Nittnut - Reading around New Zealand - Two

Nugget Point, Catlins, South Island, NZ
What I was reading: The Daughters of Mars

It's 2016. I remember thinking, when my oldest son was a baby, that I couldn't imagine him being 18 years old. That will happen this year. It's gone by so fast. I have been married nearly 23 years to my best friend. He puts up with my reading addictions, mostly, although I am not allowed to read while watching sport. We have three children ages 17, 11 and 9 and I often find them reading in bed after lights out. Success!

We have lived in California, Oregon, Colorado, and now we live in New Zealand. We live on the Kapiti Coast about five minutes from the beach. We love the beach. This year could bring another big move, you never know, so I am going to do my best to see all that I can to see of this beautiful country.

My thread toppers will be photos of "bucket list" locations in NZ.

Reading goals (flexible, of course):

Wheel of Time series - This will be a long term effort. :)
American Author Challenge - LOVE this
ANZAC Challenge if it goes again
2016 Challenge

2016 Challenge

1. Rollover Beethoven - Books I didn't get to last year
2. Fly Me Away - Books flying off the shelf/Kindle
3. Aotearoa - Books by New Zealand Authors
4. Pumped Up Kicks - I can run, but I can't hide from Book Bullets
5. American Author Challenge
6. We Didn't Start the Fire - History
7. The Way We Were - Memoir
8. The Dewey Decimal System - DeweyCAT

AAC

January- Anne Tyler - The Clock Winder
February- Richard Russo - Straight Man
March- Jane Smiley
April- Poetry Month
May- Ivan Doig
June- Annie Proulx
July- John Steinbeck
August- Joyce Carol Oates
September- John Irving
October- Michael Chabon
November- Annie Dillard
December- Don DeLillo

Nonfiction Challenge

January: Biography/Memoir/Autobiography - H is for Hawk
February: History - A Patriot's History of the United States
March: Travel
April: Religion & Spirituality (Easter/Passover)
May: The Arts
June: Natural History/Environment/Health
July: Current Affairs
August: Science and Technology
September: Philosophy/History of Ideas
October: Politics/Economics & Business/Commentary - Basic Economics or The Road to Serfdom
November: Essays
December: Quirky/Who Knew?

ANZAC

New Zealand

January/February - The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick

Australia

January/February - The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally

January/February Favorites



January

1. The Colour
2. Q's Legacy
3. The Madonnas of Leningrad
4. Amulet: The Stonekeeper
5. The Turner House
6. Amulet: The Stonekeeper's Curse
7. H is for Hawk
8. The Clock Winder
9. How to Read a Book
10. The Denniston Rose
11. The Daughters of Mars
12. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
13. Catalyst
14. If I Stay
15. Precious Time
16. Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall

February

17. A Journal of the Plague Year
18. The Cloud Searchers
19. The Last Council
20. The Prince of the Elves
21. Escape from Lucien
22. The Best Man
23. The Perfect Match
24. Among the Hidden
25. Among the Imposters
26. Among the Betrayed
27. Assassin's Apprentice
28. A Patriot's History of the United States
29. King Leopold's Ghost
30. Royal Assasin
31. Assassin's Quest

Moeraki Boulders

March Reading

Pages 13393

ANZAC

Wulf by Hamish Clayton - NZ
Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks - Australia

Non-Fiction Challenge

Travel - An Island to Oneself

Dewey CAT The Screwtape Letters

Read

33. The Queen of Attolia
34. The King of Attolia
35. A Conspiracy of Kings
36. An Island to Oneself
37. Wulf
38. Steelheart
39. Foreign Correspondence
40. Some Luck
41. Firefight

April Reading

Pages 17526

Currently Reading: The Mother-Daughter Book Club (with my daughter), The Goblet of Fire (with my son), The Big Green Tent (with myself)

Currently Listening: The Two Towers

AAC

Poetry Month - Dream Work by Mary Oliver

DeweyCAT - The Underground Girls of Kabul

Non-Fiction Challenge

Religion - The Screwtape Letters

Read

42. The Screwtape Letters
43. The Fellowship of the Ring
44. Straight Man
45. Book Scavenger
46. Demelza
47. The Revenant
48. Amulet: Firelight
49. Underground Girls of Kabul
50. Climbing the Mango Trees
51. The Dragonbone Chair
52. Dream Work
53. The Soul of an Octopus
54. Catwings

Congrats on the new thread!! I like post #5. : ) And you are a reading whiz! And you like books about Assassins...i will try to stay on your good side. ; )

>5 nittnut: We should definitely check! Lovely beach photo.

Happy new thread.

Intrigued re the languages on >7 nittnut: English, Maori and ??

>8 Berly: First one here! You make me laugh. I am not nearly coordinated enough to be an assassin. Lol

>9 charl08: Slovenian. Apparently.

I posted this on the old thread, but as it's my first book for March, I better re-post it here:

#33 The Queen of Attolia

I am loving this series - recommended by Amber - about imaginary kingdoms with very Greco-Roman attributes. In this second book, the Queen's Thief gets caught and punished horribly. He recovers, and with his usual cheek, manages to kidnap some very important people and place himself in a very unenviable position. Can't wait to read the next one!

Actually, I am already reading the next one - due at the library on Wednesday. Must read!

>11 nittnut: Happy new thread, Jenn. Good start to your March reading with two books done already whilst most of us are still drawing breath.

Happy new thread, Jenn! I'm so, so glad that you love The Thief series! I'm already read for a re-read myself...

