What I’m Reading

Sunday Bookends: My dog and a black bear had a stand off! Eek!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 25 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 made a comment to someone in the comment section last week that the bear I saw on our back porch, and purchased a Ring camera to keep an eye on, probably would never show again.

How wrong I was.

The other night the dog was barking crazily outside. She is hooked up on a lead and I periodically walk back to check on her. Now we have a Ring camera that I can turn on and watch from my phone, but I didn’t because, well, I really didn’t think anything would happen.

The only thing that might happen is she might take off after a skunk like she did last weekend, yanking the stake to her lead out of the ground and disappearing behind our shed where she, and our son, was sprayed by a skunk.

That’s what I thought would happen anyhow but as I headed toward the back door I turned on the Ring camera from my phone and before I even looked down at it, I was at the back door looking out at Zooma face to face with a black bear, ten or twelve feet from our back door.

Zooma was barking bouncing back and forth in front of the bear, who looked quite confused honestly. I called Zooma back with a tremble in my voice, worried the bear might reach out and take out a swipe at her.

Luckily, Zooma barked a few more times but then came to me and I quickly opened the door and let her in while the bear continued to look confused.

This video does not do justice to how close the bear was to the house because of the angle of the camera. I left the audio in even though I sound like I’m crying, which I really wasn’t, but I was nervous and recovering from the virus we had so my voice sounded pretty shaky. I was just worried Zooma was going to get smacked around.

As the bear turned to leave, The Husband and I noticed he or she was limping, which was so sad to me.

I couldn’t film any longer because the bear was headed toward my neighbor’s backyard and sometimes they are out watering their garden late at night, so I wanted to warn her.

We did contact the game warden and they said they’d send someone out, but we never heard anything back. Hopefully, next week someone will update us on the condition or location of the bear.

Seeing the bear has made me very nervous but really it is a little silly to be afraid of the bear. They are black bears and aren’t really huge fans of people. They also aren’t known to attack people or, usually, pets. They simply come down looking mainly for food and our one neighbor has food out for the animals (yes, I’m pretty sure this is illegal and if not it is at least dangerous!). If you make loud noises or have a barking dog they tend to leave.

Still, I don’t relish the idea of stepping outside of my house and finding myself face to face with one.

That was the exciting part of our week. The rest of the week was spent being up weird times of the night while Little Miss coughed a lot from sinus drainage left over from the virus we had earlier in the week. We spend our days napping and trying to catch up from the weird sleep the night before.

We are still trying to recover from all of that and from the lack of sleep.

This next week I am actually going to start school for Little Miss. I wanted to do it the last couple of weeks but with being sick and recovering, that went out the window.

I have all of Little Miss’s curriculum so there is no excuse to not just get started. I’m looking forward to the upcoming year, especially art and literature, which are her and my favorite subjects.

I am still reading the same books, for the most part, but I am making progress. I finished The Scarlet Pimpernel last night. I enjoyed the book, even more so than the 1970s movie with Jane Seymour, but the ending did seem quite sudden to me. I would have liked a little more of a wrap up.

I am still reading Dave Berry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry. It is a collection of his columns for the Miami Herald and they are so funny.

I did not read any from Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse last week but I will be back into that this week. The Jeeves books are so funny.

I was very excited to receive a delivery this week from Thriftbooks that included two P.G. Wodehouse books, one of them a Jeeves book.

The books are Very Good, Jeeves and A Damsel in Distress. I am gathering that A Damsel in Distress is not a Jeeves book, based on the title and the description on the back, which is fine with me. I am interested in trying Wodehouse’s other books.

The order also included Nancy Drew books Nancy’s Mysterious Letter, The Whispering Statue, and The Triple Hoax, Remains to be Seen by Elizabeth Caldell, An Enola Holmes Mystery: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, and Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan.

I am looking forward to reading Nancy Drew: The Triple Hoax soon but first I am going to read the Nancy Drew Mystery Password to Larkspur Lane.

