This week I did much better and got my Wii Fit board out every day (except on the one day when I went swimming). My total workout minutes are 151 (goal is 90/week), so I am quite pleased with myself.
I got rid of one of my Wii Fitness programs which is a total waste of money and time. If you ever feel tempted to get Exerbeat, don’t bother. After every exercise – some of them are only 90 seconds – you are forced to watch your Mii wander all across the globe on a “tour around the world” and listen to educational little tidbits about the countries you are visiting. I have heard that eventually you unlock the option to put a workout sequence together without interruptions, but I never even got that far because I was so annoyed by this pseudo-historical-geographical chatter. There is no possibility to turn it off in the general settings.
My search for a good Wii fitness program goes on. Does anyone have any recommendations? Preferably with (Step-)Aerobics exercises and boxing and not so much dancing. Thanks already in advance!
To see other participants’ progress go to Joy’s Book Blog.
It’s time for another “Quizzical Monday”!
Question:
What is the maiden name of Mr. Rochester’s first wife?
Leave a comment with your answer. Then, to see whether you got it right, click on "Show" below. As usual, there is nothing to be won, this is just for fun!
A quick lesson in ancient Roman law.
In a nutshell:
Short synopsis:
Marcus gets caught up in a lawsuit by providing some evidence against the accused. When the convicted man commits suicide so that his family can keep all their property the accuser (who would have received all the dosh) suspects foul play and hires Marcus to find out the truth.
Language I read the book in: English
Did I like it? Yes, very much.
For people who: like Ancient Roman sleuths, courtroom dramas, Perry Mason & Matlock
My thoughts:
Starting to read:
I didn’t remember how fun Marcus Didius Falco can be. I didn’t think the first book with him (The Silver Pigs) was so great but since then there were some books that I really really liked, like A Body in the Bathhouse, Ode to a Banker or Three hands in the Fountain. I think this is going to be one of them.
Such fun to read that people in ancient Rome were complaining about the same sorry state of affairs as we do nowadays, just a little different:
No wonder our roads are blocked with dead mules’ carcasses and the aqueducts leak.
Later on:
The evidence reports from Falco to Silius and various other reports and minutes give this an official touch and court room flavour. Also it is a very practical method to skip over a lot of rather boring interrogations. It gives us the gist without going through every conversation with the last minor witness.
What is the business with the door slave? What happened two years ago? Why did the sibling not defy the will of the deceased? Why were they all excluded and Saffia put in? Metellus was found guilty of corruption, but where has all the money gone?
As you might know I have very little reading time, but I only have the book for another day. More than 190 pages left, so I am neglecting my household duties in order to finish it. I am totally obsessed with the story by now,
Towards the end:
The story has taken a turn for the worse (for our hero sleuths) and I am very curious to see how they will wriggle out of it – I am sure, they will somehow come out on top of everything.
All in all:
A very satisfying detective story and ending (and a VERY fitting title, too). It is not action filled but mainly relies on the spoken word (with the exception of a couple of fisticuffs as can be expected in Rome).
The main theme of this novel is the judiciary system in ancient Rome, its corruption and – to us – rather inexplicable “justice”. From serious accusation of blasphemy made by civilians, to corruption charges for the sake of monetary gain, to false murder charges and the resulting financial recompensation, to the torturing of slaves in order to obtain a valid statement, it is all there. Hereditary law as well as illegitimate offspring and the consequences for the child, everything you ever wanted to know (on a general level) you will find out in this story.
This is an absolutely delightful read; I need to get my hands on another Marcus Didius Falco book now.
Location: Ancient Rome around 75AD
Images from wikipedia. Marie-Claire and Diliff
Product info and buy link :
| Title | The Accusers |
| Author | Lindsey Davis |
| Publisher | Mysterious Press |
| ISBN | 9780446693295 |
| I got this book from | the library |
| Buy link | Buy The Accusers. This is the Arrow Books edition |
| More info | Lindsey Davis’ website |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Here are my finds for this week…
- Mad about Pinterest, but never doing anything with the great ideas you pin? Join the Pinteresting Challenge “Pin it and do it” at Love, Laughter and a touch of insanity
- And anothr great idea for a challenge: the Book Pilgrimage 2012 at Libby’s Book Blog
- Download a few cute iPhone wallpapers at Eat drink chic
- What if LinkedIn had been invented in the 80s?
- Great feature about London Book shops in the New York Social Diary. I have been to only one of them – the wonderful “Books for cooks”.
- Have you found anything interesting this week? Please share!
