Category: Reading Summary

Where Did My Books Take Me in May?

“Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.” – Susan Sontag

Why do you read?

I read for entertainment, and I read to escape.

I am a mood reader. I don’t do well with a to-be-read list. I won’t follow it. I read whatever I am in the mood to read at that moment. Luckily, I have a pretty big selection of books to choose from. I am trying to get more books read now that I am retired and have more time. I would like to start utilizing the Library more.

I had a productive reading month. The past few days I have kind of fizzled out but most of the month, I always had a book or two to read.

I read seven books in May. All were mysteries.

The Agathas by Karen Glasgow – I gave it 5 stars.

The Last Word by Taylor Adams – I gave it 5 stars.

Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart – I gave it 4 stars.

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden – I gave it 4 stars.

The Lost Women of Lost Lake (Jane Lawless #19) – I gave it 3 stars.

Silence for the Dead by Simone St James – I gave it 4 stars.

K is for Killers by Sue Grafton – I gave it 3 stars.

The star rating here is mine. I’m not sure how others rate them. A three or above is good for me. A three could be a book I enjoyed but I doubt I would read again. Mainly because I have so many books to read.

A four means I really liked it and would probably read it again someday.

A five is the holy grail for me. If I rated, it a five it means I felt it could someday be a classic for readers in the future.

It also is how I felt at the time and that too could change if I chose to re-read it. I think it is similar to when you go back to your childhood home as an adult. Everything always looks smaller. Re-reading could be like that and I could wonder how I ever rated it the first time.

Everyone has different interests. I may have rated a book that you felt was a five star or a one star and I rated it three. That is okay. It’s all each reader’s own perspective.

How do you decide if a book is worth keeping or re-reading? Do you re-read or keep books?

If you want to see my full review of these books, just click on the dates in the May calendar on my blog and it will direct you to all my May 2023 book reviews.

Now to answer – where did I go in May?

For the Agatha’s it was Castle Cove, California. – I am guessing that is a fictional town.

The Last Word – was on the coast of Washington State

Rose Cottage – was Todhall, England. Even though there is a Todhall England, I thought I read somewhere where the author did make it a fictional one for the book. For this one, I also travelled back in time.

The Housemaid – was the Winchester Home. I don’t think I got what state this was located in. It is not the famous haunted Winchester Mansion in California.

The Lost Women of Lost Lake – was Minnesota.

Silence for the Dead – was Portis House – a mental hospital in England. I believe this was fictional. This too involved time travel for me, as a reader.

K is for Killer – Santa Teresa, California

Out of all these locations this month, I have actually travelled to California and Minnesota so it’s easier to imagine those settings. So those are the places I escaped to this month in books. Where did you go with your reading in May?

As of May 30th – My blog visitors for May came from the United States, Finland, United Kingdom, Poland, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Chezia.

So far, my most popular post for 2023 is still – What I Read in January with 107 views. Let’s see if we can break that record. I am doubting that will happen in May but there is hope for June. If you enjoy reading my blog and know other like-minded readers, please suggest your friends check it out, subscribe, and like. I would really appreciate it.

Do you have a book you think I need to read? Let me know in the comments. What are you reading in June?

Until next time – happy reading,

Virginia

What Did I Read in April?

This is going to be a quick message to review what I read in April.

Mystery:

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich – I gave it 4 stars

Sinister Spring by Agatha Christie – 4 stars

The Shop on Royal Street by Karen White – 3 stars

Classic:

Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery – 5 stars

Historical Fiction:

After Anne by Logan Steiner – 3 stars

Non-Fiction:

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot – 4 stars

If you are new to my blog, the reviews for these books can be found under their genre in the menu on the side. All except After Anne – I will be reviewing that one this Friday. Those reviews will summarize the book and explain why I rated each book the way that I did.

For April my visitors came not only from the United States but also, Ireland, Canada, Germany, France, India, Taiwan, China, Philippines, and Japan.

If you are like me, I enjoy a little bit of stats information. So far this year, my most popular post was – What I read in January. It had 107 views.

I appreciate all of my visitors to this site. I currently have 419 subscribers and I would love to see that number explode. If you know anyone else who might be interested in So Many Books, you can direct them to Virginia-Gruver.com.

May you find yourself lost in a book soon,

Virginia

The Lost Apothecary

How Many Books Have I Read This Year?

Are any of them your favorites?

The Lost Apothecary is the last book I read for March and I do look forward to reading more from this author. This novel is set in London with a duel timeline. Caroline, in the present time, arrives in London to celebrate her tenth wedding anniversary alone. We learn early on that she recently found out that her husband had cheated on her. She had received the trip as a gift from her parents so without explaining anything to them decided she needed some time alone. Caroline had a degree in history that her husband had discouraged her from taking advantage of. She’d found herself stuck in an unfulfilling book keeping job for her family. As soon as she arrives in London she is approached by someone who asks if she would like to go mudlarking with a group. Mudlarking is where you sift among the mud alongside the Thames River looking for historical treasures. While doing so, she finds an old Apothecary jar. She starts to research the jar and discovers there had been an Apothecary Shop owner accused of murder in the 1700’s.

The second timeline takes us to the Apothecary shop in the past and we learn that the shop started out dispensing homeopathic medicines for women. We soon learn more about life for women in that time period and how some came to the shop for remedies for abusive, cheating husbands, lovers, and other family members.

The characters are well developed and I did come to care about them both in the past and in current time. The author expertly weaved the timelines together to show how Caroline becomes a suspect for a crime in the present time much like Nellie, the character from the past, but needs to know what exactly happened in the past to help prove her own innocence.

I gave this book a 4 star rating while Goodreads currently shows it at 3.76 stars. I have already purchased the second book by this author – The London Séance Society and I look forward to reading it.

Now onto my stats for the quarter:

I have read seven books in March, six books in February, and 3 books in January, with sixteen books so far for the year. All were books I own and one was an audio book. They were in the following genres:

Romance 2

Mystery 9

Memoir -1

Biography -1

Horror -3

My 5 star ratings for the first quarter are:

The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey – Serena Burdick

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman – Lucy Worsley

Risky Biscuits (Sugar and Spice, # 2) – Mary Lee Ashford

Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie

J is for Judgment – Sue Grafton

Finlay Donovan is Killing it – Elle Cosimano

The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie

I had a great first quarter for reading – Seven out of sixteen books I rated 5 star. These are my ratings and I may have rated some books lower than you but that is fine. Everyone has their own tastes about reading. I also think it has to do with what my mood is at the time. I might read the same book at a later date and give it a different star rating. I have rated some books by adding a half star. Going forward, I think I will either round them up or down, depending on how much I actually enjoyed them.

I continue to read mostly mystery but I plan to add a few classics this year as well as maybe a sci-fi or fantasy. There is an author coming to talk at an Avid event this month who has a pretty popular book out that I might not have chosen on my own to read. I will let you know more when I make up my mind about either reading it or attending that event, since I really have not been a fan of that genre.

It has been kind of eye opening to review my reading so far. I plan to do this again at the end of June. I am having a hard time deciding what my most favorite book has been so far. I think it is a tie between Finlay Donovan is Killing it and The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey. Guess we will see what it is next quarter.

Hope this post finds you all well and safe from this wild ride spring has hit us with, so far. It will soon even out with more warmer days than cool. On those less comfortable days it gives me pleasure to curl up with another good book.

Happy Saturday and until next time,

Virginia

February Reads 2023

My Goodreads goal for the year is 40 books and February was good for my goal. I managed to read six books and since this is the 28th, there is a possibility I might finish a seventh. Since I am not positive I will finish the last book, I will leave it out of this post and count it toward March.

Booktubers read romance in February so I did include a couple. I am following some of the Booktuber’s monthly themes but will add other genres to spice it up. I tend to be a mood reader. All of my books came from my home library and that is another one of my goals, to get through my to be reads. How do you choose to read a book?

