Carol's Notebook – Page 156

Sunday Salon – 2/2

February 2, 2020February 2, 2020 by Carol11 Comments

Thanks to Deb at Readerbuzz for hosting The Sunday Salon. Stop over there or at the Facebook Group to participate. We took Amber back to college today, so we ended up missing most of the Super Bowl, including the halftime show. I don't really care about the game, but usually watch it anyway. Week’s Highlight: I don't think we really did anything interesting this week. David and Amber went to a hockey game, but I stayed home. The poor dog had an ear infection but is feeling better now. Reading: I'm currently in the middle of two vintage mysteries: Left-Handed Death by Richard Hull and Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham. I like Allingham's Campion; he amuses me. This week’s posts: Becoming by Michelle ObamaOrlando by Virginia Woolf Playing: We played Vindication Saturday night. It's a good game and I really like the base game contains so many modules. It gives it a lot of replayability. "Thrown overboard for a life of wretchedness, you wash ashore a hostile island ruins — completely alone with...

Readathin

February 1, 2020February 6, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

Readathin starts today. It's my first time participating. It should be fun. The hosts are Amanda from A Court Of Books And Love & Donna from Momsbookcollection. Readathin is a month long readathon that is held in February, May, August, and November every year. The goal for Readathin is to “thin” out your TBRs. While you can read any books you have on your TBR, the main purpose of the readathon is to read books from your physical TBR (or eTBR since we all know those can get out of hand as well). During February your goal is to read as many books that you already own as you can! Take the time to enjoy the books, but also make sure you’re working on your physical TBR. And there are challenges, but you don't have to do them all. You don’t have to do any of the challenges if you don’t want to. There's also an Instagram challenge. I'm so terrible at those,...

Cloak and Dagger Challenge February Link-Up

February 1, 2020February 6, 2020 by Carol3 Comments

Happy February! I found a list of the birthdates of some notable mystery/thriller authors. Here are a few of the February ones. John Grisham - Feb 8, 1955. The first John Grisham book I read was The Pelican Brief. I was in high school and we went to Disney World with band. I saw someone reading it on the plane and I picked it up as soon as we got home. I don't remember if I bought it or if it was from the library.Andrew M. Greeley - Feb 5, 1928 Novelist, writer on religion and sociology, and Catholic priest. Wrote series featuring the mystery-solving priest Blackie Ryan and the fey, amateur sleuth Nuala Anne McGrail. I know I read a bunch of his books back when, but am not sure which titles.Sidney Sheldon - Feb 11, 1917. Another author I read in high school/early 20s. Georges Simenon - Feb 13, 1903. Belgian mystery writer, creator of Inspector Maigret.Margaret Truman -...

Becoming by Michelle Obama

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020 by Carol6 Comments

In Becoming, Michelle Obama tells her story. She talks about growing up poor in Southside Chicago. She talks about the love of her family, the value they placed on hard work and education. She discusses her career, the right path she started on and the twists and turns it took. She talks about meeting Barack, their early marriage, and how they function as a couple. Of course, she eventually gets around to the presidential campaign and their time in the White House, but she (mostly) stays with her point of view, her difficulties, and her initiatives. She also touches on her difficulties with putting her career on hold to support her husband's career and how unfair things could feel. She talks about the difficulties of raising two girls, the tightrope of keeping them safe but allowing them to have "normal" childhoods and teen years, of appreciating the luxuries they have but still being grounded in "regular" life. Michelle Obama is...

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 by Carol6 Comments

Orlando is a beautiful novel. The writing is smooth and descriptive. Orlando, man or woman, is charming and intelligent and introspective. He/she cares about literature and nature, love and (sometimes) people. It's rather plotless. Time passes, fashions change, but not much really happens. And the things that do, like Orlando becoming a woman rather than a man or living 300+ years, are treated as no bigger, no life-changing than day to day events. Orlando handles everything with grace and honesty. at heart, she is the same person he had always been. Reading Orlando in 2020 is not the same as reading when it was first published. When Orlando becomes a woman, she cannot inherit her own home. She can't be an Ambassador again. She feels she needs to be more aware of others see her. We forget that at the time women were just gaining the vote when this was published, and Woolf uses her book to show the...

Sunday Salon – 1/26

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 by Carol10 Comments

Thanks to Deb at Readerbuzz for hosting The Sunday Salon. Stop over there or at the Facebook Group to participate. Week’s Highlight: Amber and I went to the Carnegie Natural History/Art Museum on Monday. We had a nice day. On the way up we stopped and had lunch with David and saw their new offices (which I didn't get any photos of.) Reading: I finished Orlando for my Classics Club Spin. Hopefully, I'll have my thoughts up later today. Readathin starts February 1st. This is the first time I'll be participating, but the goal is to Thin Your TBR. There are book prompts and a photo challenge. This week’s posts: The Black Cat Murders by Karen Baugh MenuhinLost Hills by Lee Goldberg Playing: We played Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates! for the first time the other night. It will probably end up being called Pirate Race. You're all trying to get to the Spanish Fleet in Trinidad, but also want to stop and pick up treasure and rescue or kidnap pirates along the way. It...