Little Miss is reading The Clue of the Missing Diary by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew).

The Boy is reading/listening to Red Tithe by Robbie MacNiven.

The Husband is reading. That’s all I know right now because I forgot to ask which book he is reading. I know he finished Targeted: Beirut by Jack Carr about a week ago.

This week I watched Murder She Wrote, The Picture of Dorian Gray, episodes of Canal Boat Diaries,  and a movie called Raffles, which ended terribly.

Book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series.

On the blog:

I’ve been listening to The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon.

Breath: Ally or Saboteur  by June Svetlovsky

Mr. Monk Gets on Board by  Cross Examining Crime

Hello Monday, Goodbye July by Southern Patches

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Summer bug, cooler weather, and … oh. Still reading the same books.

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 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.

Today is my mom’s 81st birthday. Sadly, we are probably not going there for dinner because my family is recovering from a summer virus/cold. We are almost all the way over it but we’re making sure we are still not contagious before we go. So, we will celebrate her birthday later this week.

The biggest issue with our illness this week was Little Miss’s cough at night and our being unable to stop it so she, and we, could sleep. We were happy to have some beautiful weather the second half of the week that allowed us to go outside and get some fresh air. During the first part of the week, it was simply too hot to enjoy anything outside.

Fans of Summer have been disappointed this week since we had fall-like temperatures for the last few days but I have been loving it. I would love it even more if Little Miss could kick her cough all the way. I have a feeling that will happen by tomorrow or Tuesday, however.

A couple of quick reminders:

I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here (https://lisahoweler.com/2025/08/02/a-good-book-a-cup-of-tea-monthly-link-party-for-august/) . It is for posts about books that you are reading, have read, book reviews — just anything book-related really. So even posts about book collections, authors etc. etc.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one in August, but I am not sure when yet.

The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

This wasn’t the worst cold/virus/whatever I’ve ever had so I was able to get some reading in, mainly from Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down while I sat up keeping an eye on Little Miss in the middle of the night. I also read quite a bit of The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.

I didn’t read any of the 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson this week but I do plan to continue it and finish it. I did read some from Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse and I love it.

Soon I hope to read The Clue of the Broken Blade, a Hardy Boys Mystery, and Password to Larkspur Lane, a Nancy Drew Mystery.

The Boy is listening to Red Tithe by Robbie MacNiven, a Warhammer book.

The Husband is reading something or other but he laid down for a nap because he might be getting the virus next so I will have to ask him later.

Little Miss and I have not started anything new lately but I hope to finish Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink soon. That title was later changed just to Caddie Woodlawn’s Family. I think that’s a good thing because the first title was .. a little weird in modern times.

Last week I watched The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, a few episodes of Murder She Wrote, an episode of As Time Goes By, a documentary of David Suchet on the Orient Express, and an episode of a new-to-me show called Canal Boat Diaries. I also watched The Court Jester as part of my Summer of Angela series. Next week I will be watching The Picture of Dorian Gray.

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Bear on my porch and watching old shows

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 11 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 shared on my blog yesterday about my black bear incident on my back porch. I’ll copy what I wrote here:

This past week was interesting if only for one thing that happened to me — something I knew would happen one day, but luckily it wasn’t as dramatic as I worried it would be.

I don’t have any photos, but it finally happened — I went out to my back door to get my cats in, and there was a black bear on the back porch. A black bear. Yes.  Maybe three feet away from me but luckily there was a glass door between us.
 
I thought I was seeing a reflection on my door or just a shadow, and then the shadow moved! It hopped off the porch and took off across the yard while my cat watched from the other side of the yard, apparently amused by how I gasped, slammed the door shut and locked it (because the bear was clearly going to open it again) and then tried to get Little Miss to come see it by gasping. “Bear. Bear. Little Miss. See. Come.”

It was gone before she got there, sadly.

The Husband and The Boy were both upstairs so I couldn’t call for them.

We are now investing in a ring camera so I can get a better look before any of us step out there from now on.