Happy new thread, Jenn! I love the topper and the beach image in >5 nittnut:. I have The Thief on the shelves, but I haven't read it - I guess i need to correct that, huh?

>14 Crazymamie: Ooh, yes, soon, Mamie! You'll LOVE it!

>15 scaifea: I'll try to squeeze it in this month, Amber, just because you said so!

>16 Crazymamie: Woot!

>12 PaulCranswick: *wave*

>15 scaifea:, >16 Crazymamie: *Grin*

>11 nittnut: I'm another lover of the series. Two down, two to go for you!

>19 ronincats: This is a GREAT series.

#34 The King of Attolia

This is easily my favorite book of the series so far. So many twists and turns, and honestly, I was just as deceived as everyone else for much of the book. I have started the 4th book, but I will be surprised if it surpasses the fun of the third one.
Read. It.

l love your thread topper - and yes, the beach is good for many answers.

>21 nittnut: That's my favorite of the series, too!! Woot!!

>22 BLBera: :) It's our happy place for sure.

>23 scaifea: Yeah. I'm totally sold on this series. Thank you!

#35 Conspiracy of Kings

So, no review, as such, because it is too hard to say anything without spoiling something from the other books. I am very sorry to be at the end of this series. What a fabulous time I've had reading them. I will definitely be adding these books to my collection. I still think The King of Attolia is the best book in the series, but I really enjoyed this fourth one as well.

Five minutes from the beach. You do know how lucky you are, don't you? You got me with a BB on last thread with King Leopold's Ghost. I'm noticing lots of LT love for that one since I read your review.

>25 nittnut: Yes, I have the complete set so I can reread the series regularly--it has become one of my comfort reads. I had read the 4th book from the library originally, but picked it up on my Kindle at my last series reread.

>26 Donna828: Yes Ma'am. We do know how lucky we are. :) Enjoying every minute. I can highly recommend Leopold's Ghost - very well written.

>27 ronincats: I think it will be one for me too. I have a few series l turn to for happy reading. :)

>7 nittnut: Kaitaia is where my dad and his mum were first sent as refugees from WWII. Dad went to school threre as a 5/6 year old and interestingly, found that the local Maori population were really welcoming and inclusinve, far more so than the Pakeha locals. He couldn't speak either of their languages.

Love the beach meme!

Hi Jenn, still following, though I'm doing more lurking than posting these days. Gorgeous opening photo!

>29 LovingLit: That's a very cool story. What an interesting life your Dad has led - and taken you a long for some of. :)

>30 lit_chick: Lurk away Lori. :) I'm doing a lot of that myself. Hard to keep up with this super social group for sure.

I'm enjoying lurking too. I am having trouble keeping up!

>5 nittnut: I love that and yes, we should definitely check!

Hi Jenn!

>32 thornton37814: Hi Lori. Me too! I sure love seeing the photos of your kitties though. They are getting really big.

>33 EBT1002: I check all the time. It's soothing, even if all the answers aren't always there...

#36 An Island to Oneself - Non-fiction, Travel

My son came in the other day and put this book in my hands. So I read it. It was published in 1966, so the story is an old one, but it is still compelling. Tom Neale dreamed of living alone on a desert island in the South Pacific. He planned and prepared, and he made it happen. The story is well written and interesting, and Neale manages not to spend much time navel gazing, which I appreciated. I wasn't inspired to find a desert island of my own to live on, but I wouldn't mind visiting one for a week or two in the Not hurricane season.

How long was he there for? I can't imagine being that isolated for long (but different strokes).

I've just picked up an old travel book about a Swiss woman who sailed into all sorts of mad places, and then ended up travelling across China and Mongolia. The photos are wonderful - one of her training a ski team - they're all in jumpers and woolly hats instead of hi tech gear.

>34 nittnut: I think they are in training for the Olympics today. Barney may be smaller than the others but he appears to be faster, and he holds his own in wrestling.

>36 charl08: His first trip he stayed about a year and a half, and then threw out his back and had to leave. It took him 6 years to get back and then he stayed another 3 1/2 years. I don't think I could be so alone like that either. I like my alone time, but after a few days, I'd be wanting to talk to someone. Lol

>37 thornton37814: Non-stop entertainment for sure. The smaller ones have to be feisty.

I am working on Wulf for the ANZAC challenge. It's sort of like reading Gilgamesh or Beowulf, and I'm not totally loving it. The language is beautiful, except when it's not. It's feeling more like work. Not in a bad way, but more like school reading than relaxing reading.

Happy new thread, Jenn. Don't mind me, I am just going to sit here and stare longingly at the view in your thread topper pic.

#37 Wulf - ANZAC

Wulf is an epic tale, along the lines of Beowulf or Gilgamesh. It tells of Te Rauparaha, the great chief of Ngati Toa, and his quest to dominate the New Zealand Maori. The story takes place mostly around the Kapiti coast and Kapiti Island, which is where I live, making the descriptions of Kapiti Island (Kopitee in the story) extremely evocative. I could easily picture the characters standing on my beach and looking out to Kapiti Island, because it's something I do nearly every day. The writing is beautiful, but so carefully crafted that I felt held a little separate from the stories and the characters, sort of like a disinterested observer. My only major quibble was that early in the book there was perhaps an overabundance of sexual metaphor - people hiding in wet clefts in the steep thighs of the mountains - sort of thing.

