Marsha, our leader, is on vacation right now so we will be sharing only our highlights for the week and when Marsha comes back we will share a round-up of all the most clicked from the three weeks she is gone. The hosts are excited for Marsha – well, not to speak for Sue or Melynda, but I think they are too – to go on this trip that she has been looking forward to and are looking forward to hearing all about it when she gets back.
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation (1962) is probably a movie I should have watched at the beginning of summer to catch the feeling of the season ahead of time, but, really, this movie is one that can be watched any time someone needs a laugh. I think we can all agree that we all need a good laugh these days.
The movie, a mix of comedy and a bit of drama, stars Jimmy Stewart (as Roger Hobbs) and Maureen O’Hara (as Peggy Hobbs). There were moments that I think the writers meant to be comedic but I didn’t find some of those monies super funny, but instead found them a bit sad or serious.
In this movie, like others I’ve watched from this era (the early 60s), I can see that life wasn’t that much different than today. While we seem to look back at the 50s and 60s as a more innocent time, this is one of those movies that shows there were some hard parts of life even then – arguing married couples, potentially cheating spouses, fathers struggling to be good fathers, children addicted to television, and young women struggling through the teenage years.
Those topics could bring a person down but there is a lot of humor and light-hearted moments thrown into the movie to make sure it doesn’t go too far down the hole of depression.
We start the movie with Mr. Hobbs looking quite drained as he drives through the city – which I believe is L.A. Once he gets past trucks kicking out exhaust at him and cars pinning him on every side on the highway, he arrives at the office asks his secretary to take down a letter where he plans to tell his wife that he doesn’t want to go on vacation ever again.
From there the movie is a flashback to the crazy beach vacation Mr. Hobbs didn’t want.
He planned to take the family to a ranch in Montana for a month, but his wife (Maureen) has had the wonderful opportunity to rent a beach house and she wants to bring the entire family there – her teenage daughter, young son (who is maybe 12?), and grown-up daughters who are both married with children.
Mr. Hobbs isn’t so sure about this idea but he finally agrees.
Danny, their young son isn’t too thrilled either if it means he won’t get to watch his TV, which he is completely addicted to (not much different than kids today). When the family arrives at the home, it looks like not only will Danny not get to watch TV but no one is going to have too much fun because the place looks like it is about to fall over.
Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs decide to make the best of it, though, even bringing their cook with them. She doesn’t stay around long, though, because the house is a disaster and when the two older daughters come with their spouses things get crazy.
One daughter and her husband argue about how to raise their children. The other daughter’s husband is a stuck up professor who we later learn also likes to flirt with attractive women.
Mr. Hobbs decides to take a break from it all one morning by going out on the beach to read.
An attractive, woman who is – shall we say – well-endowed in the upper body is sunbathing but he’s more interested in his book – War and Peace.
It turns out she is more interested in chatting with him and decides to interrupt his reading, all while leaning over in her bathing suit and pouting. She has a French or Norwegian or something accent, which, I think, is supposed to make her that much more appealing.
Mr. Hobbs eventually excuses himself, after stumbling over a few words with her, but she will show up again later in the movie – this time to flirt with Mr. Hobbs’ son-in-law.
This movie grew on me. I watched it twice in the span of a few days and during the first watch, I didn’t like it that much, but didn’t hate it. During the second time I watched it with The Husband I started to like it more. I began to like the characters and storyline more, even though there were times I was, once again, disturbed by how the father wanted his daughter to hurry up and grow up already and start dating boys.
What was about that era when every parent thought their kids should be dating constantly at the age of 14? Also, there is no way that girl was 14 in this movie. She had to be at least 20.
Fabian was in this movie and was her love interest and I’d say he was about 25. Hold on, though, I’ll look this up and come back….
The girl who played the daughter (Katey Hobbs) was Lauri Peters and she was 19 when the movie released, so probably about 17 or 18 when it filmed.
Fabian was the same age, so okay, they looked older but they weren’t that much older. For those who don’t know, Fabian was a famous singer back in the day and, yes, he does sing one song in this movie, but, no, the movie is not a musical.
There was one line in the movie that made me think that maybe Playboy wasn’t the same back then as it is today. Roger Hobbs says, in the beginning of the movie, that his children really don’t need him anymore.
“Danny only needs me to pick him up a copy of Playboy once a month.”
