book review

Sunday Bookends: birthdays, baking pies, and finishing up the third Gladwynn book

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 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 week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

This past week was an interesting one in some ways and a regular one in others.

On Tuesday I had a not-so-fun experience at the polling place in my little tiny town. Lesson learned to mail-in ballots from now on. It had nothing to do, by the way, with who I voted for. It just had to do with adults who were rude to my child and it really ticked me off. This paragraph is completely unrelated to politics other than I was in a polling place for an election.

Thursday was better, though, because it was our son’s 18th birthday. My neighbor asked how I felt having an 18-year-old.

I sent her this gif:

Then I told her I was also very proud of my son because he’s grown into a wonderful young man.

It’s all gone by so insanely fast, though. There is so much I miss about him being younger but so much that is also great about this age.

We bought him a War Hammer model set and he’s having a blast painting them. It is a new hobby for him. Little Miss and I traveled to my parents on Thursday to help make apple pies for The Boy because he prefers pie over cake.

My mom ended up coming down with a sinus infection that triggered a flare of her fibromyalgia while we were there. It was a little scary as she was in excruciating pain all over and having some trouble walking. That night she spiked a fever.

We still had a nice day and the next day she was much better and the fever was gone. None of us can really understand why whatever she had only lasted a day and went away, but I do know I prayed a lot that day and night for her healing.

The pie, by the way, was “great” according to The Boy who doesn’t easily give compliments out so Little Miss and I, with my parent’s directions, pulled it out after all.

Yesterday The Boy and The Husband had fun during a father-son day in a city about an hour away. They visited a comic book shop where he  picked up some more figures to paint.

They then walked around town, visiting the local university and a used book shop where my husband picked this up for me:

He knows me way too well. That’s an original 1941 Hardy Boys book. I can not wait to read it – as long as the mildew smell doesn’t mess with my sinuses. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.

I forgot to mention that on Friday we had an art class and then drove the 30-minutes north to pick up our groceries.

Yesterday I spent the day relaxing with an old movie and a new cozy mystery show and also worked on the final chapters of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

I definitely am not used to Daylight Savings yet I’ve come to realize. I was so tired all day yesterday, for one, and then at one point I yawned and thought how I could go to bed soon. That’s when I looked at my laptop clock and it said 6:42.

“6:42? For real??” I cried. “I thought it was 8!!”

I suppose my body will get used to it – you know, by spring when we spring forward.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Christy by Catherine Marshall, and The Maestro’s Missing Melody by Amy Walsh

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. Yes, I enjoyed it and yes I just started the series and no it does not keep to the book.

The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew)

The Farmer’s Son by John Connell

The Husband is reading The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden

What We watched/are Watching

This week Erin and I watched Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema.

I watched Harvey with Jimmy Stewart on my own.

I also watched the first two episodes of The Marlow Murder Club on Amazon (that is all that is out so far).



What I’m Writing

I sound like a broken record but I am finishing Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

This past week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am listening to The Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon on Audible.

I am also listening to this song my Downhere:

Photos from Last Week

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.

Sunday Bookends: Books with errors, the last of warm days, old movies, and a movie watch party

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 16 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 week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What’s Been Occurring

The beginning of this week the weather was beautiful which led my dad to decide to take my kids for a hike along the old railroad tracks near his house two days in a row. I stayed back at my parents and helped my mom with cleaning the house.

The kids enjoyed walking the path where the train tracks used to be and my dad told them the history of where the station was and where the trains traveled. He also talked to Little Miss about where the old French mill used to be along the creek.

Zooma The Wonder Dog also loved the trip. She and Little Miss splashed in the creek and looked for fish, but didn’t see any.

The kids took some photos:

Two days later our little town was placed under a water boil advisory when there was a water main break. This made cooking and washing dishes a challenge, but we managed – not without complaint from me. The advisory was lifted on Friday, thankfully.

Last week I wrote a bit about our family’s cats over the years and barely scratched the surface of all the cats we’ve had over the years. I’ve decided I’m going to sit down one day this week and write about all the cats I can remember us having. Cats have such interesting personalities and each one seems to be different.

Mom and Dad’s cat Molly.

