Category: Currently Reading Page 43 of 72

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56 of:
A Dream About Lightning Bugs

A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds

A few years ago, I volunteered to be a substitute teacher for my kids’ seventh-grade music class. Just for a day. That’s all I had to do. I knew most of the kids in the class anyway. It should have been a breeze.

It wasn’t.

If I didn’t fully appreciate the public school music teachers of my youth before 11 a.m. that day, by noon I damn well did. As I stood before the class, a lifetime of experience performing in front of people went straight out the window. The forty-five-minute affair was absolutely exhausting. Kids, 1—Folds, 0. Animals, every one of them! I am no music teacher and I bow to each and every man and woman who is. I especially bow to the ones who can see that these children are not animals and recognize which ones could use a push, or a hand, like I did when I was younger.

WWW Wednesday, December 22, 2021

By HCNewton

On December 22, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I’m feeling very distracted this week–I’m having a lot of trouble focusing on anything for more than 15 minutes at a time, thankfully I’m reading a couple of books that are built for short-term-focus (am pretty sure that was the order, it’s entirely possible that they induced it). But the end of the year is nigh, I can take the foot off the gas a little bit, right?

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m finishing off a reading challenge by reading A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds and The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux. I’m listening to My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows and narrated by Fiona Hardingham on audiobook, partially inspired by my recent Down theTBR Post.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker (in an effort to inject a little holiday cheer) and Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Hartford, Nicholas Guy Smith (Narrator) on audio.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Anonymous by Elizabeth Breck (after spending over a month on my “On Deck” list–a testament to shoddy planning) and my next audiobook should be The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz, Rory Kinnear (Narrator).

Blank Space

How are you spending the week?

The Friday 56 for 12/17/21: Risen by Benedict Jacka

By HCNewton

On December 17, 2021

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it

from Page 56 of:
Risen

Risen by Benedict Jacka

“Verus,” he said, crossing the path to meet me.

I nodded.

Talisid glanced at the long sightlines around us, the Greenway stretching in both directions with the Olympic Stadium – to one side and the view over London to the other, “A little exposed.”

“Hiding isn’t really an option for me these days,” I said. “How can help you?”

Our relationship had changed, and I could feel it in the way Talisid addressed me. For all the years I’d been meeting like this with Talisid, he’d always been the more powerful. He’d never used if to threaten me; he was too courteous for that, in his well-bred way. But always, in our dealings, Talisid had been the one to set the terms. Not anymore.

WWW Wednesday, December 15, 2021

By HCNewton

On December 15, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I’ve been feeling super-productive this week, at least in a quantity-over-quality way. I don’t get weeks like this very often, so I’m trying to take full advantage of it (and need to remember it will end, so I don’t get too annoyed with myself when it does). This week’s WWW Wednesday shows that the Down the TBR posts (and my reading challenges for the year) are helping—you’ll see more of that next week, too.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?