LadyoftheLodge Reads in 2024

Hi there!

My name is Cheryl. Although I am retired from full time work in public education, I teach online college classes in Leadership Theory, as well as the Sciences, for several universities. I also write curriculum and book reviews. My husband and I recently started to volunteer on Saturday mornings at the private library in the retirement community in which we live.

I live in a small town, have two lovable cats, and played the clarinet in a community band (sadly, we have made the difficult decision to disband, no pun intended). My husband and I like to travel and have frequently been spotted on cruise ships, although not lately! We also enjoy theater and music venues. Our travel lately has been limited to bus trips to the symphony and also day trips. Both of us are voracious readers, although our reading tastes differ immensely.

My library occupies one room of my house. There are books in every room of my home as well. I read cozy mysteries, classic mysteries, assorted fiction, historical mysteries, children's books, and occasionally biography or memoirs. I enjoy reading print materials as well as e-books. (I like being able to carry all those e-books with me whenever I go anywhere. My Kindle or tablet is often in my bag when I leave the house.) My two "reading cats" enjoy reading with me every night before we all go to sleep. They have not yet expressed any specific reading preferences.

Challenge Hosting Commitments for 2024:

RandomKIT--July
MysteryKIT--October
CalendarCAT--November

AlphaKIT

X & Z Yearlong

January - A Y--The Amish Christmas Angel-by Mary Lantz & If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff
February - F E--A Summer at Sea by Katie Fforde & A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
March - H R--The Christmas Hedgehog by Ian Humphreyes & The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter by Kathryn Reiss
April - U O--Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jessie Q. Sutanto and On Retreat with Thomas Merton by M. Basil Pennington
May - N P
June - J B
July - I S
August - M G
September - V C
October - D T
November - L W
December - K Q

MysteryKIT

January—short story mysteries--The Parfait Murder by Luna Snow
February—true unsolved mysteries--History's Unsolved Mysteries by Paul Aron
March—historical--The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter by Kathryn Reiss
April--series--Public Anchovy #1 by Mindy Quigley
May—golden age
June—authors new to you
July—cross genre mysteries
August—amateurs
September—upstairs/downstairs
October--not too scary mysteries
November--noir
December--culinary mysteries

RandomKIT

January--Early Birds--Let it Crow! Let it Crow! Let it Crow! by Donna Andrews
February--Rescue/Escape--Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble by Laurien Berenson
March--Wildlife--The Christmas Hedgehog by Ian Humpheryes
April--Garden Visitors--They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

CalendarCAT

January--Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly
February--The Amish Matchmakers by Beth Wiseman
March--The Christmas Hedgehog by Ian Humphereyes
April--The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Reserved for BingoDOG

I decided to try reading all children’s books for this challenge, since we don’t have KiddyCAT/KIT this time.

2024 BingoDog card:
1. A book with an ugly cover--Spoiled (Kimberly the Cat Series)
2. Something that takes place in multiple countries--How My Parents Learned to Eat
3. Set in the city--Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10
4. Involves warriors or mercenaries--History Comics: World War II: Fight on the Home Front
5. Epistolary or diary format--Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
6. Title contains a person's name--Gerald McBoing-Boing
7. Written by an author 65 or older--A House for Hermit Crab
8. A book with nothing on the cover but the title and author--The Secret Ingredient
9. Features a paper based item in the plot--Dog Loves Books
10. Reread a favorite book--The Little House
11. Something themed around food or cooking--The Gingerbread Cowboy
12. A book with fewer than 100 copies on LT--King Charles III
13. Read a CAT--If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
14. A book featuring water--The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter
15. A book written in another cultural tradition--Arthi's Bomma
16. The words "Big" or "Little" in the title--The Little Engine That Could
17. A book featuring twins--Two and Two are Four
18. A short story collection / Anthology--Peanuts Countdown to Christmas
19. Read a current/recent bestseller--The Day the Phones Went on Vacation
20. A book about a topic about which you have specific knowledge or expertise--Miss Malarkey Won't Be In Today
21. A book about Friendship--Library Lion
22. First published in a year ending in 24--The Christmas Hedgehog
23. A book from one of the libraries listed under the "Similar libraries" featured on your LT profile page— Changes for Samantha
24. Something written by a person of colour--Grandfather's Journey
25. A three-word title-- The Chanukkah Guest

Complete! April 2, 2024

My Challenge--Kindle Unlimited

I just started a subscription to Kindle Unlimited. I already have a huge list on my Amazon Wishlist of KU titles I want to read. Keeping track of finished titles here should help me make good use of my subscription.

1.The Amish Library by Naomi Troyer
2.The Wilder Widows by Katherine Hastings
3.Spoiled (Kimberly the Cat Series by Rob Baddorf
4.Murder and Cake: Royal Appointment by Luna Snow
5.Murder and Cake: The Orange Marmalade Cake Murder by Luna Snow
6.Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble by Laurien Berenson
7.Christmas Nights at the Star and Lantern by Helen Rolfe
8.History's Unsolved Mysteries by Arch Stanton
9. Christmas Camp Wedding by Karen Shaler
10.Murder in New Orleans by Ann Sutton
11.Where We Belong by Sarah Bennett
12.The Day the Phones Went on Vacation by Maribella Blake
13.Cherish Key West by Lynette Paul
14.Cherish St. Maartens by Lynette Paul
15.In From the Cold by Sarah Bennett
16.Cherish Bermuda by Lynette Paul
17.Come Rain or Shine by Sarah Bennett
18.Escape from Assisted Living by Joyce Hicks

My Challenge--NetGalley

I plan to keep track of my NetGalley finishes/reviews here.

1.Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally
2.Max Fernsby and the Infinite Toys by Gerry Swallow
3.The Amish Quiltmaker's Unlikely Match by Jennifer Beckstrand
4.A Case of the Bleus by Korina Moss
5.Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly
6.The Amish Matchmakers by Beth Wiseman
7.The Fatal Folio by Elizabeth Penney
8.Murder of an Amish Bridegroom by Patricia Johns
9.Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop DNF by Hwang Bo-reum
10.How to Train Your Human by Babas
11.A Smoking Bun by Ellie Alexander
12.Good Taste DNF by Caroline Scott
13.Letters of Wisdom by Wanda Brunstetter
14.Public Anchovy #1 by Mindy Quigley
15.Coconut Drop Dead by Olivia Matthews
16.Amish Love Letters by Shelley Shepard Gray and others
17.Of Hoaxes and Homicide by Anastasia Hastings
18.Lucy Burdette's Kitchen by Lucy Burdette
19.The Heart's Shelter by Amy Clipston

Lots of great plans for 2024, Cheryl, and I am looking forward to following along. :)

>9 DeltaQueen50: Thanks and welcome! Good to see you here.

I will definitely be following along to see what you read on Kindle Unlimited. One of my side challenges next year is to find a KU book to fit every challenge. Even if I end up reading an owned or library physical book, I want to see just how much I can find on KU. At the beginning of each month, I plan to have a post on my thread with the KU books for that month's challenges. I hope it will also encourage me to use my membership more as sometimes I go months without reading on my Kindle - need to get some value for my money!

Happy reading in 2024!

Your list of KITs you will follow is similar to mine! I hope your 2024 reading is satisfying--I'm looking forward to another year of following along.

Good luck with your challenge! KU has so many books...

Looking forward to following your reading in 2024 - and getting hit with lots of BBs.

>11 JayneCM: My free trial of KU will end on Dec 31. Then I will be paying for it. I already have a huge list of books to read.

>12 NinieB: >13 majkia: >14 VivienneR: Thanks for your kind comments! Looking forward to reading in 2024.

Good luck with your 2024 reading challenge!

>17 Tess_W: Thanks for stopping by!

My fur babies and I wish you and your fur babies a great year of reading, although my babies show an extreme preference for books about or featuring cats.

I'm looking forward to your reviews in 2024!

>1 LadyoftheLodge: Fellow community band musician here (trombone)! Sorry to hear that your group has disbanded -- I hope you're able to find somewhere else to play!

Happy reading. I hope you find plenty of excellent books on Kindle Unlimited. There are so many, so it's good to know which ones are worth a try.

Hope you have a good reading year, Cheryl. I'll be interested in your KU reading.

>19 lowelibrary: My most recent kitty pick is The Twelve Days of Snowball which features a white kitty on the cover. Toeney cat nosed it off the shelf.

>20 mstrust: Thanks for visiting my thread. We will see how the reading plans work out!

>21 christina_reads: We would have been getting ready for Christmas concert now! We lost our director and about half our musicians.

>22 pamelad: Thanks! My KU list of TBRs keeps growing!

>23 dudes22: Thanks for stopping by! I always seem to have ambitious reading plans but they don’t always work out.

I'm another one that began using KU recently. I was influenced by two friends who have been used it a lot. I hope you find lots of books there and elsewhere that make your reading great fun in 2024.

>28 clue: Thank you! So far it is proving to be a treasure trove of books I want to read. I made a separate list on my Amazon account and I am adding the titles there so I won't forget them. My experience with looking for books on Amazon is sort of like "The Road not Taken." Knowing how way leads onto way, I doubted if I should ever come back . .. .

Hi Cheryl, I'm looking forward to following along in 2024!

>30 MissBrangwen: Thanks for stopping by!

Yippee, happiness all around! I have finished grading and turned in final grades! (Now I can get paid!) I am off the teaching clock until January, when my next geology class takes up.

>32 LadyoftheLodge: Yipee! I was off on Dec. 10 and my next assignment is Am Hist II which begins on Jan. 8.

>33 Tess_W: My next assignment also starts on Jan 8 and it will be 8 weeks of geology.

Enjoy your holiday and time away from classes. Best wishes for 2024.

>34 LadyoftheLodge: The "rock lady!"

>37 Tess_W: That works! I have been called worse.

I look forward to following your challenge again in 2024. Enjoy the break.

>39 RidgewayGirl: Thank you, and thanks for stopping by. Today I tried to explain to my elderly neighbor about our online Challenges and chatting and LT in general. She listened politely and nodded but I am not sure she really got the idea, as she does not use the computer very much. But she is an avid reader!

Does your definition of elderly change as you get older? Mine does, and now elderly starts at around 85. Next year it will probably be older again.

>41 pamelad: It does! I consider myself a senior citizen/veteran teacher/seasoned individual, but definitely not elderly. That moniker would start sometime in one's 80's.

Loved your end-of-year report!

>41 pamelad: It depends on who you ask. If you ask my body, it groaningly says 80 is elderly. If you ask my mind it would say, maybe 90 or 100 should be considered elderly.

>41 pamelad:
>42 LadyoftheLodge:
>43 mysterymax:

I did some Googling! According to the Social Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health--65 is elderly. However, according to a Pew Research poll of 3000 Americans, age 68 is elderly. According to the American Medical Association age 65 is elderly. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Since the average life span of men in the US is 73 and women is 79 (since 2020).........I don't wanna be elderly!

>44 Tess_W: good grief...I'm not elderly, I'm ancient.

>41 pamelad: One of the first questions my 84 year old father asked me after he'd gotten settled in his apartment in a retirement community was, "why did you pick a place with so many old people?" I think that after we hit our forties, we have this internal picture of ourselves as around 35 and just keep that, no matter what we see in the mirror.

Cheryl, since you expressed interest in the nature cat I proposed this year, I wanted to invite you to check out The Greenhouse thread in Club Read. I'd love to see you over there.

>46 RidgewayGirl: I agree! That gray hair in the mirror is not how I look in my mind's eye.

This discussion about aging is cracking me up! I definitely do not consider any age in the 60s or 70s to be elderly! What are those people at SSA and so on thinking?? That information was probably posted by some 20-somethings who think they are invincible, just as I did at that age. (FYI--My hubby and I are at the young end of the spectrum for the retirement community in which we reside. There are some residents in the apartments who are over 100 years old.) I think a lot of it has to do with a person's frame of mind.

>47 markon: Thanks, I will check out the thread you mentioned.

Dropping by and hanging my star. I'm not formally committing to any CATS/KITS this year, but I suspect I'll read some things. I always forget to post to the wiki. (I need someone to do that for me because I just forget. Sometimes I'm too busy to hunt it down when I'm posting. Then I forget to do it later.)

I love the discussion about what counts as "elderly"! I am similarly pondering what counts as "middle-aged"...I will soon be 40 so I think it's me?! But I once heard that "middle-aged" is defined as 10 years older than whatever age you are. :)

For someone in good health, I think middle age is closer to 60 than 40.

>53 hailelib: Roger that! I believe I read somewhere that 60 is the new 40. (I turned 70 in July and we went out to dinner. The hostess wished me a happy day and guessed my age at 55. Gotta love that! Although she might have just been being kind to a senior citizen!)

Mu hubby and I attended a Roaring 20's/Gatsby-themed New Year's Eve Eve party with about 30 other people. We won the prize for best dressed couple! (That man of mine still turns heads when he wears a tuxedo! Both of us were in formal attire.) We won a gift certificate to use at the new Bistro dining that will soon open in the main building of our retirement community.

My sisters and niece gave me a pile of paperback books for Christmas. They include mysteries by Maggie Sefton and Leslie Budewitz. We received a lot of cool stuff for Christmas.

>51 mstrust: Perfect graphic for us! We enjoy our wine! And the bubbly was flowing at the New Year's Eve Eve party we attended.

I gifted my husband with a decorative box of small bottles of wine from around the world. It was an Advent calendar with little doors to open that feature the small wine bottle for each day, but I waited too long to order so it arrived after Christmas. He still liked the gift though.

Looking forward to following your reading in 2024.

>54 LadyoftheLodge: Here's my story about becoming a "senior citizen".

At the time I still had my retail store and in the summer I would stop at our local diary bar for an ice cream on my way home on a random day. I had worked out how much the cone cost and always managed to have the exact change. The owner worked there and was a sweet man. One day I put my money on the counter and he gave me change! Surprised, I asked if he had lowered the price. And he replied..."It's Tuesday. Senior Citizens get a discount on Tuesdays."

Well, this was the first time anyone had openly recognized me as a senior (I probably thought I still looked 40 - or 50 - . With an astonished tone I replied, "How old do you have to be to be a senior?" By the look on my face he must have recognized that he'd goofed and without missing a beat, he replied...35!

>58 mysterymax: That is a funny story! Thanks for sharing. Here is my story:

I went into a Panera Bread and there was a guy there who was conducting a marketing survey. I asked if he wanted my input, and when he got to the demographics section, he pointed to the category that was much younger than I am. When I said no, he pointed to the next one up--wrong again! Finally I just showed him the correct one and he said "No way!" and then turned bright red.

I finished a Kindle Unlimited read The Wilder Widows by Katherine Hastings. It was a humorous read, but had more and more sexual innuendoes and profanity as the book went on. I originally thought I might read the other two in the series, but changed my mind. Enough of these four racy gals! They do not resemble any widows I know of.

Why are there so many typos in these books lately???

My next geology online teaching assignment starts on Monday, Jan 8. The techies loaded it into the online teaching platform, so I entered the start up information such as announcements, calendar, Prof Q and A, my bio, prayer and scripture for Week One. There are currently just six students in this eight-week class, so that is a comfortable class size.

However, I will again have a two-week segment in which I will be teaching three classes at the same time, and a four-week segment in which I will have two classes running simultaneously. February will be short but busy!

>59 LadyoftheLodge: Well, that must have made your day!

>60 LadyoftheLodge: Why are there so many typos in these books lately???
Because the editors don't know how to spell.

>63 thornton37814: Probably they did not learn phonics in school. Maybe they are still the remnants of the "whole language" movement in teaching ELA and reading.

When I was in Library School, I collected picture books that were variations of the story of the runaway gingerbread man. I used The Gingerbread Cowboy for the BingoDog square for "food and cooking".

>59 LadyoftheLodge: Excellent!

>60 LadyoftheLodge: I think a lot of books no longer "see" a good copy editor before publication.

>67 hailelib: I agree! Sometimes I wonder if there is a copy editor at all. This seems particularly to apply if the book is self-published.

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally
Petra and her former childhood friend Duncan join forces in this novel to investigate the strange disappearances of some of Petra's friends in this Regency send up. Since Petra's fiance, and Duncan's best friend, passed away unexpectedly right before the wedding, she has declared her intention to remain single, yet her uncle seems intent upon matching her up with potential husbands. Schemes abound as her own family members turn to scurrilous persons and pursuits to convince Petra to abandon her single-mindedness and her sleuthing, which can land her in deep trouble.

Readers who enjoy a Regency mystery might like this read, especially if they enjoy a lot of detail in plot and characters. There is a cliff hanger ending to this novel.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

It's a bit daunting to arrive "late" to someone's thread! But I'm just getting organized now to do this.
So, hello and Happy New Reading Year!

Another reason for perhaps typos--AI! One of my professor friends had AI write a book review, and it misspelled some of the words!

>70 LibraryCin: Hi and welcome! Better late than never.

>71 Tess_W: That is an excellent point! I did not think of that, but I have messed around with AI. I pasted in a copy of one of the assignments from the course I teach, and it provided a complete paper in a few seconds!

First "real" snowfall of the season occurred during the night. It looked pretty and now is already melting and messy. Since today was our day to work at the community library for an hour, we had to get out in it, but did not have to drive too far.

Anxious People is our community book group for this month. We will discuss it on Wednesday. This was a compelling read, lots of twisty threads that all come together at the end. Not much in the story is as the reader thinks at the outset. It is over 300 pages long, with many short chapters.

The story is set in Sweden in a small town. A bank robber is not successful in the attempted robbery, runs into an apartment building to escape, and right into an open doorway to an apartment viewing. This turns into an unintended "hostage situation" of sorts, although the people there are really free to leave when they want to. Each of the people in the apartment has secrets that finally reveal themselves. I cannot say I liked the story, but I did finish it and found it intriguing. The main theme is that we cannot "save" every person from their life choices, but "we save the ones we can."

I read two more books over the weekend.
The Chanukkah Guest by Eric Kimmel for BingoDOG square "three words in title." This was a humorous tale of a lady who mistakes a bear for the rabbi, coming to dine with her, and feeds all the potato latkes to the bear! What is hilarious is the illustrations, in which the rabbi, when he arrives late in the story, looks quite like the bear!

Spoiled (Kimberly the Cat Series) by Rob Baddorf for BingoDOG "ugly cover" square. This story of a spoiled cat has many silly episodes which I can understand, since I am a cat owner (or perhaps they own me). It is a cute family oriented story and the first in a series about Kimberly the Cat.

The Chanukkah Guest reminds me of a very funny book, The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. A writer throws away his book, a bear finds it, claims to be the writer and goes to New York with much acclaim, no one noticing that he's a bear. Laughed till I cried.

>75 LadyoftheLodge:
>76 mysterymax:

Both books to see if in my local library! I need some humor!

>76 mysterymax: I think I read that book sometime in the past! Even the cover looks familiar.

Our community book club met yesterday. Council for Humanities is still not sending the books we ordered for our discussions. Apparently they are having courier issues and need a major reorganization, since they do not seem to know how many copies of each book they have or where they are located!

Our group leader made an executive decision to borrow copies of Our Town from our local library book discussion collection. Therefore arose a mutiny, finally! The person who was supposed to lead the February discussion had already prepared her materials and done all her background research on Nancy Atherton and had read the book Aunt Dimity's Death in preparation. I suggested we each read either Aunt Dimity's Death since copies are readily available at the library and on Libby, and some of us own the book; or, read a different Aunt Dimity book, or another mystery of the reader's choice. This seemed to go over well.

