My favorites…
❤️City of Thieves by David Benioff
❤️The Arabic Quilt by Aya Khalil and Anait Semirdzhyan
❤️Sharuko:Peruvian Archeologist Julio C. Tello by Monica Brown and Elisa Chavarri
❤️The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki (not pictured)
❤️The Big Peruvian Cookbook:100 Delicious Traditional Recipes from Peru by Moreno Cuadra with Morena Escardo
What was your favorite this month?
This novel takes place during the Siege of Leningrad during WWII. I probably wouldn’t have picked this up on my own, but I bought it as a blind date book at a fundraiser. I’m so glad I did!
This coming of age story about the friendship between Russians, one a young looter and the other a seasoned soldier, is riveting. Lev and Kolya are sent out in search of a dozen eggs for the wedding of and official’s daughter. I’m not a huge fan of WWII fiction, but the siege of Leningrad books always fascinate me. The inhumanity up against real people and their will to live is always a story worth reading.
It’s at times harsh, crude, and absurd. I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it!
I listened to the audio and picked up the book to read the parts I wanted to think about a little more. The cannibal scene alone will have your heart racing.
The Last Place You Look is set in the Columbus area, so that was a big draw.
Roxane is a private investigator dealing with grief and a drinking problem. This is not unique in this genre, but the addition of her relationships with both men and women added a new layer to her personal story.
She was hired to get her client’s brother out of jail and she’s pressed for time because he’s set to be executed in two months. When she starts nosing around the problems with the local police begin.
This was a fast paced mystery with a flawed lead character and dysfunctional family and I liked it I see that this is the first of four books (so far) about Roxane so there’s hope for her yet.
This was a fun, swampy, mystical thriller. Eleven teens bound together in the Louisiana bayou town known for its seers and those with special powers. When one of them disappears the one who got away, Grey,, comes home to find her.
The audio performance was great and I really liked it. It’s not a planned series, but I can see another book being written about these kids.
This past week my book club met in person and we were all there! I don’t remember the last time all 10 of us made it to the same meeting. We discussed two books, but I only finished one, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki. It’s a very interesting historical fiction about a woman who inherited a fortune and had better business sense than men sense. I liked it quite a bit, but would have liked it more if there had been more of a focus on her as a woman outside her four failed marriages. I’d still recommend it to historical fiction lovers, I learned a lot!
I posted about how our homeschooling is going so far this year here. These are the books we read for Peru. The two picture books and Where Is books were great.
Sharuko: Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello by Brown and Chavarri is a fantastic picture book, with the story told in Spanish and English. Tello is still much beloved, even all these years after his death in 1947.
Fourteen Monkeys: A Rain Forest Rhyme by Stewart and Jenkins shows the 14 monkey species that live at Manu National Park, one of the most diverse parks anywhere in the world.
Where is Machu Picchu? by Megan Stine not only told of the country’s favorite destination, but also of some of the history of the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors.
Gage and I are also listening to The Series of Unfortunate events series and finished 3 and 4 this week. He’s addicted. Fiction isn’t his favorite so to see him excited and wanting to talk about them makes me very happy.
I’ve read 220 books of my 300 yearly goal.
On the Screen
Jason and have been watching the Sandman series on Netflix when we’ve had time, but hat hasn’t been often so I think we’re only halfway through.
We watched the first episode of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power with Gage.
Plans for the weekend
Jason is staining our deck and then we’re headed to Lake View Cemetery at Gage’s request. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree 🙂 What’s going on with you this weekend?
We started our third year of homeschooling about a month ago and this year feels different. We started because I didn’t like the plan Gage’s school had in place for Covid and I thought I could manage 4th grade at home. We did, but due to Covid it was isolating. There were still Covid issues last year so we thought we’d do another year at home. Thankfully he was able to join a weekly nature group, but as a whole it was still isolating. For that reason I contacted Gage’s previous school in the spring to see if he could go back this year, but there wasn’t an opening in his grade unless we wanted to travel 30 minutes away to a new school they just opened. That was an easy no.
Am I still concerned about Covid? Sure. We still wear masks inside if there are a lot of people. Am I more concerned about my son’s mental health? Yes, I am. So, this year homeschool looks different. He goes to tutoring everyday at an office (not at home), he still has his weekly nature group, he takes a homeschool art class at the local art center, he just started chess club last night, and there are a few more in person activities I’ve signed him up for in the next few months. I planned a game day with other homeschool kids at our library last month and 22 kids showed up so I’m going to make it a monthly thing. He’s in two Outschool Zoom classes with the same kids week to week. It feels like a new homeschool beginning.
This year I wanted to make what we learned interested Gage so I’m letting him choose a country each week and I base our learning time on that country. I ask him for 3 countries then I go to the library and request everything I can. I start reading/searching usually the Thursday or Friday before and plan our activities and learning for the week. Not only does he learn about the country and its history and geography, he learns some of the language (he’s done French and Spanish so far) we also cook something, listen to the music, and do some kind of art. I can include math by having him do currency conversions and word problems.
Our homeschool days are more fun and varied this year and we’re both having a lot of fun. After three weeks of the countries of his choice, he spends a week doing a project from something we learned. This way he delves a little deeper into something that interests him. (Also this gives me a week where I don’t have to start a country from scratch!) His first three countries were Canada, France, and the UK and for his project he researched British high teas, wrote about the history, planned a menu, and put on a tea for his dad, grandma and me with minimal supervision and he did a fantastic job.
I know this is long, but I feel like the blog needed a little TLC and this is what’s happening in our lives right now, so I hope to do more of these, either long rambling thoughts like this one or just what we’ve studied for the week. As a bonus for making it this far I’ll share the recipe we made yesterday for this week’s country Peru. Gage loved learning how to use our zester and garlic press. This was a super yummy dish.
