Thursday 13: My First One in 2026

1.     As usual, a cat picture seems like a good way to start this Thursday 13.  This is a picture of my sister’s cat, Flitwick, that I took when we were there for Christmas.

 

2.    Speaking of starting things, we started 2026 off by attending a party our friends Dennis and James hosted on New Year’s Day.  They have two adorable Great Danes who think they’re lap dogs.  This picture is of Magnus.

 

3.    It would be nice if there’s any truth to the idea that what you do on January 1^st sets the tone for your year.  We had a great time at the party, met a lot of nice people, spent time with adorable and sweet pets, and enjoyed some delicious food.  Continuing that theme would make it a good year! 

4.    Another fun start to the year was doing an escape room for the first time.  We went with our friends Jen and Chuck.  The one we did was Clue themed (we had to figure out who, in what room, and what the weapon was, and we had an hour to do it). 

 

5.    It was the first time Nick and I did an escape room, and it was so much fun.  I definitely want to do one again! 

6.    I’ve set my reading goals for the year on The Storygraph.  

7.    My 2026 reading goal is 52 books, which is basically a book per week.  It seems reasonable.  I didn’t quite make it last year, but I think I would have if I hadn’t worked so much overtime in December.

 

8.    I’m technically one book behind already, but I’m very close to finishing a book and an audiobook, so I’m fairly sure I’ll catch up over the weekend. 

9.    Of those 52 books, I’ve set the goal for 26 of them to be audiobooks.  We have a backlog of purchased audiobooks we haven’t listened to yet, and there are so many available through the Libby app.  Since I have so many available and can listen to them while I do other things (I listened to an audiobook while I worked in the yard on Monday), it seems crazy not to make use of them. 

 

10. I’ve also set the goal for 12 of the 52 books to be non-fiction.  I mostly read fiction, and I don’t think that will ever change, but I would like to branch out and read a little more non-fiction.  Twelve a year is basically one a month, which seems like a good goal. 

 

11. If you’re on The Storygraph and want to be friends, my super-creative username is dlzecher. 

12. We downloaded camera pictures right before we left for my sister’s for Christmas, and I came across this one of Caroline that I like.  I think it shows off how pretty her face is. 

13. One more cat picture seems like a great way to end this.  Theodore has started tucking himself into bed sometimes, and it’s absolutely adorable. 

Books Read In August

I’ve seen several other bloggers list and do mini-reviews of the books they read the previous month.  I love seeing what other people are reading, so I thought I’d try it, too.

August was a fairly light reading month for me.  I always seem to read less during the summer and then read a lot more during the winter.  I’ll usually pick going swimming with the neighbors over reading in the evening, but there’s not much that can lure me outside during the winter.

So, here are my August books:

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths.  It’s number 14 in the Ruth Galloway mystery series.  If you like mystery and you haven’t read this series, do yourself a favor and start reading it now.  I always love these books.  I’ve grown very attached to most of the characters, and I love that there’s a little bit of the story from all of their points of view. 

The Locked Room is the only book I’ve read so far that takes place during the early days of the pandemic.  It takes place in the UK, so obviously, it’s a little different than it was here in NC, but I think the author did an incredible job of portraying what people were feeling early on.  It took me right back to all of the how long should I plan to work from home and how much should I change my routine type of questions.  She also did a great job of capturing the early emotional rollercoaster of “this won’t be that bad” to “this is terrible,” and everything in between.  I think, years from now, when someone wants to know what the early days of the pandemic were like for regular people, this book will do a great job of conveying that.  I assume that there will be more and more books coming out that take place during the pandemic, and I’m interested to see if other authors do an equally good job capturing all of the feelings. 

Pandemic writing aside, the mystery was excellent, as they always are with this series, and there was a lot of character development.  After reading the same characters for so long, you wouldn’t think there would be much room for more character development, but they reached new depths in this book.  I gave it five stars.  I’m anxiously waiting for the next book in the series!

If you’re a fan of the Ruth Galloway series, are there any other series you recommend?  I’m on the hunt for another good mystery series.

