Today is a day of relaxing and taking part in the Crafternoon zoom event with some other ladies and Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. We are going to do crafts and chat on Zoom. It should be fun.
I am still reading the same books but have added Frankenstein which I will start this week to read with The Boy for school. I had planned to start reading it last week but got caught up in Christy and Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever. I won’t lie — I am probably going to listen to Frankenstein on Audible with Dan Stevens narrating it. I’ve already listened to about five minutes and after seeing him in The Man Who Invented Christmas, I know he can pull off the voices and intonation needed for the story.
In February I hope to read more of Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, and The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene.
The Husband is reading a book by Nelson Demille that I forgot the name of.
Little Miss is reading Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban.
Last week I watched Gunga Din. Yeah…so that was interesting … and I blogged about it. I also watched a lot of Edwardian Farm and an episode of All Creatures Great and Small (the newer ones).
I am getting ready to release Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree, the third book in my cozy mystery series February 19 (or maybe sooner). If you want to know more about it or pre-order an ebook copy, you can click HERE.
This Friday I will also start sharing a serial version of the first book in the series Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing. Blog readers can follow along each week or choose to purchase the book instead on Amazon.
Today’s prompt is to share The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection (or to your to-read list!)
This one wasn’t too hard for me to do because I had ordered five from Thriftbooks right after Christmas and before that there was a used book sale at our library and I picked up a few (I promise it was actually just a few this time).
1. The Clue in the Diary (Nancy Drew, Book 7) by Carolyn Keene
2. The Sign of the Twisted Candles (Nancy Drew, Book 9) by Carolyn Keene
3. The Password to Larkspur Lane (Nancy Drew, Book 10) by Carolyn Keene
4. The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Pereus
5. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osmond
6. Christy by Catherine Marshall
7. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
8. The Mystery of The Flying Express by Franklin W. Dixon (this was an original copy by husband picked up for me at a used bookstore)
9. Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
Have you read any of these? What are your last ten additions to your TBR?
Due to the illness of children or the cold of the northeast I have not left my house in two weeks and though I am a homebody, I must admit it is becoming a little depressing.
And based on the fact I feel like I am starting to get sick and dangerously cold temps are set to hit the area Monday through Wednesday this week, I have a feeling I will be in my house at least another week. At this point I’ve told my parents, who only live seven minutes from us, that I might not see them until after the spring thaw.
Our house is located on a hill, has a steep driveway, and we are down to one car, so that also makes winter travel difficult.
Yesterday I was alone for much of the day because Little Miss was at a friend’s house and The Boy was sick upstairs, while The Husband was at work. This was a strange situation for me because I’m rarely alone. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I eventually decided to work on a blog post (the second part to my Civil War letters posts), start watching Gunga Din, and read a chapter in my Agatha Christie book. I also was very brave and went out into the cold darkness of our backyard to retrieve a couple pieces of wood for our woodstove.
Then it was back inside where I realized I should cook some dinner for me and The Boy.
He’s had a horrible headache and watery eyes and no appetite, but he was finally able to eat a little bit around the time the mom of Little Miss’s friend brought her back home.
Today we are seeing how the weather is since we were supposed to get a snow storm but now it looks like it’s moved further east (I see you Poconos and NJ…good luck!) and I might visit my parents or … again…tell them I’ll see them in the spring thaw.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are bringing temps where we are expected only to reach about 11 as a high. Lows will be below zero due to windchill and other factors. I asked The Husband to bring some wood from our pile behind the garage into our laundry room so we don’t have to go out into the bitter cold to replenish the supply we have in our living room by the stove.
We do have some heating oil but do our best to use as little of that as we can because of how expensive it has been the last couple of years.
A quick reminder that we are having another Crafternoon Zoom Call next Sunday (the 26th) at 1 p.m. If you are interested in being a part of it, you can email me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin (from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) at crackercrumbs@gmail.com.
If you don’t know what that is – it is where we all get together and chat together while doing crafts or other projects. We’d love to have you join us and stave off the gloom that can come with winter sometimes.
