Book and Bed Tokyo
------------
I've been doing some more on the white embroidery piece while watching shows on Netflix and/or Amazon Prime.  

Although this is a month of letter writing challenges, I have not been participating in either InCoWriMo (International Correspondence Writers Month) or LetterMo (Month of Letters).  In fact, I'm behind in answering the letters I've recently received, but since my husband is going to be out of town this weekend, I plan to get busy and answer my mail. 

Today will be a pajama day which means reading books, writing letters, maybe some binge-watching and embroidery, and plenty of snacks.  I'm prepared for self-indulgence.  :)

Keep Her Silent is less interesting for its plot than for the premise involving the tainted blood scandal in the UK.  This horrific situation involved America, a Canadian drug company, and corpses from Russia.  You really can't make this stuff up.  

I wasn't as engaged with the murder plot or the characters (Oonagh was annoying), but truth is stranger than fiction in this situation--and that part of the story kept me engaged.  

When a police investigation into the Raphael Murders is reopened, investigative journalist Oonagh O'Neil discovers more questions than answers, but her interviews and research cause her to examine the original investigation with a different perspective.  She's often wrong-footed and her discoveries are almost stumbled on, but she eventually knows the murders were not what they seemed.

Britain's Contaminated Blood Scandal

Scandal Not Confined to Britain

Can you imagine if your child was one of the Pups?  "The acronym used was Pups – previously untreated patients. They were in effect being experimented on."
----
There are numerous articles online about the tainted blood scandal, but the corruption, greed, arrogance, and cover-up  involved is sickening.  Theresa May has ordered a new inquiry which may bring some semblance of justice.

Read in July; blog review scheduled for Aug. 9.

NetGalley/Aria

Crime/Suspense.  Aug. 21, 2018.  Print length:  301 pages.

Source

Mazes and labyrinths have such mystery attached to them--from the fear of being lost and confused in a maze...
 Source

 to the meditative process of walking a labyrinth as a spiritual exercise.  
Source

I found this article that examines the way writers use the concept:  Myths, Monsters, and the Maze: How Writers Fell in Love with the Labyrinth.  You have to scroll way down to get to the parts that interested me, but it begins with a gift from a guide in Knossos (Mrs. Grammatiki) to a little girl (the author, Charlotte Higgins) and how years later, the guide and the grown woman began a fascinating correspondence about mazes and authors.  

I didn't realize the etymology of the word clue.

"The Minotaur’s lair in Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women is “crinkled to and fro”, and “shapen as the mase is wroght”. To find his way through it, Theseus must use the “clewe of twyne” that Ariadne gives him. The word “clewe” derives from Old English cliwen or cleowen, meaning a rounded mass, or a ball of thread. Eventually it became our word “clue”. It lost its material significance, and retained only its metaphorical meaning. But still, there it is, hidden but present: the clewe is in the clue (and the clue is in the clewe). Every step towards solving a mystery, or a crime, or a puzzle, or the riddle of the self, is a length of yarn tossed us by the helping hand of Ariadne."


There is an interesting discussion of Stanley Kubric's The Shining and the three mazes:  the hedge, the model, and the hotel itself...and young Danny as a Labyrinth walker.  

The correspondence between Charlotte Higgins and Mrs. Grammatiki began with letters and then became emails:

In her last email to me, Mrs Grammatiki wrote this: “I sometimes imagine that Daedalus, when he designed his labyrinth, must have re-created the ridges and convoluted folds of his own brain in the form of a building, as if it were a self-portrait. Do you not find that an image of the human brain resembles a labyrinth? And if Daedalus’s labyrinth is a diagram of the brain, it is therefore also a symbol of the imagination. It represents the manner in which humans make associations, one thought following another in a long procession, from the edge to the centre to the end. Stories have this comfort to them: they have a beginning and an end. They find a way out of the labyrinth.”

 How I love the idea of the brain as a labyrinth!

Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson is set in the same world as The Remnant Chronicles.  I've now caught up with all the books in The Remnant Chronicles.  Although Dance of Thieves started a little slow, when it kicked in, I couldn't put it down.

A YA fantasy with romance and adventure, likable characters, and secret missions.  The relationship between Kazi and Jase begins with anger and suspicion and quickly proceeds to secret attraction and respect, but there are suspicions even as they learn to trust each other.  Dance of Thieves is a YA novel with a certain innocent charm.

The pacing varies, and there are a few sections that could have been more concisely rendered, but truthfully, I didn't mind much as it was a world I became committed to and didn't want to end.

The plot is completed in one sense, but the last chapter is a kind of brief "preview" of what will provide the complication in the next book.  

Read in June;  blog review scheduled for July 26.

NetGalley/Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

YA Fantasy/Adventure.  August 7, 2018.  Print length:  384 pages.
-------------
Interesting Links:

How Minecraft Is Helping Kids Fall in Love with Books    
Read the book, then play the game.

The Great Thai Cave Escape?  Please Hollywood Don't Do This to Us

Nebraska Tribe Becomes a Solar Power Leader on the Plains

Lately, I've been in the mood for ghost stories and decided to try Ghost Gifts by Laura Spinella which was free on Kindle Unlimited.  

Ghost Gifts was an interesting blend of mystery, ghostly visits, and romance.  Aubrey has inherited a psychic gift and "sees dead people."   Sometimes her gift gives a sense of closure to the ghosts make contact.  But sometimes the connections are dangerous, and Aubrey makes every effort to control her contacts. 

In the present, Aubrey is managing quite well with her job at a local paper dealing with real estate, keeping her unusual talent a secret.   

Then her boss assigns her to work on the shocking discovery of a skeleton found sealed in a wall.  Way out of her usual purview.  Unable to get out of the assignment, Aubrey is partnered with the difficult investigative reporter Levi St. John.    

Aubrey is no shrinking violet;  she has worked hard for a normal life and has attempted to avoid unwanted ghostly contacts, but she has no problem speaking her mind.  Both reporters resist the partnership, but eventually, they work together, and Aubrey's gift turns out to be crucial to solving the murder.

Interesting characters, a well-plotted mystery, subtle clues that entwine characters and events past and present into a complex whole.

Kindle Unlimited.

Mystery/Supernatural.  2016.  Print length:  386 pages.   

----------
I often collect links of interesting articles, then forget about them.  Here are a few that I found on an unfinished draft:  

For readers who enjoy the supernatural, this article on ley lines.

I've been following Steve McCurry's photographic blog for years.  The photos are from every part of the world and cover most human activities along with quotes.  The title is this entry is "To Light a Fire" -- with photographs of readers from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia.  I love his blog.

Wage inequality: A study of more than 2m books has revealed that titles by female authors are on average sold at just over half the price of those written by men. (Source)  The article goes on to say the study was a result of VIDa counts that foun a "skew towards reviews of books by male authors, written by maler reviewers."

Read a Book--it could save your sanity.  From a study by  The Journal of the American Medical Association: "researchers discovered that readers’ risk [of dementia] was significantly lower than non-readers."  YAY!

I'm not terribly interested in the Oscars as I haven't seen most of the films nominated, but what if they gave Oscars to books?

If They Gave Oscars to Books, Our 2017 Nominees

I still enjoy Scandi Noir, but looks like Scandinavian authors may have some competition soon:

The New Scandi Noir?  Korean Writers Reinventing the Thriller

And an interesting connection,  a well-deserved prize for the translators who make so many of the books we enjoy available in our language.  Although I frequently read books that have been translated, I haven't read any of the books on the list.  Have you?

Quick guide The 2018 TA first translation prize shortlist Hide

I'm still reading, but so many of the NetGalley books are not being published until 2017.  At present, I have 12 reviews scheduled through April of next year.  My last library books proved to be poor choices, but hopefully, this batch will be better.  And I have a stack of ARCs that arrived in the mail.  

