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?
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? 💜
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!
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?! 😅
THE languor of Youth – how unique and quintessential it is! How quickly, how irrecoverably, lost! The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of Youth – all save this – come and go with us through life; again and again in riper years we experience, under a new stimulus, what we thought had been finally left behind, the authentic impulse to action, the renewal of power and its concentration on a new object; again and again a new truth is revealed to us in whose light all our previous knowledge must be rearranged. These things are a part of life itself; but languor – the relaxation of yet unwearied sinews, the mind sequestered and self-regarding, the sun standing still in the heavens and the earth throbbing to our own pulse – that belongs to Youth alone and dies with it.
Brideshead Revisited, p. 79
Thinking on this quote as I navigate young adult relationships. I’m prayerfully trying to put myself back into “their age shoes” to respond with love, compassion, and a listening spirit.
Happy Thursday! I ‘tried’ to group these by main genre topic. ♥️ I’m hoping to add more for reference! A few of these don’t regularly update, but there is a TREASURE TROVE of back posts!
The sound of water trickling (we call the above stream the Withywindle), birds, wind, and I’m getting more audiobook time from walking and driving an hour away for a monthly book club. I have Mistress Pat by L. M. Montgomery and The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears going. The Pears book is an art mystery thriller, it’s a bit info-dumpy, but I love the art fraud case and Rome setting. Two police are helping an art historian unravel the mystery. It’s a series so if I end up liking this one enough, I can go on!
•watching• ♥️🌲 ~ I’m so enjoying checking my daffodils and the tree buds etc for any growth and changes. I did really enjoy this LOVELY journaling YouTube video recently. I was inspired to create my May reading pages. They look 👀 nothing like 😆 some of these gals I watch, but I had fun all the same. I used some kitty washi I had and a Pusheen stamp set we had laying around. I also found some more fun cute reading bingo boards on Pinterest. I find it so satisfying to fill them in here and there.
•reading• ♥️🌲~
I mentioned the two audiobooks I’m enjoying 👆, but currently, I have SO many books on the stack. I think I’m most enjoying spy/thriller/mystery archaeology type adventure stories 😆😂 with a healthy dose of classic, comfort reads. Very strange combo, I know, but I’m definitely eclectic! Below are a few ones I’m throughly enjoying.
Waiting on this next installment of Alex Rider teen spy for MI6! 😅First one was intriguing!New series I found that I’m trying!The first was very violent, BUT I really liked Elias, one of the the main characters and so I’m continuing this series!
•noticing• ♥️🌲~ We have a lot of Bloodroot blooming along the field and road edges. The Robins, Killdeers, and Red-winged Blackbirds have been vocal! I’ve had two Eastern Bluebird sightings which of course fills me with happiness. 😆💙🧡🤍 We saw the male American Goldfinches donning their yellow jackets! 💛🥰 We are testing our observations on the Barn Swallows. They usually are back around my daughter’s birthday and it’s this weekend (17!) so it will be fascinating if we see them! I’ll let you know! I loved seeing my youngest get to ride a horse this past week for the first time. He wasn’t sure but then really enjoyed it. 🐴
Bloodroot Holding on for dear life 😂😅
What have you been listening to, reading, watching, noticing? I’d really love to hear! ♥️🌲🥰
I’m slowly getting into my buddy read of Idyll’s of the King and I was struck remembering this lovely picture book version of this part of the poem. The Kitchen Knight retold by Margaret Hodges is lovely, largely due to the illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman!
Happy Monday, friends! Our weekly quest has begun! Go forth boldly and without fear! 🙏🏻♥️😍
If you could chuck your to-do list out the window today, what would you do? 😅😂 I’d find a lovely spot by water, under a tree, or in my cute local coffee shop, grab a latte , and read. I know, surprise, surprise. ☺️😉
Here’s what’s on my stack that I’m currently interested in or really enjoying!
Cheesy, bordering on super silly continuing cozy mystery series that pokes fun of the Regency literature era tropes 😂I ♥️ my Kindle! Amish in April selection (Booktube Readathon), a couple of fantasy novels, a mystery, writing nonfiction, and continuing 14 yo spy thriller series! Middle Grade Historical Fiction! Can’t wait to try this! I adore anything with lighthouses!Oh my word. I’m absolutely adoring this book. Montgomery’s writing and characters make my heart sing. 😍🥹♥️
I love keeping house…it’s really a lovely phrase, isn’t it? Keeping it…holding it fast against the world…against all the forces trying to tear it open.
Fun, adventurous story set near the Amazon River!Favorite history/geography/architecture picture book series by Elizabeth Mann!
•listening toand reading •♥️🌿~ we are really enjoying our read aloud of Journey to the River Sea. We’ve kind of poked our head into South America, this year while studying Early American history, explorers, etc. We have some Ancient reading going on and early European too. It’s seems to be opening up ideas and interesting discussions and narrations. 😍
A few individual things with different children we are enjoying! Oldies, but goodies. Trying to ‘use my shelves’! Two Favorites here!
•watching and noticing•♥️🌿
One child mentioned within my hearing how The Divine Comedy 🎭and the podcast The 100 Days of Dante were coming together with other things. My heart cheered inside. 😅♥️ I’ve noticed that Marvel and the Percy Jackson Series have been being connected to Greek/Norse myths we are always enjoying in our Literature. My older kids enjoy some of the Marvel movies and ALL of my kids have appreciated Percy Jackson’s adventure stories.
Tornado 🌪️/ thunderstorm weather in our area! 😱😬
What have you been listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? I’ve been so interested and pleased with our history adventures this year! Thank You, Lord! ♥️😍📚🥰
Trying this set up! Very ambitious, but aim high, I guess. 😂Added album cover inspiration! Walked 15 miles for my second book over $5! Yay!Took me a long time as I got sick second half of March/early April! Not to mention the weather has been very hit or miss. 😭😁 April reading journal pages filling up!I messed up my Book Shelfie order, but no worries, it will work. If I get too perfectionist, I would never journal! Missed one day in my streak! It was pouring! 😂😬
🍃Just remembering here my favorite reads of January, February, and March. I love looking back and also sharing in hopes you might find one you love!🍃
•The Road Past Altamontby Gabrielle Roy, translated by Joyce Marshall ~ Canadian writer connects four stories loosely on mother and daughter relationships, growing older, time, and deep longing all cloaked in gorgeous, sparse writing.
•The Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw ~ a wonderful quest fantasy story surrounding Aedan and his friends. This has amazing friendship, leadership, and character growth.
•This is Happiness by Niall Williams ~ A small Irish village on the cusp of change. You grow to love and care for the characters and see yourself in them. This is such a human story and the author understands small village life! This was so beautiful at times it makes you ache.
•The Will of Many by James Islington ~ I absolutely loved the main character, Vis, and how much he values the memory and lessons of his father. The battle between doing what’s right and surviving in a system built on greed and corruption. So many wonderful characters and ideas to consider in this epic fantasy.
•Through Rushing Water by Catherine Richmond ~ Gorgeous historical fiction about an ex-Russian nobility immigrant who gets sent to the American West as a school teacher to a Native tribe. This will pull at your heart strings. Richmond did a fantastic job of not sugar coating this time period.
•The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson ~ This had a slow start, but a wonderful blended family story set in Michigan on the cusp of WWII. I loved the literature threads, the conversation about Indigenous mixed-race tensions, and the gentle faith themes woven throughout. Solid middle grade read!
•Followed by Frost by Charlie N. Holmberg ~ This feels a bit Disney-Frozen-ish , but don’t let that stop you from this quiet, deceptively deeper story. Slow start and very creepy villain, but what a wonderful story of selflessness and how servanthood ultimately defeats loneliness.
•The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Newton Fusco ~ This is such a heartfelt story around two sisters dealing with death and chronic illness. This is a slow-as-molasses middle grade story, but I ate up every delicious word. So beautifully written with friendships, growth, domestic details, and LIFE.
•Persuasion by Jane Austen ~ I’ve read this so many times but have to mention it here because I was so delighted all over again. The humanity and magnifying glass that Austen does is so perfect. I especially loved Mrs. Smith of Westgate Buildings 😅 this time through.
•The Robe by LloydC. Douglas ~ A wonderful historical fiction set around the time of Christ. I posted a bit more about it here! Highly recommend!
•The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo ~ This was so sweet and lovely! It follows little Marta around the hotel where her mother works as a maid after the disappearance of her father. This is full of the lovely noticing, longing, thoughts on life, memories, parents, and meaning from a child’s perspective. The illustrations made this absolutely shine!
Sophie helping me pick my next read! 😂♥️
📚🌷How about you? Any stand out reads at the beginning of the year? I’d love to hear! 🌷📚
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 