Showing posts with label Sunday Salon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunday Salon. Show all posts

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Reading and watching

So far this month has been fairly laid back.  We watched season four of Van Der Valk so we are all caught up on that.  Just picked up Madam Secretary series from the library so we'll see if we like it enough continue with six or so seasons. Christmas movies are in the lineup soon.


This week I joined The Classics Club and added a tab at the top of my blog. 👆 I can link each book as I finish and started with The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. As I have been inside quite a bit I've made good progress with this book.  The setting is wartime England.

I also added a tab for apocalyptic/dystopian books with links for the ones I have read and reviewed.  Other titles will be added as I learn of them from Goodreads or suggestions by others.  Please feel free to share some of your favorites if you like that genre.

That's the weekly excitement around here, haha.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon. and Joy's Book Blog for Britsh Isles Friday.

Friday, December 6, 2024

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger and I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Two books this week.  Let's start with I Cheerfully Refuse as it was the better of the two I read.

Rainy is a musician living with Lark, a women he loved before he saw her face. He would hear her read aloud to others at a library and this introduced him to reading classics. Lark brought the stories to life for him. They have a good life and while money was tight thay made ends meet - he playing his bass guitar in a band and Lark forming a library and book store for those who still care about reading. Apparently in this dystopian time there are those who protest the shop, thinking reading is an evil thing. Geez....a little close to what some folks think today with the book banning. (Scary)

 

There are numerous passages I bookmarked in this dystopian/apocalyptic novel by Leif Enger.  In spite of society collapsing, there were still very good people, just ordinary people who didn't know wealth or privilege, going that extra mile to help others.

The early part sets the scene with Rainy describing a ruined road.  

Driving down the road that was described as level once it is now full of holes, shoulders of the pavement sagging into a ditch. There’s a spot where two flash floods in a month blew out a culvert. Technically, it’s still a state highway , but the state ignores their compliance saying they were going to “allocate funds“ but they never did repair it. 

Here is an example of people helping others when they didn’t have to:

After more than a year, a pair of loggers, a basement contractor, and a retired mining engineer showed up with their skidders and chainsaws and cement truck and they rebuilt the missing section with pine logs and concrete.”  

A helping hand for those who didn't have the skills.  A small segment of the society who looked out for each other, helped when needed and knew they could count on their neighbors when they needed something.

In the beginning Rainy and Lark took in a boarder named Kellan.  He had his own secrets as he had escaped a “medicine ship."  People willingly signed on to live on the pharmaceutical ship  to be used for drug/medicine experiments.  They were working on a cure for something obscure, never quite sure what it was exactly.  After so much time they were allowed to leave and return to their families. You did what you had to for survival.  Apparently the trials were so bad that some people escaped and this was Kellan's situation.  That and some drugs he absconded with which meant....some one would come looking.

 Kellan warned Rainey about this mythical bad man named Werryck and true to form, Werryck was definitely one bad guy to be avoided. He warned Rainy, “You think he won’t come but he will. You’re big and strong? Doesn’t matter. Listen to me. When you see him standing in your kitchen, you slip out the back. Be quiet, be quick. Don’t hunt for your wallet. Don’t grab a coat. Go out the window if you have to.” 

Werryck did arrive and brought destruction, crushed Rainy's dreams and life, causing our narrator to flee in a ship he and Lark had once sailed.  The story takes us on a voyage across Lake Superior with Rainy doing what he can to survive, helping others even when it puts him in danger, giving hope to the humanity left when they choose to accept it.

The lake itself seemed like a character on it's own with the vivid descriptions of waves, the storms, the unpredictability of the weather and how a man can challenge it and still survive.

I would read more by this author. 4 stars

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This book - I Let You Go - is a hard one to rate.  I have enjoyed previous books by Clare Mackintosh and while this wasn't boring or dull it did deal with the death of child in the beginning. The settings are Bristol England and coastal Wales.  

Jenna is walking five year old Jacob home from school on a rainy evening.  While they are happily chattering away, despite the rain and cold, it seems like an ideal evening is in store for them.  Then he says, "race you home" and pulls away from her hand, running straight into the path of a car.  Every parents nightmare.  This is not a spoiler as it's stated in the book description straight away.

 


Jenna moves away from Bristol to a place she has never been to start over and leave memories behind.  She arrives in a remote town in Wales with zero possessions and rents a cottage well off the beaten track.  Meanwhile the police in Bristol are frantically searching for her as she was the only witness.  There is quite a bit more to the plot and story but suffice it to say, she is hiding a big secret.  It's sort of like Gone Girl where you read the first part of the story then go over the waterfall with all this information falling into place very quickly.  Themes of domestic abuse could be triggers for some readers.  As I said, I have enjoyed her other books but this wasn't my favorite. Rounded to 3 stars.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon. and Joy's Book Blog for Britsh Isles Friday for Long Island and The Life Impossible.

Friday, November 29, 2024

November Reading Roundup

I can't believe I am getting my November reading round up posted in November! I read four books this month and made plans for some great challenges next year.   Looking forward to more buddy reads, classics and nonfiction....but for now let's get this short post started.

📚📚   Books read  📚

 


Bullfighting by Roddy Doyle

The Woman Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

November book travel took me to Rhode Island, Ireland and Italy.

📚 Currently Reading 📚


That's it for the November round up.   Looking forward to more good reading in December. I'd love to know what books you favored this month and what reading goals you may have for next year.  Hope life is good for you all :-)

Here’s a snap of Loki soaking up the sunshine.



Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon. and Joy's Book Blog for Britsh Isles Friday.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Thoughts about bookish goals.....

 Here we are ushering in the end of November with December creeping up rapidly.  Or so it seems.  Time for me to think about reading goals for the upcoming year and deciding what is....achievable.  I have an ambitious list so far but some of the goals entwine with others.  

 #1 The Classics Club 


This has been a fascination for quite some time as I have seen it on bookish friends' blogs. Step one is making my list of 50 books and with a five year goal in mind, that seems like something I could accomplish.   Still making the list at present ....


#2 The Nonfiction Reader Challenge


This Challenge has been hosted by Shelleyrae at Book'd Out. and so next year I plan to join in.  Already have a few titles listed.

#3 Read what I own



A personal challenge/goal to get through stacks on my shelf and on my Kindle. I like that my Kindle has a feature to sort by newly owned books or those unread so, that part will be easy to select from.

 It's early for the goals but I wanted to get my list started.  Have any of you bookish friends started a list yet or have something new in mind for 2025?  I love new ideas so please make a suggestion and let me know about other reading groups.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

Friday, November 15, 2024

Roddy Doyle and Elena Ferrante
{Armchair travel to Ireland and Italy}

When it rains I end up inside reading quite a bit.  No complaints about that!  First up is a trip to Ireland with Roddy Doyle's book of short stories titled Bullfighting.


In this collection of short stories the meandering stream of consciousness of an older man dominates the narrative.  I can see things from the female point of view when he wonders at what point in time did his wife move to another room.  When did certain things occur when he was, apparently, not paying attention.

The stories take you into a middle aged man's life in Ireland.

Getting older wasn’t too bad. The baldness suited Martin. Everyone said it. He’d had to change his trouser size from 34 to 36. It was a bit of a shock, but it was kind of nice wearing loose trousers again, hitching them up when he stood up to go to the jacks, or whatever. He was fooling himself; he knew that. But that was the point—he was fooling himself. He’d put on weight but felt a bit thinner.

The story Bullfighting is about four male friends in Spain and their honest conversations.  They are all middle aged and facing the realities that life is half over for them.  Admitting loneliness and being honest...for once.

Not my favorite book by Doyle by a longshot but a nice respite to read something short between anything else I am currently doing.  Themes of aging and loneliness with some humor and a great deal of Irish culture. 

*******************

Next up we visit Naples Italy in the 1950's with My Brillant Friend by Elena Ferrante.  This was an enjoyable buddy read with Susan at The Cue Card.


This book starts off in Turin Italy, present time with Elena getting a frantic phone call from Rino, her best friend Lila's son.  His mother is missing. Lila and Elena had been friends for over 60 years and more than 30 years ago, Lila had confessed to Elena she wanted to disappear one day.  Leave without a trace. Apparently this is what happened.

The book is about Elena's account of friendship with Lila growing up in 1950's poverty stricken Naples. Lila was from a poor family, her father a shoemaker with little money to spare on a girl's eduaction...or anything else.  She was very intelligent and headstrong, teaching herself to read and educate herself  despite being held back by her family and financial standing.  That said, she never let anything dampen her spirit for life and learning.

