terri Blackstock.  It was Great......it opens with Casey cleaning blood off her shoes, packing a bag, and abandoning life as she knows it because no one will believe her.  This is part of a series of three that a quilt blog friend read in one big gulp, they were so good she blogged about them.  I would probably read them all at once too if I could but I have holds..........grrrrrr https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26263487-if-i-run  Something to look forward to!:)

I finished The Norfolk Mystery last night too.   This one I didn’t love at all.  It was billed as a cozy but had some really uncomfortable bits.  When I started it this time my kindle remembered that sometime in the past I abandoned this one after the first chapter.  It did improve but the cozy bits were more odd than cozy,  it just didn’t mix well for me.

Still listening to my Daisy Dalrumple.......Murder and Mistletoe.  They are spending Christmas in Cornwall on a distant relative’s estate so I am actually still on the bus!

Mothersweets, so glad you are enjoying Robin Paige’s books.  ?

Yes, thank you!

I also have read the first 3? maybe 4 Daisy Dalrumple series and set them aside at the time because I was reading through the Royal Spyness books and it was just too much of the same kind of read, kwim? I'd like to go back and pick up the DD series again - they were definitely cozy and fun. ?

[JennW in SoCal]

No rest for the weary and jet lagged here. My mother-in-law arrives tomorrow night for a short stay, and since she can't do stairs, we let her stay in our ground floor master suite. Meaning, well, the room has to be clean! So I was scrubbing the shower and vacuuming dust bunnies today.

I know I have books to post about, but will get to those later. For now here are a couple of photos from Sydney. (I'll follow Negin's lead and post a few pictures here and there -- I'm loving my vicarious visit to Italy, by the way).  The first is of the reading room at the State Library of New South Wales. They have working card catalogs!!! The friendly security guard told us they would always have those card catalogs even though everything is computerized. The State Library also has a statue in honor of Trim, the first cat to circumnavigate Australia. The cafe is also named Trim, and there is a small display in the basement devoted to him. Got to love a library with card catalogs and an homage to a cat...

The second is of the the Opera House and surrounding area all lit up for the big light show extravaganza called Vivid, which lasts 3 weeks every June. We arrived in time to enjoy the last few days, and it was absolutely gonzo. Not just the lights, but the festival atmosphere and the amazing food trucks! The pattern of lights on the opera house were ever changing, and all the surrounding skyscrapers and the harbor bridge (from where I took that shot) were lit with changing lights and there were lasers going, too. The big red dot in the photo is someone's drone...

 

 

[aggieamy]

 

13 minutes ago, JennW in SoCal said:

 

 

 

 

WE. WANT. MORE. PICTURES!

?

That library is so cool! I want to head to Australia just to see that.

[Ali in OR]

I finally finished Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan about Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny. At book club we agreed it was too long and loses steam in the last third. I'm reading How Children Succeed when I'm on the treadmill in the morning. I went into the library for the first time in a long time to pick up a DVD on hold. On the "Lucky" shelf (currently popular books with long hold lists), I found Anthony Horowitz's latest, The Word is Murder. I was actually hoping to find his Magpie Murders but it wasn't there (I've seen it on the Lucky shelf a few times). I'm enjoying having a fast, escapist read--I think I need more fluff in my reading diet. I've got Born a Crime waiting for me at the library--our next book club read. Plus I still have a lot of books around the house I want to get to this summer.

[Negin]

7 hours ago, JennW in SoCal said:

No rest for the weary and jet lagged here. My mother-in-law arrives tomorrow night for a short stay, and since she can't do stairs, we let her stay in our ground floor master suite. Meaning, well, the room has to be clean! So I was scrubbing the shower and vacuuming dust bunnies today.

I know I have books to post about, but will get to those later. For now here are a couple of photos from Sydney. (I'll follow Negin's lead and post a few pictures here and there -- I'm loving my vicarious visit to Italy, by the way).  The first is of the reading room at the State Library of New South Wales. They have working card catalogs!!! The friendly security guard told us they would always have those card catalogs even though everything is computerized. The State Library also has a statue in honor of Trim, the first cat to circumnavigate Australia. The cafe is also named Trim, and there is a small display in the basement devoted to him. Got to love a library with card catalogs and an homage to a cat...

