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What Are You Reading?

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Taken from inside the bus as I made my way home yesterday.

Coaching went well. As usual, even though I coached for two hours or so, the day itself – from the moment I left the house until I drove up our driveway – was 10 hours long. Imagine what it’s like for Don when he has an audition; all that time for approximately 8 minutes actually auditioning.

It was a windy, rainy day, which is always a challenge in Manhattan. My umbrella flipped inside out at least 4 times. I was very happy to arrive home to a welcoming wave from Don and dinner ready to be served. He’s a great guy.

Speaking of that great guy, I told him that I didn’t want anything for my birthday, as I’d just had an incredible gift in our trip to Paris.

There was little gift bag, however. And in it was this:

A print of a picture of us kissing on the Seine. The story behind this: Don stopped a young woman and asked her if she would mind taking a picture of us with the Seine in the background. (You can see her shadow in the bottom right corner of the photo.) She took a few of us doing the usual standing side by side thing, and then Don suddenly and unexpectedly grabbed me and kissed me. For quite a long time! And this lovely woman kept snapping.

Anyway, isn’t it sweet? What a wonderful memory.

Today is sunny. Tomorrow will be rainy. I believe it’s time for a major porch clean up.

I’m reading The Essex Serpent  by Sarah Perry. I just started it yesterday while on the bus and I read a bit more this morning. It had rave reviews a few years back and won all sorts of awards, so I’m expecting a very good read.

Since I’ve told you what I am reading, will you tell me what you are reading? It’s my favorite question, you know.

Happy Saturday.

Comments

  1. I’m glad you got home safe and sound. A cozy cottage with a lovely guy waiting for you!

    Just started reading “The Stolen Marriage” by Diane Chamberlain. Not in to it enough to give a review but intrigued so far!

    Have a great weekend.

    X Chy

  2. I recently found a couple of the Gladys Tabor books about her life in the country. Read them almost 50 years ago but so enjoyed them. Anxious to get started after Thanksgiving!

  5. A beautiful photo. Happy Belated Birthday…
    I am reading ” Virgil Wander” by Leif Enger”
    Have a great weekend.

    Kaye

  7. LOVE this picture of the two of you. It tells a lot about you two and your love of Paris. Perfect!!

  8. Lovely photo and memories!
    Just finished “Olive Again,” Strout’s follow-up to “Olive Kitteridge”–wonderful.

  9. I am reading non-fiction as usual – a collection of lectures E. F. Schumacher gave as he toured around the United States in the mid-1970’s called Good Work. They all make so much sense in the current economic and societal morass. But I also have what I call “comfort fiction” which I read to turn my thoughts away from current affairs. I have loved Dorothy Sayers for over 40 years and still reread my tattered paperbacks from that time; the same for Margery Allingham and for Angela Thirkell. However, I just read the NYTimes review of The Essex Serpent and it sounds fascinating. Don’t know if I will find it re-readable, but I think I will try it out.

    • It all sounds very interesting, Anne! I don’t reread very often. Some books are definitely my comfort reads and I pull them out every so often, but I’m always eager to try something new.

      Thanks so much!

  10. What a fantastic view of the New York skyline. The most exciting view out of my bus journey to work is fields of sheep!
    I am reading the second of Sarah Ward’s Derbyshire detective novels. After that I am going to read a modern classic The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. In case folk don’t know her work she’s an American author who spent most of her early years living in China where her father was a missionary. This was written in the 1930s, I think.

    Happy Saturday

  12. What a lovely picture to have, Claudia!

    I just finished Somewhere Near the End by Diana Athill, and reserved another book by her: Stet. I also read Complaint Free World, and it’s motivated me to stop being so negative (although there’s lots to be negative about, does it really help?). I liked The Sweet Life in Paris, by David Leibowitz.

    I am re-reading The Longevity Paradox by Dr. Stephen Gundry. It’s an inspiring book about how to change your diet for good health as we age.

    On your recommendation, I got Gaudy Night out, but haven’t started.

    • I hear a lot of good things about Diana Athill and must read some of her books in the future.

      Thanks, Cara!

  13. Oh, my most favorite question!!!!

    I just finished Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. Am reading Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (enjoying it ~ a light read), and next I am reading (again) Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. I love re-reading books!! Depending where I am in my life when I read them, it becomes a bit of a different read each time.

