Four days ago I was wearing short sleeves and wishing it were cooler. Night before last I had to cover the plants as the temps dropped to be 27F / -3C. Our walk today was brisk to say the least with 18 mph wind and heavy coats. Loki's ears were flapping, lol.
This is Loki and his neighbor buddy Daisy on a warm morning walk this past weekend. The photo makes them look to be the same size but Loki is a good 28 pounds bigger. Looks like they are about to drop a new album.
Two books finished this week. Let's start with a fiction by Virginia Evans - Within the Walled City. I loved her latest book The Correspondent but this one I have mixed feelings.
Starting with the good things I will say the cover art is beautiful. The story mostly takes place in Siena Italy and the descriptions of architecture, interactions and food come alive. I could clearly picture the characters, the vibrant colors and conversations weren't stilted.
Jillian is the narrator, a college aged young woman focusing on art, planning a work study program in Italy. It must be noted Jillian and her father have a cool relationship and by that I mean civil after a huge falling out. As Jillian's mom Lily had cancer and died when Jillian was nine years old, she naturally had questions about her mother. Her requests for info about her mother were usually stonewalled over the years and then, she finds a treasure trove of Lily's paintings hidden in the attic. Confrontation ensued.
Time passes....
Suddenly her father is encouraging her to accept the art study in Sienna over other Italian cities. Before leaving, he hands her Lily's journal, written when Lily was an art student in....you guessed it, Siena.
There are times this story was rather slow and others storylines about her roommates in Siena get mixed in but overall, I did like the book. It's a lovely armchair excursion to Tuscany where you'll love the foodie descriptions, a bit of romance and most of the loose ends get tied up neatly.
I was fortunate enough to purchase this book on Kindle shortly after reading
The Correspondent (which I loved) but now it appears the book is unavailable in either Kindle or physical book format. The great success of The Correspondent must have inspired bookworms to seek out Evan's earlier book. Rating it a 3.75 and should probably round to 4 as I was never tempted to put it down. Just the ending seemed "too" tied up and improbable, in my humble opinion. I'll put a spoiler note on Goodreads with those thoughts.
Did you know we have a World Heritage site here in the United States? I did not until I read this book. It's located about 10 miles from St Louis Missouri, a large prehistoric civilization which was larger than London in 1250 AD. Here is a link to Cahokia Mounds, a World Heritage and State Historical site.
The chapters about Pompeii was my main interest and learning about the society. Freed slaves (libertli) their children or those who earned their freedom constituted the major part of the population. It was a vibrant city, ruined and abandoned so quickly after the volcanic eruption. Sad. A citizen named Julia Felix was particularly interesting as she held ownership of several blocks of buildings, quite a businesswoman.
The other two cities excavated and studied are Cataholyuk, Turkey and Angkor in Cambodia. This book is tagged as science with much info about the archeological digs and finds.
The book was written by a journalist, not an archeological team, so keep that in mind when reading about environmental and political reasons why a vibrant civilization disappeared. Rounded up to 3.5 stars
