#5joysfriday My husbands 65th birthday was this week and we had a lovely day together. My granddaughters were adorable at his birthday breakfast. I made it to AquaFitness twice this week. I just finished making the Mac cheese for my mom‘s 81 birthday dinner tonight. I am all packed for our annual beach trip which starts tomorrow.

I am listening to this on audio and am very moved by the characters. However I know I am going to go back to my print edition I got on pre-order last spring. There are just so many beautiful and profound lines in this book. I need to mark them. Lines that sum@up life or emotion as stand alone thoughts.

8 days ago, I planted carrot seeds in a pot. I have never grown anything before from seed. It is no joke to say I have wanted to do this since I read this book to my daughter 25 years ago.

Last 5 years of my career

This book really spoke to me. I loved it. I think it would also have appeal for non religious as her journey is fascinating if filled with tragic events and circumstances

Much like audition, the altered perception of reality over a tragic event just didn‘t sit with me. I didn‘t find it engaging or illuminating in any way to make up for the jarring story telling. I hope this style isn‘t a new trend like the switching pov every chapter.

I am participating in my library‘s summer reading program for the first time since I was a kid. I earned a t shirt!

Best book I have read so far this year. Thanks to the #camplitsy long list!

Here‘s an idea: all emotions start out as love. Later thst love is worked on by the forces of luck and suffering. Hate is just soured love. Fear is wounded love. Longing is homeless love. Love, not pain is the mother. Love is the taproot.

I found the premise intriguing, and the book held my interest. I cared for each version of the characters,but overall I found the book depressing. I didn‘t cry reading it. When I was done I felt dread and cried.

Imminently readable despite the mass of scientific information, fascinating; this book might just change my life.

Library hold came in fast. Pulled from the #camplitsy long list.

The snow covered trees were like free spirits; it was as though they had let go of all their sorrows, all their regret. They let the winter sun flow through them, through everything they were, generously making space for the light.

“We have to learn how to best steal back our hearts”.

Stumbled across this in my TBR looking for something else. But today this little book grabbed me and demanded to be read. Loving it 15 pages in.

“Hello to the stories that shelter us”.

This is the best study in the interior life va exterior life I have ever encountered. The history of Norway in the Middle Ages was interesting.

This carried me along much more than I expected based on the description. The civil@war setting was initially a turn off to me. But it‘s about the characters more than the war, though the war is more than a backdrop. The end was nicely satisfying.

Real life is just a bit too much right now. So it strikes me apropos that all 3 of my main media reads (kindle, audio, print) are serious period pieces with dramatic settings including beauty and terror more (but significantly different from) my own circumstances. “Art can save your life.” -comedian Josh Johnson.

Heartbreaking. Geraldine Brooks is one of my favorite authors and I met her once at a book festival, so this felt more personal.

In the visible world of nature, a great truth is concealed in plain sight: diminish meant and beauty, darkness and light, death and life are not opposites. They are held together in the paradox of “hidden wholeness”.

February Wrap Up: I was sick most of February. Still Writing down the bones set me in a course. KC was my fav, and I am glad to have finished the second in the wolf hall trilogy. Beautyland is from TOB. It made a good bookgroup discussion but not my favorite. The LM made me want to read the measure.

As I read this recent (not his latest) Murakami, I was so frequently reminded of why I love his writing so much. It‘s complex thought but flows easily in reading. Its mind bending but states universal human truth. It finds beauty in facing darkness. 1Q84 is still my favorite. But this is in my top 3 along with my first thing Murakami title read: The wind up Bird Chronicle.

I am only about a quarter way through, but I am loving this book. Classic Murakami: wells and reflections, and people disconnected from society. It‘s all here and I love every bit of it a new. It‘s both fresh and familiar.

This book is funny at the start especially for those of us truly living the sandwich generation experience (and menopause)But this book wrecked me in the end. It‘s good but proceed with caution.

Starting a slim book to read on the train from Strasbourg to Paris as we start our trek home.

Listened to this on a cross country drive with my husband. We both enjoyed the light heartwarming tale. It starts slowly with a declining woman who is utterly alone and awaiting death. But with the arrival of the titular mouse she finds herself and her community again.

Getting started on this beauty today on a beautiful day in North Myrtle Beach. I love September reads. Now to keep my gorgeous Europa edition from damage from sun and sand. #europacollective

A good stop at my favorite bookstore in NMB this morning. Picked up: The Genius of Women and a copy of Ethan Fromme

It‘s become a new tradition for me, reading slow books set in cold climates during our annual end of summer beach week.

#bookbracket2024 #readingbracket2024

I don‘t know why I was surprised at how great this book is. Looking forward to discussion. Really surprising in its structure, fast paced and readable. Loved the three perspectives and totally didn‘t expect to like it at all. Read it!

#thesealeychallenge day 1; I will start here. I discovered the poet when the Hay on Wye festival went virtual during the pandemic. I was taken with his reading and ordered this book but have not dipped my toes in since.

Knife was easily my favorite read in July, Rushdie one of my all time favorite authors. Will have to think on which one comes out ahead with braiding sweet grass. #bookbracket2024 #readingbracket2024

I admit I am already a fan of Rushdie, having been strongly impacted by reading Midnight‘s Children twenty years ago. I saw Rushdie speak in 2017 at the National Cathedral for the Pen first Eudora Welty lecture and was intrigued. But this Memoir brings the beauty and insight of his more complicated works to the telling and reckoning with the attack. I was astounded to be just as moved in this genre. The man is brilliant.

I would answer violence with art

We would not be who we are today without the calamities of our yesterdays.

The future came rushing toward him while he slept.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html

Link for the graphic is at the end of The NY Times article after you mark your choices.

New shareable monthly reading stats graphic released in StoryGraph with or without your ratings.

April-June picks are not anywhere near as lived as Jan-March (which also stole my 2 wild cards). Hopefully the second half of the year will be better. Lots of personal growth non-fiction books (which I don‘t include here) and guilty pleasure reads to balance those out. It‘s not a bad reading year so far at all, just front loaded the ringers I guess. I have James, Knife, and Trust on deck so that bodes well. #bookbracket24 #camplitsy

This was a good palate cleanser for me. I bought it several years ago from a list of the best time travel novels. The concept is interesting enough to keep the pages turning and I cared about the 3 main characters. Not fabulous prose, but I needed a break from slow going wonderful books that make you work for it This is how you win the time wars was from that same article and better.

I seem to be in the minority here. The book is well written and moves fast. I just found it so darned depressing. I will be a pass on the sequel. Stories of Quiet lives well lived, or of hardships encountered realistically I like, lives of quiet desperation not so much. #europacollective

Finally finished this book! I can‘t believe it took me 8 months, not do I know why I kept abandoning it. It‘s gorgeous and thought provoking.