The Templars: History & Myth by Michael Haag.  We listened to this one on Audible.  One of my coworkers got us hooked on the show The Curse of Oak Island, and there are a lot of references to the Knights Templar.  My entire knowledge base of the Knights Templar came from watching National Treasure, so it seemed prudent to learn more about them.  Nick was interested, too, so it was an easy Audible pick.

I’m sure there are plenty of good and interesting books about the Knights Templar.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them.  It was essentially a very dry list of facts, and the narrator's voice was extremely annoying. 

I tend to read fiction, so I definitely prefer a more narrative type of book.  I tried to factor that into my opinion of this book, but nothing about it was engaging.  It felt like “Fact One, Fact Two, etc.”  I think I would have liked it a lot more if there had been more about some of the people involved and less about building plans for temples, etc.  I gave it one star.  Nick reads almost exclusively nonfiction and said it was definitely on the drier side.  He gave it two stars.

Have you read an interesting and engaging book about the Knights Templar?  I’d definitely like to try another one since I feel like I was too bored to actually learn very much about them from this book.

The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren.  Here’s the goodreads blurb on it:

“It's been twelve years since tragedy struck the senior class of Long Acre High School.  Only a few students survived that fateful night—a group the media dubbed The Ones Who Got Away.

Liv Arias thought she'd never return to Long Acre—until a documentary brings her and the other survivors back home.  Suddenly her old flame, Finn Dorsey, is closer than ever, and their attraction is still white-hot.  When a searing kiss reignites their passion, Liv realizes this rough-around-the-edges cop might be exactly what she needs...”

I just couldn’t get into this one.  I started it in July and read a few other books in the meantime, which is never a good sign for me.  It wasn’t terrible, and I didn’t hate the characters.  I just didn’t feel anything for them.  There were a few points in the book where I thought things might take a turn and get more interesting, but they never did.  I gave it two stars, and I probably won’t try another Roni Loren book.  Hers are popular, but I’ve read one other one, and I didn’t like it.  I think maybe her style just doesn’t work for me. 

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams.  This is the fifth book in the Secret, Book, and Scone mystery series.  I love pretty much everything about this series.  It takes place in NC, and the main character owns a bookstore.  They’re classified as cozy mysteries, but I think they’re a little more than that.  They’re definitely not overly suspenseful, but I think they’re deeper than a lot of cozies.

There’s a group of four women who are the main characters, and there are some great secondary characters.  There’s usually some kind of literary twist to the mysteries, and there’s a lot of focus on the friendship the women share.  I’ll be honest; I usually find myself wishing I could join their book club and try to befriend them.

Each chapter in the series begins with a quote, and I love that.  Two of my favorite quotes in The Vanishing Type were, “A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.” (Dr. Seuss).  “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”  (C.S. Lewis).

Tara also likes the book.

As usual with this series, the mystery was intriguing, and I enjoyed all of the secondary storylines.  I gave it five stars.

If you’ve read and loved this series, are there any similar ones you recommend? 

And that’s everything I read in August.  I told you it was a slow reading month.

Have you read any good books lately? 

Thrifty Thursday - The Decluttr Edition

One of the things I want to do this year is finally get the clutter in our house under control.   We’ve been making much more of an effort not to bring in things we don’t really need, and to get rid of things we aren’t using.

However, books are a major weakness for both of us.  Nick and I are both readers, but we don’t read the same things.  I mostly read fiction, and a few biographies.  I also have an addiction to cookbooks.  Nick mostly reads non-fiction.  He enjoys reading textbooks as well.  We’re both suckers for a good book sale, which our library has yearly.  Needless to say, the book situation in our house was getting out of control.

Movies are another weakness of ours.  When we were first together we didn’t have cable (still don’t) or any streaming service, but we did have a Blockbuster membership.  We usually bought a few movies a month.  The used ones were always pretty cheap, and we’re both homebodies.  A quiet evening on the couch with a good movie makes us both really happy.  We’d also each get several movies a year as Christmas gifts, so our movie collection has grown quite a bit.

We decided it was time to seriously cull the books and movies.  It was that or get more shelves, which we don’t really have room for.  We each went through our books and pulled out the ones we’ve read and won’t realistically read again.  We also pulled a few that had been given to us that we didn’t have much interest in reading. 

