Top Ten Tuesday – Horses, Dogs, Bees, Birds, and an Octopus

4 Comments

Today’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday is books with animals on the cover. These are the first 10 I found on my shelves, both before and after. I snapped a few pics and then the wind had its way with my animal covers.

Books I read and loved


The Falconer by Elaine Clark McCarthy– such an unexpected little love story.

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova– magical realism is my jam.

The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews– a fun beginning for this historical romance series.

Anything for You by Kristan Higgins– I adored the Blue Heron series.

Begin with a Bee and 50 Ways to Help Save the Bees– I love me some bees 🐝

Still to be read


Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
When We Were Birds Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
The invincible Miss Cusp by Penny Haw
Once Upon a Wine by Beth Kendrick

This Week – Rest and Relaxation

11 Comments

It was my husband’s birthday this week so I surprised him by whisking him away to a spa and inn for a night. I booked the big suite, reserved him 2 spa treatments, and we ordered room service a few times. We only had one night, but it was perfect (and all we could afford, lol). And, during his 4 hours at the spa, I spent time reading and drinking wine. A win for everyone!

Gage recovered from last week’s bug after a day but it took a few more days for his appetite to come back. He was more than a little excited about seeing the Super Mario Movie today. I even enjoyed it and I’m no Mario fan. This morning he made a game of tic tac toe for our cats for his YouTube channel 🙂

Posts

I only posted once this week about March’s movies.

I also tallied the votes from IG and this post and started All the Light We Cannot See.

Books

Broken Girls by Simone St. James.

Broken Girls was such a haunting read that takes place at a creepy boarding school for girls. It has a 1950s storyline and a current day one, both equally good, a rarity. A found body, a missing girl, a dead sister, a corrupt police department, and old prejudices make this one a fast read.

Oh, did I mention the ghost? I’m not into ghost stories, really, but this one was good!

I Will Find You by Harlan Coben.

I’ve read all of Coben’s books and he’s one of my few auto buys. This one was not my favorite because too many over the top things happened right from the get go. And it was too short. I needed more. But a good Harlan Coben is still better that what most author’s can produce. 

I read a few books on Antarctica for homeschool, bringing me yearly total to 74.

Movies

It was cute and Jack Black as Bowser was perfection. By far my favorite scene of the movie was this song, being recreated here.

Chaos Walking was such a disappointment for such a great trilogy.

Puzzles

This 100 piece puzzle is gorgeous!

Plans for the weekend

Happy Easter!

I’m linking up with The Sunday Salon.

March Movies and Money for Charity

2 Comments

Notice something about my March movies? They are all one word titles!!

In a comment, give me your 5 words (or less!) and earn $1 for charity. Once we get to $100 the person with the most reviews will choose the charity. Click here to see the past winners, the charities they chose and the other reviews you can add to. Anyone is welcome to join in at any time. Click here to see past movie posts.

We’re at $85 right now.  Your charity could be next 

Streaming – Jason and I finished season 3 of Emily in Paris. Love that show.

Joker, 2019 (Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy) Grade A

Mesmerizing, horrifying, & everyhing in between.

Moxie, 2021 (Hadley Robinson, Alycia Pascual-Pena, Lauren Tsai, Nico Hirago, Patrick Schwarzeneggar, Amy Poehler) Grade A-

High schoolers leading cultural change.

Solace, 2015 (Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish, Colin Farrell) Grade B+

Interesting serial killer thriller.

Nope, 2022 (Daniel Kaluuya, Kiki Palmer Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David) Grade B

Slow moving, unique alien discovery.

Creed III, 2022 (Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Phylicia Rashad) Grade B

Past catches up to Adonis.

Bliss, 2021 (Salma Hayek, Owen Wilson) Grade C

Bizarro.

This Week – Sick Kid in the House

17 Comments

I stayed up until 3:30 this morning finishing this ridiculous 1000 piece puzzle.