Quotes:

In only a day we'd become used to the lie of the land, the views that surrounded us there. We'd found a way of inhabiting the beach, or it had begun to inhabit us. We had nestled into our uneasiness, furnishing the strangeness at the end of the world with the routine that came when a day was spent in the one place. There was the stream we drank from, a couple of hundred yards north along the beach. Behind us, disappearing into the trees, the rumour of a path along which we knew we would find good firewood. Beyond that the green forested hills, so clear we could touch them though we reckoned them a day's walk there and back. When we closed our eyes we saw the shades of clear blue air; we saw green Kopitee behind. We saw the beach shining like dark glass when the water was at low tide. Fifty yards of hard wet sand left like a mirror by the sea's flat retreat, an oystercatcher standing there balanced upon its own perfect reflection. Our thoughts were clear and calm as we lay there and watched the day falling away. And in the south-west beyond Kopitee we could see the northern sounds of the Middle Island, forty miles away we guessed, though its shapes in the apricot sky were as clear as cut paper.

I wondered if, when we returned into the north of the world, the woods of the barrels in which we'd borne water through our journey would forevermore carry the traces of the pure cold springs of New Zealand they'd once contained. A ghost of water. I wanted to be able to carry the character of the country in a bouquet of its scents and colours and tastes. If we could, we would have traded with the New Zealanders for the light of their clear streams and pure mountains. We couldn't but we took them anyway. Their sunsets were part of our story, just as the arrival of our ships had already become part of theirs. We were, us and them, part of the same story, different verses woven into the same song.

>39 lkernagh: It's not a bad view, is it? It's very near the most southern point of New Zealand, so it almost feels like you'll fall off the edge of the world if you go much further.

>40 nittnut: oh! The shame! I've not heard of this one. You are my hero for knocking these local reads off so diligently.

>42 LovingLit: I have to give the credit/blame to Kerry (avatiakh). She's forever making lists of amazing books and I just pick books off the lists.

>5 nittnut: Yes! Check and double check and then hang out a while, just in case!

I love all your NZ photos!

Hi Jenn! Just passing through, trying to get a bit caught up. I guess your weekend is half over now but enjoy the remainder!

>43 nittnut: Thanks. I have Clayton's Pale North all ready to go, just got to finish The Dragonbone Chair, an epic fantasy novel first, so many pages... I also picked up The invisible Mile from the library, I've been in the queue for a few months for it, it's a debut novel that has recently made the fiction shortlist at the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Aaaaand finally... the meetup photo from January, when we were in Christchurch. It's rather informal, as Megan and I didn't even think about photos. Fortunately Mr. Nittnut was taking pictures. I see my crew. Where's W?



It's a drizzly morning, and we are armed with hot cocoa/coffee and off to play Lego and chat.

>44 Copperskye: Hi Joanne :)

>45 katiekrug: Thanks for stopping by Katie!

>46 avatiakh: Hi Kerry. I keep looking at The Dragonbone Chair, but I've got to wait until school holidays I think.

>43 nittnut: I agree Jenn - Kerry is a major source for adding to my collection too.

Good to see that you met up with Megan, I'm sure that a good time was had by all.

Your post about desert islands would beg the question - how would you keep up in the group?

>49 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I've had two meetups with Megan, and we haven't run out of things to talk about yet.
I hadn't thought about keeping up with LT while on a desert island, but I doubt I'd last more than a couple of weeks on that island anyway.

Currently reading Steelheart and Foreign Correspondence, and still listening to Straight Man (sigh). But, I am not reading this morning. I am off to play 18 holes of Footgolf with my youngest. His sister got a day off school a month ago, and he felt it would only be fair if he had a day off to play with me as well.

Hello, Jenn! All caught up with you just in time to see the meet-up photo - fun! Hoping that your week is full of fabulous!

>51 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! So far, this week is not fabulous, but maybe your wishes will make it so. It is mostly full of teenager with attitude, as in: "I'm not doing dishes or turning out my bedroom light because there's nothing in it for me." Seriously? How about food? A place to live? Just wondering.
Also, today I had to go have my foot X-rayed because it's not getting better. Prognosis is that a "fracture cannot be ruled out" and the doctor is going to have a better look at the X-ray tomorrow. Sigh. My brother and his family will be here Saturday for a two week visit and a cast would really put a cramp in my beach going...

So, things can only get better. I hope. *Grin*

#38 Steelheart

In post-apocalyptic Chicago, called Newcago, a superhuman called Steelheart has taken control of the city. A small group called the Reckoners are the only ones defying his power. But even they aren't what they seem. This YA book is fairly violent and focused on taking down Steelheart and others like him, which IMO, makes it an older YA level book. In the end, some questions about motivation and revenge as an end in itself do begin to come up, which bodes well for the rest of the series. Not my favorite book by Sanderson, but a pretty good read.

Happy Wednesday! Since the doctor hasn't called and told me my foot is officially fractured, I'm off on a field trip to the rock pools with my son's year 5 class. Should be fun. Happy it rained last night, maybe we'll stay relatively dry at the beach. :)
It's a wild day at our house. Lots of after school activities. I've got a house favorite in the slow cooker - http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2015/02/slow-cooker-broccoli-beef.html - and Foreign Correspondence in my bag. Plus, the teenager au rotten is still asleep. A good start to the day. *grin*

Be careful on that foot, Jenn! Hoping that the field trip went well.

Thanks for the link to that recipe - looks yummy. I'm going to pick up the broccoli and beef for that today and make it tomorrow for dinner!

"teenager au rotten" - ha!

Yah, I love that!

>55 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. I was pretty careful. But lots of uneven ground there. I was sore, but happy at the end. I'll post a couple of photos after I work out why Dropbox doesn't have them...

