The 2017 Nonfiction Challenge Part IV: Hobbies, Pastimes and Passions in April

It's spring, at least for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, and some gardening afficionados will be digging away. Others will be awaiting opening day at the ball park (baseball, that is.) Most of us probably have some kind of passion or hobby, even if it's reading comic books or watching television miniseries. Here's your opportunity to read a book connected to that interest. One caveat -- when I say "read", I do mean "read". So, if you're passionate about cooking, read a book that is about cooking, don't just pick up a cookbook and try out some recipes. You get the picture. And yes, reading books is a hobby -- so reading a book about books would work. If you're fascinated by origami, Mark Kurlansky's latest book is all about paper. And so on... Be creative! I would just note that this tends to be hobbies and pastimes rather than causes -- so unless you're absolutely desperate for ideas, let's try to steer clear of books that would suggest your favorite pastime is promoting free speech, for instance. Biographies of people are just fine, so if you're a cooking nut, and want to read Julia Child's bio, go for it. But try to avoid anything as vague as being fascinated by history, and using that as carte blanche to read a biography of anyone you choose. If you are a medieval history re-enactor, find a book about re-enactment, or a place where a lot of these are done, or read Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz, which is all about re-enacting the US Civil War. Hopefully this summary helps!

As always, if you've got any questions, please holler. I'm sure I haven't covered all eventualities!

What we're reading:











For the benefit of those planning ahead, here's a reminder of the rest of the year's schedule for this challenge:

May: History
Pretty self explanatory. One of a few holdovers from 2016.

June: The Natural World
Another holdover. Anything about rocks, logs, the sea, the air we breathe, what grows around us, animal life, etc. And the pollution of same...

July: Creators and Creativity
Rather than just a category about the arts, I've broadened this from last year. So, writing, books about books would qualify.

August: I’ve Always Been Curious About….
A catch-all category. If the topic of the book can complete the sentence, you can add it to the challenge.

September: Gods, Demons and Spirits
Religion, spirituality of al kinds; read about the Salem witch trials or animism in West Africa if you want.

October: The World We Live In: Current Affairs
It will be a year after Brexit; a year after Trump's election. What does the world look like? What forces are driving us? Find a book about some of the themes and issues that are at the top of the news by then.

November: Science and Technology
Probably self-explanatory, another holdover.

December: Out of Your Comfort Zone
A nonfiction book that isn't something that you would normally gravitate to, about a subject you'd never normally read about, or that is a "book bullet" you'd never previously heard about from another LT reader.

My pastimes, and my choices:

Classical music:
Mozart's Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (a book about one of Mozart's piano concertos, ARC I got in January)
Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication and Music by James Rhodes (pretty self-descriptive...)

Reading...:
The Book Thieves by Anders Rydell (about how the Nazis looted Europe's libraries)

Travel:

The Alps: A Human History From Hannibal to Heidi and Beyond by Stephen O'Shea (self explanatory; just stumbled over this.)

My first thought is to read Halberstam's Summer of '49, although I jumped the gun with my baseball book in light of the passing of Jimmy Breslin and read Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? this month. So I may go in a different direction after I take a look to see what else might be lurking on my shelves that fits the topic.

Would a bio of a baseball great work for this? If so, I will go with Sandy Koufax - A Lefty's Legacy by Jane Leavy.

Also, I may try to dip into Bridget Stutchbury's The Bird Detective. She will be a speaker at a screening soon at my local documentary cinema of the film from a few years ago, called *Winged Migration*. I have seen her speak before and had meant to read this book ages ago.

>4 jessibud2: Yes it would, if you're a baseball fan!

My favorite hobby is, unsurprisingly, reading, so I've requested Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why from the library.

I will read Crochet with Wire, which I bought several months ago and have not even looked at, and Build Your Own Wire Pendants. I have looked at the pictures in the second but not actually read it through. At the end of the month, I should have some actual results to share as well. Good motivation!

Well on the reading/books about books front, I aim to finally get to Francine Prose's Reading Like A Writer.

As a lover of art, I'll try and read one of my recently purchased exhibition catalogues, and also The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez by Laura Cumming.

I plan to read The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World by Abigail Tucker and The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston.
Cats and books - life is good!

>9 GerrysBookshelf: - "Books, cats - life is good" - I have a canvas tote bag that says that! :-)

>9 GerrysBookshelf: Both of those may turn out to be book bullets... eek!

>8 Caroline_McElwee: The Velazquez book was one of my absolute favorites of 2016; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I have two books lined up for next month. Genealogy/family history is a long-time hobby, so I plan to read Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors by Alison Light. Music is another long-time hobby, and I have an ARC of In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs.

Not sure what to pick here. I've got quite a few books about books on the TBR shelf - including How to Read Like a Writer. I love art and have found some lovely exhibition catalogues via my library, so might see what they have.

Being a huge baseball fan, I am going to delve into The Man Who Stole First Base in April. Not sure about after that!

>13 cbl_tn: - Oh, that Beatles book looks interesting! I am a lifelong Beatlemaniac!

>16 jessibud2: Doesn't it?! I couldn't pass it up when I saw it was available for request on NetGalley. It has a May release date.

>7 ronincats: oh, I've long wondered how to Crochet With Wire so I'll be looking forward to seeing some results!

I will probably also use the opportunity to read some instructional craft books this month, but I don't know what yet.

I'm starting off with Fingers In The Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham. He was a childhood hero of mine bringing wildlife to kids TV with The Really Wild Show. That program really sparked my interest in all things from nature. And I'm loving seeing him on grown-ups wildlife documentaries now too. He's even been suggested as a successor to David Attenborough.

I haven't made specific selections yet, but I have several books on my TBR list which are genealogy and fiction. The most likely one I'll get to is the second in the Steve Robinson series featuring sleuth Jefferson Tayte. I believe that one is To the Grave. A friend of mine, Lorine Schulze, also wrote a genealogical mystery entitled Death Finds a Way. I'd like to read hers. Other options include A Case Study in Murder by Laurie Pooler-Pelayo, Impostor by Richard Davidson, and Poison Branches by Cynthia Raleigh. I may have a few others on my Kindle. I may also read some non-fiction in this category. I have an ARC that features another interest of mine -- camping. When my parents sold the RV, I lost my ability to do this regularly. Now I generally just rent a "camping cabin" at a KOA when I get a chance. I'm sure I'll get to this one early in the month. I love cooking as well. I may or may not get around to reading a cookbook.

Hmm, I have a number of non-fiction books about my main hobbies, birding and gardening.

Here are some tentative choices I've made, though I'm not guaranteeing anything:

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

The World of Roger Tory Peterson: An Authorized Biography by John C. Devlin

Projects for the Birder's Garden: Over 100 Easy Things That You can Make to Turn Your Yard and Garden into a Bird-Friendly Haven by Fern Marshall Bradley

Complete Guide to Water Gardens: Ponds, Fountains, Waterfalls, Streams by Kathleen Fisher
(this one is especially timely, as we're putting in a new pond, soon!)

My Recipes Are for the Birds by Irene Cosgrove

>10 jessibud2: I'd love that tote!

