On a shopping trip with George & Bess, Nancy visit a perfume place where they‘ve trouble buying a perfume. On the train home Nancy is approached by a man who recognizes the perfume & wants to know if she has a message from the boss. Also on the train they get in contact with Millie. The friends decide to come home with Millie and help get more visitors to the farm she‘s from. While there Nancy learns that part of the land is rented out to a cult

I love this dedication:
“To Molly
and
to all the girls who fell in love with
the pirate king Elizabeth Swann”

This is not a chronological account of the different emperors from Octavian 44 BCE until Alexander Severus death 235 CE. This is a look at what it meant to be an emperor, what where your responsibilities, what recognized a good emperor, how was the household run and all your employees. It also looks at the women close to the emperor like mother and wife. It closes of with a look at how some of the emperors where turned into goods after their death

#WeeklyForecast

Continue with both Thunerclap and the audio How to Say Babylon. Both from The Women‘s Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist

I want to finish Enter Ghost, read The Strangeworlds Travel Agency The Edge of the Ocean and hopefully get a start on Sweet Desserts

A woman is taking care of her baby. In her eyes, her husband is never home, but always in the office. So she is left with “just” taking care of the baby and house 24/7. A grim portrait of the early days of motherhood.

‘I get just two days off, you know?‘ my husband was complaining. ‘I get just two days off a week and I have to waste one of them in IKEA?‘
‘Two whole days? I haven‘t had a day off since he was born. Unless we count the time I was hospitalised with pneumonia. And then you got your mother in.‘

‘Our marriage. Where is it going?‘
‘What do you mean? I just got a promotion.‘
‘How could you not get a promotion?‘
‘You mean congratulations?‘
‘No, I mean, how could you not get a promotion when you‘re always in the office? You‘ve a wife who does all the cooking, cleaning and child-rearing. She pairs your socks, she books your dental appointments . She sorts out all this shit,‘ I said, tapping the tax and insurance discs displayed on the

#BookReport

I had a great reading week probably due to no plans after work and I had yesterday day off work

So I finished Brotherless Night and The Emperor of Rome. Both amazing reads

I read The Wren, the Wren; Soldier Sailor and The Stories at the Red Gate Farm

I continued listening to How to Say Babylon

I‘m currently reading Enter Ghost and Thunderclap

I‘m not sure how I feel about this book, soft pick, so-so.

About a mother and daughter, and their relationship to each other and the people around them.

I think this need to sit with me before I know how I feel about. I‘m not sure the author is trying to tell, that we‘re more similar to our parents than we think? What we‘re a product out past?

I excepted them to interrogate me at the airport and they did

#FirstLineFridays

This book - I how no words. This was amazing

It‘s the 80s and the Sri Lankan civil war. The Tamil Tigers is fighting for more freedom and independence. The men goes off to fight, but we follow a young girl, Sashi, who remains with her mother and younger brother, trying to live her life. This is war from a woman‘s point of view; how to get food, the insecurities as the military/ Tigers patrol the streets and bombs and the threats of rape.

The city used to be a mining city before it was closed down, and we follow 3 generations in the same family, and how they are living. We‘re also meeting the academics that come in to learn something and make a difference.

Their mother, Terry, read books all day, even when she was well. She lay in bed in the morning, she came down and propped the book against the teapot, she moved to a deckchair in the garden with her feet akimbo, and one arm flung high. If you spoke to her while she was reading she would look at you from a lovely distance.

You can‘t tell Carmel you have a problem or she‘ll go out and beat someone up for you. My mother is the woman who goes over to the jetski-guy on the beach, when you are five years old, shouting, How dear you frighten my child with that stupid, horrible machine. She is the woman who phones the government when your Irish exam is too hard (no really), she is, bless her, a crusader and a fighter - if you get a grope from some old perv on the bus she

The 2nd book in the Gereon Rath series.

Berlin, late February/ early March 1930. The police is called after an actress has died in what appears to be a tragic accident. Then another actress goes missing.

I loved how this book gave insight into the transition from silent movies to talkies, and how as with everything else not everyone likes the new technology and possibilities.

Another winner in the series

#WeeklyForecast

I want to continue reading The Emperor of Rome

Then the rest of my reading is very Women‘s Prize heavy.
I want to finish Brotherless Night
I want to read The Wren, the Wren
I want to hopefully get a start on Soldier Sailor

I also want to listen to How to say Babylon

The 12th book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. In this one someone close to Hanne is found dead in a container. At the same time Ebba finds out that she‘s pregnant and she doesn‘t know how that could be. Off course Hanne decides that she needs to investigate both. Could these instances be connected? And what is going on?

