Sunday Bookends: Bookish link party, birthday outing, plenty of mysteries

On September 21, 2025September 21, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon21 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.

Friday was my birthday, so I wrote about visiting a very nice restaurant with my husband in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post yesterday if you want to catch up with all that there. I’ll share some photos below of our experience.

A reminder that I — and now my new co-host Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs — host a monthly bookish link party. It’s called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea but I’ve changed the link name at the top of the page to “Bookish Link Party” so it makes more sense. It’s a link-up for any post related to reading or books and you can post throughout the month.

Another reminder that Erin and I will be hosting a Comfy, Cozy movie-watching marathon again this year, and we already have our list of movies. This week we are watching Benny and Joon with Mary Stuart Masterson, Johnny Depp, Aiden Quinn, and Julianne Moore.

Erin made this cool graphic for it:

Also, Erin and I host a monthly Crafternoon meet up where we get together on Zoom with other bloggers/crafters and do a craft while we chat about life and books and all kinds of other things. We do our best not to focus on religion or politics so we don’t depress ourselves.

If you are interested in the crafternoon, you can find more information here.

I just finished An Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller, which as a buddy read with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. We are both sharing a review of it tomorrow.

You can read the review tomorrow to know what I thought of it.

Right now, I am still reading Gin and Daggers, a Murder, She Wrote book by Donald Bain. I will most likely have it done tonight or tomorrow.

I am also reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis.

My slow read is still Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowen, a non-fiction book by Agatha that is about her and her husband traveling to Syria for an archaeological dig. It’s good so far but a bit wordy and slow in some places so I’m not as interested to read it as I am my murder mysteries.

Up next I will be reading Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Broken Locket.

Tuesday I’ll be sharing my list of hopeful reads for autumn. I know for a fact I won’t get through all of them, but it will be fun trying anyhow.

Little Miss and I are reading The Good Master by Kate Seredy together.

The Husband is reading Gray Day by Walter Mosley.

This past week I watched Murder, She Wrote (of course. I am making my way through the show since I didn’t watch them when I was younger.), Poirot, Just A Few Acres Farm, Dick VanDyke, and Supernatural.

It was my first time watching Supernatural and I liked it, sort of. I’m not big on scary or horror-type stuff and though this is tamer than actual horror films, it still unsettled me. I watched it with my son and told him I might do it again but I’m not sure. I’ll have to watch a lot of All Creatures Great and Small to get it out of my system. Ha!

I actually am working on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School, but very slowly. It looks like I won’t have it out until winter.

Last week on the blog I shared:

I’m going to start listening to Come Rain, or Come Shine by Jan Karon this upcoming week (because I didn’t last week!) as I get ready for Jan’s new book to come out in October!

I’ve also been listening to the True Drew Podcast, which is a podcast about all things Nancy Drew. You can find it on Apple Podcasts.

|| The Well Beaten Path by For His Purpose ||

|| Apple Taste Testing by The Farm Wife Reads ||

|| A Cat Called Room 8 and the Young Ones by Bettie G’s RA Seasons ||

|| Emma’s Story by Words From Anneli ||

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot September 19

On September 18, 2025September 18, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam8 Comments

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.

Now, let’s introduce our 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 Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.

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!

This week we are spotlighting: Deb’s World

A little about Deb: My name is Debbie but you can call me Deb – all my friends do!

I’m an Australian midlife, travel, adventure and lifestyle blogger.

I’m a bit quirky, full of energy, enthusiastic, into social media, sharing things and looking for the positives.

I am Debbie – a wife; mother; grandmother; daughter; sister; friend; blogger; reader; runner; walker; cyclist; Rail Trail enthusiast; traveller; Rotarian; Whovian; former teacher.

My aim is to make you smile, educate you in some way, maybe inspire you and to share my world, while learning about your world.

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

Yaaaay! Autumn decorations are out at Debbie’s!

(Many of us certainly need a digital detox right now!)

(Love the versatility of these pants!)

Important things to know about the link up:

You may add unlimited family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts, not just the blog.
Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
The party opens Thursday evening and ends Wednesday.
Thank you for participating. Have fun!

*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Top Ten Literary/Bookish Candles I’d Make

On September 16, 2025September 16, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday14 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt: Literary/Bookish Candles I’d Make (Pick a book and assign it a fragrance or fragrance combo that would make a nice candle.) (Submitted by Heather @ The Frozen Library) I will note that I wouldn’t really want some of these candles in my house — it’s just the smells I imagine from the books. Ha!

|| Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery – Raspberry cordial and plum pudding ||

|| Any book from the Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner – old spice and cigarettes||

|| The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – pine needles and Turkish delight. ||

|| Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson – Sulfur and overcooked steak ||

|| The Mystery of Lilac Inn (A Nancy Drew Mystery) by Carolyn Keene -Um…lilacs of course! ||

|| Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey – Definitely apple cider donuts! ||

|| Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker – Chai Tea with cinnamon of course ||

|| Clueless at the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield – Freshly Brewed Coffee with Hazelnut Cream ||

||The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit – Freshly mown grass or freshly tilled dirt ||

10.

The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold – Apple Streusel cake (clearly)!

Have you read any of these books and do you enjoy having scented candles in your home?

Book review/recommendation: Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down

On September 15, 2025September 14, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading5 Comments

Title: Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down

Author: Dave Barry

Genre: Comedy/Humor

Description:

Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry is a pretty amiable guy. But lately, he’s been getting a little worked up. What could make a mild-mannered man of words so hot under the collar? Well, a lot of things–like bad public art, Internet millionaires, SUVs, Regis Philbin . . . and even bigger problems, like

• The slower-than-deceased-livestock left-lane drivers who apparently believe that the right lane is sacred and must never come in direct contact with tires
• The parent-misery quotient of last-minute school science fair projects
• Day trading and other careers that never require you to take off your bathrobe
• The plague of the low-flow toilets, which is so bad that even in Miami, where you can buy drugs just by opening your front door and yelling “Hey! I want some crack,” you can’t even sell your first born to get a normal-flushing toilet

Dave Barry is not taking any of this sitting down. He’s going to stand up for the rights of all Americans against ridiculously named specialty “–chino” coffees and the IRS. Just as soon as he gets the darn toilet flushed.

My impressions:

Dave Barry’s columns are hilarious and keep me laughing when I probably would otherwise be crying. I had a weird summer with a lot of up and down emotions so this book, with its bite-sized chapters, (which are made up of column reproductions from his years at the Miami Herald) were just what I needed. I read two or three columns a night and tried not to laugh too loud so I didn’t wake up anyone else in the family.

I love Dave’s sense of humor. The sarcasm and quick whit and play on words. Even the puns. This book was written in 2000 and still holds up with so many topics and thoughts that many of us still (sometimes sadly) can relate to.

What I also liked about this book is that it was clean, with only an occasional off-color comment or joke. There is no swearing other than a hell or damn from time to time.

I have never read Dave’s fiction books so I can’t comment on if those are clean or not. I will let you know if I ever read one. My husband has read them and always seems to laugh through them, so I guess they are funny at least.

Some of Dave’s non-fiction comedy books focus on one specific topic, like computers, ,but the topics in this book include everything from politics to regulations on toilets, always managing to make the topic light and giggle-inducing.

Some quotes I liked from this one:

“Like many members of the uncultured, Cheez-It-consuming public, I am not good at grasping modern art. I’m the type of person who will stand in front of a certified modern masterpiece painting that looks, to the layperson, like a big black square, and quietly think: “Maybe the actual painting is on the other side.”

“The public should enjoy what the experts have decided the public should enjoy. That’s the system we use in this country, and we’re going to stick with it.”

One that hits home for me, a former newspaper reporter whose husband is still in the business: “Here in the newspaper business, we have definitely caught Internet Fever. In the old days we used to — get this! — actually charge money for our newspapers. Ha ha! What an old-fashioned, low 0tech, non-digital concept! Nowadays all of the hip modern newspapers spend millions of dollars operating Web sites where we give away the entire newspaper for fee. Sometimes we run advertisements in the regular newspaper, urging our remaining paying customers to go to our Web sites instead. “Stop giving us money!” is the shrewd marketing thrust of these ads. Why do we do this? Because all of the other newspapers are doing it! If all the other newsapes stuck pencils up their noses, we’d do that, too! This is called “market penetration.””

