Weekend reads and many transitions...

The last few weeks have been busy, emotional, and full of transition.  I celebrated my sixth wedding anniversary last weekend, which also marked four weeks until our Little Reader is due.  As we scramble, badly, to finish our baby prep, I learned my youngest cat, Grace, had kidney failure and would need to be euthanized.

Last night, she passed away on her own, in my arms, comforted by our remaining elderly cat who slept with us until Grace's last moments. It's been very hard this year to have lost two cats, both of whom I've had for more than a decade, ahead of Little Reader's arrival -- to lose loved ones just before a new loved one comes feels, well, cold.

I haven't felt much like reading -- clearly a theme of my pregnancy, shamefully -- but have three current reads that are a welcome distraction from the stress and heartbreak. This weekend, I'm finishing up Sherry Jones' The Sharp Hook of Love, which is a decadent and engrossing novel of Heloise and Abelard. I'm quite smitten. I've just started Judith Starkston's Hand of Fire, a historical novel that features a heroine just given just a few lines in the Iliad. It's fabulous. And finally, I plan to begin Lois Leveen's Juliet's Nurse, a historical novel about the nursemaid to Shakespeare's Juliet.

What are you reading this weekend?

Comments

  1. What an emotional time for you. I'm sending hugs your way.

    ReplyDelete

  2. Poor kitties! Poor Audra! I'm so sorry, but excited about your Little Reader and also SO happy that THE SHARP HOOK OF LOVE can distract you! I so want to read HAND OF FIRE and JULIET'S NURSE, as well. I'm looking forward to your review of my book, Audra! If any of your readers want to read the prologue and first chapter, they can download them from my website: http://authorsherryjones.com/swag. In the next day or two I'll be putting up an ebook of Heloise and Abelard's early love letters, as well, as a special gift to my newsletter subscribers.

    ReplyDelete

  4. I feel your pain...I just had 'let go' of my Tanuki at age 15. I keep looking for her. Even my dog, who had a kind of peaceful coexistence with her, looks at the bed where she napped. The loss is palpable. I rermember as a shy kitten who hid under my tv cabinet

    ReplyDelete

  5. I'm so sorry for your loss. They leave such a big hole in our hearts and lives. I'm glad you've found some comfort reading.

    ReplyDelete

  6. also finishing The Sharp Hook of Love, and loving it!

    ReplyDelete

  8. Big hugs to you, Audra. I'm so sorry :( We lost a cat months ago. It seemed that a lot of people didn't get why I was so sad and why I grieved so hard. (Heck, I thought of him last night and had a little crying session) I just want you to know that there are cat people out there who get exactly what you are going through. I'll be thinking of you :D

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Image
First line: Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond.

I had to grit my teeth to get through this book. (All 209 pages.)

I'm ashamed to admit this since a surprising number of folks online and in person have cited this novella as one of their favorite books, but I found everything about this brief read to be agonizing -- the plot, the narrative style, the characters -- it and I just did not connect.

I went in expecting to love this book given its reputation and subject matter. Achebe depicts the story of a Nigeria broken by white colonialism; our hero is deeply flawed and stubbornly committed, living in a world with problems triply complicated by the unnecessary influence of white colonizers. Achebe's narrative style is straight-forward and clear, even as he articulates a world deeply foreign to modern audiences.

I suspect I didn't understand this book; I'm also not a huge fan of tragedies (I loathe Hamlet) so Okonkwo as a character didn'…
Read more

Where They Bury You by Steven W. Kohlhagen

Image
Title:Where They Bury You
Author: Steven W. Kohlhagen

Genre: Fiction (Historical / 1860s / New Mexico / Civil War / Native Americans / Kit Carson / Historical Figures Fictionalized / Con Artists / Theft)
Publisher/Publication Date: Sunstone Press (9/2/2013)
Source:JKS Communications

Rating: Liked.
Did I finish?: I did -- raced through it!
One-sentence summary: A handful of gamblers try to make a big score in 1860s New Mexico and Arizona, at a time when the region is torn up with conflict and war.
Reading Challenges:E-book, Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: You know what? I do. I thought I didn't, but when I viewed the image full size, the textured background, the 'Western' font, and the silhouettes actually appeal to me.

First line: I'll be damned.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Borrow or buy if you like Westerns, the Southwest as a setting, or want a look at a wild and tempestuous time in US history.

Why did I get this book?: I've always been a bit curious about Kit Carson …
Read more

Book Review: Basic Black with Pearls by Helen Weinzweig

Image
First line: Night comes as a surprise in the tropics.

It took me less than a month, but more than two weeks, to read this brief novel; it's incredibly interior-oriented, which isn't a bad thing, but it didn't allow for lazy, quick reading. Our narrator, Shirley, is clever, and you can't be sloppy to keep up with her.

The feel of this novel is Erica Jong meets Kate Chopin. Shirley is a smart, passionate 40-something housewife who travels the world meeting her spy lover.

But their latest tryst takes her back to Toronto, where she grew up and still lives, and as we watch Shirley attempt to untangle the clues that will connect her with her lover, we start to wonder just how much of this might be real.

And yet, that's not precisely the point of this novel. In her pursuit of her lover, we're exposed to Shirley's entire life -- her childhood, her marriage, her anxieties and hopes -- and a complicated-but-familiar portrait emerges. By the end, I found myself wantin…
Read more

Book Review: Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel

Image
First line: --Central, this is Lapetus. Target in sight.

This is the final novel in the Themis Files trilogy (I reviewed the previous two novels, Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods.) 

I'm not going to summarize the plot because I don't want to end up spoiling anything. As a concluding novel, it did everything I needed a final book to do: wrapped up plot threads, answered the mysteries, and provided some final flash bang.

As with his previous novels, I think some of Neuvel's characterizations are thin -- no doubt because the story is told through transcripts and journal entries -- and it left me a little impatient with the story.

These were fast reads, so if you want a Michael Bay-esque summer action flick in a book, this trilogy will do it.

Title:Only Human
Author: Sylvain Neuvel
Genre: Fiction (Sci Fi / Speculative / Mecha / Aliens / Parenthood / Social Commentary / Warfare)
Publisher/Publication Date: Del Rey (5/1/2018)
Source: Edelweiss

Read more