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Book a Week 2019 - BW30: Bookish Birthdays and News


Robin M
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Happy Sunday and welcome to week thirty 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. 

 Time for another round of bookish birthdays and news! Today is the anniversary of  Ernest Hemingway's birthday as well as John GardnerHarold Hart CraneFrancis Parkinson KeyesYrjö JylhäMarshall McLuhanMohammed DibTess Gallagher, and Buchi Emecheta. Have fun following learning about some maybe not so familiar authors and poets.

 In the News


In honor of the moon landing fifty years ago - 7 Otherworldly Books about the Moon and Space and How women and the moon intertwine in literature and A WIRED Booklover’s Guide to the Moon

Do You See What I See? A Poetic Vintage Art-Science Primer on the Building Blocks of the Perceptual World

Writers to Watch Fall 2019: Anticipated Debuts

Lesser Known Works by Authors You Love

16 Books that should be on your Radar: July 2019 

TED’s giant summer reading list: Books to open right now

 Ten Diverse Books by Women to read in 2019

 Happy reading!

 Link to week 29

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The past week I read two new to me authors.  A contemporary romance Act Like It by  a new to author Lucy Parker.  Charming and hilarious.  Plus Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore  by Matthew Sullivan which was full of twists and turns and  really good. Especially since I had no idea who the bad guy was until the character figured it out. 

@tuesdayschild  He's still a bit miffed, however we talked about 'social rules of engagement' so to speak as it is a public forum and you never quite know who you are talking too.  He speaks before he thinks which gets him in hot water, especially with those who identify as female.  We discussed how people perceive and interpret what you say and we don't all think alike or agree so he needs to censor himself and avoid certain subjects.  He has aspergers so we are constantly giving him feedback why people react they way they do.    

Edited by Robin M
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I finished Daniel Pink's When this week--nonfiction about the importance of timing in life. Most of us think better in the mornings for instance, then have a slump in the afternoon, then rebound a bit in late afternoon or evening. Don't make important decisions in the afternoon! Also, naps are good (but should be just 20 minutes).

I'm currently in the middle of Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, my challenge read for the summer. Been meaning to try Faulkner again for years and it is going better than when I read this book in high school. Also just started John Green's Turtles All the Way Down.

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I am completely off the schedule since my change in work hours but...

Finished "Twenty-One Days" by Anne Perry. Those who like the Thomas Pitt series will feel at home here. At times it seemed a little long-winded but reaches a satisfactory conclusion.

Reading:

Code of Valor by Lynette Eason

Audio:

True Honor by Henderson. If I abandon this one early (I have read the book before) I am going to "Miss Julia Speaks her Mind" by Ann Ross. Thank you to mum2two who recommended this one!

In the pipeline: Evidence of Mercy by Blackstock and more of the Miss Julia series.

On the subject of the Moon landing: When we moved into this house 2 months ago, I found 3 TIME magazines covering the moon landing dated July and August 1969 and one special edition.  😊

Edited by Liz CA
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I just finished The Shadow Killer https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39208415-the-shadow-killer by Arnaldur Indridson last night and haven’t had the chance to open another book.  This is the second book in the series that features Iceland during WWII and I have to admit this series fascinates me because my father sailed all over the world during WWII as a merchant marine and never mentioned docking in Iceland although after reading this book I suspect he must have...Dh might be able to figure it out as he has my dad's documents.  

I finished two shortish audiobooks The Shallowshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46366104-the-shallows which was very good and The Decorator Who Knew Too Much https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34503995-the-decorator-who-knew-too-much which was fun but had a few bits that didn’t connect well.

I have two letters to go in order to spell Rabbi David Small and am planning to read The Almost Sisters for my A and Death of a Hollow Man for the needed M.  My audiobook Miss Julia Meets her Match by Ann Ross covers both letters so it all depends on what I finish first!😂

@Robin M Thanks for the Lucy Parker review......my library has one in the recently purchased that I have been thinking about putting a hold on.  The world of Twitter, just .......oh my!

eta:

@Liz CA I hope you enjoy Miss Julia!

Edited by mumto2
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I read Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home - 3 Stars - This is a story in a graphic novel format about a German woman’s family during World War II, and her reckoning with her family’s past, as well as her feelings about Germany. I love graphic novels and whenever we visit a good bookstore they’re often the books that I go searching for first. I really wanted to love this one. The artwork and scrapbook-type design are splendid. The overall content however, wasn’t my favorite. I felt that it was slightly lacking in emotion, and the book dragged a bit. 

9781508278092.jpg

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.

Edited by Negin
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Hello, BaWers! It seems impossible, but to the best that I can determine, I last contributed to the discussion during Mother’s Day weekend. !! Things did get a bit hectic, for me: I am the move coordinator for my daughters’ relocation to the East Coast. I finally have a bit of time to breathe — that is, read — again, though. I should finish Daniel Mendlsohn’s memoir An Odyssey tonight.

At this moment, I am at sixty-four books. Here are the titles I’ve read since I last checked in:

■ Where Reasons End (Yiyun Li; 2019. Fiction.) LIB
■ The Farm (Joanne Ramos; 2019. Fiction.) ATY
■ The Last Stone (Mark Bowden; 2019. Non-fiction.) ATY
■ A Fatal Grace (Louise Penny; 2007. Fiction.) ATY
■ Oblivion Song, Vol. 2 (Robert Kirkman; 2019. Graphic fiction.) ATY
■ The Suspect (L.R. Wright; 1985. Fiction.) RFS
■ True West (Sam Shepard; 1980. Drama.) RFS
■ Beowulf (Trans. Seamus Heaney; 2000. Poetry.) RFS
■ The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged (Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison; 2019. Non-fiction.) LIB
■ The Rise of Life on Earth (Joyce Carol Oates; 1991. Fiction.) RFS
■ Recursion (Blake Crouch; 2019. Fiction.) ATY
■ American Spy (Lauren Wilkinson; 2019. Fiction.) ATY

——————-

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

 

Edited by Melissa M
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I finished three books last week, and one today:

I finished Cora Sandel's Alberta Trilogy. The second book was the weakest. Number three was just as good as the first book. Book three brings us back to Norway. It has been a long time since I've read Virginia Woolf, but I do think there are similar themes and writing styles. They were also contemporaries. Woolf was born in 1882, Sandel in 1880.

I read Modern Mrs. Darcy's (Ann Bogel) I'd Rather Be Reading in one short sitting. It was pleasant enough as a Book About Books, but not at all memorable. I would have liked to have heard more about what it is like for her now that reading is her job. That would really change your reading life, I would think.

Battles at Thrush Green (#4) by Miss Read. This was much better than #3, which had a soul-crushing ending. I'm happy to be feeling charmed again.

Billedhuggerenes Datter (Sculptor's Daughter) by Tove Jansson. I really loved this little book. She tells, through a series of vignettes, about her childhood in Finland. Her parents were both artists, and she was a highly imaginative child. Beautifully written, as is everything that she writes. I could gush about Tove Jansson all day long.

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I just finished Patricia Briggs' newest book which I enjoyed:  Storm Cursed (A Mercy Thompson Novel) by Patricia Briggs. This is book eleven in the series, so I do not recommend starting with this book!

"My name is Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman, and I am a car mechanic. 
And a coyote shapeshifter. 
And the mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack. 
  
Even so, none of that would have gotten me into trouble if, a few months ago, I hadn’t stood upon a bridge and taken responsibility for the safety of the citizens who lived in our territory. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. It should have only involved hunting down killer goblins, zombie goats, and an occasional troll. Instead, our home was viewed as neutral ground, a place where humans would feel safe to come and treat with the fae. 
  
The reality is that nothing and no one is safe.  As generals and politicians face off with the Gray Lords of the fae, a storm is coming and her name is Death. 
  
But we are pack, and we have given our word. 
  
We will die to keep it."

 Regards,

Kareni

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5 hours ago, Robin M said:

TED’s giant summer reading list: Books to open right now

What a fascinating list, Robin. Thanks for sharing the link.

5 hours ago, Robin M said:

The past week I read two new to me authors.  A contemporary romance Act Like It by  a new to author Lucy Parker.  Charming and hilarious

I'm particularly glad you liked that, Robin (since I gave it to you!) I enjoyed the author's next two books in the London Celebrities series as well as the book she wrote earlier under a different name: Artistic License  by Elle Pierson.

Regards,

Kareni

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Comic-Con weekend takes over our lives every year, but I only actually attended one day this year. It is the first time in, oh, 20 years, that I came home from comic-con without a single new book. Which is fine as I have too many unread books around the house, but it is odd!

My reading (listening actually) has me firmly in the grips of pop culture, though. I've been getting a big kick out of the first title in the Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes. Great literature it ain't. But it is a great summer page turner. I've watched the first episode of the Amazon Prime series, but wasn't as captivated by it as many people are. The show was heavily promoted at Comic-Con.

Still working on Mozart's Starling, a delightful non-fiction about starlings ( the birds) with a bit about Mozart too. And I'll be starting an Irish title just came off the hold list. Beatlebone by Kevin Barry is a novel, often described as being surreal, set in West Ireland imagining John Lennon living on a private island there in 1978. 

But my house is still consumed by all things pop culture announced at Comic-Con, from the Marvel movies to the new Star Trek Picard series. My boys were extra delighted this afternoon to help me set up the computer game Portal. The way to make millenials happy is to enter their world, even if it is a virtual world!

 
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Term 3 of our schooling year has begun, today, so Dd and I have been riffling through the books she needs to read and write an reading response on:  the first book this term is Night ~ Eli Wiesel a book Ds and I both rate as a solid 5* read;  I'm looking forward to seeing what my Dd thinks of it.   

I finished The Problem of Pain (3) reviewed on Goodreads , which means I’ve completed my version of July’s bookolgy challenge – I’m not reading through the Rabbi portion like you are @mumto2  :

  • D=   The Note Through the Wire ~ Doug Gold  (4.5)  N/F   NZ  mature content / plenty of f bombs. 
  • A=   Forty Autumns:  A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall ~  Nina Willner,  narrated by Cassandra Campbell (4.5) N/F
  • V=   Elon Musk ~ Ashlee Vance, narrated by Fred Sanders  (4.5)  N/F  language content
  • I=    A Private Investigation: DC Smith Bk 8 ~ Peter Grainger, narrated by Gildart Jackson  (5)
  • D=  The Day the Rabbi Resigned: Rabbi Small Bk11 ~ Harry Kemelma,  narrated by George Guidall (3)
  • S=   A Seaside Practice:  Tales of a Scottish Country Doctor Bk1~ Dr Tom Smith (4+) N/F
  • M= The Moonstone ~ Wilkie Collins, narrated by Peter Jeffrey  (4+) Classic
  • A=  Alliance: A Linesman Bk2 ~ S. K. Dunstall, narrated by Brian Hutchison (4-)
  • L=  Luck and Judgement:  DC Smith Bk 3 ~ Peter Grainger, narrated by Gildart Jackson (4)  Mature content. 
  • L=  The Problem of Pain ~ C.S. Lewis, narrated by Simon Vance (3) (cc)  N/F

Currently reading/listening to:    I’ve been sip listening to Wives and Daughters ~ Elizabeth Gaskell since early May and have decided to make some decent strides through it so that I can count it towards  August’s spelling challenge, 'Fred Vargas'  ( I might only read the 'Fred' part).    

Edited by tuesdayschild
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Missed a week, but since Sunday-before-last I finished

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
William Perry (ed.), 21 Texas Short Stories
Arthur Symons, The Art of Aubrey Beardsley

The Secret Agent, unlike most of Conrad's stories and novels, is set in London. You may remember the fog as a SYMBOL!!! in Heart of Darkness; but Conrad uses it pervasively in his works, and the setting gives him plenty of scope for his thick, sickly, and symbolic fogs. It's a detective story, sort of, though not a mystery.

The title of 21 Texas Short Stories is pretty self-explanatory, and the stories range in quality from one very good Katherine Anne Porter to a laughably awful howdy-pardner cowboy yarn, with most of them being the sort of solid entertainment published in reputable mid-century magazines.

The Art of Aubrey Beardsley is going to be the third entry in a new 10x10 category, Symbolists, Decadents, and Surrealists (until I can find a more entertaining title). I've become interested in the network of influences on what came to be called the Symbolist and Decadent movements in late 19th-century France and Britain. This was a kind of post- or anti-realism, though never a very unified thing. Simplistically: the poet Charles Baudelaire killed off both French Romanticism and the Realism (e.g. Zola) that was supposed to be its destruction. Poets, writers, and artists rejected both Romanticism's fetishized "Nature" and "Reality," either using the apparent and the real to suggest and move beyond appearances (Symbolism), or to reject Nature altogether (Decadence). Baudelaire is considered the father of both movements, with the late Romantics Gerard Nerval and Edgar Allen Poe as unknowing grandfathers. In Britain, the Celtic Revival had evident influence; Arthur Symons, the Cornishman from Wales who brought the French Symbolist poets to the attention of the British in his 1908 book The Symbolist Movement in Literature (this week's reading), was an adoring disciple of the elderly Yeats. (In Edinburgh and Dundee we enjoyed Symbolist art by Scottish Celtic Revivalist John Duncan.)

image.png.d8330a0d0c17bb1ac1fbc0a94218c975.png

(Riders of the Sidhe, by Duncan)

Anyway, Aubrey Beardsley, together with Oscar Wilde and Swinburne, was an English Decadent decorative artist who was part of the famous Yellow Book project (see his cover art at the link). His illustrations for Wilde's Salome are famous, though not possibly to everyone's taste.
image.thumb.png.116f0c9fb8983dec474fe3bc1f2191a9.png

That Symons calls Beardsley a "Symbolist" throughout this short book (much lengthened by the time needed to examine the copious plates) goes to illustrate how difficult it was, even by the end of the century, to distinguish the two movements that seem so clearly separate now.

Future reading in this category: Rimbaud, Verlaine, Poe, Yeats, Huysmans, Lautreamont, Breton, and Wilde. (Baudelaire, though obvious, I think I've re-read enough for now. And I refuse to read Swinburne, sorry Swinburne fans.)

Edited by Violet Crown
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5 hours ago, JennW in SoCal said:

Comic-Con weekend takes over our lives every year, but I only actually attended one day this year. It is the first time in, oh, 20 years, that I came home from comic-con without a single new book. Which is fine as I have too many unread books around the house, but it is odd!

My reading (listening actually) has me firmly in the grips of pop culture, though. I've been getting a big kick out of the first title in the Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes. Great literature it ain't. But it is a great summer page turner. I've watched the first episode of the Amazon Prime series, but wasn't as captivated by it as many people are. The show was heavily promoted at Comic-Con.

Still working on Mozart's Starling, a delightful non-fiction about starlings ( the birds) with a bit about Mozart too. And I'll be starting an Irish title just came off the hold list. Beatlebone by Kevin Barry is a novel, often described as being surreal, set in West Ireland imagining John Lennon living on a private island there in 1978. 

But my house is still consumed by all things pop culture announced at Comic-Con, from the Marvel movies to the new Star Trek Picard series. My boys were extra delighted this afternoon to help me set up the computer game Portal. The way to make millenials happy is to enter their world, even if it is a virtual world!