My crafty and mail art activities continue, although those are mostly posted on my other blog.  My studio is complete chaos--even worse than usual and beginning to wear me down.  When I attempt to clean and organize, something turns up that I need to try, and I get distracted, start something new, and get more paste, paint, thread, and fabric all over me and my work area. 

One current obsession is making small collages and collaged tags, but collage is  a technique that seems to be impossible to keep corralled.  If I worked on only one project at a time maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but I rarely work on only one thing at a time.  Every work surface is covered with stuff for different projects--even my ironing board has become a work surface. 

I'm watching the Dakota Pipeline stories with interest...and hope.  

 Another hopeful development is a possible new treatment for AD.   Too late for Terry Pratchett and my father, but may be a saving grace for many others.

A study suggesting that "... men do not enjoy the debauchery or the “extreme shaming, humiliation, and deviance” that are part and parcel of most modern stag dos."  Another example of the way peer pressure can go wrong and this can be an element for women, too.

Girl Power!  (gallery)



God, I love these girls!  

That's all, folks

Source

38 Wonderful Foreign Words We Could Use in English


I'm now interested in reading The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre.  Here's why:





The reviews on Goodreads run the full gamut--from DNF to plenty of 5 stars.  Ordinarily, I would not be interested, but the songs by Shane Cavendish that were inspired by the book make me want to know more about the novel.

Reading Is Fundamental

One example of some wonderful pics...

photo by Debbie Treloar

Media Influence on our kids.

Pretty scary!  This also is a problem with some YA books.  Believe me, I don't want to go back to puritan standards by any means, but when the content of the media that reaches so many children presents these messages, the results can be devastating.  

Holy Angels Residential Facility  (much more positive!)








Quote

We are here on earth to do good for others.  What the others are here for, I do not know.  
 --W.H. Auden

Love this one!

The tail under the nose is so typical!

And visit Steve McCurry's blog post:
To read is to fly  wonderful photos and quotes!

Although I haven't been reading as much lately, I have quite a few reviews scheduled for closer to the time of publication.   A lot of the scheduled reviews were read in May or June.

July and August have been slow reading months, but I did read The Windup Girl and Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, Night Watch by Linda Fairstein, and The White Forest .....need to review them.


interesting article about science fiction

good science fiction reading list

people reading on flickr

Booker Prize Long List

What I have been doing (instead of reading) is making a boro jacket, working on white on white pieces, and making encrusted pieces of embroidery.

I posted lots of progress pictures on Bayou Quilts.

 Street Photos of Commuters Reading on the Subway. ( via Read in a Single Sitting)

And here is a Facebook site of the subway readers.  I love seeing people of all ages reading on the subway, totally absorbed, sometimes with book titles showing, sometimes not.



Sam has an interesting, and a bit disturbing, post about the way our Kindle and Nook e- readers provide information about our reading choices and habits.

I was pleased to see that Nan of Letters from a Hill Farm found Midnight in Peking as interesting as I did.  Click the link to read her review; my review is here.  Author Paul French happens on an account of an unsolved murder in Peking in 1937 and investigates the story.

French uncovers a great deal of information and relates this true crime story, revealing the time period and the cover-ups, in an entirely readable way.




Another gem via Read in a Single Sitting:  Ten Unusual Micro Libraries.  I Love this one...




This is the kind of thing that occupies me when I don't want to write reviews.

Now this is a costume  I like!  The Book Fairy from Lilliedale:

I first saw Thomas Allen's work on Sam's Book Chase blog.  What fun!

I discovered a new blog the other day:  Fyrefly's Book Blog.  Maybe the title gives you a clue to some of her reading preferences.  What I enjoyed most about her blog is the inclusion of haiku book descriptions! 

Recently, I was considering returning to the 6 word sentence reviews, but Fyrefly's haikus would put them to shame.

