Sunday Bookends: golf cart rides, two books finished, fall has arrived

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon12 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This past week was fairly busy with vet appointments and sitting with my mom who is a fall risk. I went alone on Tuesday and on Wednesday Little Miss and I went together. She and I had fun spending time with Mom and then taking a ride on the golf cart on Wednesday after my dad arrived home. It was fun to watch little Zooma the Wonder Dog sprint next to us as we rode. She likes to race us but also likes to take a quick break by jumping on the cart with us. I had to hold her tight when we rode up to the neighbors because they raise labradors and although they are in kennels, I didn’t want her to stir them up.

Little Miss had four online classes as part of her homeschooling this week, which also kept us busy.

Thursday and Friday were days for relaxing, though, luckily. I was also so happy this week to see the hostages from Israel released and hope to see peace come to Israel and to the Gazans with the hopeful removal of Hamas’s power.

I am not sure what is coming up for this week other than homeschooling and an extra class for Little Miss on Outschool. I know it will be cold, though, because cool autumn air is definitely here with some of our nights dropping into the thirties already!

Don’t forget that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are hosting the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Link up for all book related posts. You can find that link here:

https://lisahoweler.com/a-good-book-cup-of-tea-monthly-link-party/

This past week I finished A Fatal Harvest by Rachael O. Phillips and Come, Tell Me Where You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowen.

A Fatal Harvest was a cozy mystery and I will have a review of it up on the blog tomorrow.

Come, Tell Me Where You Live was non-fiction. It was a type of memoir by Agatha of her time in Syria with her archaeologist husband.

Now I am reading Trick and Treachery by Donald Bain. It’s a Murder, She Wrote Mystery.

I am also going to start A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse this week.

I am supposed to receive a copy of Rebecca by Daphne DeMauier this week and I hope to start that soon as well.

Last night I rewatched the Anne of Green Gables movie from 1985 with Little Miss. Earlier in the week I watched The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula to prepare for writing about the two-parter later this week.

I’m working on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School for a February release.

Last week on the blog I shared:

I didn’t take this particular photo, but I saw it yesterday while looking at other photos and was just struck by its composition and beauty. It is obviously an Associated Press photo, so they get the credit.

Here are some photos I did take:

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 in my new link party if you also write a weekly update like this.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date and Stacking the Shelves by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Oct. 17

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam7 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it. Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

This week, we have a little announcement because we are saying goodbye to Sue from Women Living Well After 50.

We are all sad to see her go, but Sue has some other things she wants to pursue and may take a break from blogging altogether for a bit.

I know Marsha, Melynda, and I certainly appreciate her being part of this link party and hope to see her in the blogsphere in the future. If you are interested in being a co-host please leave a comment and I will put you in contact with Marsha, our fearless leader.

Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity.  Oh, who are we kidding?  Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!  

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household  – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting! 

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more. 

We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: Maple Leopard



A little about Val:

I’m Val , Canadian born, Vancouver BC raised! Here you’ll find top resources to plan your dream trip: In the USA, Canada & Europe. We are experts in travel to Portugal , the Pacific Northwest, Vegas and other Hidden Gems Around the Globe. Thx for joining my journey!

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

Cat’s little halloween animals are out to get you if you don’t give them candy!

(A good message about the promises of God)

(A fun trip to see 21 Pilots )

Some fashion ideas for between seasons!

Important things to know about the link-up:

  • You may add unlimited family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts, not just the blog.
  • Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
  • The party opens Thursday evening and ends on Wednesday.
  • Thank you for participating. Have fun!

*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The Young In Heart

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Comfy, Cozy Cinema 2025, Movie Impresssions7 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are hosting Comfy, Cozy Cinema again this year and up this week was The Young In Heart.

And, yes, that title is the actual title: The Young IN Heart.

I feel like I cheated a little bit this week because not only have I watched this movie, but I also wrote about it when I watched it for the Winter of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. That means   I had an advantage to Erin when it came to writing this week’s post because I am going to quote a lot of my original post.

 This is part of what I wrote in that post: “I absolutely loved Douglas in this one. He played a more prominent role than in Gunga Din and was simply … shall I sound completely cheesy? Yes, I shall. He was completely delightful.

At one point, I texted my friend Erin that a drunk Douglas is adorable.”

Yes, I did text Erin this past January to tell her he was adorable. Yes, I am weird.

Before I forget, I found this one for free on YouTube.

So, let’s get to the movie.

The Carlton family, of which Douglas is a part of in this movie, are not a family you would want to know in real life. They are swindlers and grifters. They mooch off and manipulate people to scrape by in life.

We open the movie in the French Riviera with Douglas’s character (Rick) ready to marry a young woman whose father is rich.

Everything falls apart, though, when the police find out about the family and reveal their conniving ways to the family of Rick’s future wife. The family is told to get out of France and end up on a train where they meet a ridiculously sweet woman (Minnie Dupree) who has only recently come into a great sum of money.

Ironically, her last name is Fortune. George-Anne sets out to swindle the woman out of paying for their lunch, but the plan expands as the woman explains she lives alone in a big mansion left to her by a former suitor. She is saying how lovely it would be if all of them came to stay with her when there is a train derailment. Their car tips and at first Rick and George-Anne believe the old woman has died. She’s still breathing so the siblings carry her from the car and George-Anne covers her with her own coat.

We begin to wonder if the family is rotten through and through and are still playing things up as the woman later recovers and invites the family to come live with her.

George-Anne suggests to the family that if Miss Fortune believes they are a respectable family she will be more willing to let them live there and maybe even leave them money when she leaves. To play up this ruse she suggests the men get actual jobs and she and her mother act like caretakers and women who don’t swindle people out of money.

This is all very baffling to the family who has always cheated and stole for a living. When the men decide George-Anne’s plan might work and go to look for jobs, the scenes that follow are some of the most hilarious tongue-in-cheek moments I’ve seen in a movie.

Spinning around in the background of the family’s drama is the romance between George-Anne and Duncan Macrae (Richard Carlson), who she originally considered marrying when she thought he was rich. Duncan learned she was a con-artist along with everyone else and was shattered but still ends up chasing her down on the train back to London to tell her he still loves her.

The rest of Rick’s family — father, Col. Anthony “Sahib” Carleton (Roland Young), mother Marmey Carlton (Billie Burke), and daughter George-Anne (Janet Gaynor) — are thrilled with this plan because they know it will also set them all up for a rich life. George Anne might be even more thrilled because then she can marry a poor Scottish man who she’s fallen in love with, and the rest of her family will support her financially.

She tells him to get lost, believing he’s much too good for her and . . . well, you’ll have to see where all that ends up.

Rick is also having his own romance with Leslie Saunders (Paulette Goddard), a secretary and the engineering business he applies at for a job.

This is the second – or shall I say third – movie I’ve watched in recent months with Billie Burke and there is no mistaking that voice if you have seen The Wizard of Oz.

Yes, she is Glenda the Good Witch.

The screenplay for this movie was written by Paul Osborn and adapted by Charles Bennett from the serialized novel, The Gay Banditti by I. A. R. Wylie. That title certainly would have had a different connotation in the modern day, eh?

Anyhow, the novel appeared in parts in The Saturday Evening Post from February 26 to March 26, 1938.

The movie was released in November of the same year. They certainly worked fast back then.

I found it interesting when I read that Broadway actresses Maude Adams and Laurette Taylor screen-tested for the role of Miss Fortune and that the footage is the only audio-visual samples that existed of both of them.

The movie was produced by – can you guess? Because it feels like every movie I write about lately is produced by him.

Yes. David Selznick. The man who produced what is considered one of the biggest movie triumphs in the world — Gone with the Wind.

This movie was one of many he produced leading up to Gone With The Wind. The Prisoner of Zenda, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, was another. Goddard was actually rumored to be being considered to play Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With The Wind, which later, of course, went to Vivien Leigh.

While I was watching the part of the movie where Mr. Carleton goes to apply for a job, I was fascinated by the fancy car they showed. It was spinning like a pig on a spit at the front of the building and it was a very modern looking car and a very modern looking set up altogether.

According to Ultimate Car Page and Wikipedia,  https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/1905/Phantom-Corsair.html

The six-passenger 2-door sedan Flying Wombat featured in that scene was actually the one-of-a-kind prototype Phantom Corsair. The Phantom Corsair concept car was built in 1938 and designed by Rust Heinz of the H. J. Heinz family and Maurice Schwartz of the Bohman & Schwartz coachbuilding company in Pasadena, California.”

I also found it interesting that this was Gaynor’s last movie before retiring while she was at the top of her career. She made one last movie in 1957 called Bernardine.

Like I said above, I loved this movie. It was just what I needed to watch this week with so much sadness going on in the world. There was a lot of humor from all the cast, but Douglas really had me smiling throughout. Not only because he is my latest old Hollywood star crush (watch out Paul Newman!).

Have you seen this one? What did you think of it?

You can read Erin’s impression of the movie on her blog.

Next week we will move into a bit of spooky with Coraline.

The rest of our movie list can be found on this graphic:

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I Could Read Again For the First Time

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday17 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s prompt was: Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time.

  1. Little Women by Louise May Alcott

(I know…sooo cliché. But really. I held off on reading this book for years because I thought it just wouldn’t be my thing and then it really was!


2. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

It took me a long time to read this one too and when I got to the beginning of it I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but I pushed through and fell in love with this group of misfit friends and their journey.

3. On The Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I loved reading these books when I was a kid and I would love to experience the excitement of finding out what was going to happen next again.

4. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

This became one of my favorite reads of all time and I would love to read it for the first time again. The story is so unique and interesting and the romance so subtle yet swoony!

5. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

I love many of the books in The Cat Who series but this one has been my favorite by far. It was written in a very different style from the other books so maybe Lilian didn’t write it. Ha! Either way, I enjoyed this one very much and would love to feel the excitement of solving the mystery again.

6. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

I truly enjoyed this Sherlock Holmes story told by Horowitz with the endorsement of the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I would love to experience the thrill of reading this mystery again.

7. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

This one was so much fun and I would love to experience the magic of the story unfolding again and looking forward to figuring out how it was all going to turn out!

8. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

I love these books and I’d love to read the first one for the first time again but I am very glad to get to read it again and again whenever I want.

9. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

I really enjoyed this one as a kid. I am listening to it on Audible and will  probably order a new book so I can read it again. It has been so long since I have read it, that it will probably feel like I am reading it for the first time again.

10. King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

This is the first book I ever took out or a library (at school) and read in full. I loved it – now when I read it to my daughter a couple of years ago, I did discover it was much darker than I remembered but it was still very good.  

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Sciatica help and still reading the same books

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon14 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This past week I had a sciatica issue. I didn’t think it was my sciatica because the tightness and pain was in my calf muscle. Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs  told me that she’d had sciatica  and it went all the way down her leg though so I decided to look for stretches for sciatica, which I’ve had to do in the past, even though the pain had never been this bad. I found a couple of stretches and they helped a little but I was still in a ton of pain.

I saw one stretch that I thought looked stupid so I refused to do it. The guy was saying something about leaning against a wall and pushing on your hip. I thought that sounded like the dumbest, useless thing ever.

I saw it again two days later, though, when I was still in pain. It was a “shorts” video on YouTube.

This time I really listened to the guy (a physical therapist) and actually tried it. Within five minutes the pain was gone. Later in the day it was like I’d never had the injury at all.

I have reinjured it a couple of times since then but so far, the stretch has worked each time.

I’m leaving the link here for anyone who might need the stretch in the future:

I hope the pain stays away this week — I have things I need to do, including driving 45 minutes one way to get Zooma the Wonder Dog a check up and her nails trimmed.

I’m still  reading A Fatal Harvest by Rachael O. Phillips because I lost the book for two days. I’m also reading Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie. My week last week seemed to be full of less reading time than I hoped but I actually think I will have these books read this week.

After these two I’ll be diving into Murder, She Wrote: Trick or Treachery.

Coming up later will be  Hours We Regret by Chelsea Michelle and Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse.

Little Miss and I will be finishing The Good Master this week.

Last week I watched It Happened One Night with Clark Cable and What’s One More with Cary Grant. Last night I watched Pennies from Heaven with Bing Crosby.

I also watched some Murder, She Wrote.

Last week on the blog I shared:

I’m listening to Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Oct. 10

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam7 Comments

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it. Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

Now, let’s introduce our hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity.  Oh, who are we kidding?  Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!  

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household  – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting! 

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more. 

Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50.  She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.

We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!

WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!

This week we are spotlighting: Where The Wild Things Were



Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

The cutest pumpkin pigs!

(This was a fun day for Erin!)

(Gluten free recipes! Yum!)

The cutest little tablescape!

Important things to know about the link up:

  • You may add unlimited family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts, not just the blog.
  • Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
  • The party opens Thursday evening and ends Wednesday.
  • Thank you for participating. Have fun!

*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The Five Year Engagement

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Comfy, Cozy Cinema 202511 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are hosting Comfy, Cozy Cinema again this year and up this week was The Five-Year Engagement.

I am going to share right off the bat that this was not the movie for me. Erin enjoys it (though she had not watched in a long time and forgot some of the aspects of it) and you can find a more positive view of it on her blog.

Disclaimer: The fact I did not enjoy it is NOT an attack on anyone who did enjoy it. All views expressed here are my own opinions on the movie only. I don’t think anyone is awful for enjoying it. It simply was not my cup of tea. Everyone has different tastes.

I probably should have researched this one a little more when I agreed to watch it because it really wasn’t a movie I’d normally watch. It also was not cozy at all to me personally, but it probably has some sentimental value to others.

For my regular readers who know I usually recommend books and shows without a ton of swearing and crude “jokes” or references, you can know I don’t recommend this one because that’s the majority it.

When I did finally look up the movie this morning, I learned that it featured “more than 205 obscenities and profanities and lots of verbal sexual humor.”

Yeah. I really need to look this stuff up before I go into a movie. *wince*

I am  not going to sit here and say that I do not swear. I certainly do. I wish I didn’t, but I do. I’m in a deep depression this week and have sworn about ten times already today (and asked God to forgive me).

Despite that personal flaw confessional moment, movies that throw swear words in for no reason aren’t my thing. 

Here is a bit of a description of the movie from online:

“On their one-year anniversary, sous chef Tom Solomon (Jason Segel) plans to surprise his girlfriend, Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt), with an engagement ring. The lovers do end up engaged, but the fact that the proposal does not go exactly as planned proves to be a harbinger of things to come. Each time they try to set a date, various obstacles stand in their way. As more and more time passes, Tom and Violet begin to wonder if perhaps their marriage is not meant to be.”

The movie is rated R, so a lot of it the languag and sex scenes are to be expected but I just wasn’t comfortable with the level of crudeness or how many times I had to see Jason Segel having sex. Eek.

Also, Jason Segel plays pretty much the same character in every movie or TV show he has ever been in so if you like him in other movies or TV shows you should like this – just add a few more penis jokes, f-words, and views of his naked butt.

Again, Erin has more positive reasons she enjoyed the film (and I totally get her reasons!) so you can check out her views and more information on her blog here:


Next week we are writing about The Young In Heart (1938), starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

The other movies we will be watching are on this list:

10 Classic Movies You Can Watch for Free on Tubi

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions14 Comments

I was surprised this past weekend to find a ton of classic movies for free on Tubi so I thought I’d share some of the better classic (before 1970) movies with my blog readers today. I have watched these and really enjoyed them! I’ll have a part two for this one down the road sometime.

Talk of the Town

Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant), who was wrongfully convicted of arson, manages to escape from prison. While on the lam, he finds the home of Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), an old friend from school for whom he harbors a secret affection. Nora believes in Dilg’s innocence and lets him pose as her landscaper; meanwhile, Professor Lightcap (Ronald Colman), a legal expert, has just begun renting a room in Nora’s home. Lightcap, like Dilg, also has eyes for Nora, leading to a series of comic misadventures.

My Man Godfrey

Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a forgotten man to win a scavenger hunt, and no one fits that description more than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.

The Philadelphia Story

This classic romantic comedy focuses on Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn), a Philadelphia socialite who has split from her husband, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), due both to his drinking and to her overly demanding nature. As Tracy prepares to wed the wealthy George Kittredge (John Howard), she crosses paths with both Dexter and prying reporter Macaulay Connor (James Stewart). Unclear about her feelings for all three men, Tracy must decide whom she truly loves.

The Third Man

Set in postwar Vienna, Austria, “The Third Man” stars Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, who arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find him dead. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a “third man” present at the time of Harry’s death, running into interference from British officer Maj. Calloway (Trevor Howard) and falling head-over-heels for Harry’s grief-stricken lover, Anna (Alida Valli).



The Manchurian Candidate

 Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and, together with fellow soldier Allen Melvin (James Edwards), races to uncover a terrible plot.

Merrily We Live

The wealthy Kilbourne family is tired of Mrs. Kilbourne (Billie Burke) hiring ex-convicts as servants. After a servant steals the family’s silver, Mrs. Kilbourne agrees to never hire another drifter for help. But when a rough-looking man named Rawlins (Brian Aherne) arrives at her doorstep, she cannot help but hire him as the new chauffeur. As Rawlins catches the eye of their oldest daughter, Jerry (Constance Bennett), the Kilbournes realize that he may not be the vagrant he claims to be.

Bringing Up Baby

Harried paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) has to make a good impression on society matron Mrs. Random (May Robson), who is considering donating one million dollars to his museum. On the day before his wedding, Huxley meets Mrs. Random’s high-spirited young niece, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn), a madcap adventuress who immediately falls for the straitlaced scientist. The ever-growing chaos — including a missing dinosaur bone and a pet leopard — threatens to swallow him whole.

Without Reservations

Famous author “Kit” Masterson (Claudette Colbert) needs an actor to portray the lead character, a soldier, in the upcoming movie version of her book. While on a train to California, she meets Marine Rusty Thomas (John Wayne) and his friend, Dink (Don DeFore). She begins to imagine the macho Rusty as the lead, and attempts to stay in his company. However, since Rusty did not like her book, Kit must conceal her identity, all the while growing more attracted to her potential actor.

It Happened One Night

In Frank Capra’s acclaimed romantic comedy, spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) impetuously marries the scheming King Westley, leading her tycoon father (Walter Connolly) to spirit her away on his yacht. After jumping ship, Ellie falls in with cynical newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who offers to help her reunite with her new husband in exchange for an exclusive story. But during their travels, the reporter finds himself falling for the feisty young heiress.

A Woman of Distinction

Reserved college dean Susan Middlecott (Rosalind Russell) is all business and can’t be bothered with love. However, when Susan meets charming British astronomy professor Alec Stevenson (Ray Milland), it seems that romance could be in the air. Though she resists being paired with Alec, things don’t go as planned — particularly when a publicity agent and even Susan’s amiable father (Edmund Gwenn) get involved. Soon, Susan may just be in love, whether she likes it or not.

Let me know if you check any of these out!

Sunday Bookends: a birthday, I’m actually reading…non-fiction?? And watching old movies (again)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon8 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

We’ve been celebrating Little Miss’s birthday for the last couple of days and today is the last activity we are participating in. She had a special breakfast out and a special lunch with her grandparents on her birthday, an outing and dinner at a restaurant Friday and a sleep over with a friend last night. Today she is going to see reptiles with her friend at a reptile zoo because she is a huge fan of reptiles. They have other animals as well, but mostly reptiles.

I wrote more about our week last week in yesterday’s post if you want to catch up there.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still hosting crafternoons. We will be announcing a date for October later on. If you are wondering what Crafternoons are it is a monthly Zoom meet up where we get together with other bloggers/crafters and do a craft while we chat about life and books and all kinds of other things.

If you are interested in the crafternoon, you can find more information here.

Erin and I are also hosting a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea.  You can find that link up for this month here.

Last week I finished The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. I did not think I was going to like it at first but it was very good. I don’t know if I ever read this one when I was younger and I didn’t think I was going to like it but I got more into it as it went on. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series before the end of the year.

I’m still reading Come, Tell Me Where You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowen. This is a non-fiction book/memoir written about Agatha’s travels with her archeologist husband Max Mallowen to Syria from 1935 to 1937. Max was her second husband and she remained married to him until his death.

Her stories about their travels are candid, very funny, and full of her natural wit.

I’ve been reading other books in between this one. It’s taken me a little longer to read it because it isn’t really a novel and because the print is very small and the lines are close together. Somehow that makes it feel more difficult to read and like I’ll never finish it but,  honestly, it does move along quite nicely and is very interesting. I am learning a lot about that part of the world and how archeological digs worked in the old days. I’ll have it finished this week.

For fun I am reading A Fatal Harvest, an Amish Inn Mystery, by Rachael Phillips. Liz Ekhardt runs an Amish Inn in ….um…Iowa I think. She has a group of friends and a “friendship” with the town mayor, Jackson. She also has a pet bulldog named Beans. He came with the inn when she purchased it.

In this installment, Liz and her friend Naomi have discovered the body of one of Liz’s guests under the haybales on the hayride. Liz is always stumbling into a mystery and this time she wants to find out if her guest had a local connection that could have led to his death.

After that I’ll probably dive into Murder, She Wrote: Trick or Treachery.

Little Miss and I will be finishing The Good Master this week.

This past week I watched a crazy old movie called Autumn Harvest. It was a wild ride involving a shell shocked World War I vet who loses his memory, falls in love, and then regains his memory but forget his wife. Oh man, it was crazy, but the ending was nice at least.

I also watched a movie with Cary Grant called. It was about a couple who kept adopting children that no one else wanted. It was really beautiful and had me weepy. I’d never even heard of this one. It was a comedy drama with a very beautiful message about taking in children who don’t seem to be wanted.

This week on the blog I shared:

I am still slowly working on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School. It will be out in February. If you would like to read the other three books, though, you can find them on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon and you can find paperbacks on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.