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Welcome to my weekly update for August 13, 2023!
August is Women in Translation Month. If you signed up for my Books in Translation reading challenge, I hope you’ll participate and read a translated book written by a woman!
I recently switched hosting providers. I’ve had to fix a few bugs here and there since the move. If you notice something that needs to be fixed, please contact me to let me know. Thank you!
My husband had a long weekend last weekend so we drove the scenic International Selkirk Loop. A lot of it was along Kootenay Lake in British Columbia. We’ve been lucky to avoid most of the wildfire smoke here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho but we noticed it as soon as we crossed into Canada. It wasn’t terrible but everything was hazy and seemed overcast. The lake was beautiful but we could tell that it would be even more so if the sun was shining and the air was clear. It was still a nice weekend out though.
We spent a couple of nights in Nelson, BC. It’s a small lake town but the biggest one on the loop on the Canadian side. We realized after we arrived that the movie Roxanne was filmed there. I’ve never seen it so we rented it when we got back home. It was pretty good, but man, the objectification of women in ’80s comedies is hard to watch nowadays! And this wasn’t even a particularly bad example compared to a lot of others I’ve seen!
Along the way we stopped at The Glass House. David H. Brown retired from working in funeral homes and decided to recycle bottles of embalming fluid by building a house. He traveled all over BC to collect them and used something like 500,000 to build a house and several towers and gazebos. It was a whimsical place, much like Coral Castle in Miami if you’ve ever been there.
Slideshow:
All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2023
- The Glass House in Sanca, BC. The bottles the owner used to build it are square, which I didn’t expect.
- Pilot Bay Lighthouse in Kootenay Bay, BC
- A small lake at Stagleap Provincial Park between Salmo and Creston, BC.
- View from Metaline Falls Overlook in Washington
Posted:
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell: Book Review–2 Stars
Renegades by Marissa Meyer, read by Rebecca Soler and Dan Bitter: Series Review–4 Stars
Read:
Devolution by Max Brooks, read by a full cast (Link to my review)–This was a re-listen for me as my husband and I drove around.
The Dragon Book, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
Currently Reading:
Delilah by India Edghill
The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig, read by Nicola Barber
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
Up Next:
I haven’t even cracked Delilah open yet as I write this post on Friday evening, so I’ll be surprised if I start anything new this week.
What did your week look like?
Hosts:
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
28 Comments
The recycled bottle house is pretty amazing; talk about following through on a giant project! I remember liking Roxanne, but you are right, the sexism in 80s movies is huge (how did we all survive growing up in that era?!).
I watch them now and just shake my head. Sometimes it feels like we have so far to go but then I watch that kind of thing and realize how far we’ve come (in some ways).
Libro.fm has some sales this month on translated books by women, so I’m hoping to get to some of those soon! First I have to finish my current audiobook, though. It’s a long one (one of the Great Courses lecture series) but I’m nearly done… so hopefully I can listen to some translated fiction soon!
I’m glad you haven’t been impacted by the wildfire smoke much so far. I hope that all clears up soon, without giving you any trouble!
I hope you get to listen to some translated fiction when you’re ready! I need to take a look at the Great Courses. I bought my brother-in-law a gift card for them a few years ago but I didn’t take a good look at the catalog.
Looks like a scenic drive even with the smoke. Your books look good too. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
It was!
I hope you’ll share your thoughts on the audio of The Ashford Affair! I starting listening to the Pink Carnation series when the first ones came out, but didn’t keep up with it. I think I go off of dual-timeline stories after a few, and it takes a while for me to try one again!
Great pictures from your travels! I wanted to write a travelogue for Sunday Salon from my trip to Peekskill, NY a few weekends ago, but I got sick this week and lost several more days of my life to COVID. Thank god, again, for audiobooks!
Oh no! I hope you’re feeling better and up to posting about your trip.
I haven’t finished The Ashford Affair but it also has a dual timeline. I loved The Pink Carnation series but if the modern timeline had been left out, I would have been even happier with it. I truly didn’t care about that romance. The Ashford Affair is the same so far–interesting historical bits and less-interesting “modern” (1999) bits. At least for me. I went into it expecting more of the wit and humor from The Pink Carnation and that’s lacking here. Not that it’s bad, it’s quite good, but it’s not what I was really looking/hoping for. The Ashford Affair is more of a family saga/drama.
Amazing photos! Bet it would be nice to live by the lake. Busy week for me, but daughter goes off to college soon so that’s expected. Hope you enjoy your week.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2023/08/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-and_14.html
The beginning of the school year is always busy but somehow it’s even busier when it’s off-to-college time. Good luck!
Thanks!
I’ve seen beer bottles used in a similar way, but never embalming fluid bottles!
Wishing you a great reading week
Oh wow, beer bottles! I hope for the sake of the builder’s liver that they didn’t empty them all personally! 🙂
It’s great you get to tour around so much. I was even happy to see Coeur d’Alene mentioned as I visited there many years ago, or decades actually when I was in the US. Love the photos.
The National Parks book looks good. I’ll have to check that out.
Jill
http://www.allthebooksihaventread.com/
So happy you were able to get out! Beautiful pictures.
So true about the movies. Rewatching John Hughes’ movies does that for me…
Devolution was a really fun read.
The Hour of Land has been on my list for far too long since Terry Tempest Williams is local to my state. Hope you enjoy it!
Day Trips. I need to add that to the PROS of getting a car column.
Those pictures are amazing. Love the bottle house and pic #4.
The Glass House looks pretty cool! I hadn’t heard of The Coral Castle, but we’ll have to check it out next time we’re over there. Great photos.
I love the pictures. We need to take more day trips, sigh! So much to explore, but we don’t. Have a great week!
Some great looking books here but what caught my eye is your trip into Canada. From Seattle that’s a likely trip for us too so I looked up the Glass House and more and added it to our Must See list! Great tip and I can’t wait to explore the area.
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/sunday-post-59
Sounds like a lovely trip!
Isn’t it so crazy to go back and watch those 80s movies and see how different things were, and not in a good way?
That house is so cool! I love seeing things like that. Enjoy your books!
That house is so cool. I’d love to see it in person.
I love to stop by places like The Glass House. It’s interesting to me to see the visions of individuals. We have a couple here in Houston—The Orange Show and The Beer Can House, if you are ever in the area.
Between the wildfire smoke and the heat—well, it’s been a hellish summer.
I read translated books by women all the time and should join your challenge.
Harvee at https://bookdilettante.blogspot.com
I have the same watching movies from the last few decades. I sometimes feel like films from to 2000’s are even worse cause they pretend the women are in on the joke and enjoy the objectification… But I’m glad you enjoyed your trip, the Glass House looks beautiful! Love the cover for Delilah, hope you enjoy it! I hope you have a lovely week 🙂
Juli @ A Universe in Words
Sounds like a great trip even with the smoke. Glad you enjoyed it.
That is so true about 80’s movies. some of the things we took for granted even a few years ago seems so iffy now. Especially 80’s movies! They’rd hard to watch in many cases!
That’s awful about the smokiness.
Devolution- I’ll have to go check your review. Been wanting to try that.