Mothersweets Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 22 hours ago, Robin M said: Howdy, a bit busy finalizing flooring and lots of interior details for house. All the fun stuff. Here's a picture. A bit messy and no flooring yet, but a good idea of downstairs color. I love my hubby. We're going to either paint or put up a wall mural of the Tardis front door on the elevator door upstairs. 😀 It's going to be amazing! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 (edited) Okay, I've realized I just can NOT be consistent in participating and posting in these wonderful book threads, so I'll just pop in when I can. 🤪 Cadfael! I read through the whole series years ago, and really loved the historical setting. (And, another vote for loving Derek Jacobi as Cadfael in the TV series.) Another enjoyable Medieval (well, really start of Renaissance) mystery series is Kathy Lynn Emerson's Lady Susanna Appleton -- 16th century gentlewoman, herbalist, and sleuth (:D. I read through the whole series last year and enjoyed the focus on herbs and recipes and the domestic life of women in medieval times. I've also read about half of A.E. Marston's Domesday series -- I enjoy the interaction of the two main characters and the basic "conceit" of the series is that they travel all over England to rectify errors made in the original Domesday census, and solve murders along the way. Did NOT care for Mistress of the Art of Death (Ariana Franklin) -- too dramatic and unbelievable -- and also did not care for the lawyer-nun Sister Fidelma series -- a cold fish of a main character and the writing is odd at times; I managed to push through the first 3 books in the series before giving up, so I did give it a fair trial... lol. Found this great list of Medieval mystery series if anyone wants to enjoy more mysteries in that time frame. I just finished up a leisurely 2-year read through another historical mystery series: Daisy Dalrymple (England 1920s) -- very light cozy mysteries. A friend just gave me the first 2 books in the Inspector Gamache series -- I think I remember seeing that series was the focus of a Book a Week thread a few weeks back?? -- So, I'm extremely late to the party on that one, but am thoroughly enjoying the writing style, and the exposure to small town in Quebec culture. Finished book 1 already, and I'm halfway through book 2. Definitely planning on going all the way through this series! 🙂 Amidst all of those books, I'm still plugging slowly through Death's End, 3rd book in Cixin Liu's trilogy (The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest are books 1 & 2). Finding it interesting, but a slower read -- I've been working on this trilogy for over a year now. Really enjoying the Chinese perspective and philosophy aspect. Last year I enjoyed Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life, so I guess I'm getting a bit of a Chinese sci-fi thing going, lol. Other books I've read this year: - LOVED N.K. Jemison's Broken Earth trilogy -- SO creative, with wonderfully strong-but-with-flaws characters - Uprooted (Naomi Novik) -- a little uneven esp. towards the end, but so nice to get new fairy tales added to the canon - Fever 1793 (Laurie Halse Anderson) -- fascinating historical fiction on a little-known real life event in early America - Born a Crime (Noah Trevor) -- great autobiographical insights on a different culture -- and thanks to Jenn in SoCal for her long-ago Book a Week recommendation that brought this one to my attention Top 2 books so far for 2019 -- beautiful writing and wonderful stories: - News of the World (Paulette Jiles) -- beautifully written; spare and straight to the heart, just like the Western landscape in which it is set - Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik) -- beautifully written, perfectly conceived from start to finish; LOVE the Jewish/Eastern European fairy tale background for this one It is spring here in the desert Southwest, and about to turn hot, so I've spent the last 2.5 months frantically digging and planting and hauling rocks around trying to get some landscaping done in front and back yards, including attempting a sort-of Japanese garden-inspired section in the back yard, so not a lot of time for much heavy reading. I guess I'll save that for the summer when it's too hot to be outside. 😉 Cheers, everyone! -- Lori D. Edited April 6, 2019 by Lori D. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 53 minutes ago, Lori D. said: Okay, I've realized I just can NOT be consistent in participating and posting in these wonderful book threads, so I'll just pop in when I can. 