Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a 2023 full of good books! I enjoyed seeing my year in review from Goodreads and look forward to many happy hours of reading in the new year! 🎉📚🥳

Just downloaded this on audio for holiday listening and jigsaw puzzling. Does anyone have other suggestions for holiday-themed mysteries, cozy or otherwise? Thanks!

1. My Dad 2. Ann Cleeves 3. Yes, we‘re reading the tagged book. @Eggs

I grabbed a few books off my TBR shelves, so here are eight choices. I have many more if the genres don‘t work or if my #LMPBC group has already read these. Like @Readergrrl , I‘ll add bookmarks in comments. I‘m not sure how the selecting works. Do we comment on each other‘s posts? Communicate via email? #GroupT #Round15 @suvata @BookishBelle @vonnie862

I decided to sign up for the #LMPBC for the first time. Interested to see how it works out! Come join us as we read, mark, inwardly digest and swap books! To sign up go to @suvata ‘s original post.

Yay! My summer reading for #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub arrived!

An incantation in the woods on St. John‘s Eve sets the stage for a series of adventures and happy coincidences as cousins Jane and Lucilla make their way in the world after being left in reduced financial circumstances by an unscrupulous guardian. The optimism, humorous mishaps and memorable characters made this an enjoyable tale. I‘m looking forward to reading more selections with the #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub .

I decided to give up screen time in the evenings during Lent. I‘m looking forward to more reading, starting with this group selection for March. #furrowedmiddlebrowclub

McFarlane‘s book about walking ancient pathways really resonated. My photo is from a walk across the mud flats at low tide to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne a few years ago. The author does not include this path in the book, but devotes a chapter to another tidal route, The Broomway off the Essex coast.

1. City of Thieves was an enjoyable book club read, set in the snow during the siege of Leningrad. ❄️
2. Since I listen to so many audiobooks, but my TBR shelves are overflowing, I plan to read at least one “book on paper” each month. 📖
3. Grateful for Litsy and for my book club! 📚🍷

@Eggs #wondrouswednesday

Read two books this weekend. Although very different (a murder mystery and a reflection on art and spirituality), both referenced the trauma of World War I. Huang‘s characters coped with shell shock and the effects of mustard gas and Madeleine L‘Engle‘s father was a WWI vet disabled from lung damage due to mustard gas. #NewYearSpecial @Andrew65

My first grade teacher would be pleased at my reading goal achievements this year. 😂🥳🎉📚

Woo Hoo! My pre-order is now available. Can‘t wait!

My book club loved The Dictionary of Lost Words!

Here we go on my TBR list for October! #Bookspin #BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Here is my summer reading stack for #15books15weeks . I had trouble editing down to 15, so included a few extra options. 😊 @TheHeartlandBookFairy This will also be my June #bookspin stack, starting with the Roz Chast memoir on the bottom as No. 1. @TheAromaofBooks

All set for #bookspinbonanza . Time to clear out my backlog of audiobooks!

#Friyayintro
1. Photo of something that made me laugh - Maybelle hoarding toilet paper!
2.Current read - The Ruin
3.Self-Care? - Walking in the neighborhood, audiobooks and Litsy!
4.Fave chocolate? - Dark Chocolate
@4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads

#7books7days Seven books that left an impression and changed me. Day Seven. #7days7books

#7days7books Seven books that left an impression and changed me. Day Six. #7books7days

#7days7books. Seven books that left a deep impression and changed me. Day Five. #7books7days. (Not my photo)

#7days7books Seven books that left a deep impression and changed me. Day Four #7books7days

#7days7books Seven books that left a deep impression and changed me. Day Three. #7books7days

#7days7books Seven books that left a deep impression and changed me. Day Two. #7books7days

#7days7books Seven Books that left a deep impression and changed me. Day One. #7books7days

Okay, I‘m going to try something new! Jumping into the April #bookspin. Here are my selections.

This was the first book I read early in the new year and it was strangely predictive of current events. In spite of themes of pandemic, tightening oil supplies and the threat of economic collapse, the book was an enjoyable and uplifting read.

Our book club host served homemade bloody-axe-murder red velvet cupcakes for our discussion of The Trial of Lizzie Borden! ❤️ Thanks, @kimgnix The group enjoyed the book. I haven‘t finished, so won‘t post my review yet.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Book - Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis. Movie- Angel Heart. Song - Have A Heart by Bonnie Raitt. #manicmonday @JoScho

Although the Thames is the river in the novel, the Alabama River will have to stand in for this photo. 😊 I‘ve read 10 hours of this book so far and three hours in another book this weekend, so I will fall well short of #24in48 . But it was fun to devote a large chunk of my weekend to reading. Thanks for the inspiration! @24in48

Happy Birthday to @gradcat and congratulations on your 10k milestone! Thanks for creating a #Birthdaygiveaway ! 1. I‘ve tagged The 11th book in Louise Penny‘s Inspector Gamache series, which is set in Quebec. 2. To make Kir, you pour a little creme de cassis in a wine glass and top with white wine. For New Year‘s Eve you might want to try a Kir Royale, which is the same except with champagne 🍾 instead of regular white wine.

Just received my copy! It‘s so new I can smell the ink :sniff: Ahhhh! I saw this on the Brain Pickings blog and had to order this collection of illustrated letters to young readers. Can‘t wait to dig in!

The title refers to a Persian tale of a mythical stone that absorbs the pain of others. In this case, the “stone” is a comatose Afghan man whose wife confesses her secret thoughts to her unresponsive husband as war rages around them. Although I disliked the ending, I gave the book a good rating because the story has really stayed with me. #WorldTour @JulietteGF

Cleaned the gutters and pruned the crape myrtle in preparation for Tropical Storm Alberto. Now for an uplifting read! 😉

Michelle Richmond gave an engaging presentation on her novel The Marriage Pact at the Alabama Book Festival. She drew on research about cults, marriage, and privacy issues in an era of electronic monitoring.

1. Figure Skating ⛸
2. Edwidge Danticat 🇭🇹
3. August 🦁
4. And Breathe Normally (Icelandic Film)🇮🇸 5. Happy Birthday, Februarians! 🍰 🎁
#friyayintro @jesshowbooks

Enjoying three hours of Colson Whitehead on C-Span‘s Book TV.

Fun giveaway! I chose a favorite loner from childhood: Harriet the Spy. #OneIsTheLoneliest# @Elle_Skeldon

1. 🕷🕸🐖
2. 🍄 Polka dots! (Just saw a film about Yayoi Kusama).
3. Um, ketchup! 🍅
4. It‘s “coke” (generically) or “soft drink” down here. #FridayFrigesDay

1. No 2. 50 degrees F 3. Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor 4. Barbados 🇧🇧 5. @LisaJo ✋🏼 @Godmotherx5 ✋🏼

@jesshowbooks #friyayintro

The film adaption of The Miseducation of Cameron Post won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival 2018. 🎥📚

What to do between screenings at the Sundance Film Festival? Oh, Look! 😍 📚

“What will I tell you/ When you ask me/ Father, speak to us of Haiti?/ Then my eyes sparkling with pride/ I would love to tell you/ Of the blue mornings of my country/ When the mountains stretch out/ Lazily/ In the predawn light/ The waterfalls flowing/ With freshness/ The fragrance of molasses-filled coffee/ In the courtyards/ The fields of sugar cane/ Racing/ In cloudy waves/ Towards the horizon... - Marc Christophe, “Present Past Future” #haiti

#HumpDayPost. I‘m late to the hump day party! Art is by Bethanne Hill of Birmingham, Alabama. Signed up for 36 books on the Goodreads challenge. I wear zebra-striped reading glasses. Starry night sky (in the mountains and at the beach). Commonwealth was a gift last year, but TBR In 2018! @MinDea

Looking forward to this murderous 2018 challenge! #ssdgmchallenge @shanebeth

I forgot to include this in my Christmas haul photo! 🎄🎅🏽. Can‘t wait!

My Christmas 🎄🎁🎁 gifts this year! Looking forward to reading them!

Prepared!

Gift left on my porch for my most recent birthday! Animalium is the large wrapped book. #liberthday @Liberty