Yesterday, we mowed, tag-team style; the front lawn and the secret garden. We wanted to get it done before afternoon thunderstorms hit us today. Like some of you in the midwest, next week we will also be suffering through 5 days of temperatures in the mid-nineties. I am not looking forward to that. The week will become about watering everything in the gardens twice a day. And staying indoors in the a/c. Currently, we’re having temps in the mid-eighties, which is plenty hot enough for me.
No time to snap a picture outside yesterday, so here is one from last week – Lucy and Bertie watching me mow the corral:
I just picked up a book from the library, Sarah Perry’s latest, Enlightenment. I’m a big fan of her books and I hope to start it today. I tried to finish The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang, a book I started a while back but put aside as I read all the Daniel Silva books I had missed. I am a fan of Kuang’s as well. She wrote Babel and Yellowface, both books I really enjoyed. The Poppy War is part of trilogy that she wrote several years ago. I think she’s a fabulous writer, but I just couldn’t connect with this one. So, Enlightenment it is.
Which leads me to the question: What are you reading?
Do tell!
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
Just finished Lisa Unger’s The new couple in 5B and just started Lisa Gardner’s Still see you everywhere. I have not read a Daniel Silva in several years and would like to get caught up. My TBR list is very long! We are expecting a very hot day and strong afternoon storms here in North West Jersey, so it’s a reading day for me.
Always a good excuse to have a reading day, Judy!
Thanks so much,
Stay safe.
Lucy looks like she is all set to help in the garden – in my experience little dogs are more of a hinderance!
I have been reading some pretty mindless things lately that I can’t really recommend, but I do have a 3 volume bio of LBJ showing up from my library holds that should break that cycle.
congrats on the mowing – we are looking at a very hot week coming up too, and no real rain in sight, so watering things is a real slog.
Ceci
It will be watering, watering, and watering! Is the bio of LBJ by Robert Caro?
Stay safe, Ceci.
YES, that is it exactly? Do you recommend?
Ceci
I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard nothing but raves about it. Enjoy!
I’m reading The Eye and The Impossible by Dave Eggers. It’s technically children’s literature but I’m enjoying it very much and I think you would too. The hero is a dog who lives free in a park. The story is told from his viewpoint and it’s clever to read what he knows and how he explains things and all his animal friends who band together to help each other. Such a wonderful change of pace from what I usually read.
I had a typo in the title, it is The Eyes and The Impossible. Just finished it and I highly recommend it! Since you are such an animal and dog lover, you would just love this story.
Thank you, Ellen!
Sounds lovely, Ellen!
Thanks so much.
Stay safe.
Hi Claudia, Lucy and Bertie make cute supervisors. Hope you cut the grass to their exacting standards, lol. Loved Lucy’s overalls. I’m reading a book called “The Two Lives of Lydia Bird” by Josie Silver, an author I just discovered. She has written 3 other books. All light reading but delightful. Stay cool in the predicted heat wave coming our way. Hugs, Elaine
Delightful is always a good thing, Elaine!
Thanks so much.
Stay safe.
My library has the latest (and last) Maisie Dobbs book from Jacqueline Winspear for me to pick up this weekend. Maisie was a great character, really loved her.
Don’t know how I missed Geraldine Brooks, but I was just in Saratoga Springs (pre-Belmont Stakes) and they were all talking about Horse. Just got it and it’s wonderful! Now I have another author’s back works to go through.
Happy reading!
Isn’t it wonderful to discover a new-to-you author? The best.
Stay safe, Barbara.
good job of planning and mowing ahead of such heat. hope your air conditioners are in place and you’ll keep cool.
lucy and bertie are cute supervisors. especially love the bibs and bertie’s expression.
hot here, too. saps my energy and i feel crabby when it gets humid and/or the temperature gets over 80. staying indoors a lot this week. and it’s why i am leaving very soon to get groceries … want to avoid the hottest part of the day and the friday-after-work crowds. landlord asked again if i wanted him to install the a-c at my apartment and again i said no, thanks. i am just not there much. nice and comfortable where i’m at, my parents’ home. :)
i love the question about what we’re reading because i always learn about books i might get to read so thanks for asking, claudia, and for answering, everyone else! i am reading the Bible and am in the middle of the “little house on the prairie” series … fourth book of nine, “on the banks of plum creek”. hard life back then, but lots of sweetness, too.
i wish you all sweetness, too. keep cool and safe in every way!
kathy
If it costs you nothing, install the A/C. You never know when you’re going to need it. He wants to do it, so let him do it! (My humble advice.)
