Last week’s walking is brought to you by the great state of Michigan where we spent some time exploring the coast line. Turns out the shore of Lake Superior are nicely socially distant when it’s 59 degrees and windy.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
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Shamelessly stolen from Litsy
August wasn’t a stellar reading month for me. The best part has been reading a chapter a day from Pride and Prejudice with the #PemberLittens group on Litsy. But, we won’t finish that until this month.
Until then know that my reviews below may sound grumpy and halfhearted and it is all me, not them.
PS I’m hosting a giveaway in honor of the National Parks if you’re interested.
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid — This short book covers so much territory about race and class in America. I’m still thinking about it. The part that struck me the most was how everyone was talking, but no one accurately heard what the other person was trying to say. Really, I think about that once a day at least. Despite my August mood this will probably be one of my top books from 2020.
Beach Read by Emily Henry - This would normally be right up my alley, but because of my August mood all I could think was, “You two better learn to communicate soon because when you’re in quarantine together you’re gonna have some real problems.”
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner - This was a ridiculous yet fun look at the world of influencers, and when the twist happens it gets even more entertaining. Just if something sounds familiar in this book don’t google it because you will get spoiled.
The Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler - This was my favorite of the three. A solitary man who lives by his rigid routines gets his life tossed around when a teenager shows up claiming to be his son. I’m not sure how I’ve never read a book by Anne Tyler before, and I’m excited for all that I have to catch up on.
Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan- I enjoyed this WWII novel, and how he tied organ music in to the making of the atomic bomb. (It works; you’ll see.) A little bit repetitive at certain points, but worth the read. (ARC from LibraryThing.)
A Torch Against The Night by Sabaa Tahir - Sometimes the second book in a series suffers a bit, but not so with this one. Tahir kept up the pace, and I can’t wait to read more.
The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay - An extended Bengali family and all of the politics and ghosts that come into that sort of thing. I enjoyed the audiobook.
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I decided to start doing a weekly Friday Top Five to have a place to talk about all of the random bookish nonsense I get up to during the week.
The news, work, and back to school have all conspired to make me a giant ball of stress. There’s nothing better than a fun summer read on the porch to remedy that. (I know it’s September, but school doesn’t officially start until Tuesday so it’s still summer in my mind.)
This one has had some health problems, so when she’s feeling like stealing my bookmarks or chewing on the side of the book while I read I just scratch her ears and tell her good girl.
I have about a million unread books to get to, but I just can’t help re-reading the Gamache books every time a new one comes out.
Picking the books to read during a readathon is almost as much fun as actually reading isn’t it?
Here’s my stacks for September’s #BookspinBINGO on Litsy. September’s mood: mysteries, graphic novels, and a lot more non-fiction.
Linking to The Sunday Post - a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer.
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Not much walking for me this week unless you count to the fridge and back :(
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
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I don’t know if it’s the weather or that I can reliably get flour again, but I’ve been having a great time getting back into my 20 cookbooks in 2020 project.
Weeknight Baking is billed as a book of recipes for the end of the day when you want a little treat. I suggest that it also be modernized to include the 30 minuted between Zoom calls when you really can’t possibly concentrate on anything but cookies. Ahem.
This book has a nice selection of recipes with tons of variations so it’s likely you’ll find something to make that doesn’t involve a trip to the store. I made the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies to rave reviews, and I’m looking forward to mixing up a batch of seriously spicy pumpkin spice for fall gift giving.
Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!
I decided to start doing a weekly Friday Top Five to have a place to talk about all of the random bookish nonsense I get up to during the week.
I have another book to give away! Check it out here!
One of my 2020 goals was to read and cook from 20 new to me cookbooks. Well, you can guess how that’s been going. Lately though my library has re-opened and my garden has been going nuts so I gave a recipe from The Adventurous Eaters Club a try. (Adding cucumbers because I picked 7 of them from my garden just yesterday alone.) It was simple and good! I liked the cookbook too although I think it’s meant more for families with pre-school aged kids.
Finally, finally it is cool enough to enjoy my back yard again.
When I first read about this online event from Politics and Prose I thought it was some sort of dream. I went back the next day, and no, it’s real Hillary Clinton is interviewing Louise Penny on Sep. 1 when her new book comes out. I’ll be there! (By there I mean here, watching it on my phone.)
Don’t you love it when your books are all organized and pretty? I finally got around to cleaning mine up.
I started my next read for the Litsy Markup Postal Book Club (#LMPBC) Writing in books seems so wrong, but these postal book clubs are so fun! I love to see everyone’s notes at the end.
Linking to The Sunday Post - a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer.
Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!
Another great week of walking when the air doesn’t want to melt my face off! Plus more rainbows and weird looking flowers.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
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Rocky Mountain National Park
Today is the National Park’s Birthday! They’re free to get in today if you happen to be nearby.
