Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 9/4/22 : Hello September

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

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….

Hello all. Happy Sunday and happy 3 day weekend. I hope you’re doing well. Labor Day is tomorrow so yay for a Monday off work. 🙂

It’s been a long week that started off with an allergist appointment on Monday after work, where I had to wait nearly one hour in the waiting room just to be seen. I never understand why doctors overbook. I went to see my allergist because I keep breaking out in hives and can’t figure it out. Neither can the doctor at this time so he sent me for bloodwork which I had done yesterday morning and am waiting for the results but which may provide no answers. He did the skin patch test which didn’t tell us much other than I’m allergic to dust mites and cats and I don’t need a patch test to know that lol. In the meantime I have to take allergy meds daily for the next 2 weeks. On a nicer note, we’ve been having some really nice weather these few days and I can feel Fall around the corner, it’s already been cooler in the mornings and evenings which I love. I wish it was like this year round.

onto my bookish updates….

recently on the blog:

I shared my thoughts on:

The Little House by the Sea (Pennystrand Village Book 1) by Tracy Rees


The Thin Place by C.D. Major


coming soon:

I’m halfway through which is an interesting story about twin brothers with a psychic connection.

in my mailbox:


The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth came via St. Martin’s Press.


Shifting and Shenanigans by Elizabeth Pantley came via Partners In Crime Book Tours.

Also in my mailbox, we visited a favorite used record shop/book store last weekend and I found an original hard cover edition of Christine by Stephen King.



This place usually has some good King books for decent prices and I was so happy to find this one for my King collection. I got that hard cover first edition copy of Misery on my shelves for $2 a few years ago at a library book sale. I love a good book find like that 🙂


watching:

I binged Bridgerton Season 2 last weekend. So good. I did think it could have been cut down one episode though, I felt like it started to drag on towards the end, but still so good. Also, all the scary things while crocheting so I’ve been watching my fav Halloween movies like the original Halloween and I’ve been making my way though films based on Stephen King books so I just re-watched The Dead Zone yesterday.

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crochet:
I’ve been working on a Halloween blanket for my daughter. We’re designing it together and I’m almost done. I have about 5 more squares to make now and then I have to sew them together and crochet a border.




That covers my updates, for now. Thanks for stopping in. What have you been up to? Enjoy your week!


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Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is available for download. The photos here are my own and not be to be removed from this post.

Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 12/27/2021: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Updates

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

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….

Hello all. It’s Monday evening after work now instead of Sunday so my updates are a little late this week. I meant to log in yesterday and get this post ready but was just relaxing. I hope you had a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it and hope you are all doing well. We had a nice quiet Christmas at home. Otherwise, it’s been a busy month. My daughter had all 4 wisdom teeth removed a few weeks ago which she is still healing from believe it or not due to a complication on one side with a dry socket. 😦 I’ve crocheted a lot, I’ve been reading and I’m behind on reviews so I have a few reviews I need to share.

I’m back to working fully remote rather than hybrid since mid-December and my job extended working fully remote through the end of January due to the surge in Covid cases. I cannot believe we’re pushing two years of this pandemic. Several of our friends have tested positive lately so it’s pretty scary. Thankfully, all of them have only had mild head cold like symptoms. I had my booster shot last week which went well aside from the arm pain and body aches, it wasn’t as strong as the full vaccine shots I had in the Spring.

Also, Happy Healthy New Year 🙂 Any plans for the New Year? I should have a yearly wrap up post next week. I didn’t read as much as I would have liked to in 2021 but it’s fun looking back on the reading/blogging year.

Onto my updates….

recently on the blog:

I shared my thoughts on Later by Stephen King which was fantastic.


I shared my thoughts on Your Words Your World by Louise Bélanger which was a nice poetry collection.

in my mailbox:
My daughter and I have been sitting down by the Christmas tree these past several weeks and reading in the evenings after work. These are our latest books below. We decided we would both read them so we can discuss. So far we’ve read 1984 which I’ll be reviewing soon and Later by Stephen King (not shown here). She’s ahead of me and read Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom already and she loved it.



Others in our book stack are I Am Legend by Matheson (which I read already so I don’t think I will re-read this one), We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, The Giver by Lois Lowry and The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Have you read any of these?

crochet:
I made these two hooded shawls and this ear warmer head/wrap this month. Both were on commission and they went under someone’s Christmas tree this year which is nice.











That wraps up my updates for now. Happy Holidays from Otis! We’ll be blog hopping tomorrow. Stay well!


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Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is available for download. Some of these links are affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission. The photos in this post are my own and not to be removed from here.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

source: purchased
title: The Four Winds
author: Kristin Hannah
genre: historical fiction
pages: 464
published: February 2, 2021
first line: Hope is a coin I carry: an American penny, given to me by a man I came to love.
rated: 5 out of 5 stars

Blurb:
The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it―the harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.-quoted from Amazon

My thoughts:
The Four Winds was my first foray into author Kristin Hannah’s work and it won’t be my last. I picked this one up after seeing a few book bloggers rave about it.

This book was my vacation read last week and I was transported as I read. I could not put it down, reading as many as 200 pages in one day which is alot for me since I usually tap out at maybe 100 pages a day.