 
  •  

I always love to read your ComicCon posts even if you came home bookless this year.😉 Totally allowed as I dislike carrying things when I am out so probably would always come home bookless!  Millennials and movies etc are so fascinating........to me the Marvel movies are entertaining and it doesn’t really seem to matter if I take the order seriously or simply sit down and watch a bit when they are being watched.......the don’t stick in my brain order wise particularly so I am good with whatever. But my kids and their friends were obsessing over backstory 😂, since  some are missing backstory on the latest release they plan to go to Toy Story 4 as soon as they are all free!  😉 

I haven’t watched The Expanse but wonder if we would both like it better if we read the prequel, The Butcher of Anderson Station first.  I read through the episode descriptions for the first series and remember thinking that the series was apparently going back to that novella.

Mozart’s Starling just went on my list........I love pet birds and find starlings particularly fascinating.  Does the book talk about murmurations?  We went at dusk several evenings a few years ago to watch at a local nature preserve.  At first glance I thought the book was going to be about Mozart’s music somehow being connected to murmuration........going to leave the youtube big for now......

 

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@Violet Crown Thank you for the fascinating post!  

@tuesdayschild At the start of this reading year I decided to spell the character names as Robin posted them in her planning (which I copied to my planning 😉) and have been trying to stick with it knowing I can shortened and still play at any time.  So I included Rabbi which wasn’t an issue with the stack I had going in.  Next month the detective’s name is really long, John Baptiste Adamsberg, so I am planning to allow myself extra time to finish it.  So I am going to go right into the spelling challenge after Rabbi David Small is done instead of waiting for the new month to officially start and perhaps i will still be reading when September starts......... 

 

 

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I haven't been getting a whole lot of reading done recently.  In fact, I took an entire week off!

Our church had Vacation Bible School a few weeks ago.  I never help with it, as I use that as my planning week while all of the kids are gone!  We school year-round, but we kind of re-set in the fall when most schools start.  Having a planning week mid-summer is extremely helpful.

This week I began reading through a collection of short stories by Guy de Maupassant.  I think most people have read his story "The Necklace".  I am discovering the reason for this:  He is an excellent writer, but most of his writing (at least thus far in the collection) revolves around more adult themes.

I did finish one book last week:  Passionate Parenting: Enjoying the Journey of Parenting Teens by Cary Schmidt.  This is a teen parenting book written by a pastor, geared toward Christians.  When dd12 has her birthday, we will be parenting four teenagers here.  The book came highly recommended by my pastor and also by a friend.  I don't really care for parenting books, but I decided to give this a try.  It was good, but it took me a while to get through it.  I would recommend this book to you if you do like parenting books and if you are a Christian parent of teens/tweens.

Some quotes from the book:

"Most teens generally feel inundated with rebukes and are starving for encouragement.  They feel that everything they do even minutely wrong is in the spotlight, yet the things they do right are overlooked and even unnoticed.  We adults are too good at picking out the wrong and quickly correcting it, but we expect the right, and therefore we barely notice it."

"Train your children in the proper use of each media tool you allow.  Like driving, you wouldn't toss your sixteen-year-old the keys and say, 'Go figure it out.'  A learner's permit requires that you ride along first, showing the way and correcting the mistakes.  While this is annoying to the teen and harrowing to the parent, staying alive make it ultimately 'worth it.'  Take the same approach to media.  Get in the experience and teach and train along the way -- correcting, instructing, and nurturing with biblical wisdom."

"Don't run from conflict.  Don't run from trouble.  Grow through it.  Let your child grow through it.  Yes, they will struggle.  Yes, they will hurt.  Don't dismiss the hurt uncaringly, but don't overreact either.  ...  There are struggles that our children need as they prepare for adulthood -- and wise parents will allow the struggle to prepare the child."  He used the analogy of a butterfly struggling out of a cocoon.  The struggle is sometimes necessary.

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21 hours ago, mumto2 said:

@Violet Crown Thank you for the fascinating post!  

@tuesdayschild At the start of this reading year I decided to spell the character names as Robin posted them in her planning (which I copied to my planning 😉) and have been trying to stick with it knowing I can shortened and still play at any time.  So I included Rabbi which wasn’t an issue with the stack I had going in.  Next month the detective’s name is really long, John Baptiste Adamsberg, so I am planning to allow myself extra time to finish it.  So I am going to go right into the spelling challenge after Rabbi David Small is done instead of waiting for the new month to officially start and perhaps i will still be reading when September starts......... 

 

 

Agreeing with your comment to Violet Crown : I had to slow down read through your post properly, VC.

What you're doing with JBA, for next month, I had to do with David Small this month ... I thought about doing Rabbi too, but want to read a few books than will not help to 'spell' anything 😉.  Sending you lots of reading encouragement as you spell your way through JBA.

I like the quotes you shared from you book @Junie

On 7/22/2019 at 11:33 AM, Penguin said:

Battles at Thrush Green (#4) by Miss Read. This was much better than #3, which had a soul-crushing ending. I'm happy to be feeling charmed again.

 So pleased to see the charm has returned.  (How Miss Read could do that to Mr..... in book 3 irks me.  Best thing, in hindsight, later books, though.

