reading

Sunday Bookends: What is that family doing?

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 28 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 a fairly relaxed one until yesterday.

Little Miss needed some cheering up, so I suggested that after I picked up a friend of The Boy’s we head up to the town where we used to live to watch The Minecraft movie.

The kids were excited but since I wasn’t really interested in watching the movie, so instead I headed to an Italian Deli and Bakery near the theater after I dropped them off and picked up some cookies and cannoli, headed back to the park across from the theater and sat in my car reading books and eating fudge filled cookies.

Well, I ate one cookie actually and then I ate some string cheese and drank a natural ginger ale. It was nice and relaxing, as the rain fell around me.

One weird thing and funny thing that happened while I was sitting in the car: a car pulled up next to me and parked and then three people got out – they looked to be about the age of a mom, a dad, and maybe a 12-year-old boy. The park has a sidewalk that goes all the way around, and this family started walking on the sidewalk and then walked all the way on the other side of it toward the hospital, which is across the street from the park. They disappeared from my sight, so I went back to my book. About ten minutes later they passed in front of my car again, and I noticed all of them were looking at their phones. The mom said something to the boy, and he laughed, but they kept their eyes on their phones.

Then they started another loop around the park. I thought maybe they were playing something like Pokemon Go (is that still a thing), but they were just walking in a circle, staring at their phones.

They did this four more times, then crossed the street near the gas station, came back again, walked to their car, got in and left.

It was kind of, well, creepy … and funny. I have no idea what was going on, but it felt like some kind of Twilight Zone episode. Part of me wanted to ask them what was going on, but in this day and age, I think it is just better not to know.

For some reason, the movie didn’t start for almost 45 minutes after it was supposed to start so we got home a lot later than I wanted to. Remember when I told you last week that to get anywhere with places like theaters we have to drive 45 minutes north, south, east or west? To get to the theater, we had to drive 45 minutes north and then 45 minutes back home.

I was pretty tired by the end of the day and ready for my blanket and tea.

I didn’t actually have tea when I got home, and the evening wasn’t as relaxed as I wanted but maybe I can find some relaxation tonight instead.

This past week I finished Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke and The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.

I am still reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and enjoying it.

I am also reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot.

Next week I am going to be looking for another mystery but I might step out of my comfort zone and try a Christian regency romance by Joanna Davidson Politano. We will see how that goes.

I forgot to ask The Husband what he is reading before I wrote this. He’s taking a brief nap after a busy morning so I’ll update this later or share next week.

Little Miss and I are going to be finishing up The Littlest Voyageur this week for school and she is finishing up the third Harry Potter book.

I had to step away from Great Canal Journeys. It was becoming too heartbreaking to watch with Pru’s mental and physical health declining.

Pru is the wife of the canal riding team and it’s starting to really wear on me to watch her forget what she’s doing some days. I have elderly parents and them developing dementia is a huge worry for me.

Last week I watched How to Steal A Million as part of the Springtime in Paris feature I am doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

You can still jump in to watch the movies on the list and write about them. We have a link up where you can link to your posts until May 10th. The link and our list of movies and where you can find them can be found at the link at the top of my page.

This week we are watching Paris Blue with Paul Newman (swoon), Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, and Diahann Carroll.

Last week on the blog I shared:

When I am doing dishes during the week, I listen to The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the rest of the week, I read it.

Photos from the week

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, Stacking the Shelves with Reading Reality and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.

Sunday Bookends: A trip to a used book sale, the same books, more canal journeys

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 23 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.

I want to start by sharing that today is my sister-in-law Kim’s birthday so happy birthday to her. She had a heck of a 2024 and is an overcomer. Looking forward to her having a much better 2025.

I shared a bit yesterday about our week last week, which was fairly uneventful, other than a trip to a used book sale at a library near us. I picked up 19 Hard Boys Mystery books for 50 cents each. That was a fun find. These books, like Nancy Drew, are a bit dated, of course, and written for younger kids but they still have pretty good mysteries. They are also a fun escape from life.

Little Miss also picked out some cozy mysteries for me to try out. She’s picked out a couple duds over the years but also some very good ones so we will see how this bunch works out.

You can read more about our week last week here.

I wish I had something more exciting to report but I am still reading The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke, The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, and The Two Towers by Tolkien.

I did finish Whose Body? By Dorothy Sayers last week.

The Husband is reading Big Trouble by Dave Barry.

I’ve still been watching Great Canal Journeys every night. Not much else. The Husband has been watching Shogun.

I watched an episode of Great Canal Journeys when they visited Scotland and I was absolutely blown away by this huge device that lowered their boat from one level of the canal to the larger canal below and two huge steel statues of horse heads they visited during the episode.

I watched Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris as well last week and will be watching How to Steal A Million today or tomorrow.

I’ll also be watching another Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries episode this week so I can write about it on the blog.

Last week on the blog I shared:

A book sale, a trip to a garden center, and what’s up with the turkey vultures in our area?

On the Frontier by Transmissions from the Northern Outpost (I’m biased. This is my brother)

Nadine’s Private Island by Cat’s Wire

Photos from this Week

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.

A book sale, a trip to a garden center, and what’s up with the turkey vultures in our area?

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

Today for our chat I am pulling out some tea, cocoa, lemonade, and even iced tea. What are you in the mood for?

This week’s weather isn’t really calling for lemonade since it will still be fairly cold, but I think lemonade can be good on any day.

I’m going to be having some peppermint tea with local, raw honey in it as we chat. My husband made it and oh wow. It’s so good.

*sniff* I needed this. (She said dramatically like she’s making a silly YouTube video.)

It’s gloomy and raining outside, but I don’t mind too much because I have my tea, my blanket, and a good book.

We did have some nice, warmer days this past week — nice enough that we spent a couple of afternoons and evenings outside playing and simply enjoying the warmth.

The Husband had three days off this past week so were able to spend time as a family relaxing on Thursday and then traveling to another town on Friday for a used book sale and a trip to a park.

On Thursday while we were sitting outside there was a huge flock of turkey buzzards or vultures circling the woods behind our house and then our house itself. It was really stressing me out, especially as their numbers started growing and they started lowering themselves. As far as I knew there were no dead animals around us but there were three living ones — my two cats and our dog — in the backyard.

At one point, Zooma the Wonder Dog ran into the yard and jumped up toward the birds. One of them began to lower itself and I yelled at it to go away. I then yelled at all of them.

“You get out of here! Go on! Go! You’re not taking my dog today!”

The Husband said I sounded like Fran Drescher from The Nanny while I was yelling. I didn’t take the remark as a compliment.

Either way, the birds started to move away. At one point there were close to 30 of them swarming the sky over my house. I searched online and learned that circling vultures doesn’t always mean they are looking for carrion, or dead animals, to eat.

Sometimes, if it is in the evening hours, they have probably arrived in the area that day and are preparing to roost for the night. I hope that was what has happening but later my neighbor told me the birds were circling when her dogs were out too.

Online is says buzzards/vultures can not physically lift a dog and also don’t take live dogs, but….I don’t know. This isn’t the first time this has happened when we’ve been outside.

Also, locally we call these birds “turkey buzzards”, but they are actually turkey vultures, according to information online. In the UK, buzzards are some other types of birds. Either way, these are pretty ugly and creepy birds and whatever they were doing, I didn’t like it.

Yesterday, The Husband, The Boy, and Little Miss and I traveled to a town about 45 minutes east of us to visit the library there for their bi-annual book sale. We also picked up some lunch at the local supermarket, visited a park to have a picnic, picked up our groceries (through pick up), and visited a garden store before stopping at a playground on the way home.

The most exciting find for me at the book sale was a box of The Hardy Boys Mystery books from the early 1940s. These books were actually published in the 1990s, but they are reprints of the originals, which were written in the 1930s or 40s.

The books were 50 cents each because they were in the children’s section. I double checked with the library ladies, but they insisted they were only 50 cents, so I picked up 19 of the some 28 books they had, including a book with three books in one.

They had three Nancy Drew Mystery books, but I already own those, so I didn’t get them.

Little Miss also picked out four cozy mysteries for me. She really enjoys doing that and has grabbed some great ones for me in the past. I was really excited that she grabbed another Amish Inn Mysteries for me to add to my growing collection of that series.

The Husband found The Count of Nine by Erle Stanley Gardner and said he has it on Kindle, but I said to grab the paperback. I never know when something might happen to one of our accounts, causing us to lose all of our books so I prefer to have paperbacks or hardcovers of books I know we will enjoy on our shelves. Our shelves are getting overrun, though. We are going to have to do something – like knock out a wall, build on, and create an entire room to be our library. I’m not sure the husband or our bank account will go for that but it would be very cool.

Anyhow, after the library sale we grabbed some lunch from the local supermarket and headed to a park. The kids played by the creek for a bit and then we headed to a small garden store that also sells . . . well, a lot of different stuff. It is a very relaxing place, and they carry some natural soda that I can actually drink. I can’t drink sodas anymore because of my corn allergy so it’s a treat to have some natural soda once in a while. This is also one of the local places where I can pick up some raw honey.

From there we made a stop at Walmart and Aldi (Aldi was just a  pick up thankfully) and then on to another park that has a zipline, slides, and access to a creek. Little Miss usually loves to explore the creek but this time she and her brother played on the zipline instead.

I’m not sure if I have ever explained this or not but when I write the word “local” that often means something different for people in my area. Local for us can be anything from 5 minutes to an hour away. When you live in a rural area, it can take a long time to get to “civilization.” For us, it is about 30 minutes one way to pick up groceries at an Aldi and in that town, there are a couple supermarkets and smaller stores but nothing larger like a Walmart. Forty-five minutes southeast, where we went yesterday, there is an Aldi, a Walmart, and a larger supermarket that carries more natural items. About an hour south, there are larger stores like Walmart, Target, Gamestop, Barnes and Noble, etc. About 90 minutes north we can find those stores as well.

Local, in other words, clearly means different things depending on where you live – a rural or urban area. If that wasn’t obvious already.

This upcoming week we don’t have a ton going on. The last night of the church program Little Miss goes to was last week. We might attend a library event in the town where The Husband works but other than that there is nothing on the agenda until the weekend when The Husband is taking Little Miss to an Easter egg hunt he is taking photos at for the newspaper.

How about you? How was your week last week and what do you have coming up for this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten books I did not finish (DNF’d)

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 22 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt is: Books I Did Not Finish (DNFed) (feel free to tell us why, but please no spoilers!)

My reasons for not finishing a book are rarely because the book is bad or not worth reading. Most of the time it is completely related to the fact the book and my personality don’t mesh. Also, in some cases I don’t finish a book at one time but go back later and finish it. That’s most likely going to be the case with many of the books here, so if you loved one of these books on my list, know that adding them to a DNF list doesn’t mean I hated them.

  1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I tried! I tried! I wanted to read a Dickens. It about killed me. It was so wordy! Worse than I expected. I read part of this book in high school and enjoyed it but for some reason I could just not get into it now that I am an adult. I do want to try again someday, however.

2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I don’t know if it is fair to mention this one since it was just a DNF for me and I might go back to it but for now it is a DNF and I’m reading some other books. I wanted to read this with my son for his British Literature class but…it was just so heavy. I couldn’t get into it. I have an audiobook with Dan Stevens and I’m really enjoying his narration so I am going to try to get back into it.

3. Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever

I wanted to like this book. I did. It was just so choppy and dull as watch sap harden in the winter. The stories about Anthony could have been interesting but they were all chopped up and some of them were from people who truly didn’t know him that well. I skipped to the end and read a couple quotes from his daughter but for the most part this was just a chopped-up mess of stories. I didn’t get it at all. I have heard there are other, much better biographies out there so I will try them in the future.


4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I did not hate this book. I just couldn’t get into the style of writing, the tiny little chapters, and the bouncing back and forth between character in every other chapter.

5. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

I will go back to this one but it just didn’t pull me in like Little Women did. I am a mood reader so I think I was simply not in the mood for it when I tried to read it.

6. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith

I think this one just didn’t catch me at the right time. I could not get into it at all but I am willing to try again sometime in the future.

7. A Fatal Footnote by Margaret Loudon

I didn’t even make it through five pages of this one. The author kept changing the name of her character and repeating the name over and over. She’d write, “Penelope didn’t know why Millie was looking at her that way but Penn was uncomfortable with it.”

What? Why keep changing her name and in the same sentence or paragraph? She seemed allergic to using pronouns instead of the names she kept using too. It would have been one thing if a character said to her, “Hey, Penn!” instead of Penelope but for the author to be changing it in the prose….it was weird.

8. Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

This was just not my favorite book of Montgomery’s. It was so sad and depressing to me. I might go back someday and finish it but it was a slog for me. I skipped ahead to the end but really didn’t go back and read the rest so I consider it a DNF.

9. What’s the Worse That Can Happen by Donald Westlake

My husband is a huge Westlake fan and I read one book by him, Call Me A Cab, and liked it but so far I haven’t really been able to get into the rest of his books. I do plan to try this one again at some point.

10. Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

    I know we cozy mystery readers have to suspend belief at times but this one…well, it was a bit too much suspending belief. I couldn’t finish this one at all. I don’t plan to try again.

    What books have you not finished? Will you ever go back and try them again?

    Sunday Chat: Last week was a disappointing week in many ways.

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 18 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.

    Last week was a disappointing week in many ways.

    I am not going to go into a ton of details on my blog but we had a bad experience with a staff member of our local library and have decided that we can no longer attend the place I fell in love with reading.

    It was heartbreaking and hurtful and a bit shocking, so I spent the second half of the week and this weekend in a deep depression over it all. I’m still very, very down today. It was so surreal and it’s still hard to wrap my mind around how my daughter and I were treated. This is one of those times I did not read into what happened or misunderstood. Not at all.

    My daughter was also very hurt, and it breaks my heart she will not have the same experience I did with this little town library that I did when I was growing up.

    Maybe this week things will be better. We are looking for a new library to patronize and new places to participate in activities.

    It will be colder than last week it looks like, and that isn’t going to be fun but we will take it one day at a time.

    I am so down this weekend I barely had the mental energy to write this post today at first.

    I will say that we had a crafternoon link up on Zoom yesterday and that did lift my spirits. There were three of us and we had fun discussing crafts, books, libraries, and all things in between. Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I hope to hold our crafternoons once or twice a month and will be changing them to “drop-in crafternoons” so even if a person wants to drop in for a half hour to chat and do some crafts they can. Email me at a lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com if you want to get on our list for the Zoom link!

    These chats and opportunities to just relax and craft have been so nice and needed. I know that sometimes I don’t take the time to do things that relax me and take my mind off of the stresses of life. The virtual meetups are a way I “force” myself to slow down and take some time for me. I am so grateful to Erin for having this idea. It’s been such a boost to my mental health.

    Last week I finished The Case of the Clueless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner. It is not about kittens (not really) and it is a Perry Mason mystery.

    I really enjoyed it and plan to share a review of it. I love Gardner’s writing.

    This week I am reading:

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Murders by Joanne Fluke (am I the only one who has never heard of putting egg shells in coffee grounds before brewing them!?)

    Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers (not sure why I abandoned this before. I must have been tired and not tracking. I am enjoying it so far.0

    And before bed some nights I am reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot. This one seems to be a retelling of some stories mixed in with stories of his time in the RAF.

    My “long” read (or the read I am taking my time on) is The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and I am really enjoying it.

    Little Miss and I finished Miracle on Maple Hill, which we listened to on Hoopla.

    We will be starting  The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus  tomorrow for school and for fun.

    The Husband is reading When One Man Dies by Dave White.   

    The Husband and I are making our way through Castle.

    I started A Touch of Mink. I didn’t finish it yet but not really sure what I think of it…Not my favorite Cary Grant, even though it is somewhat funny.

    I also watched Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube to try to relax from the stressful week.