Elena and Lila crossed paths in school at a young age but it wasn't an immediate or tender friendship. In the era described, their lives were filled with misogeny and violence, something they didn't find appalling as it was predominent in their culture and upbringing.  It was just life.

I think each girl challenged the other to do better.  Possibly from Elena's point of view she was motivated by Lila's  strong will and refusal to conform to the norms of their society.  Lila was intrigued by Elena's stubbornness and her refusal to capitulate to her bullying.  Not many stood up to Lila's strong personality.  That is my opinion on the ongoing relationship.

If you have read the synopsis this won't be a spoiler - it ends with Lila's wedding.  I was half expecting it to end with her appearance in the story, finding out where the 66 year old went and some resolution to her disappearance.  Book 2 will no doubt continue the story and I am looking forward to that eventually.

This would make a good series of books to read in August for the Women in Translation month/project but I can't wait that long to tackle books 2 and 3.

Currently I am working on a list of bookish goals for next year and hope to post about that next week. Happy reading to you all!

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon. and Joy's Book Blog for Britsh Isles Friday for Long Island and The Life Impossible.

Friday, November 8, 2024

October round up

First off, a big shout out to Shelleyrae at Book'd Out.  I was so happy to see her posting again and hope to join her for an event next year :-)

The election - I am glad it's over and frankly, I was surprised by the results. I remember way back in the day when things were civil between people, regardless of which party you supported.  If your candiate lost you'd say, oh well...maybe next time, and life went on.

Not so much anymore.  The outward gloating with new yard signs here is unbelievable. 

Reading and travel - Last month I didn't get much reading done because of travel but staying in a hotel we were able to watch two games of the World Series!  

Here is Loki balancing on a chair while he watches me, him on the bed while we watch the baseball game and a photo of delicious fish tacos and black beans from  Bahama Breeze restaurant.

He was kenneled for a day while we toured houses and had a meal out.



October reading
 consists of only two books but no DNF this time.  One book was on my fall reading.

📚📚   Books read  📚

The Woman Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle


Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano


October book travel took me to New Jersey and Ireland.  Currently reading My Brillant Friend with Susan at The Cue Card so I am immersed in an Italian town.

Currently doing a buddy read with Susan at The Cue Card.  We are immersed in 1950's Italian culture with My Brilliant Friend by  Elena Ferrante.



 That's it for the round up.   Looking forward to more good reading in November. I'd love to know what books you favored this month.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Nebraska trip and catching up

I never. Want to fly. Again. ✈    Getting to Nebraska wasn't too awful, except the exceptionally high prices for food in the airport. It was so good to see the kids and my sweet granddaughter after a year and we sure had fun.

Getting home had it's challenges with delays in a flight and more babies and young children on one flight from Atlanta to Tallahassee than we have ever experienced. A late flight means cranky kids.....yikes!

I know most folks have cable or some tv feed but as we don't, I was so happy to watch baseball at the hotel one evening!


Before we left we had a good DVD from the library.  It's a PBS show titled Pompeii: The New Dig.  It's in three one hour segments and was very interesting.


I posted about Crocktober fest earlier, check that out HERE if interested in slow cooker meals.


I only finished one book this month - Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano


That's it.  Driving to Memphis to look at that area this week. Hope you all are well, have good books and loving life!

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

September Reading Roundup

Hello October!  Yesterday we drove to a park where Loki likes to walk and saw the parking was roped off to a small area.  The National Guard was set up, available to give people ready made meals and tarps.  It was astonishing to see the number of vehicles coming through to pick something up. What a horrible path of devastation this storm left. I am hoping, as are we all, the rest of the hurricane season is quieter.

We lost water for a bit and are still using bottled water for cooking, brushing our teeth, etc.  Water is back and we have a boil notice but that's just a minor inconvenience.


September reading was quite varied in location and genres. I  did not have a DNF this time :-)  Thanks to hurricane Helene I finished two books in record time.  This knocks out four books I had listed for my fall reading.

📚📚   Books read  📚








September book travel took me to Vermont, Maine, New York, Long Island, Ireland, England and Ibiza.

 That's it for the September round up.   Looking forward to more good reading in October. I'd love to know what books you favored this month.  Hope life is good for you all :-)

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon. and Joy's Book Blog for Britsh Isles Friday for Long Island and The Life Impossible.

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Working on Trust and Sipsworth from my reading list
{and preparing for hurricane Helene}

Earlier this month we had my husband's birthday and some surprisingly nice weather.  He has been able to get out with his solar telescope in the daytime and a few evening sessions with his other scope.  Perfect.  

Now we are prepping for Hurricane Helene.  Getting the Kindle, phones, etc all charged for the loss of electricty. 

My week has been a dermatologist appointment, biopsy, bread making and a slow cooker recipe my son sent. The excitement never ends :-)

While looking at a news story on my phone I saw there was an Instagram post embedded and I couldn't access it.  So I dusted off my old Instagram account to have a look.  Then I tried to follow a few book blogs and authors.  Apparently you have to get permission now even if the accounts are public. 


Currently reading Trust and while very well written it's more narrative than dialogue. Thus I took a short break to read Sipsworth.  I finished this in a day and it's a sweet story.  Helen Cartwright is in her eighties and returned to England to live out her last years quietly and alone.

She had a full life in Australia with her husband and son but they are gone now.  She isn't ill but she knows at her age the end is coming.  Without friends or family she decides to settle in the English neighborhood where she grew up over 60 years ago.  Helen finds that life still has a few surprises for her.

Simon Van Booy is an author new to me. He grew up in rural Wales and currently lives in New York, writing and volunteering as an E.M.T.  I will seek out more of his work.



Once I finish Trust I am starting Long Island by Colm Tóibín.
All three of these books are on my fall reading list.  Has anyone else read books by Simon Van Booy and if so, recommendations?  I hope you have nice weather and good reading.

 Sharing with:


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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Fall reading and list making

First off, a shout out to ShelleyRae at Book'd Out.  I haven't seen you post in a while, you've been in my thoughts and I miss you. 

Let's talk fall reading.  Or Spring reading if you are in the southern hemisphere :-)

I enjoy making lists as it keeps me focused.  Sometimes I deviate but overall, it's helpful. Here's what I have so far but some could get swapped out depending on interest.


Trust by Herman Diaz (currently reading)

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy (currently reading) #BriFri

Long Island by Colm Toibin  #BriFri

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig #BriFri

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante  (a buddy read with Susan at The Cue Card)

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 

The Woman Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle #BriFri

This is a list in progress so I welcome suggestions and comments on any of these you have enjoyed.  Four of my books will be linked with Joy's British Isles Friday.  Love my U.K. authors :-)

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Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Herman Diaz, Mario Batali and Peter Heller

Earlier this month Deb at Readerbuzz posted Armchair Foodie Travel Books which I found interesting.  Several I had previously read but the Batali book about Spain was one I sought out. Luckily the library had a copy.


I will go through this nonfiction while I read Trust by Herman Diaz. Trust is on my fall reading list (which is still shaping up), won a Pulitzer prize in 2023 and is grabbing me from the start. 


Finished last night - The Orchard by Peter Heller was on sale for one dollar for Kindle so I couldn't pass that up. Check that out HERE.  That's a great price for a Peter Heller novel.  I'd told a friend about it but I think this price might only apply to U.S. based accounts.


This is an interesting book as it's told from a woman’s perspective.  All the other books I have read by Heller focus on male characters in a wilderness setting, outdoorsy men who have deep thoughts, some insecurties about life choices/relationships being a key component.  The Vermont setting here features a defunct orchard, nature and living off the land.

There are haunting characters, the mother with a sad and educated background.  Frith is the daughter, named for a character in The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico.

Frith refers to her mother as Haley; this is a bit of a coming of age story.  Something which doesn't usually appeal to me.  Haley is a translater of Chinese poetry and rears her daughter in a wooden cabin with a wood stove for heat and very little money.  Haley and Frith are very well read - anything from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Treasure Island, The Old Man in the Sea, We Die Alone (about the Norwegian commando who outskied a Nazi division)  to Grendel.

There is quite a bit of poetry in this book, there are some wonderful reflective passages from Frith as an adult, an educator who teaches at Amherst, and the memories of her unusal childhood with an amazing woman.

