Paris in July 2025 -- Reviews, food, music, and more

Paris in July 2025 is hosted by Emma@WordandPeace.

This is my first year participating. Unlike other reading challenges, this challenge asks participants to not only read books set in France, but to eat French food, watch French movies, practice speaking French, anything French. So here is what I've done for the challenge so far this month....

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Coq au Vin

1. Don and I spent the better part of a day on July 7th making Coq au Vin (Chicken in Wine), a first for both of us. It was so delicious we both just about died and went to heaven. It was worth the labor that went into creating this dish. It is possibly the best meal we've ever fixed. We got the recipe from NYT Cooking. We subscribe to their recipes. I hope you can open it. If you can but don't have a subscription, print it immediately. Next time you won't be so lucky.

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2025 Paris in July Playlist

2. While the chicken was simmering, I sat down and made a "Paris in July 2025" playlist on Spotify. Here is a link so you too can listen to music sung in French or played by French musicians, too. My husband commented on how sexy the music, while he was slurping down his meal. 😚 (I just fixed the link to the playlist. Try again.)

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Soufflé au chocolat mi-amer (Bittersweet Chocolate Soufflé)

3. Our second night of Coq au Vin I decided to make another recipe, Soufflé au chocolat mi-amer. As I was readying the ingredients, "mise en place," my husband was preparing the vegetables for dinner. He was slicing the zucchini with a mandolin cutter when, distracted, he sliced the top of his two fingers. Dinner plans were instantly changed as we scampered to the emergency room to staunch the bleeding and make sure he was okay. He is. Next night, we tried again. This time my daughter and I were able to mix up the souffle and get it in the oven while the Coq au Vin was reheating and the vegetables were stir-fried with no fingers or blood. An odd aspect of the recipe is that it called for placing the souffle pan directly onto the bottom of the oven, not on a rack. Wanna guess what happened? You guessed it. The bottom burned. Sigh. All that work for a burned souffle. Next time, I will just put in on the bottom rack. Others said it was good, I thought it wasn't worth the effort. I admit it does LOOK good, though.

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4. Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley -- a murder mystery. When Jess gets to Paris to stay with her half-brother, he is missing. She eventually sneaks into his apartment to wait for him. When he doesn't show up, Jess starts to snoop around. She notices odd things -- a broken St. Christopher necklace, a blood stain on a cat, and a floor board bleached a different color than the rest. As days go by Jess becomes more and more sure her brother is dead and everyone in the apartment -- the owner, the nice guy, the alcoholic, the socialite, the young girls, and the concierge -- all are suspects. But where can Jess go for help? She's tried the police, but that didn't seem to do much good. And now everyone is warning her to leave or else...what?

The Paris Apartment isn't the type of book I usually read but I found it to be a compelling, fast-moving plot and I was interested to figure out who dunnit. As a book for Paris in July, it had just enough about Paris culture and the use of French words to make it feel very French. I discovered that quite a few of the French words were actually swear words when I translated them. So now I've expanded my French vocabulary, ha!

My rating: 4 stars. E-book.

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5. Movie: Widow Clicquot -- After scrolling though our options on Netflix, my husband and I settled on watching a movie set in the Champagne Region of France, about the woman Widow Clicquot, who, through her own will and determination, successfully figured out how to bottle champagne. Her practices, which she started fine-tuning during the reign of Napoleon, are still largely used today. The movie, was conducted in an almost dreamlike quality with lots of flashbacks to her earlier life with a mentally-ill husband. It was well-done and interesting but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who loves a lot of action.

My rating: 4 stars.

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6.  My husband has been teasing me about everything I do these days that has even a hint of French to it... For example I bought a jar of apricot fruit spread made by Bonne Maman, a French company whose claim to fame is they only use natural ingredients in their jams. I do love their apricot spread but I wouldn't think of blogging about it.  Tee-hee!

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Where will the second half of the month take me?  I've order two middle grade books in French from the library. Will I be able to read them? It has been so long since my 5 years of French classes in college and high school. I hope to make a Strawberry Rhubarb Galette. And I do hope to watch a few more movies. Any recommendations?

