The hardest part of making these is cutting the silhouettes out.

Destroying more books while listening to Dame Judi.
What a great Friday night! 💚
#audiocrafting

Great listen! Makes me want to hunt down the film versions with Dame Judi so I can watch them.

The Ghoulia books amuse me greatly. How can you not love a book about a sweet zombie child whose home decor includes a framed photo of Alfred Hitchcock AND a still from the 1902 movie A Trip to the Moon? 😁

1942 edition. I bought this French children‘s dictionary to use the illustrations for collage, but they are so gorgeous that I can‘t bear to tear the book apart. So I had to buy another copy - the shabbier copy will be for artworks. ❤️

Spent the evening tearing up damaged books (bound for the recycling , don‘t hate me) to make collage kits for the book sale I volunteer for. Hoping there‘s some local interest at sale time. Wish me luck - I hate tossing them, so I hope this will be a way to put at least some of them to use before they‘re trashed.

Nice book haul from the thrift store today , and none were inscribed or damaged, which is always nice. The LFL library is ready for spooky season 🎃

And this is why I love Garham.
I think this same thing about anonymous people on the internets all the time. 😂

#EuropaCollective

I agree with Victor Lavalle - Clark is so inventive and talented. Really enjoying this one. Ring Shout is also terrific.

Live-streaming now (break until 3:12)
First panel was excellent! A great way to kick off Banned Books Week.
Hopefully, it will remain on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxIdkpf2i0

I really enjoyed VA‘s writing style - the dry humor made me laugh out loud a few times, and her characterizations were great. She captured the tumultuous back +forth & the challenges of WW2 Britain &the Blitz so well. I particularly enjoyed Verily & Julie‘s guest house adventures with all the folks who came to stay. Few mentions of Spam, but 1 of my kids likes to make Spam onigiri, so I suppose that‘s enough recipes for me.
#furrowedmiddlebrowclub

I was delighted to find these discarded book jackets at the UpCycle Creative Reuse Center (nonprofit - takes donated art supplies etc & resells them or uses for classes & camps. 2 Quentin Blake covers, an Edward Gorey, Frog and Toad, and one of my favorite books when I was a kid.
I‘ll probably frame them.

The over-enthusiastic Kelpie jumped off the second-story deck today while barking at a squirrel, apparently forgetting that there was no crash pad below.
Now we rest and ponder the consequences of our poor choices.
She landed on grass and hasn‘t broken anything, and apart from walking rather gingerly down stairs seems to be fine. Gonna be sore, tho. Keeping an eye on her, of course. Dogs really believe they are superheroes sometimes. 🫤

I love some Sparks & Bainbridge and have been looking forward to this one. The books and ebooks at my libraries all had horrendously long hold lists, but the audiobook was readily available for some reason.

Did I find reasons to drive places today so I could listen to it in my car?
You bet your sweet friend Sally I did!
Ha! I crack myself up sometimes 😁

Book mail is the best mail! And finding a pristine HC copy of one of Maria Tatar‘s annotated books on Abe for $7 makes it even better. I don‘t buy a lot of physical books these days - too hard to hold and the font size, for some reason, won‘t get any bigger no matter how many times I stab the book with my index finger - but I will always buy an annotated Tatar. 🩷💛🩷

We have a LOT of foxes in our neighborhood, and a friend of mine has a family that returns to their yard every spring to have kits, so maybe that‘s why I was so taken with this book. They‘re fascinating creatures. And LOUD during mating season. 😁

LOVED this one. Second book in a row set in China/Japan/Manchuria and it‘s a corrective to all the misogyny and half naked women in the last one (JUDGE DEE AT WORK, Robert van Gulik) Based on regional folklore about foxes, this is the story of a woman who is also a fox who wants to avenge a tragic wrong, and also follows a detective who is a bit obsessed by foxes. Examines gender roles, power, and mythology at the start of the 20th century.

My daughter got a bushel of apple seconds cheap from the farm stand where she used to work and we made applesauce. And since I‘ve been reading zero waste cookbooks for the past few years, we made apple syrup from the cooking water and are attempting to make ACV from the apple cores. Oughta be interesting!

#mountcookbook

A great addition to my folk tales and fairy tale collection. Yolen‘s short novel incorporates elements of Russian folk stories -Vasilisa! Kostchai the Deathless! The Ivan!- into the story of a modern day runaway. Fabulous! 🪆 🐓 🥣

Geoff‘s nameless heroine escapes from the starving Jamestown colony in winter & runs & runs & runs, with only what she‘s wearing and a few useful things in a sack. Run she might, as dangers abound - the bone chilling winter cold, men sent after her, wild animals, the local Powhatan (not friendly to the colonists,) lack of food, disease, and the wild terrain. A terrifying journey, with flashes of awe and wonder, because the wilds are beautiful too.

A brilliant memoir of casual racism in Bell‘s life and America in general. The GN format is stunning at times, a testament to Bell‘s skill at capturing the horror, genius, hate, and love that makes up our society. Everyone should read this, full stop.

Why am I up at three in the morning? Because we just got back from the hospital where my daughter has been admitted from the ER to have her appendix taken out. The weird thing is, she‘s the third of her co-workers to have appendix issues - one guy had his burst, which was really bad. (She‘s fine, has pain meds and antibiotics and is stupid hungry because she didn‘t eat much dinner. Hope she gets into surgery early.

Psychological thrillers aren‘t really my thing any more - I read so many in my youth that I can generally see the twists coming way before they happen. This one managed to surprise me, so full marks for that. Probably won‘t read any more by this author though, as her next one seems to start off on the same Secrets & Lies path that this one took. The audio was well done, but that may have just been the British accents swaying me. Good, not great.

The continuing adventures, trials and tribulations of the nuns of St. Winefreda‘s, as described in Sister B.‘s letters to fellow nun Emelda, on a mission in the Andes. Thoroughly enjoyable, and filled with cake and salsa dancing and some lovely community building.
#nunlit #PerpetualReadingSistersofLitsy

The Matryoshka Bros and I are feeling like we deserve one of these stickers. 😂

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BookMarathon

#hashtagbrigade
@BarkingMadRead

This was a good reminder that children are often much more resourceful & capable than we think, although they shouldn‘t have to be, of course. I enjoyed this one, and empathized with Sue, who carried most of the responsibility. Her going on strike certainly has given me ideas. I‘m fascinated by the haybox cooking, & recalled hearing about modern versions - the Wonderbag is one such. I‘d like to make one, just to try it out. 😄
#PersephoneClub

I‘ve had this for ages and follow Broome on FB (I‘m old!) so finally decided to listen. Broome narrates, and he‘s fantastic.
Great read, exploring the stereotypes of Black masculinity and how damaging that can be when one doesn‘t tick any of the required boxes.

Baked tofu with peach habenero barbecue sauce. A friend made some and sent me the bbq sauce recipe, but I went back to the big book of tofu because I needed to figure out the best way to cook it. I usually airfry cubes, but wanted a bigger slice. Pretty good, and I will be making the sauce again for sure.
#mtcookbook

One of the best books I‘ve read this year, The Modern Fairies veers between the court intrigues and excesses of Louis XIV‘s Versailles and the Parisian literary salon of Madame Marie d‘Aulnoy, where a primarily female group of intellectuals gather to remake and retell the Mother Goose stories told to them by their nursemaids as children. These are the darker, bawdier, cleverer stories that were later cleaned up by the Brothers Grimm. Captivating.

Love, love, loved this one, for its style and voice and dark humor, as Bina covers some very difficult topics. Bina has a lot to warn you about, as her life is falling apart and she‘s taken to her bed while the Guarda, the press, and a group of “Crusties” (volunteer protesters/protesters who are aiding her AND camping on her land) wait outside.

I read this in July, and while I enjoyed it while I was reading it, I must admit that now I can‘t remember a thing about it, except the townspeoples‘ fear of becoming a New Town. Delightful, in the ephemeral way these books sometimes are.

#furrowedmiddlebrowclub

Just an amazing book - I read Twain‘s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn again prior to starting this one and it really is a great re-visioning of events. Perspective matters. The audio, narrated by Dominic Hoffman, is excellent.

I have not even read the first page yet, and already I want to ride on this train.

Fabulous read. The story of ConaLee and her family during and after the cataclysm that was the U.S. Civil War and the horrors it wrought moved me deeply. As a Yankee living in Virginia, I was reminded of the history of this in-between state and the chaos it meant for individuals who were forced to choose sides. A friend recently visited the Trans-AlleghenyLunatic asylum and recommended it highly. I‘d def like to take a tour.

Catching upon Sherlock while making the Insta-famous lemony ricotta and summer squash tart thing. It was delicious, but too much work for a summer meal imo. I may hack the recipe to make it simpler (tiny ones with crescent rolls for crust?) and nix the lemon in favor of basil. Lemon ricotta tastes like dessert to me.
#Audiobaking
#NoPlaceLikeHolmes

Listening to this one before I start Perceval Everett‘s JAMES. Elijah Wood does a good job narrating. He won‘t make it onto my Favorite Narrators list - he‘s no Simon Vance - but it‘s pretty good.

#wondrouswednesday

1 Have the ending spoiled
2 Favorite character
3 Mystery for sure
4 Historical fiction. At I‘m immunized. SF settings tend to be pretty dangerous.
5. Skip the first. Can‘t complain about an ending if I haven‘t read it!

@Deblovestoread Thanks for the tag!

@Eggs

An epistolary novel, concerning the Sisters of St.Winifreda and their struggles with a crumbling bell tower, a rat infestation, and a leaking roof with no money to pay for repairs. Through kindness, prayer, ingenuity, good neighbors and some luck, the Sisters build a community while rebuilding their convent. A cheering and uplifting tale.
#nunlitquarterly
#perpetualreadersoflitsy

I was both amused and appalled by the stories Roach included in this book. Human- animal conflicts generally lead to attempts to get rid of the animals. This is why it never works for long.

Haven‘t read King in a while, and I was already biased toward this one since I prefer his shorter works to most of his novels. There were two that fell flat for me, but over all, I really enjoyed this. I loved Danny Coughlin‘s Bad Dream, The Turbulence Experts, and Laurie, and the nods to Flannery O‘Connor and Len Deighton - had to go back and reread A Good Man is Hard to Find. The move toward older MCs was nice; write what you know, right?

The mythology might be different, but I feel like we‘re currently looking at a similar mess playing out in the US. Wish I could shake the feeling that we‘re building up inexorably to a national disaster.
Krimstein‘s very, very good, and if not for the current resonances, I‘d be enjoying this a lot more.
Definitely worth a read.

Library hold came in, so my weekend is made.
Having lived in Florida, I‘m hoping this giant land alligator stays put. 🐊

The writing here is astounding, deceptively simple language that conveys the depth of feeling among the thee main characters so well. Davies‘ style reminded me of Margaret Atwood‘s writing - ordinary language (as opposed to the lyrical stylings of many recent novels, full of déliquescence and meanderings and cacophonies) that is so straightforward and clear that the story takes center stage, as, imo, it should.
Fabulous book.Fabulous teapot. ?

Beginning to suspect my dog may be related to Bunnicula.

Sweet corn soup from Alice Waters‘ The Art of Simple Food, which is a favorite of mine, and a peach and blueberry cobbler from a recipe I got decades ago from the Martha Stewart Living magazine. Blurb on the back says it‘s from August 2001!
#mtcookbook

As a teen, Frances Adams has her fortune told - and it predicts that she will be murdered. For the next sixty years, she tries to prevent her own murder, unsuccessfully, leading her great- niece to step in and find Frances‘ killer.
It‘s a dual- timeline format, which I don‘t generally like, but as Frances‘ past is recounted through her diary, it worked a bit better for me than these usually do.
+10 points for crows on the cover 🐦‍⬛ 🐦‍⬛ 🐦‍⬛

My daughter took this pic in our front yard - happy little pollinator!
And I love this book by William Steig - sentences in letters 🩷

Not to brag, but I‘m reading this, AND IVE BEEN RIGHT ALL ALONG!!

Dark comedy time loop fantasy as narrated by Deadpool‘s twin sister, essentially. After trying a million times over thousands of years to save the humans, Davi switches teams and attempts to become the Dark Lord, nemesis of humankind, instead. Raunchy, and surprisingly moving in parts. Quite a lot of fun, apart from all the dying.

When you go to a tired Nigel Slater‘s house and insist on having dinner.