I’ve mentioned that every few weeks I go on a bird walk organized by the local birding club. We usually go to a forest preserve or nature trail. It’s a great way to see birds not normally found in backyards and an opportunity to learn how to identify them.
Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous with temperatures in the 80s. 75 people showed up for the walk, more than double our normal size group and we saw 42 species of birds. Unfortunately for me, the birds saw all these people and took off for the tops of the trees or dove into tall grasses, still in binocular range but out of the range of my camera’s lens.
I wandered off on my own for a bit down this lovely path hoping to find a bird or two that would pose for a photo. There were lots of warblers in the trees on the left but they were way too active and there were too many leaves to take pictures. I continued on down the path taking photos of leaves and plants. This berry plant was exceptionally attractive.
Eventually I wandered off the path to a marshy area and finally found a bird willing to pose for me, although he didn’t look happy about it and wouldn’t turn around. This little guy is an Eastern Phoebe. They are fairly common in eastern North America and can be recognized by their call of “phee-bee” and their constantly wagging tail.
Autumn is my favorite time for taking photos and a good time of year to see birds that are migrating south. Perhaps next weekend I will have better luck!
I link up my bird photos on Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
Judith at Leeswame’s Blog is hosting another Literary Giveaway Blog Hop. Over 50 blogs will be participating. The event will run from From October 15th-19th. Each blog will be offering a book or bookish items of a literary nature.
I am giving away a new copy of Gail Caldwell’s Memior Let’s Take the Long Way Home. I haven’t had a chance to read my copy yet but there are many positive reviews and I hope to read it soon.
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship
“It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.” So begins this gorgeous memoir by Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell, a testament to the power of friendship, a story of how an extraordinary bond between two women can illuminate the loneliest, funniest, hardest moments in life, including the final and ultimate challenge.
Giveaway Information
- Contest is open internationally to anyone with a mailing address to which the post office can deliver.
- You don’t have to be a subscriber to enter, but new subscribers are always appreciated.
- To enter leave a comment. Be sure to include your email address in the comment form.
- The deadline for entry is midnight, October 19th. I will draw one winner who will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
Contest is now closed
Winner: Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea
Read more…
The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Doubleday
Publish Date: September 13, 2011
Format: Hardcover | 400 pages
Rating: 4 of 5
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
The circus itself is a stage, a venue, for a competition between two young magicians who have been trained in illusion and magic from an early age. They are destined to bring the game to its conclusion; neither is allowed to quit. But what was not supposed to happen was that they would fall in love.
This is a beautifully written story, a fairy tale filled with magic and mystery. Through Erin Morgenstern’s descriptive prose it was effortless to see the enchanting black and white circus. The imagery is so vivid I could imagine myself walking along the paths between the circus tents and entering the fantasy world she has created.
As beautiful and visually captivating the story was, I could not feel the same way about the characters. They were overshadowed by the brilliance of the circus itself. I could not feel the passion, the intensity, that was supposed to be there for Celia and Marco, the two young magicians. One of the many secondary characters, Bailey, a young visitor to the circus who is befriended by several of the performers, was one of the more interesting and developed characters.
This book was a slower than usual read for me, partly because I wanted to soak in the imagery and partly due to the confusing timeline. The story is not told in a linear fashion. There are many short chapters with no clue as to where we are in time or space other than the chapter heading with the date and city. Often I’d have to flip back a few pages to find out where we were. There were two stories that intersected in the final section of the book but we could have done with a little less back and forth in time.
In spite of my critique I genuinely enjoyed the book. I wish the characters would have been a little more richly constructed, but for me The Circus was the star and it shone brightly.
About The Author
Erin Morgenstern is a writer and a multimedia artist, who describes all her work as “fairy tales in one way or another.” She lives in Massachusetts. Visit her at her Website and Blog.
Giveaway Information
Thanks to Doubleday Books I have two copies of The Night Circus to give away to my readers.
- Contest is open to US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
- To enter leave a comment. You don’t have to be a subscriber to enter, but new subscribers are always appreciated. Be sure to include your email address in the comment form.
