@abasket - Thanks for the kindle info. I definitely like my ancient Kindle/paperwhite for outdoor weeding. Ha, also like the idea that it’s is so old I have no qualms taking it on the beach with me.
I am really enjoying Latecomer. Part of the appeal is that for 8 years we lived less than an hour from Ithaca. And I am familiar with NYC, Martha’s Vineyard too.
I went to Cornell around that time. It was fun going down memory lane.
Agree…I felt that The Latecomer was one of those books where everything came together in the end.
I basically agree, but I’m frustrated because even though I really, really liked it when I read it last year, I’m blanking on a lot of the plot. Like, someone upthread mentioned the web of lies, and I know there was some huge deceits, but I can’t remember what they were. Gak. I need a younger brain.
(I’ll see if I can find a summary before June to job my memory.)
This isn’t quite the place for this, but I am so excited… I’m learning German and finished my Duolingo tree 6-7 months ago. It’s hard to find how to progress. Reading is good, so I try to read the news. I started with an easy version and now am trying to read Euronews.
I also bought two volumes of Dino lernt Deutsch. A book for German learners. But I was looking for kids books. They are out there but $$$ if you have to buy them all. My library certainly doesn’t have any.
But I discovered through the Goethe institute, you can borrow German e-books for free like a regular library. You just have to sign up. They have 1700 kids eBooks and audiobooks! I did a search for kids books under 50 pages to start out with. They have 83. So I downloaded my first on my iPad and worked through most of it today. I am quite excited!
And to whomever recommended the Cartographers book upthread, thanks! I’ve almost finished that one too. Enjoyed it very much.
I listed Cartographers, with my reading based on local librarian-recommendations table. (It was a total bonus to have upstate NY association, my original home.) It was delightful to then read Latecomers, our CC June book, right afterward… two winners in a row. LOL - figured I’d better switch to non-fiction for next read.
Hang the Moon by Jennifer Walls.
I have been taking Spanish, but it’s quite easy to find Spanish kids books at the local library. I’m finding for right now the “I can read - level 2 and 3” are about right for me now.
In my first year German class in college we read Der Richter und sein Henkerby Friedrich Durenmatt. It’s a detective novel with a lot of philosophy. It wasn’t an easy read, so probably something to aspire to right now. I have a friend who listened to “Schau ins Land” to practice German. Paths to German Poetry edited by Lore Barbara Foltin and Hubert Heinen is a nice collection with a poem on one side and lots of notes on the other. Emil Und Die Detektive is a classic and as I recall not hard to read. Highly recommend. Max and Moritz is another classic to look for, but you’ll want an edition that’s not in fraktur script! Have fun!
For Spanish, if you’re in a city with an Instituto Cervantes, I highly recommend their library. Rather than kid’s books (which they also have), they have a wide assortment of easy readers tailored to adults.
The library itself, at least the one in NYC, is open access for visiting and reading there, but there is a modest membership fee for borrowing.
Yes, our local library has a couple dozen kid books in Spanish, and more for adult. They even have comics in Spanish! H is learning Spanish, so sometimes I get them for him. But zero in German. Not surprising for our city.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve been watching The Empress in German - with subtitles. This is my second time through and I think I’m catching more. Or at least I can tell the subtitle aren’t quite what they are saying. I also watch a bunch of youtube videos. Have you watched Easy Spanish? I love Easy German, but I don’t know how good the Spanish counterpart is.
I also talk to myself out loud every day for 5-15 minutes while I walk outside. I ask myself a question like I’m in a job interview - the same question every day for a week. I bumble and stumble, especially on Mondays, but by the end of the week I get better…
I’m in the NYC suburbs. It looks like I can hop on a train and walk ten minutes. Membership for seniors is very modest! Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve been making great progress given that I started in February. I’ve been listening mostly to “Dreaming Spanish”, and Duolingo has a really nice podcast for Spanish. Great idea about talking to yourself. I need to practice talking. At my high school reunion a friend of mine started quizzing me in Spanish, I could answer all her questions, but oof, it was exhausting! For German TV shows Babylon Berlin is great (but depressing) and The Same Sky also great and less depressing.
I have been studying Croatian (via Zoom) since January–I spoke fluently as a child (parents were immigrants from Croatia) and took a Croatian language course in college. Since my folks passed away, I haven’t spoken Croatian, although I visited my cousins in Split in 2019 and found I could understand quite a bit. Recently, my Croatian instructor gave me a book by Pavao Pavlicic, a Croatian author who writes crime novels. It’s really slow going for me, but I’m staying with it. I find that I need to read in the morning, at the end of the day, nothing makes sense.
My foreign service friends who have to reach a decent level of proficiency in new languages every few years recommend reading Agatha Christie books in translation. They claim the language is straightforward and relatively jargon-free and the plots are easy enough to follow that you don’t wonder if you are off track.
I’ve never tried it but it makes sense!
For both French and German I used to reread things I’d read before in English translated into those languages, but my Spanish is not up to that level yet.
Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls. Great story and somewhat a parallel to another time and place.
I finished Jon Meacham’s book on John Lewis on Wednesday and was ready for a quick, fun “palate cleanser” after the intensity of Meacham’s book. Found it in Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Romantic Comedy.” Not the best book I’ve read in the last 6 months, but the fastest read for me and enjoyable. Started it on Thursday night after Amazon tempted my purchase with a discount and finished it Friday night just before 9 pm.
The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton, certainly kept my attention during my weekend visit to the desert land of the American Southwest. The novel tells the story of a Florida family and how they survive and continue after a catastrophic hurricane, which is but one early episode in a series of changes befalling Florida. The background is climate change, but I didn’t think the author was at all polemic; instead, she was exploring what such changes might mean to an individual, and those closest to her, as well as to regions of the world that might undergo great transformations in the decades to come. I’m still uneasy thinking about aspects of the book.
A reminder to check out your local library to see if they have an adult “Summer Reads” program. It’s an annual event here - not just for kids! Adults can sign up and there are perks for summer reading. This year it’s a tote bag for signing up and a branded library mug for completing the challenge (I think it’s just reading 30 days during the “summer read” time).
Summer reading perks are not just for kids!!! 
I loved doing the public library summer reading program when I was a kid, did the adult version when my kids were doing it, and continue to do it even though they’re gone. Our library does a combination of books read and/or activities to fill out a card that is then entered in a drawing for multiple prizes at the end of the summer. A few years ago I won a $50 gift card to a local restaurant.
I’ve gotten some nice swag from our old suburban library system (mug, canvas bag, etc.). This is what San Diego library is offering: