“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” – James Baldwin
If you take your book outside to read in the fresh head, keep a lookout for butterflies. — Photo by Pat Bean
Books: A Key to the Universe
I read a whole book yesterday. It was an Amazon Prime kindle eBook freebie, The Lost Hills, a new murder mystery series by Goldberg featuring Eve Ronin. It was a page-turner tease. The second book in the series won’t be out until 2001.
Perhaps you will see a white one.
Thankfully Patricia Briggs’ latest Mercy Thompson book, Smoke Bitten, recently came out on audible and I downloaded it with my monthly credit. I usually read during the day and listen to books at night in bed.
Currently I’ve gone through all the library books I had checked out. But the libraries here in Tucson are now closed for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, forcing me to look elsewhere.
First, however, I’m going to exhaust the books I already own, both physical books and eBooks that I haven’t yet gotten around to reading. There are actually quite a few of these since I am an admitted bookaholic, a condition my limited budget much appreciates. I also might reread a few of my favorites.
I recently reread Call of the Wild, which I first encountered when I was about 10. After viewing the latest movie based on the book. I wanted to see how it compared to Jack London’s original work. I decided the movie kept to the book’s basic premise, but
Or maybe even a brown one. We all need beauty in our life — and lots of books.
Disney-fied it so it was less gritty.
I also want to reread the Dr. Dolittle books, another childhood favorite. After seeing that movie I sent my 10-year-old great-grandson Junior a copy of the first volume of Hugh Loftings’ stories about the man who could talk to animals. Junior called me this week to tell me had had finished reading it, so I sent him the second volume.
To have a great-grandson who is a reader, and who even likes one of my favorite childhood books, in this age of YouTube and video games, was joy to my soul
Learning to read was one of the most important events in my life. Books are my ticket to the universe and everything in it – or even not in it. I read just about every genre except horror, but mysteries, fantasies, travel journals, autobiographies and nature books are my favorites.
Just in case anyone is interested, following is a list of books I’ve read thus far in 2020. Yes, I keep a list. And Martin Walker is a newly discovered favorite author for me.
The Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg, an Eve Ronin mystery, 3-2020
Black Diamond, by Martin Walker, audible, 3rd Bruno, 3-2020
Terns of Endearment, by Donna Andrews, a Meg Langslow cozy mystery 3-2020
Miss D and Me: Life with the Invincible Bette Davis by Kathryn Sermak, 3-2020
The Dark Vineyard, by Martin Walker, Bruno audible, book 2 3-2020
Bruno: Chief of Police, by Martin Walker, audible, first of a mystery series about a French detective, and second I’ve read. good book. 3-2010
Monkey Dancing by Daniel Glick. Great book about a divorced father who takes his 13-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter on a trip around the world. 3-2020
The Whitstable Pearl by Julie Wassmer, good cozy mystery. 3-2020
The Mage Winds Trilogy: Winds of Fate, Winds of Change and Winds of Fury, by Mercedes Lackey, audible reread 2-2020
In Patagonia, by Bruce Chatwin, 2-2020
The World That We Knew, by Alice Hoffman, 2-2020
BirdNote, a collection of stories from the public radio program, 2-2020.
Call of the Wild by Jack London, reread, 2-2020
Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses by Claire Dederer. Great book. 2-2020
Survival of the Fritters by Ginger Bolton, a so-so cozy mystery. 2-2020
This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff, 2-2020, great book. I couldn’t put it down.
The First Girl Child, by Amy Harmon, good book. 1-2020
The Yellow Envelope by Kim Dinan, 1-2020. Great Book
Explorers’ Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery & Adventure, 1-2020,
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro 1-2020
Just Kids by Patti Smith 1-2020
Where the Angels Lived by Margaret McMullan, great book, 1-2020.
available on Amazon
So, what are you reading? This bookaholic wants to know.
Bean Pat: Travels and Trifles https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/lens-artists-challenge-90-distance/ The Distance Challenge, a blog for today.
Pat Bean is a retired journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon, and is always searching for life’s silver lining.
Pat Bean's blog 
I love your photos of the butterflies
At present I’m reading Victorian mysteries by Robin Paige and Virgina wine mysteries bt Ellen Crosby. I’m thinking of re-reading some of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover novels.
Stay healthy,
Pit
Wow. You are a good reader. I love books “…to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part…” 🙂
Thank you, Pat, for a wonderful blog that I eagerly open as available. Your photos, your sharings, your life – you reveal just enough to tantalize me to “wanna’ be like Pat when I grow up” except – supposedly I am already “growed up.”
Joan
Interesting reading Pit. Robin Page is Susan Albert, founder of Story Circle Network, a writing support group for women, to which I belong. She also writes the China Bayles mystery series, and wrote some of the Nancy Drew serues, .
Thanks for the information, Pat. I knew about her real name, because my wife reads some of the novels she published under that name. I seem to remember that she and her husband live in the Texas Hill Country, in Bertram, not (very) far from us in Fredericksburg. Btw, we got some of our furniture from a great mesquite craftsman in Bertram.