I started out the month reading a biography about Agatha Christie written by Lucy Worsley. You can find Lucy doing documentaries on PBS or Masterpiece. I had seen a few about English history and the witch trials and enjoyed her work so when I saw she’d written a biography about one of my favorite authors it was a given that I would read it. The book is 363 pages full of information about Agatha’s life. She did have a section about the time that Agatha disappeared. It wasn’t anything startlingly new but the information was written in a warm style that almost felt like I was reading a novel. If you have an interest in Agatha Christie, I would highly recommend this book. I have a few more I hope to read about Agatha later this year. I would give this one 4.5 stars.

My next book was a romance – Beach Read by Emily Henry. I had heard a couple other Booktubers talk about this being their favorite book so I had to read it even though I had recently purchased a more recent Emily Henry romance that now sits on my shelf. This story was about Augustus Everett, a literary fiction writer and January Andrews, a romance writer. January’s father died recently and left a lake home to her. When she goes to sort through his stuff, she discovers that her father had been living a second life with another woman. While January is trying to digest that information, she finds herself in a slump with her writing. That is also when she discovers her famous author, August living next door. The book has quirky characters and a budding romance. It was an entertaining book but I can’t say it was my favorite but that may be because even though I used to read a lot of romance many years ago, I haven’t consistently read them recently. I have had stories from the past that touched my heart and made me cry. I can’t say that this story did that for me. Even though I am giving it a 3 star, I would still recommend it as an interesting read. It is definitely a good example of a modern romance. I guess I will have to read a few more to see if the modern authors have eliminated the heart felt emotion I remember from the past. Do you read romance? What do you recommend?

The third book on my list this month is How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. I have to admit this is my first Grady Hendrix novel but I have picked up his earlier one The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. I just never crossed that line and purchased it. This one intrigued me because I used to be a Realtor and had a little experience with a haunted listing or two. This was an enjoyable read. It was about a couple of siblings whose parents died in a car accident, leaving their home to be sold by the sister and brother. The two siblings had not been close over the past several years so they had to work through their own issues until they could trust each other enough to deal with the haunted property. I don’t want to give too much away but the mother was a puppeteer so there were some scary puppets and dolls in the house. It was an enjoyable read. It wasn’t as scary as I had hoped it would be but it entertained. I would recommend this one to anyone who likes a little supernatural and again quirky characters. I would give this one four stars.

The fourth book I read was a cozy mystery written by a friend of mine. Risky Biscuits by Mary Lee Ashford. This was an enjoyable read. Set in small town Iowa, the protagonist and her friend publish those cookbooks used by different organizations to raise money for charitable causes. This series is called the Sugar & Spice Mysteries. There are three in the series and this is the second. Sugar Calloway is a former magazine editor and in this story their newest project is a fundraiser organized by the St. Ignatius Crack of Dawn Book Club, famous for their all-you-can eat biscuits and gravy events. The back cover says – When a group member is found dead. Sugar and Spice’s priorities change from raising dough to figuring out who put murder on the menu. This series has a cozy Murder She Wrote feel but set in a small town in Iowa. I wish this publisher had given this series another chance. Mary Lee’s writing flows so well and I loved the premise of this series. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves cozy mysteries. I know we will see more from this author in the future and I will keep you posted when something new is available. I am giving this one 5 stars because this is one of my keepers and will give this a re-read.

The fifth book on my list is another romance – Better than Fiction by Alexa Martin. This book is set in Colorado. The protagonist is Drew Young, she was named after her father. Her grandmother, who she was very close to, owned a book store. Drew spent a great deal of time there helping her grandmother even though she calls herself a book hater who doesn’t read. So when her granny dies, it seemed pretty obvious why she left the store to Drew who is also feeling guilty because though she loves the bookstore, she’s had to give up her passion for photography. As she mopes through life, a book group of old ladies called the Dirty Birds. I loved that group of women. If I could give any advice, I would have liked to see more of their story in this book but I guess I read enough to make me interested. When the Dirty Birds invite Jasper Williams – a sexy male romance author – to come talk, sparks fly between Jasper and Drew. As the story goes, Jasper helps Drew become a reader and Drew takes Jasper around Colorado to get background information for the setting of his next book. Well if you read romances, you know there will be a happy ever after and there is. It is an enjoyable read and I would give this book 4 stars.

