Book a Week 2018 - BW29: Sonnet by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson

[Lady Florida.]

I finished What Darkness Brings, Sebastian St. Cyr #8, and this time I really am going to take a break from the series. 

I can't decide what fiction to go with next. I have three possibilities available as long as I keep my Kindle wifi turned off - Belgravia, March Violets, or An Officer and a Spy. 

For non-fiction I'm still reading Beating Back the Devil, and finally working on finishing The Voyage of the Beagle from back when we had a read-along here on BaW. 

I'm also still listening to Washington: A Life and still finding it interesting.

[Loesje22000]

I finished Irmina for the graphic novel square:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33142287-irmina

a thick graphic novel! But a good one. I like the book

[mumto2]

I finished my CJ Sansom https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/820480.Revelation book.  It was so very good but so very long!  I carried it everywhere and have accomplished very little the last couple of days!  I can’t wait to read the next one...........seriously planning to clear the way for finishing this series soon.  Apparently a new one is being released this fall.

My Sansom book took hours to read and when I finished I wanted something light.  I had a Kareni freebie that I needed to read for the E as edelweiss has three E’s.......A Ladies Guide to Etiquette and Murder https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36630895-a-lady-s-guide-to-etiquette-and-murder was a really quick entertaining read.  Too many characters with similar names but otherwise good fluff.  ?

[tuesdayschild]

@mumto2 Do the books in the CJ Sansom series contain similar content to his Dominion book (Adultery (with no blow by blow details: I can handle that) and lots of profanity)?   I have Dark Fire on hold....

On 7/17/2018 at 2:02 PM, Lady Florida. said:

I can't decide what fiction to go with next. I have three possibilities available as long as I keep my Kindle wifi turned off - Belgravia, March Violets, or An Officer and a Spy. 

 

Interested in your (eventual?) review on An Officer and a Spy.  Sounds very interesting!

 

[Lady Florida.]

9 hours ago, tuesdayschild said:

 

Interested in your (eventual?) review on An Officer and a Spy.  Sounds very interesting!

 

That's actually the one I decided to go with. I've always been fascinated by the Dreyfus Affair though I don't know why it interests me. I'm early in the book but I like it so far.

[Guest]

I hate being too hot. Also, I hate to be too cold. What am I doing in Maryland...

[mumto2]

@tuesdayschild I read Dominion a couple of years ago so I don’t remember it at all well but think the intensity level remains equal.   In Dark Fire on, the books pretty much take me to the limits of what I can handle without skipping parts at crime scenes Eric.  Definitely profanity.  The endings all tend to be surprising which is good.  Disturbing things may happen but the description is generally pretty brief, as you said no blow by blow details.

I am back to not being able to sleep well.  I drag all day but I seem to finish books during the night......I completed the If I Run trilogy by Terri Blackstock.  These rate as satisfying page turners,  Christian Suspense so no uncomfortable adult scenes.

 

[tuesdayschild]

On 7/19/2018 at 7:18 AM, mumto2 said:

@tuesdayschild I read Dominion a couple of years ago so I don’t remember it at all well but think the intensity level remains equal.   In Dark Fire on, the books pretty much take me to the limits of what I can handle without skipping parts at crime scenes Eric.  Definitely profanity.  The endings all tend to be surprising which is good.  Disturbing things may happen but the description is generally pretty brief, as you said no blow by blow details.

I am back to not being able to sleep well.  I drag all day but I seem to finish books during the night......I completed the If I Run trilogy by Terri Blackstock.  These rate as satisfying page turners,  Christian Suspense so no uncomfortable adult scenes.

 

1

Quietly taking that book off hold then.  'Regular' swearing I can navigate through,  continual profanity (s3x based swearing) via audiobook is impossible to skip. ?   

(Just a whinge moment here.... it would be kinda neat if audiobooks and some people - thinking of a few of our IRL associates who use s3x based swearing as adjectives in every. single. sentence - came with one of those edit-out features  ? )

Back to not being able to sleep well?  empathising! ..... off to add the books to my hold list then ?    Georgette Heyer's The Reluctant Widow is one of my can't sleep, comfort, listens, the other is Alexander Scourby reading the Old Testament.  