We also went through all of the movies, and grouped them by type.  We pulled the ones that we’re highly unlikely to watch again.  We pulled a few that only one of us like.  Nick got rid of a few horror movies, and I got rid of a few romantic comedy movies. 

By the time we were finished we had amassed a large pile of books and movies.  We were also able to fit the things we kept on our shelves. 

One of my coworkers is beginning to downsize, and told me about Decluttr.  It’s a site where you can sell your books, movies, CDs, and some tech gadgets online.  You can download an app to scan bar codes (I didn’t because there wasn’t room on my phone) or you can manually enter the numbers (I did that, and it’s really not hard).  The site tells you right away if it’s something they’re buying, and what they’re paying for it. 

It works kind of like reverse online shopping.  You scan or enter all of your barcodes, and it puts everything they’ll accept in a cart.  Once you’re finished with that, you process your order.  They pay the shipping, you just print out a packing list, shipping label, package it all up, and send it to them.  We opted to be paid via Paypal since I already had an account, and we received the money in less than a week both times.  We’ve done two shipments to Declutttr.  The first time we received exactly the amount quoted.  The second time we received about twenty cents less than the amount quoted due to a quality issue.  They didn’t specify which item, but I really didn’t think such a small amount was a big deal. 

Selling books and movies to Decluttr is about the fastest and easiest way we’ve found to get rid of the ones we don’t want anymore.  A few thrift stores in our area won’t take them anymore, and it’s kind of a hassle to drive around to different thrift stores dropping different things off.  I like one stop shopping, etc.  I suspect if we had been willing to invest the time we might have been able to sell at least some of the books and movies for more on Amazon or Ebay, but I didn’t really want to take the time to take and upload pictures, and create listings for dozens of books and movies.  For us the goal was more to get rid of things and reduce clutter than to make money.  We did earn enough from our Decluttr payments for dinner out, and to buy our favorite sauces from the restaurant to use at home, so that was definitely a nice perk. 

In case you’re wondering, Howard has not been deemed clutter in need of being shipped off to Decluttr.  Pictures of boxes of movies and books or bookshelves are pretty boring, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share Howard’s latest meerkat picture with you.  I think he’s adorable in it.

So what about you?  Do the books and movies get out of control at your house?  Do you have a system in place for limiting the amount of books and movies you own?  Have you sold books and movies online?

Very Late To The Craze

I never seem to be one of the first people to join in any sort of trend.  In fact, I usually seem to be one of the last.  That’s fine with me.  I don’t typically choose things based on their popularity.  Honestly, there have been a few too many “must see” or “must read” movies or books that have disappointed me.

For example, I will never understand the craze over The Help.  The book that is.  I absolutely understand the craze over the movie.  It starred Viola Davis.  Enough said, right?

So I didn’t start reading the Outlander series until last fall.  I had heard of them, of course.  I think you have to be living under a rock not to have heard of them.  I had thought about reading them, but time travel stories aren’t typically among my favorites.  I didn’t want to read books I didn’t think I would enjoy just because they were popular.

Then one of my co-workers, Kim, found out that I hadn’t read them, and said I needed to.  She was actually very surprised to find out that I hadn’t read them.  In my defense, though, I was nine years old when the first book was published.  If you’ve read the series, you know that it is in no way appropriate reading material for a nine year old.  If you haven’t read the series, and you’re in charge of a nine year old’s reading material, you do not want them reading Outlander.  Trust me on that one.

Lots of time has passed since I was nine years old and the first book being published, but I was still pretty stuck on not liking the time travel aspect.

Kim is who recommended Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series, which I love, so I tend to trust her recommendations.  I didn’t think I’d enjoy that series, either, and it has become one of my favorites.  If she says I’m missing out by not reading a certain book or author, I tend to believe her.

The waiting list at the library had about a million people on it, so I ordered a paperback copy from Amazon.  I don’t typically buy books by authors I haven’t read, but Kim’s recommendation carried a lot of weight.

