Some cool books I picked up at estate sales yesterday and today 📚

Sometimes, I walk into a room, and Noodle absolutely cracks me up ?

"Woke Up Like This" was a fun teen angst, time-travel story.

I much preferred the characters as they were in the future, but I think the high schoolers were typical of their age - annoying and poor communicators.

All in all, a pick ?

1) Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (I can't remember how to tag a book!)

2) I am always excited to see what #botm comes up with 😁

Thanks @The_Penniless_Author @TheSpineView
#Two4Tuesday

Now, who to tag...how about @quietjenn @Texreader

I was rooting hard for Maeve and her friends as they awaited their test results and planned their futures.

In the meantime, they take a job at the local factory to save money for their departure from their working class hometown.

The smarmy factory owner doesn't make things easy.

This is written in Irish dialect, but it was easy for me to follow. I only had to look up the pronunciation of one name 😁

I enjoyed listening to Joanna narrate this book.

The gist of it is that everyone's stories are important.

I have been inspired to start journaling and roller skating again 😊 🛼

Found some cool vintage classics while garage saling today 😁

I wish they were still 35 cents like they're marked

Well, I did my part for #stuffyourkindleday 😁

The author said she wants dog pictures, so I posed with Liesel for my Instagram book review ?

In "The Stranger Upstairs," the very unlikable main character buys a cheap house in an upscale neighborhood with intentions to flip it.

The house is cheap because a murder happened there.

The neighbors want it bulldozed.

And there's more to the main character than meets the eye.

Short book about a young woman whose mother may or may not be a witch 🧙🏻‍♀️

The mom claims to have a centuries long beef with the gym teacher and that she turned the father of her child into a garden gnome, so the chances of something witchy going on are strong 😄

Loved it!

The parallels to Little Women made my literary heart sing ♥️

The only thing I knew about Beth Moore before listening to this audiobook was that she wrote several Bible studies.

I'm not even sure I've ever done one of her studies 🤔

Hearing her difficult, messy, knotted up story was a pleasure and encouragement.

The third and final book in the One Thousand White Women series!

This wraps up May, Molly, and the other women's stories with satisfaction and a bit of mysticism.

Fergus wrote so convincingly that I actually thought the Brides-For-Indians program was a true historical event 😄

Oh, you guys...

This is stunningly beautiful.

It is a fairytale told in verse about grief, depression, Sorrow's garden, and HOPE.

In her notes, the author says, "Fairytales help us process great pain."

McBride did a fantastic job using a character named Whimsy to teach readers about clinical depression.

So good.

Hey, @LitsyLove pen pals...

If your post office has this particular sheet of stamps, get it! It comes with all those stickers around the edge.

Perfect for letters to your pals 😊

#litsylove

Squeaked one last book in for August.

Remember when American Apparel was all the rage in the early 2000s? Cool clothes. Sexy ads.

This is the story of a young woman who started working there as a retail associate and then moved up the ranks to a recruiting manager.

She begins to realize that things aren't as they should be but is too gullible and naive to make the necessary changes.

It got frustrating and boring after a while.

Not my cuppa.

This was assigned for Romance Book Club, and there wasn't any romance.

Vampire hunting is not my thing.

I read this, but I think I've learned that I don't have to read something just because it's assigned. Life's too short to read books that do nothing for you.

**The post-it notes are there so I have examples to support my (correct) opinion at the meeting

Estate sale book haul 📚

Another example of Iyashikei manga (peaceful lives in a calming environment).

Laid Back Camp is about a group of girls who love camping.

It was cute, but I didn't fall in love like I did with A Man and His Cat.

I am happy to be exploring manga 😊

This was okay.

It's about three best friends whose sons become best friends.

Tragedy strikes when the boys get ahold of a gun while they are under the influence.

This wasn't the page-turner that I hoped it would be, but the last page made me gasp with a twist I hadn't picked up on.

When I read an article about iyashikei manga (a genre that portrays characters living out peaceful lives in calming environments), I decided to finally give manga a try.

You guys.

This was beautiful.

An aging cat watches all the surrounding cats get adopted around him while his price keeps dropping and no one chooses him.

Until one day...

I teared up very early on and plan to continue this series.

Who would have thought??

This book with a beautiful cover contains a beautiful story about marriage, change, difficult pasts, unfulfilled dreams, and love.

How do you explain a book where a man mutates into a great white shark??

You just have to trust me.

I loved the format and the fact that, despite the number of pages, this was a quick read.

I took a chance choosing this for my #botm, but it was a chance worth taking.

PS - Photo was taken in my dad's backyard 😃

Look what I found at an estate sale 😍

Signed first edition of Dinosaur Tales by Ray Bradbury 😀

Finished the "If I Run" series ?

These Christian suspense books drew me in and kept me looking forward to chapter after chapter.

I'm glad my dad recommended this to me ❤️

#bookstoreromanceday 💞

I was happy to sneak out of a house full of company today and go to my happy place 😊

I bought 'One Christmas Wish,' got 'A Game of Brides' free, and threw in 'Factory Girls' for shits and grins 😄

Well, seeing as how I immediately downloaded the third and final book in this series after finishing this one, it's safe to say I'm invested! 😄

Christian suspense about a young woman accused of a murder she didn't commit.

My only complaint about the audiobook is that, when the narrator did the male voices, it sounds like me when I mock my husband 😂

Erika's son, Liam, is different.

Like, scary different.

When a teenage girl who Liam had expressed interest in goes missing, Erika can't help but wonder...

This one is a page-turner!

I didn't figure out the twist but, hey, I'm new to the genre 😄

If you write about your past - traumas and all - this book would be a great inspiration.

Writing can be a great catharsis.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.

Honey Lovett finds herself on her own at 16 when her parents are jailed for miscegenation (you may remember from the first book that her mom is a "blue").

Not only does she have that issue to deal with, she also finds herself in the sights of a horrible man who is convinced the book she lent his wife is causing a rift in their marriage.

An interesting time in our history.

It has been years since I read a book of poetry.

Why I stepped away, I don't know.

But this collection was the perfect book to bring me back to the beauty of poems.

For the record...

My dad recommended this one, and I was a bit leary because I often find Christian fiction to be corny.

Even as a believer, I can get to rolling my eyes.

But I ended up liking this suspenseful story about a young woman wrongfully accused of murder and the guy who is hired to track her down.

I didn't realize it was part of a series, but I liked it well enough that I'll probably continue, and that's saying a lot!

Went back to Powell's for round 2 yesterday 😄

Here's the haul for the weekend 😊

You guys!!

Powell's.

Can you see the excitement bubbling out of the top of my head? 😂

Now I know the stories of both of the proprietess' of The Grand Palace on the Thames 🥰

I've now read the first 3 books in the series, and I do think I will continue to collect and read these books when I need something funny and delightful in between my other reads.

Julie Anne Long is the only romance writer who has made me purchase multiple books in a series.

So happy to have discovered her through book club 🙂

I love Julie Anne Long and her sense of humor 😄

Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 😀

1) Staying inside either at home or at work. I work at Hallmark, so it's Christmas in July 😄

2) I am going to go back to childhood and say Judy Blume and Roald Dahl ❤️

@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday

How about you? @BookwormAHN @Bookwormjillk @iread2much

Recently read 2 books from my tbr so, naturally, I'm replacing those 2 with 4 more 🤪

This was okay.

It's about a woman who becomes a cop to avenge the murder of her father.

In a parallel storyline, she goes under cover at a women's shelter.

In a few days, I'm sure I won't remember much about this book.

It was a Dollar Tree find, so I'm not too upset about it 😄

A sweet, wholesome book about a woman who, along with her husband, has fostered 55 children.

Five of those kids were teenage girls who needed long term placement.

The story is told in letters throughout the years written by Jewel to the young women.

This is the first in a series. Each girl will have her own book. This was a good overview of what to expect with the rest of the series.

It takes place in Southern Oregon - my neck of the woods!

I loved this 🥰

Helen Ellis is one of those authors I imagine I could be friends with.

If you can listen to the audiobook, I highly recommend you do so. Ellis' voice is delightful, and it's just over 3 1/2 hours. I love short audiobooks.

Bertie had to grow up fast when her mama died. She became a mother figure to her 4 younger siblings and couldn't rely on her alcoholic father for any help.

She realizes that if she marries a man who is willing to take on her sisters as part of the deal, life might get a little easier.

Bertie doesn't end up with a fairy tale ending, but she ends up okay.

You guys.

I loved this story about a portrait artist who suffers a traumatic brain injury and loses her ability to see faces.

Imagine how this affects her career as well as her daily interactions.

Katherine Center did a great job describing what face blindness must be like.

I loved the love story and also the family dynamics.

I teared up a couple of times when Sadie recalls her mother who was also a portrait artist.

So good 💕

If you are into domestic, psychological thrillers (which I didn't realize I was 😂), this book is for you!

Grace is bamboozled into marrying a man who gets off on the fear of others.

When he sets his sights on her sister, who has Down Syndrome, Grace realizes she needs to figure out her escape and fast!

I loved this!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I love a book that makes me turn to Google at the end ?

We all know Wilbur and Orville, but I knew nothing about their sister Katharine.

In "The Wright Sister," the author imagines what it would have been like to walk in Katharine's shoes.

The book is written as a "marriage diary" (she married for the first time at 52), and letters to Orv who stopped speaking to her when she announced her wedding.

An important book about depression.

With alternating chapters, mother and son discuss how depression affects their family.

Josh was so ill that, at one point, he came very close to taking his own life.

This is scary and sometimes difficult to read, but so enlightening in explaining depression and the fact that it is an illness that never really goes away.

I'm glad I read it.

What I liked: The PNW setting, Hannah's love of music, her discovery of the sea shanties her dad wrote.

What I didn't like: Fox, the exhausting will they or won't they, Fox, and did I mention Fox??

Read this for book club and am glad to be moving on to the next thing.

June wrap up 📚