Book a Week 2019 - BW15: 52 Books Bingo - Something Blue

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday and welcome to week fifteen in our 52 Books rambling roads reading adventure. Greetings to all our readers, welcome to all who are joining in for the first time and everyone following our progress. Visit  52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini and perpetual challenges, as well as the central spot to share links to your book reviews. 

 

Josephine Wall's Bluebird

Fragmentary Blue

 By

 Robert Frost

 

Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

 Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)—
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

 

 Blue represents so many things - color, mood, music, mind, birds, water and sky. Blue is mainly a positive color and depending on the shade, can be dynamic and bold or bring you serenity. It represents freedom and imagination as well as depth and wisdom, but can also symbolize depression and sadness. All of which leads us to our next Bingo category. 

Our next 52 Books Bingo adventure is Something Blue and there are a variety of ways to go with this, including but not limited to: 

Read a book with Blue in the title. 
Read a book by an author named Blue.
Find a word which rhymes with blue and read a book with that word in the title.
Read about a blues musician.
Read a book with a blue character 
Read a book with a blue cover.
Spell out blue and read one book per letter. 

Take the Buzzfeed quiz and find out What shade of blue are you? I'm midnight blue - deep, dark, and comforting. *grin*

 What are you reading?

 Link to week fourteen

[Robin M]

Good morning!  I'm currently rereading Nalini Singh's Silver Silence, continuing her psy changeling series, #1 in Psy changeling Trinity. (ebook)

 "Control. Precision. Family. These are the principles that drive Silver Mercant. At a time when the fledgling Trinity Accord seeks to unite a divided world, with Silver playing a crucial role as director of a worldwide emergency response network, wildness and chaos are the last things she needs in her life. But that's exactly what Valentin Nikolaev, alpha of the StoneWater bears, brings with him.   Valentin has never met a more fascinating woman. Though Silver is ruled by Silence--her mind clear of all emotion--Valentin senses a whisper of fire around her. That's what keeps him climbing apartment buildings to be near her. But when a shadow assassin almost succeeds in poisoning Silver, the stakes become deadly serious...and Silver finds herself in the heart of a powerful bear clan.  Her would-be assassin has no idea what their poison has unleashed..."

Also reading Robert Jordan's Knife of Dreams, #11 in Wheel of Time series. (Physical book) 

"Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has made his own truce with the Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark One, in his eyes, but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife, Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the Shaido, Faile works to free herself while hiding a secret that might give her her freedom or cause her destruction. And at a town called Malden, the Two Rivers longbow will be matched against Shaido spears.       

Fleeing Ebou Dar through Seanchan-controlled Altara with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, Mat attempts to court the woman to whom he is half-married, knowing that she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift can have deep significance among the Seanchan Blood and what he thinks he knows of women is not enough to save him.

In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain the Lion Throne while trying to avert what seems a certain civil war should she win the crown...  In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the sisters loyal to Elaida from within...

And my sip read right now is Laraine Herring's Writing Begins with the Breath 

"In this distinctive guide to the craft of writing, author Laraine Herring shows us how to tune into our bodies and connect with our emotions so that our writing becomes an expression of our full beings, rather than just an intellectual exercise. With warmth and wisdom, Herring offers a path to discovering "deep writing"—prose that is unique, expressive, and profoundly authentic. Lessons and imaginative exercises show you how to: stay with your writing when your mind or body starts to pull you away; explore the five senses in your writing; and approach your writing without judgment."

[purpleowl]

I had a very busy week and not much time to read! I'm just past the halfway point in the Machen book I'm reading (The Virgin Birth of Christ). I am pausing there to read some library books this week, plus another chapter in Flavel for the ladies' book study at church.

[Mothersweets]

Lovely poem, Robin!

Last week I finished Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I gave this 4 stars - the first 2/3 of the book was so so good! The last bit felt rushed with lots of characters thrown at you for a few pages and then forgotten. The ending was a bit abrupt, too, but overall it was an unputdownable story about a time and place that I didn't know much of. 

I just received Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land from my library holds. It's a memoir about a young woman working paycheck to paycheck as a maid, becoming a mother, and struggling to make ends meet. I first heard of this book during an interview with the author on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Anyone else read this yet?

[Kareni]

I enjoyed Lucy Knisley's latest memoir. [What do you call a non-fiction work that is visual? We say graphic novel for a pictorial work of fiction, but graphic memoir sounds like a memoir filled with sex and/or violence!] Incidentally, this has a lot of blue on the cover.

Lucy Knisley's  Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos

 "If you work hard enough, if you want it enough, if you’re smart and talented and “good enough,” you can do anything.

Except get pregnant.

Her whole life, Lucy Knisley wanted to be a mother. But when it was finally the perfect time, conceiving turned out to be harder than anything she’d ever attempted. Fertility problems were followed by miscarriages, and her eventual successful pregnancy plagued by health issues, up to a dramatic, near-death experience during labor and delivery.

This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir, Kid Gloves, not only follows Lucy’s personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery. Whether you’ve got kids, want them, or want nothing to do with them, there’s something in this graphic memoir to open your mind and heart. "

**

I also continued reading Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series and finished the fourth book. This ended on a surprising note. I enjoyed it (save for the continuing incorrect use of "Me and so-and-so").

Broken Homes (PC Peter Grant Book 4)  by Ben Aaronovitch

From Booklist

*Starred Review* It’s hard to understand why Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, of which this is the fourth installment, is not more well known in the U.S. It’s quite popular in Britain, and rightly so because it has everything: a plucky hero, London Metropolitan Police constable Peter Grant; clever mysteries; entertaining villains; and, just for fun, wizardry. Yes, wizardry. It seems Peter Grant, an ordinary police officer, has been recruited into a special branch of the police department, known as the Folly, which deals with matters of witchcraft, sorcery, and the supernatural. He’s an apprentice wizard, too, which comes in handy when dealing with cases that are decidedly weird. Take the murdered man who might be the latest victim of the Faceless Man, a powerful rogue magician; or take the old German textbook of magic—well, you can’t take that because someone already did, took it from its rightful home in Germany to England, where it turned up in the London police department’s recovered-goods repository (but was never reported stolen in the first place). Oh, and let’s not forget the weird goings-on at a housing estate with an odd past and, apparently, an even odder present. Honestly, this series is so much fun it really deserves an enormous audience on both sides of the pond. It’s a natural for grown-up Harry Potter devotees but also for urban-fantasy fans in general. --David Pitt

Regards,

Kareni

[Negin]

I read Barcelona Snapshot - 1 Star - This book is not worth bothering with. If you are planning a trip to Barcelona, you would be better served with either his entire Spain book, a current edition, of course; or the Barcelona Pocket Guide, which has a detailed suggested daily plan, as well as color photos, which is a rarity with Rick Steves’ books. 