I also hope to write a blog post in the next month or so about the letters we have between my great-grea-grandfather and his brothers and mother that were written during the Civil War. They are very interesting.

What I/we’ve been Reading

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood and The Anne of Green Gables Devotional by Rachel Dodge

Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan, which I have been sharing the wrong title of for a couple of weeks. So this one was good but also annoying. First, I didn’t know it was the last book in the series until I read some reviews. Second, there were some super weird typo and consistency issues that really threw me out of the story. I was surprised to see this because the book was published by Random House Publishing.

I really shouldn’t have been surprised because I’ve seen some errors like this before in Amanda Flowers’ books and Isabella Alan and Amand Flowers are the same person. There are so many books out by Amanda that I feel like they are trying to push them out way too fast and therefore letting quality slide.

Now, as someone who is independently published and has a lot of errors in her book as well, I’m not trying to act superior. I’m just surprised because so many readers are so negative about independently published books because of their supposed lack of quality but I am seeing that lack across the board in publishing right now.

In some ways I think the production of books needs to slow down and focus on quality over quantity. There are just too many rushed books out there.

All of this said I did enjoy the story of the book. I was, however, really annoyed to find out this was the last book in the series and she did not wrap up the love story between the main character very well (I mean they were still together so I guess that’s good at least) and left the storylines of other characters hanging. I still enjoy the stories and her writing, though, so this doesn’t mean I won’t read further books by her. Just not for a while.

I need to take a break from mysteries for a bit so I am going to try either Miracle in a Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas or Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano

I haven’t read either of these authors before.

I decided to put The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun aside for now since I learned it was one of the later books in the series. I read one or two of those and they weren’t as good, and I think it might have been because Lilian was quite old by then and others may have been writing them or she was, and they just weren’t as good.

The Husband is reading Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. At night we are sometimes reading The Four Story Mistake. During the school days we are reading Johnny Tremaine.

The Boy is listening to an audiobook – Tales From The Gas Station Part Four.

What We watched/are Watching

Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown.  This was my first time watching this one and I found it very interesting. It sent me down a rabbit hole of reading the real story of John Brown and Queen Victoria.

For Comfy, Cozy Cinema with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, I watched Dial M for Murder.  If you want to join in on our movie marathon posts for the rest of October and November you can follow the list here:

You don’t have to blog about them if you watch them but if you do write a blog post about your impression about the movies, we will be adding a link up at the end of our posts.

On Nov. 14 we will be watching Chocolat as a group watch. We will be pushing play together at the same time and then chatting about the movie in our Discord group (The Dames), which you can join for free now here: https://discord.com/invite/J7qQ36Uf

On my own I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (original with Danny Kaye) this weekend and really enjoyed it. I loved the music and Danny Kaye’s performance overall. I watched an episode of the first season of Only Murders In The Building as well last week. I am really enjoying it and it’s hard not to binge watch it but I’m trying to wait for my husband to be  home to watch it with me.


What I’m Writing

I am getting much closer to the end of the third Gladwynn book.

I released the description this past week, if you are curious:

https://lisarhoweler.substack.com/p/gladwynn-returns-in-2025-book-recommendations

This week on the blog I shared:

Photos from Last Week

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.

Top Ten Tuesday: How My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 18 Comments

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

Today’s topic is: How My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time (submitted by Lydia @ https://lydiaschoch.com)

I don’t really know how to do this as a top ten list so I thought I’d just chat about it.

I started reading fiction fairly consistently when I was a kid and then even more when I was a teenager. When I was a “kid” – like under the age of 13 – I read books like the Little House series and the Chronicles of Narnia and sometimes I used a flashlight to finish a chapter because Mom had said I needed to go to bed and shut my light off but I didn’t want to go to bed yet.

I never read books quickly but I consistently had a book with me when I was a teenager. Back then I read mainly historical fiction and some clean/Christian romance. Now I read mainly mysteries – clean and cozy mainly.

In high school I got in trouble at least twice for reading in class. It’s not my fault my Roman-based epic was way more interesting than the football coach rambling about driver safety. Or a book from that same series (The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers) was way more interesting than my history teacher who never really taught but mostly talked about football because he was the other football coach. Huh. Coincidence there? I think not.

I remember my mom came to a parent teacher conference, holding one of those books because we had picked it up at the local Christian bookstore (which only lasted about two years in our tiny community) and the teacher said, “Oh. Is that one of those books you got caught reading in class the other day?”

My mom, with her quick wit, said, “Yes, it probably is but it is based in history at least.”

I don’t think she meant that as a slam against that teacher but he was the one who used to start classes each year by holding up the text book and saying, “You can take this an use it to prop up a window.” Then he’d spend the rest of the year talking about who knows what from the front of the classroom with very little of it being actual history.

The only thing I remember from his class is how he told us all not to mess around with pimples and other spots on our skin because his mom had one she didn’t get checked and it was cancer. I don’t know if she died from it or not but that unlocked a new fear for me.

In college I mainly read textbooks. I didn’t seem to have time for reading fiction. I started working full time my senior year of college and there was no time for reading. I was taking classes twice a week and working like 60 hours a week, sometimes seven days. That’s about the time I killed my thyroid and my mental health but I was young and stupid.

I don’t really remember picking many fiction books back up again until a few years ago when I really got back into reading again. When I had my kids I was working full time at newspapers or writing blog posts or completely immersed in photography and homeschooling while taking care of kids. I didn’t take a lot of time for myself or to escape the stress of life by reading fiction. I wish I had because it would  have helped all the stress back then.

Now I always have a hard copy of a book and my Kindle in my purse or with me wherever I go. I may not always read the book but I have it with me “just in case.” Instead of watching TV or surfing online all the time, I now carve out time for reading, even on the days I think I don’t feel like reading. I’ll find that once I start reading, I get caught up in the story and I start to relax and forget about all the things I was stressed about. I think I recently heard that reading even 15 minutes a day can help a person relax and reset their emotional state. Something like that anyhow. I don’t know – just go with it and pretend I’m smart. *wink*

Now that I am reading more, I have gotten caught up more than once with feeling like I have to read what other people are reading instead of what I want to read. It’s crazy that even at my age I can be influenced by what is popular or talked about a lot or what others say I should or shouldn’t read. Luckily, I have pushed aside a lot of that in the last year and now I really am reading what I want to read.

Sure, I see recommendations and sometimes I take them but I don’t just read a book because a lot of people claim it is good. Yes, I have read books that I’ve seen recommended a few times, but I don’t feel like I have to anymore. I do it because the book actually interests me.

Honestly, I find myself leaning away from books that are heavily recommended more than I lean toward them. I’ve been burned more than once by books that were supposed to be so amazing and then turned out to be complete duds or pushed agendas or morals that didn’t fit with mine.

Becoming an independent author opened my eyes to the publishing world and how reviews can be bought, essentially, or reviewers can be swayed to give a book a good review because they either don’t want to be excluded from other advanced reader groups or because they don’t be the one to step out of line and say, “I didn’t like this book everyone else liked.”

Before this year I was susceptible to getting wrapped up in all those “BookTok” (not on TikTok though. What a nightmare that app is!) “Bookstagram” drama sessions about – well, everything about reading. This year, though, I couldn’t care less what some Bookstagrammer says I should or shouldn’t read or what I shouldn’t or shouldn’t say on social media.

I read books, I share about the ones I like, I move on. Life is way too short to be so dramatic about reading. Good grief. Reading is for leisure and enjoyment. There was a time when only the rich could read books and then it became so everyone could read books as long as they had a good education and were taught to read.

Now we teach children to read at a young age so the world is opened wide to them. They can learn so much from books – fiction and non-fiction. This can be a bad thing, of course, if the subject matter is not age appropriate but in the vast majority of cases being able to read is a wonderful thing.

Because reading is a gift, I don’t believe we should try to finish books that don’t bring us joy. I do not continue reading a book I am not connecting with. A couple of years ago I made way too many commitments to read books and review them without knowing what I was really getting into. This year I have been reading books because I want to.

 I read a couple of books for author friends and ran into trouble because the books were okay but they simply weren’t for me. Then what do I do? I don’t want to keep reading the book simply because the person is a friend if it is taking the joy out of reading for me. That’s why I’m now deciding that if I do read a book by an author friend, I’m not going to tell them I am reading it in case I don’t enjoy it.

