book reviews

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel (Adult Fiction)

I am detecting a theme this year with my favorite books - Daughters! The Paris Daughter is absorbing, devastating, but also hopeful, and filled with moments of intense longing. Harmel highlights many different ways to grieve and doesn't try to persuade the reader that any one way is right. I thought the book didn't transition well during the bigger lapses in time, one twist was too obvious too fast, and the plane incident at the end was a bit unbelievable. But I enjoyed the connections between the characters and the moments when both Elise and Lucie got lost in their art. I particularly enjoyed every single description of Elise carving, even when she was completely consumed with grief and her need to carve grew compulsive and crazed. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, strong female characters, artist characters, and explorations of grief, friendship, and human connection. 

Steeped to Death by Gretchen Rue (Adult Cozy Mystery)

My first favorite cozy mystery of the year. This one will be tough to beat as it has cats, tea, and bookshops (a few of my favorite things). I also enjoyed the characters and was surprised by the ending. I grew fond of a few characters and was very invested in their innocence. I won't give anything away, but there was a surprise that may not be a surprise for you! I bet you're so curious, you don't need me to carry on anymore. You've already put a hold on this. But I can't wrap up this review without mentioning how much I love the details - delicious tea and food details galore. Also, details of the bookshop, friendships blossoming, autumn settling in, the historic and charming town etc. The list goes on and on. I felt like I was a part of this town while reading this. I wouldn't mind being the main character's best customer, especially if she's going to start bringing her cat to work! Sorry not sorry about this spoiler alert. I couldn't help it. All of us cat fans rejoice! Hopefully the second book has even more kitties in the bookshop!

P.S. I also read the sequel, and it's pretty good.  I could have used more cat details, but book three is coming out this fall, and I'm hopeful all the shops in town have kitty rescue palaces and everyone is biking to work with their cats peeping out of backpacks. 

fountain flopping fixes most things

There's a lot in flux with my life right now.  In some ways 2024 has been a tough year.  I'm hoping there are some answers to things by the end of June.

But for now there is always family and fountain flopping and the possibility of clear skies ahead.

meandering

Robert and I had a rare weekend off together this past weekend.  We explored Weston, MO where we did some coffee shop flopping (I sewed and Robert click-clacked on his laptop), wandered around their tiny and adorable Main Street (they had a Polish Pottery Festival happening, which included a polka band), and ended the day with some bug-free, zero humidity hiking (probably the last perfect weather for a few months).  On Sunday we did a short walk with my niece, Izzy, and her bunny (Margo and Josie know these creatures as bun buns).  Margo and Josie did not eat the bunny and were only vaguely aware it existed.  Izzy is doing well - same job and relationship for quite some time.  She is content with both.  And well, she has a happy bun bun, so that says something too.

And always there's tennis, which is really just an opportunity for Margo to read the newspaper of whatever park we're at (though I have yet to see, hear, or smell these newspapers due to my human limitations).

letting go one envelope strip at a time

I just wrapped up my spring class - Organization of Information, which felt like an unnecessarily complicated deluge of well, information.  I also feel like I need to plant a tree after printing the hundreds of pages of required readings for the class.  

This is some of it:

It didn't help that Robert said he took a similar course for his MBA and he almost failed it.  I am hoping to get a 'B' in this class, but I will be happy with not failing.  I have made straight A's up until this point, so it's a bit of a boo hoo moment.  I didn't make straight A's in my undergrad classes, so I will likely survive this disappointment.

I have also made another collage, because that's just what I do.  I eat, breathe, and sleep art and poetry (when I'm not eating, sleeping, or breathing dog fur or the library or you know, information and how it's so rudely organized).

A library friend, Bet, gave me a whole pile of beautiful security envelopes.  I collect a lot of paper trash, but strangely I've never thought to keep envelopes for their insides.  Beauty is everywhere!  This piece of art came to me like a flash behind my eyelids before disappearing.  I scrambled to get it out, and by scrambled, what I mean is I spent several months playing "puzzle time" with the envelope strips.  It turns out that's what I needed out of this piece.  To carefully put the pieces of something together that held the pieces together no matter what else was going on in my life.  I will expand more on this smidgen of drama in a later post as it's still very much happening, and I don't know how to positively talk about it at the moment.

I used three tea boxes for the hand, tea bags and a very special tea box for the envelope, which represents something entirely separate from the piece (it wants you to know it is its own thing), and tea tags for the letters.   

The sides are covered too!

This next image shows a couple of lovely things.  First, look how well this envelope stuff seals!  You could eat spaghetti off the top of this and it wouldn't show.  And hey, if that's what you need to do with art, I totally respect that.  Second, look how my Elephant and Piggie bookends glow.  For those of us who are readers, I bet we all find ourselves periodically looking at our bookshelves and thinking, "it's really about the material things you know?"