Without giving too much away, the story takes place during the 1930’s Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The book centers around Elsa Wolcott who by age 25 has been written off by her family as an old maid. She is born in Texas to a well off family since her father owns a tractor business. Elsa loves to read and wants to have fun and be a flapper and become a writer one day. Everything changes for her and she becomes a mom and suffers through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. With themes of family, motherhood, the bonds women form, poverty and American life during the 1920’s and 30’s this was an epic story that utterly drew me in. I could not turn the pages fast enough.

The author writes about the Dust Bowl and the storms so vividly I could easily imagine it. Of course while reading I had to google the Dust Bowl to familiarize myself with the details and I was shocked at what I learned and what so many people suffered at that time. The images of these dust storms look like something out of a nightmare. The dust from the Plains region even reached up as far as Washington DC and New York City at one point. The author paints such a vivid picture of what people went through at that time and of the poverty people suffered that it both shocks you and pulls at your heartstrings as you read.

Kristin Hannah’s descriptive writing style and the way she shaped these characters had me enthralled. I felt for them and I wanted them to be alright. The relationships within the story are what grab ahold of you as you read. Elsa is a good mother trying to survive it all and take care of her children. The people she meets who are going through similar struggles become like family to her. This is a story about strong women and about surviving against all odds and pushing forward no matter what.

The Four Winds is definitely one of my top reads for 2021 and I highly recommend it if you are looking to get swept away into a well written historical family saga. Have a box of tissues handy.
As per the photo below, my reading view last week was perfect. I’m so glad I chose The Four Winds as my vacation book. Have you read this one?



“Books had always been her solace; novels gave her the space to be bold, brave, beautiful, if only in her own imagination.”– p14, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

“Heartache had been a part of her life so long it had become as familiar as the color of her hair or the slight curve in her spine. Sometimes it was the lens through which she viewed her world and sometimes it was the blindfold she wore so she didn’t see.”- p.117, The Four Winds

“Love is what remains when everything else is gone.” -p.425, The Four Winds

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About the author:
Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, which was named Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel for 2015 and won the coveted People’s Choice award for best fiction in the same year. Additionally, it was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week.-quoted from Amazon


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Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I purchased my copy of The Four Winds. Some of these links are affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission. The book photo here is my own.

Sunday Post/Mailbox Monday 5/2/2021: Hello May

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…
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….

Hello and happy weekend. I can’t believe it’s May already. I hope everyone is doing well. As of this past week hubby and I are fully vaccinated, we both got our second doses. Sigh of relief. My husband just had a sore arm both doses but I had more symptoms mainly with the second dose. About 15 hours after the second dose I ran a low grade fever and had body aches for about 24 hours then I was good as new.
Aside from that, I’ve been reading, crocheting and taking walks enjoying the nice weather. I’ll share a few flower pics at the end of this post.

Onto more updates….

recently on the blog:
I posted a few reviews!

Her Three Lives by Cate Holahan


A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay


Garden in a Seed by Nazanin Mirsadeghi


Impermanence by Ren Powell

coming soon:

My review of Bird’s Eye View by TK Ray is coming up this week.

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in my mailbox:

I have a great mailbox this week. We went to a local favorite used book and record shop and I found two like new copies of these two books. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King and Transformations by Anne Sexton
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crochet:
I finished up a sweater I had been working on for a few months. My daughter bought me this beautiful yarn for Christmas. I put my shawl to the side for now because I want to finish up a blanket for my son in time for his May birthday in a few weeks. He’s turning 25! I cry just thinking about that.

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watching:
Ghost Adventures as usual and Seeking Sister Wife because it is completely nuts.
Also of note, Secrets of the Whales on the Disney app is fantastic. Have you seen any of these?

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I’ll close with photos of a recent walk through our local state park. The Cherry Blossoms in particular are my favorite. Thank you for stopping by and enjoy your weekend. What are you up to? What are you reading? Stay well.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is available for download. Some of these links are affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission. The photos in this post are my own and not to be removed from here.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

source: purchased
title: The House We Grew Up In
author: Lisa Jewell (Twitter)
genre: fiction/family issues
pages: 386
published: August 12th 2014
first line: Tuesday 2nd November 2010
rated: 4 out of 5 stars

blurb:
OUR HOUSE. OUR FAMILY. OUR SECRETS.

Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it’s their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children’s art, to her husband’s chagrin.

Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county’s worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in—to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

my thoughts:

After having read Then She Was Gone this past January I knew I wanted to read Lisa Jewell again. The House We Grew Up In centers on the Bird family and their secrets, heartache and healing. The story goes back and forth from past to present day as we get each family member’s story. The matriarch of the house is a hoarder. When the children were growing up Lorelei seemed like an eccentric stay at home mom with a house full of knick knacks and the walls covered in her children’s drawings, but as the years passed this turned into a full on hoard situation. Her husband Colin is a quiet teacher who turns a blind eye to the hoarding, their twins sons are Rhys and Rory and the daughters are Meg and Beth. The neighbor Vicky and her children also become part of the Bird’s lives.