SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

The last update on what I have read, am reading, and am going to read was done in a WWW Wednesday on September 26th, a month ago, yesterday. Before that, way back on September 2nd, was my last Sunday (Evening) Post. I realized tonight it had been too long since I had reported in on my ongoing reading efforts and accomplishments. This is an effort to do just that.

Back on September 2nd, I reported that I was reading Amercanah by Ngozi Adichie and enjoying it. I was reading it on my laptop and often forgot to pick it up again. The result? I am still reading it, but I am continuing to enjoy both the story and the characterization of this fine author. I hope to finish it by the end of this week. At that time, I was reading a police procedural, crime-mystery, The Mercy of the Tides by Keith Rosson, a genre I hadn’t read in a long time. I finally gave up on it and passed it along via my Little Free Library.

Since then I have finished:  The Rosie Result, the ending book in the Don Tillman Trilogy (reviewed on PWR recently); Ink and Bone, a book about books by Rachel Caine; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, a book chosen by my book and film book club, read then viewed, and discussed over lunch (reviewed on PWR recently); Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (reviewed); Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story (reviewed); and Shadow of the Wind by Zafon, the last book in my Alphabet Soup Challenge (to be posted at a later date)

When I checked the September 26th report at WWW Wednesdays and added those books I had finished recently, I came up with the following:  The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (not reviewed yet) by Heidi W. Durrow; AHA  by Kyle Idleman; Sea Scope; The Lost Landscape: A Writer’s Coming of Age by Joyce Carol Oates (reviewed on my Literacy blog); Unplug by Suzie Yalof Schwartz (not reviewed yet); The Haunted Bookstore  by Christopher Morely; and A Year of Wednesdays, which completed my Alphabet Soup Challenge.

As of today, Sunday, September 27th, I am still continuing to read: The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin (finally! the third book in The Broken Earth series); Goodnight June by Sarah Jio; My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul, The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks; and I am listening to Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morely.

Obviously, I need to finish the books I have started, but I am looking forward to a book that arrived this weekend: The Crossroads of Should and Must.

The weather here on the Texas Gulf Coast is finally cooler and seems more like fall. Today’s high was only in the low 70s, and I was able to wear a fall sweater-ish top to church. I have been eating and drinking pumpkin-spice flavors since late September, but finally, it feels “right.” I hope your week ahead brings time and weather conducive to much reading!

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

I enjoyed reading Sarah at Brainfluff’s “Sunday Post” so much for so many years that several years back, I added my own Sunday Post, but named it “Sunday (Evening) Post because I never could seem to get to it until Sunday night and in honor of the old magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. It is my attempt to catch readers up on what I am reading now, what I have finished, and what I have just begun. I am a reader who reads multiple books at a time, often switching books for variety and because I have books stashed in different rooms of the house and in the car for times of “unavoidable delay.”

What I am reading now

I am still continuing Americanah by Ngozi Adichie on my laptop’s Kindle. My problem with finishing it is I forget it’s “on there.”

I recently started and am now on chapter twenty-three of The Rosie Result by Graeme Simison, the final book in his Don Tillman Trilogy. It is as warm and funny as the first book, The Rosie Project, and even better than the second, The Rosie Effect. The entire series is one I often recommend to people who don’t enjoy reading, and almost always they are won over.

In an effort to clear my TBR shelves (yes, plural) I am continuing to read The Mercy of the Tides by Keith Rosson. It has been a long time since I have read a police procedural, and so far this one is an enjoyable read.

In order to support my church library, two weeks ago I checked out God Was Here and I Was Out to Lunch by James W. Moore. I am still reading, keeping this book in my guest bedroom for when I am wakeful, and My Better Half is blissfully snoring away.

To supplement my Advanced Writing class, I bought This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for Young Writers in the Real World by Kerri Majors at Half Price Books, and I have read almost thirty pages at this point.

On my iPad Kindle, I have downloaded a romance, something I rarely read, but this one is set in the fifties, a time when I was struggling with the “new-to-me” concept of dating, which makes for nostalgic reading. The book is Jaqueline L. Sullivan’s Lovesick, a book another blogger reviewed and recommended.

Since July 29th, my last Sunday (Evening) Post (I can’t believe I completely skipped the month of August!), I have finished the following:

The Sparrow by Mary Dorie Russell (to be reviewed soon/ Aftermath by Suzanne Morris(Reviewed recently )/ Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlin (to be reviewed soon)/ Who Was Jackie Kennedy? by Bonnie Bader/ and the Netflix series The Outlander

I have just begun

Barbara Leaming’s Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story   The two books on Jackie Kennedy are in preparation for my Third Tuesday book club at the Alvin Libary.  Each of us selected a First Lady to read about and present to the group.  It ought to be an interesting (and perhaps lengthy) meeting.

HAPPY READING ALL!

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

Since last Sunday, I have been spending most of my time working on my syllabus for fall and writing assignments and handouts for class. Other than making peanut butter and jam sandwiches to put in the bag lunches to be distributed to two low-income trailer parks locally by a friend’s church, I didn’t even get out much.

However, I did a bit of reading:

What I finished:

Why They Can’t Write by John Warner/ Coffee Poems: Reflections on Life with Cofee, edited by Lorraine Healy/ Under My Hijab, a children’s book written by Hena Khan and illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel/ Butterfly Yellow, a YA novel by Thanhiha Lai/ and a play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide /When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

What I am Continuing to Read:

Americanah by Chimananda Nzozi Adichie/ The Sparrow by  Mary Doria Russell/ Aftermath by Suzanne Morris, and continuing to watch episodes of the second season of Netflix’s The Outlander

Just Begun:

Rise and Shine, a novel by Anna Quindlin.

This week ahead promises to be full with an appointment to have the car worked on early tomorrow, a foot surgeon’s appointment Tuesday and a Grand Re-Opening to celebrate the fresh paint My Better Half put on my Little Free Library (complete with free books, cookies, small prizes, and a drawing to be held for a Barnes and Noble gift card) Wednesday morning for the neighborhood.

 

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

Technically, my last Sunday (Evening) Post that gave an update on what I was reading was on June 30th. I skipped the next Sunday, the 7th because I had just given a detailed update on my July 4th Personal Readathon where I described what I had finished, was reading and what I was looking forward to reading as of that date. When the 14th came, I was a day late on Saturday Mornings for Kids, so I posted it on Sunday instead.

And, here we are at another Sunday, the 21st, the next to the last Sunday in July.  Summer has been too long in some ways for me, too short in others.  I guess I fall into the category of, “You just can’t please some people”!

Here is what I have finished since the end of June: Art for Dummies/ What the Wind Knows (No, I lacked a few pages of finishing by the book club meeting, but even though the participants discussed the ending, I was intrigued and did finish it that afternoon./ No Time to Spare (essays from Ursula Guin), Unbecoming, Book “U” of The Alphabet Soup Challenge, The Readaholics, A Gothic Celebration (a cozy, bookish mystery I picked up and put down while waiting on other things and other people), No Ordinary time (see July 4 post), and Peter Elbow’s classic, Writing with Power.

Because I had spread myself very thin, I decided to postpone finishing Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind for Book “Z” until I had finished the other letters, and I also postponed starting Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe.

For some reason, I did more reading on Kindle. I started and am continuing to read The Sparrow, classic sci-fi; Why They Can’t Write; Americanah; and I am continuing to watch the last episodes of season 2 of The Outlander.

I haven’t been reading as much as usual, for I have been busy, but a good busy.We took birthday cakes and made visits to two Sunday School friends, another friend and I visited the local writer’s group’s meeting at the public library, I had two tutoring sessions with a great new pupil, I rounded up and mailed two big boxes of “stuff” to relatives I’ve been putting off since the middle of June, had time to blog and more importantly, enjoy friends’ blogs, and even went on “adventures” with My Better Half a couple of times, morning or afternoon errands/outings/retail therapy–eating out each time we did, of course. It has been hot here, but surprisingly not as hot as the rest of the country. The “feels like” temperatures in the afternoons hit 100-110 degrees, but looking at the national weather map, places that really aren’t used to this kind of heat are experiencing the same temperatures, an unusual phenomenon!

That’s my past few weeks, and I am looking forward to some really good watching, reading, and good things coming up in the week ahead.

Sunday (Evening) Post

When I first started Sunday (Evening) Post, I wrote, “I follow a blogger (Brainfluff) who has a post feature that is simply delightful and engaging, so I am posting my Sunday (Evening) Post here:” Basically, following Sarah’s lead, I posted WHAT I am reading/ WHAT I have finished/ and WHAT I’ve seen (TV, films, etc.) along with an update on the past week’s activities.

This past week, I have FINISHED: You Can Do Anything: The Surprise Power of the ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree by George Anders (2017). This book was a life-changer for me.  Not only did it persuade me I still had relevant skills in my current employment search (having majored in Literature in grad school), but now I am converting my copious notes into a brief to be read by my students in the fall.  YES, you read that correctly! I called to see if I could get my old job, teaching Advanced Writing back, and received an email back that began with 5 yesses”!  Not only that, but I can write my own curriculum, as we are looking for a section where Art majors will be successful and motivated to attend. (I am sure there will be more, much more on this later.)

I am CONTINUING to read Art for Dummies Hahaha–see where that came from? The only art class I took as an undergrad was Art Appreciation, part 2, which covered from the Byzantine period through the Italian Renaissance.  It was a wonderful course; and perhaps if I tell the art students (the other students will be from a variety of majors as was always the case) they need to be able to write appeals to their patrons for financial support and to owners of galleries asking for a show, the students will find the assignments relevant and helpful. I am extremely excited and very motivated myself!

Also, I CONTINUE the Alphabet Challenge, halfway through “Z”, chosen for the future exploration of “Books about Books,” The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon (remember I cheated a bit and went by author instead of title.). I am three-fourths of the way through  Unbecoming, a novel by Rebecca Scherm, then since my book club selection covered “V,” I will have only “W,” “X,” and “Y” to read by year’s end.

I decided it was time to get back to good sci-fi, so I am almost one third into The Sparrow, a fantastic book I put on my Kindle ages ago, making quite a list under “CONTINUING.” I am right in the middle of several books.

I am LOOKING FORWARD to reading What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon, the R.A.T. Pack (Senior Citizen’s) book club selection for July and a return to my pledge to read more non-fiction with Helen Thorpe’s Just Like Us, a journalist’s account of “four Mexican girls coming of age in America.” I enjoyed Thorpe’s Newcomers at the beginning of the year, and am glad to be returning to an author I respect and admire very much.

This is too long a post already, so I will save what I have “viewed” for another time. Right now I have to find my reading glasses and get busy!

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

My last Sunday (Evening) Post was on September 10th, so I have a good deal to post about the reading I have done since then.

Started Reading:

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk  I used this book, which was contributed to my Little Free Library for my First Line Friday post recently and made the comment that the opening was so rough I wondered if I could read it. I read the first chapter so far and am still not sure.

Continuing to Read:

Dogsbody by Gary Paulsen The story seems very promising, but because I have several library books checked out presently, I have had to put it aside.

Fix It, Clean It, and Make It Last by the editors of FC&A (whatever that is) is a DIY book which is going very slowly because I am taking copious notes. It, too, was donated to my LFL.

The Inexplainable Logic of My life is by one of my favorite authors, Saenz, who also wrote Ari and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was my introduction to this amazing author  It is on my Kindle app.

My Better Half and I are continuing to read aloud The Obelisk Gate.

Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being is a real “find,” and the perfect follow-up to listening to The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Finished:

Breakfast with Buddha by Merullo

Just Juice and The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown, two children’s chapter books which will be featured on Saturday’s Saturday Mornings for Kids post this coming week

I Want to Start Soon:

Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke, the Texas Gulf Coast Read and the October selection for our Third Tuesday Book Club

Evidence of Flossing by blogging friend Jennifer Payne, a collection of poetry

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, a novel we are considering as a book club selection  We have a “rule” that someone in the group has to have read the book before we consider it for a month’s selection.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me, and since several of these are library books, I need to “get cracking.”

