Welcome to our 7th annual spring reading poll! Please recommend a great book to add to our reading lists, and tell us what fragrance we should wear while reading it.
Or, do what I do and record here everything you have read since the last reading poll. And if you want more recommendations, scrolling through the literature tag will bring up all the older reading polls.
Or, as always, just talk about something else.
What I've read since the winter poll:
Because Deva recommended it, I read Sebastian Barry's Annie Dunne, and then I read the second in the Dunne series, A Long Long Way. The writing is achingly beautiful, so thank you Deva. Also on the fiction front, I read Julian Barnes Departure(s), which Barnes has said will be his last book, and that's it...not a long fiction list, for me.
In the mystery/spy department, I finished Val McDermid Silent Bones, Sherry Thomas The Librarians, Derva McTiernan The Unquiet Grave, and three by Margaret Frazer (The Clerk's Tale, The Bastard's Tale and The Hunter's Tale).
For non-fiction, I read Artemis Cooper's Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure (recommended by DeniseH) and Ann Fadiman's Frog and Other Essays.
I have had the feeling over the last few months that I was watching tv more and reading less, and apparently I was right. (I also started more books that I did not finish than usual...5 by my count.) So instead of scenting one of the books I read, I'll give a scent to the end of what seemed like an incredibly long dreary winter...The Different Company De Bachmakov.
Note: top image is Lost Verses series [cropped] by Nick Kenrick at flickr; some rights reserved.
I never record anything except when I’m working because there, I have to record every single thing! But, pretty sure it’s all been Sebastian Barry books lately. I just finished another of his this week, Old God’s Time.
Guardian review here if interested.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/22/old-gods-time-by-sebastian-barry-review-a-survivors-song
I will have to order the few that I haven’t read when I get where I’m going and can have deliveries. And, he has a new one coming out this summer, so something to look forward to. With writers like this, I prefer to have a printed book because I find myself returning to certain passages again and again because they are so luminous, so beautiful they almost blind you. A work of art, but like most masterpieces it seems natural and effortless. In On Canaan’s Side, he wrote one of the most moving, elegant descriptions of grief I’ve ever read. So crushingly beautiful, so knowable, it’ll make your eyes leak and your heart shatter.
We camped along the North Platte River last night. It was cold and blowy with a bit of snow but everything is melting under the leaden skies now. This morning all the fisherfolk showed up. The entire boat ramp parking lot is full of trailers. The boatless folks have driven into the small campground here and are fishing from the banks and into the shallows. Looks like everyone is fly fishing. Waders everywhere. I watched three men commiserate at a tailgate for over an hour before they actually went fishing. Lots of passing around of gear, stringing rods, laughter and general preparations for the cold plunge. Nary a one had a hot cup of anything in hand. Into the river they went..I very much enjoy watching people enjoy life.❤️
Here’s where we are for those interested:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXiX7hLjBvQ/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
To combat the cold and the grey skies, I’m in Profvmum Ambra Aurea. It lights a fire in my heart every time. 🔥 Bellissima!
Thank you for the link to that review; the book does sound like a must-read. I’ll try someday (I’m a bit too overloaded with Irish stuff lately).
What are the fisher-folk catching–or aiming to catch? That looks like a neat place, though it would definitely benefit from more sunshine!
Until you got me started on the Dunne books I am pretty sure Old God’s Time was the only SB book I had read. Great book, I really enjoyed it, but the Dunne Family books are even better.
I posted and ran yesterday and didn’t even read the header info. I’m so glad you are enjoying him! ❤️ Totally recommend Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. They both take place in the US during critical times of westward expansion and fraught with all the joy of discovery and the tragedy being part of an unwanted diaspora. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is also a winner. On Canaan’s Side is part of the Dunne collection too and takes place mostly in the U.S. over 70ish years. All are great! I have a few left to read yet…I will read Old God’s Time again because I feel the book was so intricate and complex in regards to time and memory that I missed some essential threads.
Thank you! I am almost finished with On Canaan’s Side…will finish this week. Agree about Old God’s Time, didn’t totally realize what he was up to structurally until the end so I missed things too.
“Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.”
That’s a favorite line of mine from “Ask The Dust,” by John Fante, which I just re-read, (and highly recommend.) It’s a cult classic from 1939, set in Los Angeles during the Depression. It’s the story of a struggling young writer who’s seeking fame, fortune, and something like love. A mere 165 pages, it captures so much about the city, which, to our writer, is inspiring, lonely, cruel, and beautiful all at once.
