Sunday Post – 9/18/2022

September 18, 2022 Sunday Post 10

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimberly, 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!

I am also linking to Mailbox Monday, the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week, and to Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality

This Week

I’m still working on my project, but should be able to turn it in this week.

Mr. Bookwyrm was on travel for work most of the week. He has family not far from where the meetings were held, so he flew out early and was able to spend a few days with his sister and brother-in-law before heading to the meetings, and see one of our nephews and his fiancee as well. It’s the first time my husband has seen anyone from his side of the family in three years, and I’m so glad he was able to fit in those visits! Hopefully we can schedule a group vacation with that side of the family next summer. We used to see them every summer, and I miss them too!

I have been studying Spanish for about 6 months now, using the Duolingo app. Actually, it would more accurate to say I have been reviewing my Spanish. I majored in it at college for 2 years before switching to theater, and I was somewhat fluent by time I stopped taking classes… but that was 4 decades ago. Duolingo is great, and just the act of using the language has brought some long-buried vocabulary and grammar bubbling back up from the deepest recesses of my mind. I recently tried reading some news articles in Spanish, and between the words and grammar I knew and what I could figure out through context or cognates, I understood over 3/4 of the content. So I thought, why not try reading some familiar children’s books in Spanish, as a way of challenging my brain and improving my skills? I ordered used copies of Winny de Puh and El león, la bruja y el ropero (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) to start with, and they both came this week (see below.) We’ll see how it goes. I own English-language editions of both books also, plus several Spanish-English dictionaries, so I can look things up whenever I get stuck. I may wait a bit before starting; Duolingo is only just getting around to using tenses other than the simple present, and I definitely need a review of the preterite, imperfect, and future tenses at least.

Recent Posts

Looking Ahead

  • Top Ten New Books on My Fall 2022 TBR List – Top Ten Tuesday
  • Sunday Post – 9/18/2022

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching

Reading: I plowed through a reread of the entire Donovan Legacy quartet: Captivated, Entranced, Charmed, and Enchanted. It’s not the accomplishment it sounds; they were orginially Silhouette romances, so they’re shorter than her current novels. I enjoy them for the touch of magic in all of them.

I followed those up with A Little Too Familiar (Lish McBride), a cozy werewolf-witch romance full of found family, good people, and healing. I loved it! I also loved The Spare Man (Mary Robinette Kowal; ARC), a mystery described by the author as “The Thin Man in space,” which I read for the SF Readathon.

Listening to: I finished Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle, by Clare Hunter, which was quite good. Now I’m listening to the Circle of Magic quartet (Tamora Pierce) for the third or fourth time; I finished Sandry’s Book and started Tris’s Book. It’s a MG fantasy series, so the books aren’t very long. The audiobooks were recorded by Full Cast Audio, with the author narrating and each character voiced by a different actor. I love FCA productions, and this series is a delight in any format, so I’m really enjoying revisiting the audiobooks.

Watching: I watched 84, Charing Cross Road for the second time, but other than that, I haven’t really had time for much TV.

Challenge mini-update: I am 7 books away from hitting my Goodreads challenge for the year… in September! I had set my goal lower this year, because I didn’t make it last year. So now I am debating whether to reset my goal back up to 200 books (the goal I missed last year), or leave it where it is until later in the year, in case I slow down with all the travel—visiting family for the holidays—like I did last winter.

Added to the Hoard this week

For Review or Consideration

Many thanks to Berkley for Artfully Yours! (I think this is a temporary cover; the book doesn’t release until February.) And thank you to William Morrow for A Killing of Innocents, also due out in February. I’m about 10 books behind on the Kincaid & James mystery series, but I know from the earlier books that I won’t have any trouble jumping in again here, and I can catch up with the in-between books later.

Purchased (Kindle, print, or audio)

Print: Winny de Puh; El león, la bruja y el ropero. (See above for why these are in Spanish.)

Kindle: The Polly O’Keefe Quartet; A Mirror Mended; Tea and Sympathetic Magic; Skin of the Sea; Changeling; Why Mermaids Sing; In the Shadow of Vesuvius; Briarheart; Startide Rising; The Sea King; Rogue Princess. (Click title for Goodreads page or my review.)

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay kind… and may you find books a haven in the coming weeks.

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10 Responses to “Sunday Post – 9/18/2022”

  2. Wendy

    That’s great that you’re working on your Spanish language, I haven’t heard of the Duolingo app, but is sounds useful. Nora Roberts is so good at those sweeping family drama series! I’m glad you enjoyed them.
    Wendy recently posted…Sunday Post #57My Profile

  4. Anne+-+Books+of+My+Heart

    That’s great your husband is getting to visit with his family. You will be glad to have the project complete – you have been so busy. It’s funny you say that about Spanish. I took 1.5 years in college, visited Spain briefly, and bought a bunch of children books. Also when I was in Europe 9 weeks with my father and I bought Agatha Christie books in Spanish at the train stations and read them while traveling. I still have the children’s books.

    Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
    Anne+-+Books+of+My+Heart recently posted…Before the Alamo by Florence WeinbergMy Profile

  7. Jenni Elyse

    I’m glad you’re reviewing your Spanish. I’m majoring in Spanish and I love the language so much. It just changed back to Spanish this semester so I’m rusty as well, but it’s coming back. 😀 I think it’s great that you’re going to read a couple of well-known children’s books in Spanish. I thought about reading Harry Potter in Spanish, but I wondered about all the original terms in book and how they’d translate. Good luck!
    Jenni Elyse recently posted…Sunday Post #36My Profile

  9. Katherine

    Languages were never my thing but now I would like to learn Spanish at the very least and have thought about trying Duolingo. That’s wonderful your husband is able to combine family visiting with a work trip. I had forgotten about the Nora Roberts Donovan series. I read them years ago and remember enjoying them. I hope you have a wonderful week!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I think Duolingo is a good way to get started with a language. Certainly the Spanish program is well-thought-out. I started the Welsh at one point, but I wasn’t very consistent. Once I have my Spanish up to a decent level again, I’ll start working on the Welsh again.