BW25: "It's Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime"

 

Happy Sunday!  So happy Summer is here with more time to enjoy some summer reading. Make sure to throw in a book with a Y in the title such as Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks or and author whose name starts with Y such as Yeats, Yoshomito, or Yancey. 

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By 

William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

BW25: June Solstice

 

Happy Father's day to all our dad's. The June Solstice is upon us as of the 21st and we are celebrating the beginning of Summer here in the Northern hemisphere and Winter in the Southern hemisphere.  

Read a book or books with or about Father, Summer, Winter, or any of their synonyms in the title.

41 Fantastic Father's Day Books to Gift Dad in 2023

Memorable literary dad's - one of my favorite is Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series. 

The Ultimate Summer 2023 Reading List

Emily Henry writes some of the best beach reads and I'm currently enjoying People We Meet On Vacation. 

35 Best Winter Themed Books for Cold Days

I love reading books with Winter settings in which the characters must not only battle one another, but the icy, frigid conditions. I thoroughly enjoyed the Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow and currently have the 23rd book in the series, Not the Ones Dead in my stacks to read.   Northern Lights by Nora Roberts is also one I return to every year. 

We recently lost Cormac McCarthy, the author of numerous books including No Country for Old Men, The Road, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and most recently The Passenger, which I have on my shelves, and the sequel, Stella Maris.  In honor of McCarthy, I'll be reading The Passenger, sooner rather than later. 

Our post is sponsored by the letter Y which means we can Yahoo, Yarn, and Yodel to our heart's content. 

BW25: Summertime

 

Happy Father's day to all our dads! It's officially Summer in our neck of the woods and we are a hot 105 degrees at the moment.  Thank goodness for air conditioning! Are you in the mood for a light summer read or something more heady?  Perhaps that chunky book you've been meaning to read for quite a while. And if you are on the other side of the world celebrating the start of Winter, maybe a fun beach read will help make those long winter nights seem just a bit warmer.  Maybe you could use  a literary hug.  

Dive into summer reading with a book set during the summer, with a character named summer, or challenge yourself to spell out summer.  Read a book in which things heat up, nature wise or relationship wise.  *grin*   Read a book set on a beach or set in a beach town, near the water somewhere, or even on the water.  Read a book picked by the queens of writing beach reads. 

Have you ever thought about what your favorite literary characters get up to during the Summer?  Or which literary characters love to read?  What are they reading now?  Hmm! 

Dive into the books of summer and have fun following rabbit trails! 

******************

Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 58. M. Noirtier de Villefort
Chapter 59. The Will
Chapter 60. The Telegraph

*******************

Please share your book 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.

BW26: Summertime Fun

Summer Breeze by Josephine Wall

The summer solstice arrived June 21st bringing summer to the Northern Hemisphere and I have Ella Fitzgerald's Summertime running through my brain.

Summertime, and the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'

So hush, little baby, don't you cry

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing

And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky

But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you

With daddy and mammy standin' by

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing

And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky

But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you

With daddy and mammy standin' by

Summertime, and the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'

So hush, little baby, don't you cry

If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you'd probably prefer to listen to Ella's Winter Wonderland as you cozy up to the fire. I love Ella. So what are you going to do to jazz up your summertime or wintertime reading?

If you are a music fan, Penguin Random house offers 40 Books That Every Music Lover Should Read, or Amanda Palmer's Top 10 Reads.

GQ has a few suggestions with 31 Best Books to Read According to your favorite Writers. Thrillist offers 33 Books We Can't Wait to Read this Summer, and She Reads takes a look at the Most Anticipated Books of the Summer 2019.

Dip back into the past with Simon and Schuster's 11 Classics You Should Read This Summer or Southern Living's Classic Books to Reread this Summer. Don't forget to check out Goodreads Summer Classics Reading List too.

What are your favorite celebrities or Bill Gates reading this summer? JP Morgan has released their 2019 Summer essential non fiction books everyone should read.

And just in time for some poetical summer reading, The Library of Congress has announced their new Poet Laureate - Joy Harje

Have fun following rabbit trails.

******************************************

If you'd like to share your book reviews, you may link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have any internet or social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. Please do not add links of 52 Books, nonexistent or old web pages. They will be deleted. If your link disappears, please email me if you need to change or update your links. The linking 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.

BW25: June Solstice

Happy Father's day to all our dads. The June Solstice is upon us as of the 21st and we are celebrating the beginning of Summer or Winter depending on your location.  

What do you look forward to doing during summertime or wintertime?  Summer makes me think of lazing about by the pool or a beach or maybe hanging out on the patio.  Perhaps imbibing in a cocktail or a cold glass of ice tea.  During Wintertime - bundling up, brisk walks, sports, roasting coffee beans and fireplaces.  And of course, reading:  I'm in the mood to revisit some old friends, learn something new, do a bit of armchair traveling,  maybe experiment with new recipes, and follow a few rabbit trails. 

