I’m taking a Booktube watching break/Instagram break and a few days in, it’s already been nice. I’ve mostly been listening to the birds on my deck early in the morning. Starlings are loud and strange sounding birds. 🤣 Recently, I got to hear two owls (Barred?) chattering because I went out there at 4:00 am. I did get in the Agatha Christie audiobook of Dumb Witness, Poirot and Hastings make me laugh! 😂 I also got the audiobook Ruby Holler in, but we’ll see if I get to it. I decided to soft quit Calculated, my last audiobook, because I have to be in the right mood for revenge stories. I do like the main female character, though, and setting, so I will probably finish it.
Watching ♥️🌿~ my hubby, three younger kids, and I traveled to see the biggest steam train recently. It was used during WWII to haul big loads over Utah mountains?! We had a fun Tookish adventure together! 😅♥️ I read almost a whole book there and back! 😂 Otherwise, I haven’t been watching much? I hope to watch the movie ‘Summer of Monkeys’ with my kids as we are almost finished with the book. 🥰♥️
Reading ♥️🌿~ I talk nonstop here 😂😏 about my reading, but I’m currently most enjoying The Mysterious Magic of Lighthouse Lane, What you are looking for is in the library, and The Bride of Fallen Stars is intriguing me on my Kindle.
Noticing ♥️🌿~ I’m mostly noticing flowers, trees, and seedlings. 🌱 🥰 It’s a wonderful time of year!
What are you listening to, watching, reading, noticing? ♥️🌿~
Reading and journaling bring me so much joy 🥹 so the marriage of the two is a double dose! I don’t really plan, but just go with whatever is inspiring me in my sticker/washi stash. I had a kind of slow start to my reading in the beginning of May, my reading mood was changing, had some meh/ok-ish reads at the start. I pretty much hated Date with Danger! 🤣 The end of the month reading though was amazing! I loved all the Middle Grade reads for a small readathon on Booktube called Middle Grade May! Especially, Secrets of Shakespeare’s Grave and its sequel, Tower of the Five Orders by Deron R. Hicks. I really enjoyed the Christian historical light fantasy, The Huntress, also. Honorable mention goes to The Little House in the Highlands which is based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s ancestors. It was a slow start but SO cute! I made some good progress on my newest bingo boards I printed off from Pinterest, also. Georgette Heyer is hit or miss for me, but I loved two of her Regency romances, Arabella and Sylvester. Overall, a great reading month.
Now that summer is close at hand, my TBR stacks are exploding!
Here is what I’m currently finishing on my Kindle ‘stack’! My reading mood is pretty light as we have a heavy, busier season with remodeling:
A bit slow? May try the next in series? I got this one for Mother’s Day, begins a teeny bit draggy, but cute, light fantasy middle grade about Bee, who can bake a wee bit of feelings into her baked goods. I love the tulip bulb smuggling pirates and the second half has been fantastic! Sequel to a wonderful children’s mystery story about a brother and sister saving their father’s place in the family’s publishing company! (The Secret of Shakespeare’s Grave) This one has Shakespeare, Marlowe, other bookish nods, hidden messages, and just a lot of delight! I enjoyed the first, the best, but this one is great, too.
I think my mood? is still a bit on the lighter side but shifting to historical fiction, especially American Revolution possibilities to honor the 250th birthday this year.
Lighter maybes on my stack!
A Booktuber I like to watch wrote this and I want to dive in! I’ve tried about 10% and I like her writing style!Sign me up for anything lighthouse! It’s one of my reading buzzwords. Do you have any favorite lighthouse fiction recommendations? I love this cover and can’t wait to try it! Banned books and ancient Korean Pride & Prejudice retelling? Yes, please. I’ve enjoyed some of Hur’s historical fiction in the past. I’ve heard great things about this, like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None vibes?
A few historical fiction I’d like to try!
Fictionalization of Deborah Samson’s story. A woman who joined the Patriot army in disguise during American Revolution. Boston Tea Party and modern day, hard-hitting topics in a dual timeline with thread woven between eras.