Any perfume that evokes the mediterranean climate of LA, with its abundant citrus, orange blossoms, and night blooming jasmine, would be more than suitable – Un Jardin en Méditerranée would be an especially good companion to the novel, as would Fleurs d’Oranger from Serge Lutens. You could also go with something like Au Coeur du Désert or The Night to match the desert heat of a Los Angeles summer.
Last night I wore Rien from Etat Libre d’Orange, and of course it’s still with me. (If you’ve ever worn it, you know I’ll be smelling of it all weekend.)
Happy Saturday, everyone!
Our pretty town.
I had never heard of Fante! I will see if my library has that.
Good stuff, all of it. Fante’s Dreams From Bunker Hill is good too. The beautiful Black Sparrow re-issue trade paperbacks are works of art in themselves.
I read 29 books since the last poll, 14 were re-reads. I read some highly rated books from celebrity book clubs and social media feeds and I am not really impressed with the quality of the recommended books. For example, I read a book called Awake: A Memoir, by Jen Hatfield. She’s apparently a Christian author and influencer whose husband left her and in the aftermath of her divorce she had a crisis of conscience about church, womanhood, male supremacy, and taking control of her own life, but it got quite preachy and I was not terribly interested in how her divorce was “outed” on social media.
I quite enjoyed North Woods, by Daniel Mason, about a plot of land and who lives on it over the course of 400 years. I may have initially heard about it here.
I also read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick. It was fascinating but ends in 2009, though I suspect conditions there have not improved much.
I am slowly making my way through Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon. The NY Times called it one of the top 100 books of the century. It examines families with children who have deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, or who are transgender. It’s a thousand pages long and riveting and heartbreaking and I am only in the dwarfism section. The central question seems to be whether you try to integrate your child into mainstream society or do you help them find their own culture with those who share their abilities, and of course there is no right answer for everyone.
I had a good time reading The Haves and the Have-Yachts, by Evan Osnos. It was essays originally published in The New Yorker about the really, really rich spending, keeping, and losing their money.
I read three fantasy books by Alix E. Harrow and sometimes I’m ensnared and sometimes I”m bored, and I’ve decided I much prefer reading V. E. Schwab. I am still thinking about Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil that I read last year.
I re-read all the Murderbot series because I am looking forward to the new book coming out in May; if you watched the Apple TV series let me assure you that the books are far, far better. SO much better.
I never know how to scent characters (and much of what I read is nonfiction) so today’s SOTD is Atelier Pacific Lime. I put it on early this morning and I should go put on more, it”s mostly gone now and it’s delightfully tart and bracing on a sunny spring day.
Your reading activities are impressive! Wow! I think that Far from the Tree book sounds like something I would “enjoy” (perhaps not the right word, but I”m not sure what else to say).
I love to read. When I was thinking about retirement I realized I could read all I wanted if I retired. So I do!
No kidding, what a great aspect of retirement! In my case it’s somewhat morphed into watching TV shows and films I want to. I also meant to say, I applaud your reading both fiction and non-fiction. Among people I know who read a lot, most seem to gravitate to one or another. One of my best friends is, like you, an exception. She reads a lot of classical novels but also reads many biographies and autobiographies. Nice mix. I hardly ever read nonfiction (perhaps because I still read a lot of academic philosophy stuff).
North Woods was the bomb! Another author who delivers book after book, and he has a new one coming out this fall I believe. As for “celebrity book clubs” I rarely find their recommendations rarely equal excellent literature. I’ve learned over the years that some of the best writers are under appreciated and under supported and under PR’d. I’ve stumbled across most of the authors I’ve loved, or have found them represented on literary lists, like Booker Prize lists.
I have excellent luck finding great books on the Booker lists, too. Better than the Pulitzers!
I agree – the Booker lists consistently good. Pulitzers less so. So far I have found the NYT100 of the 2000s to be good as well (at least for my tastes).
I enjoyed Awake, foxbins.
I listened to an interview her from the NYT and the book did not disappoint.
I knew it had a big following, but it was just not for me.