I did a search on Facebook in a group that focuses on bear sightings in our area to see if anyone had seen our bear and learned that bear sightings are up. One reason they are up is because the state game commission has changed the weigh-in locations for bears when they are hunted. This means hunters aren’t as interested in hunting bears. They have to drive them too far to weigh them. Since the bears aren’t being as hunted as much, there is more of them. More of them means more of them are wandering into backyards and small towns.

Hopefully, we can keep ourselves and the bears safe. In most cases bears leave as soon as they see a person and we’re lucky that black bears aren’t like their grizzly bear cousins who sometimes do attack people (but probably rarely).

A couple of quick reminders:

I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here. It is for posts about books that you are reading, have read, book reviews — just anything book-related.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one in August, but I am not sure when yet.

The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

Last week I finished Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis and A Murder She Wrote Mystery: Killer in the Kitchen by Don Blain.

I am currently reading the 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse.

I’m also reading a couple of chapters of Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry a day.

I also just started The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.

Soon I hope to read The Clue of the Broken Blade, a Hardy Boys Mystery, and Password to Larkspur Lane, a Nancy Drew Mystery.

This past week I watched several episodes of Murder She Wrote and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I also watched an episode of The Danny Thomas Show (which I had never seen before).

I enjoyed a movie with John Wayne called Without Reservations and then watched   for my Summer of Angela feature.

On the blog:

What the Algorithm Did To Our Words and Why It Matters by Lisa’s Notes

Words for Wednesday: Hazardous Driving by Mama’s Empty Nest

My Love for Laurie Colwin Books by Scratch Made Food for Hungry People

Reading to Cats by Cat’s Wire

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Murder, She Wrote and Jesus

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 19 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.

My blood pressure was high this week. It’s been an on and off issue for a few years now but seems to get better when I relax and take my time to take the reading the correct way.

It doesn’t want to go down at all when I am anxious, however, no matter what I do.

I’ve been anxious a lot lately, for a variety of reasons, one being the fact I needed to go to the doctor this week.

Long story short, I canceled the appointment when I found out a doctor I’ve heard very good things about actually takes my insurance. I’ll probably end up on medicine but at least I’ll feel like I can talk to this doctor about it unlike the other doctor I had the appointment with.

That appointment is a couple of weeks away, so I plan to monitor my blood pressure until then and do all I can do reduce stress (that might not be possible with a couple of situations going on but I’ll see). I started monitoring it off and on in June.

This week I couldn’t get it to an acceptable level until Thursday night after I’d been praying about it and after I sat down to watch Murder, She Wrote.

That’s right, readers.

 I am crediting the significant drop in my blood pressure Thursday night (more than 15 points on top!) to Murder, She Wrote and Jesus.

I was so wrapped up in the mystery I didn’t focus on my worry about my blood pressure. It’s almost as if Jesus reminded me that I hadn’t watched Murder, She Wrote in a few days simply so I would finally stop worrying about everything all of the time and finally relax.

That’s my tip for any of you with high blood pressure: Pray to Jesus and watch Murder, She Wrote. (*Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I only play one on my blog. Do not actually consider this medical advice. Please consult your actual doctor. *wink*)

I just finished Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was a Cool and Lam Mystery and I didn’t like it as much as the first book in the series I read a couple of years ago. Getting it through it was a bit of a slog actually. I will try another book in the series, but this one was not a favorite of mine.

I’m reading Murder She Wrote: Killer in the Kitchen by Donald Blain, The 100-Year-Old man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, and Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

The 100-Year-Old man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared is . . . uh . . . weird, but I have to find out what happens.

I hope to finish Dave Berry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down at some point, but I like reading a chapter here and there and I haven’t read it in a while because I’ve been wrapped up in mysteries.

Books I want to read soon include My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, A Penny Parker Mystery: Whispering Walls by Mildred A. Wirt (Benson), and another Nancy Drew book but I haven’t decided which one.

Little Miss is reading The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery).