I just started The Fiery Cross, which is the fifth book in the series.  I’m totally hooked.  Voyager was a little dry and drug in places in my opinion, but overall the series has been great so far.  I haven’t watched the show yet.  I’m told it’s good, but we don’t have Starz.  I’m sure I’ll watch it one day, but probably not until after the craze has died down.

So what about you?  Have you read the Outlander series?  Or watched the show?  Do you read or watch something because it’s popular?

Icy Roads, Books, and Movies

We still haven’t gotten above freezing, and our neighborhood hasn’t been scraped yet, so I’m home again today.  It’s supposed to warm up to the 40s tomorrow, so hopefully everything will be back to normal by then.

Between the cold, snow/ice, and being sick between Christmas and New Year, I’ve watched a lot of movies and TV and done a lot of reading lately.  So I thought I might share some reviews, and ask for recommendations.

Movies:

The Secret Life of Pets - This one was hugely disappointing.  We wanted to see it in the theater, but things kept coming up, so we didn’t get to.  I’m honestly glad we didn’t waste the money to see it in the theater.

From the previews we first saw it looked like it was going to be largely about all of the things the pets do when the people are away.  It looked like it was going to be funny, and really resonate with pet parents.

It turned out to be more of an “epic adventure” that didn’t really make any sense.  I realize cartoons aren’t based in reality (that’s what makes them fun), but it was just too over the top, and really not what the previews we saw lead us to expect.

Zootopia - This one was a wonderful surprise.  I’d seen a preview or two, and thought it looked like it might be good, but I wasn’t super excited about it.  It turned out to be great.  It was hilarious, and the music was excellent.

I think it’s the best cartoon I’ve seen since Inside Out.  I highly recommend both of them if you haven’t already seen them.

Pollyanna - This is one of my absolute most favorite movies.  Ever. My obsession with Pollyanna has been going strong for 30 years, and isn’t going away.  It’s a happy, feel-good movie about looking for the good things in life and the power of friendship.

I watched it as 2017 rang in because I wanted something positive and happy to start the new year off with, and Pollyanna absolutely fit the bill.

TV (Technically Netflix, but TV shows, so I’m counting it as TV):

Criminal Minds - I realize this one has been around for a long time, but I didn’t watch it when it first aired.  I started watching it on Netflix a couple of years ago, and finally finished all of the seasons that are on Netflix.

I like the characters, and I enjoy crime/mystery shows, so I really like this one.  Honestly, I’ve scared the daylights out of myself with it a few times when I’ve binge watched while Nick has been working nights.  It seems like that’s always when the episodes feature women home alone getting murdered.

Even though it creeps me out sometimes I still enjoy it, and am looking forward to whenever the next season is available on Netflix.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries - This series is excellent.  It features Phryne Fisher, a lady detective in 1920's Australia.  The mysteries are intriguing, the characters are great, the dresses she wears are gorgeous, and don’t even get me started on the shoes.  It also has some really great music.

There’s an ongoing mystery through most of the first season, as well as the smaller mysteries that are typically resolved within an episode.  There’s also a little romance.  There are enough storylines to keep it interesting, but not so many that it just feels like they couldn’t decide what kind of series they wanted to make.  I highly recommend this one!

Books:

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d by Alan Bradley - This is the eighth book in Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series.  Flavia is a young amateur sleuth with a passion for chemistry in a small village in post World War II England.  She comes from a once wealthy family and lives on a declining estate with her two older sisters, father who’s dealing with PTSD from the war, and a couple of household servants.  She spends her days conducting chemical experiments and solving crimes.

I love this series!  Quite honestly, I had no interest in reading it when I first heard about it.  I thought it wasn’t something I’d enjoy.  I’m not a kid person (Flavia is 11 years old in the first book), and I have zero interest in chemistry.  It didn’t seem like my kind of book.

One of my co-workers basically forced me to borrow the first book, The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, and I had every intention of giving it back without reading it.  She kept bugging me about it, though, so I started reading it on a Sunday night. I had the plan of forcing myself though the first two or three chapters and then returning it on Monday morning, telling her I’d tried, but just couldn’t get into it.  I ended up staying up until 2:00 in the morning reading half of the book.  I’ve been hooked ever since then.

