After a tough week,news,work, allergies,Netanyahu,Israel/Iran,LA,45 million? we are paying for little t‘s birthday parade, India‘s plane crash, my son‘s rising anxiety due to all this, I dealt with the myriad of feelings these things evoked in me,by having a moscow mule.That‘s not my usual way to cope.I am hoping my exhaustion, anxiety, etc. will lift after Robert & I join in Hartford‘s Protest at the Capital tomorrow.
#NoKingsRally

#foodandlit #Greenland

Police Constable just completed her training when she lands a missing person‘s case. She travels far north to investigate, where she is immersed in the beauty of the land & its people. I enjoyed this short novella & want to read more of this author‘s work.

#5JoysFriday

1) my son & I at pre-game tailgate for US v. Turkey Men‘s soccer game last Saturday. Turkey won, but did we have fun-
2) Interview with author Ron Chernow at Mark Twain House about his recent biography of Mark Twain.
3)graduation this past Wednesday. Seniors do a “ walk through” & go to the elementary schools, walk the hallways lined with students & teachers
4) Our HS literary magazine, Voices
5) hummingbird feeder

Friday morning book & coffee before work. Our last day with students! #ChristieCapers

I finished Audition.
I am perplexed. Baffled. What just transpired? Parallel Universes?
#Camplitsy25

My morning so far. Late night out ( for me) last night & graduation today at 6:00 p.m. Reading tagged book with my coffee.

1)I belong to my local indie‘s monthly pre-order bookclub which gives me a discount on each book I pre-order. I pre-ordered the tagged book for June.
2) stand alone with the exception of Louise Penny‘s books!

Tagging any Litten who wants to play!

What a fantastic evening! My family went to hear Ron Chernow being interviewed about the writing of his biography of Mark Twain at the Mark Twain House in Hartford.The sold out venue was a Congregational Church nearby.That picture of Mark Twain on a stick is a hand fan they gave out to the audience because like most old churches, it was not air conditioned.Very creative & community building I thought!
The book is 1030 pages plus appendices.

#MondayMood.
All over the place! Reaction to LA & our president: horrified.
Exhausted!!!! Need tons of coffee!
Work: we always find so many things to laugh about- resource room staff & students. 😂
My family watched a great documentary this afternoon & my hubby made dinner.

Lane travels to her grandparents home in Scotland because her grandfather has suffered a heart attack. Once there,she discovers that her younger sister,Diana, is missing.Lane delves into Diana‘s intelligence war work in South Africa,to try & ascertain any links to her present circumstances. Meanwhile, Darling is sent to Scotland as well, by Nelson‘s town mayor to investigate a decades old mystery. #serieslove2025 #LaneWinslowMystery

#9 Lane is walking in a nearby meadow & meets up with an indigenous man,Tom,who is seeking to find his ancestral burial ground. Nearby,human remains are discovered.Meanwhile,in town,Lane & Darling‘s favorite Italian restaurant is deliberately set a fire.Suddenly,Darling is being investigated for taking bribes.The search for who is buried & who slandered Darling is on.#serieslove2025 #LaneWinslowMystery

A close up of Poe.😀😸 He is snuggling me while dinner cooks. Enjoying my first Moscow Mule of the season-so cooling on this hot muggy day. Just started this book. #serieslove2025 #DCIBanksMystery

#WeeklyForecast

#camplitsy25 #sundaybuddyread #adventuresinphilosophy #readyourkindle #naturalitsy #midsummersolace #audiobook #serieslove2025

I need to catch up on Ash & Arguing for a Better World. Once school ends I will have oodles of reading time!

My plans for #hyggehour #readathon tonight. It‘s a hot muggy day so ice cream is in my freezer awaiting my spoon!

