flight paths discussion

Sorry Sorry Sorry about spacing out on the fact that it's a new month.

Seeing as I just lost the longish message I was editing (all of a sudden it was back to the promo page) I will leave off my update
until tomorrow when perhaps the laptop will be working.

May you all be well in this challenging time

I've been thinking of you, Magdelanye, hoping all is well. It's not like you to be away for so long. I hope the summer has been good to you and that you enjoyed your garden every day.

I've been doing just that and spending time outside, enjoying the days. Sometimes reading, or gardening, or carving.

I am currently reading The Fountain Overflows. I'm enjoying this family saga about a very quirky and talented family. I wonder what will become of them.

Thanks Petra for supportive thoughts. It's not getting easier.

Yes, the garden is a great thing. After all the effort you put into yours, it's wonderful that you are now able to relax there in pleasure.

The Fountain Overflows sounds compelling. I hope I can get to it. I have 18 library books checked out and I must finish them before I leave the area.

did not get on the laptop today, caught up in Deborah Levy 's August, which was due today. Thursdays however there are no buses to town so I just hung here doing what pleases me most.
Now I am whipping through Foster by Claire Keegan, a novella really.

Magdelanye, I loved Foster. I love Keegan's work (Small Things Like These is wonderful)

I also liked August Blue. In fact, I like most of Levy's work--especially what she calls (I think) her "living autobiographies" (Things I Don't Want to Know: Living Autobiography 1, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography, and--most of all--Real Estate: A Living Autobiography). I could keep gushing about how much I love her--I feel like if I could write, that's what I would sound like!

I am working my way through I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home--I liked the first third a lot, then it go a little weird, which doesn't usually bother me (I like weird) but I'm finding it depressing (hopefully it gets easier.

And I'm really enjoying I Have Some Questions for You--Makai is a very good writer and for some reason I love stories set in boarding schools (as a teen, I wanted so much to be able to get way "legally" and live in a boarding school).

Magdelanye, I love that you have 18 books out from the library--you are a person after my own heart!

Petra, The Fountain Overflows has been on my list for literally years. I feel re-inspired to read it.

Magdelanye, our garden is now fairly easy to maintain. It's quite a pleasure now.
No buses for an entire day?! That seems odd. How do people get to work on Thursdays? Has it always been like that or is it a a new schedule to accomodate lack of staffing? Anyway, as you say, it's a nice day to spend at home relaxing and "chilling".

Ellie, I've had The Saga of the Century Trilogy: The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund on my ebook for years and had forgotten all about it. I was looking at the older books and I'm finding some real treasures there; this being one of them.
The saga is said to be "semi-autobiographical". The family in the saga is very quirky. It makes me wonder about Rebecca West's childhood. I may have to look into that more closely one day.

Oh....now that I've met Cousin Rosamund in The Fountain Overflows, I'm interested in getting to the third book of this trilogy, Cousin Rosamund.
She's an interesting character. Having a book named for her means (I think) that she'll become a more main character somewhere in the saga.

Ellie it must have been you who alerted me to Foster. Do any of her other works take up the same characters?

I was charmed by Foster but I am besotted with August Blue

Have just started Haven by E Donaghue, for something completely different and a bio of Winston Churchill-big surprise to me too. Then I get to read Babel and after that...I have Some Questions has been waiting impatiently in my library box. I also want to read Petras saga but really, that homeless book sounds like it could be addressed to me

Once again writing this on the phone as I am about to go for my weekly ablutions at the rec centre.

Petra will you be teaching this year or finding another craft to master?

lol Petra we must have been writing our last messages at the same time because I see a new message from you now.
There are not enough buses or drivers. Thursdays the bus goes to Texada. So they have one day a week service

I'm also pulled to I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home and have put it on my "later" list at the library. Thanks, Ellie!

Magdelanye, I won't be teaching anything this winter or taking on anything new. I'm in a nice place of equilibrium at the moment. That may change, but I'm relaxing into it right now.
Step-dad will keep me busy. He's going through some rough times. We want to be there for him.

Petra, I'm sorry about your step-dad.

just seeing these comments now...and that seems to happening across the board, everything seems to be lagging a bit. And the like function: having to refresh a few times: I actually have watched a like switch back to neutral.

Be that as it may, I got on the laptop for a while today and was able to get somewhat up to date...there was no indication of activity in the group so i focused on my tiny reviews of Foster and August Blue.

Petra, I am sure that your love and care will go a long way in alleviating whatever it may be that your step-dad's experiencing.

