Thought it would be fun to go from the chunkster to the shortest book on my TBR. The Story of the Saxophone. Excellent story and illustrations, about the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax.
@wanderinglynn
#2025offmyshelfreadingchallenge

Fantastic! Even as a music teacher, I didn‘t know all those things about Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. I think they should have put an illustration of Adolphe Sax on the cover, though, not Sidney Bechet, since the book was all about the inventor. Super cool that the inside covers of the book have illustrations of famous saxophonists!

This one was the chunkster for me! 674 pages. And I‘ve had it for several years. Read it in order, which is probably not its intent. But lots of really useful information! Makes me realize that my parents raised me well and also makes me sad at how little people pay attention to good manners and etiquette these days 😓

@wanderinglynn
#2025offmyshelfreadingchallenge

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Accomplished the poetry square with these Longfellow poems a year in the reading.

@wanderinglynn
#2025OffMyShelf

Wow, that took over a year to finish all of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s poems! Reading intermittently, that is. I enjoy his style. It was old-fashioned in his time, but he had interesting subjects. I do think the hype about The Song of Hiawatha was justified. He did a lot of translations that I kind of skimmed through.

This poem of grief resonates with me

Words to learn if you‘re going to a country that speaks a different language!

Read as a teenager, rereading as an adult. This one is still great! Not as brooding and moody as the first two. Plot moved along more. Really enjoyed Maharet and Jesse‘s stories. Didn‘t enjoy Daniel‘s part, Armand‘s fledgling and the one who wrote Interview for Louis. Akasha‘s plan to kill most of the male human population to save humans was intense.

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Ella Fitzgerald is one of my favorite singers. I don‘t know much about Marilyn Monroe, so it was interesting and sad to learn more about her life. I was impressed with how strong Ella was. She stayed away from all alcohol and drugs, in contrast to Marilyn who struggled severely. She stood up for herself professionally and personally, despite race and attractiveness. Both struggled with difficult childhoods, men, and fertility.

A lot of rough topics in this book. Even skipped through some parts of the audiobook. Geeta frequently frustrated me. Saloni and Karem were great. Infuriating how much crap the women of this village had to endure from men.

Well, most of that book went over my head. I don‘t understand play calls and formations at all. I was hoping maybe for more general leadership/coaching wisdom. Some of the more interesting things to me were how different the NFL was in the 60s. Players had real jobs outside of football in the off-season. They referred to teams as clubs. The Packers used to share their field with high school teams. And “How to go!” was a supportive thing to say.

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Wide variety of Christmas stories, lyrics, and poems collected here by Caroline Kennedy. The artwork felt like it was from the 1960s, so I had to keep reminding myself this was published in the 2000s. A nice collection to read around Christmastime, though. My dad got this signed by the author and kept the newspaper clipping saying when she came to town.

It‘s not a book I would have picked up on my own, but I really enjoyed it, so thanks, Dad ❤️ It was impressively written by JFK but not about himself. Each chapter is a vignette of a courageous point of a Senator‘s career where he followed his own conscience despite his party or constituents or everyone disagreeing with him. Doing what you feel is the right thing doesn‘t win popularity contests.

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I loved Chandler and Friends, so I am disappointed to say that I really didn‘t enjoy this audiobook. Never meet your heroes, I guess. He had a bit of an ego; at least he acknowledged that he was selfish and narcissistic. Came off as very whiny. Used women. I wanted to hear more about his career versus his addiction, but it seems his addictions consumed him. The ending was overly sentimental and has a different flavor knowing that ketamine got him

I ended up getting about a third of the way through and stopped listening to the audiobook. I enjoy listening to her voice, but it‘s more memoir than scientific discovery for me.

Very insightful book about the death and life of Edgar Allan Poe. Draws on a lot of previous biographies and speculations. I didn‘t like that the book jumped around chronologically. Edgar Allan Poe didn‘t really intend on being known for horror, but poetry.
They suspected he had very low tolerance for alcohol and was perhaps allergic to it. Had a beloved cat called Catterina. Compelling arguments for latent tuberculosis causing his death.

