Sunday Bookends: Sunday Bookends: Dick VanDyke, Hercule Poirot, and a cat falling off the roof

December 14, 2025December 14, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 18 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. Feel free to link your posts about

I usually mention what I have been watching down below but today I thought I’d mention part of what I’ve been watching here because I have been watching a lot of clips of or interviews with or about Dick VanDyke since yesterday was his 100^th birthday and he’s still alive.

When I was a kid, I watched The Dick VanDyke Show on PBS in the evenings after dinner and it became a comfort watch to me. As my mom said last night, The Dick VanDyke Show was something you could watch and know it was just going to be good, clean comedy and fun.

The show still holds up today too. I still watch The Dick VanDyke Show, especially when I am down about something.

In fact, when I am down or sad about something my husband will ask, “What can I do? How about I make a cup of tea and find you a Dick VanDyke episode to watch?” Sometimes he doesn’t even suggest it, he simply turns an episode on and backs away — much like a man might toss a bar of chocolate to a woman on her period and run away.

Of course I have also watched Dick VanDyke in movies like Mary Poppins, but, for me, my memories of him will always circulate around The Dick VanDyke Show.

I loved this interview with him from People Magazine. My brother sent it to me last night and I cried because it was just nice to see him doing so well at his age and hearing all his memories of the various projects he was involved with over the years.

This past week we were plunged into deep cold and also had snow a couple of days which left it hard for me to back out of our steep driveway. Yesterday was my first day out all week and the kids and I took some bean soup to my parents…yes, that bean soup from my post yesterday.

We are facing below freezing temps today, but later in the week temps will rise into the mid-40s. Why do I give weather reports in my blog posts?! I have no idea, but I always do it.

Our cats aren’t sure what to think of the weather. Somedays they want to go out but within ten minutes they are back at the kitchen window begging to come in.

We had a bit of cabin fever this week so Little Miss took Zooma The Wonder Dog for a walk down the street. Scout decided she wanted to see what was going on but she didn’t last outside long, dashing back inside through our side door when I wasn’t looking.

Since I wasn’t looking, I panicked a bit later when I couldn’t find her in the house and it was getting dark

I feel like I spend most of my days counting fury heads and asking, “Has anyone seen…” whichever cat I haven’t seen for a while.

Cass is our “new cat” who we’ve had since the end of October. He is a he and not a she like we normally thought and we are getting much better at calling him “he” as we get used to that change. We called him “she” for the first month of his life.

Our cat Scout has always been the crazy one, climbing up trees and having to be rescued by the fire company or falling out of them and almost dying, but now Cass is the craziest because we’ve found him on our snowy roof twice this month and twice he stole chicken from the stove or counter when I wasn’t looking.

I discovered him on the roof after a small snowstorm this week when Zooma was barking at him and snow trickled down from the roof as I opened the door. Our son looked out his upstairs window to see if he could bring Cass in but he had already found a way down to the porch so he could come in the door the normal way.

Yesterday, the same thing happened, but this time Cass thought he could climb onto the open door frame and jump down. The only problem was once he got on the narrow door frame he tried to step on our wreathe which kept moving and then panicked. He had no idea how to get off the door frame so eventually our son reached up for him and Cass fell, upside down, into his arms.

I’ve learned to duct tape the knobs on the stove so he won’t hit them with his foot when he thinks he can jump up. I’m also learning not to leave food on the counter that I plan to eat unattended. I hope to break him of these stealing habits soon — probably with a spray bottle, which is how I had to stop Scout from climbing our window screens when we first adopted her.

I’m curious if he will calm down once he is neutered a few days before Christmas.

This is off the subject — I don’t know about any of you have bots on your site or not lately, but I have tons from China and have for about three months. I’ve contacted WordPress but have been told to ignore them unless I start receiving a ton of comments. That’s great, I guess, because right now I get 30,000 fake views a week from China and I’ve heard and read on forums that this happening to a ton of other blogs and sites in the United States.

REMINDERS*: Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

We are also hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas! As Erin said on her blog, “Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky.” You can find the link for that at the top of my page in the menu or here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.

At the beginning of the week I stayed up past 1 a.m. one night finishing Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. While I felt it was a bit wordy at times and maybe even a little repetitive with all that comparison by the second Mrs. DeWinter of herself to Rebecca, I really enjoyed it and do think it is as good as so many reviews I have read said it was (that sentence doesn’t make much sense but hopefully you can decipher it.)

Last night I finished Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie. It was very good, (though a bit rushed) but I think I’ll look for sweeter reads for the next couple of weeks as we make our way toward Christmas.

Little Miss and I also finished Caddie Woodlawn’s Family (also known from it’s original title Magical Melons).

I will probably read a couple of Christmas short stories by Dickens and L.M. Montgomery, as well as finishing reading A Christmas Carol to Little Miss. I will also read at least part of Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon.

Coming up soon will be a book of short stories by Louis L’Amour, Damsel in Distress by P.G. Woodhouse, and Murder, She Wrote Brandy and Bullets. I’m also hoping to start Glorious Intruder by Joni Eareckson Tada as a slow read. After all that or somewhere in between I want to start The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

This past week I rewatched part of Meet Me In St. Louis, Wartime Christmas, and on YouTube a couple episodes of Real Vintage Dolls House. I started a couple of movies too but have not finished them yet.

I’ll be making a formal announcement later, but I’ll be watching James Cagney movies this winter and I’m looking forward to it because I’ve only ever watched one Cagney movie, so I will probably add one of his movies into my Christmas movie watching this week.

This morning, we watched the first episode of the new season of Shakespeare & Hathaway. It wasn’t as good as the earlier seasons (we skipped Season 4 filmed during “You Know What” because the one episode was just bad beyond bad) but it was nice to see their banter again after a two-year break. We will see how the rest of the season is.

I also watched “my farmer”, Pete, on Just A Few Acres Farm, which I do almost every Sunday after watching online church.

I made a lot of progress on Gladwynn book four this past week. I thought I’d share a little description I put together:

Small town newspaper reporter Gladwynn Grant is not going to get involved in any more mysteries. She’s learned her lesson. The hard way.

Her resolve starts to crumble, though, when someone tries to drop an industrial size light fixture on the Brookstone School District Superintendent during an interview. Was Superintendent Ellerton the intended target, though? Or was it actually Gladwynn herself?

While all this is unfolding her ever-busy grandmother, Lucinda, has been told by her doctor she needs to rest more and run around less while Gladwynn’s sister, Iona, is feeling overwhelmed with her role as a mother of three.

A new friendship between State Police Detective Tanner Kinney and Pastor Luke Callahan, the two men family and friends like to joke are battling for Gladwynn’s affections, has Gladwynn a bit perplexed, but also relieved.

Will Gladwynn be able to help find out if someone wants Superintendent Ellerton out of the picture, all while trying to keep Lucinda resting, Iona from cracking, and everyone in town from spreading rumors about her and one of the men in her life?

Find out in the latest Gladwnn Grant Mystery, Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School.

If you want to read the previous three books, you can find links at the bottom of the page. They are available as ebooks and paperbacks.

On the blog I shared:

I’ve been listening to Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Mystery of Stillness by BettieG’s RA Seasons

Gingerbread and Pear Pudding by Scratch Made Food and DIY Homemade Household

Silent Movies: Christmas Dream by Cat’s Wire

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs

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. You can copy my blog graphic to your computer if you want to participate in my link party or you can join the other awesome link ups below.

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.

Sunday Bookends: Snow. Beautiful book. Old movies.

December 7, 2025December 7, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 24 Comments

Some husbands show their wives their love by buying them flowers or chocolate. My husband shows me love by buying me books and I’m here for it.

A couple of months ago he bought me My Beloved, the new book by Jan Karon, for my birthday/early Christmas gift. I haven’t read it yet because I gave it to my mom to read first.

Yesterday The Husband went Christmas shopping for the kids and came home with gifts for them but also a pretty copy of A Christmas Carol for me.

It’s a reproduction of a reproduction but that doesn’t matter to me. I love it, and I love how it includes the original introduction and preface that was in the 1922 version. To explain, there was a version of Dicken’s original version of A Christmas Carol published in 1922 by the National Book Trade Provident Society. Their version was republished this year by another publisher. So, a reproduction of a reproduction.Whatever it is, I love it. It’s little and cute and inside it features an introduction by GK Chesterton and original illustrations published in the original A Christmas Carol.

I read the story to my son several years ago so Monday I plan to start reading it to Little Miss.

This week we received our first snowfall of the year, and since the temps dropped so fast afterward, we still have snow on the ground and probably will for a while. Temps are going to stay very low for several more days.

I took this photo at my parents yesterday. I love this view.

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

This past week I breezed through a novella called Christmas in Harmony by Phillip Gulley. I really enjoyed it. It’s part of the Harmony series by Gulley, which I recommend if you’ve never tried it.

I almost finished Rebecca and probably will finish it by tomorrow. It was very slow at first with so much melodrama and description but it picks up halfway through and now I have to read to the end, even though I did see the movie in the past. I forgot the ending of the movie so this will remind me if the two are the same.

I am taking part in the 13^th annual Ho Ho Ho Readathon from November 26 to December 17^th. I finished my first Christmas/winter themed book with Christmas in Harmony.

This week I’ll be starting A Christmas Carol with my daughter and also continuing Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and A Christmas Scrapbook, a short story by Phillip Gulley.

I will also be reading excerpts from Little Women and Shepherd’s Abiding (a Jan Karon book and part of the Mitford series) at some point.

If you want to know more about the challenge, hop over here:

https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2025/10/13th-annual-ho-ho-ho-readathon-sign-up.html

Little Miss and I will finish Magical Melons or Caddie Woodlawn’s Family (which the name was changed to) by Carol Ryrie Brink this week. This is the sequel to Caddie Woodlawn, which we listened to on Audible. We’ve been slowly reading it along with other school books for quite a while now. Each chapter is like its own short story. I really enjoyed a chapter we read this past week about Christmas and ended up crying over it. I’ll share more about the book in a future post.

I have a Murder, She Wrote book, The Murder of Twelve, by Donald Bain on tap for sometime soon, but will probably end up reading more Christmas stories/books throughout December.

This week I watched an old movie called Ball of Fire, part of the PBS Little Women mini-series, and tried to watch a movie called Wonder Man with Danny Kaye but couldn’t get into it.

I honestly can’t remember what else I watched this past week so I guess it wasn’t very exciting.

Today I will be watching some sort of Christmas movie but I am not sure which one yet.

I added a couple thousand words to Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School last week.

Last week on the blog I shared:

I am listening (off and on) to Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Now It’s Your Turn

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: It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Play and a Beatrix Potter-based cozy mystery series

November 30, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

Yesterday the kids and I went to see The Husband in the play version of It’s A Wonderful Life. Attending the play has become such a wonderful kick off to the Christmas season for us since he was also in the play last year.

This play is set up as a “radio play” where the characters are radio personalities presenting a play for an audience who only had access to a radio not a TV. This means the characters are reading from scripts but there are sound effects and voice changes that bring it all alive.

Each actor plays a couple of different characters so they have to change their voices or tones throughout. The Husband played four different characters but my favorite was Mr. Potter who I think he pulled off perfectly.

After the play an older man approached by husband and told him he had brought his blind adult son. The son thanked my husband and said the production came alive for him because of the voice changes and the sound effects added in.

My husband was so touched that the production meant that much to the young man, especially since there wasn’t a huge crowd there.

I hope more people attend the production today because the play version almost touched me more than the movie version, which I totally loved. I teared up a couple of times during it — especially at the end when George realizes how special his life is and how lost those in his life would be if he’d never been born.

It’s also interesting to note that Philip Van Doren Stern who wrote the original short story was born in the small town where my husband performed the play. He didn’t grow up there, but he was born there in 1900 and his father lived there for a time. (source Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Van_Doren_Stern)

If you don’t know the story, Stern wrote the short story for Christmas cards he and his daughter were sending out in 1943. He tried to get the story published but publishers didn’t pick it up so he self-published it. Later the short story was used for a full play and then for a screenplay for what has become one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time.

Now that we’ve seen the play, I feel like I can fully immerse myself in the Christmas season and am looking forward to making a list of Christmas movies to watch and Christmas books to read.

I thought I should mention here like I did in yesterday’s post that the girl kitten I’ve been writing about that was dropped off at our house a few weeks ago, is not actually a girl. We discovered some appendages this week that girl kittens do not have so our girl kitten is a boy kitten, but we are sticking with the name Cas.

It explains a lot about his behavior and his incessant yowling too.

We will also be hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas starting tomorrow! As Erin said on her blog, “Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky.”

Last night I finished The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert.

The concept of this book was a good one — Beatrix Potter, the children’s book author as a amateur sleuth — but when I finally got into the book, she wasn’t actually doing much sleuthing. She wasn’t even really the main character at times. There also wasn’t a ton of real “mystery” involved.

Instead, Beatrix wandered around talking to people and drawing pictures and meeting children while other characters (including the talking animals who were only understood by each other) did most of the solving of the very simple mysteries. There was more than one POV while I thought Beatrix would provide the main one.

The main mystery was a bit of a letdown for me in the end, but overall, the book had some cute, sweet moments. This was definitely a very, very light mystery with no gruesome of violent aspects (other than an owl making a meal out of some rats) and that isn’t a bad thing at all.

I don’t know if I will read more of this series or not yet. I’ll have to be in the mood for a leisurely wander rather than a strict whodunit if I do. That happens a lot so I’m sure book two will be read sometime in 2026.

I’m still reading Rebecca by Daphne DeMauier and will probably finish it this week unless I get wrapped up in Christmas movies and specials.

I might finish Nancy Drew: The Triple Hoax but I won’t finish it in time for Nancy Drew November.

I’m not really liking it, so it isn’t a priority for me.

I just ordered a copy of Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien and it won’t be here until a week before Christmas, but I think that will be perfect timing.

I plan to read at least one more Agatha Christie before the year ends and I think it will be Partners in Crime, my first Tommy and Tuppence mystery.

I also hope to read another Murder, She Wrote book but that might wait until after my Christmas reads, which including reading at least parts of Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon and Little Woman.

I watched my first James Cagney movie, Strawberry Blond, this week. I enjoyed it and will be watching it for my planned Winter of Cagney that I will be starting in January. I will be doing that at the same time I rewatch all of the Thin Man movies in order. It will be a fun month of old movies.

I also watched my second Bette Davis movie, Another Man’s Poison, (my first was All About Eve) this past week, and hope to watch more of her movies soon for Spring of Bette.

I watched The Barney Miller Show and episodes of TJ Hooker and Hunter with The Husband. We also watched a Murder, She Wrote episode. This week I hope to watch some more old movies, maybe a couple of Christmas movies, and some movies based on Agatha Christie books or stories. I also hope to watch at least one The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries episode so I can recap it on the blog.

I am working on book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series. If you would like to read the first three before it releases in February, you can find them on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited (until the end of December): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBB42YM6?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

On the blog last week I shared:

Yes, I have already listened to this:

Now It’s Your Turn

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: I think I’ll stop tracking how many books I read and just…gasp! Read!

November 23, 2025November 23, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 24 Comments

Before I get too far into this post, I want to mention that today is my husband’s birthday and my brother and sister-in-law’s anniversary.