I tagged along with Jason to NYC this past week and had a great time, even though I came home a sneezy congested mess. I tested negative for Covid on Wednesday night and yesterday, but still being careful around the kid. I don’t feel like I’m getting worse so I’ll just assume I came home with the big city crud that my body isn’t used to, lol.
I was able to visit The Strand, my favorite NYC bookstore, for visit #12 in Zibby Books 22 in 22 bookstore challenge. I love this place. Eighteen miles of books makes for a magical morning.
I also visited the New York City Public Library Treasures collection, a perfect activity for a rainy afternoon.
We did more of the usual NYC things and a few that were new to us. We’d never taken the tram over to Roosevelt Island so that was fun. From there we took the ferry to downtown and we’d never done that before either. We lived there in 2000 for almost 6 months and we visit every 5 years it seems. The last two times we’ve taken Gage so it was kind of fun to just make it the two of us this time.
I never posted about my August favorites. I read 26 books, but only 5 adult books. Homeschooling has begun so it’s been a J book parade over here!
My 6 favorites were
When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham
Year One by Nora Roberts
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle
Walking To School by Eve Bunting
The Mutter Museum by Anna Dhody
A Giraffe Goes to Paris by Mary Tavener and John Harris
In the next few weeks we’ll be learning about Peru, Australia, and Egypt, so if you have any book or movie recommendations please send them my way.
We’re headed to a battle of the high school bands tonight since it’s right in town at the football field. What are just up to this weekend?
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We watched the Terminal List, it was okay, but not great, and finished up the second half of season 4 of Stranger Things, loved it!
All the feels of original +
Lightning and aging connection, lol.
Dumpees team up for mischief.
Sweet romance for older set 🙂
Funnish buddy mistaken identity comedy.
Cute addition to the franchise.
No one to root for.
Summer is effectively over as Gage started 6th grade this week. As his teacher, I’m giving him an A for the week! There are a few things I still need to put in place, but feeling good about where we are right now.
We’re doing things a little differently this year and part of that is structuring an hour or so of our day with a focus on a country of his choosing. This last week we learned about France. We read books, tried a few French recipes, drew landmarks and colored classic paintings, learned a few French words, played with maps, listened to music, watched a few videos, and, of course, the more time consuming things like writing out timelines and facts. He picks the country of the week and I do the research, lol. Next up, the UK so feel free to leave me any great recommendations for the week!
Books I read this week
I read 9 books this week. I’ve read 205 books of 300 yearly goal.
Movies & TV
Jason and I have watched the first 3 episodes of The Sandman on Netflix. We also watched The Age Of Adeline last night.
Plans for the weekend
Well, it was going to be school planning, but I just saw on the news that it’s One World Day at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens and I LOVE this event so I may have to go. Do you have plans for the day?
I’ve been so out of sync this summer that I’ve neglected talking about books that should have been mentioned. I’m hoping to get back on track in the next few weeks, but Jason just threw a mini-vacation to NYC for the two of us into the mix, so don’t hold me to that 🙂
How fun is it when you know the author of a book before said author writes the book? I’m lucky enough to know Minerva Pendleton, aka someone I know whose name is not really Minerva, and they are fabulous people.
Verity Wheelwright lives a life of luxury but boredom. She is the only daughter to the widowed Lord Wheelwright, and he keeps her in his manor on New Lutetia, where she meets with tutors to learn classical literature and music. Verity craves adventure and often escapes to the pages of livre rouge—cheap, paperback books with crimson covers that contain sordid tales of lust and adventure. When New Lutetia is invaded by the infamous airship pirate Cavalier Eli Callahan, Verity is forced to make a choice. She can run and hide, or surrender herself in exchange for the safety of her city, but at what cost?
Verity is a pampered lady who longs for more excitement in her sheltered life. One day that excitement arrives on her doorstep with the arrival of pirates who whisk her away aboard their airship. Can she trust the captain of the ship, the renowned Eli Callahan, to keep her safe while awaiting the ransom? Does she even want to be kept safe?
I really liked Verity, Eli and his first mate Screw. There were even some spicy bits if you like that sort of thing in your romance (and who doesn’t?).
This was a short read, only 85 pages, and my only complaint was that I wanted more.
This ARC was sent to me months ago and forgotten about and misplaced by no fault of its own. The premise of a daughter who isn’t the norm being shipped off appealed to me. It felt personal.
After nearly two hundred years of housing retardants, as they were once known, the Beechwood Institute is closing the doors on its dark history, and the complicated task of reassigning residents has begun. Ella Jules, having arrived at Beechwood at the tender age of eight, must now rely on the state to decide her future. Ella’s aging parents have requested that she be returned to her childhood home, much to the distress of Ella’s siblings, but more so to Lynetta, her beloved caretaker who has been by her side for decades. The five adult Jules children, haunted by their early memories of their sister, and each dealing with the trauma of her banishment in their own flawed way, are converging on the family home, arriving from the far corners of the country—secrets in tow—to talk some sense into their aging parents and get to the root of this inexplicable change of heart. from Goodreads
Precious Jules is the story of a family. The Jules family is picture perfect, but one of the children has live at Beechwood Institute since she was 8. Now the parents want her back and the girl’s caretaker says no. The rest of the kids, all five of them, come home to convince their parents to leave their sister with the caretaker.
It’s a great examination of what’s good for the family isn’t always the best thing for any one of the individuals. The secret guilt, the alternate realities, the vilifying, and the eventual acceptance make for some thought provoking stuff.
There were a lot of characters. My biggest problem was keeping track of all of the characters and their past and present stories. It was a lot. I think there were 10 characters who each had a chapter from their point of view. I wish there had been less so that I could have been drawn into the story a bit more.
Stacy's Books 