BW49: Plans for 2023

 

It's cold and rainy and we're tucked up, nice and cozy with books and family. The best place to be, whether it be physically or virtually.  Thanks to Sandy and Amy we've had a grand year, going on a crime spree.  It's week 49 in our 52 Books Quest and we talking December's Crime Spree recommendations. 

I’ve got my eyes are bigger than my stomach syndrome because I want to read all Sandy and Amy’s recommendations.  Think I’ll start with Water like a Stone, now in my virtual stacks and look forward to reading it this month.

Currently reading Nora Robert’s The Choice and love the characters and the storyline. Makes me want to live in Ireland and maybe by chance find a portal to the other side. 😊

Waiting on the nightstand is the newest Armand Gamache story, A World of Curiosities. I’m going to check out the first episode of Three Pines on Amazon Prime, think of it as a mystery series separated from the books,  and see how I like it. 

Saturday night, we watched Willow, the original 80's movie which James watched for the first time and greatly enjoyed. 

I've been planning for 2023 and combined with 52 Books Bingo and A to Z and Back Again, I'm going to attempt to read more nonfiction, as well as do another 10 x 10 all from my TBR virtual and physical stacks, quite a few which are dusty and/or chunky while extending my ban buying through the first half of the year.   

1001 Books Before You Die 

Baby It's Cold Outside 

Books about Books 

It's a Crime

Flights of Fantasy 

Tales of the Past 

Literary

Magical Realism

What a Mystery 

Thrills and Chills 

I usually start the year with a chunky and dusty book, so I'm contemplating whether I want to try again with Sharon Kay Penman's When Christ and Her Saints slept, since I didn't finish it this year. It got dumped by the wayside pretty quickly which was a shame.  I may attempt Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged or dive back into Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall series with Bring Up the Bodies,  and Mirror & the Light. 

Book Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

 

I finished Wolf Hall which was not a book to speed through. I read it in small sips during breakfast, often times staying a little bit longer at the table to stay with the story for just a few minutes more. I was reminded today why I should have taken the time to annotate.  James is taking an online English composition class and we were watching videos on annotation which made so much sense I was kicking myself.  The story was so complex and while reading there were phrases and images that struck me or quotes I wanted to save of Cromwell’s wit, reactions of his family, his thoughts pebbled throughout from childhood to adulthood and I only copied a couple at the beginning. Things like:

‘quick as a needle, she darts at him.’

“He will never tell the cardinal about Mary Boleyn, though the impulse will arise. Wolsey might laugh, he might be scandalized. He has to muggle him the content, without the context.”

Lesson learned. I enjoyed my front row seat into the life and times of Thomas Cromwell, his interactions with both friend and foe, and all the machinations with the court. I’m sure I’ll reread it again in the years to come.

Dusty, Historical Fiction,  1500's, England, 604

W3: Hanging out in the past

 

It's week three in my 52 Books reading quest and I'm hanging out in the past with my dusty books. 

I finished my C book - Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which was an amazingly complex character study of two young Jewish men from the 1930’s to 1950’s dealing with war, life, love, family, loss, plus the comic book industry and bosses who took advantage of them. A more in depth review is posted below. 

I'm at the 75% mark with Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel:  Henry has married Anne and she’s been crowned queen, given him a baby girl, and still Katherine refuses to accept the dissolution of the marriage. Enjoying all the machinations of Cromwell and the court.

Already dove into my fourth dusty book, a historical fiction novel The Devlin Diary, which is set in two time frames – London in 1672 and Cambridge in 2008. It is the 2nd book in the Claire Donovan duo by Christi Phillips, author of Rossetti Letter which was excellent. Devlin Diary is almost as good.  

So far, I've avoided reading any ebooks, preferring to stick with physical books for the time being. 

 We watched The Eternals which was good, but not great. The acting seemed a bit off, emotions were wooden and I expected better.  It also opened the door to more Marvel movies. 

The only writing I've done is morning pages or blog posts. Time to get back to revising Red Thief.   

Bookish notes: Fictional history and science and life, oh my!

 

The third time's the charm once again.  I started my B book - The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin and finally made it past the first chapter. Once I did, the second chapter hooked me. So far I have received a crash course in the Chinese cultural revolution, physics, and the politics and alienation of the sciences, and the race to contact aliens. It's bizarre yet fascinating. 

Almost half way through Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall which continues to be a complex, but entertaining read. Enjoying my front row seat into the life and times of Cromwell and his interactions with both friend and foe. 

I've given up listening to Tom Hanks Uncommon Type. Why didn't I finish?  Well, the first story was cute but couldn't stand that the guy had no backbone and the woman was too bossy and unsympathetic.  Continued with the second which was a charming story about Christmas until the character brought up the horrors of war which become depressing very quickly. With my vivid imagination, I had to fast forward  through most of it. With the third the character's voice was way too abrasive and so I was done. I wanted to like it because I like Hanks but unfortunately it's just not for me.

Bookish Notes - I'm in a literary fiction mood.

 

 

Once again I have a physical book, an ebook, and audiobook in progress. I used to be a monogamous reader and wouldn't think of mixing and matching, but now enjoy the variety so when I get tired of one, I can turn to the other. 

I started listening to Tom Hanks Uncommon Type in the car which are literary short stories. Enjoying his humor.  For some reason I thought it was non fiction but the first story made me realize it wasn't when he mentioned watching Netflix with a date and I was like, what a minute, he's only a couple years only than me and Netflix didn't exist 30 years ago.  *facepalm*  

Currently on page 165 on Wolf Hall. Yes, reading very slowly and only at breakfast time. It's keeping me from devouring the whole story in large gulps and not remembering most of it.  I'm at the point where poor Thomas has suffered many losses and the cardinal is in a world of trouble. 

Quote of the day:

"He say to her, "I wish we have a baby, it seems such a long time since there was a baby in the house."

"Don't look at me," Johane says.

He does, of course. He says "Does John Williamson not do his duty by you these days?"

She says, "His duty is not my pleasure."

As he walks away, he thinks, that's a conversation I shouldn't have had." 

I was in the mood, so dove into Cormac McCarthy’s  post apocalyptical story, The Road finally.  It’s one of the books on SWB’s Well Educated Mind fiction list of which I’ve read 13, I think.  I have to keep better track. Anywho, his writing immediately drew me in and the imagery really paints a dark story of hope and survival. 

"A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other."

  

Bookish Notes and Links - Jólabókaflóðið is coming.

 

Christmas Eve is almost upon us and and it's time to Jólabókaflóðið.  I've added a few more ebooks to my virtual stacks thanks to some awesome Kindle deals.  Nick Magnus's The Cat and the City, Doris Lessings, Grass is Singing, Jack McDevitt's Ancient Shores Magnus Fly's City of Dark Magic, Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Kate Quinn's The Huntress,  William Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy, and Jon Sweeney's Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices.  Yes, I know... When will I find time to read them all. 

I'm 100 pages into Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and once I got used to her writing, enjoying the story and historical aspects.   Mantel has a way with imagery and loved this line:  " Their bodies breathed out the faint borrowed scent of sun and herbs."  I also like Thomas Cromwell's dry wit.  I think this is one book which will take me to the end of the year to finish.  It's not one to speed read through.  

Web wanderings today:  

 20 recommended reads for those who dream of traveling to Iceland

Sadly Joan Didion has passed away. 

It's not to late to read more Christmas stories:  25 Best Christmas Historical Fiction Books for the Holidays

Some weekly challenges to spice up my reading life:  52 weekly challenges from Bookriot - looks like fun. There are so many on the list I want to do or have already started. 

New York Public Library has suggestions for every one of Bookriots Annual Read Harder Challenge

Hugo Awards, Astounding Award, Lodestar Award 2021 Announced.  Martha Wells Network Effect won. The nominees included Piranesi by  Susanna Clarke which I have on my shelves as well as  The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (Still haven't finished the Fifth Season), The Relentless Moon by, Mary Robinette Kowal (Will have to check this one out as well as Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.  And last but not least, Black Sun by  Rebecca Roanhorse which I'm looking forward to reading soon. 

Don't remember if I share this one before.   How Nancy Drew Solves Crimes.  Will come in handy for an upcoming challenge on 52 Books. Nudge Nudge Wink Wink.

😘