Cathedral of the Sea - 4 Stars - I probably wouldn’t have even heard of this beautiful story, had it not been for a review that I saw on Trip Advisor of all places. I was looking at places to visit for our upcoming trip to Barcelona, deciding on whether or not to visit Santa Maria del Mar, a cathedral in Barcelona. One of the reviewers highly recommended reading this book first. I’m a sucker for reading travel-related books and I have to say that I’ve been hard-pressed to find much that truly interests me when it comes to books that are set in Spain. I am becoming a bit more selective and no longer want to read a travel-related book just because we’re headed there. It has to be good also. Anyway, I am so grateful to that reviewer and I wrote and told him so. 

The story, set in 14th century Barcelona, is well-written with some edge-of-the-seat turns. If you enjoy medieval fiction, such as “Pillars of the Earth”, you may like this one. I enjoyed “Pillars of the Earth” more, but this was lovely also. The story was compelling. Like most historical fiction, you love some of the characters and hate a few others also. There were some parts that bored me, but those are easy to skim through. 

One word of warning for those who may be a bit on the conservative side, it does get a bit graphic at times, but not too often. 

Finally, the book is thoroughly researched. I really enjoyed the final pages of the book, where the author explains the parts of the story that are true. I hope that we have time to visit this fascinating cathedral during our short stay in Barcelona.

Some of my favorite quotes:
"The past does not exist. There is nothing to be sorry for. Today is when we start to live. Look ... look at the sea. The sea has not past. It is just there. It will never ask us to explain. The stars, the moon are there to light our way, to shine for us. What do they care what might have happened in the past? They are accompanying us, and are happy with that; Can you see them shine? The stars are twinkling in the sky; would they do that if the past mattered? Would not there be a huge storm if God wanted to punish us? We are alone, you and I, with no past, no memories, no guilt, nothing that can stand in the way of ... our love. "

“From the beginning, Santa Maria de la Mar church was built by and for the common people.”

“Santa Maria de la Mar is without doubt one of the most beautiful churches to be found anywhere. It may lack the monumentality of others built at the same time or later, but its interior is filled with the spirit with which Berenguer de Montagut sought to infuse it: the people’s church, built by the people of Barcelona for Barcelona, is like an airy Catalan farmhouse. It is austere, protected, and protecting, and the light of the Mediterranean sets it apart from any other church in the world.”

“According to the experts, the great virtue of Santa Maria is that it was built over an uninterrupted period of fifty-five years. This means it benefits from a unified architectural style, with few elements added on, making it the leading example of Catalan Gothic.”
   

MY RATING SYSTEM
5 Stars
The book is fantastic. It’s not perfect, since no book is, but it’s definitely a favorite of mine. 
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.

[-M-]

Hello, BaWers! It's been a long time since I have been able to stop by, but I do so appreciate this space. As always, thank you, Robin, for bringing us together in this comfortable corner of the virtual living room.

(1) Elsewhere, I participated in a discussion about an article by Simon Fraser University professor Hannah Macgregor, “Liking Books Is Not a Personality.” The piece is thought-provoking, and the conversation it inspired was terrific, too. My acquisition process has become more stringent with each passing year, and my weeding is rigorous, too. The shelf space is finite, so the volumes in the permanent collection either “spark joy” or serve the antilibrary definition ascribed to Umberto Eco early in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable:

The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

(Have you seen this clip of Eco walking through his vast collection? I first saw it via the wonderful Brain Pickings.)

(2) My "Read from the shelves" challenge is going... sort of meh. I've read thirty-five books so far this year, and seventeen of those were already in my collection at the conclusion of 2018. Here's my list:

January
■ The People in the Trees (Hanya Yanagihara; 2013. Fiction.) RFS
■ A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Peter Handke; 1972. Fiction.) RFS
■ Upgrade Soul (Ezra Claytan Daniels; 2016. Graphic fiction.) LIB
■ Fieldwork (Mischa Berlinski; 2007. Fiction.) RFS
■ Becoming (Michelle Obama; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS
■ The Widower’s Notebook (Jonathan Santlofer; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS
■ Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig; 2015. Non-fiction.) RFS
■ Paper Girls, Vol. 5 (Brian K. Vaughan; 2018. Graphic fiction.) LIB
■ Fear: Trump in the White House (Bob Woodward; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS
■ The Shakespeare Requirement (Julie Schumacher; 2018. Fiction.) RFS

February
■ Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning (Gary Marcus; 2012. Fiction.) RFS
■ Ghost Wall (Sarah Moss; 2018. Fiction.) LIB
■ A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family (Lou Ann Walker; 1986. Non-fiction.) ATY
■ Gone for Good (Harlan Coben; 2002. Fiction.) RFS
■ The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty (Simon Baron-Cohen; 2011. Non-fiction.) ATY
■ First, Learn to Practice (Tom Heany; 2012. Non-fiction.) ATY
■ The Current (Tom Johnston; 2019. Fiction.) LIB
■ How to Love Your Flute (Mark Shepard; 1979. Non-fiction.) LIB
■ The Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut; 1959. Fiction.) RFS
■ Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Carlo Rovelli; 2014. Non-fiction.) RFS

March
■ Man-eaters, Vol. 1 (Chelsea Cain; 2019. (Graphic fiction.) OTH
■ Paddle Your Own Canoe (Nick Offerman; 2013. Non-fiction.) LIB
■ Why Art? (Eleanor Davis; 2018. Graphic non-fiction.) LIB
■ The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides; 2019. Fiction.) ATY
■ The Walking Dead, Vol. 31 (Robert Kirkman; 2019. Graphic fiction.) OTH
■ All Systems Red (Martha Wells; 2017. Fiction.) LIB
■ Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal; 2016. Non-fiction.) RFS
■ Grass Kings, Vol. 2 (Matt Kindt; 2018. Graphic fiction.) LIB
■ The Wall (John Lanchester; 2019. Fiction.) ATY
■ D’Aulaires Book of Norse Myths (Ingri Mortenson and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire; 1967. Fiction.) RFS
■ Sweat (Lynn Nottage; 2015. Drama.) LIB
■ Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman; 2017. Fiction.) RFS
■ The Orchid Thief (Susan Orlean; 1998. Non-fiction.) RFS

April
■ The Stoy of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg; 2017. Fiction.) ATY
■ Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (Beth Macy; 2018. Non-fiction.) RFS

—————————————
ATY Acquired this year
LIB Borrowed from library
OTH Other
RFS Read from shelves

(3) Here's what I'm reading right now:

● Ulysses (James Joyce; 1922)
When I learned that Bloomsday would be part of Remy Bumppo’s 2018/19 season, I resolved to reread Ulysses. James A.W. Heffernan’s lectures (The Great Courses) will supplement my reading.