The kid was like 12. What are they doing getting him a Playboy anyhow? I’m guessing that Playboy wasn’t as dirty as it became and is now.
As I mentioned above, while this was marketed as a comedy there were a lot of heartwarming moments and a couple of serious issues brought up – not serious enough to bring the mood down, though.
There were a lot of silly or funny moments. The most hilarious scene in the movie involves Mr. Hobbs getting stuck in the shower with the wife of the man who his son-in-law hopes will be his boss. This is all after Roger says that he and his wife should let the kids figure out life on their own.
“We’re going to buzz off before we are told to buzz off.”
So they spend part of the movie doing their best not fixing their children’s mistakes and do fairly well…but you’ll have to watch to see what happens.
Jimmy Stewart was 54 in this movie. Maureen was 40. Their chemistry was amazing. They had so many passionate kiss scenes that made my toes curl. I think their respective spouses might have been a bit jealous.
Some interesting trivia I found online:
The portrait at the bottom of the staircase in the beach house is of Captain Daniel Gregg, played by Rex Harrison in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which was filmed in 1947, and which I watched last year with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
This was one of three family comedies directed by Henry Koster from the early to mid-60s and each one featured Jimmy. The other two were Take Her, She’s Mine with Sandra Dee and Dear Brigitte.
The script was adapted from a novel by Edward Streeter.
Fabian was also in Dear Brigitte with Jimmy and said of him: “If anybody’s ever blessed, you have to be blessed to work with Jimmy Stewart. He was the most congenial, helpful person I ever worked with.”
I liked this review from imbd.com and think that I could have just shared this here and it would have summed it up well:
“Pleasant nostalgia, no modern sophomoric gags
This pleasant comedy may seem a bit on the dull side to modern audiences conditioned by R-rated gross-out fests (at least it’s in color, for those so spoiled they lack the ability to get into a black and white story), but a nice nostalgia trip for those longing for the “simpler, more innocent” times of the mid-twentieth century. (I’m not an old fuddy-duddy chronologically, just in spirit.) Stewart is your average Dad, taking an average Mom (Maureen O’Hara) and family to spend the summer in a rustic Victorian house at the beach.
They encounter the usual problems with antiquated plumbing and teenage romance, with a few interesting plot developments. If you know character actor Johm McGiver, he has one of his funniest roles as a bird-watching executive. Definitely recommended for Stewart fans or those interested in ’50 & ’60s nostalgia; but not for those who can only laugh at the stuff in Austin Powers or Team America (I like all these movies, incidentally).”
Title: Tracking Tilly: Book 1 In The Little Red Truck Mysteries
Author: Janice Thompson
Description:
Who Stole Tilly from the Auction Block? Breathe in the nostalgia of everything old red truck in book one of a new cozy mystery series. The Hadley family ranch is struggling, so RaeLyn, her parents, and brothers decide to turn the old barn into an antique store. The only thing missing to go with the marketing of the store is Grandpa’s old red truck, Tilly, that was sold several years ago. Now coming back up on the auction block, Tilly would need a lot of work, but RaeLyn is sure it will be worth it—if only she can beat out other bidders and find out who stole Tilly after the auction ends. Hadley finds herself in the role of amateur sleuth, and the outcome could make or break the new family venture.
My impressions: When I first started this book it felt like it might be morphing from a cozy mystery to a romance – like it wasn’t sure of its identity but once I accepted this was more of a romance-mystery, I just settled in for the ride and discovered it was a well-balanced mix.
The characters in this book were very likable, other than the occasional bad apple who wasn’t supposed to be liked. My favorite character was Bessie Mae, main character RaeLyn’s great aunt. She was hilarious and sweet and I absolutely loved what a huge John Wayne fan she was since I am as well.
I loved how the author tied in Bessie Mae’s love of John Wayne by having her offer up quotes in stressful or crossroad moments in the book. Like:
“And you know what Duke would say…”
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
Or,
“This is quite the conundrum,” Bessie Mae chimed in. “But you know what the Duke would’ve said.”
“What’s that?” Mom asked.
“Life s just a bowl of cherries, and you happen to be in the pits.”
I also loved how RaeLyn took Bessie Mae along on some of her sleuthing.
I was glad that the romance between RaeLyn and …well, someone (I’ll keep that a secret until you read it) is very natural and sweet and doesn’t overshadow the mystery. It’s in the background and moves forward in a couple of chapters but not to the point of making this book a true romance book. I like a mix of romance and mystery but when the romance takes over a book, I find myself rolling my eyes and wondering where the mystery is already.
