Book a Week 2019 - BW26: Summertime Fun

[Kareni]

7 hours ago, Liz CA said:

Don't know what my next audio will be and I need one quick because of the long commute every day

I can't recall if you've read The Martian. My husband and I really enjoyed the audio book. (Some language)

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

I finished By Cook or by Crook last night and would be happy to read another in the series but haven’t looked yet.......gave it a 3*.

Today I started another new to me cozy series by Ellery Adams.  The Secret Book and Scone Society has interesting characters but what has me really intrigued is the main character lives in a train car/ tiny house.  I googled some pictures for an idea of what it might look like and I am amazed at how fun and nice these can be..........take a look at the variety.https://www.bobvila.com/slideshow/all-aboard-9-railroad-cars-converted-into-homes-47634#western-train-car.

[Kareni]

I just finished a book which I quite enjoyed. I'd read several books in the author's other series, but I preferred this and expect to read on in the series. I believe that mumto2 has also read this. (Significant violence to women and children, mostly described off the page),

Blood of the Earth by Faith Hunter,

"When Nell Ingram met skinwalker Jane Yellowrock, she was almost alone in the world, exiled by both choice and fear from the cult she was raised in, defending herself with the magic she drew from her deep connection to the forest that surrounds her.

Now, Jane has referred Nell to PsyLED, a Homeland Security agency policing paranormals, and agent Rick LaFleur has shown up at Nell’s doorstep. His appearance forces her out of her isolated life into an investigation that leads to the vampire Blood Master of Nashville.

Nell has a team—and a mission. But to find the Master’s kidnapped vassal, Nell and the PsyLED team will be forced to go deep into the heart of the very cult Nell fears, infiltrating the cult and a humans-only terrorist group before time runs out...'

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

24 minutes ago, Kareni said:

I just finished a book which I quite enjoyed. I'd read several books in the author's other series, but I preferred this and expect to read on in the series. I believe that mumto2 has also read this. (Significant violence to women and children, mostly described off the page),

Blood of the Earth by Faith Hunter,

"When Nell Ingram met skinwalker Jane Yellowrock, she was almost alone in the world, exiled by both choice and fear from the cult she was raised in, defending herself with the magic she drew from her deep connection to the forest that surrounds her.

Now, Jane has referred Nell to PsyLED, a Homeland Security agency policing paranormals, and agent Rick LaFleur has shown up at Nell’s doorstep. His appearance forces her out of her isolated life into an investigation that leads to the vampire Blood Master of Nashville.

Nell has a team—and a mission. But to find the Master’s kidnapped vassal, Nell and the PsyLED team will be forced to go deep into the heart of the very cult Nell fears, infiltrating the cult and a humans-only terrorist group before time runs out...'

Regards,

Kareni

I love the Soulwood series!  I ❤️ Nell.  Have you read the latest one.....only asking because I like how the story is evolving especially in regards the group she grew up in.   Have to admit this is one of the series I want to reread......think I will do it all by itself and skip the Jane Yellowrock books that sometimes intersect with these characters.   I know a couple other BaWers read these too.....think Robin just reread actually.

[Kareni]

21 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

I love the Soulwood series!  I ❤️ Nell.  Have you read the latest one.....only asking because I like how the story is evolving especially in regards the group she grew up in.  

This is the first Soulwood book I've read. I'd previously read several of the Jane Yellowrock books but lost momentum/interest somewhere along the way. I do like Nell, too!

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

22 minutes ago, Kareni said:

This is the first Soulwood book I've read. I'd previously read several of the Jane Yellowrock books but lost momentum/interest somewhere along the way. I do like Nell, too!

Regards,

Kareni

I remember when you were reading them.  I was very late to this author.😉 

  Just an FYI, I believe there are a couple of interesting events that take place in Soulwood but in the Yellowrock portion of the series.  I just tried to google to figure out which books and wasn’t successful.  They are briefly recapped in the Soulwood books ( at least the event that mattered in the latest book was) so I am not sure I would bother with the Yellowrock books but wanted you to know in case you feel like you have missed something.

