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My selection has been a bit scattered lately — reading lots but not finishing much yet. I also had a bunch of library holds come in at the same time so it’s an embarrassment of bookish riches next to my nightstand right now.


The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters

These ladies are endlessly fascinating individually. As a group, they are strange misfits who somehow feed off of one another and make them all the more interesting. They grew up in 1920s and 30s England, on the edge of the Bright Young Things. one became close friends with Hitler. Another married an aristocrat and became Duchess of Devonshire. And another became a respected writer who counted Evelyn Waugh as a friend.

I am very much enjoying this book but I am going slow. In trying to keep track of each sister, family members, friends and then the numerous nicknames they gave one another one almost needs a crib sheet.

Excerpt

My thanks to Picador for the review copy.

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (October 3, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250099544
ISBN-13: 978-1250099549
Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches


A Vengeful Longing

I really enjoyed the first Porfiry Petrovich novel, The Gentle Axe, so I was happy to see my library had a copy of the next in the series. Having devoured all of the Boris Akunin / Erast Petrovich, I needed something to fill the late Imperial Russia murder mystery hole in my reading life.

So far I am not as immediately grabbed by the case in this one but I’m hoping for something soon.

Library borrow

Series: St. Petersburg Mysteries
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (June 12, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594201803
ISBN-13: 978-1594201806


Reading the Rocks

Geology as an individual science is a relative newcomer. It was only in the early 1800s that scientists saw the value in knowing more about the dirt and rocks under our everyday lives. Once the Industrial Revolution took hold in England, and there was an overwhelming demand for coal, being able to map and predict where rich seams lay was a precious skill.

Then Darwin and other evolutionary biologists of the mid-1800s began to adjust the clock on earth’s age. Citizen scientists began gathering and studying fossils as more than trinkets.

This historical review is a very straightforward read for even the least scientific among us. I highly recommend it.

My thanks to Bloomsbury for the review copy.

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (November 21, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1632869128
ISBN-13: 978-1632869128


What are you reading right now?

4 thoughts on “It’s Monday – October 23”

  1. Nice assortment of books. Reading the Rocks sounds fascinating. I enjoyed my college geology class. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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