2023 has been a busy year! I think I tried to get in a lot of the traveling I missed over the last couple of years. I traveled to Greece and Turkey in the spring, then France and England in June. Both trips were wonderful and we had absolutely perfect weather, mid 70’s the whole time. Back in the U.S. there was a weeklong family reunion in Lake Tahoe and a trip to Washington D.C. this fall. Lots of other smaller trips, and of course I spent several weeks in beautiful Sunriver, Oregon. Phew! In 2024, I hope to get more traveling done, but maybe not quite as much. I was also lucky enough to spe ..read more

I know November is long gone, but things have been a little hectic lately! I’d originally thought I’d do a combined post on my favorite November AND December books, but turns out my December reading has been mostly backlist or 2024 books. When I finally sat down to do this post, I realized the four recent books I wanted to share were all ones I read in November. Of those, only one was actually published in November, with the other three coming out earlier in the year. The four books also couldn’t be much different from each other, too. There’s a fun caper story, a day in the life of an angsty ..read more

Fall is most definitely in full swing and before we know it we’ll be facing winter and then a new year. I’ll never get over how quickly time flies and I had to chuckle recently when my 7-year old granddaughter was making the same observation. I told her she didn’t know the half of it, which if you’re familiar with 7-year olds, you know that comment only led to more questions! I feel like this year’s crop of fall books isn’t quite as good as in some other years, but I still have four October releases, I’m excited to share today. All of these are sort of under the radar gems, so hopefully you’ll ..read more

When I was teaching, September was my most dreaded month of the year, but now? I LOVE September. The weather is great, nothing is crowded. It’s amazing. I just returned from spending two weeks in Sunriver, Oregon (one of my very favorite places), and it was bliss. Sunny days with long walks and/or long bike rides, plus plenty of reading time. I hope the start of fall has been as nice for you as it has for me, and the three books I’m sharing today might make it even better. This month’s favorites are all from authors I’ve read and loved in the past and their latest releases set their bars even ..read more

It’s been a minute! Last time I posted was the end of June when I shared that month’s favorites. I fully intended to do the same with my July favorites, but things just got away from me. To be fair, I was in Tahoe at a long overdue family reunion from July 25th – 31st. I never even thought about it until four or five days into August. Oh well! It was a wonderful time. My family has been doing this Tahoe reunion every three years since my kids were little, but with COVID and all, it just hadn’t happened for too long. The wait was worth it! Just because I wasn’t thinking about sharing great book ..read more

It’s been a busy spring and summer isn’t looking much slower. By the time this posts, I’ll be arriving in France. It’s a short girls’ trip all centered around a wedding reception one of my friends really wanted to attend. Over the course of our 11 day trip we’ll be in Paris, Bordeaux, and London. Not enough time in any of those places, but still enough time to have plenty of fun! Paris is my favorite city anywhere and it’s been much too long since I’ve been there, so I’m very excited about that. I’ve never been to the Bordeaux area and am looking forward to exploring…especially the wine! I pro ..read more

So sorry to have been absent for an April post. I’ve been traveling a lot and some of that spanned the end of April. Plus being on the go did not work for getting my usual reading numbers in, but it was worth it! The big trip to Greece and Turkey with my sister was amazing. I’d been to Greece before and it was wonderful, but wow, I loved Turkey. We ended the trip with three days in Istanbul and I could have easily done a couple more. Okay, enough about me. It’s time for books! My numbers were down a bit in both April and May, but I’ve read some truly wonderful books, including one that just m ..read more

Thank goodness for spring and for light! Here in Washington we’ve had some sunshine, but it’s still pretty darn cold. Staying light into the evenings and getting lighter earlier and earlier are always welcome balms to my soul. March has been a busy month, so I’ve not read as many books as usual, but the four favorites I’m sharing today are all books I really liked and feel confident many others will too. Next month, I’ll be on a trip at the end of the month, so will either do April late or combine it with May in one big post towards the end of May. It depends on how crazy things are when I ge ..read more

So far, my reading this year has been a bit of a roller coaster. Early in January I read a few books I loved, but then I hit a patch that made me feel I was about to head into a slump. You know that feeling? Then, my February reading really took off with so many books I loved, including several from my Winter Preview. Now it’s time to see if the spring crop of books can keep that streak going. I considered SO MANY for this Spring Preview 2023 and I hope the 20 I settled on will give us all hours and hours of reading pleasure. As an added bonus, while putting this all together I realized that ..read more

It might have been cold and miserable for much of this month, but the books have been HOT!? In fact, there were so many February books I loved that this month you’re getting a double shot of favorites, six instead of the usual three. You might notice that two are similar…both mythology retellings, but what can I say? They were equally wonderful! Let’s hope March books are just as good, but that’s a high bar. As always, for ALL my reviews delivered close to publication, you can follow me on Instagram.  And now, in order of publication…… Read More The post Favorite Books of February 2023 a ..read more