Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Check outs from April or so of 2021.

The Prince Philip book made it to the top of my list just about the time he passed. Good review of his life. Didn't get into the Harlan Coben book. It was the first of the series, so I passed on the rest. The Sara Driscoll book, Storm Rising, an FBI K-9 book and the third of the series. Some violence but not too bad. At least not nearly as bad as a couple of other K-9 based books I recently checked out.

Also began reading the Lady Darby series here, The Anatomist's Wife. I just finished reading the last one that has already been published. Now I wait for the next one to be published.

Megan, Bread Therapy, the kneading, the baking, the smell, the eating. I am a person who likes good bread. Unfortunately I have to watch my carb intake!

Also, if you have suggestions on books you like, or authors, please let me know. Even though my list is 8 pages long, always looking for a good book or author to add to the mix. I may or may not agree, but you are always welcome to suggest.

Weather is mostly cool, and rainy, so lots of time to read. Too soon to start yard work other than to pick up branches from the yard. Also did a shift at the food pantry yesterday, that kept me busy for a few hours. I only help out about once every three months.

Mini-ManCat Monday

Cat food manufacturers haven't yet cottoned on to the fact that what cats really like is bolognaise sauce, cheese, ice-cream, potato crisps and anything Cordon Bleu.

Good old Derby loved anything with tomato sauce.  I like cheese, ice scream, frenchy fries, popcorn and all things meat. 

Me and mum had a good weekend. Mum spent most of it at home with me, doing chores, reading a book and crowshay, oh and watching the moving picture box. 

She flipped back and forth between the crashcar race and the basket ball stuff. Sadly the Peacocks did not get to move on, but they had a good run.

Plus you can see the latest blankie mum is working on. All sorts of bright colors. Plus I helped mum watched fevvers this weekend. We had lots of big and black birds come by to visit. 

 At least we had sun on Sunday, otherwise the week was gloomy and rainy. Plus it has been cold, so our new flowers haven't decided to open up yet.Even though it is cool we see more plants coming up out of the ground.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Peace for All

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

 Books checked out in March and April 2021. So what I was reading a year ago.

Bag Man is about former Vice President Spiro Agnew. It is being made into a movie now. I also didn't particularly care for The Thursday Murder Club. Story was fine, maybe it was the author's style of writing. 

Megan, I did not care for The Crow Trap by Anne Cleaves, did not finish the book. I had to look back to see what it was about. I know I read the first part and then the end to see how it ended. Skipped the middle!

With the college basketball tournament going on, trying to balance, reading, crochet and TV watching. 

 

Mini-ManCat Monday

A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the forepart plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it. - Henry David Thoreau

 You know I support the Blog 4 Peace. I have my peace globes with mum and Angel Derby over the years. Miss Mimi has asked for us to post next weekend specially for Ukraine. I have my little sign ready to go! I will post it on Caturday, March 6.

If you want to participate go to Miss Mimi's blog to get some cool pics or make one up on your own. We all want peace!

We finally had a couple of super nice days, the snow all went away from our yard. Mum got out the griller machine to make a burger. Here is the first burger of the season. Well we are after the spring equinox!

Me taking it easy on mum's lap and then later on the tower. Can you see behind me that the big window that goes to the floor is open just a little bit? Yeah, it was open windows for a couple of days last week. Me and mum both enjoyed it. Mum even sat outside to soak up a bit of sun.

No spring flowers yet. Mum says she does see the tips of the plants coming up through the ground!

Mum watched basketball over the weekend. Our university played in the big tourney. Won on Friday but lost on Sunday. So no more games for them. Plus our local high school made it to the state tourney for the first time ever. Sadly they lost in the semi-finals. But hey, they did better than they have ever done before. 

Everyone have a good week. 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

These books are from library check outs in January and February 2021.

I see I started reading both Deborah Crombie (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma Jones series) and Martin Walker(Bruno, Chief of Police series) in these batches. I like both of their series and have pretty much caught up to the point I have to wait until the next ones are published sometime this year.

I do not use Good Reads other than to look things up. I have joined but don't find it useful. I keep track of what I want to read in a Word document. It is currently 7 pages long!

I keep track of what I read in a spreadsheet. The numbered rows help me to know exactly how many books I have read. I used to do it in a word document putting 5, 10, 15 etc. for every 5 books. I copied them over to the spreadsheet late last year. 

I update my To Be Read list as I check out and add new books. Every quarter I re-save it for that quarter. Then I can go back through them if I am looking for something. I have them saved back to 2010. I have my read lists back to 2014. I started that when I was reading a book and it seemed so familiar. Yeah, I had read it before. Now if I am questioning if I have read something I just need to do a quick search. 

I have always been a good reader. Obviously less reading while I was working full time, but with retirement and the pandemic, I really have been reading like crazy.  

