whatcha readin'? (goal 48 - book 14)

I read Writers & Lovers in May.
🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵out of 5 🩵’s

This was one of those
"got pulled in by the cover"
"found at a book sale randomly"
kind of deals but I am so glad I did.

I have had Lily King on my list
of “should read” for a long time
and it was well worth the hype.
It was a little hard to read because
her loss made me think of my own
and maybe it felt a little too soon
but if I avoided all books that
touch on loss, the pickings would be slim.

And sometimes, reading about something
can unleash your own words…
and they may have never come out otherwise.

words escaped like:

read this book curled up
in the swing
by the setting sun,
gingham b&w ruffled pjs,
bare feet,
loving the book…so loving the book.

and also

…I cried because I was so happy for her
(redacted why - spoiler alert)…
and partly because I was still so sad
for both of us -
motherless daughters now
watching for the geese to go
but waiting so much harder
for them to come back
and my heart broke open
a little bit
and my words rushed out
in a gush,
in a torrent,
full of happiness and regret and loss
and love.

And I love when a book makes me want to pick up a pen.

*special guest star in first photo is
the lemon graham cracker pie from
Ruby’s Counter! DEEE-LICIOUS

NEXT UP: ENEMIES TO LOVERS - Laura Jane Williams

whatcha readin'? {goal 48 - book 13} 📖

This one is definitely a re-read for me.
I have read all of these books so many times
over the years, I have completely lost count.

I devoured this one weekend when I thought
I screwed up my back again…
so I lost myself in the land of Anne.
Picnics, antics of Davey & Dora,
big decisions, amusing predicaments
and, of course, Gilbert. ♥

I will never not love these books.
They transport me immediately
to my childhood, to laying upside down
on an arm chair,
eating apples,
with nothing else to do
except read all day long.

My dad once told me that
one of his favorite memories
was that when I was a kid,
I would come out to the shed
where he worked, way before the big garage…
but the shed where he worked on
snowmobiles and dirt bikes,
built windmills and ice boats…
and I would sit silently on the steps to the loft
and read while he worked,
neither of us talking
but it was just enough
to be in close proximity of him.

I think of that
and I think of him remembering that
and it gives me a
glowworm in my heart.
I was loved. I loved and was loved.
They might not be here now…
but that love remains.

I got sidetracked. Sorry, Lucy Maud. 🤭

“I like to fancy souls as being made of light. And some are all shot through with rosy stains and quivers…and some have a soft glitter like moonlight on the sea…and some are pale and transparent like mist at dawn…”

This makes me happy now in a way
I would have not understood when I was a kid
or even 5 years ago.
But I understand it now.

Also not to make this way too long
but can we just take a second to
admire these BEAUTIFUL FRIGGING COVERS?
This series is done by Ellie McKay
and I am in love and going to get the whole series.
These are definitely keepers for me.

💙💙💙💙💙’s out of 5

NEXT UP: WRITERS & LOVERS - Lily King

🚀whatcha readin'? {goal 48 - book 12} 🧑🏻‍🚀

I actually read 3 books so far in May
but I am choosing to only talk about this one
today
because I loved it so much
AND because it pushed me into a black hole spiral
of weird hyper fixation that
books will sometimes do to me.

The book is Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir).

I opened the book on my lunch at work
and there was a diagram of a rocket ship
with words like centrifuge and thrust and spin drives
and I felt myself shifting
into the “this must become a project” mode of my brain.

This is not a mode I can plan or control.
Or explain. Or deny.

So I fully enjoyed reading the book.
I love the characters & relationship between Ryland & Rocky.
The humor. The frustrations. The problem solving.
The plot twists I did not see coming.

And I cannot wait to see the movie
(have I had a small but large crush on Ryan Gosling
ever since the Notebook and Crazy Stupid Love…yes.)

While reading the book, I drew random aliens
and space ships, watched videos for kids on the solar system,
and looked up words I didn’t know the meaning of.

AND IT WAS SO FUN.

wanna know SOME SPACE FACTS?
🚀Mars has blue sunsets
👽Venus spins backwards
🚀The sun is actually a star made of hydrogen & helium
👽One year on Neptune = 165 years on earth
I can keep going.
But I’ll spare you. 🤭
I rated this book 5/5 🧑‍🚀🧑‍🚀🧑‍🚀🧑‍🚀🧑‍🚀

NEXT UP: Anne of Avonlea - LM Montgomery

whatcha readin'? {goal 48 - books 9-11}

April has come and gone
in the blink of a rainy sometimes snowy eye.

I read a total of 4 books in April
which I consider to be an okay number
considering one was completely painful
and maybe I should have just opted to choose the
"Did Not Finish" option
for once in my life…but I persevered.

Here are the final 3 for April:

Constance - Patricia Clapp
💙💙💙💙

This is a re-read for me from a long time ago.
It has crossed my mind so many times
over the years.
I might have been 12 or so
when I read it…and it was one of the ones
I signed out of the library constantly
as a kid…so it was so fun for me to find it again
and re-read it so many years later.

And oddly enough, I still remembered parts of it.

Anyway, I’m not really going to recommend it
even though I gave it 4 hearts.
Those were more nostalgia hearts.

Poems and Prayers - Matthew McConaughey
🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️
I wanted to like this.
I did.
I started off liking it
but somewhere along the way
it veered off into
what I think Dr Seuss would sound like
if he was high.
and not in a good way.
A little too rhyme-y for me…
the word play was fun sometimes but
also got on my nerves…maybe I would have
been better off reading this in chunks
and not trying to read it all in one go…
but it’s a not really recommended for me.

Icebreaker - Hannah Grace
😈😈😈
Ok, let me preface this by saying
I DIDN’T KNOW.
(if you already know the level of spice
in this book, I repeat, I DIDN’T KNOW)
I picked this up, oddly enough,
at a BIBLE Thrift store
and, ironically enough,
it was labeled YOUNG ADULT.
Let me just say, this book made me blush
so many times from pretty much page one
that I thought I might be permanent shade of pink.
If it is young adult, then YA has definitely changed
from the YA sweet valley high kinda books
I am used to.
The story was ok, the spice was very hot,
and it was a good book to distract me
from my sprained SI joint
so no complaints here.

Will I continue to read the Maple Hills sexual saga
now that I realized there are 2 other books in the series…
ummm…maybe not. Or maybe I will…heh.
I am a little invested now. 🤷🏻‍♀️

whatcha readin'? {goal 48-books 7-8}

I have had a good run of books
so far this year and this one
was no exception.
I picked it up on a whim…
it’s been a long, kinda hard winter
full of missing my parents,
big decisions, headaches, and
anxieties of various forms
(house, health, world…)
so this was perfect timing for this
beautifully written memoir of sorts
of this woman’s own periods of “wintering”.
5 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️’s out of 5

And this one.
This one was so worth the tiktok hype.
I absolutely loved the story and the
characters and the complexities…
at times, I didn’t really like the characters (except Marx)
but I felt for them.
And I love when a story makes me
think about it so much afterwards
that I want to draw things.
Which brought about this little guy…
(oh! and super excited to see that this is being made into a movie!)
5❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️’s out of 5