[Kareni]

1 minute ago, mumto2 said:

Just an FYI, I believe there are a couple of interesting events that take place in Soulwood but in the Yellowrock portion of the series.  I just tried to google to figure out which books and wasn’t successful.  They are briefly recapped in the Soulwood books ( at least the event that mattered in the latest book was) so I am not sure I would bother with the Yellowrock books but wanted you to know in case you feel like you have missed something.

Thanks for that information, mumto2. I've been dithering whether I should reread the three Yellowrock books on my shelf, but I think I'll pass for now. The intertwining of the two series is reminiscent of Patricia Briggs' Alpha and Omega stories with her Mercy Thompson books.

Regards,

Kareni

[Pen]

There seems to be a 2 for 1 sale on Audible for members with credits.  Anyone getting anything?

 I still have unread ones from last time, but think I’ll at least get a couple Great Course audios 

I have learned of new to me books / authors from these sales sometimes.

 

[Violet Crown]

Finished The Idiot, at last. The critical essay I read on it charitably suggested that Prince Myshkin was Dostoevsky's practice run for the saintly Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov. Which latter I may re-read; but I don't think I'll re-read The Idiot. 10x10 category: Brexit Special (Russia).

Now reading Theophile Gautier's life of Baudelaire, which the cat chose for me, pulling the lovely hundred-year-old book with gilted binding off the shelf and onto the floor below as her special way of telling me she'd waited long enough for her second breakfast. The second half is selected Baudelairean poetry, translated by Guy Thorne of whom I've never heard. Gautier was Baudelaire's mentor, to whom Les Fleurs du Mal is famously dedicated, and was a sort of late Romantic or early Decadent, depending I suppose on how one sees his literary relationship to Baudelaire. Sample:

Quote

If his [Baudelaire's] bouquet is composed of strange flowers, of metallic colourings and exotic perfumes, the calyx of which, instead of joy, contains bitter tears and drops of aqua-tofana, he can reply that he planted but a few into the black soil, saturating them in putrefaction, as the soil of a cemetery dissolves the corpses of preceding centuries among mephitic miasmas.

There's plenty more if you like that kind of thing. Which I do. Maybe I need to go read my book on the art of Aubrey Beardsley next.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Violet Crown

[Pen]

 

For my half 10x10 trying to pursue some poetry-

Not sure if this is okay as an educational post or should be deleted in re copyright 

here’s a poem by Mike Freeman 

one of the Louise Penny  “Ruth Zardo” poets apparently:

 

 

THE FOUR SAY-SO’S

I. SPRUNG!

The blue’s all sparrowed up.
The peaceful natters riverly.
Cedarish, the swaying
Cattish, the fence.
The garden? Pure tulipian.
Everything is sundayful.

II. SIMMER,

You skip across the water’s surface like a stone 
suddenly freed from its own heavy thoughts.
Me plodding along the beach beside you,
a city still strapped to my back.
Seagulls burrow tunnels in air.
Your hair is a dirty-blonde breeze. 
Mist encircles the rock
as your lips encircle my name.
Water rushes up to kiss you,
sun, embrace you
and you linger there to let them do so.
Sands beneath your feet  
spilt from a broken hourglass. 

III. FELL.

Fly away, Scarecrow! Let the crows roost.
Fall back! Fall back! You Army of Hours.
Heaven’s closed up shop with shutters of steel.
Leaves hemorrhage spectrums and trees explode.

These are the months that rhyme with “remember”.
Crumbling mementos of girls named April or May.
Time flicks his finger and nights fall like dominos.
Who will save us from the cold, dark harvest? 

IV. WITHER?

The slumbering Earth abandons the fight
and buries her face in a pillow of snow. 
She will not wake up 
though clouds, tubercular, cough up blizzards
and fanatical winds holler angry rants.
Here life turns inward, exists as pure potential.
A dream of what this world could be—
a world where hope is green 
and birds convert St. Francis.
April-starved habitué of frost-spangled windows,
quit your snow-blind gazing—look within.
The thing you seek is a seed inside you.  
Springtime is already here.

 

http://hammeredoutlitzine.blogspot.com/2007/09/mike-freeman.html

[SKL]

I finished "Parenting Through the Storm."  It was a very quick read and I'm not sure what it was about.  I may have to read it again, because I suspect I missed something in the hubbub of the last 2 weeks.

I am now reading "How to Talk so Teens will Listen and Listen so Teens will Talk."  A lot of it is common sense, but I am enjoying the read.  I like how they use cartoons.  I hope to share them with someone in our lives who often says too much and the wrong things to my kids; and who also will not read a book to save her life.

Still too early to start my next fiction read.  Busy busy busy ....

[Pen]

 

1 minute ago, SKL said:

I am now reading "How to Talk so Teens will Listen and Listen so Teens will Talk."  A lot of it is common sense, but I am enjoying the read.  I like how they use cartoons.  I hope to share them with someone in our lives who often says too much and the wrong things to my kids; and who also will not read a book to save her life.

 

I need to reread that!  I say too much. 

Thanks for the reminder!

 

 

[Violet Crown]

Thanks for the poetry, Pen!

More Gautier, on Baudelaire:

Quote

A charming poem on perfumes classifies them, rousing ideas, sensations, and memories. Some are fresh, like the flesh of an infant, green like the fields in spring, recalling the blush of dawn and caring with them the thoughts of innocence. Others, like musk, amber, benzoin, nard, and incense, are superb, triumphant, worldly, and provoke coquetry, love, luxury, festivities, and splendours. If one transposed them into the sphere of colours, they would represent gold and purple. The poet often recurs to this idea of the significance of perfumes. Surrounding a tawny beauty from the Cape, who seemed to have a mission for sleeping off home sickness, he spoke of this mixed odour "of musk and havana" which transported her soul to the well-loved lands of the Sun, where the leaves of the palm-trees make fans in the blue and tepid air, where the masts of the ships sway harmoniously to the roll of the sea, while the silent slaves try to distract their young master from his languishing melancholy.

Well all right then. Paging Edward Said....

Voici le poème lui-même (traduit):

Quote

 

Parfum exotique

When I, with eyes shut, on warm autumn eves, 
The fragrance of your warmer breast respire, 
I see a country bathed in solar fire 
Whose happy shores its lustre never leaves;

An isle of indolence, where nature raises 
Singular trees and fruits both sweet and tender, 
Where men have bodies vigorous and slender 
And women's eyes a candour that amazes.

Led by your scent to fairer climes at last, 
I see a port of sails, where every mast 
Seems weary of the labours of its cruise;

While scents of tamarind, blown here and there, 
Swelling my nostrils as they rinse the air, 
Are mingled with the chanties of the crews.

 

Charles Baudelaire (trad. Roy Campbell)

 

[Violet Crown]

On June 26, 2019 at 4:55 PM, Penguin said:

In the beginning of the year, I asked for recommendations for my next Faulkner, and @Violet Crown mentioned Absalom, Absalom. Great rec, VC. 

Absalom, Absalom was fantastic. I took a long break at about the 75% mark, and that somewhat ruined the reading experience for me. That is not the fault of the book, though. I really loved the way the story was told - people sitting around telling a story over and over. But each time a little differently or told by someone else or with an added detail. Each perspective is a little different. And there is conjecture about what really happened, because the people sitting around talking were not actually present for the events. This is the way I have learned my family stories. Sometimes, decades later, I find out a detail that rocks my perception or that makes all of my previous knowledge fit together.