The second is of the the Opera House and surrounding area all lit up for the big light show extravaganza called Vivid, which lasts 3 weeks every June. We arrived in time to enjoy the last few days, and it was absolutely gonzo. Not just the lights, but the festival atmosphere and the amazing food trucks! The pattern of lights on the opera house were ever changing, and all the surrounding skyscrapers and the harbor bridge (from where I took that shot) were lit with changing lights and there were lasers going, too. The big red dot in the photo is someone's drone...

 

 

I am loving your pictures! Yes, I want more also!

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I am working through The Woman in White. What a marvelous book. I find myself distracted and thinking of it when I should be doing other things, like work. Yet, when I do read it, frustration reigns supreme and I can barely read a page or two without wanting to throttle Count Fosco and Sir Percival. I admit to slamming the cover and setting the book down with a bit too much force and then immediately taking it up again only to put it back down after reading a few pages. My husband has been audience to my behavior and simply asks "What did they do now?" when I raise an eyebrow or close the cover. I have a strong sense of urgency while reading and wish to sit down with pen and paper and write a letter of warning to favorite characters. I also wish to visit Mr. Fairlie, put him in a wheelchair, take him outside and leave him in a roadside garden on a beautiful Saturday morning until he comes to his senses.

What an experience this must have been when having to read it in installments.

I am quite happy with my decision to get both the print and audio versions. I have been able to progress with whichever medium is appropriate for my surroundings. I appreciate the narrators and am tickled they chose to use a new voice for each narrative.

Thank you for recommending this novel; it is exactly what I wished for.

[JennW in SoCal]

A couple more photos before I head to the grocery store.

Sydney more than lives up to its picturesque reputation. On our first jet-lagged day (our flight arrived at 7am) we took one of the commuter ferries to Watsons Bay where we ate fish and chips then hiked a path along the headlands. The first photo below is the view of the downtown (or as they say Down Under, the CBD -- Central Business District) skyline from our hike. The second photo is from the Australian Museum. Cheeky Aussies -- one of the treasures from their collection, on display when you first enter, is the skeleton of a horse that sired several champion racing horses. Since a horse skeleton alone would be boring, they have it posed rearing up with a human skeleton hanging on......and it is affectionately dubbed "The Bone Ranger". But it wasn't the only random human skeleton on display as you can see in the second photo, taken in a corner of a gallery. 

[aggieamy]

2 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

I am working through The Lady in White. What a marvelous book. I find myself distracted and thinking of it when I should be doing other things, like work. Yet, when I do read it, frustration reigns supreme and I can barely read a page or two without wanting to throttle Count Fosco and Sir Percival. I admit to slamming the cover and setting the book down with a bit too much force and then immediately taking it up again only to put it back down after reading a few pages. My husband has been audience to my behavior and simply asks "What did they do now?" when I raise an eyebrow or close the cover. I have a strong sense of urgency while reading and wish to sit down with pen and paper and write a letter of warning to favorite characters. I also wish to visit Mr. Fairlie, put him in a wheelchair, take him outside and leave him in a roadside garden on a beautiful Saturday morning until he comes to his senses.

What an experience this must have been when having to read it in installments.

I am quite happy with my decision to get both the print and audio versions. I have been able to progress with whichever medium is appropriate for my surroundings. I appreciate the narrators and am tickled they chose to use a new voice for each narrative.

Thank you for recommending this novel; it is exactly what I wished for.

This post makes me so happy. It's one of my favorite books of all times so it's wonderful when a friend also thinks it's just great. My facebook alias is based on the book ... once you are finished I will tell everyone what it is but otherwise it's a spoiler.

[mumto2]

12 hours ago, Mothersweets said:

Yes, thank you!

I also have read the first 3? maybe 4 Daisy Dalrumple series and set them aside at the time because I was reading through the Royal Spyness books and it was just too much of the same kind of read, kwim? I'd like to go back and pick up the DD series again - they were definitely cozy and fun. ?

There have been a couple that were not as good as others along the way but overall this series is great!  Like you I have been reading them in small bunches for about 3 years now, when I finish one I don’t love it’s a sign to move on to other books for awhile!

2 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

I am working through The Lady in White. What a marvelous book. I find myself distracted and thinking of it when I should be doing other things, like work. Yet, when I do read it, frustration reigns supreme and I can barely read a page or two without wanting to throttle Count Fosco and Sir Percival. I admit to slamming the cover and setting the book down with a bit too much force and then immediately taking it up again only to put it back down after reading a few pages. My husband has been audience to my behavior and simply asks "What did they do now?" when I raise an eyebrow or close the cover. I have a strong sense of urgency while reading and wish to sit down with pen and paper and write a letter of warning to favorite characters. I also wish to visit Mr. Fairlie, put him in a wheelchair, take him outside and leave him in a roadside garden on a beautiful Saturday morning until he comes to his senses.