#Naturalitsy #midsummersolace #fiction
Starting this today with coffee, of course. 📕☕️

#BookReport
#sundaymorningbuddyread #adventuresinphilosophy
#CampLitsy25 #readyourkindle #librarybokk #LaneWinslowMystery #audiobook #librarybook#LaneWinslowMystery #CommissarioGuidoBrunettiMystery #preorderbookclubchallenge #April

My Friday night delight. #MidSummerSolace. #Naturalitsy While cooking a dinner of beef charred pepper tacos,I listened to tagged book.Add chips & salsa, Mexican beer-yum! After dinner my couch calls me- reading pictured book with my cats. I also may watch the Yankee game at some point.⚾️

Finished part 1 for tomorrow‘s discussion #CampLitsy25
Right now I am intrigued as to where the novel is going. It has a kind of quiet forcefulness & an ambivalence to it. Not sure what I mean! I have to leave for a Friendly USA vs Turkey men‘s soccer game tomorrow mid morning but I will try & check in to discussion.

#5JoysFriday

🥀 Roses blooming outside our school‘s entrance.
🥀 Always, coffee
🥀 books!!!!!
🥀 Sunrise through smokey haze from Canadian wildfires.
🥀 sunset this one day this week.

Tagging any Litten who wants to share their joys.

#preorderbookclubchallenge #April #histotricalfiction #porchlife

Finished this tonight. Initially I read it, then put it aside, then picked it up again, etc. As usual, I need to sit on the book before i review it here. I am glad I read it.

#bookmail
Came home after work to discover lots of packages on my front porch from Thrift Books and Blackwells. What fun! #porchlife

#BUCKETLIST #MidSummerSolace

My summer starts June 17.

Hiking, walking
Music
Daily reads
Porch life
Book stacks
The beach
Sea Shells
Day trips
Ice cream
Family fun
Love
Gardening
Coffee
Croissants

1) Be in tune with yourself, empathetic to all living things, laugh, love, hope, immerse yourself & those around you in nature, teach

2)📚❤️🌲

3) students at work today 😂

Reading while watching the Yankee v Cleveland Guardians. ⚾️

Traveling from Venice to the Island of Sant‘Erasmo ⭐️ with Commissario Guido Brunetti for a rest cure.
#14books14weeks #june1to7 #serieslove2025

Early morning coffee. Nearby rooster crowing,bird song, cool air, blue skies with powder puff clouds. And of course, coffee and a book.
#coffeesndbooks #adventuresinphilosophy #porchlife

#weeklyforecast
#sundaybuddyread #adventuresinphilosophy #camplitsy25 #preorderbookclubchallenge #librarybook #LaneWinslowMystery #CommissarioGuidoBrunettiMystery

I cleaned out the garden of weeds. Feel so accomplished! My neighbors stopped by to tell me how great it looked sans weeds. Now I am reading a library book on the porch. It‘s breezy but blue skies with some drifting cumulus clouds-puff balls. ☁️
Earlier this morning I met my sister for coffee. ☕️🩷
Later today we are going to Pepe‘s for pizza. 🍕
Such a lovely day; I won‘t mind work tomorrow.

#weekendreads

#BookReport

Finished 10 books-but many I had started the previous week(s). #poetryandscience #mariapopova #GeorgeMollyPalmerJonesMystery #AlaskaSanders #RebusNovels #SisterFidelmaMystery #Preorderbookclubchallenge #naturalitsy #CommissarioGuidoBrunettiMystery

Top Row: starting these: #sundaybuddyread #CommissarioGuidoBrunettiMystery #SisterFidelmaMystery #camplitsy25

Themes of the unbreakable bonds between mothers & daughters,loss & abandonment,forgiveness,home,& the power of stories.In 1927 Claire Harrington‘s mom the renowned author Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the South Carolina coast,upending the child Clara‘s life.In 1952 Clara,now the mom of the asthmatic Winnie,is contacted by Charlie Jameson in London.He has her mother‘s bag,containing the dictionary she wrote about her secret language.⬇️

I sat on this review for a while,mainly because there were many voices in this book,some I wasn‘t sure were necessary.In this evocative book the past informs the present. When Ebby was 10, she witnessed her brother‘s murder, & the shattering of a several hundred years old clay jar, representing legacy & family connections.A decade or so later Ebby is stood up at the altar & she fleas to France, where she heals from her trauma.