This past week I watched Please Murder Me with Angela Lansbury and Raymond Burr. I also watched three very good Murder, She Wrote episodes, a movie with William Powell called The Canary Murder, and an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I never watched Scarecrow and Mrs. King when I was younger so it’s fun to discover the show, even though I’ve heard of it and seen parts of episodes in the past.

I’m actually progressing on Gladwynn Grant’s fourth book. It’s a miracle. I know.

This week on the blog I shared:

I am listening to The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon on Audible.

I have also been listening to a lot of Harry Connick Jr. songs, including this one:

The piano solo that starts at 1:50 is absolutely brilliant.

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Little, used bookstores are the best and an anniversary outing

/ 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.

Today is my husband’s and my 23rd wedding anniversary, and we went to a used bookstore near us because we are both serious nerds.

Then we visited a small café across the street for lunch.

Dinner and a book. That’s us, although it wasn’t always me. I read some but not as much, or as much variety, as I do now.

My husband has always been a big reader — sometimes a book a day or 3 to 5 a week.

I’m a much slower reader.

At the bookstore, I found three new (to me) Nancy Drew books, three Murder She Wrote books, and a cozy mystery by an author I am not familiar with — Betty Rowlands.

The Nancy Drew books I brought home were Mystery of the Tolling Bell, Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk, and The Clue of the Broken Locket.

The Murder She Wrote books are Killer in the Kitchen, Murder in Red, and The Murder of Twelve. I have a feeling they might be awful and I’m here for it. I started Murder in Red to see what I thought, though, and the first few pages was good.

The other cozy mystery was A Melissa Craig Mystery: A Little Gentle Sleuthing by Betty Rowlands.

There are so many variety of books there. I could have stayed there an hour but The Husband, alas, was hungry so we had to head out for some food which was odd because I am usually the one who needs to leave places for food.

After the bookstore and the dinner we headed home and watched a Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly movie called Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Yesterday I shared a bit about our week last week on my Saturday Evening Chat post.

A couple of quick reminders:

I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one Saturday, July 19 at 1 p.m.

The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

I finished The Imitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse this past week and really enjoyed it. It was so much fun and exactly what I needed right now.

I started The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and I don’t know if I am exactly enjoying it but it’s different. I’ll see what I think.

I also started Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner. It’s a Cool and Lamb Mystery. I am not enjoying this one much at all so I’ll see if I finish it. There were three pages of a guy describing how to use slot machines! Why??? Ugh! The first in the series was so much better. This is number four.

I started Memory Lane by Becky Wade to see what I thought because I have wanted to read a light romance but have not enjoyed the two I tried by Courtney Walsh. I just think she isn’t my cup of tea but I’ve read Becky’s before and have enjoyed her so I thought I’d try this one and … I liked the beginning so I am going to read that when I need a light read.

Before bed I am enjoying Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

I plan to read one of the Murder She Wrote I picked up soon.

Last week I watched The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), The Pirates of Penzance, and A Hole in the Head.

I don’t recommend A Hole in the Head. It’s a Frank Sinatra/Edward G. Robinson film and it has some cute and fun moments but fell apart hard toward the end and didn’t resolve well at all. It’s like they just ran out of time and said “welp, that’s it! We’re done!”

I also watched an episode of The Dick VanDyke Show and The Husband and I watched Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the Canary Murder Case, a Philo Vance Mystery from the 1930s.

Last week on the blog I shared:

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

The day Thriftbooks sent me a book I did not order, and it turned out to be a collectible

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 30 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. Sometimes, I share what I’ve been listening to.

Thursday I received a package from Thriftbooks and inside was supposed to be a copy of Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (check), a copy of The Nancy Drew Scrapbook by Karen Plunket-Powel (check), and a Murder She Wrote Mystery (no check). Instead of the Murder She Wrote mystery, I found a very old book with a crumbling dust jacket and more dust than this mild-asthmatic with allergies was comfortable with. I barely looked at the book but I thought the title looked French.

Later that night after sending off an annoyed email to Thriftbooks to tell them they sent me the wrong book, I decided to take a closer look at the book, to at least find out the name.

I had never heard of the book, but it was called Murder A La Stroganoff by Caryl Brahms and SJ Snow. Inside the cover, it had a stamp that said it was from the Newberry Library, had been retired from their shelves, and was part of the Barzel Dance Collection. I searched a little more online and these books are fairly rare because it is a first edition from 1938 and the book is no longer in print. They did issue a paperback copy in 1985, but there are not a ton of the hardcovers published by The Crime Club, Doubleday & Co, New York out there.

Sadly, the book isn’t necessarily worth a ton without the dust jacket, which crumbled in my hands when I opened the package, but I couldn’t find one online being sold for less than $20 so, hey, if I ever do decide to sell it, I could make at least $20 off something I was shipped for free. With the dust jacket it could be worth up to $150. Apparently there aren’t a ton of these first editions out there and it’s a bit of a cult classic among mystery readers.

Thriftbooks did get back to me, by the way, and didn’t get the point that they sent the wrong book. Instead, they said they were sorry the book didn’t show up the way I wanted it to and that they didn’t have any other books with that title (they still think it is the Murder She Wrote book I first ordered) so to just keep the book and do what it with I wanted. They then issued me a refund for the book.

The book is a mystery and crime book with some satire mixed in about the ballet industry and is the second book in a series. I can not find a description of the book line but I think I actually want to read it so I might get a copy of the paperback instead of trying to read this older book which might bother my allergies.

I will be writing a blog post in the future about the book and its authors, though, because I fell down a rabbit hole researching what the book might be worth. I suppose that in the end getting the wrong book wasn’t such a bad thing.

Last week I finished The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie and The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery).

I’ll have reviews of both of them soon but I did enjoy them both. The Pale Horse was obviously more adult — I mean, not like “adult-adult” but more mature themes. But not like … mature-mature. *wink*

I’ve been enjoying some leisurely reading of P.G. Wodehouse’s The Imitable Jeeves.

The book is so funny and witty. It’s been a very nice escape. The Jeeves books are comedic books about Bertie Wooster, a British gentleman from London, who is always getting into somewhat weird situations where he has to be bailed out or helped by his valet Jeeves.

This book is exactly what I have needed this week.

I think I’m going to have to give up on The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh before I even really get too far in it. I pushed through the first chapter wondering why the author was giving me so much information at once and when she was going to get to an actual story. The first chapter is entirely Isadora standing in a supermarket, thinking about her life with very little interaction with anyone else or action. It looks to me like the whole book is mainly her thinking about things and dumping a lot of info on the reader all in one go. I just can’t get into it, in other words.

I might try again this week, but otherwise I am going to move on to Prince Caspian and then But First Murder by Bee Littlefield.

This week I watched Gaslight (1944) as part of my Summer of Angela movie watching event and really enjoyed it. It isn’t a movie I’d watch over and over because it is pretty dark in some ways, but I did enjoy it.   I also watched The Rains Came, a 1939 movie with Myrna Loy and Tyrone Powers and Abbott and Costello in The Jack and The Beanstalk.
This morning I watched church with Lisa Harper as the guest pastor and followed it up with a couple episodes of Just A Few Acres Farm.

I’m working on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School and wrote a little more this past week. I hope to have more time to write this week since Little Miss is going to VBS and I’ll probably wait at the church for her to save gas.

On the blog I shared:

Saturday Evening Chat: Fourth of July and prayers, not blaming, for Texas

Summer of Angela: Gaslight (1944)

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot July 4th!

A Good Book And A Cup of Tea Link Up for July

Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Books I’ve Read

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Hot weather and a pretty Little Women book plus what I’m reading

/ 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.

The heat this past week was awful. Just awful. We couldn’t get out house to cool down part of the time. But we survived and are experiencing much nicer and cooler temperatures now.

I haven’t been adding a lot of books to my shelf lately, but I thought I’d share this lovely Little Women book I recently bought from an online used bookshop.