(Aside: It’s been fun to see newspapers try to shut the barn door after they already opened it on the Web site payments. Most people are fighting it and I can’t blame them. After so many years of getting everything for free, it’s quite a shock to be told you now have to pay for it.)

It was fun here to discover he’d worked at a newspaper I’ve heard of and is in my state: “I myself developed the coffee habit in my early 20s,, when, as a “cub” reporter for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, I had to stay awake while writing phenomenally boring stories about municipal government. I got my coffee from a vending machine that also sold hot chocolate and chicken-noodle soup; all three liquids squired out of a single tube, and they tasted pretty much the same. But I came to need that coffee, and even today I can do nothing useful before I’ve had several cups. (I can’t do anything useful afterward, either; that’s why I’m a columnist.)”

The bottom line is that if you need a good laugh, this is a good Dave Barry book to choose. I can’t vouch for all of his books, but this one is a good choice.

Sunday Bookends: Some comfort shows, mystery reading, pretty views

On September 14, 2025September 15, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon22 Comments

We had some family time this last week with my brother and sister-in-law and my parents to discuss the future, I guess you would say. It wasn’t easy but it was necessary as my parents are both 81 now.

It was nice to have that family time together even though it was short. Luckily, my brother and his wife don’t live too far away, and we hope to visit them when the leaves change color, since they live in one of the prettiest parts of the state.

Nadda.

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller, Gin and Daggers (A Murder She Wrote book) by “Jessica Fletcher” and Donald Bain, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, and Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan.

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder is very good and fairly fast-moving so far. It’s sort of a cozy mystery at this point. Clean. I’m reading it as part of a buddy read with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

Gin and Daggers is very good and well-written. I don’t think I expected it to be, even though another one out of the series I read was good as well. This is the first in the Murder, She Wrote series.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is obviously good.

Come, Tell Me How You Live is my slow read with a chapter or two a week (the chapters are very long).

Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene.

Little Miss and I are reading The Good Master by Kate Seredy and are enjoying it. She is reading a chapter a night before bed, and then I read the chapters the next morning.

I am behind. Oops! Ha! She’s enjoying what’s ahead of me now.

The Husband is reading Walkin’ the Dog by Walter Mosley.

I’ve been watching The Dick VanDyke Show, The Monkees (which I could only find a couple of episodes of), Rockford Files, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Murder, She Wrote, The Chosen and other nostalgic shows that bring me comfort.

The week before last I watched the first couple episodes of season two of the Marlow Mystery Club.

I read the first two books in the series and the second one pretty much made me decide to take a break from the series. I did not enjoy it very much. I’ll see if the season based on it is even better.

Yesterday I wrote about watching an episode of The Monkees that I found on YouTUbe (couldn’t find it streaming anywhere else) and then last night I watched a concert with them from 2001 and it was actually very good. Great music, funny, and just flat out entertaining. Watching it was the most relaxed since Wednesday afternoon. You can find it HERE.

I’m going to start listening to Come Rain, or Come Shine by Jan Karon this upcoming week as I get ready for Jan’s new book to come out in October!

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.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot for September 12

On September 11, 2025September 11, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam12 Comments

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

This week was a really rough news week for many reasons (reflecting on 9/11 today in addition to all of the other horrible news) so I had to withdrawal as much as I could and reach for comfort reads and watches. Plus, it’s fall and that’s the kind of stuff I enjoy reading and watching in fall anyhow. What kind of shows and books do you watch when you want to feel cozy and comforted?

Think of that while I introduce you to your hosts:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

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!

This week we are spotlighting: Creatively Beth

A little about Beth: Hey there, I’m Beth and Welcome to Creatively Beth where you will find crafts, DIYs, and printables that are fun, easy, and cute! I am the FUN Aunt who loves to doodle, paint, and create with and for the kiddos. I am a craft hoarder and a maker at heart who lives to stroll the clearance aisle and go thrifting.

Designing and crafting since childhood with my Gran I was constantly sewing doll clothes, learning needlepoint, making macramé plant hangers, and decoupaging EVERYTHING, but hey it was the 70’s! She was the true inspiration for my creative exploration, which continues to this day. (Read more at the link above!)

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

This mosaic is so beautiful!!

(Love this message of showing love)

(These trees are amazing!!)

Oh gosh…banana cobbler!

Important things to know about the link up:

You may add unlimited family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts, not just the blog.
Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
The party opens Thursday evening and ends Wednesday.
Thank you for participating. Have fun!

*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Top Ten (or just ten, not top) Literary Villains

On September 9, 2025September 9, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday17 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt was: Villains (favorite, best, worst, lovable, creepiest, most evil, etc.)

This week I decided to list villains from books I’ve read and some from books I haven’t yet read (and might never read. Ha!)

Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I have read one book featuring Professor Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, but not the short story yet. I have also seen him portrayed in at least two TV adaptations of Sherlock Holmes

2. Captain Hook from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Of course Captain Hook from J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan has to be on this list. I have read some of Peter Pan and watched, of course, the adaptations, specifically the Disney one and Hook. Dustin Hoffman pulled off a brilliant performance as Hook in that one

Editorial use only Mandatory Credit: Photo by Snap/Shutterstock (390884jm) FILM STILLS OF ‘HOOK’ WITH 1991, ACTION, AGAINST-ALL-ODDS (SWASHBUCKLER, FANTASY, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, STEVEN SPIELBERG IN 1991 VARIOUS

3. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Hello…what is more evil than a wizard who wants to rule the world? A devil who wants to rule it, but you know what I mean.

4. Count Dracula from Dracula by Bram Stoker

We’ve had way too many kids’ movies that have tried to turn Dracula into a funny, relatable good guy. I’ve never read the book, but from what I understand about it — he was not a good guy. Not at all.

5. Voldemort from The Harry Potter series

Another evil wizard who wants to take over the world, but most of all destroy poor Harry Potter. I have not read the books but I did read part of the first on my own and with my kids and watched the movies with them as well.

6.Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

I have never read this book and most likely won’t but I did watch the movie with my husband.

7. Eleanor Shaw from The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon

I have not read the book but I watched the 1962 movie with Angela Lansbury as Eleanor Shaw and … shudder…she was super creepy. I can’t get into too much about why she is so evil so I don’t ruin the book or movie for you. Just know she’s scum.

8. The White Witch (Jadis) from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Creepy to a fault, Jadis likes to tempt little boys with Turkish delight to drag all the secrets out so she can find and kill his siblings and keep her chilly hold on all of Narnia. She is, of course, a symbol of Satan, or at least one of his minions. I have read the books she is in (The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) and have seen one movie with her in it.

9. M. Hercule Flambeau from The Father Brown Mysteries by G.K. Chesterton

This conniving burglar is always trying to get by Father Brown who is always hot on his tale. I’ve read one short story with him and have seen him in the modern version of the show. He’s quite handsome in that show too but aren’t all the best villains a bit handsome?

10. Satan from Paradise Lost by John Milton (and …hello….the BIBLE)

I have not read Paradise Lost but I have read the Bible and if you want to get technical about it, Satan is the basis for all the villains we have listed here.

Here is another list of villains I found online: https://lithub.com/40-of-the-best-villains-in-literature/

There are so many more great and interesting villains from literature that I could have named. Who are some of your favorites?

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot September 5

On September 4, 2025September 5, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Weekend Traffic Jam6 Comments

Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.

It is officially fall here in Pennsylvania! Whoo-hoo! The leaves are changing, the days and nights are cooler, and our school days have started. Little Miss is the only one homeschooling this year so that is an adjustment for me. I’m surviving but miss picking out curriculum for my son…who mainly ignored it for two years anyhow while he was in technical school.
As I’m finishing this post it is raining outside and it is so cozy. I love autumn!