I very much liked North Woods, perhaps the last book I read that I truly enjoyed. Most of the books I read are for my library’s book discussion groups, and as you said, although these are highly recommended they have failed to impress me. Nothing has come close to the beauty of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books that I read last year, Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry,
Great list. I think the North Woods is one that I need to pick up.
I inhaled Far from the Tree when it was first published and is probably the book I give as a gift most often!
Another rec if you haven’t already read it: A sort of companion book, but just in the area of neurodivergence, is the biography Clara Park, Marga Vicedo’s Intelligent Love, also about a child far from the tree.
Thanks! I put it on the TBR list.
Ever since I became addicted to k-dramas my fiction reading has declined dramatically. I do have a few things to report. In my online book club we recently finished Vargas Llosa’s Harsh Times. It’s a difficult read because the story, which is nearly journalistic, is so full of of horrible characters and their evil, cruel deeds. Whew. I haven’t read anything by him before. Some friends said his book The Feast of the Goat is similar but better After giving myself a breather, I may try that one. Our new book is Persian Letters by Montesquieu. It’s quite entertaining and very witty. I think it needs an exotic scent, maybe something like SL Arabie or Zoologist Camel (I can’t think of a scent that is specifically “Persian”).
I just finished Han Kang’s novel Greek Lessons, which was an amazing book. It’s very poetic, strange, sad, deep, and difficult to understand. I was especially interested in it because of the conjunction of one main character’s thoughts about her own language and letters in relation to the other main character’s knowledge of Ancient Greek. I had to re-read the last few chapters to grasp what actually happened at the end, where prose becomes poetry. I’m now reading her novel The Vegetarian, which is if anything, weirder. She just doesn’t write like anyone else. The main female character in Greek Lessons (she is not named) supposedly smells a bit like apple due to using her little boy’s apple shampoo. For some reason I always feel that Amouage Honour Woman smells like apple, so I would scent her with that.
I’m still commando, but yesterday I wore and enjoyed Chanel Paris-Deauville, so I may just wear it again.
I read a lot of early Vargas Llosa but nothing since the late 90s. Harsh Times does look like a difficult read.
It was a good one to read with the particular people in my book club because many of them know Spanish and are far better informed about political history than I am or ever will be.
SOTD is Tam Dao.
I am reading London Falling, Between Two Kingdoms, When We See You Again and An American Hostage in Iran.
A new book by Ann Patchett releases on June 2. Yippee!!
I read the NYer piece that turned into London Falling, and recently heard the author on a podcast about the book. Fascinating.
Yes, it would have been far-fetched as the plot of a novel but it was real!
I looked these books up and there are some I am very interested in reading. Thanks.
I’m wearing my new purchase of Rahele from Neela Vermeire Creations. It’s lovely, and I can really smell the osmanthus note.
I had read that a boutique had opened recently, I went there on Thursday and was delighted to meet Neela. She is very nice, she showed me her full range of perfumes and we chatted for ages about all sorts of things.
Should any of you be in Paris, I can strongly recommend a visit 🙂 .
Apart from re-reading a few Ngaio Marsh detective novels, I recently read The Prefect, by sci-fi writer Alastair Reynolds. I love his Revelation Space series, and this is set in the same universe. I couldn’t put it down, so now now I need to find the others in the series.
As to a suitable perfume, I have no idea!!
Sounds like your time in Paris is filled with all kinds of wonderful finds and encounters. 🇫🇷
How wonderful you met her, and that she is nice!
Oooh, now THAT I have to do the next time I’m in Paris.
Wow! That is neat that you were able to meet her.
Thank y9ou Gaynor. I’ve ordered The Prefect. In the mood for some good sci-fi.
Yesterday I wore SJP Stash, and today I have on SJP Covet.
I read The Eights by Joanna Miller and really enjoyed it. It’s set in 1920s Oxford and follows four of the women who were the first women admitted as undergraduates.
I’m currently reading The Year of the Water Horse by Janice Page. On a lighter note, I read Elly Griffiths’ latest book, The Frozen People, and although it’s fine, it made me really miss her Ruth Galloway series.
Thank you because I did not even try Frozen People and now I almost certainly won’t.
I thought about reading The Eights, but it had quite a few mixed reviews so I kind of forgot about it. I may have to rethink that.
Yesterday I wore SJP Stash, and today I have on SJP Covet.
I read The Eights by Joanna Miller and really enjoyed it. It’s set in 1920s Oxford and follows four of the women who were the first women admitted as undergraduates.
