I’ll tell you up front that my gallbladder surgery went well and I’m doing fine. With some care about my diet, the prognosis looks good. Thanks for all the good wishes!
Literature
With surgery on my plate this month, I tried not to stress about reading projects or anything else. I dropped my intention to read only books in German this month and just kept slowly plugging away at my two books in other languages. Otherwise, I read whatever I felt like picking up, and took it easy.
I was truly delighted to review the next Diana Wynne Jones release from the Folio Society, Castle in the Air, and I couldn’t resist asking the question: Which Diana Wynne Jones book should Folio publish next? Fingers crossed that they’ll listen to our wishes.
Books read
- Invitation to Love by Thomas Keating
- Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
- Unlocking Your Self-healing Potential by Josef Ulrich
- Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons – Reread
- Born for Love by Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz
- The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey
- Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey – Reread
- Mohawk Valley by Ronald Welch
- L’étranger by Albert Camus – Summer in Other Languages, Around the World
- Daughters of the Labyrinth by Ruth Padel – Review to come, Around the World
- Die Kleine Hexe by Otfried Preußler – Summer in Other Languages, Around the World
Language
I’ve started teaching English on italki, the most popular online language learning platform — I signed up with a couple of other platforms, but didn’t get any students there. Italki was not taking new English teachers for a long time (I think there was a glut due to the pandemic), but eventually I checked back and it had opened up. I’m excited to see how this goes.
As mentioned above, I didn’t stress out too much about my own language progress this month. But I finished both of my current reads, L’étranger and Die kleine Hexe. I’ll be sharing thoughts about Camus’s somber classic soon; for my thoughts on Preußler’s magical tale, you can see my weekly summary posts.
Life
The weather has been strange this summer, and VERY wet. We haven’t been hit so hard with the flooding seen elsewhere, but I do get nervous now whenever it starts to rain or thunder. After my surgery, we spent a week in the Alps, in canton Valais. We couldn’t go hiking as we’d planned, since I needed to rest, but also because it was raining so much. Another time I hope to return and explore further. I’ll share some photos soon; above is an authentic Swiss castle, sighted in Brig during a brief sunny spell.
A trip earlier this summer to Fribourg yielded some lovely views of the medieval town.
Have you seen any interesting sights this summer?
Linked at The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and the Monthly Wrap-up Round-up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Glad your surgery was a success! Hope you are healing up nice! Happy August!
Glad your surgery went well. <3 And Italki sounds exciting! I hope you're able to get some students on this one. Love that photo too. This summer has been a lot, I'm kinda glad the excessive heat didn't last too long though, it was getting too much.
Good luck with italki! I hope you are able to pull in a lot of students,
Good news about your surgery, I’m so pleased. Hope things continue to go well. I got to run under Spaghetti Junction the other week, certainly the sight of huge legs of an overpass rearing up above us as we ran along a canal was interesting!
Lory, I am so pleased to hear your surgery went well and that you have been enjoying reading just what you fancy! 😊 I have just got from my holidays, where I stayed in the rolling countryside of Kent and then the Hampshire coast, where I visited Hurst Castle; although it is more fort than castle now. 🏰
I’m glad your surgery went well and you are healing up. That seems to be the perfect time to read whatever you like. The castle photo is lovely, and I hope you are enjoying teaching English online.
Chiming in to say I’m glad your surgery went well and you’re healing.
So glad for you, and hope you make a steady while speedy recovery. A shame about the uncertain weather but we’re all aware how awful things are in places like Greece, Turkey and elsewhere, so we take our comfort where we can and hope politicians get their act together, finally. As for visits, we had a few days in Bristol as you know but we haven’t bothered to book anywhere away because, well, August holidays, staycations and exorbitant prices. But at least book reading continues on apace.
Alors, bonnes vacances et bonne chance! 🙂
So glad your surgery went well! You did a lot of reading too!
Glad you read The Stranger.
Now you need to read Kamel Daoud’s book!
A few minutes ago actually, I finished reading the amazing study of how the book came to be by Alice Kaplan: Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic.
It is really excellent. I got it at Book Expo America in 2016, but never took time to read it.
I’m happy to read your surgery went well. My husband had his gallbladder removed too and now he has to make sure he doesn’t eat high-fat foods like sausages–he forgot one time and after the horrible feeling afterward, won’t ever again. We did travel briefly in July to Philadelphia, PA. We enjoyed delicious foods from local restaurants and markets as well as walking to local green spaces to take photos of statues and gorgeous flora.
I try not to eat too much fat but also I’ve learned there are enzymes and supplements that can help. So my digestion has actually improved, overall. Glad to hear about your travels, that sounds like a perfect trip to me.