Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Memories

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Jana  at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in.

This week’s prompt is a Bookish Memories (Share stories of your reading life as a child, events you’ve gone to, books that made an impression on you, noteworthy experiences with books, authors you’ve met, etc. Reminisce with me!).

Books have always been an important part of my life. I may not remember the first book I read or all the bookish events I have attended, but there have been so many memories that this week’s theme has generated. It was hard to stop at 10!

Here are 10 of those bookish memories:

1. The first series I remember reading was Trixie Belden, but the one I loved the most was Anne of Green Gables. I still have all those original books I got as young teen. Throughout my life I still referr often to “kindred spirits”.

2. As a young teen I can remember reading a risqué book I found at home and when my mom took it from me, my dad intervened. He felt I had to learn what was worth reading and what was not, and that I had to learn for myself. That they should not censor me. My father was a great reader. I still have many of his books.

3. Throughout high school, we had to memorize passages from Shakespeare. Most teachers had us write out the passage for marks. I can still recite some passage (here the first lines):

“The quality of mercy is not strained….”

“To be or not to be..”

“Out out damn spot..”

4. I studied English literature at university and studied romantic poets, Shakespeare and American writers. Edith Wharton was one of my favourite authors, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles was a favourite read. One of my best essays was on this book.

5. After teaching my siblings when I was 7 or 8, of course I was destined to be a teacher. And I taught for over 30 years – from the NWT to Alberta to Ontario. My favourite part of teaching was sharing my love of reading. In the last 10 years of my teaching, I read The Book Whisperer By Donalyn Miller and it changed how I taught reading. I basically referred back to what my father said – that I should read what I wanted to. And so I did. And the children grew as readers.

6. There were so many wonderful books I read in my classroom, but in the last 5 years, the books by Kate DiCamillo were our favourites. I started the year usually with Because of Winn Dixie and read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane around Christmas.” These are only a couple of the many great read-alouds, so many memories. We kept a large calendar diary of all the books we read aloud through the year, and it numbered well over a hundred each year.

       

7. One particular memory relates to one special student in a Grade 3 class. She had limited abilities and a very poor memory. But when it came to listening to the novels I read to the class each day, she could remember what happened each day. One day as I was reading, (Spoiler alert!!) I read of the death of the little girl and my student popped up “NOOOOO. She can’t die!” She became so involved in all the books but especially Kate’s books.

8. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” also gave me another memory. After my mother died in 2008, another blogger suggested I read Tulane as it helped her with her grieving. And it did. It has always been a special book to me.

9. Another special book was Love you Forever, which I read over and over to my own children. I so enjoyed that quality time with my own kids.  I often read it in my classroom as well. Many times, I had hold back tears. I heard Robert Munsch read this book at a teachers’ conference many years ago, and when he sang the song from the book, I wanted to tell him he was singing it wrong! It was so different from the way I sang it!

10. My absolute favourite series now is The Others by Anne Bishop, a fantasy series of 5 books, with 2 additional books linked to it. I am working on reading it for the 3^rd time right now (on book 4). It has become my refuge, my solace, my stress releaser. These past 2 years have especially been a challenge. Books have saved me many times. And now that I am retired, I usually read a book a day.

     

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

 

It’s time once again for Kathryn’s weekly meme, “It’s Monday! What are You Reading?“, hosted at Book Date, where we share what we’re reading and have read over the past week.

I was able to get more reading in. My hubby has now been discharged from the 3x a week visit – his wound has finally been declared sealed- after 3 months! Yeah! Now we are gearing up for Christmas – started decorating on the weekend. Still lots to do.

 What I Read Last Week

I read 8 books, in a variety of genres – 2 romances, a fantasy, a non-fiction, a memoir an historical romance a classic and a paranormal cozy mystery.

 

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop. Book 3 Bishop’s The Others Series (I am once again rereading my favourite series)

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews. A lovely Christmas romance novella that was an enjoyable quick read.

How to Avoid Making Art by Julia Cameron. A fun graphic book that in a tongue-in-cheek way points out how we actually stop being creative, from the author of The Artist’s Way    

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Another Christmas novella, this one a classic by the master story-teller Dickens. As I read, I visualized Alaistair Sim – the best Scrooge as far as I’m concerned.

