#5joysFriday

1) Mom and Dad are safe after a brush fire at their home
2) I went to a cute bookstore in a small TX town
3) My book order arrived from NYRB
4) A friend bought a round of ice cream for girlfriends Thursday night
5) I made super cute bee cards on Friday at my crafty retreat

@DebinHawaii

📚🥰

Starting my craft retreat weekend tonight with some girlfriends. One of them is an avid reader like me. She treated us with ice cream or gelato and we shared our current books. It‘s like a crafting and read-your-own book club while ignoring your diets kind of weekend.

I‘m in a small Texas town of Pleasanton today and tomorrow working with a client. In this town is a little bookstore!! I had a little extra time today so I checked it out. It‘s a year old and the owners‘ parents were running it for them so they could attend a book conference. Only new books and a decent selection. The best thing were a number of complete sets and a good selection of classics. And it appeared to host a LOT of book-related events.

This ibook s fascinating. The female main character is a scientist in the 2000s with Asperger‘s, so her parts of the story describe how she approaches the world so differently. For example, when she entered a room she only looked at the people‘s feet because faces are too chaotic for her to handle. I find her story so compelling. I‘m not quite into the 1899 part of the story yet but I‘m thinking the male MC may have a mild form of “aspies.” ⬇️

I‘m way behind reading this book for #Ireland #foodandlit. But geez when I started this chapter, I decided NOT to try this allegedly Irish meal: “a fish-finger sandwich soggy with melted butter and malt vinegar”

No thanks.

I bought these two translations from the nyrb booksale (thanks to @TheBookHippie for letting us know about the sale) for #Rwanda #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

Modeled after the United Nations memorial installed in September 2024. The “Kwibuka Flame of Hope” remembers (“Kwibuka means “to remember” in the Kinyarwanda language”) the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi where one million people were killed due to ethnic tensions. The flame, being a statue, additionally represents the permanence and immortality of the tribute. (by my daughter Ariel)

#foodandlit #Rwanda @Catsandbooks

Super easy instructions here:

https://action.everylibrary.org/what_do_i_do_if_i_don_t_like_a_book_at_the_libra...

An 1899 map of Africa

#Rwanda #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

If true, this is fascinating!

#Rwanda #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

I‘m starting this book for #Rwanda #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

When my kids were younger, we loved the Marvel and some DC superheroes. But I‘ve never wanted to read a superhero book. I tried the tagged book solely for #authoramonth. It‘s easy to believe an extraordinary author wrote this one. Diana is young and not battle-tested. She innocently and with a big heart saves the Warbringer from drowning near Diana‘s island, bringing risk to her own home and the world. So of course now she risks all to try to ⬇️

#5JoysFriday

1) Hit 3 bookstores today & bought more books than are in this bag because I have no self control
2) Son‘s 19th birthday (pictured years ago on a trip in England to see the Harry Potter Warner Brothers studio)
3) Daughter‘s Convocation for Phi Beta Kappa
4) Close friend Elise flew down from Massachusetts to accept another award for her magnificent book & I got to attend
5) Recorded a decent reading month

Thanks for the tag!

I read these books ages ago and I still remember and love them and they are in place of prominence on my favorites bookshelf. All 3 Ebooks on sale now.

I sure wish we get an English version of this graphic novel!! Heck I‘d buy the French just to look at the graphics!

Anyone else looking forward to this book about Stonehenge? Me me me!!

More here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DG0fqd1MKV1/?igsh=MTNkaHBpdTlueTNmYg==

Finally reporting my books read for March. This was a long-book month, and I was only 2 days away from finishing Cashelmara, which will show up in my April books read. I tagged my favorite book this month. Challenge update:

#foodandlit #Nepal (from last month) 2 (Katmandú Killers & Eight Mountains)
#foodandlit #Ireland 3+ most of Cashelmara
#foodandlit #Italy #Jubilee 1 (Eight Mountains)
#authoramonth (Bardugo) 2+ 1/2 of Wonder Woman

This is definitely me.

Borrowed from Instagram

Some trivia, true or not?

