It's Monday! What Are You Reading? & Mailbox Monday - June 22

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. 

Happy Monday! Hope you had a nice week. Ours was busy. In addition to work, we drove to Maine to get the rest of the Lil' Princess' things set up for when she arrives there in July. We did that all in one day, so at least we know that it's a manageable one-day trip. Thankfully, we will get about a week with her in North Carolina before she flies to Maine to start her new job.

Speaking of jobs, real estate broke me last week. Too long to get into, but I am in the process of regrouping and wondering if I really can do this until I retire. Time will tell. 

Hope all the dads and dad figures enjoyed their Father's Day. My heart goes out to anyone who is missing their dad. We went out with the Lil' Diva and her husband for a few hours. Then we hung out at home. The Christmas lights finally came off the front of the house. I am sure my neighbors will be thrilled. Lil' Diva has had our ladder since last year. We finally got it back so we could reach the lights. 

Here are a couple of photos from last week:

Rick's Place had the grand opening of our new space

Theo on the road to Maine

In my reading world, I now have three reviews to write. I finished Digital Detox for Remote Workers: Reclaim Your Focus, Productivity, and Work-Life Balance in the Digital Age by Dr. Guenter H. Schamel.

Then I started listening to Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. This book is probably the only reason I didn't go homicidal last week. 

I picked up The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller again, but I really need to stick to my review schedule, which is a total mess right now. 

I need to finish The Ledger by Steven Manchester, a companion to his novel The Menu. 

I didn't pick up The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles, but it is in my backpack for vacation.

I started Love on the Shelf by Sheila Roberts, which came out in May. This is also in my backpack. 

Staged by Caitlin Rother, which is the sequel to Hooked. Wanted to have it finished this month. Not likely, but will definitely keep reading. 

These are next:

The Ghost and the Key is the first book in Bill Cusano's The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club series. I am reading this series this summer. 

The second book of The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club is The Widow Murderess. 

Book three is The Sparrow and the Crow. All of these are July reviews. 

Massawa by Pam Weber is a book that I will also take on vacation. 

Joyce McCullough sent me a copy of Max and Her Stacks and Look for the Pink Ribbons to review. 

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. 

Thanks to last week's blogging wishes on Tuesday, I received this book in the mail.

Jaime Jo Wright is one of my favorite authors. Thanks to the person who gifted me Tempest at Annabel's Lighthouse. I truly appreciate that you thought of me. 

Upcoming Events

The Ledger by Steven Manchester - June (Review)

Staged by Caitlin Rother - June (Review)

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club: The Ghost and the Key by Bill Cusano - July 1 (Review)

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club: The Widow Murderess by Bill Cusano - July 8 (Review)

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club: The Sparrow and the Crow by Bill Cusano - July 10 (Review)

Massawa by Pam Weber - July (Review)

Love on the Shelf by Sheila Roberts - (Review)

Christmas Year Round

Last week's Journey through Christmases Past celebrated TV dads through the decades. You can read it here. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

 Nothing new this week, but will be reviewing Joyce's books soon.

Laura's Little Houses

Nothing new this week. Likely won't be until vacation time in July. 

I will be honest and say it will likely be tonight before I visit your blogs. I have appointments starting at 9:00 and ending at 3:30. Then I need to come home and do family stuff. Say a prayer that I last until we leave on vacation Friday evening. 

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something to Know Before Visiting My Country/City

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but if you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews requests that you share your link in their weekly post on their website (which will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Visit the other bloggers participating to see what they discuss that week. Comments are appreciated. 

Happy Wednesday! Hope you are having a great week. I am feeling very accomplished since I blogged all three days this week. Though my mornings have been full, I find sitting down after supper gives me time to check in with my fellow bloggers.

This week's Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge asks us to share something to know before visiting my country/city. In our case, it's a town. 

There are so many neat things to know if you are planning a trip to Wilbraham. Here are my top three:

1. We have great local coffee shops/breakfast places. In addition to the two well-known chains, we have several others scattered throughout our town, so no matter where you live here, you will find a wonderful place to stop and pick up coffee/tea/soda/juice and enjoy a variety of foods.
2. We have several working farms. Not only are these farms a great place to pick up flowers, herbs, and produce, but some host live events. 
3. Looking for an amazing private school for students in grades 6 - 12? Then you need to consider Wilbraham & Monson Academy. Founded in 1804, the student body represents more than 30 countries. The Lil' Princess attended school there for grades 9 - 12. Best decision we made. 