Yesterday I had lunch with our former library director and library business manager. We didn't discuss much library stuff. More to gather together and watch the new version of West Side Story. I liked it and yeah, I had tears at the end. 

Mini-ManCat Monday

There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing, and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his comfort and convenience. - Allen & Ivy Dodd

Yeah, we barely have to lift a paw and our humans will do whatever we want.  Cuddles, foods, toys. You name it!

Mum hid the hour in the clocks on Caturday and went to bed early by my thinking. She said the new clock time said "Bedtime", that way she doesn't lose an hour of her beauty sleep. She needs her beauty sleep. MOL. 

Sunday was bright and sunny, good for laying in the front window to soak up the morning sun. You can't tell from this picture but we got SNOW!

Above is what it looked liked out front in the early morning, below is what it looked like at lunch time. Mum didn't shovel, the sun made it all melt away. Tiny bit of snow yet in the back on the patio.

Don't think much is going on this week. Me and mum will just hang out!

Happy week everyone!

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

 These pictures bring me to the end of check outs in 2020. 

If you haven't read or seen the movie Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, do it. Plus the other two books that go with it, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems. Trilogy to get the whole story. Sex and Vanity is his latest book, not directly related to the previous story line.

Andrea Kane is a favorite author. I especially like her Forensic Instinct series. It is a series and probably best read in order published. 

Christopher Buckley writes great satire, mostly on political situations. I think I have read all of his books. He is the son of William F Buckley.  

Virginia (#1 of the Chan's) mentioned last week that I have a really nice library. Yes I do! I live just over 2 miles from the library and from 2009 to 2019 I was on the library board. The building was opened in late 2002. Local library is a part of a two county group of 24 libraries. I have access through a shared online catalog to the entire collection of all 24 libraries. All I have to do is request a book, it is delivered to my local library to pick up. 

Front of the library, entrance to the left, large meeting room in front, drive to outside drop off on the right. Upper level is shelving for adult and teen books and computer area, study rooms. 

Front entrance at evening with inside lights on.

Inside the entrance lobby. Shelving for new books on the left, Lucky Day shelves on the right, kids area straight ahead. Circulation to the right. You can also see a large quilt hanging from the upper level.

View of the upstairs shelving with the main stairwell. Picture taking during one of the school art shows. Each spring the library hosts the display of art created by local students. One month for the public schools, another for the private schools.

Library has lots of programs for all ages, have done well to continue to serve the public during the pandemic with curbside pickup, online programs.

Mini-ManCat Monday

A true cat lover cradles a new kitten and knows that nine lives will never be nearly enough.

 Me being all majestic on my tower. I was up here looking down on mum and wondering if I should pounce down on her lap! 

Yeah, that is me in the PTU. Last Tuesday mum put me in here and hauled me off to the stabby place to see Dr. Tom. Good news is my weight has remained stable at just over 7 pounds. They stole my bloods and those were all nice and normal too. Said I was good to go for another half year. 

Almost all of our snow is gone, just a few icy piles left. We had a couple of warmer days and mum opened the window in the kitch-hen for me to sniff. However, during the day on Monday we are supposed to get some snow. It won't last long!

Our spring birds came back during the past week too. One robin, one grackle and three red-winged blackbirds. Mum even spotted one of the goldy finches starting to turn bright yellow. 

Mum has not spotted any shoots of new plants coming up. Mum wants spring flowers really bad.

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Some of the books here I know I got from other people recommending them, but then I couldn't get into them. Move on to something else.

I got to be the first person to check out the Obama book. I knew it was coming out in November. I started checking for it in the on line catalog months before. As soon as I could, I put a hold on it. That was in September! I didn't race through it, took me 10 days to read. Parts got a bit heavy where they discussed economic policy and such. Book end shortly after Bin Laden's death. Not sure when the second memoir will be released.

The Lawrence Wright book The End of October is about a pandemic. He had submitted the manuscript before Covid started. "Rodham" is what Hillary's life would have been had she not married Bill Clinton.

 See the green tape that says LUCKY DAY? The library started this a few years ago buying an extra book of really popular books that would go on the special Lucky Day shelf. If it was there and you wanted it, it was yours. I have found books where I was way down the hold list but managed to snag a copy this way. Only downside is that you can only check it out for three weeks, no renewals. When that happens it is the first book read when I check out my stash.

I have also come across a few memes to share. I would add a cat to the below. Winter isn't giving up. Last week we had an icy mix, snow and cold making a mess on my driveway that wasn't easy to clear. This week a bit milder with sun.

Most of our snow and ice is melted. Waiting to see when the early spring migrating birds show up. Friends who live south of me have started to see or hear the sand hill cranes and red-winged blackbirds. That is what I am doing these days, reading, watching the snow melt, waiting for the birds to show up.