It's Monday, What Are You Reading? #24

Join the meme at Book Journey.


I haven't read much this past week as I've been hit pretty hard by a respiratory virus which further compromises my vision so I've difficulty focusing for more than a few paragraphs.

I'd listen to one of the half-dozen audio books I have checked out but focusing my attention is nearly as difficult.

So I've been getting my story fixes from Netflix streaming and DVD but I did manage to progress bookmarks a handful of pages between three books:






Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen

My sister effused about this book and insisted I needed to read it too. So when I got my library copy a few days later I started it at once and she and I are doing a sort of read-a-long that will include moral support and mutual accountability via phone chats as we implement the advice. She is weeks ahead of me on that and it will be at least another week before I'm able to start doing more than read and think. But then Allen is big on the thinking before doing principle so I'm probably making more progress than I think.


City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell

I still owe a review for this review copy more than three months after receiving it.

Stress much?

I've had to start it over twice since November. And that is no reflection on the story. I've just kept putting other books and other projects ahead in priority.

But this month I've put it ahead of library due dates in priority and ahead of almost all other priorities except finishing the bamboo baby afghan by the last week of February or sooner if my niece brings the baby down from Montana to visit his great-grandparents before that. I've got 23 more rows plus putting on about 300 fringe pieces. And of course hand-washing and blocking which I'll most likely do before putting on the fringe.

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon

I've had this checked out of the library for awhile now and included it in Wednesday's Library Loot post where I said:

Emily Dickinson has been one of my favorite poets since I was in high school. Favorite is not a strong enough word. I was in awe of her poems. Those tiny little things so loaded with meaning and often multiple meanings.

I knew little of her life though except that she never married and had remained in the family home as somewhat of a recluse and that her poems were not published in her lifetime.

I was under the impression that not much more than that was known or even knowable. I was unable to find anything resembling a biography at the time and entries in encyclopedias were scant of information.

This quite thick book tells the story of a family embroiled in illicit love, financial troubles, betrayal and a feud with another family that continued for over a century.

As I handled it during the prep of that post I began dipping in and reading whole pages here and there. I've not started at the beginning yet but I read enough in it I think it belongs in the list of what I've been reading.

So of course, upon reading Sheila's review of The Secret Life Of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn I had to immediately check our library catalog for it and finding it send for it. It's already waiting at my branch for me. Along with 9 other items which I'll probably be discussing in Wednesday's Library Loot post. I don't expect to be reading it this week tho as there are so many more pressing due dates but who knows what will happen when I do my usual pre-read upon bringing it home.