😁😊☺️ Happy to support the stories & recipes of immigrants. Food gets better when it‘s shared.

Proceeds go to Advocates for Human Rights, a nonprofit based in Minnesota that provides free legal services to asylum seekers, immigration detainees, unaccompanied children, & other human rights issues. 💕

Up next. First chapter is a reminder to be accountable for the finite time we have been given.

I‘m going to be making my way through classic stoics this year. It‘s the right time. 😔

Epictetus makes minding what you can control (your principles & character) seem as easy as breathing. Just do it he says. 😬

I was really looking forward to reading this all year long and am sorely disappointed. It‘s frightfully boring. It‘s neither insightful nature writing or engaging personal reflection. Basically a log of bird sightings. 😒

Climbing Mt. Cookbook again this year! Goal is cooking from at least one cookbook per week.

Made Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta last night. I improvised with ricotta and it was 💋😋.

Book #4 in the series - still enjoying it!

Gearing up for book club, which is not the type of club with rules against talking about it. 😉 #FridayHappyReadingHour

🙀 Gasp, not both!

That was snort worthy. 😆

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

An over the top political satire about a tyrannical household, serving as a microcosm for an authoritarian state. The trouble with rebellions and revolutions is they typically come full circle, ending where they began. 🤷🏽‍♀️

On reread this is a richer novel than I remembered.

Interestingly, this time around Heathcliff is an even more sympathetic character and Cathy more terrible! 😳 He‘s dispossessed body & soul and ultimately not even revenge is his to hold. Only Cathy‘s “love” (if we can call it that) is genuinely his; one can hardly blame him for being maniacal.

#Quintessential Outsider

Grendel is the hairy, monstrous, bellowing mama‘s baby, nihilistic, antihero to Beowulf. I rather liked him for making the best of the role he was destined to play.

The humor was wonderful and added charm to the philosophical elements! I got a kick out of the dragon. There is some wisdom in sitting on one‘s gold; appreciate the blessings one has here & now. That‘s all there is …… according to 🐉.

I could have not read this and been okay in life. 🤣

The blustery winter scene outside the window is nicer than the book cover.

I wish I had read this in print! If you enjoy a capital D dysfunctional family drama with wit, mystery, and dark comedy, look no further. I didn‘t know Barnes is a playwright until after I listened and read the blurb; it definitely shows and pays off in this novel.

I had high hopes because I‘ve really enjoyed Seethaler‘s other works. Sadly, it fell short. There were some poignant moments, as in when the MC realizes the beauty of dreams disappear in the mundanity of life once achieved. Otherwise the novel is a series of vignettes involving the people who frequent the cafe, but I didn‘t feel invested in them. I wanted more development of the MC, his elderly landlady, and his longtime friend/employee.

Same cast of characters in this bed from the last post, yes still…..Covid gets the victory on this count.

Time might not be progressive in Tara‘s world but nonetheless other things are moving right along. I do feel a bit of nostalgia or longing for her quiet, contemplative observations in the previous volumes. I think that speaks to how noisy & intrusive reality is these days.

Happy Holiday Season! Wishing all of you cozy reads.

I managed to catch one of the miserable respiratory cold/flu viruses going around. Great timing! So, I‘m in bed with tea, animals, and books. I‘m always grateful for audio books, but never more so when ill.

We love Pulla in this house! Frankly, I love anything with cardamom. ❤️

I finally got around to using the Le Creuset bread oven I received last year for Xmas. 😆 It really is a very pretty kitchen ornament. (It‘s actually easy to use, I don‘t know why it took me so long.)

Sourdough toast & coffee this morning with Grendel. 🙃 Based on the opening I‘m hopeful this backstory will have more nuance than Beowulf.

Getting ready to make cranberry drops. Listening to Roz from booksonmyshelf read the third installment of A Christmas Carol. She is an excellent narrator!

Link to #1 https://youtu.be/ZoVsYXgoyo8?si=TBC2I6w8n2guA2zc

Bookclub pick that has long been on my TBR. ✅

Eminently readable translation, which is the true heroic feat of this epic.

After 9 am and still 🥶. Plan is to stay near the oven and bake more classic cookies.

Belated #FridayHappyReadingHour!

This is a bookclub pick for December. Ummmmmmm super festive? 😳 Reading between baking batches of Crinkles.

I was simultaneously delighted and frustrated by this #PersephoneClub selection! I loved some of the lyricism and forward inclusive messaging, but just when I got engaged with a character or plot point off it went in another direction. I will be very curious about others‘ thoughts on the ending.

My copy has a story of its own. I ordered it in January and it arrived soaked in lemon oil! It had to air out for 7 months in the garage. 😝

I do love this time of year, all the book lists!

https://youtu.be/MfjM0qjCUD0?si=O8kZkUDCgNYX1a1i

April 2026 nominations are open! #PersephoneClub

Little Boy Lost by Laski
The New House by Cooper

Both titles are linked in the comments.

@LeahBergen @andrew61 @Cathythoughts @CarolynM @rubyslippersreads @quietjenn @Gissy @Bookbuyingaddict @daena @elkeOriginal @Caryl @willaful @Teresereading

Sure fire sign of a favorite recipe. 😄 Mom‘s 1963 edition.

Bookclub pick. I enjoy short stories as a genre but I wasn‘t bowled over by the tagged collection. There is a nice arch to it and there are a couple of stories in the first half I got into. Overall though, the group discussion was more edifying than the actual reading.

In the pictured complete collection of Hemingway stories I reread “A Clean Well Lighted Place” and it is 5⭐️.

Compelling characters in the difficult time of reconstruction in Alabama.

I appreciated the author‘s afterward noting he realized a novel would better capture the experience of his great grandfather & the era better than a biography. Truth!

Ahhhhhhh, even the dog greeting chaos at home is less than the sensory nightmare at the mall. Going to enjoy some wine (yes with ice, thank you) and flag these recipes. 😊

#FridayHappyReadingHour

@mcctrish this pic is for you. It‘s Golden Mushroom Soup with Orzo & a Pat of Butter.

My reward for accompanying husband and two teen girls to the Mall of America today. 😅🥺 It was everything you would have expected in terms of the human mass.

The length of this novel did a disservice to the premise. 😏 It would have been much better as a short story or novella. What did the editor do aside from check grammar and spelling? I got through the audio only because I spent hours in the kitchen cooking & cleaning for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving tradition in this house. It‘s like visiting old friends.

If you know, you know. 💛🧡 #PlanesTrainsAutomobiles

“The world must be all fucked up”, he said then, “when men travel first class and literature goes as freight.”

Looking forward to bookclub discussion of this sprawling history of mythical Macondo & Buendia family.

Some amazingly lyrical passages! But I have mixed feelings because it is most definitely a “labyrinth of kinship”, which at times can get tedious. Nonetheless, I suspect with rumination this is a novel that is going to stick with me.

Thank you to the Litten who recently recommended this one! ? Intrepid Emily doggedly solves the murder mystery to save her fiancé from a life sentence. Quirky interesting characters and plenty of red herrings. I‘ve learned not to try to guess the whodunit with Christie - she doesn‘t leave a trail of bread crumbs.

I loved the charming scenes in Ivy‘s cottage, so cozy and sweet, despite the 🪳🪳🪳. The novel would have been better had it focused on Ivy as healer and hadn‘t spun out and around too many other threads that weren‘t very engaging.

I‘m not one for gushing sentimentality, but the final scene with Mike was 😭. #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

P.S. I‘m still in denial about the season. 🫣

#FridayHappyReadingHour stack. I only manage to read bits and pieces while I attend to the sundry household management tasks that come with this time of day during the school year.

Choose between two very different houses to shelter in during those rainy March days. ☔️

Books tagged in the comments. #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

@LeahBergen @willaful @CarolynM @Ruthiella @rubyslippersreads @Gissy @bookandbedandtea @kwmg40 @quietjenn @Kimzey @catebutler @Cuilin

Qualified pick, only because it does get into the weeds with respect to the level of detail in parts. But, absolutely pertinent in a world bent toward fascism.

Do mental illnesses and/or personality disorders account for mass cruelty and disregard for human life & suffering? We seem reluctant to admit normally adjusted people can join or tolerate monstrous movements and actions.

Apparently the new film covers a shorter time period.

Not technically a reading happy hour (more like chore hour), but nonetheless I was happy to get #3 in the mail! 👏🏾

#FridayHappyReadingHour

I was frustrated with the pacing in this one. It got both repetitive and digressive. I‘d suggest a pass if you haven‘t read it yet.

My expectations were too high! I really enjoy gothic literature and the first section was fantastic when Harker is trapped in Dracula‘s castle. (Has a surreal Kafkaesque vibe.) And the scene with Dracula crawling headfirst down the castle wall is absolutely creepy.

But then Dracula as a character all but disappears from the last 2/3 of the novel.

My favorite funny line for its casual delivery, “May I cut off the head of dead Miss Lucy?”

80 year old Maggie is real a piece of work! Competing for the hotel as her claimed home against an 8 year old boy who is also a piece of work.

As others have noted, great twist at the end!

When the LMS is down we read, which is all good because I needed to finish this today. It‘s a buddy read with my daughter who was assigned it for English class. Oooooofta, emotionally heavy reading. The writing is as if Ward channeled Morrison & Faulkner.

Iowa farm life growing up during the depression. Far from feeling deprived, Mildred looks back with affection on her rich & vibrant experiences as a child. This isn‘t one of those woe-is-me memoirs. As to be expected, she felt some things in society had changed for the better, others not.

I‘m realizing when I‘m home, between mom-bus & work & dinner/kitchen duty, #FridayHappyReadingHour isn‘t chill book time. However, I do leaf through cookbooks, like this one recently sent to me by in-laws. So many of the words are puzzling since it‘s olde English! Many of the recipes I will take a hard pass on, like “How to make a calf‘s head pie.”😝

Squeal! 💜 If you and your kids have read the Track series, you know why. 5th installment. Will it be the last?

I learned much and feel more hopeful about peoples‘ ability & willingness to do good things when needed. I also loved Sharon‘s periodic cheeky commentary. 😉

1947

Wow, so I was thinking this only happened in my house! 😂 Everyone has something else to do other than eating when dinner is ready.

This was a morally ambiguous (fun!) read because Lucia finds herself in a cascade of consequences flowing from a single act of deception. While she is motivated out of a sense of familial duty, her conscience gives both her & readers all kinds of grief. #PersephoneClub

Aside from the mystery, Holding offers readers plenty to think about re: women‘s roles and their fulfillment.

I have the very unusual pleasure of a whole day to myself at the camper. What am I to do??? 😲 I have some dark, seasonally appropriate reads for starters.

44F degrees at 9 am - I‘m not going out until it hits at least 55F.