Bookish Quotes: A good book

I've been reading Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci over the last week or so. I will confess that I have met Kathryn a few times because of a shared love of historical fiction author Sharon Kay Penman which is part of the reason I wanted to give her books ago.

This book is a split narrative but predominantly set in WWII and tells the story of a female spy.

For today's Bookish Quote I am sharing a short passage from the latter part of the book. The book below was mentioned another time later in the book but I can't share that part. I like what the author says here about books teaching us things.

"Will we meet again, Fraulein Bouchard?" he asked
"We will, when the war has ended. In the meantime I want you to continue your French lessons. Will you promise me that?"
She gave him a French edition of a book as a keepsake, with a dedication written in French: To Oskar, a student who shows great promise. Your friend and teacher, Fraulein Bouchard.
"One day when you grow up to be a successful you man, you will be able to read this, and when you do, I would like to think you will remember me. It's by a very famous American writer," she told him.
He read the title, trying to formulate the words. "The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. What's it about?"
"It's about a man who loves someone so much he reinvents himself to win her back."
Oskar looked puzzled. He wasn't sure what she meant.
"Oskar, one day you will understand that all good books teach us something. This one is very special. It teaches us that we can be anything we want, but we can't always have who we want."
"And I have something for you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his toy soldiers."It's Frederick the Great. Papa said that even your Napoleon Bonaparte admired him."
Claire was deeply touched. "That's certainly true. I shall treasure it."

This week...

I'm reading

I mentioned last week that I was reading Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran and Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci. I finished the first of those and will have a review up over the weekend (shocking I know!) and I am still going with the latter.

I did start listening to The Rise of the Magicks by Nora Roberts this week. This is the third book in the The Chronicles of the One trilogy. The trigger for this book is that there is a virus that sweeps into the world, decimating the population of the world. The Doom, the virus, is much much deadlier than we are seeing in real life, but still.

I also picked up When it All Went to Custard by Danielle Hawkins this week from the library. I have read the first couple of chapters because it was the only book I had with me when we were waiting for our dinner the other night. So far I am enjoying it!

I'm watching

Not much other than the news really. We are still continuing with our series that I have mentioned before. I need to make an effort to find some new things to watch. Any one have any must watch recommendations?

Life

If I thought last weekend was quiet this weekend was even quieter. We did have plans to go to see Robbie Williams in concert but that was cancelled. We have had several events that we had coming up over the next few weeks that have been cancelled.

My husband's son came down for the weekend, so it was good to see him. I guess that makes him my stepson but I don't think of it like that yet!).

The rest of our time is basically being preoccupied with what happens if scenarios, mostly around our holiday. We are supposed to be going to Europe at the end of this month but I think it is 99.95% likely that isn't going to happen now and so we need to start cancelling things with the hope that we get some of our money back. Once things have calmed down a bit we will then be able to make decisions about where and when we do go.

One of the disappointing aspects of cancelling is that I have actually been pretty organised and had quite a few blog posts written and scheduled for the period that we were away. Some of them will still get posted after being edited, but the others may never see light of day now!

I have seen Robbie Williams live before and it was a great show. It's one of those shows where you stand up and dance the whole show! I thought I would share a video below to remind myself of what we didn't get to see.

Posts from the last week

The History of the Future
Weekend Cooking: Eat Well for Less
Library Loot

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This Week ....

I read....

My big news this week is that I finally, finally finished listening Where the Crawdads Sing. It has taken a very long time to get through. It's not that it wasn't an enjoyable book, I just haven't had the same amount of listening time that I have previously had. I am trying to get back in the habit of walking from the train station to work, which should help give me more audiobook time but I'm not really sure what I am going to start next.

I also started reading Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran. This  is a choice of the Cook the Books online bookclub which I am intending to read along with this year. I have read a few chapters so far and I am enjoying it. It's very readable. I did have a look at the author's website and was sad to see that she died at a very young age.

I also started reading Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci, an Australian author that I have been aware of for a long time but have never read before.

You may know that there is an upcoming Netflix series adaptation of the Bridgerton historical romance series which I am looking forward to. In anticipation, I am listening to a new podcast series called What Would Danbury Do. At this stage they are talking about each of the original books in the series which is a lot of fun, although not necessarily safe for work!


I watched....

Nothing new again

Life...

We've had a quieter week this week. No weekend away, no culture, concerts or anything else! Which doesn't mean that it hasn't been exciting.

We took delivery of a new couch and recliner chairs and a new dining table. I am particularly excited about the new dining table because I have never, ever had a new new dining table. I have been using a hand me down table which I got from my mum 20 years ago, and she got it from a family friend about 20 years before that. There's a fair chance that this dining table is  older than I am. The chairs were orange vinyl and had seen better days!

The chairs include electric recliners including inbuilt USB chargers.Very fandangled. We did resist the temptation to buy the couches with fluoro lighting underneath and in built cupholders. No racing car couches here yet.

In less exciting news, I had a wisdom tooth out on Friday which is the perfect way to start a three day weekend! Okay, not really, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected!! Hopefully it will help resolve the issues that I had  a few weeks ago. Luckily I am still 3/4 wise.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Titles!
Library Loot
ARA Historical Novel award announcement

Review of With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Six Degrees of Separation

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date