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

October 22, 2024 / 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!

October 8, 2024 / 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.

A book list for me to choose from this autumn

September 13, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

I decided not to call this list my planned autumn read since that seems to “frustrate” some readers who think I actually organize my reading list based on a strict list that I follow to a t. Trust me, I am not that organized.

I don’t actually go only by the list of books I hope to read in each season, reading them in the order I write them on my list. Instead I look at the list as a reminder to me of the books I have been wanting to read. Many times those books get pushed aside for other books because I am mainly a mood reader. I read what I feel like I want to read in a moment, which is why I have a few books going at a time sometimes.

If you don’t believe me just read the post I wrote about my planned summer reads and then what I actually wrote.

Anyhow, here is the list of books I’ll be choosing from for September, October and November – with new ones being thrown in from time to time, I’m sure.

An Assassination on the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey (currently reading)

I am currently reading this one and I won’t like – it is going a bit slow for me right now. I still am reading it because I love all the hilarious banter between Flo and Lady Hardcastle.

Description:

They’re hoping this visit is a return journey—but it might be a one-way ticket to murder.

July 1912. Lady Hardcastle and her tenacious lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, are enjoying a convivial gathering at the home of their dear friends, the Farley-Strouds. The only fly in the idyllic ointment seems to be the lack of musical entertainment for the forthcoming summer party—until, that is, Lady Hardcastle’s brother Harry calls with news of a murder.

Harry dispatches them to Bristol on behalf of the Secret Service Bureau, with instructions to prevent the local police from uncovering too much about the victim. It seems an intriguing mystery—all the more so when they find a connection between the killer and an impending visit from an Austrian trade delegation, set to feature a very important guest…

Summoned to London to help with some very important security arrangements, the intrepid duo will have to navigate sceptical bureaucrats, Cockney gangsters and shadowy men in distinctive hats in their attempts to foil an explosive—and internationally significant—threat.

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett

I keep saying I am going to read this one but I need to get a copy of the book first. My library doesn’t have it because my library rarely has anything I want to read. Libby doesn’t have it – through my library at least (read above statement about my local library) and if Hoopla does have it, I’m not going to get it because I don’t want to read it on my screen and Hoopla doesn’t offer an option to send things to the Kindle. Still. Argh! Anyhow, I hope to order a copy of it next week (budgets just stink sometimes.).

Description:

A man who can’t read will never amount to anything–or so Nate Webber believes. But he takes a chance to help his family by signing up for the new Civilian Conservation Corps, skirting the truth about certain “requirements.” Nate exchanges the harsh Brooklyn streets for the wilds of Yellowstone National Park, curious if the Eden-like wonderland can transform him as well.

Elsie Brookes was proud to grow up as a ranger’s daughter, but she longs for a future of her own. After four years serving as a maid in the park’s hotels, she still hasn’t saved enough money for her college tuition. A second job, teaching a crowd of rowdy men in the CCC camp, might be the answer, but when Elsie discovers Nate’s secret, it puts his job as camp foreman in jeopardy. Tutoring leads to friendship and romance, until a string of suspicious fires casts a dark shadow over their relationship. Can they find answers before all of their dreams go up in smoke?

A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl

I have started this one already and can tell it’s going to be a bit of a cheesy, but fun cozy mystery and that’s what I love to read – especially in autumn.

Description:

Liz is offering something new, A Sherlock Holmes weekend. She asks for help from a magician to pickpocket the participants 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.

The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene

Yep, another original Nancy Drew. These are fun to read, even if they are dated.

Description:

Nancy and her friends, Bess and George, meet Joanne Byrd on a train ride home. Joanne lives at Red Gate Farm with her grandmother, but if they do not raise enough money to pay the mortgage, they will soon lose the farm! Nancy, Bess, and George decide to stay at Red Gate for a week as paying customers. Soon, they learn about the strange group of people who rent a cave on the property. They describe themselves as a nature cult called the Black Snake Colony. Nancy investigates their group and helps to uncover a ring of counterfeiters in town!

The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun

I’ve read almost all the books in this series but when I saw this on my shelf a couple of weeks ago I knew I needed to add it to my list because I am certain I’ve never read it. I am not even sure where I picked this copy up but it was probably one of the local library book sales.

Description:

Jim Qwilleran lives in Pickax, a small town 400 miles north of everywhere, and writes for a small newspaper. He stands tall and straight. He dates a librarian. His roommates are two abandoned cats that he adopted along the way, one of them quite remarkable. Qwilleran has a secret that he shares with no one—or hardly anyone. His male cat, Koko, has an uncanny intuition that can tell right from wrong and frequently sniffs out the evildoer…

Retiring in Pickax, actress Thelma Thackeray has decided to start a film club and organize a fundraiser revue, starring Koko the cat. But Thelma’s celebrated arrival takes an unpleasant turn when the strange circumstances of her twin brother’s recent death seem suspicious to Jim Qwilleran. Qwill needs a helping paw in this case. But will Koko deign to take time from his stage debut?