I am SO glad that you enjoyed it! Well I suppose "enjoyed" can't be quite the right word for the satisfaction of reading that book, and feeling the missing pieces of the picture fall into place, completely transforming one's assumptions and understanding of the narrative.

[Pen]

Absalom, Absalom of Faulkner?  

[Violet Crown]

23 minutes ago, Pen said:

Absalom, Absalom of Faulkner?  

Yes.

[Pen]

1 hour ago, Violet Crown said:

Yes.

 

I went through a Faulkner phase some years ago.  

I seem to gravitate to lighter fiction these days.

 

 I admire getting through The Idiot.  I gave up.  I’m more a Tolstoy type reader.  I loved War and Peace at a time I could read it in leisure, not have to do it by ____ for a class.  

[Pen]

N animal

Neon Tetra (fish, colorful)

 

also  there are 

Nues and 

Naugas

 

( the animals that give nubuck and Naugahyde)

 

[Pen]

My Library membership expired.  My Library2Go, Hoopla, Libby ...    terminated.  

With ds in PS we aren’t using library as much as when we homeschooled so I have to decide if it’s audiobook access is worth the membership cost now.    Probably still is.  

[Kareni]

16 minutes ago, Pen said:

My Library membership expired.  My Library2Go, Hoopla, Libby ...    terminated.  

With ds in PS we aren’t using library as much as when we homeschooled so I have to decide if it’s audiobook access is worth the membership cost now.    Probably still is.  

I haven't homeschooled since my daughter graduated from high school in 2009 (and it's sobering to realize that was now ten years ago), but I find it worthwhile to pay for a library membership at the city next door. I have a card at our markedly smaller city library but pay $130.00 per year for the other card. I check out a lot of books for me and a goodly number of DVDs for my husband.

Regards,

Kareni

[Matryoshka]

44 minutes ago, Pen said:

My Library membership expired.  My Library2Go, Hoopla, Libby ...    terminated.  

With ds in PS we aren’t using library as much as when we homeschooled so I have to decide if it’s audiobook access is worth the membership cost now.    Probably still is.  

Wow, you guys have to pay to use the library??  I thought the whole point of the library was that it was free.  I have cards at both my local consortium and the one next to me.  I always figured if I wasn't getting much benefit from my taxes for services in the form of public school, I'm sure getting my money's worth from the library!  All my audiobooks are free from Overdrive - and they just recently told us we could also use the Overdrive system from all the other consortiums in the state (even those we don't have cards to). 

[Pen]

2 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Wow, you guys have to pay to use the library??  I thought the whole point of the library was that it was free.  I have cards at both my local consortium and the one next to me.  I always figured if I wasn't getting much benefit from my taxes for services in the form of public school, I'm sure getting my money's worth from the library!  All my audiobooks are free from Overdrive - and they just recently told us we could also use the Overdrive system from all the other consortiums in the state (even those we don't have cards to). 

 

Wow. Sweet deal! 

Here it is only free for people in city limits.  We are outside all city limits.  So our taxes don’t include library and if we want to borrow material, use computer, etc, we have to pay.  

We can go in for free and read there. 

We can only use overdrive for libraries we have membership in.  We can interlibrary loan from other libraries—some interlibrary even in same county with fee some not. 

[Matryoshka]

25 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Wow. Sweet deal! 

Here it is only free for people in city limits.  We are outside all city limits.  So our taxes don’t include library and if we want to borrow material, use computer, etc, we have to pay.  

We can go in for free and read there. 

We can only use overdrive for libraries we have membership in.  We can interlibrary loan from other libraries—some interlibrary even in same county with fee some not. 

Yeah, here in the densely settled northeast there's no such thing as "outside city limits." If you leave the limits of one city or town, you've entered another. There's literally no way to not be inside the border. A county here is just a collection of cities and towns all of which butt up right next to each other.  

[Kareni]

39 minutes ago, Pen said:

Here it is only free for people in city limits. 

