Ten Books with Questions in the Title

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share ten books with questions in the title this week. I knew this would be difficult but I didn't realize exactly how difficult! I tried to choose books that I've either read or want to read. Do I just dislike question marks in titles or was this prompt hard for everyone? Seriously Mum, What's an Alpaca? - An Adventure in the Frying Pan of Spain by Alan Parks Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers Isn't It Romantic?: An Entertainment by Ron Hansen Over What Hill?: (Notes from the Pasture) by Effie Leland Wilder I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun by Professor Happycat N or M? by Agatha Christie Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? by Patrick F. McManus How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions abut Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty That's my list! Have you read any of these? Which books did/would you choose? Link up every Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl! 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.

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Weekly Update for July 11, 2021

Welcome to my weekly update for July 11, 2021! We didn't really do anything for the holiday last week but my husband is off this week. We spent the holiday weekend making plans for our vacation and for trips with our family and friends when they visit. Everyone we know seems excited to visit us in Alaska! We're looking forward to welcoming them. Unfortunately, the weather for our vacation week looks cool and rainy so we've booked our hotels in Homer and near Denali National Park but we haven't made many other firm plans. We'll have to take it day by day. I consider myself to be an average housekeeper but I can't relax in a space I consider to be "mine" until I've done a deep, deep, deep clean. So I've spent a ridiculous amount of time scrubbing our little studio apartment. My husband says it's a good thing we normally live in our RV while he's working; I'd kill myself cleaning if I did this every three months! He's not wrong. So I've finished a lot of audiobooks while I've been tracking down every last dog hair (the former renter had at least one long-haired dog) but I haven't sat down to review anything in a while. Posted: Ten Books That Have Been on My TBR the Longest Read: The Umbrella Academy: Dallas by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá--4 Stars The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, read by Del Roy--3.5 Stars Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy--4 Stars Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett, read by David Colacci--4 Stars Currently Reading: Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly, read by Lulu Lam…

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Ten Books That Have Been on My TBR the Longest

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share our top ten reasons we love reading this week. That wasn't really speaking to me since I felt that topic would get repetitive across many blogs, so I looked back through old prompts for other ideas. This week, I'm sharing the top ten books that have been on my TBR the longest. According to GoodReads, I added every one of these books on June 8, 2007. That's over 14 years ago! I believe I found all of these through a bookish page-a-day calendar I had that year. An Unpardonable Crime by Andrew Taylor The Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness by Rick Bass All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West Creatures of Habit by Jill McCorkle The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne The Good House by Tananarive Due They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? by Patrick F. McManus The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, selected by Caroline Kennedy That's my list! Have you read any of these? Should I get to any of them soon? Link up every Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl! 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.

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Weekly Update for July 4, 2021

Welcome to my weekly update for July 4, 2021! Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans! As I write this on Friday, we haven't made any plans for the long weekend yet. Someone pointed out that Alaska is not the best place for 4th of July fireworks since we don't really see any darkness at this time of year. Oh well. I'm sure we'll find some sort of celebration! I'm posting pictures from Independence Day in Portland, Maine in 2019. We went out on a schooner with some friends to watch the fireworks from the water! Posted: Ten Anticipated Book Releases for the Remainder of 2021 Read: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy The Golden Tresses of the Dead (Flavia de Luce #10) by Alan Bradley, read by Jayne Entwistle Namesake (Fable #2) by Adrienne Young Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis, illustrated by Jim Grant Firefly: The Unification War: Part One by Greg Pak, Dan McDaid, and Marcelo Costa, created by Joss Whedon Currently Reading: The Umbrella Academy: Dallas by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, read by Del Roy Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy Up Next: I need a book set in/written by an author from Australia or New Zealand for one of my reading challenges. I know a lot of you live in these two countries. What do you recommend? What did your week look like? 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? I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no…

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Ten Anticipated Book Releases for the Remainder of 2021

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share our top ten anticipated book releases for the remainder of 2021. I don't usually track release dates; instead, I just check out whatever catches me eye at the library. I did look through Publisher's Weekly for this post to see if there are any books coming out soon that catch my eye. When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash--I'm a big fan of Wiley Cash and I've been lucky enough to attend one of his book signings. He's a fellow North Carolinian who writes with obvious love and compassion about the sometimes-grim realities of life in the South. His books resonate with me in a way that's hard to describe. Under The Whispering Door by T.J. Klune--I absolutely adored The House in the Cerulean Sea last year so I was excited when Nicole at BookWyrm Knits mentioned that Klune has a new book coming out soon. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix--I accidentally read most of Hendrix's backlist last year. It is rare for me to read an author's works close together so that's a huge compliment. He writes horror but there's surprising depth to it. The Outlaws Scarlett And Browne by Jonathan Stroud--I can't say that I seek out Stroud's books but when I do come across one of them, I usually check it out. Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share--I'm a fan of this social media account so I'm curious to see what the book is like. The idea might wear thin but it could be a lot of fun too. Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock--I discovered Hope Larson's graphic novels last year and fell in love. This is described as a graphic novel…

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Weekly Update for June 27, 2021