>20 fuzzi: - I have those first 2 books you mentioned and in fact, I have a ton of nature/birding/gardening related books. It will be some difficult choices for when we get to June!

>21 jessibud2: if you choose to read one of our shared books for this month (or June), let me know and we can do a shared read. :)

I'll be listening to Julia Child's My Life in France which will actually cover three of my favorites: cooking, traveling (although I've never been to France!) and women's memoirs. I'm reading so slowly now, that I don't know if I'll get to another book, but if I do, it will be It's Not About the Horse, a book about horses (a favorite of mine) and equine therapy where I'm just starting to volunteer.

I am listening to You Can't Make This Up by Al Michaels, the sportscaster. I love sports, and his memoir has been fun to listen to.

>19 thornton37814: - Lori, gentle reminder that this is the Nonfiction Challenge :)

>20 fuzzi: I'd love to know some tips on making my garden more bird friendly!

>25 charl08: I'll be sure to share!

>19 thornton37814: Just a quick reminder that this is a non-fiction thread... Those sound like fun, but you will, indeed, have to ferret out some non-fiction genealogy tomes that you mention to accompany them for this challenge!

Okay - I slid MACBETH in last month with the Holinshed readings,
so these are ALL non-fiction:

An old Classic to re-read >THE GARDENER'S YEAR (Karel Capek),

One to finish after too many years away >The Natural Way to Draw (Kimon Nicolaides),

plus Andrew Knapp's MOMOS and Brandon Stanton's HUMANS OF NEW YORK
(both photography)

>27 Chatterbox: I wasn't thinking straight. Okay. I'll try to get to one of the non-fiction ones. I still want to hit some of the fiction ones.

>29 thornton37814: No problem; I was thinking how much fun it would be to add the Alison Weir historical novel about Anne Boleyn to the "heroes and villains" challenge for March, and explain the heroine thesis, when I realized... And it will be fun to find books that you can pair up, a non-fiction read and a novel that kind of match.

>28 m.belljackson: Were you actually reading the Shakespeare play?? I had assumed you were reading Holinshed, which of course would have snuck in there under non-fiction. Though I'm sometimes bemused as to why the Dewey decimal system treats plays and poetry on the same basis as non-fiction writings as essays, etc. rather than as works of the imagination. Sigh.

>22 fuzzi: - I just went to look for those 2 books I mentioned that I had and I can't find them. I have a sneaky feeling they may be in one of the bins in my basement crawlspace. (I have managed to reduce the number of book bins to 3, from twice that many but still...). Oh well. I am trying to work through what is upstairs first so don't wait for me on those.

>29 thornton37814: I would like for you to read The Stranger in My Genes because I'm so curious about it, and I haven't bought a copy yet!

>32 cbl_tn: I actually tentatively have it on my list for the month. I've also tentatively got The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 on my list for the month. Let me get the ARCs out of the way, and then I'll go with the Griffith book first.

>31 jessibud2: I'll move those books toward the latter part of April, k?

I'm not sure where My Recipes are for the Birds is, either!

>28 m.belljackson: I love the Momo books!

> 30 Chatterbox - I read the play in two forms > actual and the wonderful Classics Illustrated version, as well two Holinsheds.

My passion, among others is archeology and I am reading Jungle of Stone. The book is about the finding of the Mayan civilization in the early 19th century. It has been excellent thus far.

I just realised I could also count two books about swimming, which is a hobby of mine. I am going to read an ARC I picked up Swell: a waterbiography and count the lovely swimming / travelogue by Roger Deakin Waterlog which I am about half way though. Happy days :-)

I've started I Contain Multitudes, about the microbes among us.

>38 jnwelch: Are they a hobby or a passion, Joe?

>38 jnwelch: Ha! I wondered the same thing, Charlotte. From what I understand so far, they're involved in everything we do. So, hobby, pastime and passion?

>37 charl08: Love Roger Deakin's writing, Charlotte.

>41 Caroline_McElwee: It's one of those books I don't want to end...

I am going to read something about sports, hopefully women's sports. Right now the main contender is Counting Coup.

>43 banjo123: Oh, I read Counting Coup a few years ago, Rhonda. I thought it was well done.

So many great ideas for reading about hobbies and pastimes. Maybe I'll read a photography book or a woodworking book. Or Francine Prose. Sump'in.

I have two choices and hope that I will get to both of them this month. I have been wanting to read Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit. The Amazon blurb for this title goes like this:

Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers.

Mark is also reading this book, and it has been on my bedside table for several months.

My other choice is Jackie and Cassini: A Fashion Love Affair by Lauren Marino. This is part of a series of picture books on fashion icons and the designers who helped them become these icons. I am a sewer, and I ran across the first book in this series Audrey and Givenchy: A Fashion Love Affair by Cindy De La Hoz and loved it. I admit that these are simple books to read, but they provide me with a way to indulge my haute couture tastes.

I am also thinking about starting The Art of Travel by Alain De Botton but I need to finish Ghost Train to the Eastern Star first.

>1 Chatterbox: Chatterbox - Thank you for posting the book covers.

They really make all the variety stand out and are as compelling as reviews!

>47 m.belljackson: You're welcome! Sometimes a book cover will grab someone's attention when a description doesn't... And I like the crazy quilt overall effect. Even if I often give up partway through the month, and can't keep up with people adding new books to their reading lists!

>46 benitastrnad: I have Solnit on the TBR pile of shame. I really should get to this book.

I've enjoyed both the Solnit books I read, which includes the one mentioned.

This is proving to be a really interesting category. I love all the variety that everybody is bringing to the table. Who knew about all these hobbies, and pastimes that people have? It is just great!

I made a mistake and discovered after looking at my reading list here on LT. I will be trying to read both Audrey and Givenchy: A Fashion Love Affair and Jackie and Cassini. It turns out that I have "read" neither of these books. I looked at all the pictures in the Audrey Hepburn book, but I didn't read the text. I will remedy that this month. These are beautiful books, and both are around 200 pages. They do have lots of pictures but there is plenty of text for reading. These are going to be great for reading just before bed. Thinking about silk shantung and wool crepe is such a pleasant way to say goodnight to the world.

March inspiration from THE GARDENER'S YEAR:

To-day, on the 30th of March, at ten o'clock in the morning,
the first tiny blossom of forsythia opened. For three days I have
been watching its largest bud, a tiny golden pod,
so as not to miss this historic moment;
it happened while I was looking at the sky to see whether it would rain.

Tomorrow the twigs of forsythia will be sprinkled all over
with golden stars. You simply cannot hold it back.

>52 m.belljackson: Lovely, thanks for posting! I relish spring flowers most -- the progression from crocuses and tulips, to flowering trees (lilacs!) and on to the early roses. From then on, it feels as if everything is green and blooming and it looses its novelty, but looking for those early signs after a long dreary March (the hardest month of the year to survive, I often think...) is sometimes what keeps me going.

>52 m.belljackson: Nice to think I'm not the only one who hopes to catch the flowers opening. In my case it was tulips though ..

