Learning about Afghanistan and I come across this picture. The book says this is Abdur Rahman but all I see is DJ Khaled. 🤣🤣🤣

#ICantUnseeIt
#foodandlit @butterfinger @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Another month without a bingo. Only eight books read last month and none reviewed yet, but I'm happpy with what I finished considering it was a busy month.
April #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

I've got about 90 minutes of waiting in the car for my guy to finish up at a doctor's appointment. It's quiet and cool enough that I can read while the birds sing me a song.
Let's do this! #sundaybuddyread

Excited to see how many boxes I can complete this month!
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

On Saturday I treated myself to some new audiobooks from Libro.fm to support my local indie shop. Tagged is the bottom right one that's hardest to read. See anything you liked?

Finally! My May BookSpin List. I turned off my notifications so I wouldn't be tempted to cheat. Now, let's see what I may or may not actually read this month! 🤣

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

After about 5 weeks of slacking off, I need to get back into the swing of things. My muscles & joints feel a bit tight already from all my inactivity. I found a few 30-Day challenges to target arms, abs, thighs, and booty so I'll see how far I get with that. I'm realistic that I may skip a day here & there as I get used to the moves so if I can get 20 days completed I'll be happy.
#BFC2022 @wanderinglynn

Thank you @Bookgoil @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Professional_Book_Dragon for this surprise happy in my mailbox this week. It came at the right time! We just buried my guy's abuela at 101 years young that same day.
#LitsyLove

Starting this today with the little reading time I have this weekend.

Shortly after we got Watson, he must've felt that books took attention away from him (or he was just an inquisitive little puppy). He went to the bottom shelf of a bookcase, pulled this book from its shelves, and tore the back cover into little pieces. He wasn't a chewer, just a ripper. It was a fun afternoon putting this puzzle together.

#dogsoflitsy #authoramonth

I've extended my #FoodAndLit stay in Greece a little longer to finish this rom-com while eating Spanakopita. A late dinner but when in Greece...🤣
Sure, it's from Trader Joe's but I've been garbage about the food portion so it totally counts.
#LetsJustPretendItsMarch44th
@Butterfinger @Texreader @Catsandbooks

@wanderinglynn March started off great but fizzled. My work trip threw off my mojo & zapped my energy. I didn't workout, per se, but I was on the go so much more.
Only 11 workouts, no new lunch recipe, but I did read 13.5 books.
I am also having phone issues so I can't access my usual yoga app. I am looking to figure out goals for the second half of the month this week. Maybe I need to get a new phone or a tablet.
#BFC2002

Starting a week late but hopefully I can play catch up on our #sundaybuddyread by Monday.

Today we celebrate abuela's 101st birthday! I have some data entry to do later. Tomorrow I'm being brave and taking my niece out to practice driving.
But first?! Coffee and a book.

This was a fun enemies-to-lovers/second chance romance. Told in alternating POVs, this spicy tale tells us about Ambrosia & Chase then and now. Then: a semi-public sex scandal. Now: a lingering penchant for semi-public sex. Chase used to be BFFs with Ambrosia‘s brothers, so he calls her “Bro”. In her current life, she prefers “Sia”, leaving Ambrosia behind. My biggest gripe is that any way you cut it, the heroine‘s name feels cheesy. ⬇️

I'm not generally a poetry fan, unless it's Poe. At a used book sale a few years ago, this psychedelic cover won me over. Since many of you are participating in #nationalpoetrymonth I figured it's a good time to pull it out of the closet and give it a go. With about 120 poems, I can read a few a day and finish in a month or so.

Fingers crossed I find a few to enjoy. 🤞

Bingo Board Design Day is my favorite day of the month! I've got a little #foodandlit #Cuba (my guy is 1st-gen Cuban American so I can't phone it in here!), a bit of YA April, a couple #AAM I've owned far too long, and lots of challenge prompts to check off. Let's do this!

@TheAromaofBooks

#Booked2022 Quarter 1 Recap: Five books

❄ 4 The Shadow of the Wind #WeatherTermInTitle

❄ 6 The Mercies #NonPatriarchalSocietyOrEcoFeministNovel

🌸 7 Cleopatra: A Life #AboutARealOrFictionalRoyal

🌸 12 Death on the Nile #AMurderMystery

🍁 22 The Song of Achilles #MythologyRetellingOrSetInAnAncientCivilization

@Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

Another fun murder mystery from the Grand Dame Agatha Christie. I wasn't certain who-dun-it, but I had my suspicions and I was correct. If I learned anything from trying The Mysterious Affair at Styles on audio, it is that I need to actually read these books to help keep the people straight. Sure, I needed a cheat sheet early on to help me remember who each person was in relation to the others, but it all came together for me ⬇️

I liked this, but didn't love it. While it was atmospheric and the remote setting was like its own character, ultimately I wanted a little more than what we got. When the village's men are taken by the sea, the women must step up to ensure their people can carry on living. Add to it men who just can't imagine women will do just fine on their own and considering those with different customs as witches, well...it all makes me a little stabby. ⬇️

Here we go with my ideal TBR for April but I'll be lucky if I get to half of these. For the books that didn't make the cut, there's always Free Spaces and May (and June and...). 🤣

I'm getting some strong spring/The Enchanted April vibes with this graphic. Now if Mother Nature would just act like it's spring here in NJ, I'd be a lot happier.
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

2022 is the year I will read the entire Cemetary of Forgotten Books series. I remembered some details but not all, so I gave this one a listen to refresh my memory on the more secondary characters.

Still just as good, perhaps better the second time around.
March #bookspinbingo Free Space @TheAromaofBooks #SeriesRead2022 @TheSpineView #booked2022 Winter 4 #WeatherTermInTitle @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

Well, even reading 13.5 books doesn't get me a bingo nor my bookspin or doublespin completed this month! 🤣 Oh well, maybe in April.

@TheAromaofBooks #bookspinbingo

I only made it 43% through this before bailing. The reader's voice was scratchy & weathered, which may suit the unnamed narrator, but wasn't exactly great to listen to at length. Add to it nothing much happens and I didn't find Zorba's constant philosophizing entertaining, just annoying. You can be a womanizer, but you have to be interesting, too, Zorba. Sheesh.
#foodandlit @butterfinger @texreader @catsandbooks

"When fate and tacos bring Ramón and Julieta together on the Day of the Dead..."

Honestly, all I needed to know about this contemporary romance was tacos & Day of the Dead. While in San Antonio, I found myself at the old Pearl Brewery site and The Twig Book Shop. Book, black cherry scented sugar skull pen, and bookmark are from there. The necklace (India) & honeybalm (Zambia) are from Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit fair trade shop. ⬇️

I'm traveling for work this week (hello San Antonio!) and it's super easy to skip my workouts BUT I won't. I may need to adapt since I'm not lugging a yoga mat around, but I won't be deterred. I want to be healthier and that won't happened if I lay in bed all night. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally finishing Well Matched all in one day thanks to the plane ride, but first...movement.

You can do it, too! Whatever it is, keep going.

This was available as a Bonus Borrow on Hoopla last month so before they disappeared, I snatched this up. At only 2h41m, I was interested to see what sort of advice this beauty maven had to bestow on the world, and I was pleasantly surprised. Leslie Blodgett is the creator of makeup brand bareMinerals, which apparently got started on home shopping channels and used the early internet to interact with customers to share makeup knowledge and ⬇️

Cozied up on the couch with this month's #sundaybuddyread and coffee. Hope to finish this week's section this morning since we have a game night with my brother & his family later.

Holy crap! A review in the same week I finished the book?! 😲
When elderly Bernandette Locke dies, Vicky goes from being a dog-walker with an Etsy store to having the ownership shares in a billion dollar company when Smuckers is left to her care in Bernadette‘s will. Sure, it‘s the adorable maltese who technically owns the shares, but Bernadette also insisted that Vicky was a Dog Whisperer, and thus she becomes the mouthpiece for Smuckers ⬇️

Just thought I'd share this with you all. I am a visual planner and while this may look like complete & utter chaos to some, it makes perfect sense to me! I have been taking a little time after work this week to review my year's reading so far & see where they fit into challenges. Each challenge has a color & the sticky notes let me reassign a book to a different prompt if necessary. Now if I could just figure out what to say about the books...

March's bingo board is designed and ready to go. I've already finished one of these books! Yay!
Bookspin: One Summer in Santorini for #foodandlit and #mounttbr Kindle Edition
Doublespin: Split-Second Courage, a book for which I attended the release party last month with my niece.

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

I've settled on these books for March. Thank goodness for the wiggle room of the Free spaces!
#bookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

February was a good reading month but I didn't read with a bingo in mind.
#bookspinbingo without a bingo @TheAromaofBooks

In March, I hope to increase the amount of time I workout, either by adding a fourth day each week or combining yoga programs with targeted workouts. I am leaving the types vague so I can adapt during work travel.

12 books as I have a few short ones on my TBR to tackle & 8 hours on airplanes.

I've increased my dinner repertoire so now it's time for lunch. I can't keep eating salads or soups at work.

#BFC2022 @wanderinglynn

#foodandlit friends, time got away from me & I missed a few months. I'll prepare the missed 2021 countries if you're interested. Here's Egypt:

Egypt is the second most populous country in Africa; home to 82 million people, who call it Omm Eddunia, Mother of the World.🇪🇬 Since most Egyptians live along the Nile River, and half of them in urban areas, Egypt has one of the highest population densities in the world. 🇪🇬 Egypt frequently changed ⬇️

I think I read The Iliad in high school, or at least pretended to read it & discussed it in class, but you know what I certainly remember? Brad Pitt in a leather mini-skirt so the movie Troy was playing in my head alongside this audiobook. I can see why Patroclus is in love with Achilles, and thus why we get his account of Achilles, but Patroclus felt a bit one-dimensional to me. This was enjoyable & a nice reminder of the bones of the myth ⬇️