What an experience this must have been when having to read it in installments.

I am quite happy with my decision to get both the print and audio versions. I have been able to progress with whichever medium is appropriate for my surroundings. I appreciate the narrators and am tickled they chose to use a new voice for each narrative.

Thank you for recommending this novel; it is exactly what I wished for.

I am so glad you are enjoying this!  I make recommendations and then worry about them.  Have to agree I don’t now how people stood the installments!  I have a problem with waiting for series books ? 

 Negin and Jenn,  please keep posting your pictures!

I am reading another book that Kindle says I abandoned in the past.....this time it’s for the “author with my initials “ Bingo square.  Second Life by SJ Watson.  I loved Before I Go to Sleep............https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17412188-second-life

[Kareni]

I finished a pair of books that I enjoyed ~  Dark Space and Darker Space   both by Lisa Henry.  I think I'll be re-reading these. (Adult content) Here's the blurb for the first book:

"Brady Garrett needs to go home. He's a conscripted recruit on Defender Three, one of a network of stations designed to protect the Earth from alien attack. He's also angry, homesick, and afraid. If he doesn't get home he'll lose his family, but there's no way back except in a body bag.

Cameron Rushton needs a heartbeat. Four years ago Cam was taken by the Faceless--the alien race that almost destroyed Earth. Now he's back, and when the doctors make a mess of getting him out of stasis, Brady becomes his temporary human pacemaker. Except they're sharing more than a heartbeat: they're sharing thoughts, memories, and some very vivid dreams.

Not that Brady's got time to worry about his growing attraction to another guy, especially the one guy in the universe who can read his mind. It doesn't mean anything. It's just biochemistry and electrical impulses. It doesn't change the truth: Brady's alone in the universe.

Now the Faceless are coming and there's nothing anyone can do. You can't stop your nightmares. Cam says everyone will live, but Cam's probably a traitor and a liar like the military thinks. But that's okay. Guys like Brady don't expect happy endings."

Regards,
Kareni

[Mothersweets]

11 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

I am working through The Woman in White. What a marvelous book. I find myself distracted and thinking of it when I should be doing other things, like work. Yet, when I do read it, frustration reigns supreme and I can barely read a page or two without wanting to throttle Count Fosco and Sir Percival. I admit to slamming the cover and setting the book down with a bit too much force and then immediately taking it up again only to put it back down after reading a few pages. My husband has been audience to my behavior and simply asks "What did they do now?" when I raise an eyebrow or close the cover. I have a strong sense of urgency while reading and wish to sit down with pen and paper and write a letter of warning to favorite characters. I also wish to visit Mr. Fairlie, put him in a wheelchair, take him outside and leave him in a roadside garden on a beautiful Saturday morning until he comes to his senses.

What an experience this must have been when having to read it in installments.

I am quite happy with my decision to get both the print and audio versions. I have been able to progress with whichever medium is appropriate for my surroundings. I appreciate the narrators and am tickled they chose to use a new voice for each narrative.

Thank you for recommending this novel; it is exactly what I wished for.

I'm reading it, too, and am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm listening to it on Craftlit with Heather Ordover and am at the part where Laura has just come back from her honeymoon. I think you're being too nice to Mr. Fairlie - I'd push him all the way into the road! 

[Mothersweets]

I'm loving the pictures, Jen! and thank you for the postcard!!!

[Kareni]

13 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

I am working through The Woman in White. What a marvelous book. ...

In case it might interest you, there is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of The Woman in White.  You can listen to some snippets here:

The Woman In White (Original Cast Recording)

Regards,
Kareni

[Teaching3bears]

It's been a busy week and I've been focused on cleaning so I still haven't finished One Hundred Years of Solitude but I think I am halfway through it now.

I went through a cookbook: Busy Woman's Cookbook: 3 and 4 Ingredient Recipes by Sharon and Gene McFall.  The recipes are not that great for the most part but the book is full of information about famous women.

For homeschooling I read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and finished The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.  Of the trilogy, I really liked the first book a lot, but the other two less.  From what I understand there is a short prequel o the trilogy and another trilogy called The Book of Dust which takes place at the same time as the main trilogy.  Anyone read any of these?  Are they good?