This one did take a bit to get to the mystery but once it did it was the main focus and the vehicle for the readers to meet all of RaeLyn’s friends and family including her mom, dad, three brothers, best friend and her mom’s best friend.
The subtitle says this is the first in the Little Red Truck Mysteries so I am already looking forward to more installments in this series.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
We had a threat of flash flooding Friday thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Debby but in the end the pattern moved to our west and Westfield, Pa., which is a couple hours from us, was hit extremely hard. Some areas around us had some issues but nothing like Westfield.
Temperatures have cooled way down and now that we are moving toward Autumn (which I wanted) I am feeling somewhat melancholy, knowing that our days of swimming are coming to an end. Little Miss and I haven’t been swimming in two weeks due to either algae in the pool that had to be treated, a leak that was found and fixed, or chlorine that was too high. We are going to try again today but with temps only supposed to get in the low 70s I have a feeling we won’t be in long.
The days are already getting shorter – I’ve noticed that it is dark by 8:30 now. The cats are looking for more snuggles than before and we are now preparing for the start of the school year.
I have almost all the curriculum we need for the year but I do need a couple of things still for The Boy, who is a senior this year and will be attending a local trade school again this year.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour
Renee by Sandra Ardoin
Clueless At the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield
Tracking Tilly by Janice Thompson
The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene
A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl
The Gardner’s Plot by Deborah Benoit
The Author’s Guide to Murder by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig
An Assassination On the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey
Little Miss and I are listening to The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson
The Boy is listening to The Witcher, book one.
The Husband is reading The Donut Legion by Joe R. Lansdale
What We watched/are Watching
Since I last posted a Sunday Bookends I have watched a lot but I didn’t write it all down so I might not remember everything.
I know I watched a couple of summer movies – Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation and Summertime.
I have started Somewhere in Time but I haven’t finished it yet.
I watched Ladies in Lavender and a couple marathons of Murder She Wrote as well as an episode of Yes, Minister with my mom.
What I’m Writing
I am writing the third book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series: Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.
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.
Did you know that I am having a huge discount on the paid subscriptions for my Substack and that when you are a paid subscriber you will receive sneak peeks to upcoming books (like Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, which will come out this autumn), behind the scenes looks, discounts, author interviews, giveaways, and many other perks?
No?
Well, now you know. You can find my substack, which is updated a few times a month, at www.lisarhowler.substack.com
Brace yourself readers I am about to go all infomercial on you.
I am excited to announce that for $2 a month or $12 a year, you can support my writing, by becoming a paid supporter of my Substack – A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. You don’t have to like tea to become a member either.
My Substack is where I share my writing updates, news of upcoming releases, book and movie recommendations, and cozy mystery show recommendations.
Those who pay for a subscription become an insider and will be the first to learn about new releases or upcoming projects, and be given first looks at those books or projects – such as through sneak peeks or full chapter releases. One of those new chapter releases is coming up at the end of the month when I release a chapter of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree to my supporters.
I also plan to offer sneak peeks of other author’s books, exclusive author interviews, discounts of various kinds, access to templates for reading journals, special giveways, access to a Discord book club, and behind the scenes looks of my writing process.
I’ll also be sharing recipes from my books (if there are any) and character profiles of each character. I’ll be asking paid supporters for input on future books, book covers, and similar aspects of my self-publishing journey.
Here is a complete list of what you will receive when you become a paid supporter:
Sneak peeks to all upcoming novels (free first chapters, etc.)
Book recommendations from me and others
Author interviews
Free digital downloads
Membership to the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Discord Book Club (where we will discuss various books and eventually do some joint reads together).
Access to all archived content
I do not send emails/posts out daily or even weekly unless something special is going on. Posts will be sent out more to paid subscribers than free subscribers but it will rarely be weekly and definitely not daily – so you won’t have to worry about me spamming you.
If you are interested in this limited-price offer, please visit my substack here:
If you don’t want, or are not able to financially support my writing journey that is totally fine. Your kind words or encouragement mean so much to me. Reading my books and telling others about them or leaving a quick review help me in my journey as well. Monthly updates about my books and writing projects through my monthly newsletter will always be free on Substack so you can also subscribe there for free.
Thank you to all of you who already support me in one way or another. You are appreciated!
Today for Fiction Friday I am interviewing Sandra Ardoin who has a new book out. Renee is the seventh book in the Apron Strings Book Series, a multi-author series of which I am also a part.
Each book can be read as a standalone with the only connecting factor being an old-fashioned cookery (recipe) book called Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book. Each book takes place in a decade from 1920 to 2020.
Sandra’s book takes place in the 1980s.
First, a little about the book:
Renee Burnette, a widow living in the North Carolina mountains, has longed for two things she never had growing up—a permanent home and a lasting friendship like the one she has with Val from her cooking club. In the summer of 1986, the local apple growers sponsor a bake-off with a monetary prize that would bring Renee closer to her housing goal. But after Renee and Val each enter, their relationship goes from best friends to bitter rivals.
When Renee learns of the opportunity for a promotion at work, she’s determined to prove her qualifications to her handsome, single boss. The closer they draw to one another, though, the more Renee fears that an office romance will jeopardize her job and her housing dream.
As the bake-off competition intensifies, Renee’s office relationships are strained, her sweet son becomes unruly, and the rift with Val widens. Can a decades-old cookbook help Renee restore the bonds every woman needs?
Now, an interview with Sandra:
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
For me, writing is a business, but it’s also a ministry, so the faith aspect is important. I write Christian romance and began with historicals set in the late 19th century. For the past couple of years, though, I’ve written contemporary romances. Honestly, I’m eager to get back to the past and alternate with a mix of time periods.
My writing career began in 1986 (the same year in which Renee takes place) with greeting cards and posters, then I moved on to children’s short stories for Sunday School take-home papers. I’m a big believer in God’s timing, and His timing, when it came to writing novels, was not until 2009. That’s been my focus since, with my first (a novella) traditionally published in 2014 and the follow-up novel in 2016—the Barnes Brothers series. In 2019, I went independent and have published ten additional novels and novellas.
In my real life, I’m a wife, mom, and occasional granddog-sitter living in North Carolina.
2. What is your latest book about? Who are the main characters and when and where does it take place?
My latest book is Renee, Book Seven in the Apron Strings series. In this series of books that takes place in different decades, I was blessed to be given the 1980s, a decade I know well. I set the book in western North Carolina near Asheville and gave the story a young widow (Renee) with a six-year-old boy. She had a somewhat vagabond childhood and yearns for a sense of belonging and lifelong friendships.
Renee believes a house, rather than the small apartment she and her son now occupy, will offer that permanency she’s lacked in life. Hoping the prize money will complete the funds she needs to buy a house, she enters a baking contest, only to discover she’s competing against her best friend.
3. What is the overarching message of your latest book?
Renee is a story about relationships . . . with a little romance thrown in. Her go-to verses are Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. I chose those scriptures, because they are so because they are so apropos to Renee’s spiritual growth.
4. Did you learn anything about writing or yourself as you were writing the book?
I’m accustomed to writing romance from two points of view—the hero and heroine. This book is only in Renee’s point of view and light on the romance. When it came to her interactions with Greg, I so wanted to write his POV, too, which made the romance a little more challenging for me.
5. Where can readers find out more about you and your projects?
Readers can visit my website and find my complete book list at http://www.sandraardoin.com/books. I’m also on BookBub, Facebook, X , and Goodreads.
The best way to keep up with what’s new, discover what’s upcoming, and learn of sales and specials is to subscribe to my newsletter. I send it out once a month or when something special is happening, like a sale or new release.
Check out Renee or any of the books in the Apron Strings series on Amazon and read them through Kindle Unlimited.
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
I know that summer is winding down for most of us already, with kids already heading back to school in some places, but around here we don’t say summer is over until the first of September so I am watching summer movies for the month of August.
This week I am writing about Beach Blanket Bingo from 1963.
I started this movie and immediately decided I might not be able to make it through it. Ultimately I decided to push through it so my readers never have to.
And so I’d have some funny material for my blog.
I suffer for my blog readers. What can I say?
So here is the plot of the film – um….there isn’t one. I don’t think so anyhow.
There is just Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon jumping out of an airplane for whatever reason, kids (who actually look anywhere from 30 to 40 years old) dancing half-dressed on the beach, a lot of singing for no apparent reason, perverted old men chasing young girls, and some bumbling bad guy in a “motorcycle gang” who’s goal is to – er – I am truly not sure. Kidnap a pop singer I think.
Oh and a mermaid. There is a mermaid.
There is also a singer who is in love with Frankie’s character and Annette is jealous of.
I watched the movie and still had to go search online for a summary so I know what in the world happened.
Online it said this: “Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and the gang are hitting the beach for some good old-fashioned shenanigans. To get the party underway, the manager (Paul Lynde) of pop singer Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) decides a skydiving publicity stunt will really do the trick. As Frankie and the others are pulled into the plan, things get out of control. Throw in Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen) and a kidnapping biker (Harvey Lembeck), and the party’s just getting started.”
Do the trick of what? I have no idea.
This movie was the fourth one in an eight-movie series with the first one released in 1963 and the last one being released in 1987 (yikes). From what I can see each movie had the actors playing different characters with unique plots. (Or what were supposed to be plots).
Three of the movies were released in 1964 and three in 1965.
So I looked this particular movie up on Wikipedia and it said this (there are spoilers but don’t worry…I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to rush out to watch this one), “A singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans), is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent (Paul Lynde), for example, faking a skydiving stunt, actually performed by Bonnie (Deborah Walley).
Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon), duped into thinking he rescued Sugar Kane, takes up skydiving at Bonnie’s prompting; she secretly wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. This prompts Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) to also try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his Rat Pack bikers also show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. Meanwhile, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falls in love with a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen).
Eventually, Von Zipper “puts the snatch” on Sugar Kane, and in a Perils of Pauline-like twist, the evil South Dakota Slim (Timothy Carey) kidnaps Sugar and ties her to a buzz-saw.”
So….yeah…ahem. There you go. The scene with the buzz saw? Completely psychopathic material. It got very dark at that point I thought.
I did like at least one exchange between characters.
The manager of the pop singer says, “I didn’t catch your name, boy.”
And Frankie shoots back, “I didn’t throw it.”
When I first started the movie and saw Don Rickles was in it I thought, “The only thing that will save this movie is Don Rickles.”
As I got more into the movie, though, my thought was, “Not even Don Rickles can save this movie.”
But there is one stand-up act he performs in the middle that actually does save the movie…more about that below because is it just me or did Annettee always look like she was 40 even in her late teens?
She was 18 in this movie but seriously looked like 40 to me, or at least 30. Even Frankie looked old(ish) to me but he was 25 in the movie. Did you know he’s still alive? I didn’t. I knew Annette was gone – she passed away from complications of MS several years ago. I remember because my mom and I were talking about her since she was more from my mom’s era than mine.
Of course, I am teasing a bit about how old they looked. Everyone else in the movie probably was in their 30s or 40s, though. Even Rickles noticed. According to information I read online, he even broke character at one point while pretending to be in a nightclub act, teasing Frankie and Annette by asking why they were in the film, because they were so old. I must have missed this when I first watched the movie because I went back to watch it again and cracked up for the first time watching the movie. I absolutely love how you can tell how the cast is actually laughing for real – it’s so authentic.
The movie is supposed to be goofy fun so I tried to cut it some slack, but … oh my ….it was hard to struggle through most of it. The campy sound effects didn’t help anything and then there were these scenes interspliced into the movie of an old man chasing (literally) a young woman in a bikini. Weird.
I thought it was interesting, or unsettling I guess, to read that the pop singer was originally going to be played by Nancy Sinatra but she dropped out because part of the plot of the movie was a kidnapping and her brother, Frank Sinatra Jr., had only recently been released after he was actually kidnapped at the age of 19. A ransom was paid by his father Frank Sinatra to have him released.
John Ashley plays Steve, the husband of the sky-diver, in this movie (and was her actual husband in real-life) but usually played Frankie’s friend in other movies. One reviewer said the movies were about friendship ultimately and it was weird to see Ashley not playing Frankie’s friend in this particular movie.
There is plenty of music in these movies from Frankie and Annette and several other real-life artists including, Donna Loren and the Hondells and I have to admit the music really isn’t that bad.
The pop singer for the movie was portrayed by Linda Evans but she lip synched songs sung by studio vocalist Jackie Ward.
A 12-page comic book was produced by Dell Comics and released at the same time as the movie.
