This book is on its way to you @Kappadeemom . Sorry for the delay. I really enjoyed this story of Eva, a talented chef. While we really got to know her in the first few chapters, the majority of her story was told through the stories of other characters whose lives intersected with hers, sometimes only peripherally. I would have liked a more "interior" look at Eva, an interesting character to say the least. Still a pick. @Kimzey @Maggie4483

#LMPBC Loved the snippets of history as "Kepdun" Kidd read the "news of the world" while retuning a young girl captured by the Kiowa four years previously to her family. On its way to you @Kappadeemom --perfect antidote to the bleakness of The Post Office Girl. Good choice @Kimzey @Maggie4483

I very much liked this book which I read for #LMPBC. It's a Cinderella story with a twist. The interesting thing about it is that it wasn't published until about 40 years after the author's death, and some wonder whether the author intended the story to end as it stands or whether he intended to write more. I quite liked the end. @Kappadeemom @Kimzey @Maggie4483

It's been a while since there's been a Dulci sighting on Litsy. She's nearly 2.

I've been reading these short stories off and on about my new state, mostly liking them, tho' I don't usually get on with short stories. About the orchid pictured: a year (or more ago) my son sent me an orchid plant. It arrived with no flowers (unlike what was shown in the catalogue) and when he inquired they told my son it was up to the recipient to get the plant to bloom. I don't have much of a green thumb, never saw buds, but I watered it &👇🏻

Started this for #LMPBC. So far, so good. @Kappadeemom @Kimzey @Maggie4483

We were in NYC last week visiting our 6th and newest grandchild, Flora Jane, born October 25 at 11:30 pm, (unwilling to wait another half hour to be born on my birthdaY). Our plane flew right over the city when landing, and I got some amazing photos, including this one.

Quote from Virginia Woolf "How Should One Read a Book?"

#LMPBC I signed up for the Litsy Postal Book Club, and suggested translated fiction, but so far there are only 2 in our group. Any takers? It's great fun. Only a day or two left to sign up.

Participating in a year long read of this on Library Thing. I've fallen a bit behind and need to get back to it. Meantime, the roses were for our 51st anniversary today. (Excuse the detritus on the floor--Dulci loves to rip up paper).

Wow! All I can say is Wow! And comparisons to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell are apt.

I won't be able to join our #NYRB Book Club discussion this week, but pictured is my review from when I read the book a number of years ago. Several members have commented on the difficulty of figuring out what was going on, and I found the intro to my edition very helpful. @batsy @BarbaraBB @sarahbarnes @vivastory ETA For some reason the pictures of my review is not posting. I will try to type it into the comments below:

I'm in NYC for a couple of weeks, right now staying at my son's apt in Brooklyn where we walked over to visit this iconic library. My Seattle friends are arriving tomorrow for a week of museum visits. My son will be visiting his wife's family in Israel and they have graciously lent us their apt for the week. ETA the top got cut off, but it's the Brooklyn Public Library.

My first 5 star read of the year, this novel is the first of a trilogy set on the harsh, bleak, cold, rocky islands of the northern Norwegian coast. Life is hard, but the taciturn islanders are resilient and ingenious. I loved this book, and have gone on to read the 2nd in the trilogy, White Shadow, which I also loved.

I 1st read Solzhenitsyn in college-One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch--and I read The Gulag Archipelago shortly after it was 1st published in English. A few years ago a revised, expanded, updated version was issued in 3 volumes. I wanted to make sure I read the whole thing, so I've just purchased all 3 volumes of the new edition, 1000 or so pages each. Now to find time to read.

It finally came! I rarely preorder books, but I did this one. An artist made one painting a day depicting the day's headlines through-out 2020, a very eventful year to say the least. Am I ready to relive 2020? We'll see.

Another gorgeous sunset!

Here's what happens when you haven't bought books in awhile, and you go online to buy the next book for the #NYRB Book Club.

I have a question--on your profile page if you click the book symbol there is a list of books you've added or noted over the years-a "wishlist" of sorts.
How do you remove a book on this list? I'm trying to update and want to remove books I've now read or am no longer interested in. Thanks!

