Nittnut's Art of Reading 2019 - Two

I am continuing last year's theme of artwork. This is by Miss M. I quite like it.

I'm Jennifer. this is my 10th year on LibraryThing, and in the 75er group. I read in bed. Also at the pool, in restaurants, at the beach, but not in the car. I have been married 25 years to my best friend. He puts up with my reading addictions, mostly, although I am not allowed to read while watching sport. We have three children ages 20 (now reading in his own apartment), 15, and 12 and I often find them reading in bed after lights out. Success! We have lived in California, Oregon, Colorado, New Zealand, and now we live in North Carolina. When I'm not reading, I teach water fitness at the YMCA and run the women's service organization at my church.

Challenges 2019

AAC (American Author Challenge)

January: Chaim Potok
February: Louisa May Alcott
March: Jon Clinch
April: Jesmyn Ward
May: Jay Parini
June: Pearl Buck
July: Founding Fathers (and Mothers)
August: Ernest J. Gaines
September: Leslie Marmon Silko
October: DRAMA
November: W. E. B. DuBois
December: Marilynne Robinson

Non-Fiction Challenge

January: Prizewinning books, and runners up.
February: Science and Technology: Innovations and Innovators.
March: True Crime, Misdemeanors and Justice, Past and Present Day
April: Comfort Reads: Whatever topic makes you feel warm & fuzzy inside.
May: History. In this case, my cutoff date is 1950.
June: The Pictures Have It! Any book that relies on pictures to tell the story, from an illustrated graphic text, to a book of photographs, to an art catalog.
July: Biography & First Person Yarns
August: Raw Materials: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
So, read a book that starts with animals, vegetables or minerals at its heart.
September: Books by Journalists. On ANY topic -- just check to be sure that the author is a journalist -- employed by a paper, writing freelance, past or present.
October: Other Worlds: From Spiritual to Fantastical
November: Creators and Creativity
December: I’ve Always Been Curious About…

2018 Top Four



FINISHED!

January

1. Midnight Riot
2. The Chosen
3. The River Widow
4. Jade Dragon Mountain
5. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mewed
6. I'll Be Your Blue Sky
7. The Grave's a Fine and Private Place

February

8. Erasing Time
9. Winter of the Witch
10. Skyward
11. Carve the Mark
12. The Fates Divide
13. Whispering in French DON'T DO IT
14. A Civil Contract
15. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

March

16. I'll See You in Paris
17. Old Men at Midnight
18. Black Klansman
19. Guns, Germs and Steel
20. Isaac's Storm
21. The Christmas Hirelings
22. Kings of the Earth
23. Wholly Unraveled
24. Obstruction of Justice: How the Deep State Risked National Security
25. Where the Forest Meets the Stars
26. Rock Needs River
27. The Girl Who Drank the Moon
28. The Little Paris Bookshop
29. Navigating Early
30. The Magnolia Inn

Currently reading

Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women's Movement
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
Penguins and Golden Calves - audio

AAC Challenge

January - Chaim Potok - The Chosen
February - Louisa May Alcott - Little Men
March - John Clinch - Kings of the Earth
April - Jesmyn Ward - pass
May - Jay Parini - The Damascus Road
June - Pearl Buck -

Non-Fiction Challenge

January - Prizewinners/Runners Up - Guns, Germs and Steel
February - Science - Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
March - True Crime/Justice - Black Clansman
April - Comfort Reads - In the Hurricane's Eye
May - History (before 1950) -
June -

April Reading

31. In the Hurricane's Eye
32. The Bookshop
33. Bluefish
34. A Mind of Her Own
35. Britt-Marie Was Here
36. Five Feet Apart
37. The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
38. The Coddling of the American Mind
39. The Forgotten Hours

May Reading

40. The Winter King
41. Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women's Movement
42. Ezaara
43. Dragon Hero
44. Dragon's Rift
45. The Well Trained Mind

June Reading

46. The Lost: the Search for Six of Six Million
47. Holding Up the Universe
48. Daughter of the Forest
49. Son of the Shadows
50. Child of the Prophecy
51. Meet the Austins
52. The Mother
53. The Things We Do For Love

July Reading

54. Valentine and Valencia
55. Penguins and Golden Calves
56. The Turquoise Table
57. In the Garden of Beasts
58. Enchantment of Ravens
59. Sorcery of Thorns
60. The Festival of Vision and Fire

August Reading

61. Sea People: the Puzzle of Polynesia
62. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
63. The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon
64. Dear Mrs. Bird
65. Before We Were Yours
66. A More Perfect Heaven

September Reading

67. Loving Someone With Borderline Personality Disorder
68. Harp of Kings
69. Dark Agenda
70. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
71. The Ghost Fields
72. The Woman in Blue
73. Waste Tide
74. The Chalk Pit
75. The Dark Angel
76. The Stone Circle

October Reading

77. Stranger Diaries
78. Beautiful by Juliet Marillier (audible original)
79. Cold Earth
80. Thin Air
81. Wild Fire
82. Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question
83. Spineless:
84. Telesa
85. Ceremony

November Reading

86. The Bookshop on the Shore
87. The Book Charmer
88. The Fountains of Silence
89. The Giver of Stars
90. Lab Girl
91. Twilight
92. Chaotic Good (awful)
93. I Have Lost My Way
94. Just One Day
95. Revenge of the Whale

Happy new thread, Jenn! Miss M's artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I want to pet that fluffy purple critter, though that long beak gives me pause ... :-)

Happy new thread, Jenn! And I LOVE that topper!

Happy new thread!

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Jenn! I love the signs in >3 nittnut: and >5 nittnut:.

Happy new thread!

Oh, I LOVE that --kiwi, is it? It is gorgeous! Happy new thread!

>7 rosalita: Hi Julia. Definitely a long beak, but the ones that are raised at the conservation centers don't seem to use it as a weapon. I don't know...

>8 katiekrug: Thanks Katie!

>9 drneutron: Hi Jim :)

>10 figsfromthistle: Hi Figs :) Thanks for stopping by.

>11 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba! I am glad you enjoyed those.

>12 charl08: Thanks Charlotte!

>13 ronincats: It's a kiwi! Thanks Roni.

The reckoning.

Books from the St. Francis Book Sale (you may notice a general theme):

Voices of Freedom
First Family: Abigail and John Adams
His Excellency George Washington
Killing the SS
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
Hero of the Empire
Readings in Ancient History
The Wright Brothers
The Johnstown Flood
The Warmth of Other Suns
Desert Queen
Apollo 13 - 30th anniversary edition
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Dead Wake
The Great Influenza
The Boys in the Boat
The Forgotten Man
Imperial Woman
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Continued...

A Guide to the Elements
The Handy Weather Answer Book
Alexander Hamilton
12 Years a Slave
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody
The Great Bridge
Hard Times
Ethan Frome and Other Short Stories
Mutiny on the Bounty
Peterson Field Guide Geology
Anthem
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Life on the Mississippi
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Much Ado About Nothing
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Watership Down
Darwin: Voyage of the Beagle
Catch-22
On Liberty
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
Howard's End
Gulliver's Travels
The Good Earth
Cry, The Beloved Country

Continued...

The Prince
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Education of Little Tree
Messengers of God
The American Revolution through British Eyes
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Einstein for Beginners
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
1984
A History of Pi
Night
The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side Gallery 3
Summer of the Monkeys
The Wanderer
Matched
Crossed
Reached

I love the kiwi art, very well done. From your last thread, I also loved The winter of the witch, such a fabulous trilogy, rates at the top of my all-time fantasy reading.

