BW41: October Author of the month - Neil Peart

 

Happy Sunday!   Our October author of the month is Neil Peart.  Peart is best known as the drummer for the band Rush, but he was also a writer. 

He published several nonfiction books about his motorcycle explorations while healing from his wife and daughter's deaths, his physical and spiritual journeys through Africa, his musical inspirations, and travels off the beaten path travels while on tour.

The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa (1996), 

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road (2002), 

Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times (2004), 

Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour by Motorcycle (2006).

Far and Away: A Prize Every Time (2011), 

Far and Near: On Days Like These (2014), 

Far and Wide: Bring that Horizon to Me! (2016)

 As a prolific reader, he also started Bubba's Book Club.  The book club ran from  2004 through 2011 in which he read, reviewed, and recommended books from Vikrim's Seth's An Equal Music to Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna. 

He also collaborated with Kevin J. Anderson to write a steampunk fantasy trilogy based on Rush's album Clockwork Angels. 

Peart died from brain cancel on January 09, 2020. 

Join me in exploring with Neil Peart. 

BW5: February Author of the Month: Agatha Christie

 

Happy Sunday! February is upon us which begs the questions -  will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow and we'll have six more weeks of Winter?  Most likely.   But did you know, before the ground hog, there was a hedgehog. Poor guy was usurped by the ground hog in 1887 in America.

Ireland folklorist Kevin Danaher says that "To see a hedgehog was a good weather sign, for the hedgehog comes out of the hole in which he has spent the winter, looks about to judge the weather, and returns to his burrow if bad weather is going to continue. If he stays out, it means that he knows that mild weather is coming.”  The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs.

February is also Black History Month, Creative Romance Month, and An Affair to Remember Month.   

AND our Bookish Bookology Author of the month is Agatha Christie.  

Dame Agatha Christie was born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon. She began writing poems when she was a child and short stories by the age of 18. During the first world war, she started writing detective stories.  In 1919, her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published and she went on to publish 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections as well as plays, plus 6 romances under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott.   She created numerous characters including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence as well as Ariadne Oliver, Harley Quin and Parkey Pyne. 

She loved archaeology and traveling. She traveled on the Orient Express in 1928, then in 1930 went on to an archaeological site in UR, Nineveh in the Middle East  where she met Max who become her second husband. She accompanied him on many digs and her stories were inspired by all her true life experiences.  In 1955, She was the first to receive the Grand Master Award, the highest honor by the Mystery Writers of America's.  In 1971, she was granted female knighthood as Dame Commander of the British Empire for her literary work.  She passed away at the age of 85 on January 12, 1976.

Agatha Christie is also one of our 52 Books bingo categories as well as the subject of one of our Perpetual Reading challenges. I've been bouncing around the list, instead of reading chronologically, and currently have Why didn't they ask Evans?, Mystery of the Blue Train, and Sad Cypress in my reading stacks. 

 If you've been following the Read Agatha Christie 2023 Motive and Methods readalong challenge, February's read is Partners in Crime, from one of her Tommy and Tuppence short story collections.   

And the Royal Reading Room recently covered Agatha Christie during their Christmas Interlude which including a video discussion between Vaseem Khan, Dreda Say Mitchell, Robert Thorogood, and James Prichard on the Legacy and Life of Agatha Christie.  

Enjoy exploring through the creative mind of Agatha Christie.

Our post is sponsored by the letter E. Big E, little e, what begins with E.  Earl and Edward, everyman and everywhere, earnestly earning enlightenment and erudition. 

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BW1: Welcome to another bookish adventure around the world

 

"A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, 

leading out into  the expanding universe" ~ Madeleine L'Engle

Happy New Year and welcome to our 15th year of Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks. If you are new to our reading quest, the official goal is 52 books. How you get there is up to you.  But I'll tell you a secret. Shh, I'll whisper, but don't tell anyone.  For those who hate setting goals, we have an unofficial goal which is to set your own goal.  Read what you want, explore and dive into those longer books, engage your mind and soul and don't worry.  Have fun. Follow as many rabbit trails as you like and see where they lead. 

To help us have fun, there are a number of mini, monthly, annual, and perpetual challenges to choose from.  For 2023 we have an updated Bookish Bookology which is our author of the month. There are a number of ways to complete the challenge, including but not limited to:  

• Spell out the author's name - one book per letter from the title on the cover.
• Read one or more books written by the author. 
• Read a book written in the country or time period of the author.

We traditionally start our year with Haruki Murakami, our January author the month, so we are going to dive right in and head to East Asia. Which coincidently fills our Eastern Bingo category.  Nudge nudge wink wink!!

I couldn't wait so I already started After Dark which is all about the magical hours between midnight to dawn. Standing by to reread almost immediately is 1Q84 which I think is one of Murakami's best stories ever.  According to Murakami it is a mind bending ode to George Orwell's 1984.  Also on my shelves are Novelist as a Vocation and his short story collection Men Without Women.  And if you like comparing books to film, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was adapted from the short story Drive My Car in Men Without Women.  

We also have an updated Bingo which is taking us around the world, from the north to the south, from the east to the west as well as taking us through the libraries of Agatha Christie, Neal Peart, Jorge Luis Borges and Mind Voyages Science Fiction / Fantasy adventure.  And if you're working your way through Well Educated Mind, the list is available in the menu bar.   

We'll be working our way through the alphabet again with A to Z and Back Again. There are a variety of ways to complete the project and you don't have to stick with authors or titles only.  Check out the link on the menu bar for more information. 

Our A to Z and Back Again letter of the week is A.

Are you ready? Great! It's time to put on your hat and walking shoes, strap on your backpack, grab that walking stick and start our reading adventure. 

Happy reading and cheers to a wonderful, enlightening, fun reading new year! 

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Please share your year end wrap up, book thoughts reviews and link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have a social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. The link widget closes at the end of each book week. 

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.