And still a few more New Year's birds

 White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Cedar Waxwing

There are robins all over, too, but I can't seem to get a picture of one.

Review: Alex Rider #1

 

Breaking Creed by Alex Kava

I could not put this book down. Honestly. Well...almost. I did put it down a couple of times, to eat and sleep and do those necessary things of a civilized life in the 21st century. But only when I had to!

 This was despite it being really gross and depressing in the imaginary killer's methodology. Usually that sort of thriller material puts me off in a mystery novel. And also the use of very short chapters and alternating POV--I tend to dislike those both.

 But somehow he pulls it off and made a series that I'm going to race through at breakneck speed and be sad when it's over.  The characters are very interesting and seem to have an ability to come to life with very little description and even less self-rumination. They have a backstory, clearly, but it's not shoved in your face or dragged over the ground. It's just there, teasing the present.  Very good writing.

Review: Finding Gobi

I was gripped by this story from beginning to end.  And it's true, so I guess it shouldn't be called a story--a memoir, maybe?  In any event, from the ultra-runner's long prelude to his first encounter with the dog to his harrowing adventure trying to hold onto her, I was hooked.

Let me admit, and warn you, that the writing is often repetitive. Some good editing could have got it down by one-quarter of length without sacrificing any story line or suspense.  Just be aware of that and don't let it get to you.  I'm glad I was reading "on paper" instead of listening to an audiobook, because hearing every word of a repetition will get old really fast.  My eyes can skip forward--my ears cannot.

Great book, though. Makes me want to go run a few hundred miles and/or adopt a stray dog.

A few more birds of the new year

 This one is giving me fits -- I at first took it to be a Lincoln's Sparrow, of which we have some around.  

But on very close examination and another picture,

I'm convinced it is a Song Sparrow.  I've seen both around in the winter.

Dark-eyed junco

And a Cooper's Hawk came by to give me the evil eye:

Review: Max's War

Max's War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy

by Libby Fischer Hellmann

I am sorry to be giving up on this.  It occurs in a time peried that I've read tons of books about--World War II in German and Holland--and covers a subject I find intensely interesting--the resistance and the OSS.  But the writing is dull and stilted, even in the action scenes. You know how when you're writing action, you shorten your sentences and jump about to build excitement?  In this book, all of the sentences are short and choppy--they failed to pull me along.  After a paragraph or two, I kept finding myself wanting to put the book down.

The guy next to him pulled out a rosary and started to pray. Max recited teh Sh'ma. The plane abruptly ascended five hundred feet. Max was on the verge of panic. What was happening? Had they been shot at again? No. The unit leader made circular gestures with his arms, signalling that the jumps would begin. He struggled to pull open the plane's door.

Is this just me being picky, or did the paragraph about read like something I might read to my kids, in a "talking down" tone?  (Which I wouldn't do)   And another issue I had is that the emotional content just wasn't there. It read like a history book. Strange.

I'm really sorry, because I think the author did her research excellently well and came up with a cool story designed to bring history to life.  But for me, it didn't.

Gardening...no

Earlier in the week I checked out the "mini-greenhouses" that I'd planted with spinach, lettuce and radishes before the last trip.  Excitement ensues....

 Not much to see. 

Maybe a lettuce leaf or two on the left and a few radishes on the right.  I watered them and recovered them, so maybe something will be growing by next week.

 

 

My collards and kale from last year are still growing huge.  I harvested a little in mid-December, so I guess it's time to steal a few more leaves,

Review: Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip

 

Bearing in mind that this is fictionalized history—isn’t that what they call it when a person takes an actual historical character and makes up stories about them?—I found it to be a hoot. Maybe a little unbelievable in just how many peculiar encounters might happen in the course of a one-week drive, but then, since you know it’s not real, why not?

The story follows the adventures and misadventures of Katharine Prescott Wormeley in the early 1900s when she travels from her home in Rhode Island to her new home in New Hampshire. She drives herself, in an open-top car whose make and model don’t appear to have ever been specified. If so, I’m curious to know what.  It does have a top, so it’s some sort of early convertible.

 The only annoying thing about the whole book is that the teaser, the mysterious health problem that is going to make this big trip her last big trip, is never resolved. Or maybe it was and I missed it. Find out for yourself.

A few more New Year's birds

 Blue jay, of course

Common Crow

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Mockingbird

House Finch and Cardinal, posing

House Finch and Cardinal, swiveling

Reviews: a couple of catch-up

 We're on our way USA

Amusing, as the British usually are to Americans like me.  They seem to see everything in a different way. In this short memoir the author and his wife move to America, specifically, Atlanta, with his job.  And the story unfolds of their trials and tribulations of getting VISAs, finding a house, establishing credit which requires a social security number, and various other dross adventures. Not gut-wrenchingly exciting, and not as snarkily funny as some other Brit-discovering-America memoirs I've read, but quite solidly amusing.

The Taste of Country Cooking
by Edna Lewis

I read this as much as I ever read a cookbook--the introduction, all the headnotes, and skimming some of the recipes. But I didn't read every single ingredient and instruction in every single recipe, no.

It was absolutely lovely. She's writing of her experiences and meals while growing up in Freetown, Virginia in the early 1900's--from about 1920 on. (She was born in 1916). I was expecting them to eat a lot of seasonal, local foods, plus hogs and chickens they raised themselves and occasional fish (always shad) and wild game. But it was amazing to read the amount of butter, cream and lard they used--in everything!  Even the green salads, and there were plenty of those, usually had a vinegar/bacon grease topping.  Much like my own ancestors did.

She was probably about the age of my Aunt Callie or grandmother, and no doubt ate much of the same foods. Probably prepared much the same way, although my ancestors grew up in the western area of Kentucky some 700 miles away. And probably--since she grew up to be a famous chef--her cooking was better. But many of the recipes sound just the same as my folk would have cooked.  I don't eat that way anymore, but it sure sounds good.

A few birds of the New Year

 At my bird feeder and bath; also had Robin, Common Grackle, Chickadee and Titmouse. And Common Crow. And a Lincoln's Sparrow but the sound of the air compressor scared it off just as the camera was getting focused.

Cedar Waxwings (with a Harris' Sparrow in the left background)

White Throated Sparrow

Carolina Chickadee

Harris' Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird female

Red-winged Blackbird male

Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker