Finally a nice day to enjoy this book outside!

Tumult, wild from the sea, sweeping headlong, gigantic, seizing the house with a yell, shaking it, sending around it the roaring of fierce flames. Rattling the windows, bellowing down the chimney. Rejoicing in its prey. The wind, is the best lover. From Dimple Hill

I was wavering a bit on making this so-so because it took me months to finish - I found him to quite repetitive. But, the fantastic concepts he brought forward make this a pick! The main things I took away are how the east-west axis of Eurasia made ideas, people, inventions easier to spread than the north-south axes of Africa and the Americas, and the produce and animal combination that Eurasia started with was so much more conducive to success.

Beautiful imagery, but nothing really happens as Marco Polo describes many cities to Kublai Khan.

Just started Winter‘s Heart, book nine in The Wheel of Time. It‘s doing a great job of distracting from the bit of pain I‘m having after getting my knee replaced yesterday!

Xenocide explores the increasing risk to Lusitania, a planet housing the only other two sentient species in the galaxy, along with a killer virus. Starts in space as Ender's sister travels to Lusitania and reaches far away to a planet called Path, where certain citizens are touched by God, which causes them to be both incredibly smart and also servants to brutal OCD symptoms. Requires a feat of deus ex machina to resolve, but I still enjoyed it.

Just. Couldn‘t.
Pulled this off the shelf to meet a 70s-80s horror/thriller challenge. From the blurb on the back I thought it might be like The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz. Started reading it and I thought, ok, maybe it‘s like Rosemary‘s Baby. I wanted to like it and gave it as good of a chance as I could - couldn‘t make it past 75 pages. Bad writing, disjointed, cliches galore, storyline didn‘t make sense, just ugh!

I was resisting reading this book - I don‘t know why exactly, but I made a resolution to read it this month. Started on Friday while waiting for pre-op testing and barely put it down until I finished on Saturday. Loved the characters, great book!

Just received this pile of books from my friend who lives in Dubai (she was in the UK right before I was and sent them to a friend of mine). This is last year‘s birthday and Christmas presents!!! I already had The Testaments and Cold War, so I re-gifted those before I left. What do you think I should start first?

I‘m early in the book - they‘ve lost both engines and are about to make a crash landing...and why did I start reading this NOW? 🤨

Finished these for my last six books of the year while on vacation. Hard to pick a favorite!

Enjoying this collection of ‘mainstream‘ stories by Ursula K LeGuin.

An exciting and bittersweet conclusion to the trilogy. Pullman laid out some interesting concepts. I found that this volume was more YA than the previous two with a few things that didn‘t quite flow very well, but I still enjoyed it. Here‘s to the Republic of Heaven versus the Kingdom of Heaven!

I enjoyed this book of fairy tales curated by Angela Carter; some very familiar as antecedents to well known tales like Cinderella, others were complete new. Lots of humor and the tales crossed the globe.

Upon returning to London: “Nothing in life could be sweeter than this welcoming - a cup held brimming to her lips, and inexhaustible. What lover did she want? No one in the world would oust this mighty lover, always receiving her back without words, engulfing and leaving her untouched, liberated and expanding to the whole range of her body.”
WOW! Miriam LOVES London!

I expect to finish this one my flight to Tokyo; it‘s a great read so far.

I liked volume 2 a lot more than volume 1 and am looking forward to continuing with Sandman. Enjoyed this story about a vortex that needs to be controlled, which just so happens to be Rose, who is looking for her long lost brother.

The third book in Antonia White‘s Frost in May quartet was the best so far. Clara Batchelor falls in love with an actor while her previously spurned ex-fiancé still pursues her. Really well done and I‘m eager to read the last book, Beyond the Glass.

Wow!!!
Miriam: “How did people find out about books? Where did they get them from?”
[Can you imagine ever having this problem today?]

The Russian student Shatov to Miriam: You do not know what individual liberty is because you know nothing of any other condition ... suddenly a man near me on the outskirt of the crowd shouted in a full voice: ‘Chamberlain is a damned liar!‘ ... There was also quite near me, a very big John Bull Bobby. He turned to pass on with a smile. Ah that indeed for a Russian was a most wonderful spectacle.

Thanks to @rather_be_reading for sharing the image. Can‘t wait to have pumpkin pie later this week when I get home from this trip!

Great Dresden book, and things are getting more and more complicated for Harry. This novel starts with horror movie creatures coming to life and attacking people and Michael‘s daughter Molly is involved. Fast forward, and Harry leads a charge into Winter. Harry‘s relationship matured and evolved with Thomas, and Harry himself has matured, taking on an apprentice at the end of the book.

The eighth entry in the Wheel of Time Series, this one was fairly evenly paced. Even though we didn‘t see Rand until ~300 pages in, I was really engrossed by what was happening with Elayne, Egwene and Perrin. When Rand appeared, it was mainly focused on him going to war. A good entry in the series, and I‘m looking forward to starting Winter‘s Heart, as there was a bit of a surprising cliffhanger at the end.

