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Book a Week 2021 - BW32: 52 Books Bingo - Gods and Goddesses

Robin M

By Robin M,
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Robin M

Robin M

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Happy Sunday! Since the majority of our readers live in areas several hours ahead of me and I’m late to bed, late to rise on Sunday, I will be posting Saturday night before I go to bed.  

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Happy Sunday! Time for another round of 52 Books Bingo and our next category is Gods and Goddesses. Delve into the world of the fictional or factual, mythological or spiritual, out of this world or part of this world, from the good, the bad, and even the not so pretty.  Read a book about or with God or Goddess in the title or on the cover, a character who is immortal or about a character versus God or the Supernatural. There are many ways to go with this selection so have fun with it and explore. 

 10 Magical Fantasy Books Inspired by Irish Mythology

10 Best Norse Mythology Books

Pocket Dictionary of Aztec & Maya Gods & Goddesses

Goodreads Chinese Mythology books

Top 10 goddesses in fiction

14 Mythology-Inspired Books Featuring Gods and Goddesses

12 Divine Fantasy Novels in Which the Gods Walk the Land

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Count of Monte Cristo 

Chapter 79. The Lemonade

Chapter 80. The Accusation

Chapter 81. The Room of the Retired Baker

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 Link to Week 31

 Visit  52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini and perpetual challenges, as well as share your book reviews with other readers around the globe.

 

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Robin M

Robin M

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Continuing with my read and reread of Nora Robert and currently rereading Blue Dahlia, #1 In the Garden Trilogy.

“A Harper has always lived at Harper House, the centuries-old mansion just outside of Memphis. And for as long as anyone alive remembers, the ghostly Harper Bride has walked the halls, singing lullabies at night…

Trying to escape the ghosts of the past, young widow Stella Rothchild, along with her two energetic little boys, has moved back to her roots in southern Tennessee. She isn’t intimidated by Harper House—nor by its mistress. Despite a reputation for being difficult, Roz Harper has been nothing but kind to Stella, offering her a comfortable place to live and a challenging new job as manager of the flourishing In the Garden nursery.

As Stella settles comfortably into her new life, she finds a nurturing friendship with Roz and expectant mother Hayley and a fierce attraction to ruggedly handsome landscaper Logan Kitridge. He’s difficult but honest, brash but considerate—and undeniably sexy. And for a sensible woman like Stella, he may be just what she needs…” 

 

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bookbard

bookbard

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Have been rereading these last few weeks, waiting for some books which finally arrived. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a great new middle-grade read, with lots of links to A Wrinkle in Time. Real page-turned. And finally read A Witness for the Dead by Katherine Arden, which I enjoyed, although it petered out towards the end (as though she hurried to reach the deadline). But still one of those enjoyable comfort reads with big ideas and lovely characters.

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Junie

Junie

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3 hours ago, bookbard said:

Have been rereading these last few weeks, waiting for some books which finally arrived. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a great new middle-grade read, with lots of links to A Wrinkle in Time. Real page-turned. And finally read A Witness for the Dead by Katherine Arden, which I enjoyed, although it petered out towards the end (as though she hurried to reach the deadline). But still one of those enjoyable comfort reads with big ideas and lovely characters.

I enjoyed this one, too. 

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mumto2

mumto2

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Thank you for this thread @Robin MI still need to explore the links but thought I would get my post up while I have a few minutes.  I am also on a Nora Roberts kick and reading Northern Lights https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/85459.Northern_Lights for what I think is the first time.  It isn’t t familiar at all!  I have had it on hold for quite awhile and got lucky in terms of my bookchain reading as I finished listening to a very fictional Northern Spy earlier this week.  Northern Spy portrays the troubles in Ireland being at a peak of violence around 2010.......which I found so confusing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57650174-northern-spy.  That said entertaining to listen to but it would have been quite a slog to read because I would have felt the need to constantly google.

I finished my first Deadwood book by Ann Charles.  This series was on one of Kareni’s lists that also contained the Stephanie Plum books and I could definitely see similarity’s in style.......totally different setting but good characters.  My library has them all on audio so I will be listening to these while I quilt this fall!  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10201216-nearly-departed-in-deadwood

I started listening to Who is Maud Dixon? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52320705-who-is-maud-dixonIt’s a book that looks great but the main character is a pretty dreadful person and I am not sure I wish to spend a couple more of my quilting  afternoons with her.  I am 99% certain this one is about to be abandoned........

Not sure what I will listen to next.....maybe my next Agatha Christie if it’s available. For kindle reading I have a healthy virtual stack of cozy mysteries and romances checked out currently so lots of choice when I finish Northern Lights.  I need to find my next Nora Roberts for the bookchain too.......one with a good title word in the title so I have a next book waiting!

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Kareni

Kareni

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Thank you, Robin, for this bookish place!

**

I finished the fifth and final book in the fantasy series I've been reading ~ Cloaked: The Taellaneth - Book 5 by Vanessa Nelson. I don't know if this is a series I'll reread, but I definitely enjoyed it.

If you are interested in this series, you can spend $12.95 if you purchase the books separately or you can buy the box set for 99 cents: Taellaneth Complete Series (Books 1 - 5) by Vanessa Nelson.

Regards,

Kareni

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Kareni

Kareni

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Some bookish posts ~

From the Word Wenches -- What We're Reading: July

https://wordwenches.typepad.com/word_wenches/2021/07/what-were-reading-july-.html

PERFUME THIEVES AND THE HISTORY OF TEMPTATION

https://crimereads.com/perfume-thieves-and-the-history-of-temptation/

Playing Favorites With Favorites, or, What We Talk About When We Talk About Our Favorite Books

https://www.tor.com/2021/07/29/playing-favorites-with-favorites-or-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-our-favorite-books/

Regards,

Kareni

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Robin M

Robin M

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@mumto2Northern Lights is my favorite and one I read every year. Don't know what it is about it and get something new out of it each time.

In my web wanderings and putting the thread together, fell in like with The Ill Made Mute from the 10 Magical Fantasy books list so added it to my stacks.

I seem to be in a cozy romance or mystery mode and forgot to mention I also read Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade about a plus size woman falling in love with her celebrity crush and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

"Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. The world may know him as Aeneas, star of the biggest show on television, but fanfiction readers call him something else: Book!AeneasWouldNever. Marcus gets out his frustrations with the show through anonymous stories about the internet’s favorite couple, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone discovered his online persona, he’d be finished in Hollywood.

April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s long hidden her fanfic and cosplay hobbies from her “real life”—but not anymore. When she dares to post her latest costume creation on Twitter, her plus-size take goes viral. And when Marcus asks her out to spite her internet critics, truth officially becomes stranger than fanfiction.

On their date, Marcus quickly realizes he wants more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. But when he discovers she’s Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to keep from her.

With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?"

 

We watched the reboot of Tomb Raider  which was pretty good but had it's moments of implausibility and typical movie physics.  The original is much better.   "Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is the independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who mysteriously vanished when she was a teen. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Against her father’s final wishes, Lara leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island. Her mission will not be easy; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Against all odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit, she must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, she could earn the name Tomb Raider."

 

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Laurel-in-CA

Laurel-in-CA

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Several weeks since I checked in. DH is recovering pretty well from his surgery; another couple of weeks until  his final post-op appointment. We just saw young adult son off for a month in Alaska building a zipline course. I have so far taken 25 bags of books to the thrift store but still have 2 tables of history/english/science and several boxes of Sonlight books to deal with. Seriously procrastinating on posting them to web sites for sale, but the local interest has died out so I guess I'll have to get to it. Hoping revised covid guidelines will not interfere!!

Joined an online book club, for which I am working on The Book Club by Mary Alice Monroe--still working on it but need to be ready for discussion by the end of this week...underlining in pencil as I go so I can comment later. Haven't read a paper book in a long time and am finding it is harder to get motivated than with my Kindle, where I have been working on CJ Box mysteries -- they keep me reading late into the night. Just finished #11, Cold Wind, and have the next 2 on hold. Starting American Dreamer by Tim Tran, which is a memoir by a vietnamese refugee about coming to the US. As I have a friend whose husband has a similar story (just as much rags, but not as much riches), I am interested to read this.

As my kids were enjoying some real, flavorful maple syrup this morning I commented on a sci fi story that had aliens and maple syrup in it, then had to go look it up. Turns out it's the start of a series by John Ringo, called Troy Rising. Rather fun. The first one is called Live Free or Die, which sounds right wing extremist, but really is not.