 

[Kareni]

A fascinating post from the Word Wenches site which seems appropriate for us here at the Hive!:

A Honey of a Post by Joanna Bourne

And a currently free book for Kindle readers ~

Harm None (A Davies & West Mystery Book 1)  by  Will North

"For lovers of English mysteries with authentic settings and spot-on police procedures, North's Harm None is just the ticket." --#1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George

Regards,
Kareni

[Kareni]

Some audio-bookish posts ~

20 History Audiobooks You’ll Want to Listen To  by Sophia LeFevre 

35 Of The Best Fantasy Audiobooks (and Series)  by Alex Acks

50 Must-Read Nonfiction Audiobooks Under Ten Hours  by Laura Sackton 

13 Soothing Audiobooks To Fall Asleep To  by Danika Ellis

Regards,
Kareni

 

[tuesdayschild]

On 7/19/2018 at 9:57 AM, Kareni said:

A Honey of a Post by Joanna Bourne

Fascinating post!  Thanks for all the links you share with us Kareni.

In regards to falling asleep to audiobooks ..... wondering if others can fall asleep listening to a new-to-them audiobook?  I have to be really familiar with the story to do that, otherwise I'm trying to stay awake to find out what happens.  Latest night time listen, even though Sian Philips doesn't have the most mellifluent voice;  Sprig Muslin ~ Georgette Heyer (audio) Cambridgeshire/ Bedfordshire/ London.

Hope Amy is doing well this week!

Books I've managed to complete in the last few days: 

• Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon ~ Robert Kurson, narrated by Ray Porter & Robert Kurson  (4+)    N/F science memoir.  So informative and very enjoyable!     (Extra: Contains some swearing.)
• The Dog Who Was There ~ Ron Marasco  (epukpuka audio)   (3+ )  Christian based historical fict.  Marasco penned this, seemingly, simple-toned story from the dog’s point of view.  Would make a good Easter time family read aloud.  (Not recommending for young children or sensitive listeners.  Barley’s litter and his mother are drowned – later in the story, he is injured - he witnesses and describes executions by the sword and hanging; and, Barley recounts the things he sees at the Crucifixion.)    

I'm finding it hard to settle with all the books I've got on the go and so decided to start a few teen (?) audiobooks:   To Destroy You is No Loss ~ Joan Criddle,  gritty and heart-wrenching,  and, Scourge ~ Jennifer Nielsen,  which is an interesting listen so far.

[mumto2]

30 minutes ago, tuesdayschild said:

Fascinating post!  Thanks for all the links you share with us Kareni.

In regards to falling asleep to audiobooks ..... wondering if others can fall asleep listening to a new-to-them audiobook?  I have to be really familiar with the story to do that, otherwise I'm trying to stay awake to find out what happens.  Latest night time listen, even though Sian Philips doesn't have the most mellifluent voice;  Sprig Muslin ~ Georgette Heyer (audio) Cambridgeshire/ Bedfordshire/ London.

Hope Amy is doing well this week!

Books I've managed to complete in the last few days: 

• Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon ~ Robert Kurson, narrated by Ray Porter & Robert Kurson  (4+)    N/F science memoir.  So informative and very enjoyable!     (Extra: Contains some swearing.)
• The Dog Who Was There ~ Ron Marasco  (epukpuka audio)   (3+ )  Christian based historical fict.  Marasco penned this, seemingly, simple-toned story from the dog’s point of view.  Would make a good Easter time family read aloud.  (Not recommending for young children or sensitive listeners.  Barley’s litter and his mother are drowned – later in the story, he is injured - he witnesses and describes executions by the sword and hanging; and, Barley recounts the things he sees at the Crucifixion.)    

I'm finding it hard to settle with all the books I've got on the go and so decided to start a few teen (?) audiobooks:   To Destroy You is No Loss ~ Joan Criddle,  gritty and heart-wrenching,  and, Scourge ~ Jennifer Nielsen,  which is an interesting listen so far.

