Home Again (Sunday Post 8/28/16)

August 28, 2016 Sunday Post 36

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week, take a look ahead, and showcase our new treasures—I mean books!

My Week

We finished moving Robin in last weekend, and helped the girls handle some house-related emergencies—a backed-up sewer line, a broken faucet, a nonfunctional swamp cooler, several wonky doorknobs (all of which were repaired by the rental company once we let them know), and getting the cable reconnected. In all that, I actually managed to find some time to visit a bookstore! Then we said goodbye and headed down to Phoenix to catch our 6:30 am plane. I am so not a fan of early morning flights, but at least it got us home before dark on Wednesday.

Since we got home, I’ve been trying to get caught up from the trip: starting a new index, unpacking and doing laundry, grocery shopping, and the myriad of other tasks that piled up while I was away. I would like to get some blogging-ahead and some decluttering done in the coming week, but we’ll see. I’ve also got two new indexing projects to work on!

 

Last Week on the Blog

 

Upcoming on the Blog

  • Mon. 8/29/16: TBD
  • Tues. 8/30/16: TBD
  • Wed. 8/31/16: Always a Cowboy (Linda Lael Miller) – tour review
  • Thurs. 9/01/16: A Story to Kill (Lynn Cahoon) – tour review
  • Fri. 9/02/16: TBD
  • Sat. 9/03/16: News & Notes
  • Sun. 9/04/16: Sunday Post

 

What I’m Reading/Watching

Reading: I’ve been having a really hard time focusing on review books, so I continued with my re-read of a historical romances series. But I did finish A Story to Kill (Lynn Cahoon; ARC.)

Listening: I’m back to listening to Great World Religions: Islam, an introductory lecture series from The Great Courses. And I’ve been listening to film scores on Pandora (internet radio) while I unpack and work around the house.

Watching: We watched Taken at the Flood and Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, two of the Poirot mysteries from Seasons 10 and 11, respectively. I love David Suchet as Poirot, but I think he over-emoted a little in some of these later mysteries.

 

New Additions to the Hoard

Cover links take you to Goodreads.

Nonbook additions
2016-08-27_Hedwig-tote_IMG_7449_cropped-edited-resized

Check out the cool Hedwig tote bag I picked up at Peregrine Books in Arizona! (I already owned the book and the mug.)

 

For Review or Review Consideration

Many thanks to Avon and the Avon Addicts program!

 

Purchased for Kindle

As usual, these were all on sale. Both Robin and I already own Writing Magic in paperback, but I thought she might find the Kindle version convenient. (We share a Kindle account.)

 

Acquired in print

The cover image for the first book is wrong; the title is actually 90 Days to Your Novel. The second book is a gag gift, an early birthday present from my sister, who (like me) tends to have a fairly cluttered house. The others I bought from the library’s sale shelves.

 

Happy reading!

 

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36 Responses to “Home Again (Sunday Post 8/28/16)”

  1. Greg

    You’ve been busy! I’ve been meaning to read Lynn Cahoon since I started cozies and heard good things about her books, but just haven’t gotten around to them yet. One day soon hopefully. Although come to think of it I haven’t read a cozy all summer, I think. Hmm. Anyway need to catch up on your News & Notes posts. Hope you have a very nice week!
    Greg recently posted…Sunday Post #157My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I do indeed need a vacation from my vacation… but I doubt I’ll get one! Books can always “take me away,” though. 🙂

  3. Deborah

    I used to watch Agatha Christie (movies and TV show re Poirot) obsessively but now I’ve seen them so many times I don’t enjoy them as much! She was SO ahead of her time though wasn’t she?! Amazing.

    Ugh, hearing about the house-related emergencies worried me a little as (at the ripe age of 48) I’m moving out of an apartment into my first ever house next week.
    Deborah recently posted…Weekly check-inMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Christie was great; I love reading her and I love watching good adaptations, where they don’t do annoying things like change the solution and the murderer. (I’m looking at you, Agatha Christie’s Marple series. The ones with Joan Hickson were great; there was no need to remake them and muck around with the endings and put Miss Marple into mysteries she never appeared in in the books. Sheesh.)

      Good luck with your new house — how exciting! It’s true that as a homeowner, fixing things is up to you rather than the landlord, but it’s not usual for things to all hit at once like this. In the girls’ case, the house they’ve been renting needed some work last year, like the doorknobs and a flaky kitchen faucet that didn’t always work. But they were all new to renting and living independently, and didn’t know what to do; they just put up with minor issues. But when they arrived back this fall to find the kitchen faucet no longer worked at all, it was clearly time to do something about it. So we coached them through how to deal with the rental company—and they took care of things right away. It’s an oldish house, and the owner doesn’t want to put any money into it, but thank heaven, the management company realizes that some things need to be fixed! As for the sewer pipes needing to be de-rooted, that’s a common problem in the town. The infrastructure is aging and it’s a mountain desert town, so of course the trees try to get water from the pipes.

      Anyway, while I’m sure you’ll run into the occasional repair with your house, on the whole, I think you’ll really enjoy owning your own place. Congratulations!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I suppose it’s better to be busy than bored! Honestly, we didn’t have to do all that much with the girls’ house, just help them contact the rental management company and put in a couple of work orderw, and deal with the cable company when they arrived. The rental company was right on it once the girls put in the work orders; they had almost everything fixed in a day.

      I do love my Hedwig bag—so cute!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It’s a toss-up which is worse, the late-night red-eye or the very early morning departure. I’ve done both, and I’m not sure which I dislike more. But I’m grateful to be able to fly. It’s a lot easier to get to my destination in a day than to have to drive three 12-hour days to get there. 🙂

  6. Lola

    That’s nice you got to help Robin move and fix some things in her new house. And you even got to visit a bookstore, yay! I hope you get caught up soon again.

    I hope A Story to Kill is a good one, it sounds interesting. So I am looking forward to your review. You got some nice new books. That pencil techniques book sounds interesting and I hope the indexing book is informative. I also have a cluttered house, I am pretty organized, but my house and desk needs to have some clutter on it. Have a great week!
    Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #193My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I thought the colored pencil techniques book would help me with coloring. That is, if I ever have time to color again! So much work to do in our house. There’s clutter, and then there’s not being able to see the surface of my desk… LOL! I wish you a wonderful week too, Lola!

  7. Mandy

    Sounds like you had a great week while busy with travel at least it wasn’t boring. Sometimes those weeks make the day go by nice and fast. I love your new Harry Potter items. The bag is lovely. I hope this week is less busy. I hope you enjoy all your new books and happy reading. Have a great week.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you, Mandy! I’ve enjoyed a little more reading time this week, and have managed to finish two ARCs (I finished the second this morning; I need to add it to the post.) I like being busy as long as I can still find time to read and do creative stuff like knitting and singing. 🙂

  8. Michelle @Because Reading

    That is a lot of stuff to fix…what the heck is a swamp cooler?

    You really did have a busy week and I totally get the, things that piled up, my house is a mess and I can’t wait for the summer to be over to give it a nice cleaning and straighten up some of the clutter that seems to pile up over the summer.

    Love the hedwig bag!

    Have a great week Lark, Happy Reading! ox
    Michelle @Because Reading recently posted…Almost back to normal ~ WIR & TSPMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I never heard of a swamp cooler before some of my family moved to New Mexico. We don’t have them on the East Coast because there’s too much humidity. A swamp cooler is an evaporative cooler. They are used instead of an air conditioner in many parts of the Southwest, where the air is very dry. Basically, a fan pulls air past some sort of pad that is kept wet. The water in the pad evaporates, cooling the air in the process, and that cooler air is blown down into the house. It’s not as effective as an air conditioner on the hottest days, especially as summer temperatures keep getting hotter, but it does make things noticeably cooler than the outside air.

      I wish it were just the summer during which the clutter piled up, but it’s more the accumulated collections of several decades spent living in the same house. I’m going to try to pretend I’m moving, and see if I can’t reduce it to just the stuff I love. 🙂

      Have a great week, Michelle!

  9. Berls

    Glad they got moved in well – but geez that was a lot to fix! ALL the doorknobs? How the hell does that even happen? Lol! And I’m with Michelle – what is a swamp cooler? Good luck with getting caught up, I’ve got a bit of that to do myself!
    Berls recently posted…Sunday Post | Things are looking good!My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Well, it didn’t all break at once; the girls just didn’t quite know how to report it and the doorknobs weren’t high priority for them. The kitchen faucet, on the other hand…that needed attention right away. The swamp cooler just needed to be reconnected; it was disconnected over the winter because it uses the same circuit-breaker as the furnace. Or something like that. (See my reply to Michelle @ Because Reading for an explanation of a swamp cooler.)

      Here’s to both of us getting caught up with blogging and whatever else we’re behind on!

      I hope your new school year keeps going well and that you have a great week. Thanks for stopping by!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Isn’t it cute? I just love it. I couldn’t resist! Thank you for stopping by and have a great week, reading and otherwise!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Oh, the early flight was after move-in day—Mr. Bookwyrm needed to get home to work. 🙂 Robin’s college is in Arizona, so we just rented a car and drove her there after visiting my parents in Utah and then New Mexico (two sets of parents.)

      Sharp Edges was published in 2004. I picked up a copy at one of my library’s booksales a few years ago. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have read it, either; I only discovered Krentz about 5 years ago. I’ve read everything she’s written since then, but I’m still working my way through her backlist. 🙂

      Have a great week!

  12. Mareli Thalwitzer

    You are the second blogger I see tonight who features coloring books. I am going to take that as a sign that I need to get back to coloring. I need the therapy…! Taken at the flood is one of those eery Agatha Christie novels and the movie adaptation was done so good! Glad you enjoyed it too. Hope you will have a good week with a few awesome reads!
    Mareli Thalwitzer recently posted…The Sunday Post – Double up to 100My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I enjoy coloring, though I don’t make as much time for it as I’d like. I agree; I thought “Taken at the Flood” was very well done, though Suchet may have overdone the emotion in the big reveal scene. Have a great week, and thank you for stopping by!

  13. Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library

    Whew! You’ve been busy! We got Emma settled in her apartment a couple of weeks ago and all I wanted to do afterward was sleep and that was all I had going on! I love Laura Lee Guhrke! She’s one of my favorite historicals. I just finished Always a Cowboy and A Story to Kill and really enjoyed them both. Hope you do too! Have a great week!
    Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…This Week in Reading – August 28My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Luckily, we didn’t have to move furniture or anything. It’s the same house the girls were in last year. They have a new housemate, but all we had to do to move Robin in was bring in her suitcases, the sewing machine she’s borrowing, and her violin and computer. She left all the big stuff and her winter clothes in the house over the summer.

      I’m looking forward to the LLG book. And I’m glad you enjoyed both Always a Cowboy and A Story to Kill—I did too! Have a great week!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      He is definitely the best Poirot in my opinion. He really nailed the character: all the mannerisms and the obsession with order and symmetry, without ever losing Poirot’s passion for justice and compassion for the innocent. He is so much the quintessential Poirot that even seeing him as himself (as Suchet) is jarring!

  15. Rachael Turns Pages

    Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting. Your comment made me laugh. I don’t reread, but I read pretty slow, so my TBR is going to take forever. I’m glad you got the chance to visit the bookstore. Moving is hard and something I just don’t really care for.
    Rachael Turns Pages recently posted…How I Use my Goodreads TBR ListMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you for returning the favor! Well, luckily we didn’t have to do any major moving. She’s still in college, renting a house with three other young women. It’s their second year in the house, so the furniture and stuff was taken care of last August. This year, all we really had to do was help get all the things fixed that either stopped working during last year, or stopped working over the summer. And luckily, most of it was the rental management company’s responsibility. We’ll have more to do next spring when she graduates: selling some of her furniture and moving the stuff she’s keeping to my parents’ house or wherever she ends up.

  16. Danya @ Fine Print

    Wow, it sounds like you had a very full week Lark! I’m happy to hear that the big move went smoothly (backed up sewer aside) because moving can be truly hellish sometimes. Especially when there’s a flight involved!

    Hahaha that gag gift is hilarious. I assume it’s poking fun at that “magical art of tidying up” book, which is pretty darn kooky from what I saw of it!
    Danya @ Fine Print recently posted…Review: Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette KowalMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      You’re absolutely right about the “messy” book. I think it’s poking fun at a lot of the organizing/decluttering books (especially The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up), and even TV shows like Clean Sweep and Mission: Organization. And it’s hysterical, if you don’t mind a lot of cussing.

  17. Literary Feline

    I am glad Robin is settled in and the emergency repairs have been taken care of. That was a lot to deal with all at once. I love the Hedwig tote. I’ve been wanting to try Lynn Cahoon’s books.

    I know about playing catch up. My house has been neglected as of late since I’ve been sick. Whatever bug my daughter had, I’ve now caught, unfortunately.

    I hope you are having a great week!
    Literary Feline recently posted…Shelf Control: Midnight Never Come by Marie BrennanMy Profile