As always, I read these threads with my library account open and add your recommendations to my wish list! Thank you, Robin, and happy reading to all!!!

 

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Kareni

Kareni

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4 hours ago, Laurel-in-CA said:

Several weeks since I checked in. DH is recovering pretty well from his surgery; another couple of weeks until  his final post-op appointment. We just saw young adult son off for a month in Alaska building a zipline course. I have so far taken 25 bags of books to the thrift store ...

I'm happy to learn that your husband is doing well, Laurel.

Building a zipline course definitely sounds intriguing. How does your son come to have qualifications in that area?

Yay for decluttering! (I imagine that many of us would have been happy to go through those bags. I was at the local Goodwill yesterday perusing their books.)

Regards,

Kareni

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bookbard

bookbard

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On 8/9/2021 at 5:13 AM, Robin M said:

seem to be in a cozy romance or mystery mode and forgot to mention I also read Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade about a plus size woman falling in love with her celebrity crush and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Thanks for recommending this, it's such a funny book - I'm still laughing over the Sharkphoon! script.

 

On 8/10/2021 at 9:16 AM, Kareni said:

oday I finished Throne of Jade: A Novel of Temeraire by Naomi Novik which is the second book in the Temeraire series. This fantasy series features dragons in the Napoleonic era and is best read in order. I enjoyed the book.

Really like this series! I reread the original quite often. 

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Lady Florida.

Lady Florida.

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Since my last update -

Grant - I finally finished the audio book I've been listening to for something like two months. There was a lot I didn't know about Ulysses S. Grant. The most surprising to me was that he was such a proponent of civil rights. It's such a shame all his post Civil War work came to nothing.

The Pagan Lord - A Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories novel. Bill read these one after the other and couldn't get through them fast enough. I on the other hand need a break between each one. Although I love them, there's too much in the way of bloody battles to read them in succession. Not so much that I don't want to read them, just too much to read all in a row. I'll start the next one sometime in the coming months. Bill keeps waiting for me to finish because he wants to talk about how the series ended. 

Fugitive Telemetry - For some reason I kept putting this off but am glad I'm finally up to date in the series. I can't wait for the next Murderbot book. This is another series he finished before I did.

The Girl With the Louding Voice - This was the book club book for this month and I really enjoyed it. We were supposed to meet last week but all agreed that we didn't want to go to a restaurant with the way delta is racing through Florida. It's too hot to sit outside so we just postponed the meeting until next month in the hope that things will have improved. All of us mentioned on the group Facebook page that we really look forward to discussing the book, so it sounds like the others enjoyed it too.

Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, Linda Ronstadt's memoir. I was a big fan of hers back in the day. She sang a lot of breakup songs and 'I don't need you' songs while I was in an on again-off again relationship. Those songs were perfect for me at the time. Though I no longer need the heartbreak songs I still love her voice. The book was pretty tame but it was as the title suggests, a musical memoir not a tell-all. Of course a memoir is from the point of view of the person writing and remembering but it sounds as though she's as nice and decent as she always seemed.

The I-5 Killer - the next audio book title I pulled out of my TBR jar. It was straight up murder p*rn. 

For some reason I still haven't finished Leonard and Hungry Paul though I do want to finish it.

When I made my TBR jar back in Nov-Dec 2020 every title I put in the jar was of a book I really wanted to read. Apparently that changed in the months since I wrote those book titles. I kept pulling fiction titles out and tossing them aside when I realized I was no longer interested in reading those books. Finally I pulled out The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which I do want to read. I haven't started it yet. 

Currently reading:

Because Internet - I slowed down on this one while reading other books but plan to get back to it soon.

Klara and the Sun - The Remains of the Day is one of my absolute favorite books ever and I've been afraid to read any other Kazuo Ishiguro books for fear of spoiling that one. This one though has been on my radar for a while and I decided to give it a try. So far I'm enjoying it.

I was way behind on The Count of Monte Cristo. I put it aside and kept putting off reading it. Finally I started again a few days ago and though I was 12 chapters behind I'm caught up now. Once I started reading it again I couldn't stop. 

My next audio book (from the jar) will be Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts

 

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Mothersweets

Mothersweets

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah Finished this on Sunday. The only other book I've read depicting the Dust Bowl was The Grapes of Wrath - and I hated the ending. This one was better? more believable? I only know that I didn't want to throw it across the room when I finished. I did enjoy it although it was heart-breaking to read how families struggled. I want to watch the Ken Burns doc about the Dust Bowl now.

I'm in the middle of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz - I'm fairly certain that I know what the huge plot twist will be and I'm thinking I might just skim through the rest of the story as I have five other books I want to get to.  Has anyone else read this?

Thank you for this thread Robin! I didn't see it anywhere when I checked earlier this week and was missing it!

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Kareni

Kareni

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57 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

@kareni and other Patricia Briggs fans.  Cry Wolf (the first in the Alpha and Omega series) is on sale for 99 cents today via kindle.

Thank you for thinking of me, @mumto2! Given that it's a favorite, it probably won't surprise you to learn that I already own it. 

Regards,

Kareni

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Kareni

Kareni

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This afternoon, I finished Bonds of Brass: Book One of The Bloodright Trilogy by Emily Skrutskie. This was an enjoyable science fiction story with a surprising twist near the end. 

"A young pilot risks everything to save his best friend—the man he trusts most and might even love—only to learn that his friend is secretly the heir to a brutal galactic empire.
 
Ettian’s life was shattered when the merciless Umber Empire invaded his world. He’s spent seven years putting himself back together under its rule, joining an Umber military academy and becoming the best pilot in his class. Even better, he’s met Gal—his exasperating and infuriatingly enticing roommate who’s made the academy feel like a new home.
 
But when dozens of classmates spring an assassination plot on Gal, a devastating secret comes to light: Gal is the heir to the Umber Empire. Ettian barely manages to save his best friend and flee the compromised academy unscathed, rattled that Gal stands to inherit the empire that broke him, and that there are still people willing to fight back against Umber rule. 
 
As they piece together a way to deliver Gal safely to his throne, Ettian finds himself torn in half by an impossible choice. Does he save the man who’s won his heart and trust that Gal’s goodness could transform the empire? Or does he throw his lot in with the brewing rebellion and fight to take back what’s rightfully theirs?"

Regards,

Kareni

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Robin M

Robin M

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On 8/11/2021 at 10:34 AM, Lady Florida. said:

When I made my TBR jar back in Nov-Dec 2020 every title I put in the jar was of a book I really wanted to read. Apparently that changed in the months since I wrote those book titles. I kept pulling fiction titles out and tossing them aside when I realized I was no longer interested in reading those books. Finally I pulled out The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which I do want to read. I haven't started it yet. 

I found myself doing the same thing with books I bought and then months later look at them and ask why? 🙃 I can tell my moods by my shelves since I have a lot of detective and mysteries to several Dean Koontz to quite a few historical.  And all I've been in the mood for lately are paranormal and romance.  All I have to do is wait and my reading moods will circle around.  Enjoy Tenant of Wildfell Hall.  It's a good read.

 

@Laurel-in-CAGlad to hear hubby is doing well.  Sounds like your son is going to have a fun adventure building the zipline. 

 

@Negin Good to hear from Negin and hope your recovery is going smoothly. 

 

@Mothersweets  I like Kristin Hannah's books so was wondering about Four Winds. Glad to hear it isn't a 'throw it across the room' in frustration book. That's exactly how I felt while reading the chunky "A Suitable Boy," especially when I thought one of the characters made the wrong choice on a  decision that had been major plotline throughout.  I got invested in the story and hubby had to listen to me rant.  😄

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Junie

Junie

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So I just realized I haven't posted an update in a few weeks.

I finished the Mary Poppins books -- Mary Poppins Opens the Door and Mary Poppins in the Park.  I enjoyed the entire series.  As much as I loved both of the movies, I actually think that this would make a good TV series -- each chapter an episode.  I think it would work since each chapter can really stand on its own.

I also read The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  Not one of my favorites, but I liked it well enough to read it a second time.  Dd13 is very sensitive, so I find myself re-reading books specifically with her in mind to judge appropriateness.  (This one did not make it.)

And, Kwame Alexander's Free Write: A Poetry Notebook.  This one I did give to dd14.  She likes to write poetry, so I thought this might give her some inspiration.

Not everything I'm reading is for children; the other books just take longer to finish.

I'm caught up with The Count of Monte Cristo and also reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. 

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