Space Station Mir

This was a topic from two weeks ago, the last time I tried to make a post, but even though there's only a few, I still wanted to share! It's fun to look back at my past posts on the topic, most of which are still some of my favorites, so I'll try to share some of my newer favorites this time since it's been a few years since the last one! Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Top Quotes for Book Lovers “Life, like a poem, was a series of choices.” --Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful “If you have an obsession that other people don’t quite understand—that might be a novel.”          --Curtis Sittenfeld, Sixth and I, April 13, 2023 Alexander Graham Bell's wife Mabel describing her husband after helping organize an evacuation from a sinking ship, “Tomorrow I fancy the collapse will come, but he feels happy for he thinks yesterday has proved that he has not heart disease" (241).  -- Alexander Graham Bell: The Reluctant Genius a...

I love today's Top Ten Tuesday theme :  May Flowers — Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt ( books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers/gardeners ). I mostly went with books with flowers (usually characters' names) or gardens in the title and often on the cover as well. These include some very old and very new favorites of mine, as well as books on my TBR! A Blooming Bouquet of Books  with Flower Names, Covers, and Stories Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott--A classic childhood fav. Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott--One of the few Alcott books I didn't read as a kid but finally got around to in the last several years. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen--Gardening and flowers are central here! The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett--I bet a lot of people will mention this one! The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer-...

Pretty decent reading list in April--I finished some books I've been meaning to read for a while. I've also been reading six or seven books at a time (several are nonfiction or poetry) for the first time in a while, and it's some glorious chaos, we'll see whether that continues or not. I may need to not be in four book clubs anymore, although it still feels ok so far--maybe easier to just give myself to permission to give up on a book I'm not feeling. Anyway, happy May! Books I Finished in April 2024  The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman--I finally got to see what all the hype was about--and it was pretty decent. Not the best book I've read ever, but a very solid mystery set in a senior living community in the United Kingdom. I would be interested in continuing to read the series.  The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley (Book club read)--I wouldn't have heard of this except that one of my book clubs picked it. I thought it was fi...

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is a perpetual topic for me and most of the book lovers I know. The literal and the proverbial TBR shelf. I have both, but today, I'll stick to the ones on my literal shelves, and I'll try to go for the bonus points if I can. Looking forward to reading yours! Chag Pesach sameach to my fellow celebrants! Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon (Bonus points if you tell us how long it’s been sitting on your shelf waiting for you.) Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum--Let's see--I know I bought this after my book club read her book  A Bend in the Stars,  which was right when this one was coming out (my book clubs usually read books a year or so after they come out since they're easier to get at the library), and I bought it at a second-hand bookstore, so I'm going to say it's been on my shelf a bit less than two years. I'm planning to read it very soon, for the same book club. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré--I bo...

 With all of the mysteries and thrillers set in vacation spots, it almost seems easier to think of characters I wouldn't want to go on vacation with! I didn't finish writing this before Tuesday, but it's such a fun topic, I thought I'd go ahead and put mine out a little late. I'm excited to see what everyone else's ideas were! Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Characters I'd Like To Go On Vacation With The crew of The Wayfarer from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers--would love to hang out with this diverse crew of humans, aliens, and AI, plus we could go anywhere in the universe (probably would NOT choose the small angry planet for a vacation though!) Nick, Charlie, Elle, and the rest of the crew from Heartstopper would be great vacation partners--would love to go to Paris with them, either when I was their age or if they were my age Viv from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree would be a fun vacation partner, and also good to have around in a p...

I like this extremely timely topic, but I haven't read a lot of books that fit the criteria (below). I included some books I've read where content or title deal with water and some more that I haven't read yet, but are on my Goodreads TBR or just found on Goodreads that deal with spring, storms, water, or all of the above. Happy Top Ten Tuesday!   April Showers — Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt ( books with rain on the cover/in the title, that have rainstorms in the story, or that have anything to do with rain ) Books That Remind Me of April Showers The Glass Hotel by Emily Mandel Drowning by T.J. Newman River of the Gods by Candie Millard The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez Goddess of Spring by P.C. Cast Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman--Haven't read it yet, but sea on the cover The Girl Who Belonged to the Sea by Katherine Quinn Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao--W...

Now that I have my laptop back, I'm reading less than I was without it (lots of Netflixing to make up for), but I'm still in a rather solid reading spree, which includes several other slower (nonfiction and poetry) reads that I'm reading alongside the faster genre fiction reads. I read all of my March book club reads, except one I couldn't get out of the library in time, in February, and so far still working on most of my April reads. Can I continue to keep up with four book clubs? We'll see!  Books Read This Month Storm the Earth by Rebecca Kim Wells--There should definitely be more duologies. This one is just fun with nonstop action, adventure, and dragons, plus an NBD bisexual protagonist, which I'm always glad to see more of. Double the Lies by Patricia Raybon--Mystery centering a Black, Christian woman detective in 1920s Denver--I found this on the recommendations table at the library, which has really been paying off for me lately! Would recommend--it has ...

It's hard to think of movie/TV shows I like that weren't books first! It feels like books are generally the litmus test for other media, so it's interesting to think of going the opposite direction. That has worked with some popular franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars--I also think Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been novelized, if I'm not mistaken, so I guess it does go both ways. I've tried to come up with a few shows/movies that at least I think didn't have literary predecessors! Happy Top Ten Tuesday!  Topic idea from  Sabrina @  Notes From a Paper Plane Nomad . Movies/TV Shows That Would Have Made Amazing Books Monk--I've been watching this lately since it came to Netflix--I think police procedurals generally work better on TV, but Monk is so in his head and the show is more about the how/why than who, so books might be fun. Romantics Anonymous--I really love this movie, and since the protagonists both have social anxiety, a book could sh...