Sunday Bookends: A variety of books, Paul Newman movies, and still busy weeks

/ Lisa R. Howeler

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished Into the Flood by Milla Holt last week and hope to finish Dead Sea Conspiracy by Jerry B. Jenkins this week. I am not enjoying Jenkins’ book as much as I hoped I would, but I think part of it is because of his writing style, which I’m not used to.’

I’m taking little breaks from Jenkins’ book and in the evening, I am reading A Breath of French Air by H.E. Bates. This is part of the Pop Larkins series, which is a very weird series. It’s completely off the wall and quirky and must have been even more so when it was written in the 50s.

I’ve also decided to start The Screw Tape Letters by C.S. Lewis and read a couple of the letters a day to digest them.

I hope to start Mere Christianity before the end of August as well.

I hope to start The Terminal List by Jack Carr by the end of the week, but I’ll be honest that I am fairly certain this is not going to be my type of book. The Husband already read it and said it’s violent but good. He’s looking forward to watching the show on Amazon .


What’s Been Occurring

I thought this past week wasn’t going to be busy and it wasn’t too bad but I only had one day where I didn’t have somewhere to go or something to do.

On Monday we had gymnastics. On Tuesday Little Miss had a friend over and then we drove her friend to the little girl’s first soccer practice. The girls played in the sprinkler and on the slip n slide during the day and after practice, they played on the playground.

Wednesday was my mom’s birthday so we went to their house for lunch with her and my dad and my brother, who drove 90 minutes from his house to see her. We swam some but not as long as we wanted to because of some crazy wasps that I couldn’t even drown in the pool. I tried to drown one and it climbed the handle of the skimmer underwater. I think it was from hell.

My dad made a cake out of watermelon for my mom since she doesn’t eat cake anymore and we did our best to sing Happy Birthday but we were all out of tune which kept cracking my mom and dad up. We started again and it got worse and then fell apart at the end too because we all said a different name – either “Mom,” “Grandma” or my dad, who said “sweetheart.”

That’s okay, though, she still had fun and said it was a wonderful day.

On Friday the whole family went grocery shopping together since The Husband took the day off and surprisingly grocery shopping was not easier with him there because he wants to get there and get it done and I like to take my time and check out what I want to buy before I buy it. We’ve decided we might grocery shop separately in the future.

My dad has been giving us the surplus from his garden, especially squash, zucchini, and kale. We have been enjoying that with meals, usually stir-fried, but last night I finally fried some.

What We watched/are Watching

I am continuing my Summer of Paul, which is what I am calling my summer since I am watching a bunch of Paul Newman movies for fun. I will write more about the movies I watched last week in a post later this week, but will share in this post that I watched The Rack, The Hustler, and A New Kind of Love (which was another movie with him and his wife Joan) this past week.

Previously this summer I watched Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Long Hot Summer, Paris Blues, and Sweet Bird of Youth.

Other Paul Newman movies I watched in the past were Exodus and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

I told my mom we were watching The Hustler last night and suggested she and I watch it today when I go over for lunch. She said, “Oh that’s the one in black and white, isn’t it? We can’t see Paul’s eyes in that one.”

And she’s right…I did miss the blue of Paul’s eyes in the movie but you can still tell they are blue and they are beautiful.

She and I might have to watch a different Paul Newman movie together today instead, not just because we can’t see his blue eyes but because it was the most depressing movie of his I watched so far and my least favorite.

This week I hope to watch Rachel Rachel, with Paul’s wife Joan (I don’t believe this will be a happy one either. It’s about a woman battling depression. She won a Golden Globe for it.), which he directed, Hud, and maybe Cool Hand Luke. I also have From the Terrace lined up. So far I am not able to find a lot of these latest movies for free so I am renting them all on Amazon.

This week I also watched a few episodes of The Manor Born, a British sitcom from the 70s.The Husband also made me suffer through an episode of the old show Hardcastle and McCormick.


What I’m Writing

I will be working on Mercy’s Shore this week and hope to set aside time each day so I can write about 1,000 words a day.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

13 thoughts on “Sunday Bookends: A variety of books, Paul Newman movies, and still busy weeks”

  2. I love the idea of watermelon cake! Perfect solution for those who can’t or don’t want to eat cake. What a blessing I’m sure it was for your mom to have her family there to celebrate her special day. I’m actually tired of eating summer squash and zucchini as we’ve had tons of them in our garden. And cucumbers!! Way too many. We’re giving them to anyone we can find. Already harvested green beans and they are in the freezer. I need to shred the zucchini and freeze it for later use in zucchini bread but I’m just too lazy. It’s been hot and humid — blech!! – and in trying to keep our electric bill semi reasonable, we try not to use the A/C much. And I just DON’T DO muggy weather well.

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    • My mom lost 160 pounds over the last couple of years and she wants to keep it off so she doesn’t eat cake anymore. If she does it’s one or two bites.

      I’m not tired of the squash yet, but I am sure I will be in a couple more weeks.

      I hear you about the humidity! I don’t want to do anything in it. The weather was so much cooler today, which was nice. It looks like it might be staying a little cooler. I really am ready for fall and having an excuse to stay inside and read, even though this summer really has been fun.

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  4. I love the birthday story!! 🤣 How blessed you are to still have your Mom and Dad! My daughter comes over about once per week to watch an old movie together (it’s quiet here as opposed to her house, 4 kids, 3 dogs, 3 cats, a bird, some kind of mouse or rat and my oldest grandson has a sizable lizard 😳) so we watched Deception with Betty Davis this last week. I’ve finished 3 books this week and starting another one today or tomorrow.

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    • It came out pretty good except one of the squah must have been spoiled because a few of the pieces were rancid when I bit into them. I will have to be more careful when I cut them up from now on. hopefully we can have one more round of them before the summer is over.

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