On My Nightstand March 12, 2023

Everything is in bloom here this week, and I am loving it. The whole world looks like an Easter basket. It’s been cold this weekend, but so far the blossoms seem to be holding on.

How are you all doing with the time change? Our schools are closed for a teacher work day tomorrow which I think is really smart! Let the kids ease into it I say.

Last week was really busy so I didn’t read much. I’m hoping this week will be better. I have a lot of good books going on!

Have a good week friends!

Quote of the Week

“You’re bound to get idears if you go thinkin’ about stuff.”

— John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

On My Nightstand This Week

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck -- This is my third time reading this chunkster classic. It’s one of my favorites.

Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller -- I’ve been doing a chapter a day re-read of the Little House books on Litsy, and it inspired me to re-read this one. It’s Little House on the Prairie told from Ma’s perspective.

Lark Ascending by Silas House -- I saw this on some list somewhere of best books of 2022, and my library hold came in Friday. I’ve only just started, and I’m looking forward to some dystopia.

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This post is linked to The Sunday Post on Caffeinated Reviewer.

On My Nightstand March 5, 2023

Happy weekend! I had a great week. I took a day off and took myself on a field trip to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. It’s been a long time (like 20 years) since I spent a day wandering through museums by myself like that. I went specifically to see a certain bookish display, and I’ll post more about that later this week.

This week it’s back to normal working for the man and reading as much as possible!

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King -- I’m re-reading this series in anticipation of Stephen King’s new book Holly which is coming out in September.

Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck -- I read and loved this at the suggestion of a friend a few years ago. John Steinbeck is our Author A Month on Litsy this month, and I’m looking forward to re-reading this one.

A Corpse in the Koryo -- This is for my work book club, and it’s actually not bad! Work book club can be hit or miss.

Quote of the Week:

I’ve found that while a grilled cheese won’t solve my problems for me, it makes them a bit easier to manage.

From Rivals by Katherine McGee

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This post is linked to The Sunday Post on Caffeinated Reviewer.

On My Nightstand February 24 2023

My neighbor’s cat supervised me while i read outside a few days ago

Happy weekend everyone! We’re on another wild weather roller coaster. It was 80 Thursday, and we have snow in the forecast this weekend. I hope the flowers survive.

My daughter’s party was fun last weekend, and we ate so much cake. We all gave up sweets for Lent and we were all so overloaded on sugar no one misses them yet!

This weekend I’m hoping for some quality reading time in between kid’s sports which started again last week. Work has also been a lot which makes it hard to concentrate on reading at night.

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

What The Moon Saw by Laura Resau - I’m reading this for a book club. It’s not what I would pick out on my own, but that’s what books clubs are for!

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings - I’ve only listened to about the first 20 minutes of this when I was walking this morning, but wow! I am into it!

Murder With Fried Chicken and Waffles by A.L. Herbert - This cozy mystery takes place about 10 minutes from where I live otherwise I probably would have bailed. Cozies just don’t seem to be my thing any more.

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On My Nightstand February 19, 2023

Good morning everyone! It’s a long weekend, but our schedules are starting to get packed with sports again. My son has lacrosse and my daughter has ice skating on Monday. I truly love watching them practice and play, but all the driving cuts into my reading time! We’re also celebrating my daughter’s birthday. It was in December, but so close to Christmas we haven’t been able to have a party until now. This is her first party in two years due to Covid, so when she wanted to order a two tier cake that feeds 46 for a party of 12 people I said yes! So it will be a rush to eat 46 servings of cake between now and Ash Wednesday. Goals!

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead - One of my kids insisted on having this at a book fair a few years ago, and then never read it. I decided I should at least read it before we give it away!

Dearie by Bob Spitz - Julia Child is so fascinating, and I’m enjoying this biography.

Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi - This just came in from the library so I haven’t started it yet, but the premise sounded so relatable. A woman in a mostly male office fakes a pregnancy so that she doesn’t get roped into all of the extra chores.

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On My Nightstand February 12, 2023

I ended up with a stomach bug last week, so all baking was postponed to this weekend. This weekend we were supposed to go skiing, but it’s going to be warm and raining. We’re learning to be flexible! Either way I’m enjoying these last few weekends before spring sports start again and my free time starts to disappear.

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

Ivona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley - Never got to this one last week. This is an impulse read, and it looks really fun!

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier - This is for a backlist reading challenge. I’m looking forward to it.

The Puma Years by Laura Coleman - I’m enjoying this book about a woman volunteering at an animal rescue in Bolivia. (This is free if you have Kindle Unlimited.)

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On My Nightstand February 5, 2023

Happy February! Spring is on the horizon! I can’t wait to start planting my garden and taking long walks in the sun. Porch reading is the best reading, and I’m looking forward to it.

