Month: October 2023

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? Is hosted by The Book Date. It is a place to share all your reading updates.

CURRENTLY READING

As usual, I’m in various stages of reading several books. You can click on the covers for buy links and other information.

March 1817: As winter turns to spring, Jane Austen’s health is in slow decline, and threatens to cease progress on her latest manuscript. But when her nephew Edward brings chilling news of a death at his former school, Winchester College, not even her debilitating ailment can keep Jane from seeking out the truth. Arthur Prendergast, a senior pupil at the prestigious all-boys’ boarding school, has been found dead in a culvert near the schoolgrounds—and in the pocket of his drenched waistcoat is an incriminating note penned by the young William Heathcote, the son of Jane’s dear friend Elizabeth. Winchester College is a world unto itself, with its own language and rites of passage, cruel hazing and dangerous pranks. Can Jane clear William’s name before her illness gets the better of her?

I’ll be posting the review of Jane and the Final Mystery on Wednesday this week.

What’s in a name?

Her trailblazer of a distant cousin forged a solitary, singular path during and after WWII. Unassuming and somewhat clueless, Christine eventually finds she has to do pretty much the same. A teen fully expecting her Midwestern life would be drab and ho-hum, she meets in Germany an elderly man who offered her a ride – and insight into a legacy she was going to rely on throughout her entire life.

Marrying the wrong guy, divorced, isolated, and responsible for four chronically ill children, she charged forward, brooking no fools to get her children the healthcare and education they richly deserved, even if that meant blackmailing the governor of Iowa. She took on the powers that be (including spooks invading her home for six months), while always striving for the career she pined for.

Throughout all the decades of financial and personal setbacks and the chaos that swirled around her, Christine’s legacy constantly beckoned her: to be worthy of that distant cousin, WWII’s most decorated courier, and of a timeless love story she witnessed.
Christine’s life journey, including her 12 years in Poland (her other homeland), is a stirring testament to determination, imagination, and the power of perseverance.

I should have the review of Confronting Power and Chaos up by this Saturday

Once upon a time, if you wanted to know if a movie was worth seeing, you didn’t check out Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.

You asked whether Siskel & Ebert had given it “two thumbs up.”

On a cold Saturday afternoon in 1975, two men (who had known each other for eight years before they’d ever exchanged a word) met for lunch in a Chicago pub. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Roger Ebert had recently won the Pulitzer Prize—the first ever awarded to a film critic—for his work at the Chicago Sun-Times. To say they despised each other was an understatement.

When they reluctantly agreed to collaborate on a new movie review show with PBS, there was at least as much sparring off-camera as on. No decision—from which films to cover to who would read the lead review to how to pronounce foreign titles—was made without conflict, but their often-antagonistic partnership (which later transformed into genuine friendship) made for great television. In the years that followed, their signature “Two thumbs up!” would become the most trusted critical brand in Hollywood.

I hope to have Opposable Thumbs reviewed by next Monday, if not before.

Although Layla has finally returned to her family on the other side of the Atrium of the Worlds, she is about to lose the little sister she only just met. As she, Charissa, and Eraina desperately try to wake Princess Sophia from her coma, Hamelin must face the consequences of his rash actions that led the eagle to return him home. Meanwhile, one of Chimera’s evil sons, Landon, still holds the city of Parthogen captive with his army and pack of vicious dogs. As he grows bolder in his attacks against King Carr’s encampment, it’s up to Hamelin and his friends to save not only Sophia but all of Parthogen before Landon’s reinforcements arrive and doom the Land of Gloaming forever.

This is Book 4 of the Hamelin Stoop series, the magical Christian fantasy series about a boy left on the stoop of an orphanage. Reading it in order is best. I’ve just started Book 4 but hope to get the review up by late next week.

BOOK HAUL

I’ve become a big fan of the two authors below. Rachel Kapelke Dale writes such surprising and suspenseful books, and Amy Lynn Green’s historical fiction has become a “must-read” for me. Click on the covers to learn more about the books.

THIS WEEK IN GENERAL

Not too much exciting happened this week. Lots of working and a little baking. I made my own New-England-style hot dog buns in the bread machine and they turned out great. I have discovered an allergy/sensitivity to soy, and apparently it’s in everything, including most commercial bread products, so we have been making our own bread. Sadly it’s in most chocolate too.

Doug and I have been watching Call the Midwife over again. We are on Season 7. They are up to Season 12 now and I think I stopped watching before Season 10 last time.

Beyond that, I’ve just been working, and reading and blogging when I can.

I hope you had a great week!