Sunday Bookends: book buying ban and traumatized cats

March 1, 2026March 2, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 17 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.

What’s Been Occurring

I am putting myself on a book buying ban in March and April.

I have so many books that I need to read right now. All of the books I chose for my spring hopefuls list are paperback books so that will help me work through that pile.

Also, I think my cats are traumatized by how it was 52 degrees yesterday and today we have snow on the ground. One climbed onto me in bed this morning for cuddles (or her laying on me even though I need to move and then hissing at me to lay back down) and the other reached up to be picked up while I was trying to used the bathroom. I did pick her up and looked down to see the other cat now at my feet. I’m guessing the teenager cat was out in the snow playing with it.

It makes me think of this poster I want to get for our bathroom:

I mentioned on the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot that Little Miss was sick last week. We aren’t sure what she had but she had stomach issues to start then two days of a runny nose and done. So far, no one else in the family has had it.

It was super hard to see her so down and quiet and miserable.

We didn’t go to see my parents all week to make sure we didn’t give them anything but hopefully we can resume seeing them this upcoming week.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

In Progress

Last week I continued reading Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery.

I added one of The Hardy Boys books — The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon and a Mildred Wirt Penny Parker book, Whispering Walls. Mildred was the original first author of the Nancy Drew books, if you don’t know that.

They are both quick and light reads, which I need right now.

Up Soon

I’ll be writing a separate post about my hopeful spring reads later this week, but for now I do know I plan to read A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse, The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie after I finish these books (or while I’m reading Return of the King since it is my slow read).

What The Family is Reading

Little Miss and I are still reading The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy and listening to The Green Ember by S.D. Smith (though we aren’t fond of the narrator – he is very dramatic and makes the female rabbit sound like a drama queen.)

The Husband is reading Welcome to Pawnee by Jim O’Heir.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

This past week I watched more of The Puzzle Lady and All Creatures Great and Small. I also watched The Bride Came C.O.D. with James Cagney and Bette Davis.

Today I am watching the sermon online and if my YouTube farmer has a video today I’ll watch that.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Recent Blog Posts I Enjoyed

|| Murder, She Wrote: Unraveling The Enduring Charm of Jessica Fletcher by Between the Bookends ||

|| Tuesday Tour: Newer Than Yesterday by Mama’s Empty Nest ||

|| The Personal Reading Experience by Cat’s Wire ||

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? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link of your weekly wrap up below!

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.

If you enjoy the kind of content on my blog and all that goes into it, you can support my writing for $2.99 a month or a single donation. Learn more here: https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/

How to read more classics and enjoy them while you’re doing it (if you don’t enjoy them already)

February 23, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 12 Comments

I recently saw a YouTube video where a booktuber suggested reading just 12 pages a day of a classic to make it feel less daunting for readers who don’t usually read classics.

There are a couple of reasons he suggested this tactic.

One: it gives you time to read slowly and truly immerse yourself in the story.

Two: it helps you pay attention to the writing, the words connected together, the style of that particular author.

Three: Gives you time to write notes about what you are reading or underline a quote that really stands out to you. This gives you time to really think about that quote or section that really stands out to you.

Four: It gets you off a device. Stops you scrolling on “the attention hog” that has trained you to keep scrolling through 30-second to 1-minute clips. Doing this mentally and physically fatigues us. The makers of social media know how to addict us but our mind biologically loves to dwell on things, to feel like it is learning something and this is done better at a slower pace. Reading instead of scrolling releases the brain from repeated dopamine hits.

Five: Creates a sense of patience, self-control, and a “stick-to-it” attitude. As humans we feel a sense of pride when we push through something and accomplish what we set out to do.

Six: It helps to quell comparison to other readers that we need to do; the fear-of-missing-out tendency, the desire to “have read” certain books. We want to be able to say “I have read…” but don’t want to sit and really read something well. Reading this way, we can focus on reading well — taking our time to really take it in and not worry about rushing on to the next book. Those books will be there when we are done with this one.

Extra tips: Doing this at night can help you feel like you don’t have to rush and “get through” your allotted pages before you have to do something else. You can do this with other books, not just classics.

What do you think of reading some books this way? Yay or Nay? What say you?

Source: Tristan Reads Classics. Video: The One Tip You Need More Classics and Enjoy Them.

If you want a fuller explanation of what Tristan was talking about, you can watch his video here:

Sunday Bookends: Kurt Browning commented on my Instagram! Oh and I read books. (Link parties too)

February 22, 2026February 22, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 16 Comments

Once upon a time I said I wanted winter to come so I could curl up with a book under a blanket or watch an old movie…also under a blanket.

I still like curling up under a blanket but I’m over the gloominess of winter now. I would enjoy some green, but, alas, after warming temps this past week, Winter is reminding us it isn’t done yet as I just learned Friday night that another winter storm is headed our way today into tomorrow.

Blah.

Hopefully it will drop off the snow and go because I have plans this week to help my parents, possibly see my brother, and maybe even sneak off to a bookstore.

I started a nostalgic clip account on Instagram a few months ago (Nostalgically Thinking) and this past week I shared clips of Canadian Figure Skater Kurt Browning as I reflected on how entertaining he always was but never won and Olympic medal. I was thinking about that because of all that was going on with figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin. He didn’t win an individual gold but he’s already done so much to entertain and project the sport into astounding levels that I don’t think it matters at all. It certainly didn’t with Kurt who I always loved to watch and never even knew if he won an Olympic medal.

On Thursday, I shared Kurt skating in “leather” pants to Brick House — one of my favorite routines of his.

Last night, before bed, I noticed a comment on my reel from kb.on.ice.

“Pants and the song sold it. The pants were plastic actually.”

I knew it was really Kurt because I’d found his account a couple of days before and, yes, I was a bit giddy seeing that comment.

I was so excited but remained calm as I told my kids about it and I give them credit – they didn’t role their eyes. They told me how nice it was, after I explained to them who Kurt Browning is, of course.

When I was in high school, I was obsessed with watching figuring skating but especially Kurt, Brian Boitono, Elvis Stojko, and Scott Hamilton.

My brother bought me tickets to Stars on Ice for the 1996 tour when it came near where we lived, which was shocking because nothing exciting ever came near where we lived.

I am so old that I remember almost none of it! I wanted to dig out the program and an old journal to remember who was even there before I finished this post but I looked all afternoon and some of the boxes with old journals were way back in the back of our bedroom closet so I finally gave up.

I was very certain Kurt Browning was there so I texted my brother to ask if he remembered who was there and he didn’t even remember he took me! Haha! I remember he gave me the tickets as a Christmas gift and I was so excited.

I will write more on my blog later this week about the show and my love of ice skating, if I can find the journal, photos, and program.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

Last week I finished Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie. It is a Hercule Poirot book and I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of humor in it from Poirot and the mystery was very good.