I‘m going to be honest…I am already rather stingy with the f*cks I give, but when two friends recommend a book, you read it. There were a few good points in here, but nothing that I haven‘t heard before in some form. You are not special. Give a f*ck about things that are truly worthy of your time. I work in a hotel and while I am not nearly delusional enough to think that the rooms and staff are perfect, I can tell when someone stays up ⬇️

Everything we know about Cleopatra is as it relates to the men in her life. Schiff has done a good job of going through the surviving documents to put together a portrait of a woman that is more than just a sexual temptress. We learn how this Macedonian woman came to rule such a wealthy kingdom and that Egypt was very strong under her rule, but we never truly understand the true motivations behind her actions. If the time period is ⬇️

❌I did a little better in February. I didn't do 12 yoga sessions due to transferring a property to another DOS and a strained muscle, but 7 were completed plus a few other days to try routines to focus on legs/abs & arms.
✔9 books finished YAY!
✔2 new recipes (Eggplant Parm and Chicken & Spinach lemon Skillet with penne) & we made a few minor tweaks to a newish recipe by adding garlic ro the tortellini dish. All yummy.
#BFC2022 @wanderinglynn

I suppose I should start reviewing January's books!

This was a fun way to learn about 30 rebel ladies through history, including Hedy Lamarr and the recently deceased Betty Davis. After each profile there is a double page spread of related artwork and they might have been the best part. This would be a cool gift for the young ladies in your life, just make sure they are mature enough for the adult situations a few of these women endured.

Thanks for the tag @hannah-leeloo

1. According to my list here, it's the tagged.

2. Nope, not yet.

3. 🎧 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
📖 The Mercies

If it's still Wednesday, you like Wednesdays, or even just survived a Wednesday and would like to play... go for it!
#wondrouswednesday @eggs

Today was a very hectic workday but I took a 30 minute mental health break to make my board. I don't even care if I get any bingos, I just want to make the boards. 🤣

My February #Bookspin List. Will this be the first month in a while I get a bingo? Probably not, but I'm excited to see where the numbers land and make my board. Here's to Argentina, Black History Month, and romance. 🥂

I still need to review my books but here's where I finished January. I read my #bookspin and #doublespin books and with less sleep or an extra couple days, I would've had a bingo. Maybe next month.
@TheAromaofBooks

Like the stores, I'm bringing the Valentine's Day vibe to you before February. 🤣

January threw me a few curveballs: mild Covid that zapped my energy & focus more than anything else; that cancelled a work trip so I had to remotely train a returning coworker, & my guy's car was in the shop so my days got longer as I played chauffeur & ran all the errands. I only did 8 yoga workouts, but took extra dog walks. No brand new recipes but I did eat more salads & veggies. With 40 pages left of book 8, I'm calling that a goal achieved.

A little #litsyhumor for your weekend!

It's time for #two4tuesday on Wednesday! @TheSpineView
Thanks for the tag @Blackink_WhitePaper

1. The tagged for Brazil's #foodandlit month. Luckily it was a collection of stories so it felt less daunting. About 650 pages.

2. I absolutely put them off. The "longest book on my TBR" was one of two prompts I didn't finish last year. I like the joy of reading 3 books/stories more than one long one. Anything over 550 feels especially daunting.

On this #wondrouswednesdayI was tagged by our fabulous host @Eggs

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I'll finally read it next month to find out why (and promptly disagree with the haters)

3. Murder Mystery (Death on the Nile) and Literary Fiction (The Song of Achilles)

 @RamsFan1963 @AnneCecilie @Cupcake12 Want to play?

Thanks for the tag @EadieB

1. Sometimes, but my phone is perpetually full of photos & memes so I am more likely to stream audiobooks.

2. My Amazon Fire Tablet. It's cheap, colorized, and about the size of a physical book page.

@BooksNBowls @MatchlessMarie @MilesnMelodies Want to play?

Thanks for the tag @RaeLovesToRead & @Bklover

📚 Book goals: 96 books, read more from my stacks, and complete #booked2022 #pop22 and #52books as well as participating in other challenges
Personally to drop about 20 pounds and get healthier/more fit.

⏳Hopeful

📖 I like it. Two friends recommended it but must not have realized that I am already pretty good at not giving a 🤫.

#thoughtfulthursday @moonwitch94

Thanks for the tag @Eggs & @MoonWitch94

1. Tagged, a cute YA romance

2. Improve my fitness level & lose about 20 pounds.

3. Throat lozenges and my guy who went out at midnight to get them. The lingering cough/scratchy throat is just annoying at this point.

Care to play? @sprainedbrain @gissy @peacegypsy

2021 was my best reading year by far. I more than doubled my goal of reading 60 books and I didn't even include a few children's books or short stories in the final tally.

Thank you hosts! @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen @Butterfinger @Texreader @Catsandbooks @Soubhiville @TheBookHippie @Charityann @Velvetfur @Annie1215 #booked2021 #foodandlit #authoramonth #sundaybuddyread #FairyTaleReadingChallenge #thatsclassic