Sunday Post – 10/30/16

October 30, 2016 Sunday Post 33

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

img_7549_edited_trued-cropped-adjusted

The lake near our house (photo © K. Pekar)

 

Huzzah! I turned in the last of my pile-on-top-of-each-other indexes early this week. Now I have only one project due, and a reasonable amount of time to do it in. That meant I could take my birthday completely off — the first real day off I’ve had in almost a month. I read, worked a little on Blog Ahead, went out for a long stroll with my camera to enjoy the gorgeous weather, and topped the day off with rehearsals for both the choirs I sing with (my church choir, and the adult chorus of the same organization of my children’s and youth choruses.) Since singing truly feeds my soul, that made it an exceptionally good birthday! We followed that up with a birthday dinner a few days later, at a German restaurant we’ve been wanting to try.

 

Duck preening its feathers

Duck preening its feathers on “our” lake. (photo © K. Pekar)

 

If you haven’t already, please stop by last Monday’s post and give me your thoughts on a challenge I’m thinking of hosting for 2017! It’s for the books that have been sitting on your want-to-read list for years. I’m definitely planning to host it at this point, but I’m still working on the logistics.

 

Last Week on the Blog

 

Upcoming on the Blog

  • Mon. 10/31/16: The Inheritance (Charles Finch) – review, tentative
  • Tues. 11/01/16: Ten Books I Recently Added to My TBR List (not pile) – Top Ten Tuesday
  • Wed. 11/02/16: TBD
  • Thur. 11/03/16: A Terrible Beauty (Tasha Alexander) – review, tentative
  • Fri. 11/04/16: TBD
  • Sat. 11/05/16: News & Notes – 11/05/16
  • Sun. 11/06/16: Sunday Post – 11/06/16

 

Challenges

The Blog Ahead Challenge  runs through October 31 (that’s tomorrow!) My goal is to get 15 posts “ahead” by then – posts for November 1 and beyond. I managed 5 posts this week, plus the 2 I wrote in the first week of the challenge.  So at this point, I am only 7 posts ahead – but that’s more than I had at the beginning of the month!

 

What I’m Reading/Watching

I’m trying to get back up to speed with reading now that things have calmed down a little with work. I’m in the middle of both The Inheritance by Charles Finch (ARC) and The Hammer of Thor (Rick Riordan; purchased). I finished rereading Mercedes Lackey’s Mage Winds trilogy and started in on the Mage Storms trilogy. I’m still rereading A Discovery of Witches for the Real-Time Read-Along, so that won’t be finished until November 1st. And I’ve been rereading Mercedes Lackey’s Mage Winds trilogy. Maybe this coming week I can finish Shades of Milk and Honey, the first in the Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal (purchased.)

I did get back to listening to Made in America by Bill Bryson. As for video, I’m in the middle of my annual Harry Potter re-watch  — I figure it’s perfect for Halloween week! Earlier in the week, we watched about half of the fourth episode of The Shannara Chronicles, but we’ve decided to give up on it. The visuals are decent, and it’s always nice to see John Rhys Davies (he plays the elven king – makes a change from a dwarf!), but I’m so annoyed at the three main characters at this point, and the writing is meh. Sort of disappointing, but it wasn’t a favorite book series, so that’s OK.

 

New Additions to the Hoard

Cover links take you to Goodreads.

For Review or Review Consideration

Nothing this week!

 

Purchased for Kindle

All three of these were on sale. I’ve read Chalice and To Love and Be Wise and own both in print, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m duplicating a lot of my favorite books and authors in Kindle, both for portability and against the day when I can’t read small print anymore. The other book looked cute, and I’m rather fond of Yorkshire… besides, it’s another possibility for the HoHoHo Readathon.

 

Print Arrivals

Both of these arrived Monday, and I saved them to open on my birthday. 🙂   I won The Forbidden Library during the COYER challenge this summer. Thank you, Michelle, Berls, and Stormi (especially Michelle, since she donated and mailed it!) And The Murder of Mary Russell is a gift from Lorybecause she knows I collect the series. Lory, you’re an angel!

 

Have a great week, and happy reading!

 

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33 Responses to “Sunday Post – 10/30/16”

  2. Greg

    Happy birthday, and sounds like you had a good one! Love the pics- nice to have a lake by your house. Looks beautiful there. I’ll be anxious to see your thoughts on the new Tasha Alexander. And I only got to episode 5 of Shannara and I gave up too- just couldn’t anymore. 🙂 Bad writing is right!

    The Forbidden Library and Yorkshire Christmas both look promising.
    Greg recently posted…Sunday Post #166My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you, Greg! We’re really fortunate in our location. We can’t see the lake from the house; we’re actually a little downhill from it, with our street on the rise between our house and the entrance to the public access. But I can walk over there any time I need a nature fix. In the summer, there are a lot of neighbors there — kids swimming, people sitting on or fishing from the pavilion that sits over the lake. But once school starts, it’s usually pretty deserted during the day, except for a few fellow walkers.

      Oh, I’m glad it’s not just me on the Shannara Chronicles. I felt rather sorry for the actors, to tell you the truth.