There’s a lot more in my stack, but these are catching my eye! Are you a mood reader or make a list and stick to it reader? Do you read more than one book at a time?
•Barnes & Noble meandering• grottos with gorgeous color • THREE delicious coffees in 2 days• baby robin on my hubby’s knee•flowers everywhere•warm sunshine•turquoise earrings, red bandanna, and jean jacket•succulents in crevices•deep purple everywhere• flat and rolling fields, endless sky•
I had so much fun 🤩 setting up my June reading pages and I’m looking forward to filling the pages with mini reviews and book covers from my reading. It was nice to sit and just rest in a teeny bit of creativity!
How are you!? Have you been creating anything or reading/watching anything great? 💜
Boredom is not a condition to be feared or avoided. Instead, it is a crucial element that fosters creativity, independence, and self-discovery among children. Boredom challenges children to engage with their inner world, to invent, and to explore, thereby laying the groundwork for a lifetime of learning and innovation. We must not shield our children from boredom but instead embrace it as a powerful catalyst for growth. It is essential to resist the cultural pressure to fill every moment of a child’s day with structured activities and digital distractions. Instead, we should provide spaces and opportunities for them to experience the fruitful solitude that boredom can offer.
Sick of my sky photos yet? 😎 I can’t help myself! 😂🌞✨☁️
Hi Friends! 📚🌸 Book chat here today! One of my favorite relaxing genres of books to emerge over the past few years is retellings or reimaginings of longstanding favorites. I know the literature purists probably would scowl at me, but I can’t help myself. 😂♥️👊🏼 These are all considered “sweet/clean” reads depending on your taste levels. I put a note on each regarding content.
Katen Witemeyer ~ I’ve enjoyed THREE of this author’s sweet retellings, Fairest of Heart, a Texas retelling of Snow White, with a fantastically drawn villain, Cloaked in Beauty, a great Texas twist on ‘Red Riding Hood’ (romance a little heavy handed in this one, FYI 🤮), and also her To Love A Beast, retelling of ‘Beauty & the Beast’. I don’t personally recommend the Cinderella one because I couldn’t even get past the first chapter due to a character’s heavy fake Southern accent. 😂🫣🤭😎 Maybe you wouldn’t mind?
Sadie: An Amish Retelling of Snow White ~ I don’t read hardly any Amish fiction anymore, but Sarah Price’s retellings are fun, unique mashup, and I find them relaxing! Again the villain stepmother was very well drawn and I thought Price made you think deeper about why she was acting the way she was. Price’s ‘Beauty & the Beast’ Amish story is great too! I want to try her Pride & Prejudice title someday although the Persuasion title wasn’t great. 😂
Eastby Edith Pattou ~
This would be a perfect read for winter! Slow and atmospheric retelling of ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’ tale. This is SO well-written and intriguing! I think about it often. You have to work at it a bit, but in the end you are rewarded. This was a bit on the darker and creepier end, keeping in the tradition of folktales. I want to try the other in the duology, West.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett ~ I have a mixed experience with this author’s books due to my appreciation of traditional morality, but overall, this was a super cute reimagining of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle! If you like cats, cozy shops, time/space slips, magical fantasies with artifacts, books, etc and quirky characters, you may enjoy this. The only other one of hers I FULLY enjoy is a retelling of Anne of Green Gables with magic called Grace of the Wild Things.
Deathmark by Kate Stradling ~ This is a super unique, cozy fantasy retelling of LM Montgomery’s The Blue Castle. The cover is darker than the content. It does have a plague and some grimness to the beginning, just FYI! I really enjoyed this and hope to reread soon.
Awakened by Rosanna M. White ~ I loved this unique take on ‘The Little Mermaid’. This is a long, intricate story and it has the author’s Catholic faith pretty strongly woven in. I was very intrigued and impressed by this! Mermaid stories aren’t my favorite, but I thoroughly enjoyed this very strange and creative version. The romance is heavier in this one, just FYI, than I prefer, but overall, tastefully done.