With all this cold and being trapped inside a lot you would think I would have plenty of time for reading and I do, but I also have other projects I am working on, so alas, this will not be an exciting section, because I am still reading the same books.
Christy by Catherine Marshall is a super long book and so I am taking breaks and reading A Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (do I really need to type her last name?) for something “lighter”.
I also hope to get back to Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever this week.
If you are not aware of what Christy is here is a description:
The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions. But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her — and her one-room school — as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove. Yearning to make a difference, will Christy’s determination and devotion be enough?
After these books I have a couple of books I want to get to including Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (for English with The Boy) and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skieslen Charles, but I also want to read a Nancy Drew. Oh my gosh! Why does there have to be so many good books out there to read?!
Little Miss and I are reading The Sign of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare for school and listening to Peter Pan by J.M. Barie at night.
The Boy will be starting Frankenstein this week.
The Husband is reading The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson.
(For anyone new, The Husband is just a joke nickname for my husband since he jokingly calls our son “The Boy”.)
This week I’ve watched three old movies I had never seen before — The Prisoner of Zenda, which I wrote about on the blog, The Stranger, and Gunga Din. I’ll be writing blog posts The Stranger and Gunga Din soon.
I also watched the first episode of season five of All Creatures Great and Small and am so excited that it is back for another season. I can’t wait to see Tristan again.
I watched a few episodes of my favorite YouTuber farmer, Just A Few Acres Farm, while I waited for him to release a new episode.
The Advanced Readers Copies of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree have been sent out to my advanced readers. I pushed back the release date to give them some time to read the book and me some time to tie up some loose ends.
It is available for pre-order here:
I am working on a monthly writing update and some movie impression posts for my Substack, which people can subscribe to for free or pay about $3 a month to receive exclusive posts I plan to offer in 2025.
Today’s prompt: Bookish Goals for 2025 (How many books do you want to read this year? Are you hoping to read outside your comfort zone? Are there books you meant to read last year but never got to? Are there new-to-you authors you’re hoping to read?)
I haven’t set bookish goals in the past, but I do have some bookish goals this year, including reading whatever I want to read – not what I feel like I should read. Here are some of my other book or reading related goals this year.
I hope to read at least 30 books. I originally planned to write down 50 since last year I had a goal of 30 and read 68 but I decided to keep the number in the conservative range and then be excited if I read more.
2. I hope to try out some new authors this year, but also some “old” authors — as in classic authors. I want to try books by Terry Pratchett and other fantasy writers, for one, and I really want to try to get through one Jane Austen book all the way through and not only on Audible. Other authors I want to try are Alan Bradley, Matt Haig, Beth Bower, T.I. Low, John Connell, Maya Angelou, and Wendell Berry
3. Reading outside my comfort zone will be on the list year too because I want to try more fantasy. I won’t be trying erotica or horror, however. Just fantasy and maybe a couple more thrillers. I read mysteries but not always “thrillers”.
4. I hope to read more Christian fiction and non-fiction this year. I have a physical stack of C.S. Lewis books I want to read, non-fiction and fiction. I also want to read Charles Martin, Coleen Coble, Joel C. Rosenberg, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Tessa Ashfar, and Francine Rivers.
5. I mentioned above I want to read more classic authors and I do. Some of the books I want to read this year include The Count of Monte Cristo, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Middlemarch, A Tale of Two Cities (because I bailed on it before), and Wuthering Heights. Will I get to them? Probably not but … I can try.
6. Plan to read more Nancy Drews. I’ve already read a handful of the early Nancy Drews and hope to read more of them and some of the later ones this year.
7. I want to read more of whatever I want to read and not what I think I need to read for book tours or book reviews or to return favors to other authors. I know that sounds horrible but last year I ended up reading books I would not have normally read and it turned out not to be a great idea. There were other times I read books I wouldn’t have normally read and it was a good idea so I don’t want to say I won’t try books that I would normally not read, but I will say that I won’t feel guilty anymore if I turn a book down because there is another book I want to read more. Reading should be fun, not a chore.