Read a book set on a beach such as Roxanne St. Claire's Barefoot Bay series or with a beach on the cover.  Better yet, read a book set on an island for 52 Books bingo.   Cozy up for some wintertime reads, put on your snowshoes for a trip through the Arctic, or pretend to go skiing.  

Read a book with summer in the title such as Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer or Ben Aaronvitch's Foxglove Summer  or winter in the title such as Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale or Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler. 

Whip up a summer or winter cocktail and learn about mixology, discover a new to you recipe, or get ready and fire up your grill.  Discover the delights in roasting your own coffee or becoming a tea aficionado. 

Put on your garden gloves and get ready to dig in the dirt with The 10 Books Every Gardener Should Read or The Best Vegetable Gardening Books.  

Our Brit Trip armchair travels are taking us to Suffolk this week. Suffolk has been the home to many noted British artists and composers – Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, and Benjamin Britten.

Rabbit trails: Rendlesham Forest Incident (The UK’s Roswell),  Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, Kentwell Hall, and  House in the Clouds

Join me in a bit of Summer and/or Wintertime reading fun! 

***********************************

Link to your reviews. 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. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.

BW25: June Equinox

Happy Father's Day to all our dad's.  Are you ready for the June solstice - the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere?   The Solstice is upon us Wednesday the 21st and Summer officially begins here on the northern side of the world.   However, it seems to have arrived a few days early.    We are in the midst of a heat wave with over 100 degree temps expected for a week or more, so I'll be hibernating at home, cool and cozy.    

You can jump into summer or winter reads, depending on your location,  choosing books that are synonymous with the season. Or you can dive into one (or two or three) of those chunky and dusty books sitting on your shelves that you haven't had to time to read during the busyness of the year. A number of Well Trained Mind 52 Books readers are taking the plunge with Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, including myself. 

If you've haven't read War and Peace, now would be a great time to do so.    If you've already read the story, it is the perfect opportunity to  reread it.  I read it a few years back and devoured the story in a couple weeks, so I'm looking forward to reading it a bit more slowly and taking in all the fine details.  

Tolstoy blends history with fiction to create a fascinating, educational, classical story about war, politics, society, family, love, culture, and power. A character study during the early 1800's and impact the French invasion of Russia had upon five aristocratic families. 

Synopsis (Briggs translation):  "At a lavish party in St. Petersburg in 1805, amid the glittering crystal and chandeliers, the room buzzes with talk of the prospect of war. Soon battle and terror will engulf the country, and the destinies of its people will be changed forever. War and Peace has as its backdrop Napoleon's invasion of Russia and at its heart three of literature's most memorable characters: Pierre Bezukhov, a quixotic young man in search of life's meaning; Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, a cynical intellectual transformed by suffering in war; and the bewitching Natasha Rostov, whose impulsiveness threatens to destroy her happiness. As they seek fulfillment, fall in love, make mistakes, and become scarred by conflict in different ways, these characters and their stories interweave with those of a huge cast, from aristocrats to peasants, from soldiers to Napoleon himself. Battles, love affairs, births, deaths, changing family fortunes, unforgettable scenes of wolf hunts, Russian dancing, starlit troika rides, the great comet of 1812--the entire spectrum of human life is here in all its grandeur and imperfection."

Have I talked you into it yet?  *grin*  If you aren’t completely convinced, check out Andrew Kaufman’s Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times.  Also check out Tolstoy Therapy’s  Why Read War and Peace: Reasons why I love Tolstoy’s Masterpiece  and also his  Tips for Reading War and Peace. 

We're going to take it slowly with plenty of time built in to talk about the story.  There are four volumes, with three to five parts each and the epilogue.  Each volume will probably take you approximately two to three weeks depending on your reading speed, plus the density of the story.  

Volume One

Part 1  Ch 1 to 25 (110 pages)
Part 2  Ch 1 to 21 (95 pages)
Part 3  Ch 1 to 19 (100 pages)

Volume Two

Part 1 Ch 1 to 16 (56 pages)
Part 2 Ch 1 to 21 (78 pages)
Part 3 Ch 1 to 26 (79 pages)
Part 4 Ch 1 to 13 (54 pages)
Part 5 Ch 1 to 22 (75 pages)

Volume Three 

Part 1 Ch 1 to 23 (87 pages)
Part 2 Ch 1 to 39 (154 pages)
Part 3 Ch 1 to 34 (122 pages)

Volume Four 

Part 1 Ch 1 to 16 (57 pages)
Part 2 Ch 1 to 19 (49 pages)
Part 3 Ch 1 to 19 (49 pages)
Part 4 Ch 1 to 20 (60 pages)

Epilogue 

Part 1  Ch 1 - 16 (157 pages)
Part 2  Ch 1 - 12 (41 pages)

Join us in reading Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace!