I look forward to learning more about your countries and cities/towns. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Wishes & Tell Me Something Tuesday: Have you ever been surprised by a book that you didn't expect to enjoy?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

Typical Tuesday, I am out the door early. Looking forward to visiting your blogs later.  

This is a popular recurring Top Ten Tuesday. Participants share the books they are wishing for, and sometimes their blogging friends grant those wishes. I have been blessed with a granted wish in the past, though I never expect it. As you know, I have a ton of unread books here. 

Top Ten Bookish Wishes

These all appear on my Amazon wish list

Until the Snow Clears by Nina York

Under the Mistletoe by Penny Zeller

Christmas Promises by Shelley Shepard Gray

The Santa Claus Girl by Patricia P. Goodin

Stupid TV, Be More Funny by Alan Siegel

Tempest at Annabel's Lighthouse by Jamie Jo Wright

From Little Houses to Little Women by Nancy McCabe

Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jamie Jo Wright 

A Grand Old Time by Judy Leigh 

Apparently There Were Complaints by Sharon Gless

Thanks to Freepik (now Magnific) for the image

Tell Me Something Tuesday (TMST) is hosted by Jen Twimom at That's What I'm Talking About. TMST is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. Participation is optional, and you can leave your comments in the weekly post when you participate. Check it out if you're interested in joining.

Tell Me Something Tuesday asks: Have you ever been surprised by a book that you didn't expect to enjoy?

It has been a while, but this has definitely happened to me. Never expected to enjoy The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins as much as I did. Jeff Hirsch's The Eleventh Plague was another dystopian novel I surprisingly liked. The Kensei by Jon F. Mertz was a vampire novel that I highly recommended back in 2013. I don't read vampire novels very often. Finally, proving that if you are a great writer, you can attract readers who openly profess not to read your genre, one of my favorite authors, whom I have known since I started blogging, is Karina L. Fabian, who writes fantasy and sci-fi. Now, I don't actively search for those genres, but I have enjoyed her Dragon Eye PI books, her zombie exterminator book, and her space anthology. She has also written Christian fiction and nonfiction, which are genres I regularly read. 

What book(s) have surprised you? 

Guest Post from Anne Shaw Heinrich, Author of House of Teeth

Anne Shaw Heinrich’s work has been published in numerous outlets, most recently, Writer’s Digest, Education Weekly, and Ms. Magazine, as well as The New York Times bestseller The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn (Atria 2006) and Chicken Soup for the Soul's The Cancer Book: 101 Stories of Courage, Support and Love (2009). Her debut novel, God Bless the Child, was the first in The Women of Paradise County Series published by Speaking Volumes. House of Teeth, the third book in the Series, releases in June 2026. Learn more at anneshawheinrich.com.

 

Follow Anne Shaw Heinrich on social media: 

Threads: @anne_shaw_heinrich | Instagram: @anne_shaw_heinrich | TikTok: @ash34249

Pushing Your Characters to Their Tipping Points 

When someone snaps and it seems like the break comes out of nowhere, those of us who have made a good number of trips around the sun know that such outbursts actually come from somewhere and everywhere. 

We understand overflowing buckets, and know how untended boiling water boils over, but we’re often startled if in the room when a person buckles under pressures, both seen and unseen. We’re uncomfortable, sometimes defensive or offended. If we’re interested, we can guess at the factors that brought on the boil. To do so is an act of humanity that the collective we should probably consider more often. 

One of the things I enjoy most about writing fiction is the chance to take those deep dives with characters and find ways to help readers consider the many factors that result in moments of unbearable tension. One of my favorite such moments takes place in God Bless the Child, the first novel in The Women of Paradise County Series. 

