Monday, December 09, 2013

Monday Malarkey - Arrivals, last week's posts, things I'm reading and other malarkey

Time for some malarkey and this seems like a good place to start. I need a head pot. Seriously, I do.


I just think a pot like that would look terrific on my living room shelf.  That's a museum pot made by a potter from the Mississippian culture, sometime between the years 1200-1500 A.D.  Is it cool, or what?

Only two books arrived, this week (progress on restraint!):



  • This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash - from HarperCollins for review 
  • These Wonderful Rumours! A Young Schoolteacher's Wartime Diaries by May Smith - purchased

Great covers on both, don't you think?  Also, note the sticker on the cover of These Wonderful Rumours.  I had no idea this year is Virago Press' 40th year. Wahoo for Virago Books and Happy Birthday to you, Virago!

Last week was a heavy posting week as I've been attempting to do some catch-up:


Since last week's Tuesday Twaddle, I've only managed to finish one book, but it was a good one:

  • The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook - This one is showing up on some "Best of 2013" lists and deservedly so, in my humble opinion.

I am currently reading:

  • Jack Absolute by C. C. Humphreys - Swashbuckling fun but a bit bloody. Love the Hamlet-quoting Iroquois, Jack's friend Até.
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Yes, I'm just finally getting around to this one.  
  • Another book I don't want to confess to reading till I get a bit farther because it's non-fiction and I'm such a pokey NF reader.

So what about that Calvino?

Sigh.  I keep looking at it and thinking, "Later, later."  But, I will tell you that while I was reading If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (before I hit overload), I found that it was inspiring me in the "giving me numerous writing ideas" sense, so I do plan to finish the book and I'll definitely save it for future rereads.  You should see the number of Post-its crammed into that book.  It's quite a sight.

In other news:

Friday was exciting as my delightful and incredibly-dapper author friend Simon Van Booy did a talk at TEDxBrooklyn.  The 2013 TEDxBrooklyn program was available for live streaming, so I got to see Simon's "How to Write a Book in 18 Minutes" and frantically took notes.  Of course, Simon was brilliant, as always.  What I wrote down is not entirely complete but hopefully the talk will show up in their video section eventually. I will undoubtedly need to make some corrections and/or additions to my notes and it's worth sharing so I'll let you know if/when it shows up. In the meantime, Simon's talk has me pondering my own writing, so I'm thrilled about that.

Also, last week I got my 5th Graze box:


In case you haven't heard of it, Graze is a healthy-snack subscription service and the per-shipment price is very reasonable. If you're looking for gift ideas for a college kid, I highly recommend getting your favorite university student a Graze subscription. After I got my first box and decided it's definitely a good deal, I got a second one for Kiddo.  He loves getting a parcel in the mail every two weeks (otherwise, he only receives bills). Kiddo told me he keeps one of the individually-wrapped snacks in his backpack for times when he can't make it to the cafeteria before it closes, which happens regularly on his busiest days.  I've got a couple friend codes remaining if anyone's interested in signing up.  Just write to my gmail account.

We're finally getting started on Christmas decorating.

While I was searching for some Victorian-style garlands that I bought in an after-Christmas sale last year, I came across a box with a label that made me laugh.  The box contains breakable items (I didn't bother looking inside to see exactly what kind of breakables because it was in an awkward place and, of course, I didn't want to end up breaking everything). On the outside of the box I wrote, "I will die if this box gets smashed." The contents of this box must be very important because elsewhere on the box it says, "Seriously, it will KILL ME if you damage this one." When I'm done decorating, I'm going to have to see what's inside that box . . . carefully, of course.

Happy Monday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

8 comments:

  1. Happy Monday to you, too! Congrats on cutting back on the books. I need to do that myself because I haven't been reading nearly as much as came in this year! Or, well, I could read more... My numbers are WAY down this year. We will see what happens first!

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    1. Thanks, Kelly! I did really well for a while, after I quit blogging and came back. Then I fell off the "not requesting wagon" and I'm just finally climbing back on. Whether you're reading a lot or not, it's easy to end up accepting too many review books. I'm just going to work on what I've already got, for a while. Here's hoping 2014 is a better year for you!

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  2. Be sure to let us know what's in that box!

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  3. That new Wiley Cash book -- I like the cut of its jib.

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    1. I know, me too. I may have to go ahead and read it, although it's a February release. It's just sitting there whispering, "Read me, read me!"

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  4. Oh can't wait to hear what you think of The Hunger Games! I loved that book and liked the sequel quite a lot. Just haven't gotten around to the third book.

    So curious about These Wonderful Rumors - great cover - and seems like it could be a great read.

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    1. I'm finishing up Jack Absolute, then I'll dig further into The Hunger Games. All I can tell you is that it was awfully hard to put down so . . . well, we shall see. :)

      Isn't that a great cover? Im really looking forward to reading These Wonderful Rumours. I love anything and everything WWII but diaries are my favorite thing. I love a personal account.

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