>56 katiekrug:, >57 drneutron: If you liked that, then you'll love this: Teenager au rotten has been "looking" for a job for 3 months. This has involved going to businesses - in shorts and a tee shirt with bedhead - to deliver CVs. I think he's spent all of about 3 hours doing that. From the day he arrived home from Samoa I have been encouraging him to find a volunteer job and just do that a couple times a week, as it may lead to something. He saw no benefit in that suggestion. Finally, I took him out to HUHA (local animal shelter) for some puppy therapy. He thought it would be nice to volunteer there and on the first day was offered a job at the pub near our house washing dishes. First night was last night - St. Patrick's Day (You should already be laughing with delight). He arrived home at 12:30 am, so sore and so tired he thought he might die. His last words before falling into bed were "I am SO graduating from high school." I giggled myself back to sleep, and I'm still snickering this morning.

In other news, I have now had two sets of X-rays on the foot and I'm waiting to hear whether I'm broken or just taking longer to heal from a sprain than I'd like. My brother and his family are arriving tomorrow from Los Angeles and we are sooooo excited to have company.
I will probably get even further behind around here, but I won't stop reading. I am now reading Some Luck and plodding along with The Penguin History of the World. Still listening (or not listening) to Straight Man, but not super motivated. I'll finish it eventually. Too many swears to listen with the kids in the car.

Photos of the rock pools:

#39 Foreign Correspondence - ANZAC

This lovely memoir covers Geraldine Brooks' childhood and early career as a foreign correspondent. She talks about her yearning for the wider world and how having pen pals helped her to discover the world outside Australia. It's a great read, I highly recommend it.

Hope that there is no fracture in the foot and that you have a great time with your brother and his family during their stay with you.

>58 nittnut: Great story about the job misadventures - all of us with kids that age know exactly the feelings you are feeling. xx

Jenn, we tried the recipe that you posted the link to above, and we loved it. Thanks so much for sharing!

And I loved the story about the Teenager au rotten. Made me laugh.

Beef Broccolli is one of my favorite dishes. I had tried a crockpot version before where the broccoli was added earlier and turned into a soggy mess. Thanks for sharing this one - it looks so good!

As always, I'm enjoying your adventures around NZ. How I'd love to have the opportunity to live in another country for a few years!

Clever mum re the volunteering.

Gorgeous pictures - that's an impressive find. I was thinking of UK style where the finds are tiny.

>59 nittnut: I want to find a copy of this, it does sound like fun. Did she keep the original letters?

Ah, nothing like the real world to help with a teenager au rotten attitude, huh Jenn? I laughed out loud that poor kid thought he might die from washing dishes. I'm with you: I giggled myself back to sleep, and I'm still snickering this morning.

Stopping by and hoping that you do not have a fractured foot.

>58 nittnut: - What exactly is the rock pool find in the pail?

>58 nittnut: I'm wondering about that pail, too. Is that a crab of some sort? It's nothing like this fuzzy bunny slug that was a submission in the #CuteOff on Twitter a few days ago. Did you catch a fuzzy bunny slug too?



Happy Spring:

Hope your foot heals ASAP!! Love the photos. It is spring here. And rainy. But it's Portland...remember?! LOL

Jenn - hi!! I have missed tons of news. I hope your foot's getting a bit better, and that is so funny about le teenager au rotten. I can imagine him complaining about being so tired. Has he had any more shifts there yet? I hope he is not sampling the product.

I'm reading Some Luck but put it down to read another Bruno Chief of Police. I'm enjoying it though - I'm up to 1928 so far enough in to know I'll stick with it, but not racing to the end. How far through are you?

Have fun with your brother and his family.

>60 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I believe this is the stage that makes it easy for us to say adios to our young adult children. *grin*

>61 Crazymamie: So glad you liked it! It's one of our favorites.

>62 streamsong: Yeah - I've tried putting the broccoli in before as well. It doesn't turn out well, does it? We can highly recommend a few years in another country. Choose your location carefully, Lol, but it's been a great experience so far.

>63 charl08: She did keep the original letters. In fact, she found them while going through some of her father's things, and decided to try and meet them. It's a neat story.

>64 lit_chick: I just can't tell you how happy I am he has a job. Phew! He calculates 21 days of work and he'll have enough money to move out. LOLOL!

>65 lkernagh: Thanks for checking in. I do not have a fractured foot. I have several rather ambiguous xrays, a referral to an orthopedic surgeon and physio. The doctor's opinion was that most likely, I aggravated an old injury when I sprained my foot and since I'm "not 25 anymore" it will take more than 2 weeks to heal and I probably went back to karate and zumba too soon. He's probably right. I'm definitely not 25 anymore.

It's a crab in the bowl - invertebrates are not really my thing, but I think it's a purple shore crab.

>66 The_Hibernator: The fuzzy bunny slug is pretty cute, as slugs go. Happy Spring to you! We are enjoying a warmish fall here in the southern hemisphere. :)

>67 Berly: Yes. Oregon. :) Rain makes things so green and pretty though.

>68 cushlareads: Hi Cushla! I am into 1929, I think. I am liking it, but so busy that I'm only getting little bits at a time.

We had a fun couple of days with my brother and his family. They are off for a two day trip up to Hawkes Bay area to see a friend who has a farm. When they get back we will do some touristy things around Wellington, then head off to Tauranga after the Easter holidays. I sure hope the weather is good. :)

I'm reading Some Luck and liking it.

>69 nittnut: haha! I was trying so hard to double check locations before posting the Sping picture. Guess I missed you!

>69 nittnut: Is the plan to wake him with bags and a taxi on day 22?! I remember the devastating moment I realised how much tax was coming off my first pay check. Talk about sad face....

>69 nittnut: Okay, the 21 day calculation made me belly laugh! On a Monday!! Thanks for that, Jenn!

>71 The_Hibernator: No worries. With this group, it's hard to keep up, let alone keep track of where everyone is. Lol

>72 charl08: So, so tempting. *Grin*

>73 Crazymamie: Oooh! On a Monday! That's excellent. :)

Have a wonderful Easter.

Happy Weekend, Jenn!

Stopping by to wish you a Happy Easter Jenn.

>75 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul.

>76 DianaNL: Hi Diana :) How cute is that Bunny?

>77 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! It is a happy weekend. I've got my brother and his family here, and we are really enjoying their visit.

>78 lkernagh: Thanks Lori. :)

#40 Some Luck - AAC

Some Luck is the story of an average farming family in middle America, starting from the end of WWI and going through about 1954. It looks to be the start of an epic saga. There are a lot of characters, well developed for the most part, and the story follows the history of the time period well. I don't know that I will continue on with the series. It is well written, but it took me just ages to read it. I liked it, but I didn't love it.

Still trying to finish Straight Man and hurrying to read Firefight to see if it's too old for my daughter or not. The Screwtape Letters is in the queue and The Revenant just came in at the library. I also found a copy of Grace is Gone at my local used book shop. Riches.

Happy Easter everyone!

>82 Berly: Haha! Funny bunny Kim. Lol

I'm back. Phew! It has been a fabulous 2 weeks. It's going to take a couple of days to get my house back in order. It's the first time I can remember that I managed to go on holiday without obsessively cleaning the house first. Which was impossible to do with 4 extra people, two of them ages 6 and 4, in the house. I have this neurotic notion that If I die on holiday, people will come into my house and I don't want them to think I was a slob...

We spent 5 days at Waihi Beach with some side trips up to the Coromandel Peninsula and Hobbiton (which was way cooler than I expected), and then a couple more days up near Auckland. Pictures later. When I have time to mess with the camera and stuff. Tonight I am going to review the two books I read, then go to bed. Tomorrow I have to teach my early morning religion class, then do laundry and clean house. Same with Tuesday, most likely. But somewhere in there I hope to organize the photos and share a few.

#41 Firefight

A pretty good YA dystopian fantasy read. I think it's a bit old for my daughter, so we'll try and hold her off finishing this series for a few years. Lots of violence - the main focus is killing off the evil superheroes who are running amok, with some sides of teenage lust and religious fanaticism. Interesting ideas, but perhaps beyond the 11 year old reader. I do like how the characters are developing and some of the twists the story is taking. I may read the next one.

That finishes off my reading for March.

#42 The Screwtape Letters

C.S. Lewis has written a diabolically clever book. A senior devil writes full of detailed instructions for his nephew who is a junior tempter. The junior tempter is struggling to properly drag his human down, and needs a lot of correction and assistance from his uncle. Like the satire of Jonathan Swift, this is meant to teach a moral tale, and it's highly successful. Lewis said that it was easy to write, but not fun. He felt that it introduced a "spiritual cramp" to project himself into the imaginary world of Screwtape. The world into which I had to project myself while I spoke through Screwtape was all dust, grit, thirst and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done. It would have smothered my readers if I had prolonged it.

It is in some ways more troublesome to track and swat an evasive wasp than to shoot, at close range, a wild elephant. But the elephant is more troublesome if you miss.

#43 The Fellowship of the Ring

We listened to this on the road trip with the kids, well, to be more accurate, on this road trip and the last one. It was so much fun to see them get sucked right in to the world of Middle Earth. They are already begging for the audio of The Two Towers.

Welcome home, Jenn!! Sounds like the vacation was a success, and what fun reading you've been doing.

Looking forward to the photographs! Sounds like you had a great time.

>47 nittnut: i totally missed that shot being taken...stealth photographer. Good on him :)
And it shows how long it has been since I have visited your thread! :(
I read the Screwtape Letters and didnt understand a word..well, I did understand the words, but not the meaning from them. Probably symptomatic of my lack of religious knowledge. Im glad you enjoyed it!

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear more about your trip ad see the photos. Nice job on the book reviews...already! The Screwtape letters sounds interesting. Good luck catching up around the house. : )

>86 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Nice to see you. I will head over to your thread soon - but I probably won't catch up. Lol

>87 streamsong: Coming soon - but because I can never just do something in a straightforward fashion, I decided now was the time to set up my new laptop. We do have some very good photos though. :)

>88 LovingLit: Lol. I missed it too. Glad we got one halfway decent photo. :) I've had an extra hard time keeping up with threads this year. RL is pretty busy with trips to the SI and trips up north and all. LOL

>89 Berly: I have the house mostly clean - as clean as it can be with people living here - and almost all the laundry done. Laundry was the usual, plus about 18 towels and 8 sets of linens from our trip. Phew! It's supposed to rain Thursday, so it must be done before then.

I am currently enjoying Demelza, when I'm not reading Exodus for the religion class I teach. Next up, I just had The Revenant and The Big Green Tent arrive at the library. I have Book Scavenger waiting on the shelf and I picked up The Underground Girls of Kabul: The Hidden Lives of Afghan Girls today. Riches. Not sure what I will pick next...

Some photos:

The first two are at Aratiatia Dam. You can stand on the bridge at the spillway and watch them release water a few times a day. The water fills up a small pool, then overflows under the bridge into another pool and rises until it pours through a narrow gap and down to the river. If you've seen The Hobbit, this is where the dwarves ride the barrels. :) First photo shows it filling, and the second shows it starting to overflow.

