TSS: Labor Day, My Eyes, and the Rising Price of Ebooks

Good morning, friends. I hope you're enjoying the long Labor Day weekend. With 90 degrees and humidity, this will truly be summer's last hurrah in central New York!

My reading has been sporadic again this week, but I think I finally figured out what's happening. Most of my reading has been on a kindle this year...with adjustable font. Last week I borrowed a copy of All That Is  by James Salter from the library. Even though I liked the writing and was getting interested in the characters, it was a chore to read. The print seemed so small! It's been a few years, so I decided to schedule an eye exam. It's probably past time for a new prescription. And I'll definitely give James Salter another try at some point.

Which bring me to my next topic... Have you noticed the price of ebooks lately?

At 7AM on September 1, I visited amazon eager to download Purity  by Jonathan Franzen, but my "buy now with 1-click" finger froze when I discovered the $14.99 price tag . The ebook was actually MORE EXPENSIVE than the hardcover! How could that be?? I surely was not the only potential buyer to balk. Since then, the hardcover has undergone a price adjustment from $14.95 to $15.10, so it's no longer more expensive, but still...

It's hard to ignore the recent rise in ebook prices. Surely the new distribution deals between amazon and several big publishers are behind it. The fine print on amazon's website now says "This price was set by the publisher", and ebook sales have declined sharply. Here is an article from The Wall Street Journal  with a few more details. It seems I'm not the only one refusing to pay $14.99 for an ebook.

Current Reading//

So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures

by Maureen Corrigan

An interesting mix of literary discussion and FSF biography. I'd say a reread of The Great Gatsby is imminent... it's been over a decade. 

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

I'm kicking off R.I.P. X  with my first foray into the world Lord Peter Wimsey!

Up next//  Decisions, Decisions...

Our #6Barsets project continues this month with The Small House at Allington. I'm anxious to return to Trollope, but may squeeze one more book in ahead of it.

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante was also released September 1st.  I might have to indulge my Ferrante Fever and read the final Neopolitan novel right away.

Or maybe Jonathan Franzen's Purity ... in print, of course. I flat out refuse to pay $14.99 for an ebook!


On the blog//
Did You Miss Me?
Readers Imbibing Peril: R.I.P  X


In the kitchen//

Have you heard? Trish is bringing back her Pin It and Do It challenge this fall. For me, that means new recipes and my family is already pretty excited. Click here for details.


The Week Ahead//

It will be nice to settle into a routine again. A couple of doctor's appointments with Twin B plus my own eye exam are on the schedule, but other than that it should be business as usual. Plus, the Monday holiday makes it a very short week. Which is good because...

 Friday can't come fast enough. Every year my sisters and I plan an overnight get-away for our mother's birthday - we shop, go out to dinner, drink a little wine, and stay up most of the night talking. This year Mom turns 80, so it will be extra-special!

We don't have any big plans for the rest of the holiday weekend... just a little relaxation to wrap up the summer. What are you up to? Did you read anything good last week?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?  is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. While she is taking a break, check the hashtag #IMWAYR on twitter.

Readers Imbibing Peril: R.I.P X

It's R.I.P. - Readers Imbibing Peril - time again! For this tenth edition, Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings has passed the hosting torch to the ladies of The Estella Society.

This event, which runs through Halloween, encourages us to read...

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

There are just two simple rules:
1. Have fun reading (and watching).
2. Share that fun with others.

One again, there are many levels of participation - just pick the "peril" that's right for you. I've chosen "Peril the Second" and will read two books that fit the RIP theme. I may pull out my Virago Book of Ghost Stories and tackle the "Peril of the Short Story", too.

Complete details can be found over at The Estella Society.

My list of reading possibilities:

The House at Riverton  by Kate Morton
I'd Know You Anywhere  by Laura Lippman
Baltimore Blues  by Laura Lippman (but do I really need another series?)
Burial Rites  by Hannah Kent
Lady Audley's Secret  by M.E. Braddon
Strangers on a Train  by Patricia Highsmith
Whose Body?  by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Black Tulip  by Alexandre Dumas
My Cousin Rachel  by Daphne du Maurier
Armadale  or No Name  by Wilkie Collins

Have you read any of these books?
Are you participating in R.I.P. X?

Did You Miss Me?

Three and a half weeks. It sure seems longer. Adult children and house guests have come and gone, an internship ended and a job offer was extended (!). We visited attractions all over New York state,  we cooked and ate fabulous food, we boated, kayaked, and cheered at a local triathlon, and now, summer is ending.

Twin A is back at school for one final semester. Sunday was move-in day... our last one. Ever. We've been moving kids in and out of college dorms and apartments since 2008, so this is the end of an era. No more tuition bills! But it's almost scary to think about how fast time is marching on.

