Sunday Post – 5/21/2023

May 21, 2023 Sunday Post 18

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!

Last Week

In real life: Between the index and two long Zoom meetings, I spent a lot of time on the computer last week. It’s going to be worse in the coming week. No meetings coming up, but I will really need to push to finish this project on time.

Last weekend, I won a $5 gift certificate from the COYER team! It was a total surprise, and really made my week. (There may even have been squeeing.) I treated myself to a paperback copy of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, a classic book on writing that has been recommended to me time and again.

On Tuesday, I had to run down to the big city to our south for a routine doctor’s appointment with one of my specialists. It’s a long drive—about an hour and twenty minutes each way—so I was able to listen to over two hours of Hammered on the way there and back.

The weather was gorgeous this week, sunny and cool. If I could, I would live in spring or autumn year round. Well, no, I wouldn’t, because I like snow, too. But I’m not a fan of summer’s heat and humidity around here, so I’m not really looking forward to the hotter weather.

Recent Posts

Looking Ahead

  • Sunday Post – 5/28/2023

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching

Reading: I read The Sinister Booksellers of Bath (Garth Nix; review copy), which counts toward the COYER “Catch Up/Finish a Series” readathon. Currently, I’m reading Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens (Andrea Penrose), the 5th Wrexford & Sloane mystery, which I am buddy-reading with Sophia Rose—yet another for the readathon, assuming I can finish it by tonight, which is dubious. Eventually, I’ll get back to The Lord of Stariel (A.J. Lancaster; it’s one of my #23in2023 books.)

Listening to: Hammered, by Kevin Hearne. It’s book three in the Iron Druid readalong, and the chat was rescheduled for today. (I’m actually finishing it this morning.) I need to get back to The Empty House by Rosamunde Pilcher, but I need to listen to Tricked first; it’s the fourth book in the Iron Druid series, and the discussion is next Sunday in two weeks. I am still listening to Season 4 of the Writing Excuses podcast now and then, but only in short intervals.

Playing (occasionally): Wordle, the NYT Spelling Bee, and Pokemon Go.

Watching: We finished All Creatures Great and Small season 3, and are almost finished with Picard season 3. We also watched a few Nature documentaries.

Added to the Hoard

For Review or Consideration

Many thanks to William Morrow for Murder Most Royal, and to Avon for How to Tame a Wild Rogue!

Purchased or Free (Kindle, print, or audio)

Print: Bird by Bird; The King of Elfland’s Daughter

Kindle: The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill; Thief of Dreams; Simply Unforgettable; Once Upon a Marquess; Tricked

Audiobooks: Lessons in Chemistry (for Robin, their for book club, but I’ll listen to it eventualy); The Black Gryphon; The White Gryphon; Tricked

(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.

Related Posts

18 Responses to “Sunday Post – 5/21/2023”

  1. Greg

    I feel the same way about the weather. It was onlu high 60’s today but sunny and gorgeous and I could take that all year.

    I love NATURE.
    Greg recently posted…Sunday Post #504My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It’s going to be mid-to-high 70s all week here, and depending on the humidity, that can be a bit hot for me. I’ll have to do my walking in the mornings, before I start working.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      As I recall, Tricked is where I bogged down last time I read this series… although Atticus’s refusal to take certain warnings in Hammered was a contributing factor. I’m hoping participating in the readalong will encourage me to keep going this time, but I would really like to see Atticus show more character growth. It’s a wonderful series other than that, though!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It may be a while before I listen to it, because I’ve got the Iron Druid readalong going on, and since I don’t commute, I don’t have all that much time for listening to audiobooks. But I’ll get to it eventually!

  5. Lisa+Mandina+(Lisa+Loves+Literature)

    I am the same as you with weather! I think spring and fall are too short with the perfect temps most of the time. And I do enjoy a little snow, right around the winter holidays I think. But I hate the unbearable heat in the middle of the summer. Looks like a lot of good books this week. Hope your week is good!
    Lisa+Mandina+(Lisa+Loves+Literature) recently posted…Weekly Wrap-Up #119 – May 21st, 2023My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I agree! We need to get our deck replaced, and one of the reasons we have put it off so long is that in our region, there are so few weeks between too-cold-to-enjoy-it and too-hot-humid-and-buggy-to-be-bearable. But we’ll have the work done this year, if I can find a contractor.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      That’s a good reason to prefer summer! My bones do OK with the cold, but too much heat and humidity saps my energy and can even make me feel a little queasy, so for me, it’s the other way around. I will admit that my allergies are worse in spring and fall, but so far, they’re manageable, and temperature-wise, those seasons suit me best.

      It’s funny how things change as we age, though. When I was younger, I loved summers—partly because school was out, but also for the time spent playing outdoors. I didn’t have nearly so much trouble with the heat back then. (Although I also spent a fair bit of time reading indoors, even in summer. I was a bookworm from a very early age.) But come to think of it, it’s not just getting older that has changed, it’s also the climate. Summers have more days that are scorchingly hot now, on average. Plus, I live further south than I did as a kid. Not by much, but due to the weather patterns around here, enough to make a difference. So between climate change and moving further south, summers are in fact hotter than when I was younger.

  8. Katherine

    I love a long car trip when I’m enjoying my audio book! I hope the appointment went well. I have had Bird by Bird on my shelf for far longer than I want to admit. I really should read it one of these days. Have a great week!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Audiobooks are terrific for long drives! The appointment was just a routine check-in and blood tests with a specialist; they’re keeping an eye on something of potential concern, but so far it hasn’t manifested into anything serious, and the goal is to keep it that way. Nothing has changed for over three years at this point, which is reassuring.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Same here—Virginia’s summers usually start in mid-May and trail off sometime around October 1. It’s actually been cooler than usual this May (with the exception of a few days), which has been really nice… and great for taking walks. I didn’t get out for a walk this morning until 11:00 am, but it was still only 70F by the time I got back.