Heller brings you straight into this unusual family situation and pulls at your heartstrings at the end. 4.5 stars 📚

On this rainy day in north Florida I am working on book lists, baking bread and reading of course :-) Hope your week is going well.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

Friday, September 6, 2024

Peter Heller and Nigel Slater

Last week's post inspired me to make a new reading list for fall.  More on that later as I round it out.

Here is my update of Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries.  Funny I started up with this again in the middle of the year. 

I finished reading the diary entries for August and decided to make a white bean soup. Nigel has an entry with photo of a white bean salad sitting on greens with lots of garlic.  No matter that it's quite hot where I am, I have always liked soup so I thought I'd adapt the ingredients.  Today it's rainy so this worked out well.


I used great northern beans, garlic, onion, spinach and oregano. Loved it and everything was in the pantry and fortuitously a bag of baby spinach in the fridge. Now I am reading his September entries.  It's getting cool in his London garden and I'll take some of that weather here please.

Reading: This week I read Burn by Peter Heller.



Jess and Storey grew up together with Jess spending more time at Storey's home than his own.  They are more brothers than friends, going off on hunting and fishing trips several times a year.  The beginning of this plot has them coming off a two week moose hunt in Maine, far out in the wilderness with no knowledge an uprising has taken place.

The first town they come to is burned to the ground, houses smoking, bridges blown up and a few bodies strewn in the streets as they were shot down trying to escape something. Boats in the harbor remained untouched so they cautiously look for supplies in the boats.  As they move on, carefully sticking to the woods and staying off the road, they search for a cell signal and news of what could have happened.  Eventually from their hidden spot in the wood line on a hill, they see a woman in a small boat, obviously rowing as fast as she can when a black helicopter appears and cuts her down.  What is going on?

This is a dystopian novel yet a plot involving a succesionist movement that could have been all too real during the trump presidency. It plays out slowly and in my opinion didn't have an end to give you resolution.  The excellent author that he is, perhaps he left it to us as readers to figure out the many possible outcomes.  I didn't give away the story here and there are some surprises in store.  The flashbacks gave us Jess and Storey's background, lots of ruminating on Jess's part about why his marriage failed and unnecessary memories about a situation involving Storey's mother.  That last part added nothing to the development of the story in my opinion. Rounded up to 4 stars.

Finally, Loki using his stuffed tiger as a makeshift pillow.



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Monday, September 2, 2024

My Books of Summer List

 I joined up with Cathy at 746 Books for her summer reading challenge and while I didn't complete my orginal list, I did read ten books.  I had a DNF with North Woods by Daniel Mason, substituted The Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio for Women in Translation Month and couldn't get my hands on Long Island or The Alternatives on time.



The longest book was September at 613 pages and most others averaged 325 pages+

  1. The Night of the Flood by Zoe Somerville (352 pages)
  2. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane (388 pages)
  3. A Time Remembered by Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt
  4. September by Rosamunde Pilcher (613 pages) - buddy read!
  5. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano (340 pages)
  6. Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Conner (224 pages)
  7. Forgotten on Sunday by Valerie Perrin (316 pages)
  8. Long Island by Colm Toibin
  9. The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
  10. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (379 pages)
  11. North Woods by Daniel M
  12. The Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (167 pages)
  13. Trust Her by Flynn Berry (304 pages)
  14. The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane (304 pages)

My favorites were September, and Ask Again, Yes.  Excellent stories. It was fun to enjoy a buddy read with JoAnn and Les for September :-)

My fall reading list includes the couple I did not get to as well as many other titles.  It was fun to make a list and I had some great reading! Please click on the titles/hyperlink if you'd like to read a review.  I never give spoilers.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon and Cathy at 746 Books


Friday, August 23, 2024

I'm ready to read

My big plan for this week was to post about a couple of new books I had but I was sidelined by Covid. My husband got it first which of course meant I got it two days later. It's been a rough week, especially when food supplies dwindled.

We can't get delivery of anything here but when I was alert enough to make the 25 mile round-trip to the grocery store, I did manage to get groceries via an Instacart order. Thank you Jinjer for talking to me about Instacart! First time I have used it.  They were able to place our order for fresh vegetables and fruit directly into our hatch with no contact. What a blessing that was.  Ok, I am done whining....

Today I will do blog housekeeping.  See the list called Listopia on the right? 👉


If you are ever interested in books with a setting in a particular country (or an author specific to that country) just click on the hyperlink. Any books I have reviewed on this blog will take you to those posts. Looks like some countries need to be added from my tags.