    Next week I will be getting ready for Springtime in Paris, the next movie event with Erin.

    We will be watching movies that take place in Paris. Erin and I watch the movie one week and then share our thoughts about the movie on a Thursday on our blog. So the dates listed on the graphic are the dates we will share our thoughts on our blogs.

    Then we offer a link for other bloggers to share their thoughts on the same movie. You do not have to watch the movies at the same time as us or even put your link up for a particular movie on the week we watch it. Just drop a link whenever you watch whichever movie. And you absolutely do not have to watch every movie to participate.

    Here is our schedule:

    Last week on the blog I shared:

    I am listening to the podcast True Drew Podcast about all things Nancy Drew and will be listening to Sabotage at Cedar Creek by Janice Thompson on Hoopla later this week.

    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.

    In addition to my blog, I write fiction, and you can learn more about my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

    I also have a Substack where I share about my writing journey or books.

    Top Ten Tuesday: My Spring TBR

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 21 Comments

    Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

    Today’s prompt is: Books on my spring TBR list

    I don’t often stick to my TBR for any particular season (see my post from yesterday for more info on that) but I like to make the list to remind me of books I’d like to read next. I consider it my “choose from” pile.

    I have a list of 14 books I plan to choose from for Spring, but I know that list will change and adapt throughout the next two and a half months.

    For today I will list my ten main books and then four “honorable mentions” so to speak.

    Village Diary by Miss Read

    All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

    The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

    Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner

    Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery

    Between The Sea and Sound by Amanda Cox

    ‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara

    Sabotage at Cedar Creek by Janice Thompson

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

    The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus

    Four others I might choose from this spring include:

    The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

    Grantchester: The Shadow of Death by James Runcie

    Passport To Romance by Betty Cavanna

    Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano

    What books are you hoping to read soon?

    What I actually read from my Winter TBR

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 12 Comments

    I always plan lists for what I will read each “season” of the year but rarely stick to those lists.

    I made a list for this winter, but, once again, I strayed from it. I don’t know what I was thinking by making this list. There was no way I was going to read all these books in three months.

    My winter TBR included these books:

    Christy by Catherine Marshall

    Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

    The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

    Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson

    World Travel by Anthony Bourdain

    The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson

    A Christmas Quilt by Melody Carlson

    The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

    The Scarlet Pimpernel by  Baroness Orczy

    The Clue in The Diary by Carolyn Keene

    The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene

    Winter Murder by Agatha Christie

    The Ghost and Mrs. Muir R.A. Dick

    The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Flying Express by Franklin W. Dixon

    The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

    The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

    The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island by Laura Lee Hope

    What I actually read from the list:

    Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood

    A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson

    The Hound of the Baskerville’s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson

    Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

    The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

    Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon

    Christy by Catherine Marshall

    The Tuesday Night Club by Agatha Christie

    The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman

    Every Living Thing by James Herriot

    The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene.

    I will have a smaller list I plan to choose from for my spring TBR tomorrow and I have a feeling I won’t read all those books either.

    Did you reach any reading goals recently?

    Sunday Bookends: Warmer weather and my socially introverted family

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 20 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.

    I took Little Miss to the little playground in our little town twice this week thanks to higher temperatures. They were high for us anyhow after coming out of a very arctic winter.

    The first day it was close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the second day it was about 55 degrees. Friday it was over 60 degrees. Yesterday it was about 55 but still sunny and we took another trip to the playground with a friend of Little Miss’s.

    Today it is pouring rain, and we are supposed to get some nasty storms.

    I do like when it is warmer and sunny but still miss chilly days where I have an excuse to stay home. What I like most about the warmer weather, though, is being able to sit outside and not feel chilled to the bone.

    That first day we went to the playground she made me smile by being brave and approaching a little girl she didn’t know and asking her if they could play together. She was nervous to approach the little girl because she said she is used to texting people not talking, which was weird for me to hear but also understandable in this modern age.

    Some people think that homeschooled children are shy because they don’t interact with other children. My child does interact with other children through local homeschool activities, library activities, the local 4-H, a Bible program at a church near us, her friends, and Vacation Bible School. She’s still shy.

