How is there just one week in August left? Hard to believe. I posted a review for The Twelve Tribes of Hattie here. I’m looking forward to the long weekend this week to attend my annual book festival.
But until then here’s how this week turned out.
What I finished
The Myth of Perpetual Summer is a book from my summer TBR from last year. I have a thing this year for reading books with the season in the title. In this book we meet Tallulah James, August 1972, estranged from her family, returning home because her youngest brother has been arrested. We travel back and forth between 1972 and 1958 in a small town in Mississippi to get acquainted with Tallulah, learning about her childhood, the volatile relationship between her mom and dad, along with a host of family secrets. I enjoyed this especially since it deals with coming of age but also mental illness.
Turbulence is a series of short stories about people who are seemingly unrelated until we get back to the last story. Almost all the stories have the theme of traveling on an airplane but i think more importantly is how the stories reverberate the theme of the current of personal turbulence. Thank you to the publisher, Scribner Books for the review copy.
“For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” – Turbulence, David Szalay
What I’m reading
The Anna Karenina readalong continues. I’m starting to understand why Anna is so frustrated with her husband, Karenin. She’s told him that she’s in love with someone else and it’s as if she’s said nothing. Tolstoy conveys in Karenin’s musings about Anna’s affair that he’s more concerned about appearances and his personal honor, than having any type of emotional love and attachment to his wife.
“No honour, no heart, no religion – a depraved woman! I always knew it, and always saw it, though I tried to deceive myself out of pity for her.”
“The only thing that concerned him now was the question of how to shake off in the best, most decent, most convenient for him, and therefore most just way, the mud she had spattered on him in her fall, and to continue on his path of active, honest and useful life.”
I’m Telling the Truth but I’m Lying is one I’m still savoring slowly. It’s so good in fact I’m partnering with the publisher, Harper Perennial, to giveaway some good stuff.
See giveaway details for more info. Check it out if you have instagram, the giveaway ends in a couple days.
What I’m steeping
☕️The Cup: Apfelstrudel (apple strudel) |🍃Tea Type : Herbal | ✉️ From: A friend
My friend who know me well know that if they give me a good loose leaf tea, or in this case a yummy herbal tea, I will forever be grateful. This tea is good for many reasons, the first is because whenever I drink it, I’m reminded of all the cups of tea, books and good times I enjoyed with the friend who gave it to me before she moved abroad.
Upcoming Readalongs
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton for #WeReadWharton
“I sometimes think,” she murmured, “that men understand a woman’s motives better than other women do.” – The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
I’m co-hosting another readalong in September over on Instagram. Would you like to join?
Books By the Cup 
Sounds like you have a lot going on over at Instagram. I don’t have an account because I don’t feel like I take good photos. However, I recently deleted (not deactivated, DELETED) my Facebook account, and my next move would likely be Instagram. Then again, new social media always feels like potentially opening the door to a devil in disguise to me.
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It where I spend a lot of book time or used to until I started the blog. I don’t have FB and am not planning to get one. I know it’s a fine balance with not wasting or spending too much time with social media. I saw a recent news report about the rise in sales of board games as people try to unplug!
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Oh, that’s so cool! My husband and I have quite a few board games, but we spend so much time reading (together and separately) that we haven’t played in a while. I think I shall propose a game night tomorrow!
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We went to some friends house a few weeks ago and I packed a game to take, a favorite called Rummikub. It was too many of us to play this one but we played something else called Chameleon instead. Definitely a fun one in a group!!!
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You do take some lovely pictures. That tea sounds yummy.
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Thanks Laila! The tea was definitely yummy. Next time I need some scones or a nice pastry or cookie to have along with it while reading
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I really enjoyed The Myth of Perpetual Summer, too, Shell! The author handled mental illness with sensitivity. Beautiful photos!
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I agree! I enjoyed the book and was quickly pulled into the story. Aww, thank you Jennifer! I need to read the author’s other boo, Whistling past the Graveyard, have you read that one?
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No, but I own it. It’s so well-loved! She also has a third, The Flying Circus! I want to read that one too! Totally crazy tidbit but she’s best friends with Karen White and Wendy Wax, two other authors, and I think that’s so fun! The latter two live in the GA area! ♥️
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I actually saw White on a panel last year at a book festival (The Glass Ocean)! I didn’t know they were friends!! 😉
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