Until then there’s a weekend of polar vortex misery to live through. I plan to catch up on some baking for my #FoodAndLit challenge and of course reading under blankets.

My son has his winter formal this weekend and I feel for the girls who have to wear dresses! Luckily my daughter has all indoor activities. I’m really glad we didn’t decide to go skiing this weekend.

Have a great week everyone.

What’s on my nightstand this week:

Murder in the High Himalayas by Jonathan Green - This is for my work book club. It’s really good so far.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo - I’ve had this on my list for a long time, so I was happy to find the audio version from my library.

Ivona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley - This is an impulse read, and it looks really fun!

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REVIEW: Green Mountain Academy by Frances Greenslade

After a series of devastating losses at home Francie is allowed to attend Green Mountain Academy, a wilderness school in British Columbia. In that peaceful setting she begins to heal, but is aware the school is in trouble. While the school leaders are off dealing with business, the girls are cut off from the world by a large storm. When Francie realizes that the plane crash she heard about must have happened on school grounds she knows what she has to do.

I enjoyed this middle grade survival story. The snowy scenes were perfect for winter reading, and I appreciated the relationships between the girls. I recommend this for kids in 6th or 7th grade and their moms.

I received a copy of this from the publisher through Library Thing Early Reviewers program. All opinions are my own.

REVIEW: The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter

Alice has a whole spectacular summer planned with her friends now that they are finally old enough to stay home alone. That is all put on hold when her parents decide to separate and her mom takes a job upstate. To make matters worse Alice suffers a concussion when her train stops suddenly on the way there and she bumps her head. Add in a cranky old lady and a dollhouse in the attic and Alice is not having the summer she planned!

Living dolls is one of my very favorite creepy things to read about this time of year, and this middle grade novel from Library Thing Early Reviewers did not disappoint! I am passing this one on to my 11 year old next. A good, fun book for Halloween reading.

REVIEW: Word of Honor by Hallee Bridgeman

Word of Honor by Hallee Bridgeman- great for a lazy morning’s read

I have been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, but over my birthday weekend I needed something lighter to read out in the back yard. I was thrilled when publisher Revell sent me a copy of this romance/suspense novel through LibraryThing Early Reviewers just in time. Government agents/exes with a past fight ecoterrorism in the Middle East? Happy birthday to me!

This romance about federal agents chasing a group of ecoterrorists was a great escape after a busy week. I enjoyed the story, and the romance was just enough to add interest without taking over. Parts were a little unbelievable, like being dropped in the Middle East without training and just fitting in. But I really didn’t read this story because I wanted believable. I wanted suspense and romance, and I got that.

Here’s the official blurb from the editor:

FBI Special Agent Lynda Culter is investigating an ecoterrorist organization in the Alaskan wilderness when her partner is taken captive and murdered before her very eyes. The only person who can identify the key players, Lynda gets assigned to take part in a joint operation in Istanbul to take the organization down.As a woman in a Muslim country, she'll find it much easier to move around undetected with a fake husband. Unfortunately for her, the man assigned to play the role is none other than US Army weapons specialist Bill Sanders--the man who crushed her heart into a million pieces back in college.With a cargo bay's worth of hurt and baggage between them, these two consummate professionals must play their parts perfectly if they hope to stop those responsible for bombing oil pipelines, killing innocent civilians, and threatening to destabilize the oil markets. But love long buried has a way of resurfacing at the most inopportune times--and protecting Lynda has become Bill's primary focus.

Give this one a try if you’re looking for something fun!

COOKBOOK REVIEW: Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

So glad my library has a good collection of cookbooks!

In July we did France for #FoodAndLit on Litsy. I didn’t even have to think about it- I was finally going to cook from Mastering The Art of French Cooking. Despite being a devoted fan of the Julia and Julie project back in the 00’s I’ve never cracked the spine of the book that inspired that brief national obsession.

Tomatoes from a stranger’s garden

I expected this to be hard to cook from, but it was actually really approachable. I marked several recipes that I had stuff on hand to try, but ended up going with Sauce Tomate because of the big bag of beautiful tomatoes someone gave us. I’ve never before put bacon in my tomato sauce, but it sounded amazing.

It was! I cooked the sauce down all day and then froze it with some beef strips. I reheated the whole thing yesterday in my crockpot. This will be a repeater!

For the Lit part of this #FoodAndLit challenge I ended up with two books. I re-read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (holds up), and and in the middle of Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi (gripping so far.)

Next month we’re on to Japan!

Food And Lit: Cooking and Reading From Argentina

Empanadas and salad

Last month on Litsy we cooked and ate from Argentina. I didn’t cook as much as usual last month, but did get a chance to try air frying some empanadas. They weren’t as good as at a restaurant, but they were still good. The kids liked them.