-Anne

TTT: Books with honorifics in the title

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I've read with honorifics in the title

I had to stretch way back in time to find enough honorific-y titles to fill out my list (and then I went a little overboard!) Don't judge! 😆

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

Dancing with Mr. Darcy edited by Sarah Waters

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, et al

Mr. Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien 

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Mid summer and a few more highlights from Montana

View of new growth after a wildfire, with Lake McDonald and mountains beyond. Near Camus Road Gate, Glacier NP. 

Weather: Summer has arrived and the temperatures are hot (90 degrees). We are staying inside whenever we can.

Past updates about our trip to Montana:

• Sunday Salon, June 22, 2025 --- MONTANA
• Sunday Salon, July 6, 2025 --- Glacier National Park

Things we saw in Montana we've never seen before:

• Business:  A Dog and Car Wash ("Auto-Mutt" in Kalispell)
• Business: Saddle Exchange
• Story about place name/legend: Hungry Horse
• Beautiful native place-names in Glacier NP:
• Sacred Dancing Cascade
• Going to the Sun Road
• Trail of Cedars (with Haiku Poetry)
• Bird Woman waterfall
• Heaven's Peak
• Roadside attraction: Ten Commandment Park and Welcome Center (Tacky with 25 billboards!)
• This: a far off rain storm and rainbow over Hungry Horse reservoir.

• Sign: Bear Crossing (Unfortunately, no bears crossed in front of us so we couldn't snap a real photo of them!)

Thank you Diane and John! We had dinner with Don's cousin and her husband last night. Right before we left for our three-week Montana + 50th Year High School Reunion trips, Diane's father, Bill, died from cancer. It was good to be with family to love up on each other during this tender time.

Dom Calata Way: This week we attended a service in Edgewood (a neighboring town) which renamed the road in front of their City Hall to honor our friend/relative who killed in the line of duty three years ago. We had the grandsons with us and Ian was profoundly touched by the service and cried big tears, remembering Dom. Dom's wife, Erin, is my cousin's daughter. In her remarks she challenged us to live the Dom Calata Way -- kind to everyone, always embracing life with enthusiasm and love, being a person of our word. 

Dom Calata Way Dedication service

Books and blogging:

• Completed this week:
• How to Read a Book by Monica Wood -- This was last month's book club selection. Since I knew I would be in Montana at the time, I slowed way down on my listening. I enjoyed this story about friendship, forgiveness, and making one's way. I liked Wood's The One-in-a-Million Boy better. Audio. 4 stars.
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley -- My first book by Foley, an exciting, over-the-top, murder mystery set in Paris. My first book for 2025 Paris in July. E-Book. 4 stars.
• Currently reading:
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy -- What a heartbreaking story. I', slowly making my way through this one. 64% complete. Print.
• The Hearing Test by Eliza Berry Callahan -- A novella written in stream-of-consciousness style. The woman experiences sudden and permanent hearing loss. 83% complete. Print.
• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson -- I am getting so much out of this classic devotional/study guide. 87% complete. Print.
• The Briar Club by Kate Quinn -- A book club selection. I've liked this author in the past so I have high hopes for this one. 15% complete. Audio.
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe -- Another book club choice. A nonfiction book about the "troubles" in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. 15% complete. Audio.
• Blogging (Note there are lots of reviews which I batched together):
• Sunday Salon, June 22, 2025 --- MONTANA
• Sunday Salon, July 6, 2025 --- Glacier National Park
• TTT: Books I'd Like to Reread
• Tanka-poetry reviews: What the Chicken Knows; Lunar New Year Love Story; The In-Between Bookstore; plus two others (5)
• Three Short Reviews: The Safekeep; The Dream Hotel; The Fifth Season (3)
• Review: Raising Hare: a Memoir (1)
• Review: The Antidote (1) If you read just one review, this is the one I hope you read.

Wildflowers of Glacier National Park

Thinking about my upcoming 50-year class reunion, my younger sister, Grace, sent me this. Ha! Where has the time gone?

-Anne

Review: THE ANTIDOTE (+Discussion Questions)

Back in the time of the Great Depression (1935-1944) the Farm Security Administration commissioned photographers to capture images of what was happening around the country, especially as it related to the Great Dust Bowl. Roy Stryker was the head of this photography project and he had his own ideas of the kinds of photos he wanted and didn't want. If a photographer sent him the negatives of something he didn't want, he would hole-punch the negative so it could never be used behind his back. In 2018 an exhibit of these altered photographs was made public called "Killed Negatives: Unseen Images of 1930s America."

One of the "killed" hole-punched photos

These killed negatives came to represent one aspect of lost memories in Karen Russell's brilliant book, The Antidote, where families impacted by the dust bowl, racism, poverty, and even murder, sought refuge from memories that made them feel bad or were too big of a burden to carry.  

In the Antidote, the hole-punch sense of something missing is represented by a prairie witch known as Antidote. This woman is a "vault" where people can store their memories. “I will take whatever they cannot stand to know,” the Antidote thinks. “The memories that make them chase impossible dreams, that make them sick with regret and grief. Whatever they hope to preserve in the future. Whatever cargo unbalances the cart. . . . Horror, happiness, sorrow, regret—pour it all into me." And when the people are ready, she can return the memories to the people, like money saved in a bank, returned to a patron when needed for some project or bill.

The story is set in Uz, Nebraska, a fictional town named for the place where Job in the Bible lived. It also have several references that bring to mind "The Wizard of Oz." There was certainly an over-the-rainbow sort of feel to the story with magical things happening all the time, or in the oddest of times. In addition to the Antidote, there was Cleo, a photographer hired by Roy Stryker. But when her camera was stolen she found another perfectly good camera in a second-hand store. But this new camera, the Graflex Speed Graphic camera, had the ability to capture of photos from both the past and future of the land, as if the land itself had a memory and could see where things would end up. There was also Harp, a humble farmer whose land flourished even though all of his neighbors lands were dying and blowing away. His niece, Dell, a teenager who was mourning the death of her mother and her unsolved murder. There was also a scarecrow (of course there was) who seemed to have some memories which would return to him in snatches.

The events in the story start around the time of two actual events:  Black Sunday when it seemed like all the dirt in the world was whirled up into the air and thrown about and the Republican River Flood of 1935. (No rain. No rain. No rain. Too much rain. Sound familiar?) The folks in the book, like the real people living in the midwest in the 1930s, were forced to admit that the farming practices they employed weren't working and were in fact the cause of the great dust storms. It is a hard thing to admit one is wrong.

I was completely blown away (pun?) by The Antidote. My husband and I listened to the audiobook as we drove through Eastern Oregon on the way to and from his 50-year class reunion. Both of us were amazed at the way Russell was able to draw together so many threads, bringing the past forward into the present. For example, at one point in the story, which doesn't adhere to a strict chronological timeline, Harp's father is recalling why he and his family had to leave Prussia (Poland) because of the terrible and discriminatory acts done to his people by the Germans. When he came to America, he found Whites doing the same sort of things to the Indians. He even became complicit in some of the racism toward Indians, even starting a rumor that undoubtedly led to innocent people being murdered. Instead of learning from his own experiences he covered up his memories by visiting "the vault", transferring his memories to her so he could blissfully go on with his life.  If we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

In an interview with BookPage, author Karen Russell, said she wanted to write a story where an apocalyptic future for us isn't are a foregone conclusion.  “You can’t imagine a viable future, a world that’s kinder and more just than what we’ve got going today, without returning to the past,” Russell says. One of the solutions is to look back on the past and learn from successful times, like the farming practices of the Pawnee, the original people of Nebraska, which were not destructive to the environment. Today many school districts are removing any teaching about topics which will make the dominant culture feel bad about themselves: slavery, treatment of indigenous people, climate change. It is as if we want to give our children a hole-punched history of America. Instead we need to embrace our past and learn from our mistakes, moving forward to a positive future for everyone, not just for those who happened to grab the biggest piece or best portion. In the book, Russell’s characters find themselves blessed with little miracles that force them out of step with the tradition of forgetting. “The emptiness of any place is an illusion,” Cleo says. “That’s what this camera has taught me. Any piece of earth is brimming over with living. I think this must be what the poets mean when they write in the fullness of time." Hopefully, it is not too late for us. Hopefully a lot of people read this book and take to heart it's message of hope for a positive future. 