I've used up my time allowance here with so many interesting books, and links, to check out:  thanks BAWs 👍

 

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Today only, free for Kindle readers ~

Looking Backward, 2000–1887 by Edward Bellamy

**

Some bookish posts ~

On the Power of Ghostly Narrators
Mamta Chaudhry Recommends Five Novels Recounted by the Dead

https://lithub.com/on-the-power-of-ghostly-narrators/

10 of the Best-Selling Books in History (Minus Religious Texts)

http://mentalfloss.com/article/587211/best-selling-books-history

7 BOOKS ABOUT WOMEN WARRIORS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

https://bookriot.com/2019/07/15/nonfiction-books-about-women-warriors/

50+ MUST-READ PORTAL FANTASY BOOKS

https://bookriot.com/2019/07/17/portal-fantasy-books/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Swords and Spaceships Jul 18&utm_term=BookRiot_SwordsAndSpaceships_DormantSuppress

Regards,

Kareni

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I just finished reading a graphic novel which I quite enjoyed. I'm interested in reading on.

Sleepless Vol. 1 by Sarah Vaughn

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Pyppenia, or Poppy, illegitimate daughter of the king of Harbeny, is the only living child of the monarch when he dies. Although the throne passes instead to her uncle Surno, Poppy is still the target of multiple assassination attempts. She's guarded by Cyrenic, an elite member of the Sleepless Order, a prestigious order of knights who vow never to sleep. When Surno orders Poppy to remain in Harbeny despite the attempts on her life, Poppy and Cyrenic set out to uncover who is trying to kill her while Cyrenic struggles with a life-changing dilemma. This riveting medieval fantasy is refreshing in its inclusion of people of color in a typically white European setting. The striking and sophisticated imagery evokes the creamy, floral designs of illuminated manuscripts, particularly surrounding chapter headings. Elsewhere, the subdued and occasionally dark color scheme is coupled with intricate line work and expressive characters. The story touches on themes of loyalty and greed, and there is plenty of trickery to engage readers, though Vaughn doesn't explain precisely how the Sleepless go without rest. There is also romantic tension, as well as minimal references to sex. A tantalizing cliff-hanger ending will leave readers eager for more. VERDICT Teens interested in royal fantasies will revel in this lavish setting that pays homage to Arthurian literature. For all graphic novel collections.-Alea Perez, ­Westmont Public Library, ILα(c) Copyright 2011. 

Regards,

Kareni

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I finished spelling Rabbi David Small 😀  So I am moving on to next month’s detective...........😂

R.........Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman .........planning to continue this series

A.......Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft

B.......Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

B.......The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

I........Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews

 

D......The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan

A......The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

V.......The Decorator Who Knew Too Much by Diane Vallere

I........The Shadow Killer by Arnaldur Indridson

D........The Elusive Mrs Polifax by Dorothy Gilman........more planned for this month😊

 

S........The Stone Circle by Ella Griffiths

M.......Death of a Hollow Man by Caroline Graham.........not great, I think I am done with this series

A.......Miss Julia Meets Her Match by Ann B. Ross.......Overall good listen, a couple of topics irritated me in this one so 3*, continuing series

L.......Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting

L........Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse.......not as good as the first in series

 

I started reading a new book this morning that I picked out without any research.  I am halfway through so I really like it........a young business man who travels constantly for work meets an intriguing woman while on Layover in Atlanta.  He can’t forget her and starts what I am classing at this point as a rather mad road trip (Bingo) to find her. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3083348-layover?ac=1&from_search=true

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Today only, free for Kindle readers ~

The House of Closed Doors by Jane Steen

"Heedless. Stubborn. Disgraced.
Small town Illinois, 1870: "My stepfather was not particularly fond of me to begin with, and now that he'd found out about the baby, he was foaming at the mouth"

Desperate to avoid marriage, Nell Lillington refuses to divulge the name of her child's father and accepts her stepfather's decision that the baby be born at a Poor Farm and discreetly adopted.

Until an unused padded cell is opened and two small bodies fall out.

Nell is the only resident of the Poor Farm who is convinced the unwed mother and her baby were murdered, and rethinks her decision to abandon her own child to fate. But even if she manages to escape the Poor Farm with her baby she may have no safe place to run to. "

Regards,

Kareni

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Oh my goodness. The Shape of Water had me on pins and needles throughout the finale of the book with multiple characters in jeopardy. What a ride.  Now I want to see the movie to see how they treated the story.   Currently reading Kay Hooper's The First Prophet, (Bishop files) a offshoot from the Bishop Special Crimes series. 

@Kareni  Thank you, thank you, dear heart for Act Like it.  I was scratching my head wondering where I'd gotten it from. Greatly appreciated it and will check out the other parker stories. 

@Ali in OR  When sounds like a good read and hits the nail on the head (I'm just full of metaphors today. 🙂 ) with timing and thinking at least for me.  

@Mumto2   Thank you for the wonderful video of the starlings. Always find it fascinating.  Awesome job with spelling out character names. Especially their whole name.  You too @tuesdayschild.

@Violet Crown I'm totally fascinated with your Symbolists, Decadents, and Surrealists category as I learned about much about these movements during art history class. Look forward to hearing more. 

@Junie   Love the quotes from the parenting book which adds to the reason I'm so involved with James social media.  He likes the accountability I provide and it's all a learning experience. So easy to get into trouble but he has to learn.  I also have to take a step back and remember he's a guy so of course what I may find not exactly appropriate, his dad does.  Guy potty humor and oy, the language.  Yikes!   Nurtured Heart taught us to always look at the good, but it isn't always easy to remember to provide positive encouragement along with the correction. 

I have to get back to work. TTFN

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I finished Lab 257 other than the hour or two of endnotes, references and bibliography.

@texan  it only had one chapter actually on Lyme and that was not imo its strongest chapter, but maybe I’ll report on that in your Lyme as introduced illness thread though I cannot find the thread right now.

generally I found it a sort of gripping horrifying tale of a badly mismanaged Laboratory handling dangerous pathogens... plus crises caused by natural enemies of such an entity being safe, such as Category 5 hurricane taking out part of the roof and other problems. 

Sort of like the story of over half a century of a drawn out biological Chernobyl/Fukushima...and an ongoing problem if I understand correctly. 

I recommend the book.  Even for people who will disagree with the author.  

 

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*sneaks back in after missing quite a few weeks*

Hi! I hit a chunk of time where I was not having the opportunity to read much, and then I was just pre-reading stuff for my kids, and then I was doing my annual-ish re-read of the Harry Potter books...so I stopped posting in these threads. But I am back to "normal" reading now.

I'll share what I've finished this week when we get to next Sunday's thread. But I did want to come in and mention that I finished H. D. F. Kitto's The Greeks, and @Violet Crown had asked me to share what I thought of it. There were times when it dragged a bit, but overall I really enjoyed it. I found his description of the polis and of the role of the individual very enlightening. According to some of the reviews on Goodreads, the book includes some outdated scholarship, but I think on the whole it's readable and informative.

I was also reading Thoughts on Religious Experience by Archibald Alexander. I got about 20% of the way through and decided to drop it. The content was fine, but not enough to make up for the ridiculously long paragraphs. It was not uncommon for a paragraph to be two full pages. When I got to a five-page paragraph, I threw in the towel.

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Hi everyone! My internet was hooked up yesterday afternoon so I can finally come over and see what everyone's been up to. 🙂 We're all moved in and I just have to finish cleaning the old house and finding places for everything in my new house. It has been exhausting but in a good way. 

I finished yet another NF book on polygamy - Fifty Years in Polygamy. This is a memoir written by an aunt of one of the wives on Sister Wives. I almost had to set it aside several times, the writing was so bad. I gave it two stars because hey, she tried. 🙂 BUT, it was all over the place with timelines, marriages, births, etc. It was frustrating to read and hard to keep track of who the author was even talking about. She would tell an anecdote about her "dear friend" Susie and how they were bosom buddies but it was the first and only time she ever mentions Susie in the entire book. She should have paid for an editor or even a ghostwriter.

I also finished listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I loved it! The characters, the setting, the history, the footnotes; I loved it all. 

Edited by Mothersweets
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Haha - I just saw my shelf of library books and remembered that I had read two other books last week. 

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden This is a spooky middle grade novel  that reads like a ghost story/fairytale. It's written by the woman who wrote The Bear and the Nightingale and has a bit of the same feel. I enjoyed it and want to have my 12yo read it and tell me if she thinks it is scary or not. 

As Long As We Both Shall Live by Joann Chaney Thriller that had me turning the pages until the wee hours. From Goodreads: 

What happens when you're really, truly done making your marriage work? You can't be married to someone without sometimes wanting to bash them over the head...
As Long As We Both Shall Live is JoAnn Chaney's wicked, masterful examination of a marriage gone very wrong, a marriage with lots of secrets...

"My wife! I think she's dead!" Matt frantically tells park rangers that he and his wife, Marie, were hiking when she fell off a cliff into the raging river below. They start a search, but they aren't hopeful: no one could have survived that fall. It was a tragic accident.

But Matt's first wife also died in suspicious circumstances. And when the police pull a body out of the river, they have a lot more questions for Matt.

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3 hours ago, Mothersweets said:

Haha - I just saw my shelf of library books and remembered that I had read two other books last week. 

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden This is a spooky middle grade novel  that reads like a ghost story/fairytale. It's written by the woman who wrote The Bear and the Nightingale and has a bit of the same feel. I enjoyed it and want to have my 12yo read it and tell me if she thinks it is scary or not. 

As Long As We Both Shall Live by Joann Chaney Thriller that had me turning the pages until the wee hours. From Goodreads: 

What happens when you're really, truly done making your marriage work? You can't be married to someone without sometimes wanting to bash them over the head...
As Long As We Both Shall Live is JoAnn Chaney's wicked, masterful examination of a marriage gone very wrong, a marriage with lots of secrets...

"My wife! I think she's dead!" Matt frantically tells park rangers that he and his wife, Marie, were hiking when she fell off a cliff into the raging river below. They start a search, but they aren't hopeful: no one could have survived that fall. It was a tragic accident.

But Matt's first wife also died in suspicious circumstances. And when the police pull a body out of the river, they have a lot more questions for Matt.