    I love these posts as I always add to my TBR list!!!! Thanks, Claudia!

    • I’ve heard the Sager is scary! (Which I love.)

      And I’ve been hearing a lot about Wendell Berry lately, which leads me to believe I should find some of Berry’s books.

      Thanks, Chris!

  14. Hi Claudia
    That looks like a great kiss !
    I am reading The Humbler Creation by Pamela Handsford Johnson – picked up at a community ferry stop in NSW
    Siobhan

  15. I’m not reading; I’m watching. (Just like I did with Watergate all those years ago. Riveted.) Back in the rut/trend of not being able to pull myself away from what’s going on with the impeachment hearings (and our nation).

    Well, I guess I am actually reading, as I just read a lot more online about Fiona Hill (like how on earth have I never heard before of this articulate, highly-educated woman?).

    I can’t not watch Rachel right now; I admit, I’m glued. She is just so dang smart and explains things so well for the rest of us. But I’m into other news outlets as well. I want to be VERY informed right now. (Just love that last night, Rachel showed all the paper newspapers [front-page headlines] from around the country, speaking of how people still love a paper thrown on the driveway; I’ve gotten away from that and I decided right then and there to start up my county newspaper subscription again [maybe I’ll start buying the L.A. Times again as well; I love the L.A. Times, just have to make time for it in a day!]; my husband’s great-grandfather was a newspaperman in a rural Midwestern ‘prairie settlement’ in the 1800s; let’s not let that time-honored tradition of a newspaper office with an editor and printed paper fall forever to the wayside!)

    I’m highly anticipating what the year is gonna bring come January and thereafter. My husband and I can’t stop talking about what’s going on with the Trump administration et al. (I love my hubs, too, but I don’t think we’ve had a photo taken of us like you and Don at the Seine since our wedding day; you two are just too romantic for the rest of us!) There’s just much at stake; we’re vitally interested in climate change, too, since we live in an area of California prone to devastating wildfire and drought (although we DID have a spot of rain this week, first time in so many months!!). Anyway, lots of important issues for political candidates/reps in this election year ahead.

    Thinking of back in the day, I can remember various history teachers I had in school who were cautioning even then, of the danger to the U.S. if we crumble from within, and I don’t think they meant just a breakdown in government (ala crisis with the presidency, etc.) but more along the lines of when the citizenry loses faith and trust, and have doubt and suspicion, having lost the solid structure of good leaders; an unraveling from the core of which was once, at least seemingly, unbreakable and unshakable. I do think we have to believe in the intelligence and integrity of people in government who go unsung because they’re not melodramatic and calling attention to themselves; pin our hopes on those who are NOT corrupt (there are a lot of decent, genuine, honest people still out there … more of the good guys than the bad guys … good will prevail!). We just can’t have a slipping away, losing our hold, on what the U.S. is founded upon, that bedrock of commitment and determination and fight for what’s right. Our ancestors worked so hard to get a foothold in a free country; we descendants can’t lose ours.

    So, I’m fastened on current events. Not feeling pulled down; feeling excited and invigorated about the change I’ve yearned for since 2016. I can’t wait for 2020; can’t wait to see what will unfold. This is my country and she will survive; battered but will heal. I know its coming; it has to come. It just has to. I think Rachel said it last night but I was already thinking of it, too: “What a time to be alive!”

    My better half announced to me yesterday that after Christmas, he will work the year ahead to do whatever is necessary (for change in 2020 [within his reach]), like walk neighborhoods, put up signs, volunteer with the local elected reps, etc. He has a lot of previous experience ‘manning’ the polling place, collecting ballots, etc. on election days, so he’s getting back into that as well. Anything and everything to make sure Trump doesn’t get re-elected (if he doesn’t get impeached). Like a new religion. I told him I’ll support him in his endeavors any way I can.

    I actually WAS down earlier this week because, like anybody, we all go thru personal-life cycles of disappointments or bad news and I had both recently although I’ll be okay (I spent the day Tuesday as a patient in the emergency room, but that’s just one thing among more than I’d wish for right now; when, what is the expression, it feels like it’s raining down on my head hard enough to need a hat). I’m not mentioning this personal-life predicament(s) to be mysterious or pitiable, but maybe I’m fixating on current events so that I don’t have to think about other stuff in my life that isn’t going like I want it to right now. But why not? This is no time to be asleep in the United States of America.

    • I know what’s going on, usually as it happens, but I had to work this week and it was also my birthday and I prefer to follow things on Twitter and then watch the highlights later. I must have balance in my life especially as I’ve been beset by anxiety for the past 6 months, and reading provides that balance!

      • Oh, goodness, Claudia; I wasn’t saying you or any of your readers who are enjoying books are asleep; I was just saying, for myself, almost like talking to myself I guess, that I’m back into being more aware of what’s going on politically because I had really withdrawn from media and was ignoring headlines, almost totally tuned out to where I couldn’t even get in conversations with people about what was going on. I’m an extremist it seems, I go high, I go low but never in between. Like, when I tune out, I really tune out! Somewhere in there is the balance of which you speak, and we all have to find our own, as we’ve spoken of here many times. I’m just too distracted to read, although reading is excellent to combat anxiety. I’ve been there; probably still am. I have several fiction series’ here on my table stacks (more beach reads rather than anything ‘intellectual’) that I can start on at any time when everything gets to be too much again and I need to absorb my brain elsewhere with something ‘light’.

        Keep on reading! Read on as they say…

        …and I’ll join in sooner than later, no doubt. I had three books arrive yesterday, an odd assortment; I’ll catch up one of these days…

        • Oh, I know you didn’t mean it that way. The truth is, I wanted to tune in and watch live, but the minute I did, my blood pressure went up and I’ve had to face that fact that at this time in my life, I can’t watch live. I can keep track of what’s going on via Twitter and then watch testimony later. But no Devin Nunes or Jim Jordan or any of those colluders!

          xoxo

  16. I’m reading Louise Penny’s Kingdom of the Blind at home. I go everywhere by bus so I always carry a book with me for long trips or long waits. Currently that book is A Finer End by Deborah Crombie. I mostly read mysteries.

  17. just finished yesterday: “The Paris Architect” by Charles Belfoure. Well written, touching and sad, story of during France invasion by Germany, and some people’s work to hide Jews. from Amazon review “…The author Belfoure, through his writing, brings vivid scenes of what life under German occupation to the reader. Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of WWII history will find the storyline, characters scenes completely believable and moving. A very satisfying read, as each page brings tension, danger and intrigue which forces the reader to continue turning the pages in pursuit of survival and closure.” I couldn’t put it down once I got past the first few pages. Now I’m reading “Decluttering at the Speed of Life” by Dana White, I needed something light for my next read.

  19. I love the photo from Paris. A romantic picture in a romantic city.
    Right now I am reading Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger. I’m trying to catch up with this series. I’m way behind.
    In high school and college I opted for writing and speech classes instead of reading type classes. I haven’t read many classics. I decided one fiction and then a classic is my new goal. I’m starting with Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck.

  20. I am almost finished with book 8 in The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill. I have one more to go in the series. They are about the Amish people. I have learned quite a few of the German words they use. I consider this an educational bonus. I have also been reading a few Christmas books and Thanksgiving ones,too. I am going to read one of our non-fiction books after I finish the series. Glad everything went well in the city.
    Marilyn

  25. I am reading Deborah Crombie’s A Bitter Feast. I always enjoy her books.
    Love to know what others are reading.

  26. What a terrific picture of you two…romance was in the air!

    I’m currently reading 19th Christmas by James Patterson, it’s the latest Women’s Murder Club mystery. Really good so far. I really enjoy reading the comments on these posts. And, I’m adding some books that were recommended to my list. Just what I need…more books to read! ;)

    • I know! I certainly don’t need more books to add to my TBR list, but what the heck! Thanks, Donna!

  27. What a precious picture of the two of you. I love it!
    I’m trying to read The Beekeepers Promise by Fiona Valpy. Unfortunately life has kept me so occupied that I’m not going to be able to finish before it goes back to the library. It’s very good so far.

  29. I’m reading a children’s book, ‘Beryl: A Pig’s Tale’ by Jane Simmons. It’s very well written and very sweet with lovely charcoal and pastel illustrations. I’m surprised it’s not more well known as it is right up there with books like ‘Charlotte’s Web’

  30. I just finished the Essex Serpent! Serendipity! It was beautifully written and surprising, a very strong sense of place and unusual characters. I think you’ll find it fascinating. Wishing you and Don, you romantic fools!, a happy Thanksgiving.

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