Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

 I survived the holiday weekend. Weather was warm and humid, did a bit of outside stuff and grilled out for lunch on the 4th. The unauthorized fireworks thankfully are minimal and usually end by 11 PM so people can sleep. I pretty much stayed home to avoid any chaos.

As of the end of June I have read 84 books. So about where I wanted to be, maybe a bit more. Thing is, nothing much on TV so it is a great time to read books. Although I have been slacking off a bit the past few days. Only have finished one book so far.

Girls of Flight City fictionalized story of RAF pilots coming to the United States for flight training prior to the US entering World War 2.

Healing written by a nurse who was diagnosed with breast cancer and her journey through diagnosis, treatment and after.

Still Waters the latest of the FBI K-9 books. Our main handler is suspected of murdering a fellow competitor at a search and rescue trial. The lead investigator is a rookie FBI agent who may be in over his head.

In the Shadow of the Glacier set in British Colombia a rookie constable is teamed up to help solve the murder of an American draft dodger. I think it was the writing style but I didn't get into the book and didn't finish it.

The Favor is about women in abusive marriages. Can they somehow do each other a favor so they can get away from their abusers?

Two Nights in Lisbon a man takes his wife on a business trip to Lisbon, then disappears. He's ex-Army, ex-CIA. Is he a spy, a double agent or something else? Kidnapping, blackmail, extortion or just plain ransom? Connections to FBI, CIA and a nominee for vice president of the United States. Very much a page turner.

The Day I Die is written by a cultural anthropologist and explores the system of assisted death in the United States.

 Happy Reading.

 

Mini-ManCat Monday

 First, thank for all the purrday wishes last week. Mum gave me both ham and chick-hen as treats to eat. 

First we want to send comforting purrs to Miss Julie, Poppy Q's mum in New Zealand. Poppy ran off to The Bridge this weekend. What I think is interesting is that I think her spirit came here and helped a NZ driver win the CrashCar race on Sunday. His first ever CrashCar race too! 

So while mum watched the racy cars she worked on hats, hats and more hats!

Now, let's get this party started! What party? Well Mericky's purrthday party!

Happy Purrthday America. I don't have enuf paws to count how old the USA is but mum says it is lots and lots of years, 247 by her calculations.

Mum joins me in wishing all of you Mericky kitties and your humans a good day. Safe and hopefully not too noisy with the fireworks. Cellybrate but do so safely. Me and mum will watch the moving picture box, fireworks and other holly-day stuff from the safety of our home. 

Me and mum have been staying home and inside cuz the weather and air outside hasn't been good. Mum doesn't want either of us breathing that icky air. One day last week we were in the hazardous area (we are the blue dot on the right side of the pink blob), the newsy people said our area was the worst area in the WORLD that day. It has improved greatly from last week.

 

 

Mum ordered these special fireworks as usual, in that they don't make booms to scare kitties. They are pretty but won't scare you. Mum skips the local fireworks, says the people just get crazy. She watches the stuff on the moving picture box, no driving, no crowds and the noise isn't so bad that it scares me. 

  Now to honor America, please join in and sing a few songs with us. Sing them from your heart.

God, bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, And guide her
Through the night with a light from above.From the mountains To the prairies To the oceans white with foam, God, bless America, My home, sweet home.God bless America Land that I love
Stand beside her
And guide her
Through the night with a light from above
From the mountains To the prairies To the oceans white with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home
God bless America....
My home sweet home!

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

First, Happy Purrthday to my darling Ducky. He is 15 years old today. There are days he still plays like a kitten. 

I am on a pace to read about 170 books this year. Lately, with minimal good stuff to watch on TV, I turn to reading. Plus as I write this we are under an air quality alert. Wildfire smoke has made it to the surface so you can smell the smoke. Before this the smoke stayed higher up, so just made the sky hazy. So staying inside and doing inside stuff, like reading and making crochet hats.

Happy half way through the year. A nice big stash, mostly non-fiction in this, plus one new to me author.

MistleToe Murders, this is the new author. A cozy mystery and unlike some others the main character is a married mom of three. I may try a few more of her books, she has 35 in this series so far. In this one she helps track down the person who murdered the owner of the company she works for.

The Best Game Ever is a look at the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. It was the first sudden death overtime game played in the NFL.

WordSlut is a book written about how words in English have been taken to mean much different things over the years. Often becoming demeaning to women. Interesting to see how word usage changes over time and also how sexist it can be.

How to do Nothing, well I didn't read the whole book. The premise by the author is that we have lost the ability to do nothing. We seemed to be wired now to check our phones, check email etc. No just sitting and enjoying. Listening to birds sing, just chilling without benefit of being productive. Take a few minutes and don't be productive. I like taking time to do nothing.

Lucky Bastard is a memoir by the sports broadcaster Joe Buck. Mildly interesting if you are a sports fan. I can tolerate him, but I don't care for his over talkative football partner Troy Aikman.

Marie Antoinette's World after watching the drama on PBS about Marie Antoinette I wanted to know more. How much in the show actually happened versus added for drama. Plus the remaining episodes won't likely air until next spring!

Wrong Place, Wrong Time is another Andrea Kane thriller and page turner. I read this in one day and stayed up slightly later than usual to finish. Two families intertwined in a mix of power, greed, competitive equestrian show jumping and of course, MURDER! Who done it? Not who I expected!

Incomparable Grace is an overview of President Kennedy's life and with a main focus on the major issues that happened during his presidency.

 

 Happy Reading!

Mini-ManCat Monday

Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say that the cat died nobly.

Guess I don't want to be too curious! I am always checking on what mum is doing. Also if I bug her enuf she gives me more treats. I like treats.

Me snoozing in the front window, followed by waking and going to sit on mum on Caturday. She needed to stay home and rest! 

She went to a racy car thing on Friday and it was a bizzy day. Mum did watch some of the racy stuff on the puter Caturday and Sundy. Both days were crazy and bizzy. She was glad she only was there on Friday. 

She said she walked way too many miles, climb over the guard rail too often and generally dealt with drivers who don't read the rules! 

She did lots of gentle stretching and stuff so she feels better, gentle walking too!

Yeah, she should just stay home with me! Kitty cuddles make everything better. 

Stop back on Wednesday. It is a special day for me. 

Have a good week.

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Oohh, the summer solstice is here! So far this summer things have been good weather wise, warm but not hot and not too humid. Perfect by my standards. We need a bit more rain for the farmers, corn may not be knee high by July 4 if we don't get rain. I'm liking not having to mow the lawn every week!

An Inquiry into Love and Death a ghost story on a 1920s college student trying to wrap up her deceased uncles estate.

The Woman in Cabin 10 a journalist is on a luxury cruise and the girl in the next cabin suite vanishes. Things don't seem quite right on this voyage from the UK to Norway.

Playing with Myself a memoir by Randy Rainbow. His childhood and how get got started as an actor and his transition into doing the political videos on line.

Lies My Mother Told Me a book by Joan Rivers daughter Melissa which is thinly written and not very interesting.

The Night Ferry, one of the author's early novels. Involves human trafficking, illegal surrogate pregnancies and people in London, Amsterdam and Afghanistan.

Far Side of the Moon an account of the lives of Frank Borman and his wife Susan. His career in the military and then as an astronaut which culminated in the flight of Apollo 8. Not only on his life but hers as she was the dutiful wife, supporting always positive to her detriment. She developed mental illness, depression and alcohol abuse that resulted in her hospitalization and subsequent recovery. She developed Alzheimer's in her later life as well. The book ends prior to her death in 2021. One of few couples who stayed married in spite of the stress of being a military and astronaut wife.

The First Kennedys is a book detailing the lives of President Kennedy's great grandparents who immigrated from Ireland during the potato famine and then also his grandparents. How they adapted to being in a new environment, how they survived and eventually thrived, in business and politics.

 

At 3.5 hours per week, that is just 30 minutes per day. It is what our library encourages teens and adults to read as part of the summer reading program. Heck, I can on some days read for 3 hours! 

Happy Reading. 

Mini-ManCat Monday

 An aquarium is just interactive television for cats.

No fishies here to watch, but mum gets to see a nice one every month when she goes for her massage. She says she saw two tiny fishies this past week. Barely a half inch long! She can't wait to see what they look like next month. 

Me hanging out on mum's chair, keeping an eye on her as she does her thing. Playing games on her puter, crochet, reading.

It has been super nice here. Warm enuf, but not too warms. Heck, we don't even think the new air chiller has done any work yet. Mum says maybe this week it will get warmer where we need it.

 Our Pee-o-knees this year. Nice and pretty as always. Since it has been dry they didn't last long this year. 

Have a wonderful week everyone, the summer solstice is Wednesday!. 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Just a quick mention that there is a faction of our local community elected leaders that are talking about defunding the library. Yeah, stupid indeed, but some of these people have been this way before but seem to have a few newer members who are like minded.People have said they want to close the library, to me they want to control the library.

One of the newer people also wants to do an audit of books, especially those aimed at LGBTQ+ issues. How would it affect me? If they truely closed, I guess I would have to drive a little farther to the next suburb to use their library! I will update but not often on this issue.

Back to my reading. 

A nice mix of fiction and non fiction in this bunch. I sorted them out and read one non-fiction followed by a fiction. Keep things mixed up!

Pain Killer is an updated book as of 2018 of a book published in 2003 in regards to the opioid crisis with OxyContin. This is sort of the readers digest version at less than 200 pages. If you want a more in depth book read Empire of Pain published in 2021 and I read that about a year ago. All about Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.

Food IQ is a book that helps explain what you need to cook. What types of pots, pans, knives. Cooking methods. Fresh or dried herbs, what is the best type of potato or onion for what you want to do. Recipes included.

