More Pictures from Alaska/Yukon Trip

Caribou in Denali National Park, Alaska

Five Fingers Rapids

Grizzly - Denali

A Hanging Glacier in Denali

The Yukon and Alaska

 The White Pass Railroad from Skagway, Alaska to Carcross, The Yukon

 Mounties on parade marching to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Lost Patrol - Dawson City

 Panning for gold! And we each got some.

Permafrost has collapsed these buildings in Dawson City

Tripping with NOOK

We have returned from our wonderful trip to the Yukon and Alaska, and I'll try to post some pictures later, if I can figure out how to do it!

I managed to read quite a few books on my new NOOK while we were on planes, waiting at airports or for stragglers on our motor coaches.

The first: Nemesis by Jo Nesbo - Norway mystery featuring the Police Detective Harry Hole. Very good - and kept me reading too late one night.

The second: Shoot to Thrill - P.J. Tracy - Another Monkeewrench mystery concerning Web murders and FBI Agent John Smith. Also very good.

The third: Every Last One - Anna Quindlen - Oh my. Lesley said I shouldn't read it, and I understand why, but it was such a well-written story. No spoilers.

The fourth: White Nights - Ann Cleeves - Another Shetland mystery with Jimmy Perez set during the long days on summer in the north - with very little darkness.

These were all so good I'm glad I saved them for the trip. I have two more on my NOOK for our trip to Nebraska, and may download another. But I can take books in the car with us, so don't have to rely on the NOOK too much!

Differences

I've recently read two very different books, and both were quite good. The first one I finished was another Norse mystery by Hakan Nesser, Borkmann's Point, and the second was A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball.


Well, the Nesser book was again a very good, slow-paced story, with a surprise ending. I've enjoyed his writing, and find it very interesting that most of the Scandinavian mysteries I've read are usually less violent than American "thrillers."  


A Year on Ladybug Farm is very funny and fun. I was expecting a fluffy read, but while it isn't terribly deep, it has lots of episodes that had me laughing so hard I had tears running down my cheeks, and had to keep wiping my eyes so that I could continue reading! 


When I was first learning to read back in the olden days, we had Readers in school with Tom, Dick and Jane. One of my favorite stories has stayed with me for years. It was about the three or four young people wanting to help a struggling family. I expect the story was written during the Depression. The children gathered up food to take to the family, as well as helping them out in other ways. That reading experience gave to me the idea of not just helping, but "making do" with what was available. Ladybug Farm is the adult version of helping out and making do - with lots of humor thrown in. 

There are two more Ladybug books, and I can hardly wait to read them. Laughter is such a necessary part of life, and such fun to find it in writing!

Purple

One of the plants that does very well on the coast in Oregon is the hydrangea. This is one of my favorites. It starts out as a light mauve, then darkens to a real purple and eventually turns to a metallic blue. We do get some hard frosts in the winter, and the plants suffer, but come back in the spring. Because of the frosts, however, we don't get blooms until late in the year. One year we had beautiful blooms in December - and then it snowed!

Blogging and Books

I'm finding it difficult to write reviews of the books I'm reading. I've read four books recently, and don't really have too much to say about any of them. So I think I'll just write a sentence or two, and leave the real reviewing to Les! 


Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult - Lesley has written an excellent review of this book so I won't even attempt one! As usual Picoult has written an engrossing story, and I found the book to be as good as most of her others, with interesting topics. A Plus read.


Burnt Mountain - Anne Rivers Siddons - This is not one of my favorites of hers. It was a quick read, and entertaining, but not something that will stay with me for very long.


The American Heiress - Daisy Goodwin - Something of a fluff book, but it kept my interest enough that I finished it! Tale of a very rich American woman who goes to England to "catch a Duke." Modeled after Consuelo Vanderbilt's era of titled husband-hunting in Europe.


Breaking Silence - Linda Castillo - Mystery in Amish country in Ohio. The Chief of Police in the community is an excommunicated Amish woman. This is part of a series, and I got into it after the first two books, so there were some spoilers. I liked this book, and will look for more of hers.


So my blogging will now be shorter, and even more infrequent than it has been! I hope to be able to add pictures from some of our trips some day, and do a Wordless Wednesday!

Roofing

We have been under attack for a week with much pounding on the roof. Our shake roof only lasted a bit over 13 years, thanks to the dampness and the towering trees shedding their needles. So this is the summer to re-roof, and it has taken quite a while. The rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat is becoming a real distraction. I'm finding it difficult to read for more than a few minutes at a time, and have had to do most of my reading in bed. So it took me a long time to finish These Lovers Fled Away but it was worth every minute of reading. 


I know I read Spring's book years and years ago, but didn't remember any of it. It is somewhat reminiscent of Delderfield's books in that the characters develop along the way in a detailed plot. The descriptions of England are fantastic. This is not the England we saw when we traveled there  ten years ago, but the England of the 1910s to 1940s. I most definitely recommend reading These Lovers Fled Away, if you want to immerse yourself in a "jolly good tale."