The real star of the month was the YA novel Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez. My daughter’s love of soccer has me reading anything I can about it, and I really liked this story about a young woman in Argentina trying to break free of her family’s expectations.

Next month we head to Greece!

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Thrilling Books That Take Place In The Great Outdoors

I love thrillers where the characters are fighting against each other but also natural elements. It adds such tension when someone has to fight their enemy and mother nature at the same time.

Do you like these books too? Here are a few of my favorites.

The Alex Carter series by Alice Henderson features a badass heroine who saves the earth while fighting the bad guys. I’ve really enjoyed both books in this series so far, and am looking forward to the next one.

The River by Peter Heller had my heart in my throat the whole time. A book about buddies on an easy paddle in Canada quickly turns to life and death as they flee wildfires and killers.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King — Baseball can’t solve all your problems, but it sure can help a lot as Trisha found out when she had the bad luck to get lost in the woods.

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Food And Lit for Thanksgiving: Mexico

I used the 2021 Food And Lit challenge as inspiration when I planned our Thanksgiving dinner. Our country for November was Mexico, and I love Mexican food, so this wasn’t much of a challenge for me.

For inspiration I checked two cookbooks out of the library:

I think it was my favorite Thanksgiving meal ever. The main event was still the turkey, but we used an adobo rub. For sides we enjoyed street corn and pickled onions along with traditional sides. For dessert we had tres leches cake and meringue cookies. Yum, I wish I could go back in time and eat that again!

For the Lit portion of the challenge I read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This one had strong Northanger Abbey vibes and I loved it!

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Food And Lit June: Russia

June was a really busy month for me with school ending, and all of my kids’ activities suddenly wanting to have an end of year party JUST BECAUSE WE SUDDENLY COULD. So I did a lot of cupcake baking instead of experimenting with Russian food.

Russian food sounded surprisingly excellent judging from the cookbook Please to the Table by Anya von Bremzen and John Welchman. I was able to try two recipes- mushroom caviar and the herb omelette. Both were good although there were grumbles at the table about green eggs for dinner. Something along the lines of I am glad I’m a kid in America not Russia.

This cookbook also had some fabulous sounding sweets and bread that I’m dying to try. Just because things are opening up again does not mean we should abandon the restaurant appropriate quantities of yeast we purchased last year, my friends! Just as soon as the heat index goes back below 90 degrees that is.

Russian Reading

I did slightly better on the lit part of Russian Food and Lit. I read three books and liked them all.

Mud and Stars by Sara Wheeler - This was part travelogue, part Russian literature review, and part food diary. I wasn‘t sure if I would follow it because I‘m not a Russian literature expert, but I enjoyed it quite a bit despite my reservations. Sara Wheeler has a dry sense of humor, and a spirit of adventure that I like.

Stalin's Daughter by Rosemary Sullivan - This chunkster was a fascinating look at the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva, a.k.a. Stalin‘s daughter. It took me all month to read, but it was worth the time.

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles - This is my 4th time trying to read this, and I even thought about bailing again. Then I got to the end and wow, I want to read it again.

In July we’re on to Morocco. I’m super excited to be back in Northern Africa.

Past months of Food And Lit:

Israel

Ethiopia

Vietnam

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[REVIEW] Bunco: A Comedy About The Drama of Friendship by Robin Delnoce

I know we’re all a little bit on pins and needles today so why don’t you shut off the news and read something that will take your mind off things?

Bunco by Robin Delnoce is a good candidate for something that will make you laugh and not think about poll numbers. Told in four chapters it’s written like a screen play, and is filled with fast and funny dialogue. If you’ve ever had the kind of friends who always tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it you’ll relate to this comedy.

Want to know more? Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

We all have “those” friends. Maybe you’ve known them since childhood, or met in college, or while waiting for a child’s practice to end. Maybe you found yourself living on the same street. There’s no single path to friendship. Relationships don’t follow a script and neither do the lives of smart, funny, complicated suburban women. Jill, Anne, Mary, and Rachel met years ago through a neighborhood group that regularly got together to play a dice game called bunco. Although players have come and gone, they continue to use bunco as an excuse to abandon their day-to-day responsibilities and enjoy food, drinks, and the company of their best friends. When new neighbors move in under the cover of night, the foursome sees an opportunity to expand their bunco circle. But within hours, suspicions run rampant as the odd behaviors of the newest residents are interpreted differently. Are they quirky, or kinky? Diabolical, or misunderstood? Time after time, as the truth sheds light on some secrets, more emerge. Each woman finds herself shocked by the friends she thought she knew.Through the friendly banter, intimate confessions, and tongue-twisting insults, you may see yourself or your friends in these characters. Wipe away tears of laughter and loss as you join the four metaphorical rounds of bunco, and feel part of the conversation. Whether engaging in playful exploits, providing unconditional support, making uncomfortable sacrifices, or winding up in handcuffs again, these ladies are those rarest of friends who become true family. Of course, families don’t follow a script either, unless it is a plot-twisting, slightly off-color comedy about the drama of friendship. And bunco, sort of.

This book is only $.99 on Kindle today so you should snap it up!

Note: Links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support! I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: The Lost Boys of London by Mary Lawrence

In the last days of the reign of King Henry VIII Bianca Goddard makes medicines across the River Thames while her husband is in Scotland fighting for the King’s army. When the body of a young boy is found hanging from a church Bianca must put her medicines aside to help Constable Patch find the killer. Time grows short when another body is found, and her young friend Fitch goes missing. Bianca has two clues, a cloth with a mysterious odor and the rosary beads found wrapped around the necks of the victims. As the expected date of the next murder approaches Bianca must rely on her detective skills and her superb memory to find the killer before it’s too late.

The Lost Boys of London was a satisfying escape to another time when medicine was considered the same as witchcraft, and religion was ruled by the king. The mystery was a good one, and the ending was pleasing. Bianca Goddard is my kind of lady- independent but cares about the people around her.

These days we all need some extra comfort, and this is the kind of book that delivers it. It’s perfect for reading on a cozy afternoon with a bowl of soup and a beer. This is the fifth book in a series, and I’m excited to go back and read some others featuring Bianca Goddard.

The Lost Boys of London will be published on April 28, 2020 and is available for pre-order now.

Note: Links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support! A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Jihadi Bride by Alastair Luft

Jihadi Bride by Alastair Luft is the intense story of Erik, a member of the High-Risk Traveler Task Force in Canada, and his daughter Arielle who travels to Syria to work with the terrorist group the Islamic Caliphate, thus becoming one of the people her father has dedicated his career to stopping. Erik will stop at nothing to get his daughter back, even if it means leaving his own organization to travel to Syria and recover her himself.

Overall, I liked this book. I was quite invested in Arielle's story, but found Erik's story to be a little off putting and choppy.  This would make a good book for beach reading, or for reading on a long flight. I would look for other books by this author when I am in the mood for something that is fast paced and thrilling.

Note: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. You can get it for free on Kindle Unlimited right now. Links to amazon.com are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!

REVIEW: Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice McFadden

Every year I take myself to the bookstore on Christmas Eve, and buy myself a book. This was my Christmas Eve book last year, and I got around to reading it in early January. I started it in the morning, and all day I was very crafty about avoiding my to-do’s so that I could keep reading this book.

This book is a lot more hopeful than it sounds like. It’s the story of Abeo, a little girl in West Africa, who is left at a religious shrine by her father to atone for the crimes of his ancestors.

The subject is horrifying. Ritual servitude is basically sex slavery, and the tale starts when Abeo is only nine. (Not that it would be an easy subject to take at any age.) You know from the beginning that she eventually escapes, and Abeo’s journey from slavery to healing is truly unputdownable despite reading about the hard things she endures.

I highly recommend this quick and compelling read.

Out Past My Bedtime: Louise Penny's A Better Man

Last week I made it out for a rare night on my own to see Louise Penny talk about her new book A Better Man. She was so kind, and so funny. If you ever get a chance to see her speak you should do it.

A few notes I wrote into my phone while trying to take it all in:

• She didn’t write her first book until she was in her mid 40’s

• She might be the only one who can get away with writing hopeful murder mysteries

• Some of Ruth’s poetry is actually Margaret Atwood’s

• Forgiveness is possible and goodness exists

• It’s never a good idea to catch a falling knife

I read the book itself in two days. She’s done it again. I’m not sure how, but Penny keeps up the momentum with these books, and I already can’t wait for the next one.

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REVIEW: After The Flood by Kassandra Montag

After The Flood by Kassandra Montag

After the Flood by Kassandra Montag was one of those books that started slow, and then before I knew it I couldn’t put it down.

This is a powerful novel about a woman named Myra, and her daughter Pearl, and their struggle to survive in a world that has been ravaged by floods. When Myra hears that her other daughter, who was kidnapped by her husband before the floods, may still be alive far away in Greenland she makes the decision to risk Pearl’s life and her own to find her.

In a flooded world nothing is easy or straightforward, and Myra must cast her lot with a bigger group in order to make it. The twists and turns of the events that take place will take your breath away and keep you on the edge of your seat.

An advanced copy of this book was provided by William Morrow Books. It comes out on September 3rd in the United States.

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