🤪 Cadfael! I read through the whole series years ago, and really loved the historical setting. (And, another vote for loving Derek Jacobi as Cadfael in the TV series.) Another enjoyable Medieval (well, really start of Renaissance) mystery series is Kathy Lynn Emerson's Lady Susanna Appleton -- 16th century gentlewoman, herbalist, and sleuth (:D. I read through the whole series last year and enjoyed the focus on herbs and recipes and the domestic life of women in medieval times. I've also read about half of A.E. Marston's Domesday series -- I enjoy the interaction of the two main characters and the basic "conceit" of the series is that they travel all over England to rectify errors made in the original Domesday census, and solve murders along the way. Did NOT care for Mistress of the Art of Death (Ariana Franklin) -- too dramatic and unbelievable -- and also did not care for the lawyer-nun Sister Fidelma series -- a cold fish of a main character and the writing is odd at times; I managed to push through the first 3 books in the series before giving up, so I did give it a fair trial... lol. Found this great list of Medieval mystery series if anyone wants to enjoy more mysteries in that time frame. I just finished up a leisurely 2-year read through another historical mystery series: Daisy Dalrymple (England 1920s) -- very light cozy mysteries. A friend just gave me the first 2 books in the Inspector Gamache series -- I think I remember seeing that series was the focus of a Book a Week thread a few weeks back?? -- So, I'm extremely late to the party on that one, but am thoroughly enjoying the writing style, and the exposure to small town in Quebec culture. Finished book 1 already, and I'm halfway through book 2. Definitely planning on going all the way through this series! 🙂 Amidst all of those books, I'm still plugging slowly through Death's End, 3rd book in Cixin Liu's trilogy (The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest are books 1 & 2). Finding it interesting, but a slower read -- I've been working on this trilogy for over a year now. Really enjoying the Chinese perspective and philosophy aspect. Last year I enjoyed Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life, so I guess I'm getting a bit of a Chinese sci-fi thing going, lol. Other books I've read this year: - LOVED N.K. Jemison's Broken Earth trilogy -- SO creative, with wonderfully strong-but-with-flaws characters - Uprooted (Naomi Novik) -- a little uneven esp. towards the end, but so nice to get new fairy tales added to the canon - Fever 1793 (Laurie Halse Anderson) -- fascinating historical fiction on a little-known real life event in early America - Born a Crime (Noah Trevor) -- great autobiographical insights on a different culture -- and thanks to Jenn in SoCal for her long-ago Book a Week recommendation that brought this one to my attention Top 2 books so far for 2019 -- beautiful writing and wonderful stories: - News of the World (Paulette Jiles) -- beautifully written; spare and straight to the heart, just like the Western landscape in which it is set - Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik) -- beautifully written, perfectly conceived from start to finish; LOVE the Jewish/Eastern European fairy tale background for this one It is spring here in the desert Southwest, and about to turn hot, so I've spent the last 2.5 months frantically digging and planting and hauling rocks around trying to get some landscaping done in front and back yards, including attempting a sort-of Japanese garden-inspired section in the back yard, so not a lot of time for much heavy reading. I guess I'll save that for the summer when it's too hot to be outside. 😉 Cheers, everyone! -- Lori D. You are welcome whenever you want to join us! I believe you are the person who recommended Lady Appleton and the Face Downs......to me. Thank you! I have read the ones that are available to me and enjoyed them. Have you tried Fiona Buckley’s series featuring Ursula Blanchard which is also set in Elizabeth 1’s court? Very similar, so similar I had to be careful to space things out between the series! 😉 I keep meaning to try the Doomsday mysteries....... I only made it through the first two books in The Three Body Problem series but am curious regarding Ted Chiang. Will try and check that one out. Also thanks for the medieval list. I added it to my bookmarks and noticed there are links to other useful time periods. I could spend hours with those lists! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 Finished Wild Country by Anne Bishop I have to say -- I put this on hold in all available forms at the library (this is my current habit for any book i strongly desire to read) , and what showed up first was the Audio version. This is the first time that has happened for a fiction book (it has happened a lot for non-fiction books though). And it this case I feel like listening instead of reading affected my enjoyment of the book. It seems to me that my rating of the book was affected by 1) not being able to go back easily to revisit what just happened and 2) I had just finished listening to the 'Sweep" books by Ilona Andrews. The style of writing and the narrator is SOO different between these books. I found the Ilona Andrews books far more enjoyable to listen to I must admit -- and I think that affected my enjoyment of Wild Country. And one thing that was definitely missing was that feeling of getting lost in the book that I usually get while reading -- I will have to reread the book when the print version arrives and see if that makes a difference. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted April 7, 2019 Author Share Posted April 7, 2019 week 15 is live - please continue conversation in new thread 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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