Happy birthday to The Husband and happy anniversary to Butthead and Kim. Er….Bryan and Kim.

I have to say that I feel a bit bad telling this next story, considering it is my husband’s birthday, but I am going to do so anyhow because he’s a good sport. And please know that this story is shared in good humor, not as an actual complaint – since you can’t hear my tone which would be one tinged with laughter.

Last night he picked me up from my parents where I had been visiting them after he dropped me off. He suggested I sit in the back with our dog who tries to push her way into the middle console and bump against his arm while he’s trying to drive if there isn’t someone in the backseat with her.

I did so and when we got home, after dark mind you, my husband asked the dog if she was going to exit through the front door or would wait for me to move so she could exit through the back door. The dog stayed sitting next to me, so The Husband closed the door and walked into the house.

I thought he was going to go turn the outside light on and come back to help me with my bags, but instead when the dog and I got out of the car I found out we were totally alone in the driveway and backyard.

We’ve been married for 23-years and the man didn’t even open the door for me. Gasp! I was certain he would look out the back door to see if I was coming but after a few minutes, Zooma the Wonder Dog and I were still outside in the cold. I went inside and said, “Hey! Thanks a lot for leaving me!”

I found The Husband staring at The Avengers movie with the kids.

“I could have been eaten by a bear!” I told him.

“You wouldn’t have been eaten by a bear,” he insisted. “We’re located in a fairly safe neighborhood with a fairly well lit driveway. You were fine.”

For the record, we live on the end of a street at the far end of a tiny town, surrounded by the woods, and a couple of months ago Zooma the Wonder Dog had a stand off with a black bear in our backyard – a few hundred feet from where I was standing (alone and in semi-darkness).

“I just read a story about a black bear chasing a boy into a Dollar General in Pennsylvania!” I told him.

“What part of Pennsylvania?” he asked.

“Pittsburgh area but we still have bears around here you know!”

Chivalry is dead, ya’ll. Dead.

Something else that is also dead is my desire to worry about the number of books I am reading each year.

In 2026 I am simply going to read whatever I want and take as long as I want to read the books I choose. It isn’t that I worry about how many books I’ve read in a year too often anyhow, but sometimes I do find myself feeling bad I’m not reading more, usually because I am comparing myself to other bloggers or readers on social media.

It’s really silly to compare ourselves to others, especially at my age, but luckily it is a very brief comparison when I do so.

This year, I chose books I wanted to read, not books others said I should read, and I hope to do the same next year. I still want to list the books I read in my reading journal because I enjoy doing that and looking back at them at the end of the year, partially so I can recommend them (or not) to others, but I think next year I’ll simply list and not number. Or maybe I’ll just stop overthinking it? That might work too. *wink*

We will also be hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving! As Erin said on her blog, “Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky.”

I finished The Whispering Statue last week. It’s a Nancy Drew mystery and it had a lot of plot issues, but yet, it was also an interesting mystery, or had interesting aspects.

I am still reading Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier — a few chapters a week.

I added The Tale of Hilltop Farm by Susan Wittig Albert to break up the drama of Rebecca.

Here is a quick description of the book from online: “The author of Peter Rabbit and other tales, Beatrix Potter is still, after a century, beloved by children and adults worldwide. In this first Cottage Tale, Albert introduces Beatrix, an animal lover and Good Samaritan with a knack for solving mysteries. With help from her entourage of talking animal friends, Beatrix sets out to win over the human hearts of Sawrey, where she’s just bought an old farm–and plans to stay.”

Up soon I plan to read an Agatha Christie book but I haven’t decided which one yet.

I have been watching mostly old shows again but also movies with the kids who are making their way through the Marvel movies. This would be a first time for Little Miss (11) and many times for The Boy (19).

This past week it was The Avengers and Iron Man 3. I hate Iron Man 3 so I tried to do other things while it was on. It was like watching a train wreck. It is the worst of the series for the Iron Man part. We just skipped the second Thor movie (The Dark World) because it is also horrible.

I also started a Bob Hope movie called I’ll Take Sweden. Frankie Avalon is also in it and it’s ridiculous. I had to go to bed before I could finish it.

And I watched a couple of YouTubers this week, including The Cottage Fairy who has been gone for a long time after having a baby but put up a new video this week.

On the blog I shared:

I’ve been listening to The Jack Benny Show at night before bed.

Now It’s Your Turn

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.

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books I have or would reread

July 8, 2025July 8, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 23 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Tuesday July 8: Books I’d Like to I Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)

I don’t reread books a lot but there a few I would read again, and I guess for this post, I need to come up with ten that I have reread or would reread. I think I can do that.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

It took me until last year to read this book and I ended up loving it. I would love to reread it again this year and I probably will.

2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I know! So cliché! But here is another one that I read late in life and now I want to read it again because it was so lovely and cozy and interesting. I never imagined I’d get so wrapped up in these characters. I used to roll my eyes at people who would gush about this book and the movies based on it and then I read it. Oh, my! I understand the gushing now.

3. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

This book is just as sweet and touching as the Hallmark movie from the 1990s was, which is how I first knew about the story. Of course, the book came first. I didn’t read the book until I read it to my daughter a couple of years ago and I just loved it. I also loved the sequels, especially Skylark.

4. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

I have read this one more than once and I could read it again and again. There is always something new that I pick up on in it. I have also read Shepherd’s Abiding, the Christmas book more than once but now I read certain sections that are my favorite instead of the whole book.

5 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read this one several years ago with my son and I would like to reread it but I have to finish The Lord of the Rings trilogy first. I have The Return of the King to read next.

6. The Cat Who Saw Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

This is my favorite book of this series. It’s a lot different than the others in the series and sometimes I wonder if Lilian wrote it. The main character, Qwill, shows even more of his personality in this one and even shows his tenderness toward a young child in the book. The story/mystery is also a solid one. As with any long running series, there are aways going to be duds along the way, but this was not one of them.

7. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I first read this book in sixth grade by myself and again in eighth grade, though I don’t remember reading it in eighth grade. I know it was part of our curriculum but I guess my teacher wasn’t very memorable in her teaching. I remember she said, “What do you mean you’ve already read it?” She was surprised a sixth grader had taken it upon herself to read something so deep and advanced, I suppose, and I didn’t do that very often but in this case, I did read it because my mom suggested it and then started to read it to me in her southern accent. After I heard her Southern accent reading it, that’s how I heard the narrator (Scout) for the rest of the book.

I know I didn’t understand the intricacies of the message of this book when I was a child so reading it again as an adult about three years ago with my son for his English was a much different experience. I sobbed through the second half of the book as an adult because I understood so much more about the story, about Atticus, about the world and the ugliness and also goodness, the third time around. It is a book I think needs to be read several times for the message to really hit home.

8. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This is another book that I read at an age that other kids these days probably wouldn’t have read it. I did not do that a lot so don’t let me mislead you into thinking I read a ton of classics or harder books as a child. I did this occasionally and this one was one of those. The language is a challenge since it is written in the 1800s, but I really had fun with the story. It was a lot of fun, much more so than Huckleberry Finn, which had a lot of serious moments mixed in with the adventure. I liked Huck Finn too, though. I hope to read this one again at some point soon.

9. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This is a book I read for the first time with my daughter last year. I would read it again because I truly enjoyed the story, even the harder parts I didn’t like in the movie version I saw as a child. I wanted a bit more from the ending but I really enjoyed the other parts of the book and could see myself reading it again.

10. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

This is a book with a lot of tough subjects, but one I haven’t read since I was about 11. I would like to read it again because I have a feeling it will hit me in a different way, similar to the way To Kill A Mockingbird did. I actually have this as one book I want to read this summer.

Are there books that you have reread or want to reread? Or are you more of a one and done person like I usually am?

