Reading #1

 

Tuesday the snow started to fall. Sometimes it came straight down other times it was at an angle and sometimes a blast of wind would hurl it against the house and it would backlash swirling in all directions. Wednesday morning the wind cleared the snow from the rooftops and deposited it in driveways a 3 foot drift in front of ours, you have to take my word on that because I’m not going out to take a picture. By afternoon the flakes were getting larger and they were coming sideways. Toward evening the swirls of snow looked like an apparition just outside my window begging to come inside then they would vanish. This storm should be ending Thursday.

It has been a good day or two to read.

1. The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani present day and WW 2 Italy and Scotland about a family of jewelry makers and a nurse. About the importance of passing on the family stories to the next generation. Very good 
2. Abigail’s Shop by Rachel Herron each chapter begins with words of knitting wisdom. A young woman inherits a cottage from an older friend, a love / hate relationship with the older woman’s nephew, a yarn and fiber stash, a few mishaps and a stalker. Fun to read.
3. This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger depression era story takes place in Minnesota two orphaned white boys end up in an Indian bordering school. Then the adventure begins when they run away from the school with a mute Indian boy and a little girl. Very good!
4. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen weekend reading of too many football games. A young woman with a sugar addiction is living with her controlling and ailing mother. Family secrets, growing up, relationships, romance, friendship and a mystery. Just for fun.
5. The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake takes place in London in mid 1800’s a young girl who survives the cholera epidemic in 1840’s is taken in by the housekeeper and doctor who saved her. For fear of being turned out the girls takes an interest in the doctors work first by tidying his home clinic then writing up his case notes and drawing his specimens. She also assists as he dissects cadavers at a time when women were not permitted to do such things. Very good now I’m patiently waiting for the next book about Nora Beady.
6. The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz Hamilton non fiction about identity theft very good!
7. The Surgeon’s Daughter by Audrey Blake the sequel to The Girl in His Shadow more 19th century medicine. Nora goes to Bologna, Italy to study to become a doctor. Describes how children died of diphtheria and a young man dying of tetanus. Thank science for vaccines! Get your updates.
8. Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin about the differences between verbal thinkers and visual thinkers. I have said for years that I am a visual learner yes it really would help if you could draw me a picture as you explain this to me. Verbal learners excel in school, current education trends are catering to verbal thinkers thanks to no child left behind which is excluding the visual learners. Visual thinkers struggle with algebra it’s too abstract, but arithmetic makes sense because it practical quantity, area, volume, 1/4 inch seams etc. just give me the size of the block I can figure out the rest I don’t need written or verbal instruction. I’ll get off my soapbox it was a very interesting book.
9. The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray three stories in one all set in the Chateau where Lafayette was born. This is the Lafayette of the American Revolution his wife championed the cause and shaped the French Revolution. The second story takes place during WW1 and the third during WW2. Very good 
10. Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger book 4 of the Cork Corcoran series.
11. All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot 3rd book in the series like a collection of short stories to read between paper books to keep my kindle steak going.
12. The Hideaway by Lauren K. Denton for book club a young woman inherits her grandmother’s house, the hideaway, it needs a renovation. She learns things about her grandmother and herself along the way. Feel good story.