It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Mar 23

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Welcome back to Monday! We are closing in on the end of March. Spring has officially started, which of course means it is cold and we are expecting a bit of snow tonight. LOL! Spring in New England is such a silly thing. 

Hope you enjoyed your week. I had more going on than planned, but all of it was good stuff. Here are a few photos from my week:

I made vegan Irish soda bread

Lobster Risotto from JRego's in Ellington

Boots is almost 16

Ran into a lender friend at our local real estate conference

In my reading world, I posted my review of 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life by Dick Van Dyke. Check it out here.

I also posted my review of Women's Freedom: The Dawn of Possibilities by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein. You can read that review here.

I am almost finished with Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor. It started off slow for me, but I am loving it now. 

My review of Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV by Jack Balderrama Morley should be posted this week. 

I continued Agatha Christie, She Watched by Teresa Peschel. Look for my review in April. 

I need to continue Murder, Local Style by Leslie Karst for an April review. 

Next, I will be reading the following:

Scrap: Salvaging a Family by Luann Castle

The Ledger by Steven Manchester, which is a companion to his novel, The Menu

Staged by Caitlin Rother, which is the sequel to Hooked

After that, I would love to get back to these two:

Old Flames, New Beginnings by Lea Schizas

Officer Erik and the Very Special Dad  by Erik Estrada and Steven Manchester

Photo credit: Freepik

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

Since I have clearly proven I have no self-control where books are concerned, I've given up on pretending I am not going to request new books to review, and I am still going to buy them. :) 

How to Teach Adults by Dan Spalding is part of my real estate instructor's course. It arrived on Monday, and I have already started it.

A White Lie Christmas by Suzy Langevin was free thanks to a digital credit from Amazon. 

Upcoming Events

Agatha Christie, She Watched by Teresa Peschel - Apr 15 (Review)

Murder, Local Style by Leslie Karst - Apr 20 (Review)

Scrap: Salvaging a Family by Luanne Castle - May 21 (Review)

The Ledger by Steven Manchester - May (Review)

Staged by Cailtin Rother - June (Review)

Christmas Year Round

The Christmas Year Round blog has a new "Journey through Christmases Past" post. We travel back to Christmas 1986. You can read it here. As promised, this week's post is lighthearted and joyful.

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Nothing new. 

Laura's Little Houses

Nothing new.

I am still catching up from last week, but I will pop in and see you all later today. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? & Mailbox Monday - Mar 9

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Here we are again on Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. As I am typing, it's late Sunday, and my eyes are blurry from reading and notetaking all afternoon, but it was a productive week. Here are a few photos:

Made vegetable broth 

The Lil' Princess was home for a quick trip

We visited the new Hobby Lobby, and I picked up a cross-stitch kit

It was nice to have the Lil' Princess home for a few days. She flew in late Thursday and headed back to school Sunday afternoon. I worked Friday morning, but I kept the rest of the weekend for her, and we went shopping for a graduation dress. We each bought an embroidery kit and worked on them Saturday night. 

In my blogging and reading world, I posted reviews of:

The Curious Life of Cecilia Payne: Discovering the Stuff of Stars by Laura Alary. You can read it here.

The Lost Hummingbird by Janice Blanchett. The review can be found here.

I also posted a First Chapter Review of ZigZag Girl by Ruth Knafo Setton. You can read that review and enter the giveaway here.

I listened to this one in the car this week. I have less than two hours to go with my listening of 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life by Dick Van Dyke.

I didn't read Hazel Gaynor's Before Dorothy last week since I am still reading Van Dyke's book. 

I finished Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV by Jack Balderrama Morley. Great book. Most of it was interesting, but it had a weak ending. 

Next up is Agatha Christie, She Watched by Teresa Peschel, for an April review. I am so excited to dive into this one. 

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

I did not order anything new this week, but I downloaded a NetGalley copy of Murder, Local Style by Leslie Karst for my April review. 

Upcoming Events

Women's Freedom: The Dawn of Possibilities by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein - Mar (Review)

Agatha Christie, She Watched by Teresa Peschel - Apr 15 (Review)

Murder, Local Style by Leslie Karst - Apr 20 (Review)

Scrap: Salvaging a Family by Luanne Castle - May 21 (Review)

Christmas Year Round

Christmas Year Round's blog has not gotten a new post yet, because I was busy reading. It should be posted today. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

My reviews of the two books I read were posted above. 

Laura's Little Houses

I finally finished my profile of Albert Quinn Ingalls. You can read it here. 

Netflix announced it ordered a second season of Little House on the Prairie ahead of the series' July 9 premiere. I shared that here. Are you planning to watch it? 

That's it for me this week. I have appointments this morning, so it might be the afternoon before I visit your blog. Enjoy your day!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? & Mailbox Monday - Mar 2

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Welcome to March, everyone! Can you believe it? There are only 18 days until the official start of spring in our hemisphere. We are expecting rainy, but warmer temperatures this coming week. Maybe we will even get to see the grass one day soon. I'm sure the Lil' Princess will be disappointed with the warmer weather once she arrives on Friday for a quick visit. She prefers the snow.

Hope you enjoyed the past seven days. Last week, I appreciated a slightly slower pace than the beginning of the year, and even got to enjoy almost two days off. I attended a paint and sip event with one of my real estate friends, read, made great food, began the process of organizing thirteen pages of story ideas, and even submitted a manuscript to a literary agent. The exciting news is that our brokerage was named the Chicopee Chamber Business of the Year! We attended the awards gala on Friday. Then on Saturday, the husband and I attended the closing ceremonies of a local charity danceathon, which donated money to three local non-profits, including Rick's Place in Wilbraham. 

Here are a few photos from the week:

Travis is looking at who knows what

Paddy and I at the awards gala

Western Mass Charity Danceathon

Theo is adorable when he's playing coy

Thanks to the lighter load this past week, I was able to get reviews written. 

My review of Creepy Kid by Caleb Roehrig was posted. You can read it here. Such a great book!

My review of Chapters and Second Chances by Evelyn Grace Berry was posted on Saturday. You can read it here if you missed it. Love this one, too!

I also posted my review of I Heard the Bells on Saturday. You can read that review here. The authors did an amazing job of combining their various genres into one heartwarming collection. 

I listened to this one in the car this week. I have about two hours to go with my listening of 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life by Dick Van Dyke.

I didn't read Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor last week. I will likely start it up again once I am done with Van Dyke's book. 

I continued with Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV by Jack Balderrama Morley. 

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

As you will see below, I am not honoring my promise not to buy new books. I have to ask, does it still count if they don't cost me money? LOL!

I grabbed Love and Christmas Cookies by A. M. Heath as a freebie for my Kindle.

Then I used an Audible credit to snag Taming Lady Temperance by Karen Witemeyer, the first in her Secret Society of Spinsters series. 

Upcoming Events

Agatha Christie, She Watched by Teresa Peschel - Apr 15 (Review)

Murder, Local Style by Leslie Karst - Apr 20 (Review)

Christmas Year Round

Christmas Year Round's latest "Journey through Christmases Past" takes a trip into the food and confections from my childhood holidays. You can read that here.

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Only my review of Creepy Kid for this week, but I should be posting another review soon, and I hope to post here more regularly. 

Laura's Little Houses

Nothing new at Laura's Little Houses, but if I can complete my Albert Quinn Ingalls profile this week, that will be something to read. 

That's it for me today. I'm looking forward to visiting you and seeing what has been going on in your lives since we last connected. Wishing you a fabulous day!