Wow, I see you unloaded the three boxes of books. Go, Jenn! You've got some winners in that batch. I've read and liked 19 of them and see some others that I would like to read. That ought to keep you busy for awhile. ;-)

Happy new thread, Jenn. Love the art!

>3 nittnut: Yes!

NICE BOOK HAUL.

>18 avatiakh: Hi Kerry. Miss M was highly influenced by our years in NZ. Almost all her artwork features koru, kiwi, Kapiti Island, etc. It's wonderful.

>19 Donna828: I did - I unloaded and cataloged all the books while the kids were at school. I have read quite a few of them, but I am collecting some of the classics and history for the kids to use.

>20 BLBera: Hi Beth :) It was a nice book haul - I suppose I was making up for missing Karen's library book sale - I may have slightly overdone it. Lol
I am now shuffling things around to make space for the additional books.

#41 Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women's Movement

Ellen Browder shares a fascinating memoir about the history of the modern women's movement. She explains how it merged with the sexual revolution, adopted abortion rights as part of its platform and became a manufactured movement that only purports to represent the voices of women everywhere. In actual fact, it represents the radical goals of just a few. Early leaders of the Women's movement (Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, Pauli Murray) were opposed to abortion. Browder's involvement was as a writer for Cosmopolitan. She explains that the articles they wrote about the modern woman, successfully navigating work life, sex life and success everywhere, were a construct. Initially, the personal anecdotes they used in their articles were made up. Part of the fascination for me, was that while writing these sexual revolution articles for Cosmo, Browder was happily married and had two children. She describes the personal conflict that she did not acknowledge openly, but that showed itself in various ways over the years. In their search for peace, she and her husband eventually convert to Catholicism. While I don't agree with everything in this story, it does go a long way to helping me clarify further why I have extremely ambivalent feelings toward "feminism" as it is defined today. Good read.

Happy new thread, from another Jennifer! And wow, what a major book haul! I'll bet that took a lot of trips to bring them in the house :-D

Wow oh Wow!! What a haul. I see a lot of David McCullough in there (I'm reading his latest right now...I just love him). Also see a couple of other favorites like The Boys in the Boat, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Warmth of Other Suns and....well a lot of them. Happy reading!

Happy new-ish thread! Looks like you had a nice book haul!

Happy new thread, Jenn.

A 63 book haul, I'd be proud of that and some good titles too (plenty of American history).

Happy new thread, Jenn, lovely kiwi at the top!

>15 nittnut: >16 nittnut: >17 nittnut: That is nice haul!
There are some on the list I have read: Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Watership Down, Darwin: Voyage of the Beagle, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Gulliver's Travels, The Prince, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and 1984
On mount TBR: 12 Years a Slave, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catch-22, and Howard's End

Hi Jenn! Happy belated new thread.

Great book haul, congrats.

Happy new thread!

>23 mstrust: Hi Jennifer. It wasn't too bad getting them in the house. 3 boxes. Lol

>24 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba. Yes, the history section was a gold mine.

>25 thornton37814: Hi Lori

>26 PaulCranswick: HI Paul. I will take it as a compliment - from the book haul King. :)

>27 FAMeulstee: Hello Anita! You have read quite a number of US classics.

>28 karenmarie: Hi Karen! You know how this year is going. I make a thread and abandon it forthwith...

>29 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle

Hi Jenn! Oh my goodness, you went all out at the book sale - wow!

Love Miss M's artwork up top - she is very talented!

#42 Ezaara

This series was written by a friend of mine. It seems to be doing quite well, and I am happy for her.
A strong start to the series and a great addition to middle reader fantasy. I enjoyed it very much. It is similar to Anne McCaffrey's Pern books in terms of the relationship between dragons and riders, but not in other ways. There are some creepy monsters and a possible time travel element and I am interested to see where that goes. The only quibble I had was the use of the word(s) mind meld any time the dragons are speaking to humans. "Let's fly over the peaks," the dragon melded. I found it a little awkward.

#43 Dragon Hero by Eileen Mueller (I can't seem to find a touchstone for this one)

Further adventures of our teen, dragon riding heroes. Some interesting twists and turns in this one. We are introduced to another part of the Realm - a society of women living underneath a desert. Also an increase in pairing off in romantic relationships.

#44 Dragon's Rift by Eileen Mueller

I didn't like this installment quite as well. There is a lot going on, maybe too much. Many of the relationships become a little too cheesy for my taste. I will say that Eileen can place a cliffhanger well.

#45 The Well-Trained Mind

This is an excellent guide to providing a classical education, either as a supplement to public or private school, or as a homeschooling family. It is somewhat out of date, but very well researched and thorough.

I am reading The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million and listening to Penguins and Golden Calves.

>31 AMQS: Hi Anne!

We have finally arrived at the final weeks of school and exams. It is a little crazy and we are very much looking forward to the end of the school year. Miss M is driving with increasing confidence and baseball season is in playoffs. Hooray...

>1 nittnut: Miss M is quite talented!! And she drives now. : )

>15 nittnut: >16 nittnut: >17 nittnut: You made quite a haul at the book fair! I love that it took you three entries to get them all in.

>33 nittnut: I cannot wait for summer! Although mine is more a wish for sunnier, warmer weather than a schools-out thing. ; )

Happy May thread!

>34 Berly: I can offer you sunnier, warmer weather immediately, but you may tire of it sooner than you think. :)

>34 Berly: I'll be happy to ship you this sweltering heat if you'll send us some cooler air.

Hi Jenn! Looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

>36 thornton37814: Exactly. We could use some Pacific NW rain about now.

>37 karenmarie: Hooray!

Happy Tuesday all. I have lots to report. First, I had a lovely afternoon with Karen (karenmarie) on Friday. She brought me a book - In the Garden of Beasts - which has been on my To Read list for ages, and we had lunch and talked for hours. She also brought this beauty:



there was also a lively discussion of Harry Potter in general and The Cursed Child specifically between Karen and Miss M. :)

Second, school is out for the summer! We are so glad. This has been a long term. We had very few breaks because of days added due to weather. We are tired and ready for a break.

Third, I finished a book!

#46 The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

First, I have to say that this did not look like a 600+ page book. It very deceptively looks like it will be about half the length. That said, it's well written and very interesting.

Daniel Mendelsohn went on a lengthy and personal journey around the world to find the story of his great uncle's family. He explores the themes of family, brotherhood, morality and journeys, among other things. Combining discussion of pertinent Torah readings with parts of the journey was really fascinating. I was very struck by the many small miracles that occurred as Mendelsohn traveled from country to country. Too often to be considered coincidental, they met someone who knew someone or happened to ask the right person the right question, which led to the information he needed. My only disappointment (and I realize it's more about me and how I see the world) was that after all those miracles, Mendelsohn spends several paragraphs explaining how they could be attributed to anything but a higher power, protesting that he doesn't believe in the supernatural. Seemed odd.

That's an impressive book haul! Did you manage to find spaces for them all?

>41 Familyhistorian: Thanks! I managed to squish them in here and there. :) I had to empty a cupboard in the library. Games went upstairs. Lol

I finished some books!

#47 Holding Up the Universe

This was surprisingly good. It's about a girl who is overweight and a boy with prosopagnosia (face blindness), and how they meet in high school and develop a friendship. It's also about more than that. It's about bullying and family struggles and finding the self confidence to just be who you are. Good read. Lots of swears though.

Then a re-read of the Sevenwaters Trilogy:

#48 Daughter of the Forest

Retelling of The Six Swans by Grimm. Imaginative, interesting, great characters.

#49 Son of the Shadows

#50 Child of the Prophecy

Final in the Sevenwaters trilogy.

Currently reading Meet the Austins, and History of the Ancient World

Hi Jenn!

Glad you got to read Holding Up the Universe - Miss M led the way and it sounded like an interesting book when she was discussing it.

I'm so excited that we're going to get to see Peggy!

>15 nittnut: I bought Apollo 13 for my nephew's Christmas present last year, he is 14. I though it would be a hit, but I never heard back. I hope he liked it. A good prize getting the anniversary edition!

I love the pic in >1 nittnut:- the coolest kiwi ever??!!

eta: also, from the last thread I am going to have to see if I can find Fup. Because you liked it so well.
Want me to post my copy to you?? It'd be a loss to the NZ 2nd hand book market, but a win for you :)

>43 karenmarie: The pile of books at my bedside, courtesy of Miss M, is growing faster than I can read them. I am so glad you decided to go for it and plan a visit! It should be great fun.

>44 LovingLit: Aww thanks! I will tell Miss M you approve of her kiwi. I am very fond of it myself.
I'd be happy to have your copy of Fup. Unless NZ needs it more. *grin*
Well done (doing) on the rations challenge. I am impressed at your fund raising capability. :)

In other news, we were up half the night last night courtesy of a huge thunder storm that parked over the neighborhood for about 2 hours. About 1 am, there was a huge Crack-POP!- Boom of thunder and lightning together. I ran around the house looking for damage or a tree down in the yard, but nothing. It turned out to be my friend's house about 4 doors down. Lightning struck a tree, it exploded, barely missing the roof and wall where her son's bedroom is. He slept through the whole thing. Everyone else in the neighborhood was awake and wide-eyed for a while. Here's a photo of the top of the tree. It was a 150+ year old Oak. Very, very tall. The bark is peeled off the tree and exploded all over her yard and the surrounding neighbor's yards like shrapnel. Crazy.

Hi Jenn!

You're so lucky that Miss M is such a prodigious and discerning reader! Makes for a fun book environment. And I'm so glad that we can go together to visit Peggy!!

Yikes. We had storms last night and the breaker was tripped in the kitchen when I came downstairs this morning, but nothing like your neighbor losing that 150-year old oak. Now they are the ones who need a tree service...

We lost a huge oak in Florence last year - Jenna was home and it was 9 pm-ish and we all heard a huge crack/boom. Did the same - checked the house to see what fell but the house was fine. In the morning we discovered that our favorite tree was no more.

>45 nittnut: WOW! I never heard of lightening stripping bark off a tree before.

>45 nittnut: I can't even imagine how loud that must have been. And what a photo! Glad nothing else was damaged, but poor tree!

>45 nittnut: Crumbs! How did he sleep through that? Such a dramatic photo too.

Wow, that’s amazing!

>45 nittnut:

Many sculptors would be proud to have created nature's terrifying and awesome beauty!

>45 nittnut: Wow! They are lucky no one was hurt.

>46 karenmarie: Hey Karen. Sorry to be such a party-pooper. One of these days it's going to work for me to go. I was just telling Peggy that I might have to be a little more spur of the moment. Might work out better. Sigh. Yes - my neighbors definitely need tree service. It turned out that the big tree knocked a branch off their maple, which did hit the house. They are getting a new roof and some structural work done on the rafters. Way more damage than at first glance. Apparently it's a total of $5000 to remove the parts that were on/against the house and then to remove the remains of the exploded tree. Stunning on every level. They are waiting to see what insurance will cover.

>47 RebaRelishesReading:->52 BLBera: Hi everyone! See my reply to karenmarie above. It's an ongoing mess, but we are getting a lot of extra traffic on the street, which is entertaining. Lots of people coming to see what it looks like when a giant tree explodes.

#51 Meet the Austins

A cute story about a cute family - first in a series by L'Engle that I never did read. I may or may not finish the series.

#52 The Mother

Similar in feel to The Good Earth. A story about the joys and sorrows of an ordinary life, sad, poignant and beautifully written.

#53 The Things We Do For Love

This was my beach book. I got to go to the beach last weekend for my anniversary. It was a surprise! I got sunburned and enjoyed myself thoroughly. The book itself was ok. Very good in parts. Weak in other areas. Good in that it shows how someone can come to love a child, no matter how old, as though they were our very own from birth. That, I can relate to.

Currently listening to Penguins and Golden Calves. I am almost done, but it's heavy going at times.

Currently reading The Turquoise Table.

Oh MERCY, that tree!!!!
You and Karen are dears to even contemplate coming here for a visit. We will miss you, but I do hope that your spontaneity works out for an eventual visit.
Hooray for a beach weekend, and Happy Anniversary!

The beach as a surprise? Lovely.

I am not surprised at the gawkers visiting the tree: I think I would be one of them. Hope your neighbours get a good response re the insurance coverage: ouch re the bill.

>54 nittnut: Would you foster again? Some friends in California were looking into it, and I hadn't realised how different the systems are - lots to think about.

Hi Jenn!

$5K doesn't surprise me at all - we just spent $8K on our tree service. If your neighbors need any mulch - heck, if the whole neighborhood needs mulch - see if the tree service will chip the tree and leave it as mulch for them - ours did and we got well over $1800 of mulch, free, as it were, out of the deal.

...

I'm sorry this visit with Peggy doesn't work for you.

Happy Anniversary! A surprise beach trip sounds wonderful.

>56 LizzieD: Thank you Peggy! 26 years. I think we are good for 26 more. :) I will make it out there one of these days. It would be such a pleasure to meet you in person, so it's not just us being "nice".

>57 charl08: I might foster again. I would at least consider it. The state requirements are a pain, depending on where you are, and I don't know what happens if you move, but I assume the kids have to stay in state unless you adopt them. I didn't have to go through government channels last time, as the girls were old enough to choose where they lived, but not old enough to be on their own. It would have to be a whole family decision at this point because my two youngest are old enough to care and be part of the decision.

>58 karenmarie: Well, that's an impressive pile of mulch. I guess I had no idea tree removal was so expensive. Goodness.

#54 Valentine and Valencia

Kind of an odd little book. The story starts out with Valencia, who is an extremely neurotic woman working as a debt collector. Then, the story starts alternating between Valencia and Mrs. Valentine, who is an elderly lady living alone. By the end of the book, the reader realizes that Valencia and Valentine are the same person, and is no longer certain what they just read. Was everything made up? What was real? *shrug*

Still listening to Penguins and Golden Calves. About 1 hour left...
Reading The Turquoise Table

That tree photo is amazing! Wow. We had a tree fall on our house in a windstorm a couple of years ago, and while the damage was minimal as far as those things go, we still have things to fix. We repaired the hole in our brand new roof, but it dented the grill, knocked out deck railing loose, and sat cut up in our yard until we could cart it somewhere else long enough that it killed most of our grass. Glad you came through the storm OK.

The tree looks amazing and you are all so lucky that it was the tree and not too much damage elsewhere.

Hi Jenn! Hope the vay-cay is going well.

Wow, the exploding tree picture is amazing. So glad it wasn't in your yard but I'm sorry for your neighbor. We've lost a few trees here over the years and it is indeed expensive for the removal process. I still love having the big trees in the neighborhood, though.

I really liked In The Garden of Beasts which I read for my book group several months ago. So nice of Karen to give you a copy.

We had a great time, Jenn - and missed you. Karen talks about coming in the fall when it cools off, and I devoutly hope that that can happen and that you can join her!

>63 karenmarie: The vacation was marvelous. We pulled in late last night and I'm doing laundry. I can tell it's been hot here. My grass is drying up. We had perfect weather, only the last day was yucky hot. We opted for a driving tour of Gettysburg until the rain made it hard to see. Kids are tired but happy. Now to get them to wash the car...

