June!

[Sílvia]

Come on, people, it's the 9th!

I gave up on both books I was reading last week. Ugh. I hate when that happens. Cathedral of the Sea had all the right ingredients, but it was dry and boring. And way too violent. I know, it's the Middle Ages, but give me a little hope in the middle of all the horribleness, will you? Me without You was just plain boring. I expected it to be melodramatic but readable, but after 100 pages I was bored to tears. Glad it was free.

I started rereading my beloved Pillars of the Earth It's such a great book, I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet. I used to be very much against rereading books, but this is the third I've tried this year and I'm loving it. It turns out I remember very little of the books I've read, even the ones I liked, so why not experience them again? I'm on page 95 of Pillars and will be in it for a while, since it's 1086 pages long!

[Rowan]

I read the latest Lori Lansens which I didn't love. Blush - what did you think? Her books are usually 5 star for me so I was sad.

I'm reading End of October which is a new release/pandemic/eerily similar. I'm about halfway through and liking it.

I have Rodham waiting for me - the fictionalized Hilary didn't marry Bill novel from Curtis Sittenfeld.

[Rowan]

I liked Rodham and I am pretty apolitical. I thought it was well done and the alternate reality was interesting.

I don't have anything right now. I have a few on my kindle app that I should just grab one.

[Sílvia]

Blush, that book has the same premise as Still Alice, have you read that? I loved it, and I love Sally Hepworth, but I'm not sure I'd want to read another book with that premise.

I read Lou in Lockdown, a short story that's a mini-sequel to the Still Me by Jojo Moyes. It's free on the publisher's website (here,at least). I loved it.

I'm still reading The Pillars of the Earth. The beginning didn't grip me as much because I did remember how some things would turn out, but now it's starting to pick up, and I don't remember much at all. I'm on page 380.

[Rowan]

I finished Beach Read by Emily Henry yesterday. I really liked it - the reviews have been all over the place.

I get to pick up my existing library holds tomorrow which I'm excited about. They stopped our ability to place holds while they were closed so I need to start putting things on hold again. They switched their software to an older version which is weird and erased a list that I was keeping during COVID. First world problems I tell ya!

[Rowan]

I started The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine as an ebook. I actually think it's not written very well but I'm curious about the story. Usually I would give up so I don't know what that means really. haha

Today I get to do pick up my holds at the library! There's a max of 20 books in your hold queue so I'm playing the game with S and M's cards too.

[Sílvia]

Ok, the reread of Pillars is not going well at all. I'm just...not enjoying it much, and I'm baffled. How could I have loved it the first time and not enjoy it at all this time? It's so weird. And it's not like I read it as a teen or something, I read it only 10 years ago. The funny thing is my mom is also rereading it and is feeling the same. She's a bit ahead of me and keeps telling me it'll get better, but so far I'm finding it too violent and too full of intrigue. Oh well. I feel like Spudd on her walking marathon the other day, I must finish it. It's a question of honor now I finally, FINALLY reached the halfway point yesterday (about 540 pages - ). I still hope I'll find whatever it was that made me love it the first time.

Meanwhile, I keep picking up shorter stuff to entertain myself. I don't want to start anything too long before I'm done with Pillars, so I read the aforementioned short story by Jojo Moyes, finished rereading The Importance of Being Earnest with a student, read a chapter from a book about my city that focused on the Spanish flu and then read an awarded Brazilian novel from a couple of years ago that was also super short (read it in 2 hours or so). THEN yesterday I started another short Brazilian. Of chronicles. Is that the word I want?

[Spudd]

What do you mean by chronicles?

[Sílvia]

Hmm...kayley wasn't sure what to call them either. Here's a definition I found of what I mean: "it's a kind of short narrative text, usually written for media vehicles such as newspapers, magazines, etc. Besides being short, the "crônica" (Portuguese term) has a short life span, that is, they talk about everyday things that happen in our lives." I'd add that they are often funny. Here's an example of a book of what I'd call crônicas in Portuguese: https://www.amazon.com.br/Feel-Bad-Abou ... 121&sr=8-1 (that book is hilarious, btw).

Thoughts? It's not short stories. We have another term for those. It's not essays, either.

[Spudd]

I think I would just call it essays. That was my initial instinct, and then I googled that book to see if I could find an article/review about it that actually applied a name to the writings, and I found this one: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/books/27masl.html which calls it essays. So I think essays.

[Sílvia]

Thanks, Spudd. Yeah, that's what I thought after I posted, that maybe you just called them essays. We have 2 different words in Portuguese where you have only one, then. What we call "ensaio" in Portuguese is defined as a text that expresses the writer's ideas, opinions, criticisms, etc. about a certain theme. They're a different thing from what I meant here. Anyway, thanks!

[Spudd]

I totally see where you're coming from, because when I hear "essays" my first thought are those stupid things you have to write in high school where you explain why the Roman Empire fell, or whatever. It's cool you have 2 words for the 2 different types in Portuguese. Sometimes English is not a great language.

[Sílvia]

Actually 3, because I'd call what we wrote in school something else "Ensaio" sounds more academic and more professional, not something a kid would write. But yeah, languages are funny. Sometimes we have 2 or 3 words to say something where you have only 1 in English, other times it's the other way around. Like fingers and toes (same word in Portuguese). Once a student asked me if there were different verbs for breaking fingers or toes