I've had a great reading week over the last week, finishing The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte which I gave a grading of 5/5 (review here) and also The Wreck by Meg Keneally which I graded as 4.5/5. My review for The Wreck will be up later in the week and my review for the third book I finished this week, Paris Time Capsule, will be up in couple of weeks.
I somehow seem to have a gap in my reading schedule which means I can take the opportunity to actually read whatever I want. Today I therefore started reading Serenity's Song by Cathryn Hein which is part of the Outback Brides Return to Wirralong series. This is 100% a comfort read for me and so far I am enjoying it.
I am also contemplating reading The Turning of the Screw by Henry James because it is the starting point of the October Six Degrees of Separation. Originally I had no intention of reading it, but I had a look and realised that it is actually a short story, I think that I could definitely fit that in!
Over the weekend I also watched a book talk featuring the authors from The Deadly Hours (which I reviewed last week). One of the silver linings of COVID is that there are so many online events that are accessible that never would have been back in "normal days". One of those authors is Susanna Kearsley who I would love to meet for real one day, but I do think that it probably unlikely.
I'm watching
This week was more a week of finishing things rather than watching anything new.
We finished watching Great Canadian Baking Show which we enjoyed and also Singapore Sling, which was... interesting. Singapore Sling was about life in Singapore on the eve of the Japanese invasion during. That aspect was interesting but there were moments that just descended into buffoonery. The other thing was that the episodes just ended. It didn't really feel like the end a few times, including in the final episode. I was expecting them to come back after the ad break.
Life
This weekend we were supposed to go to Uluru for the weekend. We booked the trip back in February and we were hopeful that things might have settled down a bit so we could still go, but it wasn't to be. Not all was lost though. We needed to create a new car parking space at home so we have been working on clearing out a garden bed for the last few weeks, including chopping down trees, What we learnt early on during our projects is that our garden is full of very big rocks, It just so happens that my street name kind of rhymes with Uluru! I therefore bring you the big rock that we saw this weekend!
I also made the switch to the new Blogger this weekend. I have been resisting it, but for the most part I think that it's okay. In the end of got sick of having to swap it back to the legacy version. I haven't had too many issues with images, and labels are okay now too. Really, the only thing I am not 100% on is that I have a lot of posts in draft, and I can't tell what the scheduled date is just looking in the list. Instead it shows you the date that you saved it which isn't ideal but it is a minor thing!
Don't forget you can now follow my blog on Facebook here.
Top Ten Tuesday: Childhood Favourites
The Deadly Hours
Alphabet 2020: S is for Social Media
Weekend Cooking: You Say Tomato...
I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date
My dream is to go visit Uluru but I cant even visit Melbourne where my children live.
ReplyDeleteI am in Melbourne but can barely leave the house!
DeleteGreat gardening adventures! The rocks are amazing.
ReplyDeleteI really want to read The Tolstoy Estate.
Good luck with the blogger changes. Here are my WEEKLY UPDATES
Still more to do in the garden Laurel-Rain!
DeleteI need to squeeze in The Wreck this week, I had to bump it from last weeks schedule.
ReplyDeleteI so need some more Baking Show episodes!
Wishing you a great reading week
We need to find more bake off kind of shows to watch Shelleyrae.
DeleteSame with me and the new Blogger. I did NOT want to switch, but going back and forth was getting irritating. I still prefer the old format, but I'm used to the new version now and it's really not THAT bad.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of THE TOLSTOY ESTATE before. It sounds really good and I love the cover. I'll have to see if I can find myself a copy. Glad you enjoyed it!
Susan, I think you will like it if you do get to read it.
DeleteCentering images in the new Blogger is still a mystery for me. But I'll keep trying. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteIf you are in HTML it asks you what size and location you want it in. If you are in editor mode, click on the image and then there will be a taskbar which you can use to change the location and size.
DeleteI'm not ready for the new version yet. I know I'll need to get used to it soon, but can't deal with it right now.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of your delayed trip, but glad you are getting done some things that are necessary. What neat rock photos. We have a ton of rocks here, too.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you have a great week.
There's always things to do right Cheryl!
DeleteThe label thing drove me crazy. I actually sent feedback twice on things dealing with the labels but they did make it better so I'm pretty happy with the new editor now.
ReplyDeleteLabels were one of the things that stopped me from swapping earlier.
DeleteI’m happy you had a great reading week. Wow, that is a big rock. I’m glad you haven’t had problems with the new Blogger. It won’t let me format posts the way I want, so I have to keep swapping back to Legacy. I hope you have a good week!
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I found that it didn't enter paragraph breaks in when i published this but I think I just had to enter twice. Other than that and the post scheduling I think the new blogger is okay AJ.
DeleteWell at least those rocks mean you didn't miss out on your trip! I'm only just getting my reading mojo back after a couple of weeks of struggling to stick with anything, so I'm happy to hear that your reading is going so well!
ReplyDeleteI have good weeks and bad weeks Louise. I am always grateful for a good week.
DeleteThose are huge rocks!!
ReplyDeleteI'm finally feeling comfortable with the new Blogger and it won't be long before I forget how it used to be. I'm not sure how any of it was improved, though. I do find the label component very annoying, though.
They are very heavy Les!
DeleteI think the most annoying thing for me is the scheduled/draft post thing. And now that I am using it, it does odd things with paragraph breaks.