Book Questions 📚☕️✨♥️ {Part 2}

So good! 😊

{I saw some book questions on an Instagram account called PensandPoison (I like SOME of her stuff, she’s a bit too clickbait-y for me) recently and have been having a lot of fun thinking about my answers. I think she answered them using all fiction, but I’m using everything to answer! I adapted these questions for me. It is a lot of questions and as usual, I can’t have just one answer 🤣, so I’ll be breaking this up into parts! I’d love to hear your answers and I hope you may find a new favorite if you try any of these!}

Part 1 HERE, if interested!

•books I wish everyone would read ~

Wives & Daughters, Sylvia’s Lovers, North & South, or Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. Really ANY of her full length novels. Her shorter things are a little hit or miss (looking at you A Dark Night’s Work 😒😅) but her novels are so good! 😊

• books I wish I had read sooner ~ Do Something Beautiful for God by Mother Teresa, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (just finished this!), A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.

•books that changed the way I think ~ (The Holy Bible is a given here) Home Education Series by Charlotte Mason, The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge, Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. I could go on for hours.

• most beautiful prose I’ve ever read ~ currently for me, Thomas Hardy’s writing, wow! Sad stories, gorgeous writing! I read A Return of the Native last year and was blown away. This is Happiness by Niall Williams and The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy this year had BEAUTIFUL writing.

• favorite opening sentence ~ this has to go to Jane Austen’s opening for Pride & Prejudice. If you know, you know. 😅 Sarcastically funny and draws you right into the story.

• favorite endings ~ I was wracking my brain for this. I think Elizabeth Goudge’s endings are pretty great. The Lord of the Rings! I liked the sad, open-ended ending of The Mirror Visitor Series by Christelle Dabos. Although, I wouldn’t mind a 5th book, if you are reading, dear author. 😂😉🥰

• favorite literary characters~ I could probably list 100 favorites here, so I’ll just say the firsts that came to my mind! Vis from The Will of Many by James Islington, Anne Eliot from Persuason by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Gandalf, Mrs. Weasley, etc, etc, etc, etc!!!!!

•literary characters I relate to the most ~ Patricia from Pat of Silverbush by L.M. Montgomery (I struggle with change, too, Pat!😫) Emily from Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, Emily from Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace. So many more!

• favorite literary villian ~ I love to bash Mrs. Norris and the Crawfords from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice by Austen.

• favorite author ~ my top favorite (I have many) is Lucy Maud Montgomery! Thank you, Maud for your wonderful stories! ♥️

My current cozy mystery!

How about you? Have you read any of these? Agree or disagree {kindly} disagree? What are your answers here? Let’s talk books! 📚 😅♥️📚✨

Non~fiction Mood {Day 88}

Hi friends ~ I’ve been reading a lot of fluff (and enjoying it!) this year, probably due to our life circumstances 🤪, but a nonfiction switch has been flipped in my mood-reader brain, and so I hope to share about my favorites slowly. I’m still reading fiction, of course 😆, but I finally picked up this one which has been on my radar for long time!

The Radium Girls – I decided to read the Young Readers Edition to preview it for our homeschool. So far, it’s been super engaging and disturbing! 😳 Did you know about this part of history?

Another super disturbing and eye-opening book that my friend recommended is this one!

The Opt-Out Family ~ I can’t stop thinking about this one and I’m currently deeply evaluating 🤔 how I live with and my example to my children in using technology, specifically social media and video games. 🙃😱😩😖 Still not sure on everything, but prayerfully considering it all. I keep using Covid as an excuse for the level of media we use and I recently realized that, duh, we are going on that being like 6 1/2 years ago. 😨☠️

Do Something Beautiful for God ~ I’m a Protestant, but I value and appreciate so many of the great Catholic writers. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by this book of daily quotes from Mother Teresa. I started it in the middle of the year last year and it has blessed and spoken to me time and time again.

How about you? Any nonfiction hitting you hard? What’s on your stack? ♥️✨

Monday Ponderings 🌿 {Day 80}

When someone is doing something to hurt you, don’t turn inward, turn toward that person. He is hurting himself. Learn to forgive, knowing that we all need forgiveness. If you want to be true to God, learn from Jesus to be meek, humble, and pure. Learn to forgive.

~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God

Preparation {Day 48} 🌸

Moonshine 🌖

Every day is a preparation for death. By realizing this, it helps somehow, because we each have to die a little each day. Death is nothing except going back to Him, where He is and where we belong. ♥️

~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God

Joy of loving 💜🤍💚 {Day 40}

We should ask ourselves, Have I really experienced the joy of loving? True love is love that causes pain, that hurts, and yet brings joy. This is why we pray asking for courage to love, and love more deeply than ever before.

~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God

Monday Ponderings {Day 6}

“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace. “

~ Mother Teresa

Thinking and praying on this as a week of homeschooling, wedding planning, cooking, and extras stretches before me. 🪴🌷🌿🍃🌲What’s on your heart? 💜