Rosepoint Reviews – July Recap—The Dog Days of Summer

Rosepoint Reviews – July Recap

Rosepoint Reviews - July Recap

Last month I mentioned new food possibilities from Amazon in addition to my veggie garden and sad to say, the mushroom block was a bust. Nothing happened. No mushrooms. I’ve been enjoying lots of spouts though, they add a tang to salads and sandwiches.

The cherry tomatoes are finally ripening, so slow this year. Contrary to most of the country, our temperatures have been temperate, almost comfortable, but tomatoes like it hot so they are slow. They are so sweet though—will be like candy when I get them dried. (See book graphic below)

Now the new thing in July is “fermenting.” Got a couple lids and started on sauerkraut, but blew it by not exercising more patience. Then I got a gallon size glass bottle with a special fermenting lid (see that lid? It will exhaust but not allow oxygen back in) and trying that with carrots and cucumbers. Gotta be patient with this one and let it go at least thirty days. It’s been a week today…You can see why I might do more reading in the winter.

So of course I rely heavily on the CE for his reviews, so much of my time spent otherwise. He’s into the reading thing—now if I can just get him into the reviewing thing! We did read or listen to seventeen books in July, most from NetGalley as I’m working on the 500 badge, now up to a count of 482 and my ratio continues to be 95%.

Rosepoint Reviews-July Recap

The Peaceful Village by Paulette Mahurin (CE review)
Dream Town by David Baldacci (audiobook)
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (audiobook)
Cold Justice by Nolon King (CE review)
The Faithful Dog by Terry Lee Caruthers (CE review)
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (audiobook)
The Iron Way by Tim Leach (CE review)
The Secret Keeper by Siobhan Curham (CE review)
Growing Wild in the Shade by Jean Grainger
Deadly Spirits by Mary Miley
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (audiobook)
The Line by Helen Scott (CE review)
Canned Hunt by Kerry K Cox (CE review)
Still Waters by Sara Driscoll
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (audiobook)
Do No Harm by Robert Pobi (CE review)
I Remember You by Brian Freeman (CE review)

Reading Challenges

My challenges—goodness, I just neglect them something awful. Okay—maybe winter? My challenges for 2022 are all listed and linked in the widget column on the right. When I get them updated, you can check out the progress of my challenges by clicking the Reading Challenges page. I’m now at 64% of the Goodreads Challenge of 180 books at 116.

Looking forward to catching Where the Crawdads Sing (my review of the book here by Delia Owens) starring Daisy Edgar-Jones—they finally released it—and not sure now it’s even still there. Did you get a chance to view it? Does it do justice to the book?

I’m experiencing a drought of books that really glue me to the Kindle app and now with audiobooks as well (after The Nightingale—well, how do you follow that?), having started several and dumped. I hesitate to keep going back to favorites, but not having a lot of success with throwing a dart and hoping it sticks. Any suggestions?

How was your July? The US is either frying, in severe drought, or flooding and it appears we’ll get a taste of the former next week. Fortunately, the winds off the Great Lakes shift and give us a retrieve after a few days.

Welcome to my new followers and as always I appreciate those who continue to read, like, share, and comment. Please let me know if you saw something above that got your interest. I hope August will be kind to you and yours wherever you live.

The Iron Way (The Sarmatian Trilogy Book 2) by Tim Leach – #BookReview – #ancienthistoricalfiction

The Iron Way by Tim Leach

Book Blurb:

AD 175, Vindolanda, Britannia. After their cavalry was broken by the legions on the frozen waters of the Danube, Sarmatian warrior Kai bought his people’s lives with a pledge to serve Rome. Bound to the will of the Emperor, the Sarmatians are ready to fight and eager to die – death in battle is the only escape from the dishonour of their defeat.

Exiled from their home lands, they are ordered to take the Iron Way to the far north and the very edge of the Empire. Here, a great wall of stone cuts across the land as straight as the stroke of a sword. On one side, Rome’s dominion; on the other, mist and rumours – stories of men closer to giants, of warriors who fight without fear or restraint.

For a people who knew no borders, who were promised war, garrison duty is cruel punishment. But as insurrection stirs on both sides of the wall, Kai will discover that every barrier has its weaknesses – and he will have his chance to fight, perhaps to die.

His Review:

The Romans had the perfect solution to protect their part of the British Island. Build a wall to keep the “northern hoards” and rabble out. Hadrian’s Wall is a constant reminder that isolationism and border walls do not work.

The northern part of the British Isles has been an area of contention for many centuries. The Romans invading the island did nothing to change that. Therefore, they built a very impressive border wall with guard towers every mile to dissuade foreign invaders from attacking and occupying the region.

Thousands of invaders approached the wall carefully. Surely an attack was imminent! Remarkably no defense was supported on the wall and the army just pushed through on their journey to London. The invaders could not believe the arrogance of the people on the other side of the wall.

A Roman Centurion was the leader of the defense brigade. He considered this posting to be punishment for his inability to control the population. The prefect hated his job and could not wait to retire. His greatest concern was that he would not be invited to return to Rome or its environs, but would instead retire on a small parcel in England. This was one of his greatest nightmares.

This story exemplifies the schism that was the British Isles during the first one thousand years of the current epoch. Being the representative of Rome in such a backward area was tantamount to total ostracizing. The invaders heading toward England simply went to the hole in the wall and advanced on toward London.

This story is a very interesting look at the calamity that befell various nomadic tribes which colonized those islands at the time. The Roman’s promise was that 25 years in the Roman Legions would result in freedom to go home and live a retirement of ease. The Romans knew that this would never happen. Twenty-five years at that time was almost surely a death sentence.

This book is well written and certainly has poetic license at its core because there is no written history of many of these tribes. Read and enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. These are my unbiased opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Ancient Historical Fiction, Historical Thrillers
Publisher: Head of Zeus—an Aries Book
ASIN: B09GZR81KT
Publication Date: August 4, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Links: The Iron Way [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: [Goodreads] Writer, climber, whisky drinker, chess dabbler and general purpose layabout. London exile currently encamped in the North and loving it. I’ve studied and taught creative writing at the University of Warwick and worked in bookshops in London and Greece.

If you’d like to know any more about me or my books, just ping me a message. Thanks for stopping by!