The Sunday Post 27; It's Monday, what are you reading? 27

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

My week was relatively uneventful. Work was a place I went to so I could earn my paycheck and pay taxes like a good citizen. It's springtime here which, in September and October tends to mean very unsettled weather, and it rained for a lot of last week. Which is fine, I enjoy the rain as long as I'm not out in it.

Add in some very strong winds and little sunshine though and it does get a bit trying. However, it's been warmer and much less rainy today, which has been nice. 

We won at quiz on Wednesday night, which is always nice. 

Friday night I ordered pizza for tea and watched a terrible movie with a group of twitter friends - it's something we do periodically and it's always fun.

Saturday I did a little bit of stitching - I have a dragon WIP that is all shades of green, so I can really only work on it in daylight. Saturday morning tends to be the best time to get that done. Spawn and I went to the library after lunch, and I wend to my friend's as usual. We watched the end of The Traitors UK, which was great, and The Traitors is now one of my favourite reality shows.

At the moment I'm also enjoying a couple of home-grown reality shows - House Rules NZ where teams renovate each other's house and are scored on it, and Celebrity Treasure Island, where celebrities (well, NZ value for celebrity, we don't have a deep well to draw on) compete in a Survivor-style game to win money for charity. It's a lot of fun, though one of my favourites went home last week. 

What else. I haven't done a lot today. Spawn and I watched some Golden Girls - he loves it - and I did some stitching. We also baked a lemon loaf, which came out really well. Spawn did most of the work, while I directed operations. 

I'm still reading Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six and it's okay, but a little bit annoying with the time jumps and the implied You Will Never Guess Who This Person Is. It's due back at the library via Libby in a couple of days, so I need to try and get it finished. I'm also still reading River God, and I picked up a non-fiction book - Persians: The Age of Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellen Jones. I don't read a lot of non-fiction but occasionally 

The Sunday Post 26; It's Monday! What are you reading? 26

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

Okay, the week that was ...

I had a very sore right arm on Monday - I still don't know what I did to it, but even driving home from work was a struggle, and I had to go around corners with only one hand on the steering wheel.

I had Tuesday off luckily, so I thought "painkillers and rest" which is what I did, while bingeing Only Murders in the Building. Wednesday morning I woke up, had a shower and realised that my arm was too sore for me to put a bra on. So I got as dressed as I could, and took a sick day. More painkillers and rest, and that - so far - has done the trick. 

My workmate who had Covid is back, so our workload was not as great as it had been.

Friday night I was going to watch a movie with Spawn, but a friend of his came over for a sleepover, so I watched The Matrix Resurrection, and wished I hadn't. It is a movie that I watched. I can't say it was good, because it wasn't. But I managed to get some stitching done - my friend's birthday is next month, so I'm making something small for her.

Saturday morning I did some stitching and watched another terrible movie - The Misfits on Netflix. Not the old-school one with Marilyn Monroe but an egregious heist movie with Pierce Brosnan. I love a good heist movie. But this was not that.

I took the boys into town after lunch so Spawn's friend could meet up with his family, and Spawn and I then went to the library. I went to my friend's place as usual last night, and we discussed whether we'd make good traitors or faithfuls - we're still watching The Traitors UK.

Today she talked me into going to the movies to see A Haunting in Venice and frankly I wish she hadn't. I love Agatha Christie, and I'm ambivalent on Kenneth Branagh's Poirot, but this movie ... was certainly something that I watched. It's apparently based on the novel Hallowe'en Party, but it bears about as much resemblance to that book as I do to Kenneth Branagh.

And it was just ... tedious. Heavy on jumpscares and symbolism and honestly I think if I'd been alone I  might have just left. 

Anyway, here we are. I still need to make my bed and cook dinner, so thought I'd get this done first.

I finished High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips - she of 1980s One Day at a Time fame and also the daughter of John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas. It is an interesting read, but a very disturbing one. 

I'm still reading Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, and I started River God by Wilbur Smith. I actually read it years ago, but I have the series up to Desert God, so thought I'd start over. It's not a short book, so that one is going to be read in short bursts. 

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Two reviews

 

It's 1983, and Susan Arkshaw has just turned 18. She moves to London, intending to start art college, and look for her father.

However, Susan's life takes a very different turn when she meets Merlin - a left-handed bookseller. From the moment Susan meets Merlin her life goes down a very different - and very magical path.

I can't be articulate about this book. I loved it so much. There's something cosy about it somehow? There's magic, and there's myth and a little bit of romance, and some really excellent worldbuilding. 

It is honestly pure fantasy escapism in the best way.

Twenty year after his sister Tara has disappeared, Peter receives a phone call from his parents. Tara has turned up. The trouble is - she looks exactly the same as she did when she vanished 20 years ago, and she's come back with a wild tale of where she has been.

For Tara, it's only been six months, and she's been living in a very strange kind of fairyland. 

The book weaves together the past, the present and Tara's story of her time in the other land to create a kind of modern myth, almost. There's the mundane of Peter's life with his family, and the wild of Tara's story, and the in-between as well. 

It's an extremely readable book that does make you think "What if?"

The Sunday Post 25; It's Monday! What are you reading? 25

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to catch up - is hosted by Kimberly here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are  you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

The week that was .... let's see.