8. I hope to read more overall. Sometimes I get so distracted with writing my own books, or blog posts or making social media posts or just goofing off on social media that I don’t read. Reading is such a nice escape and I want to choose it over watching TV or doom scrolling much more this year.
9. I really hope I can read more books that are already on my TBR/bookshelf instead of adding new ones, but I know that I’ll still be buying some to add to that list because buying books is better than buying drugs.
10. I want to read a couple biographies this year because that is a genre I rarely read. I am reading one about Anthony Bourdain right now. If you have any suggestions of other biographies I can read, let me know. I tend to steer clear of political figures on any “side” so I don’t really need those kind of suggestions.
So what are your bookish goals this year, if you have any? Let me know in the comments.
I haven’t had much time to sit and write up full book reviews lately so I thought I’d share five mini-book reviews today.
Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood
Description:
Judith (our favorite skinny-dipping, whiskey-sipping, crossword puzzle author), along with Becks the vicar’s wife, and Susie the dogwalker find themselves in a head-scratching, utterly clever country house, locked-room murder mystery.
Holiday festivities are now January doldrums when Judith gets a call―Sir Peter Bailey, a prominent Marlovian is inviting notable citizens to his house the day before his wedding to celebrate.
Judith decides to go―after all, it’s a few houses up the Thames and free champagne, for sure. During the party, a loud crash inside stops the festivities. The groom-to-be has been crushed to death in his study. The door was locked from the inside so the police say suicide, obviously.
My Review:
This was the second book in the Marlow Murder Club series. I did not enjoy it as much as the first book. This one was all over the place and very repetitive. I rolled my eyes way too often. I still love the characters but why the suspects were suspects was repeated and twisted around so many times it simply became obnoxious. We really needed another story to sort of break up the monotony of them running around in circles in this one. There was one side story related to the vicar’s wife Becks, but it came in way too late in the book and didn’t break up the way he kept saying, “We don’t know who killed him! Here is all our evidence….again.”
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Description:
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set in 1889 largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England’s West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Holmes and Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in “The Final Problem”, and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character’s eventual revival.
One of the most famous stories ever written, in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC’s The Big Read poll of the UK’s “best-loved novel”. In 1999, a poll of “Sherlockians” ranked it as the best of the four Holmes novels.
My review:
I really expected to like this a lot more than I did. Conan Doyle is a classic crime writer – the father of the detective/crime novel so it has to be great, right?
Sadly, this book really dragged for me and my son who read it with me for his British Literature class. Maybe it was because Sherlock wasn’t even in half of it. During that half it was Watson writing letters to Sherlock to tell him what had happened. There were way too many conversations about what might have happened and very little action for me. I also couldn’t stand the “lord of the manor”, Henry Baskerville. I would guess Conan Doyle was making him obnoxious because he was an American and the British like to make sure Americans know what they think about us. So maybe I wasn’t supposed to like him, which worked well because I didn’t.
I didn’t hate the book, but it was not one I would necessarily rush to read again anytime soon. I’d really like to read the short stories and the other three novels instead and then go back to this one later on to see if I like it any better.
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Description:
Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith with a bright future ahead of him, injures his hand in a tragic accident, forcing him to look for other work. In his new job as a horse-boy, riding for the patriotic newspaper, the Boston Observer, and as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, he encounters John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren. Soon Johnny is involved in the pivotal events shaping the American Revolution from the Boston Tea Party to the first shots fired at Lexington. Powerful illustrations by American artist Michael McCurdy, bring to life Esther Forbes’ quintessential novel of the American Revolution.
My review:
I read this one with Little Miss for English/History. The book is broken into sections with six chapters in each section, so we read a couple of the chapters each day for a few months.
I ended up really like this one even though the older writing style and the subject was a little difficult at times. There were some chapters where I skipped some of the more descriptive paragraphs to get to the point and move forward, but overall, this book was very well done, very educational, and had me crying more than once with the real life lessons within its pages.
Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson
Description:
Tooth and Claw follows Walt and Henry up to Alaska as they look for work after they both returned from serving in Vietnam. While working for an oil company in the bitter cold of winter, they soon encounter a ferocious polar bear who seems hell-bent on their destruction. But it’s not too long until they realize the danger does not lurk outside in the frozen Alaskan tundra, but with their co-workers who are after priceless treasure and will stop at nothing to get it.
Fans of Longmire will thrill to this pulse-pounding and bone-chilling novel of extreme adventure that adds another indelible chapter to the great story of Walt Longmire.
My review:
I really enjoyed this novella. I’m a fan of the Walt Longmire Mystery books, with the exception of Hell is Empty, which I hated. I haven’t read one of the books since that one, which was early in 2024. I love Johnson’s writing, though, so I knew I couldn’t stay away for long. When I needed a short book to finish out the year, I remembered my husband had just won this one in a Goodreads giveaway. It is a story separate from the other books so I knew there wouldn’t be any spoilers.
I read it around Christmas, which is usually reserved for cozy books, not books where a man-eating, monster Polar Bear is terrorizing scientists in the arctic, but I could not put this book down. It was constant action, and I enjoyed it. I might even read another one of the full-length novels soon.
The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson
Description:
All Emma Daley wants this holiday season is a white Christmas. But the young teacher and struggling musician sure can’t find that in sunny Arizona. Luckily, there’s someone living in a perfect mountain home in the Colorado Rockies looking to make a vacation trade this year.
West Prescott is an in-demand songwriter and talented musician who put his own singing career on hold to write songs for celebrity acts to perform. When his mother convinces him to do a vacation trade for Christmas, he never imagined one of the houseguests would be so sweet–or so strikingly pretty. Naturally, he decides to stick around, and, to get better acquainted, he poses as the house’s caretaker. But when Emma’s friend Gillian discovers his true identity and sets her sights on him, things get . . . messy.
My review:
I really liked Carlson’s book, A Quilt for Christmas, and thought this would be similarly heartwarming and well-written. It was not. This book was a very cheesy romance that would not end. I feel so bad saying this but it was such a short book I had no time to connect to the characters and in the end I really didn’t care if I did or didn’t. These ridiculous romances where people meet and three days later are in love and changing their lives around for each other drive me nuts. I had no idea that was what was going to happen in this book. It’s like the two books were written by two different people. Every author has hit or miss books, though, and every reader is different in their likes and dislikes so while this book was not for me it might be the perfect light read for someone else. I won’t give up on trying Carlson’s books, but I will be a bit more careful and read the descriptions better from now on.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them if you did?
It was so cold this past week that our animals had no interest in going outside, which is unusual for the cats who like to go out even if it is snowing or raining.
I’m very glad they stayed inside because I worry about them when they are outside. Yes, we have outside cats. We live in a rural area and allow them to wander during the day and they come in whenever they want or they come in at night because I do not want them out at night with the various critters we have out here. I’ve had people on social media be very rude to me in the past and tell me I’m a horrible pet owner for letting my pets outside so I just thought I’d add a little context. I’m not flinging my animals out the back door into the wilderness.
They absolutely thrive when they can go outside and they stay close to our house and then return, often with a dead mouse to present to us. I sometimes forget that those who don’t live in a more rural area don’t let their pets outside for safety reasons so they misunderstand and think I’m pushing the cats out into danger.
That all being said, they have not wanted to go outside because of the cold lately, so it has been nice to have them want to cuddle and to watch them sleep curled up on the coffee table or sprawled out in front of the lit woodstove.
The oldest cat, Pixel, has been making me a little nervous lately. I don’t know if she feels well, and I’ve found a couple of bumps on her head. She’s been a lot more desperate to sit on me and be petted. Ever since I read that cats purr when they are happy or in pain, I’ve wondered/worried why my cats are purring and hope they aren’t in pain. Hopefully she’s okay. She’s pulled this on me before and bounced right back, so we will see.
I am reading three books at the moment. Christy by Catherine Marshall (with some heavy stuff amidst the inspirational, so I need breaks), Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever (with some heavy stuff amidst the inspirational, so I need a break), and A Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (because a nice old fashioned murder always breaks up the heavy stuff. Hee. Hee.).
Little Miss and I are starting The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare for school this week. At night we are listening to a collection of Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary and read by Neil Patrick Harris and William Roberts.
The Husband just finished The Quiet American by Graham Greene.
The Boy is getting ready to read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
I finished the first season of Only Murders in the Building last night and really liked it. I’m looking forward to the other seasons.
My brother said he got bored with the show after season two, but he gets bored easily so I’m going to keep going. (*wink*)
As evidenced by the fact I am only just watching Only Murders in the Building, I often watch popular shows years after they ended. That’s why I have also started Castle, with Captain Mal — oh, I mean Nathan Fillion.
If you don’t understand that niche joke, I can’t help you — well, I can, but I’m going to make you search it up on your own instead.
Actually, The Husband started it for me last week (he’s watched it before) and now I’m continuing to watch it on my own.
I’m also watching Tudor Monastery Farm and this has me wondering a lot about this show and its spinoffs (Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Wartime Farm) and how they work. Do these historians really do all these things they record, and do they really stay at these old buildings and houses? Or do they just film a little bit for educational purposes and move on. I guess I will have to step into the rabbit hole and figure this out this week.
I also watched Morning Glory with Katharine Hepburn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., a couple episodes of Monarch of the Glen, and an episode of No Reservations (with Anthony Bourdain) last week.
I’ve started a Substack for cozy mystery, vintage movies, and book enthusiasts, as well as readers of my books.
For $3 a month you can join in and geek out with me about vintage Nancy Drew, classic movies, classic books, Gladwynn Grant and so much more.
You will be added to my book club Discord, A Good Book, and A Cup of Tea, and receive sneak peeks, exclusive discounts, access to various products, and whatever else comes to mind as I grow my space.
Today is my dad’s 81st birthday. We had a family dinner for him yesterday when my brother could visit and will probably have another lunch together with the kids and I today.
We had ham and bean soup yesterday and today we will eat some sausage balls I plan to make in memory of my aunt Dianne, as well a beef roast.
Last night we played a game of Uno that got a little crazy and felt like it might ever end. We ended up laughing and shaking our heads at how long it seemed to be going on.
This upcoming week we have nowhere to go which is fine with me because homeschool has to get back under way first thing tomorrow. Ha. First thing. Yeah right. It will probably be afternoon before we do anything, but it sounds better if I write “first thing.”
Having an easy-going week is something I am looking forward to after a pretty nuts Christmas break. The Husband was in the ER and diagnosed with Diabetes a few days before Christmas, so it’s been a period of adjustment and him not feeling well. He slept or rested most the break, which he needed and I’m glad he wasn’t working when this all hit.
I also injured my knee by – I don’t know how actually. By rolling over in bed or something. Who even knows.
So far we have not caught any of the various illnesses going around but I know our time is coming and I’m pretty worried about that happening.
I’m reading Christy by Catherine Marshall and really enjoying it. I loved the show that was based on it and aired on CBS in the 1990s and the book is fairly close to it from what I can see so far.
The book is a fictional book very loosely based on the life story of Marshall’s mother, if you’ve never heard of it. The main character travels to a very remote area in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina in the early 1900s to become a teacher at a missionary school.
As a young, inexperienced woman she is for a rude awakening but also an amazing experience of learning about the determination of the people who live in the mountains.
Upcoming books for me:
I have three Nancy Drew books coming in the mail from Thriftbooks and hope to read at least one of those after Christy.
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
Little Miss finished Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets yesterday while reading at her grandparents. She even made us wait for our game of Uno so she could finish the book. I’m very proud of her for reading the first two books. She was bothered by some of the violence in the end of the Chamber of Secrets so says she will be taking a break before she decides if she want to read book three.