Audiobooks......and television,  I really prefer not to fall asleep to either because I tend to have some really upsetting dreams when I do.   I had a really weird Poirot dream a few months ago while sleeping to a huge portion of Murder on the Links which definitely convinced me not to sleep to audiobooks!

Wishing you well with your move.  I hope your house completion work proves to be easier than anticipated.  On the positive side you dc’s are old enough to be really useful!  Our last move was only 200 yards so the dc’s ended up working hard carrying things between the houses.  We promised ourselves no more moves at that time but are contemplating doing it again in a couple of years so I guess the trauma wears off.  

My holds all appeared in Overdrive at once.  I have some great books including my Devonshire Brit Trip book finally!  Before I get too envolved in my chunky, Tudor time frame, return to Knightsbridge I plan to finish a couple of my shorter kindle books.

 I am currently reading Linda Castillo’s latest https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36187085-a-gathering-of-secrets A Gathering of Secrets.  This is a favorite mystery series for me which is set in Amish Ohio.  No one would ever dare to call these cozy.  The crimes are horrible but I really like the main character!

I also finished Ruff Justice which I believe is the 22nd book in a cozy mystery series by Laurie Berenson.  Standard Poodles are some of my favorite dogs and this series combines poodles with mysteries centered around the world of dog shows.  This is a series I have read for years and it seems to be back on track after a couple of less than wonderful books.

 

 

[Loesje22000]

Next week we will officially hit a ‘heat wave’ with all days temperature above 30degrees C.

We will even get a 34. 

Too hot for summercleaning...

[Violet Crown]

6 hours ago, loesje22000 said:

Next week we will officially hit a ‘heat wave’ with all days temperature above 30degrees C.

We will even get a 34. 

Too hot for summercleaning...

The high temp this week for us will be 42-43 C [corrected!]. Our electricity bill should be exciting.

I washed our glass doors the other day as part of summer cleaning. If I washed more than one small pane at a time, quickly, the soapy water would evaporate faster than I could rinse it off.

BritTrip link: I just finished a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson's travel essays. While I got it for the essay about lovely picturesque walks in the Chilterns (Buckinghamshire), I much appreciated the essays about his sojourn at a sanatorium in the Alps. You could almost feel the chill breezes off the mountains.

[Miss Tick]

On 7/15/2018 at 9:45 PM, Violet Crown said:

Heading out the door so will post more later, but wanted to thank Robin for the sonnet as serendipitously I'm teaching the sonnet form to Middle Girl this week. She's analyzing Shakespeare's 71st. She tried composing her own, and it wasn't bad but she seemed unable to fix a line that was a syllable short; turned out she thought "pale" was two syllables. #texanproblems

Sonnet quiz for the poetry nerds: In Shelley's "Ozymandias," in the line "the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed" ... Whose hand? Mocked whom? And fed what? (We spent two days on "Ozymandias" and banged our heads against that line for a while.)

We also discussed those questions for a while also. I think it was Ozymandius mocking the hoi polloi but also offering alms - demonstrating and his conflicted relationship with his subjects. (There was not universal agreement, however) obviously I'm reading deeply between the lines.

My reading has all been fluffy vacation reading. A Cornwell Sharpe book that was only available on audio. Audio is not a super fit for me. Unlike a pp I can totally doze off while listening, on a train, an airplane, or waiting to brush my teeth. Ha!

I read a Jack Reacher ebook, finishing just before the due date when it would get yanked back. Ebooks don't have the same wiggle room as paper copies.

I also read Bacon 23. I thought the ending was a bit too nearly tied up, but I've been enjoying a few of his books this summer.

[TravelingChris]

When we moved to Belgium, it was those temperatures  that year too and even higher, I believe.  I think that is the year all those French citizens died because of the heat wave in August and all the people went on vacation and the elderly were basically left to die.  Not that that kind of thing hasn't happened in US too.  I remember some summer where a lot of people died in Chicago because of a heat wave.

