Tuesday 4: Whatcha Reading & Watching?

Linking up with Anne for the Tuesday 4.

This week let's talk about books and TV programs you enjoy.

1. Are you enjoying a book right now and would you tell us about it?  I'm about to finish reading Dust Between My Toes: An Amish Boy's Journey by Wayne M. Weaver. I picked it up at a used book sale or Goodwill and never read it. I lent it to my stepdad to read this winter and then my mom read it. They both raved about it. So, when I got it back I decided to give it a go. It's been an interesting read. Weaver isn't a professional writer, but he's smart and educated (a medical doctor) so the writing is clear. He jumps around a bit in his stories, but since the original purpose of the book was to leave something for his grandchildren to know about their legacy...it serves its purpose. While I have enjoyed it, I can't see that Weaver's life is terribly Amish sounding to me. He also switches back and forth from Amish to Mennonite churches pretty easily throughout his life. He says his parents were Old Order, but a lot of the things in his childhood seem to not match up with that. Maybe I've just had a skewed idea of what Amish life is like?

2. Do you have a list of books you are looking forward to reading in the near future?  The next book I plan to read is Janet Evanovich's newest in the Fox & O'hare series, The Bounty. Beyond that, I have stacks of books waiting to be read. I'd guess somewhere between 50-100. I also have unread books sitting in my Kindle. Maybe another 20 or so there?

3. What's on television (or YouTube, etc.) at your house?  Nothing. I rarely have the television on during the day.

4.What series have you followed religiously and why? (can be TV or book series) 

Television:

• The Big Bang Theory because it's the funniest show ever!
• Longmire because it's a well written, gritty crime show with characters you can care about and the humor keeps it from being overbearing.
• NCIS because...Mark Harmon. Also because I enjoy the stories, the continuing plot lines and the characters.
• Criminal Minds because I just like that kind of show. Plus, the characters were great and I think it gave a decent peek at what it would be like to have a job that asked you to put yourself in the criminal's mind on a daily basis.
• Schitt's Creek because it was well written, had great characters, and the complete absurdity of it made it hilarious.
• Virgin River and Sweet Magnolias because they have good stories and decent acting. What they need is MORE EPISODES! Are you listening Netflix?

Books:

• The Stephanie Plum and Fox & O'hare series by Janet Evanovich. Both are fast-paced, funny, and a little sexy.
• The Sigma Force Series by James Rollins. Rollins is a master of adventure stories who blends science fact with science possiblility to create fast-paced, edge of your seat stories that could and should be on the big screen.
• Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series. These are the books the show Bones was based on. The books are a bit grittier and probably not for the squeamish. I love them.
• The Body Farm series by Jefferson Bass. The Body Farm is a real place housed at the University of Tennessee. It is where donated bodies are set out and allowed to decay under different circumstances. The processes are documented in detail. It is all done to aid in forensic investigation. It's fascinating to learn how science figures out this stuff. The main character, based on the real director of the Body Farm (and one half of the writing team that is Jefferson Bass) is a really likeable, but unlikely hero. He's a late-middle-aged, slightly out of shape, unassuming looking man who has no illusions about his looks or abilities.
• Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn series. I've spent time on the Navajo reservation and enjoy reading about things I know and learning more about the culture.
• The Cork O'Connor series by William Kent Krueger. O'Connor is the sheriff of Tamarak County, MN. Then he's not. Then he is again. He's a likeable guy and pretty smart in a not-quite-Columbo-like sort of way. He tries to do his best by his family and by both of the cultures he represents...the whites and the Natives. A task complicated by the fact that Cork, himself, is half Irish and half Native. A lot of local Native culture and lore is woven into the stories.
• The Longmire series by Craig Johnson. Even better than the show and with a lot more detail!

Books, Books, Books!

 Mom and I had a good time on Saturday. She picked me up at 9:00 and after running a few errands here in town, we hit the road for the used book sale at the West Newton public library. I didn't actually pay attention to the times, but I think it's about 45 minutes away. It's a tiny library, but very nice and the staff is friendly and helpful. In order to comply with Covid-19 rules the sale was held outside in the parking lot. Fortunately, it was a sunny day and cool, but not cold. Many of you expressed envy when I mentioned the sale in my Saturday post so I thought I'd share what I found with you.

I don't usually buy new romances, but I will grab up some fun sounding ones at a used book sale. These look like fun and bonus...one's a Christmas romance! It's almost that time of the year.

I think we can all agree David Cassidy's autobiography will be an interesting read, Barbara Delinsky's books are usually very well written, and I grabbed up Lords of the Earth because it was required reading in one of my college English classes...it has always stuck with me. I want to see if I've remembered it accurately all these years.

As someone who enjoys writing and reading, I couldn't pass these up.

This is the inside of Grammar Gremlins. On the left-facing pages there are words or phrases that can be tricky. On the right are tips for proper usage.

I'm really looking forward to the first book pictured. The tag line of "A Memoir of Good Food and Bad Boyfriends" grabbed my interest. Flipping through it I saw that it also includes quite a few recipes. Another Christmas romance and finally one of Robyn Carr's Virgin River series. I love the show of the same name on Netflix. When I realized it was based on books, I started picking them up whenever I come across them.

I've always loved Carol Burnett, so a copy of her memoir was an easy choice. I've only read one other Jen Hatmaker book and I wasn't a fan, but I know so many women who LOVE her books so I thought I'd give this one a chance. Classic Snoopy...how could I not?

I also picked up a couple of cookbooks. One is all pork recipes and the other is the one Jerry Seinfeld's wife published a few years back about getting kids to eat healthier. A couple of Dr. Seuss classics, a pop-up version of The Little Engine that Could and a beautifully embossed Tinkerbell book rounds out my haul.

Here they are stacked up with (most of) the rest of the books in my waiting-to-be-read pile.

Ah, a big pile of books waiting in the wings makes me a happy girl!

This, That & the Other

I never had a chance to post yesterday so today is mishmash of things. Happiness Challenge, Thankful Thursday, books....

Happy Day 27:  I took a walk around the neighborhood with my daughter and the grands. It was just a nice time together.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

This week I am thankful...

** that all family and friends came through Hurricane Laura okay.

** for lots of rain and more on the way. We really need it. This has been the driest summer in years.

** for a friend who blessed me with a late birthday gift, but more importantly, a heartfelt note.

** for a visit with a former member of the bible study group I belong to. She remarried and moved away a few years ago and this week came back to visit with her kids. Gosh they have grown!

** the "singing" of the tree frogs at night.

** for a life largely untouched by tragedy.

** to have been born in the United States.

** for our President and lovely, gracious first lady and all they endure to try to make life better for all of us.

** as always, for each one of you!

BOOKS

Finished Reading: 

Dead Men Don't Eat Cookies by Virginia Lowell.  

It's a cozy mystery that was quick and easy to read. I mostly enjoyed it, but there was one thing that ran throughout the book that drove me nuts. She mentioned time references a lot, but those times rarely added up or made sense. One example, the characters attended a dinner party at 8:00, which you'd think lasted at the very least an hour. That would make it 9:00. After dinner they did some other things for a time...we'll say an hour or two...making it 10-11:00. Then they worked in their store for a couple of hours and Lowell specifically wrote that it was 11:00 when they finally looked up at the clock. Like I said, it was all the way through and it bugged me to no end.

Currently Reading: 

Get a Clue by Jill Shalvis.  The mystery part isn't bad, but the rest of it is very racy.

From the Cover:

When Breanne Mooreland gets left at the altar, she decides the best thing to do is to go on her honeymoon alone. Of course, she loses her luggage along the way and ends up snowed in at a Sierra mountains lodge run by a noticeably quirky staff. And before she can order room service, she finds a naked-and gorgeous-man taking a shower in her suite who refuses to leave.

Vice cop Cooper Scott is in serious need of a vacation. He's not about to give up the only available room to a stranger because of a mix-up. They'll just have to make the best of it by sharing the bed. They're mature adults after all. But when Cooper wakes up kissing the long, leggy Breanne, he wants to show her exactly what the honeymoon suite is intended for. That will have to wait, though, because a screaming Breanne has just stumbled over one very dead body.

Reading Next:  

No idea.

My Week in Books

Books I finished:

Reading now:

From the cover:

When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is discovered alongside the interstate in Wyoming's Absaroka County, Sheriff Walt Longmire finds only one suspect, Virgil White Buffalo, a Crow with a troubling past. In what begins as an open-and-shut case, Longmire gets a lot more than he had bargained for when a photograph in the young woman's purse connects her to an investigation that Longmire tackled forty years ago as a young Marine investigator in Vietnam.

First lines:

"Two more."

Cady looked at me but didn't say anything.

Page 56:

"These people have one of the strongest warrior ethics of anyone I have ever met."

Also reading now:

Will probably read next:

With all eyes on the U.S. Embassy's new home in Jerusalem - the only place on earth called the City of God - the world is witnessing the fulfillment of God's Covenant with His chosen people. This move has escalated the conversation around the U.S. - Israel relationship, including whether peace in that region is possible and what it all means for Christians watching these events unfold.

In Earth's Last Empire Pastor John Hagee unpacks biblical prophecy and thousands of years of history, revealing that while the world may be in crisis mode, there is One who is coming to take His rightful place on the final throne in His Eternal Kingdom.

My Week in Books

Since I don't really have a Friday routine on the blog, I thought I'd "steal" this idea I saw over at Colletta's Kitchen Sink. Having Fridays being all about books sounds like an idea I can get behind.

Books I Finished:

Reading Now:

From the Cover:

Not far from Aurora, Minnesota (population 3,752), lies an ancient expanse of

great white pines sacred to the Anishinaabe tribe. When an explosion kills

the night watchman at wealthy industrialist Karl Lindstrom's nearby lumber mill,

it's obvious where suspicion will fall. Former sheriff Cork O'Connor agrees

to help investigate, but he has mixed feelings about the case. For one thing, he

is part Anishinaabe. For another, his wife, a lawyer, represents the tribe.

Meanwhile, near Lindstrom's lakeside home, a reclusive shipwreck survivor and

his sidekick are harboring their own resentment of the industrialist. And it soon 

becomes clear to Cork that harmony, both at home and in Aurora, will be

on the back burner for some time.

First Lines:

"And above all things in heaven or on earth, John LePere loved his brother.

It was a love born the moment he watched Billy slide from between

their mother's legs in the tiny house built in the shadow of  Purgatory Ridge."

56% / Page 56:

"Then you tell me what he was doing out here, Ms. O'Connor."

Also Reading Now:

Will Probably Read Next: 

In Another Man's Moccasins, the body of a Vietnamese woman dumped along the Wyoming interstate opens a baffling case for Sheriff Longmire, whose only suspect is a Crow Indian with a troubled past. But things get even stranger when a photograph turns up in the victim’s purse that ties her murder to one from Longmire’s past—a case he tackled as a Marine Corps investigator forty years earlier in Vietnam.

Book Haul:

Purgatory Ridge

Another Man's Moccasins

Dirty, Lazy, Keto

and

a big stack from Goodwill.

Book Blogger Hop:

Q: Do you read books by diverse authors or books with diverse characters (such as LGBT, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, etc)? If yes, do you have any book recommendations? Do you visit indie and/or used bookstores? Also, have you ever worked in any? (submitted by Kristin @ Lukten av Trykksverte)

A: I used to read pretty much anything that came along, but these days I try to filter my reading through the lens of my Christian beliefs. I don't necessarily rule out a book because of swearing (unless it's excessively foul) but I do tend to avoid books that encourage or glorify lifestyles or thinking that is in direct opposition to my faith. As for book stores...I love used book stores! Also anywhere I can buy used books...yard sales, flea markets, library used book sales, etc.

Linking to:

Book Blogger Hop

The Book Date

WWW Wednesday

First Line Fridays

The Friday 56

Book Beginnings on Friday