Latest Entries »


Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and LibertySomething Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty by Hillary Rodham Clinton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m glad I got to read/listen to this as a Libby audiobook. Libby makes sure those of us with meager salaries can still afford to read currently popular books. Unless there is a hold. I didn’t know this had a timeline. Sadly, many like me will read it after the fact. Not that it would have changed my mind. And I doubt those who think differently than me would have changed their minds. Tribes seem set with their own.

I rarely give five stars to autobiographies. Mainly because it feels like I am being judgmental about the author’s life. It was what they lived and what they remembered; what was important in the moment.

What I liked about this book was it felt like we were having a conversation and she was relating her thoughts. And as with anyone you might have a cup of coffee or tea, you feel close. There are times you laugh. And there are times that are deep and honest. And the strong emotions that can crop up. Forgiveable with anyone.

If you have the curiosity, you may enjoy, even if you don’t politically agree, her work with women, here and abroad. Give her and her chat a chance.

View all my reviews


The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My last few nights I read this three-book collection from Kindle Unlimited. It was a nice bedtime book. But, honestly, I didn’t even remember reading (listening to text-to-speech) the book. There were fun times while getting to know dragons who could become human-shaped. And there was a person who reminded me of the supplier of spy gadgets (M?) in the 007 movies. But once I was finished I nearly forgot I read it. Until I found I had ordered the next in the series. Which I will read soon before I forget the rest of what I read.

There was nothing wrong with the books. I think others might enjoy them a lot. Hey, here’s the blurb from GoodReads, to help you decide.

“A thousand years have passed since a dragon has been seen in the world. Science and technology have replaced magic, which has dwindled until it has become little more than an element of myth and legend. There are those who still have dragon blood flowing through their veins, distant descendants of the mighty creatures of old. These rare humans have the power to cast magic, the power to heal, and the power to craft alchemical weapons capable of starting wars… or ending them. But they are feared for those powers, and in recent centuries, they have been hunted nearly to extinction. The few remaining survivors must find a way to change how humanity perceives them or be lost to the world forever. The Dragon Blood Collection includes three full-length novels of action, magic, and Balanced on the Blade’s Edge Deathmaker Blood Charged.”

Give them a try!

View all my reviews


Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “open book, close eyes, point, write.” When you’re ready to sit down and write your SoCS post, open the closest printed matter, close your eyes, point to a word, and use it as your prompt. Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

So I have a couple books teaching Japanese on one side and my ‘How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons,’ on the other side. Thinking about the possibility between Hiragana or Kanji characters or some incredibly boring music theory term, what else could I use?

I immediately looked down at my cell and closed my eyes and pointed. But my fat finger seemed to straddle two lines of Linda’s prompt page. The top word was ‘incredibly’ and the word below was ‘else.’

But my thoughts took me to the incredible difficulties of learning the pentatonic scale in the penultimate measure of Going Home with the added timing complication of duplets versus triplets. What else can I do but grumble and practice some more.

And the YouTube lesson trying to teach me:

What else can you do? It seems simple but it is incredibly hard for me. Time for a nice cup of tea.


Here are some of the projects I’ve been working on this week.

I’m nearly finished with Smiling Turtle, my friend named him Crush.
Oops. The needle is pointing to some weird stitches, so I frogged these toes and started again.
I’m caught back up to where I left off.
I had enough watermelon yarn to make another pair. This yarn is easier to work with than those above.
There was leftover yarn from my brother’s socks to try another pair.
Here are a few of the songs I’m enjoying lately.

They are Beau Soir, God Bless The Child, Going Home, Over the Rainbow, Ave Maria, and Just the Way You Are.

Beau Soir is a leftover from my voice lessons with Alis Clausen in the 1990s. And because it showed up now while I’m playing with the Duolingo French language, I decided to start doing my vocal warmups and challenge myself to learn to play and sing the song. A few others I’m playing are fun to sing, too.

Check out how Beau Soir is supposed to sound. You can see why I love it.


My Grape Wedding (The Grape Series, #5)My Grape Wedding by Laura Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this autobiographical series! I read them on Kindle on my old phone. These are the only books I actually read with my eyes: no text-to-speech or audiobook. My tracking issues take a long time. But I love the French phrases scattered throughout. With the little bit of French, I do on Duolingo, these are easy enough, and I mostly don’t need help. But Kindle has the feature to show translation if needed or a dictionary lookup for words I might not get, such as food or other things that are foreign to me.

I feel I am traveling as I read these, and I love Laura Bradbury’s family, friends, and her sweet husband.

Look, I know it is a book about a wedding, and the series seems to surround the romance of Laura and Franck, but these are more the growing process and educational adventures of Ms. Bradbury. As I mentioned, it seems more travel and food than the yucky, sweet, snuggling stuff that can get annoying in other books.

I look forward to reading more of this series. Sorry, it takes so long.

View all my reviews

One-Liner Wednesday plus


One-Liner Wednesday is a fun prompt from Linda G. Hill.

Well, sometimes finding a one-liner is harder than writing a book. So my ‘phone-a-friend’ came through on Zoom.