I'll Be Watching You another thriller by Andrea Kane. Glad I have gone back to read her stand alone earlier books. In this one a woman is being stalked by a guy she thought had died. Is it really him or someone playing games with her.

Lying Beside You is the latest Cyrus Haven book, just published last year. Cyrus and Evie don't really work together but some how get involved with figuring out why three former co-workers are being targeted. Two have been abducted and a third murdered? Who and why? Another page turner.

Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America, doesn't focus on gun control, but rather the mindset of the shooter. During the last 30-40 years both the FBI and US Secret Service have launched task forces to work out threat assessments and behavior analysis to get into the minds of potential shooters. To identify them before they take action and get them help.

The Club is a celebrity members club with a new spot opening up on an island off the Essex coast of England. Select members and staff are invited for the opening weekend. Tempers fray, bad behavior and then the bodies start showing up. Who and why were these people killed. Page turner.

Good Enough is a cookbook of sorts. Some recipes along with the author's tales of her life. I skipped her stuff and just went through the recipes, nothing that I wanted to keep.

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post is a fictionalized story of her life, based on the real things that happened in her life. 

Happy Reading!

Mini-ManCat Monday

You own a dog but you feed a cat.- Jenny de Vries 

 

Mum makes sure I am well fed. I usually get a whole can of wet food every day, once a day. If mum notices I have eaten all of it, she will put out more even though it isn't officially feeding time. 

 The two of us had a quiet weekend. Mum did some stuff on Caturday morning at the library, but them came home to me and we just chilled. Sunday it was cool, cloudy and some rain. We just did more chillin'.

Mum had me shut in her sleepy spot on Tuesday. Some guys came and put in a new heaty monster and air chiller. Mum says we will be good to go for years now with getting warms and cools as needed. Now since that happened it hasn't been hot or cold enuf for the stuff to work! MOL. 

Mum says she needs to look things up about food shopping so I better let her look. I hope she brings home ham for me. 

Have a wonderful week. 

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

The rest of my holds came in and I found two books on the Lucky Day shelf. One of which I had on hold but was about 300 in the queue. 

Had lots of time to read lately. Staying home while they put in a new furnace and AC. All set for summer cooling and winter heat. That took about 5 hours and in that time I was able to read a book!

 Murder on the Menu another cozy mystery. A former London Met Police officer gives up the police life in London to return to her home town to run a catering business and raise her daughter. First catering job is to provide food for her old boyfriends upcoming wedding, but the bride disappears and the groom's ex is found dead. Can our catering person leave the police work to the police?

To Marry and to Meddle set in the 1820's London, two people agree to marry to get their parent's off their backs and perhaps forge new relationships with the same parents.

Verity is a thriller. A well known author is hurt in an accident and her publisher and husband hire a ghost writer to help finish off the last books of the series. When the female ghost writer shows up at the secluded house to go through papers she finds an unpublished manuscript that reveals many family secrets. Then weird things start happening around the house.

Lessons in Chemistry. This was the one that had 300+ holds on it and I was way up there in the holds. Glad to see on the Lucky Day shelf. I had added it to my list a year ago! Chemistry, heck any science was a hard field to be in for a woman in 1950-60's, but Elizabeth does her best. Working on chemical bonds and chemistry between humans.

Happy Reading.

Mini-ManCat Monday

 People that hate cats will come back as mice in their next life.

HA! That will be my human uncle Stormy. He isn't fond of pets of any type, not just felines!

Mum took off this past weekend, yep, off playing with racy cars. At least this weekend it was warm and dry. She didn't come home all cold and wet this time. She was happy about that. My needs were met by Miss Jane, I smelled kits on her. Mum says she has three. 

They did have an interesting thing happen this weekend. A big snapping turtle decided to cross the track during a session. It managed to get across and not get smooshed! Phew!

Mum said they did make a call as follows: 

Control, this is corner 7. We are displaying a yellow flag and a debris flag for a large turtle on the track!

Plus she came home with a little ducky for me from one of the racing gang. 

Thank you Tim M! Appreciate it!

That is about all from here. Mum has her feets up and it resting. 

Have a good week.

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Another smaller stack but not all of my requests came in at the same time.

Scent of Danger a man runs a perfume company and is in search of a child he fathered many years ago after donating sperm to a sperm bank. What do father and daughter have in common? A sensitive nose!

Crimes and Covers, the latest of the Magical Bookshop mysteries and from what I can tell it is the last of the series. Violet gets married!

Treacherous is the Night is the second Verity Kent mystery. Now back with her husband they search for a former colleague of Verity's from her clandestine work during World War One.

What Happened to the Bennetts a family is carjacked and one of them killed. The aftermath of crime and corruption. This was a bit too violent for me, I read the first few chapters and then the end. Didn't need all the mayhem in between.

Let's Not Do That Again contains a story of things that are messy, family and politics and this book has both.

The Younger Wife involves family secrets, dementia, a large stash of hidden money and a respected doctor marrying a much younger woman. Can the secret be disclosed and resolved?

 

Happy Reading.