4.5 Stars. I got behind on the monthly prompts for the Diversity Reading Challenge in August so I was looking for a short book about mental health or addiction when I stumbled on this title. It seemed like the perfect choice to help me catch up. But what started as a book I was reading simply to check a box quickly became a […]
3 Stars. I’m not a fan of New York. To be fair, I’ve only spent one day there and that was the day after my best friend’s funeral; still, nothing about the city has ever appealed to me. That said, Time and Again didn’t work particularly well for me but I think those who love New York and its history will relish it. I don’t […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share ten books with numbers in the title this week. That’s straightforward enough so let’s get started! One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (Tempting as it was, I did decide not to list […]
Welcome to my weekly update for September 12, 2021! My husband and I shared a wonderful week with my sister. She flew home last night. We did realize that a lot of tours and excursions end on Labor Day in Alaska, so I don’t think she was able to visit as many places as she […]
Welcome to my weekly update for September 5, 2021! My sister arrives for a weeklong visit this evening (Friday)! I’m so excited to see her! We don’t have many specific plans but we are going to leave tomorrow to spend the weekend in Seward. She asked to do a sightseeing cruise and to visit the […]
Welcome to my weekly update for August 29, 2021! I wrote last week about the flooding that affected so many back home in western North Carolina on August 17. Six people died and lots of families lost their homes. Please continue to keep the region in your thoughts and prayers. If you’re willing and able, […]
4 Stars. I’m not a huge fan of Westerns but this book caught my eye when a friend of a friend mentioned it on Facebook. I really enjoyed it. There’s no denying the Western background but the themes of family, love, and loss are universal. I would actually recommend this for a book club. Jess’s mother died in childbirth and Jess […]
4 Stars. The Hildegard in these pages was fascinating. She was a strategist but she also had a heart to care for others. She was “only” a woman but she was a woman with connections and she wasn’t afraid to use them. As she grew older, she called out hypocrisy and inhumane practices. God was always female in her visions. She was […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share “Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time” this week. At first glance the topic may sound weird but there is a difference between re-reading an old favorite and reading a new favorite for the very first time. There’s so much excitement as you realize how much you love […]
Welcome to my weekly update for August 22, 2021! If you’ve been around here much, you probably know that my husband and I travel with his job. You might not know that our permanent home is in the mountains of western North Carolina (near Asheville). Anyway, on Tuesday, Tropical Storm Fred came roaring up over […]
5 Stars. As I read this, I periodically thought of that adage stating that to be a writer, “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed” (I’m going to attribute this to Walter “Red” Smith, citing Quote Investigator). Ms. Ward’s pain and grief comes through in these pages almost viscerally. Growing up poor […]