Fall is almost here. Leaves are beginning to change and the air was tauntingly crisp last week. Orchards are open for picking and the arrival of pumpkin spice lattes is imminent. Perhaps they're already here? As much as I love fall, it still seems bittersweet. Summer is so short around here.

As for the blogging... I missed it! Or, to be more precise, I missed all of you. I did not, however, miss writing book reviews.

There wasn't much time for reading, but I did finish these books:

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

Old Filth by Jane Gardam

Sabbathday River by Jean Hanff Korelitz 

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck

I'll catch up on reviews with a series of "Book Briefs" over the next couple of weeks.

Now it's time for me to get back on a reading and blogging schedule again. Can't wait to catch up with all of you... what did I miss?

See You in September

... See you when the summer's through

Remember that old song? I'm pretty sure it was in American Graffiti.

Anyway, I've decided to take a blogging break for the rest of the summer. That may sound strange because I know summer is ending now for many of you. But while you and your kids are returning to school, Twin A has just come home. She finished an internship at L'Oréal and will be with us for three weeks before beginning her final semester of college.

There will be plenty of boating, kayaking, grilling, and hanging out by the lake. Probably a little shopping and reading, too.

I'll catch up with you next month. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

#6Barsets: Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage

Our #6Barsets Project is proving to be the most enjoyable reading experience I've had in years. Not only have I discovered a new favorite author, I love chatting about books with friends as we read. And I've even managed to stay on schedule through the first four novels! Unfortunately, I have been less conscientious when it comes to following through with blog posts.

Before reading Trollope, I had a vague notion that he was comparable to Dickens. After reading Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage, I believe his stories and writing style are actually closer to Jane Austen.

** There are no spoilers for either novel in this post. **

Doctor Thorne can be summed up in a single sentence, a quote which appears repeatedly throughout the novel:

He must marry money!

Money and blood. Blood and money. Nothing is more important in measuring social status and worth during this time period - especially to the family of young Frank Gresham as they struggle financially to maintain their estate and standing in the community.

Problems arise when Frank falls in love with Mary Thorne - penniless, of questionable parentage, and being raised by her uncle, our hero, Doctor Thorne.

I won't say more, but this is a a plot truly worthy of Jane Austen herself.

Doctor Thorne gets a solid 5 star rating from me and will appear on my year-end list of favorites. In fact, I've added it to my list of all-time favorites, too.

On July 1, I moved on to Book 4 of The Barsetshire Chronicles...

In Framley Parsonage, Trollope returns once again to ecclesiastical matters... with a healthy dose of love and marriage, money and status, and, of course, social convention. This was enough to cement my view that Trollope is much more like Austen than Dickens

Framley Parsonage  tells the story of Mark Robarts,  "a young clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley. In a naive attempt to mix in influential circles, he makes a financial deal with the disreputable local Member of Parliament, but is instead brought to the brink of shame and ruin."

Politics plays a more prominent role here than in the previous novels and I got bogged down with the details a couple of times. Perhaps this does not bode well for the Palliser series, as I understand it is more focused on government and less on the church.

As a result, my rating "plummeted" to 4 stars. However, it is still among the best books I've read this year.

Both novels were read/listen combinations. I listen in the car and on my walks, then switch to an ebook to read in the evening. I love this approach to long classics and refer to it as total immersion. Simon Vance is my narrator of choice for British Literature and his performance in these novels was, as always, outstanding.

Up next for September and October is  The Small House at Allington, a novel former Prime Minister John Major declared to be his favorite book of all time. I can't wait to get started.

Wordless Wednesday: Mount Rushmore

I'll be sharing photos from our Great Western Adventure for the next few weeks.

If you follow me on Instagram,you may have seen some of them already.

Tuesday Intro: The Oregon Trail

I had known long before I rode a covered wagon to Oregon that naiveté was the mother of adventure. I just didn't understand how much of that I really had. Nicholas and I realized before we left Missouri with the mules that we would be the first wagon travelers in more than a century to make an authentic crossing of the Oregon Trail. But that was never the point for us. We pushed mules more than two thousand miles to learn something more important. Even more beautiful than the land that we passed, or the months spent camping on the plains, was learning to live with uncertainty.

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey
by Rinker Buck

I purchased this book just before we left on our Great Western Adventure and now that we're back home, I'm even more interested in reading it. We passed through parts of the route and I have a better idea of the landscape and conditions the original travelers must have faced.

Here is a portion of the goodreads summary:

In the bestselling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's "The Oregon Trail" is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a team of mules--which hasn't been done in a century--that also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country. 

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.