Doing some gardening reading this morning. The neighbors unexpectedly and generously shared some flowers with us yesterday. Going to get them in the ground! 🌸🌸🌸

I won a giveaway! I almost never do but then I don't enter all that many either. Only for books I really want to read. Looking forward to this tale about uploading your brain to the cloud. 👍😂😂☁️ Thanks @WilliamMorrowBooks!

When Beverly Cleary turned 103 last month, I discovered she had written, not one, but two memoirs. I finished A Girl from Yamhill and have just started My Own Two Feet. I recommend either of these books; the first covers up to when she left home for college and the second starts with her college years. I loved Beverly Cleary‘s books when I was younger. I‘m enjoying this chance to reconnect with her as an adult!

One last book experience for the day: The Book Deal, my new favorite local used book store. They post book stack photos to their Facebook page. You can "dibs" any book pictured and they'll hold it for you until you can pick it up. Excellent and Dangerous service! Score! More books for me! I feel like I won the book lottery. ?? #saturdaybookday #bookdate #itcountsasadate #MKEadventure

Next stop: the famous Boswells Books in MKE. My first time here. This could be very bad for the wallet! 😊 💜 📚📚📚📚💵💵💵

First stop: the Half Price Books clearance sale!

The spousal unit has planned an outing day based around book shopping. He's a good guy. I hope he doesn't have to tell me this and I hope he does! 😂😂 #saturdaybookday #bookdate

#humpdaypost @MinDea

📍This weekend I went to the local college football game, but I didn't take any pictures.
📍So here's a picture of the last concert I went to last summer. It was a line up of 80s bands. Pictured is modern English singing I'll melt with you.
📍I worry too much.
📍I don't have netflix but I'm still trying to keep up with The Crown 👑. Anybody know when season 2 will be out on DVD?
📍A re-read! A Confederacy of Dunces!

#tuesdaytidbits #thisorthat
@JenlovesJT47
⚀ The Wizard of Oz, for sure!
⚁ Both!
⚂ Fantasy
⚃ Coke
⚄ Consider yourself tagged! 😊

That's me in a nutshell, fussy about everything but my book covers! 😊

I'm so out of the loop I didn't even realize it was a readathon weekend. I never seem to have as much time as I want to read on the weekends, but these are the 2 books I'll be trying to make the most progress with.

July so far is a very busy month. Not as much time to read and not as much time to post about it. Sigh.

This is one book I did finish. It's a pick for me, the last in a trilogy all of which I thought was very good. It's a first contact story and it didn't quite end up where I thought it would.

This checks some reading goal boxes for me though! #yearofthechunkster #finishtheseries #mountTBRchallenge @DivaDiane

June reading wrapup. Made some progress in #finishtheseries by reading the next installment and a short story in the Harry Dresden series. Also re - read sweetness at the bottom of the pie in preparation for reading more in that series.

My favorite books this month were I'll Be Gone in the Dark and Parable of the Sower. And Mort, if course, which I've included here even though I probably won't finish it until tomorrow!
#mountTBRchallenge

Some much needed light lunchtime reading.

#OokBOokClub

Been on a Hilary Mantel buying kick lately. I also now have all the Dark Tower books except for #5. That series is getting so *read* this year! 😊 📚📚

The hubby and I are watching the PBS shows on The Photo Ark project this morning. There is also a companion book (pictured). This guy has spent years photographing the world's rarest animals before they disappear. He goes to great lengths to shoot them in front of a white or black background so he can eliminate distractions and really show off the beauty of the animals. Highly recommended based on the TV shows! 🐯🐼🐦🐊🐙🐌🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I've been busy today. This is the tragic end of yet another purple editing pen. #bookpeopleproblems

1⃣ I love a great cover, but it's more a consideration when purchasing books I already know. I generally don't choose books to read based on covers.
2⃣ If my summer porch were summer ready I'd be out there reading! 🌞
3⃣ I like to finish a chapter or at least a section.
4⃣ Definitely a bookmark user. Not always proper though.
5⃣ You betcha! 😄
@SilversReviews

Now that it's pretty much mid - June I thought I'd commit to some reading goals for the month. A few buddy reads and some personal #mountTBRchallenge books that work towards #finishtheseries. What are you reading this month?

