Travellin' Penguin

A Suitcase and a Spatula — Tori Haschka
A lively mixture of travel writing and recipes that explores the places, people and memorable meals the author encountered around the world.

Walking the Gobi — Helen Thayer
An inspiring account of Helen Thayer and her husband Bill’s demanding 1,600-mile trek across the Gobi Desert, facing extreme heat, thirst, sandstorms and physical exhaustion.

Heresies — Richard Flanagan
In this collection of essays and reflections, the Tasmanian author writes passionately about literature, history, politics, nature and the importance of questioning accepted beliefs.

Nonna knows Best &Garden Like A Nonno- Jaclyn Crupi
These two affectionate illustrated books celebrate Italian grandparents, family traditions and the small everyday moments that create lasting childhood memories.

A Misalliance — Anita Brookner
After her husband leaves her, the lonely Blanche Vernon becomes entangled in the troubled life of another family in this subtle and intelligent study of emotional need.

The Red Notebook — Antoine Laurain
A Parisian bookseller finds an abandoned handbag and uses the owner’s red notebook and possessions to search for the mysterious woman who has captured his imagination.

Diary of a Young Naturalist — Dara McAnulty
A beautifully observed account of a year in the natural world, written by a young autistic naturalist whose intense connection with wildlife brings him comfort, wonder and belonging.

Any book about Photography– Books with many types of photography in order to study composition and techniques from my library.

Any children’s story from recommendations within the book Children’s Book of Wonder. EditorDaniel Hahn. Books from the First Golden Age- 1837 to 1929; New Horizons- 1930 to 1959; Modern Narratives- 1960 to 1984 and Contemporary Classics- 1985 to 2024. Must be stories I missed as a child.

A Book of Short Stories- read an hour’s worth of a short story from books I own. TBR

Bonus Book Choice- any book in the house. I have a few books on a variety of subjects. Journaling, music, science, nature, exercise, etc. They don’t fit into any of the above categories.

As each book is finished over time it will be replaced with another.

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Project Rules- Idea taken from #Jack Throws Books on Tik Tok. Reader has a random wheel. Each slice of the pie (wheel) has the name of the book or category. Once the wheel is spun and the book is randomly picked, the reader reads that choice for 1 hour exactly. The wheel is spun again for the next selection. Thank you Jinjer of the Intrepid Angeleno for putting me on to him.

So far I have read four selections to date. As a result of starting the project there were changes I felt needed to be made. Hopefully this is the final form. It has been lots of fun and I really enjoyed my hour’s read. It has been easy to find time in the day. If time is short the book can be read 30 minutes then another 30 later in the day. Any combination of minutes can be read to equal the hour. So far I’m not having any problem remembering the previous books.

I might add the Penguin Anniversary set of books challenge is also going well. My reading spirit is alive again and I’m getting a lot done after a long spell of mediocrity.

Note: the book pictured here is new to me. It is beautiful and has much information about children’s literature over the years. I will use it to choose what books I read in this genre.

Have a good week.

COMING UP……

I have a photography excursion coming up this week that should be interesting so a separate photography post is in my sights.

Have a good week.

The ransom selector on the Book Buddy app picked this book to read. It is part of the 20 books in the Penguin Great Journey’s set.

The Cobra’s Heart is a short work of literary travel writing rather than a novel. It is drawn from Kapuściński’s longer book, The Shadow of the Sun, and recounts his experiences as a journalist travelling through Africa during the period of the early 1960s when many countries were gaining independence. O

The central episode takes place in 1962. Kapuściński and his companion Leo drive from Dar es Salaam toward Kampala to report on Uganda’s independence. They become lost on the vast Serengeti plain, pass through an enormous herd of buffalo and spend the night in an abandoned hut—where Kapuściński discovers a deadly Egyptian cobra beneath his bed. Their struggle with the snake gives the book its title.

(The snake episode is very frightening.)

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The first paragraph of the book drew me in.

More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Everywhere, the sun. Just yesterday, an autumnal London was drenched in rain. A cold wind, darkness. But here, from the morning’s earliest moments, the airport is ablaze with sunlight, all of us in sunlight.

Reading this in our winter gloom was just what I needed on the day I read it.

I found the book really interesting but had to look up a few things as I’m not that familiar with African geography or history on the whole. So these are the things I learned .

Vocabulary: Women are pounding maniac and baking taro bulbs. Manioc cooking is the preparation of the starchy, edible root of the manioc plant (also called cassava or yuca) into safe, tender, and flavorful dishes

Flavor: Cooked taro has a dense, starchy texture and a mild, nutty, slightly sweet taste.Preparation: People roast, bake, boil, or steam them just like potatoes.

I might need to put these on the list with the gooseberries I wrote about in a previous post.

Kente cloth – is a brightly colored, hand-woven textile made of silk and cotton strips that originated with the Asante and Ewe people of Ghana. Resembles a basket weave.

Djellabah- Design: It features full, long sleeves and a distinctive pointed hood called a qob, which historically protected wearers from harsh desert sun, wind, and sand.

Then I needed to look up a couple of geographic areas on the map. Google was helpful with this, i saw how big the Serengeti desert is and I looked up Murchison Falls in Uganda. So powerful and beautiful. i also needed to see where the Gulf of Guinea is. I’m really enjoying what these little books toss up to research. I wonder what more I’ll learn in the books to come.

And I’m sharing one last quotation that made me laugh. The men wanted to get on a bus to get to their next destination.

We climb into the bus and sit down. At this point there is a risk of culture class, of collision and conflict. It will undoubtedly occur if the passenger is a foreigner who doesn’t know Africa. (This takes place in 1962.) Someone like that will start looking around, squirming, inquiring, ‘When will the bus leave?’

‘What do you mean, when?’ the astonished driver will reply. ‘It will leave when we find enough people to fill it up.’

It left more than 2 hours later.

It is now time to get back to Book Buddy and see what Penguin anniversary book I’ll be reading next.

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LIFE

I’ll leave you with a photo of this sad sack. Ollie had a pea sized tumour removed from his bottom eye lid area. It has been sent to pathology but the vet believes it will be ok. In the meantime Ollie is enjoying feeling sorry for himself.

Hope your week is going well.

BOOKS

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is an atmospheric literary novel set on a remote island near Antarctica. It combines a family story, mystery, environmental themes, and a strong sense of isolation.

Main characters

• Dominic “Dom” Salt — The father of the Salt family and caretaker of the research station on Shearwater Island. He is trying to hold his family together in an increasingly dangerous and isolated environment.
• Raff Salt — Dom’s eldest son. He is in his late teens and is thoughtful and protective, but is also dealing with the difficulties of growing up in such an unusual place.
• Fen Salt — Dom’s teenage daughter. Independent, tough and closely connected to the wild landscape and animals of the island.
• Orly Salt — Dom’s youngest son. He is fascinated by the natural world and has an especially endearing curiosity about the island and its wildlife.
• Rowan — A mysterious woman who washes ashore during a violent storm. Her arrival changes the dynamics of the Salt family. She has secrets of her own, and discovering why she has come to Shearwater becomes an important part of the story.

A little about the book

The novel takes place on Shearwater Island, a fictional, extremely remote island near Antarctica. The Salt family are among the last people remaining at a research station that is being closed because rising seas and worsening conditions are making the island increasingly unsafe.

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There are secrets, seed banks that need saving, whales and seals , environmental woes and suspense. This book is for our book group discussion in September. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Nothing spectacular and the same old environmental themes we hear about all the time but it was an entertaining and sometimes suspenseful novel. Shearwater Island is based on MacQuarie island south east of Tasmania.

Other bookish reading. The spin landed on French writer, Antoine Laurain’s book The Red Notebook. Read an hour of that and I’m really enjoying it. More on that down the track.

I’m half way through the African book the Cobra’s Heart. i’ll probably finish that off this week. I need to pick another Penguin anniversary random read and spin the wheel again for the Books I’m spinning challenge. I also need to see what the October book group read is going to be.

I’m enjoying all the challenges at the minute.

LIFE

Friday night a friend and I went to the Theatre Royal and saw Noni Hazlehurst in the play The Lark. The Lark is a moving one-woman play starring Noni Hazlehurst as Rose Grey, a woman in her seventies saying goodbye to the old Melbourne pub that has been her lifelong home. It is a powerful reflection on memory, ageing, loss and change. We loved it. There was much nostalgia and sadness interspersed with wonderful humour. It was so good as you’d expect from such a wonderful iconic Australian actor.

Family – meaning pets. Our dogs, Ollie and Peanut had a ‘fat lecture’ from the vet the other day. They are now on a month’s strict diet with a scheduled weigh in to occur in one month’s time.

They aren’t happy and Mr P’s hands are now cuffed to a cabinet away from their treats. lol

So far it is going ok though the dogs are walking around looking quizzical.

The week coming up…

I need to mail my U.S passport into the consulate to get it renewed. Mr P has decided he’s not going to and if he was to return he’ll use his Australian one though I doubt that is ever going to happen. I don’t have any travel plans but will get the passport.

It’s tax time so that is happening this week. One of those boring tasks that must be done.

A couple of gym sessions, a long walk one day and a visit to a friend whose partner recently passed away is on the cards.

Author Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret +many more) is launching the Little Lies sequel this week at the Hobart Town Hall. Fullers book shop has organised that talk and I will try to get there, time and fatigue permitting.

Next weekend is a photo shoot in the city centre to do some street photography with my club. Hoping for good weather. Also looking forward to a quieter week, maybe after that.

No idea how everything piles up at once even when I do pay attention. Too many things I don’t want to miss. You know how that goes.

Have a good week. A couple of photos of Hobart from where I sat waiting for the bus the other day.

Have a good week…any plans?

Any plans for the week? Have a good one.