It seems that I’m sort of back into reading, though slowly and mostly jumping from one book to another without settling firmly on most of them! I’m including the ones that did stick or that I think will be most likely to hold my attention. In other news I’ve planted my beans in the garden and am hoping they’ll find their way up to the trellis-style fence above them to grow up. I’ve got several baby peas that are starting to climb the bamboo pole teepee I made (I’m hoping to make a living teepee that my kid can sit in and snack on peas or read or daydream or whatever). I’m still working on getting all the plants in my little makeshift nursery (in my outbuilding under a skylight) into the ground, but it’s harder work than you might thing to figure out where they should go, dig them in, water them… it sounds so easy but actually I can only get about half a dozen or so in each day as I’m still doing a lot of other stuff in the garden! Anyone else out there have garden news to share?
Just Shelved
I’m finished with my re-read of Shirley Jackson’s first memoir of family life in the mid 20th century, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (You can see my original review of it here.) It’s hilarious, honest, and a lot of the challenges she faces as a mother and a woman are startlingly familiar to me, despite the apparent progress women have made in the past 60+ years. And did I mention it’s wet-your-pants funny?
Currently Reading
I am going to stop saying that I’m still slowly working my way through The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, because I say that every week. I’m in no rush as I’m enjoying just picking it up and reading a couple of pages and then ruminating over what I read at my leisure. So I’m just going to keep this here each week and stop commenting on it! I borrowed the audiobook of In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson from my library because I loved the book when I first read it (in pre-blog days) and have been thinking about re-reading it for a while. After re-reading a few books in the past year and really loving the experience, I thought it was time to revisit this one. I’m loving it so far and will have it finished in a few days. A Vicious Circle is one I’m reading in print, so it’s a bit slower, but I’m enjoying it. The writing can be a bit Oxbridgeian (meaning the sort of way that self-consciously intellectual people can sometimes talk with a lot of obscure words and references to scholarly works), but it’s meant to be that way as it’s a critical novel about the sector of British society who aspire to privilege. I love Amanda Craig’s books that I’ve read so far (Hearts and Minds and The Lie of the Land) and I’ve been sort of saving her backlist to look forward to. But I’m trying to just read the books I want to read, because who knows what the future holds, hence re-reading books I love and picking up the ones I’m excited about. I plan to re-read The Lie of the Land soon as well.
Up Next
I have some new books to add to my TBR this week. Well, new in the sense that they weren’t in my “Up Next” section of this post over and over and over….. Most of these I’ve had on my TBR for quite a while. I was reminded of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by a friend of mine who read it recently and absolutely loved it. Sipsworth is one that’s new to me – I came across it thanks to Anne’s review of it earlier this week, and it instantly intrigued me. I’ve never read anything by this author before, even though I’m sure I have one or two of his books on my shelves, so I want to see if I like his writing!
That’s my week! Did you have a good reading week? I’d also love to hear something that happened to you in the past week – did you have a special day with family? Did you accomplish a goal? See something wonderful in nature? Share in the comments!
A weekly post that encourages bloggers to share what they have read in the past week, what they’re currently reading and books they’ve recently added to their TBRs. Originally started by Sheila at Book Journey, it is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.