This book is really well written & presents the case very clearly. I never found myself lost in the details even though at least half of the book is reconstructed from the author's notes (she died in 2016) & other writings. I wish she had gotten the time to write more books. It's a pick for me & I think true crime enthusiasts will like it even more.

When your library hold comes in and its a new book so you only have 2 weeks to read it, and there are over 500 holds on it (not even counting the hold list for the ebook) so there's no chance for a timely renewal; then you drop all reading plans and get this done!
#bookpeopleproblems

Sorry I'm a little late in posting this!
1. I read Kindred last year.

2. I've got a nice mass market paperback for this. Perfect on-the-go size. 😊

3. I have an ebook of the Patternmaster series that I thought I was going to read next, but then I saw this buddy read and I wanted to get in on it! 😊 I'm almost to the end of the first section of reading and I'm just loving it!
#earthseedbuddyread
@BarbaraTheBibliophage

May reading wrap-up. I read 6 books in May. That's a LOT for me. The Bell Jar and State of Wonder were my two favorites. I liked SoW just a tiny bit more. Ann Patchett can do no wrong! And I'm not sure you can really enjoy the Bell Jar even though it is a brilliant book. The Library at Mount Char was also a 👍 & I'm slowly creeping up to the end of the Jack Reacher books (until a new one comes out!)
#mountTBRchallenge @DivaDiane
#finishtheseries

This is my second #buddyread for June. The #OokBookClub is up to book #4 in the #Discworld series. This #epicbuddyread is super chill. Start reading on the 8th; discussion is the following month on the 7th.

Hosted by the lovely @TricksyTails so you know we'll be having fun! 😊 This is a great way to pace yourself through the extensive #terrypratchett world!

Above is the 2018 schedule. Follow @TricksyTails for the complete #OokBookClub list!

1. Hanging with friends and replacing a ceiling fan. And doing some freelance editing.

2. Hit a slow patch at work this week.

3. Well the one I live in is pretty great. Milwaukee and Chicago are both close. I'd still go to London though. 😊

4. Sloth

5. 87 or 88 or thereabouts with serious humidity. After 85 I stop paying attention. It's all just hot at that point.
#friyayintro
@jesshowbooks

My next Litsy #buddyread #earthseedbuddyread hosted by the marvelous @BarbaraTheBibliophage! You should join us. Octavia Butler is a wonderful writer.

One of two buddy reads for me in June. It's going to be a busy month! 😊 📚📚

@MinDea your post about the problems of collecting a series of books reminded me of this photo my friend sent me the other day. She knows this kind of stuff drives me up a wall! 😂😨

Compare the volume 19 spine with the previous 18. This shouldn't happen. Someone's messing with us! 😂

I've done some good reading. I need to do some more. Except for those books I will never read (you know who you are!)

All right I don't really like popularity contests and many of the best books ever are not even in this list, but if it gets people talking about and reading books, I'm in. Even I can find ways to expand my reading from this list. What books from the list are you catching up with? New books you want to try?

Join The Bell Jar buddy read in May! All are welcome. I'm glad to be finally making the time to read this classic! Hosted by @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks and @Nuwanda

An announcement from the @litsy account. This account should be more active now with new owners.

I can't handle big cities anymore. I like my medium-sized town though. Small enough to be friendly; big enough to have plenty to do. My rock is going to be most everyone else's retro. And I love a good scoundrel but my heart will always belong to Mr. Darcy. 😊💜
Thanks @readherwriteher!

I've never done the HP House quiz. No idea. I should probably bail on books more, but it's more likely that I'll "postpone" it. Doing that with two books I'm reading now; taking a second run at them after years in hiatus.

Loved the middle east setting. Terrific action scenes & layers of story. Excellent world-building. I get a little tired with the fish-out-of-water trope; I hate that books have to make strong women helpless so we can all learn stuff thru the story. Still it's a pick for me. First of a planned trilogy! I'm looking forward to the next book!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The library where my husband works is getting a new building. So we're at one of our local bars for a fundraiser. One of the things you can do to donate is launch a dollar bill to the ceiling with a tack in it and a weight folded up behind it so the weight carries the bill up to the ceiling and pushes the tack in so it sticks. Hubby is demonstrating his technique in the photo. You can see a bunch of bills stuck to the ceiling already! 😊

I'm almost never in Twitter these days. But today I log in and this is the first thing I see.

No announcement on @Litsy yet?

@tsutrav welcome to Litsy. Got any details on this acquisition for us?

I'm not a big memoir person but I do enjoy the occasional celebrity autobio. This one was fun with lots of comedy name dropping. Martin Short is such a normal-seeming person despite the fame. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hubby has been learning about cocktails so we have cocktail hour every once in a while. He does most of the cooking too. It just works out that way. Plus he's the best! 💜

I do try to use bookmarks but more often it's whatever is closest to hand.

Well, it wasn't my favorite thriller ever. It was a page turner. I did finish it. But I found the characters rather wooden. The dialog stiff; almost canned. Everyone here seems to love Karen Slaughter books so much that I'm hoping these are just first book flaws. So, to sum up: terrific plotting, writing needs improvement.

1. Fiction
2. Paper route!
3. Managing editor for a small press
4. Hmm... Anything that pays a lot of money and has no time commitments. Lol!
5. Tea

#manicmonday @JoScho

It's only a tiny bit contagious, but there's a lot of it going around.

😊👍📚📚😷😄

Holy wow, what a ride! If you like epic fantasy you really need to give this series a try. This book is the 2nd of 3 planned. The women really come into their own in this book and drive the story and the action and end up (literally) ruling the world. Highly recommended. 5🌟
Another ✔️ off my TBR list and a ✔️for finishing a series (published so far)!!
#mountTBRchallenge @DivaDiane
#yearofthechunkster #finishtheseries

"Killing the emporer was easy. Building a world that is more just and persuading those in power to exercise it wisely [has] been far harder."

In books AND in life. Sigh.

between a pick & a so-so for me. It was a slow read, but I ended up enjoying it. I was convinced I was missing important cultural information. If I knew more about chinese culture, I would have understood the book better, I think. The perils of literature in translation, I guess. I had a hard time keeping all the relationships straight and that was with a cheat sheet! Not so much a war story as about family and relationships. 3.5 🌟 🌟🌟

Is anybody else doing the house of leaves read along on Facebook? If seems like an enthusiastic group, but it also seems like just about everybody there has read the book before. Still I think reading this one with a group might be the only way I'll ever get through it!

February has turned out to be a very busy month. I'm not even sure why. But I've been doing a lot of reading on my phone so I've been catching up with Jack Reacher which gives me a check on my #mountTBRchallenge for finishing out a series. All but the very last one which still has a long list for holds! @DivaDiane These are so-so books but I enjoy them as pure escapist stories.

1. A "dark romance" set against the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong.
2. Almost anything with chocolate.
3. As I get older, people try to tell me I'm the very very last tail end of the boomers. I feel more gen-x though.
4. Bottle of germ-x. Colds & more colds season at my house.
5. Headed to a friend's house to watch the super bowl. Her 2 young boys are football cra-azy and wanted to invite my husband and I over for a party. ? ???

Finally finished Anna tonight. Such a fantastic read! Now I have no idea what I've been waiting for all those years this had been on my #TBR! Thanks @Theresa for the kick in the pants to get going on this with the #annakareninareadalong!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Finally, after 20(?) some hours of labor, Kitty wants to take her earrings off. #badass #annakareninareadalong

I'm part-way through part five and Anna and Vronsky are driving me nuts! Who are these people? Do they know anything? How did they get this way?

How come no one's ever written an Anna Karenina prequel? Has anyone written an Anna Karenina prequel?

#annakareninareadalong

I have all kinds of tea and hot cocoa in the house and my plan was to just get comfy and read all day, but first one must shovel the walk. Yay. ❄️❄️❄️⛄📚📚📚

Getting my #litsypartyofone started by catching up with my #annakareninareadalong.

#Mounttbrchallenge