More fun thoughts from Miriam: Experienced people said ‘there is always something,‘ ‘a skeleton in every cupboard.‘ ... But why did people get into cupboards?
🤪

How inconvenient for people with very long eyelashes to have to wear glasses, she thought, engrossing herself in a sudden vision of her neighbour‘s profile.
- Never know what you might run across in Dorothy Richardson‘s stream of consciousness Pilgrimage novels. 😉

Really enjoyed this trip with Haruki Murakami. When Kumiko asks her husband Toru to go look for their cat in the back alley, it starts off a crazy ride into Murakami‘s imagination. By the end of the book not every thread was tied off, but I was amazed with the number that were. Another great book by Murakami; not quite as good as 1Q84, but well done.

When you sneak into somebody‘s backyard, it does seem that guts and curiosity are working together. Curiosity can bring guts out of hiding at times, maybe even get them going. But curiosity usually evaporates. Guts have to go for the long haul. Curiosity‘s like a fun friend you can‘t really trust. It turns you on and then it leaves you to make it on your own - with whatever guts you can muster.

I formally went to ask Kumiko‘s parents for her hand in marriage. To say that their reception of me was cool would be an understatement. The doors of all the world‘s refrigerators seemed to have been thrown open at once.

Started great, very atmospheric: young governess sees ghosts and is very concerned for her two orphaned charges. But, for such a short book, there were just too many words...

Excellent creepy read! Set in 1930‘s Connecticut, it tells the story of Niles and Holland and their family on an old farm and all the trouble they get into...
Saw the movie in the 70‘s and it was fantastic - just learned upon reading the introduction that Tryon wrote the screenplay; I think his earlier career as an actor must‘ve helped him successfully turn his book into an equally creepy movie.

Four novellas by Stephen King (The Langoliers; Secret Window, Secret Garden; The Library Policeman; The Sun Dog) - all very good, The Langoliers was my favorite.

The Library Policeman: Sam had gone by the Library hundreds of times during his years in Junction City, but this was the first time he had really looked at it; and he discovered a rather amazing thing: he hated the place on sight. (What??? Ok, well it is horror after all...)

The second book in Dorothy Richardson‘s Pilgrimage includes The Tunnel and Interim. Miriam rents a room in London and works in a dentists office. She is enjoying her independence and having time alone, walking and bicycling all over. She seems to give the gentlemen in her life the wrong idea. It‘s not an easy read, as a stream-of-consciousness work, but it‘s worth it.

And after the summer thunderstorm:
‘Did you see the afterglow?... A fine...fuliginous...pink, wasn‘t it?‘

This quote perfectly matches what I think of a summer sky just about to break into a thunderstorm: 🌩 ⛈ The street was a livid grey, brilliant with hidden sunlight.

I was loving summer today, and here‘s a perfect quote:
Summer would never come again in the old way, but it set her free from cold, and let her move about unhampered in the summers of the past. Summer was happiness...

No, not a surprise 😏!
“I may come as a surprise to learn that plant seeds can resist digestion by your gut and nonetheless germinate out of your feces. But any adventurous readers who are not too squeamish can make the test and prove if for themselves.”
No, not going to perform a test... 😝

In Interim, the second novel in Pilgrimage 2, Miriam goes to a lecture on Dante:
“All these people were the cultured refined kind who did not trouble much about their clothes...In her black dress with her clumsy golf-cape thrown back from her shoulders...she could perhaps pass for a cultured person.”
What‘s a golf-cape? I think I want one! 😀

Richardson was an important feminist writer; I found a lot of interesting ideas and concepts in The Tunnel:
“They [men] invent a legend to put the blame for the existence of humanity on woman and, if she wants to stop it, they talk about the wonders of civilization and the sacred responsibilities of motherhood. They can‘t have it both ways. They also say women are not logical.”

And then this silliness:
“Shakespeare is extraordinary. I had no idea Hamlet was so full of quotations.”
In a letter to Miriam‘s sister Harriett.

An oldie but a goodie 😁!
“Exactly. You feel like a sprite you are so light.”
“And like a poet though you don‘t know it.”

“An A.B.C. appeared suddenly at her side.”
Had to do some research on this - the Aerated Bread Company, which started as a bakery and then ran a large chain of tea rooms. I envisioned a Panera Bread setting. 😁

And then there‘s this:
“She found the head parlourmaid rapidly wiping instruments with a soiled serviette...Telling her would not be any good...Besides, Mr Orly [dentist] himself would not really mind; and the things were ‘mechanikly clean‘”
Ewwww!

I shared a quote from Pilgrimage 1 where Miriam talks about her bad teeth. In The Tunnel, the first book in Pilgrimage 2, we find that Miriam now works in a dentists‘ office. She praises Dr. Hancock - “What always doing the best for the patient meant.”

The thirteen novels that make up Pilgrimage (Dorothy Richardson called them chapters) are one of the earliest English stream of consciousness novels. Richardson wanted to exemplify the female experience in a novel. Found this quote interesting in light of the above:
What a hopeless thing a man‘s consciousness was. How awful to have nothing but a man‘s consciousness.

Unique world-building, interesting culture, loved the interactions of the three main life-forms (and the Questioner, who is bionic, I guess you could say). Really happy I read this!

Of course, out at sea, there were no women to be tempted and corrupted by the sight of wanton hairs sprouting on a male face, so veils weren‘t really needed.

For full reproductive justice to be achieved, all people, including the most marginalized, need to be able to access not just abortion services but also sex education, birth control, health care, protection from violence, support for raising children and safe housing in which to raise them.

A quirky little gem of a book.

A very timely book about the history of abortion and abortion rights and the efforts to limit women‘s reproductive rights.