Two nonfiction picks for #NonfictionNovember! This is a nice pairing—the #BookSpin pick has been on my TBR for a loooonnng time, and my #DoubleSpin is the book I‘ve bought most recently.
TheAromaofBooks Yay!! Enjoy!! 2d
Two nonfiction picks for #NonfictionNovember! This is a nice pairing—the #BookSpin pick has been on my TBR for a loooonnng time, and my #DoubleSpin is the book I‘ve bought most recently.
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
Do you enjoy reading scary stories?
What types of stories are scariest to you—ghost stories, thriller, horror…?
Did you find this story particularly scary?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
From the setup through to the end, did the plot work for you?
What did you think of the logical/theoretical explanation the narrator inserts before the final resolution of the story?
What did you think of the discovery at the end? Was the resolution satisfying to you?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
LMM often mentions Bulwer-Lytton as an author she enjoys. He‘s famous for the line: “It was a dark and stormy night” and has a bad-writing contest named after him! (www.bulwer-lytton.com/)
Did you like Bulwer-Lytton‘s writing style in this story? Why or why not?
For those following along with #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread or #LMMJournals, in November we‘re starting Vol. 3 of the Complete Journals and also reading The Golden Road.
Then in December we‘ll read LMM‘s Christmas stories! I‘ll assemble a #KindredSpiritsChristmas story-a-day schedule for us to read these cozy holiday stories together. All are welcome—if you‘d like to join in just for December, let me know and I‘ll add you to the tag list!
rubyslippersreads, Daisey, LeahBergen, JenlovesJT47, CogsOfEncouragement, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, Roary47, LitsyEvents, julieclair, Seabreeze_Reader
#5JoysFriday!
🎃 Pics of my grand-niece as Grogu for Halloween
👻 A former student shared this delightful & hilarious video of his friend‘s Halloween costumes: https://fb.watch/vvQq2BtBNz/?mibextid=gYSGZt&fs=e&s=TIeQ9V
💜 This perfect drawing/story by Kai Skye of Flying Edna Studios reminded me to look for small joys: https://flyingedna.com/products/little-things-prints
⤵️
I didn‘t intend to be reading horror tonight on Halloween, but here we are.
I knew this book would be infuriating, but didn‘t realize just how infuriating. Even more so because I grew up in a family of big James Dobson fans. My mom listened to Focus on the Family every morning on the drive to school. As an adult, my view of the man has changed drastically as glimpses of the toxicity in his work trickled into my awareness, but this? 😳🤬🤢
October #BookSpinBingo yielded TWO bingos, and both #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin complete! 🎉
Some great reads this month! Favorites:
⚽️ Unseen Academicals
🍪A Wizard‘s Guide to Defensive Baking
🎭 The Puppets of Spelhorst
🦜The Hotel Balzaar
Now I need to catch up on October reviews…😆
“Mrs Westbrook, who was a large lady—or who wore a large dress, I don‘t know exactly which, for I don‘t know which was dress and which was lady—came sailing in.”
😂
#WhattheDickens
pickThis has been on my Hoopla “Favorites” for years (on my GR TBR since 2016!), and I finally got to it this month! It starts out as the story of a woman who breaks free from the constraints of her family and the expectations of society, setting up house for herself in the countryside. The majority of the book is funny and ironic—though slow-paced—and then towards the end, there‘s almost a complete genre shift ⤵️
“That‘s why we become witches: to show our scorn of pretending life‘s a safe business, to satisfy our passion for adventure.”
“One doesn‘t become a witch to run round being harmful, or to run round being helpful either, a district visitor on a broomstick. It‘s to escape all that—to have a life of one‘s own, not an existence doled out to you by others, charitable refuse of their thoughts, so many ounces of stale bread of life a day…”
“Mr. Arbuthnot certainly was not prepared for her response to his statement that February was a dangerous month. ‘It is,‘ answered Laura with almost violent agreement. ‘If you are a werewolf, and very likely you may be, for lots of people are without knowing, February, of all months, is the month when you are most likely to go out on a dark windy night and worry sheep.‘
Henry and Caroline glanced at each other in horror.
⤵️
“You are so concerned with how things end! It is wearisome, this obsession of yours. Don‘t you understand that nothing ever truly ends?”
“…life will never allow itself to be straightened, and it will drive you mad, a little, if you keep trying to straighten it. …Life always wins. Life and its crooked lines will always win.”
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead: This week we‘re reading an #LMMAdjacent book—The Haunted & the Haunters by Edward Bulwer-Lytton—with a discussion on Saturday, Nov. 2nd. This is a shorter one: my Kindle edition is 68 pages. All are welcome—let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!
