Booking Through Thursday – Current Events

Booking Through Thursday question from Deb:

What are you reading right now? (And, is it good? Would you recommend it? How did you choose it?)

I’m still reading The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. (Saying “still” because I also mentioned it in my Teaser Tuesday post, and then I had only just started it.) I’ll wait with recommendations until I’ve finished it, but yes, I like it. I chose it because I’ve liked her previous three novels. Unusually I bought one – her third, The Distant Hours – in a bookshop back in 2011 without ever having heard of neither the author nor the book before. After reading that I ordered her two previous novels too (The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden) as paperbacks. And after buying my Kindle last year  I bought her latest, The Secret Keeper, as e-book at full price. As I don’t buy a lot of books at full price, it says something about my confidence in the author if I do buy more than one ;)

I’m also listening to A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905), a classic children’s story which I’ve read before, many years ago (and also seen film adaptations of). Free audio book dowloaded from http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/ 

“Sara Crewe begins life as the beloved, pampered daughter of a rich man. When he dies a pauper, she is thrown on the non-existent mercy of her small-minded, mercenary boarding school mistress. Stripped of all her belongings but for one set of clothes and a doll, Sara becomes a servant of the household.” (from a review found on the internet)

Before that I listened to Three Men on a Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (1900) (also a free audio book). This is another book I’ve read a couple of times before (I have it in paperback) – a sequel to the better known Three Men in a Boat from 1889 (which I’ve read more times than I can count and still find hilarious every time).

In the sequel, J., George, and Harris again find themselves in need of a break, and this time they decide on a bicycling tour in the Black Forest of Germany. Since two of them are now married they first have to persuade their wives that this is a good idea. Like Thee Men in a Boat, this one too is a combination of travelling book and humourous episodes, with various sidetracks and general musings in between. For my own part I find it a fascinating time-document of how an Englishman looked on Germany some 14-15 years before the first world war.

In England we regard our man in blue [the policeman] as a harmless necessity.  By the average citizen he is employed chiefly as a signpost, though in busy quarters of the town he is considered useful for taking old ladies across the road.  Beyond feeling thankful to him for these services, I doubt if we take much thought of him.  In Germany, on the other hand, he is worshipped as a little god and loved as a guardian angel.  To the German child he is a combination of Santa Claus and the Bogie Man.  --- The German citizen is a soldier, and the policeman is his officer.  The policeman directs him where in the street to walk, and how fast to walk.  At the end of each bridge stands a policeman to tell the German how to cross it.  Were there no policeman there, he would probably sit down and wait till the river had passed by.

Jerome, Jerome K. - Three Men on the Bummel

Bring on the Spring

There’s still winter outside (we’ve had a couple of sunny days, but the nights are still very cold). Indoors however, it is MY decision when spring begins… So in my kitchen, spring began yesterday. This means putting up my yellow curtains, spreading my lemon-and-oranges tablecloth, and buying a bouqet of tulips to celebrate.

The pattern on the tablecloth is designed by a Swedish artist whose work I like very much, Lena Linderholm.

You’ll probably be seeing a lot of these tulips… They were so expensive I have to make the most of them!

G for Goldeneye

Goldeneye for ABC Wednesday

They are found in the lakes and rivers of boreal forests across Canada and the northern United States, Scandinavia and northern Russia. They are migratory and most winter in protected coastal waters or open inland waters at more temperate latitudes. (Wikipedia)

We have one or a few of these in the river near where I live. When I first noticed them a few years ago there was a couple. Then the following year or two the drake was alone (usually hanging out with or near the mallards). Then he had a new mate, and they had little’uns – I think that was 2 summers ago. Last summer I just saw a lonely male again (assuming him to be the same one). But recently this winter, just a few weeks ago, I saw a whole little group of them (five or six) - possibly a family reunion… (I’m not sure of their social habits!) Yesterday however there was just this one on his own again, swimming back and forth across the river near the bridge I was walking on.

Teaser Tuesday: The Secret Keeper

“Later, Laurel would wonder if it all might have turned out differently had she gone a little more slowly. If, perhaps, the whole terrible thing might have been averted had she taken greater care.”

From The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
(2012)

I’ve just begun reading this book (on the Kindle), the quote is from only a few pages into the story. I liked Kate Morton’s three previous novels very much, so am hoping I will find this one a good read too.

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

Simple Pleasure

What a difference the Sun makes. I feel like I’ve been shut in by layers of ice for weeks and weeks…

(Sculptor at work inside a block of ice; from my archives.)

Haven’t dared to set foot outdoors without some kind of ice-creeper devices attached, and not been able to walk in normal-sized steps or strides even with them on.

  

It’s been over three weeks since I last dared try walking to the supermarket (1 km there and 1 km back) – until today. (I have been able to get to other shops. I’ve not been starving.)

On Sunday afternoon I tried to go for a walk but gave up after… I think less than 50 metres. Icy street, icy wind… Brrr! I turned around, went back home and lay down on the couch with an electric blanket on top to warm up!!!

Today (Monday) at long last we had a whole day of sunshine, and in the afternoon the temperature had risen above freezing point, and the sun was still “on”… I decided to be brave and at least do some reconnoitring. So I put on the less spiky and most walkable kind of ice-creepers (like the second pair above) and set out again.

And lo and behold, on the other side of the still very icy walkbridge across the railway, one of the pavements along the street leading towards the supermarket was almost ice-free.

More photos from the archives, but could have been today.

As it turned out, by criss-crossing from one pavement to the other at various strategic points, I was able to actually reach the long lost El Dorado... 

Oh joy. It might be the most thankful I’ve been for the supermarket since the day it opened… Not that I can shop much in one go, as I can’t carry much – but still! LOL

And guess what: I did not even have to put the ice-creepers back on for the way home. (I had to take them off inside because indoors on the stone floor they have the opposite effect.) (I managed the icy bridge by holding on to the railing.) Walking without them for the first time in weeks felt almost like being barefoot :)