This week....

I'm reading....

I want you to take special note of the books I am reading this week, particularly The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte. Do you need to pay attention to the fact that it is historical fiction? Not really. Is it because it is historical fiction set in World War II? No because to be fair I read a fair bit of that. Is it that it is set in Russia? Could be. Because it's a new release? Nope. Read a few of them recently. What could it possibly be? Oh, that's what it is.  Its a book by a male author. My reading is dominated by female authors to the point that this is only the fifth book by a male author I have read this year, and I am loving it. I am about halfway through now and assuming it stays at the current level it is on track to be either a 4.5 or a 5/5 grade book.

The other book that I started over the weekend is The Wreck by Meg Keneally and this one is great too. To be honest, it's a struggle to know which one to pick up and finish first. Maybe I should do alternative chapters. Or maybe I need a long weekend so that I can just read them both. Unfortunately that can't happen as I worked late every night last week and over the weekend.

I'm watching...

Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching a British show called The Pilgrimage: The Road to Istanbul. It follows a group of British celebrities with different types and degrees of faith (including atheist, Muslims, Christians and Jewish) as they complete the Sultan's Trail which runs from Vienna to Istanbul. Along the way they visit various sites with historical and religious significance. It was a very interesting show to watch highlighting what the similarities are between people as well as the differences. When I was looking for a couple of details I realised that there are two previous series so I will be seeing I can find those.

I also recently watched the documentary, The Booksellers, which follows some of the characters from the antique book trade in New York. This was so much fun to find out how these unique characters started out in the trade, and how they re faring in this world where everything is available on the internet

We were super excited to see that there is a follow up series to Back in Time, this time called Further Back in Time. In the first series, which I wrote about here, the Ferrone family lived for a week in each decade starting from the 1950s through to the 2020s, talking about the food that people would have been eating, how family was structured, and particularly the changing role of women. In this series, the family goes further back in time with the episode being set in the 1900s and then will travel forward to the 1940s. We very much enjoy it and we are looking forward to watching the rest of the series. Expect a Weekend Cooking post about this at some point.

Finally, we started watching Warrior Nun on Netflix as it was recommended to us as something to watch if you loved The Umbrella Academy. Whilst I would pick Umbrella Academy every time over Warrior  Nun, we are enjoying it, and I am enjoying seeing the various different locations around Spain!

Life

We have been in strict lockdown now for around five weeks. Originally it was due to finish on September 13, but it has been announced that is being extended by a couple of weeks with a small  tweak here and there, followed by a slow easing of restrictions in stages through to November, depending on the numbers. Right now, I am trying to figure out when I am going to be able to go to the hairdresser because I am very much in danger of finding out exactly what colour my hair actually is!

Our big news this week is that we got a vacuum robot. It didn't take me long to start talking to it as though it is a dog because it feels like it follows me around, and gets under my feet. Originally we thought about naming it Teddie but I woke up on Sunday morning and suddenly realised that was possibly a bit close in name to my youngest nephew, so we are just going to call it Dog. I did have to laugh at my husband. He loves a new toy, so the first time we put it on, it wasn't that much of a surprise to find that he had followed it around the house, rolling around in his office chair!

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Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Hungry 
Reading Reflections: August 2020
The Last Charm by Ella Allbright
Weekend Cooking: Books That Make Me Hungry....again

Six Degrees of Separation

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