Since I Fell for You by Bella Andre. Her romances are always enjoyable and this was no exception.

Kid on the Go by Neill McKee. I read this memoir for a review for WOW and found it entertaining and enjoyable.

The Lost Lady and the Reluctant Duke by Vivian Brighton. This was a short historical romance and was a sweet read. (Unusual but I couldn’t find it listed on Goodreads or Amazon -yet I got it as a free ebook recently)

The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren. I needed a cozy mystery for a challenge and I had heard about this series. It was an enjoyable read and I will probably read more of the series.

What I’m Reading Now 

Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

What’s Up Next (Still determined to read these!)

5 Little Indians by Michelle Good

 Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Connect 5 Friday/ Week 4 of NF November: 5 Books Stranger Than Fiction

It’s time once again for Connect Five Friday, hosted at Book Date by Kathryn – the meme where we share five book/reading things that connect in some way.

As it is also the last week of Non-Fiction November, I thought I would combine the two. (Check here for other participants at “Plucked From the Stacks”

Here is the description for Week 4:Week 4 (November 22-26) Stranger Than Fiction: This week we’re focusing on all the great nonfiction books that almost don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive obstacles, a profile on a bizarre scam, a look into the natural wonders in our world—basically, if it makes your jaw drop, you can highlight it for this week’s topic.

 

Here ae 5 “Stranger than fiction” non-fiction books (summaries from Goodreads):

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. This is the only one of the 5 I have read. It was an unbelievable story.

“Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons”

 

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

“On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.”

 

Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

“Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.  
In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters—and how we can do better.  A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis. “

 

 

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright

“A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the now-classic study of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack, the Looming Tower. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists–both famous and less well known–and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology”

 

 

Stiff by Mary Roach

“Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.”

 

WOW Review of “Kid on the Go” by Neill McKee

I am honoured to be part of the WOW! Women of Writing Blog Tour for Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go, which I read and am now reviewing.

(Please note: I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.)

My Review:

Neill McKee details his early life in Elmira, Ontario, from childhood through to his high school years. Then he focuses on his university years, first at Western in London and then at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

I have lived in Ontario most of my life and know the Kitchener-Waterloo fairly well. But McKee brought to life Elmira, which I have only been to a few times. He really makes us aware of the strong odors and the toxic stew in the rivers around the chemical factories there. I was not aware of that.

As each chapter presents the stories and memories from his past, I found myself chuckling often at some of his hijinks. As he said “We all experienced a childhood of freedom.”. There is no way parents of today would allow their children to wander as much as he did with his brother and friends. As a child in the 50s and 60s myself, I can remember exploring ponds and old barns around our house. Even my children had some freedom to explore around our rural home.

Throughout the book, we se his growth and his changing directions in his life, as he matured, met people, especially those from other countries, read and discusses politics, philosophy and even religion.

I recommend Neill’s memoir. It drew me in from the beginning and as a baby boomer, I could relate to much of his earlier years. A fun read indeed.

Book Summary

In this new book, McKee takes readers on a journey through his childhood, adolescence, and teenage years from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, in the small, then industrially-polluted town of Elmira, Ontario, Canada—one of the centers of production for Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

McKee’s vivid descriptions, dialog, and self-drawn illustrations are a study of how a young boy learned to play and work, fish and hunt, avoid dangers, cope with death, deal with bullies, and to build or restore “escape” vehicles. You may laugh out loud as the author recalls his exploding hormones, attraction to girls, rebellion against authority, and survival of 1960s’ “rock & roll” culture—emerging on the other side as a youth leader.

After leaving Elmira, McKee describes his intensely searching university years, trying to decide which career path to follow. Except for a revealing postscript, the story ends when he accepts a volunteer teaching position on the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia.

Purchase your copy now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. Make sure to add it to your GoodReads reading list too.

About the Author

Neill McKee is a creative nonfiction writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has written and published three books in this genre since 2015. His latest work is Kid on the Go! Memoir of My Childhood and Youth, a humorous and poignant account of his growing up in an industrially-polluted town in Ontario, Canada, and his university years. This memoir is a stand-alone prequel to his first travel memoir Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah (2019) on his first overseas adventures in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo), where he served as a Canadian volunteer teacher and program administrator during 1968-70 and 1973-74. This book won the 2019 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Biography–(other than a New Mexico/Arizona subject) and a Bronze Medal in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards (Ippy Awards).

In late 2020, McKee also released Guns and Gods in my Genes: A 15,000-mile North American search through four centuries of history, to the Mayflower—an entertaining account of how he searched for his roots in Canada and the US, in which he employs vivid descriptions, dialog, poetic prose, analytical opinion, photos and illustrations. In this work, McKee slowly uncovers his American grandmother’s lineage—ancestors who were involved in almost every major war on North American soil and others, including a passenger on the Mayflower, as well as heroes, villains, rascals, and ordinary godly folk. Through his search, McKee exposes myths and uncovers facts about the true founding of America.

McKee, who holds a B.A. Degree from the University of Calgary and a Masters in Communication from Florida State University, lived and worked in Asia, Africa, Russia and traveled to over 80 countries on assignments during his 45-year international career. He became an expert in communication and directed/produced a number of award-winning documentary films/videos, and wrote a many articles and books in the field. McKee is now busy writing another travel memoir on his career. He does readings/book signings and presentations with or without photos. He prefers lively interactive sessions.

Follow the author online at:

Author’s website: www.neillmckeeauthor.com

Kid on the Go! book page: www.neillmckeeauthor.com/kid-on-the-go

Kid on the go! buy page: www.neillmckeeauthor.com/buy-3

Author’s digital library: www.neillmckeevideos.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/neill-mckee-b9971b65/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/McKeeNeill/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MckeeNeill

NBFS: www.northborneofrodotolkien.org

Be sure to visit all the stops along the way:

— Blog Tour Calendar

November 8th @ The Muffin

Join us as we celebrate the launch of Neill McKee’s newest memoir, Kid on the Go. Come by and read an interview with the author, find out more about his newest book, and enter to win a copy for yourself.

https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com

November 10th @ Quiet Fury Books

Visit Darcia’s blog today where she features an excerpt from Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

http://quietfurybooks.com/

November 12th @ Choices

Visit Madeline’s blog and read Neill McKee’s guest post on surviving the 1960’s Rock n’ Roll culture.

https://madelinesharples.com/

November 15th @ Bring on Lemons

Visit Crystal’s blog today and read her insights into Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/

November 15th @ Katherine Itacy’s Blog

Stop by Katherine and read her review of Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!. You can also enter to win a copy of the book for yourself too!

https://katherineitacy.com/

November 17th @ Beverley A. Baird’s Blog

Join Beverley as she features a guest post by author Neill McKee on issues on writing about your hometown.

https://beverleyabaird.wordpress.com/

November 20th @ Sweet Silly Sara

Visit Sara’s blog and read her review of Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://www.sweetsillysara.com/

November 24th @ Beverley A. Baird’s Blog

Visit Beverley’s blog again and read her review of Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://beverleyabaird.wordpress.com/

November 24th @ C. Lee McKenzie

Join C. Lee McKenzie today as she interviews author Neill McKee, author of the memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://www.cleemckenziebooks.com/blog/

November 26th @ StoreyBook Reviews

Visit Leslie’s blog where she shares an excerpt of Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

http://storeybookreviews.com/

November 30th @ Author Anthony Avina’s Blog

Join Anthony as he interviews Neill McKee, author of the memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://authoranthonyavinablog.com/category/interviews/

December 2nd @ The Mommies Reviews

Visit Glenda’s blog today where she reviews Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://www.themommiesreviews.com/

December 4th @ Mother Daughter Bookclub

Join Cindy today when she reviews Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://motherdaughterbookclub.com/

December 5th @ Fiona Ingram’s Blog

Join Fiona today when she shares Neill McKee’s guest post on writing a memoir in a youth’s voice but with present-day adult reflections.

http://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com/

December 7th @ CK Sorens’ Blog

Make sure to stop by CK Sorens’ blog today and check out a feature of Neill McKee’s memoir and enter to win a copy of the book too.

https://www.cksorens.com/blog

December 8th @ World of My Imagination

Join Nicole as she shares her thoughts about Neill McKee’s memoir Kid on the Go!. You’ll also have the chance to win a copy for yourself too.

https://worldofmyimagination.com/

December 10th @ Bookshine and Readbows

Join Steph as she shares Neill McKee’s guest post about how mentors changed his life.

December 10th @ Jill Sheets’ Blog

Join Jill as she interviews Neill McKee and features his memoir Kid on the Go!.

http://jillsheets.blogspot.com/

December 12th @ Author Anthony Avina’s Blog

Visit Anthony’s blog again as he shares his thoughts on Neill McKee’s newest memoir Kid on the Go!.

https://authoranthonyavinablog.com/category/reviews/

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

It’s time once again for Kathryn’s weekly meme, “It’s Monday! What are You Reading?“, hosted at Book Date, where we share what we’re reading and have read over the past week.

This was definitely a lighter week of reading. I have been participating in NaNoWriMo and actually did more writing last week – a good thing. But I have also been reading more articles, have been starting and stopping a number of ebooks  and even watching more TV.

 

 What I Read Last Week

I read 5 books – 2 romances, 2 fantasy and an inspirational book.

 

Book 1 and 2 of Anne Bishop’s The others Series (I am once again rereading my favourite series.)

     

Written in Red                           Murder of Crows

 

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. Loved this romance – but then I’ve loved all her books.

 

Christmas Blind Date by Ash Keller. A sweet Christmas romance novella that I received for free, which I enjoyed.

 

Expect a Miracle by Danielle Steel. A book filled with quotes – many that I have read elsewhere but still touch me.

       

What I’m Reading Now 

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

 The Lost Garden by Helen Humphries

 

What’s Up Next (I must get to these soon!)

5 Little Indians by Michelle Good

 Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 

Connect Five Friday – 2022 Book Challenges

It’s time once again for Connect Five Friday, hosted at Book Date by Kathryn – the meme where we share five book/reading things that connect in some way.

 

I love reading challenges and I participate in a number of them. I’m still trying to finish some of them but hope to by the end of December. I love the challenge of finding a book that meets criteria for categories from at least a couple of the challenges. And, I have read many books that I normally never would, leading to finding new authors I now enjoy.

Many of these challenges are already posting their new challenges for 2022. Here are 5 I hope to participate in. Why not join in the fun? (Popsugar is my favourite challenge but they normally don’t post their new version til December.)

 

52 Books 52 Weeks.

I’ve done this for a number of years now and really like the variety in their categories. They now have their own blog – here.

Check here for their guide which even gives suggestions for each of the 52 categories.

 

While I was Reading 2022 Reading Challenge

This is hosted by Ramona Mead and has 12 categories.

 

Beyond the Bookends Reading Challenge 2022

Each month they post a different genre or category. Another fun one. Check here.

 

Memoir Reading Challenge 2022

They provide a list of options and you read as many memoirs as you want, with a minimum 5 to participate. Check here. 

 

Diversify Your Reading Challenge 2022

Again, this is a monthly challenge, with a new genre posted each month.

 

There are several other challenges although I am not sure I will participate. They look to be quite challenging:

Booklist Queen 2022 – 52 books to read

The Nerdy Bookworm 50 Books a Year Reading Challenge

 

There are a few places which give a master list of challenges for the year.

GirlXOXO provides a very complete list of challenges but it hasn’t started yet.

Janie Ghione has  been posting about the coming 2022 reading challgenes for several weeks now. Cheek here  other challenges I haven’t posted about.

 

Guest Post by Neill McKee – as Part of the WOW Blog Tour “Kid On the Go”

I am honoured to be part of the WOW! Women of Writing Blog Tour for  Neill McLee’s book Kid on the Go

Today Neill is visiting my blog to share his wonderful guest post “ Writing a Memoir About My Hometown”

Welcome Neill!

Writing a Memoir About My Hometown
I left my hometown, Elmira, Ontario, Canada, in 1965 for university and have only returned for brief visits with family since that time. On the one hand, I have fond memories of my 19 years in this place that served as the foundation of my life, and determined the direction I’d take. On the other hand, I recall an industrially-polluted environment that often stank from the production of chemicals such as DDT, the insecticide that is the basis of Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking book, Silent Spring, as well as the herbicides—2,4-D, then known to us as “Weed Bane” and the stronger 2,4,5-T, marketed as “Brush Bane.” This chemical pollution, stinks from many other factories, including a slaughterhouse, and the aroma of manure from nearby Old Order Mennonite farms and their horses in town, provide factors for my repeated attempts “to escape” to more pleasant places, imaginary or real—an underlying theme of my book told with humor and my own illustrations. Ultimately, I do leave for the verdant Island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia.

     

Easterly winds brought chemical “gifts”                                     Old Ben’s never ending clean-up job

When I began to look back at my years in Elmira, I discovered that in the early 60s, the town’s chemical factory was making those same two herbicides as ingredients of the U.S. Army’s infamous “Agent Orange”—an instrument of death, genetic defects in fetuses, long-lasting illnesses and effects on the environment of Vietnam and Laos. Like most people in town, I knew nothing about this at the time. Today, most residents of Elmira don’t want to dwell on this history, or the fact that the town had to close down its deep-water wells around 1990, due to decades of chemical seepage into the soil. Since that time, water has been piped in from the nearby City of Waterloo.

The population has expanded from around 3,000 in the early-50s, to about 12,000 today. The chemical factory is still present, but with more environmental regulation. Elmira remains a thriving community—not a rust-belt town. I decided to only make a brief mention of Agent Orange in the appropriate chapter since it really was not part of my memory. But I researched the matter thoroughly, reading articles and contacting people who had participated in the clean-up of all the factories past “sins,” and wrote a more thorough treatment in a postscript, along with some other issues I felt readers would like closure on.

After publishing Kid on the Go!, I decided to contact the editor of my hometown’s newspaper. In 2019, his paper had done a good review of my first memoir Finding Myself in Borneo, and I wondered if he would like to do an interview or review on this new memoir—a stand-alone prequel—since it was mainly about living in Elmira from the mid-40s to mid-60s. The editor and I had a chat on the phone and I asked him to review the book. He did so and came out with a pretty fare write-up, although he never mentioned Agent Orange, as I expected. Book sales have gone up and no rotten tomatoes yet!

Non-Fiction November: Week 3 – Become the Expert

This is the third week of Nonfiction November. This week is Expert Week: Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert with Veronica at The Thousand Book Project

I attended an amazing webinar by Laura Morelli, the author of The Stolen Lady on Monday night.

I have the book out from the library and I have started reading it. It highlights the enormous efforts that the curators of the Louvre went to, to protect all their artworks from the Nazis during WWII, but especially the Mona Lisa.

I studied art history at university and have always been drawn to books about art and artists. With this new novel to read and the webinar I watched, I knew I wanted to learn more about the fate of art in France (and Italy for that matter) during the second World War.

 

Here are several non-fiction books that focus on the whys and hows of saving art from the Nazis, who were determined to collect all the art they could.  (Book summaries from Goodreads)

 

The Rape of Europa by Lynn H. Nicholas

“The story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich’s war on European culture and the Allies’ desperate effort to preserve it. From the Nazi purges of ‘degenerate art’ and Goering’s shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the ‘Mona Lisa’ from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama.”

 

Saving Mona Lisa by Gerri Chanel

“Throughout the German occupation, the Louvre’s staff fought to keep the priceless treasures out of the hands of Hitler and his henchmen and to keep the Louvre palace safe, many of them risking their jobs and their lives to protect the country’s artistic heritage. Saving Mona Lisa is the sweeping, suspenseful narrative of their battle.
Superbly researched and accompanied by riveting photographs of the period, it is a compelling story of art and beauty, intrigue and ingenuity, and remarkable moral courage in the face of one of the most fearful enemies in history.”

 

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel

“At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: “degenerate” works he despised.  In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.”

