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Friday, April 3, 2015

March was

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March felt like a sampler book for the weather – bits of snow, hail, fog, high winds, rain and sunshine with plenty of interesting light

and of course a near total eclipse which provided these amazing colours on the river

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I read 7 books on my kindle (probably related to the inclement weather).  I just noticed that 6 of them have a female author.

3 were from a Swedish police series by Camilla Lackberg which combine intriguing detective mysteries with and on going stories for the main characters, and lots of descriptions of the baked goods they eat with coffee.

Two set in the past and two in imaginary worlds:

Off the Voortrekker Road (Barbara Bleiman) is set in apartheid South Africa and follows one man as he grows up and tries to make sense of racial politics around him.  I was intrigued by the setting and enjoyed the layering of the stories.

The Secret River (Kate Grenville) follows a newly arrived convict in Sydney.  I see this book on many reading and book group lists but I found it slow with a sudden conclusion – one of those where you get the feeling the deadline hit so the last chapter replaced several that had been planned.

The Invisible Library (Genevieve Cogman) imagines a situation where librarians are the secret service travelling between worlds to save influential books.  I really enjoyed the imagined world, the characters and the story and will be looking out for more in the series

Channel Blue (Jay Martel) imagines that Earth was created for a reality TV programme.  Again the imagined situation was interesting and the characters fun but I found it slow in places.

I saw a fabulous ballet version of A Streetcar Named Desire which was energetic and raw and told the story without words.

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I also had fun with yarn – I’ve shared all my crochet projects (spirals, giraffe and hot air balloon).  I also played with double dowel ‘god’s eye’ which I saw on the internet – instructions here.  I remember making these as a child with 2 crossed sticks.  Adding another 2 sticks does make it more complicated but I love the end results.  I started with thicker dowel but found it hard to work so found some skewers in a kitchen drawer and they were perfect.

Looking forward to more spring colour in April – inspired by this array of pansies I spotted in the garden centre on the last day of March

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4 comments:

Miriam said...

Sounds like a good month for you. I'm so impressed with all that reading. The eclipse was wonderful, your pictures are so unusual and beautiful. The pansies make me smile.

Sian said...

A new Swedish series sounds good. I bought two books yesterday - a Jo Nesbo and one on sock knitting.

An enjoyable round up. Onwards to April!

alexa said...

Gosh, you have some intriguing book reviews here. I especially like the sound of the one about librarians. And a great display of pansies - they always look great en masse, but a bit meagre when I get my half-dozen home!

Prairie Jill said...

What a fun month. I love your eclipse/reflection photos, and your spring flowers! I also love the sound of the Cogman and Martel books. I'm going to look for them in our library.

Happy April!