Absolutely delightful! I learned some fascinating facts about Frances Hodgson Burnett. The book also has lots of lovely pictures: photos of Burnett‘s life & her gardens, various illustrations from different editions of “The Secret Garden” and even some drawings/paintings of flowers. Will be appealing to anyone who loves flowers, gardens, and of course, “The Secret Garden!” Will have to read more by this author…

#nonfictionnovember

Wrapped this one up last night. As expected it wasn‘t as good as the first one, but that‘s pretty normal. I got bogged down in the middle, but after taking a break, managed to persevere through to the end. It‘s pretty realistic though, because the heroine spends a lot of time wishing things were more simple like they used to be. Welcome to adulthood girly! I‘ll probably start the third one soon. ⭐️⭐️

Argh! It happened again…Some new books came in at work today and this one looked so delightful and interesting I had to take it home. 😊😂

A native of Idaho, Olmstead brings a fresh and informed perspective on many of the current challenges surrounding farming and rural life. I found myself relating to her throughout most of the book and appreciated her passion for concepts such as the nature of place, belonging, and rootedness. This was a quick read and deeply personal.

Recommended if you are interested in rural America, farming and community. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

#nonfictionnovember

Didn‘t realize the similarities until I sat down. 😳 😄 I‘ m on page 85 and the real detective finally showed up…

Enjoying my “Italian” reading night with my current nonfiction read! Review is pending…
#nonfictonnovember

Decided to try this one after my sister recommended it. So glad I did! A fun trip through a world of fantasy, hot deserts and magical legends. The world building was a little complex, but I enjoyed it and the character development was solid. I‘ll definitely be checking out the next one from my library. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

1. The Chronicles of Narnia 😀 (they were read to me as bedtime stories while I was a kid. Never could quite recreate that childhood magic…

2. Usually prefer to read indoors during colder days, or anywhere where there‘s sunshine. ☀️

3. Conversation. Just had a friend over for dinner and we ended up talking for hours…What about? Books of course! (Among other things) 😉

#WonderousWednesday
@Eggs

Spent a cozy evening at home tonight reading about Tiffany Aching‘s adventures. What a treat to light my new beeswax candle for the first time this season. It‘s been getting darker here and I‘m glad I splurged and got some new candles. ☺️

I don‘t read historical fiction very often but this was quite enjoyable. Set mostly in Paris after WWI, Isabelle is a lovely country girl who brings her seamstress skills to work for Coco Chanel. A fascinating trip into that time period! This book introduces you to the world of French fashion, and provides a dash of mystery and romance.

This is simply the best children‘s book about the Mars Land Rover project! The illustrations are fantastic and the complex details of the Rover‘s design are tastefully explained without glossing over the details. Sure to be a hit with any child or adult interested in science, engineering, robotics and space exploration! 👍👍

“Peter was wondering why in tunket he‘d thought a fireside chat with this old ghoul would be preferable sitting alone in a cold, lonesome upstairs bedroom.” —Why don‘t authors write like this anymore!? 😂
Definition of tunket: HELL —used interjectionally to express curiosity, puzzlement, or exasperation.

Learned a new word tonight! 😀. “This had been too halcyon a day to clutter up the memory of it with some backwoods bully‘s melodramatic bellowings.” Here‘s the definition according to Merriam-Webster: halcyon—characterized by happiness, great success, and prosperity : GOLDEN —often used to describe an idyllic time in the past that is remembered as better than today.