The last book on my list for February is Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. This was a re-read and I plan to do a post next week going into more detail about this book and maybe a couple of screen adaptations, so for now I will say that I do enjoy most of Agatha’s work and this is one of her more popular stories. I am giving this book 4.5 stars and will probably read it again one day.

Next month is Mystery March and since my favorite genre is mystery I anticipate another good month.

What do you enjoy reading? Have you read any of these books and if so, what are your thoughts. I would love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Virginia

What I Read in January

2023 is starting out to be a good reading year. I always read but I don’t usually set a reading goal. This year, I did. I re-connected with Goodreads and set a goal of 40 books this year. Compared to many Booktubers that really isn’t as impressive as most of them but that’s okay. I want to continue to enjoy reading and not make it feel like a chore. If you are on Goodreads, let’s connect. I do like to follow friends to see other people’s interests.

I am trying to buy fewer books. My home library is packed with books and I need to get busy reading them. I have spent some time this month organizing my book shelves. Maybe when I post my February reads I will post a picture of my main book shelves in the family room. I do have a small book case in my office and a credenza full of books too but I have been weeding through my boxes of books and paring them down. I want to get to the point where I limit my books to what actually fit on my book shelves. One side are books read and the other are books to read. I even alphabetized my books read. I didn’t feel the need to alphabetize the books I need to read. I think it’s more fun to just peruse the books to find my next read.

How organized are you about your books? If you are, how do you do it? I’d really like to know.

Before I let this post get too long, here are my reviews for the three books I read in January.

The first was – The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey by Serena Burdick.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author. Her voice was easy to read and her way of telling the story kept me motivated to keep going. It was told in two timelines – England 1898 and California 2006. Abigail from 2006 was in search of her father’s identity after her mother’s death. This search leads her to England when she discovers her great-great grandmother was the author Evelyn Aubrey. She meets distant relatives who help her discover her family’s curse and secrets. I would recommend this one if you like to read novels about writers. I believe I gave this book 4 stars.

My second book of the month was the newest Louise Penny. My bookshelf of read books shows that I own all of her novels and she is one of my favorites. This one is – A World of Curiosities. It is set in Three Pines, the fictional small Canadian village where most of her books are set. Read a few of her books and you will understand why everyone wants to visit Three Pines. The village is populated with quirky characters that you will grow to love. This book is about a couple of siblings who come to Three Pines during a celebration and Inspector Gamache becomes concerned about their presence in the village. Inspector Gamache is the head of homicide for the Surete. As the series has evolved, he has now moved himself and his wife to Three Pines. He’d been involved in a murder case surrounding the two siblings when they were children and he doesn’t totally feel comfortable with their appearance. This story is told using two timelines, the present as well as when the murder happened in the past. It was a good read, as all of her books are but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I have some in the past. This one was a little darker than previous books but I would still recommend it. I believe I gave this one 4 stars.

The third book I read in January was non-fiction. I don’t read as much non-fiction as I do fiction but I plan to add more this year. This book was – Spare. What can I say? I have always been curious about the Royals. Especially since one of my cousins did a family tree many years ago and traced my mother’s family back to 1600 Kent, England. The oldest couple he was able to find were named Spencer. So who knows, I may be distantly related to Princess Diane. I guess I was drawn to read this book partly because of all the attention it got and from watching the first episode of his Netflix interview. (I do need to finish watching that show.) His ghost writer did a decent job of telling Harry’s story. At times it felt like reading a novel. Some of the stuff he disclosed might make some people blush but from what I have seen of Harry’s personality, I wasn’t surprised that he revealed it. If you have a similar interest in the royals and would like to know more about what their lives are really like, I would recommend this book. I gave this book 4 stars.

In all honesty, if it had been possible, I would have rated these books somewhere between 4-5 stars. 3-4 star books are all worth reading by my method. I try to limit 5 stars to books I definitely will be reading more than once and I feel could become classics. I enjoyed all of them. They helped me through a few cold wintry days inside with my tea or hot chocolate, and a warm blanket where I could occasionally glance outside and watch it snow.

