What says the USA’s 250th birthday holiday week more than Haiku? 😂😅♥️😍🌿✨ Look for photos and haiku this week! I wanted to try something different. I am also planning a no public library borrowing for the month of July. This doesn’t include what I have already on my pile or on hold. 😂😅 Just no new. I’m planning on reading what I have! ♥️🥰🌿✨📚 Any exciting July plans or goals? Creatively? Personally?
I’d love to hear!
Happy Saturday, folks!
June is coming to a close and with that I realized that I have another quarters reading favorites to pick! I’m grouping them by loose genre for your convenience!
♥️🌿✨CLASSICS✨🌿♥️
♥️🌿✨CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL✨🌿♥️
♥️🌿✨COZY MYSTERY✨🌿♥️
1. Secrets of Shakespeare’s Grave and Tower of the Five Orders by Deron R. Hicks ~ delightful adventures involving a brother and sister trying to help their father save the family publishing company! This is set between Georgia, USA and London, England! Clues, puzzles, mysterious graves, Shakespeare, bookish etc! Just so fun!
2. Gladwynne Grant Gets Her Footing and Takes the Stage by Lisa R. Howeler ~ I absolutely love Gladwynne and her grandmother! Gladwynne comes to live with her grandmother and gets a job as a reporter for the small town newspaper. The mysteries and scrapes Gladwynne finds herself in are intriguing! I love the wonderful town’s people who made these two cozies so sweet! Light faith elements. I have the third on my kindle, I can’t wait to continue!
✨🌿♥️MYSTERY/THRILLER♥️🌿✨~
1. Quietly in Their Sleep by Donna Leon ~ A great installment of this long police mystery series following Venice police detective Guido Brunetti! He follows his nose in this one and uncovers corruption in a religious order! Very creepy and I absolutely loved Guido’s family, coworkers, and the Venice setting. These are gritty with explicit crime violence, fyi.
2. The Crown Conspiracy by Connie Mann ~ I found this one free in my Audible Plus catalog! A morally gray Robin Hood art forger type 🤣, Sophie returns stolen art work to rightful owners by stealing it herself and leaving behind convincing forgeries! The money funds her and her best friend’s rescue group getting women and children out of trafficking. Sound weird? It gets even stranger! 😂 A missing royal painting shows up that has far reaching implications. Lisa and Sophie find themselves running for their lives! A secretive group of women show up to help! Charlie’s Angels anyone? 🤣🙃 This was a bit far-fetched and convoluted, but I ate the audiobook up! 😅♥️ Heavy violence, just fyi.
♥️🌿✨FANTASY/SCI-FI✨🌿♥️~
🌿♥️✨HISTORICAL✨♥️🌿~
✨🌿♥️NONFICTION ♥️🌿✨~
1. Homeschooling: You’re Doing Right by Just Doing It by Ginny Yurich ~ Slow start (again) for me but I grew to love this former public school teacher’s thoughts and evidence on the benefits of homeschooling. Reassuring and encouraging!
Whew! 😅 ♥️ That’s a lot! Hopefully, you will find something for yourself or your family that you’d like to check out! Happy Reading!
I’m loosely participating in five? July specific Booktube Readathons! I really enjoy just marking off prompts! 📚✅
I decorated some of my July pages ahead in my to-do pocket Moleskine because there’s some travel and family stuff going on. I usually decorate this one the day of use because it’s so small, but I don’t pack all my journaling supplies when going on trips! I especially love the Jane Austen stickers I saved for the start of Jane Austen July! 😍♥️🌸
Deck-a-TBR-a-Thon! Summerween! Private Eye July! Jane Austen July! Zoom in for Prompts, if interested! 😅📚📚📚
These are some summer long prompts! I made a great dent in them in June!
Two June Read-a-Thons that I had a lot of fun with! I just read what I’m in the mood for and make them fit mostly, but I do tailor a few of my choices depending on topic. Read a couple American Revolution type books with my kids etc.
June Reading Journal pages almost full!
I purchased coffee stickers and cute yellow bakery type washi so my July theme is Yellow Coffee & Flower Shop! 🤪😅😍💛🤎💛🤎💛
VERY ambitious health/mental/spiritual/relational goals for July! 🙃😱😂
What are you creating lately? I so enjoy working in my journals.
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And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick ~
Happiest First Day of Summer and Father’s Day! I’m over here at Hearth Ridge enjoying family, sunshine, flowers, and an Anne of Avonlea reread. Church and feasting, too! God is good! ✨
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Lovely bits from web…
Kourtney’s lovely writing retreat plan…
Happy Tuesday! I’m here to wrap up this Booktuber reading challenge. You can still participate by picking and choosing what books you are reading fulfill the prompts! I don’t follow the monthly delineation because I’m a mood reader, mostly. Small confession: {whispers} Only 3 of these titles were actually on my physical/Kindle shelf! The rest were library check-outs. So I ‘failed’ on the reading my shelf. Oh well! All in good fun!😂🤓
Here’s the prompts!
Title includes an article ~
A Dark Night’s Work by Elizabeth Gaskell ~
The first half of this story was so dark and depressing. Our main female character gets caught up in covering up a crime. The guilt, fear, and shame are palpable as she barely moves through life. The last 1/4th of the book was better, a bit more hope, but wow, not my favorite from my favorite Victorian author.
Three or More Objects (on cover) ~
The Labors of Hercules Beale by Gary D. Schmidt ~
This was a lovely story of two brothers working through their grief due to the loss of their parents. They are navigating their new relationship and trying to keep the family greenhouse afloat. Hercules transfers to a new school and a strict new teacher challenges him in ways that truly help him grow! Schmidt’s books are fantastic in a rip-your-heart-out-and -put-it-back together way! I also love Wednesday Wars by this author.
Weapon on Cover ~
Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw ~ A beautiful classic quest fantasy with an underdog main character! Aedan and his new found family he gathers truly grow in character and love! This was so amazing! Satisfying ending even though sequel never was released due to the authors health.
Title Includes a Conjunction ~
For Whom the Book Tolls by Laura Gail Black ~ Gal inherits her uncles antique bookshop in this cozy mystery. Unfortunately, a terrible secret awaits her as she wakes up the first morning! Suspicion is aimed at her surrounding a past false accusation. This had an old mansion, treasure, and an old diary as part of the story!
Includes a Place~
Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine ~ Space-punk pirate ships between England and colonized Mars. I loved the main characters and this zany adventure. The crab-like Martians cracked me up! Pure fun! 🤩
Title with Five or More Words~
Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry ~ a beautiful memoir about life & death, philosophy, small town Wisconsin. This was written so well and so true to relationships and culture in the Midwest. Highly recommend with the caveat of some sad explicit emergency situations and descriptions.
Has a Map ~
The Will of the Many by James Islington ~ Roman-like world, epic fantasy with deep themes of love and sacrifice for a son who is driven by revenge for a beloved father. Highly recommend!
Water ~
Dead in the Water by Denise Swanson ~
I thought this was a cozy, but it turned out a bit grittier and with adult themes. I really loved the husband/wife duo in the Chief of Police, Wally and his wife Skye, psychologist. They are expecting their first child and a tornado disaster causes havoc to their small town. A murder, family issues, and the town rebuilding/clean up bring them together.
Animal ~
Cloaked in Beauty by Karen Witemeyer ~
This was a deeper Red Riding Hood retelling. I loved the kindness and love the main female character lived and the Grandmother was awesome! A bit heavier on romance, but wonderful characters and an unique take on this story! I loved the wolf dog sidekick, too!
Bookish~
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine ~ This is such a unique premise! The Library of Alexandria is the center of all knowledge and special librarians are trained to care for it and guard the knowledge. The new batch of trainees are a mixed bag and full of secrets including Jess our main character. The students uncover corruption at the highest levels. I loved this story and the characters. Unfortunately, a bit of a sneering attitude towards traditional morality, so be aware. Nothing explicit except fantasy violence, so far. I hope to continue with the 3rd in the series soon!
Transportation ~
Hearse and Buggy by Laura Bradford ~
Cozy mystery set in Amish community. I love the bed & breakfast and main characters aunt! This was a little slow and repetitive, but I may return if I want a gentle, quiet mystery. I loved the ex-Amish police detective!
True or False ~
The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Newton Fusco ~ if anything, read this story for the exquisite writing. Hurricane is our main character and she finds her life in upheaval when she is sent to live with her aunt and employee. This books deals with grief, chronic illness, loneliness, found family, traditions, carving a life for oneself out of a whole new experience. The Great Depression, class, and PTSD touch Hurricane and her new friends lives in a big way. I loved the ‘butler’ character in this story! This is very slow but so sweet and poignant.
How ‘bout you? Do you have any recent reads in these categories? Do you participate in bingo boards or reading challenges? We love them here! 😍✨🤩Happy Reading! 📚♥️🌿
Is it possible to live forgiven and not carry great loads of guilt, to participate in the salvation of the world? Is it possible to love and grow into a relationship with another person in which we are enriched and enhanced and built up? Is it possible to bless and be blessed? To give others the best that is in us and not the worst? To receive from others their best and not their worst? Yes. It is. As everyday realities, these births are wonders, whether as a new baby in the world or as a new creature in Christ. We are launched by acts of love and promise into ways of seeing and being. Our first birth thrusts us kicking and squalling into the light of day. Our second birth places us laughing and worshiping in the light of God. Like Issac. Laughter. Amen.
Eugene H. Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, p. 27 ~
So many good little gifts…thank you, Lord 🌿♥️~
Then I pray to you, O LORD.
I say, “You are my place of refuge.
You are all I really want in life.
~Psalm 142:5, NLT ♥️🌿
Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels-a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.
John 12:23-25, NLT
Prayer for tonight…Jesus is our True Example. 🙏🏻♥️🌿
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 