Sunday Post – 2/03/2019

February 3, 2019 Sunday Post 20

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

I’m working on planning the spring concert for my choruses. I’ve also been working on the current index, a science-history book that is quite interesting. I’ve done a little spinning (or rather, plying) and a little knitting, and a lot more reading, or rather re-reading. That’s had the benefit of reducing my Goodreads Challenge deficit from 9 books behind, to only 4 books behind.

Monday night I heard that a dear friend, my college roommate for several years, had passed away. Sadly, we hadn’t been in contact for about 15 years. Not for lack of wanting to! But about 18 years ago (still a relatively young woman), she suffered a series of strokes that significantly affected her mobility, memory, and cognition. Her parents took her home and became her caregivers. I did try to stay in touch via email, but due to her various impairments, her replies (if they came at all) didn’t always make sense, and were mostly variations on a few themes. Over time, our “correspondence” slowed to a trickle, then stopped. I wish now that I had tried harder to keep it going anyway, and that I’d made the detour to visit her on the few occasions when we drove through her home state. Despite the years, hearing of her death has been like losing her all over again; I was in tears off and on for the rest of the week.

 

Last Week on the Blog

 

Upcoming on the Blog

  • #6degrees: from Fight Club to Dragonflight
  • Top Ten Tuesday – tentative
  • WIP Wednesday – tentative
  • reviews to be determined
  • News & Notes – 2/09/2019- tentative
  • Sunday Post –2/10/2019

 

What I’m Reading/Watching

Reading: I read a lot more this week, but most of the books were rereads. In new-to-me books, I finished Playing for Keeps (review to come), and continued off and on with Death and Daisies (Amanda Flower; ARC), though I haven’t quite finished it yet. In between, I binged through a reread of Jayne Castle’s St. Helens series; I don’t like them as much as I do her Ghost Hunters/Harmony series, but I hadn’t reread them in a while, and I was in need of something light but familiar. As you see, that kicked off a reread of Castle’s Harmony series as well.

Listening to:  Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts. I must be getting close to the end of the book by now. It’s good, but the audiobook is “selections” from the print book, which leaves me wondering what or who was cut from the audiobook. And I’m finding it a little hard to keep track of some of the lesser-known women, especially since many were related in some way to each other, or had similar names.

Watching:  Eureka. Still on season 1, and still really enjoying it. We also need to start Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 soon, since we restarted our subscription to CBS All Access just so we could watch it.

 

New Additions to the Hoard

Cover links take you to Goodreads.

For Review or Review Consideration

Heartfelt thanks to author Stephanie Burgis for sending me an e-ARC! And isn’t that a gorgeous cover?

Purchased for Kindle

The Traitor’s Game was on sale; the other three weren’t, but I needed them to fill out the two series I was rereading.

 

Have a good week, and happy reading!

Related Posts

20 Responses to “Sunday Post – 2/03/2019”

  1. Angela

    I’m so sorry about your friend! No matter how much time has passed since you last connected, it’s always a shock.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you, Angela. That’s true; it was a shock and very sad news. She is (at least) the third we’ve lost from our college theater group. Another friend remarked that perhaps they are sitting somewhere together, planning the next production. The thought made me smile through the tears.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you, Rita. It’s hard to understand why a gifted, loving, joyful spirit like my friend had to undergo so many hardships and leave us so soon.

      Thornbound looks lovely and I can’t wait to read it. I read the first one in the series, Snowspelled, and loved it, so Thornbound should pick up my spirits a bit.

  3. Lark

    Sorry to hear about the death of your friend. It’s always hard to lose someone you love–even when you haven’t stayed close, the memories are still there…and the sadness of missing them.

  4. Nicci @ Sunny Buzzy Books

    I’ve read Jayne Castle’s Ghost Huter series and quite enjoyed it… It’s been a while though so it’s a nice surprise to see it crop up on a blog! 🙂

    I’m sorry to hear about your college roommate passed. We had that happen last Christmas and it rocked us for six despite not having spoken to him for several years. Thoughts are with you.
    Nicci @ Sunny Buzzy Books recently posted…Weekly Update #46My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It’s a fun series, once you get past the initial suspension of disbelief. And I love the dust bunnies. (I want one!)

      My cohort is now in our mid- to late-50s, so I guess this will be an increasingly common experience. There have been some losses among my college and high school classmates before, and one or two of my friends have been widowed relatively young. But my friend’s death hit me hard.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you. Yes, it’s been a reminder to make the effort to visit friends and family that I don’t get to see very often, and to make more time for friends locally as well. I tend to get wrapped up in work and blogging and all my other projects, and I’m an introvert, and my house is a wreck… those are the excuses I make, but I’m going to try harder to push past them and spend time with people I care about.

  8. Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits

    Thronbound looks amazing! I think I’ll have to look up the first in the series.

    Sorry to hear about your friend. Losing someone is never easy, even when you haven’t had lots of contact recently. *hugs* Don’t be too rough on yourself for not trying harder to keep the contact going when it stalled. That’s not easy to do, either.
    Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Goodreads TBR Declutter #12My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you, Nicole. No, it wasn’t easy, especially given her disabilities after the strokes. It might have been easier if I’d lived close enough to visit, but I didn’t. I’m trying not to beat myself up about it.

  9. Anne - Books of My Heart

    I’ve lost a few friends over the last 5 years and whether we were in touch regularly or had lost touch, it’s still hard. I’m sorry. Try to think of the good times and what you loved about her. HUGS.

    It sounds like you are working back into a routine after all the holidays, weather and so forth. I hope it lets you relax and find some great reads!
    Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Audio: King of Scars by Leigh BardugoMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you for your understanding. I’m trying to remember the joyful times, and there were a lot of those. 🙂 She was a good friend, and we had a lot of shared interests.

  10. Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library

    I’m sorry to hear about your friend. What a distressing situation all around. I think it can be hard to stay in touch with old friends in the best of situations and this sounds particularly difficult. Hopefully your reading helped distract you a bit. Looks like you have some great books! I want to read the Amanda Flowers series and I really must try Jayne Castle. I love Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Kretnz so I should try Castle too. Hope this week is better!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thank you for your understanding and empathy, Katherine.

      As for Jayne Castle, the books are fun, but the worldbuilding is quirky. It’s best to think of them as fantasy rather than SF, because the science-y stuff… isn’t. 😉 As long as you can suspend your disbelief, though, the stories have a lot of the same appeal as her work under her other names. Stick to the Harmony/Ghost Hunters series; it’s better than what came before it. If you liked the Arcane Society series, you may like these.

      Personally, I would avoid the earliest Jayne Castle books unless you like very dated category romance, with all the sexism that implies. Krentz/Castle has been writing for a long time, and like many other authors, her books reflect the ways attitudes and expectations have changed over the years.