Work was busy, but not overwhelming. One of my team members - the one who went on the cruise - came home with Covid, and so was off sick all last week. Hopefully she's feeling better this week.

We came third at quiz on Wednesday night, which for me is frustrating. It's always a fun night, but I'm competitive, so I like to win. The pub is closed this week for renovations, so no quiz this week.

There was a movie night at work on Friday after work. I wasn't going to go, because I like to sit in my house on Friday nights and do nothing, but it was organised by one of my work friends, so I went to support her.

It was a good night actually - we had snacks, pizza and watched Dogma. AND I was home by 9. 

Spawn went to a friend's place on Friday night for a party/sleepover and I picked him up on Saturday morning. We went to the library and I had a couple of other errands to run, so did those as well.

Now, of course, he's sick. Blocked nose, sore throat, the full monty. Poor kid. 

Today I haven't done much at all. I'm going to park up in the living room with TV and some stitching, and that will be my day.

I finished Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce, and really enjoyed it.

I'm still reading A Marvellous Light by Freya  Marske, and that's really good. I also had Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six as a digital loan, and I had started it, but it's due back today. So I'll just borrow that one again when it's available.

A workmate loaned me The Crow graphic novel, and if I have time I'm going to pick that up today.

How about you? How's' your week? What are you reading?

The Sunday Post 24; It's Monday! What are you reading? 24

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a catch-up - is hosted by Kimberly here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

The week that was.

Work was certainly a place I went to every day to remain a law-abiding tax-paying citizen.

Our library has a book sale every year to offload withdrawn books. The sale ran Monday to Friday, and as I finish at 5pm on Tuesdays, a friend of mine and I went after work. Spoiler alert: I bought some books. 

We won at quiz on Wednesday night, by a margin of 1 point, and it was a fun evening.

On Friday night after work I went to a workmate's place as a group of us celebrated the end of The Rock 2000 countdown: https://www.therock.net.nz/home/music/the-rock-2000.html

It's a yearly countdown of the top 2000 rock songs voted by listeners. Every year a few of us have a friendly competition trying to guess what will be in the top 10. I lost early on, thanks to Ozzy Osborne playing at number 500. Anyway. This year we decided to listen to the end of it all in the same place and have snacks. We played board games and also bonded with the host's cat. 

It was a fun evening.

On Saturday Spawn and I went to the library as he had a game to return. The library sale was technically over, but you could fill a box for $5 from the books that remained. Spoiler alert: I bought more books.

I went to my friend's as usual on Saturday night, and we started on The Traitors UK, which is a lot of fun.

Today I've done some stitching and podcast listening - two activities which go very well together. I've been listening to You Must Remember This: https://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/ which is about Hollywood's first century. 

I also made progress on my reading corner. I repurposed a shelf that's been sitting in our hallway for weeks, and stacked it with the books I got at the library sale, and a few other strays. Also, snacks. Now I just need a comfy chair.

I didn't end up starting the Star Trek novel. I had The Left-Hand Booksellers of London as a digital lend from the library, and it was almost due, so I ended up reading that instead, and absolutely loved it.

I'm still reading Some Kind of Fairy Tale, which I'm still enjoying, and I started A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske - an M/M fantasy suspense novel. So far it's proving to be very light and magical.

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

The Sunday Post 23; It's Monday! What are you reading? 23

 

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to catch up - is hosted by Kimberly here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/

Let's see .... 

My working week was okay - busy as one of my team is on holiday, cruising around the South Pacific. But I'd rather be busy. The unfortunate side effect of that is my braincells get tired and I make mistakes. But I try to be philosophical about them so I don't carry them around with me rent-free.

We won at quiz on Wednesday night on a tiebreaker, which was tense, but fun as always.

On Friday night, Spawn and I had pizza pockets and watched Sing 2. It was fun, and we both wanted something we didn't have to focus on too much. I also finished the project on the left - a small gift for a workmate - it just needs to be ironed, framed and handed on now.

Spawn, myself and a friend of mine went to the library yesterday. Spawn is currently very big on Ancient Egypt, thanks to playing Assassins Creed Origins, so he got out a couple of non-fiction books on that. He's not a great reader, but I'm always happy to encourage any reading he does want to do.

We also went to a garage sale in support of a local animal rescue. I found a small purse for $4 and an iron (I've been needing one for a while) for $10.00 so I thought that was all right.

J finally found some kitchen chairs at one of the secondhand stores. They're sturdy wooden ones - not flash, but much better than the fabric ones we did have that had been torn to shreds by the cats. 

I went to my friend's last night as usual where we stitched and watched TV. 

Today I've made chocolate chip muffins, and they are good if a little ... crunch. Nothing a few seconds in the microwave can't fix, I'm sure.

I finished Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P G Wodehouse, which I was reading before bed. Every so often I like to dip into Star Trek novels - they're usually entertaining and readable, and not too mentally demanding. So I have Captain to Captain by Greg Cox lined up next.

I'm also reading Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce. I haven't read any of Graham Joyce's novels for many years, but he is one of my favourite authors. I have had this book on my shelves for a very long time, and discovered an absolute treasure when I opened it.

I must have specifically ordered this copy, but I don't remember it, so got a very pleasant surprise. It's even more of a treasure to me as Graham Joyce died in 2014.

So far I'm greatly enjoying the book, and it's making me want to go back and read or re-read his other novels. 

How about you? How's your week? What are you reading?