Sunday Salon for 18 June 2023
Happy Sunday! Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz. Check out her post and the links to see what other bloggers have been up to in the last week.
How’s the weather?
We’re having sunny days with highs in the upper 80s, for the most part. If summer stays like this, I’ll be perfectly content with it!
What are you reading?
I got myself back to reading by choosing books that I won’t review because they’re part of long-running series that I enjoy reading, but I have said all I had to say about them. I have posts planned into August, but I haven’t written all of them, so I’m looking for books that won’t make me want to write yet more blog posts.
Encore in Death is #56 in the Eve Dallas series by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). I finished it in about three days. Payback in Death, #57, is due out on September 5. I’m 230th in line for the eBook at the library. The library adds more copies as the hold line gets longer, so it won’t take that long before my turn arrives after publication — especially if everyone reads it in a few days, like I do.
Now, I’m reading Storm Echo by Nalini Singh, Number 6 in the Psy-Changeling Trinity series. That makes Storm Echo the 21st book set in the Psy-Changeling world. The next book in this series, Resonant Surge, is expected in July and I’m 59th in line, so I’ll get to read it before the next J.D. Robb book.
What are you watching?
The highlight of our movie week was The Namesake (2006) starring Kal Penn (House, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, The Lunchbox), and Tabu (Life of Pi and many Indian films that I want to see). Our book group read Kal Penn’s memoir last week (watch for my review of You Can’t Be Serious tomorrow), so I wanted to watch him in a film role. I’m completely the wrong demographic for Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, but The Namesake was a touching film about family that we both really enjoyed watching.
What are you doing?
I’m celebrating two completed projects this week.
One was my #50YearsAgoToday recap of a trip that my family took to Florida in 1973. My final post includes a reflection of traveling with children and a full list of the posts, in chronological order.
Yesterday, I did the 30th workout of the 30 Day Yoga for Weight Loss with Julia Marie on Amazon Prime. My body doesn’t like doing strength-training workouts back-to-back, so I turn it into a 60-day program. I completed it three years ago and really struggled with the last half of the program. Those workouts are still a challenge, but no longer a struggle. That’s a nice measure of my improved fitness.
What are you writing?
My third Pride Month review of Alexis Hall books, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, was my British Isles Friday post.
I continued to make progress on my novel after starting over at the beginning the previous week. My writing is going much more smoothly, now.
Last week’s adventures included research about the Columbian, a passenger train that ran from Chicago to Washington D.C. (and beyond) in the mid-20th century. I had a valuable assist from a reference librarian at the St. Louis Mercantile Library to get the schedule for the exact date when my characters traveled. Aren’t librarians the best?
How are you on this fine Sunday?