Dogearedcopy's "21/U" Cat Stax

Welcome! This is my ninth year participating in the LT Category Challenge and probably the most laid back one I've planned so far!
I'll be posting on a rolling calendar throughout the year, with the theme of "21" and the letter "U" (the twenty-first letter of the alphabet) in mind and keeping it all rather low-key. I'll be posting on a weekly basis, usually on a lazy Sunday afternoon :-)

Possible Categories:
• The Unread (TBR - titles acquired before 01/01/2020)
• Titles that begin with the letter U
• Authors whose last name begins with U
• GenreCat2021
• HistoryCat2021
• AlphaKit2021
• SFFkit2021
• SCAREDYkit2021
• Ulysses (by James Joyce) (Yes, a category all in itself!)

The aesthetic this year is Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry which combines the ideas of a calendar roll, my love of Medieval history and, a developing appreciation for French history as well :-)

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_________________________________________________JANVIER_________________________________________________

CHATS, KITS ET AUTRES

⚜️ GENRECAT: NF
⚜️ ⚜️ The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (Pandemic History #1; by Hourly History)
(Technology > Medicine > Public Health > Contagious and Infections Diseases; Special)
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - Essays covering the years 719-1494 CE
(History and Geography > Europe > France And Monaco > France)
⚜️ ⚜️ In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor)
(Technology > Medicine > Public Health > Contagious and Infections Diseases; Special)
⚜️ ⚜️ Solutions and Other Problems (by Allie Brosh)
(Social Sciences > Social Sciences; Sociology, Anthropology > Social Interaction > Communication > Media (Means of Communication > Digital media)

⚜️ HISTORYCAT: MIDDLE AGES
⚜️ ⚜️ The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (Pandemic History #1; by Hourly History) (1347-1352)
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - Essays covering the years 719-1494 CE
⚜️ ⚜️ In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor) (14th Century CE)
⚜️ ⚜️ King John (by William Shakespeare) (13th Century CE)

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: M & P
⚜️ ⚜️ Dream with Me (The O'Callghans by Kristen Proby) (Author P)
⚜️ ⚜️ Ministry of the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson; narrated by Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo and, Vikas Adam) (Title M)
⚜️ ⚜️ Preacher Book One (by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon) (Title P)
⚜️ ⚜️ This is Wild (This is series #2; by Natasha Madison) (Author M)

⚜️ GEOKIT: AFRICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi) (Ghana)

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - Essays covering the years 719-1494 CE (France)
⚜️ ⚜️ Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales #1; by Olivia Atwater) (England)
⚜️ ⚜️ King John (by William Shakespeare) (England/France)
⚜️ ⚜️ Lord Sorcier (Regency Faerie Tales, Prequel; by Olivia Atwater) (England/Spain)
⚜️ ⚜️ Ministry of the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson; narrated by Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo and, Vikas Adam) (Zurich, Switzerland)

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Dream with Me (The O'Callghans by Kristen Proby) (WA, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ 'The Invitation' (by Vi Keeland) (NYC, NY, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ Preacher Book One (by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon) (TX & LA, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ Solutions and Other Problems (by Allie Brosh) (OR & CO, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ This is Wild (This is series #2; by Natasha Madison) (NYC, NY, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Way You Look Tonight (by Bella Andre) (WA, USA)

⚜️ SCAREDYKIT: YA AND GNS
⚜️ ⚜️ Preacher Book One (by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon) (GN)

⚜️ SFFKIT: CARRY OVER FROM 2020
⚜️ ⚜️ Ministry of the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson; narrated by Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo and, Vikas Adam)

⚜️ SHAKESPEARE: KING JOHN
⚜️ ⚜️ Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare (by Isaac Asimov )
• • • King John
⚜️ ⚜️ Big Ideas: The Little Book of Shakespeare (Big Ideas Simply Explained) (by DK)
• • • King John
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron)
• • • "1214: The Two Europes, and the France of the Bouvines" by Pierre Monnet
⚜️ ⚜️ King John (by William Shakespeare) (Histories)

⚜️ #TIMESREADS: DEBUT NOVEL
⚜️ ⚜️ Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi)
⚜️ ⚜️ Ministry of the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson; narrated by Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo and, Vikas Adam) (Zurich, Switzerland)
⚜️ ⚜️ Preacher Book One (by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon)
⚜️ ⚜️ Solutions and Other Problems (by Allie Brosh)
⚜️ ⚜️ This is Wild (This is series #2; by Natasha Madison)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Way You Look Tonight (by Bella Andre)

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FÉVRIER

⚜️ GENRECAT: MEMOIRS & BIOS
⚜️ ⚜️ Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by Alex Wyndham)

⚜️ HISTORY CAT: MODERN (C.1800-NOW)
⚜️ ⚜️ Dirty Husband (Dirty Rich #3; by Crystal Kaswell) (Now/21st Century)
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - Essays covering the years 1795-1852 CE
⚜️ ⚜️ The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller, Tom Taylorson and Andi Arndt) (Now/21st century)
⚜️ ⚜️ So Cold the River (by Michael Koryta; narrated by Robert Petkoff) (1920s)
⚜️ ⚜️ Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2; by Olivia Atwater) (Regency Era/1800s)

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: K & T
⚜️ ⚜️ Dirty Husband (Dirty Rich #3; by Crystal Kaswell) (Author K)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller, Tom Taylorson and Andi Arndt) (Author K)
⚜️ ⚜️ Hard Crush: A Billionaire Romance (Back to You #1; Mira Lyn Kelly)
⚜️ ⚜️ So Cold the River (by Michael Koryta; narrated by Robert Petkoff) (Author K)
⚜️ ⚜️ Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2; by Olivia Atwater) (Title T)

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by Alex Wyndham)
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - Essays covering the years 1795-1852 CE (France)
⚜️ ⚜️ Shakespeare’s Edward III (by William Shakespeare; edited by Eric Sams)
⚜️ ⚜️ Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2; by Olivia Atwater) (England)

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Dirty Husband (Dirty Rich #3; by Crystal Kaswell) (NYC, NY, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller, Tom Taylorson and Andi Arndt) (IL; MN, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ Hard Crush: A Billionaire Romance (Back to You #1; Mira Lyn Kelly) - IL, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ So Cold the River (by Michael Koryta; narrated by Robert Petkoff) (IN, USA)

⚜️ SHAKESPEARE: EDWARD III
⚜️ ⚜️ Shakespeare’s Edward III (by William Shakespeare; edited by Eric Sams)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Hard Crush: A Billionaire Romance (Back to You #1; Mira Lyn Kelly) )
⚜️ ⚜️ The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller, Tom Taylorson and Andi Arndt))
⚜️ ⚜️ So Cold the River (by Michael Koryta; narrated by Robert Petkoff)
⚜️ ⚜️ Shakespeare’s Edward III (by William Shakespeare; edited by Eric Sams)

⚜️ UNSORTED
⚜️ ⚜️ Lords of the Ice Moons (by Michael Carroll)

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MARS

⚜️ GENRECAT: ACTION & ADVENTURE
⚜️ ⚜️ Beau Geste (by Percival C. Wren; narrated by Geoffrey Howard)

⚜️ HISTORY CAT: EARLY MODERN (C. 1500- C.1800)
⚜️ ⚜️ France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - Essays covering the years 1515-1794 CE
⚜️ ⚜️ Richard II (by William Shakespeare) (written/published 1595)

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: U & R
⚜️ ⚜️ “Unspoken" (written and narrated by Luke Daniels)
⚜️ ⚜️ From a Low and Quiet Sea (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, Gerard Doyle, Alan Smyth, Vikas Adam and, Tim Gerard Reynolds)
⚜️ ⚜️ Mr. CEO Jerk (Loving a Bennett Boy #1; by Loni Ree)
⚜️ ⚜️ Richard II (by William Shakespeare)
⚜️ ⚜️ A Slanting of the Sun (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Wayne Farrell)
⚜️ ⚜️ Whiskey Secrets (Whiskey and Lies #1; by Carrie Ann Ryan)

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ From a Low and Quiet Sea (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, Gerard Doyle, Alan Smyth, Vikas Adam and, Tim Gerard Reynolds) (Ireland)
⚜️ ⚜️ Richard II (by William Shakespeare) (England)
⚜️ ⚜️ A Slanting of the Sun (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Wayne Farrell) (Ireland)

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ "Unspoken" (written and narrated by Luke Daniels) (Michigan, USA)
⚜️ ⚜️ Whiskey Secrets (Whiskey and Lies #1; by Carrie Ann Ryan) (Delaware, USA)

⚜️ SHAKESPEARE: RICHARD II
⚜️ ⚜️ Richard II (by William Shakespeare)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Mr. CEO Jerk (Loving a Bennett Boy #1; by Loni Ree)
⚜️ ⚜️ A Slanting of the Sun (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Wayne Farrell)
⚜️ ⚜️ "Unspoken" (written and narrated by Luke Daniels)
⚜️ ⚜️ Whiskey Secrets (Whiskey and Lies #1; by Carrie Ann Ryan)

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AVRIL

⚜️ GEOKIT: ASIA
⚜️ ⚜️ Convenience Store Woman (by Sayaka Murata; trans by Ginny Tapley Takemori and; narrated by Nancy Wu) (Japan)

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous; translated by Simon Armitage; narrated by Bill Wallis) (England)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer; translated by Burton Raffel and performed by 6 unlabeled narrators) (England)
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare) (England)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Professor and the Madman (written and narrated by Simon Winchester) (England)

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ How to get Lucky (by Lauren Blakely and Joe Arden) - CA, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Agent to the Stars (by John Scalzi; narrated by Wil Wheaton) - Hollywood, CA, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ The Dating Itinerary (by Brooke Williams - St. Louis, MO, USA

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: A & W
⚜️ ⚜️ How to get Lucky (by Lauren Blakely and Joe Arden
⚜️ ⚜️ Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells)
⚜️ ⚜️ Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Murderbot #5.5; by Martha Wells)
⚜️ ⚜️ Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot #6; by Martha Wells)
⚜️ ⚜️ Some Days (written & illustrated by María Wernicke; translated by Lawrence Schimel)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Dating Itinerary (by Brooke Williams)
⚜️ ⚜️ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous; translated by Simon Armitage; narrated by Bill Wallis)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Professor and the Madman (written and narrated by Simon Winchester)

⚜️ SFFKIT: SERIES
⚜️ ⚜️ The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes #1; by Christopher Healy and Todd Harris; narrated by Bronson Pinchot)
⚜️ ⚜️ Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells)
⚜️ ⚜️ Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Murderbot #5.5; by Martha Wells)
⚜️ ⚜️ Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot #6; by Martha Wells)

⚜️ SHAKESPEARE: HENRY IV, PART I
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Keeper Second Chance Romance (by Harloe Rae)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Dating Itinerary (by Brooke Williams)

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MAI

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ The Merry Wives of Windsor (by William Shakespeare) - Windsor, England

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Forking Around (by Erin Nichols) - IA, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Version Control (by Dexter Palmer) - NJ, USA

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: I & N
⚜️ ⚜️ Forking Around (by Erin Nichols)

⚜️ SFFKIT: TIME TRAVEL
⚜️ ⚜️ Outlander (Outlander #1; by Diana Gabaldon; narrated by Davina Porter) DNF
⚜️ ⚜️ Version Control (by Dexter Palmer)

⚜️ SHAKESPEARE: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
⚜️ ⚜️ The Merry Wives of Windsor (by William Shakespeare)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Version Control (by Dexter Palmer)

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JUIN

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ The Faith Healer (by Brian Friel; performed by Ciáran Hinds, Michelle Fairley and, Toby Jones) - Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England
⚜️ ⚜️ The Russia House (by John le Carré; narrated by Michael Jayston) - Moscow, Russia/USSR
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart) - England
⚜️ ⚜️ A Shot in the Dark (by Lynne Truss; narrated by Matt Green) - Brighton, England

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ The Only Good Indians (by Stephen Graham Jones; narrated by Shaun Taylor Corbett) - USA

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: C & D
⚜️ ⚜️ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers)
⚜️ ⚜️ 'First Sight' (by M. Marie Claire a.k.a. Loni Ree)
⚜️ ⚜️ Good to Great (by Jim Collins)

⚜️ SCAREDYKIT: DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES
⚜️ ⚜️ The Only Good Indians (by Stephen Graham Jones; narrated by Shaun Taylor Corbett) - Blackfoot Native Americans

⚜️ SFFKIT: IT'S ABOUT THE JOURNEY
⚜️ ⚜️ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers)

⚜️ SHAKESPEARE: HENRY IV, PART II
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart)
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers)

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JUILLET

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare) - England

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ The Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1; by Octavia Butler) - California, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Wild Night (Wilder Irish #10; by Mari Carr) - Baltimore, MD USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Everest (Everest Brothers #1; by S.L. Scott) - New York, New York USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Property of the Mountain Men (Montana Mountain Men #1; by Gemma Weir) - Montana, USA

⚜️ GENRECAT: ROMANCE
⚜️ ⚜️ Wild Night (Wilder Irish #10; by Mari Carr)
⚜️ ⚜️ Property of the Mountain Men (Montana Mountain Men #1; by Gemma Weir)
⚜️ ⚜️ Forbidden C.E.O. by S.A. Clayton)
⚜️ ⚜️ Everest (Everest Brothers #1; by S.L. Scott)

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: O & S
⚜️ ⚜️ Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare)
⚜️ ⚜️ Everest (Everest Brothers #1; by S.L. Scott)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Everest (Everest Brothers #1; by S.L. Scott)

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AOÛT

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (by India Holton) - England
⚜️ ⚜️ The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland) - Lincoln, Lincolnshire and, London, England

⚜️ GEOKIT: OCEANIA
⚜️ ⚜️ Reclaim (A Redemption Novel #1; by Marley Valentine) - Australia

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Falling for the Playboy (by Kennedy Fox) Dallas, TX, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ The Sinner (by Emma Scott) New York City, New York, USA

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: J & V
⚜️ ⚜️ The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland)
⚜️ ⚜️ Reclaim (A Redemption Novel #1; by Marley Valentine)

⚜️ SFFKIT: FEMALE AUTHORS
⚜️ ⚜️ The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (by India Holton)

⚜️ FROM THE UNREAD STAX (TITLES ACQUIRED PRIOR TO 01/01/2021 - NO RE-READS)
⚜️ ⚜️ Falling for the Playboy (by Kennedy Fox) Dallas, TX, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Reclaim (A Redemption Novel #1; by Marley Valentine)

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SEPTEMBRE

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ The Secret Pilgrim (by John Le Carré; narrated by Michael Jayston)
⚜️ ⚜️ Darkfever (Fever series #1 by Karen Marie Moning - Ireland
⚜️ ⚜️ Bloodfever (Fever series #2 by Karen Marie Moning - Ireland & Wales

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Lucky Number Eleven (by Adriana Locke) - IL, USA

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: F & L
⚜️ ⚜️ The Secret Pilgrim (by John Le Carré; narrated by Michael Jayston)
⚜️ ⚜️ Lucky Number Eleven (by Adriana Locke)
⚜️ ⚜️ Darkfever (Fever series #1 by Karen Marie Moning #Reread
⚜️ ⚜️ Bloodfever (Fever series #2 by Karen Marie Moning #Reread

⚜️ DNF
⚜️ ⚜️ The Lords of Discipline (by Pat Conroy; narrated by Dan John Miller)
⚜️ ⚜️ The Art of Gathering (by Priya Parker)

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OCTOBRE

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Horrorstör (by Grady Hendrix; narrated by Tai Sammons and Bronson Pinchot) - OH, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Locke & Key (by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez; performed by a full cast starring Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany, Kate Mulgrew) - CA & MA, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Kiss and Don’t Tell (by Meghan Quinn) - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada & Seattle, Washington, USA

⚜️ GENRECAT: HORROR / SUPERNATURAL
⚜️ ⚜️ Horrorstör (by Grady Hendrix; narrated by Tai Sammons and Bronson Pinchot)
⚜️ ⚜️ Locke & Key (by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez; performed by a full cast starring Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany, Kate Mulgrew)

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: E & H
⚜️ ⚜️ Horrorstör (by Grady Hendrix; narrated by Tai Sammons and Bronson Pinchot)

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NOVEMBRE

⚜️ GEOKIT: EUROPE
⚜️ ⚜️ The Definitive Sherlock Holmes (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Forewords by Stephen Fry; narrated by Stephen Fry) - England
⚜️ ⚜️ The Lost Sherlock Holmes Story? (narrated by Simon Vance) - England
⚜️ ⚜️ The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings: A medieval ghost story (by Dan Jones) - England
⚜️ ⚜️ HHhH (by Laurent Binet) - Czechoslovakia
⚜️ ⚜️ Longshadow (Regency Faerie Tales, #3; by Olivia Atwater) - England

⚜️ GEOKIT: NORTH AMERICA
⚜️ ⚜️ Firestarter (by Stephen King) - New York, Vermont and Virginia, USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Fight Club (by Chuck Palahniuk) - USA
⚜️ ⚜️ Wolf Signs (Granite Lake Wolves #1; by Vivian Arend) - Yukon

⚜️ GENRECAT: SFF
⚜️ ⚜️ Longshadow (Regency Faerie Tales, #3; by Olivia Atwater)

⚜️ HISTORY CAT: EVENTS
⚜️ ⚜️ HHhH (by Laurent Binet) - Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

⚜️ ALPHAKIT: B & Y
⚜️ ⚜️ HHhH (by Laurent Binet)

⚜️ SCAREDYKIT: STEPHEN KING & FAMILY
⚜️ ⚜️Firestarter (by Stephen King)

EN TRAIN DE LIRE
🐖 When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains (by Ariana Neumann)

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DÉCEMBRE
⚜️ ALPHAKIT: G & Q
⚜️ ⚜️ The End of the Affair (by Graham Greene; narrated by Colin Firth)

⚜️ GENRECAT: MYSTERIES
⚜️ ⚜️ The Strangler Vine (Avery & Blake #1; by M.J. Carter; narrated by Alex Wyndham)

Hi Tanya, I love the pictures that you have used. Tres Bon!

Love the images! And I like those fleur-de-lis icons.

Very attractive set-up. I like the icons also.

Beautiful set up! Good luck with your 2021 reading.

Beautiful setup! Love the medieval images.

Très belles images! Enjoy your laid-back reading year!

Love the pictures illustrating your months.

Have a great year of reading.

Beautiful setup! Wishing you a wonderful year of reading.

So here we are on the first Sunday afternoon of the year! It's raining and cold, the cat and dog are snuggled up in my bed; My husband is listening to Mozart in the living room and; My daughter is playing some sort of online game in her room. Now is the time to catch up a little bit: On 12/30/2020, I wrapped up my 2020 reading and on NYE Day, started my 2021 reading!

🍷 King John (by William Shakespeare) - This year, I'm reviving my 2019 attempt to read Shakespeare's Histories and read them in action order (order of the reigns of the Kings as opposed to the publishing order). My husband, who has just finished reading Sharon Kay Penman's Angevin novels, mentioned something that I know, but which hadn't quite sunk in until he mentioned it--- that the Royal Courts at the time spoke French! I'm looking at "King John" and the geopolitics of the time a little differently now! In "King John", the eponymous character is waging war over his right of succession (over that of his late elder brother's son's right) and the actual war is taking place in northern France (which is actually under English rule). I'm at the end of Act III, and King John has just given away those territories as a dowry in the marriage of his niece to the Dauphin... the marriage is supposed to produce amity between England and France, but now the Pope has gotten involved!

🍷 In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor) - This is a book that I read nearly 20 years ago; but decided to pick back up again for the Non-Fiction, History and, GeoKit (Europe) challenges. It's an accounting of The Black Death in 14th-century England and, its impact. Written in accessible language, it's an interesting look how this particular pandemic shaped social and political structures far into the future. For instance, the death of a wealthy man from the Plague led to a large inheritance that enabled the House of Lancaster to rise in power...

🍷 Solutions and Other Problems (by Allie Brosh) - I got this one for Christmas! Allie Brosh illustrates her social awkwardness and anxieties with MacPaint and a quirky sense of humor; but don't be fooled by the bright colors and funny moments about her "Simple Dog"--- there's definitely an undercurrent of how "not alright" she is. I'm taking this one a story a day and will probably finish by the end of the month.

🍷 France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - When I saw this offering a couple years ago from Other Press, I knew I had to get it! The book is a collection of essays organized historically. Each essay covers a year in French history and I'm currently reading the section, "Feudal Order and Triumphs" which covers the years 842-1143 CE. You can read the essays in order, or you can follow a recommended thread at the end of each essay. For instance, at the end of the essay, "882: A Viking in the Carolingian Family?", you can read the related articles about the years 800, 1051, 1066 and 1550-- or just go on to the next essay which is, "910: A Network of Monasteries". I'm reading sections that correspond to the HistoryKit time periods so I should have this one wrapped up by the end of April.

🍷 The Way You Look Tonight (by Bella Andre) - I indulged in a Friday night Romance! This about a PI who retreats to a family cottage by the lake in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. After way too many cases involving cheating spouses, he's burnt out and cynical. At the lake, he runs into a childhood friend who has grown into a very attractive woman who yearns to break out of her goody-two-shoes style of living. Though there's instant attraction, his distrust nearly torpedoes the relationship. Graphic sex, but not particularly wild or kinky as sort of advertised (within the context of the story) and, lots of repetitive phrasing throughout. Overall, just "meh".

>1 Tanya-dogearedcopy: It was a treat to scroll though your challenge themes. I wish you a great year of reading.

>23 Tanya-dogearedcopy: You are off to a rousing start!

Looks like some really good reads! A great way to begin 2021.

It's Sunday morning and the sun is shining on puddles from last night's rains. The wall calendar has been flipped over to show a moose standing in a snowstorm at Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada) and; I've had a couple pieces of buttered toast and a glass of blood-orange Italian soda for breakfast (I know, I know! I just couldn't muster the energy up for anything more!) The house is relatively quiet: My husband is on the porch doom scrolling; My daughter is having a quiet convo with someone online and; the dog and cat are tucked away asleep...

🍷 King John (by William Shakespeare) - I can now claim to have read this one from cover-to-cover! I have the Folger Shakespeare Library edition and read the introductory matter, the play itself (with the footnotes) and, "A Modern Perspective" at the end. The last essay talks about the liminal aspect of the play's narrative and characters and; how this is reflected in the language. I almost want to re-read the play now with all of that in mind! Instead, in order to make room for some other books in the stack, I'll just pop a Note to Myself to re-read the essay before reading the play next time!

Anyway, as you know, this has been quite the news-worthy week in the US. I have spent most of the time tired, depressed and angry. I had started the week, ready-to-go with a fresh new year outlook, but on Monday, the President's phone call with Georgian election officials was released. At the time, I posted the following lines from the play:

Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave
On their departure most of all show evil.

--- (Cardinal Pandulf from "King John, Act III, Scene 4, lines 115-119)

Naively, I thought that was going to be the "it" moment for the week; but then... Wednesday.

I know that in the spirit of LT etiquette and decorum, we're not supposed to touch on anything remotely political but even though this feels so much bigger than merely "political", I will refrain from getting "into it" here. I'll save it for my sister who is of the opposing political party that I am registered in!

🍷 In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor) - The author's "accessible" language sometimes veers into being a bit cavalier (casually calling King John a "manic-depressive") but it was very interesting and relevant especially in context of the coronavirus pandemic. One thing that struck me as ironic is that in the book, Cantor repeatedly asserts that the lack of scientific method in the 14th century was a hindrance to successfully fighting off the pandemic then and, in future waves (there were three waves of The Black Death in the 1300s):

Essentially it had only nonbiomedical responses to devastation of a breakdown in societal health-- pray very hard, quarantine the sick, run away , or find a scapegoat to blame for the terror.

The "it" in the quote refers to Medieval Europe, "run away" to escaping to the countryside and; "a scapegoat to blame for the terror" to the Jews (accused of poisoning the water reservoirs and wells). Substituting the Jews for the Chinese in the current pandemic, makes you realize, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

🍷 This is Wild (This is series #2; by Natasha Madison) - I started this one last night-- a romance featuring a drug addicted hockey player and, his realtor in NYC. This is a slow-burn romance that deals with the rather heavy topic of drug-addiction and rehab/recovery. Despite the author's attempts to lighten things up with scenes featuring family members, it's definitely not a rom-com. I'm a third of the way through the book and while both Viktor and Zoe think about each other, that's about it. I'll finish the book, probably tomorrow. "Slow-burns" are always "slow-reads" for me!

🍷 Ohh, I got my hands on Isaac Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare! I had heard about it from the #Shakespeare2020Project and am looking forward to dipping into it, relative to the plays I'm reading :-)

I think if mimosas are OK for breakfast, blood-orange Italian soda is perfectly acceptable ;)

Ah, so here we are--- not a lazy Sunday afternoon, but rather late on a Monday night! Despite the three-day weekend in the US (Martin Luther King Day), I had to work and, I just wrapped up a couple of hours ago. I found a retro mid-century lamp in the storage locker when I was rummaging around in there a couple weekends ago and, while it's not a SAD lamp, it does warm up my work area quite nicely-- so here I am decompressing; My husband just ran down to the grocery store to get grapefruit for our morning breakfasts as he forgot to include them in the InstaCart order and; my daughter is chatting with her gaming friends.

With a mug of green tea in hand and looking over what I read this past week, I realize it was all pretty mediocre except for the essay about King John from Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare (pages just fly by as I'm reading, it's that well-written!) and, the essays I'm reading from France in the World. In the latter, I've finished off one section and have started, "France Expands" which covers the years 1202-1336 CE.

I finished two books that were heavily illustrated, a trade volume of comics and; a collection of comics from Allie Brosh:

🍷 Preacher Book One (by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon) - I picked this one up last year just because I heard of it; but I really didn't know anything about it. It's a about a preacher (natch) who is somewhat possessed and heads out to literally find God. There are a couple of Briticisms that make their way into American characters' mouths (We call nine-one-one in an emergency, not nine-eleven and; here, cigarettes are sold in packs, not packages) which snapped me out of a scene or two; but those are just quibbles. What did bother me was just how ugly everybody is-- corrupt, venal, psychotic. I'm not one to shy way from gore and violence (of which there was plenty) but the deformity of their natures (and their bodies in some cases) just became depressing after a while. The artwork reminds me very much of Alan Moore's comics-- that semi-lurid 1980s style, but without the chaos of "all the colors" on the page-- panes were inked with decidedly warm or cool colors. I think I'll pass on continuing this series or watching the television series.

🍷 Solutions and Other Problems (by Allie Brosh) I love her first effort, Hyperbole and a Half with "Simple Dog". This one though... Despite one reference to "Simple Dog" and the bright colors, there is no denying that there is something very wrong with the creator, both mentally and physically. I giggled a couple of times, but I spent most of the time feeling a bit disturbed at what she was revealing via her art and text. I had a friend in college who seemed always to be on the verge of suicide (don't worry, she's still around and; she's not suicidal!) and spending time with this book this felt just like hanging around with my friend then.

🍷 'The Invitation' (by Vi Keeland) - This was released on Saturday and I picked up for my weekend romance read. Stella crashes a wedding and just as Hudson twigs that she is not who she says she is, she bolts! Though she manages to grab her purse and a few bottles of expensive champagne on her way out, she's leaves her cell phone behind. This has a "Cinderella" start, but the plot heads into the corporate world where Hudson owns an investment firm and; Stella owns a start-up. It isn’t a bad story, just a little weird as Stella seems a bit overly-dramatic and, the author keeps hitting the reader over the heads about fate/destiny at the end.

🍷 Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi) - This is for my workplace book club and for once, I'm really liking their choice! It's a multi-generational look at a family across eight generations. Two sisters from Ghana don't have any idea of the other and their lives take very different turns for themselves and their descendants: One branch lives a privileged life in Ghana while the other branch lives in slavery in the US. The author has agreed to answer e-mailed questions; so I'd like to wrap this up by this coming weekend and come up with at least one question for her!

🍷 I was hoping to start Ministry for the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson) by today, but it looks like it'll wait until this weekend. Last year, when it was released, I ordered a copy from an indie bookstore but hadn't managed to get to it. I cracked open the copy yesterday and realized that they sent me a signed first edition! I don't like using signed first editions as reading copy (tea, dogs and my own clumsiness always spell disaster) but I have the audiobook in my Audible library, so all I have to do is get back into "listening" mode! As I spend a lot of my day on headsets, this is a little bit more challenging then you might think, but I'll get there!

>30 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I enjoyed Hyperbole and a Half, and have Solutions and Other Problems on my unread shelf but I'm not keen on the comedy of embarrassment so it might sit for a while. Thanks for sharing your review.

>30 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Homegoing is waiting on my shelf, although I'm not sure when I will get to it! How great that Yaa Gyasi agreed to answer questions!

It's snowing! Not enough to shovel or make snowmen; but enough to admire from my desk and dream about playing hooky from work to go skiing... (I won't do it, however strong the temptation is though!) My husband is sorting things out for work tomorrow and; my daughter is still asleep! After I post, I'll probably head back to bed myself, Half a Soul (by Olivia Atwater) in one hand and, a cup of Earl Grey tea in the other :-)

🍷 christina_reads posted a review of Ten Thousand Stitches over on her thread, the second in the Regency Faerie Tales series. I was intrigued enough to dnload and read the prequel to the series, The Lord Sorcier (30-page short story) and then from there, the first-in-series, Half a Soul. The prequel was a set-up as to how Elias Wilder and Albert Lowe meet during the Spanish campaign of the Napoleonic wars. Elias, a preternaturally beautiful man who believes the French are evil; and the more thoughtful, somewhat prosaic British army doctor, Albert become unlikely friends by virtue of losing count of how many times they save each others lives! Half a Soul is structured more like a Regency Romance: Vanessa and Dora head to London for the tail-end of the Season where the former is likely to be a resounding success but the latter a bit too odd. Dora was nearly taken by a faerie lord when she was a child and, has been "different" ever since. Lord Elias Wilder takes an interest in her case while Albert, the third son of Lord and Lady Corroway, navigates the social minefield which is the marriage market-- or more precisely the mother of eligible daughters who drive it. I'm about halfway though and should finish it today. It reminds me of a light-hearted/less stuffy version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (by Susanna Clarke)-- which I bailed on about half-way through out of extreme boredom!

🍷 I finished off Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi) for book club. This was actually a fast read and really compelling; but it's not a plot-driven story. Each chapter is a character POV and very two chapters covers a generation. Starting out in Ghana in the eighteenth century, one sister marries a soldier at the British-held fortress while the other sister is captured during a tribal raid and sold into slavery. We then see how the different branches' fates spins out over the centuries. There was a weird editorial gaff where a necklace that was buried and unrecovered at the fortress later reappears, much to my confusion-- So that will be the question I submit.

🍷 I started Ministry for the Future in audio and oh, boy. I adore Kim Stanley Robinson for his intelligent writing and this is no exception. KSR takes the concept of "ideology" as a tool to shape the topic of climate change. The book is speculative fiction: Climate change has now reached the point of climate crises and we see how idealogical approaches to resolve the issue are working... or not. But man, the audiobook is terrible: The narrator voicing the main character of Mary Murphy performs with such and exaggerated Irish accent/brogue, it would be comical if it weren't embarrassing. The only place you hear an accent like that is in noir-y B-movies where the cops all sing Danny boy in their beers. Then too, the other narrators (this is a multi-voice audio) are so un-differentiated in style and tone that you have to pay very close attention to the material to denote a change in the section or POV. You aren't going to get an auditory cue otherwise. And finally, the mispronunciations are egregious: "recognizance" is pronounced "recognize ants", "Army Corps" as "Army Corpse", "diaspora"... and so many others. I'll finish up the audio because I'm too cheap to buy yet another edition of the book, but I would recommend the title strongly-- just in print.

This week, I'll probably get a jump start on my February stack: I have two non-fiction books that are 500+ pages on deck and; also "822.33" stuff (Shakespeare and related materials)-- in a short month! After I finish Half a Soul, I’ll sort that out! :-)

>33 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Glad you are enjoying Half a Soul so far!

Today it's just cold and wet-- no snow, but no hiking or walks either :-/
DH is putting on the final touches to a DAC pre-amp he's re-building for a friend. My husband builds tube amps as a hobby and even though this isn't a tube piece of equipment, he was able to do this thing; My daughter is getting ready for finals this week. She's tired of school so we just need to drag her across the finish line. She applied to five schools and has been accepted to four. Now we're just waiting for word on the fifth. We just don't need her chances blown at the last minute because of "Senioritis"!
And so here I am wrapping up the month: It turned out to be surprisingly good. Looking at my spreadsheets, I managed to read even more than I did at this time last year which was pre-pandemic!

🍷 >34 christina_reads: Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales #1; by Olivia Atwater) was absolutely charming! I went ahead and dnloaded Ten Thousand Stitches and pre-ordered the next book, 'Echoes of the Imperium' which is coming out in a couple of months. I've slated TTS for this coming weekend so it could also qualify for February's AlphaKit letter, "T" :-)

🍷 I finished Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi) and really loved the fast-paced survey through eight generations of two branches of a Ghanian family. It's not Roots (by Alex Haley) in terms of scope and detail, but the author deftly places the reader in the time and place of each generation masterfully.

🍷 I finished hate-listening to Ministry for the Future (by Kim Stanley Robinson). The book itself is amazing but the audiobook production is "long rant level" of terrible. I'm still reeling that such a high-profile title was treated so poorly by the audiobook publisher.

🍷 I was going to read Play with Me (by Kristen Proby) this past weekend as my Friday night Romance indulgence; but I discovered it's the third in the O'Callaghans series-- so I dnloaded the first title in the run only to discover that it's a crossover from the "With Me in Seattle" series and the thirteenth in that lineup! I thought I was good, but the author spent so much time parading characters from past books and setting up the plots for the next titles in the new series, that very little attention was spent on the relationship in this book. The two characters (M/F), a glass-blower/artist and a cake baker fall pretty much into, if not "instaLuv", a pretty straight-forward and easy version of it. It is very thin plot-wise and not very steamy. Overall, a waste of a couple of hours :-/

🍷 This afternoon, I was setting up my reading for February and found a 46-page title about the Black Plague on my e-reader and decided to tackle it while I had a hour on hand! It's a primer meant to act as a catalyst for further study and, as such, did the trick! It lead me to a couple of essays about the Plague in France and from there, to an online article about Flemish textile makers... Anyway, the title is The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (Pandemic History Book 1; by Hourly History). My only quibble was that the image rights were apparently not extended so I could not see the one specific figure they referred to and; there wasn't enough information provided for me to track it down online. But it really wasn't hard to imagine what they were taking about, so my quibble is actually a relatively moot point. There also was one typo ("except" instead of "expect") but overall, it is well-edited, clear and, concise.

So, 13 titles for January:
⚜️ The Way You Look Tonight (Seattle Sullivans #1/The Sullivans #9; by Bella Andre)
⚜️ King John (by William Shakespeare)
⚜️ In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor)
⚜️ This is Wild (This Is series #2; by Natasha Madison)
⚜️ The Invitation (by Vi Keeland)
⚜️ Solutions and Other Problems (by Allie Brosh)
⚜️ Preacher: Book One (by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon)
⚜️ Lord Sorcier (Regency Faerie Tales, Prequel; by Olivia Atwater)
⚜️ Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales #1; by Olivia Atwater)
⚜️ Homegoing (by Yaa Gyasi
⚜️ Dream with Me (The O'Callaghans #1/With Me in Seattle #13; by Kristen Proby)
⚜️ Ministry for the Future(by Kim Stanley Robinson,; narrated by Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo and, Vikas Adam)
⚜️ The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (Pandemic History Books #1; by Hourly History)

And so onto February!
I've tentatively set up five books for the month, but given that two are 500+ page plus non-fiction titles and it will be a short month, I suspect Caste (by Isabel Wilkerson) may not happen. We'll see. I didn't think I was going to manage Ministry for the Future this past month, but I managed to get it in nonetheless! :-)

⚜️ Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer)
⚜️ Edward III (by William Shakespeare)
⚜️ Network Effect (by Martha Wells)
⚜️ Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2; by Olivia Atwater)
⚜️ Caste (by Isabel Wilkerson)

Congratulations on your successful reading month of January. And good luck to your daughter with her finals. :)

Great reading month! Good luck to your daughter. Cheering her on to get past the finish line!

It's Superbowl Sunday and amazingly, I don't care! I grew up in the Washington DC area where the team's ups and down rivaled politics in importance! In second grade, we used to recited the, "Our Father", "Hail Mary", "Pledge of Allegiance" and then sing the team's song! It was such a big part of my life, but when we moved to a state that doesn't have a team, I lost my feel for my home team and the game in general. So, I've spent the afternoon walking the dog, catching up on some loose ends from work and running to the grocery store while it's nice and empty!

I finished three books this past week:

❄️ So Cold the River (by Michael Koryta; narrated by Robert Petkoff) - I bought this "blind" after a recommendation from an audiobook blogger years ago. It's one of his all-time favorite audiobook so I thought I would add it to my library and now I finally got around to it-- five+ years later! For some reason I thought was a mystery/thriller, but it's more of a horror/thriller: A failed Hollywood filmmaker ends up in West Baden, IN to do the background work on a documentary. The subject of his profile however, has secrets, a local really has a problem with all of it, and the filmmaker himself has issues... The upshot of all of it is a solid story involving human frailty, ghosts and, unleashing evil. But as far as it being a horror story? Not so much. Yeah, there are some terrible, supernatural things that happen, but nothing that's going to keep you up at night. .

❄️ Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2; by Olivia Atwater) - Sigh, I am absolutely enchanted with this series so far! These are not bodice rippers, but stories of magic and love that couldn't be more perfect if they started out with "Once upon a time' and ended with "And they lived happily ever after.” In this story, a scullery maid named Euphemia Reeves falls for the youngest son of a noble household and, enlists the aid of the fairy, Lord Blackthorn. As well-intentioned as Blackthorn is, he doesn't really think through the consequences of his actions, LOL. I'm looking forward to Longshadow (no touchstone yet), the third book in the series coming out in April.

❄️ Lords of the Ice Moons (by Michael Carroll) - Now this is something that I stumbled upon and turned out to be something way other than what I expected! The first part is a novella set in the future: An asteroid has hit the earth and knocked out the solar grid and the efficiency of microbial fuel cells/vats. Gwen Baré, an engineer who specializes in energy, is tasked— along with a colleague— to retrieve two reactors from an abandoned colony. The mission as they land resembles "Alien" in the tension and, sure enough, nothing is as straight forward as it seems! The second part of the book (around 20% of the total page count) is the science behind the science fiction. The author has taken current scientific facts and theories and woven them into his story. I see he has written a couple more stories like this one and I'm intrigued enough to want to try another one!

❄️ I've started The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller and Tom Taylorson). This book came out a few years ago when Gone Girl (by Gillian Flynn) was all the rage. I didn't read either at the time, but thought I would knock this one out this week. It's about a young woman who is kidnapped and returned, but without her memory. The story is told from three points of view: The mother, the investigating police detective and, the kidnapper. It's keeping my interest at a solid "4-star" level; but the final rating will depend on how it wraps up!

❄️ Shakespeare's Edward III (edited by Eric Sams) is still lurking on my nightstand and I think I'll target that one this week.

❄️ I've dropped out my of workplace book club. Oddly, instead of the Books desk taking an interest or hand in it, the Equal Rights Group from Human Resources is getting involved and the whole of it is turning into some sort of overly bureaucratized process. As the selections have been becoming increasingly weaker and with lower participation rates, I had been thinking of leaving. With whiffs of drama and internecine politics now in the air, it's a good time to bow out quietly. So, Caste (by Isabel Wilkerson) is off of my February stacks. Perhaps it's just as well. I wasn't sure I would have time for it this month anyway :-/

>38 Tanya-dogearedcopy: loved The Good Girl!

>38 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I'm glad you're enjoying the Olivia Atwater books!

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It's early evening on Monday, the end of the three-day US holiday, Presidents Day! I've come in from a day spent at a wildlife refuge in Northern California. I love it out on the marshes in Winter and Spring! It's all so very big and alive! Summer, it gets a bit too much (mosquitoes and the smell) and in the Fall, the migrating birds are moving off instead of moving in, so it's not as much fun. I am trying my hand at more wildlife photography as opposed to "just" landscapes and today, I got some okay, but not great photos of bald eagles. I've ordered a new telephoto lens for my camera though -- so it should be in by the next time we head back in a couple of weeks! 🦅

I didn't get much reading done this past week, just one audiobook and a romance. I spent most of last week's evenings with my daughter. We're in the home stretch of her Senior year that has been made additionally challenging with the pandemic-- so lots of homework and heart-to-hearts; but not much actual reading on my part:

❄️ The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller, Tom Taylorson and Andi Arndt) - I knew going in that this book probably had an unreliable narrator; but I spent so much time trying to figure out who was "lying" that I didn't see the end coming! There's a part of me that's hung up on the logic in the denouement but I overall, the story left me with a bit of a book hangover-- so a solid four-star rating! I wasn't crazy about Lindy Nettleton's and Johnny Heller's performances. Seemingly perfect for their respective roles as the older characters (British-born mother of the kidnapped girl and the lead detective from Chicago), they still somehow don't fully inhabit their characters and in the latter case, don't seem to be as gentle in nature as the writing indicates. Tom Taylorson and Andi Arndt however, feel pitch perfect in their roles of kidnapper and "kidnappee". Maybe one of these days I'll grab a print copy of the book, take another look at the end and, bump up the rating another half-star if the niggling question I have is satisfactorily explained.

❄️ Dirty Husband (Dirty Rich #3; by Crystal Kaswell) - Basically a re-telling of Fifty Shades of Gray (by E. L. James), only with a Vietnamese heroine. Two stars.

