Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share “books set in a place I’d love to visit” this week. This topic feels a bit too similar to Places in Books Where I’d Love to Live and Favorite Book Settings so I’m going to post about a topic I missed–books that awaken my travel […]
Welcome to my weekly update for July 31, 2022! My sister is here visiting this week so I’ll keep my post brief. As my husband and I drove home to Billings from Rapid City, SD last Saturday, we stopped by Devils Tower National Monument. It was really something to see! Apparently the name “Devil’s Tower” […]
3.5 Stars. Even As We Breathe caught my eye because it’s set in my part of the world (Asheville, NC) and it’s written by a Cherokee woman. I wanted to add some diversity to my Southern Lit challenge so I picked it up. This was a beautifully-written coming-of-age story. Cowney (rhymes with county) is struggling to find his place in the […]
4 Stars. I don’t even know how I first came across this title but I added it to a list of possible books to read for a classics challenge I’m participating in. I had to read Beowulf and The Epic of Gilgamesh in high school so I wanted to read some epics from other cultures. Somehow I found The Ramayana. Then I realized that this version […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share “ten books from seasonal TBR posts I haven’t read.” I’m such a mood reader, I usually bow out of seasonal TBR (To Be Read) topics but I do have one to look back on. I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I […]
Welcome to my weekly update for July 24, 2022! My birthday was last Monday and my husband’s birthday is this Monday so he took the week off of work. We spent the time in Rapid City, South Dakota. There is a lot to see and do there! We visited Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National […]
3 Stars. This was pretty good but it never fully grabbed my attention and I can’t say why. I liked the main characters well enough, though the secondary characters weren’t very distinct in my mind. Ana was a bit too stupidly headstrong for my taste but I mostly liked her well enough to overlook it. I’m always a fan of found […]
4 Stars. I’m not entirely sure what I expected when I started this book, but it’s not what I got, and that was a pleasant surprise for me. Lady Slane is a delightful creature and I know she and I would be friends if she were real. She’s always been dutiful to her family but she has a rich inner landscape. She draws eccentrics to herself […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl gave us a pass to choose our own topic this week. I’m from the southern Appalachian mountains, specifically the Blue Ridge mountains, and I love reading books set in my area. We have an abundance of natural-born storytellers so there are plenty to choose from. I’m limiting my choices to one book […]
Welcome to my weekly update for July 17, 2022! We took a break last weekend and just relaxed in Billings so I don’t have any new pictures to share. My birthday is tomorrow (July 18) so we have plans for that and I should have pictures next week. I won’t be around the blogosphere much […]
4 Stars. Once again, Ruta Sepetys has found a forgotten corner of history and written a gripping historical fiction novel about it. I’ve read a few books that touch on Germans at the end of WWII fleeing the vengeful Soviet army, but none of them were about Germans evacuating by boat. The history was fascinating and gut-wrenching […]