"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========
Showing posts with label Weekly Blogging Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekly Blogging Challenge. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: June 28


 The prompt today for the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is ---

What is a song I've loved recently?

Thanks to this book about the Beatles, Tell Me Why, I started listening to music with my headphones on. Wow. What a difference it makes in being able to hear all the musical parts of each song. I especially enjoyed listening to Paul's amazing bass line in each song.

This inspired me to create a whole Spotify playlist of songs featuring strong bass guitar lines.

Here is my Spotify list. I hope you take time to listen to several of the songs, or parts of the songs. There are almost 100 songs on the list, proof that I usually don't do things by half. Ha! Don't forget to put your headphones on.

Enjoy!

Songs with lots of bass guitar playlist by Anne on Spotify!


 

-Anne

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Weekly Blogging Challenge, June 14th.

Question: Older Books More People Should Read

(I got derailed last week while I was putting this prompt together so I am sharing it a week late!)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, published in 2000

I just read this book this year so I know it is a book worth taken a second look at. It is about life in the world, but mostly in America in the late 1930s on around the time that comic books were becoming very popular. It also includes a view of WWII very seldom taken in literature, what was happening in the lead up to WWII inside the US, like the embrace of Nazism by many. This is a large book on my topics with a large heart. My review.

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, published in 2003.

Set on the Hawaiian island, Molokai, at the turn of the last century. Rachel Kalama is sent there to the leprosy colony as a young girl. This is her fictional story of an actual place. This book is astonishing and interesting. A not-to-be missed book and a perfect book club selection since there is so much to discuss. My review.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, published in 1999.

A murder mystery where the protagonist, Lionel Essrog, has Tourette's Syndrome, and his language makes for some very funny, often crass, vocalizations. I read this book in the early 2000s and again two years ago and found it delightful and hilarious both times. My friends, didn't like it nearly so much. The difference?  I listened to the audiobook, they didn't. My recommendation, listen to this one. It is hilarious in that format. My review.

 

-Anne

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Weekly Blogging Challenge, 3/29/23

Today's blogging challenge: Best Nonfiction Books I've Read

This is an impossible task for me. I read a lot of nonfiction and I am fascinated by a variety of topics. Instead I have identified 15 17 nonfiction titles I have enjoyed a lot and either have or would like to reread.

I recommend them all without hesitation!

 

And unpictured --
(Click on titles for my reviews if hyperlinked)
 
My nonfiction reading tastes are very eclectic, as you can see from the list above. I like books about --
  • Sports: Boys in the Boat; Seabiscuit; All Thirteen.
  • Memoirs: Teacher Man; I Am, I Am, I Am; West With the Night; Lab Girl.
  • Science: A Dog in the Cave; Lab Girl; Around the World in 80 Trees; A Short History of Nearly Everything.
  • Written in verse: Brown Girl Dreaming
  • Graphic/illustrated: Faithful Spy; Brazen; Around the World in 80 Trees.
  • Essays: The Anthropocene Reviewed
  • About Social issues: Just Mercy; Brown Girl Dreaming
  • By favorite authors: John Green; Frank McCourt; Atul Gawande; Bill Bryson
  • About medical issues: Being Mortal; I Am, I Am, I Am
  • Adventure/Exciting: All Thirteen; Boys in the Boat; Seabiscuit; West With the Night
  • Feminists: Brazen; Lab Girl
  • Historical: West With the Night; Boys in the Boat; Seabiscuit; Brazen; A Dog in the Cave
  • Humor: Bill Bryson
  • YA: Faithful Spy; The Dog in the Cave; All Thirteen; Brazen; Brown Girl Dreaming; Just Mercy has a YA version.
  • The Beatles: Dreaming the Beatles
  • Where I learn something that has impacted my life: all of them!

 

-Anne