I have loved all of the National Parks I’ve visited, and I read about them as often as I can. This summer I treated myself to a new book, and due to the unfortunate Chain Letter Incident I have a second copy to give away.
To enter leave a comment with a note about your favorite National Park or the National Park you’d most like to visit. In one month I’ll select a winner to receive this book. Please use a valid email so I can contact the winner, and US only please.
I decided to start doing a weekly Friday Top Five to have a place to talk about all of the random bookish nonsense I get up to during the week.
My drink of choice when I’m reading, writing, or working is tea. However all that caffeine plus every day 2020 stress is making it hard to sleep. It sounds austere, but I discovered this week that a slice of lemon and some mint from the garden is almost just as good.
A birthday present to myself.
I “needed” to read a magazine for a summer reading challenge I was doing on Litsy, and so this impulse buy just jumped into my cart. I love America’s Test Kitchen, and I can’t wait to try some of these burgers!
I decided to listen to this audiobook after I read about it in NPR Books. I’ll write more about the book later, but I’ve been thinking about the translator’s note all week. I never thought about how hard it is to translate swears and insults from one language to another.
I joked on Litsy that I’m probably going to change my name to “Things I Eat While I Read” since it’s been such a 2020 theme of mine. Here is peach and blackberry crisp a la mode.
Linking to The Sunday Post - a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer.
My kids have been at summer camp this week, so I actually got to walk alone a few times. (Don’t judge it’s a fully outdoors, socially distanced camp.)
Subtle signs of fall are starting to creep in on my walks, and there are mushrooms everywhere.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
Note: Links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support.
Ugh, is anything going to be left for us when this is over? I just read that June bookstore sales fell 35%. I guess it’s time to order more books! Any recommendations? I already have the new Louise Penny on pre-order.
July was a slow reading month for me, but between the adoption of two kittens and the new Baby-Sitters Club Netflix release who can blame me?
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon - This is a travel diary from the late 1970’s, and like in Travels With Charley I was struck by how many problems in America then are still problems now. I usually am a fast reader, but took my time with this one so I could savor Least Heat-Moon’s observations. He had a really observant yet non-judgemental way of looking at the people he met on his travels.
“I’d traveled ten thousand miles and had not encountered a single hoodlum. But I’d been taken for one several times. ”
In The Woods by Tana French - I FINALLY got around to reading a Tana French book. I really liked this mystery that was really more about the detectives than it was about the actual mystery. The detectives in this book were very different than my favorite series by Louise Penny, but the feel was similar.
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescot - I love me a good Cold War spy novel, especially when the spy is a woman. The background of how Dr. Zhivago came to be published, and the race to release it as anti-Russia propaganda was also interesting. This was also the first library book I read post quarantine, so it holds a spot in my heart for that alone!
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger - This was another new to me mystery series that I’m excited to catch up on. The former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota is at a bit of a loose end when this book starts. A mysterious death and a missing Boy Scout pull him back to his old job.
One Crazy Summer and PS Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia - The three sisters in these books were some of my favorite characters that I’ve read in a long time. These books touch on so many topics I want my kids to think about at a level they can understand. Great, great historical fictions for middle graders, and excellent on audio. I can’t wait to listen to the third one when we have a reason to be in the car again.
The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan - I can’t really get into these books, but my kids love them for road trips.
Back in June there was a chain letter going around town where kids tell other kids to buy books and send them and somehow they were supposed to get 36 books each in the mail. My daughter got three of these chain letters, and while I only let her send out one set of extortion letters in return we did end up buying books for four different kids because I felt bad thinking about them waiting for books in the mail that never came. So that’s why when I went to buy some books for myself the address of a member of my daughter’s girl scout troop was in the ship to field instead of mine. And my brain has been kind of mush this year, so I didn’t notice. And because the bookseller was swamped at the time I couldn’t cancel. And the girl in question had just moved a state away. But, happy ending to a long story I ordered myself a second set of books, and the original books made their way back to me last week. So now I have a set to give away! Just enter your email below, and I’ll pick on person to ship the books to! (US only, sorry.)
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We went from 100 degree days without a drop of rain to tropical storms and floods. Gotta love 2020.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
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We’re hunkered down here waiting for Isaias to pass. It would be a perfect day to read all day if it weren’t for this job thing they want me to do.
Bad weather is excellent for good reading. One of my favorite bookish memories is staying up all night in a shaky little cottage on Cape Cod listening to the wind howl and reading Bird Box. I’m not sure I would have liked that book at all if it weren’t for the weather.
Are you in the path of the storm? What are you reading today?
To me August reading is like that last big meal you eat before starting a new diet.
It’s a time for staying up way too late reading a thriller, or sitting on the porch all day reading a sweeping multi-generational novel that makes you cry. You know next month you’ll have stacks of non-fiction and reading challenges to catch up with, but you also know that for now it’s August and you have time to read what you want.
This morning I pulled a stack of books I’m hoping to read next month. They are:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - A group of us on Litsy have been reading through the Jane Austen books a chapter a day. We start P&P tomorrow and I CANNOT WAIT. (It’s #Pemberlittens if you want to join.)
Into The Wild by John Krakauer - This book really made me mad when I first read it in 2008, but for some reason I want to read it again to see if I’ve changed my mind.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - Part of my book buying binge this spring. I’m glad I’m finally going to get to this one that it seems like everyone else has already read.
A Torch Against The Night by Sabaa Tahir - I really enjoyed the first in this series. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus - This sounds perfect for reading all night, maybe in a tent or a hammock?
Beach Read by Emily Henry - I bought it for the cover. Here’s hoping the story lives up to it!
Universe of Two by Stephen Kiernan - I’ve had this ARC on my shelf for way too long. There are a lot of books about the Manhattan project, but I’ll gladly read them all.
What are you looking forward to reading in August?
One of my favorite new walking hobbies is to read all of the signs sprouting up in my neighbors’ yards. I guess since we can’t really get together and talk right now we turned to messages in our lawns.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
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Last week I was was in Wolfeboro, NH visiting my family. We were playing it pretty safe cooking our own meals, taking long walks, and swimming at an isolated section of lake, but at one point I did sneak away to visit a bookstore I heard was open. (Shout out to The Country Bookstore.)
It was great to be back. You know that feeling of being in a bookstore and finding books you didn’t even know you were interested in? Man, I had missed that.
The bookstore itself was great for browsing. I was the only one in there at the time (the bookseller told me they had been doing insane amounts of mail order.) The books were laid out nicely so that I didn’t have to touch everything just to see the titles. They had a great big kids’ section, and a wide variety of adult topics as well. In short, bookworm heaven.
I have mixed feelings about entering any kind of building at this point, and spend most of my time outside or in my very own house. My garden is producing so even my trips to the grocery store are getting rarer. But, for one brief 20 minute period of time, I felt normal and happy again. Thank you The Country Bookstore.
Meet Daisy. Brother Oliver is too fast to get a good picture yet.
Two good things happened since we last met up. One, my library opened for curbside pick up! Two, we adopted two kittens who are adorable and love to lay around with me while I read. We also took a very socially distant trip out of town to go hiking, and that meant audiobooks in the car. So, a good month for reading.
(Note, I was worried to leave my city which is filled with pretty serious social distancing mask wearers to go someplace that didn’t have as good of a reputation, but it was fine. No confrontations I’m happy to say.)
And how is it mid-July already?
The Color Purple by Alice Walker - I read this a long time ago, and picked it back up again early last month. So much good stuff here. You need to read it if you haven’t.
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”
A $500 House in Detroit - I thought I was getting a HGTV style makeover book, but what I got was a really interesting look at race and class in Detroit around 2008.
Parable of the Sower - I read this for a reading challenge not knowing that a dystopian novel set in the year 2025 would seem so believable based on the year 2020. This is the second book I’ve read by Octavia Butler, and I will be reading more. (The other book, Kindred, was also really good.)
Ten Days In A Mad House - In 1887 journalist Nellie Bly had herself committed to a “mad house” so that she could report on the conditions. Once you read about the conditions and the ease of commitment in those days you will be amazed by how brave she was.
I weirdly ended up reading three books set in Chicago last month.
Rodham - A book about what might have happened to Hillary if she hadn’t married Bill. I thought this book was super clever, and have recommended it to a bunch of people (including you!)
Becoming - I loved the behind the scenes looks at the White House, and the very real struggles the Obamas had raising two kids with two working parents. This might have been bad timing though, because to me a lot of the things we worried about in 2008-2016 just seem so quaint.
A Raisin In The Sun - I love this play, and read it often. This was the first “grown up” book I read when my mom took me to see it in Boston as a high schooler. The struggles in this play just poke my heart.
Mary Anne Saves The Day - Yup, I’m 42 years old and read a Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel in preparation for watching the Netflix series. So sue me.
Anne of Windy Poplars - Still reading through Anne’s books. I enjoy them, but they’re feeling more and more like filler that LMM’s publisher talked her into writing.
Twisted Twenty-Six - These books are always the same, and I always enjoy them. This was the first one I’ve ever done as an audiobook, and I liked the narrator.
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My step count is way down this week because of the heat. I need to come up with a better schedule, but is there any good schedule in the time of COVID-19? I’m already getting up at 4:30 so I can get work in before my kids get up. Whatever, I’ll figure it out, because my brain doesn’t function without walks.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to and seeing this week.
Note: Links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support.
I was looking for an image of five stars and this picture of cookies came up.
I use LibraryThing.com to track what I’ve read, tags, and star ratings. Any book I read starts with three stars. Three stars to me is a good, average book. The good thing about LibraryThing is that you can give half star ratings. So from three stars I either go up or down a half star at a time. When I get to about two stars I usually won’t finish. Four stars is a really good book. Five stars is an amazing book that I will read again.
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