❄️ I have started Shakespeare's Richard III (edited by Eric Sams in earnest. Sams was the guy who analyzed the text and made the argument that the play was indeed written by Shakespeare during the playwright's "Lost Decade" (1580s). Sams was a brilliant man who served during WWII as cryptographer in the UK and, went on to analyze some dramatic and musical compositions to reveal the "secrets" they contain. Edward III is now widely recognized as (Shakespeare) canon-- except by the Folger Library, much to my annoyance. It just means my Folger Library editions are interrupted on the shelf and; that the book I have is formatted differently (no side-by-side text-and-notes). Hopefully, I'll have this wrapped up by the weekend and I can start the biography by Ian Mortimer, Edward III: The Perfect King).

❄️ I briefly flirted with the idea of reading with the BuzzFeed Book Club in lieu of my workplace book club and, even dnloaded, The Liar's Dictionary (by Eley Williams)-- their February 2021 title; but I can already tell I'll always be de-prioritizing their selections-- so I think I'll stop adding pressure to myself and leave off. There is nothing wrong with their choices, they just don't segue with what I have on hand or sync up with my reading mood. I think LT Challenges are about all I can handle! :-)

>41 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Beautiful photo!

LT challenges are about all I can handle too. And even then I don't read CAT or KIT books in their assigned month!

>41 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Beautiful photo! At first glance this could be right around the corner from where I live. We have lots of marshland here. I guess it looks different in a lighter photo that shows more, but the vegetation looks really similar.

All the best for your daughter!

>41 Tanya-dogearedcopy: absolutely beautiful pic!

As I mentioned earlier in the year, I'm tackling Shakespeare's Histories. But I'm doing more than reading the plays. I'm also reading some literary criticism, historical background (NF) of the time period the play portrays (Podcasts and essays), some contemporary (to the time period of the play) material (Hello, Norton Anthology of English Literature !), and some modern material (a play or movie). This past week, I re-discovered BBC's podcast, "In Our Time" and have been taking every opportunity to try and catch up on relevant episodes! I have to say, it's terribly interesting to hear British Medievalists discussing some of the finer points of their fields of study, but also really funny when someone in the group disagrees. They don't get loud and outraged the way you might expect. They tend to just sound peevish, talk faster and, occasionally stutter and "tsk" about! :-D

❄️ I've gotten a little farther in Eric Sams' Shakespeare's Edward III (I know, I know! I keep saying I'm wrapping it up, but I really must this week as I'm eager to move onto Richard II), read & listened a bit about the Black Plague, and, started listening to Ian Mortimer's Edward III: The Perfect King (narrated by Alex Wyndham). I have an ebook edition of the latter, but recognizing that I'm working with a smaller reading window at the end of the month, decided to take the audio route. What I thought might possibly be a bit dry in style has proven to be highly entertaining and fascinating! Edward III's life reads something like an adventure tale filled with pathos, melodrama and glorious excess! I'm really pleased to have made time for it!

❄️ No Friday Romance novel this past weekend and, it looks like the Murderbot novel, Network Effect (#5; by Martha Wells l I had been hoping to tackle this month won't make it off of my nightstand; but we'll see how things look by Wednesday.

❄️ Tonight I'm going for a double feature: The Life and Death of King John (Stratford Shakespeare; directed by Tom Carroll; starring Tom McCamus and 'The Black Death' (starring Sean Bean). LOL, I know the latter isn't kosher, but heck, it's Sean Bean running around medieval England! ;-)

I'm jealous! I've always wanted to become immersed in Shakespeare, both the tragedies and the histories. Perhaps in 2022! Right now I'm doing the same for opera, bios of the composers, reading the librettos, watching the performances on youtube; but I find the going very slow as I know absolutely nothing about opera or the composers.

Are you reading the histories in chronological order or the order in which they were written?

>46 Tess_W: Last year I was part of a group that tried to read the entire Shakespeare canon in publishing order! Owing to the tight schedule, work-related stress and the pandemic, I quickly got derailed; but reading the few histories that I was able to was very confusing! I had a cheat sheet of who was who that I was constantly referring to. This year, I’m just reading the histories and in order of reign. It’s a lot easier to track everybody. Also, by reading one play a month as opposed to a week (!), I get more time to dig into more background material :-)

I love opera! My tastes are fairly pedestrian though: pretty much Monteverdi and Verdi. When I lived back East Coast (USA), I used to see some offerings, but since we moved to Southern Oregon, the occasions to go have virtually disappeared. I did go to see the live Met showings at the movie theater on Saturdays, but now of course, those places are closed. We have a extensive collection of operas. I never thought of trying to make a study of them but that sounds amazing! 🙂

>45 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Mmmmm can't go wrong with Sean Bean! :D

>46 Tess_W: >47 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I admire both of your projects and they inspire me to try something similar in the future! Right now I'm on a Tolkien project, but both of your projects sound wonderful!

Unfortunately, I've never really enjoyed Shakespeare although I have tried so often. I like the obvious ones (Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet), but never really got around the other ones. About five years ago I wanted to read all the plays and got halfway through, but now I cannot remember a thing and they all sort of blur into one another. I guess I did it all too rushed and didn't take my time to really understand and digest!

I bought some film versions and will try watching these, maybe it will help.

If you have any tips on which supplements/guides to read or what else might help, I'd be happy!

Ooof! It's a gorgeous day outside but allergies are kicking my butt! My current remedy (per allergist) is Zyrtec during the day and Benadryl at night. Both leave me with very low energy and a deep desire to hibernate until Summer! I've spent the weekend napping and finishing off my February reading:

❄️ Shakespeare's Edward III (edited by Eric Sams) Finally! I've had this on my bookshelves since 2019 and it took me three weeks to finish it this year, but it is done! I was really hoping the Folger Library would release an edition, but they seem to have their minds set against it-- so this will definitely work! The play itself is more historically inaccurate on the whole than other of Shakespeare's Histories, but if you were looking for a dramatic highlight reel of King Edward III's life, this is it! I did not however delve into the "exegetical" mater presented after the play. I did read the first one about the consensus over the play through 1790, but after that, it got too nerdy and academic. Sources were cited in passing that I have no idea about, so I was getting very lost before I decided to ditch these parts. Maybe next time I decide to tackle the play, I'll take a closer look.

❄️ And while we're on the subject of Edward III, I finished listening to Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by Alex Wyndham). It turns out that the author's scholarship is quite controversial in that he claims Edward II was not dead when Edward III was declared King! Ian Mortimer does lay the logic out in one of the appendices; but I can see how this would raise more than a few eyebrows in the academic community. I, however, am not, a part of the academic community and, I loved it! Better than fiction!

❄️ I also read the chapter, "Edward III and the Black Prince" in John Julius Norwich's, Shakespeare's Kings. I love the commentary in the footnotes (e.g. "Is Poitous really on the way between Brittany and Calais?") and the way the author seats the play within the historical reality. I'll be reading along with this through the chapter on Richard III (no chapter on Henry VIII), so I'll be wrapping this one up in November!

❄️ I'll also wrapped up the essays covering the years 1795-1852 CE France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron). This is pretty much about the waning years and the aftermath of the Napoleonic Age. There are more essays covering the Modern era through 2015; but I'll be retuning to those after April. Hopefully I will have done with this collection by the end of Summer!

❄️ For my Friday night romance, I read, Hard Crush: A Billionaire Romance (Back to You #1; by Mira Lyn Kelly). This is a contemporary M/F romance set in Chicago where the guy is a tech mogul who returns to his old high school where his old flame is now teaching. The story was a bit angsty, but not in a melodramatic way. Real issues about staying, going and, letting go... There are a couple sex scenes, graphically portrayed but nothing kinky or porn level.

Eight titles for February! I'm always proud I get anything done in this, the shortest of months; but just a tad bit disappointed I wasn't able to squeeze in Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells)-- but I think I can re-seat it for April! :-)

⚜️ So Cold the River (by Michael Koryta; narrated by Robert Petkoff)
⚜️ Lord of the Ice Moons (by Michael Carroll)
⚜️ Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales #2; by Olivia Atwater)
⚜️ The Good Girl (by Mary Kubica; narrated by Lindy Nettleton, Johnny Heller, Tom Taylorson and, Andi Arndt)
⚜️ Dirty Husband (Dirty Rich #3; by Crystal Kaswell)
⚜️ Shakespeare's Edward III (edited by Eric Sams)
⚜️ Hard Crush: A. Billionaire Romance (Back to You #1; by Mira Lyn Kelly
⚜️ Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by Alex Wyndham)

For March, I only have three titles stacked on my nightstand:

⚜️ Richard II (by William Shakespeare)
⚜️ The City & The City (by China Miéville
⚜️ Beau Geste (by Percival C. Wren)

I have my on The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer-- but that may be more than I can realistically handle! I also have Station Eleven (by Emily St. John Mandel waiting for me. Years ago, OI read another one of here efforts (Last Night in Montreal and was not impressed; but I've been hearing good things about this one ever since it was published ands especially last years when a number of readers picked it up during the pandemic. It also happens to be the oldest book in. my Litsy wishlist, so this might be a great time to tackle it! We'll see how I feel next week!

I envy your reading on Edward III-- a king I now nothing about. I'm reading Penman's series now about Richard III and hopefully when finished (historical fiction), I will read the same by Shakespeare.

Why, yes! Yes, it has been 2 weeks! Last weekend was my birthday and TBH, I just didn't feel like sitting at the computer. My Mom shipped me a rum cake overnight and it was soooo soaked with rum, I was actually surprised USPS didn't pull it in violation of shipping liquor! We went back out to the marshes where I tried out a new lens for my camera, ate Thai food, ate an enormous amount of birthday cake, and watched "Casino Royale" with Daniel Craig. I also ordered and received-- as a B-Day present to myself-- Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel, Klara and the Sun. Overall a quiet weekend, but just my speed these days!:-)

🌱 I wrapped up Beau Geste (by Percival Christopher Wren; narrated by Geoffrey Howard). This is the ultimate boy‘s adventure story— if you were a boy in 1924. The story itself opens with a double mystery: What happened at this fort in the middle of the desert? And who stole the Blue Water? As intriguing & action-packed as it is, it is also a dated tale where honor & chivalry look like snobbishness, racism and misogyny now. IMHO, The Four Feathers (by A.E.W. Mason; 1902) is better in all ways... But the one saving grace is Geoffrey Howard's narration. He pulls off the transitions from British English to French so seamlessly and overall is just so masterful in his performance and delivery; and without dipping into caricature, I actually believed the characters lived and breathed --- so much so, that I'm still annoyed with Aunt Patrica and Beau himself!

🌱 I also listened to "Unspoken" (written and narrated by Luke Daniels for Audible). This is a three-hour-or-so recording of a piece the narrator wrote about the short (21-months) life of his son. I'm within six degrees of the narrator and, always wondered what happened; but not close enough to ask and stay in good form. So, this answered some questions and I learned more about Luke and, I cried. It's not the best structured story and you can feel how lost the narrator still is five years later; but it did exactly what I needed it to do without me being so bold as to ask him straight out.

🌱 After much back-and-forth dithering, I've decided to start A Slanting of the Sun (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Wayne Farrell) - This is a short story collection that takes place in Tipperary, Ireland. When I started, I forgot that is was a stand-alone collection of shorts, so my brain was in overdrive trying to make connections not only to each story but to two other novels that Ryan has published. I did a quick check though, and now I'm allowing to just let the author's words soak into me. The narrator takes on all voices/POVs; but doesn't get in the way of the story as you might suspect (i.e. when he tells the story from a female POV). Beautiful writing, but about tragic topics. I should wrap this one up in a couple days and it'll probably net 4+ stars from me.

🌱 I've been using the AlphaKit challenge to get through my Friday Night Romance Reads. I read Mr. CEO Jerk (Loving a Bennett Boy #1; by Loni Ree) last weekend. It turned out to be a M/F insta-love short story just full of "Hell No!"s from me. All sorts of overreactions, a caveman kidnapping, and... and... and just no. The other Romance I knocked off my Kindle app was Whiskey Secrets (Whiskey and Lies #1; by Carrie Ann Ryan). From the pre-novel note, this was a plot that the author's husband helped deconstruct (and presumably) rebuild; but he passed away before the work was published. It's the first of a spin-off series, but there isn't that parade of other characters from other novels that that other romance writers sometimes can't quite seem to resist doing! This was a low-stakes romance (no angst, other woman/man, or big, huge misunderstanding. It was all about open communications. The sex scenes were graphic, but I skimmed over them looking for more meat to the story and not finding much there. Though better than the short story by Loni Ree, I won't be continuing either series.

🌱 I've really been struggling with The City & the City (by China Miéville). I think it's very telling that I actually lost the book for four days and wasn't terribly concerned about it! It was listed as a title in the SFFKit challenge for this month under "Indiana Jones in Space or Fairyland" (?) but I honestly can't see how this book fits that! It's a police procedural set in a dismal version of some Balkan city/state in Eastern Europe. I think this just isn't the book for me right now. I'll put back in my stack and make room for a couple other things that I would like to tackle this month, namely, Richard II (by William Shakespeare) and Station Eleven (by Emily St. John Mandel).

This past weekend, my husband and I went up to some fairgrounds to do a stereo equipment handoff (My husband builds tube amps) and, while were there, that county was having a vaccination drive. I know it's a sin to envy, but I was soooo jealous! I was seriously thinking about getting in line anyway, but they were checking drover's licenses. I know, I know. I just have to be patient!

Happy belated birthday! Spending it away from the computer was a good decision!

Happy birthday! Sounds like a good one!

Happy birthday! I've never been able to muster up the energy to read The City and the City but still feel like I should get to it at some point -- there's a TV adaptation featuring David Morrissey :D

On Tuesday, my husband, daughter and I were talking our lunchtime walk and ran into the mail carrier. Unfortunately, there was no word yet...
So when we got home, she checked online and.... YES! She got accepted to all 5 colleges/universities she applied to!
She finally got her welcome package from the University of Washington in the mail on Friday and, while the University of Hawaii (Hilo) was looking strong there for a while, it looks like she's going to accept UW :-)
(For literary reference, this is the school from which the crew from The Boys in the Boat - non-fiction by Daniel James Brown came from!)