Here is the haiku in her review of Indigo:  In Search of the Color that Seduced the World by Catherine E. McKinley:

This wonderful post about learning courage from fairy tales and books by Jennifer of The Lion's Whiskers reminded me of the importance of reading as both a child and an adult.  (Found via The Drawing Board blog).

Have just a few more reviews to catch up on and a nice stack of ARCs from Algonquin Books to settle into.  I limited my library books this week because I have so many books already in the stacks.

I had so much fun decorating for Valentine's Day this year that I've been working on St. Patrick's Day.  First, I went through all my green depression glass and other items, then I started crafting.  So far:  a St. Pat's garland, an Irish Lass from an old bottle opener, a tassel from fabric strips and a wine cork, a subway art print in a frame, a dish towel with an Irish label and raw edge ruffle, a St. Pat fabric label onto linen for a little sign.  Fun!
I'm adding pictures to my other blog as I finish different items.

Just finished:  The Bomber Boys:  Heroes Who Flew the B-17s in World War II.  I really enjoyed this for personal reasons; my father was a navigator on a B-17, but he never talked much about the war.  The stories of the various airmen who were interviewed gave me an insight into the Flying Fortress crews and their experiences.  There is also a nice bibliography that I'll look into later.

Amelia is hosting her annual Oscar Party tonight so after Fee and I had lunch at Byronz, we went and picked up Bryce Eleanor.  We went to the park before coming home; it was windy and overcast, but nice and warm.

I've discovered a new book blog that takes an original approach to book blogging.  ButteryBooks combines cooking and book reviews and gives party planning tips based on the books the book club reads.  Take a look at the suggestions for a Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.  Decorations, music, menu, wine choices, discussion questions, and other resources.

Wouldn't it be a fun way to have a book club discussion?  Check out their post on Cowboys Never Cry and the Western themed party.  Or any of these!

I've plenty on my plate (or in the stacks) right now, but I've been adding to my TBR list with delighted abandon:


The Rescue Artist by Edward Dolnick (via Jenny'sBooks) -- NF-- an account of the theft and recovery of Edvard Munch's The Scream   and the efforts of Charley Hill of the Scotland Yard Art Squad.

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal ( via Dorothy W.) -- described as a fable, it is about a man whose job as a waste paper compactor leads him to rescue books.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (???) - I love Shakespeare and this novel featuring the three sisters Bianca, Cordelia, and Rosalind captures my interest from just the title, which conjures up images of Macbeth's encounter on the heath.

Bybee has a great post about teaching her reading class. The discussion about what people use for book marks is good for a chuckle! We all often grab whatever is close by to mark our places, what is funny is what people sometimes have near to hand.

A video about Dewey (the library cat):

I put aside all yoga thoughts tonight and pulled out a book to read for pleasure. Ahhhh!

Wanted to share this link again (I posted it a couple of years ago) about finding authors in your favorite genres: Literature-Map.

If you enjoy William Faulkner, or Richard Russo, or Reginald Hill, or Ruth Rendell, or Wilkie Collins, or Flannery O'Connor, or ...whichever author you might like, just type in the name and see what other authors appear who write in a similar vein.

One more note for those who enjoy children's lit and YA fiction: The Fairy Godmother Academy (written by the mother-in-law of Cameron, a fellow yoga teacher-in-training) looks like great fun!

"Before there were finishing schools, therapists, or how-to books there were fairy godmothers. Theirs was a legacy of magical Wisdoms, an academy of powerful women with the gifts of Singing Stones, Spirikins, Kalis Sticks, and Magic Hand Mirrors. These powers were handed down through generations to daughters, sisters, nieces and grand daughters.

The Fairy Godmother Academy is a book series and trans-media brand that introduces preteen girls to their inner Wisdoms by connecting them to a school of the heart in a dream world called Aventurine."

Published by Random House, Birdie's Book is the first in the series.