A few photos of some things we did - Taihape and the giant gum boot, more Aratiatia Dam, Hurricanes (rugby) game, rock pools with Kapiti Island in the background.



Cathedral Cove, photo bomb by my brother at viewpoint - Coromandel

Hobbiton - which was Very Cool.



Stairs down to a secluded little cove near our bach - good fishing and lots of rocks to climb on and around.



Karangahake Gorge - heading north from Waihi Beach to Auckland - there is a walk that travels through old mining tunnels and along the river. Cool and freaky.

Oh, Jenn!! What lovely photos - thanks so much for sharing them. Looks like a very fun time was had by all. I really love that fist photo in >93 nittnut:, such a great shot and the lighting is gorgeous.

Gorgeous pictures. Looks like you have been very busy.

>94 Crazymamie: Thanks! We did have a good time. I am loving traveling around and seeing as much of NZ as I can.

>95 charl08: Yes - busy - but fun busy. I need to give myself a day to lie around and read though :).

Love the pictures--everywhere looks wonderful!!

#44 Straight Man - AAC (February)

I FINALLY finished listening to the audio. The narration was well done. The story takes place over a week in the life of William Henry Devereaux Jr., a professor of English and interim chair of the English department. The entire story is narrated by WHD Jr. and while there are some funny moments, I never really warmed to him. The first half of the story is whimsical and entertaining, the second half manages to present some fairly perceptive insights. An OK read for me.

#45 Book Scavenger

Emily is an avid participant in a game called book scavenger. This entails solving clues to find books that have been hidden, and then reading and re-hiding the books. When she moves to San Francisco, she stumbles on an adventure. Will she solve the puzzle before someone else does?
This was a fun middle grade read.

>97 ronincats: Hi Roni. :)

You have been busy! Fun tripping about...you guys know how to check places out. It's cool.

>100 LovingLit: *grin* We love NZ. It's so fun to go see things. I love that most of the time it's work to get to the cool places too.

Sorry guys, my Hobbiton photos don't seem to be working. Hopefully they'll come back.

#46 Demelza

Second in the series and there is a lot that happens. I think it's setting things up for the next book or so, it will be interesting to find out. Good read.

Now I must start The Revenant. It's due at the library on Sunday.

Loved Book Scavenger! Couldn't help wishing it were real.

Stopping in to wish you a lovely weekend, Jenn!

Sounds like a great visit with your brother and his family! Thanks for sharing all the photos.

I love your pictures, Jenn! Looks like so much fun!

Loved your trip on fb, and now I'm happy to see pictures here too!
Hope your foot is feeling better and that the teenager gets over some of it! At least, nothing right now seems to be disturbing your good reading! YAY!

>103 ronincats: I know, right? I keep thinking we could start a Book Scavenger thing on LT...

>104 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Thanks, and same to you. Mine's almost gone, and Monday looms, but you've at least got a day left. :)

>105 katiekrug: It was so nice to have my brother here. I am now quite homesick for my family, but I will get over it. Probably. Lol

>106 porch_reader: Hi Amy! Nice to see you. Must go catch up at your place soon.

>107 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. :) My foot has a diagnosis. Something to do with tendon dysfunction and being over 40, etc. Phooey. Physio and orthotics were mentioned. I will do the physio, but I'm dubious about orthotics. I've had them before, and I didn't find them all that magical. The teenager, only aging will solve his issues. Well, that and a healthy dose of independence. Working on it. *evil grin* More good reading happened this weekend. Review coming up next.

I've got The Big Green Tent up next, and then a book about girls in Afghanistan who are disguised as boys so they can go to school and maybe are a little safer? Looks interesting. Also, I must find some poetry to read for the AAC. I kind of want to pick and choose rather than read an entire book. Any recommendations?

#47 The Revenant

This was quite a read - along the lines of You Can't Make This Stuff Up. I realize it was fictionalized, but the true parts of the story are plenty exciting. Hugh Glass is a member of a fur trading expedition. He is attacked by a grizzly and brutally injured. Although the company tries to carry him with them, eventually they leave him with a couple of men whose job it is to watch over him until he dies. The two men eventually abandoned him. He lives and sets out to get revenge. I haven't seen the film yet, but I am looking forward to it.

#48 Amulet: Firelight

This is a great read, with some long standing questions finally getting answered. I am really enjoying following this series with my 9 year old son. The illustrations are gorgeous and the development of the characters is slow, but it works. It looks like there will be a wait for the next in the series. Sigh.

>109 nittnut: The film was amazing. Scenery alone worth the price of the ticket.

Hi Jenn! Lovely pictures of your latest jaunt around NZ. I love the Hobbit House! How nice that you could vacation with your brother and his family.

On the book front, I liked but didn't love Some Luck. I think I'll live without reading the other two in the trilogy. I have read The Screwtape Letters several times. So clever…to the point of being brilliant. I listened to The Revenant and liked it. Now I must see it on the big screen while it is still in town. I'm amazed that it has hung around this long.

Uh oh, I just bought Some Luck.... Doesn't bode well that both you and Donna didn't love it!

>111 Donna828: Hi Donna. We had such a nice time with my brother. I really, desperately miss my family now. I probably won't read any more of the Smiley trilogy either. I wasn't really invested enough in any of the characters. The Revenant isn't in theaters here anymore, probably not as interesting or relevant to NZ viewers.

>112 Cait86: Well, hopefully you will like it. We both liked it, we just didn't love it enough to read more, I think. Maybe you will love it, and you can come back by and tell us how much we missed. Lol

I'm reading The Big Green Tent and I really like it, but it's going to be a long, slow read. These Russian authors, I tell you.

