Carol's Notebook – Page 210

What Is Your Favorite Classic?

May 11, 2018May 10, 2018 by Carol8 Comments

The Classics Club has brought back its monthly meme. Here's the question for May: What is your favorite classic book? Why? I love a lot of classics, but my absolute favorite is probably The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père. It's been 10 years since I've read it, so I don't remember all the details, but I do remember it was awesome. It's got a bit of everything, adventure, danger, revenge, love, redemption. It's got secret identities and so much treasure. It's also compulsively readable. It's a chunkster - and do read the unabridged version - but the writing, the characters, the plot, just make you want to keep reading. The Three Musketeers is on my to-read list for this year....

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

May 10, 2018May 10, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

https://twitter.com/carolsnotebook/status/992475284963233793 I don't usually notice who narrates the audiobooks I pick up, especially those from the library, so I didn't realize Ralph Cosham was the narrator of The Scarlet Pimpernel, until he said "Armand," and then I was like "oh, yeah." His narration here was as good as I remembered. He does a wonderful job with both the British and French characters. The Scarlet Pimpernel is just a fun adventure/romance story. The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the first heroes with a secret identity, kind of like Batman. Sir Percy Blakeney is an English dandy, concerned with dressing well, being amusing, but not incredible bright. That's just a disguise he's cultivated to cover his secret identity as the Scarlet Pimpernel, the leader of a group of daring Englishmen who rescue French nobility headed toward the guillotine. But his wife doesn't know about his secret - and ends up putting him in grave danger. But I'm sure it's not spoiling anything to say that...

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh

May 9, 2018May 9, 2018 by Carol3 Comments

I've gone back and finally read the first 3 of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn series, and actually read them in order to boot. Each one of these early entries is a bit better than the one before. In The Nursing Home Murder, which actually takes place in a hospital, we finally get to see a more polished Alleyn. He's still witty, but there no moments that are completely out of character as there were in the first two. These first few have been even more formulaic than vintage mysteries usually are. We meet the suspect, the murder occurs, Alleyn investigates, and finally there's a reconstruction where the murderer gives himself away. This time around, the victim is the Home Secretary. When he is rushed to the hospital, we know he's doomed, there are just too many people who want him dead, including the communists sympathizers who have been sending him death threats and a doctor who was one of his close...

First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros

May 8, 2018 by Carol3 Comments

Every Tuesday Vicki at I'd Rather Be At the Beach hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros, where we share the first paragraph or two of a book we are reading or thinking about reading soon. Mine comes from On the Ganges by George Black. Month after month, snow blankets the great wall of rock that separates India from China and Tibet. It settles, compacts, changes its crystalline structure, freezes solid. The mountain peaks, the highest on earth, are covered with endless fields of ice. Sometimes people call them the Third Pole. No one really knows how many glaciers there are in the Himalayas. Some say ten thousand; some say more. in our warming world, it isn't as big as it used to be. Before I left New Delhi for the mountains, I went to see India's best-known glaciologist, Syed Iqbal Hasnain. A jovial, white-haired, grandfatherly man, he told me that the glacier used to cover more than two hundred and fifty square kilometers—about a...

Readers’ Workouts – 5/8

May 8, 2018May 9, 2018 by Carol8 Comments

I got my steps in this week! This week's activities: Thursday: Elliptical, Yoga Thursday: Yoga Saturday: Yoga Monday: Yoga, Walk Dinners: We've entered banquet season. Tuesday - Burger and fries (Wendy's - we didn't have electric) Wednesday - Band Banquet Thursday - Kielbasa and sweet potato fries Friday - Leftovers Saturday - Sausage sandwich and pasta (at mom's) Sunday - Honors Banquet Monday - Taco pizza Yesterday's pizza: https://www.instagram.com/p/BihfNYMBVO3/?taken-by=carolsnotebook Current Audiobook: (It is Readers Workouts after all) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, read by Ralph Cosham Goals for May Gym – 4 times (current: 1) Yoga – 12 times (current: 4) 25 pts in the #spottydogmay (Current: 7) Meal ideas for next week: Hawaiian bowls Fettucine alfredo with chicken Ranch chicken Szechwan Shrimp BBQ Chicken Tostados 2018 Fitness Goals: - Lose weight. Goal - Lose 25 lbs. - Run 4 races of any length - Hit my weekly step goal (average 8,000 steps/day) for 36 weeks. (Current total: 11) How was your week? Readers’ Workouts is hosted by Joy at Joy’s Book Blog...

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

May 4, 2018May 10, 2018 by Carol7 Comments

In 1866, Mark Twain was a travelling correspondent for the San Francisco Daily Alta California and he convince them in early 1967, to provide $1250 to pay his fare on the Quaker City tour of Europe and the Middle East. Throughout the five-month trip, Twain sent 51 letters to the Alta for which he was paid an addiationa $1200. The paper published between August 2, 1867 and January 8, 1868 under the running heading: "The Holy Land Excursion. Letter from 'Mark Twain.' Special Travelling Correspondent of the Alta." These letters, together with seven printed in two New York papers, became the basis for Innocents Abroad, written during the first half of 1868. First, you have to see the route this trip took. It looks like such an amazing trip and hits most of the spots I would love to see one day. I don't think I would want to visit with Twain though. While he is funny in a snarky way and full of historical tidbits, he's...