This past week, I started a lot of things but only finished two items, both audiobook by the same author:
🌱 A Slanting of the Sun (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Wayne Farrell) This is a collection of twenty short stories set in Tipperary, Ireland. At first, I thought the stories were connected both within themselves and to previous Donal offerings, which left me a bit confused. But after double-checking, I saw that the stories are standalone individually and collectively. After that was cleared up, I was able to really get into the stories, each with a tragic note couched in the beautiful, almost lyrical prose. Two stories had me gasping out loud and, the last story, "A Slanting of the Sun" was stunning. Wayne Farrell, who has narrated the author's books in the past, returns to voice multiple POVs of varying ages and genders without dropping into caricature. There are only two stories where he doesn't quite rise to the occasion of narrating from female POVs and, it is surprisingly jarring. (In the past, the narrator has been able to deliver a performance effectively without getting in the way of the text.) Still, overall strong writing and performance. Four stars easy! Four stars easy!

🌱 From a Low and Quiet Sea (by Donal Ryan; narrated by Narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, Gerard Doyle, Alan Smyth, Vikas Adam and, Tim Gerard Reynolds) - This is a collation of four short stories that, at first seem separate from each other and oddly without that elegiac note that seems to be Ryan‘s signature. Then that last story wraps it all up and delivers the shiv to you where you stand! There is a slight connection to “A Slanting of the Sun” (short in the collection of the same name) but you don‘t need to read either to enjoy the other. I love the writing, but the narrators range from "Just Okay" to downright awful.

This is what I've got going this week:
🌱 Richard II (by William Shakespeare) - Almost finished! Just wrapping up with the lit-crit at the end of the Folger edition which makes the argument that Richard II is not the simpering, weak protagonist; but rather the self-aware and cynical who loves the theatrics of his downfall/deposition. Hmmm, I'm not buying it but I'll see where this essay goes...
🌱 Keeper (Second Chance Romance (by Harloe Rae) - Started this one on Saturday as part of my weekend romance read; but it's a slow burn and long (371 pages!) The girl has retrograde amnesia and, the guy is someone who had crush on her in high school I'll probably finish this up this coming weekend.
🌱 The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer; translated by Burton Raffel; narrated by 6 unlabeled narrators) - My brain has all it can handle in decoding the early Modern English of Shakespeare, so I'm going to with the translation that seems to be well-regarded on the whole-- and in audio! I've only just listened to the introductory matter which beings up a really interesting fact: Every known culture has poetry; but only those that have the means of recording their stories have prose!
🌱 Engaged: The Neuroscience Behind Creating Productive People in Successful Organizations (by Amy Brann) - Every time someone presents me with a business book, I inwardly groan. But then when I'm reading it, I'm like, "I will rule the world! This book will be my guide!" We'll see how/if this one will have the same effect. I'll be starting this tomorrow.

Go Huskies! :-D

Congrats to your daughter. Job well done!

Woo hoo, all five universities! Congratulations!

when I'm reading it, I'm like, "I will rule the world! This book will be my guide!"
This is also me reading business books!

Congratulations on all five schools! So nice to have options.

Congratulations to your daughter, Tanya.

I've spent the afternoon planting lavender and raking up sweet gum tree seed pods. Quite the aerobic workout!

I've finished reading Richard II (by William Shakespeare) -- the Folger Library edition which contains an essay at the end, "A Modern Perspective". As I mentioned last week, the author posits the idea that RII is a drama queen, er king who is more than willing to abet his own deposition in order to indulge his appetite for the emotional and political theatrics. Theoretically, I can see how a director might want to play it that way, but I can't really imagine how it would be executed onstage.

Unfortunately, wrapping up the play last week was as far as I got in re reading goals:
🌱 I'm in the middle of The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer; translated by Burton Raffels; performed by six narrators (but not an audio drama!)) I've always heard these were "bawdy" but still, I am surprised at some of the crudities, cynicism and amoral/relative-morality... Still, I am enjoying!

🌱 I got along farther in the romance, Keeper by Harloe Rae) but it's just not a page turner. Nothing wrong with it per se, just longer than I would have thought the plot would have warranted. I'm about half way through and should commit to it and finish it or, let it go. If I haven't made any more progress by Wednesday, it will disappear while I move on to other fare.

🌱 I still haven't started Engaged: The Neuroscience Behind Creating Productive People in Successful Organizations (by Amy Brann); but I've got it queued up on my iPad.

🌱 Tonight I'm going to re-watch The Hollow Crown-- the Richard II episode starring Ben Whishaw to cap off March. I've already started planning my stack for April, which will feature Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare). I'm trying to decide if I also want to read Part II and The Merry Wives of Windsor, or stretch it out... Probably stretch it out as it looks like March is going to cut into April a bit!

Ah! As I was watching the Hollow Crown last night, I was keeping in mind that essay from the Folger Library edition, "A Modern Perspective" and now I understand what the FL is talking about! Ben Whishaw as Richard II played the courtly, über-dramatic king while Rory Kinnear played the eye-rolling Bollingbroke. I think this only works because of the deep contrasts between the two men, otherwise RII would come across as merely royally eccentric.

Onwards! I'm reading the chapters about Richard II in Shakespeare's Kings by John Julius Norwich and hope to start the chapter on RII Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare tonight! :-)

It's been a nice long laid-back weekend, and I'm enjoying the last little bit of the sun's warmth before I settle in for the pre-work-week routine of checking my e-mail, Slack, Notion, and AirTable (just so I don't get hit with any surprises when I sit down at my desk tomorrow morning!) We took the dog out to a country lane, or should say what was once a country lane. The cows and their pastures are getting hemmed in by suburban sprawl/new developments which is a shame all things considered. I'm not against growth or development per se, but there is a lot of real estate within the city limits that hasn't been efficaciously utilized. Ack, I think maybe I'm just getting old! Next thing you know, I'll be waving a cane at all those young people driving too fast!

Anyway, I treated the first few days of April as an extension of March and, pretty much wrapped up my self-imposed "Richard II" unit! I read the relevant chapters in John Julius Norwich's Shakespeare's Kings and Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. The only thing that remains on my list for R2 are finishing listening to The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer; translated by Burton Raffel and; performed by six narrators). I have less than six hours to go on it so should wrap it up sometime this week. I also have an audio of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that I want to hit. At little more than five hours long, I should be able to get to that one too before queuing up Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart).

I've started by "Henry IV unit" by listening to a BBC: In Our Time podcast about Owain Glyndŵr-- a rebel who posed a serious threat to H4 in the early day of the king's reign and who still holds a place in many Welsh nationalist hearts (or so I am told). I've also read the chapter about the play in DK's The Shakespeare Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. One of my friends mentioned that Ethan Hawke has written a book, A Bright Ray of Darkness: A Novel-- which is about a modern day actor getting his big break playing Henry IV, even as his personal life implodes. Apparently, it's a best-seller and well-received by critics, but I'm still not sold. If I have time and can get it inexpensively at the end of the month, maybe>. Until then, I've got the actual play, Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare) to read and, I'm interested in a couple of the female mystics of the time, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. I have some of their work in the Norton Anthology, Sixth Edition that I've carted around for the past twenty years or so, but I'm also hoping to score a copy of the play, Julian of Norwich. When I was in college, I worked on a one-woman show (I did lights) , but didn't really have a lot of context to thoroughly appreciate it.

I'm looking out the window now, at the lavender I planted last weekend. Obviously, not enough time has passed to show any growth; but I am pleased nonetheless that at least the dog hasn't dug them up!

>62 Tanya-dogearedcopy: "I've always heard these were "bawdy" but still, I am surprised at some of the crudities, cynicism and amoral/relative-morality..."

Chaucer is positively hygienic compared to what some medieval monks wrote in the margins of religious texts!

>63 Tanya-dogearedcopy: "who still holds a place in many Welsh nationalist hearts"

Can confirm. :-)

Also, as someone who isn't at all religious, I've enjoyed reading from both Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe in the past. Julian is very mystical and Margery is much more earthy in her spirituality.

I hope your lavender thrives.

Last Saturday (April 10), I got my coronavirus vaccine, the single-dose Johnson & Johnson! For the first three hours, I felt fine; but after that I got extremely tired, ran up a slight temperature with aches and chills and, really wasn't 100% until the last 24 hours or so! So last week, I wasn't really up for going online, but I did manage to knock off a few titles in the past couple of weeks:

🚣🏻‍♂️ TheCanterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer; translated by Burton Raffel and performed by 6 unlabeled narrators) - I was doing okay with this until the very last story, The Parson's Tale. It's an exceeding long sermon about contrition, atonement, mortal & venial sins-- everything in excruciating detail. TBH, it killed any good will I might have had for the title as a whole. If I ever decide to tackle The Canterbury Tales again, I will probably only read a couple selections-- and obviously, The Parson's Tale will not be one of them!

🚣🏻‍♂️ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous; translated by Simon Armitage; narrated by Bill Wallis) Beautiful translation that honors the alliteration of the original and, beautifully performed by the audiobook narrator! The first half of the audio is the translated part and, the second half is the original. Knowing what what the poem is about and even able to pick out a phrase here and there in the Early Middle English helped a tiny bit; but for the most part, I just enjoyed the flow of the words. I loved this all so much I actually bought a hard back edition of the translation, with illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins) :-)

🚣🏻‍♂️ Keeper Second Chance Romance; by Harloe Rae Yeah, I know. I said I was going to let it go; but I decided to finish it off instead. A M/F contemporary romance set in a small town, he is the town "bad boy" and she is someone who suffers from retrograde amnesia. He becomes her anchor as she struggles to find a place in the world again. The romance has a couple of "jealousy" plot points which are completely unnecessary and overall, it just seems too long. Also, there's something weird about the girl's mother's attitude: It's almost like she was running a prostitution/escort business under the cover of a corporate job and, the girl was both her daughter and employee? Not sure what the heck is going on there, but the wording colors everything in the dynamic oddly.

🚣🏻‍♂️ Hate to Date You (Dating Series #4; by Monica Murphy - This is a M/F contemporary romance between two commitment-phobes. He's a real-estate developer who impulsively quit his job and has come back to the California small town where he was raised and; She is a barrista in her family's empire of small local businesses. Good enough that if another title by the author were to cross my radar, I'd pick it up; but not good enough where I absolutely, positively must go get the other books in the series.

🚣🏻‍♂️ The Professor and the Madman (written and narrated by Simon Winchester) - This is the second title I've picked up by the author (the other was, The Alice Behind Wonderland) and both in audio. This one is a double biography of the men who were instrumental in creating the Oxford English Dictionary. I love the topics he chooses, but my enthusiasm is always tempered once I'm "in it". I think it has to do with his voice, very condescending Queen's English. I think in the future, I'll just get his books in print.

🚣🏻‍♂️ Convenience Store Woman (by Sayaka Murata; translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori and; narrated by Nancy Wu) - This is a quirky novella about a 36-year old woman who has worked at a convenience store for half her life. She doesn't quite fit in with the expectations of Japanese society and though it isn't spelled out, it's clear she's somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Surprisingly charming and well narrated by Nancy Wu!

🚣🏻‍♂️ The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes #1; by Christopher Healy and Todd Harris; narrated by Bronson Pinchot) - I'll have to check the other thread to see who recommended this, but whoever did, it was a great recommendation! A fractured fairly tale ostensibly for 9-12 year olds, this is a fun adventure story about the Princes Charming who band together! Giants and ogres and trolls and witches... and of course, princesses and a dragon! The audiobook narrator clearly had a lost of fun voicing the characters and, whoever did the final mix effectively combined a couple of phrases where more than one character is speaking. I laughed and, yes teared up a little bit in one part! Looking forward to the next two titles in the series!

🚣🏻‍♂️ Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare) - This picks up where Richard II leaves off: Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster has usurped Richard II's throne and is now set upon by a couple of domestic revolts. In the North, Northumberland and his son, Harry Percy (a.k.a. "Hotspur") join forces with the Scots and, eventually with the faction threatening in the South, Owain Glyndŵr and Mortimer. This is the play where Falstaff is introduced, representing a sort of surrogate father figure to Henry IV's son, also named Harry. The essay at the end of the Folger edition is about mirror images and inversions-- interesting, but not as groundbreaking as the other Modern Perspectives I've read so far. I've got the Hollow Crown episode of H4I queued up for tonight though... Jeremy Irons :-)

🚣🏻‍♂️ A Gift Upon the Shore (by M.K. Wren; narrated by Gabra Zackman) - This is my second attempt at listening to this story and, I've decided to call it quits. This was recommended to me by an audiobook blogger several years ago, but it's just not for me: Too much religion and not paced fast enough. And too, it's a post-apocalyptic story (post pandemic and nuclear landscape) and I honestly don't know if I'll ever be in the mood for those kinds of stories again!

🚣🏻‍♂️ This week, I'm looking forward to starting, Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells) and the short story in the series, arriving on Tuesday! Hopefully I'll get both of them in before Fugitive Telemetry (No. 6 in the series), releases at the end of the month!

Congrats. on getting your vaccine and for getting through the after-effects!

Hurray for vaccine, less so for the side effects. I wonder if having it as a single shot made the side effects more potent?

Most of the people where I work, work from home. It came to corporate's attention that we were not taking our vacation or personal days off, so they have decided on "Global Days Off"-- meaning that things shut down for specified dates during the calendar year. Honestly, since we work on the premise of a 24/7 news cycle, I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I guess we'll see! I have Monday (tomorrow) off and I was so excited to have a three-day weekend, envisioning heading out to some easy hikes along the Pacific Crest Trail-- but of course it has decided to rain, making the trails unsafe. I remember when we first moved out here, we tried some Spring hiking and, no. You can lose shoes in mud, have the ground fall out and/or away from you, and the temperature drops can be sudden. We'll wait a few more weeks... I guess I'll catch up on my sleep and some reading! :-)

Over the weekend so far:
🚣🏻‍♂️ The Dating Itinerary (by Brooke Williams) - This was the non-steamiest romance novel I've read since maybe an Amish one many years ago! This is a M/F rom-com novel about two journalists who are writing columns about the dating circuits. They keep running into each other and find themselves with a growing attraction even as they compete. It was a bit odd overall only because the not-so-subtle message is not really about an HEA, but to be careful out there, dating can be dangerous! This wasn't for me, but for those who like the romances on the lighter, tamer side, this was okay.

🚣🏻‍♂️ Some Days (by María Wernicke; translated by Lawrence Schimel) World Book Day was on April 23 and I was able to grab all ten free offerings from Amazon! This one is a children's picture book and even though it's a given I'm not the targeted audience, I have absolutely no idea what this book is trying to convey. Looking at the description afterwards, it mentions that it has to do with death/grief, but this still doesn't help. Maybe something is lost in translation? Pictures were arty with lots of white space and blocks of "fabric print".

🚣🏻‍♂️ Agent to the Stars (by John Scalzi; narrated by Wil Wheaton) - An alien race seeks to introduce themselves on earth. The problem is, that despite their intelligence and best intentions, they are really gross to look at and they smell bad too! So, they decide to hire a Hollywood talent agency to represent them and the responsibilities land on the shoulders of a young junior agent. This is a POV1 SFF title with humor and meta references (bound to happen when Wesley Crusher is narrating and there's a discussion of Star Trek...) but just not quite as sharp or fast-paced as say, Larry Correia or even Scalzi's own Dispatcher series. Still a pick, just not quite a four-star pick: Three-and-a-half stars.

🚣🏻‍♂️ Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells) - Murderbot finds itself kidnapped... and seriously, I'll say no more! I love the eye-rolling sarcasm of MB and the action-packed plots of this series, and this installment is no different! I do find however, that I don't whip through them as fast as you might expect. As I'm reading, I'm also imagining the choreography and placement of MB, the bots/drones and other characters... and I find myself reading more carefully and slowly. It's probably take me to the end of the work week and, hopefully I can get to the short story, "Home" over the weekend. Book #6 in the series is being released on Tuesday, but I don't think I can fit it in before the end of the month.

Not sure in what order/priority I'll be stacking May books yet, but hey! I got a free day tomorrow to think about it! ;-)

Enjoy your day off! Reading and sleeping sounds like a good way to spend the day.

>67 rabbitprincess:/>69 rabbitprincess: I’m beginning to think I managed to catch another type of bug while I was busy building COVID antibodies! I don’t have any of the post-vaccine symptoms that would require notifying my primary care physician (e.g. raging headaches or abdominal pains) but the fatigue and lack of appetite are lingering far beyond my liking. I had a TeleMed appointment, but my doctor was pretty much, “Well, rest and drink plenty of fluids!” So I’m actually pretty grateful for a mandated day off to read Murderbot in bed! :-D

>68 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Oddly, you've got me interested in trying The Dating Itinerary! Sounds like it could be my kind of fluff.

So, yesterday I took advantage of the day off and no-hike weather and finished off Network Effect and the short story, "Home"-- both in the Murderbot Universe and written by Martha Wells. Network Effect is the fifth book in the series and came out last year. Since I didn't read it until this year, that means it's been about a year and a half since I read Exit Strategy, the 4th book in the series! Nonetheless, it was easy to get into the story. Martha Wells touches a bit on the Exit Strategy backstory, but it's not integral to this one. I did find "Home" to be the perfect coda for NE though...
So was it worth the wait? Yes! Though it takes me a bit to track through all the physical movement in a Murderbot novel, the action is written to convey all the urgency and the fast pace. The sarcasm and self-awareness of the SecUnit combine for more than a couple of truly laugh-out-loud moments, though when I tried to explain it to my husband who overheard me, I found it impossible to explain exactly why a line is funny. I really think you have to be there!
I can't really say anything about what actually happens in NE, not even at the beginning, because that would spoil it but if you've gotten this far in the series, you will not be disappointed.
The short story, "Home" is not an action-packed one. It's more of an expository bit that feels like it could have been a dropped chapter from NE. It's also not as polished as the novellas, referring to SecUnit as if we don't know who they are! Still, it was an interesting bit...
Fugitive Telemetry is out today... I'll be looking out for the mail carrier! I'm going to start this one as soon as it comes in and not wait a year!

Ah! Two copies of Fugitive Telemetry (Murberbot #6; by Martha Wells) showed up in my mailbox yesterday! In my post-COVID daze, I must have ordered another copy! No matter, I plan on introducing my niece to Murderbot soon and if she likes it, I can then start sending her the rest... I thought FT would be a full length novel that would take me a few days to get through, but it's a novella at less than 175 pages so it only took me the afternoon to read it! It's a little mystery as MB has to find out who "killed the dead human":-D
Not the best-written mystery per se as the bit of information that breaks open the case isn't something the reader could have figured out but entertaining nonetheless as only my favorite SecUnit can be :-)

And that wraps up my April reading! It looks like I'm averaging about twelve books a month (thirteen this time). Alas, I have not bee great about updating all the various Cat & KIT threads as I would like but hopefully I can update everything this Sunday!

🌱 How to get Lucky (by Lauren Blakely and Joe Arden)
🌱 The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe (by Arvind Ethan David; narrated by Neil Gaiman & Jewel Staite)
🌱 The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes #1; by Christopher Healy and Todd Harris; narrated by Bronson Pinchot)
🌱 Keeper Second Chance Romance (by Harloe Rae)
🌱 Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare)
🌱 Agent to the Stars (by John Scalzi; narrated by Wil Wheaton)
🌱 Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells)
🌱 Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Murderbot #5.5; by Martha Wells)
🌱 Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot #6; by Martha Wells)
🌱 Some Days (written & illustrated by María Wernicke; translated by Lawrence Schimel)
🌱 The Dating Itinerary (by Brooke Williams)
🌱 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous; translated by Simon Armitage; narrated by Bill Wallis)
🌱 The Professor and the Madman (written and narrated by Simon Winchester)

A bit earlier in the day than I usually post: It's warm but overcast outside and, DH and I are deliberating as to whether or not we will risk the trails today! I'm against but he's restless... and TBH a restless G. is not something to be taken lightly! :-D

My tentative lineup for May:

🐕 Outlander (Outlander #1; by Diana Gabaldon; narrated by Davina Porter - Re-read; but first time in audio - For SFFkit, "Time Travel"
🐕 Version Control (by Dexter Palmer - For SFFkit, "Time Travel"
🐕 Holy Sci-Fi!: Where Science Fiction and Religion Intersect (by Paul J. Nahin)
🐕 Forking Around (by Erin Nichols) - For AlphaKit, "N"
🐕 The Merry Wives of Windsor (by William Shakespeare) - plus the attendant LitCrit
🐕 The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland) - For ScaredyKit, "Witches & Magic"
🐕 The Plantagenets (by Dan Jones) - For HistoryCat, "Dynasties/Civilisations/Empires"

I've started Outlander, which admittedly I'm not enjoying in audio as much as I would hoping. I love this story (as evidenced of my having read it five or six times) and I adore Davina Porter (e.g. Splendors and Glooms (by Laura Amy Schlitz)) but not so much here. I know! It's blasphemy! This book is literally one the all-time favorites of two audio blogger-friends who I highly respect; but DP just isn't doing it for me. She sounds very brittle and I'm liking the character, Claire a lot less-- as in not at all. For those who may not be familiar with the story: Claire, a WWII nurse is enjoying a post-war holiday with her husband in Scotland. She manages to step between he stones of a mini-Stonehenge and get sent back to 18th-century Scotland where she's meets the charming young Highlander, Jaime. Told from her POV, it's a romance/time travel/historical fiction novel set more specifically in the 1740s. I'm going to finish the audio and, it will either have grown on me or I will have to admit that maybe, after all this time, I've grown out of Outlander!

I've also started Version Control. I'm about 80 pages in and a bit impatient for something to happen! Right now, it a character study of an older married woman named Rebecca, who seems hollowed out by the great tragedy of her life-- the loss of her son. Lately, she feels like everything around her is off somehow, but can't quite put her finger on it. This is slow going, but I'll stick with it.

Soooo, yeah. Basically, obviously, I haven't been online so much for the month of May. The weather has been warming up so weekend hikes are back and, by the time I get home, I'm not really in the mood to go online. I have been reading and listening, but at a rather desultory rate this past month. Part of that was starting May with the two titles that I happened to pick:

🐕 Outlander (Outlander #1; by Diana Gabaldon; narrated by Davina Porter - I dutifully hung in there for two weeks before I said, "Enough!" I love this story but the audio wasn't doing it for me. Instead of a sweeping epic of a Post-War nurse falling though a time portal and (falling) in love with a young Highlander in the 1740s, I got a querulous young woman going through episode after episode of situations owing largely to her own stupidity. The audiobook narrator sounds much older than the main character, Claire and I was never sold on the male character vocalizations. And too, the audio itself is old (recorded in 1997) so there's the tape hiss from the old masters, booth noise and even, in Chapter 17, someone coughing in the background! When I want to return to Jamie & Claire, I'll be going back to my print copy!

🐕 The second title that contributed to my faltering start was Version Control (by Derek Palmer). This is a time travel novel set in the near future and features as its central character a woman, Rebecca-- sad and lonely as the wife of a physicist whose greatest love is the Causality Violation Chamber (CVD; time machine) that he is working on. Patience has its rewards in this case however as the second half flies by!

🐕 I managed to tackle one title for the AlphaKit challenge this month, Forking Around (#2 in a series by Erin Nichols). This was kinda weird: a corporate CEO millionaire falls for a forklift driver at a backed goods factory in Iowa. I never got the chemistry between the two and there were some editorial issues so I won't be pursuing this series.

🐕 And I didn't forget to read my Shakespeare! Though I'm focussing on the Histories, I did opt to read The Merry Wives of Windsor (by William Shakespeare) since it features Falstaff from Henry IV, Part 1. I've always avoided the Comedies in the past (I find the mistaken identity trope a bit overdone) and; I had to read a synopsis of this one in The Shakespeare Book (edited by Stanley Wells) to get get a handle on it, but I got through it! Afterwards, I watched the Globe version from 2010 (via Globe Player) and I laughed so hard in the laundry scene, I was in tears! :-D

🐕 I've started The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland. Set in 1380 Lincoln, things start to go bad for the locals and they're looking for a scapegoat. Perhaps it's the new widow who moved into the neighborhood? I originally picked this one up for the ScaredyKit challenge, "Witches and Magic"; but despite it's having been well-written, it's a slow read. I'll finish it up in June and count it toward the GenreCat challenge, "Historical Fiction" instead.

🐕 Audio-wise, I listened to The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle (Hero's Guide #2; by Christopher Healy; narrated by Bronson Pinchot). This is a fractured fairy tale geared for MG-ers; but it's so much fun! In this story, the Princes Charming and their Princess counterparts re-group to retrieve JJDG (Jeopardous Jade Djinn Gem). The audiobook narrator seems to have had a lot of fun recording this too; but maybe a little too much? There were a couple character voices that were so extremely rendered I couldn't tell what was being said! Still, looking forward to book three!

🐕 I've also started the biography, Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Stewart Cameron). It's not as exciting to listen to as Edward III: The Perfect King (narrated by Alex Wyndham) but interesting enough that I'll stick with it. Henry IV (England) is likely one of the most under-documented rulers in English history so the foundation of the book is a bit sketchy; but working with what he has, the author paints a more accurate picture of H4 then say, Shakespeare's play which is based on The Holinshed Chronicles. The audiobook narrator is a bit stilted and boring in his delivery so I have to pay close attention or else I zone out and lose the thread of the narrative!

🐕 In print, I'm reading a business book, Good to Great (by Jim Collins). I'm attending a four-part workplace management seminar and his book is highly recommended despite having been written twenty years ago! The examples are dated, but the underlying principles hold and I'm finding it fascinating! I don't communicate with my sister often, but last week, we were talking about books we are reading (always safe ground) and; it's turns out she's reading a book about corporate structures! We are both curious about the business world in different ways-- so I put together a Google document listing all the titles from Mark Zuckerburg's Book Club in 2015 and; all the titles that Bill Gates has recommended from 2012-2020. There are business titles to be sure; but also history, bios ands a couple of fiction titles too!. Anyway, I shared the doc with my sister and we can build on it!

I don't think I have the time/energy to update #AllTheThreads in the LT Cativerse for May-- so this will have to do for now! Hopefully I can get my act together for June!

So I guess the first step to LT-Lapse Recovery is to start posting! :-D
It's later in the evening at the end of the US holiday, Memorial Day. Today's hike was just okay: Initially we wanted to hike out at this lake; but it's closed off as they clear the trees destroyed/damaged/weakened by last Fall's wildfires. Rumor has it that the area will be closed for up to a year! So we took an alternate trail: Not much to look at (trees, dirt, rocks) but since the trail hadn't been maintained for quite a while, it felt more like a real hike than a glorified walk! :-)

Books on the Nightstand for June:

☀️ Good to Great (by Jim Collins) - Looking to finish this one in the first week of June and before the second session of the management program I'm currently taking.

☀️ Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart) - Hope to finish this one by early mid-June;

☀️ Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare) plus the relevant chapters in The Shakespeare Book (edited by Stanley Wells), Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare and, John Julius Norwich's Shakespeare's Kings. I'll also be watching the Hollow Crown episode (Jeremy Irons in the title role; Tom Hiddleston as his son). I also just found out about Orson Welles' movie, The Chimes at Midnight which should be interesting!

☀️ I'll be carrying over The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland) into June. Historical fiction set during the reign of Richard II, it's a slow read; but hopefully I can finish it by mid-month. If I do, I'm dying to see if I can get The Name of the Rose (by Umberto Eco) in by the end of June as well.

☀️ The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers) - This one for the SFFkit challenge, "It's About the Journey".

☀️ The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw (Heros' Guide#3; by Christopher Healy; narrated by Bronson Pinchot) - Starting this one mid-June and will probably finish inside a week. Then start heading into Henry V: The Warrior King of 1415 (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart) to get ahead of July!

☀️ Last week, I finished up Good to Great (by Jim Collins) - Though the exemplar companies are very outdated, the key concepts of "Level 5 Hierarchy", "Three Circles of the Hedgehog Concept" and, "The Flywheel Effect" still make sense and I suspect still relevant. This is a book that articulates how managers and leaders move companies form being merely good to being great (as sustained over a fifteen year period). Though researched, written and published after Built to Last, the author spends the last chapter of GtG explaining why GtG should be read first! I'll wishlist BtL for later though and wait to see what my next management class brings up!

☀️ I also knocked 'First Sight' (by M. Marie Claire a.k.a. Loni Ree) off of my ebook! This is a M/F contemporary romance between a car garage owner and a nurse/volunteer at an animal shelter. This was really more of an idea or an outline for a novel rather than a complete work in and of itself. Basically an undeveloped story, I got it as a freebie and I still feel ripped off! The author by both names is now on my "No buy" list.

☀️ I'm still listening to Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart). Henry IV is one of, if not the most undocumented English monarchs since William the Conquerer so he has to make a meal out of thin gruel; but nonetheless makes a yeoman's effort at creating a true biography of the early 15th-century king apart from the image created by Shakespeare. The narrator is stilted and seems rather uninterested in the material (which is a shame because he also narrates the biography about Henry V which I have in my audible library).

☀️ I just started A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers) - Rosemary is literally fleeing her past by heading to a tunneling ship that tears black holes in the universe. Fifty pages in, she's met almost everyone on board but, the story hasn't started in earnest yet. Despite the high page count of over four-hundred pages, it's looks like it's going to be a fast and easy read!

It's a hot Summer day here in Southern Oregon. The family pets (dog, cat) are finding the coolest places in the house and settling in for long, energy conserving naps; the AC murmurs in the background as we pray it holds on until October (when we get the whole HVAC system replaced); and pitchers of water with lemon and lime slices are kept filled in the refrigerator! It's been a slow reading month for me:

☀️ I finally finished Henry IV: The Righteous King (by Ian Mortimer; narrated by James Cameron Stewart). If your only knowledge of Henry IV comes from Shakespeare, I highly recommend this biography which attempts to extrapolate the early 15th-century English king's character from the court records extant. I would, however, recommend getting a print copy as the audiobook narrator made for some grueling listening sessions! I have the audio for Henry V: The Warrior King of 1415 which is read by the same narrator but am contemplating getting the hard copy instead.

☀️ I also finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers) - This is a very straight-forward, fast and easy read about a crew who head out to tunnel a black hole in a volatile, contentious space. The cast of characters range widely in terms of species, gender, sex, and loves-- often at the expense of the action line; but a quirky escape and perfect beach read!

☀️ I'm still plugging away at The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland). I really don't know know why it's taking me so long! It's checking off all my boxes: Historical fiction, Middle Ages, Magic... but I still haven't reached that hook point that makes me put aside everything else and just go all in for the rest of the story. I'm 60% of the way through. I hadn't planned on this being a Summer read, much less an All Summer Long Read"!

☀️ I've started listening to The Russia House (by John le Carré; narrated by Michael Jayston) - I read the print copy almost two years ago to the day but wanted to refresh my memory before heading into The Secret Pilgrim. Ned, who runs the operation that determines the credibility of certain information that has passed from the USSR to the West during the period of Perestroika and Glasnost, is a secondary character in TRH; but his is the voice of TSP. I'm not the biggest fan of the audiobook narrator but I can see why he was cast to read these books: He was in the 1979 film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy-- so there's that connection. My pet peeve it that he always manages to botch an American name like "Joe Louis" or "Potomac"-- which just grates enough to take me out of the story every time it happens.

☀️ I'm starting my dive into Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare) tonight. I watched The Chimes at Midnight (directed by and starring Orson Welles as Falstaff ) last night. It's a conflation of the two H4 plays. In black-and-white, it's a movie that seems to be a medieval version of Citizen Kane cinematographically speaking. Im sure there's a film or theater student out there who may have even written a thesis about the correlation between the two thematically as well... Overall, it was a bit odd, but interesting. John Gielguld plays the Henry IV :-)

Hi Tanya, we are also experiencing a heat wave right now so I understand both your pets searching for the cool spots and your concern about the AC. Stay cool!

Last week, I mentioned the sultry Summer day we were having and apparently, Mother Nature said, "Hold my beer..." Today is expected to get anywhere from 44C/111F to 46C/115F and right now, at 8am PDT, it's already 24C/75F. I took the dog for a short walk this morning and we're both wiped out! I'll spend the day today in cool dark rooms and getting my Summer bug out bag in order in case of wildfire (Fire Season has started early). I just dumped out the winter stuff and am checking things like expiration dates and batteries on a couple of things... I have an old iPad mini that still works which I've dedicated as an e-reader (nothing but the Kindle and Nook apps on it) and I'll pack a couple of mass market paperbacks, most likely Henry V (by William Shakespeare) and a couple of old Regency Romances novels, The Devil in Spring and Devil's Daughter (both by Lisa Kleypas).

☀️ As for what I'm reading now, I'm in the middle of Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare) which covers the last gasps of the rebellion led by Cardinal Worcester and Lord Northumberland, the rise of Henry V and the fall of Falstaff.

☀️ I'm also still in the middle of The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland). I've pretty much given up on setting a end date goal for this one and am currently planning on finishing it "sometime this Summer"!

☀️ I also started A Shot in the Dark (by Lynne Truss; narrated by Matt Green) - on the recommendation of VivienneR. The story tackles the shooting from two angles, the police and a theater troupe. It's fast and cleaver, so if you're not paying attention or otherwise miss a beat, you need to rewind a bit but the dry delivery combined with the absurdity of it all make a thorough listen rewarding. Though I don't read many mysteries anymore, much less cozies, Vivienne's description of "Monty Python-like humor in style/delivery made this irresistible! I can see myself listening to this again and moving onto the next title(s) in the Constable Twitten Mystery series.

☀️ I did finish The Russia House (by John le Carré; narrated by Michael Jayston) and have stacked The Secret Pilgrim (back to Smiley! :-) ) for July. I also finished listening to The Faith Healer (by Brian Friel; performed by Ciáran Hinds, Michelle Fairley and, Toby Jones) - a three-monologue play about a faith healer in Ireland. I love this play so much, having read and seen it over the years since my college years. This version was ever so slightly abridged or adapted; but not so much that many people would notice. Overall, it isn't as good as the performance I saw in Galway (absolutely lyrical as told by story tellers) but miles better than the one on Broadway-- a performance I still haven't forgiven Ralph Fiennes or the director for!

Though the month ends on Wednesday of this week, I'll probably carry over my current reading though the (US) Independence Day weekend. I'll do a wrap-up and July book stack then! 'Til then, stay cool, everyone!

🐑 It was definitely a lazy Independence Day weekend at our household! Both my husband and I had to work a bit and, it was still too hot too hot at 100-degrees F to hike and too dry (drought = low water levels) to go kayaking. Monday afternoon found me on the couch napping and finishing off Henry IV, Part 2 (by William Shakespeare). I then re-watched The Chimes at Midnight (starring Orson Welles and John Gielgud). The first time I watched it, there were a few scenes that went over my head-- so a re-watch was in order. In black & white with dramatic shadow play, it reminds me a lot of Citizen Kane composition-wise! Anyway, I then went on to read the chapters about the play in Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare and Shakespeare's Kings (by John Julius Norwich). I'm currently reading selections from A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich that can be found in my copy of The Norton Anthology: English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume 1. She and Margery of Kempe predate Henry IV; but I figure reading materials from the two mystics is a good lead into reading about Saint Joan and Henry V!

For the past week or so, smoke from the Bootleg wildfire has been blowing into our neighborhood, smelling of pine trees and something vaguely musky. Small animals and birds are making their way through (Coopers Hawks!) but it hasn't been too bad. This evening, in fact, the wind has shifted and despite the heat, it's relatively nice outside!

I've knocked out a couple of "trashy" romances, a work-place book club selection and, finished and started another audiobook, and am about start on a print book:

🐑 Wild Night (Wilder Irish #10; by Mari Carr) A M/F contemporary romance set in Baltimore, MD, this is about two lifelong frenemies who manage to sleep with each other without realizing it! The incident came across as somewhat credible, but the whole setting of seemed oddly contrived: adult siblings living together in a dorm-like apartment, heavily planned monthly events, an Irish-Catholic working-class family that seems okay with some unusual partnerships... There's a parade of past novels 'ships but the novel stands well enough on its own. A couple of graphic sex scenes, but nothing kinky.

🐑 Property of the Mountain Men (Montana Mountain Men #1; by Gemma Weir) - This is an utterly ridiculous, over-the-top contemporary M/F romance set in a small town. Seven bachelor brothers live together in the same house and, the oldest, a 43-yo logger falls for a 21-yo barista. Her naiveté was problematic as well as his overbearing Alpha behavior. Graphic sex scenes, but again nothing kinky. While I was reading the book, I was laughing at the absurdity of it all, but now that I've had a little time-distance away from the book, I'm finding the imbalance between the two protags disturbing. Really wish she had been a little smarter and stronger.

🐑 The Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1; by Octavia Butler) - My workplace book club chose this as their monthly selection as a nod to the theme of Climate Change. I almost skipped this as I had read Kindred a couple of years ago (both in print and gn forms) but felt the language and plot a bit too facile. But this is something completely different! Lauren Olamina is part of a family that lives in an walled enclave of 11 homes in a cul-de-sac. Outside the wall, societal decay and governmental failure abound and threaten the small community. Lauren herself begins to prepare for worst (packing and training for an emergency) as well as developing a personal philosophy about God. I can see why there are podcasts and fledging cults centered around this book! All that said, I'm not sure I will go on to read the sequel, The Parable of the Talents. Maybe if it fortuitously goes on sale ("Sower" is included with Amazon Prime membership).

🐑 The Heroes Guide to Being an Outlaw (by Christopher Healy; narrated by Bronson Pinchot) - The last title in this fractured fairy tale trilogy finds the Prince(s) Charming(s) and their friends on Wanted posters across the thirteen kingdoms! As a they fight on to exonerate themselves, friendships change, tensions rise, but because this is a fairy tale, it does end HEA-- though probably not in the way you might expect! A seafaring adventure at heart, this was a lot of fun. Bronson Pinchot brought all the character voices back seemingly effortlessly, though I could not understand what the blue fairies (?) were saying. I might get a copy of the books, not only to discover the missing dialogue from books 2 & 3; but because the illustrations by Todd Harris also look like they would be something special.

🐑 I've started The Lords of Discipline (by Pat Conroy; narrated by Dan John Miller with an introduction read by the author) - In 1960, the Citadel is about to admit its first Black cadet. In the first few chapters, we get a sense of Charleston, SC and its people-- setting up a sense of foreboding about The Military College of South Carolina's decision. The audiobook narrator is performing with a Southern drawl. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but onwards...

🐑 I've yet to start reading Henry V (by William Shakespeare) but I expect to over the weekend! Given how time has flown by this month, it doesn't look like I'll be reading Ian Mortimer's biography-- but maybe I'll get to some of the St. Joan Arc material I've had my eye on!

This may be my last post for awhile. There's a lot going on in my head/in my life as I deal with trying to study for a Project Management certification, get my daughter ready for college, try to handle the consistent 100F-degree days, keep an eye on COVID-Δ and, deal with the news that my sister has been diagnosed with Stage 4B Lung Cancer that has metastasized to her brain (glioblastoma) and kidney. Normally in times of crisis/-es, I try to stick to three principles: Normalize as much as possible, Manage Expectations & Assess Resources, and Be Prepared. I was doing okay until the news about my sister. Now I find myself making small but telling mistakes every day in the course of my work or forgetting to do things that are normally ingrained in my daily routines (like walking my dog along a certain route...) My reading for the month of July was poor-- a few trashy romance novels, but nothing of substance. So I guess I'm in "Manage Expectations & Assess Resources" part of the current situation--- which means, insofar as myself goes, to cut myself some slack. I'm not setting up specific reading goals for August and I may not be on LT for a little bit. The LT Cat Challenge community is amazing, but just more that I can handle right now. I'm sure I'll return at one point, but until then,

"Stay Cool & Keep the Faith"
T

>83 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I'm so sorry about your sister. Take care of yourself. We'll be here for you when you're ready.

>83 Tanya-dogearedcopy: that is a very full plate. I had to take an LT hiatus for a while, so I completely understand. Take care of your crew and yourself and we'll catch up with you when you are ready.

You have indeed got a full plate right now. So sorry to hear about your sister. Take good care of yourself.

That is cruel news. Take good care of yourself.

So sorry to hear about your sister! Thinking of you and your family during this tough time.

So sorry to read about your sister. Take care of yourself and your family and we will be hear when you are ready to come back.

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest and the chilly fall weather which has me unearthing my sweaters and adding hot chocolate into my sipping mix :-) My daughter is safely off to the University of Washington-- and now I only hear from her when she needs money! :-D I dropped the Project Management Certification class. I just could not focus on it and it's telling that I felt relief more than anything else (e.g. guilt for not finishing something I started). For the time being my sister seems to be responding remarkably well to treatment... so if nothing else, it looks like that, for the remainder of the year, I can focus on the holidays and a little reading here and there :-)

🧺 Somewhere in the LT Challenge threads, someone read Grimspace (Sirantha Jax #1; by Ann Aguirre) and it looked like something fun and entertaining--- and it is! Sirantha Jax has the "jumper" gene that allows her to travel through a space dimension (with the aid of a navigator), but it's both a blessing and a curse. In the opening of the story, she's in a psych ward after a spaceship she was piloting crashes, killing all aboard except herself... This is a space opera with a little romance thrown in--overall a light read and for what it is, a four-star read.

🧺 From Grimspace, I thought I would pick up the fifth book in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series, Shadowfever. The Fever series is best described as paranormal romance á la Buffy the Vampire Slayer-- except it's shadows and monsters entering through a portal instead vampires coming through a Hell Gate. I had read the first four books in the series in a love/hate kind of way a few years ago and thought I could pick up Shadowfever where I had left off, but too much time had passed-- so I picked up the first two books in the series from the library (eLoan), Darkfever and Bloodfever and knocked them off fairly quickly. But I discovered that on the re-reading that they were neither as good nor as bad as I had remembered them so I think I can forgo reading books 3 & 4 and give away Shadowfever without regret.

