The promised book haul photo from my trip to Fables this morning. The middle book looks very funny. #bookhaul

So excited! We finally have a book store in town! I‘ll post the books we bought later, but the collection is well-curated. The crowd today seems more interested in the cafe than the books 🙄 but I hope that at least subsidizes the book part so they survive and thrive.

Written by an acquaintance of my mother, this book reminds me of William Least Heat Moon‘s Blue Highways. The author has a reporter‘s gift of finding the right people to talk to and getting them to tell stories. There are editorial issues as I noted in my first post. But it was enjoyable to “listen” to people tell stories they are passionate about, learn a little history, and go on a journey with a grandfatherly author. ⬇️

For the most part I‘m enjoying this book about The Great Wagon Road, but I wish it had had better editing. In one place he calls the same woman by two different names in the same paragraph. In another he suggests that Washington got the plans for Fort Loudon from the Library of Congress - which wasn‘t founded until 50 years later. I _think_ he meant that the plans are currently in the Library of Congress, but that‘s not what he wrote. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The first half is Merton. The second is Pius XII. I found the first part both more readable and more valuable. 🤷🏻‍♀️
#readyourkobo @CBee

History is messy, because humans are complex and this volume does a good job in showing the complex, messy, sometimes contradictory behavior of the humans in one part of France during a terrible time in history. The author shows us more than the heroics. The book follows many people, Jewish, Protestant and Catholic. It portrays as many sides of each of them as is knowable, and doesn‘t refrain from admitting when it cannot be known. A bit clunky ⬇️

This book is so needed right now! As shown above, people were slow to realize the enormity of the problem and to act. It‘s so similar to what I see going on right now.

My husband thinks this is so cool. A first edition in such good shape it seems unread. Am I the only one who is actually a little sad that through all these years, no one loved this book? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/world/europe/the-hobbit-first-edition-bristol...

Cute palate cleanser with a touch of magical realism. #readyourkobo @CBee

An interesting exploration of how a traumatic event affects people differently, what constitutes “being a good person” and how guilt and our conscience affect our behavior and relationships. The narrator dies in the event (not a spoiler as it happens early on) and thus acts as almost an omniscient narrator as she spends time with each of the others in turn. I think it would generate good discussion in a book group. #readyourkobo @CBee

Funny, with Trillin‘s iconic dry wit, this was a pleasant weekend read. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

I think the Wheel of Fortune is trying to tell me something. Two of these were on my list last month. 😂 @CBee (Didn‘t get the tag once again. Curious. 🤔

An ok read that tries to cram in too many parallels and whose characters don‘t stay in character. I like the premise of being able to feel emotions of other readers when handling an old book, but I don‘t like an author openly manipulating my emotions. And the sex/kissing/eye-gazing scenes were cringe worthy. Less is more, dear. Less is more. Read it for book club and I know just who is going to love it, and who‘s going to hate it.

Not that I finished my July options, but here is my list for August. #ReadYourKobo @CBee

I can‘t believe it‘s almost August! But I‘m ready with my #bookspin list. @TheAromaofBooks

A series of excellent essays. (I want to copy one specific one for my daughter who‘s going through a rough time.) I love Kingsolver‘s skill with words, her joy in observing nature (including humans) and her love and compassion for all creation.

Rest in peace Chuck! You were part of the soundtrack of my youth. So when a colleague at work said he‘d have to Google him to know who he was, it made me feel so old! I never saw the movie or read the book, but I‘m adding it to my TBR now.

Well written and well researched. The author got most of the music parts right (a rarity) and I learned a lot about Spanish history in the early 20th century. All while being highly entertained with a good story. #readyourKobo @CBee

This book set in Spain in the years leading up to WWII is frighteningly relevant to today‘s.

Polished off another of the books I bought in Charlottesville. This was a bit uneven, but a good vacation read. I found the Maxwell chapters the most interesting and wished that Lee had written that book!

Not my first Bainbridge and not my favorite. It has her signature dark absurdist comedy, but somehow the characters fell a bit flat. Brenda you felt like you should pity, but she was just annoying. Freda was over the top, and yet pathetic. But the prose is solidly Bainbridge and I‘m not sorry I read it. Soft pick.

A good vacation read, there were some very funny bits, some tragic bits, and a few beautifully-written sentences. I enjoyed every page of it.

Tickets to see A Winter‘s Tale at Blackfriars tonight. I‘m dying to see how they do the bear! 🐻

We spent today in Charlottesville visiting multiple book stores. The tagged as well as Blue Whale and 2nd Act. Two of these are presents, but the rest . . .

