You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

The wanderlust in this household is huge at the moment. Twitchy, itchy feet to go out exploring, and is heightened by the fact we are locked back down again. But that is okay. Because who needs to travel when you have books, and the internet.

This month, we are going to stare out the window and get inspired by what you see to find a book to read. Just not your own window.

Head to https://www.window-swap.com/

There is a big button in the middle of the page that looks like this:


Press it.

You will be taken to a 10 min video out of someone's window somewhere in the world.

You can watch as much or as little of it as you want. Watch until something inspires or jumps out at you that you can tie a book back to. If you think this may take a while, hit the loop button in the bottom right hand corner and it will loop your video for you as long as you want.


You can be inspired by anything, including the soundtrack if your video has one. The one thing I don't want you to do this time is read a book based on the location up the top right hand corner. My video at the moment is set in California, USA for example. I can't read a book based only on this info.

You have to see your inspiration out the window. However, if there was a flag outside the window, I could use that as a reference point for a book. But I want you to gaze out into someone else's world and go from there.

Not all videos are great. I saw one from Illawarra that was focused on the flyscreen which was disappointing as the beach was across the road and it was just all a blur. Another one I saw was a wall of the apartment block next door in Thailand.
So, you are allowed to hit the Open a Window button ONCE MORE if you wish.

If you just get the worst luck in the world and get two terrible videos that you can't find anything to inspire you at all, let me know and we can discuss. All our brains may be able to help.

I really hope someone finds the badger garden in the UK. I've never been able to find them again.
Go forth! Explore!

What I want you to do when reporting:

• Copy the link for us
Don't use the website address as that will give you a random window. In the bottom left hand corner click the share button
and then the copy link button
Then paste it in: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...
• Tell us what you saw and what inspired you
• Tell us what you read and how it ties into to what you saw
• Tell us if you liked the book or not, and why.


General Rules:

1. The book may be in any format - paperback, ebook, audiobook.
2. The book may NOT be combined with the Year Long Challenge.
3. The book must be read between September 1 – September 30, 2021 (based on your local time zone).
4. The challenge is for one book. You may read more books if you chose but you may only report one.
5. The book must be 175 pages or more determined by the issue you read.

In the case of ebooks & audiobooks, use the hardcover or paperback edition to determine page length. From the book page, select “all editions”, then select the first paper edition as your guide. If reading an ebook and there is no paper edition, ask for a ruling. If reading an audiobook and there is no paper edition, your book must be a minimum of 6 hours long.

Again, once more, with feeling:

What I want you to do when reporting:

• Copy the link for us
Don't use the website address as that will give you a random window. In the bottom left hand corner click the share button
and then the copy link button
Then paste it in: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...
• Tell us what you saw and what inspired you
• Tell us what you read and how it ties into to what you saw
• Tell us if you liked the book or not, and why.

WoF - Jayme

My window https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

My focus in the window wass the endless blue of the Pacific Ocean.
I read Family Reunion On the cover is the blue of the Atlantic Ocean as seen from Nantucket Island.

This book was another book about privileged wealthy people living on Nantucket Island and their silly problems. "Mommy won't sell her house on the bluffs and split the 15 million, so I can't buy a condo in Boston." Even their big problems just seemed trite. To be fair I knew going in that it would be a beach read and Thayer's descriptions of Nantucket made me want to book a flight. I just don't want to run into these people when I get there - except for maybe Cal. It's always a bonus if your minister is also eye candy.

One good thing I did gleam from this read is that I think I am over my need to read fluffy light books during COVID. Bring me the drama and intensity!!

WOF - Esther

My window:( link: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...) shows a beach in Uruguay, It got me reading a book with a beach scene on the cover,
I read , a mystery set in Corsica. Well written, the carachther were interesting but the resolution was so out there that I had to settle for 2 stars.

WoF Aya

My window: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

I saw building, building, and more buildings! So I read I Had That Same Dream Again which has buildings on its cover and it's taken from a high angle.
Though the plot is predictable, I loved it so much. It's narrated by an elementary girl, and while she's so smart, she isn't that sharp yet so she doesn't understand things sometime (which is perfect imo). The big theme of the story is about happiness. And it leaves a big question: what is happiness? Are you happy right now? Despite its 'childish' way of writing and seeing it is a light novel, personally, I think it's like a self help book for me. I've got a lot to think later thanks to this book.

Wof Anna M

https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...
Grass, kangaroos grazing, some birds, bushes/trees, an ocean and houses.

I read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World because of trees. I didn't like the author's writing style, his anthropomorphic views and bizarre claims such as that trees can feel pain. I would gladly read more books about nature but not by this writer. However I gave this book two stars since the topic was interesting.

WoF SharonBiskit

https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

I saw a lovely view outside a window in a residential neighborhood in Chicago. There were trees outside the window and stately brick homes. Planters were in the window and a pigeon was right outside the window visiting. What really caught my eye was a colorful sugar skull planter. It just seemed to pop out of the picture. It was very colorful. The base color is black with other streaks in bright colors. This is what inspired me to choose the book I did.

I read The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny.
In the center of the book jacket is the black outline of a tree in black. It is surrounded by bright streaks of many different colors just like the sugar skull. I enjoy Louise Penny’s books about Three Pines. They bring a cozy feeling just like the view out the Chicago window. Although most of her books are murder mysteries, this one was darker than most. The cozy feelings were there but a bit overshadowed by the darkness. It seemed to go on a bit as well. I did enjoy it but not as much as others.

WoF Shirley
This is my window:
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...
The views are through a train window as it travels in Northern Ireland past farming and suburban and backyard scenes, with lots of views of “other people’s houses”.
I looked through my TBR list and this one jumped out at me as a perfect fit. Other People's Houses

The book was okay - a domestic/crime thriller with a main character damaged by a personal family tragedy, who obsessively attends Open Houses to experience what she thinks is perfect family life. The plot was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages, but not compelling, and I felt that the characters were somewhat stereotypical.

WoF - Janice


I got the window https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...



What caught my eye were the purple flowers (Cyclamen) in the middle of the picture. I had three books on my tbr shelf that were close in colour, but I think Gone South had the best match.



I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would. I had to shake my head over the cast of eclectic characters - a Vietnam vet with leukemia & a brain tumor on the run after killing a man, a woman with a port wine birth mark over half her face looking for a faith healer, a bounty hunter with a Siamese twin's arm and partial face attached to his abdomen, and an Elvis Presley impersonator apprenticing to the bounty hunter. But Robert McCammon pulled it off and kept me turning the pages till 2:00 this morning to see where this adventure would end. Somehow, I found myself caring about all these characters in spite of their many personality flaws.

WoF Pragya

My window: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

What I saw: There wasn't much going on. I saw a house.

I read: The House in the Cerulean Sea which has 'house' in the title

I loved the book! I am not much of a fantasy person but the humor, the plot, the characters, loved it! I got mixed feelings after reading other reviews and realising where the author got the inspiration from. A bit confused now. But the book was brilliant if you keep everything aside. It was such a fun reading and so heart-warming and I laughed so much.

WoF Katrisa

Here is my window
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

This window looks out on a lake. I decided to read a book with a body of water on the cover. I chose
The Bones Beneath My Skin


I really enjoyed the book. The characters were great in TJ Klune fashion. This is the first of his adult books that I have read. The House in the Cerulean Sea is still my favorite of his books, but I have liked all of his books that I have read. He does such a good job with quirky characters and adorable love stories.

WoF Name - Lanelle

https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

My window is in Daegu, South Korea. It's raining lightly. I see mist moving over some wooded hills in the background. That reminded me of a book, The Mist Rises Over Notchey Creek.

As far as I can tell, this is the author's first book. It is amazingly written. The juxtaposition between the backwoods, earthy, simple main character and the elegant, lyrical expressiveness is startling. I highly recommend this book!

WoF name - Amanda(Lily)

https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

My window was looking out over a beach. I was inspired by the ocean. I read Of Women and Salt because it has water (what looks to me like an ocean) on the cover.

I really enjoyed the book. It was a little difficult to keep up with the characters at first because it jumps around in timeline as well as between people, but paying better attention to the chapter titles helped. I listened to the audio book and loved the narrator. The book was about motherhood and being a woman and all sorts of other themes told through the eyes of Hispanic women. Sometimes it was heartbreaking. The book is really well written and flows beautifully.

WoF Cherie

Here is my link.
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

What struck me most was the houses and all of the windows, so I chose The Plum Tree for the cover with the houses and all of the windows.
I liked the way that the book was written. It was a story from the POV of a German girl living in a small German village, starting in 1938 until the end of WWII. It is the other side of a story I had not heard until this year, after I read All Quiet on the Western Front. Christine was the oldest daughter of a family in a small town in Germany. It was at times, very painful to read, but so well written that it was hard to put down. The air raids and bombing by the allies, the terror in the bomb shelter, the hunger, waiting to hear from her father (fighting on the Russian front), not knowing if her Jewish boyfriend and his family was still a live - all of it was there.