At home Hanne and her wife is struggling and this ends with Nefis moving out. How will Hanne cope with living on her own?

#BookReport

I finished The Silent Death and read Pity

I continued The Emperor of Rome and I‘ve just started Brotherless Night

I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.

(What a first line)
#FirsrLineFridays

This month‘s #BookSpinBingo card is ready

#BookSpin is one of the books I bought in NYC arhat I‘m excited about and #DoubleSpin is this month‘s #NancyDrewBR

Here‘s to another great reading month

How can the first quarter of the year already be over and it‘s April?

This is my #Bookspin, #DoubleSpin and BookSpinBingo list

Exited to see what numbers are drawn tomorrow

(Picture used is by Lisa Aisato)

#WeeklyForecast

Continue my audio How to Say Babylon and to continue my reading of Emperor of Rome

I want to finish The Silent Death

I‘m going to an event with Andrew McMillan on Wednesday and hope to get a start on Pity before that, otherwise I‘ll just read it afterwards

I also hope to get back to some Women‘s Prize for Fiction reading again and get a start on Brotherless Night

#BookReport

I‘ve finished Physical, Ordinary Human Failings and Wifedom

I read the latest Markund and Holt

I‘m currently reading The Silent Death and The Emperor of Rome. I also discovered the tagged as an audio at my audiobook service so I‘ve just started listening to it

After reading this, I must admit that I‘m glad I‘ve never read any of Orwell‘s book. There‘s no pedestal to push him down from

He hardly mentions his wife in his correspondence and books, even when she‘s there helping him out. Which makes it easier for his previous biographers to not include her either. He‘s also a cheater and on at least two occasions he‘s trying to force himself on women. And still there‘s more red flags surrounding him.

The Women‘s Prize for Nonfiction Shortlist has just been announced.

No Eve or Wifedom which I read/ almost finished and absolutely loved.

But All That She Carried that I‘ve also read and enjoyed, and Thunderclap which I‘ve bought

I‘ve seen great reviews for the others as well.

What do you make of the shortlist?

A poetry collection that according to the blurb “are hymns to the male body - to male friendship and male love - muscular, sometimes shocking, but always deeply moving.”

Poetry is not really my thing, so this collection is somewhere between a pick and a so-so rating, but I am going to an event with him right after Easter and I wanted to read some of his poetry before that.

2nd book for #MarvellousMarch
@Andrew65

A body‘s found in the swamp, investigation shows it‘s a man. He‘s been there for some time. This man is closer to Police Inspector Wiking Stormberg‘s family than he think. Wiking looks into his family history and find a lot he didn‘t know before. A reminder that our parents have lived lives before we are born and that we don‘t know everything about their past

This is the last in a trilogy, but I still hope for another book based on the ending

1990, a 3 yr old girl is found dead. The suspicion falls on a 10 yr old girl. A journalist that‘s in the area when it happens, decides to take advantage of this and puts the family in a hotel to get exclusive access to them. His talks with the grandfather, uncle and mother uncovers a divided family with alcohol problems and neglect. Prejudice and assumptions also play a role in the society‘s allegations.

I feel like I raced through this one

Our protagonist gets a call that he need to go home and that‘s what he does. We follow him on the plane ride and his other transportations, and while he travels people he meet will tell him his story, both strangers and extended family.

That ending caught me completely by surprise but at the same time it explains something that happens during the novel.

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m currently reading three books; the poetry collection Physical which I hope to finish, Wifedom that I want to continue reading and Marklund‘s latest crime novel. The only thing with the Marklund is that is thought it was translated into Norwegian and it‘s the Swedish edition and I wasn‘t quite present for that.

I also want to read the latest crime novel from Bolt and start The Silent Death

#BookReport

A late report since I‘ve spent the day with my nieces shopping

Finished Evelina #RandomClassics, Erasure and Eve

I read Hangman

I‘m currently reading Physical, Ordinary Human Failings and Wifedom

I‘ll just leave that there

Every once in a while, I read a book that changes how I see the world. This is one of those books. Working her way the the body, Bohannon shows that the stereotypes we are thought is not the truth. This book will stay with me. I hope it gets translated into Norwegian so I can read it again and get all the nuances.

And with Bohannon‘s finishing words:
“as I will tell my own children someday, that every power men have ever had over women is

Thelonius “Monk” Ellison is a black American writing intricate and philosophical novels, and not fitting the themes for a black person to write about. For fun and as a parody he writes the ultimate black novel under a pseudonym and everyone loves it. What is a man to do when everyone wants to meet him?

At the same time his mother‘s memory is fading fast. His brother has his own issues. And has his deceased father hidden something from everyone?

I read the novel through the Gutenberg project so while I was looking for a cover, I came across this one that seemed to fit the novel.