Sunday Bookends: Little white lies, Three Amigos, and it is time for Christmas books

December 4, 2022December 3, 2022 / Lisa R. Howeler / 2 Comments

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

What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished Love and A Little White Lie last night after working on it for a few weeks now. It didn’t take me this long because it was bad, but because I kept getting interrupted by writing projects, books, or just the everyday weirdness of life.

I will be honest that I almost bailed on this book part way through because the one character was so annoying to me and because the middle dragged a little bit. I really wanted to reach into the book and slap the one character. He was so whiney. Argh! But the book was really worth finishing because the writing was so good, the main character was so complex, and many of the supporting characters were loveable.

In case anyone reading this is interested, here is the description:

There’s a lot of irony in hitting rock bottom

After a heartbreak leaves her reeling, January Sanders is open to anything–including moving into a cabin on her aunt’s wedding-venue property and accepting a temporary position at her aunt’s church despite being a lifelong skeptic of faith. Choosing to keep her doubts to herself, she’s determined to give her all to supporting Grace Community’s overworked staff while helping herself move on.

What she doesn’t count on is meeting the church’s handsome and charming guitarist. It’s a match set for disaster, and yet January has no ability to stay away, even if it means pretending to have faith in a God she doesn’t believe in.

Only this time, keeping her secret isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. Especially when she’s constantly running into her aunt’s landscape architect, who seems to know everything about her past-and-present sins and makes no apologies about pushing her to deal with feelings she’d rather keep buried.

Torn between two worlds that can’t coexist, can January find the healing that’s eluded her, or will her resistance to the truth ruin any chance of happiness?

I am finishing a book for an author friend this week (By Broken Birch Bay by Jenny Knipfer) and then I plan to focus on Christmas books, including Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon, America’s Favorite Christmastown by Dawn Klinge, and A Highland Christmas: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by M.C. Beaton. If I can find a paperback copy, I’d also like to read some of Christmas with Anne by L.M. Montgomery, if it is a real book and not just some knock-off Amazon thing. Has anyone heard of it?

Little Miss and I are reading Paddington before bed and Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac during the day.

The Boy is reading Sea of Monsters, which is a Percy Jackson book and yes, during the week I am making him finish The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Husband is reading Kagan The Damned by Jonathan Maberry.

What’s Been Occurring

This past week we had a good school week during which I actually felt like I had fun, even if the children didn’t.

We didn’t do much else during the week, other than visit my mom on Thursday and grocery shop on Friday. Our shopping trip was delayed by an issue with the van that I thought was going to cost a lot, but turned out could be fixed by my dad dumping three quarts of oil in the engine. In other words, I don’t pay attention to the lights on the dash of my car.

This week’s weather was a mix of mess, wind, and cold. Still no snow, which was fine with me.

This next week we don’t have a ton planned and if it’s going to be as cold as it has been, I am fine with that too.

What We watched/are Watching

Last Sunday, The Boy and I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles while The Husband took Little Miss to a train ride with Santa.

Later in the week we watched The Three Amigos, an old movie from the 80s with Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase.

It is a movie I used to watch with some friends of mine, probably when I was 9 or 10 and it was so weird and funny to watch it again all these years later. There was at least a couple of off-color moments, but for the most part the movie is clean.

The movie is about three actors who portray a trio of heroes called the Three Amigos in silent movies. A woman who is looking for someone to rescue her town from an evil man who is terrorizing it sees the movie, thinks it is a newsreel and sends them a telegram, asking them to come save her town. The telegraph operator decides to edit the telegram so she can afford to send it and, unfortunately, the actors think they are being hired for an acting job. Hilarity ensues from there as “they” say.

During the movie, there is a scene where Martin Short and Steve Martin sing a song called “My Little Buttercup,” which I had forgotten all about until it started. I used to sing the song to my mom and dad after my friends and I watched the movie and they would laugh so hard because I looked so ridiculous. I’m leaving it here for your viewing pleasure.