I just placed a hold on As Long We Both Shall Live...........Glad the move went well!

The weather has been in the 90’s and with no a/c not much has been happening beyond reading.  I finished Layover yesterday because it was very hard to put down.  Probably not the road trip book for Bingo I wanted it to be but a satisfying thriller......I also finished a romance called The Friend Zone https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41945163-the-friend-zone?ac=1&from_search=true.  The main character is facing a hysterectomy at 24 because of fibroids and I thought that her emotions were very well done.  It’s a book that might make someone somewhere a bit more understanding .........sad in places. 

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9 hours ago, purpleowl said:

I'll share what I've finished this week when we get to next Sunday's thread. But I did want to come in and mention that I finished H. D. F. Kitto's The Greeks, and @Violet Crown had asked me to share what I thought of it. There were times when it dragged a bit, but overall I really enjoyed it. I found his description of the polis and of the role of the individual very enlightening. According to some of the reviews on Goodreads, the book includes some outdated scholarship, but I think on the whole it's readable and informative.

Thanks! I was thinking of giving it to Middle Girl, who is interested in the classics -- she's pretty sure that's what she wants to major in -- but if it's very out of date I may just read it and let her get on with current scholarship. Kitto also has something on Greek drama that I'm planning to read for my Gorey cover 10x10 challenge (and because literature is more interesting than history).

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1 hour ago, Violet Crown said:

Thanks! I was thinking of giving it to Middle Girl, who is interested in the classics -- she's pretty sure that's what she wants to major in -- but if it's very out of date I may just read it and let her get on with current scholarship. Kitto also has something on Greek drama that I'm planning to read for my Gorey cover 10x10 challenge (and because literature is more interesting than history).

Does she really? How wonderful! My eldest girl also wants to major in classics. 

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I'm finding the Uncle Eric books very interesting, but I can see the slant in them.  I'd love to read some things from the opposite viewpoint if there are any written as clearly.  My library has the whole set, so I'm thinking about using them with my oldest two, because his explanations are easy to get, but I'd want to keep it balanced.  DS16, especially, has a hard time seeing that issues can have two sides.

35. "The Clipper Ship Strategy" by Richard J. Maybury.

34. "The Money Mystery" by Richard J. Maybury.

33. "Evaluating Books: What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This" by Richard J. Maybury.

32. "Ancient Rome: How It Affects You Today" by Richard J. Maybury.

31. "Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confusted?" by Richard J. Maybury.  Funny title, because I thought I knew what I was, but now I'm confused!

30.  "Whatever Happened to Justice?" by Richard J. Maybury.

29. " The Instant Economist: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works" by Timothy Taylor. 

28. "White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing" by Gail Lukasik.

27. "Personal, Career, and Financial Security" by Richard J. Maybury.

26. "Rascal" by Sterling North.

25. "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" by Richard J. Maybury.

24.  "Joy in the Covenant" by Julie B. Beck.  (LDS)

23. "The Essential 55" by Ron Clark.

22. "How to Tutor Your Own Child" by Marina Koestler Ruben.

21. "Faith is Not Blind" by Bruce and Marie Hafen. (LDS)

20. "Silent Souls Weeping: Depression, Sharing Stories, Finding Hope" by Jane Clayson Johnson.  (LDS)

19. "Leap of Faith" by Bob Bennett. (LDS)

18.  "Covenant Keepers" by Wendy Watson Nelson. (LDS)

17. "Manga Classics: MacBeth" adapted by Crystal S. Chan.

16. "One Dead Spy" by Nathan Hale.

15. "Stellar Science Projects About Earth's Sky" and "Wild Science Projects About Earth's Weather" by Robert Gardner.  

14. "Stuff Matters" by Mark Miodownik.  

13. "Led by Divine Design" by Ronald A. Rasband. (LDS)

12. "Forensic Science Projects with a Crime Lab" by Robert Gardner. 

11. "Manga Classics: The Jungle Book" adapted by Crystal S. Chan

10. "Donner Dinner Party" by Nathan Hale. 

9. "Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe" adapted by Stacy King. 

8. "Bodies We've Buried" by Jarrett Hallcox and Amy Welch.

7. "The Forensic Casebook" by N.E. Genge.

6. "Shaken Faith Syndrome" by MIchael R. Ash. (LDS)

5. "Fingerprints: Crime-Solving Science Experiments" by Kenneth G. Rainis.

4. "Forensic Investigations" (6) by Leela Burnscott. & ("Bones Speak" by Richard Spilsbury)

3. "A Reason for Faith" edited by Laura Harris Hales.  (LDS)

2. "Left Standing" by Mason Wells, et al. (LDS)

1.  "Camino Easy" by B. G. Preston. 

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37 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

Big State U. is apparently a powerhouse in classics....

So I understand. Unfortunately, Big State U doesn’t offer a lot in the way of scholarships, at least that I’ve found. Eldest girl is busy making her uni list. 

Dh started a tradition this summer of taking upcoming seniors on a college trip. He took ds18 (!) on a tour of several colleges and is already planning a similar trip with eldest girl next summer. 

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@Mothersweets Congrats on finishing up the move! Enjoy getting settled in 🙂 Jonathan Strange was one of my favorite reads so far this year.