I’ve given all of the books five stars, and the most recent one has lived up to the standard set in the rest of the series.  I do recommend reading them in order.  There are a lot of what would be spoilers in Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d if you haven’t read the rest of the series.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard - I first discovered Nancy Pickard in a bargain bin at a used bookstore when I stumbled across The Whole Truth.  It was excellent, and I’m currently reading the third book in that series, The Truth Hurts.

She has also written a few stand alone books, which is what The Scent of Rain and Lightning is.  It’s a mystery that takes place partly in modern day and partly in the 80s.  

It is extremely well written, there are some great plot twists, and she does a great job jumping between times.  It’s smooth, but doesn’t leave you going back a few pages to figure out which time frame you’re currently in.

I highly recommend this one, and I’m planning to read all of her books now.  I’ve loved all three of the ones I’ve read, and am really enjoying the one I’m currently reading.

So what about you?  Have you read or watched anything good lately?  Anything you’d recommend as a must?  Or anything you’d recommend not wasting time on?

The Secret Ingredient of Wishes

The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell was a book I thought I was going to love. It popped up on goodreads as a recommendation, and was compared to Sarah Addison Allen.

The Secret Ingredient of Wishes features  pie, wishes, and starting over in a small town.  It also takes place in North Carolina.  It seemed like it would have a lot going for it. The comparisons to Sarah Addison Allen had me really excited to read it.  I jumped on the waiting list at the library, and eagerly waited for my copy.

It was incredibly disappointing.

I’ve loved all of Sarah Addison Allen’s books except Lost Lake (that one wasn’t horrible, just definitely nowhere near as wonderful as her other books).  I think the comparison to her writing had me starting this book with higher expectations than I would have had otherwise.  Honestly, that probably colored my opinion some.  I think I was expecting something like Garden Spells (I highly recommend reading it now if you haven’t read it yet)  Even without the comparison I still think I would have been disappointed.

The names of the characters drove me a little crazy.  The older, wiser, magic pie baking female character is named Catch.  There’s never any explanation as to whether that’s a nickname, some old family name, or just weird for the sake of being weird.  The hunky love interest next door is named Ashe, which doesn’t seem to fit at all.  For some reason, the two names sound a lot alike in my head, and it kind of drove me insane.  The other name issue I had was that, with the exception of Catch and Ashe, pretty much everyone went by some abbreviation of their name most of the time; Ray for Rachel, Ev for Everley, Mae or Maeby for Mary Beth.  It just seemed overdone.  I know, that’s a relatively small issue, but it adds up over the course of an entire book.

The dialogue wasn’t great.  The conversations just seemed a little stilted.  Catch had an annoying habit of saying things like “Miss-I-Got-All-Dolled-Up-and-Now-Everyone-Else-Looks-Like-Crap,”. There was something like that from her constantly.  It got old, and seemed like a lazy way to get a bunch of dialogue out of the way at once.

I had hoped the pies would at least be interesting, but even the baking parts of the book were disappointing.  There wasn’t much detail about the pie making, and there wasn’t anything particularly interesting about the pies.

Overall, it was an incredibly disappointing read.

So what about you?  Have you read The Secret Ingredient of Wishes?  What did you think of it?  Do you go into a book with high expectations if the author is compared to an author you really enjoy?

Book Lovers Day

Books!  And a Joey photobomb.

According to Holiday Insights, there are actually two different dates for Books Lovers Day.  I love books, so the idea of two separate Book Lovers Days makes me really happy, and it seems like a great day to talk about the amazing Friends of the Library Book Sale we went to recently.

The Friends of the Library have a few book sales throughout the year.  There’s a separate building (I guess they don’t want people trying to buy books off of the library shelves), and they have a great selection of books.  The sales usually run a few weeks or weekends in a row, and everything is more and more discounted as the sale goes on.  It’s well organized, and there’s a huge selection.  It’s kind of a book lover’s paradise.