Check here to read more detail about The Monuments Men

 

 

About Italy:

Saving Italy by Robert M. Edsel

“Brilliantly researched and vividly written, the New York Times bestselling Saving Italy brings readers from Milan and the near destruction of The Last Supper to the inner sanctum of the Vatican and behind closed doors with the preeminent Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, Goring, and Himmler.
An unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue, Saving Italy is a testament to heroism on behalf of art, culture, and history.”

The Venus Fixers by Ilaria Dagnini Brey

“In 1943, with the world convulsed by war and a Fascist defeat in Europe far from certain, a few visionaries—civilians and soldiers alike—saw past questions of life and death to realize that victory wasn’t the only thing at stake. So was the priceless cultural heritage of thousands of years.
In the midst of the conflict, the Allied Forces appointed the monuments officers—a motley group of art historians, curators, architects, and artists—to ensure that the great masterworks of European art and architecture were not looted or bombed into oblivion. The journalist Ilaria Dagnini Brey focuses her spellbinding account on the monuments officers of Italy, quickly dubbed “the Venus Fixers” by bemused troops.”

It’s Monday! What are You Reading?

It’s time once again for Kathryn’s weekly meme, “It’s Monday! What are You Reading?”  hosted at Book Date, where we share what we’re reading and have read over the past week.

First real snow of the season – big white flakes sure are pretty. Thankfully we don’t have to go anywhere. It won’t last but we all know – more will arrive soon enough. 

What I Read Last Week

I read 9 books –4 historical fiction, 3 romances and 2 picture books.

 An historical romance trilogy by Johanna Lindsey, which I really enjoyed:

         

Man of My Dreams    Love Me Forever   The Pursuit

Books to complete the romance series by Devney Perry, which I loved:

         

Quarter Miles    Forsaken Trail   Dotted Lines

The Mistletoe Mistake of Miss Grayson by Maggie Dallen   . This was a short historical romance novella which was okay.

PBs – both were interesting reads:

Ojiichan’s Gift by Chieri Uegaki, illus. by Genevieve Simms     

Poem in my Pocket by Chris Tougas and Josee Bisaillon                

What I’m Reading Now 

 The Lost Garden by Helen Humphries

What’s Up Next (I must get to these soon!)

5 Little Indians by Michelle Good

 Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Connect Five Friday – 5 NF I Plan to Read

It’s time once again for Connect Five Friday, hosted at Book Date by Kathryn – the meme where we share five book/reading things that connect in some way.

This is Non-Fiction November and I am taking part in the challenge hosted by Rennie at What’s Non-Fiction.

 

Last seek I shared my five favourite non-fiction reads from this year.

Here are 5 non-fiction books I hope to read before the end of the year, books that are presently on my TBR shelves: (I have even started several of them):  Summaries are from Goodreads)

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama

“In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private,”

 

As You Wish by Cary Elwes

“From actor Cary Elwes, who played the iconic role of Westley in The Princess Bride, comes a first-person account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner.”

 

Reading People by Anne Bogel

“For readers who long to dig deeper into what makes them uniquely them (and why that matters), popular blogger Anne Bogel has done the hard part–collecting, exploring, and explaining the most popular personality frameworks, such as Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, and others. She explains to readers the life-changing insights that can be gained from each and shares specific, practical real-life applications across all facets of life, including love and marriage, productivity, parenting, the workplace, and spiritual life. In her friendly, relatable style, Bogel shares engaging personal stories that show firsthand how understanding personality can revolutionize the way we live, love, work, and pray.”

 

Keep it Moving by Twyla Tharp

“Keep It Moving is a series of no-nonsense mediations on how to live with purpose as time passes. From the details of how she stays motivated to the stages of her evolving fitness routine, Tharp models how fulfillment depends not on fortune—but on attitude, possible for anyone willing to try and keep trying. Culling anecdotes from Twyla’s life and the lives of other luminaries, each chapter is accompanied by a small exercise that will help anyone develop a more hopeful and energetic approach to the everyday”.

 

Keep Going by Austin Kleon

“In his previous books Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work!, both New York Times bestsellers, Austin Kleon gave readers the keys to unlock their creativity and showed them how to become known. Now he offers his most inspiring work yet, with ten simple rules for how to stay creative, focused, and true to yourself—for life.”