In the comments I‘ll add LMM‘s thoughts about this story⤵️
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
One of the themes in the novel is the conflict between external appearance and internal consciousness. What examples of this conflict do you see—in the central characters, or even in the house itself? How do appearances and consciousness change over the course of the novel?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
Let‘s talk genre. Hawthorne is said to have considered this a romance—in literary terms: “a narrative, allegorical treatment of heroic fantastic or supernatural events.” I picked it for October because of the gothic elements: witchcraft/family curse/murder/creepy house. Other than “classic,” how would you classify this book, and why? “Romance” in a literary sense, gothic fiction, something else?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
“…it is a weird, melancholy creation, and every few paragraphs I would stumble over a sentence that brought stinging, painful tears to my eyes… Once, tears over a book-woe were something sweetly, sadly pleasant…Still, I love the book and found pleasure in reading it…” (Journals Vol 2, p. 67)
Do you enjoy stories that prompt “tears over a book-woe”? Are there books that give you “sweetly, sadly pleasant” tears?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
In Vol. 2 of LMM‘s journals, she comments: “The ‘Seven Gables‘ has the indefinable charm of all Hawthorne‘s books—that airy, fantastic, elusive fancy of his permeates every line of it” (pp. 67-8). However, many readers have criticized this book for being far too wordy & thin on plot. Did you enjoy Hawthorne‘s writing style? Did the slow pace, drawn-out descriptions, and slow-burn plot work for you in the end?
#5JoysFriday!
1. I finished my ballot research as best I could and dropped off my ballot on Tuesday—and got text confirmation that it‘s been received & counted!
2. Cozy reading with comfy PJs, Jack-o-lantern quilt, cinnamon pumpkin candle, and cranberry cream tea
3. Developing some writing project ideas & sharing an excerpt at my writing group today
4. A Mary Oliver poem about joy shared by a friend (link in comments) ⤵️
“I doubt whether even our public edifices—our capitols, state-houses, court-houses, city-halls, and churches—ought to be built of such permanent materials as stone or brick. It were better that they should crumble to ruin once in twenty years, or thereabouts, as a hint to the people to examine into and reform the institutions which they symbolize.”
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
pickA few years back, I read the authors‘ first book, I Think You‘re Wrong But I‘m Listening. It was so good that I‘ve recommended it over & over again. (It also got me hooked on their podcast, Pantsuit Politics, which has been a much-needed refuge of sane and nuanced dialogue during the current political landscape in the US.) While their first book focuses more on getting out of the party-focused mentality and advocates finding places for dialogue⤵️
I‘m so pleased with all the reading I did over the weekend for the #BirthdayBashReadathon! I finished three in-progress books (one of which was my October #BookSpin), kept up/caught up on #FellowshipofTolkien and #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead, and got about halfway through my #DoubleSpin! Happy Birthday, Sarah—and I hope you had a lovely weekend reading and celebrating! 🥳🎉📚🎂
A quick check-in on this week‘s #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent reading, at the midpoint of House of the Seven Gables.
🏠 How is your reading going so far?
🏠 What are your initial impressions of the book?
🏠 Are you enjoying it? Why or why not?
Gaaaah. I got both of these hold notifications within an hour of each other. I want both. Do I have room in my current reading lineup? No. Am I going to read them both anyway? Yep.
so-soSigh. This one was frustrating. It alternates between past & present with two intertwining narratives of Nita and Sophie—mother and daughter—in Paris. One, on a journey to follow her dreams for the future, and the other, on a journey to find answers about her past. Ultimately, this wasn‘t an enjoyable read for me. I spent much of the book frustrated and stressed out by the choices made in Nita‘s storyline, and thought the ending was too rushed.⤵️
pickThis picks up where Sisters of the Vast Black left off, following the nuns of the Order of Saint Rita in the aftermath of the previous book‘s events. Rather does a fantastic job of deepening her characters (and introducing some new ones) as they deal with the consequences of the previous book. LOTS of interesting ideas here as the Sisters wrestle with the implications of everything that‘s been brought to light. Really hoping for a book three!
pickNuns in space? Yes, please! There was a lot packed into this sci-fi novella: interesting worldbuilding, a living ship, a varied group of nuns, lots of details that come together in a very satisfying way. I initially had difficulty keeping track of who was who & would‘ve liked more character development early on, but it‘s remarkable how much is accomplished in just 175 pages. I liked it so much I immediately checked the next one out of the library!
@TheAromaofBooks I used your #BirthdayBashReadathon as an excuse to stay up till 1:00am finishing A Wizard‘s Guide to Defensive Baking 😁 My goal is to make progress in the TEN books I‘ve been in the middle of, and I finished two yesterday! 🎉🥳 Today‘s goal: make some progress with these buddy reads/book club reads!
#5JoysFriday!
1. Adorable fall pictures of my niece and grand-niece 🍁🍂
2. Hearing my talented husband and his jazz band at a swing festival on Saturday 🎶🎷
3. Cooler weather and hot tea ☕️🫖
4. The best and coziest pajamas ever (it‘s finally cold enough to wear them!) 🛌
5. Staying up late last night to finish the tagged book 📚
More murders are committed at ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature. Over one hundred, it‘s too hot to move. Under ninety, cool enough to survive. But right *at* ninety-two degrees lies the apex of irritability…the least thing, a word, a look, a sound, the drop of a hair and—irritable murder.
