My early morning reading is always nonfiction. Most often spiritual or related to health, I find it a great way to start the day focusing on important things. And, if it’s spiritual, health related and it’s something new to me, all the better.
How familiar are you with Ayurveda? Practical Ayurveda follows the vision of renowned Indian yoga master and medical doctor who wrote over 200 books.
Covering a wide range of topics in its 224 pages this is a beautifully laid out and edited book that made it easy for a beginner like me. I loved the inspiring quotes included. There was a quiz and a set of questions to answer to help you fine tune what you’re looking for in life.
This covered the health of the body and the mind and there are many things I’ve already started (or restarted) while reading this book and so many things to consider for the future. The yoga poses and what each does for the mind and body is something I will be working on. I’ve also started my morning tai chi again. I’m not sure how I ever let that go. Life gets in the way and I forget, and that’s why I need to be consistently reading books that remind me of what I know works for me.
A fabulous resource that I’m sure I’ll be referencing in the future.
A few of the highlighted thoughts to be found…
“Ayurveda is the knowledge of happy and unhappy, a good and bad life, and that which contributes to those four aspects.”
“Have faith in yourself; do the right thing; help others. This is the key to success. health, and happiness.”
“The secret of being healthy and happy at all times is to be a little hungry all the time.”
“Let your diet be anything, but it should pass this test: it should protect health and prevent disease.”
“Thought is a dynamic force; it shapes your destiny. Entertain pure and noble thoughts always.”
“Life is meant for service and not for self-seeking. Hold your life for the service of others. The more energy you expend in elevating others, the more universal energy will flow into you.”
The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.
Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…
There is a creepy, sinister, and forgotten feeling you get when reading about Fell, NY and The Sun Down Hotel. There are ghosts, killers, and missing and murdered girls. The book is a whole vibe.
One storyline is about Viv in 1982 and the second is about her niece Carly in 2017. Lots of parallels and mystery that will keep you reading. There are even a few boys!
I didn’t love this one at first, but it didn’t take me long to be hooked. I listened to the audio and Brittany Pressley and Kirsten Potter took turns narrating.
I loved Broken Girls last year and loved this one too, so I guess I have another author to read!
“The person who could be truly alone, in the company of no one but oneself and one’s own thoughts—that person was stronger than anyone else.”
“I put my book down, finding a Post-it note to use as a bookmark, because folding the corner of a page—even in a thirty-year-old book—is sacrilege.”
Don’t even start a Harlan Coben book unless you have time to read the whole thing. He’s been a favorite of mine since I read Tell No One (read it), but it’s his Myron and Win books that are my favorite. This is the 12th book featuring them both (13 if you include Win) and they’re both getting a little older, but still just as sarcastically fabulous as they e always been.
Myron was a star on the Duke basketball team and played one game for the Boston Celtics before a cheap shot took him off the court forever. So, he went to law school and opened his own sports representation business. The cast of characters in these books are so chock full of warmth and humor that you will fall in love with them. Personally, I’d read the books in order so that you don’t miss a minute, but you can read this as a standalone.
These are all thrillers full of twists and turns you don’t see coming. He’s the master. This one has a serial killer and some old scores being settled. And Myron’s parents are in Florida living their best lives with the help of edibles.
May was a great reading month! I read these 9 plus a picture book. That brings my 2024 total to 57.
❤️
The Women by Kristin Hannah. Historical fiction about the women nurses that served in the Vietnam War. 480 pages, 2024
Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey. Romance between a king crab fisherman and movie director’s assistant with a nod to the comfort of music. 353 pages, 2023
Nat Turner by Kyle Baker. Nonfiction graphic novel about Turner and the slave rebellion of 1831. 213 pages, 2006
⭐️
The Secret Place (541 pages, 2014) and Broken Harbor (450 pages, 2012) by Tana French. Books 4 & 5 in the Dublin Murder Squad mystery series.
Toxic Prey by John Sandford. Latest thriller in the Lucas Davenport series that also features his daughter Letty who has her own series. 400 pages, 2024
👍🏻
Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer. A romance set in a Jewish bakery in Brooklyn. Learned a lot about Jewish traditions and living with a chronic illness. 432 pages, 2023
🤷🏻♀️
How To Walk Away by Katherine Center. Fiction set in the aftermath of a plane crash that leaves one half of a couple without a scratch and the other partially paralyzed. This has been my least favorite of hers so far. 302 pages, 2018
And a fun picture book too…
I Want to Be a Vase by Julio Torres. This is so colorful it demands to be reads. A delightful book about accepting people for whoever or whatever they want to be.
Frankie enlists in the Army to serve as a nurse in the Vietnam War. What she finds there is not what she thought she was signing up for. And when she returns home she is repeatedly told, no women served in Vietnam.
I was completely drawn into first half of the book set in Vietnam. It was horrifying and, yet, purpose could be found and the bonds of friendship for a lifetime forged. The second half, once she returns home is equally heartbreaking and full of the shame and anger that the soldiers felt upon their return home.
My father was drafted and served in Vietnam. Although he rarely talks about the war itself, he does talk about how much disrespect they received once they were home.
The book is emotionally draining and I finished the 470 pages in less than 24 hours! It was addicting. Telling the story of women who saved lives in the Vietnam War is so important and I’m glad that it was done so well.
Some have complained about the end of book romance and I am mostly in agreement. I would have preferred that it was given its proper due or just left out altogether. But that didn’t spoil one bit of my enjoyment of the novel.
It seems to be the book of the season. Have you read it? What did you think?
In March I went to a book swap and I came home with this. I knew next to nothing about Nat Turner, but I’m a sucker for graphic novels. What a book! The only words in the book are quotes, most coming from Nat Turner as he sat in prison. Over 200 pages of shocking, emotional, and violent black and white drawings.
We start at the beginning of incarceration from the villages in Africa, cross the sea in slave ships, and sold to the highest bidder. There is one horrific image from this section that will surely stick with me for quite awhile.
The middle is full of how Nat became this religious figure, who received visions from God, and finally decided that it was time to revolt. The revolt, or insurrection, section was shocking in its violence. Nat and his men were responsible for killing 55 men, women, and children, but even knowing that from the introduction didn’t prepare me. Those images are also going to stick me for quite awhile.
This book is powerful. Some will find the images too violent. It’s not for everyone. The shocking images served the purpose of making me take notice and feel the horror, to see it. It’s a great book.
Recommend for graphic novel lovers and for those who want to know more about Nate Turner and the slave rebellion of 1831.
I hate missing too many Sunday updates. When I get too behind I keep putting it off, making the update a bigger project, vastly increasing the probability that it won’t get done at all. This happen to anyone else? So, it’s not Sunday, but I’ve got 30 minutes so we’re doing a quick book /movie update. Too busy to try and give a life update too so we’ll save that for next time.
Maddy is turning 18 and her life is confined to her home because of an immunodeficiency disease. She’s never had any kind of normal existence and it’s not until a new family moves in next door that this is a problem. Soon, her books are not enough and Olly becomes her hope.
A book about risk and bravery and finding your person.
I loved this book, just as I loved Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star. Everything Everything was her debut and I’m only sad it’s taken me so long to read it. I’ll read anything she writes.
Richard, a renown concert pianist, and Karina, a pianist who put her career on hold, are divorced. It wasn’t amicable, but they do share a daughter now in her 20s. Richard is diagnosed with ALS and in that instant his whole life changes. These changes are not limited to Richard and Karina finds herself making a surprising life change because of it.
I loved Still Alice by Lisa Genova. That book tackled early onset Alzheimer’s just as this one shows ALS bringing down someone in their prime. This book is detailed and heavy and shows that forgiveness shouldn’t wait. I was moved to tears by it. I’ll read anything she writes.
I picked this up because of that gorgeous cover and this slight book didn’t disappoint. There are no words, just 25 beautiful illustrations showing a young boy sneaking away from a funeral. It will touch your heart. I highly recommend for children going through the grief process.
Our book group liked (not loved) this one and it had some great discussion points. It’s about the closeness of the four Padavano sisters. What can drive a wedge between the sisters? At what point is forgiveness and moving on the only real option? How many great loves does each person get? Do we ever really get past our relationships with our parents?
It was a little slow, but still worth reading, especially if you like family sagas spanning decades.
What a hoot! Lucy is an early 19th century debutante who is approached by Lady Violet Travesty about joining a vampire cult. Just as she’s about to go over to the dark side, Lord Byron, in very dramatic fashion, saves her and whisks away to his magic castle on his psychic eagle Napoleon. They are soon joined by Sham to make a team of very inept vampire hunters.
