Sunday Bookends: Pet loss, books and movies as distractions

On August 23, 2026August 23, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon20 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.

I debated whether I wanted to write about this week, or even at all, but since I had shared off and on since April or May about our cats and their various illnesses, I thought I would mention that our oldest cat, Pixel, was put to sleep last Sunday.

The reason I didn’t want to write about it is that it is just too difficult to do so. Sometimes I want to believe it is a nightmare I will wake up from at some point.

The short version is that Pixel continued to decline after she became sick in May around the same time our other cats also caught some sort of virus.

We spent about four months battling various ailments or incidents with out cats, starting with the youngest being sprayed by a skunk, getting an eye infection, and then some sort of virus that passed to our middle cat and made her very sick. We had to get antibiotics and other medicine for her because she was only sleeping and not eating and just declining fast. As she started to get better, the oldest cat caught it and before we could get her to the vet, we let her outside to rest under her favorite bush and then she disappeared for three days and four nights.

We thought she was dead and when she returned I imagined some romantic idea that we’d get her well and she’d live another five years.

Sadly, that was not to be and I blame myself for this in some ways so I don’t feel like I can write a lot more about it. My friends and family say I did all I could but I question that and wish I had taken her to a different vet for a second opinion. In the end, the virus most likely attacked her liver, or her inability to eat from the side effects of the virus, led to her decline.

We have had Pixel since early 2017 so it’s been quite an adjustment not to see her in the house, let her out and in, have her climb on my side or chest while I was reading a book at night, lift her to the bathroom sink where she liked to drink from and seeing her every day during my morning bathroom trip when she’d pace infront of me and make little noises to try to get me to pet her even though I was …. Busy.

One day a few months ago I asked her how she’d gotten so fat and where her chin was and I swear she looked at me just like this…slowly turning her head as if to say, “Like you’ve got room to talk, lady.”

She wasn’t a very loud cat so sometimes we wouldn’t even notice she was there ….

But she was there. Always.

And now she’s not.

And that’s very strange, very hard, and, for me, overwhelmingly heartbreaking.

It all just adds to a lot of sadness going on with friends who are losing their human loved ones, which, in most cases, is way more difficult that losing a pet friend (though that is very hard too).

*When she wanted to come in from outside she’d look in our kitchen window like this – as if we had kicked her out or something. Don’t mind the dirty glass — it’s for paint water.*

So, while my family and I were super sad this week, we tried to find joy, to give ourselves grace when we felt sad and down, and give our other pets a lot of extra love.

Slowly starting school for Little Miss and working on my Gladwynn book helped to distract me and yesterday The Husband took Little Miss and The Boy to a family amusement park about 90 minutes away, which I think helped distract the kids.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Recently Finished

Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson and By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie.

I loved them both for different reasons. Miss Buncle Married because it was relaxing and By The Pricking of My Thumbs because it was horrifyingly thrilling in some parts, but also had some humor spread throughout. It was my first Tommy and Tuppence Mystery and I’ll have a review up later this week.

In Progress

I am slow reading Stillmeadow Daybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month for the rest of 2026 and into 2027. I’m also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

I’m currently reading a Nancy Drew Mystery — The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk.

I’m also about to start a Murder, She Wrote Mystery: A Slaying in Savannah by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain.

Up Soon

I plan to start The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain in September.

I’ll also be reading Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie for the Christie Reading Challenge 2026 and really hope to read Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham soon as well.

And I can’t wait to order a copy of The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D.E. Stevenson to continue with the Miss Buncle storyline.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are on the last, very long chapter, of Heidi. She read two chapters on her own this week and I was proud of her because she hasn’t been reading on her own much lately. She’s like me as a kid, I think. I would go through spurts of reading and then do other things, like art, and then come back to reading. She has been drawing a lot lately in a sketchbook I bought her.

We will be starting a book for history/literature this week as school starts but we have not decided which one.

The Boy is listening to a Warhammer book but I forget which one and he’s not downstairs where I can ask him right now.

Warren (aka The Husband) is reading The Bigger They Come by Erle Stanley Gardner.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

I am on a “book-buying ban” this month but still ordered a copy of A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis and Warren bought me a cozy mystery called Midsummer Murder by Rebecca Kelly at a library book sale.

And I may or may not have ordered the remaining copies of the Tommy and Tuppence series by Agatha Christie that will hopefully match the edition I have.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

An episode of Midsomer Murders. We watched an episode from Season 17 Episode 1 and whoa. Most shows jump the track by season 17…not this one. I haven’t watched these in order. My husband watches them more and says they do hold up well throughout all the seasons.

A couple of Murder, She Wrote episodes. Mary Berry 90th birthday episodes.

Movies: Irene and Vernon Castle, Project Hail Mary, Private Detective 62, Lady Killer, Little Caesar, and Ladies They Talk About.

What I’ve Been Writing

I made a lot of progress on the manuscript of Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School this past week.

If you don’t know, I have a cozy mystery series that you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

I’ll also have it up on library sites soon as well….if I can figure out how. Ha.

In the last couple of weeks on the blog I shared:

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

Maine Mutiny by Donald Bain. It’s a Murder, She Wrote book and I only listen to it when I am driving somewhere but I’m really getting into it so I am going to have to listen to it other times as well.

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

Mama (not her real name *wink*) from Mama’s Empty Nest writes the most interesting blog posts about her and her family’s travels around the country. I learn something new every time I read one. Today I am sharing two of her posts, one from this past week, and one from a year ago that she linked to from this week’s post.

Tuesday Tour: going round on Route 66

Tuesday Tour: going round in circles

I also liked this post about God’s Growing Garden seeing a hummingbird.

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?