Catch Me If You Candy by Ellie Alexander

This one is a fall-themed cozy mystery that I have decided to read because I’ve read another book in this series and liked it okay. I didn’t love it but it was a good escape read.

Description:

Halloween has arrived in picturesque Ashland, Oregon, and all of the ghouls and goblins have descended on Main Street for the annual parade. It’s a giant street party and Torte is right in the mix.

Jules Capshaw and her team have been baking up autumn delights and trick-or-Torte bags filled with sugar cookie cutouts, spiced cider, and mummy munch. It’s the end of the season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which means that the costumes for the parade are going to be out of this world. The elaborate guises even extend to pets. The grand marshal of this year’s parade is no other than a regal pug aptly named King George. Jules is delighted to get to share the experience with Carlos and Ramiro, but things take a dark turn when she discovers a dragon slumped in front of the bakeshop.

A Fatal Footnote by Margaret Loudon

This is one my daughter picked up at a used book sale for me because the cat reminds us of our cat, Scout. I skimmed the first chapter and see that it is written in third person, which isn’t usually for cozy mysteries, but a POV I write in and like to read in cozy mysteries.

Description:

Writer-in-residence Penelope Parish will need to use every trick in her quaint British bookshop to unravel a murderous plot that threatens to ruin a ducal wedding.

The wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Upper Chumley-on Stoke has all the makings of a fairy tale, complete with a glowing bride and horse-drawn carriage. But it wouldn’t be much of a story without a villain, and as American Gothic novelist Penelope Parish is coming to learn, happy-ever-afters are as fraught in this charming British town as they are in her books.

When the Duke’s former girlfriend is found murdered at the reception it’s up to Penelope and her newfound family at the Open Book bookshop to catch the killer before they strike again.

Getaway With Murder by Diane Kelly

A friend read this and I decided I’d try it too. I currently have it downloaded in my Audible so I might listen to it.

Description:

As if hitting the half-century mark wasn’t enough, Misty Murphy celebrated her landmark birthday by amicably ending her marriage and investing her settlement in a dilapidated mountain lodge at the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the old inn teetering on both a bluff and bankruptcy, she must have lost her ever-loving mind.

Luckily, handyman Rocky Crowder has a knack for rehabbing virtual ruins and for doing it on a dime, and to Misty’s delight, the lodge is fully booked on opening night, every room filled with flexible folks who’d slipped into spandex and ascended the peak for a yoga retreat with plans to namaste for a full week. Misty and her guests are feeling zen―at least until the yoga instructor is found dead.

With a killer on the loose and the lodge’s reputation hanging in the balance, Misty must put her detective-skills to the test. Only one thing is as clear as a sunny mountain morning―she must solve the crime before the lodge ends up, once again, on the brink.

A Christmas Gathering by Shelley Shepard Gray; Rachel J. Good; Lenora Worth

I feel like I will read this in November – as I start getting ready for cozy winter reading. And I’ll probably take breaks between the stories.

Description:

A CHRISTMAS REUNION by Shelley Shepard Gray
Tricia Troyer is thrilled when Brandt Massey, her cousin’s English friend, joins the Troyers’ holiday gathering for the second year in a row. The sparks between them are clear to everyone. When Brandt asks Tricia to be his girlfriend, they both know she’ll have important choices to make about her future. But the two aren’t as different as some believe—and with open hearts and understanding, their very own Christmas miracle just might be
possible . . .

WE GATHER TOGETHER by Lenora Worth
When Lucas Myer meets Kayla Hollinger on the shores of Lake Erie, he’s smitten. Their families are even staying at the same inn, for different gatherings. The two plan to meet again—but soon enough they discover a problem: their relatives are locked in a longtime feud and forbid them to socialize. Fortunately, Lucas and Kayla are old enough to make their own decisions—and they decide to create a Christmas miracle of forgiveness and love . . .

HITTING ALL THE RIGHT NOTES by Rachel J. Good
Years ago, Andrew was banished by his Amish family when he chose a career in music. It still hurts, especially during the holidays. And now, just before Christmas, he and his band find themselves stranded after their manager absconds with their money. Desperate, Andrew is offered a job teaching piano—but that’s just the first miracle. His work will not only bless others in need, but a longtime fan might just capture his heart—and even lead him home . .

Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott

I will probably read this one closer to the end of November and carry it on into Winter like I did with Little Women last year.

Description:

The March sisters are among the most beloved characters in children’s literature, and Little Men picks up the story of fiery, headstrong Jo where Good Wives left off. Intelligent, funny, perceptive, and genuinely touching, the novel is set at a rather unusual boarding school run by Jo and her husband, where the pupils are encouraged to pillow fight and keep pets. When the penniless but talented orphan Nat Blake shows up on her doorstep, Jo takes him in, and his arrival sets in motion a chain of events that will affect all their lives.

