Carol's Notebook – Page 191

24in48 Readathon

January 26, 2019January 28, 2019 by Carol5 Comments

The 24in48 Readathon just started. This is the first time I'm participating, but it seems fun. From the website: This is the basic gist: beginning at 12:01am (official timezone is EST) on Saturday morning and running through 11:59pm on Sunday night, participants read for 24 hours out of that 48-hour period. You can split that up however you’d like: 20 hours on Saturday, four hours on Sunday; 12 hours each day; six four-hour sessions with four hour breaks in between. You can pause as much as you need, enjoy regularly scheduled weekend activities, nap, stop for dance breaks with your kids or pets or neighbors. Whatever works for you. As always, I'll update here, but I'm also in Instagram and Twitter as @carolsnotebook. I'm starting off with The Three Musketeers, which I'm hoping to maybe finish. I also have a couple of chapters to read in Don Quixote. If I happen to finish The Three Musketteers, or need a break from it, I may move on...

Sunday Salon – 1/20

January 20, 2019January 20, 2019 by Carol9 Comments

Well, our snowstorm was nowhere near as bad as predicted which makes me happy. Week’s Highlight: We went to the Cirque du Soleil's Corteo in Pittsburgh today. It was really fabulous. The acrobats are amazingly talented, but it's also a gorgeous and the music is beautiful. I borrowed the photo below, but it shows my favorite act of the show. photo from thebuzzmagazines,com Reading: I'm on page 319 of The Three Musketeers. I really love how the three Musketeer's and D'Artagnan's characters are taking shape. I love how they turn situations to their advantage. Some parts are downright funny too. I've read 20 chapters Don Quixote, on track with Silvia Cachia’s read-a-long. I think Don Quixote's supposed to be funny, but most of the time I find myself feeling sorry for him. I've been listening to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It covers a lot of ground and is really interesting. I just wish I could remember more of it. I know, I could...

Sunday Salon – 1/13

January 13, 2019January 13, 2019 by Carol11 Comments

It snowed yesterday. I'm really not a fan of winter. Week’s Highlight: I'm not sure if it's exactly a highlight, but David started taking down the wall between on our dining and living rooms. We had an arch there, but we're replacing it with antique pocket doors we salvaged from a house that was being torn down. Celebrating: Amber's 19th birthday was Friday, so we went out to eat at a restaurant of her choice. She went with a local Italian place - yum! Reading: I'm already one book behind on my Goodreads goal, but I did post my reivew of Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny the other day. You can find it here. I'm on page 289 of The Three Musketeers. My copy has 704 pages, but it's flying by. It's pretty close to what I was expecting. I'm reading about a chapter a day of Don Quixote, which should keep me on track with Silvia Cachia’s read-a-long. I'm not in love with...

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 by Carol11 Comments

Penny's Inspector Gamache series is definitely one that is best to read from the beginning. However, this is #14, which makes it a bit difficult, so it you want to jump in here, I'd recommend you at least read Glass Houses, #13, as it connects closely with some of the events in Kingdom of the Blind. We've got two story lines in this one. There's the mysterious will and dead man in a collapsed house. Then, there's secondary one involving the drugs Gamache allowed to get onto the streets of Montreal in the previous. The Baroness, Bertha Baumgartnor, a cleaning woman who lived near Three Pines, wrote the will mentioned in the blurb, splitting between her children a vast fortune and properties that she clearly did not have. The dead man is her son. The piece about the collapsed farmhouse, about the search and rescue, is one of the tensest scenes on the book. Winter in Quebec can be dangerous. I loved...

Sunday Salon: New Year

January 6, 2019January 6, 2019 by Carol13 Comments

It's a new year with new books and new adventures. Week's Highlight: We went to see Hamilton in Pittsburgh yesterday. It was fabulous! My mom got us the tickets for Christmas. Celebrating: Monday was New Year's Eve and we had some friends over to our house for board games and food. It was fun, if unexciting. We got two new board games for Christmas, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Spirit Island. They're both fun and neither are too heavy. Reading: My first print book of the year is The Three Musketeers. My copy has 704 pages; I'm currently on page 102. So far I'm enjoying it. I also want to join in with Silvia Cachia's read-a-long of Don Quixote, another long classic, but at 7 chapters a week I think I can keep up. My first audio is The Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. Fitness: One of my unstated goals for 2019 is getting back to running. I've been on the treadmill...

Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge Wrap-up

January 4, 2019January 3, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

As always, I enjoyed Michelle's Christmas Reading Challenge. I met my goal of 5-6 books. Here's my list: Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith (review)The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford (review)Not a Creature Was Purring by Krista Davis (review)‘Twas the Knife Before Christmas by Jacqueline Frost (review)Slay Bells by T. C. Wescott (review)Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (review) Novellas: Santa Puppy by Lynn Cahoon (review)A Christmas Tartan by Paige Shelton (review)Secret Santa by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards (review) Short Story: “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” by Agatha Christie (review) Childrens Books: Scampy Doodle and the Reindeer by G. J. Barnes (review)...