I will be reading Wanderlust along with Benita. I am kind of obsessed with my Fitbit and walking these days. I've always been a dog walker and love to spend time with nature in hikes through the Ozarks. It will be fun to read a history of walking and see how others approach this easy and rewarding type of exercise. Oh yes, I purchased the book to commemorate my "Tenner" year here on LT. I hope to be around here for at least another ten years.

I was sitting in the train station this morning waiting for boarding to be announced. I was reading my Koufax book when a man walked by, looked at the cover and exclaimed, "Oh, Sandy Koufax was ALWAYS my favourite!", then kept on walking. :-) By the time I looked up to smile, he was halfway down the station, just kept on going! Funny

>20 fuzzi: I may join you with Projects for the Birder's Garden: Over 100 Easy Things That You can Make to Turn Your Yard and Garden into a Bird-Friendly Haven by Fern Marshall Bradley if I can locate it. I've had it for years and dip into now and then but have never read it properly. Great idea!

#56
I love those moments with book covers! You just don't get that when reading from a Kindle or Nook. Nobody can see the cover, so they don't know what you are reading. When I see people reading hardcopy books I just love it and I confess, I always look to see what the book is.

I have a huge interest in Egyptology & Archaeology and many books on the subject, so I am going to read Time Detectives about that particular passion of mine. Since I love books on books, I am going to read Old Books & Rare Friends. My well documented interest in WWII will be satisfied this month by reading Kasztner's Train and The Few. My interest in disasters (natural and manmade) will be whetted by reading The Sinking of the Lancastria.

If I am stretching the meaning of the challenge "Hobbies, Pastimes, and Passions" too far, Suz, let me know :)

Combining a passion for music (of all kinds, but in this case, classical) with a long-time historical interest in WWII and the holocaust, I am going to read The Inextinguishable Symphony by Martin Goldsmith, and for my bird fixation, the Smithsonian's Lords of the Air.

#60
I loved Inextinguishable Symphony. It was one of my best books of the years when it first came out. I knew nothing about the music of Neilson and so I not only had a good story but got to know about a composer I didn't know about before.

>59 alcottacre: Stretching it a wee bit with World War II -- a hobby or pastime or passion? But if it's something you feel you actually study and research and seek out information on, well...

Shall catch up with the book covers on the weekend.

I started Swell: a waterbiography - she has a lovely way of describing childhood memories of being taught to swim by a rather eccentric aunt. I thought it would be more like Swimming Studies, but it's a lot more amateur than that so far, which I really like.

>62 Chatterbox: I do feel that I actually study, research and seek information on, Suz, so I am going to stick with it.

> 59 altacore

Re: World War II passion > Have you ever come across a book that deals with the possibility
that, even if Germany had not felt the WW I settlements to be so unfair and that they had instead been treated fairly for starting a war, that Germany still would have wanted to start another war to conquer Europe and still would have wanted to exterminate Jewish people, Gypsies (Roma), dissidents...?

>64 alcottacre: Cool beans. Go for it! My only concern is trying to avoid this from morphing into a "anything goes" category, as in "my hobby/pastime is reading books about X." That would really kind of undermine the whole spirit behind the idea. I mean, it's not as if there are rules, and if anyone violates them, the enforcers will show up on your doorstep, but it's about trying to ferret out books from our TBR lists or other sources that push us all in particular directions, and perhaps towards books that otherwise wouldn't rise to the top of our TBR lists, rather than broadening the definition of the category so widely that it will capture what it is that we happen to want to read. That's my only point, and having made it, I will leave it to everyone to consider for themselves.

>44 jnwelch: Neat! I will look forward to it. Meanwhile, I have a couple other books that fit into this category. I got Hallelujah! The Welcome Table by Maya Angelou out of the library, so that goes with the cooking hobby; and then from ERC I got My Life with Bob which is a book about reading, so that works too. So it is looking like this challenge will dominate my April, but they are all short books, at any rate,

>66 Chatterbox: Perfect example of the ideal food/cookery book for this challenge!! And I've got an ARC of My Life with Bob, too, so I may join you in that read, if time permits.

>61 benitastrnad: Benita, I was just perusing the Amazon info for Inextinguishable Symphony and it left me a bit puzzled as to how it might relate to Neilson, except perhaps incidentally (were the main people in the memoir performing his music??) Can you enlighten? I'd be very interested in a biography of a Scandinavian composer, especially one written in an interesting way; at the moment I have less interest in another Holocaust memoir, with The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding already waiting for me.

I think Mozart's Starling will be my first book for this challenge. I'll take it on the train with me tomorrow, and listen to the piano concertos on my iPod while I read the book. Perfect. (God bless Bose noise reduction headphones.)

>66 Chatterbox: Understood.

Audrey and Givenchy: A Fashion Love Affair by Cindy De La Hoz is the first one of a series on fashion designers and their muses. Audrey Hepburn was the muse to Givenchy's genius. They were a team and as the book makes clear, they were friends in real life. The book is an elegant little coffee table type book that concentrates on the costumes and ensembles designed for the movies in which Hepburn starred in the early part of her career. The years covered are 1953 through 1970. It is more pictures than text, but still 175 pages. The text is by no means superfluous, and is valuable in putting the designs that are featured into context of the movies and the life of Audrey Hepburn.

This is a book for those who love movies and haute couture. It would make a perfect gift all tied up in a very pretty scarf just like Audrey would wear. I can't wait to get started on the second book in this series. The one on Jackie Kennedy, which was my original intention for this category.

Even though I was tired from a long week at work, I stayed up past my usual bedtime to read this book, so not only was it informative, it was interesting. I hope this publisher will produce more of these short little wonders.

#68
Inextinguishable Symphony is actually the story of how Goldsmith's parents met and escaped from Nazi Germany. They were both musicians in the Jewish Orchestra that was established by the Nazi's and played only at the pleasure of Joseph Goebbels. Goldsmith's parents started playing in the orchestra in 1936 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1941.

At the time they finally got their immigration papers the Goldsmith's were in rehearsals for a concert in which the centerpiece was the Fourth symphony by Carl Nielsen. This symphony was composed during the First World War and was Nielsen's attempt to reconcile the horror of that war with his conscience. The book is not a biography of Nielsen or the symphony. However, it becomes a mirror of what the Goldsmith's were facing and their attempts to reconcile the realities of Germany as it was in 1940 and the way they had been brought up.

Nielsen was not a composer I had ever heard of before reading this book. In this book Martin Goldsmith managed to convey to me, a novice symphony goer, the idea that music can be as interpretative as dimensional art such as painting. The idea of seeing with your ears, so to speak. He did this while writing a biography of his parents. I thought he did it very well and the book as stayed with me since I read it back in the early 2000's. It was powerful in many ways.

I don't know if there are any good biographies on Nielsen out there, but there is a good book on music. Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross is a book I have in my collection but have not completed yet. I will get to the rest of it when the time is right.

>71 benitastrnad: I loved The Rest is Noise when I read it several years ago, so I hope you enjoy it when you finally get to the book.