Found via Tara Wine-Queen… I thought I‘d slot in my current reads and discovered there aren‘t enough donuts in the image for all the books I currently have in progress. 😂😂 Also: now I‘m really craving donuts…
Next up in the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead: two #LMMAdjacent spooky(-ish?) reads!
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne:
Oct. 13-19: Chapters 1-10
Oct. 20-26: Chapters 11-21
(LMM mentions this in her journals on April 12, 1903)
The Haunted and the Haunters by Edward Bulwer-Lytton: Oct. 27-Nov. 2
(LMM mentions this in her journals on June 2, 1902)
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
🌹What memorable scenes or quotes stand out to you from the second half of the book? The book overall?
🌸Any further thoughts you‘d like to share?
🌷There are two other “Elizabeth” books: “The Solitary Summer” and “The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen.” Are you interested in reading more of Elizabeth?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
We all seem to agree that we don‘t quite feel LMM‘s enthusiasm over Elizabeth, but can see why she did! Are there books that you‘ve accidentally come across like LMM found Elizabeth—and wished you‘d found earlier?
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
The second half of the novel primarily focuses on the Christmastime visit of Minora (the daughter of a friend), and Elizabeth‘s friend Irais.
Do you think this book would have worked from different POVs? How would you have felt about shifting POVs between Elizabeth and Irais and Minora?
#5JoysFriday!
🎶 New album today from Josh Ritter, one of my musical favorites
🙏🏼 Spiritual direction training
🎹 Contemplative piano service
🌌I live too far south to see the Aurora, but I‘ve been enjoying pics from others!
🌪️My niece weathered Hurricane Milton safely! Her birthday is today, and she & her friend decided not to cancel their reservations at Disney this week. 😳🫣 She‘s terrified of tornadoes. She slept through the hurricane 😂
pickRohr explores the idea of two halves to life: the first half, where we‘re concerned with building the “container” of our life—career, family, structure—and the second, in which we learn to fill that container with meaning and begin to get at our true identity. He articulates so much I haven‘t been able to put words to, communicating what can be frustrating for me about various institutions (and people!) focused on those first-half tasks. ⤵️
pickThis is the first book I‘ve read by Hardinge, and it won‘t be the last, even though I wanted a bit more from it! I would have loved it to be a bit more fleshed out, but what‘s here is wonderful—a story of compassion & courage, taking on an unexpected task and infusing it with your own unique gifts, standing up against grief gone wrong, and extending care & compassion to others. The illustrations added so much to this lovely, slightly dark story.
pickSuch a delight! Full of loss and hope and longing and healing—as only Kate DiCamillo can write it. 💜
pickTHIS is the Pratchett I‘ve been waiting for thus far in the Rincewind books! (It helped that Rincewind basically only shows up here in cameos 😆) The jokey bits are woven into a much more focused plot, with actual character development and a compelling underlying message of common humanity (whether or not the characters are human!). I adored Nutt, and the football was hilarious. Do we get more Nutt in later books? I need more Nutt! #OokBookClub
so-soShady Hollow feels like the ultimate cozy small-town setting, with anthropomorphic animals living in near-harmony: from a coffee-shop-owning moose and bears on the police force, to a raven named Lenore who owns Nevermore Books. The twists & turns of the murder-mystery plot reveal a darker side of the idyllic town, as reporter Vera Vixen chases down leads & clues. I wanted to love this, but it fell short for me. The writing felt too simplistic ⤵️
so-soSadly, I was disappointed with this. I quite liked the first half, and related to a lot of Elizabeth‘s observations about the joys of solitude & reading in the garden, and her annoyance with visitors who intrude on the above. But she got tiresome after a while, and just annoyed me by the second half. I don‘t mind an unlikable character—they‘re often fascinating—but since this is all in Elizabeth‘s voice, with little sense of irony to distance ⤵️
I actually have quite a few spooky (-ish) reads on my TBR for October… although I‘m not sure whether I‘ll get to all of them! The tagged is my #BookSpin pick for the month, and several others are for buddy reads/book clubs. I‘m not sure how spooky Lolly Willowes really is, but: witches! #SundayFunday
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
🌹What stands out to you from the first half of the book? Any memorable quotes or descriptions?
🌷What do you think of Elizabeth‘s journey to visit her childhood home and garden? What contrasts do you see with her own garden?
Posting #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead questions early, since again I have a really busy Saturday! #LMMAdjacent
🌹Are you enjoying the book so far? Why or why not?
🌸 What do you think of Elizabeth—as a character and as a person?
🌷What do you think it would be like to be one of her visitors?
Go home, Goodreads—you‘re drunk.
It just recommended me these four books because I‘m reading Elizabeth and Her German Garden… which couldn‘t have less to do with political scandals, becoming a million-dollar CEO, dating mishaps, or fat camp. 🤷🏻♀️I kept clicking through the suggestions, and they just kept getting more ridiculous!!
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent
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