Little Miss’s impression of the movie: “Nope. Too much fantasy. Not enough reality.”

Sigh. If you knew what movies she watches, you’d really laugh at that comment.

There is a scene in the movie where the villain has a discussion about the word plethora and what it means. As I watched it I remembered that this is where I learned the word and from then on kept finding ways to use it in sentences. I still find a plethora of ways to use the word in sentences. Get it? I still find a plethora – yeah, okay. You get it.

Anyhow, later in the week, I started to watch You’ve Got Mail then realized that I don’t really like that movie because the two main characters are lying to their boyfriend and girlfriend and chatting to each other behind their backs. It is essentially a movie about cheaters, even if parts of it are cute.

I clicked off that and saw The Bookshop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart and then realized something I didn’t realize before. You’ve Got Mail is based on this 1940 movie.

As usual Hollywood is not original because I also started to watch A Man Called Ove this week and it is a Swedish movie that is being released in the U.S. under the title A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks. From what I can see, the American movie has been recreated frame for frame. I enjoyed what I did watch of A Man Called Ove, even though I would consider it a dark comedy and those aren’t usually my thing. I stopped it because I decided I should watch something a little happier since I was home by myself. I plan to finish the movie this week.

Anyhow, back to The Bookshop Around the Corner – it’s supposed to take place in Hungary, but only one person has a Hungarian accent. The rest either have New York accents or British ones. Besides that odd glitch, it is a very good movie about a man who is writing to a woman and later learns that the woman is someone he actually knows in real life.

I very much enjoyed the movie and was glad I watched that instead of You’ve Got Mail.

Also this week I watched The Muppets Christmas Carol as part of the ‘Tis the Season Cinema with Erin from Still Life with Cracker Crumbs and Katja_137 from Breath of Hallelujah.

They both had such interesting posts about the movie. I loved how Katja_137 threw in so much trivia about it, including an edited scene I didn’t even know existed.

You can read her post here: https://breathofhallelujah.com/2022/12/02/the-muppet-christmas-carol-tis-the-season-cinema/comment-page-1/#comment-56

And Erin’s here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2022/12/01/tis-the-season-cinema-the-muppets-christmas-carol/

What I’m Writing

I’ve been working on a short story that I will start sharing on the blog Friday and run for 12 days after that. It will feature the characters from Spencer Valley, including Molly, Alex, Robert, Annie, Franny, and maybe a little bit of Jason and Ellie and Matt and Liz.

Here is a little sneak peek for those of you who might like to read along:

Cold bit at Robert Tanner’s skin, stung his lungs, and made him wish he could stay inside under a blanket with a warm cup of coffee. Instead, he stepped further into the cold, pulling his winter cap down further on his head.

Between the house and the barn snow swirled wildly, darkening the sky and making it feel like dusk instead of late afternoon.

Inside the barn it was warm, and he was grateful for it, even if his arrival did mean he’d have to start cleaning out the cows sleeping area and preparing the second milking of the day.

Truthfully, his mind was far away from the tasks of the day. His thoughts were consumed with another project he hoped to have complete by Christmas – a gift for his wife of 30 years.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I have not been slowing down and listening to anything except for some worship guitar music while I write. I hope to remedy that this week and listen to some more music. Some nights my daughter and I listen to the family hour on our local Christian radio station, which features Adventures in Odyssey and other Christian radio dramas from 7 to 8 p.m.

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.

Boondock Ramblings

A little bit about a lot of things

book lover

Sunday Bookends: Sunday Bookends: Dick VanDyke, Hercule Poirot, and a cat falling off the roof

Sunday Bookends: Snow. Beautiful book. Old movies.

Sunday Bookends: It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Play and a Beatrix Potter-based cozy mystery series

Sunday Bookends: I think I’ll stop tracking how many books I read and just…gasp! Read!

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books I have or would reread

Sunday Bookends: Little white lies, Three Amigos, and it is time for Christmas books

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