Life is too short to read books qw aren’t enjoying. This is something I’ve heard said in reading circles again and again and it is something that we readers need to heed more.

Sometimes I do break my own “rules”, though. I’m reading one right now that isn’t one I’d probably finish if it was just me reading for fun, but I’m reading it to review for a magazine. Just because the book isn’t really for me, doesn’t mean it won’t be for someone else. The fact I am pushing myself through this book, though, has made me decide I probably won’t be doing reviews for magazines anymore unless I have already read the book first and enjoyed it.

My motto the rest of this year and next, therefore, is to read what I want and review it only if I want to.

I hope I can keep up with that because taking the pressure off something that should be done for enjoyment and relaxation is what I really need in my life right now.

How has what and how you read changed over the years?

Comfy, Cozy Care Package Giveaway!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs came up with an awesome idea to offer a giveaway with our Comfy, Cozy Cinema this year and that giveaway is open! You have until Tuesday, Oct. 15 to enter it and the chance to win the items pictured here and a few more we are tossing in at the last minute!

Erin and I both have included books in the giveaway – a poetry collection put together by her and the first book in my cozy mystery series – Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing – from me.

We also have a journal in there, stickers, an autumn-themed mug, chocolate pumpkins (so cute!), tea, a booklight to read your cozy books with, and I’ll also be adding a cozy blanket for you to curl up under and these cute little corner bookmarks for you to mark the page of whatever book you are reading.

To enter you can follow this link (the embed feature won’t work on WordPress for some reason).

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/3614a4fa2/?

We’re asking you to follow our blogs, our Instagram, my Substack, and Erin’s Etsy to gain entries.

We are not going to use your email addresses for anything other than confirming you followed, etc. so don’t worry that you’re being added to a mailing list. You are not. The addresses will not be kept in any way on our end.

We are so excited to offer this comfort package so please take a chance to win it! This giveaway is for U.S. residents 18 years of age or older. It is in no way associated with WordPress or Meta or any of their affiliates.

Sunday Bookends: birthdays, mysteries, and other random things

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 12 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 week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

This past week we celebrated Little Miss’s 10th birthday and I rambled about that on my Saturday Chat post yesterday.

Autumn has arrived here and, unfortunately, we are losing a lot of our leaves before they can change this year. We still have some pretty trees and our yard is covered in pretty orange and yellow leaves.

The nights are getting colder and the cats want to cuddle more to try to keep themselves warm.

Last year we started lighting the wood stove in mid-October but hopefully, we can make it until November this year because we want to make sure we have enough wood to make it through winter. We have heating oil but we hate to turn the heat on until it gets very, very cold. As I am starting to write this Saturday night, it is actually very, very cold with a temp of 52. It’s supposed to drop as low as 44 by early morning.

We had a semi-busy week last week but we don’t have much planned for next week, other than schoolwork.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I am currently reading The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery) and A Handcrafted Murder by Isabella Alan.

I also started The Case of the Innocent Husband (A Mac and Sam Mystery Book 1)

Move Your Blooming Corpse by D.E. Ireland. I enjoyed this one and stayed up late Friday night to finish it while my cat laid on my chest and tried to lay on the book as well.

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Little Miss and I are reading The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright via Hoopla.

She has also started the first book in the Harry Potter series, which she somehow thought she wasn’t allowed to read until she was 10. I’m not sure where she got that in her head, but she’s started it now that she is 10.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched Kiki’s Delivery Service as part of Erin of Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and my Comfy, Cozy Cinema.

Up next we will be watching Blithe Spirit (1945).

This past week I also watched part of a Nancy Drew movie, Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube and more Lovejoy.

What I’m Writing

I’m almost done with Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree.

Last week on the blog I shared:

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.

Book Review/Recommendation: Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 3 Comments

Book Title: Trouble Shooter (A Hopalong Cassidy book)

Author: Louis L’Amour

Genre: Western

Description:

Hopalong Cassidy is one of the most enduring and popular heroes in frontier fiction. His legendary exploits in books, movies, and on television have blazed a mythic and unforgettable trail across the American West. Now, in the last of four Hopalong Cassidy novels written by Louis L’Amour, the immortal saddleman rides again—this time into a lonely valley of danger and death.

Hopalong Cassidy has received an urgent message from the dead. Answering an urgent appeal for help from fellow cowpuncher Pete Melford, he rides in only to discover that his old friends has been murdered and the ranch Pete left to his niece, Cindy Blair, had vanished without a trace. Hopalong may have arrived too late to save Pete, but his sense of loyalty and honor demands that he find that cold-blooded killers and return to Cindy what is rightfully hers.

Colonel Justin Tradwar, criminal kingpin of the town of Kachina, is the owner of the sprawling Box T ranch, and he has built his empire with a shrewd and ruthless determination. In search of Pete’s killers and Cindy’s ranch, Hopalong signs on at the Box T, promising to help get Tradway’s wild cattle out of the rattler-infested brush. But in the land of mesquite and black chaparral, Cassidy confronts a mystery as hellish as it is haunting—a bloody trail that leads to the strange and forbidding Babylon plateau, to $60,000 in stolen gold, and to a showdown with an outlaw who has already cheated death once… and is determined to do it again.

My Thoughts:

Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour was not listed under L’Amour’s name when it first came out in 1951. Instead, it was released under the name Clarence E. Mulford, the original creator of Hopalong Cassidy, the main character of the book. When Mulford retired, he asked L’Amour to carry on Hopalong’s tradition in four novels, which included Trouble Shooter, The Rustlers of West Fork, The Trail to Seven Pines, and the Riders of High Rock.

The books were published on L’Amour’s name in the 1990s when they were re-released.

I ended up liking Trouble Shooter a lot more than I thought I would when I first started it. Once I realized that the book was written in the style of another writer and that it was written in the 1950s, I began to adjust to the style of writing and storytelling. I found myself pulled into the story a bit more as it went along, despite the old style of writing, which included what writers call “head hopping.” This is where the thoughts of each character involved in a scene are shared instead of the point of view being from just the one character. This can get a little bit confusing but L’Amour didn’t over do it.

The way the sentences were structured threw me off at times but I thought the prose really was well-written. I wasn’t as interested in the lengthy description of Hopalong Cassidy climbing a mountain or riding long distances in the middle of nowhere and would have loved for the female characters to have been flushed out a bit more, but I still liked the overall story.

I didn’t expect the ending to take such a dark turn since most of the book was mild when it came to the discussions of violence. There was very little to no descriptions of violence at all and any descriptions offered were very surface level. There were no obscenities in the book and no sex at all – not even hinted at.

This was definitely a stripped back Western. There were some descriptions but none of them went on for pages. There were some slow parts for me but I wanted to know the  answer to the mystery introduced in the beginning so I kept reading.

A couple of lines I enjoyed and thought were well-written:

“Hopalong Cassidy had drawn his gun as he always drew, with flashing, incredible speed. Once his hand was empty, then filled, and the gun blasting death.”

“The heat was a living thing, and he touched his lips only a little with the water in his canteen, then pushed on. Dust devils danced across a vast, empty distance marked by nothing but the trail of two riders. And then out of the north came another trail, a trail of several riders that moved in and obliterated the trail they followed.”

“Through the storm clouds the afternoon sun sent streaks of cathedral light across the sky and first spattering of drops fell, dappling the ground and making the dust jump.”

“Even if he isn’t dead, he might have reformed, and if a man has reformed, I’d have to judge him according to what he is now, but I’d advise him to keep his name to himself.”

If you would like to read more about Louis L’Amour, you can do so here:

https://louislamour.com/aboutlouis/biography.htm

Top Ten Tuesday: 8 books I Read Because of the Hype — and 2 I avoided because of the hype

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 28 Comments

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

Today’s topic is: Books I Read/Avoided Because of the Hype (and did you make the right choice?)

For this one, I decided to share eight books I read because of the hype and two I avoided.

First, the ones I read because of the hype:

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perin

It was the hype on Netgalley that hooked me on this one. Reviewers were calling it the Knives Out of mystery books so I decided to give it a go and I ended up really enjoying it – with the exception of a couple issues and two unnecessary swear words.

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett

I’ve heard a lot about this book over the years and had seen the movie years ago so figured I needed to give it a try. I ended up enjoying it but wanted more from the ending.

Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott

I think I got sick of women gushing about this book and having no idea what they were talking about. I’d seen a few versions of the movie but never read the book. Now that I have I think the book lived up to the hype. I fell in love with the book and plan to re-read it each Christmas season now.

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

I’ve heard a lot about this classic book over the years, but, again, never read it. I finally did that last year as part of my son’s English curriculum and ended up feeling like the book did live up to the hype.

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

After all of my family fell all over these movies and my much, much older brother read it in high school or college or whatever (I can’t remember. It was sooo long ago.), I figured I’d better try it too. I didn’t think I was going to make it because of all the tree descriptions but I ended up falling in love with the characters and, in the end, the book. I can’t read to read the other two installments.

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kipp by Sara Brunsvold

This was huge in Christian Fiction circles when it came out.

I think the hype is warranted for this one but I’ve never been able to actually finish it. Not because it isn’t good but because the topic is heavy and I have older parents and I’m struggling with that so the topic of an elderly woman with a terminal illness is a hard one for me to read. I do plan to finish it though.

The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham

In this instance, I didn’t make the right choice for me. I found the main characters irritating, the marriage of convenience trope ridiculous, and the suggestive comments about the sex the morning after really uncomfortable, even though they weren’t graphic. This was a Christian fiction book and this book and the reaction of Christian readers to it, was particularly grating to me because I was condemned for a kiss scene in one of my books by Christian readers but they had no issues with this author’s main character being giddy over getting to have sex with the man she was “forced” to marry and then daydreaming about their night together the next morning for a full page and a half.

It was weird to me but I’ve learned there are as many hypocritical Christian fiction readers out there as there are crooked politicians. It’s weird the things Christian Fiction readers will embrace and the things they will reject. It seems to change every other month or so. I have just never understood the readers of that genre and their absolute love for marriage of convenience books.

That trope is so disgusting to me – being forced to marry someone you don’t love and then supposedly falling in love with that person. I mean what cheap thrill do these women get out of that? I have no earthly idea.

The Mysterious Affair of Styles by Agatha Christie

I had heard a lot about this first Poirot book within the cozy mystery reader circle over the years and so when my husband suggested it, I decided to give it a go. I ended up really liking it but not liking the antisemitism buried in some places. Great story, but Agatah had some issues there, which is something I wrote about on the blog earlier this year.

Two books I avoided because of the hype:

50 Shades of Gray

Yes, this self-proclaimed prude tried this book because I had NO idea what it was about. I barely made it into it when it hit me what was going on and the book was returned to Amazon for a full refund and I never touched it again. Sex is one thing. Abuse and domination is another and I do not read those kinds of books at all.

Fourth Wing

I know. I know. But ….just not my thing. Not a fantasy or a smut reader so I avoided it. So many people loved this book and if you did – that’s awesome. It’s just not my thing. That’s all!

What are some of the books you read or avoided because of the hype?

Book review: A Simple Deduction

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl is part of the Amish Inn Mystery series published by Annie’s Fiction.

The series is written by different authors but features the same characters and location.

Description:

Liz is offering something new, A Sherlock Holmes weekend. She asks for help from a magician to pickpocket the participants and then give the items to Liz for safekeeping. But more possessions start to disappear even with people locking their doors. Liz needs the help of all her sidekicks to solves this mystery.

My thoughts:

I have read two other books in the series before this one and when I started this one, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it as well as the other two books written by Rachael O’Phillips. Once I got into it, though, I was swept up in the mystery and wanted to know what had happened.

In this book, Liz Eckhardt, the main character, hosts a mystery weekend at her Amish-themed inn. Liz isn’t Amish herself but her mother was before leaving the order and her friends are as well.

Her friends Sadie and Mary Ann own a sewing supply shop that they run out of the other side of the inn, renting the space from Liz.

In this story, Liz is caught up in her planned mystery and also some thefts that happen that are unrelated to the mystery weekend.

She has six guests staying at her inn and thinks that they will have a nice weekend but when personalities clash and possessions of the guests start disappearing, she has a bad feeling things aren’t going to go as well as she hoped.

