It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

Not much going on here. Unseasonably warm for Autumn ending though. I don’t know where the days go to though, they pass so quickly. I am endeavouring to get out walking each day, in the spirit of do something for thirty days in a row and the habit might stick! I went to the city on Friday and then when I got home was too lazy to walk, so beginning the thirty all over again!

What I read last week:

Tell Me Three Things I absolutely loved, The Lemon Sisters is for a coming review, The Mother-in-law was very good on audio and To Night Owl from Dogfish was a really delightful middle grade fiction book that I fell in love with.

What I am reading now:

I am enjoying this slightly Pride and Prejudice twist, set in modern day Canada and about a Muslim couple. This has a different cover to the USA one, which comes out in June. Ayesha has a fondness for a purple hijab and purple notebook (she likes to write poetry)  so of course she was immediately accepted by this reader.

I am listening to

Up next:

A Family of Strangers is Emilie Richards book to be published in June, so happily will get into this one in the coming week.

I’ll most likely read something else as well but it will be a mood pick. 

Last Week’s Posts

Have You Seen Luis Velez    Catherine Ryan Hyde

Are You a Podcast Fan? and surprisingly not many are, I discovered in the comments.

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Are You a Podcast Fan?

Do you listen to podcasts? Bookish podcasts? Other podcasts? And when and where do you listen?

Myself I enjoy podcasts. Its like I can curate radio and just listen to what I want to listen to. I have three main podcast “genres” that I listen in on on my iPad.

• Bookish podcasts
• Quilting podcasts
• Uplifting/inspiring podcasts

Night time is my time to listen. I sort out one or two (depending on length) and set them going when I go to bed. It quietens my mind! Yes really. It stops my mind going on about stupid unnecessary worrying things. I have to concentrate on what they are saying. And then I drop off to sleep. Sometimes before the podcast finishes. But that’s not a problem, I just go back to it and pick up more or less where I feel asleep, the next night. Like last night I fell asleep and slept through about three podcasts that I went back to rescue this morning!

Bookish Podcasts I like

What Should  I Read Next is the first book podcast that I listened to and my favourite.  Even if I don’t often feel attracted to the books that the interviewee is chatting about, I love the book talk and Anne Bogel is an excellent podcaster and interviewer. Such enthusiasm. This one is my favourite.

One Great Book is a new podcast started by Anne where she spends 5 minutes or so chatting about one book. Again her enthusiasm wins me over, even though I already have a lot of great books I want to read!

Smart Bitches Trashy Books is a romance book podcast hosted by Sarah. Another good interviewer. I generally listen to this podcast although I do occasionally just skip some as well. Again though awesome book enthusiasm.

Currently Reading is hosted by Meredith and Kaytee. I haven’t been listening to this long but they chat about books they are currently reading, sometimes have guests and I like listening in.

Sarah’s Book Shelves Live is one that started earlier this year and I am enjoying her interviews and book chats even though I have little in common with the books.

Quilting Podcasts

 Pat Sloan is such a bundle of energy and interviews very interesting people.

Just Wanna Quilt is hosted by Dr. Elizabeth Townsend Gard and is utterly fascinating, and does have an invested interested in copyright. Comes from Tulane University.

Hello My Quilting Friends  Leah Day

Inspiring/Uplifting Podcasts.

Happier by Gretchen Rubin is always a very fascinating listen and I love her sister Elizabeth who is also hosts the podcast with her.

Happier in Hollywood is hosted by Liz ( Gretchen’s sister) and Sarah. Two writers in Hollywood and they are both informative, entertaining and very authentic.

Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations I always find interesting and uplifting or thought provoking.

Phil in the Blanks has started recently and the interviews and discussions have again been thought provoking and often fun.

Onbeing with Krista Tippet I sometimes listen in on.  Oriented somewhat to poetry which doesn’t really interest me but its not only that so I check every week.

Others:

Some of these I also listen to at times

Do the Thing With Whole 30’s Melissa Urban

From the Front Porch

Hip to be Square Quilting Podcast

The Book Podcast – Australian

The West Wing Weekly  as I sporadically re-watch the West Wing I listen to the matching podcast.

You?

What are your favourite podcasts? That’s if you listen to them. If not – why not?

Is there some bookish podcast – or other – you think I am missing that I could try?

Have You Seen Luis Velez? Catherine Ryan Hyde

Published: Lake Union Publishing
Date: 21st May 2019
Source: Little Bird Publicity via NetGalley

If you need an uplifting book, that invites you to reflect on life and your role in it, then pick this one up.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Raymond who feels as a seventeen year old like a bit of a misfit in his family. His step Dad doesn’t really accept him, his mother listens then forgets and his Dad  has a new wife that doesn’t really like Raymond’s Dad paying any attention to him.

How Raymond turned out like he has is beyond me because he has the kindest of hearts. And one day he is rewarded because an older woman of ninety or so “sees” him. She is blind but when she calls out a question, Raymond stops  to check on what that’s all about. How many people would stop and check? Too few most likely.

And so begins an unusual relationship between Raymond and Mrs G. At first I thought everyone needs a Raymond in their world. But then… a Luis Velez is good too and really Mrs G. is just so full of wisdom. So they all enriched me and each other.

This is really a very heart warming book, it speaks to what is wrong in our world today in so many ways. Life can be hard and challenging, people experience prejudice, hate, loneliness, helplessness, injustice and racial non acceptance. What is the answer? Well Raymond and Luis are answers. And they invite you and me to be answers.

 

It’s Monday! What are You Reading this mid-May?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

Here’s my reading week. Hope yours was full of good reading.

I spent some of my time looking to organise new curtains for the house. Turns out I found that more difficult than I thought. Still haven’t made the final decision or received the quote yet! I finished two of the quilts I was making for the Christchurch shooting victims and posted them off to the coordinator. And I did some reading!

I looked through Modern Mrs Darcy’s Summer Reading Guide and picked out fifteen of the thirty books I’d like to read. We shall see! The Mother-in-Law is the first of them. The PDF of the guide is absolutely gorgeous.

What I read last week:

I was disappointed with this novel, I didn’t really connect to the main characters. It was a mishmash of a little magic and time travel and weirdness. It is the first in a trilogy and I won’t be reading the next ones published.  I did see it through to the end as I was reading it as a challenge book and ouch $30 down the drain, but… someone will like it when I put it into this year’s fund raising Book Fair.

I then read the following one to clear my reading palate. When I was a teen Lucilla Andrews novels were sometimes serialised in the English Women’s Weekly or I read a few from the library later on. I bought this one from AbeBooks, but now I see they are republishing her books on Kindle and I’ll get them there from now on.

Lucilla Andrews was a nurse in London during WW2 and afterwards began to write romance novels although they read a little more like women’s fiction. This one Frontline 1940 is about the blitz in London and a nursing hospital. It has details in it that come from firsthand experience and its partly what makes me want to read everything she has written.

I finished listening to Southern Side of Paradise. I enjoyed it although found it a little repetitive.

Still good to finish the trilogy.

This one is a review book, at first I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but it ended up being a very interesting read. Review will follow.

What I am reading now:

Just started listening to…

And reading

Up next:

 

 

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

What I read last week:

Enjoyed them all.  The Book Club was written almost 20 years ago but I had to read it with a title like that and written by Mary Alice Monroe.

What I am reading now:

I am reading this one because a reading challenge I am doing needed an animal in the title. I had already bought this so it fitted. I loved her books Girl in Times Square and The Bronze Horseman so I decided I’d try out this, first in a series. I see Paullina grew up in Russia and now lives in the USA.

Listening to…

Up next:

Review book and new to me author.

Last Week’s Posts

Sunset Beach   Mary Kay Andrews

The Little Teashop on Main   Jodi Thomas

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Sunset Beach Mary Kay Andrews

Published: St Martin’s Press
Date: May 7th 2019
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

 

Drue Campbell is struggling. She has a serious knee injury due to a surf board kite accident. And she is about to lose her job. What is a girl to do – only crawl back to her home town and take a job – reluctantly from her father and his latest wife – Wendy. Who also happens to be an ex friend of Drue.

She finds herself living in a rundown cottage that belonged to her grandparents and now belongs to her. But… it has a hole in the roof and other problems and she doesn’t have the money to fix up anything… at the moment.

Her work at her father’s lawyer firm is boring and her “stepmother” seems to have the most “going nowhere” jobs for her. But… don’t think Drue is going to be sidelined by that. She finds in her attic some interesting information that sets her “detective nose” into action. And then there is another situation that smells bad to her too. Not to be deterred – she wades in.

Drue is a delightful character, a little foolhardy, but she sure has her heart in the right place. She isn’t sure who she can trust, and she certainly has her doubts about her Dad.

There are a couple of mysteries to be solved, some suspects are fairly obvious and a couple provide surprises. Drue after a little misstep at the beginning finds someone she is going to eventually care for, so there is a little bit of romance in the air as well. And could she be a modern “Robin Hood”. For certain I don’t think she’ll ever be boring.

I loved the setting, the old cottage, and the beach and sunset. I liked seeing Drue find her way and a family of sorts coming together. It was an engaging read – one I took up happily each time I opened the book.

The Little Teashop on Main by Jodi Thomas

Publisher: Harlequin
Date: 7th May 2019
Source: Little Bird Publicity via NetGalley

 

Set in Laurel Springs, The Teashop on Main, is a beautifully crafted story of friendship and love. Jodi Thomas brings this little town in Texas alive, with her dusty creek beds and shadowy figures that are very much a signature of her stories.

Three young girls bond over a tea party –  a bond that is going to take them right through life. There is Zoe – daughter of Alex, a single mom. Zoe is a free and beautiful spirit, who cares about others and their happiness, and searches for her own sense of “home”.

Shannon has been raised by her Dad – Mack, her mother having walked out on them. He is often away working but there is no doubt of his love for Shannon and the other two girls.

Lastly Emily, somewhat lost and unhappy, with a mother who has smothered her. But… she has Zoe and Shannon who support and worry over her. And then their is Fuller who has a special reason to keep an eye on her. And lastly Jack, who loves all three girls and would do anything for all of them. But… he has a strong attraction and eventually a special love for one of them.

The story ranges over a good time period, so that we see the young people grow up, seek to find themselves and their place in the world, but always is the ongoing friendship that is so strong, that it is forever friendship. And their is that ritual of joining for tea that so important to them.

I loved this story and while tears slid down my cheeks as I finished, I closed the book, with some heartache and a whole lot of admiration for the friends and their various relationships.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Into May

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

Hope you all had a good week. Mine was. I did a variety of things like visit with family, visit with friends, went to craft night with friends, went to a Quilt show – read and may have done some basic housework!

What I read last week:

I finished listening to this audiobook – it was a reread, I loved it the first time and loved it in the audiobook version as well. So good

I also read

What I am reading now:

I am listening to this second one in this series. Listened to the first one awhile ago but should be okay.

I am reading a review book.

Up next:

One from my recently bought shelf.

 

Last Week’s Posts

The View from Alameda Island   Robyn Carr

April Reading in Review

 

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Reading in April

Total books read this month:  10

New to me authors:

Thea Harrison
Eva Jordan
Liz Byrski

Breaking it Down

Audiobooks   1
Review   4
From the TBR shelves  5

8 of them are contemporary fiction. 1 is historical fiction and 1 is fantasy/paranormal.

Reading Challenge Update:

We are at the one third mark in the year. I am keeping up with the audiobook and Modern Mrs Darcy challenge, but the library challenge is behind and I didn’t even read one library book this month.  Just keeping abreast of the audiobook challenge.

Top Book for April

This one was about older women, a book club where there was real discussion about real books. It was thought provoking and I grew to love the characters.

Looking forward to reading in May

Main Reading Goal for May

Last month I wanted to pick a big book to read. Well I did the minimum and have earmarked Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. For May each week I want to read some of it.

Incoming Books from April

Purchased

Library Books

From NetGalley or Edelweiss or Author

Audio Books Purchased

Linking with Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction

The View from Alameda. Robyn Carr

Published: Harlequin – MIRA
Date:  30th April 2018
Source: Little Bird Publicity via NetGalley

The View from Alameda Island by Robyn Carr – another of her books that held my interest all the way through.

Lauren is married to a surgeon – Brad, but… he is manipulative, controlling and abusive. She stays in the marriage because of her two daughters, Lauren wants the best for them – in a money sense, however most likely it isn’t good for them really. Lauren is a competent person but she is told by Brad that she is useless. Finally after many attempts Lauren makes plans and leaves him. What a relief!

She meets another man, Beau one day at a garden and they strike up a conversation. Soon they are developing a friendship and spending more time together. However he too is going through a divorce and life is not exactly straight going for him. What I really liked about him was his care for his two step sons – 18 and 21. While his ex wife was the mother, it was Beau who had always stepped up for them.

So a divorce should be straight forward – right? Well not in both Beau’s and Lauren’s cases. They have cray, cray, crazy ex partners who go to extraordinary lengths to put a spanner in the works to prevent the divorces going through. I kept thinking – what next? No! Really!

This is a very good story of a woman finding her way, choosing happiness and a full life. It is about friendship, family and people standing with you and supporting you.  It is about being there for others – being able to admit mistakes and readjust living to a better, more wholesome path.

I really liked Lauren and Beau as characters and was so sorry to have to close the book.