Today I am sharing all the books I read this winter and my “hopefuls” for this spring. My hopefuls list is really of books I know I want to read so I’ve set them aside to choose from in March, April, and May. I’m a mood reader so sometimes I get to them and sometimes I don’t.
As usual, I didn’t read as many in Winter as I hoped I would, but I enjoyed the ones I did read.
Winter Reads:
Christmas In Harmony by Philip Gulley
Caddie Woodlawn’s Family/Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin
My Beloved by Jan Karon
Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read
Miss Read’s Village Diary by Miss Read
The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie
Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain
Spring hopefuls:
The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon (just finished)
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
A Damsel In Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
Bombs on Auntie Dainty by Judith Kerr
The Honorable Imposter by Gilbert Morris
Nancy Drew: Nancy’s Mysterious Letter by Carolyn Keene
Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayed by Donald Bain
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Enchanted April by Elizbeth Van Arnim
A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain
‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara (currently reading)
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (just started)
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie (I will be reading this one slowly so probably beyond Spring)
Thrush Green by Miss Read
Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (already half way through after starting it a month ago)
Heidi by Johanna Spry (this will be a buddy read with Erin)
What books are you looking forward to reading this spring? Anything special?
This is the month when adults read chapter books that were actually written for children. Middle Grade March. Sometimes, they are so good that we don’t even realize they were written for children.I read a lot of middle-grade books throughout the year because I have a middle-grade child. She and I have already read many of the books other readers have on their lists each year.
If you participate or want to participate in Middle Grade March, I have a few suggestions of books you can choose from to read. Many of these are “lesser known” middle-grade books that don’t always get a lot of attention in bookish circles.
Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
Return to Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
The Green Ember by S.D. Smith
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Good Master by Kate Seredy
Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry
Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac
Freedom Crossing by Margaret Groff Clark
Miracle on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
The Moffatts by Eleanor Estes
The Middle Moffatt by Eleanor Estes
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Spear
The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
King of the Wind by Marquerite Henry
Do you participate in Middle Grade March, or have you?
If you have, what did you read or if you are this month, what are you reading?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
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.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
I have a bit of an addiction of buying books from Thriftbooks. I seem to be able to find the older books I enjoy reading there easier than other places. II’m never quite sure what I am going to get in the mail even though I think I’ve bought a certain edition.
Sometimes the books are in good shape, sometimes they smell a bit musty.
This last time all of the books seem to be in good shape, including a nice hardback of A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain. It’s from the 1970s and has a nice material for the cover.
Do you like buying used books? And do they need to be in pretty good shape for you to want to buy them?
Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
Okay, I know what you’re thinking: “Paula, what are you up to now?” Most of you know me from my home site,Grace Filled Moments, or my book blog, Between The Bookends. And you’re right to wonder!
This middle-aged Gen X gal has so much more to share – musings and glimpses, if you will! We’re talking about everything that pops up in midlife, like extra doses of encouragement, the joy of small-batch comfort food, the art of apartment and small-space living, clever solutions for everyday life, small-space decorating tips, fun, small-space entertaining ideas, humor, and so much more. And let’s not forget my love for nostalgia (Gen X anyone?)! There are so many stories to tell and memories to share. Do you remember?
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
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Today’s prompt is: Genre Freebie (Pick a genre and build a list around it. You could do historical fiction featuring strong female leads, contemporary romance set in foreign countries, mysteries starring unreliable narrators, lyrical fiction books in verse, historical romance featuring pirates, Gothic novels with birds on the cover, etc. There are so many options!)
So today I picked mystery books with a reporter as the protagonist.
And no, I am not going to name my own! Ha! I didn’t even actually think of my book when I thought of the prompt. I was thinking of how my family has been connected to newspapers for more than 25 years now, with me having been a reporter for 14 years and my husband now being a reporter and editor of a newspaper. My brother also used to be an editor and reporter.
None of us has been involved in murder or crime mysteries, but we have had to dig information out for stories. I think that is why reporters can be good main characters for mysteries. They are digging for the truth so they have a reason to snoop — that’s the theory anyhow.
This list includes protagonists in any kind of media/journalist field and there may be books or series I haven’t read yet so I can’t vouch for the clean level of every one of them. I’ll let you know if I haven’t read them yet and you may have to do some research on your own if you aren’t familiar with them. I have a mix of cozy mysteries and regular mystery/thrillers.
Jim Qwilleran of The Cat Who series…
I have to start this list with my favorite cozy mystery series about a reporter as the main character. I absolutely love newspaper reporter/columnist Jim Qwilleran and the mysteries he stumbles into with his cats Koko and Yum-Yum. This series is an oldie but a goodie and comfort reads for me.
2. The Replacement Child by Christine Barber (have not read)
Description: Late one night, Capital Tribune editor Lucy Newroe receives a tip from Scanner Lady, an anonymous reader who frequently calls with police scanner tidbits. When Lucy checks out the tip, she discovers Scanner Lady has been killed. That same night, the body of a seventh-grade teacher, Melissa Baca, is found at the bottom of a local bridge. As Lucy and police detective Gil Montoya hunt down the culprits in each murder, they discover their cases are intertwined in the most intimate ways.
3. The Henrie O. Mystery series by Carolyn G. Hart (have not read but very interested)
An online description: “The Henrie O book series is a cozy mystery series by author Carolyn Hart, featuring retired, tenacious newswoman Henrietta “Henrie O” O’Dwyer Collins, who solves murders while traveling the world. The series, which began in 1993 with Dead Man’s Island, combines travel and murder mysteries, with Henrie O investigating cases in various locations like private islands, resorts, and cruise ships.
4. Puzzle Lady Mystery series by Parnell Hall (have not read, but watched the show)
This one isn’t a reporter but a woman who works as a crossword puzzle writer in syndicate for newspapers. There is a show on PBS/BBC based on this series now.
Online description of the first book: When Benny Southstreet, a small-time hustler with a big-time gift for constructing crosswords, accuses Cora of stealing one of his creations, it’s clearly a case of mistaken identity…until Cora’s own attorney files a plagiarism suit against her. To add to the enigma, when Benny is found dead, the police charge Cora with his murder!
At the heart of the matter is the not-so-little white lie Cora has been living for years: assuming the grandmotherly public face of her publicity-shy niece Sherry, who designs crossword puzzles and publishes them under Cora’s name—aka the Puzzle Lady. It turns out that Sherry’s and Benny’s cruciverbalist paths had recently crossed, resulting in the current incriminating conundrum.
As if Sherry’s wedding engagement jitters and a nasty battle over missing antique chairs weren’t enough to deal with, now Cora has to solve the ultimate mystery: how to keep the secret of her identity without losing her life. Because not only does all evidence point to Cora, but someone seems to want her dead. It looks like a riddle with no answer. Luckily for Cora and Sherry, that’s their favorite kind!
5. Front Page Murder by Joyce Tremel (haven’t read but want to)
Online description: This is a WWII-set mystery about Irene Ingram, whose newspaper publisher father has gone to work as a war correspondent. She’s the editor-in-chief in her father’s absence, and that rankles some men in the newsroom. She also ruffles feathers when she starts asking questions about the death of the paper’s star crime reporter. (source www.crimereads.com)
6. A Dash of Death by Michelle Hillen Klump (have not read):
Description: Laid off journalists are a staple in real life, and it was good to see Klump reflect this reality in her book. Samantha Warren lost her investigative reporting job and her fiancé — but she’s starting a new mixology company and is featuring her homemade bitters at an event. Someone turns up dead and one of Samantha’s drinks was poisoned with oleander. This book features lots of investigation and great descriptions of the Houston food scene. (source www.crimereads.com)
7. Off the Air by Christina Estes (have not read)
Description: Jolene Garcia is a local TV reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, splitting her time between covering general assignments—anything from a monsoon storm to a newborn giraffe at the zoo—and special projects. Jolene investigates the murder of a controversial talk show host, who died under suspicious circumstances. Jolene conducted his final interview, giving her and her station an advantage. But not for long… (source www.crimereads.com).
8. The Poet by Michael Connelly (haven’t read, but just a heads up for more clean readers, Connelly’s books usually have harsh language, violence, etc.)
Online description:
Reporter Jack McAvoy is obsessed with stories about murder and death. But when he comes across the work of a serial killer — a particularly terrifying one — it forces him to investigate a story that might make him the next victim. Incredibly plotted, and really … scary. The killer leaves a calling card with a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe. Yikes. Connolly is the master of suspense.