Of all the books I've read so far in 2025, this one is by far my favorite and the one I think is most worthy of some book award. We'll see if I am right.

My rating: 5 stars.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. If you were to write a headline for a magazine/newspaper review of this book, what would it be. (Keep it to less than ten words.) Here are a few examples to get you started:

• NYT: Amid a dust storm and Depression, pioneers reap what they've sown.
• WaPo: Karen Russell's The Antidote is a dazzlingly original American epic.
• Chicago Review of Books: The Plurality of Ideas in Karen Russell's The Antidote.
• Guardian: A magical realist Dust Bowl tale.
• Lit Hub: What natural disasters can reveal about the human condition.

2. If the book is full of "plurality of ideas" what do you think are the three main points or themes of The Antidote? Can you narrow it down to three easily?

3. In what ways is The Antidote "dazzlingly original?"

4. Karen Russell identified four inspirations for the book. Explore examples for each of these inspirations:

• The book of "Job" in the Bible.
• Hole-punched "killed" negatives of photographs taken to show the impact of the Dust Bowl. (See information about this in my review above.)
• The Wizard of Oz
• Stories about the treatment of Indigenous People at the hands of immigrants/pioneers (relocation, Indian Schools, racism)

5. Prairie witches served as "vaults" for pioneers' unpleasant memories. Relate this experience to what is happening today in America with school districts removing topics like slavery/treatment of indigenous peoples/climate change from the curricula.

6. In an interview Russell said she used magical realism to tell the Dust Bowl story because it allowed her to creative and not too tied down to actual facts which could be criticized for accuracy. What magical aspects of the story did you appreciate? What aspects did you find distracting?

7. What memory did Harp recover from his Dad, which was being held by a Prairie Witch? How did this memory expand the story?

8. When Cleo points the Graflex Speed Graphic camera at a scene, the results never show what she is actually photographing. What does this magical camera actually capture? Why do you think Russell included these photos of past memories or future possibilities?

9. How important was the scarecrow to the story? Did you figure out who he was before it was revealed?

10. What aspect of this novel was the most poignant to you? 

For more information: Take a look at the resources used to inspire this book here @Marmalade and Mustard Seed.

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At 432 pages this book qualifies for the Big Book Summer Challenge. My third big book of the summer, so far.

-Anne

Review: RAISING HARE: A MEMOIR (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

Book Beginnings quote:

Standing by the back door, readying for a long walk, I heard a dog barking.

Friday56 quote:

The leveret, I learnt, was a European brown hare one of more than thirty species of hare in existence today.

Summary: "A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare" (Publisher).

Review: Count me among the majority of folks who didn't know that rabbits and hares aren't in the same family and that they have very different living habits. For example rabbits, who are generally about half of size of hares, live in burrows they've dug underground and they live in family groups. Hares, live out in the open, preferring shallow indentations in the grass or the dirt to sleep. Newborns even have different names -- newborn rabbits are kits or kittens, newborn hares are leverets. Hares frequently experience superfetation, which means they can conceive when they are already pregnant. They often have have very small litters of one or two leverets, and then deliver another litter just a few weeks later. This is a very rare occurrence in other mammals but fairly common in hares. I knew none of this before I read Chloe Dalton's memoir, Raising Hare. Dalton learned these facts herself after she rescued a newborn leveret from a dog and ended up forming a friendship with the creature.

After my fascination with learning new facts about hares wore off, I found myself focusing on Dalton's insights on natural world. Dalton lives in an old covered barn near working farms in the English countryside. Since hares do not reside in burrow underground they are especially susceptible to harm/death during typical harvesting practices where big machinery is used. Also the farming practice of planting right up to the edges of the property leave no room or buffer for safety. After one particularly gruesome of experience where Dalton walked a field after harvest, finding many dead and mutilated animals, she was happy to learn that the new owners of the land were going to employ organic farming practices which involved biodiversity and allow room for weeds and wildflowers to regain a foothold. All practices which help the native animals to survive. Once again, I've spent zero time contemplating the effect of modern farming practices on native animals until this book came along.