We aren't having a heat wave here, we are just waiting for potentially very bad storms tonight - the same system that caused the awful tornados in Iowa yesterday and the boating catastrophe in Branson, Missiouri.  Well that is we are having normal summer temperatures highs in high 80s and low 90's and lows in 70s or even high 60s last night. But everyone here has an air conditioner and I live also in the naturally cooling microcosm of woods.

What I finished reading this week was Ghettoside by Jill Leovy .  I give it 5 stars and will try to get my local book club to put it on the reading list next year,. Did someone hear recommend it?

[Violet Crown]

2 hours ago, SusanC said:

We also discussed those questions for a while also. I think it was Ozymandius mocking the hoi polloi but also offering alms - demonstrating and his conflicted relationship with his subjects. (There was not universal agreement, however) obviously I'm reading deeply between the lines.

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

We found the first key to deciphering the "hand that mocked them" was realizing that the grammar, somewhat tortured, of the sentence requires "survive" to be a transitive verb, the subject being "those passions" and the objects "The hand" and "the heart." The heart feeding (feeding off, feeding on) is clearly Ozymandias': but the hand can hardly be his, as the "them" which the hand mocks must grammatically be "those passions" which the sculptor read, and it makes no sense for the tyrant to mock his own passions.

That is: The sculptor (of Ozymandias's visage) read certain passions well. Those (Ozymandias's) passions survive (both) the hand that mocked (those passions) and the heart that fed (on its power, or the subjugation of others, or whatever). 

So the grammar leaves us without much choice than to assign the hand to the sculptor; no other referent for "them" makes grammatical sense, and we can't just import a hypothetical referent (his subjects, ethics, etc.) into the poem sensibly.

But this doesn't seem like it could be right, because mockery is surely something suited to the tyrant and not to the nameless sculptor tasked with reading the passions and transmuting them into frown and sneer.

This is where we resorted to literary detective work. First we checked to see if "mock" could have had a different meaning in Shelley's day. But no luck: it originally meant "to make fun of," without necessarily implying satiric imitation, and later the sense narrowed to imply "... through imitation." By Shelley's time this is what it always meant. 

But! It turns out that not only was "mock" one of Shelley's favorite verbs, but he used it not just in the sense of "ridicule through imitation" but also in a purely idiosyncratic sense of "imitate closely and accurately," with no apparent negative connotation. From "Prometheus Unbound":

    
      And human hands first mimicked and then mocked,  
      With moulded limbs more lovely than its own,
      The human form, till marble grew divine;
      

Here Shelley uses "mocked" to mean imitated so perfectly that the sculpture of man surpasses even the original, with no hint of ridicule or derision attaching to the verb. He uses it the same way in other places, but this seems like a very close analogy to Ozymandias.

So that was our conclusion: "the hand that mocked them" means -- in Shelley's idiosyncratic usage -- "the passions of Ozymandias (which we read in the shattered visage) have outlived both the sculptor who perfectly captured those passions and Ozymandias himself."

Whew.

 

 

[brehon]

4 hours ago, Violet Crown said:

The high temp this week for us will be 42-43 F. Our electricity bill should be exciting.

I washed our glass doors the other day as part of summer cleaning. If I washed more than one small pane at a time, quickly, the soapy water would evaporate faster than I could rinse it off.

BritTrip link: I just finished a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson's travel essays. While I got it for the essay about lovely picturesque walks in the Chilterns (Buckinghamshire), I much appreciated the essays about his sojourn at a sanatorium in the Alps. You could almost feel the chill breezes off the mountains.

Ha! I think you meant 42-43* C, not F. I’m not looking forward to working this weekend. 

[Violet Crown]

5 minutes ago, brehon said:

Ha! I think you meant 42-43* C, not F. I’m not looking forward to working this weekend. 

Whoops, correcting now.

If in the course of work you encounter dh, who insists on biking to work despite one stint in the ER for heatstroke, tell him I told him so.

[brehon]

Indeed I shall! 