Br. Eadulf & Fidelma of Cashel are enroute to meet up with a childhood friend of Eadulf‘s,Br.Botulf,who is at Aldred‘s Abbey.When they arrive,they find Br.Botulf has been murdered.Ghosts lurk in the Abbey, & the evil murderer of men,the Abbott Ciln,is terrified of them.He is slowly going insane by the hauntings.
Em is not impressed with this tale.I found Eadulf to be rather unlikable-he was grouchy, irritable,arrogant.
#serieslove2025 #catsoflitsy

#ChatterDay2025

This morning I am meeting my sister for coffee to celebrate her coming trip to Ireland (in 2 weeks). Am I jealous?! Yes!
Tagging @swynn @TheLudicReader @Tamra @Graywacke
It is pouring rain again here, so I plan to do mundane things like laundry, sort books to give to our local library for its Autumn book sale, & of course, read.

That first sip of morning coffee…bliss.

A 15-year-old crime:a teenage girl fell into a canal & began to drown.An alcoholic man saw this & jumped in to save her.But lack of oxygen caused sprain damage.Now the age of 30 she is like a seven-year-old.As always,we see Venice through Brunetti‘s eyes,as well as his family & home life,including his family‘s meals & reading choices, described with exquisite attention to detail.The murder of the alcoholic man brings this 15 year old case ⬇️

Beautifully & concisely written-not a surprise,but rather an exciting expectation for those familiar with her newsletter,The Marginalian, & her books.This slim volume provides connections & parallels to science & poetry, combining reality with the sublime.Most of the poets included I was familiar with,although generally not with pieces the author chose.All the female scientists were new to me, mostly uncelebrated in their fields.#rabbithole

“…both hope and heartache…”
Apparently the mushroom that Sylvia Plath paid homage to in her poem “Mushrooms” is now in clinical trials to treat depression.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8498359-Mushrooms-by-Sylvia-Plath

#14books14weeks #week1

#poetrysndscience #MariaPopova #14books14weeks

#5JoysFriday

1) coffee and a book- always!
2) my porch is finally open !
3) Memorial Day parade as it goes by my house
4) at top of plant see a tiny bird- house wren has built a nest
5)Em & Poe #catsoflitsy

#coffeeandbooks #serieslove2025
Home today due to allergies- lucky me, I am a reader!

Next up for my #preorderboookclubchallenge #RiverBendBookShop #indie

…We came from the sea, we eat from the sea, we travel across the seas. We seek out salt water to soothe our bodies and worries. The sea is part of us…(188).
#preorderbookclubchallenge #Riverbendbookshop

#CommissarioGuidoBrunettiMystery
Flavia Petrelli,world renowned opera singer,has come to Venice to sing the lead in Tosca. Brunetti knows her from the past(Acqua Alta) & he & his wife Paola go to one of her performances.During thunderous applause,dozens & dozens of yellow rose flood the stage& fill up her dressing room. Flavia is frightened-who is behind this extravaganza? What does it mean? #serieove2025

Waiting for my son in PT so I treated myself to a Frappuccino. 🙂

This was a tough challenge for me:
1) The tagged book, The Briar‘s Club, North Woods, or The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt. Ultimately went with the tagged book because I had do much fun reading it- couldn‘t put it down.
2) Wild Dark Shore or Gabriele
Tagging @sarahbarnes @staci.reads @vlwelser

#JumpStartSummer
Read 5 books this Memorial Day Weekend:
~Playing with Fire
~Knots and Crosses
~North Woods
~A Bird in the Hand
~The Alaska Sanders Affair

#DetJohnRebus # 1
Rebus is haunted by his in discernible memories,tugging at his brain,crying to be released.What is the link between his life and the strings of knots & crosses that mysteriously arrive at his house? Gritty & shocking. Definitely up for # 2 in this series. #serieslove2025

#Weeklyforecast
#sundaybuddyread #preorderbookclubchallenge #mariapopova #poetry #ComnissarioGuidoBrunettiMystery

A gift from my son. Sonnet #1. 🩵🩵🩵