Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Tuesday Twaddle - A happy holiday and some fun reading


If you've read my November Reads in Review post, you already know I read these three books during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I picked up Hyperbole and a Half on the way to Oklahoma, finished up The Clockwork Scarab (an ARC) and whipped through Labor Day.  

Yesterday, I finished another book I bought at Hastings Books & Music:  Tempest by Julie Cross, a time travel YA that I found writing-weak but plot-manic.  Had the action not grabbed me so thoroughly, I might have abandoned it for its weaknesses but I was quite satisfied with the way it was wrapped up and, problems aside, I would have been perfectly happy to read on if I had the next book in the series.

So . . . Oklahoma.  We went to visit family.  I can't actually remember the last time we were in Oklahoma.  It was nice to go home.  We spent most of our time hanging out, eating, watching football, reading and perusing bookstores, but we also visited Woolaroc Museum (one of my happy places; it holds lots of fond childhood memories).  Woolaroc was decorated for Christmas:



On the way back to Tulsa from Bartlesville (Woolaroc is just outside Bartlesville), I snapped sunsets through a dirty window in a moving car and this one is now my desktop background:



When we arrived home it took this girl 4 hours to speak to me and 6 to fully forgive me for leaving her behind:



Isabel hissed at the cat- and house-sitter, whom she knows perfectly well.  Crazy cat.  I am her only human.  She doesn't really like anyone else at all but she's a total lovebug with me.  Unfortunately, her fears don't seem to be fading with age.  I was hoping eventually she'd relax a little.

There were books waiting upon arrival and plenty purchased. I haven't snapped pics and I've been doing the Bad Thing . . . dragging arrivals off to sort by review date instead of keeping them together so that I can photograph them and list them.  Oh, well.  I do have a few nearby:

  • Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, The Middle Ages and Viking Age - from the Everyday Life series by Sterling Books, for review
  • A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith and  Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill - from Knopf for review
  • Nigella Fresh by Nigella Lawson, a bargain find at Hastings Books - have read about 40 pages of this and am enjoying her chatty style.  I want to read the entire book before settling on favorites to attempt.
  • The Ragamuffin Bible - from Zondervan for review.  I totally jumped on this because I've just recently read The Prodigal (which lists Brennan Manning as one of the authors, although Greg Garrett did the writing) and it reminded me of Manning's uplifting way of looking at Christianity. I've read a few of the "meditations" by Manning and I'm already in love with this Bible. He tends to go a little heavy on the ecclesiastical terminology but I like the fact that I have to really engage the brain when I read his thoughts.
  • Wool by Hugh Howey (the Omnibus edition) - purchased.  I looked up the stats and found that something on the order of 100 NaNoWriMo books have been published traditionally. Wool (the original short story, from my understanding, as opposed to the entire series) is one of them.  I've been thinking about doing a NaNoWriMo books self-challenge, although I'm not sure I can resist reading Wool right away.  It's been on my wish list for quite a while.  
  • Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts, another NaNo book, via Paperback Swap.  Good timing. 
  • Blitz: The story of 29th December, 1940 by M. J. Gaskin - purchased and I've read a little. Blitz is an account of a single day in the London Blitz based on (and occasionally including excerpts from) a number of primary sources. 
  • Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson - from HarperCollins for review
I'll attempt to gather other books for next week's Monday Malarkey.  Yes, there are more -- too many, actually, so I'm back to ignoring offers for review books.  I should never accept them anyway; let's be honest, I have far too many books in my house, as is.

Since I finished a quick YA read, last night, I'm going to dive back into The Aftermath and If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, next, and try to finish those up so I can move on.  

Happy Tuesday!


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6 comments:

  1. It sounds like you had a nice holiday, Nancy. I am glad you were able to fit in some reading. :-)

    I can sympathize. It took Parker awhile to forgive me for not only leaving him at the vet overnight for several days in a row, but also visiting him and not bringing him home. All seems forgiven now though--at least for now.

    I love getting books in the mail. I read so many e-books these days that I rarely see an actual print book come through the door. I did get a couple this week though, both I'm looking forward to reading.

    I hope you have a great month!

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    1. I did have a great holiday, Wendy! Hope yours was as good as ours. :)

      Poor Parker. It's hard being left at the vet's. All kitties think it's the end of the world when you leave them, don't they? I'm glad he's finally forgiven you.

      I'm the opposite - totally disinterested in e-books (which is unfortunate because I could stand not to bring in anything else that takes up space). I don't know how many e-books I loaded before I realized I wasn't reading them. I keep hoping someday they'll start to appeal with me, but so far, no luck with that so I just don't download anything unless it's free and on my wish list, these days.

      Thanks! Hope you have a great month, too!

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  2. A buffalo! or bison, I suppose.... I love saying BUFFALO.

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    1. Buffalo, buffalo, buffalo. You're right; it's fun. I don't know the difference. I suppose I should.

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  3. What a beautiful sunset!

    I feel the same as you about ebooks. I've only read two on my Nook. The first was because I ran out of reading material on a trip and Rod let me use his Nook to download something. The second was a Stephen King chunkster (Under the Dome). I'll probably use the Nook for chunksters, but otherwise, I prefer the real deal.

    Hope you're having a good week. I think we got sleet last night, so I need to head out and scrape windshields before we head to work. Double duty since hubby still can't do that sort of thing.

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    1. Thank you, Les!

      I think I've read 4 or 5 e-books, total. Two were for my F2F group because I didn't want to fork out the big bucks, one was an ARC, one was filler while I traveled and couldn't carry the big book (classic, already had it loaded, although I reviewed the pretty new edition), one a book written by a NaNoWriMo friend. My problem with e-books is that I set down the iPad between readings and *completely forget* I'm reading a book on it. They don't feel as real to me, I suppose. But, anyway, I have a million books so I don't need e-books.

      We're having a terrific week, weather-wise, in the upper 70s, partly cloudy, windy, darn near perfect. But my neck problem is acting up and that means daily migraines. I've gotten an appt. with the physical therapist. Can't wait till next week. I'm so tired of waking up with my head throbbing!!! It's hard to get anything at all accomplished. Poor hubby. Is he at least improving?

      Delete

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