It's Monday! What Are You Reading? & Mailbox Monday - May 18

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 on a Sunday. My work schedule, and therefore my blogging schedule, has been unpredictable lately. Hope all of you who celebrate enjoyed your Mother's Day. We had an early breakfast that morning and headed home from North Carolina later that day. Glad to be home, but also miss our girl. 

Here are a few recent photos:

The Lil' Princess and her dad

Our girls

The Lil' Princess and some friends

The family minus our son

Thought she might have gotten her arms stuck at the Battleship North Carolina

Recreating a One Tree Hill moment

I went to my first bar in over 30 years. It was not pleasant. 

Hard to believe these four years have passed so quickly. Luckily, when she relocates for work, she will be much closer to our place. 

In my reading world, my review of This is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman appeared today. You can read it here.

I finished Scrap: Salvaging a Family by Luann Castle. This collection is emotional and raw. Look for my review on May 21. 

I continued The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller. I hope I don't run out of time on NetGalley before I finish it. 

I finished listening to Hi Honey, I'm Homo: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume. Great book! Look for a review soon. 

I started The Ledger by Steven Manchester, which is a companion to his novel, The Menu. It's a slow read for me so far. 

These are next:

Staged by Caitlin Rother, which is the sequel to Hooked

Co-Created: The Cultural Strategy That Redefined Pacsun by Brieane Olson is also a NetGalley download.

Love on the Shelf by Sheila Roberts comes out later this month. 

The Ghost and the Key, 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. 

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. 

Has anyone heard from Vicki? She hasn't posted since April 5. 

These were presents for Mother's Day, and two books I bought for myself aboard the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington. 

Upcoming Events

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

The Ledger by Steven Manchester - May (Review)

Fighter Pilot's Daughter by Mary Lawlor - June 10 (Guest Post)

Staged by Cailtin 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

This week's Journey through Christmases Past focuses on the year 1885. You can find it here. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

This blog is getting harder to update now that I don't read as many children's books as I used to, and because my writing is not as much as expected this year. Real estate, however, has been amazing. 

Laura's Little Houses

On Wednesday, I posted my "Most Favorite Episode from Each Season of Little House on the Prairie (Seasons 7 - 9). This brings us to the end of the series. You can read this post here. 

Looking forward to checking out your blogs today. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Jan 8

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.   

 

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 and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.   

Releasing this post early because tomorrow is a busy day. Hope you had a nice week. Here are a few photos from last week. The first one is me visiting our local library as the executive director and program director from Rick's Place hang artwork from our November art show in the display cases.

Therese and Betsy hanging art 

at the local library

Dwight loves my husband's sweaty 

gym bag (yuck)

Tiny bit of snow this week before the storm

We are currently in North Carolina moving the youngest into her on-campus apartment for the second semester. Missed our first major snow storm of the winter that hit Saturday night into Sunday, which dumped a foot or more of snow in some areas. The Lil' Princess was disappointed she didn't see the pretty white stuff while she was home. We probably won't see her again until spring break, which makes us sad, but we will go down in April for the dance show, and then a couple weeks into May she will be done for the semester and can head home until August. 

In my reading world, I read the following books this week:

See my review at Christmas Year Round here.

Check out my review at TC&TBC here.

I am reading this book:

I finished this one at the end of 2023, so my January 17th review will be on time. It is already posted on Goodreads if you want to read the review earlier. 

I brought this one with me to North Carolina to read on the plane. 

Next up are these two:

Upcoming virtual book tours:

• A Yellow House in the Mountains by Glenn Hileman - January 17 (review)
• Civil Twilight by Anique Taylor - January 23 (guest post)
• The Location Shoot by Patricia Leavy - January 31 (interview)  

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Charlotte Hubbard's latest Promise Lodge novel is coming out in February. I downloaded this from NetGalley.

When I stopped by the library this week, I grabbed a local history book. We have numerous farms and historical homes in town, and I enjoy the research. 

That's it for me. Hope you have a great week!