Awaken Your Genius by Ozan Varol

Posted on by Barbara W. Klaser

It’s early in the year yet, but Awaken Your Genius, by Ozan Varol, may turn out to be, for me, the best nonfiction read of 2023.

I just had the pleasure of reading this book, which is not so much a pleasure-reading experience as it is eye-opening, even mind-opening, though it’s also a pleasure to read. I’m 66, and I have to say, this book made me feel young and ready to look at myself more clearly so that I can navigate a path forward with more self-knowledge. For the same reasons, if I knew a teenager I wanted to buy a gift for, I’d get them this book.

Some J. S. Bach

Posted on by Barbara W. Klaser

I want to take a moment to share this here while it’s on my mind. I’ve watched/heard this video a number of times because it’s a favorite of my spouse’s, and sometimes we watch music videos in the evenings. This one, every time we come back to it, amazes me yet again. Prelude in c minor for 6 Instruments by Sansar Sangidorj. I hope you enjoy it too.

Jane Austen on my mind

Posted on by Barbara W. Klaser

For those who, like me, can’t seem to get enough Jane Austen, whether it’s her books, information about her, variations on her works, or discussion of her works, I thought I’d share some of my finds. This will probably span several blog posts. First, there are a few YouTube channels I follow that provide content about Jane Austen or her fiction, some of them only occasionally, some more frequently. Here are a few of my favorite videos they’ve shared.

An Affectionate Heart by Heather Moll

Posted on by Barbara W. Klaser

An Affectionate Heart by Heather Moll is one of those novels that I thought about immediately rereading as soon as I finished it. It’s a fresh take on Pride and Prejudice that mostly takes place in Meryton. There are so many passages I wanted to linger over, yet I also wanted to find out what happened next, so I frequently moved along too quickly to savor everything I wished to.

April 2023 favorite reads

Posted on by Barbara W. Klaser

My 4- to 5-star reads for April 2023. Note, some of these books may only be available from Amazon and/or as Kindle ebooks. April was a busy reading month, and I also pored over a number of yarn craft books. I posted about those on my other blog, Swatches Yarns and Frogs.

My year 2022 in books

Posted on by Barbara W. Klaser

This seems as good a day as any to finish up my year-end transition for reading books, since I just finished the last Christmas story I’d set aside to read in 2022, day-before-yesterday, nearly two weeks into 2023. Sometimes, in rebellious moments, I wonder why we insist on these demarcations between time periods, especially ending the year in the middle of a season. It feels so arbitrary to me, especially this year, for some reason. Maybe it’s that the same weather patterns are continuing, and I have some ongoing projects that are the same projects now as they were in December.