Happy Birthday!

Father-in-Law's seventh birthday was on Pearl Harbor Day. (In a strange coincidence, the Mister's aunt, Mother-in-Law's sister, was born that day.) The family had the radio turned off for Father-in-Law's birthday party so the family didn't hear about the bombing until the next day. Several members of the Mister's family served in the war or have had a lifelong interest in the war. Father-in-Law taught Modern European History (specializing in WW2) at Metro State for 30+ years. His textbook is still in publication. A couple of his brothers served in the war. The Mister's cousin is an amateur historian and has three books published about the war in the Pacific(here, here and here). I have found, on more than one occasion, that my love for history has come in handy at family gatherings!

Happy birthday, Father-in-Law!

Swappin' Readin'

I am hosting a book swap today at work. All of those books that I loved but will never read again? The books I couldn't bear to just take to Goodwill to give to a complete stranger? They're going to a new home to be read by someone I hope will love them as much as I did.

Books I'm swapping:

• Astrid and Veronika
• Smashed
• Lindbergh
• The Pillars of the Earth
  

What I'm Reading

Father-in-Law gave me books he was done with a few weeks ago. He was a modern European history professor for 30+ years, so his collection is heavy on World War I and II. Started Back to the Front last night and was immediately intrigued by the term "accidental historian". I think I've seen it somewhere else, but I can't be sure. Certainly most of what I do could be deemed "accidental"; many of the topics I'm currently interested in came about as I was reading/researching something else. There was the Civil War phase, then the Florence Nightingale phase, then the Abraham Lincoln phase, then a random jump to World War II, Winston Churchill, the Russian Front, then the Romanovs...many other phases...now World War I!

What I'm Reading

Oy. The 52 book challenge has come to a grinding halt with this book. It's really interesting but moves at a pretty slow pace. I'm falling behind on my schedule, which has caused me a lot of angst lately. I never leave a book unfinished (great skimmer, though) so I've got to keep going. My worry is that I am reading for the sake of completing my goal and not for the enjoyment and beauty of the books themselves.