It is an illustrated copy from the 1970s and I absolutely love the feel of the book overall, the illustrations inside, and the beautiful outside of the book, under the outside cover.

I know I will be rereading Little Women this year and other years. I might not read it all the way through again, but there are favorite sections I will definitely read over and over after I finally read it for the first time last year.

When I posted about this edition on my Instagram, several people commented that they had the exact same copy. Do any of you have a copy like this too?

I am still reading The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie but will have it done later this week. I’m not sure what I think of this one, but will probably go for a Miss Marple book for my next Agatha read.

I am also reading The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene. It is a Nancy Drew mystery and it is the first book where she meets Ned Nickerson, who readers of Nancy Drew will know is her boyfriend throughout the series.

I am reading The Imitable Mr. Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse off and on.

I just started The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh. It is too soon for me to decide if I will like it or not.

Up next I hope to read Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

Little Miss and I are listening to Prince Caspian at night but she can hear it better because the phone is closer to her and I am closer to the air conditioner, which means I really can’t follow the story at all. That’s why I am glad I am going to be reading it soon.

The Husband is reading Glitz by Elmore Leonard.

The Boy is listening to Perturabo by Guy Haley. It’s a Warhammer book.

Little Miss just started the fourth book in The Harry Potter series, Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.

I rewatched The Manchurian Candidate with The Boy last night. I picked up even more than I did when I watched it. Earlier in the week I watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks and an episode of Ludwig. This week I hope to watch Agatha and Me With David Suchet, more Ludwig, and Gaslight with Angela Lansbury for my Summer of Angela.

This week on the blog I shared:

Newsletter for June: Gladwynn books on sale and a update on book four

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot June 27 (In memory of Patrick Weseman)

Hodge Podge: What is adventure?

Episode Recap: The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Mystery of the Fallen Angel

I’ve been listening to old Jack Benny radio programs before bed.

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Link parties, finished two books, & watching Angela movies

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 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 shared what I did last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat yesterday. It was actually my Saturday Evening Chat because I got it up so late.

After I posted that, The Husband took Little Miss and her friend swimming at the local YMCA, which we had never visited before. Now that we know the pool exists we will probably visit it more this summer.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one Saturday, July 19 at 1 p.m.

The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin does a variety of art, including embroidery. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

If you are looking for a link party to participate in, I co-host one with three lovely blogger ladies that goes live on Thursday nights. The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot goes live about 9:30 p.m. each Thursday and if you scroll on my right-hand sidebar you should find the link to the latest one.

I also have added a link to parties I participate in at the top of my page.

I am going to leave up my monthly link-up for all things book-related. You can find a link to the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or click here https://lisahoweler.com/2025/06/08/a-good-book-a-cup-of-tea-june-2025-party/

What I am reading – I finally finished All Things Wise and Wonderful the week before last and really loved it – especially a story at the end of the book involving Tristan, the date he tossed into the rose bushes, and a missing dog.

I also finished A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano. I would give it about a 3.5. I didn’t like how the mystery part wrapped up or how the main character had this huge secret she dropped at the very end but never really resolved. Politano’s writing is very good, though, and I am sure I will read another one by her at some point in the future.

Right now I am reading The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie and switching off with The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse.

I plan to start The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh sometime this week.

I hope to start Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis soon as well.

The Husband is reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Little Miss is finishing up the third Harry Potter book after a long break, and she and I are reading Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink together and listening to The Moffats at night.

I didn’t add any new books to my shelves recently, other than a couple I found on Project Gutenberg and will be sending to my Kindle to read.

Last week I watched National Velvet for my Summer of Angela. I also rewatched The Sound of Music for a comfort watch and a few episodes of Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet.

Last week on the blog:

Summer of Angela: National Velvet (1944)

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot June 20

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books I want to read this summerSummer of Angela: The Manchurian Candidate

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Giving up on Mansfield Park and James Herriot is in my dreams

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 22 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.