I’m sure I’ll end up removing or adding books as the months go on. Have you read any of these?

Top Ten Tuesday: Fiction Books Involving Food (That Are Not Cookbooks)

September 3, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 13 Comments

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

Today’s prompt: Books Involving Food (That are Not Cookbooks) (Submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext and Hopewell’s Public Library of Life)

I read a lot of cozy mysteries and many of them focus on food in one way or another – the main character owns a bake or tea shop or restaurant, for example – so this list was a little easier for me than it might be for some. I also added a non-fiction book in there because I believe these prompts are about books in general, not only fiction books.

Meet the Baker by Ellie Alexander

This is the first book in an entire series about a woman who owns a bakery with her mother.

Description: After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte’s customers turns up dead, there’s much ado about murder.

The victim is Nancy Hudson, the festival’s newest board member. A modern-day Lady Macbeth, Nancy has given more than a few actors and artists enough reasons to kill her, but still. The silver lining? Jules’ high school sweetheart, Thomas, is the investigator on the case. His flirtations are as delicious as ever, and Jules can’t help but want to have her cake and eat it, too. But will she have her just desserts?

Murder might be bad for business, but love is the sweetest treat of all.

2. Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor

This family owns a small bistro in an Irish Village so there is definitely food but it’s not as prominent as some of the others I’ll mention.

Description: In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Natalie’s Bistro has always been warm and welcoming. Nowadays twenty-two-year-old Siobhan O’Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago. It’s been a rough year for the O’Sullivans, but it’s about to get rougher.

One morning, as they’re opening the bistro, they discover a man seated at a table with a pair of hot pink barber scissors protruding from his chest. With the local garda suspecting the O’Sullivans, and their business in danger of being shunned. It’s up to feisty redheaded Siobhán to solve the crime and save her beloved brood.

3. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson

This is a middle grade book and one of the bigger parts of the book is the making of Maple syrup in rural Pennsylvania.

Description:

A father’s wounded heart. A mother’s patient love. An eager boy, an impetuous girl, and, above all, the healing power of nature. These are the classic ingredients that fill Virginia Sorensen’s Newbery Award-winning novel with a tender power and lift it to classic status.

First published in 1956, Miracles on Maple Hill is almost uncanny in its appeal for today’s young listeners. For here is the story of a father returned from war in a distant land, wounded in body but even more in spirit, and a family desperate for him to be returned to wholeness, a wholeness they hope can be found on Maple Hill.

With language that is tender, precise, evocative, and yet fiercely powerful, Sorensen draws listeners into a year in the family’s life, a year filled with small miracles that yield great reward.

4. A Troubling Case of Murder on the Menu by Donna Doyle

This is a cute little mystery book about an elderly woman who has retired and decides to start writing a food blog. It’s on her first trip out to learn more about a local restaurant that a murder happens and she is pulled into the mystery. She also tests several recipes to prepare for the blog.

Description: Emily Cherry may be retired, but she’s not about to roll over and die!

Defying the doubts of her three adult children this plucky computer-shy grandma embarks on a unique path by launching her very own food blog. The only problem is that during her inaugural restaurant review, she stumbles upon a lifeless body.

In an instant, Emily’s envisioned future as a food blogger plunges into uncertainty – and a brand-new amateur sleuth is born!

Cozy up in your favorite chair and prepare for a thrilling first adventure in this brand-new senior sleuthing series.

You are guaranteed to fall in love with retiree Emily Cherry and giggle at her uncanny ability to stumble into one head-scratching mystery after another.“

5. The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold

Description: Shaken by her parents’ divorce and discouraged by the growing chasm between herself and her serious boyfriend, Nikki Werner seeks solace at her uncle’s farm in a small Missouri hamlet. She’ll spend the summer there, picking up the pieces of her shattered present so she can plan a better future. But what awaits her at the ancestral farm is the past—one she barely knows.

Among her late grandmother’s belongings, Nikki finds an old notebook filled with handwritten German recipes and wise sayings pulled from the book of Proverbs.

With each recipe she makes, she invites locals to the family table to hear their stories about the town’s history, her ancestors, and her estranged father. What started as a cathartic way to connect to her heritage soon becomes the means through which she learns how the women before her endured—with the help of their cooking prowess and a healthy dollop of faith.

6. Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey

Description:
Blossom Valley, West Virginia, is home to Smythe Orchards, Winnie and her Granny’s beloved twenty-five-acre farm and family business. But any way you slice it, it’s struggling. That’s why they’re trying to drum up business with the “First Annual Christmas at the Orchard,” a good old-fashioned holiday festival with enough delicious draw to satisfy apple-picking locals and cider-loving tourists alike—until the whole endeavor takes a sour turn when the body of Nadine Cooper, Granny’s long-time, grudge-holding nemesis, is found lodged in the apple press. Now, with Granny the number one suspect, Winnie is hard-pressed to prove her innocence before the real killer delivers another murder . . .

7. Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker (who is actually Julie Anne Lindsey so this book and the one above have a lot of similarities – trying to get a business going, falling for the investigating officer, etc. Still enjoyed both books.)

Description:

Life hasn’t been so sweet for Everly Swan over the past couple of years, but now she’s back in her seaside hometown of Charm, North Carolina. The proud new owner of Sun, Sand,

and Tea—a café right on the beach—Everly thinks that things are finally starting to look up.

Until a grouchy customer turns up dead on the boardwalk with a jar of one of her specialty

teas lying right next to him! When an autopsy reports poison in his system, things don’t look

good for Everly or her tea shop.

As the townspeople of Charm, formerly so welcoming and homey, turn their back on Everly, she fights to dig up clues about who could have had it in for the former town councilman.

With the maddeningly handsome Detective Grady Hays discouraging her from uncovering leads and a series of anonymous attacks on Everly and her tea shop, it will take everything she’s got to keep this murder mystery from boiling over.

8. Clueless At The Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield

Description: Betti Bryant knows she’s not supposed to be a barista five years after graduating from college, but her life is actually super adorable—except for the part where she has to endure her ex-boyfriend’s musical rendition of their breakup at the coffee shop’s Open Mic Night every Friday.

When an entire local art collection is stolen from the cafe during his performance, Betti sees her chance to persuade her panicked boss to cancel Open Mic Night, at least until the crime is solved. Instead, he announces plans to sell the beloved cafe to a real estate developer, who will demolish it. Betti believes her boss will change his mind once justice is served. So, armed with a list of drink orders from the night of the crime and the sleuthiest outfit she can find at the thrift store, she sets out to investigate the theft herself.

If she fails, she’s promised her sister she’ll accept whatever non-adorable entry-level corporate job she can get, abandoning her ideals about finding her own path in life. The Coffee Station will close forever.

9. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders by Jesse Q. Sutanto

(Disclaimer: If you don’t like swearing in your books, this does have some.)

Description: Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.

Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.

What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?

10. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

This one is all about food and all about the restaurant business and I was completely enthralled. I was swept up in Anthony’s passion for food and flavor and what knife to use for the everyday cook. I was not as enthralled some of the language, sexual innuendos and references to male genitalia made throughout the book when Anthony was talking about some of his co-workers, but I still couldn’t put the book down, which is unusual for me when it comes to non-fiction. I’m not a big non-fiction reader but really enjoyed this one and have other Bourdain books on my Kindle to read soon.
Description:

Almost two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat before You Read This,” by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now classic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation, a megabestseller with over one million copies in print. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business.

Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—this time with never-before-published material.

What books have you read that had something to do with food but weren’t cookbooks?

Top Ten Tuesday: The top ten literary characters I would love to be friends with

August 20, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 38 Comments

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

This week’s theme is: Relationship Freebie (Pick a relationship type and choose characters who fit that relationship as it relates to you. So, characters you’d like to date, be friends with, be enemies with, etc. Bookish families you’d like to be a part of, characters you’d want as your siblings, pets you’d like to take for yourself, etc.)

From this prompt, I decided to make a list of ten characters who I would love to be friends with in real life – if they were real. Well, you know what I mean.

Cynthia Kavanagh from The Mitford Series by Jan Karon

Cynthia is the wife of Father Timothy Kavanagh, an Episcopal priest in Mitford, N.C. He meets Cynthia either in the end of the first book or the beginning of the second, A Light in the Window. Their love story is so sweet and pure. It’s a beautiful example of what love late in life can and should be. Father Tim has never been in a relationship and Cynthia was in a cold, loveless marriage before. Their relationship starts slow and awkardly.

Cynthia is an illustrator who also writes childrens books about her cat, Violet, a fluffy, white monster who Father Tim and his dog Barnabas aren’t so sure about. I would love to be friends with Cynthia. We’d sit in her little yellow house and sip tea and talk books and cats and how neither of us are really very good cooks or bakers but like to try anyhow.

2. Elizabeth “Bess” Marvin in the Nancy Drew books.

I absolutely love Bess from the Nancy Drew books. I love how she is described as pleasantly plump and isn’t shy about eating whatever she wants and flirting with boys – not even caring that back when these books were written fat girls were supposed to be not who boys would be interested in and were shamed into eating lettuce and a tomato for dinner.

I could absolutely see myself hanging out with Bess. She’d be more outgoing and crazy and I’d be quiet and laughing at her crazy antics. We’d talk about what foods we like and how no matter what we do we can’t get ourselves super skinny but there are times we still feel healthy and happy.

3. Valancy Stirling in The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery

I would absolutely hang out with Valancy from The Blue Castle. If I met her before she received the bad news about her health, I would have been trying to pull her out of her dumps and encourage her to ignore her family’s rude comments about her.