.

Every time I come to this page, I start surfing the windows. Such a rabbit hole to get lost in.

WofF TrudyAn

My window:
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

P's window in Jinhae, South Korea, shows a spectacular nighttime lightning storm.

I decided to read The Hidden Light of Northern Fires because the cover depicts another spectacular sky. This book is a fictionalized story of abolitionist Mary Willis, who lived in Town Line, NY. As a strong-willed young woman, Mary became a link in the underground railway to Canada. I liked this novel a lot. The story felt authentic, and there was a definite feel of time and place. Characters were very human and events seemed plausible for the most part. Even though I didn't like Mary much, both she and Joe Bell, a fugitive slave, were well-developed complex characters.

This was my window
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...


I was drawn by the birds and bird feeder and read The Owl Always Hunts At Night - Name of a bird in the title


I have read the first book in this series and as with that I loved the complexity of the case and the "not quite right" characters. Mia is psychologically unbalanced no police force in this country will touch her. Yet her mind works in such a way as to make the connections the case needs. By the end of this book - Holger Munch is almost in a worse pyschiatric state. I am sure they will both be back

My window is https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

I was drawn to the woods/forest, the rain, the green, the nature...

I decided to read Force of Nature . The cover tied into the rain/storm and the green and the bush. The book was set in the Australian bush with a group of hikers. Interestingly, it rained a lot while they were hiking.

The book was a great mystery book with hooks and turns, and I wasn't sure whodunnit until it was revealed. Harper's ability to describe so vividly and realistically the Australian landscape is amazing. I'll read anything she writes as she writes my home.

WoF: Emma R

This was my window: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

Looking at this window, the first thing I noticed was all the green. I then noticed the red towards the middle of the window. I was planning on reading something with green and a few other colors on the cover or that is set primarily outside.

I ended up reading by Eileen Mueller. The cover is colorful and the majority of the book is set outside.

I really liked this book. It is set in a fantasy world with dragons. The book follows two characters, one who is the hero of the story and it is her coming of age arc. The other character becomes the villain of the series and his arc is about how he came to power. I'm planning on reading more from this author.

Wof- Christina

My window- https :// www. window-swap. com/ Window/ 584784765 . First thing I noticed was the cream house with blocky edges and the amazing fence with the scary spikes at the top.

It shows a man walking and cars going over a speed bump. At one point a couple of droplets fall on the lens and gives everything a blurry look.

The moment I watched the video, I thought of Prisoner B-3087 because of the spikes on the fence and the barb wire on top of the wall on the cover.
It was given to me by my daughter and I just hadn't gotten around to reading it.

It had a few draw back for me to "want" to read it. First it is about the holocaust and second it is YA. Honestly didn't think that I would care for it, but I found it easy to read and not overly emotional. That was probably a hard task to pull off for the author. Writing YA about such a horrific time has to be a challenge.

Since this one didn't send me into a deep emotional depression. I have add another to my TBR.

So glad you guys have worked out a way around this weird goodreads "update". Thanks everyone for being adaptable. I am not amused with goodreads.

Bupyeong-gu
부평구
Incheon
South Korea

Purple sky
Raining
Lightning ✔️When Lightning Strikes Twice 19 Sep
Cats
Clouds
Highrise
City scape

This was a good old fashioned mystery with a gothic feel. Enjoyed it very much.

window-swap.com/ 0/ 594513956

WoF Sandra from PA

Due to GR new policy about posting external links in the comments I cannot link again my window, but you can find it in the main thread in comment #35. I hope this helps. :/

It is a plane window and through it I a lake, an island, hills, lots of green, trees, crops, houses, clouds, another small plane, and cars.
I decided to pick the island as a link to my read, since it is the first thing you can see, and it's there for most of the first part of the video.

I decided to go with Return to the Enchanted Island, because it has "island" in the title, and it is set in Madagascar, an island.

I liked the book but didn't love it. The writing is different, very lyric, and the story is kind of unorganized. This is not bad in itself. I was expecting the style to be different from what I am used to. What prevent me from enjoying the story more was the main character, which I found very unlikable. I liked the bits about Madagascar culture and habits.

WoF margo

I got to look through se yongs window in south Korea but she has now closed it!

window-swap.com/Window/584786866

The view was a city one with building site sound tract. I could see tower blocks and lots of clouds.

I chose to read A Fine Balance

This was historical fiction and focused on the lives of three very different individual who were thrown together by fate. It was set during the Emergency in India and focused of the abuse of power by
Indira Gandhi government and the effects it had on the lives of these fictional characters.

It was heart wrenching to hear the atrocities that happened to ordinary people. These characters were all so likable and well drawn, they will stay with me for the rest of my life, as will their cheerful acceptable of the hardships of their lives. This was a very deserving Giller prize winner.

Btw, I know the link doesn't work but to makr it somewhat traceable I copier the link when deleted the http and www parts 😉

WoF: Silver

My window: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

The first two things to catch my attention were the snowy scenery and the music playing.

The book I choose was

I choose this book both for the wintery landscape and the musical connection.

I have to say I really enjoyed the book. It combined many elements together that I generally like. I often love books that incorporate music in some way, in addition I love historical fiction and books with mystery, puzzles, secret codes or conspiracies.

This was a rather interesting story about Mozart’s sister (who shared Mozart’s musical genius but was overshadowed by her brother) undergoing an investigation to unravel the secrets of Mozart’s suspicious death.

WoF - AnneFindsJoy

My window: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/59...

My window was in Perth, Australia - with two birds called Galahs (thanks to Rusalka for their proper name :)) on feeders. They're parrots, so I read

Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process


It's a memoir by psychologist, Irene Pepperberg, who studied animal intelligence with African grey parrots, focusing on one in particular, named Alex. Alex was truly a remarkable bird - his intelligence and capacity for learning, and impromptu responses that went well beyond mimicry. The parts of the book focused on Alex were awesome! The memoir parts about Dr. Pepperberg's life were not as enjoyable for me. She doesn't come across as a warm and friendly person, although very intelligent and to be respected for her work. But she seemed to harp on the negativities in her life - her challenges to have her work taken seriously, her relationships with others in academia, losing positions, etc. But the book is worth reading for the parts on Alex for sure! My rating: 3 stars

WoF: Kristie

My window: https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

My window opened up into someone's yard. It was a fairly quiet scene with a tree with yellow leaves and it looked like an autumn setting with leaves on the ground.

I went with One Two Three with the fall leaves on the cover. The three leaves on the cover are the same colors as the leaves I saw out my window.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a couple of places that the story seemed a little unrealistic in a convenient way, but mostly it was really engaging and I liked it a lot. I enjoyed getting to know the characters.

WoF - Lynn

• Window Link
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

• Tell us what you saw and what inspired you
I really lucked out with mine, I sat there with a smile on my face the whole time because the setting was Wales and the poster played Tom Jones songs all the way through! This was my inspiration, how could I not?

• Tell us what you read and how it ties into to what you saw
I read Baby It's Cold Outside, which is the title of one of the main songs that I associate with Tom Jones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7bPh...

• Tell us if you liked the book or not, and why.
A festive feel good read. Lots of fun and very atmospheric - felt as if I was spending the festive season in Dublin (even though it's only September - still, not that far away! )

WoF Vicki

I got this back yard
https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...
The private table for four made me think of a family getting together

I read The Nest
which is about four siblings facing a shared dilemma, namely the oldest of the foursome, Leo.
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, it's not the usual type of book I'm drawn to.
The characters were often irritating at first but they really grew on me as they adapted and coped with the upheavals of their lives. It also encompasses a slew of characters on the peripheral of this family and the setting, New York City was very much a part of the story and the family. The mother was quite the character, reminded me of Arrested Developement.

WoF - Lilisa

Window link - https://www.window-swap.com/Window/58...

My window opened to an urban setting in Melbourne, Australia. I saw trees, birds, lines, basketball, vehicles, sky, building, playground, fence, etc. I went with the bird ideas and read A Single Swallow.

I enjoyed the book - historical fiction. It was set in China during World War II and after. I liked the way the story unfolded by each of three men narrating chapters of the story about the central character - Ah Yan. And by the way, it’s not the three live men, but their ghosts/souls taking turns with the story! More here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Badges are posted! Please let me know if I have missed you, and thanks for being patient with me. October was a bit busier than I expected, which is weird when you are locked in the house.

THank you!

Awesome badge, Rusalka. Thanks.

No worries at all!

Thank you!