It’s very funny, especially the first half. It gets a tad bogged down by the end with a meandering plot, but overall a fun graphic novel. I enjoyed my hour or so with this silly trio.
I LOVE Susanna Kearsley! Her books are such comfort reads. I’ll be doing a post on her soon, so I won’t belabor my thoughts on this one. If she hadn’t written it I would have given up on it before the halfway point. There was a nice twist at the end that was a reward for making it that far, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Gage and I read this together after having read and loved Frindle by the same author. Jack was a hard character to root for, at least at first. He’s in middle school and he’s embarrassed that his dad is the school janitor. He plans a nasty trick for his dad, but pays the price and it better for it.
As a side note, when I was in elementary school my grandpa was the school janitor and I got to say hi to him every day as I left to get on the bus to go home and as he got ready to clean the school after everyone went home. It’s a bond that I’ll always treasure. I was too young to be embarrassed and as I grew older it never once occurred to me to want to hide that fact from anyone. He worked as a janitor for the schools his whole life.
Movies watched
Saltburn was buzzy for awhile and when Jason and I sat down to watch it, we can see why. It seems normal, normal, eh, oh, definitely not normal, the end. If you like strange movies, this is for you! I do like strange and appreciated it.
Set It Up kept getting recommended to me by Netflix so I finally broke down and watched it. It was a cuter than expected rom-com with a fun cast. If Netflix is also recommending it to you I’d say give it a go!
The Hunt is pure political drivel meets ridiculous violence. I have no excuse for watching it, except that Jason and I were watching it in bed and making fun. Jason fell asleep and I, regrettably, made it til the bitter end.
Have you read or watched any of these? Which ones?
These past two weeks have been just what I needed. No travelling, no huge projects. Just my usual happenings. April is a nightmare month for me time wise, so I am trying to soak in every quiet moment. I did have a parent-teacher conference that went very well, and Gage, Jason, and I toured a school together and loved it for Gage. Now I need to schedule testing to see if we can get him in. I did spend an excessive number of hours volunteering at the library, but that’s just fun. I told the library manager this week that sorting and selling donations was my form of therapy.
I started this series with book one and haven’t looked back. I realized I was a few behind so I’m making quick work of the last few. If you like police procedurals you should definitely give this series a look. He started as a Minneapolis police detective, but is currently a US Marshal still based in Minneapolis. He has a recurring partner, Lucas Flowers, and an adopted daughter, Letty, who each have their own spin offs.
Set in Israel, it’s a great fiction book that touches on so many issues that kids are going through, moving from home, trying to make friends, racial bias, embarrassment, defiance…. I’d recommend reading it with your preteen.
Meskerem was born and grew up with her parents, sisters, and grandmother in Golan Heights, but the family had to move to Herzelia for her mother’s new job. Mezkerem was sad to leave her friends and grandmother behind.
On the first day of school kids started ridiculing her by calling her, ‘an Ethiopian’. Mezkerem’s mom had been born in Ethiopia and her dad was American. Meskerem became embarrassed by her heritage.
This story is only 89 pages but packs a lot of discussion into those pages.
Ava has ADHD. The first line of the book…”Just because I act and learn differently-doesn’t mean something is wrong with me.” It goes through her days showing some of her struggles, like trouble listening and the constant need to move, and ways to help, like eating well and getting enough sleep.
The author based this on her now grown daughter and it’s one I’d recommend for elementary classroom read alouds. And school libraries too! The illustrations are cute and it even has an ADHD checklist in the back.
Here were my first thoughts on Goodreads when I finished this one, “My love affair with Susanna Kearsley continues. This was one of her first books and it may be my favorite so far. I didn’t want it to end. I was worried that the ending would be all wrong. But it wasn’t. It was perfect.” There is something so magical and romantic about her stories. There is history, romance, and a perfect sense of place in all of her books. This one also felt a little like a ghost story.
Julia was sure she’d found her house and she packed up and moved from London to a small English village without a second thought. She was a children’s book illustrator and was able to make a few friends right away just as she was being transported back in time at unpredictable times.
It’s tricky when you are going back and forth between time periods and characters. Inevitably, you are drawn more to one story than the other. This one did a great job of tying the two together so I was invested in both. Was this book, the first time she tried the time travel travel romance, perfect? No. Was it perfect enough to have me rereading the last few chapters again and again because I wasn’t quite ready for it to end? A resounding YES!
Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney, 4+ stars, current events, 372 pages, 2023
The illustrations by Megan Hess in this 200+ pages book are whimsical and fun.
Coco spent much of her childhood in an orphanage in France after her mother died and her father wanted nothing to do with her. She created for herself the life she wanted. “My life didn’t please me so I created my life.” She never married but the love of her life helped her get her start in 1908. She opened her own millinery boutique in Paris.
Everything she touched turned to gold until 1939 when she shut down her 3000 staff salon. She stayed in Paris at the Hotel Ritz with her lover, a German officer, to ride out the war. She fled the country for a number of years after the war before making her comeback.
It’s a beautiful graphic novel for fashion lovers. It wasn’t until after I read this that a friend showed me that Coco had actually been a spy for the Nazis.
5th grader Nick Allen gets into a war of words with his language arts teacher and it goes further that he could have ever have imagined. Gage and I read it together and had a few laughs and talks about unintended consequences.
Naya, a professor who is 3 years out of an abusive relationship, is convinced by her best friends to open herself to new experiences. She meets Jake at a bar and the two make a connection. I loved this story with two very likeable people. It was a very realistic story with a lot of spice! The domestic abuse is a significant part of the story and some may find it triggering.
On the Screen
Jason and I like all of the Batman movies and we finally saw 2022’s The Batman with Robert Pattinson. We liked quite a bit. Are you a Batman fan? Christian Bale is still my favorite.
Jason and I finished Oppenheimer just in time for the Oscars tonight. I don’t know if I preferred it to Killers of the Flower Moon, but I get the hype.
Another very slow reading month with 12 books. And as far as I can recall I only watched 3 movies and streamed only 1 show. I don’t feel like I’ve taken full advantage of the extra day this month!
I loved quite a few of the books I read this month…
We took a lovely road trip the Lake Norman in North Carolina last week, our third February in a row. Jason has clients in the Charlotte area so he always works a few of the days leaving Gage and I to our own devices. This week we were able to be away for 6 days, even though that meant Gage missed 2 days of school. On our way home we stopped in Wytheville, Virginia and toured the Edith Bolling Wilson First Lady Birthplace Museum, even staying in the hotel dedicated to her history in the town. I considered this a 2 day field trip. Once a homeschooler…
We had a great book club discussion this month. Take My Hand is historical fiction that drew its inspiration from a real 1973 court case. It found that government family centers were sterilizing girls of color as well as those in poor neighborhoods reliant on government help.
Well written and a shocking part of this country’s not so long ago history. I really liked this one. Highly recommend.
This is the sequel to Then Came You that I finished a few weeks ago. An innocent author comes to London to research her next book, only to shoot a man and fall in love with the owner of a gambling club. Loved it.
I’ve read a few other books by Pema Chodron and I always finish feeling inspired and content. She is an American Buddhist nun and writes about Buddhism in such a welcoming and relatable way. I take a lot from Buddhist teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh being my introduction. I’m a Christian, but I’ve really grown personally from books like these. Maybe you will too if you give one a try. This one deals especially with some life strategies that all can benefit from.
“The most straightforward advice on awakening bodhichitta is this: practice not causing harm to anyone- yourself or others- and every day, do what you can to be helpful.”
“Buddha was pointing out that the fixed idea that we have about ourselves as solid and separate from each other is painfully limiting.”
“Our personal attempts to live humanely in this world are never wasted. Choosing to cultivate love rather than anger just might be what it takes to save the planet from extinction.”
I started this series with book one and haven’t looked back. I realized I was a few behind so I’m making quick work of the last few. If you like police procedurals you should definitely give this series a look. He started as a Minneapolis police detective, but is currently a US Marshal still based in Minneapolis. He has a recurring partner, Lucas Flowers, and an adopted daughter, Letty, who each have their own spin offs.
Most people are familiar with Malala by now. The girl was shot in the face by the Taliban on her way to school in Afghanistan. But there is a backstory if that’s all you know. I already knew everything in this book, but it’s an easy one hour listen on a road trip with your kid!
*I’ve read 22 books so far this year.*
Currently reading
Watching
Jason and I watched Season 1 of White Lotus. What a crazy, beautiful trip. Any other fans out there?
Plans for the Weekend
There are a few hours left that will be spent on Friends of the Solon Library duties. I need to connect with a few members about Facebook stuff and I need to start finding volunteers for our next big book sale. Anyone want to help out in April?
Stacy's Books 