● Alliance, Illinois (David Etter; 1983)
My National Poetry Month selection.

● To Walk the Night (William Sloane; 1937)
My youngest and I are reading this.

● Charmed Particles (Chrissy Kolaya; 2015)
Fermilab! How could I not read it?

● The Pigman (Paul Zindel; 1968)
To complement the surprisingly delightful novel The Story of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg).

● Providence of a Sparrow: Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds (Chris Chester; 2002)
My bird of the year is, once again, a house sparrow, so I remain optimistic about this.

● The Awakening (Kate Chopin; 1899)
Selected as both my nod to The Great American Read and my 2018 Banned Book Week selection, this one, for no good reason, keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the pile.

(4) Finally, here are some passages that made their way into my commonplace book since my last BaW post.

From Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Carlo Rovelli; 2014):

p. 33
This is the world is described by quantum mechanics and particle theory. We have arrived very far from the mechanical world of Newton, where minute, cold stones eternally wandered on long, precise trajectories in geometrically immutable space. Quantum mechanics and experiments with particles have taught us that the world is a continuous, restless swarming of things, a continuous coming to light and disappearance of ephemeral entities. A set of vibrations, as in the switched-on hippie world of the 1960s. A world of happenings, not of things.

p. 37
Physics is not only a history of successes.

p. 63
Time sits at the center of the tangle of problems raised by the intersection of gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. A tangle of problems where we are still in the dark. If there is something that we are perhaps beginning to understand about quantum gravity that combines two of the three pieces of the puzzle, we do not yet have a theory capable of trying to gather all three pieces of our fundamental knowledge of the world.

From The Story of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg; 2017):

p. 14
Mr. Lyons’s first name is Royal. Maddy thinks that’s hysterical. She wishes she could ask him what’s up with that. Royal. He’s got white hair and he’s a little fat. Maddy likes people who are a little fat; it seems to her that they are approachable. He’s a little fat and he’s got awfully pale skin and the links of his wristwatch are twisted like bad teeth. He doesn’t care about such things. He cares about words. He taught her one of her favorite words: hiraeth, a Welsh word that means homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that maybe never was; it means nostalgia and yearning and grief for lost places. He used the word in a story that he read aloud to the class, and when he looked up, his eyes were full of tears. Nobody made fun of him after class, which was a miracle. Nobody said anything to her, anyway. Not that they would. She’s the girl who sits alone in the lunchroom, acting like her sandwich is fascinating. Or did. She skips lunch now.

She doesn’t know exactly why kids don’t like her. She’s good-looking enough. She has a sense of humor. She’s not dumb. She guesses it’s because they can sense how much she needs them. They are like kids in a circle holding sticks, picking on the weak thing. It is in people to be entertained by cruelty.

p. 18
Arthur thinks that, above all, aging means the abandonment of criticism and the taking on of compassionate acceptance. He sees that as a good trade. And anyway, Lucille makes those snickerdoodles, and she always packs some up for him to take home, and he eats them in bed, which is another thing he can do now, oh, sorrowful gifts.

From The Wall (John Lanchester; 2019):

p. 139
I suddenly got it. Hifa’s mother was one of those people who like life to be all about them. With the Change, that is a harder belief to sustain; it takes much more effort to think that life is about you when the whole of human life has turned upside down, when everything has been irrevocably changed for everyone. You can do it, of course you can, because people can do anything with their minds and their sense of themselves, but it takes work and only certain kinds of unusually self-centered people can do it. They want to be the focus of all the drama and pity and all the stories. I could tell that she didn’t like it that younger people are universally agreed to have had a worse deal than her generation.

From Dopesick (Beth Macy; 2018):

p. 125
Those of us living highly curated and time-strapped lives in cities across America — predominantly mixing virtually and physically with people whose views echoed our own — had no idea how politically and economically splintered our nation had become. And also how much poorer and sicker and work-starved they already struggling parts of the nation truly were — because we didn’t follow that story.

We may feel more connected by our cellphones and computers, but in reality we are more divided that ever before.

[-M-]

Robin, cyan... the color of technology but as old as nature itself. Wait, what? 🤣

Oh, and postscript... A few weeks back, you were doing a challenge that included an option to read the first book of a series. I chose Louise Penny's Still Life to be read sometime this year. Which challenge is that?

[Matryoshka]

Didn't get around to checking in here last week, so in the last couple of weeks I finished 6 books: 

29. Number9dream by David Mitchell - Another rather trippy trip through David Mitchell-land.  I have resigned myself to just enjoy the trips, lol.  I recognized one of the nastier characters from the previous book (Ghostwriter), and also wondered a bit if the rather random Goatwriter character in this book was a play on that previous title...  on to the next of his books... 3.5 stars.

30. Die Wand/ The Wall by Marlen Haushofer - What happened to the rest of the world is never explained; one day there's a huge transparent wall around where the main character is visiting in the mountains, and everyone outside it seems to have mysteriously perished.  Really it's a plot device to examine her life alone and how she survives and changes from being completely alone. I had to make sure not to think too hard about it - it's apparently not a dome, as it precipitates often; not sure why the birds inside it don't fly over it and die... and also it seems all animal life outside has died, including insects, so that made me start thinking about how catastrophic that would be for whole ecosystems without insect pollination and decomposition... but I was successfully able to squelch that, as it obviously was beside the point of the story.  The main character is in her 40's, widowed with two almost-grown children.  She actually doesn't spend much time wondering about them, as the disaster is so sudden and a bit unreal even to her.  It's not clear immediately whether the event is local or global.  She finds a dog, a cow, and a cat and finds herself much more drawn to them - although they're also perhaps the last of their species.  Good thing she learned to milk a cow when she was young. And she planted some potatoes she found lying around.  Moral: if you find yourself stranded alone in the Alps or on Mars, better have some potatoes to plant...  Too bad the Martian didn't have a cow...  3 stars.

31. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (audio) - I know the movie is a bit saccharine, but book MP seems a bit unnecessarily snippy.  Had never read this; now I have. 3 stars.

32. La bastarda / The Bastard by Trifonia Melibea Obono - this is a book from Equatorial Guinea, the only ex-Spanish colony in Africa.  The main character is an adolescent girl who does not fit in to the traditional culture of her people (the Fang), as her father had not yet paid the bride price to her mother when she died in labor, so she's illegitimate.  Her family (mother's parents) only care about getting her married off as soon as possible to someone with money bring in money for the family.  But she's also gay.  The book is quite short, and follows her quest to find her father (no one will tell her who he is even though everyone knows) and how she can find a place in a society that doesn't even acknowledge that gay women exist.  3 stars.

33. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan (audio) - A book about the history of psychedelics, mostly from the 50's where they became known to the West to the present.  Research was almost (but not entirely) suspended after 1962 when Timothy Leary freaked everyone out - in the 50's when they were hailed as a miracle cure for addiction and depression; research has quietly resumed in the new century and has again shown much promise especially for those two things - but under supervised conditions.  Interesting and has a surprising amount of overlap brain psychology and consciousness-wise with the book Why Buddhism is True (which was completely drug-free) that I read last year.  4 stars.

34. Extinctions by Josephine Wilson (ebook)- Set in Perth, Australia, about a widowed, retired engineering professor who has moved to a retirement village and has many regrets about that and also his life thus far.  He's pretty dammed up emotionally.   He meets the lady with the budgies next door.  There's also a lot about addiction, grieving loss, dealing with rather than denying realities and events that make you uncomfortable, and adoption.  It's hard to describe but I quite liked it; my only complaint is that it ended without tying up a lot of the story lines - I feel like there could have been another 50-100 pages doing that.  But I'll still give it 4 stars. 

Currently reading I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (audio), Artificial Condition (the second Murderbot - ebook), Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafur (for the Lagos square), and still reading The Warning Voice (Story of the Stone #3).

[Matryoshka]

40 minutes ago, Negin said:

Cathedral of the Sea - 4 Stars - I probably wouldn’t have even heard of this beautiful story, had it not been for a review that I saw on Trip Advisor of all places. I was looking at places to visit for our upcoming trip to Barcelona, deciding on whether or not to visit Santa Maria del Mar, a cathedral in Barcelona. One of the reviewers highly recommended reading this book first. I’m a sucker for reading travel-related books and I have to say that I’ve been hard-pressed to find much that truly interests me when it comes to books that are set in Spain. I am becoming a bit more selective and no longer want to read a travel-related book just because we’re headed there. It has to be good also. Anyway, I am so grateful to that reviewer and I wrote and told him so. 

The story, set in 14th century Barcelona, is well-written with some edge-of-the-seat turns. If you enjoy medieval fiction, such as “Pillars of the Earth”, you may like this one. I enjoyed “Pillars of the Earth” more, but this was lovely also. The story was compelling. Like most historical fiction, you love some of the characters and hate a few others also. There were some parts that bored me, but those are easy to skim through. 

One word of warning for those who may be a bit on the conservative side, it does get a bit graphic at times, but not too often. 

Finally, the book is thoroughly researched. I really enjoyed the final pages of the book, where the author explains the parts of the story that are true. I hope that we have time to visit this fascinating cathedral during our short stay in Barcelona.

Thanks for the nice review, Negin!  This is likely my next book in Spanish; it's been lying here around gathering dust for a few years now - shinier things have kept getting in front of it (perhaps partly because it's a chunkster).  You have me looking forward to it now!

[Kidlit]

1 hour ago, Mothersweets said:

Lovely poem, Robin!

Last week I finished Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. I gave this 4 stars - the first 2/3 of the book was so so good! The last bit felt rushed with lots of characters thrown at you for a few pages and then forgotten. The ending was a bit abrupt, too, but overall it was an unputdownable story about a time and place that I didn't know much of. 

I just received Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land from my library holds. It's a memoir about a young woman working paycheck to paycheck as a maid, becoming a mother, and struggling to make ends meet. I first heard of this book during an interview with the author on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Anyone else read this yet?

I read Maid a few weeks ago and enjoyed it.  I’m working on my review for my blog. Thanks for sharing the interview!

[Matryoshka]

38 minutes ago, Melissa M said:

Hello, BaWers! It's been a long time since I have been able to stop by, but I do so appreciate this space. As always, thank you, Robin, for bringing us together in this comfortable corner of the virtual living room.

(1) Elsewhere, I participated in a discussion about an article by Simon Fraser University professor Hannah Macgregor, “Liking Books Is Not a Personality.” The piece is thought-provoking, and the conversation it inspired was terrific, too. My acquisition process has become more stringent with each passing year, and my weeding is rigorous, too. The shelf space is finite, so the volumes in the permanent collection either “spark joy” or serve the antilibrary definition ascribed to Umberto Eco early in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable:

The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

(Have you seen this clip of Eco walking through his vast collection? I first saw it via the wonderful Brain Pickings.)

(2) My "Read from the shelves" challenge is going... sort of meh. I've read thirty-five books so far this year, and seventeen of those were already in my collection at the conclusion of 2018. 

Good to see you here! 

Interesting musings on home libraries.  I have been trying to greatly limit what comes into my house permanently, both because I can't afford to spend that much on books, but also because I seem to have trouble parting with books once I have them in my hot little hands.  I have bookshelves in every room including a whole room with built-ins all around, and I still have no space on my shelves for new books.   I like Eco's idea of an antilibrary, but I'm happy to keep mine virtual - that's kind of what my To-Read shelf on GR is.  I'd been thinking it was a bit nuts how much faster it's been growing that my "Read" list, esp. with how much I've been reading since joining this group, but now I see that since it's well south of 35,000, I've got plenty of room to let it keep growing. 

I pretty much try to only buy books I absolutely can't get from the library, either hardcopy or e/audio on Overdrive.  I even check a second consortium.  And yet I still seem to order quite a bit - mostly Spanish/German titles, but also sometimes translated stuff and sometimes even just regular old English that I've usually found out about here.  Looking back at the 34 books so far this year plus current reads, only 7 are ones I own; 3 in German, 3 in Spanish, and one translated from Chinese.  But somehow I'm still spending a bunch at Amazon - I know there's at least one nonfiction English book I'd like to read this year that it doesn't seem either consortium has, so probably will buy that one too...  But it still looks like I've spent over $200 in the last 6 months on books, even borrowing most of them...

Quote

 

From The Story of Arthur Truluv (Elizabeth Berg; 2017):

p. 14
Mr. Lyons’s first name is Royal. Maddy thinks that’s hysterical. She wishes she could ask him what’s up with that. Royal. He’s got white hair and he’s a little fat. Maddy likes people who are a little fat; it seems to her that they are approachable. He’s a little fat and he’s got awfully pale skin and the links of his wristwatch are twisted like bad teeth. He doesn’t care about such things. He cares about words. He taught her one of her favorite words: hiraeth, a Welsh word that means homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that maybe never was; it means nostalgia and yearning and grief for lost places. He used the word in a story that he read aloud to the class, and when he looked up, his eyes were full of tears. Nobody made fun of him after class, which was a miracle. Nobody said anything to her, anyway. Not that they would. She’s the girl who sits alone in the lunchroom, acting like her sandwich is fascinating. Or did. She skips lunch now.

She doesn’t know exactly why kids don’t like her. She’s good-looking enough. She has a sense of humor. She’s not dumb. She guesses it’s because they can sense how much she needs them. They are like kids in a circle holding sticks, picking on the weak thing. It is in people to be entertained by cruelty.

p. 18
Arthur thinks that, above all, aging means the abandonment of criticism and the taking on of compassionate acceptance. He sees that as a good trade. And anyway, Lucille makes those snickerdoodles, and she always packs some up for him to take home, and he eats them in bed, which is another thing he can do now, oh, sorrowful gifts.

 

I like those excerpts enough to add this to my TR list... could use a feel-good book every now.

[Liz CA]

It's been quite the week...therefore the only reading I have done is my "escape reading" - Coulter's FBI series late at night under the covers. I hope I get more done this coming week.

Audiobook I am hoping to finish:

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Just took the "Blue quiz" and I am stable and reliable Cobalt Blue.  ☺️

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by Liz CA

[Kidlit]

Hi, all. 

We just made an unplanned trip to the library and I checked out 5-6 books, all of which (except one) are books about . . .books.  

The only problem with this  is that I’ve barely read anything this week.  I’ve made some progress in The Chosen by Potok and also The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Defede.  I’m still reading The Penderwicks in Spring by Birdsall aloud to my boys and The Year of Impossoble Goodbyes by aloud to my 13 year old daughter. 

Some weeks are just like this, I guess. I didn’t even listen to any audiobooks this week, opting instead to listen to podcasts. 

 

[Kidlit]

I also wanted to say to @Lori D.from last week’s thread that I listened to News of the World by Jiles a few weeks ago and LOVED it. 

[mumto2]

The quiz gave me Cobalt Blue..........

I have had a lazy weekend trying to recover from a virus brought home by my son.  Hopefully I will follow his path and feel much better tomorrow.  So I have read quite a bit and caught up on Grey’s Anatomy..........anyone else still watch after all these years?

I finished a good suspense/thriller this afternoon called The Flight Attendanthttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35506211-the-flight-attendant. It was an easy page turner that starts with the main character ( alcoholic flight attendant) waking up next to a murdered man (first class passenger) in a hotel in Dubai.  Best description is probably beach read.

Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterhill https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/979311.Disco_For_The_Departed is the third Dr. Siri book that I have read.  This series takes place in Laos during the 70’s with the main character being the national coroner for Laos.  I really enjoyed the first book but would probably class the next two as rabbit trail making....I have learned a bit. 😉. This is for my Asian Detectives 10 category.

i also revisited recently discovered cozy author Victoria Gilbert  with her Shelved under Murder https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36263256-shelved-under-murder in her Library cozy series.  In this one the Friends annual sale leads to murder.  I like these.....

 

[Kareni]

6 hours ago, Mothersweets said:

I just received Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land from my library holds. It's a memoir about a young woman working paycheck to paycheck as a maid, becoming a mother, and struggling to make ends meet. I first heard of this book during an interview with the author on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. 

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the book.  I just came across this review of it:

This Memoir Will Make You Rethink All the Times You’ve Judged “Bad” Mothers

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

7 hours ago, Robin M said:

Take the Buzzfeed quiz and find out What shade of blue are you? 

I took the quiz and got Turquoise

"You are unique, ornamental, and complicated. At times you can't fully decide what you are and you seem to be caught between different colors. But you are iconic; as old as time. You make a statement wherever you go."

 As old as time sounds rather...old!  However, I can appreciate the 'can't fully decide what you are'!

Regards,

Kareni

[Mothersweets]

5 hours ago, hopeistheword said:

I read Maid a few weeks ago and enjoyed it.  I’m working on my review for my blog. Thanks for sharing the interview!

You're welcome! I look forward to reading your review!

1 hour ago, Kareni said:

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the book.  I just came across this review of it:

This Memoir Will Make You Rethink All the Times You’ve Judged “Bad” Mothers

Regards,

Kareni

Good review - I'm about halfway through the book and am already having some of the same thoughts.

[JennW in SoCal]

I stopped by last week but never long enough to write an update.

The Library Book by Susan Orleans is simply fabulous and I highly recommend it to all of you. It sounds like a dry non-fiction -- a history of the Los Angeles Public Library with stops along the way to consider the massive 1986 fire that almost destroyed the main branch, and to consider the job of the modern librarian. But in truth it is a page turner with beautiful writing, fascinating anecdotes, and a heartfelt passion about the subject. Best of all, the hardback edition feels good in your hands, with its cloth hardcover and the rough cut edges, even a photograph of a library due date card pocket on the last end page. 

Thin Air by Richard K Morgan was entertaining, but I wholeheartedly do NOT recommend it for this group!! Oh my, no! It is a testosterone laden, expletive riddled, cyberpunk-noir thriller mash up set on Mars. It was handed to me by a friend who had just finished it because it was the sci-fi/fantasy book of the month from our favorite indie bookstore. She and I were cracking up over it. I don't think the author intended it to be serious, but was just having too much fun writing over the top weaponry, tech, violent fights and well, graphic scenes of s*x.  I was thinking I need to find some Georgette Heyer to rebalance my soul!

I'm in the middle of another sci-fi epic, this one much smarter and original. It is Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I almost gave up on it, but our own Penguin reassured me that it remains a smart and original story, that it doesn't regress into standard horror despite the giant sentient arachnids that feature in the book. I kid you not. Giant sentient arachnids!!!  Really, I need to reread Heyer or something else gentle!

I also thoroughly enjoyed the 7th River of London book, Lies Sleeping. And @Kareni, I know exactly what you mean about the grating grammar of "me and Leslie". Peter Grant at one point talks about how he KNOWS it is incorrect but he does it anyway just to annoy Nightingale. I didn't notice that construct popping up in the 7th book, or if it did it wasn't as often.

[Kareni]

59 minutes ago, JennW in SoCal said:

And @Kareni, I know exactly what you mean about the grating grammar of "me and Leslie". Peter Grant at one point talks about how he KNOWS it is incorrect but he does it anyway just to annoy Nightingale.

I'm half tempted to reread the first two books because I did not notice that usage there. And now I'm wondering if it takes until book three for Peter to become sufficiently comfortable with Nightingale that he can afford to annoy him. It makes me think of children misbehaving at home but exhibiting good manners elsewhere.

Regards,

Kareni

[Negin]

12 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

Thanks for the nice review, Negin!  This is likely my next book in Spanish; it's been lying here around gathering dust for a few years now - shinier things have kept getting in front of it (perhaps partly because it's a chunkster).  You have me looking forward to it now!

I'm envious of the fact that you can speak and read Spanish. I hope you enjoy the book. 

[Negin]

Kindle book on sale today - autobiography/memoir/self-help/parenting

 

[Kareni]

Some bookish posts ~

This is from 2014 and contains the Aaronovitch series I've been reading:  Come With Us to All the Magical Londons! By Leah Schnelbach

https://www.tor.com/2014/09/08/books-hidden-alternative-london-magical-doorway-stories/

7 Books About Conflicted Spirituality by Emily W. Pease

https://electricliterature.com/7-books-about-conflicted-spirituality/

6 Books Made of Weird Materials

https://electricliterature.com/6-books-made-of-weird-materials/

Learning to Cook for One by Gina Mei 

https://electricliterature.com/learning-to-cook-for-one/

8 Cookbooks You Can Read Like…Books by Jaya Saxena

https://electricliterature.com/8-cookbooks-you-can-read-likebooks/

Regards,

Kareni

[Robin M]

23 hours ago, Melissa M said:

Robin, cyan... the color of technology but as old as nature itself. Wait, what? 🤣

Oh, and postscript... A few weeks back, you were doing a challenge that included an option to read the first book of a series. I chose Louise Penny's Still Life to be read sometime this year. Which challenge is that?

Indeed, what?  Puzzling that one out. 

The challenge is March's Whodunit bookology - Armand Gamache.

 

[Negin]

Kindle book on sale today, by my very favorite, Dennis Prager. 

[aggieamy]

Two books done!

The Key ( a Miss Silver mystery). - Recommend. It's set and written during WWII which is always fascinating to me. It wasn't published until 1944 so it was probably written in 1942 or '43. The British were in the midst of it then and didn't know if they'd win the war or not. What a fascinating time! This is the ninth Miss Silver book I've read and still haven't gotten sick of them. They're formulaic but in way that is still fun. Really they make fantastic audiobooks.

Revising Your Novel by Janice Hardy - Every writer should have this on your shelf. I read it cover to cover but it took me forever because it's more of a reference book. My entire book is filled with highlights and sticky tabs for things I want to remember. @Robin M @ErinE

[aggieamy]

On 4/7/2019 at 6:10 PM, mumto2 said:

Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterhill https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/979311.Disco_For_The_Departed is the third Dr. Siri book that I have read.  This series takes place in Laos during the 70’s with the main character being the national coroner for Laos.  I really enjoyed the first book but would probably class the next two as rabbit trail making....I have learned a bit. 😉. This is for my Asian Detectives 10 category.

 

I keep meaning to pick up the second book in that series. 

On 4/7/2019 at 10:36 PM, JennW in SoCal said:

Thin Air by Richard K Morgan was entertaining, but I wholeheartedly do NOT recommend it for this group!! Oh my, no! It is a testosterone laden, expletive riddled, cyberpunk-noir thriller mash up set on Mars. It was handed to me by a friend who had just finished it because it was the sci-fi/fantasy book of the month from our favorite indie bookstore. She and I were cracking up over it. I don't think the author intended it to be serious, but was just having too much fun writing over the top weaponry, tech, violent fights and well, graphic scenes of s*x.  I was thinking I need to find some Georgette Heyer to rebalance my soul!

I feel like this on a daily basis. 

[Junie]

Last week's books:

The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure -- I read this as a pre-read for one of my girls.  I didn't hate this book, but I didn't like it, either.  The book tells the story of how two girls faked photographs of fairies to trick their parents.  The story went viral (in the early 1900s sense) and took on a life of its own.

Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie -- This is a compilation of 4 short stories which makes it the perfect kind of book to keep in the car to read when waiting for kids' lessons to finish or when waiting for grocery pickup. 😉

This week:

I'm tackling The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  I'm hoping that it's better than the Disney movie.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Junie

[mumto2]

I just read all four books in Karen Robard’s Dr. Charlotte Stone series.  They take place one after another with cliff hangers and I just got completely hooked.  Charle (Dr. Stone) is a psychiatrist who studies serial killers complete with an office in the prison that houses many death row inmates...one of her cases is murdered in front of her and his ghost attaches himself to her because she can see him, and other ghosts of the recently departed.  Yep, I kept on reading.  😂. Great escapism, adult scenes..... perfect for a couple of days when I still can’t seem to stop sneezing.  This is the first in the series https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13114564-the-last-victim. 

On to Tombland,  the new Shardlake Tudor mystery by CJ Sansom.  This series is a great favorite of mine because it simply isn’t typical Tudor......in this book Edward is King.  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40095725-tombland?ac=1&from_search=true

[purpleowl]

I just finished a pre-read for the kids - a "retold for younger readers" version of Virgil's Aeneid. I knew nothing about the Aeneid beyond the fact that it was written (a) by Virgil and (b) in Latin. So I was very surprised to find that I was reading, basically, Homer fanfiction. 😄

(It was this version, in case anyone's curious. Should work fine for my kids to read next year when we're doing ancients in history, though I will need to tell them that they're allowed to skim the sections describing deaths.)

[Robin M]

5 hours ago, aggieamy said:

Revising Your Novel by Janice Hardy - Every writer should have this on your shelf. I read it cover to cover but it took me forever because it's more of a reference book. My entire book is filled with highlights and sticky tabs for things I want to remember. @Robin M @ErinE

I'm in the middle of a big revision so this may come in handy.  Thanks! 

3 hours ago, mumto2 said:

I just read all four books in Karen Robard’s Dr. Charlotte Stone series.  They take place one after another with cliff hangers and I just got completely hooked.  Charle (Dr. Stone) is a psychiatrist who studies serial killers complete with an office in the prison that houses many death row inmates...one of her cases is murdered in front of her and his ghost attaches himself to her because she can see him, and other ghosts of the recently departed.  Yep, I kept on reading.  😂. Great escapism, adult scenes..... perfect for a couple of days when I still can’t seem to stop sneezing.  This is the first in the series https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13114564-the-last-victim. 

On to Tombland,  the new Shardlake Tudor mystery by CJ Sansom.  This series is a great favorite of mine because it simply isn’t typical Tudor......in this book Edward is King.  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40095725-tombland?ac=1&from_search=true

Hope you feel better soon.  Robard's books look really interesting. Will have to check them out. 

[Kidlit]

On 4/9/2019 at 4:56 AM, Negin said:

Kindle book on sale today, by my very favorite, Dennis Prager. 

Thanks for this, @Negin! I haven't bought anything for my Kindle in a long time, but I added this one.  I'm intrigued!

[mumto2]

A few weeks ago I put two “Gone Girl Like” thrillers from my library’s newly purchased section on my hold’s list because I was in the mood for some thing a bit different.  Admittedly I seem to be switching to back thrillers again 😉 but both my initial books have now appeared and been read.  Since I suspect both will be making the summer beach reads lists so thought I would mention both here .........The French Girl https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35235624-the-french-girl sort of meanders along so really not a page turner, but interesting.  Six students from Oxford went on holiday to France 10 years ago and become involved with the French girl next door.  When they return to England they learn she has not been seen since their departure and are questioned.  Now 10 years later her body is found and they are all suspects.  The story is told by Kate, from the North and State Schools, who was always the outsider in the group.  The book grew on me as I continued,  at first I simply kept reading because it was the easiest book I had concentration wise 😂 but by the end I was quite invested in the main character.........My other beach read book was The Flight Attendant https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35506211-the-flight-attendant?ac=1&from_search=true which I read last week.  It really was a page turner with a main character who was a mess, an alcoholic flight attendant who sleeps around.  One morning she wakes up covered in blood with the dead guy beside her in bed.  No memory.........the book is what she does after.

Both of these books failed to really explain the solutions to my satisfaction but they were entertaining!😋

14 hours ago, Robin M said:

I'm in the middle of a big revision so this may come in handy.  Thanks! 

Hope you feel better soon.  Robard's books look really interesting. Will have to check them out. 

Thanks,  I think I am feeling quite a bit better.    Have you read Robard before?  I know I have read several of Robard’s stand alones over the years but failed to keep track of them.  She has a couple of other series out there that I may try and assemble and read.

[Kareni]

Two books I've enjoyed are currently FREE for Kindle readers ~

Dark Horse by Michelle Diener

 

Elle Pierson's Artistic License

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Quote

 

[Negin]

20 hours ago, hopeistheword said:

Thanks for this, @Negin! I haven't bought anything for my Kindle in a long time, but I added this one.  I'm intrigued!

You're welcome. I haven't read it yet. He is very conservative. To me, he makes so much sense. I've enjoyed every book of his that I've read so far. 

[Emba]

On 4/9/2019 at 3:37 PM, Junie said:

Last week's books:

The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure -- I read this as a pre-read for one of my girls.  I didn't hate this book, but I didn't like it, either.  The book tells the story of how two girls faked photographs of fairies to trick their parents.  The story went viral (in the early 1900s sense) and took on a life of its own.

Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie -- This is a compilation of 4 short stories which makes it the perfect kind of book to keep in the car to read when waiting for kids' lessons to finish or when waiting for grocery pickup. 😉

This week:

I'm tackling The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  I'm hoping that it's better than the Disney movie.

 

The Hunchback of Norte Dame - that is a book that I can’t believe they ever looked at and thought “Yes, we should make an animated children’s movie out of this.”

Yes, it’s better than the movie. No, i will never re-read it. ( Just about what I told my son about the Old Yeller when he asked about it)

[Emba]

I didn’t post last week, but I read a book, Septimus and the Minster Ghost Mystery, by Stephen Chance. I have a personal challenge to read the unread books off of my own shelves. This is an older mystery, apparently part of a series, apparently intended for YA? It was good enough, but I’m not hunting down others in the series. Too much depended on layout and frequent review of the building diagram at the front yet it didn’t seem to have everything labeled or to match the text.

It was, however, that rare beast, the engaging mystery that isn’t a murder mystery, though there was a lot of discussion about a century old murder that supposedly gave rise to the “haunting “. If anyone else knows of good mysteries that aren’t murder mysteries, I’m all ears.

This week my “off my shelves” book is 100 Spanish Idioms by J.M. Cassagne. Lots of fun. Has cartoons and funny paragraphs illustrating each. I’m not sure what part of the Spanish-spanish speaking world the author is from, though, and so I’m not sure how many of these I can realistically expect to hear around here/incorporate into my vocabulary.  We have mostly Mexican/Central American immigrants. I’ve only already known 1 of the idioms in the book so far and I’m halfway through.

My favorite so far : Salir de Guatemala y meterse in Guatepeor. 

Literally: to leave Guate-bad and go to Guate-worse.

