Sunday Sum-Up: August 27, 2023

Kim @ Traveling in Books

Aug 27

The heat wave finally broke! After a week of daily highs of 100°F and above, and heat indices reaching 119°F. August really is the worst time of year for a heat wave around here. It's always so humid and there's little wind, so the air just sits there and cooks us all.

Fortunately, a cool front came through and brought us some rain and a reprieve from the heat, so I'm going to take advantage of it this week and go for plenty of walks and do some shopping before it gets hot again over the weekend.

I know it's technically still summer, but I'm going to be grouchy about the heat until it goes away.

Obligatory Mina Photo:

Even though she got to spend all her time in the air conditioning, Mina still didn't appreciate the hot weather. She abandoned her cozy blanket and chair and went back to curling up on bookshelves and in the closet where it was just a little bit cooler. She also wasn't up for playing very much. For the most part, she just wanted to nap the hot days away.

Honestly, I can't blame her. I would have liked to have slept through the heat, but I had to do things like go to work and run errands. It was unpleasant, even if I didn't have to spend very much time outside.

Mina and I are both looking forward to the cooler fall weather.

What I Finished Reading Last Week:

Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz by Hafez, Jahan Malek Khatun, and Obayd-e Zakani, translated from the Persian by Dick Davis
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, audiobook narrated by Anna Massey

I finished up Faces of Love, and it wasn't entirely what I expected- in a good way. Hafez's poetry had plenty of humor and insight, Khatun's varied between being delighted with her love and being disappointed by his absence, and Zakani's was much raunchier than I expected to see in a book like this. It was honestly kind of funny to see it there, and I think Zakani meant for the reader to find it funny.

It had been a long time since I read Rebecca, so even though there were a lot of things I remembered, there were a lot of things I had forgotten. I spent most of the morning of my day off finishing up the audiobook while I did laundry and other bits of housework. Massey's narration was spot on and helped to heighten the tension in the last quarter of the book when the investigation was going on. I also appreciated her portrayal of Mrs. Danvers. It can't be easy to show her casual villainy and her obsession with Rebecca, but Massey did it so well. I can't decide if I like her version more or Judith Anderson's from the 1940 Hitchcock film. Reading Rebecca always makes me want to revisit du Maurier's work, even though I haven't enjoyed the other things of hers I've read as much as Rebecca.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich (83/342)
The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe by Martyn Rady (37/617)
The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World by Marie Favereau, audiobook narrated by Anne Flosnik (62%)

Waltz into Darkness is a mystery novel I've had on my shelves for quite some time. I've been interested in the story for a long time, ever since I saw the movie Original Sin starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas. I think I watched it shortly after it came out in 2003, but didn't find the book until a year or two ago, when I picked up a copy from the indie bookshop downtown. It's about a man, Louis, who was corresponding long distance with a woman named Julia for months when they decided to get married. But when Julia arrives in New Orleans, she is not the plain, thirty-something woman Louis expected to greet. She is a beautiful young woman who claims to have sent a picture of her aunt so Louis wouldn't be beguiled by her pretty face alone. At first, Louis is delighted by his beautiful new bride, but he soon comes to suspect that something is wrong and that he doesn't have the whole story. Though I mostly know what happens thanks to the movie, Woolrich's odd but beguiling prose style is keeping me invested in the rhythm of the story and I want to see what is different between the book and the movie. It's a fast-paced book, and Louis is an intriguing character, so I'm looking forward to finishing this one.

The Middle Kingdoms is a history of central Europe, which is usually overlooked when it comes to medieval history. People are usually just looking at France and England, and maybe into Itay a little. I'm not very far into this one, but so far the narrative has been approachable and friendly, so I'm hoping I will learn a lot about a part of the world that I know relatively little about.

The Horde deals with Mongolian history, particularly that of the years after Genghis Khan's death, when sons and grandsons were ruling and expanding the Mongol Empire into the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Favereau discusses how flexible the nature of the Mongol Empire was thanks to its nomadic roots and its ability to change its tactics when it came to both conquering and ruling the lands and people they took over. I'm probably going to end up rereading this one, as I also have a physical copy of it and Flosnik's voice has not been particularly conducive to my absorbing the information simply because her voice doesn't carry very well. I've been having to turn the volume way up to hear her clearly, but sometimes I still lose the sound of her voice amidst the background nose. Still, I'm learning a lot about how the Mongols affected Russian history during the late medieval period, and about the politics of the Mongol empire itself, so it's not been an entirely wasted experience. I might end up finishing up with the physical copy so I absorb more of it.