>71 benitastrnad: Thanks so much for explaining that! I may well look for a library copy of the book. I've got a book somewhere about Leningrad and Shostakovich's Seventh, one of the classic stories about a city, a war and a symphony, and at some point I should read that. On a separate note, if you're interested in pursuing more about the link between music and painting, you might look at something about the works of the impressionists, and composers like Debussy. A while ago, Carnegie Hall had an event (with the Met's orchestra, or the NY Philharmonic, can't recall now) pairing the works of Monet, visually (especially the water lily paintings) and programming music by French composers of the same era, who were "deconstructing" music in novel ways. Obviously not using light (!!) but using musical impressions, and ending up with "tone poems", which became much more of a thing in that era, both in England and France. (A legacy of the romantics.) Tone poems are supposed to create a visual image of some kind in our mind's eye when we listen, of something specific. They seem to be a little disdained now but still pop up on programs to fill out an evening of music, because they are popular (and often interesting.) I like Arnold Bax, among others. Sorry, rambling! But there must be something, somewhere, by someone written about this. I was curious about this book because I know less about Neilson and his music than I do about Sibelius.

(Alex Ross is a great commentator on music, and I loved the fact that his book concentrates so much on Sibelius, and thankfully Messaien, but I was really hoping for more help breaking through with the tougher guys, like some of the Bartok. And you get SO much more out of it if you're listening to the works while reading, unless you're a musician yourself, because he really is emphasizing the music. It's like trying to put into words something you experience with another sense -- taste, hearing, vision, touch, etc. Ultimately, you can only try.)

I have three hobbies, passions that I will pursue besides my big passion for reading; One Zentangle a Day to encourage my creativity, No Excuses Art Journaling also to encourage my creativity and The Wander Society to encourage a little of unplanned, aimless, openness to the unknown.

#73
I think you might be referencing Symphony For the City of the Dead by M. T. Anderson. This one is a YA non-fiction title, but it is one that I am looking forward to reading. There was also a fine biography of Shostakovich that was done a few years ago. I have the first book at the library and don't have a copy of the second.

>75 benitastrnad: Nope, it's Leningrad: Siege and Symphony by Brian Moynahan. I've got an ARC, somewhere, as well as Anna Reid's history of the siege itself.

Started on The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velásquez, ooo, I'm going to enjoy this.

>68 Chatterbox: I actually finished My Life with Bob today. It was a quick read, but honestly not that interesting. You may want to skip it.

>76 Chatterbox: Leningrad: Siege and Symphony sounds fascinating. And I love Shostakovich.

>76 Chatterbox: Have you read The 900 Days by Harrison Salisbury? It is very good. I have not read the Reid or Moynahan books, so I will have to seek those out.

I finished You Can't Make This Up, a memoir by Al Michaels of his sports broadcasting career. It was mildly interesting to me as someone who loves sports and competition, but his tone was occasionally annoying. Still, I enjoyed some of the "inside baseball" bits about working in TV, and he shared some great anecdotes.

Really enjoying Swell: A waterbiography - lots of funny anecdotes from the archives about women's campaign to get access to swimming pools about a hundred years ago. I had no idea.

>78 banjo123: Well, I requested the ARC from Amazon Vine, so I owe them a review. It won't kill me to read a book about books! :-)

I finished my first book for this challenge - not on my list of planned books for this one, but definitely a hobby/passion of mine.

I was hit with a book bullet from Eric/Oberon when he reviewed Eric Sevareid's Canoeing With the Cree for the journeys challenge. It's every bit as good as Eric said it was .He wrote an excellent, thorough review which is on the book page, so I won't post a review here.

It's making me look at my canoe with longing. It was the first item that the XDH and I purchased together after we had known each other only a few weeks. It hasn't been in the water for several years now. I am so inspired now to sell it (too heavy for me to handle alone) and buy a lighter one.

Hurrah! I love it when book bullets strike as a result of this challenge!!

Interestingly, my father's oldest friend (they met when they were 5 years old, in the early 1940s), just sent me a copy of his self-published memories. It includes some anecdotes of a canoeing escapade from the days when their respective parents had worked together to build cottages in the French River area of N. Ontario, at the bottom of Dry Pine Bay (with a view 8 miles up the bay -- astounding... I loved it there) canoeing with friends. They took off for a week and ended up going over some rapids (which they had promised not to do) and portaging around some really rough water. They were gone so long they lost track of time. At some point, they heard the sound of light planes overhead, but didn't think much of it. It turns out that my grandparents and Grant's parents had called out the search planes... :-) But it sounded like an amazing adventure. Living off fish & blueberries, pretty much.

I'm going to read Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays. I don't know if it counts, but I've got an updated Peterson's Field Guide to Birds, which I am working my way through as well. I've got to learn the eastern birds as well as my old friends in the west.

The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks
Hobbies, Pastimes and Passions for April=(for me)= nature, animals, being outside, garden/landscape, good wriiting= perfect book!

Many of the people photographed in HUMANS OF NEW YORK (HONY)
are so open, honest, and fun that the book feels like an album of old friends.

After a few times through FIND MOMO, I am finally starting to pay more
attention to the wonderful photography along with the scene-stealer.

THE GARDENER'S YEAR was great - I tried to stretch it out for all of April,
but it was too much fun to stop. Short review will follow.

THE NATURAL WAY TO DRAW presents a real challenge since the author
wants each reader to draw for FIFTEEN HOURS before moving onto the next lesson!

April 29th - I'm moving THE NATURAL WAY TO DRAW to July - I had a great start,
yet it needs more careful reading than this month allowed.

>85 nittnut: I enjoyed The Genius of Birds will be interested to hear what you think Jenn.

>87 m.belljackson: I loved the website for Humans of New York. I wonder if my library has a copy of the book.

I finished one of my reads for the challenge.

Swell: A waterbiography

...the view from under the water is magic. Perception changes; I began to swim in the lido ’s blue, not on it, and it felt like being put right inside a photo. Ahead of you are tiny legs hanging like tights on a washing line, kicking in a wind. The batik patterns of light on the floor break and blur as you pull through them. Other people ’s shadows are the hull of a boat, the body of a sea mammal. Stopping for a moment and dipping half down so your eyeline is flat along the surface of the water, you get the perspective shot they use in films like Piranha, which is perhaps not the best example to invoke. But it ’s an evocative shot, flicking your eyes down to the blue silence that lies beneath you and then up and along the surface. The water does things that feel counterintuitive. The surface bows, the colour is more concentrated at the top, a planetary horizon.

Landreth mixes the personal - her own swimming biography, as a woman who came to swimming after her children were born, evangelism for women's right to swim without body shaming or other limitations, and histories of women's campaigns to get equal access to the water. I knew a little of her material (the bathing boxes seem to be something of a historical cliche) but had no idea seaside towns tried to segregate swimmers, or the links between the suffrage (voting) movement and swimming. Despite the sometimes serious themes - sexism, campaigning and motherhood, humour throughout, so not a dry read at all.

I really enjoyed this book. Recommended if you like swimming, Jacky Fleming, or memoirs exploring feminism and/or women's history

This was a Netgalley preview copy- out 4 May.