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

Book recommendation: Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson

On August 18, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading6 Comments

I read Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson in July and finished the second book in the trilogy, Miss Buncle Married, this past week.

The first book details Miss Barbara Buncle’s sticky situation that results after she writes a fiction book based on the people in her little English village and that book becomes a best seller.

Before long people in the village begin to recognize themselves and chaos erupts but luckily Barbara has used a pseudonym, so no one knows she wrote the book.

There is a bit of a spoiler to even give the title of the second book, but, yes, Barbara does marry at the end of the first book – hence the title of Miss Buncle Married.

I found the first book, very charming, engaging, and full of humor which is why I wanted to read the second book and continue Barbara’s adventures.

I read the second book in the trilogy with my friend Cat of Cat’s Wire.

In this second book, Miss Buncle is now Mrs. Abbott and is living in a new town. She and her husband, Arthur, are enjoying themselves until they become so popular in the social scene that they get overwhelmed with never having a night off from a party, a dinner, or a game of cards. This prompts them to look for a new house in a new village, and that gives readers a new cast of characters and a new adventure to enjoy.

Here is a quick description from Goodreads: “In this charming follow-up to Miss Buncle’s Book, readers will follow Barbara Buncle’s journey into married life in a new town filled with fascinating neighbors…who may become the subjects of Barbara’s next novel! Miss Buncle may have settled down, but she’s already discovered that married life has done nothing to prevent her from getting into humorous mix-ups and hilarious hijinx. Readers will continue to fall in love with Barbara as she hilariously navigates an exciting new beginning.”

There are misunderstandings and confusion which create hilarious scenes throughout the book. The addition of Arthur and Barbara’s partying and shiftless nephew, Sam, and lecherous artist neighbor creates even more craziness and upheaval throughout the book.

Barbara has essentially retired from writing in this book after all the drama that evolved from her first two books.

She has decided she will no longer write any books. In this book, however, the writing bug bites her again.

In some ways I felt like we got to know the people of the town and their stories more in the first book, but this book provided us with a more intimate look at Barbara herself and how she thinks and her and Arthur’s relationship.

As in the first book, this book also provided a look into Barbara’s writing process, which is also the writing process of many other authors. As a writer myself, I especially enjoyed reading about how Barbara couldn’t avoid writing about her new neighbors, even though she tried not to. There was just something in her that made her feel like she needed to create a fictionalized version of the town and the people in it. When she started writing she became a feral mad woman who couldn’t leave her room until all her ideas were written down. I can relate to this feeling quite a bit.

What’s funny is how often Barbara and Arthur both claim throughout the book that Barbara doesn’t have an imagination, but she creates entire scenarios that jump off the situations involving the people in the village and that’s still imagination to me.

They both claim she doesn’t have an imagination because she has to base her ideas of the situations she experiences or hears about around her but this is ridiculous, of course, because all Barbara needs is a little idea and she’s off. I think that’s a biggest “joke” of the book.

I like both of these books individually but I love them even more as a whole story, read back-to back. Miss Buncle Married feels more like a continuation of the first book, as it should, rather than a separate book and I am glad to have that because I did want to read more about Miss Buncle.

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You can find my book reviews, movie reviews, and ramblings about the books I write on Instagram.

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 and Facebook.

Sunday Bookends: The Husband’s acting bug continues, watched a lot of movies, and …will my daughter and I ever finish reading Heidi?

On August 2, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon14 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.

My husband has been rehearsing for a couple of months now for a community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors and yesterday the kids and I were able to see the result of his and the cast and crew’s hard work.

He did an amazing job as Mr. Mushnik, the shop owner, if you are familiar with the play/movie.

Everyone else did as well. The singing, acting, the effects, and the Audrey II puppet made by a local college student. Most of the cast were college age, except for my husband.

This was the play version so the ending was quite different than the movie ending (different = sadder), but it was …. Sort of okay.

I got attached to the girl who played Audrey and, let’s just say, I shouldn’t have.

The girl who played Audrey is so talented.

You can see her performance (complete with my horrible videography) here:

And I hope my husband doesn’t mind but here he is performing his song, which he was so nervous about doing.

This is now the fourth or fifth production he’s done with the local theater group and he gets better every time.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

I finished Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck earlier in the week and will have a review for it later this week.

I enjoyed it and thought the last two or three chapters when he was down South witnessing the desegregation of schools was the most well written and interesting of the whole book.

In Progress

I am reading two D.E. Stevenson books right now — Celia’s House and Miss Buncle Married.

I am doing a buddy read of Miss Buncle Married with Cat from Cat’s Wire.

Miss Buncle Married is the sequel to Miss Buncle’s Book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I’m focusing on these two books only for now and expect to have Celia’s House finished halfway through this week.

Up Soon

I’ll be reading By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie after I finish the Stevenson books, for the August pick for the 2026 Christie Reading Challenge.

What The Family is Reading

The Husband is reading Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson.

The Boy is listening to The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow.

Little Miss and I … well, still reading Heidi because we’ve been distracted by other summer things. I hope to have it finished this week so we can jump into our reads for school, which I am starting in two weeks.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

Recently, I added Cagney on Cagney by …. yes, James Cagney, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Steveson, Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Moss Covered Mansion, Nancy Drew: The Message in the Hollow Oak, and Murder, She Wrote: The Queens Jewels by Donald Baine (and Jessica Fletcher).

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched a few movies including: Without Love (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy), The Mark of Zorro, It Should Happen to You with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday, Love Crazy (Myrna Loy and William Powell), The Fortune Cookie, and Little Shop of Horrors (1986).

What I’ve Been Writing

I worked on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School this week and was able to write quite a bit! I’m excited to keep moving forward on it.

This past week on the blog I shared:

Some Housekeeping

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?

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.

If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/