      Have a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      By the way, I wanted to comment on your post but I don’t have a Google Plus account yet, and I’m putting off making one because I have more than one “identity” with Google and I don’t like how they try to link everything you do together. (Hey, Google, just a FYI: Some of us like to keep our professional and blogging personas separate!) So here’s what I would have said over on your post today:

      Congratulations on putting your work up on Kindle Scout, and good luck with that and with NanoWriMo! I’m sorry you haven’t been feeling well, and I hope you feel better soon. And I hope you enjoy Cinder as much as I did. Have a great week!

  5. Toady

    That duck picture is absolutely gorgeous! Really, I would frame that! I have to continue with the Laurie King Series, as I have only read the first. I’m off to check out that challenge idea.
    Toady recently posted…B.B. Toady Weekly No. 2My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you! I was proud of that one; I think it was the best of about 35 pictures I took of those ducks. (Digital saves so much money over my film days, when I would have taken 20 pictures and maybe not have liked any of them…) And you’re in for a treat with the Laurie King series. They’re almost all good, and the majority are very good indeed. (The only one I have trouble with isn’t badly written; King isn’t capable of writing badly. It’s just that Mary isn’t acting like herself in ways that were necessary to the plot but didn’t work for the character, and that bothers me. But it’s pretty far along in the series, so it will be a while before you get to it — and your reaction might be different than mine.)

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Well, I still have work, but a much better deadline means a more reasonable schedule. So I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to do more reading, review-writing, and knitting this week, too. 🙂

  8. Shandy Jo

    I’m glad to hear you had such a nice birthday. I love the pictures, you take great shots. I enjoyed A Discovery of Witches. Thanks for sharing all your great looking reads. Have a wonderful week!

  9. Rita @ View From My Books

    Glad you had a wonderful birthday! Hope the German dinner was yummy– I’m of partly German descent and love Sauerbraten, red cabbage and potatoes, if made authentically. My birthday is in 2 days but I’ve already had my gifts, so I’ll just get a hug and a dinner on the real day.

    Your photos are marvelous– you have a good camera and a good eye for detail, I see. Bird pics are the best!

    I’m going to check out your link for your challenge next year in case I’m blogging then. Right now I’m trying out a phase where I comment on other people’s blogs but don’t post on my own– will see how long this lasts 🙂 My moods have been mercurial this year and I have a hard time roping myself into writing posts, which is a shame because I love to write in general!

    Have a wonderful week. Try to relax– you’re lucky to be exposed to such inspirational singing 🙂
    Rita @ View From My Books recently posted…Blogging Break…My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Dinner was delicious — Jager Schnitzel and spatzl followed by pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm! Thank you for the compliment on the photos. I’m trying to improve both my skills and my eye. I’m of the opinion that a blog should always be fun, so I think you’re right to do what feels best to you at the time. I love having you stop by, and enjoy the posts you do put up when the mood or inspiration strikes, but the last thing I’d want is for you to feel pressured or stressed out about whether you’re posting or not. 🙂

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      A Yorkshire Christmas looks cute, doesn’t it? And I figure I can continue to work on getting further ahead even after the Blog Ahead challenge is gone. You’re right that a few posts ahead are good even if I didn’t make my final goal. I’ve still got tonight and Monday, of course, but I need to get the house ready for Halloween!

  11. Laurel-Rain Snow

    Happy birthday! Mine was this week, and I loved luxuriating in each day, doing whatever.

    Your lake photo is gorgeous! I used to live by a lake…sigh.

    But now there is a park and lovely ponds nearby, so that will suffice.

    Enjoy those books. A Yorkshire Christmas looks lovely. Thanks for sharing, and here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
    Laurel-Rain Snow recently posted…AUTHOR’S HOME PAGEMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Happy birthday to you, too! I do love living near the lake, though it can sometimes get a little noisy in summer, when people from the neighborhood host parties there. It’s sure lovely in fall and spring and even winter, though. 🙂

  12. Jan @ Notes from a Readerholic

    It sounds like your October has been very busy, Lark. Glad you had your birthday off! I love the photos. It is such a beautiful time of the year. I like the cover of The Yorkshire Christmas so I’ll go take a look at that.

    I hope you get more time to read, relax, walk and sing this week!
    Jan @ Notes from a Readerholic recently posted…Sunday Post: October 30My Profile

  14. Emily Alfano

    Oh my gosh! What I would give to live near that lake! I bet you have some really good reading days there! talk about the view!
    And i can’t wait to see what your review says about Magnus Chase! I’ve been wanting to start it fora while now; I love Rick’s work!
    I hope you have another great week Lark!
    Emily Alfano recently posted…Review: The Summer I Turned PrettyMy Profile

  15. Charlie @ Girl of 1000 Wonders

    Happy birthday! The photos are beautiful. There is also a K. Pekar photographer in my hometown – that’s immediately what I thought of when I saw your captions. (OK, and also “Is she leading a double life?”)

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you, Charlie! Nope, no double life. I knew there were a few people with that last name living in Texas at one point, but we’ve never met.