It’s one of our rented puzzles from Completing the Puzzle and I just wanted to be done. But sometimes when you make bad decisions, like staying up until 3:30 am, they come back to bite you. As I was getting my water to take to bed I hear Gage getting sick in his bathroom. So, I was up all night with him. When Jason got up at 8:15 I was able to nap for an hour and a half. The boy is still sick with vomiting and fever so it’s been a long day.

We’ve had a good week though. His friend had Spring Break so he spent a night here and they spent a day having fun together. One of the perks of homeschooling is being able to take days off for important things, like time with good friends.

Posts this week

March Stats and Faves – I read 28 books in March.

3+ Books 1 Word – Pick My Next Book – Please Vote for the book I start tomorrow.

Other Birds by SAA – Fun Book Club Choice

Currently reading

On the Screen

We finished up season 3 of Emily in Paris on Netflix last night. I always want to go buy new clothes after watching.

Plans for the Weekend

Getting the boy healthy and SLEEP!

What are your (hopefully) more exciting plans for the weekend?

March Stats and Faves

3 Comments

March was thriller month! Four of the seven adult books I read were thrillers, with the other three being one romance, one fiction, and one motivational.

My 2 favorites

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen. I posted about it here. She is one of my very few auto buys.

My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby. I’ve read all three of his books, this being his debut. He’s grown into a must read for me.

I read 21 books for kids. 10 non fiction picture books, 8 fiction picture books, 3 middle school fiction.

My 5 favorites

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. Middle school historical fiction based on Norwegian children smuggling gold out of the country on their sleds while Nazis watched, unknowing.

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim and Cindy Kang. Education is for everyone!

Rice from Heaven by Tina Cho and Krug Jin Sing. A beautiful true story of South Koreans sending food to their starving northern neighbors by balloon.

Zhang Zheng and the Incredible Earthquake Detector by Randel McGee. Great story and fabulous illustrations.

My Dragon Boat Festival by Bing Ge and Li Li. I thought this book looked too childish for Gage, but when we read it together it was a good jumping off point and I loved the illustrations.

I’ve read 69 books this year, less than I would like, BUT, I really am trying to find a life balance.

What was your favorite book this month?

3+ Books 1 Word – Pick My Next Book

3 Comments

I saw this challenge over on IG (OliviaReadsFiction) and decided to try it with my TBR piles.
My word is LIGHT

📔The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
📗 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
📙 All the Light We Left Behind by Tessa Harris
📘The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

I’m going to let you all choose my book for next week. Which one should I start on Monday?

Other Birds by SAA, a fun book club choice

3 Comments

I hosted my book club this month and we read Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen. I love magical realism. When I had by first bookstore job after college I would always make a display of staff picks and then make sure I read one of them each month. Thanks to those excellent recommendations I first read and fell in love with books like Like Water for Chocolate and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. Fast forward to 2016 when I picked up Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen and fell in love. I quickly read the rest of her books and have been waiting impatiently for this next book.

There were ghosts, but it wasn’t a ghost story, there were misfits looking for a tribe, there was a mystery or two you didn’t even know needed solved, and there was love in many different forms. There were secrets revealed and secrets kept, invisible birds, and childhood trauma. Even with all of that going on at one this is, at its hear, a comfort read.

In an interview with the author she said that she always envisioned the setting first and that’s why it always feel like a character. This setting is the fictional Mallow Island, South Carolina, known for its marshmallows and that leads to what makes this a fun book club read… the menu!

So, I started with marshmallows. A S’mores cake and orange marshmallow fluff and coconut marshmallows.

I also made a marshmallow dip for sweet potatoes fries and fruit.

There was also a chef who based his menu on cornmeal. Cornmeal popovers with raspberry jam. Cornmeal candied bacon. Sweet potato soup served over marshamallow.

I also made a cornmeal pudding in the crockpot which was probably my favorite.

Oh, and Zoey, the main character, loves potato chip sandwiches so we had those too. 

So, you can see how easy it is to totally get into the food for a book club meeting and I had so much fun doing it!

