Greetings to you all. We have just come off a long weekend holiday, with Friday taking the day this time. It is Matariki here, a Maori celebration of a set of stars showing in the sky, so its counted as the Maori New Year. For the first time we have celebrated it as a nation. I really like the idea and hope it really becomes embedded in our country as a top celebration.
On a less delighted note, Goodreads has been giving me grief and will not let me take any actions like currently reading, read etc or post reviews. I contacted them and they put me in a queue. Then sent me an email asking for feedback. Well of course it was a thumbs down because nothing was fixed… so far. It’s a bummer because I actually use GR all the time. Thank goodness for this blog where I keep a record too.
What I read last week:
What I am reading now:
And starting to listen to…
Up next:
Not sure but most likely this one.
The Book Date 
How frustrating about Goodreads. Every once in awhile it goes nuts on me but normally resolves itself and I hope that is the case with you. And sounds like they were seriously premature in sending that email! The Jenny Colgan book is on my TBR and I’m looking forward to Nightwork. Matariki sounds wonderful. I hope you are having a great week!
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Sorry to hear about your Goodreads problems! I rely on it to keep me organized, so I know that’s frustrating. Unfortunately I dislike the new design “beta” pages it keeps showing me, but I guess the change is inevitable.
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Your Maori New Year sounds fabulous! How wonderful to have new national celebrations during this time in history!
Eager to read your thoughts on The Cartographers. I enjoyed it very much.
Sad about Goodreads! I also use an app called Reading List: Book Tracker as a backup. It’s a private platform, but serves my purposes quite well.
I hope it all works out for you! 😊
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Great selections as always, Kathryn. 😀
I hope you enjoy Bloomsbury Girls as much as I did. 🥰
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Yes it was good listening, I liked the first one better but this one was good.
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I think it’s wonderful that an indigenous celebration is becoming a national holiday! Something sort of similar (though different) recently happened here, where Juneteenth (on June 19) is now a national holiday. It’s the day that the last enslaved African Americans in Texas learned they were free – a full two years after they’d been freed! It was traditionally celebrated by African Americans, but I think it’s wonderful that e all celebrate now – and learn this important and oft-overlooked bit of history.
Looks like some good books for you lately! I’d love to hear what you though of The Cartographers – I think that’s next up for me on audio (it’s exactly 400 pages so counts for Big Book Summer!).
Enjoy your books this week, Kathryn, and thanks for hosting the linkup!
Sue
2022 Big Book Summer Challenge
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That’s interesting about Juneteenth – I had heard of it but didn’t realise its a national holiday. Yes a step forward to recognise it as a national holiday. I liked The Cartographers and should be good on audio, I think actually it is more the kind of book you’ll really take to.
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Oh Kathryn what a great holiday. I just requested the Viola Shipman. I hope you love Nightwork as much as I did. I’ll be reviewing the Macmillan audio on the blog next week. Happy Monday
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Debbie I nearly chose the audio of Nightwork but I am slow at the moment on audio so chose to read, can always come back to it at a later date for a reread. Loving the Viola Shipman book.
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What an interesting celebration! I have a nephew living in NZ right now so I’m especially curious and will have to do a little research. Looks like a great reading collection – I would say summery, but I guess it’s not summer in NZ is it?! Happy Reading!
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No winter, but nice to read about summer in cold weather! Love that you have a nephew over here at the moment.
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What a wonderful sounding celebration! I am enjoying The Edge of Summer, the setting is just 20 mins away from where I live. Have a great week.
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What really, it is such a beautiful setting, amazing, he is a great advocate for the tourist industry, if I was travelling I’d want to visit the Saugatuck / Douglas region.
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I can’t wait to read both theViola Shipman and the Jenny Colgan books.
How cool that that celbration has happened for the whole country !
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It’s great that holidays are beginning to be more multicultural! Too bad about GoodReads! How frustrating! I use LibraryThing to track what I’m reading, but don’t use the social media aspect of it much. It’s hard enough to keep up with the book blogging world!
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Marg I am really enjoying Viola Shipman’s and the Jenny Colgan book.
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What kind of celebrations take place for Matariki? I’m still reading my Tony Hillerman book, so I have nothing to link up. I used to read many books during the week, but now my pace is slow. Good luck with GR – seems that many websites I use have issues. I like to blame it on my browser – lol!
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There was some gatherings where ceremonial things took place with the Maori leading and there was fireworks. It is also regarded as a family time, so I visited one person in my family. I think it will catch on more as we move through the years. I didn’t see the stars yet as sky has been cloudy. Hope your book is good, reading is my first hobby, and quilting came out of that!!
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I’m so glad you had a wonderful celebration. I hope GR gets fixed for you soon! That sounds frustrating.
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Well…I have never bumped into trouble at GR. Hope you get to the bottom of it!
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The celebration sounded great. Hope Goodreads gets the issue solved. I’ve had my own problems with them over the years but they seem to figure things out eventually. Looking forward to your thoughts on the Nora book!
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I took Friday off as well, bbut just a day off. I’m not ready to go back to work tomorrow.
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Sounds like a fun celebration.
I had trouble for several days with Goodreads too. I thought it was due to a computer upgrade that removed my cookies. I had to re-sign in on a lot of apps and GR was one of them.
Maybe it wasn’t just me.
Hope you enjoy your reading this week too.
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Kathryn Interesting to hear about your nation-wide celebration of Maori new year. I wish we weren’t so divided here in the U.S. these days. Sorry about your trouble with Goodreads. You didn’t say how you liked the books you read last week. I loved Bloomsbury Girls and have recommended it to my local book club. Judy Zell
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Judy I did enjoy the Bloomsbury Girls and listened to the audio of it. It was good to see the women stand up and Evie to do what she did.
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That sounds wonderful! I’m glad that celebration is being held by the country as a whole. It’s nice to make progress. 🙂
The shjipman book looks good to me and I understand it’s either partly or completely set in my home state (Michigan) so I’m curious about it… 🙂
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Greg it is indeed set there mostly – and certainly a great advertisement for the place.
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That’s awesome to hear. I vacation a lot in the Traverse City area and not sure if that area is specifically mentioned, but I know from reviews and whatever that northern Michigan in general is the setting…
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The celebration sounds great. I have The Edge of Summer coming up soon. It looks good. I hope you have a great week.
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Sounds like a fun celebration. I like that Friday was the holiday…Mondays always get that honor. 🙂
Oh no on Goodreads….they do mess up at times…they say I read books and I haven’t. Sorry you are having such a hard time. I use them a lot too.
I keep seeing THE CARTOGRAPHERS everywhere.
Enjoy your week, Kathryn. Hope Goodreads gets things sorted out for you.
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Wow, that celebrations sounds wonderful! Enjoy many years of it. Your books look good, too.
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