The book is easy to read and doesn't come across as too preachy. I like the word the publisher uses to summarize the book as a "meditation" on our natural world. I did find myself meditating on what I was learning. The illustrations of hares, beautifully rendered by Denise Nestor add to the sense of wonder I felt as I meditated on the book.

My rating: 4.25 stars.

Reading challenge: Raising Hare is the 12th book I've read for the '20 Books of Summer Challenge.'

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

Three short reviews: THE SAFEKEEP; THE DREAM HOTEL; THE FIFTH SEASON

The Safekeep: a Novel by Yael van der Wouden

Avid Reader Press/Simon and Schuster, 2024.

An unsettling novel "which explores repressed desire and historical amnesia in the Netherlands post-WWII." The Safekeep, a debut novel for author Yael van der Wouden, won among many awards, The 2025 Women's Prize for fiction.

The two main characters of the book, Isabel and Eva, are both related to the house, but the reader doesn't know this in the beginning. Isabel lives in the house and her brother brings his girlfriend, Eva, to live there while he is away. Isabel, who has vague memories from her childhood of moving into the house, which was fully furnished when they arrived, is very defensive of the house and its possessions. Not long after Eva arrives Isabel notices items have gone missing -- a tea cup, a spoon, a toy -- and she suspects Eva. When she confronts her guest, the tension between the women breaks and they fall into a torrid love affair. I have very mixed feelings about this novel and one is a very prudish reason -- graphic sexual scenes. I told myself long ago I didn't have to read books with explicit sex in them and yet I finished this one, feeling uncomfortable the whole time. (I told you it was a prudish reason.) I agree with the Women's Prize descriptive words about the book -- unsettling and repressed.

As it turns out, Eva was stealing the items from the house for a very good reason -- the items belonged to her and her family before they were arrested for being Jewish and deported to a concentration camp during WWII. Apparently that was a thing in The Netherlands, and probably elsewhere in Europe -- citizens would move into the Jewish homes after they were deported and take over not only the house, but the items left behind. And then, if any family members survived the camps and try to recover their home and possessions after returning from hell, the government demanded they pay back taxes before they were allowed to regain what was theirs in the first place.

It seems impossible that we are still learning new information about the atrocities done to the Jewish people during WWII, but here we are finding yet another injustice done to them, not by the Nazis but by their own fellow Dutch citizens.

My rating: 4 stars.

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The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Pantheon, 2005.

In a near future, a woman is arrested and detained not for commiting a crime but for having a dream about a crime. Sara is sent to a retention center where she tries to prove her innocence but her initial 21-day stay gets extended due to ever-changing rules and regulations. 

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are. (Publisher)

My husband and I listened to the audio version of this book together and we both kept making comparisons to what is happening today to immigrants being rounded up unjustly by ICE agents and sent to detention facilities with no clear means of escape or help. I found it to be extremely depressing and had a difficult time even wanting to finish the book. Sara does finally make it out of the retention facility only to find her life has been irrevocably altered.

My rating: 4 stars

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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Orbit, 2015.

The subtitle of this novel states: "Every Age Must Come to An End." The first sentence of the prologue reads: "Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we?" And the opening description of the book by the publisher says: "This is the way the world ends. Again." So readers know before they even get to page two that this is an end-of-time story. The story that follows this opening follows a women, Essun, as she tries to find her daughter who was kidnapped by her husband after he murdered her son. Complicated? Yes. And that was the easy stuff to understand. As readers learn Essun's back story they also learn why the world is in such a mess -- and yes, it has to do with powerful people doing terrible things to each other and to the earth itself.

Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for outstanding Science Fiction writing, this book also made the NYT list of best 100 books of the 21st Century. Both my daughter and I thought it would make a perfect audiobook selection for a family road trip but I am here to tell you, it was not. First the plot is super complicated as it moves backwards and forwards in time. There are also several POV sifts, even a section written in the second-person perspective which was both odd and off-putting. We didn't have a print copy of the book to consult when confused or when we needed the maps and other illustrations to guide us. To make matters worse, the first leg of our trip started in the evening and we got snarled up in an unexpected traffic jam which left us all grumpy and hungry, arriving at our destination over two hours later than expected. It wasn't the books fault, of course, we just weren't in the right headspace for a complicated books.

As I look at the reviews on Goodreads it makes me think I didn't read the same book as everyone who gushed about it with their 5-star reviews. The only other "not great" review was from another audiobook listener. Hmm. Maybe the format was the problem!? The Fifth Season is the first book in the Broken Earth series. I'm tempted to read on out of curiosity more than desire. If you've read the book and loved it, I want to hear from you. Tell me what you think. Thanks.

My rating: 3.75 stars.

At 468 pages in length (over 15 hours of listening time) this book qualifies for the Big Book Summer Reading Challenge.

-Anne

Tanka-Poetry Reviews: WHAT THE CHICKEN KNOWS; LUNAR NEW YEAR LOVE STORY; THE IN-BETWEEN BOOKSTORE; and two others

Thanks to Lark Writes for giving me the inspiration to write short, poetic book reviews. Hers are called 'Haiku Reviews.' I'll make mine a little longer and call them tanka-poetry reviews. Similar to haikus, tanka poems are short, using only 31-syllables in the cadence pattern of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. I call these reviews tanka-poetry but the books I am reviewing are not specifically poetry books.

I am way behind on my book reviews so these tanka-reviews are for the books I don't plan on reviewing more fully.

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill
Avon Books, January 2025

A magical store

transports Darby back in time --

a confusing time

before he comes out as trans.

Offering chance for a new start.

My rating: 3 stars. Audiobook.

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What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird
by Sy Montgomery
Atria Books, November 2024

We all know chickens.

Right? We think we do, but don't.

Learn all about

these intelligent with

help from Sy, past chick farmer.

My rating: 4.25 stars. Print.

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Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham

First Story, January 2024.

Fun graphic novel

by author of Dragon Hoops.

Heart-warming story-- 

fate, family, forgiveness, 

and also lion-dancing!

My rating: 4.5 stars. E-Book.

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Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Loren Long
Dial Books, March 2021

Someone has the dream

for buildings, bridges, and books--

 but laborers do

the work to make dreams come true.

Best Kid Lit I've read this year.

My rating: 5 stars. Print edition read with grandsons.

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The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf
Vintage, 1984.

A story of Edith
who sacrificed happiness
for her family --
 then in one gesture, regains
her own freedom and future.

My rating: 3 stars. Print.

____________________________________________________________________

-Anne

TTT: Books I'd Like to Reread

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'd Like to Reread 

(from books I've read in the past four years)

This prompt has shown up fairly recently on TTT so I decided to limit my selection and only name books I've read very recently so there are no repeats from previous lists.

1. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. I am not even finished with this devotional book yet and I am already planning a reread. I want my Bible Study group to study it together. It is so insightful.

2. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. I just finished this book/novella last Thursday and I am already planning a reread. I loved it so much and the scenery is so vivid in the story. I want my Montana experience to be extended as long as possible and this book will help.

3. Water, Water: Poems by Billy Collins. Poetry books are one of the few types of books I actually purchase because I know I will reread them. I loved this latest collection of poems by Collins and decided I'd better buy the book so I can reread my favorite poems again and again.

4. A Christmas Memory/One Christmas/ A Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote. I found this used collection of three stories by Capote last year and gave it to my mother, but not before I read the stories myself. All are poignant and sweet. I want another chance at them to let the old-fashioned feel of them settle over me.

5. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. I lived an awfully long life before I allowed myself the pleasure of reading this collection of essays on feminism by Ms. Woolf. I now want a reread and will take it slower this time as I make my way through it.

6. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. I read this novella two years ago and it know my husband will love it. It is about living in the Old West. I know he will be able to relate to it. If we listen to the audiobook together I'll get to experience the book through Don's eyes the second time around.

7. Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I went on a A.K. Rosenthal bender two years ago when I discovered her books. I gave my mom a copy of Textbook and mom gave it back after she read it. Since I own it now, I think I'll reread it for fun.

8. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This wasn't my favorite book but it is the book we are discussing this month in book club. It's been a while since I read it so I am considering a quick reread before the meeting to familiarize myself with the characters and the conclusion.

9. Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox. I love this children's book and I forgot all about it until I was looking back on the books I've read the past four years. My grandson and I had so much fun with this one. I even recommended it to my sister, a preschool teacher, who bought a copy for every kid in her class! I must find a copy and share it with my youngest grandson now.

10. Ten Poems for Difficult Times by Roger Housden. I've already reread this collection once, in 2022, but the difficult times are still here and I need/want a poetry fix now. (Plus I own a copy, making it an easy book to reread any time.) 

What books do you hope to reread some day?

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Glacier National Park and Montana Vacation

Panoramic view looking east from Logan Pass in Glacier National Park (Photo credit: A. Bennett)

We are home after a fabulous two-week family vacation to Montana and Glacier National Park

Weather: While in Montana we experienced all kinds of weather. Our first day in Glacier NP was cold, raining, and windy. We attempted an outdoor picnic but had to abandon our plans after several bites of our sandwiches -- aside from the stubborn manly men -- as the women and children all crammed into our pickup to laugh and eat inside the cab. The next day it was beautiful and warm, followed by an overcast day with a huge afternoon rain storm. I guess when mountains are involved one doesn't know what to expect. Now that we are home we are experiencing delightful summer weather with temperatures in the high 70s. Nothing like the scorcher/boiling temperatures the rest of the country is experiencing.

Highlights from our trip:

Welcome to Glacier National Park. Don and Carly at one of many entrances to the park.

Rita and her family at the St. Mary entrance to Glacier NP.

Don and our grandsons on our first hike inside Glacier NP along McDonald Creek.
It was a cold and rainy day.

The weather was glorious for our ride on the Glacier Red Bus the next day on 'Going to the Sun Road' toward Logan Pass. 

The view of St. Mary Lake (East Glacier) right before a huge rain storm.

We saw lots of wildlife. This great shot was taken of a ground squirrel with grass in his mouth on Logan Pass. This is one of my favorite photos of the week. (Photo credit: R. Adams)

 

A Mountain Goat mama with her kid peeking out from behind. We caught her resting on the rocks while other goats romped around at Goat Lick Overlook. (Photo credit: D. Bennett)

Carly and I hung out with these guys (a group of about seven bachelor Bighorn Sheep) while the rest of the family hiked to an overlook beyond the visitor center at Logan Pass. In addition to goats and sheep. we saw deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, a moose, a marmot, and a few chipmunks over the course of the week. We were bear adjacent a few times but never actually sighted any of them. (Photo credit: D. Bennett)

Don and Jamie on the aforementioned hike. (Photo credit: R. Adams)

Dan (Son-in-law) and Ian. The only members of the family to make it to the end of the Logan Pass Outlook trail. Spectacular view! (Photo credit: D. Adams)

An Osprey nest in an old snag at Hungry Horse Reservoir. We saw lots of osprey on the trip, even a pair fishing on Swan Lake and a single bird soaring over Holland Lake. We also saw several bald eagles and a large gang of wild turkeys. We heard many other birds on our Merlin Bird App but didn't see them: Red-eyed Vireo, Swainson's Thrush, Yellow Warbler, Western Tanager, and a Townsend's Warbler. When we were at the top of Logan Pass it said we heard a Spotted Sandpiper, which is a water bird, so we are sure that was a misidentification by the App. 😏

Glacier was experiencing a super bloom of bear grass while we were there. So pretty.

Don and I with Running Eagle Falls (aka Trick Falls) in the background in the Two Medicine area of the park.