    I attended public school all the way from Kindergarten to twelfth grade. I was shy all the way through and still am.

    I know that public school can afford more opportunities to interact with peers but it isn’t always a positive interaction. I was able to interact with my peers and I hated it. I was an introvert through and through. Not a recluse but an introvert. Little Miss has a similar personality. She likes to socialize but when her meter is filled, which sometimes can happen fairly fast, she prefers to go off on her own and participate in quiet activities. My son is the same.

    It cracks me up when we come back from an event or a friend goes home and she flops in her chair and says, “Whew! That’s enough social interaction for the week. I need some alone time.”

    After she introduced herself to the little girl at the playground earlier this week, and they had played for a bit, she came over to me and said, “She wanted to add me to a group chat on her Messenger Kids (which is a Facebook app monitored by parents) but I’m  not ready for that.”

    As a GenXer, it is crazy for me to hear that a 10-year-old is being invited to an online group chat by an 8-year-old. We did not exchange contact information with the little girl but if we had I would have had to contact her parents on Facebook, and we would both have to give permission for our children to talk. Then I would have had to be the one to be social with strangers. I was so relieved when Little Miss said she wasn’t ready for that level of interaction. Ha!

    Little Miss and I have been attending 4-H cooking classes once a week for the last two weeks. Well, Little Miss has been doing the cooking, and I have been reading a book in the hallway. She really enjoys cooking and has been enjoying attending the class with a little girl who also goes to the church program o.

    We attended the first class with my 81-year-old dad who, of course, immediately found someone to talk to while we waited for her. I had been worried he would be bored but he was not at all. He enjoyed talking to a young man there about local history as they looked at a mural on the wall in the building we were at. The Mural is beautiful and showcases history of the small town and county we were/are in.

    Dad always seems to find someone to talk to no matter where we go.

    I finished The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis last week.



    I am reading the biography of James Herriot by his son Jim Wight very slowly because it is rather dull in many parts. I have had to skim a lot of unnecessary information about his time in veterinary school. It truly was unnecessary in my mind, but some readers may enjoy it.

    Most of the time this week I have been reading The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner. It’s a Perry Mason mystery and I am really enjoying it. I love Gardner’s style of writing and the banter between Lieutenant Tagg and Perry.

    I am slowly reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.

    I hope to start Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery this week for Middle Grade March.

    After that I will be starting Between the Sound and Sea by Amanda Cox.

    The Husband is between books.

    The Boy is also between books.

    Little Miss is reading Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban.

    This week I watched more Edwardian Farm, two episodes of Castle, my farmer on YouTube, and a Booktuber who was designing her reading journal.

    I also started an old movie with Cary Grant that I did not enjoy at all, so I am going to be looking for another old movie this week.

    I started writing book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries last week.

    Last week on the blog I shared:

    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.

    In addition to my blog, I write fiction, and you can learn more about my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

    I also have a Substack where I share about my writing journey or books.

    Middle Grade March Reads

    / Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

    I don’t participate in book challenges very often but this month I am participating in Middle Grade March.

    This is the month when adults read chapter books that were actually written for children. Sometimes, they are so good that we don’t even realize they were written for children.

    I read a lot of these books throughout the year because I have a middle-grade child. She and I have already read many of the books other readers have on their lists each year.

    This year I decided I wanted to read Miracles on Maple Hill with Little Miss since I read it last March and really enjoyed it. I like that it takes place in Pennsylvania around maple syrup season which is this time of year. I also just like the overall story.

    I also decided to read The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis because I haven’t read all of the Chronicles of Narnia since I was about middle-grade age myself.

    Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery is one that has been recommended to me a couple of times so I also put that on my list.

    I hope to also get to Violet Jenkins Saves The Day by Stacy Faubion and The Moffats by Eleanor Estes. I will at least get to Violet by April since I’ve been meaning to read it for a few months now.

    Do you participate in Middle Grade March, or have you?

    If you have, what did you read or if you are this month, what are you reading?