 

[Kareni]

8 minutes ago, Teaching3bears said:

...I still haven't finished One Hundred Years of Solitude but I think I am halfway through it now

I guess that means you've read Fifty Years of Solitude!

Regards,
Kareni

[Teaching3bears]

7 hours ago, Kareni said:

I guess that means you've read Fifty Years of Solitude!

Regards,
Kareni

 

Ha ha! 

[Penguin]

Well, you (plural you) have convinced me to read Woman in White for my Mystery square. I am not at all a mystery reader, but this looks like a book that I would enjoy.

Updates:

Thrush Green made me a Miss Read fan. I look forward to reading more from the series.

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande is an excellent memoir about immigration and its impact on families. The first half is about her childhood in Mexico. She and her siblings lived with relatives while their parents worked in the United States. The second half describes her life in the United States, beginning at about age 10. I found the book both heartbreaking and uplifting. 5 stars.

 

[Zebra]

We had a personal blow in the last couple of weeks, my DH very suddenly lost his job of 21 years, he's been with the same company virtually his entire working life.   It's just been, difficult, to say the least.   I'm pretty much unemployable, and still homeschooling.  We have no family, to speak of.  DH doesn't even know if people still wear ties to job interviews, or how resumes are even done nowadays ?.  I still can't quite wrap my head around it.  I'm sure many of you have been there.

Interestingly enough, I had just finished the book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved by Kate Bowler when my life imploded.   The author was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her 30s, has a toddler, and will never be cured.   She can only hope for time at this point.  The author works at Duke University and studies the prosperity gospel branch of Christianity (basically the idea that if something goes wrong, you have some secret sin in your life).  I was raised in that belief system, and so am VERY familiar with that way of thinking.   It wasn't the greatest book, but it was good timing for me in keeping things in perspective right now.  I got it off a list of books recommended by Bill Gates.

I also just finished Chemistry by Weike Wang.   This was a short novel that reminded me very much of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.   

I am currently slogging through Vienna 1814, and A Suitable Boy which I found in a thrift shop awhile back and thought would be a good summer project.  I also started Clean Meat which is about the concept of growing meat in a lab.   I'm a vegetarian, partially because, (and I have zero judgment towards those who make a different choice) I'm concerned by the amount of resources that we waste raising animals for meat.   I'm not sure growing meat in a lab is really going to work, but it's definitely an interesting avenue to explore.

 

[Mothersweets]

(((hugs))) Zebra, I hope something turns up soon for him!

[Penguin]

@Zebra I'm sorry and I hope things right themselves in your world sooner rather than later. One of my dear friends is a psychologist and she also gives the Kate Bowler book high praise. 

[mumto2]

Zebra, Sending hugs,  I hope he finds something soon.  I have to admit I have no idea about the tie..............

[Kareni]

2 hours ago, Zebra said:

We had a personal blow in the last couple of weeks, my DH very suddenly lost his job of 21 years, he's been with the same company virtually his entire working life.   It's just been, difficult, to say the least. 

Thinking of you, Zebra, and hoping for promising opportunities.

Regards,
Kareni

[marbel]

@Zebra I'm so so sorry.  We just experienced a layoff in our house, but much less traumatic than yours.  I hope they gave him a good severance package and access to an outplacement service for resume help, etc. My husband said he has found this very helpful and encouraging.  

[Kareni]

Last night I finished a re-read of Anne Cleeland's Murder in Containment: A Doyle and Acton Mystery  which I enjoyed once again. This is the fourth (fifth?) book in a series that is best read in order. The first book in the series is Murder in Thrall.

Regards,
Kareni

[Kareni]

I saw this post and thought it might be of interest to some here who craft ~

Crafting for a Cause by Elyse from the SBTB site
**

And a one day only currently free book ~

The Exploits of Elaine by Arthur B. Reeve

Regards,
Kareni

[Violet Crown]

How awful, Zebra. ?

[Granny_Weatherwax]

21 hours ago, Mothersweets said:

I'm reading it, too, and am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm listening to it on Craftlit with Heather Ordover and am at the part where Laura has just come back from her honeymoon. I think you're being too nice to Mr. Fairlie - I'd push him all the way into the road! 

Ah, yes, but allowing him to sit in the sunlight with birds singing, children playing, and people chatting...it would be a fitting type of hell for him. Pushing him into the street would be much too kind

[Granny_Weatherwax]

((Zebra)) I am so sorry.