17 yr Evelina doesn‘t know much about the world, when friends take her to London for a few weeks. During her first dance she manages to break a lot of the rules. At time Evelina‘s naïveté is a little annoying, but it does much all the other annoying characters, mostly men who can‘t take a hint

So instead of going home I pulled In around the corner at a second-hand bookshop, Sappho.
[…]
Sappho is the opposite of a mall: no one is trying to sell you anything. In fact, the tattooed woman at the till sighs ruefully when you buy one of their books, as if money couldn‘t, possibly, make up the loss. This place is entirely soul.

(Picture found online when searching Sappho bookstore, not sure it‘s the right one, but gave the right feeling)

This book was a treat

Eloise is a self proclaimed hermit that has to plan every human interaction because they drain her. George is a would be poet who has worked as a professor

Every once in a while this book would have me wonder what was real and what wasn‘t

It‘s hard to explain, but there‘s just something in Ellmann‘s writing that I love. I will definitely read more by her.

The third bookstore we visited was Three Lives and Company in Greenwich Village

Several BookTubers have stated that The Redemption of Galen Pike is the best short story collection they‘ve ever read

Lauren over on Lauren and the Books had Dominoes in her prediction video for the Women‘s Prize for Fiction Longlist and the blurb sound intriguing

The same goes for Martyr which also has an interesting blurb

The second bookish place we visited was Bibliotheque in SoHo

This is a bookstore, cafe and wine bar. It was very dark inside so hard to get a look at the titles, but probably perfect if you‘re there to sit down

I ended up with this one. Simon Savidge over on SavidgeReads on YouTube has been raving about this series

The first bookstore we visited was McNally Jackson in Midtown - we loved this one when we visited last time

Both Daddy‘s Gone A-Hunting and The Postcard is #BlameLitsy buys, and Jen Campbell recommended Daddy on her channel as well

So it seemed only appropriate that I bought her book as well

I loved Tia Williams Seven Days In June so when I saw that she had a new book out, I had to have it

I also got this cute tote bag

Returned from NYC yesterday after spending a few days in the city and no visit is complete without visiting some bookstores

This was the last bookstore we visited, mostly for its gorgeous ceiling

Albertine is a French bookstore that has books in French and by French authors translated into English. Unfortunately for me, the majority of books was in French so I didn‘t buy any

But the books I did buy will follow in my upcoming posts

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m not quite caught up on the buddy reading of Evelina, but I still want to finish it this week #RandomClassics

I want to finish Erasure

I want finish Eve, I‘ve started on the penultimate chapter so that seems doable

I want to start reading from the Longlist of the Women‘s Prize for Fiction, so I want to read Hangman and hopefully get a start on Ordinary Human Failings

I‘ll be going to an event with Andrew McMillan after

#BookReport

I‘ve been to NYC for must of the week and came back earlier today. Just needed to get some sleep when I got home. So not much reading done this week.

I‘ve fallen behind on the buddy read of Evelina #RandomClassics, but hope to catch up during the weekend

Read a little bit in both Erasure and Eve

So many of my buddy readers have been looking forward to George and Bess so I‘m happy that we finally get to meet them.

Bess and George asks Nancy to join them when an aunt will travel to a ranch in Arizona. The aunt has inherited the ranch

The tension and expectations of bad things to happen, was for me gone in this one. There‘s more focus on horse riding. But that doesn‘t stop Nancy from solving a mystery or two

#NancyDrewBR
#BookSpin

I‘m about to start the tagged and this is why meets me - a list of Mr Everett‘s previous novels and the only one I‘ve read, The Threes, isn‘t even mentioned.

I‘m glad he has an extensive backlist in case he turns out to be a new favorite author

#WeeklyForecast

Not an ambitious tbr for the upcoming week since I don‘t expect to read that much, but I still want to

continue with Evelina #RandomClassics

continue reading Eve

and start Erasure

English title: On Calculation of Volume, this is the first in what is supposed to be a septology

A woman has traveled to Paris when the time stops at November 18th. Everyone keeps on living the same day over and over again not knowing that time has stopped. But this woman do, so she starts counting the days.

#BookReport

I continued with Evelina #RandomClassics

I also continued reading Eve, and this book is really tearing down all those cliches

I finished On Calculation of Volume. 1

I read The Secret at Shadow Ranch #NancyDrewBR

I‘m currently reading Man or Mango?

Set during the lead up to the summer vacation of 1937 and the end of the summer of 1938. Meet the Cazalets: the Brig and the Dutch, their children and their children‘s souses and grandchildren. The entire family spends the summer together

You really notice what a year does in society, in the conversation and in the grandchildren

I thought the numbers would be more equal