This year they did something a little different.  The last Saturday in October was the Monster Book Sale, or as I like to call it, a dream come true.  It was $5.00 per adult.  Not $5.00 per bag, box, or X number of books. $5.00 for all of the books you wanted to take with you.  You walked in, paid your $5.00, got your hand stamped, and then had the privilege of taking all of the books you wanted.  If you filled a box, they wrote your name on it, stashed it behind a counter, and handed you another box.

Nick and I both love books, and we have a small house.  We have lots of books, pretty much everywhere.  But we decided that the Monster Sale was an opportunity not to be missed.  Unlimited books was more temptation than we could resist, and it supported the library.  We decided to go, and limit ourselves to one box each.

I think the one box limit lasted about 45 minutes.  Maybe.  We read completely different things; I’m pretty much all about fiction, cookbooks, and the occasional biography.  Nick is all about non-fiction.  He actually loves getting his hands on text books.  So we split up as soon as we were stamped and in the door.  Somehow, we usually mange to finish up at about the same time, and both come wandering out of our sections at about the same time, and run into each other.  I’m not sure how, but it works.

We both wandered out with our first box completely full, and we hadn’t even looked at everything, so we agreed to two boxes each.  We actually stuck to the two boxes each limit.  The boxes were packed full, and incredibly heavy, but we did leave with “only” four boxes between the two of us.

It was so much fun.  I put books I might not normally have bought in my boxes to try.  Everyone seemed to be recommending books, and there was a lot of “if you like this, you’ll love that” going on.  At one point I was part of a group of women all just putting books in each other’s boxes.  I can’t wait to try some of the newly recommended authors.

So what about you?  Are you a book lover?  Have you lost control buying books?  Have you read anything good lately?

Alcott vs. Austen

Photo Credit Here

I’m a huge fan of Louisa May Alcott.  I have been since I was eleven years old, and read Little Women for the first time.  Jo March was (and still is) the coolest character ever with her temper, independent ways, and love of the written word.  Once I wandered into Jo’s world, I was forevermore an Alcott fan. 

I’m on my second copy of LittleWomen because my first copy literally fell apart from having been carried around so much, and read so many times.  I usually re-read it at least once a year. 

Jane Austen, on the other hand, is an author whose books I have never been able to get into.  I’ve tried, I really, really have. I make it about 25 – 30 pages in, and then I just can’t take it anymore.   I give up and move on to a book I enjoy.  I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never read something of hers and wanted to read more.

Friends and family tell me I “should” like Jane Austen’s books, and that I’m the Jane Austen “type”.  I’ve been given dozens of copies of various Jane Austen novels over the years, and they’ve all made their way to thrift stores, or used bookstores in trade for other books.

It really bugs me to be told I’m the Jane Austen “type” since I don’t like her books, but it also bugs me that there doesn’t seem to be (or at least I’ve never heard about) a Louisa May Alcott “type”.  Maybe none of us are cool enough to be typed as the creators of Jo March. 

I just think it seems like Jane Austen gets a lot more attention than Louisa May Alcott as a great author whose books you simply must read, despite the fact that Alcott’s books are much better than Austen’s.    So where do you stand on the matter of Alcott vs. Austen?  Are you a fan of either?  Both?  Neither? 

2014 Historical Romance Reading Challenge

I didn’t read much at all in 2013.  I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I just didn’t do much reading.  I didn’t ever come close to meeting my goodreads reading goal.  I really don’t want another year of not reading much, so I’m signing up for the 2014 Historical Romance Reading Challenge being hosted by Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

It sounds like fun.  I used to read historical romances almost exclusively, but then just kind of drifted away from them.  I miss them a little bit.  What better way to get back into reading them than by participating in a challenge?

You can read more about the challenge here, but here’s what counts:

• Every historical romance you read and review in 2014
• Any time period prior to 1920 qualifies.
• They can be historical paranormal, historical erotica, m/m, f/f, etc.
• All historical romances over 100 pages in length--audio, ebook, print
• Re-reads, cross overs from other challenges

Level One is 12 historical romances.  Level Two is 18 historical romances.  I’m trying to decide which level to try for, but am currently thinking about a 1.5, with 15 historical romances, and I’m currently looking for some recommendations.  Any favorite historical romance novels or authors you think I should try?

What Are You Reading?

Today is Day Six of the 30-Day Photo Challenge I’m participating in, and the topic is “Books”.  This is an easy one!  Here’s a picture of my currently reading/about to be read books. 

The cookbook, Bought, Borrowed & Stolen, is the one we’re currently using in the Cookbook Book Club.  I’m undecided on whether or not I like it yet.  There’s a lot in it about various places the author has traveled, and the food there, so I’m looking forward to reading that.  I did learn that many of the recipes call for ingredients that aren’t very easy to find locally, so I’ve promised myself to choose a recipe long before we meet next month so I have time to 

find everything we need for it.

Moon Women was a book recommended on goodreads that wasn’t available at the local library, but I found it at the thrift store last week.  I’m very excited about reading it, but the other two are library books (that there’s a waiting list for), so I feel like I need to read them first.  I just can’t decide which one to start first.  They have similar (very high) ratings on goodreads, so that’s not helping me make a decision.  Have any of you read either of them?

I really hope I love at least one of them.  It seems like the last few books I’ve read have only been okay, so I’d like to read a great one.  That seems to be the nature of reading, though; spells of finding great books, and spells of only finding okay books.

So what are you reading right now?  Is it great, or just okay?

Greetings From The Dark Side

It’s not better here, and they don’t have cookies!  I posted earlier this summer about my new Kindle, or at least being a co-owner of a new Kindle, and how I was a little hesitant about it.  It turns out that I was right.  I’m just not a Kindle kind of girl.

I’ve read exactly one book on the Kindle, and that’s because I ran out of books from the library over the weekend.  See what poor planning gets you?  It wasn’t a book that was even available at the library (I guess that might be the one positive in this – I did get to read a book that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise) so once I started on the Kindle I was stuck. 

The Kindle doesn’t seem to be the right size for my hands; one hand gets cramped and I drop it when I try to press the button to turn the page, two hands hide the screen.  I also managed to get it stuck on Spanish a few times, which was annoying.  It took me about three times as long to finish the book as a hard copy of similar length usually does, and just wasn’t an enjoyable experience.                                             

So I am leaving the dark side.  I am back to actual books with real pages that you can turn, and that don’t have to be charged.  Real books are the way to go as far as I’m concerned.  I won’t say that I’ll never use the Kindle again, after all there are still some Louisa May Alcott books on there that I haven’t read and can’t find anywhere else, but it’s definitely going to be a while before I attempt them.  The Kindle will be reserved for times when I run out of reading material, and I’m not going to let that happen any time soon. 

Has anyone else given up on the Kindle?  Anyone else with me on actual books being the way to go?

Joining "The Dark Side"

I have a confession.  I have gone over to The Dark Side.  I am now the co-owner of a Kindle.  I’m not sure which one.  A Kindle Touch, maybe?  My grandparents bought it for us yesterday.  My husband and I were the only ones who didn’t have one. 

I said yes when they asked if we would like one largely because I thought my husband would love it.  We bought my dad one about two years ago, and I’m pretty sure it would have to be surgically removed from his hand for him to be without it.  My dad and my husband are very similar in their love of gadgets.  (I guess it’s true what they say about girls marrying men like their fathers.)  So I was pretty sure he’d love it.

Nick definitely loves the Kindle.  He was playing with it last night and messing with all of the different features.  He also bought all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work for 99 cents.  That’s it; 99 cents.  That was impressive. 

I was a little more resistant to the Kindle.  I’ve never tried to mess with my dad’s.  I don’t think I ever touched it other than to gift wrap it.  I never put one on my wish list.  I’m not very technologically savvy.  I have an old flip phone and I don’t text.  I’m addicted to Facebook, blogging, and email, but that’s about it.  I thought the Kindle would annoy me.

I also have a thing for books.  I like they how they feel and smell.  I enjoy the rustle of the pages turning.  I like the weight of the books in my hand.  I enjoy the knowledge that in order to read a book I just need my vision and a source of light.  I like to find a book that is well worn and has obviously been read by a lot of people.  I also love bookstores, especially independent bookstores.  I didn’t think I would enjoy a Kindle, since the experience just wouldn’t be the same.