Really! Biking in 107* heat. <shakes head in solidarity and commiseration with VC>

[Miss Tick]

1 hour ago, Violet Crown said:

 

So that was our conclusion: "the hand that mocked them" means -- in Shelley's idiosyncratic usage -- "the passions of Ozymandias (which we read in the shattered visage) have outlived both the sculptor who perfectly captured those passions and Ozymandias himself."

Whew.

 

 

Violet, I bow to your kick-butt analysis. And also to your middle schoolers' attention spans. 

[Violet Crown]

26 minutes ago, SusanC said:

Violet, I bow to your kick-butt analysis. And also to your middle schoolers' attention spans. 

Re-reading, I didn't mean to sound like "your analysis is wrong, mine is right." And it does read a bit like that, sorry. (Btw not so much Middle Girl's attention span so much as her delight in arguing; she was the one holding out for the "hand" being the sculptor's.)

[Violet Crown]

50 minutes ago, brehon said:

Indeed I shall! 

Really! Biking in 107* heat. <shakes head in solidarity and commiseration with VC>

"It's a dry heat."

[Miss Tick]

3 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

Re-reading, I didn't mean to sound like "your analysis is wrong, mine is right." And it does read a bit like that, sorry. (Btw not so much Middle Girl's attention span so much as her delight in arguing; she was the one holding out for the "hand" being the sculptor's.)

Nope, didn't get that at all! Plus, mine uses shifty feelings and intuition, yours uses beautiful, straightforward logic!

[Lady Florida.]

1 hour ago, brehon said:

Ha! I think you meant 42-43* C, not F. I’m not looking forward to working this weekend. 

 

1 hour ago, Violet Crown said:

Whoops, correcting now.

 

Ha! I wondered about that. I thought, isn't she in Texas now? Maybe she left and I missed that post. ? 

12 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

"It's a dry heat."

Here's my Texas dry heat story. First you have to know that here in Florida the concept of a dry heat is foreign to us. When dss graduated Air Force boot camp in San Antonio we went for the ceremony. I won't deny that it was hot. It was in June and the temperature was in the low 90s F. All the other parents were complaining about the heat. Dh and I kept looking at each other and saying, "but at least it's not humid." ?

And it really IS the humidity, not just the heat  https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/it-s-not-just-heat-it-really-humidity-know-risks-n629486

Humidity is how much water vapor is in the air. When we perspire, our bodies normally rely on air to get rid of the sweat that accumulates on the skin. This allows the body to cool down. When the humidity in the air is high, the warm moisture stays on our skin longer, making us feel even hotter. Meteorologists call this the “heat index”.

According to the National Weather Service, the heat index is a measure of how hot it really feels when humidity is factored in with the actual temperature.

For example, if the thermometer in your yard reads 96°F and the relative humidity is 65 percent, the heat index — how hot it feels to your body —is 121°F.

 

[Robin M]

Howdy, we've been hovering in the upper 90's with a few 100+ days in the past couple weeks.  Our air conditioning bill runs around $300 for July and August. Mainly because one of us is always home. I haven't been reading much as I've been learning a new program we got for the business to try and computerize work orders and tracking. Yes, we've been doing it the old school way forever.  And now, the paper forms we use for customer repairs are no longer available and we're about to run out.  I had hoped to move before that happened. Delays with the building project but progress non the less. Looking at September completion.  Anyway. I had to get creative and make up a new form because we won't be using the new program until we get moved into the new building. Fortunately carbonless paper for digital printers is now available.  

I did finish Sandford's Secret Prey.  @Lady Florida.   I've been reading the Prey series totally out of order.  The first one I read was Certain Prey for a book tour thingie several years ago and have been randomly reading since then. John picked up three at a garage sale for me.  Eventually I'll get the first one and read them in order. 

@JennW in SoCal   Are you going to the San Diego Comic Con this weekend?  

