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

Right now I am reading Junkyard Dogs, A Walt Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson.

For those who are curious, it is not a clean book, but it is also not as graphic as some books. There is some coarse language.

Here is the description:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Land of Wolves, a modern-day ranch war takes place in the sixth Longmire novel 

Junkyard Dogs, the sixth installment in the New York Times bestselling Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit Netflix original drama series, takes us to Durant, Wyoming. It’s a volatile new economy in Durant when the owners of a multimillion-dollar development of ranchettes want to get rid of the adjacent Stewart junkyard. Meeting the notorious Stewart clan is an adventure unto itself, and when conflict erupts—and someone ends up dead—Sheriff Walt Longmire, his lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, and deputies Santiago Saizarbitoria and Victoria Moretti find themselves in a small town that feels more and more like a high-plains pressure cooker.

Walt Longmire is up to his badge in the darker aspects of human nature, making his way through the case with a combination of love, laughs, and derelict automobiles.

I am also reading a devotional called Far From Home: Discovering Your Identity as Foreigners on Earth by Mabel Ninan which I will have a review of on Monday.

A description of that book:

Explore the intersection between culture, identity, and faith in this new release from an earthly immigrant who gained a spiritual perspective.

What is my purpose? Why do I exist? A sense of self and belonging are two questions many of us struggle to answer.

And what if you are a foreigner in another land?

How does one adjust to a new culture? Discover their place in a new society?

For Mabel Ninan, born and raised in India and an immigrant in America shortly after marriage, the search for those answers sent her on a journey that led to an unexpected and exciting discovery.

God revealed she was not only an earthly immigrant but also a spiritual one, created with a unique calling to impact His kingdom. Mabel’s renewed perspective imbued her with joy and hope, urging her to share the message with others.

Drawing from her personal experiences and by examining the lives of biblical heroes, Mabel sheds light on what it means to live as a citizen of Heaven on earth. Far from Home will inspire you to:

• Embrace your identity as a foreigner on earth.
• Make your home with God.
• Find community and common purpose with fellow sojourners.

As you look at my choices of books you can see my tastes are eclectic. Books like the Longmire books are not my normal reads (I usually read much cleaner/tamer prose) but I love how Johnson weaves a story and makes you fall in love hard with his characters.

Next up after the Longmire book is a book by an indie author, Kathy Geary Anderson, called A Refuge of Convenience (It features a marriage of convenience trope, which is not my thing, but I like Kathy’s writing) and then either A Crooked House by Agatha Christie or A Cat Who Book I’ve had sitting on my shelf for a bit.

Little Miss and I are reading Anne of Green Gables at night.

The one fun thing about reading a book like Anne of Green Gables to Little Miss is the vocabulary she picks up. She asked me what the word exhibition meant and then kept saying it to get the pronunciation correct. Then she heard the words dreadfully inadequate and asked what inadequate meant. I told her and then joked with her that she could show her brother how smart she is by telling him the next day he is “dreadfully inadequate as a brother” as a joke.  Well, by the next day I even forgot the word we had learned but when I said, “What was that word I was going to have you call you brother?” she piped up “inadequate. And that’s what you are.”

And then she grinned.

Of course, she assured him she was kidding.

She will be 8 years old in October, by the way.

The Boy isn’t really reading H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds, but he likes to pretend he is.

The Husband just finished a Hercules Poirot book and is anxiously awaiting the latest Walt Longmire Mystery, To Hell and Back, which comes out Tuesday.

What’s Been Occurring

Last week was supposed to be my “do-nothing” week, other than planning for homeschooling to start Tuesday, but as often has been happening this summer, the week filled up rather quickly.

On Monday I received a call from Little Miss’s dentist saying she had a cleaning scheduled the next day. I didn’t remember this at all but apparently, we had scheduled it six months before. While there we learned that she has a lot of dental issues, which isn’t a shock since my son did as well. They both have soft enamel.

After that appointment and the prospect of more work to be done on her teeth in the future, I was looking forward to a day to decompress Wednesday. This didn’t happen, but in the end, it was a lot more fun since I went to my parents to hang out with my mom and swim what could be our last swim of the summer at my parents’ pool.

On Friday we drove to New York State (not to be confused with New York City) to have Zooma The Wonder Dog groomed. While she was being pampered Little Miss, The Boy and I went to the playground, or rather Little Miss and I did because The Boy had an upset stomach after eating fast food, which we don’t eat often these days.

Sometimes we have to explain to friends from out of the area that New York State is more than just New York City and that the area we used to live in was maybe two miles from the NY State border so it wasn’t like it was that different over there. The scenery is about the same but the “rules” are often much dumber. Right now the gas prices are lower, which was not the case when we lived there.

Today we are having a cookout with our neighbors and tomorrow we are probably doing nothing, but I had hoped we could get one more swim in before school starts and the weather gets too cold. I’m not sure about that because we are supposed to get storms on Monday.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I didn’t watch a lot other than some vlogs and sermons.

This week I will be watching a Halloween or Spooky Season movie with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, a Paul Newman movie (hopefully The Sting), and probably a lot of Dick VanDyke to help me survive various life stressors.

What I’m Writing

This week on the blog I shared:

• Looking back at August and ahead to September
• Fiction Friday: Mercy’s Shore Chapter 17
• Classic movie impressions: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (with spoilers)
• Wednesday Hodge Podge: A bit of laboring
• Faithfully Thinking: You have to water the plants every day

I am working on The Shores of Mercy, hope to finish that by the end of September, and then plan to delve into a book called The Devil’s Been Talking, which will be a departure from my earlier books.

What I’m Listening to

This week I listened to a lot of Needtobreathe, a bit of Matthew West, and our local Christian radio station.

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.