Tuesday, January 24, 2023

A reading addiction 01-24-23

What do I do all day?  Beside keeping KoKo walked, fed, excercised, and petted, I read.  It is a life long addiction, but much worse since Covid slowed the world down.  I have so many projects in progress or in my mind, but instead I read.  Other than Sci-Fi and fantasy I read just about anything.  There are some series that I especially enjoy, this is the latest in one of those.  . 


This is the sixteenth volume following Maisie Dobbs, an English investigator, from before WWI to 1942 in the midst of WWII.  I have missed the last two volumes, so I will have to read those.  I don't think Ms. Winspear is a terrific writer, sometimes she is wordy and sometimes simplistic, but she has a good story line and her research is valid as far as I can tell.   This book focuses on the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) in which women piloted war planes from factories and air bases to the forward bases for the guys to fly into battle.  In the USA we had the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) doing the same job.  [For Surfside QGuild readers this is the service that our late friend Bette Bradley participated in during WWII]

Not a series, but I recently re-read "The World According to Garp" by John Irving.  I had enjoyed reading it in 1979 and always remember that my husband asked me not to read it in bed at night because my laughing woke him up, so I always have that it was humorous.  WRONG!  It is rather a downer with only a very few funny bits.  One of them being the son who hear "undertow" at the beach as "under Toad" and thus look for the toad whenever they were at the shore.  But Irving is a very good writer and I think I have read all of his books sometime in the past. 

This month the Book Group is reading "REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES". By Shelby Van Pelt.  I understand it is about octopi and how smart they are.  I will wait to read it closer to the meeting the third Wednesday of February, so I can remember enough to participate in the discussion!  
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1 comment:

Sherrie Spangler said...

"The World According to Garp" leads to Tom Hanks which leads to his movie "A Man Named Otto." I just saw it and absolutely loved it. It's bittersweet but so beautifully done.