>64 Donna828: Hi Donna! I am sorry for the neighbor too. But they are gradually getting things taken care of. I am about halfway through Garden of the Beasts and liking it. :)

>65 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. I hope I can make it happen this fall too. Karen is so easy to talk to and fun to hang out with - I am sure you both had a great time.

Happy Thingaversary to me (yesterday)! Ten years hanging out with all of you lovely book addicts. It's been a good 10 - here's to 10 more. After I get the laundry done I may browse my wish list and start on my celebration book binge.

I may or may not have finished a book. I will have to think. I am currently reading In the Garden of the Beasts and something about Polynesian exploration of the South Pacific, and I really need to finish Penguins and Golden Calves.

Has anyone read An Enchantment of Ravens? I came across that this morning, wondering if it's a good one for Miss M?

Hi Jenn!

>66 nittnut: We had a great time - the only thing that would have made it better, of course, would have been if you had been there.

Congrats on your 10th Thingaversary. I'll look forward to seeing what you rewarded yourself with.

Haven't heard of An Enchantment of Ravens, but it sounds really good!

#55 Penguins and Golden Calves - audio

Madeline L'Engle uses a series of essays to share her thoughts about God, icons, and idols. The essays, while occasionally heavy going, are contemplative and thoughtful. L'Engle clearly believes in a God of love, and has spent a lot of time studying and considering the Bible and its teachings. She spends a lot of time on the difference, as she sees it, between icons and idols. An icon should represent God and open us up to the wonder and beauty of His creations. An idol replaces God, separating us from Him. I enjoyed listening to this, slowly.

#56 The Turquoise Table

Kristin Schell has created a movement around her turquoise picnic table. She encourages her readers to become Front Yard People, opening themselves up to more interaction with neighbors and building community and connection. I love the idea, and I especially appreciated that she discussed multiple ways people could build community - in their way, at their comfort level.

Currently reading In the Garden of the Beasts and The History of the Ancient World.

>68 karenmarie: Hi Karen!

Happy Thingaversary! Did you get yourself bookie presents?

Happy Thingaversary, Jenn. What did you decide on for your gifts?

>71 mstrust:, >72 BLBera: Thanks Ladies! I haven't got anything yet. My son is coming for a visit this week and I am taking him to Scuppernong Books - holding out until then. Anticipation is great. :)

Hi Jenn!

You introduced me to Scuppernong, our very first meeting, and it's fabulous. What could beat new books, used books, and food?

Have fun when you go.

PM me your address, and Fup will wing its way...it's a little wee tiny book so you will be able to pack it next time you come back to NZ and release it back into the local 2nd hand book market :)

#57 In the Garden of Beasts - Thank you karenmarie!

A different perspective on the rise of Hitler and the early years of his government. Larson tells the story from the point of view of the American ambassador to Berlin - mostly through the eyes of the ambassador's daughter. In her own right, she was an interesting character. She mingled with all sorts of people. She was initially impressed with the Nazi party and Hitler's Youth and the energy of the movement. Over time, she became disillusioned. Like most important historical books, this is an excellent read, but not an easy one.

#58 An Enchantment of Ravens

A fun fantasy about a practical girl who paints portraits of fairy folk, gets caught up in the battle for leadership of the fairy kingdom, and, well, you'll have to read it to find out. A quick, fun YA fantasy.

currently reading Sea People: the Puzzle of Polynesia

>74 karenmarie: We are off that way after lunch. I haven't been since we went together, and I'm looking forward to it!

>75 LovingLit: I will do that. I think visiting and bringing it back is a perfect solution. I've been saving up for a return trip. One of these days I will make it happen.

Hi, Jenn! Just wanted you to know that I've been here........and I loved #57 too!

Love the idea of returning books as an excuse for travel. Hope your joint visit to the bookshop was a success. Any chance of a picture of the haul?

#59 Sorcery of Thorns

Quite a bit darker than An Enchantment of Ravens. However, her characters are interesting, and there were some plot twists that helped relieve the darker parts. I particularly loved that the main character grew up in a library. Not just any library. A library full of grimoires with very distinct personalities. I will be very interested in what else this author does.

#60 The Festival of Vision and Fire by Logan Miehl

Second in the series. Well written and entertaining. I am really liking how the main character has developed through the first book into the second. I was somewhat disappointed in the handling of the "big reveal" toward the end of the book. It was pretty obvious to me what was going to happen, so maybe that's part of the problem. Good beach book.

Currently reading Sea People

>78 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Thanks for stopping by. :)

>79 charl08: Hi Charlotte! It is the best excuse for travel I can think of. Lol Here is a photo of the first 6 of 10.



ETA: In addition to the above, I am waiting for In the Spirit of Ronald E. McNair and I bought The Festival of Vision and Fire for my kindle. I have two more...

>79 charl08: Books are important enough to plan a holiday around. I always go online and look for bookstores, wherever we are travelling to.

>81 nittnut: Bit of a colour theme going on there...

I would like to go to Nashville (Parnassus), Wigtown (a bit closer, so no excuse really) and I hanker after the book market in Kolkata which is supposed to be one of the biggest...

>81 nittnut: Aren't they making a movie of WHere'd You Go, Bernadette? I remember enjoying that one. And also Gifts. Happy reading wishes!!

>82 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I agree. It's always fun to find a bookshop in a new place. Last summer I got a really neat children's picture book, Hello Lighthouse in a little shop in Currituck, NC on the Outer Banks. It's a great souvenir.

>83 charl08: Let me know if you decide to hit Parnassus. I'll meet you there. :)

>84 Berly: They are. I believe Bernadette is played by Cate Blanchett. I was going to read Gifts next, but my daughter took it.

>85 nittnut: You gotta be faster! LOL

#61 Sea People: the Puzzle of Polynesia

I really enjoyed this well researched overview about what we do and do not know regarding the settling of Polynesia by... Polynesians. Or the people who would become Polynesians. It's a great read with a lot of human interest. The author is very respectful of culture.

Currently listening to The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon and reading something about Borderline Personality Disorder. I may take Salmon Fishing in Yemen on my little holiday. We are off to Williamsburg tomorrow for a few days.

>86 Berly: It's true. On the bright side, she will read it and then put it in the pile she makes of books for me to read. So I will get it back eventually.

>87 nittnut: I'll look out for the Sea People book. I have a request in for Jock Phillips' memoir Making history: a New Zealand story, which you might find a good read too. I heard him interviewed on the radio the other day. He's an historian and among other things spent twelve years establishing and developing NZ's online Te Ara encyclopedia which I use quite often. You can read about him here -
https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/02-07-2019/jock-phillips-history-builder/
https://teara.govt.nz/en

>89 avatiakh: Thank you! I will definitely look into getting a copy. He sounds like a very interesting person. We use the Te Ara quite a bit too. I just had no idea who was involved in developing it. What an amazing resource.

Hi Jenn!

>81 nittnut: Nice partial haul.

>85 nittnut: It's always fun to find a bookshop in a new place. I agree! I found The Light Between Oceans at the Food Lion in Hampstead, NC (think Topsail Island) on a vacation there in 2013. *smile*

Hi Karen! I bought a book this weekend at Williamsburg - Passionate Sage *grin*

We have had a busy week! We went to Williamsburg and saw Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown. Then we came home and Mr. E finished his Eagle project. He built 3 picnic tables for the local YMCA. One with handicap access. Now he just has to wait until December to meet the time requirement and he will be an Eagle Scout. Super proud of him.