Happy early birthday to my brother from Transmissions From The Northern Outpost who will be 65 tomorrow. Okay, I’m kidding. He won’t be 65, but his birthday is tomorrow. If you know him, wish him a happy one.

I talked about our week yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Chat, if you would like to check it out.

I talked mainly about VBS with Little Miss and our final homeschool evaluation for The Boy.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one Saturday, June 21 at 1 p.m.

The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin has been embroidering lately. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

I gave up on Mansfield Park. At least for now. I just can’t get into it – don’t really care about these people and their visits to each others houses where they sit and talk about each other and don’t do much else. Plus, I know the direction the romance is going, and it makes me queasy. Just – yeah – no.  The British and their weird ideas back then about who was okay to marry and who wasn’t … and yet they have the gall to make comments about our rednecks. (This is all said in jest so I hope I don’t offend my British or redneck readers. *wink*).

***SPOILER ALERT***

I sent this to my friend Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs this morning:

I can’t invest myself in a book where she hooks up with her first cousin. (I know where this is going.)

Plus – it’s sooooo boring

These people literally had no lives — they just kept going to each others houses and talked down to each other and connived and that’s like their whole lives.

I think I may just have to admit that I am not a Jane Austen fan, other than the movies. I have, of course, heard that Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are easier to read so I will probably try them later this summer. Like I think I might swap out Mansfield Park for Sense and Sensibility on my 15 Books for Summer challenge.

I am still reading All Things Wise and Wonderful.

I cannot believe how long this James Herriot book is. I feel like I might never finish it! The book is made up of individual stories in each chapter, with the underlying theme being James’s time in the RAF. I am really enjoying the stories, but I feel like I’ve been reading this book forever. I’ve taken a lot of breaks to read other books in between so I have actually been reading it a long time. Maybe I’ll have it done this week, maybe not.

I know one thing — I need to finish it soon because I am literally having dreams about James Herriot now. Of course, he looks like Nicholas Ralph from the new series in my dreams. And no..it was not a romantic dream. Just a weird one. Ha!

I’m also reading A Midnight Dance by Julia Davidson Politano. This is my first by her and I am enjoying it but it is quite a serious book so I will have to read something less serious when I am done with it. The writing is great so don’t take the words “serious book” as any kind of complaint.

I just started The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie to cleanse my pallet from the dullness of Mansfield Park and the drama of A Midnight Dance, but then I got so swept up in A Midnight Dance, I put The Pale Horse aside for now.

Up next to read after I finish A Midnight Dance will be Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh. That will be my happy read, from what I understand about Courtney’s books. It should be a lighter read anyhow.

I added a couple of new books to my TBR over the last couple of weeks, including a Nancy Drew Mystery called The Clue of The Velvet Mask and a Louis L’Amour short story collection With These Hands. A few weeks ago I added a number of Mildred Wirt books from Project Gutenberg. She was the first “Carolyn Keene” and wrote around 28 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. These are “juvenile” fiction but the plots and dialogue is better than some adult fiction.

I just started Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet on Britbox. David traveled to South Africa for the first episode. The show made me love David even more. Oh gosh..he’s such a sweet man. I wanted to reach into the screen and give him a big hug at one point.

This past week I watched a couple Murder She Wrote episodes, a Brokenwood Mysteries episode, a couple episodes of the Father Dowling Mysteries, and Just A Few Acres Farm (Youtube Channel).

On the blog this week I shared:

Some fun from the gram this week:

From YouTube this week:

Random Saturday: It’s a Small World by Cat’s Wire.

I always have fun with Cat’s blog posts. She has so much interesting stuff.

The Building Our Hive blog chose my book to recommend for their summer reading list!!!!! I found this by accident and I was so giddy and almost cried!!

New Booklist by Building Our Hive

When People Say Thoughtless Things from Stray Thoughts had me thinking about how we sometimes upset people when we mean well, but also how I can give people grace when they say things that upset me.

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. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.