Everyone loved the book so that was a bonus 🙂

Are you in a book club? Has there been a book where the menu for the meeting wrote itself?

This Week – Puzzle Champions

8 Comments

Last week’s post mentioned a local puzzle competition and I’m happy to report that we won! Here we are with the 500 piece donut puzzle and the basket full of goodies we won. There were only 5 other tables and it was a fun family night for all.

The rest of the week was crazy busy. Election training and family in town for two days happened over the weekend and into the Monday. Gage got spacers in his mouth in preparation for an expander and, eventually, braces. I hosted book club for Other Birds and I WILL get a separate post up because it was a great book that led to a fun themed menu.

Books

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen. A comfort read. Look for a post this week.

Blackwater Falls by Ausma Zeharat Khan is the first in a series about Detective Inaya Rahman and I really liked it. It’s politically relevant and I’m looking forward to the next one.

I’ve read 5 picture books about China that will show up in a post soon.

Read 7 books. 62 for the year.

Movies

Nope, 2022. If you’re looking for something different this is the movie for you.

Puzzles

Sammi is turning into quite the puzzle model lately.

Plans for the Weekend

A friend started a virtual Romance Book Club and today is the first meeting. The sun is out so I’m hoping for some time outside.

What about you?

This Week – March Madness

15 Comments

March Madness is always a fun time around here. Since we first met Jason and I have always filled out the brackets and played for bragging rights and choosing the next 5 movies we saw at the theater. We just celebrated the 27th anniversary of our first date this week, so that’s a lot of years of competition. A few years ago Gage wanted to start joining in the fun so we made it a winner’s choice for what the prize would be. The first year Gage won he chose a YES DAY. Last year I won and we watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy in one day as a family (it was Gage’s first time seeing them).

This year I decided to follow our cat’s advice when filling out my brackets and I’m winning after the first round, hahahaha! If you want to see the video Gage made of our cats picking the Final Four, here it is. Time will tell how well this works out in the end. I’m guessing not very well.

On to the books!

I posted about the books we read for Norway week.

I finished only 1 BOOK this week! That is a record low for sure. At least it was one I really liked, Stacey’s Abrams political thriller, While Justice Sleeps. It looks like the heroine, Avery Keene, and her friends will be back for book 2 in a few months and I’m excited to pick it up.

Movies

Jason and I went to the movies last weekend and saw Creed III. I loved the storyline of his deaf daughter, but missed seeing Rocky.

We finally watched Joker last night. I knew it was going to be dark, but not that dark. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing.

Puzzle

Aren’t these pink flamingos gorgeous? And Sammi too!

Plans for the weekend

Tonight, as a family, we’re participating in a local Puzzle Wars. It’s our first time so I’ll have to tell you about it next week.

Tomorrow I head downtown for election training. Elections always need workers, so sign up if you can. I’ve been a poll worker since before Gage was born and he’s 12, so I do my part.

My cousin and her family are also headed to town tomorrow and will be here a few days so I’m looking forward to that.

Any fun plans for weekend?

Homeschool Norway Week

3 Comments

We took our Norway books out on a snowy day. Gage decided that he’s not cut out for the Norwegian weather!

We listened to the audio of Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan, a 1942 historical fiction book for tweens. A great story, based on stories never confirmed, about Norwegian children smuggling gold past the Nazis during WWII. 196 pages

The two troll books based on Noregian tales were fun. Sister Bear by Jane Yolen and Linda Graves is a picture book Christmas story sure to entertain the older elementary set. The troll illustrations alone are worth a look. 32 pages

The Heartless Troll by Oyvind Torseter is a graphic novel that will appeal to middle schoolers. 120 pages

Sniffer & Tinni by Breit Helberg and Torgeir Berge is the story of a true life friendship between a dog and a fox told with photographs. Sure to delight elementary school animal lovers. 40 pages

Norway looks beautiful, but not someplace I’m adding to my travel plans just yet.