My husband has been helping me add to my collection of books. He recently bought these old works and presented them to me.  You will see that three of the books Riley Songs of  Home (1910), Riley Songs of Summer (1908), and Riley Songs O'Cheer (1905) are the works of James Whitcomb Riley whose dialect and sentimental words made him one of the most popular poets in America.  Riley helped form Midwestern cultural identity and is well known as the Hoosiers poet having passed in Indianapolis on July 22, 1916. He's memorialized with Riley's Hos ..read more

A life without books, I can not imagine. I receive requests to review books from all genres and also enjoy browsing libraries and bookstores.  Time changed this month and we sprung ahead to embrace the longer days of sunshine by taking some day trips to the lake. Recently, we have witnessed a lot of destruction in the area due to severe storms. We want to take this time to state we greatly appreciate the men and women who demonstrate dedication and diligence in their care as emergency response providers! Last month, I read 13 books, which is higher than my average month.  Below ..read more

At the beginning of this read, we see The Amazing Beatrix, who has a body like a boy, is surrounded by a cast of circus characters. I like that we learn a little about each of the character's traits in this traveling circus.  Beatrix is not in a safe place. In part, that is because she is a trapeze artist who works without a net but also because her ringleader, Ziro, is a tyrant who abuses her.  Beatrix trades one frightening adventure for another when she is taken to Chartish Manor and meets Lord Chartish. From here she finds herself with Colonel James ..read more

  While at the bookstore today, I picked up the book Where We Belong (The Museum of Forgotten Memories) by Anstey Harris. I read the first page that the book opened to. The writing was so descriptively beautiful that I took the book to the checkout counter and immediately headed home. Now, I'm lying here on the sofa and can tell you this read is original.  If you've not read the book then you wouldn't know it is a bold and raw look at a fractured family suffering from overwhelming losses.  Hatters Museum of the Wide Wide World dates back to the Victorian era a ..read more

There are some books that we pick up to read and just fly through the pages. I found Parent Imperfect to be one of those books.  If you have not heard of Parent Imperfect perhaps it is because I have the advanced reader copy. This is Paul Lamb's latest book. It is a forthcoming sequel to his book One-Match Fire and Parent Imperfect is scheduled to be published by Blue Cedar Press on June 1, 2024. If you are intrigued by the graphic image above which shows the Mercury dime and a buffalo nickel you ought to check out Lamb's website to see how he came upon these items that appear on th ..read more

 #1 Book Storage – How do you store and organize your books?  Many of my books are in bookcases ( similar to those below) in the loft and on the 1st floor and some are stored in old trunks. I do tend to keep my vintage and antique books in bookcases where I can easily get to them. For ebooks and audiobooks, I place them in a folder on my laptop.   #2: Tracking – How do you keep track of what you have read and what books you own? I use my blog for the books I've recently read and reviewed and have many TBRs #3 Borrow – Do you lend your books ..read more

I'd not read anything by Frank McCourt but did see on the cover of Teacher Man that he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author for Angela's Ashes (1996).  While still in the store, I read the Prologue for Teacher Man and was hooked. Turning to the back to see how many pages of text it contains I found that above the last paragraph, someone had penciled in amazing, and under the last sentence in the book was penciled in Great.  I leafed through the book quickly to see if there were any other marks that I could decipher. When I looked more closely, on the top of the int ..read more

Review: Seeking the Lord: A 30 Day Start to Your Journey This is a book blog and again I will point out that the Holy Bible is the most read book in the world.  You may be asking yourself why is the Bible so difficult to understand. Well, please don't feel like you are alone in this. Many people find the Bible to be challenging. Some readers jump around from book to book or from the Old Testament to the New Testament, while others may begin by examining a topic that is connected to them.   Keon Lindsey's book Seeking the Lord A 30 Day Start t ..read more

  Review: Night International Holocaust Remembrance Day, occurs on January 27. Is it important to learn about concentration camps and the like? My opinion is - it is. Empires are created by ambitious people and somewhere in the quest one often finds exploitation rears its ugly head and we see people are treated unfairly whether it be by force, manipulation, or threat.  I've posted on this blog that as a youth I read The Diary of Anne Frank and more recently Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz. Since then, I have ..read more

Actionable Life Skills for Young Adults: 11 Powerful Steps to Achieve Financial Independence and Kick-start Your Road to Successful Adulthood is a winner of the Literary Titan Book Award which recognizes excellence in writing that is both innovative and impactful. Chapter One starts with a great question, Did you know 81 percent of  new college graduates wish they had been taught more life skills before they got their diploma? Let's get real. Sometimes we learn skills when we are young and sometimes we don't. I can provide you with a basic example ..read more