Yes, loving this weather, Trina! Where are you, roughly? ☕️ ✨

In our nation’s capitol which politics aside is still lovely🤷‍♀️

Ah, great. So many terrific museums and a generally beautiful city. I lived there, and then in Alexandria, for about fifteen years.

Oh, nice! Where are you these days?✨🙏🏻☕️

I’ve ended up in a small town in NE Pennsylvania - so completely different. Kind of great because it allows me sufficient time to get to my endless book list, which has always been a goal of mine. 😊 📚

So up in the Poconos? I used to go skiing there (grew up in NJ). What are you reading these days? Anything good?📕💕

Yes, I’m just outside of the Poconos now in a tiny town called Roseto. Spent about seven years in Stroudsburg, which was in the Poconos. Now I’m nearly on the border with NJ. As for books, I’m reading everything by a Turkish writer named Elif Shafek. Check her out!

Oh, I think I’ve been to or through Stroudsburg - went to see some waterfalls nearby with my son when he was little… I lived in Türkiye for a few years. My fave Turkish writer remains Orhan Pamuk. I’ll give Elif Shafak another try. Any you’d recommend? Couldn’t get into her Island of Missing Trees.🙋‍♀️

Shafak wrote a novel based on the life journey of the great poet Rumi and the prophet Shams called The Forty Rules of Love 😇

Funny you should mention that as I just got that book out of the library. Love Rumi & the Shams angle, so really looking forward to see what she does with it.🙏🏻

Hi Trina - So we definitely know some of the same stomping grounds! I think ‘There Are Rivers In the Sky’ is probably Shafak’s best work, though ‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds’ did get shortlisted for a Booker Prize and is also pretty amazing. Where would you recommend I start with Pamuk?

Thanks, Susan! I’ll see if one of her other books grabs me. I like literary fiction, which is how I stumbled onto Orhan Pamuk’s 1st novel The White Castle pub. in English 1985. It’s about a young Venetian scholar captured by the Turks & sold into slavery to an Ottoman ruler who is his doppleganger.✨