Just wrapped this up last night while reading in bed. Fun adventure story about a boy and his twin sister who join a family on their vacation to Yellowstone Nat. Park. As someone who has been there, I can honestly say Lewis does a great job describing the trip! Their crazy adventures include dealing with spoiled kids, eating tons of junk food, and encountering mysterious kidnappers! Enjoyable if you like kids books 👻

I enjoyed this one fairly well! (The first person narrative gave the impression that the main character was a little self-absorbed, but maybe that was just my reaction). Overall, a clever mystery in an excellent setting. Its obviously appealing to librarians and book nerds, but if you love mysteries, libraries and book references this is the book for you! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My hastily assembled bouquet which will be the last one of my summer flowers. Had to try and save some before it snows tomorrow (sigh) 😔. This book is a little overly complicated regarding artistic tools, but it does give lots of ideas on how to broaden your ideas and try new things. From rubber stamps, to sketching, or making intentional coffee stains, lots of inspiration for the taking!

This is a sweet well-written children‘s book. I enjoyed it so much I finished it in one day! Written in a style which echoes that of C. S. Lewis, this book is about three siblings who stick together throughout the trials and hardships of WWII. Thanks to the help of a kind librarian and some well-loved children‘s literature, these children finally find a home such as they‘ve never known. Highly recommended!

Started the next Tiffany Aching book this past weekend…while canoeing! 😀#readingoutdoors

“I would come to understand there is no poem separable from its source. I began to see that poems are not just an individual fluorescence. They are also a vast root system growing down into ideas and understandings. Almost unbidden, they tap into history and evolution of art and language.” —Eavan Boland

Took my book to the mountains today! Must confess I spent more time gazing around and walking then I did reading. 😉

Finally got this from my library and read it!!It‘s been on my list for almost a year 😏 I just loved it! It‘s like a children‘s book for adults, (which we can always use). The illustrations and wise, kind sayings are so lovely it made me wish I had each page as a poster for my wall, to remind me of the important things in life. Highly recommended!

“This single volume—its history so full of questions and gaps—stands alone on my shelf as a reminder of the social lives and secret lives of books. Not simply inanimate objects, books are highly mobile, taking up residence in our homes and memories.” —For me, this is the most beautiful and powerful passage in the whole book!

“I, personally, would feel somewhat like a goop walking into Brentano‘s, picking up one copy of everything in sight, and saying, ‘I want to buy these.‘ But this is what the Library of Congress wants you to do.” —Frederick Kilgour. Wow! I‘ve never seen the word ‘goop‘ used in this context before! 😂

My first foray into Peter Lovesey‘s work. This was a nice slow burner who-done-it. The detective is atypical for today (overweight and old-fashioned) 😏 Note: the book cover is very misleading (the body was found in a lake not the Roman baths 🤨). The narrative switches between three different characters and I was even a bit surprised by the end.

“‘The fact is that by profession I‘m a psychoanalyst—quite a successful one, I suppose; successful certainly as far as money goes. The amount of money,‘ he said confidentially, ‘which some people will pay for information which they could get from three hours‘ intelligent reading in any public library…‘” As a librarian myself I can‘t help but chuckle at how true this is, especially when it comes to information. 😄

Starts out at the usual quick Rozan pace and provides some more character development for PI Bill Smith. However I found the plot for this one too predictable. Maybe I‘ve just read and watched too many mysteries 😏

“Sometimes, Flick thought she couldn‘t wait to be a grown-up if it meant getting away from other people telling her what to do all the time. But then all adults seemed to do was complain and cook and wipe things (surfaces, babies‘ bottoms), so that didn‘t exactly appeal either.” I‘m sure some adults can relate 😀

This is such an inspiring book! More importantly it is also full of accessible ideas and powerful encouragement. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in homes, decor and individual style! Now I‘m thinking this book will make a great gift for some of my friends.

A little Sci-Fi and a cold brew! My current strategy to cope with the heat.

Wow! This one is the best SF book I‘ve read in several years! Starts off a little slow, but then you can‘t put it down. Stayed up way too late finishing it last night so I will probably need extra coffee to get through the work day. 😏 If you‘re a fan of SF I highly recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This isn‘t really a book I‘d read, (don‘t really feel like reading any pandemic stuff) but this review on the back really cracked me up! 😂

Just finished re-reading this book I last read as a teenager. 😀 It‘s slightly less dramatic then I remember, but still pretty fascinating for it‘s time. Set in the year of 1924, a small town in Kansas deals with the effects of a Ku Klux Klan. Definitely worth the revisit.

“The role of leaders is not to be better role models or to drive change; their role is to create the structures and experiences that bring citizens together to identify and solve their own issues” - Peter Block.

Getting some of my serious reading done over lunch. It‘s 36 degrees today so I‘m staying inside.

Just finished the new sequel to City Spies, Golden Gate! It‘s as good as the first one was (with the added bonus of some much needed grammatical improvements 😉) Fun plot, faithful characters and plenty of new adventures for these lovable spy kids. I enjoyed it throughly, highly recommended!

“The founding fathers‘ passion for nature and plants can still be seen today for it shaped America in all its contradictions—from the rise of the industrial agriculture in the Midwest to the protected wilderness in the national parks. America‘s most revered patriotic songs revel in images drawn from nature.”

“... Forgive me, I am one of those garrulous old men who once the handle is turned run on until checked, and being a writer I have developed a fatal facility.”

Apparently being a commuter used to indicate that you were gentrified! “Colby, I must explain, although he lives in Bellfield, isn‘t a native; he bought a place on the outskirts, and he‘s a country gentleman—when he isn‘t dealing in real estate. He commutes.” — Henry Gamadge

Such a lovely and poetic account of a family‘s determination in the face of tragedy and the Great Depression. Natural illustrations explore different perspectives with charming skill. The author shares her family‘s heritage and encourages others to do the same.

A quick, pleasant and fanciful read if you like Austen tributes. The magic was underdeveloped, but the characters provided plenty of clean drama and romance to make up for it. Definitely not my usual pick, but I enjoyed escaping from the real world for awhile.

Hope the seasoning on my pizza doesn‘t vanish! 😉 😂

I enjoyed this new kids book! It has a nice pace, fun characters and I finished it in 2 days! The author gets a little confusing with his pronoun usage, but otherwise I would recommend it as a good read.

“In my experience, it‘s the people closest to you whom you have to be most tactful with.” —Peter Shandy

An exciting mystery from S. J. Rozan. This one starts out at a rapid pace and never lets up! Rozan takes her PI's, Bill Smith and Lydia Chin, on a backwoods adventure where not everything is as simple as it appears. Highly recommended!

Got some outdoor reading in today! If you like letters, advice and reading about women during WWII I highly recommend this book.

Enjoyable old fashioned mystery which keeps you guessing till the end. Henry Gamadge has been dubbed the “American Peter Whimsey” for good reason. Recommended for Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers fans

Just finished reading this fun fantasy! I learned about it from my fellow Littens so thank you. 😄 Must admit that I, like others, was intrigued by the cover and the plot line. Thought it was pretty well developed on the whole, but in my opinion the climax/main villain could have been fleshed out a bit more.

Finally got to read this neat book! It has been on my to read list for several years. As mentioned in previous posts, this book is written by a detective group who each take turns writing a chapter and trying to connect the dots. The appendix includes each author's proposed solution to the mystery and it is fun to see how many different ways there are go about it. A bit slow, in a solid English mystery way, but definitely worth it for me!

A bit of slow starter but once it picks up speed its hard to put down. Another winner by S.J. Rozan. Her books always make me want to eat Chinese 😏

Just finished reading The End of Average. I absolutely love his commitment to individuality! He writes, “The ideal that we call the American dream is one we all share ⎯ the dream of becoming the best we can be, on our own terms, of living a life of excellence, as we define it . . . We can break free of the tyranny of averagarianism by choosing to value individuality over conformity to the system.“

Just finished reading this book a few weeks ago. Loved Johnson's story and the details she provided! Very inspiring for all women! Style of the book layout was frustrating for me. Why do editors think it is a good idea to jump back and forth in the timeline so much!?