Saturday morning means time to try a new recipe for a late and leisurely breakfast. I don‘t own a waffle iron, but I easily adjusted the recipe to bake waffle sticks instead. The batter includes blended dates, and then the waffles are served with a delicious toffee sauce.

#MtCookbook #Cookbook

“Better was it to go unknown and leave behind you an arch, a potting shed, a wall where peaches ripen, than to burn like a meteor and leave no dust.”
- Virginia Woolf, Orlando

#1001books #quote

This book took me a long time to read but only because I set it aside a few times when life was busy. I‘m not generally a fan of Woolf‘s style, but I liked this the best of her books I‘ve read so far. It‘s an intriguing take on life, gender, and time. I found it fascinating how Orlando seemed perfectly able to fit into every period of time, and no one questioned these random people living hundreds of years.

#1001books #SerialReader

💛 Last Friday I didn‘t get a chance to post because I was celebrating the end of the school year and seeing the Northern Lights.
💛 I also went to visit family last weekend, including meeting their new dog Gracie and spending some quality time with my nephew.
💛 My garden, specifically the garlic I‘m growing for the first time in many years.
💛 New books for my class library!
💛 As always my pets bring me joy.

#5JoysFriday

This was a reread for me, and I appreciated the story more this time. I also really enjoyed the audio narration.

#1001books #Reading1001 #audiobook

My aunt gifted my class library the Missouri Truman Award Nominees for next school year! I spent some time this morning getting them labeled to put on the shelves. I‘m taking the tagged home to hopefully read soon.

#TeachersOfLitsy #MsDsLibrary #MiddleGrade #YA

This is another wonderful historical fiction story by Bradley set during WWII. Miri is a Jewish girl living in Paris who ends up hiding in a convent school in the French countryside. While there she learns more about French history and becomes even more involved in aspects of the war.

* I received an audio version of this book through the Libro.fm Educator #ALC program.
Audio duration: 8 hours 23 minutes

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #WWII #Librofm

I had to think for a bit to come up with a book with time travel. I love the Artemis Fowl series, especially the earlier books. There are some wonderful characters and interesting storylines.

#MiddleGrade #MiddleGradeMonday

I‘m not quite sure how best to describe this tragic romance wrapped up in a slave narrative. Although seeming strangely uneven to me in the way Oroonoko was treated, it details the brutality of slavery. I can appreciate its impact when written by a woman and published in 1688.

I had this in my TBR for #ReadingTheAmericas2023 but just got to it today. #Suriname

#1001books #audiobook

This was another light romance listen. I was quite amused through the first half and unsurprised by the difficulty caused by lack of communication later. Of course, it all works out in the end.

#LitsyBookClub #audiobook

I‘ve enjoyed listening to this book, but it didn‘t quite live up to my expectations. There is a fascinating story here of the horses‘ movement and survival throughout the war as well as the people that kept them safe. However, I wanted more about the ones that remained in Europe along with the ones that came to the U.S. after.

📷: Photos from recent walks as I listened.

#audiobook #audiowalk #nonfiction #WWII

? Baking sourdough, including these jalapeño cheddar rolls
? Teaching colleagues who are also great friends
? Notes of appreciation from students this week
? Fresh picked asparagus
? My pets, featuring Gandalf today

#5JoysFriday

I got 3 bingos in April with a good variety of books. There were some good nonfiction, a couple 1001 books, and some pure fluff reading as well. It was also a very good audiobook month, with just one low rated book.

#ReadingStats #MonthlyStats #BookSpinBingo #DaiseysReadingSummary

This was an interesting book about symbols we use in writing, their history from handwritten manuscripts to modern printing, and further changes with online text. I especially enjoyed the chapters on the pilcrow, octothorpe, and manicule, all of which I also think qualify as weird words. I was not as interested in the discussion of irony and sarcasm and attempts to identify them in print.

#nonfiction #audiobook
#WeirdWords #WeirdWordWednesday

This week I‘ve chosen a couple of books in which softball plays a major part. Both of these are books I‘ve read, but I still need to get hold of copies to add to my class library.

#MiddleGradeMonday #MiddleGrade #GirlsInSports

I liked this, but I think I either needed more context for the historical aspect than the few minutes of online reading I did or more love for Great Expectations to truly appreciate it.

#ReadingOceania2024 #PapuaNewGuinea #ReadTheWorld #ReadingTheWorld #audiobook

Happy Saturday! This morning‘s book and breakfast includes catching up on this week‘s Sherlock Holmes story and probably listening ahead for next week. “The Adventure of the Engineer‘s Thumb” is not one of my favorites, but I am loving revisiting these stories each week.

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes #Sherlocked #BookAndBreakfast #audiobook

💛 La Gata, another pet that provides me joy.
💛 My classes finished state testing this week.
💛 Our JH took a field trip to see a college performance of The Percy Jackson Musical, and a former student had a role as the Minotaur & member of the ensemble.
💛 I hire a high school student who does a great job regularly mowing my yard so I don‘t have to.
💛 One evening this week I enjoyed some lovely hammock time.

#5JoysFriday

It was a beautiful evening, so I spent a bit of time in the hammock in the back yard with Gandalf and my current audiobook. Mr. Pip is set in Papua New Guinea and includes the only white man remaining on the island reading Great Expectations to students in the local school.

#audiobook #ReadingOceania2024 #PapuaNewGuinea #ReadTheWorld #ReadingTheWorld

I haven‘t been listening to this a chapter a day, but I downloaded it over the weekend to catch up. Then I just had to finish the last couple chapters last night. Even as a reread, it‘s so suspenseful. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am glad I made the time to listen again.

#PemberLittens #HashtagBrigade #audiobook

I thought about this prompt for a bit and decided on this book. Jillian lives in a small coastal Louisiana town that is slowly disappearing due to rising water. After another storm, the school is closed due to flood damage and the bridge into town is condemned. As she fights for her town and learns more about its history, she also learns how much of it has already disappeared under water.

#MiddleGrade #MiddleGradeMonday #Louisiana

This is definitely my favorite sourdough cookbook. I mixed up the dough for these overnight baguette twists yesterday afternoon, shaped them early this morning, and baked them before leaving for church. The recipe is simple and delicious!

#MtCookbook #cookbook #sourdough

I didn‘t find any life changing advice in this book, but I can see how it would be helpful for people without good relationships as models. A large part of it is about changing your own self sabotaging actions as well as considering more people as potential partners. The middle section includes some thoughtful strategies to try while actually dating new people, but much of it was just common sense.

#audiobook #nonfiction

This historical novel is set in Berlin in 1960 to 1961 in the months leading up to raising of the Berlin Wall. I‘ve read stories set in East Berlin, but always with characters ready to escape. Instead, this one includes a son of a U.S. soldier and his cousin who has grown up in East Berlin believing most of what he has been taught. They become friends during the time when people can still go back and forth between the two sides.

It‘s been a bit of a rough week, so I‘m purposefully taking this opportunity to focus on some positives.

💛 It rained yesterday, and now everything is beautifully green.
💛 We finished our first week of state testing & all students were present each day.
💛 My 6th graders were completely engaged in our math activity today.
💛 This beagle makes me happy every single day.
💛 Tonight I‘m having pizza & drinks with great friends.

#5JoysFriday

Apparently, I‘m going through a contemporary romance phase. I saw a review of this book by @LibrarianRyan the other day, and made a snap decision to see if I could find a copy. It was absolutely a pure fluff read about a football player and a librarian who are long time friends. There‘s low drama and an emphasis on body positivity.

#audiobook

This is an amazing book narrated by a horse named Joey during WWI. Joey does different jobs and ends up traveling a lot during the course of the war. It touches on some hard topics and has some truly sad scenes, but it also has a happy ending.

#MiddleGrade #MiddleGradeMonday #WWI #MsDsLibrary

I‘ve read Caroline Alexander‘s book about Shackleton‘s expedition, & I have Alfred Lansing‘s on my shelf, so I couldn‘t resist downloading this audio as well. It‘s more straightforward & scientific in a logbook sort of way than Alexander‘s, but I still found most of it fascinating as a more immediate, first person version. The part about the Aurora got long to me, but other than that, I‘m amazed by this survival story every time I read about it.

I‘m enjoying taco salad for supper and a few chapters of Anything for Billy in the backyard on this beautiful evening.

#ReadAndEat #DeweysReadathon

✅ Another strange book marked off the 1001 list! Thankfully, it was short & fairly easy to follow at double speed. It‘s a disjointed mishmash of stories with way too much graphic M/M sex for me. Some scenes were interesting in how they were repetitively told with slight variations, but I didn‘t get the point. It wasn‘t as difficult of a read as de Sade‘s Justine, but I‘m giving it the same kind of rating.

#1001books #audiobook #DeweysReadathon

This was a great listen that describes the experiences of the first six American women to be astronauts - Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.

#nonfiction #audiobook #LitsyBookClub #DeweysReadathon

Happy Saturday and good morning! I started this audiobook with breakfast today and am looking forward to spending lots of time listening while I work around the house today.

#DeweysReadathon #readathon #BookAndBreakfast #LitsyBookClub #audiobook #nonfiction

I seldom read contemporary romance, but this one has been on my TBR for a while and I needed a light, fun read this week. It was the perfect book for the moment with two teachers in their 40s finding a happily ever after. The ending is a bit abrupt and over the top, but overall I appreciated the school setting, the focus these characters put on their work, and their clear communication. Rose‘s former in-laws also added an entertaining dimension.

I ordered a copy of this as something a bit different to add to my class library. It‘s a fun book full of thoughtful and poetic comics through the seasons. This is my favorite page but I enjoyed several. There are pages about school, writing, nature, and other topics. For most readers, I would consider this quick read more of a book to borrow rather than buy.

#MsDsLibrary #Poetry #GraphicNovel #MiddleGrade

Today I immediately thought to share Alabama Moon as a book with moon in the title, but of course it‘s currently checked out from my class library. Watt Key‘s books are favorites with several of my rural JH students. I gathered a few other titles to share as well.

#MiddleGrade #MiddleGradeMonday #MsDsLibrary

My new at school read, although I‘m pretty sure I‘ll soon be invested enough that I‘ll be taking this book back and forth. It starts out with three men meeting each other on a foggy mountain and deciding to travel together. It‘s a McMurtry novel I‘d never heard of until a former student recommended it to me.

#TeachersOfLitsy #CurrentlyReading

This was a disturbing story. I was fascinated throughout the first part as Grenouille learned all about scents (and horrified by one scene), then a bit lost by the hermit in the hills portion, and again intrigued by the next section. Then things got crazy! I have no words for the ending, but I was completely engaged in listening.

📷: Happy beagle photo to balance out the creepy murders in this story.

#1001books #audiobook #TBRTakedown April 2024

I enjoyed this historical novel set in WWI France. Pauline is a Chinese woman who came to Paris to work with her uncle in a store selling Chinese goods and antiquities. Camille is a French woman living in the French countryside near the headquarters of the Chinese Labour Corps. Their lives are brought together by Theo, Pauline‘s cousin, serving as a Chinese interpreter.

#LitsyBookClub #WWI

I don‘t have a specific weird word to share from my own book reading this week, so I‘m sharing some of Grant Snider‘s work instead. He‘s currently creating a weekly “Words of Wonder” series on SubStack that I truly enjoy. These panels are from this week‘s post. The tagged is his most recently published book.

#WeirdWords #WeirdWordWednesday

Tre is a sophomore, and his family is dealing with the recent death of his older brother. This story is about his family dealing with that grief, but it‘s also about friendship, crushes, the pressure of high school sports, and figuring out how those things work together. It‘s also about a Native American team proving themselves, and includes some action packed basketball games. 🏀

Due to language and alcohol use, I would consider this mature YA.

I like this idea from @Karisimo to share more #MiddleGrade reads!

Button Pusher is a memoir driven graphic novel about growing up with ADHD. It provided a personal perspective that has helped me be even more understanding of some of my students.

I read The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl a while ago but remember loving it. Lucy is a math genius with OCD tendencies attending middle school for the first time.

#MiddleGradeMonday #MsDsLibrary

March was a busy month for me, and I only finished 5 books. However, that included Evelina, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Silmarillion, which are all pretty long and/or in-depth reads. My favorite this month was absolutely rereading The Silmarillion. I‘m also thoroughly enjoying slowly making my way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Orlando is currently paused/in hibernation.

#BookSpinBingo #MonthlyStats #ReadingStats #DaiseysReadingSummary

I‘ve appreciated the world building of this book every time I‘ve read it, but after multiple rereads I can simply enjoy reading it as well. There are epic stories with amazing characters. Yet, it only shows a small part of the world Tolkien created, and now reading it makes me want to reread books with other versions as well. This time I switched throughout between print, ebook, & audio versions.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Silmarillion #reread

I finished this yesterday on my drive because I knew I‘d have a busy weekend with family and didn‘t want to drag it into April. I didn‘t enjoy it, and I probably wouldn‘t have finished it without the #HashtagBrigade. I had a hard time staying focused on many chapters and just didn‘t care what was happening or being discussed. Maybe I‘d get more from it at a different time, but I‘m probably not going to try again.

#TheBros #audiobook #1001books

Sharing a weird word of the week a day late. I‘ve read The Silmarillion several times but never stopped to figure out exactly what weregild meant until this week. In this case, Isildur kept the one ring as a weregild for his father & brother killed in battle.

weregild: monetary value set for a person and paid to their family or lord if slain; also man price or blood money (noun)

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Silmarillion
#WeirdWords #WeirdWordWednesday

Happy Tolkien Reading Day! The Tolkien Society chose to focus on Service & Sacrifice as a theme this year. With that in mind, I‘m sharing this quote that I love about the small deeds of simple people being important in the matters of the world.

Additionally, today is Annunciation Day, recognized by the Catholic Church, and Lady Day, for a long time considered the beginning of the new year in England.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #TolkienReadingDay

“Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin” is one of the stories in The Silmarillion that is only a tiny portion of what Tolkien actually wrote about this event. I had to go look up some other passages and revisit the illustrations by Alan Lee after reading the chapter.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Silmarillion

I‘m playing catch up again this weekend. This is another epic story, but unlike most of Tolkien‘s stories that end on a hopeful note, the story of Turin is truly a tragedy. It includes the dragon Glaurung and the sword Gurthang, which are both important and fascinating characters as well.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Silmarillion

Yesterday I made the jalapeño cheddar sourdough from the tagged cookbook. I shaped one larger loaf and a few of these small rolls as well. The combination made for an amazing sausage and egg breakfast sandwich along with the chipotle mayo I made as well.

#MtCookbook #Cookbook #Sourdough

There are so many parts of The Silmarillion that I truly enjoy when rereading, but this has got to by my favorite story. I love Luthien‘s strength and dedication, and Huan is another amazing character. I read a few pages last night and then listened to all of it today.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Silmarillion #BooksAndBooze