Welcome to my weekly update for June 27, 2021! If you're new here, you might not know that my husband is a traveling healthcare professional. He accepts three-month assignments to fill staffing needs at hospitals around the country and I tag along. I take care of chores and errands while he's at work so that we can explore on his days off. We completed his last assignment in Sarasota, Florida earlier this month. We're now in Anchorage, Alaska! It's warmer here than you probably expect, with highs in the mid-60s and lows in the mid-50s, but still a bit of a shock to our systems! The sun sets at around 11:30 pm and rises around 4:30 am but the sky never truly gets dark. We're getting adjusted though! We normally travel in our motorhome but we didn't want to drive 4000+ miles from home, cross the Canadian border (allowed for essential workers but it still sounds like a pain), and find a campground near the hospital. So this time we flew in, rented a furnished apartment, and borrowed a car from a friend of a friend. We're used to rolling into town, plugging in the RV, and immediately sightseeing, so this experience has been different for us. We've had a lot of little chores that seem to take a lot of time. We haven't gotten out much yet but hope to this weekend now that we're settled in. We visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center on Tuesday. It was so cool to see all those native animals in their own environment! Let me know if you've visited Anchorage and have any suggestions for things we need to see! The brown bear is a resident at the Wildlife Center so he was behind a fence and we were up on a…

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Top Ten Picture Books

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share our top ten bookish wishes in honor of her birthday today. (Happy birthday, Jana!) Since my husband and I travel constantly with his job, I try not to buy books; I've chosen to post my top ten picture books from my childhood instead. I was born in 1978 so most of these will be from the early '80s or earlier. Are you ready for a trip to the past? (Fun fact: I still own most of these.) Little Mouse on the Prairie by Stephen Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James--This creative team has written countless books in the Serendipity series but this was the first one I ever owned. I think I got it in a Scholastic book fair grab bag in kindergarten. These gentle, beautifully illustrated stories always end with an important lesson. I'm still collecting them to this day, more than 35 years later. The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael J. Smollin--We all love this book, right? Right? It's the perfect read aloud. I'm sure many relatives read it to me but for some reason, I mostly remember my youngest aunt reading it with gusto! The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell, illustrated by Sergio Leone--It feels like Christmas when I bring this meaningful little book out. Frog and Toad Are Friends, written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel--I had several of the Frog and Toad books and loved them all. My mom even got me a new, related poetry collection a few years ago, The Frogs and Toads All Sang. Little Miss Splendid, written and illustrated by Roger Hargreaves--True story. You will never be friends with some people. Another little girl and I disliked each other from the moment we started school…

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Weekly Update for June 20, 2021

Welcome to my weekly update for June 20, 2021! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially my own! We were able to celebrate an early Father's Day with him last weekend. Considering that I hadn't been home since February 2020 because of covid and my husband hadn't been home since September 2019 (I flew home in February for a funeral but he had to work), it was a truly special day. What a busy few weeks! I last posted on May 28 while we were still in Sarasota, FL. I struggled with internet access the whole three months we were there but Verizon finally throttled my data access to the point where I just stopped trying. My apologies for not commenting on your blogs or responding to the very few things I posted here. We finally finished up my husband's work assignment in Sarasota and went home to Asheville, NC for a little over a week! Yay! It was so good to see my family and my mountains! We were ridiculously busy, trying to fit in time with everyone and catch up on overdue doctor and dentist appointments. If you want to feel old, schedule all your yearly appointments in one week. Seriously. Slideshow: The misty mountain view is from my parents' back porch, where I grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. The clearer view is from my grandmother's front porch, "just up the hill" from my parents. I've been a lot of beautiful places but there's no place like home! Posted: Since my last update on May 23, I've posted Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff--5 Stars Ten Quotes about Making a Difference Read: I have been reading quite a bit since my last update on May 23. Less blogging…

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Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty: Book Review

5 Stars. Oh my goodness! I loved this book! I love the way the illustrations subvert the text. If I were only reading the words, I would expect a stereotypical princess playing tea with her dolls (I love those little girls but that doesn't reflect every girl's interests). For example [...]

Ten Quotes about Making a Difference

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share quotes from books on a theme of our choice this week. I glanced through the quotes I've saved on GoodReads. I thought about a "Girl Power" theme or "Friendship" but I settled on ten quotes about making a difference in the world. These may or may not be taken from books but I like what they have to say. 1."Never, ever regret or apologize for believing that when one man or one woman decides to risk addressing the world with truth, the world may stop what it is doing and hear. There is too much evidence to the contrary." — Robert Fulghum, Maybe (Maybe Not) 2."It is the chair in honor of all those who, however competently, embrace the impossible. Sit in that chair someday." — Robert Fulghum, Maybe (Maybe Not) 3."I love this world....That is what rules my life. When I die, I want to have done all in my power to leave it in a better state than it was when I found it. At the same time I know that this can never be. The world has grown so complex that one voice can do little to alter it any longer. That doesn't stop me from doing what I can, but it makes the task hard. The successes are so small, the failures so large and many. It's like trying to stem a storm with one's bare hands." — Charles de Lint, The Little Country 4."I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer. Then, child, make another." — Madeline Miller, Circe 5."You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." — Khalil Gibran, The Prophet 6."Be the change that you wish to see in the world." — Mahatma Gandhi 7."Here's to…

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