Some people in our group (and others not in the group) have approached myself and my neighbor and asked us to form another reading group, since they do not like the selections our current group has been reading. They want to read popular fiction, mysteries, and other books based on different genres. Our current group had a committee that selected all the books for 2024 (I was on it) and now those are not available. The selections have been dependent on number of copies available, so some good choices were off the table.

I am anxious to see how next month goes along with this slightly different format.

>79 LadyoftheLodge: I hope you can all resolve the book club politics without the formation of a breakaway group.

>80 pamelad: I am hoping that too. I am relatively new to the group, so I do not want to rock the boat.

I finished reading A Summer at Sea and found it quite satisfying and enjoyable. This book tells the story of Emily, a midwife who needs a vacation and ends up as the cook on a small touristy steamboat in Scotland. She promptly falls in love with Scotland and also meets a widowed doctor and his young daughter, with whom she also falls in love. The theme of this story is "do what you love." Although it started out as a Kindle Unlimited book, I ended up buying it because I liked it so much.

We worked our volunteer stint in the library here in our retirement community this morning. I have a new assignment as the genre librarian, so I will be tasked with adding the genre labels to help our patrons find the books they love. (Currently, our library is divided up into nonfiction, Large Type fiction, and regular type fiction.) That means I will also be making the decisions about genre labels when several different ones are possible. The cataloger for our library will also help me out. I am sure I drive her nuts because I text her often, and she just lives down the street and around the bend from me.

The weather here is cold, temps dropped quite a lot, and was quite windy last evening, and we received a dusting of snow. It did not feel as cold as I thought it would though. We went to the symphony on the bus/coach yesterday for the morning concert, so I was glad not to be driving in the rain/snow/fog. Sorry to say we enjoyed the orchestra but not the guest vocalist, who is apparently a TikTok star, and he played to the high school students in the audience, while they screamed as if they were at a rock concert (most of the people in attendance at these concerts are retirees). Thankfully, this is not the usual type of concert featured at this venue.

The Amish Quiltmaker's Unlikely Match
Mary Yoder lives a quiet life on her family farm with her dad and sisters. She enjoys working with the goats, making quilts, and helping with the family cheese business. When Clay crashes his car into their family barn, Mary helps her dad to rescue their barn as well as Clay. As the family gets to know Clay, they are surprised to discover that he is a professional baseball player! Clay quickly becomes a well-loved part of the family, as he works to repair the damage to the barn and fence. Mary falls in love with Clay, but reporters, fans, and gossip related to his profession keep interfering in their romance. The characters experience growth and change, while confronting their own inner demons.

Readers who enjoy a new angle on the Amish romance story will find this to be a refreshing change up! The story is a clean and sweet one, without explicit sex, strong language, or violence. The Christian message is overt, but not preachy.

>83 LadyoftheLodge: I think that is on a list of possibilities for me already as I recognize the title.

I'm next door to you in Illinois, and things are frigid here. I hope you're staying inside and staying warm!

>85 RidgewayGirl: Brr, I heard that Illinois got hit with the bad weather more so than where I live. The worst of the storm swept north of us, but the temps are still in the single digits. At least the high winds have stopped. I hope you are safe and warm.

>79 LadyoftheLodge: Just gonna point out that this is how The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires started. Start the new book club and see what happens ;-D

>87 mstrust: Thank you! I will talk with my fellow partners in crime.

Finally getting on board with the threads this year. I am looking forward to following here. I always enjoy your reads!

You can find my new thread here. https://www.librarything.com/topic/357398#8369531

>89 beebeereads: Good to see you here and back in action.

I just finished Murder and Cake: Orange Marmalade Cake Murder which read as if a teenager had written it. Lots of word errors and confusing information. Thankfully it was short and easy to read and a Kindle Unlimited book so back it went!

Today is snowy and cold, so we are staying at home reading and cooking.

>91 LadyoftheLodge: Bad writing is disappointing!

>92 thornton37814: That is true. The other two in this series were not as bad, although they also contained word errors.

The Amish Matchmakers by Beth Wiseman
The Amish matchmakers Lizzie and Esther now have their own story! Readers of the Amish Bookstore novels me these two ladies in cameo appearances, but this book is all about them. When retired widower/dentist Ben moves into the cottage owned by the ladies, he captures the hearts of both of the widows. Lizzie is a fireball of energy and emotion, while Esther is the more controlled and conservative of the two senior citizen sisters.

The story also features a love conflict between Ben's granddaughter Mindy and her Amish beau Gabriel. Will they follow their hearts, or will they suffer broken hearts, since Amish and Englisch do not often make a match.

I appreciated and enjoyed the romance between the older adults as well as the younger ones. The best part of the story is the unconditional love demonstrated by the sisters. This story alternately made me laugh and cry, with the antics of both sisters in contrast to each other. Serious topics of health scares, cultural differences, and relationships are included, and I worried about the possible endings. I am looking forward to another book with Esther as the recipient of romance.

While this book features characters from another series, it can be read as a standalone novel. I just wish the author had included an explanation of the characters in the epilogue, who appeared in the Amish Bookstore novels, instead of just their names listed as couples. Readers who did not read the bookstore series would not know about them.

I read Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble which features two senior sleuths in the second book in this series. When Peg meets a gentleman on a dating site, he ends up being a different person than he initially seems to be. He also ends up dead, run over by a car! Peg and Rose are determined to find out what happened, and become involved with a group of other ladies who were scammed by the man. This book is a spin-off from the Melanie Travis dog mysteries by the same author, and it was a Kindle Unlimited book.

Yesterday and today my hubby and I spent about 10 hours total working on attaching the genre labels for the small library in our retirement community. We ran out of labels for romance, suspense, and mystery, so that tells us there are many of those books in the library. I am now waiting for another of the librarians to print out more of the labels for us to continue. She is also the cataloger so she has a good knowledge of new books being added to our collection. Our small library will be in good shape once the genre labels are all attached and that will help patrons find what they are looking for more easily. Today I got to help one of the patrons find a specific book she wanted by doing a short "reader's advisory" with her, which is always fun for me.

>96 LadyoftheLodge: It’s nice that some of the people in your community use the library. The one at the place my dad was in wasn’t used at all.

>96 LadyoftheLodge: How great that you and your husband are willing to do this. Ten hours is a bunch in one day for sure!

It sounds like you all are enjoying your volunteer time in the library!