--

I read a graphic novel that I very much enjoyed: The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. She tells the story of her parent's life in Vietnam, their immigration to the USA after the war, and her own story. Both the text and the illustrations were very well done. As a bonus, the opening pages gave an excellent, graphical overview of the history of Vietnam that I found quite helpful.

I had a seven hour drive yesterday that was a bit of a harumph from an entertainment perspective. I did not like my chosen audiobook (Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich). I don't know what I was thinking - 22 hours long?! I really don't even like audiobooks. They are relegated to road trips. I just couldn't get into any of my albums that I downloaded on Spotify. Only the podcasts that I listened to were satisfying. I finally launched a re-listen of Lincoln in The Bardo, which is absolutely worth a second round.

I returned Secondhand Time to audible, and purchased Travels with Charley by Steinbeck. Hopefully I will like this better one better.  It is promising: (1) I like audio books that are about eight hours long, (2) it's road trip content (3), I like Steinbeck, and (4) it fits my 1960s category. 

I am also reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X. It is hard to put down.

We are in NC for about the next ten days, and while I will be busy with family and friends I brought a lot of books. I hope to read a lot while I am here!

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16 hours ago, brehon said:

Dh started a tradition this summer of taking upcoming seniors on a college trip. He took ds18 (!) on a tour of several colleges and is already planning a similar trip with eldest girl next summer. 

What fun! 

On 7/25/2019 at 5:52 PM, brehon said:

My eldest girl also wants to major in classics

My daughter dithered but ultimately majored in Latin (with a minor in Geology).

Just out of curiosity, @Violet Crown and @brehon, what do your daughters intend to do once they have their degree? My daughter's stated long term goal is to get a degree in library science. She's on year six of teaching English in South Korea ... the obvious thing to do with a degree in Latin!

Regards,

Kareni

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Saturday’s Brit Tripping........a subject very near and dear to my heart .............Hedgehogs!  An hour ago I had no idea what pictures I was going to put here but then the local hedgehog was spotted in the neighbors garden.  I grabbed the iPad and ran out to visit......odd to see one in daylight but it appears perfectly healthy just hungry.  After a week of record breaking temps (96 in Yorkshire...no a/c)it poured for the last 24 hours so it saw an opportunity to hunt slugs when the rain stopped.

 

23394BBA-DD0B-417A-B5AB-F006855E0256.jpeg

27CEE304-0F78-4C08-889B-45B9259FE8AE.jpeg

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On 7/26/2019 at 11:52 AM, Maus said:

I'm finding the Uncle Eric books very interesting, but I can see the slant in them.  I'd love to read some things from the opposite viewpoint if there are any written as clearly.  My library has the whole set, so I'm thinking about using them with my oldest two, because his explanations are easy to get, but I'd want to keep it balanced.  DS16, especially, has a hard time seeing that issues can have two sides.

My husband read a book that you might wish to consider.  

 
I learned a few interesting things as my husband read the book; for example, in the Netherlands, large lots of tulips are sold at auction with the auctioneer starting at a high price and going down.  My husband would recommend the book for those interested in a chronological overview of Economics.
 
 "A lively, inviting account of the history of economics, told through events from ancient to modern times and the ideas of great thinkers in the field

What causes poverty? Are economic crises inevitable under capitalism? Is government intervention in an economy a helpful approach or a disastrous idea? The answers to such basic economic questions matter to everyone, yet the unfamiliar jargon and math of economics can seem daunting. This clear, accessible, and even humorous book is ideal for young readers new to economics and for all readers who seek a better understanding of the full sweep of economic history and ideas.

Economic historian Niall Kishtainy organizes short, chronological chapters that center on big ideas and events. He recounts the contributions of key thinkers including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and others, while examining topics ranging from the invention of money and the rise of agrarianism to the Great Depression, entrepreneurship, environmental destruction, inequality, and behavioral economics. The result is a uniquely enjoyable volume that succeeds in illuminating the economic ideas and forces that shape our world. "

Regards,

Kareni

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Some fairly recent reads here include

Starship Mine (First Contact) by Peter Cawdron which was an intriguing novella about alien contact.  

 "James Patterson is a gay accountant living in Keyes, Oklahoma—deep in the Bible Belt—the religious heartland of America. He’s also the first person to make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence seeking to understand our world, and that makes him the most important person on the planet."

Plus Concierge Service by P.D. Singer which I also enjoyed. (This one has adult content; the above work does not.)

"Joshua Hannes, the concierge of the Vivaldi Central Park Hotel prides himself on fulfilling every impossible request. Tickets to a sold-out show? A purple dye job for a purse dog? A last-minute table at a premier hotspot? No problem.

But the devastatingly handsome penthouse guest wants what?

Self-made billionaire Craig Ridley’s in New York on business, but at the end of the day, he wants to relax with someone interesting. The concierge should be able to supply a friendly face. Just for a little conversation. Dinner and a card game. Not sex with a man he doesn’t know or respect.

Craig didn’t expect the concierge to personally volunteer. Nor to be the man Craig hadn’t known he needed.

A billion reasons why they shouldn’t be together. A billion and one reasons why they should."

Regards,

Kareni

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