Totally forgot to post this yesterday…it was a public holiday and my schedule was messed up…
I don’t know whether I can come up with even one book that I would like to see made into a movie. Movies from books – with the exception of a few – suck. Big time.
I don’t want someone to re-create a book on film and destroy all the images in my head. When I was still a child I remember my disappointment and anger after watching “The Neverending Story” (which is only half the book to boot). Until then I had this great image of Fuchur in my head which I have never been able to conjure again after I saw that horrible WORM in the movie (don’t tell me you think this creature is cuddly or cute or anything!). The Neverending Story has never been the same again thanks to Wolfgang Petersen. I could go on and on forever, actually the topic today should rather be “Ten books you never wanted to see made into a movie”…
That being said sometimes I think that they do a really good job and do the book justice, so I probably COULD come up with a list of books where the movie adaptation worked for me after all, but this is not today’s topic.
Top Ten Books You’d Like To See Made Into A Movie
- None
What are your Top Ten Books you’d like to see made into a movie?
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. You will find tons of more Top Ten Tuesday participants there.
In April I
- read and reviewed Bodies Politic by David Wishart
- read and reviewed Murder most frothy by Cleo Coyle
- read and reviewed Hector and the search for happiness by François Lelord
- reviewed Encyclopedia of an ordinary life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
- reviewed Delia’s vegetarian collection, The Indian Slow Cooker and 1001 delicious soups and stews
- I received a huge book package from Birgit full of cozy mysteries
- I joined the Readers’ workouts program over at Joy’s book blog
- I (belatedly) joined Birgit’s Tea & Books Reading Challenge
- I realized my blogoversary is coming up soon and that I need to start planning. This time I might celebrate.
For this month I am planning to:
- continue “The first man in Rome”. How long does it take me to finish a 900 page book, for Christ’s sake?
- finish “The Accusers” by Lindsey Davis. I only have one more week to finish it.
- finish the Get yourself organized project by Kathi Lipp (again, this was on my list last month already). I only have it for another week. I need to get going.
How was YOUR reading month?
I have been very busy this week (the usual excuse) and haven’t done much, but if you knew me personally you would know that even going swimming for three weeks in a row is a success.
Yesterday evening I got my WII Fitboard out because I quite enjoy doing the exercises with it. That way at least I got something done. My new plan is do use it every evening, we will see how that goes.
How is everybody else doing?
To see other participants’ progress go to Joy’s Book Blog.
Welcome to the Spring Fling Giveaway Hop!
The Spring Fling giveaway hop is hosted by I am a reader, not a writer and Eve’s Fan Garden.
I hope you are enjoying your stay at my blog and have a look around. If you would like to know about future giveaways and new posts in general please consider subscribing to my RSS feed and/or follow me on twitter.
What am I giving away?
I am giving away a used copy of Jane and the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron.
The blurb:
As Christmas of 1804 approaches, Jane Austen finds herself "insupportably bored with Bath, and the littleness of a town." It is with relief that she accepts a peculiar commission from her Gentleman Rogue, Lord Harold Trowbridge—to shadow his niece, Lady Desdemona, who has fled to Bath to avoid the attentions of the unsavoury Earl of Swithin.
But Jane’s idle diversion turns deadly when a man is discovered stabbed to death in the Theatre Royal. Adding to the mystery is an unusual object found on the victim’s body—a pendant that contains a portrait of an eye! As Jane’s fascination with scandal leads her deeper into the investigation, it becomes clear that she will not uncover the truth without some dangerous playacting of her own….
Above is a picture of the actual book you will be getting. It is in good condition, but it IS a used book, so please don’t expect it to be pristine!
Oh, and, by the way, this is the delightful and lively tale…period details bring immediacy to a neatly choreographed dance through Bath society that I asked for under No. 6 in my Quizzical Monday post here.
Enter the giveaway
The other participants
Don’t forget to hop on to the other participating blogs and have fun!
It’s time for another “Quizzical Monday”!
Question:
Bill Bryson wrote a biography of a famous writer. Who was it?
Leave a comment with your answer. Then, to see whether you got it right, click on "Show" below. As usual, there is nothing to be won, this is just for fun!
This week was extremely slow as far as books are concerned – and that is a good thing. I really don’t know when to read all the books that I received in the last few weeks. Maybe a book acquiring ban is in order?!
I swapped
- Nothing
I bought
- Nothing
From the library
- Delia’s vegetarian collection. A veggie cookbook about which I talked already in yesterday’s weekend cooking post
- . A neat little book about apps for iPhone photographers. It came out in 2011, so might not be too outdated yet. You never know what little gems you will find there.
That’s it! What was in YOUR mailbox recently?