I’m currently reading The Year of the Water Horse by Janice Page. On a lighter note, I read Elly Griffiths’ latest book, The Frozen People, and although it’s fine, it made me really miss her Ruth Galloway series.
Oops–I don’t think I’ve had the double posting issue before. And it looks like Elly Griffith has a newer one since The Frozen People called The Killing Time.
And adding, regarding The Eights, that the book is historical fiction. It doesn’t follow actual students’ lives, but I am sure there were really students who faced all the things these women did.
No biggie! But if it ever happens again, only post again under the first one, that way I can delete the 2nd without removing more info…
OK, got it.
I think it has been a month since I last posted, have been very busy with work with a spectacular vacation to Italy sandwiched in – which meant more work before and after. Today is my first day since getting back that I have been at home doing my usual weekend activities.
I typically only read when I am on vacation and I bring a book for every trip. So I read Theo of Golden by Allen Levi on the most recent vacation. I found the story very beautiful, particularly with all the ugliness in the world. My next book set aside for my late May vacation is London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe.
I am wearing a sample of Fleur Narcotique and I think this would work for Theo of Golden because the author spends some time discussing the beauty of the Georgia town in which the story is set, particularly in the spring. Florals are not usually my thing but something in this one is very fresh and I think I could wear it in the summer without being overwhelmed in the heat.
I was excited to look at perfumes in Italy and in the duty free shops in the airport but the prices did not seem any better than here in the US. I picked up a bottle of Alyssa Ashley Musk in the duty free shops, on a whim. I guess I felt I could not come back completely empty-handed with respect to perfume. And it is made in Italy.
I rarely find that there are any bargains in duty free. But I did buy a vat of Korres facial cleanser at duty free in Athens just ’cause.
So glad you had a spectacular trip even if it was not a spectacular perfume shopping trip!
I loved Theo of Golden! If you haven’t read it, I think you would also like The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife.
I am writing that one down, thanks!
Not much posting this week; busy, and no JPG. I wore Fat Electrician yesterday because I feel like in his youth, the Fat Electrician probably tried to look like those Le Male bottles. Today I’m in Tauer L’air du Desert Marocain Noir, just ’cause.
I’ve been terrible at reading lately. I’ve started too many books and had them taken away from me, mid-book, by the library. Right now I’m hopeful I’ll finish Fahrenheit 451, which somehow I’ve never read. I also want to read a history of the Incas, as prep for our vacation this summer.
I did finish “King of Kings” recently, which was very illuminating about the fall of the shah in Iran. My roommate for two years in university was from Iran, and she was always paranoid that she was being watched by secret services if she went to any club meeting on campus, and I always thought she was crazy. But reading this book, I started to understand.
LOVE your Fat Electrician link to JPG!
Me too, that was quite funny!
King of Kings was great and you can bet we had our phones tapped constantly the last year we were there.
It really was fascinating, the level of paranoia that was baked into everything under the shah (and I imagine still now). I read Persepolis a year or so ago, and that was a very different, but still moving take. I would love to visit Iran someday…I’ve seen such beautiful pictures.
This poll is very timely as I recently bought the complete stores of Katherine Mansfield. Four of five times a year I make a purchase at my local bookstore because I want them to remain in business. I knew some of the stories but am discovering others. I recall an exchange with Kanuka about KM versus Virginia Woolf, as I stated I always thought that VW would have dearly wished to write as well as KM did and IIRC Kanuka related disparaging comments about her appearance.
Sharing here that I finally got my hands on a partial 50/100ml of Léonard Balahé, I looked for this perfume for years and the juice is pristine and it was my scent of the evening yesterday, it’s very strong and very animalic. As it was only £19 I figure it doesn’t warrant waiting for the official confession to Donatella and am sharing here instead while it’s fresh in my memory, Léonard is an underrated house IMO.
Disparaging comments made by VW, not Kanuka😀
😂
I never heard of this house. 19 dollars! Another deal!
It’s a venerable French house, I believe they still exist but I don’t know if it was ever distributed widely.
Oh yeah, Balahe. It had a creamy quality to it that I really liked, like vanilla and ylang and something dark and animalic, it reminded me a bit of Rochas Byzance, which also had that creaminess, but for some reason I swapped mine away.
We seem to like many of the same perfumes😀 Yes, it’s very animalic, I will compare with Byzance, thank you.
I graduate from acupuncture school today and am wearing Deixis since I bought that as my graduation present to myself and also because the weather is dreary enough at the moment that a warm cozy scent is appropriate. Currently waiting for my brother and his girlfriend to come by so we can go to brunch.
Really haven’t read much of anything for fun these past few years. Looking forward to non-reading activities like travel and going to museums and art shows. Am so, so thrilled that I don’t have to write any more papers.
Congratulations on your graduation! Will you go into private practice?
Maybe eventually although the place I currently work as a massage therapist might slot me in to do acupuncture a couple of days/week on the days they don’t already have an acupuncturist there (after I pass my boards and get licensed, of course)
Congratulations! That is wonderful news!
Congratulations!
Congratulations, thegoddessrena. I know you have been working on that for a while!
Congratulations! Have a wonderful celebration today!💐
What great news, and how exciting to learn a new field like that!
Adding my congratulations!
Congrats and good luck as your new future enfolds!
Congratulations on graduating! Sounds like a good addition to your practice.
Yay! Congratulations!
Congratulations on this, what an achievement!
Oh how lovely, congratulations!
Heartfelt congratulations, TGR!
SOTD is Shalimar Millesime Rose. I am really enjoying this one. If any of you like rose, but are not particularly fond of Shalimar, you may want to give it a try. The Shalimar is barely recognizable. (To me anyway.) I am debating on whether to get a BUB as I understand it is back on the US website to order.
I have read plenty of books this quarter, but most have been fair to poor, so I only have one to report on. That would be Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris. I thought the writing was superb. In short, it is a wonderful story about surviving a tragedy and learning to live again. My SOTD would work just fine with it.
Oops, guess it is not back up on the Guerlain website.
I think it popped up for a maybe a day, then must of sold out again.
Wow! That was fast.
I appreciate the mini review, Kris. Everyone seems to have a different take on this one, I am not seeing consensus. I also have a difficult time seeing how Shalimar would incorporate rose, whereas all the other flankers have seemed more intuitive to me. Maybe the way they’ve done it is by barely including Shalimar, LOL!
Actually, Denise I did a mini review last week, so I copied and pasted it for you.
I did try my new bottle of Shalimar Millesime Rose last night. I only sprayed a small amount, but some leaked around the top a little, so I ended up with more than I needed. I could smell it in my bedroom for several hours. I know some say they smell the Shalimar in it, but I can’t say that I really do. Since I didn’t like the original Shalimar, I don’t mind not smelling much of that. I find it to be a soft, powdery rose that may seem similar to Rose Cherie. On me, the longevity is amazing. I can see this being worn in any season. If you are not a rose fan, I would think this may be a pass as the rose scent is definitely front and center. IMHO it is beautiful!
I knew I read your review somewhere. Thank you Kris!
This is supposed to be my Sunday off. I volunteered to work tonight because I need the hours.
I’m sampling Phlur Honey Moon today. I can’t really figure out what it smells like. It’s reminding me of the 90’s though. It smells pretty good.
Good luck for this evening, Lillyjo. Glad you smell ‘pretty good’😀
Thanks Aurora! We had 7 associates not show up. It’s going to be a long night.
I like the Phlur line in general. They just aren’t perfumey enough for me to get any. I would have to get a really good deal.
Wow, that is a lot of no shows!
I’m having a bit of a lazy afternoon after getting up and around this morning to go visit Mom for lunch. It is such a long slide into ever-increasing minor losses, always difficult. The facility is hosting a “Family Night” on Tuesday and I’m debating with myself about whether to go or not. I might learn some things, but it also might be something of a downer.
My SOTD is McQueen, after it got discussed this past week (or at least mentioned). Very beautiful, but kind of a skin scent only after a few hours.
I’m sorry Calypso. I know how hard it’s been on you.
I love your sotd. I had a sample once, and agree that it becomes a skin scent.
I’m feeling you, though not nearly as closely connected as you are to your mom. My grandma is in her late 90s, and I go to see her at least once a year, though it is hard to get there from here. If my mom were still alive, she’d be there living with my grandma on the farm at this point, but I can’t easily do that now. My ex-aunt is living with her now, and my uncle stops in every other day, and they’ve called hospice in for once-a-week visits in the last few weeks.
My sister is out visiting now; I was last there at New Year’s. Grandma has noticeably deteriorated physically in the last four months, after doing well for so long. We FaceTimed today and it’s clear, and hard to see. It frustrates her as much as anyone.
I’m weighing whether I should scramble to go out there again, or let the last visit be likely my last. I tear up writing this, and I will miss her immensely and I love her so much, but she knows that. I think another visit is just going to be hard as the woman who was active into her 90s and really just a force of nature is…no longer that.
Aging is hard, for everyone, in all of its manifestations. You are doing so much for your mom and I’m sure she feels it.
Thank you for saying that, and I am sad to hear about your grandmother’s situation.
You are doing the best you can, Calypso. It’s so hard.
Calypso,
A book I read a very long time ago..it was published in 1986? is Judith Viorsts’ Necessary Losses.
It’s a classic in areas of love, loss, illusions and mourning and none of us as we know get out of here alive. Still taught in psych classes.
Sending you good energy, this is a hard thing.
It is so hard Calypso. I lived three hours away from my mom and was an only child so I felt like I had to go when I could, but after she died, I still had this guilt that I didn’t go enough. I didn’t retire until after her passing and so was still working and just didn’t feel I could get away frequently. Also, Covid was going on so that complicated things. I feel your pain and know you do the best job possible. Hugs to you.
Was commando all morning because in my rush to hit the road to beat some incoming weather, I completely forgot to spray anything.
Rectified that situation with Devotion just now. Still love it! I may end up getting a back up…
Weird experience last night and this morning. I stayed at a free city park in a very small run down town last night, way out in the boonies because FREE! And not much else on offer in the vast plain areas because it’s mostly ranch-land. Some of these little city/county parks are real gems, and I try to stay overnight if I can as I go along. Not this one, gave me the creeps. I was the only one there, which is fine, but as my hippie side would say, “The vibe was off.” Anyway, had a peaceful night and woke to take doggo out and saw a guy walking perpendicular to me with two large Kuvasz type dogs with him. He was looking directly at me so I said “Morning!” with a quick hand wave. Absolute crickets from him. No response at all, just kept walking and looking at me. Then, when we pulled out 2 minutes later and unmarked cop car did a U turn to follow us through town. All 2.5 blocks of it! When I turned to access the road to the on ramp, he followed me, and then continued to follow me onto the freeway! He got off at the next exit but really, that’s some weird unfriendly kinda vibe coming from Windy Wyoming. They did have quite a nice memorial garden and statue dedicated to Chris LeDoux, so they can’t be all bad, right? 😉 Did I die? Nope, still trucking!
Omg! I’m glad you got out of that Twilight Zone town!
🎥 Deliverance, Wyoming style. 🤠
Glad you’re ok, creepy story! Whew! 😅
Deva, I know you love all things Irish and I wonder if you are familiar with Joe Jencks, a Chicago-based long-time veteran of the international folk scene who draws on his Irish heritage (dual U.S. and Irish citizenship) in his music. We first discovered him a few years ago at Two-Way Street Coffeehouse in Downers Grove (located in the basement of a church that has hosted folk concerts for more than 50 years!). Joe was just there last Friday but we had conflicting events and couldn’t attend. Here’s a link to his website and to Friday’s concert. Hope you enjoy!
https://joejencks.com
https://www.youtube.com/live/frAC_0gJM1A?si=JCsihYD1WWQk3TZI
Thank you Laila! I’ll check it out…When I was a teenager my mom and dad sponsored quite a few Irish musicians who stayed with us in the Burbs while playing in Chicago and other surrounding towns. I think I was 13 or 14 and too wrapped up in Pink Floyd and Rush to care about Irish music, but I do remember them fondly because they were such fun. I was too young to attend any of the pubs they played in, so never got to see them in action. One of the musicians that stayed in my room made a big deal of my record collection, and I remember having a bit of a crush on him. 🙃
OMG, the vibes are always right. Always trust your gut. (It has taken a long time for me to believe this but I know now to do so.) Being from that area of the country (ok, Eastern WA but close), it can go either way. Which annoys me.
Yes, I’m always cognizant of how quickly things can go sideways. I feel safe most of the time and try to be aware but not paranoid. I have several layers of protection and Plan A, B, and C for multiple situations so that makes me feel more prepared. It’s easy to let an irrational fear overtake one’s behavior and discerning legitimate danger. It’s a balancing act, and at this point has become ingrained. I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother. It’s so painful to watch our loved ones fade. I still have crying episodes occasionally thinking of my father and grandmother, 26 years later.
Creepy indeed, I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Deva. The being escorted out by the cops must have been very unpleasant.
Sunday morning bird-watching 🐤 from the hot tub revealed a few new migrating birds, a vireo, ruby-crowned kinglet and a yellow warbler. It was a cool, cloudy,bluesy-feeling morning, and my hand reached for YR Iris Noir, a dry, earthy Iris that was in perfect harmony. My irises are coming up but are a long way from blooming.
But the 🌞 came out as we were driving to another wonderful suburban library nearby for an afternoon concert 🎶 with our favorite Chicago troubadour, Mark Dvorak. A master storyteller as well as folk musician, it’s so cool to hear him explain the origins of many of the folk songs he sings, which are often surprising.
Yesterday we had 2 long-anticipated back-to-back events, both a distance from home and from each other. Although we anticipated it might be a bit taxing to make both, additional frustrating occurrences happened to tarnish the day, ending with car trouble in a distant suburb on the way home but, luckily, we held our breath and we made it home safely. When Mr. Laila gets the car checked out tomorrow, 🤞it will be something minor. Since it was just Arbor Day 2 days ago and all our trees are green, my SOTD yesterday was the very green PB Vent Vert❤️.
My thoughts on book 📖 recommendations are posted under foxbin’s post of yesterday but I’m eagerly reading all of yours!
Hope the car is simple and cheap fix!
Fingers crossed on the car repairs. Awesome bird viewing!
🤞for a simple fix!
Speaking of books, here’s a 1710 house full of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG6edvHajLo
How cool!! Thanks nozknoz.
I’m chiming in to report that my (very slow, very gradual) process of decluttering turned up a prize yesterday, a fancy sample box of 12 Amouage scents that I had forgotten I have. It must date about five years back because it contains samples from the Odyssey I and II collections. Wow! (I confess to being a borderline hoarder, and of my collections, only the books are well-organized.) Yesterday I wore Dia Woman, and found it dull, nothing but endless soap. Today I have Crimson Rocks on one arm and Epic Woman on the other. Coincidentally, both feature cinnamon. It’s very strong in Crimson Rocks, along with honey, and not my thing. I like Epic more, and will definitely wear it again. This might turn into the CP for me this week!
What fun!
Hello hello dear fumies. It’s been a minute. Been dealing with family who was ill, and now have passed. Not big on sharing that roller coaster, but it’s been a doozy.
All through, perfume has delighted, cheered, and soothed me. Here’s to our shared elixir!!
Recent happy fruit perfume purchases were Arquiste’s Tropical and Apricot Innocence by Simone Andreoli.
In books, I’m listening to the somewhat dated but still so good A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. There is so much laugh out loud commentary— a joyful tale of the beginnings of the sciences that will make you burst out laughing. Don’t believe me? Try it!
Four completely unrelated books sit on my bedside table. I’m about halfway through The Ghosts of Iraq’s Marshes and loving it, just a few dozen pages into The Great Chimera translated into English by Patricia Barbeito, and still untouched are The Husbands (for my reading group), and Hutton’s The Making of Oliver Cromwell. Lest you are tempted to be impressed by my book consumption— the truth is that I wind up listening to hours and hours of true crime podcasts, while my reading languishes 🙄😂😬
It’s truly good to hear from you, and I’m glad you’ve checked in. But I’m also truly sorry about your ordeal and loss. It sounds very very hard.
I like your book choices and will make a note of them. If the true crime podcasts keep your interest, good for you (and them)!–kind of like me with my k-dramas. My favorite genre is actually the crime/police story and/or thriller.
Totally. Best of all, a good scam story. Luv me some scams😁😂🤣
I’m so sorry family issues took you away for a while, my condolences on your loss. I liked The Husbands a lot, such an interesting premise. It should make for a lively discussion in your reading group.
Welcome back, Oakland Fresca, and condolences on the family member who passed. If you are still interested in Iraq’s marshes when you finish, I would recommend Wilfred Thesiger’s The Marsh Arabs. He was one of those intrepid Brit explorers who spent years amidst that culture and whose book is a marvelous ethnography and natural history of that vanished world.
The Marshes are like the rattle in the cradle of civilization. So much history converged there. The Ghosts is more recent history, but I will be sure to lay my hands on Thesiger’s book. Thanks for the rec. 🧡
Glad you check in! Sorry for the loss of a loved one.
Thanks Haj. Good to see everyone!
Good to see you back. Sending condolences and a big 🤗.
Waving and smiling!!
Oakland Fresca! So glad you are well and sorry for the doozy, whatever it was. Condolences to you.
I am so glad to see your post – I’ve missed you here! And I’m so sorry for your family’s loss. Sending more hugs🌸
Hello NST. I’m popping in to say I’m actually wearing something floral and spring-like that I picked up recently: Library of Flowers Linden. My sister and I just love linden scents and I can’t wait to share this one with her. Notes per Basenotes are: Linden, narcissus, & clover honey. It smells very natural, like a 1990s L’Occitane or Body Shop scent. I also really love honey scents and so this one hits the spot on that *note* as well. The Library of Flowers line was created by Margot Elena, based in Centennial Colorado, who is also the person behind the darker Tokyo Milk fragrances, (a fave of my gothy niece) Lollia, (light florals) Love & Toast and others. Not affiliated!
I haven’t heard Tokyo Milk mentioned for ages. We had a boutique here that sold some of their products. Not sure if they still do.
BTW-I responded to you about Shalimar-Rose a little more. I had done a mini review last week. You may have already seen it.
SOTD is AdV Ambre Liquide. We have found ourselves in an idyllic spot but it’s very, very cold. ❄️ AL is the perfect light but warming amber. Nothing thick and gooey about this amber! It’s diaphanous type of amber and wears well in the heat, too. I’m thinking about another purchase from this house….🤔
We are all alone beside a winding creek of crystal clear water with canyon walls on each side. Only 1 bar of service so I don’t even know if this will post. Some snow on the ground and in the trees, which makes for beautiful photos. Plenty of new green grass shoots and a few fresh leaves but overall it looks like someone put a hold on spring so winter could do a last lap just to tick everyone off. 🙃
Currently digesting a bowl of chicken fried rice. I made enough to feed an army and have divvied everything up so I can have a grab and go meal. Will soon take a short walk about with doggo, then curl up under the covers with a book. And heat. Both propane tanks freshly filled! ✅
I need a USB powered heated throw but have yet to find one. Oh well, next week it’ll probably 85F. 😂
Hope the vibe is happier in your current spot…and do stay warm!
SOTD = Opula Dulce Solis Violette
So nice, by one of the perfumers here who posts rarely…
Books I’ve read include:
1. King Sorrow by Joe Hill – very very long but worth the time
2. The Beginning by Preston & Child – love, you don’t need to read the book in order
3. The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly – excellent
4. “Bosch” books by Michael Connelly – I am trying to read this series in order although I am slightly discombobulated (in a good way) with the timing of events
I have to think about how to scent the characters. If anything, the perfume will have tobacco, smoke and something more masculine. There were women protagonists whose perfume seems to interest Bosch; I wonder what they were?
Oh, golly, Preston & Child is kind of a shameful pleasure for me–I really have no truck with the supernatural, but damn, how that pale and brilliant aristocratic detective of theirs, Pendergast, catches my interest! Even after I swear off reading them, every so often I succumb and buy another new one.
I do really love all of Michael Connelly’s books and adore Bosch. The TV shows based on the novels have been unusually good, too. I recommend them. (The Lincoln Lawyer shows, less so, though I like the movies with Matthew Mcconaughey, I’m not sure about the perfumes, but they’ve got to be sort of LA film noir types of scents, right–whether for males or females?
I also love both series. I’m done with The Lincoln Lawyer series and can’t wait for the next one. I’m watching the new to me older Bosch series.
A stormy day here with lots of rain and more predicted for tonight but🤞it looks like the severe storms will be south of us. SOTD is DSquared2 She Wood, a woody violet that was described on fragrantica as evoking a serene forest after rain, so it certainly suits the day! I love violet scents in Spring and this is a nice one.
Luckily, our car troubles from Saturday turned out to be just a minor repair, all fixed today. We are grateful!🙏
Hoping everyone stays safe from the storms and has a good week ahead.
I’m glad the car troubles are resolved!