After she received the bad news I would have joined her for tea at her Blue Castle and I would have walked with her in the forest, picking flowers, listening to the wind rustling the leaves and to her read excerpts from John Foster’s books.

4. Jo March from Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott

Jo and I would absolutely hang out in real life and talk about the books we are writing and the characters we’ve created and our fear of people reading what we have written. We would talk about how we feel like the stories and characters belong to ourselves and how we are sometimes afraid if others meet our characters they won’t like them and it will take something away from us.

We will totally talk about how we both snap sometimes and say mean things and have to wrestle the mean sides of ourselves the same way Marmee said she had to wrestle her feelings.

And we will absolutely dish about how publishers in her day were completely sexist and that if she were alive now she could write and publish whatever she wants.

5. Aunt Minnehaha Cheever from Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

Aunt Minnehaha visited Gone Away Lake, really called Tarrigo Lake, with her family, including her brother Pindar, when she was a child. The site was a summer getaway for the wealthy but when a dam was created upstream it caused the lake to dry up and all the wealthy vacationers to leave, many of them leaving their homes behind. When Aunt Minnehaha hits hard times and can’t afford her home in the city she moves back to Tarrigo to live. Eventually, children named Julian and Portia discover the homes and become friends with Minnehaha and her brother, who has also moved there.

Minnehaha has had some sadness in her life but she is absolutely full of optimism and likes to look at tough situations in a new and exciting way. If she and I were friends we would look through all the old dresses she has and all the old china and she’d make me some of her amazing tea and then she’d tell me that what I am facing now is nothing compared to what they had to face when they were young, living among some very rich and arrogant neighbors.

6. Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

I’m sure Anne would be on the list of many readers. An imaginative orphan girl who comes to live with an older brother and sister on a farm on Prince Edward Island, Canada would absolutely be a very interesting person to be friends with.

She and I would go walk along the shores of the Lake of Shimmering Waters and pick apples from the apple trees. We would also walk through the falling leaves during autumn to Diana’s house to visit her and have pastries and tea together.

We would absolutely talk about books and, well, I hate to say it but I’d probably tell Anne she is way too focused on what is and isn’t romantic and what romance should look like. If it was older Anne we would talk about raising children and how she keeps the romance alive between her and Gilbert.

7. Angie Braddock from the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries by Isabella Alan

I’ve only read one book in the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries but I really liked Angie. She’s bold and not afraid to find out how someone has been killed so she can clear the name of another person. She’s also dating a handsome sheriff (at least in the one book I read) and has a great relationship with her father who is trying to figure out his place in the world now that he is retired.

She sells sowing materials at her shop and I don’t think I’d be able to talk to her too much about fabric but I bet we’d like other similar things and I would love for her to introduce me to her Amish friends.

8. Miss Jane Marple from the Agatha Christie series

I would love to be friends with Jane Marple and ask her questions about various “goings on” in the village she – er- we live in. We’d of course – like with everyone else – sip tea – probably real English tea and have a few coo—biscuits while she tells me about her latest case.

Since I’m her friend, I’d also follow her around while she solves various cases. And maybe get some credit with her. *wink*

9. Sam Gangee from The Fellowship of The Ring

Sam and I are kindred spirits. We both like second breakfasts and are a bit nervous but also pretty loyal to our friends. Since we are friends we would enjoy meals together and we would be friends after the adventure to get rid of the ring so I’d ask why he did everything for Frodo and ask if he’d like to get more credit.

10. Flo and Lady Hardcastle from The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries by T.E. Kinsey

I know…I popped in two into this one but they come as a pair, I’d say.
I would love to be friends with Flo and Lady Hardcastle from The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries. Flo is Lady Hardcastle’s maid but really she is her best friend. Both of them have been spies and investigators and solved mysteries during the early 1900s. Flo has no fear when it comes to tracking down criminals and solving mysteries. She fights the bad guys, cleans up, and then heads home with Lady Hardcastle and serves her tea.

Lady Hardcastle, like Flo, has no fear and is like a dog with a bone when it comes to solving a case. I love how both women break barriers, ignoring all “rules” of society in England in the early 1900s.

I could see us enjoying tea (I know! I like tea! What can I say?) and talking about cases we’ve solved together and laughing about how we’ve shown the men in our small town that women can do more than cook and clean and keep house.

How about you? What literary characters would you love to be friends with?

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series

August 6, 2024August 6, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 13 Comments

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

This week’s theme is: Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series (We all have a favorite book in our favorite series, right?) (submitted by A Hot Cup of Pleasure)

I thought this one was going to be harder than it was because I haven’t finished a lot of series and didn’t really think I’d read books from a lot of series. It turns out I have read quite a few books from series, even though I haven’t yet finished some of them.

Once I had my list, I also realized I had three children’s book series listed, but I think that’s okay since some of them I’ve read recently with my daughter.

Anyhow, without further ado – ten favorite books from ten series:

A Light in the Window by Jan Karon (the second book in The Mitford series).

This one was a little hard for me because I like so many of the books in this series, especially the first book. I also loved book ten Home to Holly Springs, even though it was one of the darker in the series. I love A Light In the Window, though, because it is the start of the love story between Father Tim and his wife Cynthia.

Another favorite is A Common Life, which is the story of their wedding. I also love the Christmas one and …. I could go on and on with this series.

2. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun from The Cat Who series.

I just read this book in the series this year and I loved it for a variety of reasons. One, it took Qwill and the cats away from their normal setting and two it just showed a totally different side of Qwill. It was also just really well written.

I shared a review of it here: https://lisahoweler.com/2024/05/06/book-recommendation-the-cat-who-talked-to-ghosts/

3. Mums and Mayhem by Amanda Flower (A Magic Garden Mystery)

It took me more than a year to get ahold of this final installment of this cozy mystery magical trilogy but I was glad when I finally found it on Hoopla. It was worth the wait and tied the series up nicely.

4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)

It’s sort of cliché to choose the first in the series, I suppose (though this one wasn’t actually published first) but it is my favorite of what I have re-read of the series so far. I read the series as a kid but I don’t remember all of the books so I am re-reading them with my daughter. So far this is my favorite of them but I may update that later.

5. A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers (The Mark of the Lion series)

I’m choosing the first in the series again, but this is my favorite from the series, which I first read in high school. This is a Christian Historical Fiction book that takes place during the rule of Rome. It’s very hard to put down.

6. Love and A Little White Lie by Tammy L. Gray (A State of Grace series)

Oops. It’s another first in the series. But it was my favorite! Ha! I loved this realistic inspirational romance that wasn’t cliché and dealt with real issues about faith, love, and personal flaws. It also had some humorous moments with and observations from the main character.

7. The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson (A Walt Longmire Mystery)

The Longmire mysteries can be dark at times and so I don’t read them often, instead choosing to space them out and take breaks with fluffier reads in between. I’m still in the beginning of this series so I’m sure there will be other favorites as well. I chose this one but there is actually a book of Christmas-themed short stories about Walt that I loved even more. It wasn’t really a book from the series, though, so I chose this one.

I love Johnson’s writing and how he weaves humor into serious moments. Walt’s relationship with his Native American friend Henry Standing Bear will go down as one of the strongest and coolest in literary history in my mind.

8. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (The Little House on the Prairie series)

It was hard for me to choose a favorite from this series because I like a few of them about the same. I chose this one because it’s when we meet Nellie Olson, who wasn’t as big of a part of Laura’s real life as the TV show made her out to be. I love the part where Laura tricks Nellie into going into the creek and Nellie ends up getting leeches stuck to her legs and starts screaming.

The other book I almost chose was These Happy Golden Years because Almonzo and Laura start to court more in earnest. But I also love The Farmer Boy…okay..better move on from this one or I’ll add them all.

9. Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond (The Paddington Bear series)

I had to choose a book from this series because the series has been so much a part of my and Little Miss’s life. We have read this series a couple of times and Little Miss loves when I read the books to her and do all of the accents of the characters.

There have been a few times she has fallen asleep and I’ve kept reading because I’ve gotten so caught up in these cute stories about Paddington bear. I like this book because Paddington and the Browns travel to France and they have so many different and exciting adventures.

10. EDIT: Previously this was listed as Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (from the Anne of Green Gables series) but it was actually Anne of the Island that I enjoyed more. I switched them in my head. Sigh. Sorry about that to people who already commented.

Most people would choose Anne of Green Gables as their favorite from this series and I absolutely love that book but I also love Anne of the Island because I love that Anne and Gilbert really start their romance in this one. Anne is growing up and learning about who she is and what she truly wants in life and it’s just a fun adventure.

What are some of your favorite books from a series?

Movie review/recommendation: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

July 29, 2024July 28, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 3 Comments

I read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr late last year and was swept up in the story, written for middle schoolers but with a message for all ages. The book was heartbreakingly beautiful.

Last week I watched a German movie based on it and it was as breathtakingly beautiful as the book.

So much of the movie was exactly how I pictured it in the book.

Before I continue, I want to mention that the movie is in German so if you don’t speak German you will have to read the subtitles.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a semi-autobiographical book based on the facts of Kerr’s life. The main character of the book is Anna Kemper and the story is told her from her point of view.

Her father, like Judith’s, was a newspaper columnist from Berlin who spoke out against Hitler right before Hitler won a majority to take over in Germany. Because he spoke out against Hitler, Arthur Kemper is on the Nazi’s hit list. A member of the police who is not a Nazi warns him that he needs to get out of Germany before Hitler is elected.

