BW31: Adventurous August

Culzean Castle - Courtesy of Zig Zag on Earth

We are officially celebrating the dog days of summer with a couple weeks of triple digit temperatures in my home state. Which is why I'm ready to do some armchair traveling as we welcome Adventurous August and travel to Scotland to read our author of the month Dorothy Dunnett as well as this month's birthstones: Peridot, Spinel and Sardonyx. August is also Admit You Are Happy and Romance Month as well as National Golf and Eye Exam month.  Plus, let's not forget Ice Cream Sandwich, Watermelon, Chocolate Chip Cookie and S'mores day as well as the all important Book Lovers Day, Bad Poetry day and Just Because day. 

We have three birthstones to choose from this month with Peridot, Spinel and Sardonyx. You may choose to spell out the word, reading one book per letter or  read a book with the name or the colors of the stone in the title.  Mix it up a bit and use author names to spell out the stones.   You may decide to find a book set in the time period where the birthstone was discovered or surrounding the myth and lore or set in countries where the birthstone is currently found.

The original birthstone for August is Sardonyx, a combination of Sard and Onyx which is a variety of quartz and was found in the ancient Persian city of Sard.  Peridot is quite ancient and has been found in pallasite meteorites and was also found in comet dust from the 2005 Stardust robotic space probe. Ancient Egyptians mined peridot on the red sea island of Zabargad.   Spinel, found in ancient times in the mines of central and southeast Asia, were often mistaken for rubies. The stone is differentiated by it's crystal structure.  The Black Prince's ruby as well as the Timur Ruby turned out to be spinel.  

Our armchair travels are taking us into the world of Scottish literature as we virtually ride along for Edinburgh International Book Festival and be a fly on the wall for Beyond Borders International Festival as well as Edinburgh's Book Fringe celebration. Visit the Writers Museum and dive into the lives of three great Scottish writers:  Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.  Plus don't forget to visit Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott. And we can't forget the fictional world of Outlander.  

While you are busy following rabbit trails, check out 20 Scottish books everyone should read, 10 Books to make you fall in love with Scotland, and 10 memorable books for children and teens set in Scotland, as well as important works in the history of Scotland with the Scottish History reading list.    In my stacks to read this month is Niccolo Rising from the House of Niccolo series written by Dorothy Dunnett whom I'll talk about next week.  

Happy reading! 

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Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.