Copied from karenmarie, just for fun:

1. The persons who helped me fall in love with reading were:

My mother, who was an avid reader and taught me to read at age 4, and my father who would pile us all on one bed and read to us from The Jungle Book or quote Gunga Din, or have me read him "It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power" in the Readers Digest, and never thought anything was too "difficult" for us to enjoy.

2. One book I love to give as a gift is:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, and recently, The Hounds of Spring

3. If I could write like one author it would be . . .

David McCullough

4. One book I think deserves more attention is . . .

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger

5. The friend(s) I always turn to for reading recommendations is/are. . .

My mother, and LT friends, of course.

6. If I’m not enjoying a book, I . . .

Abandon it with some guilt. Still working on that one.

7. One book that absolutely shocked me was:

Outlander. Why do so many people like it?

8. My favorite place to read is:

In my ugly but comfortable chair, or in bed.

9. If I could read only one book for the rest of my life it’d be:

Horrible, unimaginable choice. Probably The Bible.

10. The books I’m currently reading:

The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

>94 nittnut: I'd pick The Bible as the solo book also. However, like you, I'm glad God blessed many with the gift of writing so we can enjoy more than one book.

>93 nittnut: Wow! That's impressive. Can I ask a stupid question - how does the adaptive one work?

>95 thornton37814: So true. So many awesome books in the world.

>96 charl08: The handicap accessible bench has a longer top in comparison to the seats. So there is a space on both sides where a wheel chair can pull up and fit comfortably. We had to make it very sturdy so it wouldn't tip. :)

#62 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

A fisheries scientist is asked to build a salmon run in Yemen. Money is no object, but his reputation and maybe even his marriage will be on the line. Very similar to the movie, and an enjoyable read.

I'm still around. Just not on LT. For various reasons, we are homeschooling the kids this year, so my already busy life just had to get re-ordered around that. So far, it is marvelous. We are all very relaxed and having a great time. Also, the kids are discovering the joys of diagramming sentences and cursive writing, along with everything else you would expect. Miss M is on _target to take the SAT in January and start university classes next June, with the goal of having 2 years of college credit on high school graduation. Mr. E is doing history with Miss M, and continuing with his accelerated maths, so he will also have the option of doing university courses in his last couple years of high school as well.

My sister-in-law has just escaped losing everything. A wildfire burnt the mountain behind her house and two homes in her culdesac were destroyed. The photo is sobering. They woke up at 1 am when her son smelled fire. They evacuated, and waited all night to see if they still had a house. They do - covered in ash and smelling of smoke, but happily, intact.

We are watching Dorian - worried about Florida and our coastal areas - not expecting to be seriously impacted here.

I have been reading a bit:

#63 The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon

John C. Houbolt was a junior engineer who did the math and became an un-wearying proponent of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR). Without LOR, it is highly unlikely that the moon mission would have succeeded, and definitely not in the _targeted time frame. A great story!

#64 Dear Mrs. Bird

A highly frivolous story set in London during the Blitz. A young woman who wants to be a war correspondent finds herself working as a typist for a women's advice column. She starts answering some of the letters rejected by the columnist, and things quickly get out of hand.

#65 Before We Were Yours

A chilling story about the children who were taken by the Tennessee Children's Home Society and trafficked to families seeking to adopt. This is a novel, based on real accounts. Pretty good read.

#66 A More Perfect Heaven

A pretty decent account of how Copernicus mathematically defined the revolutions of the planets around the sun. This historical account has a play inserted in the middle, And the Sun Stood Still , which was an interesting way to illustrate Copernicus' relationship with Rheticus, the student who helped him complete his manuscript and get it to Nuremberg for printing. I also liked the way the connection between Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo was made in the conclusion of the historical account. I have Galileo's Daughter by the same author on my shelf.

Currently reading Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish

Glad you are still around. I heard so much about the Georgia Tann story while it was unfolding (at another time it gained notoriety) that I'm not sure whether I want to read that book or not. I've seen it in several upcoming publications lists. I just don't know whether or not I want to relive the story.

>100 thornton37814: Haha! Thanks Lori! The book isn't totally focused on Georgia Tann, though it does have a couple chapters where the children are removed from their parents and then placed in the orphanage and some other sort of telling us the history bits. It's more of a novel with that story as background. I had not ever heard the story, and it's pretty horrifying.

Wow, your fall and family look quite busy. Good luck with the homeschooling -- sounds like your kiddos are doing just fine. Glad your SIL, and her home, escaped unscathed. Congrats to your Eagle Scout! >94 nittnut: Thanks for sharing.

>99 nittnut: wow- you are busy!

>93 nittnut: wow again, he made the table(s)?? Carpentry is such a great skill to have. Go Mr. E!!

This morning I sliced my finger (while trying to nick the end of he banana so it was 'easy peel' for the kids' lunchbox), I was also under the weather so was glad to call in sick and stay in bed the whole school day. I don't know what I would do without school....I admire you for home schooling! And am glad the kids are thriving.

eta: the reason I came by was to say that no, I have not yet sent the book I promised!! Will get on to that asir (which stands for as soon as I remember) :)

>102 Berly: Thanks Kimberly! Stay well. :)

>103 LovingLit: Mr. E and his dad did all the prep and pre-cut all the pieces. To get his Eagle, he had to direct a group of people doing the work. So, he had a bunch of friends and their dads come and help put the tables together. It worked very well.
Sorry you sliced your finger. Ouch. I don't know what I would have done without school when my kids were little. Now, it's not so bad. Miss M takes herself off to her room and one has to remind her that she is not required to spend so much time on certain things. Studious little thing. Mr. E likes more social interaction, but he's pretty self-sufficient on most things. If they were younger, I doubt I'd be doing this.
I CAN"T believe you haven't sent me the book yet. I have NOTHING to Read! Just kidding. Whenever you get to it, I will be thrilled. *grin*

#67 Loving Someone With Borderline Personality Disorder

This is a fantastic book. It's very positive in comparison to many other books on the same subject. Rather than telling the reader that the only way is to exclude that crazy person from their lives, the author suggests ways to manage the relationship by creating healthy boundaries and stepping out of the cycle of emotional dis-regulation. Even if you don't have a Borderline, or otherwise emotionally dis-regulated person in your life, the advice is really useful for personal relationships in general. For example, her discussion of justified vs. unjustified guilt, how to recognize it and what to do about it. Highly recommended.

Hi Jenn!

I'm glad the homeschooling is going well so far. Tell your kids hi from me.

I think we're going to get a bit of weather with Dorian, but although we might lose power, we've got the generator and should be fine. Jenna, is of course, home, because Wilmington is going to once again get battered, and Peggy's going to get more weather than we are. As I just wrote on her thread, I'm very glad to know she's on high ground even if her town might get flooded again.

I'm sorry you don't have any books to read. *smirk*

>106 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I am checking in from Knoxville, where the boys are watching the BYU/UT football game that is in double OT. I would be asleep, except I have to go get them when it's over. Miss M and I have been to the movies. We saw The Art of Racing in the Rain, which was a lovely book, and the film was very well done. I cried more than once. I don't usually cry in movies. We are off on another adventure. Tomorrow we head for Orlando for a few days and then the Keys. The Everglades and Key West were not in the plan, but DH decided today that we were already 3/4 of the way there and it would be silly not to... The Everglades is on my bucket list, so I am very happy. Manatees! We are about to find out how traveling home school works. *grin* ETA - our team won, so there is great joy.

For fans of football and/or Andy Griffith - https://youtu.be/oNxLxTZHKM8

I've been reading Spineless, but then a new book arrived in the mail, and SQUIRREL!

#68 Harp of Kings

If you're a fan of Juliet Marillier, and Blackthorn and Grim in particular, you will be very pleased to find out who this book is about. I really enjoyed it. If you haven't read Blackthorn and Grim, do that first, then read this one. :)

Hi Jenn - we did homeschool with a variety of success. One year was for travelling round Europe. I think the best way is to unschool, to some extent at least. I remember my poor son (8yrs) keeping a travel diary, each day's entry was an almost identical list of what he ate for breakfast rather than the sights, experiences of the trip. We had our 'school bag' stolen from us when out somewhere in Spain - the thief was probably quite disappointed with his haul.

Anyway I was in a bookstore yesterday and saw that Witi Ihimaera's second volume of his memoirs is out, Native Son: The Writer’s Memoir. The cover is lovely - https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/native-son-9780143773030
Also Elizabeth Knox has just released a novel that is already getting raves - The Absolute Book. https://vup.victoria.ac.nz/the-absolute-book/

>107 nittnut: I love What It Was, Was Football. Thanks for the reminder.

Good luck with the Traveling Home School.

>107 nittnut: Enjoy the Everglades! I'd like to go there too. We've been on a swamp boat in Orlando and that was fun.

I love manatees too! We saw a lot of them up close and personal (I think you’re even allowed to swim with them) at a state (?) park on the St John’s River. Really cool!

>108 avatiakh: Hi Kerry! I got a chuckle out of the travel diary story. I think I have a diary from that age with very similar entries. Good day/bad day and what I ate. Lol We kind of unschooled this week. We had a lot of "field trips".

>109 karenmarie: I am glad you enjoyed the Andy Griffith. :)

>110 mstrust: The Everglades were amazing. I will have to go back. We definitely didn't have enough time. We did see baby alligators though. Very, very cool.

>111 RebaRelishesReading: The one thing we didn't end up seeing... I am already planning a trip back in the winter.

#69 Dark Agenda

Very interesting.

I am currently reading Spineless and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

#70 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

The Un-put-downable life story of Miss Jane Pittman, starting with the end of the Civil War and ending in the thick of the Civil Rights movement. Jane is a heroine like no other. She is tough and sassy and persistent. I loved it. I had read A Gathering of Old Men previously, and I look forward to reading more by Mr. Gaines.

>114 nittnut: I just read The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman myself and loved it, too. It was actually a reread for me; I think I read it in junior high? Some scenes were very familiar. Like a lot of books, it meant more to me as an adult than as a kid, but I'm sure it was valuable to read it as a kid.

Just this week, I watched the movie that was made of the book, with Cicely Tyson as Jane. Very good movie, but it didn't have captioning, so I missed some of the dialogue. Good thing I'd just done the reread!

Karen O.

>115 klobrien2: I will have to watch the movie. I have never seen it. I will definitely have my kids read it.

Hi everyone. I have read a record number of books this week (for this year anyway). I ran my toes into the end of my bed, which is super annoying and dumb, as the bed has been there and hasn't moved. Brain fog. I blame brain fog. Broken toes = sitting around a bit more than usual.

#71 The Ghost Fields
#72 The Woman in Blue

Two more in the Ruth Galloway series, which I very much enjoy. I happened to get a stack of them at the library, so there will be more soon.

#73 Waste Tide - BB from drneutron

This was pretty mind-blowing. This high-tech thriller is set in the future on Silicon Island. This is an island where two separate classes live. One class lives in the slums among the high-tech trash they sort and recycle. The other is privileged and relatively well to do. Three clans run the operations, vying for the largest share of the recycling industry. Into the mix comes an American sent to sell a new, improved recycling system, his interpreter, a young girl who was lured to Silicon Island with promises of good pay and a better life, a guy who likes to tinker with the old tech and dreams of revolution, and a virus. A recipe for disaster. The translation is great, the characters are well developed and interesting, and the story itself is fast-paced and edgy. Quibble: the author jumps around in time, with the time sequences overlapping. The transitions are a little choppy, which can be confusing. I am not a habitual reader of science fiction, so it was out of my comfort zone. I admit to not knowing what was going on at all sometimes, but even so, I thought it was pretty good.

The Vine Witch

Got this free on Kindle. Abandoned rather quickly. Bleurgh. It doesn't deserve a number.

Currently reading: Spineless and Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question

You're not supposed to run into a heavy, immovable object and break your toes. Heal quickly, and let's go visit Peggy in November!

The sale went well today and I am not even absolutely exhausted - only seriously tired. Missed seeing you.

Broken toes= a royal pain in the....toes ;)

What a hassle!

Awww, I hope your toes heal quickly! I totally understand how it could happen, as I broke two fingers a few years ago when I was playing with my dog and through my hand back into the wall in our den.

>117 nittnut: Glad you like Waste Tide! I’ve been dipping my toes into non-Western sf as much as possible given the need for translations, and I think the time sequencing thing tends to be an element of at least some Chinese sf. Different way of thinking? I don’t know, but I’m finding it interesting.

Sorry about the toes. I did make it through The Vine Witch but likened it to a magic system hung on a Harlequin framework.

>117 nittnut: Ouch! Hope you recover quickly Jenn.

>118 karenmarie: True. Not supposed to. Did. Chagrined. They still hurt. Milking it for all it's worth though. *grin*

>119 LovingLit: Lol. Yes. Oddly enough, my MIL did the same the day after I did, and she wins. Her whole foot is swollen. We are trying to get her to have it looked at, but she's hasn't so far.

>120 mstrust: Ouch! It's amazing how stuff like that can happen so easily.

>121 drneutron: I think I tend to be more patient with translations, if they are well done. I agree - it's a very interesting look at a different way of thinking.

>122 ronincats: You made me laugh out loud Roni.

>123 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! Working on it. I guess it will take a while though.

#74 The Chalk Pit
#75 The Dark Angel
#76 The Stone Circle

Getting caught up with Dr. Ruth Galloway. I find the mysteries entertaining, and the personal lives rather fraught. I like how the stories of the three daughters of DI Nelson are developing and converging.

Still reading Spineless and Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question

I got to 75! Phew!

Congratulations on 75, Jenn!

Congrats on 75!

(Hope the foot is feeling a bit less painful.)

Congratulations!

Thank you Paul, Charlotte and Lori! The toes are getting better too. :)

I have managed to acquire more books...

Deep Run Roots
The Art of Racing in the Rain - if you haven't seen the film, it is a worthy adaptation.
Fup Thank you Megan!
The Harp of Kings
The Matriarch
Bulibasha
The Aeneid
The Iliad - Miss M to read along with her Ancient History studies

Hi Jenn!

Congrats on 75. Congrats on new books, congrats on your the toes healing. I'm sorry to hear about your MiL's swollen foot and hope you can persuade her to go to the doctor.

How's home schooling going?

Congrats!

Congratulations on passing the 75 book mark, Jenn!!

>130 karenmarie: Hi Karen! School is going slowly this week. Both kids have come down with a nasty cold/cough thing. They are reading a lot and sleeping a lot, and we will have to get back at it next week. I'm happy to reach 75. I wasn't sure I'd get there for a while there. :)

>131 drneutron: Thanks Jim!

Hi Roni! Thanks. :)

Congratulations on reaching 75, Jenn!

And sorry about your toes :-(

Hi Anita! Thank you. :) The toes are getting better. I took the tape off last night and even went for a walk. Good progress. The kids were sick all week with a nasty cold/cough. Mr. E bounced around the house but couldn't focus at all and Miss M slept and slept. They seem to be perking up now, so I hope this next week will be better.

I got distracted from my current reads again. It's not that I don't like them. I just came across an audible exclusive by Juliet Marillier called Beautiful, and I had a library book to finish up.

#77 Stranger Diaries

This is not a Ruth Galloway. It is a mystery/police procedural set in England, with a character who is an academic. English teachers at the local high school are dying. It's up to the local DI to figure things out. The story skips from character to character, telling from each POV. I felt the transitions were awkward and some of the dialogue didn't really work. I did like the gay Indian female police officer character who lived at home with her parents. I think she will develop into a very interesting person if there are more to come. It was fine, but I really didn't like it as well as the Ruth Galloway ones.

#78 Beautiful by Juliet Marillier - audible exclusive

If you've read East of the Sun, West of the Moon, the first part of this story will be somewhat familiar to you. The queen of the glass mountain has cursed a prince from a faraway land. By day he is a bear, and by night, a human. The curse is broken, but the story doesn't end there. It has all the things a good fairy tale should have. A "good" person undertaking a quest, companions to help along the way, and mysterious old ladies giving gifts. There are a few awkward bits, but not enough to wreck the story. I really enjoyed this audio and I do hope this one gets published as a paper book.

Halfway through Spineless and almost done with Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question. Need to start Galileo soon...

Congrats on hitting 75!

You reached 75 and the toes are on the mend!! Yay! Now the kids just need to get well so you can really recover. : )

>137 mstrust: Thanks!!

>138 Berly: So true. Kids are all better, and now we are just normal busy.

It has finally cooled off here. It's very nice. I super hope that we get pretty leaves because my parents are coming to visit.
This seems to be the month for catching up on mysteries.

#79 Cold Earth

It's been a while since I read a Shetland mystery. I was a little upset when Fran died. I get a little annoyed when good things are happening for people and then it gets wrecked. Like Downton Abbey. After they killed Matthew, I was out. Too much emotional energy was spent on that relationship, I just couldn't spend any more. But I digress. Good mystery, interesting to see a new relationship develop, while Perez is still working out his issues.

#80 Thin Air

Great read. I might be a little annoyed with Perez just now.

#81 Wild Fire

Last in the series, and a pretty good read. I have quibbles with some of it, all spoilers. I don't care how conflicted Perez is, his reaction to Willow was flat out of character. Then, after all this navel gazing and mental anguish on both their parts, the whole thing is wrapped up in a neat little package without the reader getting to participate at all. So annoying.

Still reading Spineless, about 80 pages left. About 20 pages left in Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question.

Your comments about the Shetland mysteries made me laugh, not because I had the same thing with that series (I watched the TV series, and they started it by jumping in at the middle, after that thing you mentioned had happened, so less of an issue). But it made me laugh because it reminded me of my reaction to In the Woods which was brilliant, but also deeply annoyed me because of the choice of the author.

>140 charl08: Hi Charlotte! Happy to make you laugh. I liked the TV series, although it was a bit different than the books. I had always wanted to visit Shetland, but after reading the mysteries and watching the TV series, I want to go even more.

#82 Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question

This is a book written specifically for members of my church, but it has a lot of good thoughts regarding inclusion that probably apply to many other groups. It's well written and non-judgmental.

#83 Spineless

I mostly enjoyed this part memoir, part something about jellyfish. I loved the jellyfish science and the scientists who are studying jellies. I wasn't so in to the author's personal anecdotes. There is some fascinating stuff in there about the different fields of study that involve jellyfish and the complexity of the animal itself. 3 stars.

#84 Telesa

I listened to a podcast by the author, and decided to give the first book in the series a try. The podcast was good. It gave me some things to think about. I picked up the book. I can't say I wasn't warned. The blurb said "If you liked Twilight, you will love Telesa..."
The idea was pretty good, but at risk of sounding like the snobs she mentioned in her podcast, the writing wasn't very good. Some more editing would have been a good thing. I realize I am not the _target audience, so no fuss.

I'm getting ready to start Ceremony and a book about Galileo

Podcast if anyone is interested...
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018710610/calling-ou...

>142 nittnut: >143 nittnut: I heard about her rant on the 'white publishing' industry here in NZ and thought immediately 'well maybe your work isn't up to scratch and that's why you don't get published.' I had tried Telesa a while back and didn't make it past the first couple of pages. She made her rant at the end of a book tour through schools, a tour that had been put together by hardworking volunteers who love children's literature and go out of their way to promote diverse books etc etc. I should know, I used to be on the committee of said organisation some years back and so have first hand experience of the commitment to all literature these people have. The publishing industry in NZ is so tiny now, it's hard for any writer to get published.

>144 avatiakh: I appreciate you saying something. I feel most of the new books I come across are highly diverse in many ways. Thanks to you and a few other NZ friends, I feel I have read a pretty diverse group of NZ authors, mostly Pasifika, so I was a little surprised by her rant about diversity. I also felt she had some good things to say. However, I don't feel like I know enough about it to comment much. I do feel that the publishing industry as a whole suffers from a lack of editing, whether people are self-publishing or not. I slogged through the whole book, and the comparison to Twilight was fairly apt, though I feel Twilight was better written. If we are comparing train wrecks.

Hi Jenn!

I do feel that the publishing industry as a whole suffers from a lack of editing, whether people are self-publishing or not.

I blame word processing software. It's easy to blather on when you're not putting ink to paper. or keys to a typewriter and having to keep track of pages. I'm not alone in this theory either.

>142 nittnut: I visited the Vancouver Aquarium a few weeks ago and they offer something I'd never heard of before, which was an announcement to see the jellyfish being fed. A crowd gathered around a big wall tank and the employee dumped a pitcher of brine shrimp (sea monkeys!) into the tank and we all watched as the jellyfish did nothing. The introduction of food had zero effect on them, ha!

>145 nittnut: Her argument came just after the organisation that sponsored her book tour announced a new award, The Storylines Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira Award, open to all New Zealand writers and, made annually, when merited, to the New Zealand author of an unpublished work written originally in te reo Maori.
Also Huia are a long established publishing house that nutures Maori and Pasifika writers.
She probably also forgot about Reed publishing which was merged into Penguin which itself has been merged with Random house. Reed is now an imprint, Raupo. They were prolific publishers of books from all walks of NZ life including Maori and Pasifika, was very sad to see them shrink to almost non-existence. NZ publishing like everywhere else has shrunk and your work has to be very very good to get a publishing deal nowadays especially in the YA market.

This article, Getting published in New Zealand is hard to do, came out 4 days ago: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/116685475/getting-published-in-new-z...

>146 karenmarie: Hi Karen! November is coming! I blame text speak as well. I may be the last person on Earth who still texts in complete sentences.

>147 mstrust: Too bad. In the book, she said that the brine shrimp will get picked up all along a tentacle, which would be pretty cool to see.

>148 avatiakh: She forgot, or she doesn't know.
I saw the article, which I thought was good. A friend of mine who is writing and self-publishing YA books posted it to her page. She doesn't seem too bothered by the difficulty of getting a publishing deal. Her stuff is pretty decent YA dragon/magic/good vs. evil stuff. I've read a few and my kids enjoyed them. I can tell she's read a lot of Anne McCaffrey *grin*. Eileen Mueller is her name, and she's been involved in the Wellington literary scene in other ways besides writing for a while.

I abandoned the book about Galileo. Too dense for my needs at the moment. I am about halfway through Ceremony.

It's still too warm to be fall, but cooling off. Fall colors are starting to show, and finally some rain!

I want to go to Denmark NOW! http://canyouactually.com/giants-made-from-wood/?fbclid=IwAR0l5I2Y_jfsTRfSwhfIFA...

>150 nittnut: Oh wow. Sending link to my daughter who lives in London and more likely to get there than me. I'm thinking of a few days in Nelson and Motueka at present.

>151 avatiakh: Someone should go. (:

#85 Ceremony

Quite a read. I can't say I understood it, but it will go on the list of books I am glad I read.
I am not a huge fan of stream of consciousness, and I'm not sure this was that, but it felt like it. That said, the language and the imagery was beautiful, even when describing ugly things.

On to something a little less demanding, I think.

Hi Jenn!

Hope you're doing well and reading lots of good books.

We only got some rain/lightning/thunder tonight, not much. And, fortunately, no tornadoes.

>139 nittnut: I was a bit confused by your comments in Cold Earth until I realised that I was thinking about the book by Sarah Moss and you were talking about the book by Ann Cleeves! I haven't read any of those, but I have enjoyed the T.V. series. Shetland is somewhere that I very much want to visit - we have been to Orkney twice but never got that little bit further.

>154 karenmarie: Hi Karen. I'm not reading as much as I'd like... We had Halloween postponed a day in our neighborhood because of the weather. We had a huge thunderstorm. My parents were here, and we had gone to Winston for dinner. The storm really got going on our way home and all 5 of our phones went off with a tornado warning. "Take shelter immediately." That was new for my mom and dad. I told them that since we were 10 minutes from home and there wasn't a good place to stop, I was going home. So that's what we did.

>155 SandDune: Hi Rhian! Nice to see you. I am woefully behind on everyone's threads. I have confused books before too. North and South, the Elizabeth Gaskell one, is one of my favorites. It sometimes gets confused with the John Jakes one about the US Civil War. Not at all the same quality of story IMO. :) I would really love to go to Shetland. Maybe someday I will manage it. It looks to be quite manageable to go from somewhere in the UK, rather than trying to book tickets through from the US.

I'm reading Blue Latitudes and Fountains of Silence when I'm not falling asleep. I really, really deeply disapprove of daylight savings. Now that my kids are teenagers and sleeping right through, I am the one waking up at 4:30 am for no reason at all. So annoying.

#86 The Bookshop on the Shore

Entertaining and enjoyable, this one sort of continues the adventures of The Bookshop on the Corner.

#87 The Book Charmer

My light reading this week has been themed.

I thought this was a really sweet story, rather in the same vein as Garden Spells.

Hi Jenn!

I love Tony Horwitz, have Blue Latitudes on my shelves, but just haven't picked it up yet.

I hate daylight savings time, too, but it's not as upsetting as it was when Jenna was little and baby/toddler schedules go whacko with the change.

Good idea to postpone Halloween - I don't know if any other neighborhoods did it.

#88 Fountains of Silence

Great novel about life in Spain under Franco. Some previously unknown to me details about the nuns in health clinics telling parents their babies were dead and then selling the babies to pro-Franco families. Yuck. My only quibble with this book was the ending. It was a little awkward for some reason, IMO.

#89 The Giver of Stars

Don't let Jojo Moyes early efforts (Me Before You) discourage you from reading other books by her. This was a great historical novel about a small Kentucky mining town and a disparate group of women who ran the traveling library. Traveling libraries were an effort to get books to people living in very rural areas. In this story, the librarians traveled on horseback into the hills of Kentucky. It's a fun read.

#90 Lab Girl

Part memoir, part botany essay, and thoroughly enjoyable. Hope Jahren is a quirky, smart, determined woman who has been able to do some great science in spite of - or maybe because of - her manic depression. Great read.

I am now returning to Blue Latitudes, which is not a library book, and had to be set aside when my holds came in.

>159 nittnut: Hi Karen!

>159 nittnut: The Moyes sounds good.
I enjoyed the Bookshop on the shore - lovely Scottish setting.

You sound very matter of fact and practical re dealing with the tornado warning, I think I'd be doing an ostrich impression under the nearest restaurant table.

>161 charl08: Hi Charlotte! If I'd still been in the restaurant, I would definitely have stayed put. Lol

I'm still reading Blue Latitudes and really liking it. I also have a stack of new-ish YA books from the library that I am reviewing for the kids.

#91 Twilight
I have read this before - but it's been many, many years. Miss M has indicated that she is interested in reading it "for research purposes." Miss M is currently working on a novel of her own. She is researching good and bad character development and perhaps, though she hasn't said as much, good and bad relationship development? I told her it was a train wreck, but I'd read it again to be able to discuss it with her. The funny thing was, it wasn't as awful as I remembered. The writing is not great, the love story is completely overwrought, but compared to the movie, it wasn't so terrible. It's definitely a train wreck. Should be fun to discuss with her. She was fascinated that I got the giggles several times. She didn't realize it was a funny book. It isn't... intentionally funny.

#92 Chaotic Good

This was just bad. The idea wasn't a bad one, but the execution? Mercy. Every stereotype was on display, no single character was well developed, it was a series of dramas connected by a very thin thread. Every relationship was pretty much - Hey! You're cute! Let's make out! - and then there was confusion and drama.

I'm so glad that you're coming next month that I just can't say how much --- A LOT!
Think about what kind of food you want for lunch. We have some pretty good local restaurants for a town our size.
Broken toes? NO! I know how painful one was; I hope you're healed and no longer hurting.
AND I'm madly looking up *Waste Tide* and wishing that I could get on with *Blue Latitudes* too.

>162 nittnut: I love that your daughter is considering reading Twilight for research purposes!

>163 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I'm so looking forward to it! I am not a picky eater. :) The broken toes are much better, although the one toe still doesn't curl properly. More funny than painful now. I haven't got far with Blue Latitudes because I picked up several YA books at the library and have been reading those. I have opinions... and I will be very happy to get back to Blue.

>164 charl08: Hi Charlotte! So nice of you and Peggy to keep my thread warm. I am a very absent LTer these days. I admit I am a little anxious for her to get reading. I can't wait to hear what she thinks of it. It will be pithy and unabashed, whatever it is.

#93 I Have Lost My Way

There was a lot to like about this book, and a some things to not like so much. I think this may have been a sort of writer's experiment. I really liked the way the author set it up. There were three unique stories, completely separate from each other. Then all three stories converged at the same time, and became inextricably linked. I liked that each of the three needed each other, and became better together. The idea of supportive friends is very good. In each of the stories, there were some weaknesses, things that didn't really jive, and that bothered me. The other thing that bothers me - in all the YA books I have been reading lately - is the sex. Ugh! I won't get on my soap box, but seriously? Not sensible.

#94 Just One Day

Teens head to Europe for a post graduation tour. At the end of the tour, Allyson and her friend plan to stay in London for a few more days. Allyson meets a guy on the train and decides to go to Paris for a day with him. They have a wonderful day, great sex (ugh) and she wakes up the next morning and he's gone. She goes home, she's a hot mess, and life changes ensue. Some good, some dumb. I realize I'm not the _target audience, but I will still complain that the writing should be better.

ETA: Forgot one!

#95 Revenge of the Whale

I can always count on Philbrick to tell a good story.
This is the tale of the fateful, final journey of the Whaleship Essex. Human error, storms, bad luck, and one angry whale lead to the sinking of the ship. The men adapt three whaleboats, divide themselves among them and set sail. Again, human error leads to drastic consequences. Fantastic story of courage and struggle and survival against the odds. Also a terrible story of pride and the realities of a social structure that decides who lives and who dies, and in what order.

>162 nittnut: Love the re-read of Twilight research project and that you got the giggles. You are closing in on 100--you go girl! Also glad the toes have healed. From one very absent LTer to another...Happy weekend!!

>167 Berly: Hi Kimberly! Happy weekend to you! I may make it to 100. Amazingly enough. Going to go for one more thread for the year. :) Just turtleing along.