Update since I posted this yesterday - If interested Peter Heller's book The Orchard is on'y $1 via Amazon for Kinlde.  Quite a deal HERE.

Tomorrow I am planning on starting September by Rosamunde Pilcher. Then I will see about a books-of-summer roundup and decide what books I fancy in autumn.


That's about it...here's a photo of Loki chilling out with me on the sofa.  He's a good boy,  knows how to relax and is never without his tiger. 🐅



I will be visiting and catching up on blogs over the next few days.  You all weren't forgotten :-) Wishing you good health and good reading.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.


Friday, August 16, 2024

A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio #WIT

I just finished my first book this month for the Women in Translation project.  I'd hoped to read another translated book but I did not plan well.  Here is my reading buddy Loki keeping me company.


A Girl Returned is a heartfelt story about a thirteen year old girl who suddenly finds out her mother is actually her aunt.  It gets worse when she is deposited in a run down home, introduced with zero fanfare to her birth mother and natural siblings.

Apparently she had been living with her aunt since she was an infant, believing this to be her natural mother.  She had a good life near the sea, friends at school, activities, love  and solitude. Her new home is hectic and financially insecure.  Her first meal at a table with her mother, father, two brothers and a sister was chaos as hands were flying across the table to grab food. Talk about culture shock.

Her sister Adriana was a blessing to her as they became devoted to one another.

I felt very sorry for her when she bought herself a birthday pastry and a little candle, then secreted herself in a room and quietly sang happy birthday. No one remembered, no one knew. 

A great revelation near the end as to why her aunt gave her up then returned her back to her birth mother came as a surprise.  This story is told roughly twenty years in the future by the girl who is never called by name. 

This book was first published in 2017 in Italian and is now available translated by Ann Goldstein.  I read this for the Women in Translation August event.  I have rounded to 3.5 stars and would read more by this author.  Adding it to my summer reading list as well.


I'm with Jinjer, I wish there was a Linky party to join in for the Women in Translation month.  Perhaps next year someone will do that.  I have never been able to figure out the link parties setup or I would volunteer to host :-)  

How is your summer reading going?  My list has fluctuated from my original list but I will get to those titles this year.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Women in Translation month and zucchini fritters

Let's start with my PSA regarding turtles and comments :-) So far, no turtles I can see and the nest does not appear to be disturbed but..we have had some serious storms and hard rains so, who knows.  

Also, if you don't see your comment here within 12 hours or so you can email me.  What is up with the spam redirect? Ugh.

What is new....

Watching the first two seasons of The Unit, an older series from 2006.  This is based on Eric Haney's nonfiction book Inside Delta Force.



I have read through the July entries of The Kitchen Diaries. Inspired I prepared the zucchini fritters.  I've done the fritters before and if you'd like to check out that recipe, click HERE to see it on my retired food blog. I've started Nigel's August entries already.



Currently reading A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio for Women in Translation month.






More about this author HERE.

Coming up is September by Rosamunde Pilcher and one other book I haven't decided on yet. I need to rework my summer list as some titles weren't available and I bailed on others.



That's it.  Just in and felt like updating. Hoping you are well, the storms have missed you and you've good books lined up.

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane

 I can't believe I didn't post this.  Well, I did on Goodreads but wanted to record it here as well.  It's one of my favorites from my Twenty Books of Summer event.

A+ 5 Stars

The title is a nice nod to James Joyce's tome Ulysses.  Molly Bloom's rambling " ...and I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and he then he asked me would I say yes to say yes my mountain flower..." That 700 page tome was one I had in English Lit class at university over 30 years ago :-)

Anyway.....

I absolutely loved this book and read it any chance I had. It starts in the 1970s with NYPD rookie police officers Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope. As they are patroling a call comes through about a robbery. They rush to the scene finding the owner of the bodega dead, blood all over him. Gleeson apprehends the suspect. It's the start of a partnership and good careers for Stanhope and Gleeson and, what you would initially think, a great friendship.

Both marry, have children, live next door to one another in a smaller town just outside the city. The neighborhood children had the kind of upbringing I had - kids running around across the lawns, riding bikes, catching fireflies and having birthday parties at each other's homes.