Like I said, though, my husband was really, really excited about the Kindle.  He was like a little kid with a new toy.  He didn’t even want to put it down to eat dinner. Then he wanted to show me some of the features.  You’d have to be a wretched shrew (which most days I don’t think I am) to ignore his enthusiasm.  He showed me how easy some of the features are to use.  Then he pulled up a shopping list.  That’s what pulled me in.

We found ALL of Louisa May Alcott’s work for one dollar, which my husband immediately bought.  She is one of my favorite authors of all time.  She’s probably the reason (or at least Jo March is) why I ever wanted to write in the first place.  I love her.  And we found things I had never been able to find and things I had never heard of with the Kindle.

I haven’t started to read any of it yet.  I have to finish up some library books first.  But I’m sure I will be reading the Alcott books soon.  I’m not sure if the experience will be the same, but I know I’m very excited to have found the books.  So, I think I have officially joined what I considered “The Dark Side”.

Really Great Books

My latest haul from the library

We’ve all read really, really great books; the books you love and want to devour and savor at the same time.  The books you can’t wait to finish, and at the same don’t want to end.  I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about really great books lately.  It seems that it has been a while since I’ve stumbled across a book I would call a really, really great book.  I went to the library yesterday and left with quite a pile of books by different authors, in hopes of finding something that I will love. 

Does everyone go through dry spells when it comes to finding books you love?  Does it seem like sometimes you go through several books in a row that just don’t speak to you?  Books that you finish reading, in hopes that the next page, the next chapter, something will be what you’re searching for, only to be left disappointed.

I’ve been going through such a dry spell.  I’ve been reading, but I just haven’t loved much of what I’ve read.  I want more.  This has of course made me really think about what makes a book great, at least for me.  That’s not always easy to answer. 

I need to care about the characters, which to me means they need to be real; not so much “good guys” and “bad guys”, but a mix of both; like most people really are.  I want a story that hasn’t been told exactly the same way dozens and dozens of times.  I want authenticity, not overblown stereotypes or highly exaggerated characters. 

Most of all, I want to find more authors whose books I enjoy reading.  Some of my favorite authors are Joshilyn Jackson, Sarah Addison Allen, Rosamunde Pilcher, Alan Bradley, EleanorBrown, and Belva Plain.  Now that I’ve shared some of my favorite authors I really hope you will share some of yours as well.

Joshilyn Jackson

In perusing the blogs on the A to Z list I have noticed that many people are sharing various movies, books, and music they enjoy. I think that’s a wonderful idea, as it’s always nice to find another band, author, or movie to enjoy. So that’s the topic of my post today.

Joshilyn Jackson is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read all five of her novels (you can check them out on her website), and was very happy to read that she’s hard at work on the next one; unfortunately it won’t be published until 2014, on the bright side that is something to look forward to.

She writes the South very well; she has the right feel and flavor without relying on stereotypes. Her characters are funny and interesting, and the humor in her books is quirky and highly entertaining.

I think my favorite novel is her latest, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. I loved it because it was engaging and beautifully written. I loved it just as much because it was better than the previous four. It’s wonderful to find an author who continues to write really, really, really good books; books that leave you looking forward to the next one, even if it is two years away.

Independent Bookstores

I love to read; I have always been a reader, and I have always loved books. I haven’t made the switch to an e-reader yet. I love BOOKS. I love the way they smell and feel. I love the weight of them in my hands, and the sound of the pages turning. I love the texture of the paper. I love books. I suppose it’s only natural that my love of books leads to a love of bookstores. I love most bookstores, but I have recently come to truly love independent bookstores.

Independent bookstores support the local community, your community. When you shop your local indie bookstore (you can use this link to find one near you) you are helping to employ people in your community. They also host great events, oftentimes featuring local authors. It’s so nice to meet someone who lives and writes near you.

Indie bookstores also offer some wonderful and unique book clubs. I’m in a cook book club through the local indie store; we meet once a month, and I find myself looking forward to it all month. Not only are the book clubs themselves enjoyable, but you get the opportunity to meet and befriend people who live and work near you. That’s as good as finding a wonderful new book.