Belated, but for Siblings Day, my brother who was just visiting posted this on FB. I love this photo of my brothers. It captures their personalities beautifully. I have a sister too - but I'm just sharing this photo. If I had to guess, this photo is probably from about 1981-1982, so the oldest one is about 8 and the youngest would be 3.

Aw! I love that photo! Thanks for sharing, Jenn. There are six of us, too, but we are all girls - no brothers. *sigh*

Lovely picture. I like the mischievous look in the young man to the right. I love my brother but cannot imagine living with four!

>115 Crazymamie: Oh my. That's a lot of sisters. *grin*

>116 charl08: It was like living with a noisy dust cloud. :) My sister and I are the bookends. I'm the other mother, my sister is the pot stirrer Lol.

Yeah. You're telling me.

Hi Jenn - Thanks for the photos! You are living in a beautiful place.

Oh, and you're reading some great books, too. The Brooks book sounds good, and I'll file The Book Scavenger under Future Scout Reads.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Amazing photos!! Both of the trip and of your brothers, who look like they were fun and trouble. ; ) "Like living with a noise dust cloud." And witness the photo bomber. LOL

>118 Crazymamie: I could barely cope with one sister. The brothers were easy in comparison. But now she's my best friend, so things work out...

>119 BLBera: Hi Beth! We do live in a beautiful place. We go on trips and think, Oh, Wow! This is beautiful too! :) Hope your weekend is great too!

>120 Berly: Hi Kim. Yes - fun and trouble. The photo bomber of last month is the sweet, innocent looking youngest one (possibly being strangled by his oldest brother in the photo?).

I am reading two books at the moment. The Big Green Tent is marvelous and will take ages to read. It's very dense. I'm also reading The Underground Girls of Kabul, which is interesting. Kids have term break the next two weeks, which means no early morning class for me to teach, so I may have more reading time than usual for a bit.

Wait - I think you just hit me with 2 book bullets! Both those books in #121 look like I would love them. Your trip looks fantastic.

Yay, holidays. Well, not teaching days, or something. But it is nice to have time to sleep in and read. Is your foot a bit better?

>122 cushlareads: Hi Cushla. I think you would like both books, but you'd better leave The Big Green Tent for summer holidays. :)

My foot is somewhat better. I'm doing physio and following instructions. They told me no running (haha! No problem) and no Zumba, but I can go to karate if I don't jump up and down.

#49 Underground Girls of Kabul - Dewey

While working in Kabul, Jenny Nordberg started to notice that there were girls running around dressed as boys. She wondered if it was unusual, or if there were many more girls dressing as boys than people realized. Over time, she met and interviewed many women who had spent time as boys while growing up, as well as some who were still masquerading as men after they normally might have changed back to girls. She discusses the social reasons for the deception and the risks and benefits. I think she spends a little too much time trying to make it make sense in a Western definition of gender issues (irrelevant in a lot of ways to Afghan culture) and it is disruptive to the flow of her narrative. While I think Nine Parts of Desire is a better book overall, this is a very interesting discussion of the social consequences of living in such a deeply segregated society.

Sounds interesting, Jenn.

It does sound interesting. How are you, Jenn?

>125 BLBera: Hi Beth :) It was interesting, a quick read too. Just not quite Gwendolyn Brooks.

>126 AMQS: Hi Anne! I am fine, thank you. It's busy around here as the kids are on term break. We've had a very animal-filled week. We've walked dogs at the shelter and today we spent the day at a friend's farm feeding sheep, goats, chickens and ducks, and the kids got to ride the horse as well. They loved it.

#50 Climbing the Mango Trees

I came across this memoir at the library while looking for a good nonfic audio for my daughter. I picked it up because i have sevaral of Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks and was very interested in learning more about her life. The memoir covers Jaffrey's life from birth to when she finishes her formal schooling. She grew up a privileged child of the upper classes. Her family was large and fairly modern in their attitudes and behaviors for the time period. The book touches, but does not dwell long, on major historical events. She was at a prayer meeting led by Gandhi several days before he was shot. She attended school at a Christian private school that was very multi-cultural and had friends who were Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Punjabi. When partition became a reality, she experienced the trauma of the division at school as former friends became hostile to each other, and in the case of the Muslim girls, eventually left for Pakistan. Through all of the major and minor events of her life, she injects the flavors and scents of the food they ate and the feelings and memories evoked by those flavors. It's a lovely book and I highly recommend it. Besides, there are recipes at the end...

I am still working on The Big Green Tent. It's my poolside book for now. I am also starting The Dragonbone Chair. Total riches of library books. I've got The Soul of the Octopus waiting and some others reserved.

Well done!

Great pic of the brothers!

Love the pic of your brothers.....personalities do show clearly! I'll think about the Brooks and the Smiley. I read both women with pleasure. And I'm thrilled to know you're getting into D'bone Chair. I'm 300 or so pages to the good in Vol. 1 of Green Angel Tower. It's quite a commitment but such fun.

I bought a second hand copy of this, partly because of the recipes, and have no idea what I did with it...

Great book to hit 50 on. Congrats.

I have done a fair bit of travelling recently Jenn but I am glad finally to have gotten caught up with your thread again.

Have a lovely weekend. xx

>129 EBT1002: Hi Ellen :) Love that giant 50.

>130 LizzieD: I would love to do another photo of the brothers and see if their adult selves show personality. I am quite sure the oldest won't be choking the youngest. :)
I am just starting D'bone Chair, but I'm liking it.

>131 charl08: I have two of her recipe books and I've loved everything we've made. My favorite recipe of hers is Gujarati Style Green Beans. Yum. I could eat it every day. http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/indian/03/rec0321.html

>132 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I can't keep up with anyone's threads this year. Hope your weekend is good.

That green bean recipe looks great! Green beans are one of the few vegetables my husband will eat cooked, and he loves Indian flavors, so this could be a winner!

Oh, not you too! I resisted when Peggy was reading The Dragonbone Chair but every time someone picks it up, I am so tempted to start rereading it again--it's been years!

Congrats on 50 and Climbing The Mango Trees sounds like a wonderful book! Goo luck getting the gang together so you can get an updated brother picture. Do you all live close or far apart from one another?

>134 katiekrug: Ooh. Try it. :)

>135 ronincats: Ha!

>136 Berly: I have a brother in California, two in Utah and one in Missouri. My sister is in Utah as well. They will have to manage without me (they seem to have for years lol) because I'm in New Zealand. Parents are in Oregon. We are pretty spread out. :(

>137 nittnut: Gosh that is spread out.

The beans sound good, I'll have to give that a go the next time I'm having curry. I'm still slightly in shock at how easy (cheap) naan bread is to make, having bought them for years.

>137 nittnut: Wow. Ummm...good luck recreating that photo!! You guys really are spread out. Mine are all in MN and I think that's far. I still only get to see them once a year if I'm lucky. This year half of them are coming out for my daughter's college graduation--can't wait to see them!

>128 nittnut: I read Climbing the Mango Trees a couple of years back and also found the time of partition interesting reading as well as all the food stories. Have you read Freedom at Midnight?

I started the second Dragonbone Chair book a few weeks ago but haven't read much more than a couple of chapters due to library books intruding on my well-being. I was intending on reading a chapter every few days.

I'll try to get the next ANZAC challenge up today.

Loved this one from the Poem a Day:

Poem for Hemingway & W. C. Williams
by Raymond Carver

3 fat trout hang
in the still pool
below the new
steel bridge.
two friends
come slowly up
the track.
one of them,
ex-heavyweight,
wears an old
hunting cap.
he wants to kill,
that is catch & eat,
the fish.
the other,
medical man,
he knows the chances
of that.
he thinks it fine
that they should
simply hang there
always
in the clear water.
the two keep going
but they
discuss it as
they disappear
into the fading trees
& fields & light,
upstream.

>138 charl08: So true about the naan. I also have a flatbread recipe that is delicious that is basically butter, flour and milk. Roll it out thin, cook it in a pan like tortillas and it's done. Can't buy anything like it and it's so cheap to make. :)

>139 Berly: I love big events that bring the family together. Over the years, we have found both pros and cons to living away from our families. We pretty much always have lived away from our family because of work. Now that we know how to create boundaries, it might be nice to live nearer to family. I'm not a fan of what my in-laws would want - weekly Sunday dinners all together, etc. - but to have grandparents at the kids sporting events or cousins to play with, that would be nice.

>140 avatiakh: Hi Kerry. I haven't read Freedom at Midnight, but it's in the pile somewhere. Most of what I've read is heavily anti-partition, so I will be interested to get to that one sometime soon. I am finding D'bone Chair a little slow, but that's probably because it's term break and there is No. Quiet. Time.

#51 The Dragonbone Chair

I say there's no quiet time for reading, then I get two days because the kids came down with head colds. Ah well. It was nice to have a couple uninterrupted (sort of) hours for reading this book, because I was finally able to get into the flow of the story.

An epic tale of good versus evil. The tale begins with a scullion boy in a castle who wants more for his life, but doesn't know how to get it. He is curious, but also innately kind and thoughtful. Acquiring guides along the way, the boy begins to learn, finds adventure, maybe even more than he bargained for. Who is he, and why is he so important to the story? I will probably have to read the next book to find out.

Jenn, those old fantasy books are good though why do they all have to be such doorstoppers!

I've set up the May-June ANZAC challenge and started my first book seeing I was so dismal this last time round.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/222478

>144 avatiakh: So true. It was a massive book and required more time and attention than I was (apparently) willing to give. Still a really good read though.
Hooray! The new thread! :)

#52 Dream Work

A gorgeous little book of poetry - some of them darker than most of what I've read by her - truly excellent.

#53 The Soul of An Octopus

Very readable. I enjoyed the stories about the octopuses far more than the musings about consciousness, but those were mostly good and interesting too. Makes me want to go volunteer at an aquarium and get to know an octopus.

Reading plan for May - in spite of my goal to get fewer library books so I can read some off the shelves...

ANZAC challenge
Kickback
I for Isobel
Death of a Superhero
Wolfskin

AAC
This House of Sky

DeweyCat
tbd

Non-fic Challenge - the Arts
Brunelleschi's Dome

And I'm still reading The Big Green Tent.

Happy May!! Looks like you have your reading well figured out. >143 nittnut: I'll be interested to see if the series continues to be to you liking...

>148 Berly: *wave*

Forgot a book! Oh the horror.

#54 Catwings

This little book just flies out of the school library. The 10 and 11 year old girls just love it. Since I like Le Guin, I decided to read it one afternoon in the library. A sweet story about little cats with wings.

Wow, 54 books. Way to go, Jenn! I just started reading This House of Sky. Another winner! I'm glad I have a few Doig books left to read. He will be missed.

Hi Donna :) - Hooray! I am really looking forward to it. Just waiting for it to come in at the library.

Time for that new thread. Because I feel like it.