It means basically “out of the frying pan, into the fire”, or “ to go from bad to worse”. It’s a pun and I love puns.

[Emba]

I also started an audiobook, The Innocent by David Baldacci. Spy thriller type action novels are generally not my thing (too testosterone-y) but it seemed interesting. Through the first few chapters I had a nagging feeling of familiarity, but chalked it up to many action novels having similar events and lots of shooting. Then as it continued i realized a I’d listened to it before, but didn’t remember much about it. And so o quit listening because if I’ve listened to it before and don’t remember the ending, it probably isn’t worth listening to again.

[Kareni]

9 hours ago, emba56 said:

If anyone else knows of good mysteries that aren’t murder mysteries, I’m all ears.

Here are a few links that may be helpful:

(Cozy) Mystery Book without a Murder (?!?)

Mysteries Without Murder

Popular Non Murder Mystery Books (Goodreads),

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

My daughter is visiting from Korea for a couple of weeks. We are definitely enjoying her company, but I suspect I'll be reading less while she's here. Naturally, about twenty holds and new books just arrived from the library plus my book group meets next week. I'm awash in good things!

I've recently finished Ben Aaronovitch's Foxglove Summer: A Rivers of London Novel which I enjoyed.

I also reread with pleasure Anne Cleeland's Murder In Thrall (A New Scotland Yard Mystery Book 1) and Murder in Retribution (A New Scotland Yard Mystery Book 2).

Regards,

Kareni

[Mothersweets]

3 hours ago, Kareni said:

My daughter is visiting from Korea for a couple of weeks. We are definitely enjoying her company, but I suspect I'll be reading less while she's here. Naturally, about twenty holds and new books just arrived from the library plus my book group meets next week. I'm awash in good things!

I've recently finished Ben Aaronovitch's Foxglove Summer: A Rivers of London Novel which I enjoyed.

I also reread with pleasure Anne Cleeland's Murder In Thrall (A New Scotland Yard Mystery Book 1) and Murder in Retribution (A New Scotland Yard Mystery Book 2).

Regards,

Kareni

Enjoy your time with your daughter!

[tuesdayschild]

From last week;

On 4/4/2019 at 4:53 AM, aggieamy said:

By book 21 have they given Ian Rutledge anything positive in life? A girlfriend? A superior officer that isn't out to get him? Mental stability? I love the writing and the time period but after six books (including some in the teens) I started to get depressed. I'd love to pick the series back up but won't until they help our hero out a bit. 

Not really, though he does seem to be doing 'better', Hamish is not so prevalent and is a more positive help inside Rutledge's head. No girlfriend .  Yep, the superior officer has power inferiority/superiority issues.   I'll keep you posted if the Todds finally give Ian a decent break.

 

[Negin]

Kindle book on sale today - Book 3 in The Cazalet Chronicles

 

[Robin M]

James is all excited with the release of the trailer for the newest and last Star Wars movie in the  skywalker saga.  Episode 9:  The Rise of Skywalker.  I watched the first movie, New Hope when I was just a teenager.  Watched the trailer today and I got all misty eyed.  Getting sentimental in my middle ages about the whole series.  Of course, watching the younger set, teens and twenties whooping and hollering while watching the trailer at Star Wars celebration is so much fun.  An old villain we all thought was gone has returned. Bwahahaha! 

Have made final decisions on all the flooring for the house.  Wahoo!  Have driven my technicians crazy with all the choices, but hey they wanted a say...so 😄    Contractor still working on painting interior and will move shortly to painting the outside. 

Not much reading getting done.  James is in movie mode and last night we watched Muppets from Space.   Next up is Terminator Salvation.  Oy!  I refused to watch Aliens vs Predators - a bit too violent for me. He had a grand time watching with his dad.   

Time for me to get back to work.  

TTFN

😘

 

[Kareni]

Earlier today (while waiting my turn at the dentist's office), I finished my reread of Anne Cleeland's Murder in Hindsight (A New Scotland Yard Mystery, Book 3) which I enjoyed once again. And, good news -- I got a clean bill of health from the dentist!

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

13 hours ago, Robin M said:

James is all excited with the release of the trailer for the newest and last Star Wars movie in the  skywalker saga.  Episode 9:  The Rise of Skywalker.  I watched the first movie, New Hope when I was just a teenager.  Watched the trailer today and I got all misty eyed.  Getting sentimental in my middle ages about the whole series.  Of course, watching the younger set, teens and twenties whooping and hollering while watching the trailer at Star Wars celebration is so much fun.  An old villain we all thought was gone has returned. Bwahahaha! 

Have made final decisions on all the flooring for the house.  Wahoo!  Have driven my technicians crazy with all the choices, but hey they wanted a say...so 😄    Contractor still working on painting interior and will move shortly to painting the outside. 

Not much reading getting done.  James is in movie mode and last night we watched Muppets from Space.   Next up is Terminator Salvation.  Oy!  I refused to watch Aliens vs Predators - a bit too violent for me. He had a grand time watching with his dad.   

Time for me to get back to work.  

TTFN

😘

 

Sounds like the building is on the way to being finished! Woot!!!!

Our guys are going to be out tonight so Dd and I have a girls tv night planned......probably not the typical girly choices as we are between Killing Eve and The Expanse but we are looking forward to it.

13 hours ago, Kareni said:

Earlier today (while waiting my turn at the dentist's office), I finished my reread of Anne Cleeland's Murder in Hindsight (A New Scotland Yard Mystery, Book 3) which I enjoyed once again. And, good news -- I got a clean bill of health from the dentist!

Regards,

Kareni

Glad your dental visit went well.  I need to get back to the Cleeland series.........I just started reading Marie Force’s Fatal series again after @melmichigan posted about the most recent installment. 😢

[Kareni]

34 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

Glad your dental visit went well.  I need to get back to the Cleeland series.........I just started reading Marie Force’s Fatal series again after @melmichigan posted about the most recent installment. 😢

Thank you! I am very glad about the good dental visit outcome.

I'm a couple of books behind in the Fatal series; I too would like to get caught up after that very positive review from melmichigan.  Happy reading!

Regards,

Kareni

[Negin]

Kindle books on sale today. 

The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding (historical fiction)

America's First Daughter (historical fiction)

  

 

[Robin M]

Week 16 is live - please continue conversation in new thread