“Coincidence is a messenger sent by truth.” Jacqueline Winspear

(supplied by dragonscrivener on Dragon Scrawls sorry no URL yet)

By the way 1: I have Jacqueline Winspear books on hold on Libby.

By the way 2:

Yep, just when you think it’s Spring, sideways snow.

Claiming OneClaiming One by E.J. Runyon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was at the bottom of my forever-held ‘currently reading’ shelf. I decided to get to the first books and try to catch up.

I have to admit to being lost. I don’t like short stories. If you read my reviews, they are usually centered around some long, never-ending series. So, bits and pieces of different lives were tough for me.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing was great. E.J. Runyon is great at telling a story. But I felt I was dropped into a moment and then jerked out.

So, here’s the deal: Try for yourself. You may love this kind of collection of stories. It’s just not for me right now.

View all my reviews


Scourge and Seed (Thalassic, #0-0.5)Scourge and Seed by Liz Shipton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Don’t you just love a back story about how the bad guy started out as a human? That’s what you get here—the back story to a few of the main characters of the Thalassic series. As book zero, this prequel shows you everyone’s start.

I found this one quite interesting. And now I feel I hold the whole story. So, it all started with a pandemic. And it all leads to the apocalypse and post-apocalypse. And as with all sci-fi disasters, you hope, like heck, the stories are not prophetic.

As far as I can tell, this is the last book of the series, though it could be read as book one, I suppose. I’ve already put Liz Shipton’s next book on pre-order. I think it comes in April.

I think most of these are on Kindle Unlimited. I loved all of them. I miss the world and the characters who became as close as friends in my mind. Try them out.

View all my reviews


Savage (Thalassic)Savage by Liz Shipton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“I’d rather be a savage with you…than be civilized on my own.”

Jameson Briggs grew up in a savage world.

A survivor of the pandemic. An orphan at twelve. A brilliant poet, bullied for his words. A cutthroat pirate, ruthlessly hunted.

But when a disastrous shipwreck leaves him stranded in a foreign city, Jameson finds himself starting over in a world that is savage in a whole new way. Political maneuvering. Deception. Wealth. Beautiful women.

Beautiful dangerous women.

Like Zahara and Petra – daughters of the city’s most powerful CEO and heirs to a tech fortune. As Jameson grows closer to their family, his world spirals and he is drawn into a tangled web of lies and corruption. Jameson must will he rise above it?

Or will he become a savage?

This is a standalone origin story for the villain in the Thalassic Series. You DO NOT need to have read the series before you read it! In fact, this makes a nice entry point to the series. It is a spicy, enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-love romance between a morally-gray pirate and rich man’s daughter. In it, you’ll find the following

– Touch her and die
– Villain gets the girl
– Fish-out-of-water
– Found family
– Badass women
– Love triangle
– Pirates
– Dystopian world
– Plot twists
– Fast-paced, high-stakes adventure
– More snarky banter than you ever thought possible.

TRIGGER This book contains cheating. This guy is a villain. He is morally gray (and it is a pretty dark shade of gray.)

~~~
That is the blurb, as I found it hard to come up with something to say about this prequel. I was happy to read it, but how to describe it? I lost my words. I’m still a big fan of the Thalassic series and hope you find it fun, too. Now, on to the last written in the series.

View all my reviews


Yeah, not ten. We are down to six mice. Sammie loves his mice. He uses them for human enrichment.

‘Where’s your mouse Sammie?’ He leads us to the place he wants to watch us search.

He likes to push a mouse under my brother’s bedroom door. Once it’s under he flips it across the room. David is forced to look everywhere in his room. But only Sammie knows where the mouse is hiding. When David brings the miniature tiger into his room, the ginger points straight to the missing mouse.

Then when we are all watching TV in the living room, Sammie plays fetch with the mouse, bringing it to David to throw again and again. Clever kitty!

Clever Sammie!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “mouse.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Pieces Of My Heart

"Words & Wonders - Where thoughts meet art

💫The Afterlove Voice💫 Justice For Liam ⚖

Justice, Channeling,Spiritual,Astrology,Truth- Seeker.

Amin Academy

Education, Information, Motivation

Luso Loonie — Devin Meireles

Portuguese-Canadian Writing About This Portuguese Thing of Ours

UNDER THE WILL... OVER THE DRAMA...

Inheritance. Narcissism. Turf. Welcome to the family.

Selma

Finding the extra in the ordinary

Sip, Snack, See

A Blog About Food and Travels

Golu lodhi

I upload photos & videos Golu lodhi village pairakhedi

Creative

Travel,Tourism, Life style "Now in hundreds of languages for you."

intricate cantrips

twisted yarns, unraveled

Introverted Growth

The Introvert's Roadmap to Self Discovery and Growth

Histopedia

story telling from history

KaustubhaReflections

Where ancient wisdom meets modern technology. Stories that illuminate the wonders of science, culture, and life — crafted with human creativity and a touch of AI magic.

Roads Lesser Traveled

Life is just down the road lesser traveled....