TTFN

[Kareni]

I realized early in the week that I had about eighty unread book samples on my Kindle, so I've spent a goodly amount of time recently reading those.  (That would probably count as two or three or four books in terms of pages read!) 
**

Yesterday I finished a re-read of Marie Sexton's Winter Oranges  which I enjoyed once again.  This is a non-scary, not quite ghost story, that features two men.  (Adult content)

"Jason Walker is a child star turned teen heartthrob turned reluctant B-movie regular who’s sick of his failing career. So he gives up Hollywood for northern Idaho, far away from the press, the drama of LA, and the best friend he’s secretly been in love with for years.

There’s only one problem with his new life: a strange young man only he can see is haunting his guesthouse. Except Benjamin Ward isn’t a ghost. He’s a man caught out of time, trapped since the Civil War in a magical prison where he can only watch the lives of those around him. He’s also sweet, funny, and cute as hell, with an affinity for cheesy ’80s TV shows. And he’s thrilled to finally have someone to talk to.

But Jason quickly discovers that spending all his time with a man nobody else can see or hear isn’t without its problems—especially when the tabloids find him again and make him front-page news. The local sheriff thinks he’s on drugs, and his best friend thinks he’s crazy. But Jason knows he hasn’t lost his mind. Too bad he can’t say the same thing about his heart.

Twenty percent of the proceeds from this title will be donated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) National Help Center."

Regards,
Kareni

[JennW in SoCal]

5 hours ago, Robin M said:

@JennW in SoCal   Are you going to the San Diego Comic Con this weekend?  

 

I was there yesterday and today, and that is enough for me! Will post a photo or two and say more probably on Sunday's new thread....but at the moment I cannot even brain........

[Loesje22000]

It never occures to me that summer could lead to higher electricity bills  with no heating necessary, no need for a lot of warm food and hot drinks, no need for lightning the lamps, and other essentials to stay warm or having light, our summer electricity bills are on the lower side (we don’t have airco) we do have a higher water bill, even while we don’t water the garden. 

I am not shure how I should manage 43-45 degrees C in our current house. Maybe switching day and night rythm?

[Violet Crown]

4 hours ago, loesje22000 said:

It never occures to me that summer could lead to higher electricity bills  with no heating necessary, no need for a lot of warm food and hot drinks, no need for lightning the lamps, and other essentials to stay warm or having light, our summer electricity bills are on the lower side (we don’t have airco) we do have a higher water bill, even while we don’t water the garden. 

I am not shure how I should manage 43-45 degrees C in our current house. Maybe switching day and night rythm?

Before AC, that was part of the solution: take a siesta in the hottest part of the afternoon, have dinner very late.

[mumto2]

4 hours ago, loesje22000 said:

It never occures to me that summer could lead to higher electricity bills  with no heating necessary, no need for a lot of warm food and hot drinks, no need for lightning the lamps, and other essentials to stay warm or having light, our summer electricity bills are on the lower side (we don’t have airco) we do have a higher water bill, even while we don’t water the garden. 

I am not shure how I should manage 43-45 degrees C in our current house. Maybe switching day and night rythm?

Definitely keep you curtains drawn all day.  It helps but I find it depressing.  My neighbors insist on not opening their windows during the day......we generally do because we need fresh air.  Lots of fans if you have access to them as stores are probably sold out.

[Negin]

Kindle book on sale today.

 

[Faithr]

I haven't been here in ages and ages, not since they repaired or overhauled the boards, whenever the last iteration of that was.  But then I realized I am going into my last year of homeschooling (my youngest child is going into 12th grade), so this is the last year I can hang out here as a an official homeschooler.  So I plan to be around some.  I really missed these weekly book discussions, even though I am very erratic about participating.  

I am only on book 20 of the 52 book challenge.  Hopefully I'll catch up some over the next couple of weeks.  I am trying to read through the Poirot mysteries in order.  I just finished The Mystery of the Blue Train which by the goodreads list I'm going by is #6.  Unrelated to that, I also just finished Tuesdays with Morrie.  I posted about both on my blog. 

I just started Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread.  And I am also currently reading The Crucified Rabbi by Taylor Marshall, which is all about the Jewish roots of Catholicism.  

Happy reading everyone!

 

[Robin M]

Link to week 30  - please continue conversation in new thread