Happy Reading!

 

Sunday Evening Post (on Saturday night)

Because tomorrow promises to be a full, busy day, I am posting my Sunday wrap-up a few hours ahead of time. The pace of our lives has picked up, as the new school semester rapidly approaches. Public schools here required new teachers to report this past Monday, and all teachers gather again this coming Monday. Students start on Thursday, August 16th, thus easing students (and teachers) into a short week, rather than go for five days in a row, right off the bat. My first class at the university is not until August 29th.  I am ready; sooooo ready.  I may have some time on my hands between now and then, so perhaps I will have time to read.

At the moment I am continuing to read:

Carry Me Like Water on my Kindle app

Singing and Swinging and Making Merry Like Christmas (Maya Angelou’s autobiography, volume 2)

The Fifth Season 

I put aside:

My book club’s selection for this month, Persuasion, by Jane Austin Perhaps the discussion of the book will make me want to go ahead and finish it.

I completed:  (to be totally honest, several were nearly done anyway)

The Dark Tower  by Stephen King, the seventh book in the series of the same name. This has been an on-going project both for King and myself.  We began the series in my junior high teaching days (which seems like another lifetime, definitely another teaching career) and I have enjoyed every book in the series. I think Wolves of the Calla is still my favorite because of the action-packed adventure and the “return” of characters from other stand alone books in this book of the series. The ending? Well, the ending was not totally satisfactory, but I agree with King when he said in his author’s notes at the end, it was the only suitable ending.

Dr. Sleep, also by King, which I reviewed here recently

Before We Were Yours, which I shall review soon

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, a most enjoyable read  This book started out with two original elements, a floating book barge, fully stocked and moored on the River Seine and a bookseller, the main character, who could diagnose his customers and prescribe exactly the book that would cure their “ills” or even change their lives. It was perhaps the best book I read this summer.

This week brings one final medical test, and I am going to make an appointment with my GP to tell him the changes he has made to treat my high blood pressure just isn’t working out.  The medication is causing an annoying, constant cough which is hindering my ability to talk and is keeping me awake almost all night.  This has to be “fixed” before I go back to school.  Ah, the joys of the “Golden Years”!

 

Sunday (Evening) Post on Monday

Yesterday got away from me, and so I am writing Sunday’s intended post on Monday. Looking back at the last one on June 18th, I found that I had started Dr. Sleep by Stephen King which I am still continuing to read, in fact, nearing the “finish line”; and my, is it good! Also I had started Carry Me Like Water by Saenz, which I am also continuing to read on Kindle.  At the time I was still reading The Lightening Thief by Riordian which I have since finished and reviewed on this blog. We also were continuing our shared project, Book One of the Broken Earth Series as a read-aloud, and this past weekend we made more progress than usual, reading three chapters rather than just two.  I hope to get in a chapter a night during the week this week, so we’ll be ready to move on to Book Two soon.  It is a fun thing to read aloud together, and My Better Half and I are thoroughly enjoying the action, drama, and beautiful writing of this series.

Now on to my post for July 15th. As of Sunday, I completed Finish Strong, an inspirational book which I had set aside several months ago. I am very glad I read the final chapters, for they were some of the most helpful. I also read The Houston Chronicle Sunday edition from cover to cover and now feel prepared to face a new week of issues and news stories with a good background.

I started Maya Angelou’s second book in her seven volume autobiography, Singing and Swinging and Making Merry Like Christmas and several poems from Shaker Why Don’t You Sing? , one of her lesser known collections of poetry. I found both while moving books around on the shelf and discovered I had them but had never read them.

I binged watched several episodes from The Crown on Netflix, nearing the completion of the first season. I also watched two episodes from another Netflix series, Strange Empire.

I quit reading and delegated to my Little Free Library Golden Son,a story about an Indian pre-med student which was just too much like other novels I’d read on the same topic.

I am looking forward to reading Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter, another “find” on my own shelf.

This is already proving to be a very busy week ahead with a doctor’s appointment this morning, a test to be done Thursday, but it also promises lunch with friends to discuss The Great American Read and a concert at the university Thursday night.  Full, yes. But, never boring!

 

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written a Sunday Evening Post, and I thought I had given it up, but several blogging friends write updates of some sort, and they often end with, “What are you reading?” So, I’ve decided to give it another go, and this is my update, my Sunday (Evening) Post.

What I have recently finished:

Today’s Sunday edition of The Houston Chronicle

The Accidental Life by Terry McDonell, recently reviewed on this blog

What on Earth Am I Here for?, an inspirational study by Rick Warren, which I borrowed from my church library, which will be reviewed on this blog soon

The Light Between the Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, also to be reviewed soon

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong, which I read earlier, then reread in a feeble attempt to write a review which would do it justice, but still have not accomplished

What I started this week:

Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, which describes the life and “adventures” of a grown up Daniel Torrance, the young son in the novel who had the “shining”

Carry Me Like Water by Saenz, which is on my Kindle, and because of that, may be a challenging read for me

Still reading:

The Lightning Thief , a YA novel by Rick Riordan

Book VII of The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King, which I have been reading for years and can’t bear to be “through”

The Fifth Season, first book of the Broken Earth Trilogy, which my Better Half and I are reading aloud together

What I watched this past week:

A Promise, a love story set in Germany during the war

a heart warming, tear jerker of an episode of “Queer Eye” recommended and sent to me by my grandson

several episodes of a Netflix original series, “Strange Empire”

 

SUNDAY (EVENING) POST

The last time I did one of these was April 15th. I could blame it on the end of the semester; I could blame it on having back and foot trouble and having to schedule doctor’s visits and “down times,” but I guess I’d better “‘fess up” and tell the truth–I have been incredibly lazy. Not only have I not reported on books read, but I have not kept track of them at all, not even in my reading log. I am sure I have turned in to the library some books I have borrowed and read, and I KNOW I have purchased and read books and passed them along or put them in my LFL (Little Free Library).  This is the best I can do for now.

Books I have read:

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson which I borrowed from the library This one I found at the public library and finished in two days

I finished Kiss Her Goodbye for the “K” in my “Alphabet Challenge.”

Just Thinking, a collection of poems by blogger and author Colin Chappell

Remains of the Day, the April selection for our Third Tuesday Book Club

Tell Me More, a collection of essays

I have set aside (again) Book VII (the end of the series) of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower”

 

Books I have started and am continuing to read:

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Neffenegger  This book was published in 2003; why am I just reading it now? Described to me as a “tear jerker” by the librarian who recommended it, it is a wonderful read I literally can’t put down.

My Better Half and I have begun reading aloud a three book series, book one being The Fifth Season written by N.K. Jemisin.

My current non-fiction read is Rick Warren’s What on Earth Am I Here for? The situation is one is supposed to read one chapter a day and think about it all day.  There are also “talks” that go along with each chapter. I checked this one out of my church library, but it is way overdue, so I probably should buy a copy before continuing.

The Last Apprentice,a YA book I picked for the letter “L,” rescuing it after it was run over in the street near my house, then giving it one last read before tossing it (It was too dilapidated and tattered to put it in my LFL.)

For the letter “M,” I have begun The Man Without a Shadow by Joyce Carol Oates, one which I will definitely want to review (if I can!).

A blogger friend, James J. Cudney of “This is my Truth Now” blog’s second novel (first was Watching Glass Shatter), Father Figure is a recent purchase and one I’m enjoying a great deal.

Finally, I have picked up a book I started many months ago and forgot I had, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. I’m only “in” a few chapters, but I do know it’s one I want to read and will enjoy finishing.

So, grades are posted. A celebratory lunch took place for the end of the semester, and OBVIOUSLY plans for the coming week are to catch up on my reading and finish what I’ve begun!

HAPPY READING