Bookish Miscellany

Welcome to my weekly update for March 19, 2023! We had another quiet week here, just watching the rain pour down. I'm going to share pictures from a portion of our February drive from Las Cruces, New Mexico here to Escondido, California. We know that Las Cruces can be downright cold in the winter but we were shocked to wake up and find snow on the ground! Slideshow: Snowy mountains and desert, somewhere along Interstate 10, near the New Mexico-Arizona border More snowy mountains and desert in the same area Texas Canyon, which is in Arizona Imperial Sand Dunes National Recreation Area in southeastern California, as seen from Interstate 8. The juxtaposition of the sand dunes and the manmade canal intrigued me. Posted: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis: Book Review 🌟🌟🌟 Ten Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke by Andrew Maraniss: Book Review 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Read: I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.  Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic #1) by Patricia C. Wrede 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Lore Olympus: Volume Two by Rachel Smythe 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Hidden Palace (The Golem and the Jinni #2) by Helene Wecker, read by George Guidall 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Currently Reading: Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss, read by Kate Reading Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Up Next: My husband is on call at the hospital where he works all weekend so we will be lying low again. I should be able to make some good progress on these books. I haven't even started the first two as I'm writing this on…

Welcome to my weekly update for March 12, 2023! I saw a Facebook post several weeks ago asking for volunteers to be virtual moderators for a kids' program at the North Carolina Arboretum, which is in my hometown. I'm not working while my husband and I travel with his job but I have a surprisingly hard time volunteering at places that interest me, i.e., libraries. Since they're government entities and there are always lots of kids around, volunteers usually have to go through a background check. That's fine--I promise I don't have any skeletons in my closet--but I've been told that the library's cost in paying for the background check isn't justified by the amount of time that I'll be in any one place. It's a bummer but I understand. Everyone has to weigh costs and benefits. I was able to volunteer for the Friends of the Library in Old Orchard Beach, Maine our first summer traveling though, and I loved it! Anyway, back to this virtual volunteer thing. The object of the program at the arboretum is to get kids outside, exploring, and participating in citizen science. They take pictures of whatever they come across in their explorations, identify it to the best of their abilities, and upload it to a website. That's where the virtual volunteers come in. They verify the identification or gently steer the child in the correct direction, post some encouraging words, send the picture over to iNaturalist, and award points to the child for each submission. The kids earn badges and points they can redeem for prizes. I love to be outside and I'm constantly using apps to identify what I find. And it's all virtual so I can volunteer from anywhere and for as long as I want! It's like a volunteer position…

Welcome to my weekly update for March 5, 2023! Thank you to everyone who took the time to let me know you were having trouble commenting last week. I believe I've addressed the issue and you should be able to comment now, including those of you using Firefox. If I'm mistaken and there's still a problem, please contact me. Thanks so much for your patience and help! We didn't do much this week other than get a little more firmly settled into a baseline routine. We did go for a walk around the Oceanside Pier and stumbled on this beautiful mural by @SkyeWalker_Art on our way back to the car. In case it's hard to see, her hair has words reading, "The beauty of the sea will always be with me." Posted: Nothing. I promise I am trying to find my rhythm again. Read: I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.  Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke, read by J. D. Jackson 🌟🌟🌟 ½ Currently Reading: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Hidden Palace (The Golem and the Jinni #2) by Helene Wecker, read by George Guidall Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Up Next: I am not making quick progress on any of these and expect to continue reading them for a while. What did your week look like? Hosts: Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Welcome to my weekly update for February 26, 2023! I've had to work on some background security stuff on the blog, so if you have trouble commenting or notice anything amiss, please contact me. I took another long unintentional blogging break but hopefully I can get back into a groove for the next few months. Hopefully. My husband, Luis, wrapped up his contract as a healthcare traveler in Lodi, CA on December 23 and we flew home to NC for a couple of weeks at Christmas. Yay! Because we live in our RV while he's working, we head south for the winter, along with seemingly all the other RVers and retirees in the country. So long story short, between having difficulty finding a long-term campground to stay in and his job market going a bit wonky, Luis was between jobs for two months. Ugh. We didn't do much exploring because we needed good cell service for the job search. Almost every job he applied for was in Texas or further east so we drove that direction. We visited my brother-in-law and his family while we were in San Antonio. We haven't seen them since Christmas 2019 so that was fun. Luis finally got a job sorted out and realized that we had extra time. So we booked flights to visit my husband's parents in Naples, FL. It was heavenly to soak up all that south Florida sun. We flew back to our camper in San Antonio and drove to my husband's next job assignment... back in California! Life rarely works out the way you plan, does it? We're in Escondido. We've been in southern California two other times with Luis's job, both times in 2020. Because of all the pandemic closures during those stays, there are still a lot of…

Welcome to my weekly update for December 25, 2022! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! I hope you have some bookish gifts under your tree! I'm going to keep this post fairly short and to the point. Most of you probably have family and friends to visit, new gifts to enjoy, or naps to take. I'm posting a bit early since I have some holiday plans of my own. Posted: Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher: Book Review 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Read: I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.  Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher: Book Review 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Currently Reading: Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days by Jeanette Winterson A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis, read by multiple narrators Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie–I’ve taken a very long break from this book but I’m going to pick it up again after the new year. Up Next: I really don't know. Probably something a bit meaty and perfect for reading in the wintertime but I don't know yet what that might be. What did your week look like? Hosts: Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Welcome to my weekly update for December 18, 2022! Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate! First, a social media update. I haven't been very active on Twitter in years but I do share links to my blog posts there. I tried to ride the current chaos out but I decided I was done this week. My account is still technically active because I don't want someone else to take over my username, but I won't be posting there at all any longer. I made the move to Mastodon so you can find me there @IntrovertedReader@bookstodon.com. I probably won't be very active there either, honestly, but if you're looking for more friends, I will follow back. Since my last update on December 4, we visited Big Sur on the California coast. Our first day was a washout. We could barely see the boulders in the ocean below us. We made the most of it with our rain gear though and we did see the elephant seals on the beach around San Simeon. Oh, and we saw a herd of elk there too. The next day was supposed to be rainy again but it turned out to be cool and mostly sunny. The road south of us to San Simeon, which we drove the day before, was closed due to the threat of mud slides on old burn scars. We drove north and saw the Bixby Bridge (you'll probably recognize it from car commercials). We also drove the 17-Mile Drive around the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course. That drive was beautiful and we saw sea lions, sea otters, lots of birds, and even some harbor seals! And our patience with the rain was rewarded with a beautiful rainbow! The next day the road south of our hotel was still closed. We went…