By the time readers get to the scene, they don’t know everything that has happened to the primary character, Mary Kline. Not even close; but they do know that she’s in way over her head, having taken in Pearl Davis, a vulnerable girl who has given birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. Mary believes herself to be the child’s mother until she sees the undeniable, biological truth: 

“ …I do indulge in forbidden emotions, like love and lust, and envy and anger. I exercise my rights as a part of the animal kingdom. Female animals often take on the role of mother to abandoned infants of another species. They feed these babies, hold them, love them, clean them, and naturally feel territorial… 

…Once, when Elizabeth was about seven months old, I hauled off and slapped Pearl as hard as I could. Mother and Daddy were already at the store, so it was just us three girls. I’d put water on to make hot chocolate. The teapot whistled, so I left the girls in the parlor. When I returned to the doorway with a tray of hot chocolate, I saw the thing I dreaded most… 

…Pearl stood there in her long nightgown, holding Elizabeth to her cheek. She was humming soft mama songs in her baby’s ear, swaying the instinctive mother-sway: back-and-forth, back-and-forth, foot-to-foot. She was a natural. Elizabeth snuggled into her mother’s neck, looking more contented than ever. I froze. 

 That sweet scene frightened me. Would I be relieved of my duties? Would Elizabeth and Pearl abandon  their captain with a mother-daughter mutiny? Was I to be confronted with a natural and understandable coup?...I would not allow it. I put the tray down on the coffee table and snatched Elizabeth from Pearl. I gently laid the baby on a blanket on the floor and worked myself back to my feet, finally reaching eye level with Pearl. She smiled dimly, that smile I’d grown so sick of seeing. I hated the simple stare she gave as she watched me lavish her baby with my love…My slap had more heft than I intended. Really. It was a full and jealous swing..I should never have slapped Pearl…She was just a confused child. Bewildered by all that had happened to her, she trusted me, and I guess that’s why I slapped her. Pearl was counting on me to make things right, but I knew nothing about this situation would ever be right.” 

Letting Mary describe what happened here was really valuable. Even she seems surprised that she’s behaved so irrationally, so violently, to someone she thinks she loves. The reader knows that Mary is not really backed into a corner. The only other people in the room are a baby and a childlike young woman, but letting the reader inside Mary’s head, we see all that she thinks she has to lose. The slap is an act of desperation, and it is just one of many surprises this character reveals throughout the book. 

In Books Two and Three of the Series, Violet is Blue and House of Teeth, readers

get a chance to be with a little boy-turned young man named Jules Marks, another primary character who gets pushed to the brink more than once. He’s quiet, intelligent and has come to understand in spades just how cruel and kind the world can be. He’s been beat up plenty, but still fancies himself protector of those he loves. 

When Jules learns that his own father, the feckless Lem Hauser, was the one who put a tattoo on the lower belly of his only friend, Violet, he makes a move that seems out of character. He comes to the confrontation committed to a verbal spat, but his father’s cruel taunts push Jules to a new brink that turns physical: 

I hated him. I hated every last thing about him. 

“Now, Jules, I hate to tell you this, but I got there first, you know. I saw that before you ever did. I saw that before your little gal let me work on her. I saw that clean and white as a brand-new sheet, my boy.” 

He laughed some more, nearly choking on the dark tobacco juice sloshing around in his mouth. The childish, but powerful nature of his laugh stung. He wasn’t taking me seriously. I lunged for him. I caught him off guard, and we both tumbled to the ground. I could feel the dust on my teeth and the smell of his wet tobacco breath. My body was on top of him. I started swinging as hard as I could. His ballcap had fallen to the ground, so I could see his greasy black hair, slicked down with pure meanness. I landed some good punches and kept swinging until he stopped me and pushed me off him. The push was hard enough to knock down the burn barrel…The air between us bristled. Hungry dogs barked in the distance. My face throbbed… 

“Hey, Jules, you come back any time and wrestle with old Lem. Anytime, Sir.” 

Angry tears started to pool behind my eyes. I didn’t want them to drip down my face until I’d put more distance between us. They started falling anyway.

Writing this part of Jules’ story challenged me, not because I thought the attack on Lem wasn’t justified. After the willful neglect and cruelty that this character and his five little sisters have endured, he deserves to throw a punch and have it land. Lem’s involvement with Jules’ only friend, Violet, pushes an already distressed Jules over a very natural edge. Showing readers this break makes a character who is beyond heroic by any standards, more believable and layered. 

