Seizing the Moment

 It's been quite rainy here, which is typical. It's also been quite warm--in the high teens--which is not usual. September was warmer than usual too. Of course, 'usual' probably isn't much of a th9ing anymore as the climate crisis deepens.

In any case, it may be bucketing down rain and too warm, but books with my name on them are still showing up at the library! I've had a few in for several days and got another in today. The last one surprised me, since it was just put in transit yesterday or the day before after being processed and entered into the system. I'd requested it several weeks ago after reading a review of it and I'm happy to have it in my pile now!

Today I checked the Met Eireann website to see if there was going to be a window of opportunity we could seize upon to get to the library and back without ending up with waterlogged books. Three o'clock looked good, so around that time, I checked the satellite image and saw that we should be good. We headed out a few minutes later.

On days like this, I am reminded of how spoiled we've become. Since we've lived here, our local libraries have been just a few minutes away and we could be there and back in less than 15 minutes. This is very handy when we're dodging heavy bursts of rain! Now it's a mile away and takes 20 minutes to get there, however much time it takes inside the library, and 20 minutes back, so we need more time.  We were lucky today and avoided downpours. There was just a bit of spitting/mizzle and the books stayed dry. Yay!

These are the books I came home with. The Dawn of Language is quite new. I'm looking forward to reading his ideas about how language evolved and his reasoning behind these ideas. 

I used to think of Georgette Heyer as a romance writer and never read any of her work, since I'm not into that genre. While I think she did write mostly romance, she also wrote some mysteries, which I did not know until I read about it somewhere. This one, Envious Casca, takes place, in part at least, at Christmastime, so I decided to check it out (bad pun, I know!) and see if I like it. If I do, there are more to read. I think there are two different series detectives, but I am not sure.

I found the listing for the Thich Nhat Hanh book when I was looking for his newest book, which I also have on hold. It's still on-order.

The House that Disappeared on Tory Island is quite a (true) story! I recently somehow stumbled across a 5-part podcast that told this story and contained interviews with some of the people involved, as well as dramatized scenes. I am not sure the book will go any deeper than that podcast did, but I decided it was worth reading. Bill didn't listen to the podcast, so he might read it, too. The short summary is that Neville Presho was working as a filmmaker whose work was well-received. At one point, he went out to Tory Island, which is not far from where we are now and is said to be the most remote inhabited island off Ireland. I think it's 7 or 9 miles off the mainland. They used to have their own king--LOL. He fell in love with Tory while he was making the documentary that brought him there and he bought a house. His life took him to New Zealand, where he married and became a father. He was having mental health issues and his wife suggested they go back to Ireland. It wasn't clear to me whether it was to be an extended visit or a move. As the ferry approached Tory Island, he brought his son to see his house, which was visible from the sea. He was very excited, until he realized that his house was not there. Of course, he was frantically trying to find out what had happened, but no one was talking. Things went downhill from there as he slowly pieced things together.

I'm always happy to have a new pile of library books! Glad we were able to seize the moment and collect them.

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