Like most people I'm sure, I'll be glad to flip the calendar from 2020. I started this blog in 2010, at the end of (for me) a tumultuous year. 2020 has been less personally challenging but still no picnic. I tried for a few years doing a year-end sum-up of things that made me laugh/cry/get... Continue Reading →
2020 Reading Challenge – summary
I don't know why I haven't done this before - a summary of the year's reading. Perhaps I've just gotten more organized in recent year. Here's the final book list for 2020: 1 – Body part in title Any Human Heart – William Boyd 2 – Published before 1939 Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf 3... Continue Reading →
Landmarks, by Robert MacFarlane. Book report #35 (2020)
Landmarks, by Robert MacFarlane. Pub 2015 I have wanted to read something by Robert MacFarlane, and when I saw that I needed a language book to complete my list for 2020, he was a good choice. I opted for this book because I already owned it (otherwise, I would likely have chosen The Lost Words).... Continue Reading →
Moon of the Crusted Snow, by Waubgeshig Rice. Book report #34 (2020)
Moon of the Crusted Snow, by Waubgeshig Rice. Pub 2018 I chose this one based on one of those "staff picks" walls at a local bookstore (obviously, a while ago). It has been on my to-read list for a while, and so was on the list of books I gave to my sister for Christmas... Continue Reading →
The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson. Book report #33* (2020)
The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larsen. Pub 2020 This was a leftover from vacation, and one that I don't recall how or why it made it into my book pile, as it's not a genre (historical war fiction) I normally go for. I have wanted to know/learn more about Winston Churchill, but I... Continue Reading →
Remembering Pop
It is a week of remembrances, in a month of loss, in a year of change and fear. Pop left us 10 years ago today, and like most of the recent past, it seems like both a lifetime ago and just yesterday. In a book I read recently, the main character and his friends have... Continue Reading →
A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. Book report #30 (2020)
A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. Pub 2016 This book was suggested by a friend, and since a book with a place name in the title was still unticked on my list, I decided to give a shot. I was initially daunted by the book length, but got over that soon enough. By page... Continue Reading →
Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Book report #29 (2020)
Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Pub 1925 Another of the should-reads and never-read-agains, I sought this out specifically for the pre-1925 category. Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is having a party tonight. We see the entirety of the day told in considerable detail and meet many people in her circle and beyond. The perspective shifts throughout as... Continue Reading →
Permanent Record, by Edward Snowden. Book report #28 (2020)
Permanent Record, by Edward Snowden. Pub 2019 This was the last of the vacation reads - a gift from my sister at Christmas last year, and long overdue to read. I've stayed up late a few nights this week with this one. Edward Snowden needs no introduction as the whistleblower of the US NSA mass... Continue Reading →
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller. Book report #27 (2020)
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller. Pub 2012. I wanted to have a "sure thing" in my vacation library - a book that I knew would be good and that I'd enjoy, even if all the others were bad or boring. This seemed like the ticket (based on reviews by friends), so into the... Continue Reading →
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