>97 hailelib: Our small library gets a lot of use, especially by the residents who live in the apartments at the assisted living and health care building. Many of them do not drive, so they like to use the library since it is right there in the building and open 24/7. It is quite a cozy spot to hang out, and there are also games and puzzles there, with at least two jigsaw puzzles in progress at any given time.

>100 LadyoftheLodge: that sounds lovely. And good for you spending time making it better for everyone.

>101 Helenliz: Thank you. Hubby and I are enjoying working on this project together.

I read two picture books for the BingoDog card.
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle for "author older than 65"
Gerald McBoing-Boing by Dr. Seuss for "name in title"

Today we went to the symphony and the program was "Revolution" which was a multi-media presentation of Beatles music played in symphonic form by the orchestra and featuring vocalists singing the tunes. It was a lot of fun and brought back memories for most of the people there.

The Fatal Folio
This mystery novel with gothic overtones is set in fascinating Cambridge, England. Molly Kimball lives in Cambridge with her mom and her aunt, and together they manage the Thomas Marlowe bookshop. Molly jumps at the chance to use her library skills to catalog the library at the stately mansion of her boyfriend Kieran. When a murder occurs and a rare manuscript is stolen, Molly gets more than she bargained for as she becomes part of a gothic story herself.

This novel contains a story within a story that adds interest to the main plot. Readers who enjoy a cozy mystery with twists and turns will enjoy the Cambridge university setting with its many bookshops and quirky characters. This novel is part of a series but can be read as a standalone.

I have way too much going on now! Currently reading The Last Resort by Alison Lurie, as well as Christmas Nights at the Star and Lantern by Helen Rolfe, Murder of an Amish Bridegroom by Patricia Johns for NetGalley, and Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton for our community book group.

I am also teaching two online classes, one in Geology and the other on Leadership Theory. I will have one more Geology class starting in about two weeks.

My husband and I finished evaluating the library collection at our retirement community and attaching the genre labels to all the fiction books on the shelves. As the checked out books are returned, we will need to attach the genre labels to them too. Overall, it took us about 20 hours total working together to complete this task.

I could not sleep last night, so I knocked out a bunch of books for the BingoDog card and finally got a few Bingos.
Dog Loves Books for "paper item in plot"
Library Lion for "friendship"
How My Parents Learned to Eat for "multiple countries'
Grandfather's Journey for "written by POC"
The Little House for "reread a fave"
Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10 for "in a city"
Miss Malarkey Won't Be in Today for "specific expertise"

I also finished Aunt Dimity's Death for our community book group meeting tomorrow, History's Unsolved Mysteries for the MysteryKIT, and Christmas Nights at the Star and Lantern for my KU challenge.

>106 LadyoftheLodge: I wish I was that productive when I can't sleep!

>107 clue: Thanks, but this was an anomaly. The Bingodog books were all kid's books so that helped too.

We had a fun time at the Mardi Gras luncheon here at our retirement community yesterday. Cajun food, lots of masks and beads, and TV news tuned to New Orleans and the parades. Mimosas were also on offer, which made the time extra special. We had lunch in the new Bistro area at the dining room, which has recently been renovated. It is quite nice and upscale modern.

Now today we are entering Lent with Ash Wednesday (on Valentine's Day no less)!

>104 LadyoftheLodge: I've wondered how those Elizabeth Penney books are. She has quite a few series, so I'm sure most are pretty formulaic, but some look like things I might enjoy. I know she has some "stitching" ones too.

>109 LadyoftheLodge: I took a King Cake to work on Mardi Gras. One of the student workers asked what a King Cake was. I empathized with her because I didn't really know until I had a roommate from New Orleans myself.

>110 thornton37814: I got to taste King Cake when I was in New Orleans and again at a Mardi Gras party last year. A fun story book is The King Cake Baby. Just remember that getting the baby in your piece of cake means you are throwing the Mardi Gras party next year!

I just finished Murder of an Amish Bridegroom by Patricia Johns. I rarely give a book five stars, but this one was an exception. I am usually good at guessing the perpetrator, but this one stumped me. Petunia becomes involved with helping Detective Asher solve a murder in Petunia's Amish community. She helps him gain access and she smooths the way with the Amish people to help with the investigation. Her main motive is to prove that her best friend, accused of the murder, is innocent. Secrets are revealed and situation come to light that have been hidden. There were many possible suspects and I kept changing my mind about the killer as new information was revealed. I also liked that the Amish people were portrayed as less-than-perfect individuals, instead of the sweet and innocent folks they are sometimes described to be. I hope there will be more books in this series, written by an experienced author of Amish novels. (The title is misleading, because the murdered individual is not a bridegroom, just a boyfriend, and a nasty fellow at that. As they say, "He had it coming.")

I did not finish several books I was to review from NetGalley. Here is my reasoning for them:

Kid Christmas--could not successfully access the download through Adobe Reader.
St. Valentine--same as above
The Other Half--profanity and drugs right off the bat, not for me.

I am currently reading A Smoking Bun for NetGalley which is going much better. Also trying to read The Boys in the Boat for our community book group.

My hubby and I worked for three hours on Saturday in the library here in our retirement community, relabeling the section on classics in preparation for a display and article (written by me) for the newsletter. The cataloger and I agreed that the classics were not getting notice and checked out because they were in the 800s Literature section. We decided they might get more attention if we featured them in the article and display and relabeled and cataloged them as fiction with a classics label. Some of them have not been checked out since 2011, and two had check out cards stamped 1988.

I also met with another librarian and our cataloger to discuss using an online catalog service and test-driving several of them. I am not sure how our residents will take to the idea, but we will try it out.

No one seems to be using the card catalog we currently have, as it includes only author cards, no title or subject cards. Most of our residents are just looking for a good book to read, so the cards serve more or less as a shelf list. I do not think the other volunteer librarians even use them. I think it is more of the idea of "But we have always done it this way!"

I am currently teaching three classes simultaneously: two sections of geology and one section of intro to leadership. Two of them are in their final week, and I will be glad to see them end. This has been a difficult section of issues in leadership, with suspected use of AI, students not paying attention to my feedback on assignments, and too many reasons why assignments are late/incomplete/undone, and etc. By this time next week, I will be down to one section of geology. That will seem like a cake walk!

Some of my friends and neighbors got together for an interesting book discussion last week. It was a "salon" of sorts, and each of us discussed a book we are reading. Other topics were discussed too, and the 90 minutes flew by. This group did not want to be or belong to a formal book club or reading group (too much like homework!) and we are planning to meet once a month and take turns hosting. We had a good balance of men and women, unlike the other book club that is mostly women (my hubby is the only man and he seldom reads the books). The group also included couples and singles, so that added variety and everyone felt welcome. It will be interesting to see how this works out. I was surprised by how much everyone, including my spouse, got into the discussion.

The book I talked about was The Last Resort by Alison Lurie, which ended up better than I thought. My spouse talked about A Good Day for a Massacre by William Johnstone who is one of his fave authors of western novels.

I read the following for the March challenges:

AlphaKit--The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter by Kathryn Reiss & The Christmas Hedgehog by Ian Humpyereyes
CalendarCAT-- The Christmas Hedgehog by Ian Humpyereyes
RandomCAT-- The Christmas Hedgehog by Ian Humpyereyes
MysteryKIT--The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter by Kathryn Reiss

I only have five squares left on my BingoDog card and have scored several bingos already.

>116 LadyoftheLodge: My book club operates in a similar way. We do have a selection for each month but it's the discussion about other books we are reading that gets the most discussion. We would like to have men join in but most of the husbands/friends aren't readers.

>119 clue: I am currently in two groups and I like the informal one better. There is no agenda or assigned reading, and it operates more like a "salon." The people who are in it do not want an assigned selection and the discussion is open and freewheeling.

The other book club is very formal with assigned readings and a structured discussion led by one member who throws out the questions. "We have always done it this way."

>120 LadyoftheLodge: - Our book club is one where we all read the same book and there's a theme for the year. I think we've had some really good discussions which might not happen if everyone wasn't reading the same book. Except for January which is "best book you read last year". Takes some of the pressure off reading in December. I now have 2 or 3 books on my wish list from this past January.

>120 LadyoftheLodge: I know what you mean, I'm not great at "reading on command."

I just finished Changes for Samantha for BingoDog challenge and Half Truths for my reading for Lent. I am still finishing Bikinis and Murder from Kindle Unlimited.

Two of my online courses that I taught have now ended, yippee! Just two weeks left for the remaining course.

I finished two books that I started last year! Half Truths by Adam Hamilton and A Day with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory.

We went to the classics symphony this week and the performances were enjoyable. The selections included Schubert Symphony in C major and Tuba Concerto by Marsalis. I quite admired the ability of the tuba soloist!

Last evening we went to an Oscars-themed dinner at our retirement community. The idea was "dress to impress" so we wore our formal attire! Hubby still looks great in a tuxedo! I wore a long black skirt topped with black lacy top and gold sparkly jacket, plus a gold "fascinator" to finish the look and gold jewelry. I received a tiny "oscar" for best dressed female. We were probably the best-dressed couple there, but I am sure the coordinators wanted to spread the awards amongst the attendees. It was a fun evening with just a small group (50 or less) in attendance, and lots of champagne.

>124 LadyoftheLodge: I always enjoy the chance to hear a concerto for an instrument that doesn't often get a solo spotlight. Which of the Marsalis famliy wrote this one?

>125 KeithChaffee: This was by Wynton Marsalis. I have heard this concerto for tuba on Sirius XM radio, and did not really like it, but it is much better to hear in live performance.

Letters of Wisdom by Wanda Brunstetter
This third book in the "friendship letters" series of Amish fiction ties together the lives of three Amish women. Friends as children, they now have gone their own ways as adults and stay in touch through a series of letters. These letters are a key part of the story, but do not form the main body of the novel. Common characters appear in these novels, but they can all be read as standalones.

In this novel, Irma finds difficulty coping with her active children, her husband's busy job that takes him away from home, and her tragic childhood past of physical and emotional abuse by her stepfather. She hopes that attending her stepfather's funeral will allow her to put these memories to rest. Irma's mother would like to re-establish her relationship with Irma, but things between them continue to be strained and Irma is unyielding. As Irma sinks into despair and continuing inability to cope with her life, she finds it harder and harder to deal with her children in a calm and positive way. Hopefully Irma will decide to seek help before things spiral out of control.

This is a work of Christian fiction, written by an experienced author in the genre. Themes include motherhood and marriage, physical and emotional abuse, family, and depression. The author addresses sensitive topics in a professional manner, and shows the Amish in a realistic way instead of "sugar coating" their culture and way of life.

I finished reading a Kindle Unlimited book Murder in New Orleans: A Dodo Dorchester Mystery Book 11 by Ann Sutton. I liked the story and the murderer was a person I hoped was not guilty. The frequent use of metaphors was unrealistic though. I am sure the author researched 1920's New Orleans but I doubt people used those cute metaphors every time they opened their mouths. The other annoying thing was the spelling of "New Orleens" which I think was intended to indicate local dialect. In my experience, that is how northerners would pronounce the name, but not locals. When I visited the Big Easy, most of the locals pronounced the name of their city as "Nawlins."

We had large thunderstorms last night but blessedly escaped the tornado destruction that occurred northeast of us.

I am in the last week and a half of teaching online geology; the class started with 25 students and I have lost five so far due to absences. Too many of them seem to have excuses about why they cannot do the work and want special waivers or privileges that are above my pay grade and against the university policies. This has been a tough semester.

Our trip to the symphony pops was excellent today, with music provided by two "dueling pianists." Lots of energy and a very fun concert. Next week we will meet with box office agents who come to our retirement community to sign up residents for next year's season. We would like to change seats to move down about three rows in the same section, so hopefully that can be accomplished.

>127 LadyoftheLodge: I need to read more of Brunstetter's works. I've been enjoying several of Amy Clipston's series lately.

>129 thornton37814: Amy Clipston is another one of my fave authors of Amish fiction.

Thanks for noting the Marsalis tuba music, my husband is a fan of his and I don't think he knew about it.

>131 mstrust: I had heard a lot of Wynton Marsalis trumpet music, but his composing style is completely different. The tuba selection certainly required a lot of air on the part of the performer. I bet he had to go home and take a nap after that. There was also a cool lecture and slide presentation before the start of the concert that gave a lot of background info on the selections.

I read Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney for BingoDog "diary or epistolary" square. I read several of the books in this series a few years ago, so it was fun to revisit and so silly!

Public Anchovy #1
When Delilah and her culinary crew cater a 1920's event, they never expect to get involved in a murder scene. Things get even more complicated when a huge storm rolls in and traps the catering crew in the historic mansion along with a group of guests, one of whom is the killer. When the lights go out, things get even more intense, as law enforcement is delayed by the storm and another death occurs. Mix in secret liaisons and thefts, and the classic "country house" mystery takes shape with a several twists. The book contains recipes at the end. It is the third in the Deep Dish Mysteries series, featuring Delilah and her pizza restaurant. Readers of the first two books in the series will enjoy reconnecting with old friends and quirky characters in this novel.

I especially enjoyed the historical aspects of the location near Chicago and the connections to past mobsters. Even though I was able to guess the motives and perpetrators, the crime is wrapped up nicely at the end, with appropriate homage to Dame Agatha.

The title is cute but has little to do with the story, other than the connection to Al Capone who was considered Public Enemy #1. There are no anchovies in the story.

I finished On Retreat with Thomas Merton by M. Basil Pennington. It was supposed to be my Advent reading but I finally finished it during Lent. I liked the black and white photos of Merton's hermitage and surroundings, but found the reading part to be tough going. I guess I am not theological enough to dig into the writings.

I also read History Comics: World War II: Fight on the Home Front which was a comic/graphic novel history book about the American Home Front. This has been a topic of interest to me but I have not been able to locate many print sources about it, just one small book from the bookstore at Pearl Harbor when we were there. I liked this comic version and learned a lot. This completes another square on my BingoDog card, just two more to go now for a cover all!

I just finished Coconut Drop Dead for NetGalley. This is the third book in a mystery series. I like the cultural immersion into the Little Caribbean neighborhood, but the book needs a glossary. There were many terms that I did not understand and had to look up, which made the book less enjoyable.

I also finished The Secret Ingredient which is the second book in the Teashop Girls books for young girls. It was a fun and light read, and I am sure would appeal to kids, although having 8th graders do some of the things the girls in this book did was not realistic to me. There are some cool scone recipes included, as well as vintage tea ads. What I did not like was the cliff hanger ending, and there does not seem to be a third book in the series to clear that up. I read this book for BingoDog "only title and author on the cover."

Hubby and I worked in our community library today. We were tasked with dismantling the Ireland/Irish book display and reshelving the books back in their usual spots. For April the display will focus on "staff favorites" so that should be fun.

There still seems to be some angst about weeding the library a few months ago, but I really do not want to get into the middle of that again. There were too many books and the library needed to be weeded, but change is hard. I can see both sides of the issue, but I do not want to get into any more discussions about it. I told the other staff member who was involved that she needed to be on the weeding team so she could be sure her voice is heard.

I finished reading a Kindle Unlimited book Where We Belong which was first in a series. I did not like the cliff hanger ending, which means I will have to read the others in the series to find out the resolution.

>137 LadyoftheLodge: I remember a few years ago I was tasked with getting the church library back into shape. It contained all sorts of books that would never check out. Several books made it to the church's history room because the church historian hated to see them gone. I think after all was said and done, the library worked great -- at least until COVID. My main task was just to clean the collection and catalog it. Then it was given to others to run. I think they have a pretty good group of volunteers, and I think they've seen the wisdom of what I culled.

>139 thornton37814: The books that were weeded out in the great clean out (before I got involved) included a lot of books that were never checked out. Our retirement community needs a library that is friendly, accessible, and has books residents want to read. This means a lot of mystery, romance, suspense, domestic fiction, and series books, with a small nonfiction section. It is not a research or reference library. The books that were removed included some theology books that were never looked at, outdated encyclopedias, and books that were in bad shape. No matter how it is done, there will always be some who are disappointed.

I just completed my BingoDog card today for a "cover all." The final entry was for the "current or recent bestseller" square. I read The Day the Phones Went on Vacation which was a cute and funny picture book about the day when cell phones turned themselves off for a rest, and how that affected the people in Gizmoville. The illustrations were done by the author and they are adorable, with kids who look like Precious Moments figures. My only complaint about the illustrations is the lack of senior citizens in any of the pictures of the groups or townspeople. This was a Kindle Unlimited book.

>137 LadyoftheLodge: Part of running a healthy library is in constantly weeding out the old and obsolete for the new books, but people can be weird about that. And, in my experience, emotions tend to run high when it comes to getting rid of books.

>142 RidgewayGirl: The library here had not been weeded out for many years, and the shelves were too full. The highest and lowest shelves could not be comfortably reached by some of the residents. There were a lot of books that would have been useful for writing sermons or research on theology, and those would be better in a church library. (Our retirement community was at one time run by the Methodist church and many pastors retired here, but that was years ago and it is very different now. But the books still remained in the library and were rarely used.)

Amish Love Letters by Shelley Shepard Gray
This volume consists of three short novellas by experienced authors of Amish fiction. The stories are clean, with an overt Christian message that is not preachy. Readers can learn a lot about Amish courtship and the Amish culture by reading these stories. In each of them, a couple is united through letters, thus beginning their courtship. However, the road to love is seldom smooth, as these couples find out through mishaps, mistaken identities, and misdelivered missives.

Readers who enjoy sweet romance novels, with interesting twists and turns, as well as happy endings, will find these stories to their liking. Each novella can be read in one sitting.

I turned in my final grades for the spring semester, yippee! It was a rough semester for sure, with many no-shows or students who logged in just enough to be counted present but did few to no assignments. Many of them did not read my feedback so continued to make the same mistakes each week. It was like grading the same paper every week! The commitment to earning a good grade does not seem to be there any more, and it is more like they are just getting by and getting done. I am thankful for a break now.

>141 LadyoftheLodge: Congratulations on finishing the Bingo!

>145 LadyoftheLodge: I'm sure you're so relieved to get that class over. I hope the next one goes much better.

Lucy Burdette's Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from the Key West Food Critic Mysteries
This book contains recipes as well as short synopses from the Lucy Burdette series of culinary mysteries set in Key West. Since the main character is a food critic, there are recipes for each book that tie in with the stories. Readers who enjoy cooking unique dishes will find this book to be a fun addition to their cooking repertoire. It is not necessary to have read the mystery novels in order to enjoy reading and using the recipes, although readers of this series will find the recipes add interest to their reading. For those unfamiliar with the series, this book may provide incentive to read the books!

>147 clue: Thanks, I am relieved. I feel as if I am on vacation! I hope the next class(es) are less stressful, and I hope there are no more emails from students ripping me for "failing" them!

>145 LadyoftheLodge: That seems to be a common theme I hear from faculty members at a lot of institutions.

Congrats for filling in your Bingo Card already and kudos for helping to weed out the library.

Of Hoaxes and Homicides
In this historical mystery novel, sisters Violet and Sephora find themselves involved with a cult as they try to rescue a friend from a false accusation of murder. While the Children of Aed profess to be earth and nature loving, their leaders also bilk followers out of expensive possessions. When a member of the cult uncovers their schemes, he dies of poisoning and his intended fiance is accused of his murder. As Sephora and Violet infiltrate the group undercover as Seekers,they also end up in the middle of a dangerous game of magical tricks as well as an inheritance scheme.

While this is part of a series, the story can be read as a standalone. Readers who enjoy novels with intrigue and featuring plucky independent women will find this novel to be a welcome addition to their reading repertoire.

Wow, my hubby and I saw the total eclipse yesterday while sitting in our lawn chairs in our yard. It was the most amazing sight! We probably will not see such an event in our lifetime again, but this was truly worth seeing. I am thankful we were in the path of totality. At the time of the eclipse, we also saw Jupiter and Saturn, and a flyover of either a satellite or the international space station, as well as the 360 degree sunset colors. The total eclipse lasted for about four minutes, although it started shortly before two o'clock and ended at about four twenty five. We wore our eclipse glasses except for totality. The sun's corona was spectacular, more than just the ring often seen in photos. I tried to take photos but they do not do it justice.

To make things a bit stranger, our electric power went out for about an hour right before the eclipse started, although supposedly not related to the eclipse. The electric company is saying that something fell on the power line. A lot of tourists and visitors were expected and there was a three day festival in the downtown area, and I guess that is where most of the visitors congregated. Our neighborhood is about a mile away from town and it was all quiet, although we are a private community so no trespassing allowed. I am not sure as many visitors showed up as expected though.

Wow, that sounds like an amazing experience! I saw a total eclipse in 1999 and I remember it so clearly - it is a special event for sure. Seeing it from your own yard must be even better!

We got a partial eclipse yesterday (about 37%, I believe). I had the proper glasses from a few years back, and I'm happy I was able to find them! Even the partial was pretty cool. Now, if I can make it another 20 years (and 4 months), the path of totality will fall when I am! I am saving my glasses, again. :-)

It will be in the evening, though, so lower to the horizon, so might have to find someplace other than my yard to see it!

Our community book group met today and the books on discussion were Evening Class and Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Sadly, the group leader decided to only focus on Circle of Friends, although we had a choice of which to read, and I read Evening Class which was a reread for me and loved just as much as last time. The leader opted for a vocabulary test, a list of knowledge-level questions, and no real discussion. I was looking forward to a great discussion because the book had so much potential. I am always threatening to quit this group, but I never do. I thought the point was to discuss, not to "do school." What a waste of time and effort.

>156 LadyoftheLodge: I sympathise. We have a member who goes off on tangents at great length, so loudly that it's almost impossible to get a word in. Potentially interesting discussions go nowhere. It's frustrating.

>156 LadyoftheLodge: Oh no! I have never been part of a real life book group, but still I wonder why someone would deal with a book on knowledge level and do a test?
I read both of these books years ago and do not remember much, but I do remember that I liked Evening Class more. Maeve Binchy is a great writer and I enjoyed almost everything I read by her. Luckily there are still a few of her works left that I haven't read so far.

We had a total eclipse for about the same amount of time too. It was longer north of us about 70 miles and there were so many tourists there those that had to charge cars before leaving town had to wait in line 2 hours at the charging station! That's an oops for tourism!

I also loved Maeve Binchy and Evening Class was one of my favorites.

>158 MissBrangwen: I think the leader of the discussion used to be a teacher (as many of us are or were) and fell back on the use of props instead of getting into a real discussion.The best way to handle it in my opinion would have been to divide up the large group into smaller ones depending on the book each person read.

I finished several Kindle Unlimited books this past week. They were light reading and fun.
Cherish Key West and Cherish St. Maartens by Lynette Paul
In From the Cold by Sara Bennett

Tree Table Book by Lois Lowry

This book is told from the point of view of an 11-year-old child. She describes her neighborhood and the people there as well as school experiences. The main theme of the story is the friendship between the elderly Sophie and the young Sophie. It was good that the elderly lady was portrayed in a positive light, although her story ends as so many about senior citizens do, and true to life. The chapters are very short and there are many of them, and the story seemed to drag along in some points, but it is a thoughtful read for anyone of any age. It was still a treasure to read and probably appealing to middle school kids.

I started to read Snow Birds and Bone Park for NetGalley but these were DNF books for me. They did not live up to their promise.

Hubby and I met with our tax accountant to finalize 2023 taxes. I am glad that is over, although I almost got sick writing the checks.

I finished Cherish Bermuda which was a Kindle Unlimited download. This is the first in a series, and I did not read them in order (2-3-1) but that is okay as they are good standalones. There are some common characters that pop up in the books though, and they were fun and light reading choices.

I also read The Mousehole Cat for the April CalendarCAT in honor of Maritime Day. Beautiful illustrations! This was a BB from someone in LT, thank you!

The Heart's Shelter by Amy Clipston
In this latest installment in the Amish Legacy series, a young couple struggles to overcome fears and misunderstandings to forge a loving and solid relationship. Kira is visiting Pennsylvania from her Indiana home in order to help her Aunt Ellen take care of her children and her newborn baby. However, Kira is also trying to recover from her broken engagement, so she is understandably uncertain when she meets Jayden, with whom she feels an instant connection. This sweet and clean Christian novel tells the story of these two sweethearts and how they overcome their fears about a new relationship. Along the way, Kira and her new friends play matchmaker to an older couple.

Readers familiar with the other novels in this series will encounter old friends as well as a new part of the continuing storyline. However, this novel can also be read as a standalone novel. The Christian message is overt, and the story contains no descriptive violence, steamy scenes, or strong language.

I just finished Mastering the Art of French Murder which was a historical mystery set in Paris right after World War II. I was not sure I would like it, but it got better once I got into it. In this novel, ex-pat Tabitha Knight lives with her grand-pere and adopted uncle in Paris, where she works as a tutor. Tabitha befriends Julia Child, who lives near her, and they embark on cooking adventures together. After a party held at the home of Julia, a party goer is found dead. Tabitha was the last person to speak with the victim prior to her death. Of course, she becomes involved in the investigation, placing herself in all kinds of dangerous situations. The descriptions of food and of Paris are what really make the book interesting, although the setting of the theater was also of interest since I used to work in theater. Now I am anxious to read the second book in the series.

>166 LadyoftheLodge: that sounds interestingly different. Report back on book 2 when you get to it.

>167 Helenliz: Thanks, I will do that.

I just finished Escape from Assisted Living which included a somewhat accurate depiction of living in a care home for senior citizens. I liked that the main character stood up for herself in the end. This book reminded me of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

>166 LadyoftheLodge: I've taken a BB on that one. Paris, cooking, theatre, and murder - what's not to love?