- Contest closes at midnight, Sunday, October 23rd. I will draw 2 winners using random.org. Winners will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
- The book will be shipped by the publisher.
[Contest Now Closed]
Winners are Mary DeBorde and Marci J.
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Review copy provided by Doubleday Books.
A weekly meme about (mostly) books and reading. This week’s question is:
If you could get a sequel for any book, what would it be?
I don’t like sequels or prequels that are written by someone other than the original author and two of the books that came to mind when I read this question do not have living authors.
Gone With The Wind immediately came to mind. Margaret Mitchell was very clear that she would not write a sequel. The fact that her estate ‘authorized’ Alexandra Ripley to write one does not make it so. To me, that book may as well be fan fiction. It does not convey the story the original author would tell and I will be forever longing to find out what happened. I did read the so-called sequel, Scarlett, but was sorry I did.
I read a lot of science fiction and one of my favorite books is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This is the book that the movie Blade Runner is based on. Alas, this is another author who is no long with the living. P. K. Dick died shortly before Blade Runner was released and was never able to enjoy his success. He published many novels and short stories with several others subsequently made into movies after his death. There is now talk of a sequel movie to Blade Runner but sadly there will never be a sequel to the book that inspired it all.
Are there any sequels you are longing for?
Almost Wordless: Photo taken at Cantigny Gardens. (Click for sharper image.)
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More Wordless Wednesday.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The October host is Savvy Verse & Wit.
Only one book this week but that’s probably a good thing as I’m getting behind in my reviews. With all the gorgeous weather we’ve had in the Midwest this past week, I haven’t spent much time sitting still reading and only managed to finish one audiobook.
This weekend was perfect for a few longs walks, watching birds, taking photos and some garden cleanup. Plus we’ve been busy remodeling the family room. Buying one new chair snowballed into more new furniture, replacing the floor and a lot of redecorating. Funny how small projects always seem to expand into large ones.
For review from Atria Galley Grab:
The Goat Woman of Largo Bay
by Gillian Royes
The Goat Woman of Largo Bay begins the detective series featuring Shad, a bartender in a fishing village in Jamaica, who is the community problem solver and right hand of Eric, an American who owns the bar and a hotel left in ruins by a hurricane.
When Shad sees movement on the island offshore, he thinks it’s just a goat. But it turns out to be Simone, an American who has run away from her professional and personal life in the U.S., an intriguing woman who captures Eric’s heart. Always keeping his ear to the ground, Shad discovers that a gunshot heard near Simone’s place late one night isn’t exactly friendly fire, but tied to a plot to harm Simone and ultimately manipulate local elections. But why does someone want to harm Simone? And what does she have to do with the elections? Only Shad can find out.
How was your week?
Cedar Waxwings are a medium-sized bird found throughout North America. They migrate in the spring and fall but a population of Waxwings does remain year-round in the northern half of the US. They are a beautiful, silky looking brown, gray, and lemon-yellow color with a black mask, a crest on the top of their head, and red wax drops on their wing tips.
Last weekend brought a rare treat to my yard when a flock of about 50 Waxwings descended upon my Eastern Red Cedar tree. I love watching these sleek, acrobatic birds as they flutter through the branches gobbling down berries.
The photo above is a young, immature bird. The feathers are not fully developed. The coloring on the underparts is mottled, the black mask does not go all the way across the eyes, there are no black feathers under the chin and the crest is small.
The second photo is an adult. Males and females look almost the same with females having less black under the chin.
Waxwings are usually seen in woodland areas sitting in fruit trees or occasionally chasing after insects. They will venture into suburban gardens in search of berries but they don’t go to feeders. Eating all that fruit must have made them thirsty because the bird bath was a very popular gathering place. (click photo for sharper view)
Interesting Facts:
- Building a nest takes a female Cedar Waxwing 5 to 6 days and may require more than 2,500 individual trips to the nest.
- They occasionally save time by taking nest materials from other birds’ nests.
- Waxwings can survive on fruit alone for several months.
- Waxwings are susceptible to intoxication and even death due to eating fermented berries.
I link up my bird photos on Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
Under My Apple Tree 