September (fourth week) 2018 Reads & day trips

Sunday afternoon drive: back roads around Chamard Vineyard area of Clinton, CT (did not go for wine tasting, it's not a good idea if you are exploring twisty, narrow, pretty roads).  A few leaves are already changing and there is a nip in the air but still not to cold to give up on an ice cream stop at Ashley's in Madison, CT.

Thursday drive - a short one to Rocky Hill CT - picked up picnic stuff at West Side Marketplace
and ate it at Dinosaur State Park. No ice cream because the place we planned on has closed for the season. So we had some fruit for dessert.

Reading this week: only finished one book because I'm simultaneously reading two books of short stories and a saga. 

The "Deal Me In" card this week is the Three of Spades; selection is
At the Amusement Park by Jung Young Moon (in A Most Ambiguous Sunday, and Other Stories)

from my shelves....

Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir by Jean Guerrero
A journalist searches for family roots in Mexico.

 

September (Third week) 2018 Reads (and day trips)

Sunday drive: Weston to pick up picnic stuff at Peter's Market and then to Putnam Memorial State Park to eat.

Monday drive: Lunch at Panera Bread in Lisbon, CT; then a swim at Hopeville Pond State Park (most likely our last outdoor swim of the season); followed by ice cream at Buttonwood Farms.

Saturday drive: Explored Mashamoquet Brook State Park in Pomfret, CT. On the way home we stopped for lunch at Hank's Restaurant  in Brooklyn, CT.

Reading this week:

The "Deal Me In" card is the Two of Clubs; the selection is Muqtatafat: Part two: Arabic language (translated into English). Slop / by Magdy el Shafee -- Where our stories collide / by Jana Traboulsi -- Gauche droite & estamba / by Mohamed el Shennawy -- Nap before noon / by Barrack Rima -- The bike / by Mohamed Tawfik.

from the library...

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker


from my shelves...

Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro's Cuba by Sarah Rainsford
Advance review copy through LibraryThing giveaway 

September (second week) 2018 Reads

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Seven of Spades; the selection is The Wife Killer (in Singer Collected Stories I)

from the library...

White Houses by Amy Bloom


Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

The Age of Eisenhower : America and the World in the 1950s by William I. Hitchcock


from my shelves...  

The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin

September (first week) 2018 Reads

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Four of Clubs; the selection is Elizabeth Strout: ‘If I ever return to a small town, I want you to kill me’ 

from my shelves...

Her Mother's Mother's Mother and Her Daughters by Maria José Silveira; translated from the Portuguese by Eric M.B. Becker

Rochester Knockings: A Novel of the Fox Sisters by Hubert Haddad; translated from the French by Jennifer Grotz

The Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments by Ann Quin; Jennifer Hodgson (Editor)

from the library...

Circe by Madeline Miller (Kindle edition)
 

August (fifth week) 2018 Reads

I had planned to be away from home most of the week, but the place had no air conditioning.  Monday night was quite pleasant, Tuesday night was miserable so we gave up and came home on Wednesday morning. It was too hot to do anything but read so I made a dent in the owned-but-unread stack.

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Seven of Hearts; the selection is The Provincials by Daniel Alarcón (in The best American short stories, 2013, Kindle ed.)

Online...
The Illegal Ramen Vendors of Postwar Tokyo: Black markets and American wheat imports popularized ramen. By Hunter Lu
Two of my favorite topics - Postwar Japan and Food.

from my shelves...

When Adam Opens His Eyes by Jung-Il Jang; translated from the Korean by Sun-Ae Hwang and Horace Jeffery Hodges
 Coming of age...

Lost Cities Found Objects, linked stories by Robert Fagan
 OK, but it was my least favorite of this week's reading

The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini; translated from the Italian by Michael F. Moore 
 bio-fic inspired by the life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti

Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf; translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem    
 A young woman muses on her family relationships (including a disabled older brother) whilst engaging in research on the polar regions and other icy things. Excellent!


Sight by Jessie Greengrass
 Advance Review Copy. As in Brother in Ice, a young woman muses on her life and family (especially pregnancy and mother/daughter/grandaughter relationships) whilst researching. This time the research involves Freud, Rontgen, and William and John Hunter. Also Excellent!
Allmen and the Dragonflies by Martin Suter; translated from the German by Steph Morris
  Underhanded shenanigans in the world of art collectors and thieves. In this case the art is five missing Art Nouveau glass bowls created by renowned French artist Émile Gallé. Fictional account of what might have happened the the bowls.

The Baklava Club (Yashim the Eunuch #5) by Jason Goodwin 
 A pleasant mystery--not nearly as much fun as Allemen (above)--but OK.  I haven't read the others in the series, I might pick one up at the library when I want a not too demanding diversion.

The Endless Summer by Madame Nielsen; translated from the Danish by Gaye Kynoch
  Had trouble getting into this but it turned out to be a favorite. It just took a while to click.