🧺 Continuing on the "mental floss" stack, I read Pucked (Pucked #1; by Helena Hunting) - which is a fast, raunchy rom-com featuring a hockey player and another hockey player's sister. It was funny and angsty-- but "Reader Beware" for those who find offense in foul mouthings and graphic sex scenes. I then picked up Meghan Quinn's new rom-com, Kiss and Don't Tell which happens to be another hockey rom-com. In this one, the girl gets her Mini Cooper stuck on a mountain back road and trudges through the rain to a house she sees in her quest for a landline. The house is filled with five hockey players who are decompressing after a playoff loss. The girl and the goalie hit it off right away... This is a long read (400+ pages) with absurd sub-plots and characters who are both incredibly insipid and not terribly bright. I'm annoyed with myself for paying more than a $1.99 for it; but I suspect that had only pated two bucks for it, I would now be complaining that I payed anything at all!

🧺 I did listen to (and love) John le Carré's The Secret Pilgrim (narrated by Michael Jayston) which ostensibly returns us to Smiley's Circus. George Smiley is asked by Ned (from The Russia House) to speak to the new recruits in the spy business and we settle into a series of ruminations from Smiley and stories from Ned. I listened to The Russia House earlier this year so I was up to speed before diving into this story, but it's not really necessary.

🪶 Also in audio, I listened to Horrorstör (by Grady Hendrix; narrated by Tai Sammons and Bronson Pinchot). Set in a big box, IKEA-rip off retail space, this story is about the odd goings-on after the customers have left for the day. Part horror, part satire, I found myself engrossed in the original story, but paradoxically not feeling like either of the narrators were particularly great in their respective performances (Ms Sammons reads the bulk of the text (POV1) while Mr Pinchot reads the chapter breaks-- ads for various offerings from the store.) I also got a print copy of the title and love the design that went into the layout. Usually, I rate downwards when I have mixed feelings, but in this case four-stars doesn't feel wrong and I'm not adverse to reading/listening to another Grady Hendrix title :-)

🪶 I've started Locke & Key (by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez; narrated by a full cast starring Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany and Kate Mulgrew). Two juveniles invade a home, looking for a key and the situation goes sideways quickly when the father is fatally wounded. The surviving Locke family members move to East to Lovecraft, MA where there are paranormal shenanigans afoot! This is an adaptation of the graphic novels (which I have admittedly not read) and is overall okay, if a bit confusing in parts (e.g. sounds of scuffling which may or may not be immediately explained as to who is fighting or what exactly is going on...). Not as slick of a production as the Sandman audios, but interesting enough to keep me on the hook and finish.

🪶 I'm also still listing to the Sherlock Holmes collection (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with forewords written by Stephen Fry; narrated by Stephen Fry). I found that the stories are greatly enhanced having listened to "The Secrets of the Victorian Age" (podcast hosted/narrated by Stephen Fry and available as an Audible exclusive). I'm in the middle of The Hound of the Baskervilles which seems perfect for the Halloween season :-)

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when planning for 2022 starts! I've pretty much written off the rest of 2021 and eager to re-set for next year. I'll be managing my reading expectations a lot differently-- perhaps radically so. We shall see!

Good to hear from you. I did read the graphic novel series of Locke and Key and I can't imagine it as an audio - it was a very visual story! I also have Stephen Fry's narration of Sherlock Holmes which I have been saving as I am sure to enjoy it.

It's a cold & wet Sunday morning here in the PNW! It's been raining here every day for something like 2 weeks-- which is very unusual in the high desert territory where I live. Hiking trails are treacherous, so now I'm watching the snow reports to see when/if any of the resorts will open early this year :-)

You would think I would be hunkering down fireside with a blanket, tea, a dog and a good book--- but oddly not nearly as much as I had imagined! I did a quick peek at my numbers (because yes, I'm a list/book cataloging person) and was shocked at how my little I've been reading this year. I think I've gone way beyond "Reading Slump" into "Broken Reading Brain Territory"! :-P

I've been thinking a bit about this as we gear up for the 2022 Category Challenge. I think my challenge will not be in number of books read or even breadth; but by nursing my way back to "Reading Health". What this will look like exactly, I'm not sure. It's all still evolving!

As for now:

🪶 I finished listening to Locke & Key (by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez; narrated by a full cast starring Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany and Kate Mulgrew) - This is an audio drama about a family who survives a home invasion in which their father is killed. At the heart of the story is a ghost/soul/something that wants a certain key that will unlock a hell gate... I suffer for not having read and/or been familiar with the comic books upon which this is based as it's not always clear exactly what is going on in the audio. The next time I visit a comic book store or section, I'll probably grab the first trade volume.

🪶 I've started, Firestarter (by Stephen King) - This is a story about mistrust in the government and a pyrokinetic little girl who is the unintended result of an experiment both her parents were a part of in the early 1970s. One of the things I'm marveling about in reading King now, is how deftly he creates tone, setting and character. When he writes, he writes contemporarily; but now they read almost like historical novels! In this book, he casually talks about the feel of the plastic rectangle of a motel key, pay phones, and homes with playrooms-- but no mega TVs or anything digital... I should wrap this one up in November-- perfect for the ScaredyKit November challenge! :-)

🪶 And yes, still listening to the Sherlock Holmes collection (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with forewords written by Stephen Fry; narrated by Stephen Fry)! I'm in Volume 5 out of 6-- so should be wrapping this one up before Thanksgiving as expected :-)

It's a dark, cold, rainy late afternoon/early evening here in Southern Oregon and we just got back from a week up in Seattle where we rented a cottage to hang out with my daughter over the US Thanksgiving break and; visit a couple of bookstores ;-)
It's been a decent month reading-wise and I'm encouraged that I might be recovering my reading brain :-)

I finally finished:
🐖 Firestarter (by Stephen King) - Nothing supernatural here, just a bit paranormal as a little girl named, "Charlie" exhibits and, tries to keep under control, her pyro-kinetic abilities. The horror element here is the covert government agency called, "The Shop" which is after Charlie and her father. I loved the historical aspect of the book: The Shop was borne out of the public's distrust of the government in the wake of Watergate and; there's a lot of color and detail to give the reader an accurate sense of the time and place,
🐖 Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Introductions by Stephen Fry; narrated by Stephen Fry) - This a collection of eight Sherlock Holmes volumes, starting with The Sign of the Four and ending with The Last Bow. I loved it and I expect to return to this in whole or in parts in the future!
🐖 I followed up the above collection with an eight-minute audio, The Lost Sherlock Holmes Story? (narrated by Simon Vance). It's not really a story so much as promo copy for a bridge... Sherlock and Watson are featured and there's a bit of deductive reasoning; but there's not really any narrative arc. You can skip this and not feel like you've missed anything in the Sherlock canon.

🐖 The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings: A medieval ghost story (by Dan Jones) - A tailor starts out on a lonely road one night and encounters a glow-in-the-dark beast who tasks him with three things... What's interesting is that the original account is set down as an odd but true thing that happened around an abbey-- not as a ghost story! It’s a short story translated and expanded from the Chaucerian-Era English by a noted Medievalist. Academically interesting (read the Introduction!), it also includes the original text as written in Latin and a photocopy of the original text.

🐖 Fight Club (by Chuck Palahniuk) - My daughter had to read this for her English class at The University of Washington and I realized I had only seen the movie— so I snagged a copy. This is about a beta-type of guy who meets up with an alpha-type named Tyler Durden... This isn't as raunchy as Palahniuk's other offerings (i.e. Invisible Monsters) or as lame as the Damned series (which seems like a grasp to fulfill a publisher contract) and is startlingly relevant in light of the current incel movement. Incidentally, this is where the term "snowflake" as applied to liberals comes from. Highly recommend both the movie and the book.

🐖 HHhH (by Laurent Binet) - A historical fiction about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi German Pro Tem Protectorate of Czechoslovakia. The narrative is shaped by the author's writing of the book itself. I'm not clear what the "fiction" part of this book is... Anyway, short chapters, engaging read. I flew though the book!
🐖 When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains (by Ariana Neumann) - From 'HHhH', I was going to re-read Simon Mawer's The Glass Room (also set in Czechoslovakia during WWII); but opted for this Biography/Memoir instead (one of the books I picked up at Powell's this trip). I just started this last night; but I hope to have it done by the end of the week.

🐖 Longshadow (Regency Faerie Tales #3; by Olivia Atwater) - Absolutely charming story about humans and the Fae working things out as they solve the mystery as to why three girls from the ton have unexpectedly passed away. There is a romance between two girls; but this is not a bodice-ripper— more of a true love story.

Two Paranormal Romance (Werewolves) stories:
🐖 Wolf Signs (Granite Lake Wolves #1; by Vivian Arend) - Just lame: underdeveloped storyline and characters (2-stars)
🐖 Wounded Kiss (To Be Claimed Saga #; by Willow Winters) - This was awful. For one, it's an incomplete story, an attempt to hook you into the second part (which is about another couple altogether) and, presumably the third part will wrap up all the storylines. But the last part isn't slated for release until September 2022! Most importantly however, this was straight up erotica featuring rape fantasies. I was almost sick after reading this. I realize individual mileage may vary; but fair warning is definitely in order here.
I don't think I'll be reading anymore werewolf romance stories. I was curious, but now I'm done.

I'm off now stack the books I bought at Powell's and at The Elliot Bay Book Company... I may have gone a teensy bit out-of-control but it's not really a problem if I can find a place to shelve them, right? ;-)

>93 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I totally agree that book hauls are not a problem as long as you have shelf space ;)

>93 Tanya-dogearedcopy: & >94 rabbitprincess: And don't we always manage to find space!!

>95 DeltaQueen50: >95 DeltaQueen50: Last night, I bought one of those three-tiered rolling carts and loaded it with pulls for the 2022 LT Category Challenge. My husband just sighed... :-D

>96 Tanya-dogearedcopy: That is an excellent idea! Now you have space for any new books that happen to arrive. :)

>97 DeltaQueen50: That just made me giggle.

I pulled 22 books from my stacks for 2022 reading and ended up with way more than 22 books in the cart! Some of the books I pulled were mid-series (I hadn't read up to the '22 selection so I pulled the filler books as well). The cart is already pretty full; but as I finish off selections, they will either be shelved or given away-- so I guess as the year goes on, I will have room for more books! ;-)



I'm all set for next year, except for one thing: I feel incredibly uninspired in re a theme. Once it hits, I'll set up by 2022 thread :-)

In honor of the spirit of LT's Top Five Books of 2021, I thought I would post my own list here :-)

⚜️ The Russia House (by John Le Carré) - Barley Scott-Blair, a British publisher and drunkard, captures the attention of a brilliant Russian mind, gets co-opted into espionage as a courier of highly classifies information. Ned runs the operation that determines the credibility of the information that has passed from the USSR to the West during this period of Perestroika and Glasnost. Everyone' a pawn and Katya, the beautiful Russian counterpart to Barley, complicates things ;-) Recommend print over audio

⚜️ Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6 by Martha Wells) - A Murderbot mystery! A dead body is found on Preservation Station and MB tackles the whodunnit with their usual flair: acerbic wit and deep desire to be doing anything-- but most especially watching soap operas-- but dealing with humans.

⚜️ The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (Her's Guide #1; by Christopher Healy; narrated by Bronson Pinchot) - A fractured fairly tale ostensibly for 9-12 year olds, this is a fun adventure story about the Princes Charming who band together... Giants and ogres and trolls and witches and, of course, princesses and a dragon! The audiobook narrator clearly had a lost of fun voicing the characters and, whoever did the final mix effectively combined a couple of phrases where more than one character is speaking. I laughed out loud and, yes, teared up a little bit in one part!

⚜️ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous; translated by Simon Armitage; narrated by Bill Wallis) Beautiful translation that honors the alliteration of the original and, beautifully performed by the audiobook narrator! The first half of the audio is the translated part and, the second half is the original. In regard to the second part, knowing what what the poem is about and even able to pick out a phrase here-and-there in the Early Middle English helped a tiny bit; but for the most part, I just enjoyed the flow of the words. I loved this all so much I actually bought a hard back edition of the translation, with illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins) :-)

⚜️ The Regency Faerie Tales (by Olivia Atwater) - Charming, magical stories of Regency Era young women who must deal with the Fae. The series consists of a prequel, "The Lord Sorcier" and three short novels: Half a Soul, Ten Thousand Stitches and, Longshadow. Great stories of love and courage and magic! YA and above.

It's a Sunday morning. At the crack of dawn, it was raining and cold; but I got out of bed-- admittedly only because my daughter texted me for more $$ as the Uber ride to the airport proved to be more expensive than the original quote! :-D
She's due in in a couple of hours and I'm giddy with excitement! To burn off some of this energy, I've already made an early morning run to Target, Starbucks, and taken the dog for a 2 mile walk. So, yeah, somewhere around 2 o'clock this afternoon, I probably going to crash! :-p

I've squeezed in a couple more books at the end of the year, and both were Five Star titles-- which kinda messes up the idea of "Top Five" but whatever...:

⚜️ On Blueberry Hill (by Sebastian Barry; performed by Niall Buggy & David Ganly) - A play about two long-timers in Mountjoy who share some past history... I love drama, Irish theatre and Sebastian Barry so it would've been really weird had I not loved this. The only thing that would have been better would have been to have seen it performed live. 🎭

⚜️ The End of the Affair (by Graham Greene; narrated by Colin Firth) - A semi-autobiographical story about a writer's affair with a married woman. I've only read a couple things by Graham Greene before but each time I've finished one of his books, I always rave about his writing: the poignancy, the word-smithing, that distinctive war- and post-war-style that remind me of Evelyn Waugh. Colin Firth narrating was simply amazing. I'm putting the 1955 film version on my "To watch" list (Deborah Kerr, van Johnson, John Mills) for this weekend. 💔

I've got the next two weeks off from work plus it's snowing plus the ski resorts are open plus the cold/flu thing I had this past week is just about over-- so (if you couldn't tell) my energy and outlook are pretty high! :-)
I don't anticipate getting much reading/listening in done until the start of the new year so I will leave off here and see you all in 2022!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to you as well. Enjoy your time off work. :)

Enjoy the snow and your time off work! Looking forward to sharing your reading in 2022!

Happy holidays!

Happy holidays!