Anna’s father escapes to Switzerland and the family joins him even before they know the results of the election because they are warned by their father through their Uncle Julius to do so.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is the story of the family’s life in Switzerland and then Paris, France. There are other books after this book that tell of their move to London, where they eventually settled. I believe Judith eventually moved to New York City.

The movie begins in Berlin in 1933 and then shifts to Switzerland. I was thrilled to find out that the movie was actually shot on location in Switzerland and then in various places in Germany.

The views when they moved to the country were absolutely beautiful and I didn’t see how they couldn’t have actually been shot in Switzerland.

The movie filmed scenes in
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Bodensee, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Soglio, Switzerland
And Munich, Baveria, Germany’

All of the actors are outstanding in this, especially the little girl, Riva Krymalowski, who plays Anna. Her expressions and line delivery are subtly powerful.

The woman who played the mother – was also outstanding in my opinion.

This is a movie that could have been extremely dark, but because the book keeps a lighthearted tone (as light as you can when writing about Nazis chasing people down for their faith or political beliefs) the movie keeps a similar lighthearted tone mixed in with somber themes.

When the children move to Switzerland they have to learn a new language and new customs. They also deal with antisemitism, which becomes more apparent when non-religious Germans come for vacation at the hotel they are staying at but the Germans would not speak to them or let their children play with them because they are Jews who left Germany.

In the book, the children who usually play with Anna and her brother Max don’t play with Anna and Max while the other German children are there because the German children won’t play with them. This was cut out of the movie but in the book they all remain friends after the other German children leave and Anna’s Swedish friend apologizes for abandoning her.

I know everyone thinks Paris is beautiful but I was disappointed when the movie left the gorgeous scenery that Sweden provided. I’m not as thrilled with buildings – even ones in Paris.

What I did love is how free Anna’s mother and father felt in Paris and how they showed their love to each other — finally feeling like they weren’t being hunted down while there.

Like in the book, the children have to learn the languages of the countries they move to and Anna is better at this than her brother Max. She quickly learns and excels at French for example.

While she learns the languages, though, she still struggles with feeling like a refugee. Her father reminds her that Jews have always been refugees and they are no different. He encourages his children to always act respectfully and kind so that people who hear from the Nazis that Jews are awful, selfish people will not those lies aren’t true.

I found it interesting to read that Kerr held her German citizenship until 1941 and then was considered to be “stateless” or not a citizen of anywhere from 1941 to 1947. In 1947 until she died she was a citizen of Britain, where she eventually earned an OBE.

One thing that the movie brought home for me more than the book was the mother’s character, including how hard it was on her to leave Germany, as well as how strong she had to be for her family. I didn’t catch on to this as clearly when I read the book, but she was a musician who wrote operas so when she had to leave her piano behind in Berlin, it was like losing a part of herself.

In the movie there is a scene where they visit a rich family who left Berlin (and who they knew because Anna’s father once wrote a scathing review against the husband) and Anna’s mother is excited to see they have a piano. She has the chance to play it and it lifts her spirits immensely.

I felt like the movie developed her character even more.

The scene between the Kemper family and the richer family also demonstrated to me the huge disparity that developed between classes among the Jewish people during that time. The Kempers lost everything when they fled and were living in poverty. This man was somehow able to keep all of his wealth when they left Germany and ended up living in a wealthy area of Paris with plenty of food and clothes and other items for their children.

In both the book and the movie, Anna talks about how she’s read books where famous people all have difficult trials to overcome before they become famous. She comments to her brother, “Maybe that means I will be famous one day.”

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is part of a three-book series of semi-autobiographical children’s books that Kerr wrote. She also wrote and illustrated 57 books in her lifetime – including The Mog series – and they have sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit was translated into 20 languages.

In London, where she lived until she died in 2019 at the age of 95, Kerr finally found the home she’d been craving since her family left Germany in 1933.

Top Ten Things I Love about Little Women

July 16, 2024July 16, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 12 Comments

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

Today’s prompt is: Ten Things I Loved About [Insert Book Title Here] (Pick any book and tell us ten things you loved about it!) (submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext)

For this prompt, I chose to write about Little Women, which I read for the first time at the end of last year into this year. I stretched out the reading of this book – savoring it – because I loved it so much. I can’t believe it took me so long to read it. I fell in love with every character and I feel like this is a book I may not read over and over but will read excerpts of each year – probably in the winter like I did this time.

Anyhow, without further ado. . .

Top Ten Things I Loved about Little Women.

1. I love how realistically Louisa Mae Alcott wrote about the roles and lives of women in that time period, but she also didn’t entirely adhere to this historical fact because she also wrote of the girls as rebellious to those strict “standards” for women. The young March women were bold and strong-willed and didn’t let what society said they had to be stop them from being what they wanted to be.