#authoramonth @Soubhiville

More Moby Dick and more book-related Mom memes here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH0VIqSMKH5/?img_index=1&igsh=cHYydzFkdWVxazBm

More great book memes here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH9QjJQR4ap/?igsh=MTBob2t1dmdqemRiNQ==

60-year-old Englishman Edward DeSalis marries 18-yo Marguerite, an American girl he meets during a trip to the states just prior to the civil war. He owns several homes but the one she likes the least is Cashelmara, a great estate in Ireland. The story begins with Edward then Marguerite and continues to be told by their descendants and their significant others. This is an epic story (700+ pages) of the DeSalis family that suffers some tragic ⬇️

Here‘s the map showing the Roman names of places in Great Britain. #authoramonth #litsyatoz #letterY @Soubhiville

This will be my first book for #authoramonth (Kate Quinn wrote Part 6) and #litsyatoz #letterY. @Soubhiville

A rogue group of Yale students and a cop find a way to and descend into hell. The attempt results in the expulsion of Alex and Dawes from Lethe, but that doesn‘t stop them from trying again. Meanwhile cop Turner asks for Alex‘s help with 2 murders on campus, and she‘s running side hustles for Eitan, the drug boss from LA. Fast moving and loads of mysteries, it‘s an excellent second book in the trilogy. The cover? Not so much. #authoramonth

New mini story:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH1MHtBgLD4/?igsh=MXd5MmRubWVyejA1bg==

We‘re watching the movie again tonight #Italy #Nepal #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

I‘ve been listening to Celtic music all month for #Ireland #foodandlit except when listening to this book. 11+ hours to go. @Catsandbooks

#5joysFriday Hard hard week at work so I‘ve got to think really hard on this one.

1) attending a friend‘s award ceremony for her book
2) even though I‘m 57, Mom @Doll8455 still checks up on me 🥰
3) going to my daughter‘s induction into Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society this morning
4) it‘s close to only 1 month before son comes home from college for the summer
5) I may be close to hiring a new paralegal (my previous one retired)

@DebinHawaii

I was very fortunate to attend the award luncheon for my good friend (& former paralegal) Elise Urrutia. She won an award from the San Antonio Conservation Society for writing one of the top ten books in the last three years about Texas history! That‘s such a big deal (But maybe not quite the caliber of the international award she also has won).

I got to meet her illustrator, whose drawings are so beautiful partly because she‘s also an architect

#two4Tuesday Thanks @TheSpineView for the tag!

1) paper crafts, pet my cat, go to museums, picnics, memorable trips, thoughtful gifts, when someone else cooks, watch movies, listen to music, Litsy, play dominoes with my parents (I used to take long walks but my back pain won‘t let me)

2) tagged: the feel good book of 2024

She‘s one smart cookie!!

Enjoy a new mini story

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHjUq29RQUy/?igsh=MTVmaHVlZXAxdmFxZg==

I‘m mostly better from the stomach bug—it knocked me out for two days (ugh!). So we took son out for his last night in town before flying back to college tomorrow (😞). We went to our local Irish place and I had Guinness beef stew and soda bread. I was nervous about my stomach so I ate only some of it. But it was delicious. And I love soda bread. I‘m going to have to figure out how to make it or find a bakery where I can buy it regularly. ⬇️

1-2) Visiting Mom & Dad (& playing dominoes) & seeing all the birds visiting them
3) Buying loads of books from 4 bookstores in Houston
4) Eating at the astronauts‘ fave restaurant Frenchie‘s with son & husband
5) Going to the NASA Space Center and seeing the Saturn rocket again—an amazing sight to behold

Sadly I caught a stomach bug and have been really sick since last night. 😞

Thanks @DebinHawaii for the tag! #5joysFriday

The Libby Awards

https://www.libbylife.com/2025-02-25-the-winners-of-the-2025-libby-book-awards?u...

My final purchase yesterday from Good Books in the Woods in The Woodlands north of Houston.

Another purchase yesterday from Good Books in the Woods, a fantastic bookstore in The Woodlands north of Houston.

I bought this book at Good Books in the Woods yesterday. I loved this bookstore housed in a house! Very maze-like (they give you a map) with a gazillion used books. I could have stayed much longer. But we were in The Woodlands, a suburb north of Houston and we had to drive through downtown (yikes!) to two bookstores there, then a long drive to Clear Lake, a suburb south of Houston. Like @Graywacke I highly recommend this store!

From Insta

This book was my last purchase from Murder by the Book in Houston. I loved Kwei Quartey‘s Emma Djian series, so I‘m ready to start the Inspector Darko Dawson series, also set in Ghana.

We are back home now but I have a lot more books to share from our bookstore crawl in Houston yesterday. 😊

Not book related—we are at Johnson Space Center today. Book shopping yesterday in Houston and NASA today. A very nice short spring break trip. Four hour drive back home to San Antonio later.

Two more books, books 23 & 24 of the series, from the Houston bookstore Murder by the Book. I now only need three books to complete the series

Two of several books I bought at Murder by the Book in Houston.