[Robin M]

Zebra.  Hugs, dear heart.  Good thoughts and vibes heading you and your hubby's way.  I hope they provided him with a good severance package so will take a little stress off and give him time to regroup.  

 

 

[Robin M]

I've been in a creative funk and finally in a creative mood again. Wrote a bit of poetry, then  sat out on the patio and drew for a while.   Building project is progressing, so it's time to get into interior design mode.  Fun times as get into furniture and fixture shopping mode.  

Inadvertently jumped on the detective bus this week in Cornwall.   Julia Ann Walker's Hot Pursuit which is #11 in her Black Knights series takes place in cornwall.  woot woot! 

Found my July Quest book with Daughter of God by Lewis Purdue which takes place in Switzerland. 

Jenn - Thank you for the postcard and enjoying all the great pictures.  Keep em coming.  You too, Negin.  

Negin - enjoyed your thoughts and the conversations it provoked with Geography of Genius.   Sounds like a book my hubby and I would enjoy reading and discussing. 

Zebra -What do you think of A Suitable Boy so far???

 

Ladies -   All your reads have me following multiple rabbit trails and adding more books to my wishlist.  ?

[Robin M]

A bit of news - The Nobel Prize for literature has been cancelled for this year. However another group called The New Academy has formed for this year to ensure the literary prize is awarded. 

Sadly, Harlan Ellison passed away 

Bookbub's current freebies

3 Percent's 9 Books Likely to Win the 2019 Best Translated Book Award

 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

22 hours ago, Kareni said:

In case it might interest you, there is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of The Woman in White.  You can listen to some snippets here:

The Woman In White (Original Cast Recording)

Regards,
Kareni

One of the songs on the soundtrack made me think of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhjq0CW2fVo

I know it's from General Hospital but it's fitting, don't you think?

 

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, The Accidental Coach said:

One of the songs on the soundtrack made me think of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhjq0CW2fVo

I know it's from General Hospital but it's fitting, don't you think?

Ah, I remember that song.  I haven't read The Woman in White though, so sadly I can't answer your question.

Regards,
Kareni

[Zebra]

On 7/1/2018 at 3:28 PM, Negin said:

I'm still catching up on reviews from books that I read while we were away. I haven't gotten much reading done in the past week. I've been far too busy and too tired. 

While on vacation, I read The Geography of Genius - 3 Stars - I read Eric Weiner’s “The Geography of Bliss” several years and loved it. In that book, he travels the world searching for places of happiness. “The Geography of Genius” follows the same formula. Here he searches for certain places and time periods of genius and innovation. Since I love travelogues, I enjoyed those parts most of all. He visited seven places where a genius golden age has flourished: Athens, Florence, Hangzhou, Edinburgh, Calcutta, Vienna, and Silicon Valley. I particularly enjoyed the Florence part, since we had just been there. Here are two pictures of our museum day there. 

Loved the Geography of Bliss, I am interested to read this one too.

[Zebra]

Thanks ladies for your kind words about the job loss.  We did the best we could over the years to try to be ready for something like this.   We're trying to see this as an opportunity, and we'll be okay for (what I hope is) a reasonable amount of time.    

FWIW, DH is without a job during SUMMER, IN MAINE!   Lucky us, lol!

RE A Suitable Boy, I am thinking you read this in the last few years, Robin?   Which is where I got the idea?   I took it out from the library maybe a year ago, and realized there was NO WAY I would get it finished in 3-5 weeks, despite being a fast reader.   So I was thrilled to find a cheap copy.    I like it so far, but, right now I am having a hard time keeping the characters straight.    I'm glad they have a chart of the characters in the beginning, I keep flipping back to it.

And I must say, it's such a HUGE BOOK it's really hard to read comfortably!    I need an e-book version!

 

[Kareni]

Currently free for Kindle readers ~

one day only:  Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

inspirational romance:  For Love of Liberty (Silver Lining Ranch Series Book 1)  by Julie Lessman

 Catling's Bane (The Rose Shield Book 1)   by D. Wallace Peach
 

The Garment Maker's Daughter  by Hillary Stern
 

Beauty and the Mustache: A Philosophical Romance  by Penny Reid

 

The Untold Tale (The Accidental Turn Series)  by J.M. Frey

The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele Book 1)  by C.J. Archer

The Sorcerers Glen (The Fifth Dimension Book 1)  by Lucinda Hare
 

The Midnight Sea (The Fourth Element Book 1)  and  Nocturne (The Fourth Talisman Book 1)  both by Kat Ross

Regards,

Kareni

[tuesdayschild]

Posting first and then coming back to read through the thread later. 