2. I love Marmee. Just everything about her. I loved how she was maternal and brave and cared for others. I loved how she was strong but didn’t mind showing the girls she was scared when her husband was in the military hospital. I loved that she didn’t mind telling Jo that she too had struggled with her tongue and being snappy and hurting people’s feelings, yet didn’t try to tell Jo that Jo needed to change. Alcott’s decision to write about her admittance of her own struggles with temper and her reasons for those struggles was so ahead of its time. Talking about feelings and motivations for why a person acted the way they did wasn’t really something touched on by many books of this time, as far as I’ve seen.

3. I love how the book is not a traditional romance or really a romance at all – yet it is at the same time. Readers may think the story is marching (no pun intended) to a certain conclusion with two certain people ending up together but Alcott turns it all on its head and leaves us pondering what we think about who does end up with our beloved Teddy.

4. Finding a category to place this book in can be very hard at times. There are elements of romance, but then also just sweet stories, and then women’s fiction with Jo’s story and thoughts about what it means to become a young woman and a writer and what love means to her. I love that the book can’t be easily categorized. It makes it even more endearing.

5. I love the faith of the characters and how even though they have faith, they also aren’t afraid to question it and admit when God seems so far away.

“Yes, it is. She doesn’t know us, she doesn’t even talk about the flocks of green doves, as she calls the vine leaves on the wall. She doesn’t look like my Beth, and there’s nobody to help us bear it. Mother and Father both gone, and God seems so far away I can’t find Him.”

As the tears streamed fast down poor Jo’s cheeks, she stretched out her hand in a helpless sort of way, as if groping in the dark, and Laurie took it in his, whispering as well as he could with a lump in his throat, “I’m here. Hold on to me, Jo, dear!”

She could not speak, but she did “hold on,” and the warm grasp of the friendly human hand comforted her sore heart, and seemed to lead her nearer to the Divine arm which alone could uphold her in her trouble.

6. I love how each chapter of the book is like its own story which means I could read a chapter or two a night of the book and stretch out the enjoyment of stepping into that world night after night.

7. I love how Beth was both childlike and deep at the same time. So many of the things she said – much like Jo and Marmee – were amazingly profound and thought-provoking in such a simple, sweet way.

“You must take my place, Jo, and be everything to Father and Mother when I’m gone. They will turn to you, don’t fail them, and if it’s hard to work alone, remember that I don’t forget you, and that you’ll be happier in doing that than writing splendid books or seeing all the world, for love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.”

8. I love the subtly of the life lessons in this book. Those life lessons come in some of the profound statements that the characters, like Beth, says, but especially through the actions of the characters. How Marmee takes food to others and cares for them when they are at their lowest. How all the girls grasp onto life and hold on tight so they can enjoy as much of it as possible. How Mr. March helps his neighbors. How Beth cares for the young children who are sick, resulting in her own sickness and later her death.

9. I love how we are able to follow the young women from childhood to adulthood. I loved being able to see them grow and progress and stretch along the way.

10. I love Mr. Laurence and his love for Beth, but all the girls and how that love opens up parts of him that he had shut off long ago.

Is there a book that you could list ten things you love about it? If so, which book is it?

Sunday Bookends: It’s hot. It’s hot. It’s way too hot. And reading.

July 7, 2024 / 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

We have been sweating. We will sweat more this week. We will try to go swimming and maybe do some other things as family since The Husband has this next week off work. I am ready for Summer to be over. I’m sorry Summer lovers but I hate the heat. If it can be 65 to 70 for the rest of Summer, then it can stay. Otherwise – buh-bye *wink*

If you want to read about how much I want Summer to go away and Autumn to come, you can read my post from yesterday.

What I/we’ve been Reading

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker

The Chosen Kids Saga Book One: Encounter at the Dunes by R.W. Ruiz (not related to the show The Chosen/children’s book)

Return to Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (reading with Little Miss on nights we don’t fall asleep early)

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Renee by Sandra Ardoin

Dandelion Cottage by Carol Watson Rankin

Clueless At the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield

Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott

What We watched/are Watching

I have been rewatching All Creatures Great And Small (the modern version) and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew series (more on that later this week), but not a lot else. I’ve been reading and writing a bit more lately.

What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree (the title is tentative at this point), which is the third book in the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries. I’m having fun writing it and I hope you’ll have fun reading it.

I don’t mention it a lot here but if you want to read the other two books you can find a link to them in the My Books section in the menu at the top of the page.

I’m also offering 50 percent off annual paid subscriptions to my Substack newsletter/author site. I’ll be offering sneak peeks, author interviews, and several other perks on there and this week added an epub version of Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing to all paid subscriptions.

If you are interested in the discount, you can use this coupon link:

https://lisarhoweler.substack.com/subscribe?coupon=3809a83a

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am listening to Live & Let Chai by Bree Baker when I am driving somewhere, while also reading the ebook on Kindle.

Music-wise I am listening to Anne Wilson’s Rebel album.

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.