9. White Collar Girl by Renée Rosen (haven’t read)
Version 1.0.0
Online description: It’s 1955, in the city room of the Chicago Tribune. And in walks a woman. A female cub reporter. Can’t you picture it? If that isn’t perfect enough, she refuses to be relegated to society news and manages to unearth some secret information about Mayor Daley. It’s about ambition, politics, and the struggle of smart women in an antagonistic workplace and it’s completely entertaining.
10. Three Words For Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Amazon Description: Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . .
New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe—together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.
Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity o develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s control in Italy.
Constantly at odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and Venice,, Clara and Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet’s wish, until a shocking truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten their reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of their journey.
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
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.
Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea (A Monthly Bookish Link Party)!! This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!).
1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.
2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.
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Please be sure to visit other posts in the link-up and support each other!
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.
What’s Been Occurring
I am putting myself on a book buying ban in March and April.
I have so many books that I need to read right now. All of the books I chose for my spring hopefuls list are paperback books so that will help me work through that pile.
Also, I think my cats are traumatized by how it was 52 degrees yesterday and today we have snow on the ground. One climbed onto me in bed this morning for cuddles (or her laying on me even though I need to move and then hissing at me to lay back down) and the other reached up to be picked up while I was trying to used the bathroom. I did pick her up and looked down to see the other cat now at my feet. I’m guessing the teenager cat was out in the snow playing with it.
It makes me think of this poster I want to get for our bathroom:
I mentioned on the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot that Little Miss was sick last week. We aren’t sure what she had but she had stomach issues to start then two days of a runny nose and done. So far, no one else in the family has had it.
It was super hard to see her so down and quiet and miserable.
We didn’t go to see my parents all week to make sure we didn’t give them anything but hopefully we can resume seeing them this upcoming week.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
In Progress
Last week I continued reading Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery.
I added one of The Hardy Boys books — The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon and a Mildred Wirt Penny Parker book, Whispering Walls. Mildred was the original first author of the Nancy Drew books, if you don’t know that.
They are both quick and light reads, which I need right now.
Up Soon
I’ll be writing a separate post about my hopeful spring reads later this week, but for now I do know I plan to read A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse, The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie after I finish these books (or while I’m reading Return of the King since it is my slow read).
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are still reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy and listening to The Green Ember by S.D. Smith (though we aren’t fond of the narrator – he is very dramatic and makes the female rabbit sound like a drama queen.)
The Husband is reading Welcome to Pawnee by Jim O’Heir.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
This past week I watched more of The Puzzle Lady and All Creatures Great and Small. I also watched The Bride Came C.O.D. with James Cagney and Bette Davis.
Today I am watching the sermon online and if my YouTube farmer has a video today I’ll watch that.
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.
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.
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 of your weekly wrap up below!
If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
We’ve been reading The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery and this week we are discussing chapters 11 to 23. You can find the discussion on Chapters 1 through 10 here.
An original copy of The Blue Castle.
When I first read this book, the chapters we are discussing today were where I really fell in love with the book, and it wasn’t any different this time. I fell in love with the story and book again in these chapters. There are so many swoonworthy moments in this book it makes me question how our dear Maud was not called one of the greatest romance writers in history.
In these chapters, we see Valancy Stirling finally spread her wings, leaving behind her family to take care of a dying woman and also finding love. All of this is to the horror of her family, of course, but Valancy ignores her family and doing so feels amazing to her.
The family dinner is where her rebellion really kicks in as she levels mouthy comebacks after mouth comeback at her aunts, uncles, cousins, and mother.
It’s a sight to behold – or a chapter to read and laugh at in the least.
Something has snapped in Valancy, who believes she is dying of a heart condition. She decides she has nothing to lose, so she goes full bore on saying what she wants when she wants.
Her uncle Benjamin is always making silly jokes that he expects everyone to laugh at. When Valancy doesn’t, he is offended and calls her disrespectful.
“Doss,” said Uncle Benjamin. “When I am dead you may say what you please. As lon as I am alive I demand to be treated with respect.”
Valancy (whose nickname is Doss, which she hates) says, “Oh, but you now we’re all dead. The whole Stirling clan. Some of us are buried and some aren’t — yet. That is the only difference.”