Embarking on reading this #20thCenturyClassics. @Butterfinger @jmofo @sprainedbrain I 1st read it in college freshman English class in 1968. I can't imagine reading it the 1st time w/o some sort of guidance. Pictured is my shelf copy of the book, acquired in 1968 for my class. In it I found the chronological guide the prof provided us (on the right), and my handwritten family genealogy for the Compson family (left).

#ThoughtfulThursday @Eggs Again, apologies for the delay.
1. I like unreliable narrators, as long as they are believable and ring true. Hate it when they make no sense.
2. I don't collect bookish items (other than books), but I do have a few mugs from famous bookstores I have visited.
3. I loved the Poldark series.

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs Sorry to be so dilatory in responding to the tag-too much going on, but better late than never. 1. Recent photo-since moving to Fl last year we have enjoyed many wondrous sunsets, & I've taken dozens of photos. Here's a recent one.
2. I just returned from Tex for a visit with my Mom-1st time seeing her in 3 years, due to husband's transplant and then covid.
3. Grateful for family.

I haven't been posting much this year-will try to do better. Back in March I posted a pic of the newest addition to our family, Dulci. Here she is today, resting from her arduous job of ruling the roost around here.

@Butterfinger @sprainedbrain @jmofo #20thcenturyclassics After much delay on my part, I have finally mailed 2 books to you Tammy, Howard's End and Ceremony, both great reads. I have The Sound and the Fury, and hope to finish it by November's end. You should receive the books Tuesday-I have tracking # if needed.

I am finally, very belatedly, and with many apologies sending my #20thCenturyClassics book onto you Tammy @Butterfinger . This was a lovely family saga of life in pre-WW II Japan, as a family tries to marry off the third daughter so that the youngest (and 4th) daughter can marry her fiancee. It should arrive Thursday. @sprainedbrain @jmofo

6. Chapter XIII is partially titled "the novel is concluded without coming to an end." Skylark has recognized that something has changed in her during her week away. Mother has expressed hope for change, but Father burns the "incriminating" theater stub. Miklos sees clearly the family's "suffering collected like unswept dust," yet he believes that from the greatest pain will be born the greatest happiness. Do you agree? ??????

5. On meeting Miklos Ijas Father thinks, "How children suffer for their parents, and parents for their children." Father marvels that Miklos can speak so openly of his pain. Do you think Father and Mother have buried themselves in the "bottomless pit" of their pain with no way out? As Miklos and Mother discuss Skylark, Father hears voices within him "louder than those without. He did all he could to drown them out." What do you think ??????

4. Did Father's drunken outburst surprise you? Do you think he really believes the things he says? Mother tries to convince him that they love Skylark, but does she actually agree with Father? Do you think Father's characterization of Mother's response as "cheerful absurdity" is accurate? Deborah Eisenberg says the reader must accept that Skylark is ugly, and "not the sort of ugliness familiar from so much wishful literature, that is to ????

3. The foreword discusses the "babbling surface" as opposed to "silent depths" in literature. Is this book more about the "babbling surface" or the "silent depths"? How do the antics of the Panthers and the thumbnail sketches of the townspeople and their lives in a provincial town contribute to the book? Are we reading a comedy or a tragedy?
Photo: Gentlemen's Drinking Club
#NYRBBookClub @vivastory

2. Deborah Eisenberg wrote about Skylark that "we encounter lives that contain no hidden exits or negotiable margins, and we come away from the book feeling that we have experienced the inalterable workings of destiny." Do you agree? The author wrote, "I will always be interested in just one thing: Death. Nothing else....For me, the only thing I have to say...is that I am dying." Is Skylark about death?
Photo: Taroc cards
#NYRBBookClub
@vivastory

1. The title of the novel is Skylark, but we spend most of it with Mother and Father. During her week away, Skylark writes a long letter to Mother and Father. What does her letter reveal to us about What kind of person Skylark is? What does Father learn reading between the lines of the letter? Why does the letter's "every word [cut] him to the quick"?
Photo: Theater in Subotica, Serbia, town on which Sarszeg is based.
#NYRBBookClub @vivastory

Another new book came today. This one has been on my Wishlist forever!

A lot of eye candy awaits me in my new book!

I've been busy. Almost 2 years post-transplant we can have pets again. Meet Dulcinea, aka Dulci. And apparently today is my 3rd Lisyversary. Time flies.

I read this for Black History Month, and was blown away, tears rolling down my face at the end. Definite 5 star read, and recommended for everyone!

These are the books I read in February. The Sympathizer and The Tunnels of Cu Chi were for #FoodandLit #Vietnam @Butterfinger . Between the World and Me for Black History Month (and I‘m almost finished with Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody, which is wonderful).

@vivastory @BarbaraBB @emilyhaldi @sprainedbrain @mklong @youneverarrived @KVanRead @LeahBergen @Leftcoastzen @Liz_M @merelybookish @GatheringBooks @readordierachel @sarahbarnes @sisilia @Reviewsbylola @Suet624 @batsy @Tanisha_A @Theaelizabet @Billypar @saresmoore

The nominations for April are Skylark by Kosztolanyi, Transit by Anna Seghers, and The Child by Jules Valles.

Beautiful weather this weekend, and the beach has been more populated than usual. Today people are flying kites.

For our #NYRBBookClub this month we read the tagged book. The edition I read was not a NYRB edition, but was from a British publisher. It was illustrated with lovely pen and ink drawings like the above, which enhanced my reading, I think. This depicts the wagon ride to the church picnic.

Rough seas and high winds today in Florida. And NYC where 3 of my 5 kids are is experiencing a blizzard.

Among quilters at the turn of the century 1999-2000, the fad was to make a quilt with at least 2000 different fabrics in it. I made this quilt completed in Jan. 2000, with more than 2000 1 inch square, in all different fabrics, entirely handpieced and quilted. (I later discovered 1 fabric I had accidently used 2x). @ValerieAndBooks

This dystopian Brazilian novel of a future Sao Paolo was written in the 1970‘s or 80‘s, I think, but it‘s absolutely chillingly conemporary, and makes 1984 look like child‘s make believe. Enter a world ravaged by climate change and unfettered environmental pollution and disaster. The rainforest is gone and is now the world‘s 9th wonder, a desert larger than the Sahara. And all governed by multinationals and “self-enrichers.” #foodandlit #Brazil

The love story of Guma and Livia, and the lives of the people of the dockside in Bahia, Brazil. I‘ve read several books by Amado, and have liked them all. He writes of poor people, but people enthusiastic for life. His characters are real, but also mythic and heroic. “It‘s the certainty that the end will be death at sea unexpectedly some night, suddenly some night.” Recommended. #foodandlit #Brazil

I‘d heard of Clarice Lispector before but never read anything by her. I was blown away by this short book: original, poetic, moving and ironic. It tells the story of Macabea, young woman “incompetent for life.” I‘ll be looking for more by Lispector, and hope you do too! #foodandlit #Brazil

I posted a pic of my mom‘s grad picture for her 90th b-day a few days ago. My sister had obtained the picture from the school. The school contacted her a few days later—my grandmother, my mom‘s mom, had graduated from the same school 21 years before my mom, and they sent along my grandmother‘s picture! My grandmother was also yearbook editor, so they sent pictures of that too.

Today is my Mom‘s 90th birthday. She has COPD, but is otherwise sharp as a tack. She has always been a reader (as was my Dad), and there were always stacks of books around her chair. She doesn‘t read as much nowadays, mostly watching old cowboy movies, but I think I got my love of reading from her and Dad. Weekly trips to the library helped. This is her H.S. Graduation picture, Class of 1948.

I'm reading one story a day by Anton Chekov from my 13 volume set of Chekov's Collected Stories. I loved this description of a reader "An Artist's Story" in Volume I. Does reading ever "exhaust your brain"?

I‘d really like to read this, all 1950 pages. I‘m sure it will do great damage to my TBR list!

Got the first shot of the covid vaccine today, and scheduled for the second shot 2/4, where I saw this beautiful old oak tree outside the clinic. Can seeing my grandkids again be far behind?

A coolish cloudy day today, with no one on the beach. Still beautiful.