Small update

Oh dear, I see it has been quite a while since I last updated. I shall, as usual, blame my health rather than laziness, but it’s probably a bit of both.

I’ve found myself very tired lately, to the point if I don’t get some actual sleep while Marcus is at school, I struggle through the day. If I get that sleep (and often that’s a case of collapsing back into bed around 8.30am after the others leave and not getting up before about 1pm, sleeping and dozing for that time) I can manage school pickup, homework and the evening.

With the Olympics on, I decided to get out my stitching project that was on my floor frame (Chatelaine’s Illuminated Medieval Sampler) and try to do some work on that while watching the sports. I really enjoyed myself and got part 4 of it done. I feel like I have my stitching mojo back (although I have to pace myself) and it’s lovely, although it does cut into my reading time. Having finished part 4 of IMS, I put some new fabric on the floor frame and took the plunge, restarting Defender of the Kingdom in tent stitch. I have a grand total of 3 days of stitching done so far. (I haven’t put up the new pictures of IMS yet.)

My poor, dead Kindle

The very sad news relating to reading is that my Kindle died a couple of weeks ago. It was, of course, a few months out of warranty. Because the car has needed very expensive repairs since then, plus things like school fees need to be paid, I’m waiting until we have some spare money to buy a new one (please let it be soon!). In the meantime, I’m reading on my phone and sharing Marcus’ Kindle when he’s not using it. But I do have to ask him if I can have it (as he pointed out, he has to ask to use my phone or Dave’s iPad, so it’s only fair).

Seanan McGuire’s Discount Armageddon has been up on the sidebar as my current read during my absence. I have to admit that I haven’t finished it. I got to halfway and paused, and haven’t felt drawn back to it yet. It remains on my phone (if not a Kindle) waiting for me to get back to it. So I shall update the photo after I finish this post.

A Brief History of Montmaray

I saw a review on The Book Smugglers for The FitzOsbornes in Exile, which is book two in a series. I was quickly warned it contained spoilers for book one, so I stopped reading and went and found the review for that book, A Brief History of Montmaray, instead. I enjoyed it very much and highly recommend it. I’ll be buying and reading the second book when I manage to justify the high Kindle price to myself.

After that I moved on to Axis by Robert Charles Wilson, the sequel to Spin, which I read back in March. I liked it a lot – it’s a much less epic book than Spin, but it produces some big and interesting ideas at the end. The fact I figured out what was going on at about the same time the book told me also made me feel at least a bit clever. I have the third book, Vortex, waiting for me to read, but I decided to read something different in between, rather than jumping straight into the next one.

So it’s a reread of an old book for me now, as I’ve picked Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey, which is next in my Author Reread for McCaffrey.