Sunday Post – 7/02/2023

July 2, 2023 Sunday Post 28

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!

This week I’m also participating in The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz, and Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.

Last Week

In real life: Work continues to be challenging. We’re finally getting rain. In fact, we got so much on Saturday that they issued a flash flood warning for our county. Luckily, we didn’t have to go anywhere. At least it washed some of the wildfire smoke particles out of the air, so we’re back in the Yellow range after several days of hovering between Red and Orange.

Tour de Fleece started yesterday. It’s a fiber spinning event that takes place during the Tour de France (July 1–23.) I wrote about it in last week’s Sunday Post. There’s a spinning meet-up this afternoon, and another on the 4th of July at a local historical event. (Outdoors, which is not going to be pleasant.) We have two more meet-ups planned for next weekend, one on Friday night and one on Sunday afternoon. As one of the leaders of our guild’s “team” of participants, I will be there this afternoon and for part of the 4th, and probably be there for at least one event next weekend. I picked out the fiber I will be spinning. It’s a light, lofty wool-mohair blend in a combination of teals and black with a little purple here and there (see below.) It should make a really pretty yarn. I also have another project that I’m spinning on my travel wheel; it’s merino, in a variety of purples. I’ll try to post photos of my progress on Wednesdays.

Recent Posts

Looking Ahead

  • Sunday Post – 7/09/2023
  • Mid-Year Challenge Check-in: Library Love Challenge 2023
  • Mid-Year Challenge Check-in: Audiobook Challenge 2023 – tentative
  • The Ship Who Searched, by Mercedes Lackey – review, date TBD
  • A Fatal Illusion, by Anna Lee Huber – review, date TBD
  • Midsummer Mysteries, by Agatha Christie – review, date TBD

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching

Reading: Despite spending so much time on work, I got a fair amount of reading in, thanks (or rather, no thanks) to insomnia. I finished reading Murder at the Serpentine Bridge by Andrea Penrose (a buddy-read with my blogger friend Sophia Rose). I reread The Ship Who Searched (Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey.) After that, I read Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish, which may be the only Mrs. Pollifax I hadn’t read before. Then I read Midsummer Mysteries, a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie, a remix pulled from her various short story collections. Frankly, I think most of them fit better in their original collections; this new collection has some good stories, and I enjoyed those individually, but as a grouping it comes across as both arbitrary and disjointed.

I am currently reading Claws and Contrivances by Stephanie Burgis (an ARC from the author), which is delightful.

Listening to: I finally finished Tricked by Kevin Hearne and started on the next book, Trapped. And I am still listening to past seasons of the Writing Excuses podcast. I finished up Season 4 and I will be starting Season 5.

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

Watching: I haven’t had much time for TV. I watched four half-hour episodes of a documentary on pets, and started Our Planet, the Richard Attenborough series. I tend toward either comfort re-watches or nature and science documentaries when I’m feeling stressed or pressured. But I do want to start watching Season 2 of Strange New Worlds.

Added to the Hoard

For Review or Consideration

Many thanks to author Stephanie Burgis for Claws and Contrivances, and to publisher William Morrow for Midsummer Mysteries!

Purchased or Free (Kindle, print, or audio)

Print: The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

Kindle: A Killing of Innocents; The Book of Merlyn; Inda; The Moving Toyshop (all on sale)

(Click title for Goodreads page.)

Stay kind and hopeful… and may your reading bring you joy this week!

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28 Responses to “Sunday Post – 7/02/2023”

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it… though any Mrs. Pollifax is a treat. I reviewed it here, if you want to see why it’s not one of my favorites.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I just saw that sweater on your blog. It’s gorgeous! Beautiful yarn, and a beautiful sweater. I can’t remember, do you spin on a wheel or with a spindle?

      • Lory @ Entering the Enchanted Castle

        I have a wheel that was gifted to me here, but I don’t much like it, plus it has only one bobbin, which is a nuisance. So I’ve spun much more with the handspindle and got to really enjoy that. Perhaps someday when my ship comes in I’ll buy a wheel again, but for the moment I’m happy with the spindle.
        Lory @ Entering the Enchanted Castle recently posted…Month in Review: June 2023My Profile

        • Lark_Bookwyrm

          Only one bobbin? That would discourage me for sure. Is it an antique, or from a current manufacturer? If the latter, you should be able to get more bobbins. But then, it may not be worth it if you don’t like the wheel much, and you’re happy spindling. I wasn’t able to get the hang of drop spindling when I first started spinning; I found a wheel easier. But I’m taking a drop spindle class this coming weekend. I love my wheels, but it would be nice to be able to spin on something very portable, too.