The Boy and I will be starting Frankenstein soon, which he’s looking forward to a lot more than me. If you know anything about what I read, Frankenstein isn’t my normal read. We are reading through British literature this year and he likes the story of Frankenstein so we will go for it.
After that I’ll be having him read some Agatha Christie so that will be more up my alley.
The Husband is reading Bourdain The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever.
This past week I watched The Power of the Press, a 1928 silent movie starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Morning Glory, a 1933 movie starring Fairbanks Jr. and Katherine Hepburn, a few episodes of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and videos by Booktubers preparing their 2025 reading journals.
I enjoyed this video by Plant Based Bride. It scratched some sort of crafty itchy for me, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as detailed or organized in my reading journal.
I also watched A Victorian Farm: A Victorian Christmas this past week and am now starting A Tudor Farm.
I am finishing up corrections to Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree and started a Patreon, which you can subscribe to here if you’d like a sneak peek of the book.
I’ve been listening to the podcasts Pop Culture Preservation Society, which is aimed at us middle-agers to talk about some of the odd pop culture from when we were teens, etc. and True Drew, a podcast about Nancy Drew. I would recommend them both.
Now it’s your turn! What have you been doing recently? Watch anything good? Read a good book? Go anywhere interesting? Let me know in the comments.
I have a list of 16 books I enjoyed from my 2024 list, but I whittled them down to ten for today. I’m going to leave my favorite read from the year at number 10.
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun
I have read most of the books in The Cat Who series and this one was definitely my favorite. Honestly, it almost felt like it was written by a different author in some ways. I enjoyed most of the books in the series even though this one felt different.
2. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
I really enjoyed this middle grade book that takes place in my home state of Pennsylvania. There were some tough topics here — such as PTSD after war —— but they were handled gingerly.
3. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
This one was different than many of my other reads and not “clean” by some standards because of language, but I fell in love with the main character and the side characters. I can’t wait for the sequel!
4. Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor
This one also featured some language but otherwise was clean and a lot of fun. I loved this cozy mystery that took place in a small Irish village and I can’t wait to read more in the series. I hope they are as good as the first book.
5. Move Your Blooming Corpse by D.E. Ireland
This was the second book in a series based on the characters of My Fair Lady – Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins. The book was a ton of fun from start to finish.
6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I had seen the movie based on this book but had never read the book. I read it and then read it again to my daughter shortly after so I guess I read it twice in 2024. The ending was a bit too abrupt to me, but I still enjoyed it.
7. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Yep, this was another classic I had never read and I ended up really enjoying it.
8. The Clue of The Whistling Bagpipesby Carolyn Keene
This was a Nancy Drew Mystery and while they can be a bit cheesy at times, I really enjoyed this one because it was full of Scottish history and culture.
9. Return to Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
This was another middle-grade book that I read with Little Miss and really enjoyed. We had read Gone Away Lake, the first book in the series in 2023.
10. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
This was by far my favorite read of the year and my favorite read from the past several years. This book was so much different than the Anne of Green Gables books and I sometimes wonder how they are so different in their language and style. I don’t usually write in or mark up my paperback books but I underlined and marked so many passages in this book. If you haven’t read it, I would definitely encourage you to move it up your TBR list.
Honorable mentions:
Other books I enjoyed this year include:
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (A Hawthorne/Horowtiz Mystery)
Clueless at the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins
A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? And what books were among your favorite reads in 2024?
Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading, watching, listening to, andwhat I’ve been writing.
“Let’s just use paper plates for Christmas dinner,” I told my mom.
We’ve had a lot going on and some members of the family haven’t been feeling well from couple different health issues.
Plus it was only the six of us so there was no need for anything fancy.
I heard a small “uh-huh..” on the other end of the phone and figured she was agreeing with me. The next day, though, The Husband, kids and I walked into a kitchen that had been set with a Christmas tablecloth and very fancy plates and goblets.
“These were my Mama’s,” Mom said of the plates. “And we thought we better get them out now because we might never have a chance to use them again.”
I figured that might be their dark humor since they are in their 80s and often say odd things like this to us.
Mom said she actually meant because we might not want to take the time to drag them out again. I added that we might not want to take the chance of them getting broken since I am quite a klutz.
The plates, by the way, were made in Baveria and were a gift of some kind to my grandfather when he used to work for Pepsi Co. That was probably 50 years ago.
The crystal glasses were gifts to my parents on their wedding day. They’ve been married 60 years.
There were also a set of glass water glasses that belonged to my paternal grandmother.
Somehow, we made it through dinner without breaking anything. My husband also made it through washing the plates without breaking anything.
After dinner we had a quick gift opening session that was quite quick this year since we were all broke. *snort* It was a nice time, though, and it was preceded by the reading from the Bible of the Christmas story, which we do every year.
Our family had a lot to celebrate this year.
My sister-in-law, who had been in the hospital for an entire month for heart issues, came home on Christmas Eve. She was/is still dealing with a Norovirus she caught while there and will have lot of new routines she’ll need to do for her condition, but she is home.
The Husband has been dealing with a health issue which could have been so much worse but has been caught and is being treated now and we are very, very thankful for that.
Money is tight right now, but we were all together and found a lot of time to watch movies and simply have fun.
It was a cold week and that was nice in some ways because it meant we had the white Christmas Little Miss had wanted.
We have electric heat upstairs and downstairs we have heating oil and a wood stove.
Thursday we didn’t light the fire because we simply didn’t get to it, and it was a reminder how well it helps to heat the rest of the house when we have it lit because I had to put four blankets on me to get warm that night. I had also taken a shower right before bed and my hair was wet so that, and the fact I’d forgotten to turn on the electric heat upstairs didn’t help at all. The fire was definitely lit Friday, but we didn’t have to light it last night because we are having a small warm up this weekend with temps in the 40s and 50s.
This weekend we have been relaxing and enjoying our time together since The Husband is off work until the week after next and The Boy doesn’t have to return to tech school until Thursday.
We hope to see the Christmas lights at a local golf course Monday if it doesn’t get rained out.
I will finish Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon’s today or tomorrow and that will be my final book of the year. My first book of 2025 will be Christy by Catherine Marshall, which I have already started and am really enjoying.
It is a book based very loosely on the life of Marshall’s mother and takes place in the early 1900s.
This past week I finished Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson – a novella part of the Walt Longmire series.
I kept trying to read Shepherd’s Abiding to keep with the Christmas spirt, but I kept going back to Tooth and Claw to see if Walt and Henry got away from the psycho polar bear.
Little Miss is very close to the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The Husband is reading World Traveler by Anthony Bourdain which is also on my TBR.
I watched a lot of Christmas movies or Christmas-related shows last week including
The Christmas episode of The Dick VanDyke Show
Christmas in the Smokies
A ton of Mary Berry episodes
The Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small
Jingle All the Way
The Last Holiday
Then I also watched the North and South mini-series. Good grief..that was depressing in many ways. Then I watched another depressing film called Me Before You.
The Husband and I also watched Hombre – again depressing, but Paul Newman was in it so that was good.
I watched a lot of Murder She Wrote one day as well.
I will hopefully watch some more uplifting movies and shows this week.
I’m editing Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and brainstorming ideas for the fourth Gladwynn Grant book. You can pre-order Gladwynn Shakes the Family Tree (a cozy mystery) here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DR6BG3ZR?
I also wanted to offer a quick thank you to everyone who took part in our Comfy, Cozy Christmas link up. That was so much fun. You can still add posts or just read the ones that are already there at this link: https://lisahoweler.com/comfy-cozy-christmas-2024/
A quick reminder for January plans for this blog and Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
Erin and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February to try to beat those winter blahs that happen after Christmas. The plans for now are two a month.
We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting.
Erin says she will be embroidering during the session. I might be writing, drawing, or editing photos.
If you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or to Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com. That way we will have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.
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.