>84 Chatterbox: Oh, Suzanne, I think you'd love Canoeing With the Cree. Thanks for the wonderful story about your father's friend. I think he'd enjoy this book, too!

You wouldn't believe how many book bullets I get from these threads. Instead of helping me reduce MT TBR, it's doing just the opposite. This hobbies thread is especially wicked for listing wonderful books.

>87 m.belljackson: Hello I'm glad you're here! Your books sound great!

If you want to add a link to the book that you're talking about, put a single set of square brackets around the title. You will get a touchstone that (probably) links to the book. If the book suggested at the right side of the message box is not the one you want to link to, you'll have an option to click on 'others' and choose a different book with that title. The touchstones are a bit wonky lately, so don't be surprised at the choices that come up! Sometimes they're really funny.

If you want to link to an author, put a double set of the square brackets around the author's name.

I finished reading Jackie and Cassini: A Fashion Love Affair by Lauren Marino. This is the second in a series about famous haute couture designers and their muses and models. (The first book in this series was the one on Audrey Hepburn and Hubert Givenchy discussed in post #70.) This book has more text than the first and more pages of photographs. It is organized chronologically and the last chapter discusses the fact that after Jacqueline Kennedy was out of the White House her wardrobe became much more casual. She never was the fashion plate after 1963 that she was before. Therefore, it was clear to the author that Jacqueline Kennedy used her wardrobe to further the career and place of her husband in the hearts and minds of the people of the world. It was "clothes as power" and "clothes as image." People bought into the idea that the clothes projected of a smooth sophisticated young couple, but it was clear that the post-Camelot Jackie didn't care much for clothes or her image. The photographs used in the book clearly showed the clothes to their best advantage, and while this wasn't a construction or tailoring book, it did discuss the fashions in terms of design more than did the first book in the series. There was less about Oleg Cassini in this title than I would have liked, but there was more about the designer than in the first book. Over all, I think this was an improvement over the first title in the series, and this is a series that I will definitely continue to look at in the future. The binding on this small elegant coffee table type book is not up to the standards of the first title in the series, but this is still a fun, light, elegant, and interesting take on fashion.

>57 muddy21: since you want to share, I'll move that book up the list TBR!

>85 nittnut: oh, my, another book bullet!

Peterson's is the best guide, imo.

I am a little over halfway through Sandy Koufax and while he is an interesting guy, I am finding myself not as engaged in the writing style as I had hoped to be. The author tries to set a tone, a feel for the times by inserting snippets of what other, often random, people were doing at any given moment. Sometimes it seems so irrelevant, without any connection to what has gone on previous to that paragraph, and nothing following it up. It's not a bad thing, necessarily, just odd and for me anyhow, doesn't flow smoothly all the time. I will finish the book, though, It's not bad and the month is still young enough that I will get on to my next one soon enough

#92
I remember reading a children's biography of Sandy Koufax years ago. Probably just after he retired. That was a fascinating story. I have heard good things about Jane Leavy as an author, so I am sorry that this one isn't working for you. Her biography of Mickey Mantle got good reviews. I guess some books work some of the time and some don't.

>88 charl08: Thank you Charlotte for the excellent review. I love swimming and waiting patiently for Swell a waterbiography which I am hoping my library will purchase.

>94 mdoris: I wish I had a real copy I could send on! Disadvantage of a digital ARC.

>95 charl08: Thank you for thinking of that! No problem. i looked it up and it is to be published/available here in late May. I will try and be a patient "girl"!

Another genealogist here. I plan to read Family Matters: A History of Genealogy. My family history research tends to be in the UK so it makes sense that this book concentrates on the British view of this hobby which has grown into an industry.

> streamsong

Thanks for entry information - I edited titles above.

>98 m.belljackson: You're welcome! It makes it easier for us all to drool over the books you've mentioned!

Here's a hobby that i doubt will come up again over the rest of the month. I've played a card game called Magic: the Gathering for over 20 years now. It's a popular game with millions of players globally. It has a fantasy, swords and sorcery look to it but it is basically a resource management card game where you and an opponent start with twenty life points and the goal is to knock the other player down to zero. If you haven't played it yourself, if you are part of a decent sized family then i would wager that somebody in the family either plays it or has in the past.

So, i finished Next Level Deckbuilding by Patrick Chapin, which definitely isn't an introductory text on how to play the game, but a textbook on how to fine tune your deck of sixty cards to maximize probabilities and resources, since your are limited to no more then four copies of a card of the sixty. The highlight was a wheel of what he believes to be the sixteen basic decks you can build, anything new will just fall in to these categories. Then, each category is broken down and the details of how the engine operates examined. He has another book that is geared towards improving game play, but that is also aimed more at going from being a good player to a great player, rather then anything introductory.

so I added a book that I reread- and I did so because my hobby ( for too many years ) has been leading tours in Toronto and I know she of the material from this book from my tours.

Treasures of a People The Synagogues of Canada by Sheldon Levitt, Lynn Milstone and Sidney Tenenbaum I reread this book for this month's non-fiction challenge. The authors were architecture students who travelled across Canada and photographed synagogues both used and abandoned. They did this over three years in the late 1970's. This book illustrates a number of the photos ( all donated to archives collections in Canada) in a thematic way. We are able to see the differences and similarities in architecture and details of windows and more. The synagogues were very diverse from big cities to small towns on the Prairies. I was interested in that some of the synagogues I know from leading tours to them over the years. The authors help record a part of Canada's Jewish history- some of the buildings have been torn down or used for entirely different purposes. This is an essential document for readers interested in history and architecture.

Finished one!

Guide to Water Gardens: Ponds, Fountains, Waterfalls, Streams by Kathleen Fisher

A well-written and organized guide to designing, creating, installing, and maintaining all different types of outdoor water features. I liked how it did step by step instructions for novice to intermediate hobbyists. As I read I also jotted down notes for future projects. I intend to keep this book as a reference volume.

>100 DirtPriest: Thanks for your comments about Next Level DeckBuilding - now I know exactly what to get for my son next Christmas! Or maybe sooner...

I finished both My life with Bob (unfortunately dull) and Hallelujah: The Welcome Table, a cookbook with stories by Maya Angelou. The stories were fun, and I bet the recipes are great, but too rich and too much meat for me.

I've finished reading my ARC of Mozart's Starling, which will be published next month. For all of those who are reading books about birds this month, it turns out to be not just about music, as I had thought, but also about birds, and particular the despised starling, an invasive species here in North America, but one that was once common in Europe but that is starting to become endangered as farmland becomes more scarce (relatively). Meanwhile, in the US, it's a pest, so the when the author of this book -- an ornithologist herself -- wants to find out what it would have been like for Mozart to live with a starling, known for its ability to mimic sounds and (in Mozart's case) for mimicking his own 17th piano concerto -- it was easy for her to go and scoop up a fledgling from a nest scheduled for "removal". The result is Carmen, the starling at the heart of the book, along with Star, Mozart's bird, who lived with him during three peak years of his productive life in Vienna. "Both were fluttering and curious and disorderly. Both were incapable of being still and quiet in a world so full of sound and happenings and beauty. Both shared the impulse to make wild, original, constant music." Haupt's book won't surprise anyone looking for new insights into Mozart, though if you're curious about music and the neurolinguistic impulses that cause birds to produce one kind of song and starlings to mimic human language, you'll find a lot to intrigue you here. (She also debunks some of Chomsky's deterministic linguistic theories, which I confess I enjoyed...) And it's fun, after reading about Carmen's behavior, to think back about Mozart's creation of Papageno in "The Magic Flute", although Haupt just touches on her own thoughts about the character and the work. Good as a basic intro to Mozart -- it's a lively, thoughtful and affectionate portrayal of the composer that thankfully doesn't get caught up in all the myths -- and an innovative and unsentimental look at life with a chatty starling of her own. Good fun and fascinating. 4.5 stars.

Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen

This book was my April read for the non-fiction challenge focused on passions. One of my passions is archeology.Jungle of Stone is the story of John Stephenson and Frederick Catherwood's exploration of the Mayan civilization in Mexico and Central America and how the reports brought the civilization to the attention of much of the outer world.

As an initial matter it much be acknowledged that Stephenson and Catherwood were not the "first" to find virtually any of the Mayan cities. The cities were known to the local people who lived among the ruins and sometimes scavenged stones from them or used the areas for grazing. Nor were the ruins truly unknown to the Western world as some had been explored by the Spanish during the conquest while others were explored and written about by other explorers. However, none of this information was particularly accessible (the Spanish notes were buried so deep in the archives that they wouldn't be found until years later). Stephenson and Catherwood made several grueling trips through the Mayan heartland and were thorough in their documentation allowing them to connect widely dispersed cities with each other to arrive at the realization that what lay beneath the jungles of Central America were the remains of an empire, advanced in science and art. Moreover, Catherwood was an incredibly talented artist who meticulously recorded what they found in the jungle giving the subsequent books produced by Stephenson and Catherwood the ability to bring the ruins to light in a way that earlier accounts had been unable to capture.

The books produced by Stephenson and Catherwood captured the world's imagination. While the world knew of the Aztecs and Incans from the conquest, the Maya had risen and fallen before the conquest and were largely forgotten by the time the Spanish arrived. Stephenson and Catherwood established that the Americas had been home to powerful and vibrant civilizations on par with the ancient world.

In addition to the thrill of discovery, the book also contains much of a jungle exploration narrative. Stephenson and Catherwood ventured deep into the jungles of Central America braving disease, animals and insects, in search of the cities. To further complicate matters, most of Central America was embroiled in civil war at the time. Stephenson and Catherwood navigated hostile political territory that was every bit as dangerous as the physical barriers posed by the jungle. The political history of Central America is not something most readers are intimately familiar with and Jungle of Stone is a useful primer.

I loved this book. It was utterly fascinating to me and well written. Certainly the first five star book of 2017.

>106 Oberon: I am going to have to find a copy of that one! Thanks for the recommendation, Eric.

>105 Chatterbox: sounds interesting!

>106 Oberon:, >107 alcottacre: He got me with that one too!

>105 Chatterbox: I see I'll have to track that one down since I love music and I love birds.

>106 Oberon: Have you read Incidents of Travel in Yucatan? I read it about 10 years ago before my first trip to the Yucatan Peninsula and it's still memorable.

>105 Chatterbox: - That sounds like a good one!

I added Watercolour for the Absolute Beginner by Mathew Palmer to my hobby reading for the month.

Music is a long-time hobby and passion for me. I read an ARC of In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs. Like any collection of essays, some are stronger than others. What I really like about it is the diversity of the authors who contribute to this anthology. There are several different nationalities, ethnicities, and generations represented. Francine Prose gives coauthorship credit to her 8-year-old granddaughter, who knows more Beatles trivia than most adults! I read a couple of essays every day until I finished the book, and I looked forward to each day's reading. It's a book to keep in mind for the holidays for those hard to buy for friends and relatives.

>113 cbl_tn: - Oh, I so want to read this one!

>105 Chatterbox: Mozart's Starling is going on the pile. Great review. :)

I've finished Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why, which is as erudite and unapologetically snobby as I expected. I probably would have been better off reading the books Bloom discusses, but that may have been his point.

In the end I picked up a different book about books, Joyce Carol Oates's Soul at the White Heat: Inspiration, Obsession and the Writing Life which I enjoyed a lot. Oates' literary essays are always interesting and erudite.

I have been a slug-a-bed about starting Wanderlust. It is setting by my reading chair, but I just haven't started it yet. You can blame Haruki Murakami as I am engrossed in his Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, which I should finish tonight. Then I will start on Rebecca Solnit.

Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Ravens, Crows, Magpies and Jays

Beautifully illustrated and annotated, this book is made for the coffee table. The material is interesting and well researched, but from a biologist point of view, could probably do with an update. It's a fun addition to our bookshelf on animals and their behavior.

>119 nittnut: I borrowed that one from the library, and hope to get it read by the end of the month!

I haven't finished Waterlog yet, but I am pretty intrigued by the idea of an essay that compares it to Swell, the first where he does lots of nutty things involving swimming on his own, and the second where she avoids all swimming until falling in love with the communal appeal of the lido...

>120 fuzzi: I'm sure you'll manage it. It's not very long. The photos are gorgeous.

I finished The Sinking of the Lancastria over the weekend and found the book to be OK. The subtitle is "The Twentieth Century's Deadliest Naval Disaster and Churchill's Plot to Make it Disappear." The disaster itself is well covered (and the reason I wanted to read the book to begin with), the plot, not so much. There is pretty much no evidence of a plot unless Churchill and the French conspired together, since the ship was sunk virtually in the mouth of a French port. Still, the parts about the disaster make the book.

I still haven't started Wanderlust: A History of Walking but hope to do so tomorrow.

>122 nittnut: I'm looking forward to it, I love birding.