I hope you enjoyed my reviews. Let me know what you are reading. Even though I have so many books to read, I am always open for suggestions. Do you set reading goals? If so, what is your goal for this year?

Look forward to chatting again later,

Until then, keep reading.

Virginia

March Reads and February Follow-Up

I did meet my reading goal for February by finishing At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. A friend had recommended that series a long time ago. It was a very satisfying read. It is about a minister in the small fictional town of Mitford, North Carolina. Father Tim, the bachelor Rector is about to turn 60 and he is beloved by the village. He is the go-to person whenever there is a need. Each chapter is like a short story. The village is made up of quirky characters. It was written in 1994 but it felt like it could have been set in an earlier time but there are references to some technology. Father Tim has a mysterious children’s book novelist who lives next door and they have an immediate attraction. He takes in a young boy whose mother abandoned him and all of his siblings. The young boy had been living with his grandfather when the Rector was asked to help with him. Tim also adopts an annoying dog that is a little rambunctious. The keep it from jumping on himself and others, he quotes the bible and the dog settles down. The dog actually adopted him first and he didn’t have the heart to give him away. Each chapter adds another layer of stories about each of the local people. I plan to read more of this series in the future. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for an entertaining read that is Christian based.

Jan Karon is an American novelist who writes for both adult and young readers. She has been designated a lay Canon for the Arts in the Episcopal Dicease of Quincy IL by Keith Ackerman, Episcopal Bishop of Quincy. In May 2020 she received the Degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris casa by Nashotah House, a theological seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin.

My goal again for March is to read four books. I did complete one novel so far this month. Tough Cookie by Diane Mott Davidson. That book is part of a series that I love. I read several back in the 80’s but never finished so last fall I started them all over again. This series is about a caterer – Goldilocks Catering in Aspen Meadows Colorado who constantly either finds a body or gets dragged into investigating a murder. She always has a struggle with her business because she works out of her own home and the health inspector seems to have the need to shut her down whenever possible. Another problem is her abusive ex-husband who seems to always get tangled in her life no matter how hard she works to be rid of him. She was raising their grade school son, Arch, by herself with visits to his father until she marries a local cop. She also has a young chef, Julian, she meets along the way who helps with her business and becomes part of the family. The other character is her best friend Marla who also used to be married to her ex- The Jerk, a name Goldie and Marla gave him. Again full of quirky characters and enough twists to make me want to come back for more. She does have recipes for the food she highlights in each story. I did purchase her cook book last fall but I have yet to try anything. I tend to like to eat food but not cook it.

I hope to include as many of that series each month as I can fit in. I do enjoy series because you get to spend time with characters you become fond of. There is another series I hope to start a re-read of this year – The Sue Grafton A,B,C series, another series I started many years ago but never finished.

So I have a fairly ambitious stack of books for this month. I have started reading – The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict. I love Agatha Christie and felt this would be an interesting read. It is not a biography but it is a novel about that time when Agatha disappeared. So far very interesting.

I have been lucky enough to receive my first Covid vaccine and look forward to not being so afraid to leave my house soon. I should be fully vaccinated by the end of the month. How are you doing? Books help me to accept our situation and give me something to look forward to doing besides housework. During the winter it hasn’t been too bad. Our weather makes it difficult to get out that much anyway. I am looking forward to planting some flowers toward the end of April or early May. I also look forward to meeting with friends who are also getting vaccinated, so it will be safe. Take care of yourselves. I hope you are enjoying books now too. Let me know what you read this past month or what book are you excited about reading in March.

Until next time,

Virginia

Read so far in February

I have read the following three books so far this month and I am about half way through with a fourth. If I do complete that one before the end of February, I will post my review of it also.

I have been working on my novel more this month and I do feel like my focus is improving.