The layers matter to me as a writer. Making decisions about how and when and who will reveal new pockets of humanity in a story is my idea of a good time, but there’s more to it. Giving fictional characters room to grow and to be fully human has the potential to do work beyond the page, and I think that has more value in the long run. Is it possible that by reading and writing stories that lay bare more than one truth, we expand our capacity to extend similar considerations to the people who live and breathe around us? To this, I say yes, yes, yes. 

Jules Marks and his five little sisters can finally relax. Their feckless parents from Shakey's Half are doing time in the Paradise County Jail, and their Uncle Larry, Aunt Sally and Aunt Clarice have swooped in to give them the safety and security they deserved all along. As they settle into the closest thing to normal they’ve ever known, their neighbors and classmates are quick to remind them not to get too comfortable. Poulson’s only dentist makes a generous offer to help the Marks children fix their long-neglected teeth, but many folks object to the free treatment they receive. Meanwhile, Jules is figuring out how to be a man as he holds onto an ugly secret involving his dear friend, Violet Sellers. When cancer strikes the family, Jules decides to right a wrong that’s gone unchallenged for far too long.

You can purchase House of Teeth and the other books in The Women of Paradise County series on Amazon.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - June 15

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. 

Happy Monday, everyone! I am back, kinda, sorta. Life is probably going to kick my behind until we leave for North Carolina at the end of the month, but I will do my best to stay connected to all of you, whom I truly treasure. 

In the time since I've been away, I've co-taught my first real estate class, moved most of the Lil' Princess' things to her new apartment, and listed six properties with three more on the way. I have six pending sales, too, which is why my blogging time is so limited. I thank you for sticking with me as I caught up visiting your blogs and leaving comments. 

Here are a few photos:

Old Orchard Beach Inn

A Free Little Library down the street from the Inn

Moving day

The Lil' Diva's dance recital on June 13

Sunday with the zoo

In my reading world, I have two reviews that I need to write. I have an hour left of the audiobook, Digital Detox for Remote Workers: Reclaim Your Focus, Productivity, and Work-Life Balance in the Digital Age by Dr. Guenter H. Schamel. It's great, but it can be hard to follow some of the exercises and examples while driving. 

I didn't finish The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller in time, but I was able to download it again. Hopefully, I can finish it this time. 

I need to finish The Ledger by Steven Manchester, a companion to his novel The Menu. 

I didn't pick up The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles, but it will come on vacation with us.

I started Love on the Shelf by Sheila Roberts, which came out in May. This will come on vacation with us. 

Staged by Caitlin Rother, which is the sequel to Hooked. Wanted to have it finished this month. Not likely, but will definitely keep reading. 

These are next:

The Ghost and the Key is the first book in Bill Cusano's The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club series. I am reading this series this summer. 

The second book of The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club is The Widow Murderess. 

Book three is The Sparrow and the Crow. All of these are July reviews. 

Massawa by Pam Weber is a book that I will take on vacation with me in July. 

Joyce McCullough sent me a copy of Max and Her Stacks and Look for the Pink Ribbons to review. 

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. 

Nothing new! I am trying to behave. Not sure what will happen once I am in North Carolina. We tend to visit bookstores. 

Upcoming Events

The Ledger by Steven Manchester - June (Review)

Staged by Caitlin Rother - June (Review)

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club: The Ghost and the Key by Bill Cusano - July 1 (Review)

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club: The Widow Murderess by Bill Cusano - July 8 (Review)

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club: The Sparrow and the Crow by Bill Cusano - July 10 (Review)

Massawa by Pam Weber - July (Review)

Love on the Shelf by Sheila Roberts - (Review)

Christmas Year Round

Last week's Journey through Christmases Past was about Christmas 2020. You can find it here.

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

 Nothing new this week, but will be reviewing Joyce's books soon.

Laura's Little Houses

Nothing new this week. Likely won't be until vacation time in July. 

That's it for me. I will do my best to check out your blogs later this evening. I have inspections at a property an hour away, so not sure how quickly I will be back at my desk. Enjoy your day!