Finished Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music by James Rhodes and found it to be kind of overwhelming. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I don't think this was it! It's good, but a difficult read, emotionally speaking, so it should probably come complete with all kinds of warning stickers and trigger alerts. Rhodes was sexually abused beginning at the age of 5 and continuing for five years thereafter by a gym teacher and boxing coach at his prep day school in an upper middle class part of London, and it's safe to say that that completely destroyed him psychologically. (Not to mention the fact that he later would require surgery on his pelvis and back because of the damage that forcible penetration at such a young age did to his body -- and if you have trouble reading that -- or f**k or s**t -- then you really shouldn't pick up this book.) He tried drugs; he was promiscuous, he started cutting himself, and contemplated suicide on multiple occasions. He was completely numb and self loathing. The only thing that broke through this fog was his deep, deep love for music, and specifically classical music and the piano. In his self hatred, he allowed himself to be steered away from it, but returned to the piano after hitting his lowest point, confined to a mental hospital. Emerging, he pursued a career as a concert pianist -- and a vocation for bringing "classical" music (a moniker he loathes, as much as he loves the music itself) to audiences who may never have been able to understand or connect to the wonder that produced Schubert -- a syphilitic failure, broke and depressed, who crafted some of the most wondrous and heartbreaking songs ever written. Or Bach, who lost nearly everyone he loved to death, and still got out of bed every morning to write music, day after day, composing some of his most beautiful work in memory of his much-loved first wife. Some of the best parts of this book -- for me -- and certainly the easiest to read, are the little vignettes that begin each chapter, which Rhodes starts by listing a piece of music, a performer, and what he thinks of the piece, what it means to him, some details about its composition, the composer, the context, etc. It's iconoclastic, lively and dead on. You could pick up this book, read those, and go to YouTube to listen to the music, bit by bit -- and ignore Rhodes' own story, if you find it too difficult. But we shouldn't find it too hard to stare reality in the face. We do a lot of that already, and it's what enables evildoing to flourish, isn't it? So, this was a very difficult, uncomfortable book to read -- very painful. But it was far more painful for Rhodes to live through, something that I kept having to remind myself. He's very self aware, which helps. Still, it won't be for everyone -- so this is a very guarded "fascinating, but..." recommendation. The final third of the book finally gets the reader to the point where Rhodes is working on building his new career and trying to find new ways to engage audiences in his music -- including playing to people in secure mental facilities, trying to reach them. 4.2 stars. This was a NetGalley ARC; it's out in the UK, I think, where Rhodes clearly has a much higher profile than he does here; you'll have to check the publication date in the US if you're interested.

>126 Chatterbox: I think that one might be a bit too much for me to take, Suz. Thanks for the guarded recommendation, I think I will give that one a pass.

I have finally finished Sandy Koufax. Lots of real life distractions this month so far, so it's taken me far longer than expected.

Koufax has always been a player who has intrigued me but I found this book to be rather odd, in some ways. Leavy never actually *interviewed* Koufax himself for this book. She met with him once or twice, I believe but the whole book is told through the voices of others, which I suppose, was her point. It's an interesting approach and perspective, and not a bad one, really, but for me anyhow, it felt a bit distant. The one *device* that she used throughout, which was initially interesting but one which I found a bit tedious after awhile, was that of using the experiences of random people's memories of a particular game - Sandy's final perfect game, of September 9, 1965. At first, I thought it was neat, and lent the story a special touch, a way of placing a moment in time. But the more she did this, the more random it began to feel. Often, a paragraph would appear, using a name of someone the reader had no idea about. There would be no preface to it, and no follow-up afterwards. I actually began, at one point, to mark in pencil in the margins when this happened but I stopped after awhile.

Overall, it wasn't a bad book. I admire Koufax not only for his talents and what he accomplished in the field of baseball, but for being the type of person he was, a man of integrity and overall decency, qualities often missing in sports figures of the current era. When he first began his career, he was looked upon as weird because he was always reading, for crying out loud! And reading good literature!! I also learned that the author had a difficult time finding a single person who did not admire him, even among his most ardent rivals. I am glad that I read this book, but I have to say, I have read better biographies.

>126 Chatterbox: Good to read your review of the book. I didn't know who he was before reading a review of it, but do admire his bravery in writing this kind of account - can't have been easy.

>126 Chatterbox: I do have this one on Kindle, and read a piece about him that gave quite an accurate explanation of what to expect. One for a strong mood though. Thanks for the review Suz.

Common People: The History of an English Family is as much social history as family history. It's a substantive book, and anyone with an interest in the social history of 19th century Great Britain would do well to pick this one up. The illustrations were a disappointment, though. Most are so dark that few of the details are visible. I'd rather have no photos than be tantalized by photos that I can't quite make out.

>126 Chatterbox: Wow, good review, but one perhaps for me to avoid. Too close to home. It's brilliant the way that he has taken classical music to an audience so much in need of it though.

I've not made much progress with Fingers in the Sparkle Jar because I'm listening as an audiobook and we're on school holidays and I've spent my whole time with family and being sociable and stuff - it's been flipping hard work to be honest! I did however want to share that the author Chris Packham was in the news this week because he's been filming in Malta on the migratory bird hunt there, called the police on some illegal hunters, and promptly got himself arrested on trumped up assault charges. Allegedly said hunters were good friends of said police... He has now been cleared of all charges and is back in Bristol for the march for science tomorrow which we are hoping to join in too.

>122 nittnut: I finished reading Bird Brains by Candace Savage this morning, thanks for the BB!

This is a thoroughly engaging look at members of the crow/jay families of birds. There are enough references to scientific studies to give credence to the author's suppositions, but not so much to bog it down with scientific jargon. Oh, and the photographs are gorgeous. Though I've been birding for half a century, I came across some information with which I was unfamiliar. Nice read.

>119 nittnut:, >134 fuzzi: - I have this book on my shelf but have not yet got to it yet. I also have another by this author, called Curious By Nature. I need to get to these sooner rather than later!

I finished Jo Walton's excellent What Makes This Book So Great last night. It's a collection of blog posts she did for tor.com, mostly concerning her re-readings, but it also has entries on what not to say when you meet an author, different types of series, and a lament that George Eliot never tried writing science fiction. Highly recommended.

>134 fuzzi: Thanks I have just put Bird Brains on reserve at the library. Wow, she has written a lot of books! Will try and get her Bee book on Tuesday. I have read her Geography of Blood and liked it.

>136 amanda4242: OUCH, book bullet Amanda.

>136 amanda4242: This is on my wishlist too.

Finally finished Waterlog - what a lovely book. I can see myself presenting it to friends in future. Deakin manages to mix in stories of his friends and acquaintances, wildlife seen as well as history of the areas he visits to swim. In the last few chapters he swims in public and private pools in London - I'm now imagining the grandeur of the Highgate flats he describes that enjoy gardens, tennis courts and a private pool. All this could be yours for a mere million point five £, I discovered via Google. So I'll stick to my municipal baths then!

>138 Caroline_McElwee: & >139 charl08: I wish I could have taken the time to savor it, but it was an ILL and had to go back far too soon.

>135 jessibud2: >137 mdoris: I'd not checked her bibliography...uh oh...

>136 amanda4242: I already have that book on my TBR thanks to a recommendation from @diana.n earlier. I think I may have "dipped into" it, too.

I finished Kasztner's Train last night and learned a lot from the book. If you have any interest in the Holocaust or World War II, I recommend it.

>139 charl08: I remember friends telling me about going to swim in the open air ponds in Hampstead -- and also visiting some quiet fancy swimming baths in London that, looking back, must have been built in the Edwardian era. Ours were much more prosaic. In South Kensington -- just off Kensington High Street, tucked away behind Derry & Tom's & Debenham's there, somewhere. I'm sure they are gone by now -- this was in the early 70s, when property in the area, though still relatively pricey, wasn't astronomic as it has since become. As a school, we went to a swimming baths that was affiliated with some of the colleges around Exhibition Road, so it's probably still there, around Ennismore Gardens.

Reading his book after Swell, could see that things had got worse not better, unless you have the $$ to pay for a private gym membership. I swam in municipal pools in Clapham and Walthamstow about 20 years ago, but a friend was a fan of lidos - Hampstead's (then) trust based locker system was not very useful to the visitor from further afield who couldn't just walk across with their keys and clothes!

I'm going to start reading The Book Thieves by Anders Rydell, in honor of World Book Day.

I don't think I'll get to them this month, but having discovered I enjoy books about swimming, have added Leap in: a woman, some waves and the will to swim and Wild swimming France to the library reservation list (even though I suspect I won't get beyond looking at the pictures for the last one).

Hey, look at us! Almost to 150 messages without having to artificially inflate the numbers!

I've started my selection for May already, as it's a long one....

>147 katiekrug: Aren't we good this month! It's the diversity of topics that fall under the rubric of "hobbies, passions, and pastimes", i think...

May will go up in a few days. Possess your soul in patience.

Patience? That's definitely not one of my interests... (jk)

ETA but this is - just started British Museum book South Africa: the art of a nation. It is a rather beautiful book, as you would expect.

For April, I am going to read all my Zentangle books again. I love to tangle. It is very relaxing and it is a good way to practice my drawing skills. Also, anybody who is acquainted with the Zentangle books knows that they are chock-full of all the artists talking about how they became involved with Zentangle, how it has changed their life, how they apply it to their daily life and often, how they come up with their own tangles. I have read each one cover to cover but since it has been awhile I am going to do it again. I had begun reading them again recently anyway and realized I could apply it to this challenge. I would suggest it for anybody interested in tangling. The purchase of the books is an investment if you really enjoy doing them and you can share them with others, take them with you when you have to wait around for handiwork, etc... you can find them at your local craft shop and order them online I am sure. If anybody is interested and needs information let me know and I will provide it from my books.

I'm excited about May's subject also. While it is a broad category, it allows for us to focus on our favorite aspects of the past, and I think all of us have at least one. I find it really intriguing to share in what others interests are, often something I haven't even considered. Can't wait. I think I will focus on a book I am reading about the first police chief of Paris, France, and maybe I can expand that into the history of crime and some of the history of the police and detective work done over the years here and overseas. I will attempt to keep the focus from becoming too broad, though.

OK, impatient people. The May thread is up...

This lack of patience from book people is disconcerting. Especially since I just pulled out Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit. But I see that I can just push it into May and still meet the requirements.

This was a good category and its broadness fascinated me. The group read some really interesting books, and got me with several book bullets.

I'm finishing up When Did Plate Tectonics Begin on Planet Earth?. Not sure if this counts as a hobby, or frankly, if it counts as a book. But has an ISBN number so I'll trudge onwards. This is a collection of scientific papers published as the result of a 2007 conference sponsored by the Geological Society of America and is their Special Paper number 440. As I expected, the conclusions are nebulous since all parties have to agree on a definition of plate tectonics. My opinion (suspicion) of the matter is that there were, let's call it proto-tectonics, active by at least 3.2 Ga or earlier (billion years, G for Giga, a for annum). This is often referred to as thin skin tectonics.

The idea is that little chunks of continental crust were roiling around in a basically global oceanic basalt crust. The buoyancy of the lighter crust would force the denser oceanic crust under it, creating the illusion of modern tectonics, but really it was just small local events. A few lines of evidence point to this occurring by 2.4 Ga. The Huronian supergroup (a series of sedimentary rocks in Ontario, not a Bluegrass band as far as i know, but it should be) are interpreted as a passive margin sequence, akin to what you might find along the East Coast of the US. This is evidence of continental rifting, where a land mass is split and spreads apart creating an ocean like the Atlantic. Another is inclusions in diamonds which contain surface forming minerals that were dragged down (subducted) and remain trapped in the diamonds. Other technical reasons involving metamorphic mineral assemblages and their required burial depths and heat/pressure regimes are discussed. A large section also covers radioactive isotope decay in terms of segregation from primitive mantle sources and recycling shallow existing material into magma melts, as well as a hotter mantle and its impact on the surface features of Earth four billion years ago.

A major problem is the lack of preservation of material to study and the fact that most regions of the required ages have been metamorphosed, which throws a money wrench into research by resetting radiometric dating clocks and destroying remanent magnetic fabrics. The magnetics is a useful way of tracking movement over time by calculating where the North Pole would have been at a certain time interval as the rocks solidified from a liquid magma or lava.

So, that's my two cents on they issue for now. I can finally start Hirohito's War for May, which is quite lengthy and will take most of the month to chug through.

I finished reading Fingers In The Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham

Here's what I wrote on my own thread:

I absolutely loved this book. I was a huge fan of The Really Wild Show as a child (starring Chris Packham of course), and love his more recent TV work too. This is very much a memoir, and not an autobiography, if you see the difference. The focus is a single traumatic event in his teens, the buildup to it, and the repercussions in his life afterwards. It is written in a rather unusual style, flitting back and forth chronologically, and often told in the third person. The language is incredibly rich and poetic. His egg stealing activities in childhood contrast sharply with his environmental campaigning today, but are both born out of an intense love for the natural world. Coincidentally, as I was reading this, he was arrested in Malta on trumped up assault charges after he reported some locals for illegally shooting and trapping migratory birds, a major cause of the decline in populations across Europe which he has been documenting. This really is a man who lives and breathes nature.

I was preparing for a craft fair today (happening tomorrow) so I took time to sit down and read my hobby book, Crochet with Wire by Nancie Wiseman, all 88 pages of it. It was very basic. There are two techniques and one idea I take away from it. Slightly disappointing, actually.

I finished one more yesterday: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen a graphic memoir by Lucy Knisley. I am sooooo going to try the way she cooks mushrooms! I'll definitely look for more of her graphic non-fiction.

Completed the reading of Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. A day and an hour late, but who is counting. While the reading is done, my musing on it will go on for days. I'll eventually get some sort of report posted on you thread.

I also read Running Made Easy. It's a magazine style book with tips on running. It's mostly pretty basic. I found the list of things to remember for a race/event helpful as I'm running my first ever 10k on Sunday. That's about all I'll take away from the book though.

I'm reading several Crochet books right now and specifically The Everything Art Handbook by Walter Foster and Just Us Girls by Cindy Ann Ganaden. These are just what they sound like. One covers all kinds of art techniques and the other is full of really great projects for moms and daughters to do together.

It took a while but I finally finished the book that I was reading for “hobbies, pastimes and passions”. For me that would be family history research. Family Matters: A History of Genealogy is a history of researching family history in England. As that is where a major part of my research lies, I was interested in how this hobby evolved in that country.

It was a good overview of family history in England but a bit dry in the beginning. Which is probably why it took me so long to finish the book. Once it got to the part of the history that I remembered, things moved a long much more quickly.

I've finished my first Halloween read of the season, which also fits here due to my passion for books, Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s. Written with snarky humor, but a genuine affection for the subject, Hendrix looks at the trends in horror fiction during its heyday. It was interesting to see how social issues were reflected in the genre: test-tube babies kicking off a wave of evil children books, environmental concerns unleashing plagues of nature themed horror, televangelists beating the pulpit leading to splatterpunk. The book is illustrated with plenty of reproductions of lurid book covers, and there are several spotlights on the cover artists. Heartily recommended.