******************************************************************************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post

BW25: Summer and Winter Solstice

Josephine Wall - Summer Breeze 

Happy Father's Day to all our dads and welcome to the beginning of Summer for those in the northern hemisphere and Winter for those located in the southern hemisphere. It is  time for a bit of seasonal reading and/or revisiting old friends.  You'd think with all the time I have, now that lessons are done for a while, I'd be reaching for all those new books waiting on my shelves.  Summer busyness is different from all the other busy activities we're involved with during the year.  Don't you think?  So my mind turns to all things fluffy and light. Mind candy! Chick-Lit Romances and cozy mysteries or a visit to flufferton abby!

Flufferton is a term coined by one of our Well Trained Mind mom's in relation to all things regency, both classic and modern.  Regency stories revolve around romance, mysteries, and the Napoleonic war. Modern fiction is set in the regency era and can run the gamut from historical romance fiction to horror to paranormal.

Here are a few lists to spark your reading taste-buds

Best Beach Reads for a Summer Getaway

Goodreads Popular Light and Fluffy Reads

Summer Themed Cozies


and for my friends in the Southern Hemisphere 

Fall into Winter: Ten Coziest Cozy Mystery series

So check your shelves or even the library's shelves and settle in with a beverage of your choice and enjoy!

***************************************************************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.

BW10: Bicycles, beaches and books

As Summer gives way to Autumn in Australia and New Zealand, I have beach reads and bicycle trips on the brain as well as romance.  In my meanderings around the interwebz I stumbled across the Aussie Authors Month, typically held in April, which not only lead me to Australia's Indigenous Literacy Foundation, but also Goodreads Aussie Readers group and their March reads as well as their Autumn Challenge. 

The Autumn challenge includes reading books to match up with events taking place during the season including today which is clean up Australia day (reuse/recycle) so the task is to read a book from your stacks or a book from the library. Check out the challenge and join in.  

I also stumbled across Romance Writers of Australia which has a long list of Romance Authors, along with their websites.  Surprisingly, I've only read Keri Arthur, one of my favorite urban fantasy - paranormal authors and her Riley Jensen Guardian series. 

And for those who aren't into romance, check out Historical Novels for historical and mystery stories set in both countries, as well as Culture trips literary escape - Top Ten New Zealand Travel Reads and A Literary Tour of Melbourne. 

I had fun perusing the lists as well as Goodreads and adding a few new to me authors to my wishlists.

Happy reading! 

*************************************************************************************

Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. 

BW25: Summer is here!

Happy Summer!

Welcome to Summer and happy Father's day to all our dads.  I love Ella Fitzgerald and just had to share her rendition of Summertime.  Enjoy! 

Summer is a time to be lazy, rest and relax. Enjoy the beach, take a hike along the water or along a forest trail.  Maybe hit the road and explore or perhaps fly somewhere special with your special someones.  Or, we can just stay home and curl up with a good book or two or three.   I've had a couple weeks of my kid's summer lazies and already working up some summer lessons to keep us all from going crazy.  

So my task for you this week is to pick out one word that represents summer, get out your rusty, trusty thesaurus for a synonym and see if you can find a book in your stacks to match.  Have fun! 

*******************************************************************

History of the Medieval World - Chapter 29 Pestilence pp 203 - 214

********************************************************************

Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

BW26: Summertime reading

Josephine Wall's Summer Breeze

Hey, we are halfway through the year and hallelujah for summertime. For me, it is a well needed break from lessons, although planning never ends. Time to indulge in those books,   you know the ones - those chunky and dusty ones sitting on your shelves - that you haven't had time to read during the busyness of the year. 

Tell me what you think of when you hear the word summer?  Besides freedom, that is. *grin*   Summer brings thoughts of lightness and frivolity, fireflies and gnats, pools and pool parties, golden sunshine, and moonbeams, birds singing and the growl of lawnmowers.   Blue, green and yellow;  daffodils and daisies; ice cream and sweet tea; bbq and beer.  Or wine, depending on your preference. ~clink~

My stacks have a few summery reads so I won't have to resort to sifting through 1000's of choices from goodreads for summer,  light, blue, or daffodils to name a few.  Currently in my stacks is Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, Bradley's Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and Lehane's Moonlight Mile.  Not exactly cozy beach reads, but I'm sure to find a few along the way.  

Join me in reading books with summer or summer related words in the title for the season for summer.

*************************************************************************

Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.