Monday, May 02, 2022

Me On A Monday - May 2nd

Good Morning Everyone.  Another month's beginnings are upon us & it can either be very thrilling to think of another 31 fresh opportunities or another 31 days to get through.  I'm going with thrill & joy of 31 new beginnings for May.  

SOURCE: Internet (Pinterest)

I think most of us can agree that during the last two & a bit years, that many of us have done a lot of reading.  It was & always has been, a joy for me to sit & read for hours at a time.  I think that during the lockdowns, book recommendations exceeded even recipe sharing.

My biggest gratitude was that during the first few months of initial lockdowns, our library was readily available through an online system called Libby.  I am not normally an ebook reader, but when it was the only way to get my "hands on"  new to me books, I was thankful it was available.  Since most if not all things are now returning to open & come on in mind set, I have continued to read a few books as ebooks, mainly because it is the only way that many of the newer books are available.  That does not make me happy, but I am trying my best to be adaptable & smile through it.

In April, I mixed up my reading genre quite a bit.  I had decided back at the start of the year that my ideas for 2022 is to read some books that I missed out on as a child.  Recently on Lady Ella's blog, she reviewed a favourite childhood book of hers, The Railway Children.  The book was originally written in 1906 & has been reprinted several times & made into a movie;1970 & remade in 2000 & another revision for 2022.  I was able to get a solid copy of this book & read.  I had to remember when reading this book, that my mind & heart needed to be a child again.  It was a good read overall.  Next up are some Winnie The Pooh & Beatrix Potter books.

My latest new to me read, was recommended by an online (F/B) book club; Ruth Ozeki's The Book of Form & Emptiness.   Ruth's opening is what caught my attention & desire to read more; 

 "A book must start somewhere.  One brave letter must volunteer to go first, laying itself on the line in an act of faith, from which a word takes heart & follows, drawing a sentence into its wake.  From there, a paragraph amasses & soon a page & the book is on its way, finding a voice, calling itself into being.  A book must start somewhere & this one starts here."

The book is about Benny Oh & his Mother, Annabelle's journey in coming to terms with the sudden & tragic death of Benny's Father, Annabelle's husband.  They both develop less than ideal methods of coping. Benny begins to hear the voices of things like his sneaker, a window & a broken ornament.  Annabelle develops hoarding as a way to protect herself.  Best character in the book is the Book-a-Talking, who narrates the story. I liked this book & will re-read it in the future. (what the window had to say, got me a little teary). 

I also re-read some of my (current) author's books, Louise Penny & the Chief Inspector Gamache books.  Thankfully I own the collection, so can pick up these any time my heart desires.  The latest Chief Inspector book is currently being written by Louise & not set for release until 2023!

Also read, The Younger Wife, which turned out to be a not horrible read, took me a while to get interested in the story & characters. 

Another read was Death at the Chateau Bremont, by M.L. Longworth.  This was the first in a series of murder mysteries taking place in Provence, France.  These books are the base of the latest TV murder series "Death in Provence"  starring Roger Allam of Inspector Thursday (Endeavour) fame.  This was/is one of those ebook reads for me.  I liked & have book 2 on order (another ebook).

I had previously talked about my other April reads, Where The Crawdads SingCrown & Septure in an earlier Me On Monday post.

And I will leave you with another quote from The Book of Form & Emptiness: 

 "According to the capabilities of the reader, books have their own destinies .. "                    Walter Benjamin, Unpacking my library.




25 comments:

  1. Oh I haven't caught on to "Death in Provence". I like Roger Allam and can smugly say that I "spotted" him early. He was in a production of the RSC's "Much Ado About Nothing" that we went to on a school trip, and I liked him so much that I got my English teacher to ask her husband (who happened to be a trumpeter for the show) to get my programme signed. It was and I still have it! Lately he is cropping up everywhere - on the big and small screen and on the radio. Clearly I should have been a talent scout!! :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Death in Provence books are not for me, grabbers, enjoyable yes & I will read the 2nd one when available. I like that it wasn't a gore fest, more character development. I cannot think of what else I've seen Roger in, but lucky you getting the autograph early on ... maybe that can be part of your retirement fund to auction on eBay one day!!! :)

      Delete
  2. Happy Monday and Happy May! I had a colleague who always said we couldn't count on Spring here until May 1st so I'm always happy to see the calendar turn. That's quite an impressive list of titles, and almost all of them are unfamiliar to me. I just signed up for Libby, but ebooks here are just as unavailable as the hard copies most of the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. April use to be the herald of spring but with climate change it seems to be late May. Of course we never plant annuals until the May 24th weekend (aka Victoria Day). The book Form & Emptiness is not for everyone, it's a little of an odd book, but then I like odd. The murder in Provence ebooks are very popular right now, so there's a wait for them too :(

      Delete
  3. Good for you. I am not reading as much as I used to. I still have the latest Penny to read as well as her book with Hillary. Sue has the audio versions, and I am sort of saving them for if and when I am convalescing after foot surgery, should it ever occur.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just got notice this morning that Louise's #18 book goes to print for a November release. She said she enjoyed writing so much, that she finished earlier than anticipated. So I'm excited. I read the Hiliary co written book - I wasn't a fan. Oh foot surgery!!!

      Delete
  4. I love The Railway Children and hope you enjoyed it as well.

    The opening lines of The Book of Form & Emptiness intrigue me but I don't know that I want to read the book just yet. It's on my list of possibles but am not sure if this is the right time for me to read it.

    I'm enjoying reading again, something I lost for quite a while, but am now racing through my stack of books. I'm the same as you with eBooks. They are a good enough alternative but I much prefer the whole experience of having a proper book to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did enjoy the Railway Children. The Book of Form & Emptiness is a big book & it borders on different/weird. I liked but I'm not sure many other would. So many amazing book/life quotes. I agree ebooks are fine but a real book in the hand makes reading so much more satisfying (IMO).

      Delete
  5. I have just finished book 3 of Inspector Gamache - I have a lot of catching up to do!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you are liking the Inspector Gamache books & I just read that book #18 will be ready at the end of the year now!

      Delete
  6. I do stick to murder mysteries these days. I'm looking forward to #18, as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like mysteries, I'm not into the gore mysteries though. I like the Gamche series because of the character development, I feel like some of these people are in my life.

      Delete
  7. Happy May! I like your way of looking at a new month as 30 or 31 days of new opportunities! :) Enjoy your reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy May to you to Bless. Reading for me is a highlight of the day & I am always so thankful for my ability to read.

      Delete
  8. Yay to libraries staying open during the lockdown. What a treasure they are!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think our local library branch is the one place I was most excited about re-opening to in person & we are blessed to have such dedicated staff.

      Delete
  9. I love that the library has Overdrive and Libby available. I use them for audiobooks, which is the way I "read" during the pandemic. For some reason, Overdrive interfaced better with my car, so I have used that instead of Libby. Occasionally if the books are not available through Overdrive, they also refer me to Hoopla and that works in a similar manner. For e-books, which I don't really like either compared to a real book, I use my Kindle app on my tablet. For the entire pandemic I kept adding Amazon Prime free reads, so I have quite the backlog to read there. But I like having choices.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should check out these other ebook reader options, I know Overdrive & I had a disagreement early on in the pandemic & it seems to be still holding a grudge. (col).

      Delete
  10. I use Overdrive from the library instead of Libby, as I use it for audiobooks and Overdrive syncs up better in my car. They also occasionally refer me to Hoopla. I have quite a backlog of real books to read, not to mention a Kindle app full of free Amazon prime reads too! But I like choices!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Like what Benjamin said. Actually the reader decides the destiny of a book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As the reader we definitely decide if a success or not.

      Delete
  12. I've reread The Railway Children and still love it. The Boy and I are looking forward to seeing The Railway Children Return in the cinema over the summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw the theatre clip for the remake of The Railway Children ... I recognize so many faces.

      Delete
  13. I've been reading _less_ :( I get distracted by all I want to see via the streaming services.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it is good that we don't subscribe to the streaming services, I'd spend so much time catching up (col).

      Delete