I started reading Rebecca ~ Daphne Du Maurier  (Classic/Gothic)  but put on this pause, I needed a palate cleanse after listening to Dominion. ?

My current reads:

• A Fearsome Doubt: Ian Rutledge Bk6 ~ Charles Todd   Kent/ London  (ebook.  Pecking away at this way, I’m not really in the mood for Ian Rutledge. Skipping all the parts explaining about Hamish, which is repeated in every single book.)
• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson (audio) N/F Science

Completed (incs  Brit Trip rebel bus):

Finished in June

• The Woman in White ~ Wilkie Collins  (classic)  (5)   Audible Audio, &, Free kindle   Lancashire, Cumbria, London, Hampshire   Reviewed here (skip if you’re blog phobic)    Favourite quote :  “Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service.” 
• Black Sheep ~ Georgette Heyer (repeat listen) (4)
• The Chinese Shawl: Miss Silver Bk5 ~ Patricia Wentworth, narrated by Diana Bishop  (3+) faux country house/ London  This is my15th Miss Silver book. I've been working my way through some of the series since 2015.  Joining the BritTrip challenge has upped the listening pace for me.  (Win, win)

  July

• Farther Afield ~ Miss Read  (2)  Imaginary English Village    My least favourite Miss Read book to date.
• Dominion ~ C.J. Sansom  (2-)    West Midlands/ Hampshire/ London/ East Sussex.   Alternate WWII history. Adult content.  Lots of profanity (hard to skip over on an audio)  F-bombs and repetitious use of the c-word.  Meh!   My Good Reads review.  
• And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II ~ Jacques Lusseyran (3) N/F   France WWII (Audio  epukapuka)   Much of Part 1 and Part 2 of this audiobook deals with Lusseyran’s personal worldview.  I enjoyed the portions that dealt with his life and experiences in WWII.

A sip read that I’m continuing to make, intentionally, slow n steady progress in is  The Book of Psalms  (KJV)   Currently in Ch:52. 

 

[mumto2]

1 hour ago, tuesdayschild said:

Posting first and then coming back to read through the thread later. 

I started reading Rebecca ~ Daphne Du Maurier  (Classic/Gothic)  but put on this pause, I needed a palate cleanse after listening to Dominion. ?

My current reads:

• A Fearsome Doubt: Ian Rutledge Bk6 ~ Charles Todd   Kent/ London  (ebook.  Pecking away at this way, I’m not really in the mood for Ian Rutledge. Skipping all the parts explaining about Hamish, which is repeated in every single book.)
• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson (audio) N/F Science

Completed (incs  Brit Trip rebel bus):

Finished in June

• The Woman in White ~ Wilkie Collins  (classic)  (5)   Audible Audio, &, Free kindle   Lancashire, Cumbria, London, Hampshire   Reviewed here (skip if you’re blog phobic)    Favourite quote :  “Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service.” 
• Black Sheep ~ Georgette Heyer (repeat listen) (4)
• The Chinese Shawl: Miss Silver Bk5 ~ Patricia Wentworth, narrated by Diana Bishop  (3+) faux country house/ London  This is my15th Miss Silver book. I've been working my way through some of the series since 2015.  Joining the BritTrip challenge has upped the listening pace for me.  (Win, win)

  July

• Farther Afield ~ Miss Read  (2)  Imaginary English Village    My least favourite Miss Read book to date.
• Dominion ~ C.J. Sansom  (2-)    West Midlands/ Hampshire/ London/ East Sussex.   Alternate WWII history. Adult content.  Lots of profanity (hard to skip over on an audio)  F-bombs and repetitious use of the c-word.  Meh!   My Good Reads review.  
• And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II ~ Jacques Lusseyran (3) N/F   France WWII (Audio  epukapuka)   Much of Part 1 and Part 2 of this audiobook deals with Lusseyran’s personal worldview.  I enjoyed the portions that dealt with his life and experiences in WWII.

A sip read that I’m continuing to make, intentionally, slow n steady progress in is  The Book of Psalms  (KJV)   Currently in Ch:52. 

 

I am so glad you enjoyed Woman in White!  ?

I have been reading Sansom’s Shardlake series and have seen Dominion on Goodreads and wondered about it.  I guess you pretty much confirmed my reasons for hesitating on that one.  My hold on Revelation just appeared in my account yesterday and I am looking forward to it!