Well researched and written like a thriller, this was a fast, fascinating read. I had no idea that Pepys had gone through anything like this. And the dangers of “populist” movements are hard to ignore. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

The view from the porch as I read about a Parliament scarily close to our House of Representatives. “On 9 May, still furious that Charles‘s pardon of Danby had made a mockery of their authority, the Commons resolved that even to express the opinion that Danby‘s pardon was legally valid was a criminal offence.”

Started my #bookspin this evening, sitting on the porch of the cabin in the mountains where we are vacationing. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

“I‘ve long believed that the ones who have more joy win. Maybe this levels the power differential between us and Darren. We have joy and justice on our side. And berries.” A short but powerful book that explores the idea of replacing greed and capitalism with a more gratitude-filled system. The gift economy. With lessons from the natural world on how to live and thrive. Love this author!

Combining my #bookspin and #readyourkobo lists for July as I‘ll be traveling for a good bit of the month. @TheAromaofBooks @CBee

Way behind on my reading, especially for #hashtagbrigade. I thought I‘d get caught up tonight, but my refrigerator had other ideas. The freezer failed so I‘m making soup to use things that were too thawed (and borrowing space in a friend‘s freezer until mine is fixed.) And baking pumpkin bread with the last of the pumpkin purée from last fall. It‘s 92 degrees outside and my house smells like November. ?

Started this one this morning.

I read this in two days. It‘s that good. I‘m a huge Twain fan, and I loved this imaginative retelling. It deserves all the hype. Letter J for #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader (It didn‘t get picked @Graywacke but I read it anyway. 😂 )

The comparisons are spot on, and scary - and this was written during his first term. May we be like the ordinary people in Coriolanus. Not the appeasers of Richard III. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

It‘s a war story, but it‘s more than that. It‘s an exploration of whether being “neutral” and being “innocent” are the same thing, or even compatible. #bookspin and Q for #LitsyAtoZ @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader (photo is Saigon 1955 from the Internet.)

Hmmm. Who could I be thinking of. 🤔

Started this at lunch today, and so far the Prologue is the best bit. I‘ll give it another chapter or two and then decide. #readyourkobo @CBee

I finished this tonight sitting on the back patio, listening to the birds, and enjoying our little slice of nature. I admire Bonhoeffer and there‘s a lot of wisdom in this slim book. His German idiosyncrasies do come through, as when he said “we should train ourselves to set apart for it a regular hour for [meditation] as we do for every other service we perform. This is not ‘legalism‘; it is orderliness and fidelity.” But much here is universal.

My #bookspin and #doublespin for June. Maybe next month I‘ll pay closer attention to what I put at number 12! @TheAromaofBooks

I went into this blind, and while it dragged a bit in the middle, by the end I was rooting for Sebastien and the butterflies and totally invested in that world. Too bad it wasn‘t illustrated, but I searched for pictures of some of the butterflies. This is a blue morpho. #readyourkobo @CBee

Here‘s my June list for #readyourebooks #readyourkobo @CBee

It‘s hard to believe this was written pre-pandemic, although it‘s not specifically about a virus. But there‘s a lot here that is scarily relavent. I liked Cedar and wanted her to get out. No. 2 for#14books14weeks @Liz_M

I can‘t believe it‘s almost June, but here‘s my #bookspin list, just in case it‘s true. 😂 @TheAromaofBooks

Centering around an eccentric historian‘s access to the MC‘s g-grandfather‘s journals, this look at history, ethics, family, myth, community, and spirituality is wrapped in a great story with elegant prose. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad. I highlighted many quotes, but didn‘t want to stop reading long enough to post them. Letter D for #litsyAtoZ, No 1 for #14books14weeks

My first book for #14Books14Weeks. @Liz_M

A highly-readable, well -researched book about Catholics in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It carries lessons we still need today about religious tolerance and the dangers of state involvement in matters of conscience. #letterG #LitsyAtoZ & #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader

More accessible than I expected and with moments of humor that reminded me of Shakespeare. Mephistopheles as a poodle is an image I won‘t soon forget! I knew the story from the opera, but I‘m glad I read the play. #readYourKobo @CBee

Continuing my exploration of the Tudor period with this #doublespin choice. I bought it after hearing the author on a history panel discussing Henry VIII and enjoyed the last book I read by her (tagged in comments.) @TheAromaofBooks

This was a deceptively simple, and full of what it means to be human. By the end I was very attached to the protagonist. But unclear on whether the wolf girl was actually Kate or a result of a traumatized man living alone. #ReadYourKobo @CBee

I didn‘t see that coming! You think it‘s going to be a coming-of-age story, then a family epic, but then Smiley goes meta. It starts sneakily, but then she fully owns it by the end. I don‘t want to spoil it for you, bro I won‘t say more. Great writing. Stick with it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks