summer is for reading

Just a quick post to say Happy Saturday, Y'all! QG and I are off to the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth to see the exhibit on The Age of Impressionism. Egads, I'm so excited - been wanting to see those paintings for months.

I've been trying to squeeze more reading into my life of late. So, I'm reviving my habit of listening to books on CD: in the car, when walking, at home. I'm half way through one now, which I wanted to recommend. It is a fun romp into jolly old England, involving a castle, three spinsters, a young woman looking for past secrets involving her mother's past, and her own present and future. Oooh so mysterious, and such an adventure. The book is called The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. Like all great books, it deftly envelops you in an alternate reality and seamlessly keeps you there. But, like not even all great books, this book has the occasional line which you find pondering, turning around in your head over and over again because it seems to have been plucked from your own mind, and you want to shout, "I know. Exactly!" It makes you feel a kinship with the author, almost like that person is your friend. Okay, maybe I'm reading too much into it but that's what happens to me at least. The other good part about this book on CD is that I love, love, love the reader's voice and accent. It is read by Carolina Lee, who is Australian. She does a fantastic job of keeping the character's voices distinct. Also, every time I listen to this, I just have to have a cup of hot tea with milk and sugar. I cannot hear about London, and castles in the English countryside without needing to sip a bit of tea. It is the same thing when I watch the BBC. I am that susceptible to suggestion.