This is true here also. Therefore, my membership in my local city library is paid for through property taxes. (But I have to pay for a card at the neighboring city.)

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

A free book for Kindle readers ~The Book of Deacon (The Book of Deacon Series 1)by Joseph Lallo

and here's a positive review of the book.

Regards,

Kareni

[Loesje22000]

8 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

Wow, you guys have to pay to use the library??  I thought the whole point of the library was that it was free.  I have cards at both my local consortium and the one next to me.  I always figured if I wasn't getting much benefit from my taxes for services in the form of public school, I'm sure getting my money's worth from the library!  All my audiobooks are free from Overdrive - and they just recently told us we could also use the Overdrive system from all the other consortiums in the state (even those we don't have cards to). 

I have to pay an annual fee (depends on the city you live in) , for IBL, dvd’s , reservations, almost everything. Our current library is cheap, but our former was expensive so I bought more books. Children under 18 are free though.

[mumto2]

1 hour ago, loesje22000 said:

I have to pay an annual fee (depends on the city you live in) , for IBL, dvd’s , reservations, almost everything. Our current library is cheap, but our former was expensive so I bought more books. Children under 18 are free though.

In my part of England libraries are spread throughout the borough with a very small disjointed part of the collection in a small library, hopefully close to you.  Many of the libraries are ran by volunteers so we now have strange hours of operation, some I have heard are down to 2 hours a week.  Fees are paid to move books within the collection unless you are under 16 or an OAP.....can’t remember the age, it could be anywhere from 55 to 68, the computer does it.  So putting a paper book on hold costs 25p.  I have cards in three boroughs.  Needed them because one can only check out 10 books per card and we used libraries extensively while home ending. I decided to give up my volunteer roles a couple of years ago partly in prep for spending more time in the States and partly because I still believe Librarians should be paid for their work.....at least one person in each branch should be paid!  One of my cards still has paid librarians system wide and I go there now.  Libraries are free in England but the reality was I probably spend £3 to £5 a month when I am actively using them.

I also use a free to me library in the States.  I love theOverdrive and when I am there I love accumulating a good stack of books and not paying fees.

[mumto2]

Since this week’s thread is almost over I am going to add a bit of Brit Tripping type info to it.  This is the time of the year when villages in Derbyshire’s Peak District celebrate with Well Dressings.  https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/whats-on/well-dressings. We used to go to the church service and exhibition in a friend’s village when the kids were little.  We took a drive to Bakewell today and discovered the Well Dressings and a Morris Dance Festival.  Here are a couple of favorites......

Eta......the blue and grey work around the exterior is part of the picture so clay with flower petals, moss etc.. all natural elements.

Edited June 30, 2019 by mumto2

[Kareni]

Yesterday I started Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey which kept me up late reading. Those of you who like mystery and magic might like this; I did. @mumto2, @RobinM, @melmichigan... And, no, I did not figure out the mystery.

Now I'm rather interested in trying the author's alternate history novella about hippos in Louisiana ~ River of Teeth

 "Sharp, mainstream fantasy meets compelling thrills of investigative noir in Magic for Liars, a fantasy debut by rising star Sarah Gailey. 

Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it.

Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life – or at least, she’s perfectly fine.

She doesn't in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister.

Ivy Gamble is a liar.

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister―without losing herself. "

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

26 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

This is the time of the year when villages in Derbyshire’s Peak District celebrate with Well Dressings.  https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/whats-on/well-dressings. We used to go to the church service and exhibition in a friend’s village when the kids were little.  We took a drive to Bakewell today and discovered the Well Dressings and a Morris Dance Festival.  

How fascinating, mumto2! I'd never heard of Well Dressings. Thanks for sharing your pictures and the link.

Regards,

Kareni

[Violet Crown]

23 hours ago, Pen said:

 I admire getting through The Idiot.  I gave up.  

There's suddenly an awful lot of plot in the last fifty pages.