It goes on like this throughout the night, her comments becoming more and more biting and caustic and her chest starts to hurt so she goes to bed.
This is the first time we really start to see Valancy rebel beyond simply cutting at a rose bush that was given to her but never bloomed.
Then the local drunk comes by to make repairs in the house and when he tells Valancy about his dying daughter and how he needs help caring for her and the house, Valancy jumps at the chance. It will get her away from her family, but she also feels it is the right thing to do.
“’Cissy Gay is dying,’ she said. ‘And it’s a shame and disgrace that she is dying in a Christian community with no one to do anything for her. Whatever she’s been or done, she’s a human being.”
For years, there have been all kinds of rumors about the dying girl. One was that she had a child out of wedlock, and that child died as punishment for her sins. The other rumor is that Barney Snaith, a free spirit whom Valancy has already met, was the father.
Valancy goes to live with Abel and Cissy, and her mother about dies from the shock and scandal of it all.
It is at Roaring Abel’s house that Valancy learns more about herself and what she is actually capable of, but also bonds with Cissy, who she knew in her childhood. At the Stirling home, Valancy was always told that she was too weak or sickly to do. At Abel and Cissy’s, she cooks food and cleans, but most importantly, she gives companionship to Cissy.
And she also gets to know Barney Snaith more because he often stops to see or bring treats to Cissy to help cheer her up.
It is in these chapters that Valancy realizes she’s fallen in love with Barney.
Her family keeps trying to bring her home, even sending the pastor, their greatest weapon. She almost caves to him but then ….
“Valancy was on the point of obeying Dr. Stalling. She must go home with him — and give up. She would lapse back to Doss Stirling again and for her few remaining days or weeks be the cowed, futile creature she had always been. It was her fate — typified by that relentless, uplifted forefinger. She could no more escape from it than Roaring Abel from his predestination. She eyed it as a fascinated bird eyes the snake. Another moment —
‘Fear is the original sin,’ suddenly said a still, small voice away back — back — back of Valancy’s consciousness. ‘Almost all the evil in the world has its origins in the fact that someone is afraid of something.’
Valancy stood up. She was still in the clutches of fear, but her soul was her own again. She would not be false to that inner voice.”
I just love this part. I love the idea that she was afraid and did it anyway. She stood her ground and refused to go back home and become oppressed and sad again. She got a taste of the wind, a feel of it under her wings, and she was never going back.
This makes me think of all the years I tried to please people and make everyone happy, and how I slowly stopped doing it and caring what others thought. It isn’t that I didn’t care about people, but I realized I didn’t have to do everything everyone wanted me to do. I felt a freedom to be myself and to ignore disapproving words or looks.
This has been even more true in the last couple of years as I have stood up for myself in various situations and walked away from situations I would have put up with a lot longer in the past.
I love this line: “She was still in the clutches of fear, but her soul was her own again.”
She was afraid, even of all the new freedom she had, but she owned that fear, had chosen that fear, had allowed her soul to waken up. She wasn’t about to put it all back to where she had been before — with no choice and no life of her own.
Dr. Stalling is, of course, appalled that Valancy will not go back home simply because he tells her to, but there are better things in store for Valancy.
Love is in store for Valancy.
She has already started noticing she feels different around Barney, but those feelings are growing.
“Valancy was conscious that Barney had sprung from it and was leaning over the ramshackle gate. She suddenly straightened up and looked into his face. Their eyes met — Valancy was suddenly conscious of a delicious weakness. Was one of her heart attacks coming on? But this was a new symptom.”
***
“Good evening, Miss Stirling.”
Nothing could be more commonplace and conventional. Anyone might have said it. But Barney Snaith had a way of saying things that gave thm poignancy. When he said good evening you felt that it was a good evening and that it was partly his doing that it was. Also, you felt that some of the credit was yours. Valancy felt a this vaguely, but she couldn’t imagine why she was trembling from head to foot — it must be her heart. If only he didn’t notice it!”
Then Valancy takes her biggest step of freedom yet by going to a late-night party with Abel. She gets a bit more than she bargained for, though, and is completely relieved and smitten when Barney comes to rescue her from some very handsy men.
When Barney’s car runs out of gas as they are fleeing, Valancy has even more time to process her feelings for him.
I love the passages Montgomery writes about Valancy’s love for Barney. To me, they are more romantic than most romance books of today.
“Valancy was perfectly happy. Some things dawn on you slowly. Some things come by lightning flashes. Valancy had a lightning flash.
She knew quite well now that she loved Barney. Yesterday, she had been all her own. Now she was this man’s. Yet he had done nothing, said nothing. He had not even looked at her as a woman. But that didn’t matter. Nor did it matter what he was or what he had done. She loved him without any reservations. Everything in her went out wholly to him. She had no wish to stifle or disown her love. She seemed to be his so absolutely that though apart from him — thought in which he did not predominate — was an impossibility.
She had realized, quite simply and fully that she loved him, in the moment when he was leaning on the car door, explaining that Lady Jane had no gas. She had looked deep into his eyes in the moonlight and had known. In just that infinitesimal space of time everything was changed. Old things passed away and all things became new.
She was no longer unimportant, little old main Valancy Stirling. She was a woman, full of love and therefore rich and significant — justified to herself. Life was no longer empty and futile, and death could cheat her of nothing. Love had cast out her last fear.”
Whew!
And what is fun about this book is that there is even more to come.
What did you think of these chapters?
Of Valancy refusing to go home and the reactions of her family to these refusals?
Let me know in the comments.
This cover is so ridiculous if you’ve read the book. At least to me! This makes it look like some ridiculous romance book and it is much more than that. Also, that dude looks nothing like Barney is described.
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
Our daughter has been sick with a weird virus this week and it has not been fun to see her not feeling well.
She has had no appetite and her stomach is upset and she’s had some chills and fever but little else. It’s been hard to see my usually perky 11-year-old so sad and miserable. I really hope we turn a corner tomorrow. If not, we are off to the doctor to see what is really going on.
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
Hi, my name is Brenda. I am a Christian first, a wife (of twenty eight years, to God be the glory!)to a wonderful, amazing man. A mom to two beautiful girls who were homeschooled, a daughter, a sister and a friend and a teacher
Why ‘becoming His tapestry?’ The answer is quite simple actually… Because that is my goal, that is the prize! I want to be my Lord and Savior’s tapestry. But for now, I am becoming…. I am in the process of becoming, of allowing my Master to weave the various threads of my life into His Masterpiece. Here are a few of these threads,my love for the Lord, my love for my family, my love for homeschool (I enjoy spending time with my girls), my love for… shhhhhhh…fashion, beauty and shopping. The purpose of this blog is to bring the Lord glory by sharing with you, tidbits of my life, to encourage and edify you as we journey along this path called life.
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
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I recently saw a YouTube video where a booktuber suggested reading just 12 pages a day of a classic to make it feel less daunting for readers who don’t usually read classics.
There are a couple of reasons he suggested this tactic.
One: it gives you time to read slowly and truly immerse yourself in the story.
Two: it helps you pay attention to the writing, the words connected together, the style of that particular author.
Three: Gives you time to write notes about what you are reading or underline a quote that really stands out to you. This gives you time to really think about that quote or section that really stands out to you.
Four: It gets you off a device. Stops you scrolling on “the attention hog” that has trained you to keep scrolling through 30-second to 1-minute clips. Doing this mentally and physically fatigues us. The makers of social media know how to addict us but our mind biologically loves to dwell on things, to feel like it is learning something and this is done better at a slower pace. Reading instead of scrolling releases the brain from repeated dopamine hits.
Five: Creates a sense of patience, self-control, and a “stick-to-it” attitude. As humans we feel a sense of pride when we push through something and accomplish what we set out to do.
Six: It helps to quell comparison to other readers that we need to do; the fear-of-missing-out tendency, the desire to “have read” certain books. We want to be able to say “I have read…” but don’t want to sit and really read something well. Reading this way, we can focus on reading well — taking our time to really take it in and not worry about rushing on to the next book. Those books will be there when we are done with this one.
Extra tips: Doing this at night can help you feel like you don’t have to rush and “get through” your allotted pages before you have to do something else. You can do this with other books, not just classics.
What do you think of reading some books this way? Yay or Nay? What say you?
Source: Tristan Reads Classics. Video: The One Tip You Need More Classics and Enjoy Them.
If you want a fuller explanation of what Tristan was talking about, you can watch his video here:
