Athena

Well, I caved and bought On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis (and 2 other books). The book should be here tomorrow .

Have fun with your family . Thanks . I've taken a painkiller at breakfast, and it's partially working. I can take another one at lunch time, which I plan to do.

I read het Boekenweekgeschenk of this year (book week gift), Griet Op De Beeck - Gezien de feiten. It took me a bit of time to get into this novella, but when I did, I enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the ending. I had to get used to some Belgian words used in the novella, but once I got used to it it was kind of nice that those words were there. I might have to check out other novels by the author, my parents have one (and they liked it) so I might have to borrow it and read it some time.

I've been waiting for On the Edge of Gone to come out in English paperback for a while now, but I've been buying more smaller hardcovers lately and got on okay, so I think I shall just add the hardcover to my to-buy-soon list . I'm definitely interested in the story, thanks for reminding me of it ! (EDIT: I bought it, see below!). I agree, I think you can definitely have more in common with an online friend than with someone who happens to live nearby.

Wow, some of those are quite a bit of food for thought !

I'm glad the angiogram was good and that Coran is okay . I hope you have fun . I hope you have fun and that you won't be too hungry (I would be hungry too! Could you eat something before 5:30?). I'm not feeling great today, I've got a bad headache and some other period related pains. So I guess I'll try to take things slow(er) today.

That's a shame . I haven't read Labyrinth but I think it's on my TBR.

This week's topic: March 14: Children's Books to Read as an Adult Author's Note: --This one was suggested by another group member! What children's books do you think deserve revisiting as we get older?

Hat

I read Bronja Prazdny - Vrouwen met autisme. This is a book about 13 women with autism (that's what the title means). I loved reading this book. I recognised a lot of things. It was so nice to read this book. I also loved the preface and introduction. Apparently (sensory) input problems is something a lot of autistic women have, more so than men. It was so nice to read about other people who have that too. I'm sorry I can't write a long review for this. There were 1 or 2 women in the book with whom I couldn't quite see as many similarities with myself, but with most of the women I feel I had quite a lot in common. One thing I did notice (warning, tangent coming up) was that online friendships were not really mentioned in the book (that I recall, unless I missed it). A lot of the women did mention friends, but I don't remember any online friends being mentioned. For me, online friendships work really well. It is much less tiring for me to type an email or a message to someone (message, not a chat) or to type a post on this forum, than it would be for me to go out and talk to someone in real life, or even phone with them, or to go to an actual book club and discuss a book with a group of people. With a message I have more time to think about what I want to type and how to respond, and I don't have to read into any body language or social cues. I don't have to think up a response really quickly. I met several great friends and lots of nice people through this forum . I don't have any good friends who live close by, except for people who are also family, or part of my family, or who I consider part of my family. If my friends lived closer to me (instead of in different countries), I do think I would see them from time to time, but it would be too tiring for me to spend a lot of time with them often. I dose seeing my family, on birthdays for example I can only be with my family for a short time until I go rest again, then see them again after I've rested. When I go somewhere with my parents or even if I've talked with them for a bit, I have to rest for a while again after it (and the same applies to my siblings). I can't spend all day with my family, and I couldn't spend all day with friends either. Michael and I live together, but we spend most of most our days doing our own separate things. And it works well for us, I think. We are currently both happy with the balance we have. We both need a lot of time on our own. But we both also love the time we spend together (it is usually in the evenings). Anyway, online friendships work really well for me, as they don't cost as much energy as a friend who would want to meet up every week for a day (or something like that). I love the friends I have. I hope no one feels offended by the fact that even if they did live close by, I would not be able to spend lots of time with them. That's not because I wouldn't want to, but because it would be too tiring for me to do that too often. I hope no one is offended by that. I was surprised online friendships were not mentioned in the book, since they are so important to me and they enable me to have really great friends without getting as tired from social interaction. I really liked reading this book, and I think it's definitely a book I'll want to re-read more than once.

I read Alice Oseman - Radio Silence. This is a YA contemporary fiction novel. I quite liked this book. I loved the focus on friendship. I liked how technology was important in this story. I liked the characters. I'm glad I managed to finish a book, but I don't feel up for writing much of a review/thoughts on it, sorry .

That's very interesting, I didn't know that, thanks . I hope you enjoy all of them . I've pre-ordered the paperback of Sleeping Beauties, so I should get it when it is released. That makes sense . Haha . I thought that too when I was a kid! My mum told me the same thing you know now.

I love coconut icecream! It's relatively rare here, so I don't often get to have it, but I had it at Christmas and I've had it on a holiday in France.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl.

The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, #2) by Robert Jordan.

Cake

I hope you and your boyfriend feel less tired soon. Last weekend Michael and I, and my parents, visited my grandparents and had lunch with them. It was nice to see my grandparents again and to spend some time with my family .

Stephen Hawking has passed away (link) . I feel sad, the man was brilliant and had such spirit. I'm glad he had a good life. He was 76 years old and his family said the passing was peaceful.

Thanks Sarah !

I have a number of bookish things to say, so where better than to tell my friends at the Book Club Forum . - Obsidio, the 3rd book in the Illuminae series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff is coming out tomorrow (here) and I just got an email my copy has been shipped (it should be here tomorrow). I'm so excited for this book and to read the conclusion to the trilogy . - One of the books I'm currently reading is Vrouwen met autisme by Bronja Prazdny (the title means Women With Autism), which features a look at 13 Dutch (or Belgian??) women with autism. I was just reading the 3rd one, which is about a woman with autism who is an author. I've really liked all three pieces so far (the 3 women I read about), but this one featured her last name in the piece, and when I read she was an author, I of course needed to look up her books. She is having a new book released at the end of the month about a girl with autism growing up and I pre-ordered it and am very excited for it (it's called Zondagskind). I don't know of any other Dutch fictional books about a woman/girl with autism written by someone with autism, and there are only a handful I know of in English, and I am super excited to have found it and I hope it's good (it's #OwnVoices, since the author herself has the Syndrome of Asperger so I think it will be good). The author's name is Judith Visser and I found her website. You can order a signed copy of her 2016 book, In Seizoenen, which I did (which is also a novel / literary / contemporary fiction, I don't know if there is anyone with autism in it but the synopsis intrigues me). Her earlier work seems to be mostly thrillers and some of them seemed only available secondhand from sellers on various websites (or as ebooks, but I like physical books more). If I like the two books I bought/ordered, I might see if I can buy a couple of her thrillers, but the thrillers don't feature characters with autism to my knowledge and I prefer reading contemporary fiction over thrillers. But if I like the two novels a lot, I'm definitely going to look into buying more of her books. I'm really excited for both of the novels. - Then on less nice news, the past few days I have had real trouble focussing on reading . I've read some pages in 7 different books (and want to read 5+ others) but am having trouble focussing on anything for more than a couple of minutes . I tried reading some blog posts this morning and watching a couple of YouTube videos, but for most of the videos and posts I ended up having to close them again before I'd read / watched all, I just cannot focus. I managed to read the third piece in that "Women With Autism" book (see above), which was maybe 10ish? pages. Last year in May, this is how my reading slump started then. I started about 20+ different books and I had real trouble focussing on any one book. I declared it officially over in September, it lasted a couple of months. I did manage to read some books during that time, but it was difficult to focus on them and I often got distracted. Anyway, I'm hoping that right now is just a temporary state of not being able to focus, due to hormones, stress, headaches, stuff going on in my life (I might be getting a bit of an important message by the end of the day, that I've been stressed about). I'm hoping that I will be able to focus more soon and that I'll be back to normal reading in a week or so, but I'm also a bit worried that this is the start of a long reading slump again. I would not like that at all . Reading is so so important to me. It's one of the very few things that don't cost me a lot of energy to do (when I can focus ), in comparison with a lot of other things. I don't have a lot of energy, so I definitely need reading in my life or I'll easily be too overloaded with input and have no energy left before the day is over.

It usually depends on that for me too, which one I experienced first! Thanks !

It's so nice to hear/read about your daughter . I hope you like it .

Great review ! I own The Handmaid's Tale, I plan to read it some day. It's nice both the adaptation and the book were good to you, since it is usually one is better than the other. It's rare both the book and the adaptation were really good.

I'm glad you had a good Mother's Day . Here in the Netherlands Mother's Day is in May. I haven't read A Man Called Ove yet, but it's on my TBR. I hope you enjoy it !

It's not free for me for some reason, but maybe for those in the US (and UK) it is free .