The first book I completed was The Thursday Murder Club. This was an enjoyable read. It is set in an English retirement center and the sleuths are four septuagenarians who meet to discuss old murders. When a developer is murdered near them, they jump at the chance to investigate an active crime. Of course, they do all the things you would expect older people to do, basically get in the way of the investigation, they do help catch the killer. While doing so, the reader does suspect each of them. The characters are quirky, which I like and the plot was complicated enough to make me want to keep reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next in the series.

Richard Osman is a well known face on British television as host of quiz shows. He has also created and worked as an executive producer Numerous UK and US television shows. This is his debut novel. He lives in London.

The second novel I read this month is The Butterfly Sister. I found this one from a local independent used book store. I had never heard of the author but I picked it up by perusing the shelves and was first drawn to the cover. It is the photo of the clasp and lock for an old suitcase.

In this one, a woman receives the suitcase of a missing woman she’d known at college. It was sent to her by the airlines because she’d once borrowed it and apparently the woman had not removed her name tag. The college holds bad memories and the woman is tempted to throw it away but tries to do the right thing and contacts the woman’s family. That is how she finds out about her disappearance. The protagonist agrees to deliver the case to the woman’s mother but before she turns it over to the police, she attempts to see if the contents would help her to locate the missing woman.

This was a good thriller and it did keep me wanting to read more. I did spend one late night finishing it. Messing up my wellness goal of going to bed earlier. But with the pandemic, I find myself stuck home most days anyway. So what if I do have a late night once in a while?

Amy Gail Hansen is a freelance writer and journalist living in Chicago at the time this book was written. This too is a debut novel. I would probably read more of her work but not the way that I read other series where I actually wait most impatiently for the next in the series.

The last book was All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny. This author is one of the authors whose series I don’t read immediately when I purchase her books, not because I don’t want to but because I know she only has one book come out a year and I try to pick a time that I can savor the read.

The only negative about this book was that it was not set in Three Pines, Canada but in Paris, France. So instead of getting to hang out with the residents of Three Pines we were introduced to new characters and visited a few of Armand’s family who’d moved to France. In this book, both Daniel, his son, and Annie, his daughter, live in France with their families. Armand’s daughter Annie is expecting their second child at any time and he and his wife have flown over to be there at the happy moment.

One evening after a family dinner, Armand and his wife witness an attempt on his godfather’s life when he is hit by a car. They go to his apartment and find the body of a stranger. The Paris police don’t believe there is a connection so Armand and his son-in-law Jean Guy – who was also his second in command on the homicide squad in Canada start investigating. That puts the whole family into danger.

The story gives you a better picture of Armand’s family dynamics and while he and his son Daniel have had a strained relationship, it slowly changes to give them a better outlook for their future by the end.

Louise Penny’s books are good for making you feel like you are present in the location and her quirky characters are part of the reason her readers are so loyal. Though she deals with serious subjects there is always a little humor sprinkled in. The only thing bad now is that I have to wait for fall for her next book.

If I manage to complete my current read – At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon, I will have another post later this week. If not, I will add it to my reads in March.

Until next time,

Virginia

February To Be Reads

January was not a good month for reading for me. I only completed one book – Midwinter Murders by Agatha Christie.

Midwinter Murders is a collection of short stories set during the winter. I enjoyed all of the stories but I would say my favorite was the last one – Christmas Adventure. That story had an older Poirot. It involved a family in a manor house at Christmas where the children decided to fool Poirot into thinking someone had died. After the prank was done and the victim did not get up, they realized they had a real murder. Luckily Poirot was there to solve the mystery. The rest of the stories included a few more with Poirot and Miss Marple but some had random characters. It was an enjoyable read for a cold winter month. Since I love Christie, it will be a keeper.

Each month I plan to also choose my favorite read for the month and then at the end of the year, narrow them all down to my favorite for the year. January is simple this month since I only have one book to choose from but I will move forward to find my favorite for the year.

So far February has started out much better, I have completed one novel already in my TBR stack. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I will follow up with a review of that book with my next post. I have four books chosen to read this month so besides Thursday Murder Club, I would like to read The Butterfly Sister – Amy Gail Hansen, All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot, and All the Devils Are Here by Louis Penny. I have already read a few chapters of both The Butterfly Sister and All Creatures Great and Small. So hopefully I can reach my goal of four books this month.

Today we are in a winter advisory with snow all morning and several car crashes on the interstate and a blizzard warning north of us. I have spent the day doing a little laundry, reading, and watching the snow. It truly is a good day to read.

I made it through my first month with the happiness project. When I started this project, I acknowledged that I wasn’t unhappy but I felt I could be happier. Considering what we have been dealing with, I am sure everyone has been struggling with staying home more and the inability to see friends and family. I can’t say I succeeded but I made progress. The main goal for January was to have more energy. So get more sleep, walk or exercise, eat better, and de-clutter my home.

I rarely hit my designated bed time but I did figure out that I may have been trying to go to bed too early, so I pushed my bedtime back a little and did make that goal sometimes.

I really was not able to change my time to shower and dress daily. I still hang out in my pajamas longer than I probably should. I know that will change when we are able to get out and do more and as soon as Spring arrives so I am okay with that but will continue to work on that again in February.

Steve and I had been fairly successful with walking until the weather turned but we do take advantage of the good days. We made a little road trip to a furniture store about an hour away. We figured if nothing else, we could walk around inside and add some steps on our Fitbit. Well we did more than just walk. We bought new furniture for the formal living room and formal dining room. After we’d found a loveseat, tables, and lamps, and while the sales clerk was doing the paperwork, we found the table and chairs we’d seen a year ago but had put off buying. We both really liked that set so much that Steve told the clerk to add it too. Because of Covid we have to wait for a couple items so we will be getting the living room furniture the end of this month and our new table and chairs the end of May or early June. They actually have to make the table the size that we wanted. It is solid wood and made by the Amish. Steve plans to paint the rooms and clean carpet once the old furniture has found its new home. I guess maybe I am happier than I was on January 1st but new furniture always makes me happy.

We continue to work on our diet but that will be on-going. I always say baby steps. As long as we move forward.

So I am continuing with the Happiness project. For February, I am learning to be more kind, stop nagging, and don’t expect praise for things that I do. I will let you know how that goes.

Happy reading and until next time,

Virginia

P.S after I was done, I realized there is a series that I started reading last summer and really want to get back to so if I can, I will read the next Diane Mott Davidson book in my stack of her books to be read.

Books Read in November

The beginning of November I’d planned to read these books. As you will see, sometimes I get sidetracked and either read something else or get too busy to read all of them. This month I got side tracked.

Here are the books I did not get read:

Tough Cookie by Diane Mott Davidson – I decided to complete reading this older series because I had enjoyed it so much when I started reading it many years ago and with 2020, I needed an escape. I will get back to finishing this series in 2021.

The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield. I do want to read this book but it too will have to wait for next year.

Now for the books I did read:

Stranger Diary’s – Elly Griffiths

I’ll be Gone in the Dark – Michelle McNamara

Magic Lessons – Alice Hoffman

Light the Dark – Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process – Joe Fassler

Daily Rituals – Mason Currey

The Sun Down Motel – Simone St. James

Hope Never Dies – Andrew Shaffer

For this post I will list them only and review them individually. If you have been following my blog for the past month, you will notice that I have reviewed Stranger Diary’s, Magic Lessons, I’ll Be Gone by Dark, and The Sun Down Motel. If you want my take on these, please check out earlier posts for those reviews. Over the next few weeks, I will reviewing the rest.

Three of the books I read did fit into Non-fiction November and that was kind of fun. Will look forward to doing that again next year.

My goal each month will always be four books because depending on how busy I am, I think that is doable. This month, I surpassed that goal and that makes me happy. It always feels good to exceed a goal.

November was an enjoyable reading month. The one author I was familiar with was Alice Hoffman and it was an adventure to catch up with the Owens family saga. The rest of the authors were new to me. I hope to have another successful month of reading in December.

What are your reading goals for December? Are you planning to surround yourself with holiday books or finding time to finally read the one you’ve been waiting for the right time?

Let me know what you are reading. I am always looking for suggestions.

Until next time,

Virginia

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 840 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 14 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

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