Frankie later said of the movie, “That’s the picture of mine that I think people remember best, and it was just a lot of kids having a lot of fun — a picture about young romance and about the opposition of adults and old people. There’s nothing that young people respond to more than when adults say `These kids are nuts,` and that’s what this movie was about. It was also fun because we got to learn how to fake skydive out of an airplane.
I thought it was also interesting to read that a skit on the Carol Burnett show with the cast and Steve Martin was based on the movie. I recently saw that clip and knew it was based on one of these movies but not which one.
I watched the movie on Amazon Prime. It’s free right now with a Prime subscription.
This week’s theme is: Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series (We all have a favorite book in our favorite series, right?) (submitted by A Hot Cup of Pleasure)
I thought this one was going to be harder than it was because I haven’t finished a lot of series and didn’t really think I’d read books from a lot of series. It turns out I have read quite a few books from series, even though I haven’t yet finished some of them.
Once I had my list, I also realized I had three children’s book series listed, but I think that’s okay since some of them I’ve read recently with my daughter.
Anyhow, without further ado – ten favorite books from ten series:
This one was a little hard for me because I like so many of the books in this series, especially the first book. I also loved book ten Home to Holly Springs, even though it was one of the darker in the series. I love A Light In the Window, though, because it is the start of the love story between Father Tim and his wife Cynthia.
Another favorite is A Common Life, which is the story of their wedding. I also love the Christmas one and …. I could go on and on with this series.
I just read this book in the series this year and I loved it for a variety of reasons. One, it took Qwill and the cats away from their normal setting and two it just showed a totally different side of Qwill. It was also just really well written.
It took me more than a year to get ahold of this final installment of this cozy mystery magical trilogy but I was glad when I finally found it on Hoopla. It was worth the wait and tied the series up nicely.
4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)
It’s sort of cliché to choose the first in the series, I suppose (though this one wasn’t actually published first) but it is my favorite of what I have re-read of the series so far. I read the series as a kid but I don’t remember all of the books so I am re-reading them with my daughter. So far this is my favorite of them but I may update that later.
I’m choosing the first in the series again, but this is my favorite from the series, which I first read in high school. This is a Christian Historical Fiction book that takes place during the rule of Rome. It’s very hard to put down.
Oops. It’s another first in the series. But it was my favorite! Ha! I loved this realistic inspirational romance that wasn’t cliché and dealt with real issues about faith, love, and personal flaws. It also had some humorous moments with and observations from the main character.
7. The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson (A Walt Longmire Mystery)
The Longmire mysteries can be dark at times and so I don’t read them often, instead choosing to space them out and take breaks with fluffier reads in between. I’m still in the beginning of this series so I’m sure there will be other favorites as well. I chose this one but there is actually a book of Christmas-themed short stories about Walt that I loved even more. It wasn’t really a book from the series, though, so I chose this one.
I love Johnson’s writing and how he weaves humor into serious moments. Walt’s relationship with his Native American friend Henry Standing Bear will go down as one of the strongest and coolest in literary history in my mind.
8. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (The Little House on the Prairie series)
It was hard for me to choose a favorite from this series because I like a few of them about the same. I chose this one because it’s when we meet Nellie Olson, who wasn’t as big of a part of Laura’s real life as the TV show made her out to be. I love the part where Laura tricks Nellie into going into the creek and Nellie ends up getting leeches stuck to her legs and starts screaming.
The other book I almost chose was These Happy Golden Years because Almonzo and Laura start to court more in earnest. But I also love The Farmer Boy…okay..better move on from this one or I’ll add them all.
9. Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond (The Paddington Bear series)
I had to choose a book from this series because the series has been so much a part of my and Little Miss’s life. We have read this series a couple of times and Little Miss loves when I read the books to her and do all of the accents of the characters.
There have been a few times she has fallen asleep and I’ve kept reading because I’ve gotten so caught up in these cute stories about Paddington bear. I like this book because Paddington and the Browns travel to France and they have so many different and exciting adventures.
10. EDIT: Previously this was listed as Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (from the Anne of Green Gables series) but it was actually Anne of the Island that I enjoyed more. I switched them in my head. Sigh. Sorry about that to people who already commented.
Most people would choose Anne of Green Gables as their favorite from this series and I absolutely love that book but I also love Anne of the Island because I love that Anne and Gilbert really start their romance in this one. Anne is growing up and learning about who she is and what she truly wants in life and it’s just a fun adventure.
What are some of your favorite books from a series?
