This evening I‘m making some time to read with Gandalf. So far this is an amusing middle grade story that also delves into to the reality of grief after the death of a family member.

#MiddleGrade

This is another great historical fiction by Jennifer Nielsen. Set in Poland throughout WWII, it follows Lidia from the initial German invasion through the final days of the German occupation. It‘s a harrowing story of those who joined the Polish resistance. I‘ve read stories of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, but this was a broader story of resistance throughout the city.

#audiobook #MiddleGrade #WWII #TRS2025

A visit to the library yesterday means choosing a new middle grade book to start with breakfast today. I‘m picking up Fowl Play first.

#BookAndBreakfast #MiddleGrade

A couple weeks worth of joys since I never made time to post last weekend

💛 Beautiful northern lights from my backyard
💛 Homemade sourdough brownies
💛 My pets
💛 Time to bake the fruitcake for this holiday season
💛 Cozy blankets

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

Today I learned these yew trees may have inspired Tolkien‘s door into Moria. It‘s a perfect Tree A Day and Tolkien crossover.

#ATreeADay #NaturaLitsy #FellowshipOfTolkien #NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #TodayILearned

I‘m excited to collaborate with @Karisimo to bring back weekly #MiddleGradeMonday posts! We‘ve got some prompts planned, but we would also love to hear what kind of #MiddleGrade books you would like to share or for which you would appreciate some recommendations. Let us know your ideas in the comments.

This is a light pick for me. I enjoyed it but didn‘t love it. I appreciated the early history of how bookstores developed in the U.S. and found the stories of well-known independent bookstores interesting. However, this is an incredibly broad topic, and hearing about a few specific bookstores I know or have visited just made me want to learn of more variety for my list.

#audiobook #Nonfiction #NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #LitsyBookClub

I‘ve read a few books about Tolkien, Lewis, and the Inklings, and I still thoroughly enjoyed the style and perspective of this book. It‘s not strictly a graphic novel biography as it alternates full pages of text with panels and also includes a few narrative fantasy elements, but it is full of factual information about both writers and their friendship. The art was also great.

#NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #GraphicNovel #FellowshipOfTolkien

Sunday morning #BookAndBreakfast

This is a fascinating look at the relationship between Tolkien and Lewis with pages of text and illustration interspersed with full graphic novel panels featuring a lion and wizard. There‘s a lot about their beliefs and writing styles more than events of their lives.

#Nonfiction #NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #BreakfastWithTolkien #FellowshipOfTolkien

There wasn‘t anything especially surprising for me in this story of public school girl getting the opportunity to attend an elite private school with a secret society, but it was a fun listen for today.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #TRS2025

This is an interesting book of short descriptions of women authors of early gothic stories to present day. I don‘t consider myself much of a horror or speculative fiction reader, but I enjoy reading a wide variety. There were several authors I have read and plenty more that piqued my interest. I enjoyed the listen, but a print copy would be ideal for better noting books to add to a TBR.

#Nonfiction #NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #audiobook

Another Saturday edition of joys:

💛 A few new to me jars and dishes from my grandparents‘ house
💛 Trying out some new math activities with my classes
💛 The pets! They‘re all getting a little snugglier as the weather cools.
💛 Friday night pizza and football
💛 A Saturday with nowhere to go

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

Today I learned that J.R.R. Tolkien & Edith (his future wife) spent time in tea shops as teens throwing sugar cubes into the hats of unsuspecting ladies.

This is a graphic novel biography of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and so far I‘m intrigued by how it‘s put together. It‘s also nice to read something a bit lighter about them.

#FellowshipOfTolkien #Nonfiction #TodayILearned #NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #GraphicNovel

I feel I haven‘t read much nonfiction this year,
so I‘m trying to remedy that with some #NonfictionNovember choices. I‘ve started this audiobook about female authors of horror & speculative fiction. It‘s fascinating & mentions a good mix of authors with whom I‘m familiar as well as others unknown to me. Each section gives a bit of author information & a reading list.

📷: A happy Luthien out for a run today

#NFNovember #Nonfiction #audiobook

I thoroughly enjoyed this middle grade dystopia set in a future world where all information is digital, paper books are incredibly rare, and few know how to read well. It‘s got plenty of action but also a clear message about the importance of books and not censoring information.

#MiddleGrade #audiobook #TRS2025

October 2025 #BookSpinBingo

I don‘t feel like I read very much in October nor was there an absolutely amazing book, but it was an enjoyable reading month.

#BookSpin 14 - Westfallen
#DoubleSpin 7 -

#ReadingStats #MonthlyStats #DaiseysReadingSummary

This is an interesting piece of WWII history, but I was disappointed in the book itself. It seemed to skip over some key aspects of the initial Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands. The stories of the different people didn‘t make the impact I expected and felt somewhat disjointed. It may be even harder for young readers without any prior knowledge to follow the course of events.

#Nonfiction #MiddleGrade #YA #WWII #Alaska #MsDsLibrary

This summer I had the opportunity to visit the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage, and it includes an exhibit about the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands during WWII. As I walked through it I realized I‘ve had this book in my class library shelf for a few years and never read it myself. I started it today during our seminar reading time.

#Alaska #YA #Nonfiction #WWII #MsDsLibrary

This story includes sea dragons mostly hunted for profit in an area of tropical islands, and their eggs are especially prized for magical properties. There is also some interesting magic with the tattoo like markings of some characters. This description includes nothing of the main characters, but that‘s hard without giving away key details.

📷: I listened today as I worked around the house & started some baking projects.

#audiobook #YA #TRS2025

This was an enjoyable reread of a book I haven‘t read in several years. The idea of running away and hiding in a museum is a fun one, and there‘s a bit of a mystery for Claudia and Jamie to investigate as well.

It‘s also been a while since I spent a quiet Friday night with a book and cup of tea, and it was very much appreciated.

#MiddleGrade #MsDsLibrary

This was a great story of friendship, love, and resistance during the WWII occupation of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. I enjoyed the stories of this community focused around two best friends, Grace and Bea, as they work against the oppression of Nazi occupation. There were also wonderful historical notes at the end.

#LitsyBookClub #audiobook #WWII

💛 The pets!
💛 I have completed all the steps to add HS math to my teaching certification.
💛 Parent teacher conferences yesterday and no school today, meaning a 3 day weekend!
💛 A pumpkin spice shake on my way home from errands today
💛 Time to stay home and bake tomorrow

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

I finished listening to this over the weekend, and I‘m still not sure what I think about it. I frequently found the way the narrator described things and how he inserted himself in the story entertaining. However, the way things came together at the end seemed abrupt to me, and my overall impression was more a so-so than a pick.

I put this on hold for #AuthorAMonth, but just now got to it.

#1001books #audiobook

It‘s been a long week full of a lot of things, but this morning I‘m taking a little break from it all to catch up on this book with a cup of coffee before church. I continue to love the mix of history and science and art in these daily pages, and the photos and art chosen are just beautiful.

#NaturaLitsy #ATreeADay

💛 Last weekend I got to watch my nephew play in his senior Homecoming game!
💛 It was also the annual fall festival in my hometown with lots of fun festival food, including the pineapple whip in the photo.
💛 Mums and pumpkins and beautiful weather to enjoy it all
💛 Getting a step closer to adding high school math to my teaching certification
💛 The pets!

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

I didn‘t have a word to share from my reading today, but then I stumbled across a short video from Merriam-Webster about expletive infixation that included the definition of grawlix. This led me to an article with a bit more history of grawlixes, so I‘m sharing with the rest of you. Links in comments ⬇️

grawlix: a string of typographical symbols used in place of an obscenity, especially in comic strips (noun)

#WeirdWords #WeirdWordWednesday

Westfallen has been my read at school, but I brought it home this weekend to finish. It‘s an interesting alternate history caused by communication between a group of middle schoolers in 2023 with another group in the same town in 1944. I found it interesting, but I‘m not a big fan of stories that explore the butterfly effect. Additionally, this one turned out to be the start of a series instead of the standalone I expected.

Another Saturday edition of weekly joys

💛 More apples 🍎 I made chunky applesauce last weekend & need to decide what to make today. 🍏
💛 They harvested the soybeans around my house this week. I love being around for harvest, and Luthien loves that we now have open fields for running.
💛 Happy cats
💛 Making it through Homecoming week at school
💛 A beautiful Saturday morning and iced coffee

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

September 2025 #BookSpinBingo

September was a good reading month with some truly interesting books. I think Tombland was my favorite, but I enjoyed almost all of these.

#BookSpin 1 - Quartet
#DoubleSpin 13 - Where Wolves Don‘t Die

#MonthlyStats #ReadingStats #DaiseysReadingSummary

I finished listening to this book this afternoon, and it has all the emotions. There‘s so much humor mixed with so much frustration, anger, and sadness for these characters. I thought Backman did an amazing job of weaving together the past and present stories.

📷: Gandalf & LaGata keeping me company in the backyard while also listening to Luthien run in the field.

#LitsyBookClub #audiobook #TurnThePage #Readathon

Good morning! A slightly different view from my backyard than last night, but it‘s my favorite place to be on these beautiful fall days. I spent some time making these breakfast biscuits to pull from the freezer on busy mornings, and now I‘m catching up on some A Tree a Day reading. These short anecdotes about trees from all over the world continue to be so interesting.

#BookAndBreakfast #NaturaLitsy #ATreeADay

This is a fairly short book, but it took me a long time to read because I found it depressing. I did find it interesting that it is somewhat based on Rhys‘s own affair with Ford Maddox Ford.

📷: It was a beautiful evening to enjoy the hammock and a fire in the backyard with Luthien.

#1001books #TurnThePage #Readathon

I love the idea of a weekend readathon. I hope to finish a few books and make some progress on others. I‘m close to done with Quartet and My Friends, and it‘s almost time for Westfallen to go back to the library. I haven‘t picked up A Tree a Day all month, so I want to remedy that. I‘ll probably listen to some more audio as well.

#TurnThePage #Readathon
#LitsyBookClub #NaturaLitsy #1001books

💛 My new yellow mum is blooming, and my established purple mum is getting close!
💛 The pets, this week two very content cats
💛 Apples 🍎 🍏
💛 Baking and sourdough focaccia specifically
💛 A beautiful Friday evening

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

I enjoyed this book, but I don‘t think I would have as much reading it all on my own. I tend to enjoy more plot focused stories, and this was definitely character focused. Additionally, it was a bit difficult to stay connected sometimes when it skipped chunks of time and revealed major changes from those periods. The narration by Jeremy Irons was great, and absolutely helped my appreciation.

#HashtagBrigade #1001books #audiobook

@catiewithac This is a fantastic swap package! Thank you so much! I had completely forgotten that this book was on my to read list, and it sounds absolutely fascinating. All of the goodies are perfect for settling in to fall, and the recipe tea towel is such a creative idea.

#AutumnComfortSwap

Yesterday I got out my sourdough starter with the plan of starting dough overnight for some kind of cheesy garlic focaccia. I saw my aunt and she gave me a jar of apple pie filling that hadn‘t sealed, so I decided to make two versions instead. I used the basic focaccia recipe from this book and then did my own thing with inclusions & toppings.

#sourdough #cookbook

Enjoying Sunday morning book and breakfast and then more of this book while I also meal prep breakfasts and clean up the kitchen before church.

#BookAndBreakfast #LitsyBookClub #audiobook

This was a great novel in verse. Poems are aligned left and right along with other spacing to highlight aspects of the story. It has wonderful literary references, figurative language, and football details. It‘s all wrapped up in the story of Kareem figuring out his own way as a Syrian American. It‘s set in 2016 & 2017 with the executive order banning international travel from Syria and other countries directly impacting Kareem‘s family.

💛 A family get together and a beautiful view over a lake
💛 Late summer flowers
💛 Bacon & tomato sandwiches on homemade sourdough
💛 The pets, including a very happy, running beagle
💛 A rainy Thursday as it‘s been very dry

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

Sometimes you just need to enjoy a book with your supper. I‘m already in the middle of several books, but I picked up this one that came off my holds list. It‘s a novel in verse about a middle school Syrian American boy who wants to be on the school football team. It‘s full of football and bookish references.

#TRS2025 #ReadAndEat #NovelInVerse #MiddleGrade

I‘ve been listening to Brideshead Revisited this past week, but I‘ve felt like I‘m not listening closely enough when I read the posts and comments. Today, I found this podcast and listened to a few episodes. They look at it from more of a religious aspect, and they also discuss a variety of passages that help me consider it in more depth. I‘ll put a link to the first episode in the comments.

#HashtagBrigade #1001books #audiobook

Ezra Cloud is an Ojibwe high school student who splits his time between Northeast Minneapolis where his father works as a college professor and Red Gut in Canada where his grandparents live a traditional life of hunting and trapping. After an incident with another student at school and a fire at the student‘s house, his family decides he will move spend the winter with his grandparents. ⬇️

I had quite a bit of driving yesterday to & from family events, so I listened to the last several chapters of this book. This one felt slower than some of the others in the series, but the combination of Shardlake, Nicholas, & Barak gave a great variety of perspectives. I found the English history of the rebellions fascinating while also frustrating. I appreciated the additional historical notes after the story.

#audiobook #ShardlakeBR

cafard: melancholia, depression (noun)

#WeirdWordWednesday #WeirdWords

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook although it often made my heart hurt. Baldwin absolutely has a way with words. Seeing as this was his first novel, I think it would be interesting to see how his writing goes on from this very church oriented story. I did feel that the end was a bit abrupt.

#1001books #audiobook

📷: I listened to quite a bit of this while walking with Luthien and working in the yard this weekend.

Another Saturday edition of weekly joys:

💛 Fresh baked sourdough rolls
💛 An extra day at home for Luthien to have time to run and me to catch up on chores
💛 Snuggly pets
💛 Friday night pizza and football
💛 Beautiful weather

#5JoysFriday #DaiseysJoys

I enjoyed this historical fiction about a brother and sister who work at Bletchley Park while also trying g to unravel the mystery of their mother‘s disappearance. There‘s lots of interesting information about codes and code breaking. I agree with some other reviewers that the ending is a bit rushed, but overall it‘s a great story with an interesting group of characters, including mentions of a few real people who worked at Bletchley Park.

I started this morning by baking these sourdough rolls and reading this book, a sequel to Misty of Chincoteague, that I happened across as we were sorting through things at my grandparents‘ house. It‘s another story of the pony penning on the island and the kids taking care of an orphaned foal.

#BookAndBreakfast #MiddleGrade #SummersEndReadathon

August 2025 #BookSpinBingo
I listened to some great books this month and managed to read a few in print as well. I think Fingersmith was the favorite as it definitely kept me intrigued.

#BookSpin 19 -
#DoubleSpin 20 - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

#ReadingStats #MonthlyStats #DaiseysReadingSummary