Sandy, those photos make me very happy. Sometimes I think, Why do I have a culture of cattle kings and oilfields and food trucks, when I could have had a culture of morris dancing and well dressings and all the best literature?

Edited June 29, 2019 by Violet Crown

[Robin M]

@Negin  Keeping you and your family in our hearts!  

@JennW in SoCal How are you feeling?  I binged watched I think the first and second season of Outlander.  Addictive. How far have you gotten? 

@Pen  Love the poetry. Thanks for sharing. 

@mumto2  Gorgeous pictures!   Hows the great 'clean out' going? 

@SusanC  Liking the lazy summer bit.  Could use some more lazy days. 

@Mothersweets  Oh, I loved the Uncommon Reader. So much fun and wished it was longer. 

@tuesdayschild Woot Woot! Doing great with the reading Challenge.  You too @mumto2

@Violet Crown  So worry about the drama.  I'd be a bit hot under the collar with the shaming bit.  Hope things have calmed down or are getting better.  Hugs!

@SKL  Yeah for finishing Mahabharata.  One of those reads you need to taking a read break afterwords because brain is so full.

Waving Hi to @Penguin

@Kareni  I love Nell!  The Soulwood series is great.  Yes, have reread it a couple times. Get more out of it . No need to read the Yellowrock series as  most is recapped in the soulwood books but here's Faith Hunter's timeline.

 

 

 

 

 

[mumto2]

12 hours ago, Kareni said:

Yesterday I started Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey which kept me up late reading. Those of you who like mystery and magic might like this; I did. @mumto2, @RobinM, @melmichigan... And, no, I did not figure out the mystery.

Now I'm rather interested in trying the author's alternate history novella about hippos in Louisiana ~ River of Teeth

 "Sharp, mainstream fantasy meets compelling thrills of investigative noir in Magic for Liars, a fantasy debut by rising star Sarah Gailey. 

Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it.

Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life – or at least, she’s perfectly fine.

She doesn't in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister.

Ivy Gamble is a liar.

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister―without losing herself. "

Regards,

Kareni

Thanks for the review.  I know I saw the cover go by this week and didn’t look at Magic for Liars because it didn’t look like a book I would like but I think my Overdrive has it.  I will request it next time I go to the library site.

Let me know what you think of River of Teeth......saw this somewhere but perhaps just a review.  I don’t think I want anything to do with it if the hippos are scary.  I LIKE hippos.......  a bit off subject,  We went to visit my favorite otters recently and all their chatter now worries me, especially since they liked something we had on(we think it was dh’s hat) and seemed to hang out and “ talk “with us as we walked by their area.  We know they do tricks for people wearing visi vests.......they apparently look like giant fish (the zoo staff wear lime green). 😂

Edited June 30, 2019 by mumto2

[Pen]

I listened to Gut by Giulia Enders yesterday/ last night.  I found it a surprisingly “couldn’t put it down” book .  

I’ll probably now immediately start to relisten to it in rotation with my other relisten books. 

[Pen]

21 hours ago, mumto2 said:

Since this week’s thread is almost over I am going to add a bit of Brit Tripping type info to it.  This is the time of the year when villages in Derbyshire’s Peak District celebrate with Well Dressings.  https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/whats-on/well-dressings. We used to go to the church service and exhibition in a friend’s village when the kids were little.  We took a drive to Bakewell today and discovered the Well Dressings and a Morris Dance Festival.  Here are a couple of favorites......

Eta......the blue and grey work around the exterior is part of the picture so clay with flower petals, moss etc.. all natural elements.

 

Love the pics!  

 

( Makes me think of Midsomer Murders though 😌 wondering what might lurk behind the well dressings)

 

btw how long do the flowers etc stay pretty in the well dressings?  Is it sort of a one day only event before petals go brownish or do they last a while?  And what is done with the whole clay thing between dressings?

Edited June 30, 2019 by Pen

[Robin M]

Week 27 is live - please continue conversation in new thread