          • Lory @ Entering the Enchanted Castle

            It’s not exactly antique, but it’s not new either. I think it was made here in Switzerland somewhere, but I don’t know what it’s called or how to find more bobbins of the right kind. Anyway it was free so I didn’t complain at the time! I realized only later that it wouldn’t be very useful.

            I love the simplicity and portability of the drop spindle. Hopefully you can get the hang of it, it took me a while as well. I went a bit nuts buying different ones at one point, but the one I nearly always use is a 3D printed Turkish spindle from Etsy. You wind the yarn around the arms and it makes a center-pull ball, which is really cool. And there are fun mix and match colors. For plying, I usually use a “Steampunk Gear top” spindle from Snyder Spindles, also from Etsy. Good thing spindles are a lot cheaper than wheels! 😀
            Lory @ Entering the Enchanted Castle recently posted…Month in Review: June 2023My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Well, she’s certainly not writing them anymore (Gilman died in 2012), but the books are still delightful, even decades later!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Well, not as balanced as I would like, but I’m working on it! I just realized that I will probably miss the Trapped chat, though, because of when the in-person spinning events are scheduled (4-6 on Sunday, and it takes me 45 minutes to get there and get set up.) If I wasn’t co-leading the group, I would skip Sunday’s event, but since I am, I probably should be there. (Darn it. I want to do both!)

  6. Literary Feline

    Rain is good for clearing the air, isn’t it? It’s starting to warm up here finally. I wouldn’t mind a summer shower or two though. I love the cover of the Andrea Penrose book. I have a couple of her books on my e-reader which I am looking forward to reading. I’ve always wanted to try her series. I am hoping to dedicate more time to reading this month than I’ve been able to recently. Hopefully it will work out! Have a great week!
    Literary Feline recently posted…Weekly Mews: Summer Book Downsizing & My Latest Bookish Mewsings (Please Vote in My July TBR Poll!)My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I hope you get some time to read this month! The Andrea Penrose books have been so much fun to read. There’s another one coming out in September.

  7. Greg

    Serpentine bridge looks good. I remember seeing Midwinter Mysteries and have it on my buy someday list. I’ve been getting into short story collections lately.
    Greg recently posted…Sunday PostMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      To be honest, I would look for the original short story collections rather than buying Midsummer Mysteries. This one is kind of disjointed, and several stories suffer from not being set within the overall frame story (notably the ones from The Tuesday Club Murders and Partners in Crime. Both of those collections nestle the stories into a framework, and the stories from those volumes work better if you know what that framework is.)

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thanks! It didn’t flood at our house, thank goodness, though the little creek out back is running a bit higher than usual. (Usual being about 1-2 inches deep!) So from a personal standpoint, I’m not sorry; we need the rain. But it tends to be a problem for the flatter parts of the county, closer to either of the rivers. The flat ground and high water table mean there’s nowhere for the water to go, so when a lot falls in a very short time, you get a couple of inches of water on streets and parking lots. And some of the creeks do flood, just not usually ours.

  11. Katherine

    I love that wool color. It’s like a dark mermaid. I’m sorry to hear work was still keeping you super busy but glad the air quality has gotten better. I think we are just in yellow or orange but it is killing my asthma. Enjoy your reading and I hope you’re having a wonderful week.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I’m self-employed, so I have to handle all the things like submitting invoices so I get paid, keeping track of my expenses, etc. And dealing with issues with clients, when they come up… as they did this week. Not a problem I caused, but it caused a problem with work I had turned in.

      Midsummer Mysteries is a collection of Christie short stories, all of which appeared elsewhere. I hope you enjoy it, but a heads-up: I thought some of the stories worked a lot better in their original collections, especially the ones that had a “frame story” within which the short stories take place.

  14. Barb @ Booker T's Farm

    Glad the rain at least helped with the air quality. We’ve been effected quite a bit by it as well and there were days I opted not to take Apollo out in it because of how bad it was. Looks like you got some good reading in this week. I need to read that Kevin Hearne series because I just know I will love Oberon. I already own some of the books. Hope you have a great week!
    Barb @ Booker T’s Farm recently posted…Farm News – July 30, 2023My Profile