Grandsons throwing rocks in Lake McDonald. (Photo credit: R. Adams)

A glorious evening in a beautiful setting on Logan Pass. We had a low-key but joyous celebration of our 43rd anniversary spending time with the people we love most. (Photo credit: D. Bennett)

The "cabin" where we lived together for the week near Essex, MT halfway between West and East Glacier along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

After leaving Glacier the family split up and went our separate ways for the second week: 

• Carly flew home from Kalispell to go back to work. 
• Rita and her family headed south to more adventures at two additional National Parks: Yellowstone and Grand Teton in Wyoming. 
• Don and I drove a few miles south to vacation alone at Bigfork on Flathead Lake, where we spent two delightful evenings. Sunday night we ate salmon burgers while drinking Mile High Mules and listening to live music in the park. The duo, Bad Larrys, was very good and we enjoyed the scene and experience very much. The next night we had tickets to a musical, "All Shook Up", at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse after a dinner of amazing brisket tacos at Oro y Plata. We stayed in a beautiful condo overlooking Bigfork Harbor which was great for reading on the sunny deck. The following day we drove down the Swan River valley to join friends for a few days in Seeley Lake. Don and Matt took a beautiful hike to a waterfall above Holland Lake while I visited with his wife, Eileen, and his mother, Loretta, sitting in camp chairs down at the lake. Later that evening we were treated to join the family for a delicious meal at Loretta's home.

Longtime friends and JAG colleagues, Don and Matt at the falls.

A beautiful view of Holland Lake with the Mission Mountains in the background from their vantage point on the trail. (Photo credit: D. Bennett)

Books and reading on vacation:

• Audiobooks -- Don and I spent 44 hours in his truck together during the trip/from Montana and while we drove around during the weeks there. That gave us a lot of time to listen to books. 
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison -- Our daughter was with us for the first leg of our trip. She and I agreed on this book which was so popular a few years ago and was listed on the NYT Best books of the 21st Century. It is Sci-fi/Fantasy/Dystopia, a really complicated story not told in chronological order. I think we all agreed it wasn't the best choice for a long car ride, too many details to keep track of. I haven't written a review yet, but hope to have it up in side the next week. 15 hours and 27 min.
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -- The classic anti-war satire published after WWII but before Vietnam. Often funny or silly. Very little about battles, but a lot of insanity about fighting wars in general. Don and I listened to this one without Carly, since she was flying home and we still had a lot of car time left. 19 hours and 58 min.
• A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. I had not read this famous novella before but kept thinking of it as we drove around Montana's many beautiful rivers and lakes. I am so glad we were able to squeeze this in at the end of trip. 3 hours and 45 min.
• Print books --
• Tess of the D'Urberville by Thomas Hardy -- My CC Spin book for summer. I started it during the trip, attempting to read on a schedule of 12-pages a day but I got off schedule due to busy days and tired nights.  32% complete.
• Raising Hare: a Memoir by Chloe Dalton -- This was a perfect choice to read about nature and conservation while I was out in nature! Complete. 
• Water, Water: Poems by Billy Collins -- I love this poet and I love this collection. Complete.
• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson -- A Christian devotional and study book. I am working through it a chapter at a time. 51% complete.
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  Grandma Anne (me) reading Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler before bed time. It is a new favorite children's book for everyone.

  
  
• E-Book -- I had to start an e-book that I checked out remotely from my library after I finished the two physical books I brought along, Raising Hare and Water, Water.
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley -- Thought I'd try to knock off a few challenges with this book --- 1. Paris in July Challenge and 2. A Goodreads summer challenge. 27% complete.
• Blogging the past two to three weeks. I prepared a few reviews and blogging memes before I left and scheduled their publication:
• Sunday Salon -- Montana (June 22nd) Here I highlighted the house we rented for our family during our time visiting Glacier NP.
• TTT: New or anticipated releases which have caught my eye (June 23)
• Review: Be Ready When the Luck Comes
• TTT: Favorite short books or novellas read the past year
• Review: The Book of Lost Names
• Review: Water, Water: Poems by Billy Collins
• I have a lot of reviews to catch up on. Watch my blog all week. I hope to publish one a day until I get up-to-date.

(Montana farm, Canola flowers. Photo credit: A. Bennett)

-Anne