Suspended in the Stars by E.A. Hendryx ~ This is like a Greatest Showman and Star Wars mashup! 😂😂😂 I really especially enjoyed the first 3/4 of the story, the last 1/4 was a little slower, but it was SO creative and unique, I had to include it here. Sweet romantic subplot, but a bit insta for my tastes. Try it out!
Soot & Slippers by Kate Stradling ~ This was such a lovely, yet tense novella and interesting angle to take with a ‘Cinderella’ retelling. I loved the sewing/designing part of this and reading the creations Cinderella came up with! The ending was a bit too perfect for me, but for a short tale, this was very well done! The stepmother is CREEPY in this one! 🫣
How ‘bout you? Do you like reimaginings on favorite folktales and classic stories or are you appalled at me!? 😂♥️😍🌿 Happy Reading!
I’ve been mainly listening to two audiobooks when on walks or cooking.
I don’t LOVE revenge stories, but this is very creative so far! Chinese American Math genius is rescued from prison to save a failing company. Can she get revenge on the woman who put her in prison?Reading the new book out from Bright Eating founder with my friends.
I’ve also listened to a little Booktube and music. I heard an Oriole singing above us when my little boys, daughter’s finance and I where sitting at the campfire. It was beautiful!
•watching•
Spring burst out around us! It’s glorious! My daughter and her relationship! They were able to visit Mother’s Day weekend and it was so good to visit.
•reading•
We are finishing up a lot of our school books as we need to be done early this year! My two little boys and I are almost finished with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we laughed so hard at the preachy Ompaloompa songs. 😂 I just finished a raw, realistic historical fiction about a woman’s journey to true faith as she struggles to survive on the Dakota prairies. Spring for Susannah is my second Catherine Richmond and it won’t be my last.
•noticing•
I am noticing how much we are asked to trust and let go of as Christ-followers, women, mothers, sisters, and friends! I find myself drowning if I hold on too tight and try to control out of fear. I’m noticing I need to choose to surrender to the Lord.
How about you? What are you listening to, watching, reading, and noticing?
I’m trying to keep going with my 100 Day Project even though my posts aren’t always perfectly consecutive! Life gets life-y! Thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts with me on this journey!
Do you have a favorite-of-all-time author? Mine is L.M. Montgomery and I can’t tell you what a joy and delight it is to be back in her books! I finally finished the Pat Duology and Mistress Pat was such a delight. The gorgeously drawn natural world, quirky characters, human-like cats, trees, and houses that she wrote bring me untold delight. I’m currently rereading the Emily Starr books with a group even though I’m savoring them and they are flying through them. 😂 I’m slow. I also picked up Anne of Avonlea to continue my journey through the Anne series this year in honor of my own Anne’s marriage. It’s surprising and wonderful how much my gorgeous surroundings come alive with Maud’s words floating through my heart and mind. It’s actually so life-giving.
Montgomery’s stories make me think GREEN. My favorite color!!! Perhaps because of her love for trees 🌳🌿🌲 and green gables?! 😅
Whose idea was it to collect books as a hobby? 😆♥️😍 So fun to relive the memories and moments on these shelves, but the mess is humbling. ♥️ Just keep swimming. I spy a sweet friend in the library!
1. Manga Classics! Manga is a Japanese cartoon type story telling that you turn the pages left to right. There are a lot variations and genres out there ( including po*n graphic -so beware!), but our family has really enjoyed many English translated stories . Our favorite BY FAR is Manga Classic retellings of our beloved favorites. Above our just a few of the ones we own. They are a bit spendy, but we collect them for birthdays or Christmas.
2. The Anno Math Game books were so fun for my youngest to do with my husband. Definitely for younger kids but such delightful illustrations and unique ways of looking at mathematics.
3. I’m privileged to write and collage for this Christian homemaker women’s letter. It has grown from a few friends who met years ago via Instagram and blogs. A new website has launched for subscribers and it would make a wonderful gift for any mother!
4. Last but not least, I highly recommend these GORGEOUS sticker packs from Peter Pauper Press. You can get them on Amazon. My favorites are definitely the Cottagecore and Enchanted Forest books!
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 