Ideal. Except there isn't an easy friendship and then there is a tragedy so great it shapes the lives of everyone in both the Stanhope and Gleeson familes permanently.

The story is told over a 40+ year timeline and from different perspectives. Such an excellent story. Themes of love, forgiveness, tragedy, mental illness and more.

This is an author new to me and I would group this story with Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful. A+ 5 Stars

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Next up was Keane's newst publication - The Half Moon



The Half Moon is a bar. The story is about Jess and Malcolm with The Half Moon figuring in prominently.   This story is ever evolving about their relationship, the love as well as the fractures as time goes on.  I see both sides of their stories.  Sometimes one is being unreasonable, letting pride overcome working things out.  As I read I found myself taking sides. I'll be Team Malcolm then switch to Team Jess and then ... neither one. 

You'll read how head-over-heels in love Jess was with Malcolm and vice versa. The initial thrill of being together, then the reality of marriage, the constant doctor appointments, IVF treatments and disappointments for seven years. Malcolm trying to keep the bar in the black and run his business.  It's mostly his happy place.

I can't enumerate the times I wondered WTF was going on with this relationship, if you could call it that.  I will say it took fortitude to finish the book, it was like an accident where you can't look away. About the 75% mark things started happening at a rapid progression.  

This book has more ruminations and observations from each character than dialogue between them and others.  There IS dialogue and you are in the moment for it.  I don't regret reading this book but I will say I loved Ask Again, Yes and this didn't meet that bar.  

My opinion - I am not recommending reading it or passing.  Keane is a good author and I will be reading another of hers next month.

Also on tap next month is a buddy read for the book September by Rosamunde Pilcher 😊📚

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

Sunday, July 14, 2024

The latest issues of BookPage and some interesting interviews

 Yesterday I picked up the latest edition of BookPage and was happy to see a few interviews published by authors I am interested in.


The article on Flynn Berry was great, titled "I'm Used to Being Haunted by Characters".  I enjoyed Northern Spy by Flynn Berry and was pleased her latest book, Trust Her, will follow up on the same characters. Also in this piece it was nice to read about her characters but also how she feels about other books/characters we've both read. 

Flynn mentions she wonders about Rachel in The Rachel Incident, about how they might have been friends and where she is in London.  I wonder about characters like that as well. They seem so real and are so well developed that I hope to see them appear in other books.

Claire Lombardo's latest, Same As It Ever Was, is also featured in this issue.  She has an interview chatting about how her books come together and what she is working on.


Last month's issue here featured a good interview with Claire Messud.


The wrinkled pages are because I jammed it in my purse.  Messud talks about how long it took her to write the story and the inspiration from her family history.
This Strange Eventful History is Messud's sixth novel and draws from her own French Algerian family.


On tap today is getting back to a Mary Beth Keane novel and planning an enchilada dinner.  I hope your Sunday is going well :-)

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

Friday, June 21, 2024

Just another hot Friday....

Loki resting with his stick. His X is quite prominent today.



Comment field update! First off, some comments you've left me have gone to Spam and so now I check spam/junk folder everytime I log on.  Apologies. That's now handled . ✅

Also I found a way to leave comments on WP blogs, much to my delight :-)  I just use my old AOL email address as it's not ever been associated with WP. Problem solved. ✔


Books


Manod Llan lives with her father and young sister on a remote Welsh island. She is a curious young woman and wants more than her sheltered existence provides.  What she wants she does not know, she just knows there has to be more to life.  The dwindling population make a living fishing, living a very simple life until a whale washes up ashore.

 When English ethnographers (I had to look that up) arrive on the island to study the culture and the basic lives of the population, Manod's world is opened up and she is excited.  There is much Welsh language in the narrative but the translation is there as you read.  Manod is hired to make translations from Welsh to English to the reseachers.

Unfortunately the English researchers are scoundrals, in my opinion, and the book took a turn I did not expect.  I suppose if you are looking for imagery the dead whale would represent the dying community on the island. This is a short book and many of the "chapters" are half a page.


Forgotten on Sunday 


I've just started the latest Valérie Perrin book, the third I will have read, also translated by Hildegarde Serle.  That's my book wrap up for the week.  Hope you are reading some good books and having fun :-)

Sharing with:


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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day is a story about a seemingly cold unfeeling butler named Stevens and his reminiscing of days past.  It's more tha...