I felt like I was able to get to know Liz and her friends better in the other two books. In this book her character felt very flat for the majority of the book. I wanted to know a little bit more about her as a person – her likes and dislikes, etc. but I didn’t really get that until halfway through.

It turned out to be fine, though, because I became more interested in the mystery itself and still found Liz and her friends likable. I would have liked there to have been more of Sadie and Mary Ann like there were in previous books, but again, I still enjoyed the book.

This was a very clean cozy mystery with some prayer mentioned, but no faith message at all other than some mention of forgiveness.  

Sunday Bookends: Remembering Maggie Smith, reading the same books, and some blog posts I enjoyed recently

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 31 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 week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

What a weird coincidence this week that Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I watched a movie with Maggie Smith and a day after we posted out those she passed away. We had watched Ladies in Lavender with her and Judi Dench and wrote about it and then that night I was thinking how upset Judi would be when Maggie passed away. I also wondered which “dame” would actually pass away first – I thought it might be Joan Plowright.

The next morning Erin texted me to tell me that Maggie had died and I honestly felt like I had lost a friend. I haven’t even watched her very much in things like Downton Abbey or Harry Potter (though I did watch Harry Potter with the kids just recently). I stopped watching Downton when they killed Matthew off. It ticked me off so bad I refused to watch the show again.

I’ve seen Maggie in a few movies since then, though, and just sort of fell in love with her spunk and attitude, but also a tenderness I saw in her.

I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I cried more over her death than the death of my mother-in-law the week before – partially because I had more sentimental connection with Maggie – whom I’ve never met – that my husband’s mother. That’s a very long, sad story that I won’t go into here.

I was looking for clips of Maggie to share on Instagram since I had a clip of her and Judi and Joan Plowright from Tea With the Dames go viral last year on my Instagram, when I remembered I had seen that she’d been on The Carol Burnett Show one time.

If you want to see that clip, I’ll share it below in my What I’ve Been Watching section.

I’m really hoping to watch an Agatha Christie movie with Maggie that I just learned about Friday as well.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I was working on the third book in my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series last week so I didn’t read as much as I could have.

Therefore I am still reading the same books I was reading – Move Your Blooming Corpse by DE Ireland and Kristen by Dawn Klinge, but have added The Secret at Red Gate Farm, a Nancy Drew to the mix.

I finished nothing! Nothing, people! See above. *wink*




Murder Handcrafted by Isabella Alan (An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery)

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

Little Miss and I are reading The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright via Hoopla.

The Husband is reading Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail 1972 by Hunter S. Thompson

The Boy is listening to Beowulf and a book of short stories.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I rewatched most of Ladies in Lavender to write about it for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema, since I’ve seen it before.

I mentioned above that I enjoyed watching Maggie Smith and Judi Dench in the movie and then the next day Maggie passed away. It was heartbreaking.

Erin and I have a few movies with either Judi or Maggie or both in it on our Comfy, Cozy Cinema this time around and I swear we didn’t do it on purpose. We both chose movies on our own and then whittled the list down, not even thinking about who was starring in them. We both even forgot about Judi and Maggie being in a couple of the movies.

This weekend I’ve been watching some clips of Maggie from various shows or interviews, including this one from The Carol Burnett Show:


I had no idea Maggie sang until I saw this clip with her and Carol on YouTube:

I have also been continuing to watch Lovejoy, an old British show that sometime has a mystery and sometimes just a conman story.  I hated how this series ended so I’ve watched it before but seem to have forgotten some of the episodes so I am rewatching them. This is a show my husband always watched and turned me on to.


What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Shakes The Family Tree, of course.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett on Hoopla

Photos from Last Week

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| Review: Hillbilly Elegy by Stray Thoughts ||

(I appreciated this non-partisan and just straight review of J.D. Vance’s book. Not a fan of him as a politician but I’m also not a fan of any politician at this time.)

|| Words for Wednesday: Confined by Mama’s Empty Nest ||

(Boy, could I relate to this one.)

|| His Encouragement by Christian Fiction Girl ||

(A great reminder of God’s faithfulness during challenging times. )

|| Book Review: Cassie, Apron Strings Book Eight by Leslie’s LIbrary Escape ||

(This one is a little biased on my part, but this was a really nice review of my book Cassie.)


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.