Thanks, Kathy.
Stay safe.
thanks, claudia. i appreciate your advice (among other things you share).
i just am not there enough to justify my landlord’s time and trouble to install the air conditioner … maybe five hours a week, could be even less than that. i get a nice breeze through the west-facing windows and have a ceiling fan in the bedroom, if needed.
hope you are keeping cool and safe!
xo,
kathy
xo
Currently reading (trying to read) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. My daughter birthday- gifted me all three books of the trilogy. I’m determined to read all three but the cast of characters and the detailed descriptions make for slow going.
If you join the readalong on Instagram, there are handy charts of all the characters. Makes it much easier to follow!
Thanks, Norma.
Stay safe.
I recently finished The Dutch House. I started reading it several years ago, but I had a hard time getting into it, not sure why. Second time around I couldn’t put it down. Right now I just started a fluff beach read. Nice weather here, but heating up.
Yes, heating up here as well! I loved Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I should read this one, as well.
Thanks, Barrie.
Stay safe.
Hope you get some respite from the heat. It’s been very chilly here lately, I needed to switch the heating on in the evening and had a hot water bottle for a couple of nights!
Currently enjoying two books, Dissolution by C. J. Sansom set in Tudor times just after the enforced closure of monasteries during the reign of Henry the Eigth.
Also, Oh, Sister by Jodie Howard and it’s excellent. It’s about three women and their subservient lives in an unnamed religion but it’s not difficult to guess which one.
Most important of all, I am finally able to see Spoiled Alert this weekend! After all this time, it’s finally appeared on a streaming service that I easily access at my home.Really looking forward to watching it.
Happy Friday
Hurrah! Let me know what you think, Dee Dee. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks so much.
Stay safe.
Very hot here in Oklahoma! Currently reading Nora Roberts latest book “Mind Games”. Will finish it this afternoon….very good.
Good! It’s nice to retreat with a book in hot weather, Ann.
Stay safe.
Lucy looks so cute (my 5 month old granddaughter is named Lucy). I just finished Lost Hours by Paige Shelton and When We Meet Again by Kristin Harmel. They were both good but When We Meet Again was excellent I thought. I’ve read a few books by that author and really enjoyed them.
Oh, wonderful! It’s always wonderful to find a dependable author.
Stay safe, Carol.
I am reading “Long Island” by Colm To’ibi’n. It is a gift, just wonderful to read.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Kaye
That’s on my TBR list, Kaye. Can’t wait to get a hold of a copy.
Stay safe.
I’m currently reading The 23rd Midnight, and will follow up with The 24th Hour. They are part of the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson. They are quick, but interesting and suspenseful reads.
I hope to finish them next week when the hot weather descends upon us here, too. It’s going to be too hot to do much else here but water my plants daily. Unless we get rain storms…which are predicted for 8 straight days starting Sunday. Oh fun.
We should all be so lucky to have such cute lawn mowing supervisors! ;)
Oh darn. I think we might get a lot of rain, too.
Stay safe, Donnamae.
Catching up after kid-sitting. And it’s hot, hot, hot! Lucy looks great but those pants feel too warm for today — at least here!
I just finished “Shy,” the Mary Rodgers/Jesse Green collaboration, which I really enjoyed and will review in the June book catch-up next month. Now I’m reading a book from England called “Once Upon a Tome” by Oliver something-or-other about his experiences working in an antiquarian bookstore in London. A slower read but fun. I’m trying to get my pile ready to take to the lake this summer and figure out what to bring!
Ah, the lake!
Lucky you, Jeanie.
Stay safe.