Thank you, Ellie and Magdelanye. I worry that he can no longer be on his own, but he wants to stay where he is. He's not doing well with keeping up with his needs but doesn't want help, etc. I'm afraid that the authorities will step in one day. I've spoken to him about this but he is not concerned. It's distressing. Perhaps just to me, though. I'm not sure.
We're going over there to help when we can but it really isn't enough.

The weather is changing but is still very nice for being outside, so I've been spending time in the garden. I'm starting to trim things for the winter as they wilt. But I'm doing it slowly because the flowerbeds look so full right now and it's a shame to see that go.

Petra, Enjoy the good weather while it lasts and I add my voice to Magdelanye: your step-dad is lucky to have your loving care and presence in this life.

oh Petra, I can so relate to your position with your step-father, only from the other side. My son worries about me but autonomy is more important to me than any other consideration.
Petra it might help to consider other narratives when you find yourself worrying about his situation.
I left Haven on the bus over the weekend and though I was able to retrieve it, in the meantime I have been enthralled by RF Kuang's Babel

Hows the Makai turning out Ellie?

yes to beautul summers fade, reading on the grass as much as possible

Magdelanye: it's funny--I placed a hold on Babel this morning--I'd never even heard of it before today! I bought Yellowface but I have to get through some of my other books first.

I liked the Makai a lot but I found the end disappointing. It's almost a great book but as it is it's still a good one and I enjoyed it a lot.

anybody else not getting notifications of group activity? Ellies last comment appeared just today. Well, it gave me time to finish Babel of which I will only say it was thrilling, even if at the end I truly disagreed with the premise. Can't wait to hear your impressions Ellie.
I have a hold on Yellowface.

I also was able to get back to Haven. I think it very well may be her most remarkable, certainly her most lyrical. I'll wait to say more here not to get into spoiler territory.

So tonight I'm finally beginning Some Questions and somewhat intimidated by the size of it, another brick too heavy to comfortably carry around. So I have also started a book that I believe I heard of right here on flight paths, Together Tea by Marian Kamali.

Now what's happening with Ice's retirement?

Saturday already, and in a way time is racing but in a way it seems frozen. I am still reading Together Tea and Makais questions. I am enjoying both of them: usually I avoid reading two fiction at once but it's the way it turned out. As I feared, I do occassionally conflate but so far I have caught myself (oh right, that's the grandmother from that other book) and found it kind of hilarious.

Today I picked up Yellowface and it will take some discipline to keep it in its place on the bedside pile, as a new book on the bottom along with a newer (to me) Marguerite Duras, The Easy Life, which sounds like no Duras I've ever read. I let myself be lured and took it immediately
along with a book I've heard praised, Little Monsters.

And what are the others reading to take us through this abrupt change of season?
cheers

Magdelanye, I'm about 1/3 of the way into Yellowface and so far I like it very much.

I love Duras but I've never read The Easy Life--so yet another TBR

Also, I only get some group notifications. It all seems very random.

And Magdelanye, who wrote Little Monsters/ GR lists several with that title by different authors.

I see that now Ellie. The Little Monsters I got is by
Adrienne Brodeur. I hope it's the one that was recommended. Curiously, it reminds me of the Makai that I am now deep into. New girl, murdered girl....

I just peeked into Yellowface and noticed to my dismay it's large face. Somehow that bothers me. I will have to see if there's another copy but I won't relinquish my copy until I have it, and will read it if no alternative.

I also finally got Lighter by Yung Pueblo just in time to read the first couple of chapters for book club later this morning

And yes Ellie the notifications are random. In fact, your message does not yet show up on GR notifications but I saw it in my Gmail inbox

Little Monsters sounds really interesting. Thanks for the title!

I don't get regular notifications either.

I'm not reading much these days. I finished The Fountain Overflows, which was quirky and interesting. I continued the trilogy, since it was on my ereader, with This Real Night.

Just finished Questions and my immediate reaction was to slump back into bed with the covers over my head. I must concur with Ellie. There were some powerful bits but could have been trimmed. By the end I rather disliked Bodie. For all her scrupulous observations she is still a smug, unreliable narrator.

I ended up loving Together Tea which turned out to be highly informative as well as enjoyable.

Magdelanye, yes--I was ultimately disappointed with Questions--it could have been (I think) a really fine book. And I felt the same way about Bodie.

I have to look at Together Tea.

I am debating between starting The Covenant of Water and Birnam Wood--I own both, I want to read both, but they're both long and a big commitment. I'm leaning toward Birnam Wood.

I'm now reading The Last Devil to Die-- the 4th and most recent entry in the Thursday Murder Club series--4 octogenarian detectives. I like all the characters and love the series as just fun--so far I'm enjoying this one too.

I just finished Richard Rohr's Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi. I find Rohr to be inspirational.