The Sunday Salon: Going with the Flow

This is my first week participating in The Sunday Salon. I thought I would start with just the briefest introduction. My name is Becky, obviously, and I've been blogging since August 2006. I still can't believe I'll be turning two soon. At times it seems so unreal. And at other times it feels like I've been blogging forever. I love it. I do. I guess you could say that blogging gave me a definite voice which I might not have found otherwise. If anyone should care to read more about my 'mission' statement see these two posts: To Blog or Not To Blog and Becky's 5 W's. I also posted a tad bit more about the subject here. I review children's books, young adult books, and adult books. I participate in a LOT of challenges. I generally am known for my passionate obsessions.

So what have I been reading lately? Yesterday I completed two books. In Mozart's Shadow by Carolyn Meyer. A novelization of the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sister, Nannerl. It was rich in details but quite a downer. Seriously frustrated woman there! It's the kind of book that makes you appreciate how far society has come in terms of gender/sex equality. So many choices and opportunities and freedoms that were not even remotely possible or plausible then.

Slightly out of order but thematically connected, I am currently reading THE QUEEN'S SOPRANO by Carol Dines. Set in Italy, in Rome, in the seventeenth century, it tells the story (again a novelization of an actual person) of a young and talented woman, a singer, who was oppressed by society because she was female. Music not being a "suitable" field or occupation or pastime during the reign of Pope Innocent XI. Women were forbidden to sing in public. To show one's face while singing would be immoral and corruptive. Anyway, I'm only halfway through it...but it's simply fascinating.

The second book which I finished yesterday was I AM SCOUT by Charles J. shields. It is a biography of Nelle Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird. I found it well-written, exceedingly well-researched, and just completely fascinating. I'd definitely recommend it. Did you know that Dill was based on her childhood friend Truman Capote? That's just one of the I-didn't-know-that facts I picked up along the way.

I'll be reviewing I Am Scout soon--tomorrow for Nonfiction Monday--and I'll be finishing up The Queen's Soprano later on today. I'm sure I'll start another book or two as well. I like to have several books going. A nonfiction. A fiction. Something light. Something more substance. I like to be balanced :)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews