Book Post, and a Little More

Hi everyone. Happy weekend. I've been writing this post for days. I've had things going on the last couple of evenings and when that happens, I am usually too tired to write once I sit down. So I write a bit and then stop. Finally it is Saturday morning and I have time to finish this post.

I thought I would share this journal spread with you to begin today's post. I started a new journal recently as I do like  theme journals. This journal is small, 5x8 inches, and I bet you can guess the general idea of where I am going with this one.   I also recently came across this bear image, which I just adore, especially when I gave him a black paper hat. 

I started by inked the base page with blue and green ink. Then I did a bit of stamping with all those dots before adding some paper in the middle. Then I added the vintage bear and pine cones, the little paper rectangles (leftover scraps from die cutting some windows), as well as the big blue die cut snowflake.  To wrap up the page I stamped the bear paw, the little quotes in the rectangles, the let it snow quote, the white snowflakes and also I stamped and cut out the 2 snowflake postage stamps. One last stamp (the postmark) and I was finished.

As there are lots of words, I am going to link this page up to  Art Journal Journey
And since I used some scraps I am also going to link up to Moo Mania, where using up your scraps is their latest challenge.

And so I haven't done a book post in quite awhile, and since I like a list to look back on (for purely selfish reasons), here is one for the  most recent books I've read or listened to. Some of you readers like to browse these lists, and some of you don't. So if you don't, books are the rest of the post. And if you do, you can take a look. 

I didn't think I'd made it through so many books because it doesn't feel like I read much this late fall. But then I am surprised  I've gotten through as many as I did.
Mostly I've been reading mysteries.

When I started Front Page Fatality, I wasn't impressed. I thought it was a a book trying to be too many things. I thought it was trying to be cozy and tough at the same time, and it wasn't working for me. But I stuck with it. I ended up really enjoying it because it finally focused and was pretty exciting. It was a great  hard boiled mystery  set in Richmond, Virginia with the main character being a reporter. I will go on and read more in this series as this is book 1.

And I've been back at these Elly Griffiths books. These are books #9 and #10 in the series. One more to go and then I have to wait until June for the latest to be released. 

I've mentioned this series before, but the main characters are a forensic  archeologist, Dr. Ruth Galloway  and DC Nelson, a police detective. They are set in Norfolk, England-where I would like to go now and see the endless expanses of beaches and the town of Kings Lynn. Of course I have never been to that part of England so I don't know how much artistic license the author used, but I have looked up enough to learn a lot about that area. (Things which are mentioned in the book.) There are lots of other really likeable and well written characters who I have become quite attached to. Plus I love the archeology and the stories of the past.

And my book club book was the first of Louise Penny' Inspector Gamache series.  I finished off the series with latest read (A Better Man) before I went back to book one (Still Life), and it was fun to see where the characters all began after following them through so many books. In fact, I am going to try rereading a few of the other early books in this series. That's on my list for 2020.
For those of you unfamiliar with this series, Penny is a Canadian writer, and she sets this story in southern Quebec, not far north of the Vermont border. She is one of my favorite writers.

I think this summer a little road trip to discover this area might have to be in my future since that area is not too far from home.

The Magician's Diary is another magical mystery series I have been enjoying. This is book 4. They are really a fun read/listen, a bit predictable, but have some magic and even a little romance set in  1890's London. They do have to be read in order because each one picks up where the last one left off.

Here's an oldie. I read Like Water for Chocolate back in the 80's or 90's, but honestly I couldn't remember a lot of details. I listened to it this time and did enjoy it again. It is short but quite rich in details. And has that great mystical magic that Mexican stories are known for.

And 438 days is a book I downloaded for when my husband is in the car with me. It is a fascinating true story of a man lost at sea (the longest in history) and then rescued (you know this ahead of time so it is not much of a give away). We haven't quite finished the book so I can't actually rate it yet, but both of us are enjoying it.

I also enjoyed this book, The Secrets We Kept. It is about the Russian novel Dr. Zhivago and many people involved with it, including Boris Pasternak and his mistress (for lack of a better word).  She was the Lara in his novel. It also talks about how the US used the book as a propaganda tool and dropped many of them  over Russia/ the Soviet Union during the cold war since it was not published in the Soviet Union until later.  This book is historical fiction, but I knew none of this and it was really fascinating.

Which of course lead me to watch Dr. Zhivago the film (love it) and then pick up the book. I had read this book maybe 30 years ago and remember liking it a lot then, and I have to say the same thing now. It is a really descriptive and a classic novel. I learned a lot about the Russian revolution and when the Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over. And as far as Russian novels go, it wasn't too bad in length.But it was certainly not a quick read. (And was one reason why I didn't think I had read many books.)

If you've never read it and you want to become immersed in one of the world classics, then I do highly recommend this book.

And lastly, I most recently listened to this book, written by and read by the late Carrie Fisher. I was hoping it would be more about making the first Star Wars film than about her relationship with Harrison Ford, so that disappointed me, but she did write a good story about that.

And now I have started listening to the new Bill Bryson  book The Body. His books are always enjoyable, and this has a biology twist which is like an extra scoop of hot fudge in my mind, but I am not too far into it so I will save that for another book post.

OK, enough said.

Enjoy your weekend.