🤨 Nobody reads Longfellow? Lies. I read Longfellow. And I read Poe.

The spooky side of the street 👻

This was a re-read for me about 20 years later. Didn‘t like it as much as when I was a teenager. It felt all over the place. Seemed like Rice was backtracking with Lestat‘s character as he seemed very different here and the rest of the series than in Interview with the Vampire. The history of the Theater of the Vampires makes more sense. Relationship with his mom after he makes her a vampire is super weird. Marius‘ story in here was 70 pages.

Bernie Sanders is my favorite politician. As I listened to him read his own audiobook, I found myself nodding along with just about everything. He didn‘t stop working for the progressive movement after he dropped out of the presidential campaigns. His “Not me, us,” slogan lived on. Medicare for all sounds like an absolute dream. I believe criticizing our country doesn‘t mean you don‘t love it; it means you love it more to make it better.

1. Why yes, I certainly have. But not for trick-or-treaters 😂
2. Emo vampire adventures
#Two4Tuesday
@TheSpineView

I really enjoyed listening to Tom Felton read his own book! He is very animated, does funny accents and impressions of himself and others, and is a joy to listen to. He goes through his life and acting career pre, during, and post Harry Potter. Tom struggled through some addiction and behavior issues that he is candid about. He told many stories in the form of a film script. The best story was “Don‘t tread on my fucking cloak” from Alan rickman.

The author and illustrator made this book of a real sanitation worker who made a museum of trash. Nice idea of reduce, reuse, and recycle. The artwork was really nicely done. I feel like that‘s illegal to do that, though? Also, sometimes we just need to get rid of clutter. If you turn it into something else, you still have the thing. But that‘s why you sell or donate instead of throwing it away.

That was a fun, imaginative 1602 version of Marvel characters. I thought the plot was interesting, and there were fun surprises. The characters I was able to identify (there were some name and appearance changes) were Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Angel, Daredevil, Wanda and Petros Maximoff, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey, Beast, Professor X, Natasha Romanoff, Doom, Peter Parker, Magneto, Fantastic Four, Thor, Toad, and Captain America. Mutants=witch breed.

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This book is impressive in its scope. It covers all regions of Germany and their highlighted foods. But not all of the foods they talk about have recipes in here. The font is extremely small, so it was difficult to read. The recipes are so region-specific that there are many ingredients I would not have access to in the US, so it‘s not really meant to be a cookbook. It‘s more like a history book than a cookbook, I would say.

Lovely book. Background information from Paul McCartney on the context of these pictures he took. Great photographs in a very exciting time for The Beatles.

Things felt a little more predictable and disjointed in this one compared to the first. But still totally drawn in and must read the next one as soon as possible!

Glad my sister gave me this one! I had considered reading it years ago and never got around to it. Definitely a cross between The Hunger Games and The Bachelor. Super fun. I like the depth of the story of the country beyond just the selection itself. Quick, riveting read.

The narrative was not a style I would expect from JK Rowling. It seemed overly simplistic, especially compared to how riveting Harry Potter is. There was a lot of death for a children‘s story. Most of it was pretty depressing until the last quarter. Some names were funny and revealing. I‘m glad everything turned out well in the end. The artwork from children in a contest was a cute idea but it made the illustrations really disjointed.

Wanted to read this because I learned about it while reading Julie Andrews‘ autobiography. It has Roald Dahl/BFG and Alice in Wonderland vibes with the fantastical creatures in a land accessible only by imagination. Three children siblings and a professor are the protagonists. I‘m not sure if I would have liked it more as a kid for the first time.

Some interesting ideas. The narrative was a little too winding for me. She certainly did research, but maybe the concepts were too broad and not focused enough for me. But writing a book about bittersweetness may have to be that way.

Definitely an adventure story with all the elements of one that you‘d want. The idea reminded me of Frankenstein—scientific assertions without believable explanation. I wouldn‘t say Challenger is the opposite of Holmes, like the introduction says. Opposite in appearance, maybe, but not in confidence and derision. There was an annoying amount of white race superiority. I enjoy Doyle‘s writing style, but the story wasn‘t one that really stuck.