Sunday Bookends: Gladys Taber, Heidi, and other relaxing books and Bette Davis movies

On April 12, 2026April 11, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon11 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 past week was semi-eventful but mostly errands and trips to pick up either glasses or medicine for the kitten who was sprayed by a skunk and then developed an eye infection. I wrote about that in my post yesterday.

There were a couple trips to my parents as well, mainly to help my mom while my dad went to various appointments and to clean the house a little. My parents live about seven minutes away, so it wasn’t too much of a drive at least. The weather was also very nice yesterday when we went to visit, if not a little chilly.

Little Miss had a friend over to visit, and they had fun dressing up in the same outfit since they both have similar-looking glasses now. They also had a lot of fun jumping off the railing of my parents’ deck, and I just hoped they wouldn’t break anything. Luckily, they did not.

I have not broken my book-buying ban for this month but I am in possession of two new Nancy Drew books. My husband found them at a local thrift store. They are from the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series from the early 2000s and are written in the first person. Not sure what I’ll think of them, but I have a lot of books ahead of them to read first.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

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. I am, of course, in April now. The book starts with April and my copy (used and in good shape) arrived two days before the beginning of April. I thought that was great timing!

I’ve already marked so much in the book that I have enjoyed.

I am also continuing to read Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse and Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I will finish both of them this week.

Up Soon

Up next, I am reading A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie as part of the Christie Challenge for 2026.

I am also looking forward to a Murder She Wrote book, Aloha Betrayal, sometime in April, but then I also remembered I wanted to read The Enchanted April this month so we will see which one comes first.

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I started Heidi this past week and I think she will like it.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched the British sitcom from the 70s, Two’s Company with Elaine Stritch and ….. some British guy I don’t know the name of. Okay. I looked it up. It’s Donald Sinden. It’s such a funny and entertaining show.

I also watched the 1937 movie It’s Love I’m After with Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, and Olivia De Haviland. It was so funny. I am so glad I found it while looking for Bettie Davis movies to watch this spring. I was going to watch mainly her well-known movies but decided to watch some lesser-known ones to start, ones where she was just starting out, and I am glad I did. I also watched another one called A Working Man from 1938 and it was great too. I’ll be writing about both later this week.

I watched one called Payment on Demand with Bette Davis earlier in the week and didn’t enjoy it. I don’t think I’ll be writing about that one.

I watched a ton of Bluey with Little Miss and her friend last night.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

What I/We’ve Been Listening To

I’ve been listening to the Jack Benny Show when I go to bed at night.

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

What Are Your Reading Habits & Quirks?

Words for Wednesday: spring in my heart

THE SEEN VS THE UNSEEN

Photos From Last Week

Some Housekeeping

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

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

Now It’s Your Turn

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

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. Sunday Bookends with Boondock Ramblings 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.

My March Reading and Watching Wrap-up and April Hopefuls

On April 9, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings11 Comments

March was a pretty good reading and watching month.

In March, I read or finished seven books:

The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Whispering Walls by Mildred Wirt

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.

Movies I watched:

Saving Grace

The Crystal Ball

It’s Tough to Be Famous

Libeled Lady

Eternally Yours

Another Thin Man

Her Cardboard Lover

Shows I watched:

The Puzzle Lady

All Creates Great and Small

The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Murder, She Wrote

Two’s Company

In April I plan to/hope to read:

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

The Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse

Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayed by Donald Bain

Nancy Drew: Nancy’s Mysterious Letter by Carolyn Keene

I hope to watch:

Bette Davis movies for my Spring of Bette, including Now Voyager and Jezebel.

I’ve already watched It’s Love I’m After, The Working Man, and Another Man’s Poison for the feature.

How was your March, and what do you hope to read or watch in April?

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

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

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends:Losing cell service at the Marie Antoinette, skunky cat, and Happy Easter!

On April 5, 2026April 5, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon19 Comments

First things first – He is risen! He is risen indeed! Happy Resurrection Sunday!

What a week last week was — or at least part of it.

I wrote about it on the blog yesterday for my Saturday Afternoon Chat but the gist of it was my husband had a wisdom tooth pulled under sedation at a dentist about 90-minutes away from where we live (it went very well), our youngest cat was sprayed with a skunk early Friday morning (he still stinks so bad after two baths), and Little Miss had nausea all week from possible food poisoning.

But then, to make the week a little better, Little Miss won a local Easter coloring contest from the small weekly newspaper in our county and received an absolutely huge Easter basket full of goodies yesterday.

We couldn’t even believe how big the basket was or how much stuff was in there. It was very kind of the newspaper to hold the contest and then provide such amazing gifts to the winners.

The owner/publisher of the paper is our neighbor but “an independent board of residents” judges the contest, he said, so he and his wife (who also works at the paper) were pleasantly surprised to see Little Miss win the first prize.

While picking up the gift basket, I apologized to him for stinking up the neighborhood since it was our cat that got sprayed, but he said he didn’t smell it luckily. He asked which cat it was and when I told him it was the youngest he said he feels bad for Cass (the youngest) because he keeps trying to get in fights with their old cat Oscar and Oscar has like 20 pounds on him.

“He keeps beating Cass up,” my neighbor said.

I told our neighbor that Cass is young and has to learn his place and stay in his own territory, so I guess he will have to learn not to push Oscar’s buttons. Then Oscar won’t have to beat him up. Ha.

We both did say we hope Oscar doesn’t hurt him too bad, though and I’ll be keeping more of an eye on him so he doesn’t go up there. Our properties run right together, though, so it might be hard to do. So far, Cass hasn’t looked beat up so I don’t think Oscar’s aim is to hurt him, but to tell him to head back home.

Yesterday The Husband was driving from the town where he works to the town where our closest Aldi is to pick our groceries when he called me.

As he usually does on this drive, he said to be about 10 minutes in, “Okay, I have to let you go. I’m getting to the Marie Antoinette, and I’m going to lose you.”

Non-locals would probably be confused by this. He’s almost to Marie Antoinette? What does that even mean? Wasn’t she the French queen who was guillotined? Yes, she was, and she’s also the French queen whose servants and fellow noblemen took a ship to the United States when the revolution started heating up to set up a community for her in what is now Pennsylvania. Many of those servants stayed in our area even after she was killed, while some returned to France.

Because there was a connection to her, though, there are sites in our area named after her — including an overlook called the Marie Antoinette overlook and an inn called the Marie Antoinette Inn.

My husband’s cell service disappears at the Marie Antoinette Overlook and then comes back about ten minutes later, but remains spotty until he reaches the town where the Aldi is. That’s why he announces he is at the Marie Antoinette, and he has to go.

Why did I explain all this? I have no idea. I just found it an interesting way to tie in our local history.

What I/We’ve Been Reading