Now, let’s introduce our hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

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!

This week we are spotlighting: Is This Mutton

A little about Gail: Is This Mutton? Is all about fashion and fun for the over 50s.

We are vital, energetic and fashionable, and blessed with wisdom and experience. We spend the most money of all the demographics on beauty and fashion.

We certainly don’t need click bait articles and newspapers telling us what the over 50s should and should not wear! And we don’t want to wear elasticated skirts, except on Christmas Day.

What we really hate is being represented by pictures of people in their 80s with walking sticks, or described as “grandmothers”, “ageing gracefully” or “silver surfers.” Would these epithets be applied to men over 50 by the media? No.

The title, “Is this Mutton?” refers to a saying in the UK, “mutton dressed as lamb,” usually applied to older women in a derogatory sense. Consequently, women over the age of 40 are made to worry about looking like mutton.

The blog was created by Gail, a woman in London whose background includes journalism and marketing director.

Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!

And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:

I love this dress!

(This is such a fun tour in Wisconsin!)

A post with some good news

Some glowing skin advice in this one

Important things to know about the link-up:

You may add unlimited family-friendly blog post links, linked to specific blog posts, not just the blog.
Be sure to visit other links and leave a kind comment for each link you post (it would be too hard to visit every link, of course!)
The party opens Thursday evening and ends Wednesday.
Thank you for participating. Have fun!

*By linking to The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Up, you give permission to share your post and images on the hosts’ blogs.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Summer Reading Challenge Wrap Up

On September 3, 2025September 4, 2025 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading8 Comments

This summer I participated in the Summer Reading Challenge hosted by Emma at Words and Peace and Annabel @ AnnaBookBel.

In the beginning I decided I would read 15 and then I decided on my own that I’d just read 10. I knew I had a lot going on this summer with health and stuff (not like I actually had a life and traveled. Har. Har.) and was also trying to finish the fourth book in my mystery series (which, sadly, is not finished) so I figured I might not even read that many.

In the end, though, I did manage to read 15 books.

First, my original list of planned reads:

Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh

Between Sound and Sea by Amanda Cox

The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Woodhouse

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner

‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara

Death In A Budapest Butterfly by Julia Buckley

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonassen

But First Murder by Bee Littlefield

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman

A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano

The Unlikely Yarn of The Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon

Now my final list of books read this summer:

A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano

The Unlikely Yarn of The Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon

But First Murder by Bee Littlefield

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Woodhouse

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner

The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

The Wishing Well by Mildred Wirt

Killer in the Kitchen (A Murder, She Wrote book) by Donald Bain

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Dave Barry is Not Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry

Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

The Password to Larkspur Lane by Carolyn Keene

Here are a few follow up questions suggested by Emma:

Did you manage to finish all 10/15/20 books? If not, what kept you from completing the challenge? I finished 15 books when I actually thought I’d only get 10 done!

Of all the books you read this summer, which one(s) was/were your favorite and why? The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Inimitable Jeeves were my favorites. The Scarlet Pimpernel kept me turning the pages with its adventure and The Inimitable Jeeves was hilarous and fun.

Did you DNF any? Why? I did not finish the Courtney Walsh books. I just couldn’t get into them.

Which book surprised you the most, either by being better or worse than you expected? I expected Spill the Jackpot to be so much better than it was. I read another book in the series and really enjoyed it but this one was just not good at all.

Did you notice any patterns in the genres you chose or enjoyed this summer? As usual I read more mysteries than anything else.

Which one had the best cover? Some of my books had different covers than what I showed above. If the photo I used for The Scarlet Pimpernel on my graphic had been the cover I had had on my book, I would say that one, but, alas, I did not have that cover. So for me I think A Midnight Dance had the best cover but the Dave Barry book had the funniest.

Which one was the longest? And the shortest? All Things Wise and Wonderful was the longest and Prince Caspian was the shortest (I think)..

Did you read them mostly in print? ebook? audio? I mostly read my books via ebooks.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.