Monday, August 31, 2015

Monday Malarkey - Back to blogging and an apology cat

Hello, I'm back! Did you miss me? There's a little camera shake in this photo but I like the angle so I'm going to leave this shot here rather than switching to the clear shot from a boring angle:



Recent arrivals (top to bottom):


  • The World According to Bob by James Bowen - purchased
  • Mendocino Fire by Elizabeth Tallent,
  • Forgotten by Linda Hervieux, and
  • All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani - all from HarperCollins for review
  • Elwood Bigfoot: Wanted: Birdie Friends! by Jill Esbaum and Nate Wragg - from Sterling Children's Books for review


The World According to Bob was sort of a whim but kind of not. I've been considering it for quite some time. As it turned out, I bought the wrong book. I meant to get the first book about Bob, the cat who saved a homeless man from a self-destructive spiral. I'm reading The World According to Bob now, though, and I don't think order really matters, at least to me. I knew the backstory, already. I've read about James Bowen and viewed a video of him with Bob. I will probably go ahead and buy the first book soon, though.

I'm not a Trigiani fan and didn't actually request All the Stars in the Heavens, but I may go ahead and read it, since I enjoyed The Shoemaker's Wife. We shall see. I'm guessing HarperCollins ran out of the book I requested and tossed the Trigiani in, instead, although I've occasionally just gotten titles I thought they sent by mistake. Hard to say what happened at the envelope-stuffing end.


Posts since last Malarkey:


  • What the cat saw and a break to heal - I did get some routine maintenance done (clearing out the email in-box -- which has emails dating as far back as 2008!), but most of the week I avoided the computer. Not a bad thing, really.


Books finished since last Malarkey:


  • Your Alien by Tammi Sauer and Goro Fujita
  • Sloth Slept On by Frann Preston-Gannon
  • Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth by Jeff Anderson
  • Elwood Bigfood: Wanted: Birdie Friends! by Jill Esbaum and Nate Wragg
  • Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie by Lauren Redniss


I've temporarily set aside The Dust that Falls from Dreams because I didn't manage to read any more of it, this week, and I want to start over from the beginning. But, when I picked it up to restart I was not in the right mood and it's a bit of a chunkster at over 500 densely-packed pages. I'm going to need to be invested in that book when I start. What I read I loved, so I'm sure I'll return to it soon.

Since it was a low-concentration week (partly because I had trouble sleeping with a brace on my wrist), I opted to read mostly children's books and a graphic biography. I found Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie particularly difficult to set down . . . so I didn't. I finished it in one sitting and ended up reading later than I should have. I have no regrets.


Currently reading:


  • The World According to Bob by James Bowen


I've dipped into my book of letters written to Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression, occasionally, but that's best taken in small doses. I also finished reading the "book of my heart" (written in the late 90s or early 00s -- I probably mentioned that, last week), which started out good but went downhill. I can see why I abandoned it in spite of knowing how it was going to end, but the distance of years definitely helps. There's one character that will have to be cut entirely -- she totally bogged down the story -- and I presume I didn't realize that, at the time. At any rate, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading my own writing and how much has changed since I wrote the book. At the time, landlines were still common, rollerblading was still a fad, though fading, and my characters mostly listened to music on CD.


Because there was no Fiona Friday, I offer you an apology cat photo:



I thought it was pretty funny the way Isabel cuddled up to this garden glove, which Fiona likely knocked off the nearby table.


In other news:


Taking off a week has naturally thrown me further behind on reviews. I'm fascinated to find how little this bothers me. Since I changed my approach toward blogging, early this year, and did that catch-up post that filled in where I'd skipped reviews, I feel much more relaxed about blogging. Plus, many of the books I've read recently are children's books and I'm planning to do a Children's Day, soon. That always allows me to knock out a bunch of books in a single day (and it's also very, very fun).

But, I do hope this will be a good blogging week.

I don't sign up for challenges, anymore, but I'm excited to find that Andi and Heather are hosting the RIP challenge at The Estella Society, this year:

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril X

I'll be reading along casually, since I like ushering in the fall with a few creepy/atmospheric reads. Are you joining the RIP X challenge?


©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

8 comments:

  1. I'm like you; I don't really do reading challenges. I always have tottering stacks waiting for me to read so can't take on anything else. Glad to hear you're feeling good about blogging again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always read from my shelves when I did reading challenges but I found that I'm such a moody reader that planning is something I really can't do. Better to just read an atmospheric book or two during the season if I feel like it.

      Thanks! I enjoy blogging, now that I've acknowledged that it's not a priority. The shift in how I viewed blogging really took the pressure off and made it fun, again.

      Delete
  2. Not sleeping well is no fun. I love the picture. My cat will lay on anything that ends up on the floor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm not a great sleeper in the best of times but it's particularly awful when all you can manage is drifting off for 20 minutes, waking, drifting, waking, all night long. Ugh.

      It's funny what the kitties end up sleeping on, isn't it? A couple of weeks ago, I was emptying boxes and threw a bunch of crunched-up packing paper and tissue on the living room floor. Fiona played "Take a running leap and slide across the floor" on it, then I gathered it back together and Isabel climbed in, dug around a bit, then slept in the middle of the paper pile. Both were totally adorable.

      Delete
  3. It looks like you got some great books! I love the cat pictures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Laura, I think I did! I'm enjoying the book about Bob the Cat. :)

      Thank you. I just love taking pictures of the kitty girls. They are such fun.

      Delete
  4. I'm surprised that I'm not freaking out about my extra-long bloggy break! Four months and I only occasionally feel like I'd like to make time to write some reviews, but then I get distracted by something else and I say, "Maybe next month." :) Definitely not high priority as it once was.

    However, I popped over here to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Hope you are having a wonderful day!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it comes of blogging for such a long time? I think I could easily walk away and not miss blogging, but I like having the record of what I've read. The change of attitude toward how I blog has really helped. If you're getting distracted, it's probably just a good time not to bother. Whatever makes you happy, right? Life is short.

      Thank you! I had such a terrific day I'm not sure I want it to end. Off to read, though. I do need sleep. :)

      Delete

Thank you for visiting my blog! I use comment moderation because apparently my blog is a spam magnet. Don't worry. If you're not a robot, your comment will eventually show up and I will respond, with a few exceptions. If a comment smacks of advertising, contains a dubious link or is offensive, it will be deleted. I love to hear from real people! I'm a really chatty gal and I love your comments!