Quick book recommendations...

 

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Mika Moon is a witch. And while she loves her ability to do magic, she hates having to keep it secret from everyone around her. Mika is also an orphan (as all witches are). She doesn't have a home of her own, or any family. But when she's invited to Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic, she finds both. And with Jamie, the scowling and distrustful yet handsome librarian, she might have also found love. This book is enchantting, uplifting and magical. I loved it.

Off the Map by Trish Doller

I loved Doller's Float Plan and this latest book by her is almost as good. Carla is on her way to Ireland for Anna's wedding; Eamon, as best man, is tasked with picking her up at the airport. Their chemistry is immediate and off the charts. And their drive to Tralee brings several unexpected detours along the way, and a chance at love for both of them. I really liked Carla and Eamon; their relationship is full of humor, brutal honesty, amusing banter, and steamy sex. This is another captivating romance from Trish Doller. 

Happy Reading!

The English Bookshop by Janis Wildy

The plot:  Five years ago, Lucy made a promise to her dying stepfather that she would keep the family business going. But Wellslept Mattress is losing money. And her brother, Aaron, and her mother both want to sell. Only Lucy can't give up on that promise she made. Then she gets a letter from England that offers her some hope. It seems her biological father, Brian Baslow, recently died and left one-third of his business and property to her in his will. If she can convince the other two heirs to sell, she just might get the money she needs to save Wellslept. Only Baslow's Bookshop is charming as is the small English village of Wakeby where its located. And everyone in Wakeby is so welcoming and kind. And she likes Sam Burke, the single (and handsome!) manager of the bookstore. And she doesn't like Brian's wife's, Maura's, plan to sell the bookstore to greedy developers. But she really needs the money! What's a girl to do?   

My thoughts:  There are so many things to love about this book! There's a bookshop, and a dog named Barley. Wakeby is a quaint village full of genuine people who quickly befriend Lucy because of who her father was. I liked them, and I liked Lucy and sympathized with her as she struggled to deal with the death of a father she never really knew while trying to figure out how to save her family business back home in Seattle without destroying his bookshop. And I really liked her relationship with Sam. Theirs is a cute romance. Is this book predictable? Yes. Did I mind? No. I just enjoyed the happy ending. 

Happy Reading!

 

Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas

 "Behind a vandweller's decision to move into what is often a cramped, smelly, heatless, air-conditioning less vehicle--there is always a story....a vandweller doesn't become a vandweller simply by purchasing a van. Rather, some personal change or transformation must first occur. The answer to the question about why I lived in a van is this book, which means that the following story isn't so much about a van but about student debt, and wilderness, and all the people and places and journeys that have made me the person I am today...."

 

How would I describe this memoir? It's honest, humorous, enlightening and entertaining. And it's about more than Ken Ilgunas trying to get out of debt or live in a van; it's a chronicle of his own journey to personal freedom and a better, more satisfying life. And I enjoyed every page of it. He meets a lot of interesting people and has many memorable moments in his quest to become debt free. I loved his Alaskan adventures and his experiences hitchhiking across America on his way back home. And all the living-in-a-van parts are especially funny. This is a great book. Here's just one of the quotes from it that I loved:

"Sometimes it's not until you see your shackles that you see your dreams. The soul must first be caged before it can be set free. For all the trouble it had put me through, I had the debt to thank for that. Still though, now that I was out of debt, I couldn't stop dreaming about what I could finally do. This sense of hope and anticipation that I felt made living a delight. This was freedom, I thought. Freedom didn't have to be about tramping around or having adventures:  freedom was simply being able to entertain the prospect of changing your circumstances."

Happy Reading!

 

Lost Among the Birds by Neil Hayward

 "Nutting's Flycatchers can be elusive, hiding in dense foliage and waiting for insects to fly by before darting out in pursuit. I waited patiently as the calls got louder and closer. Wheep! Wheep! I was using my ears to triangulate the call, while my eyes were poised for any movement...And that's when it popped out, a brown missile flying to the edge of the road. It sat there on a bare mesquite branch, tilting its head, surveying me as if it had never seen a Neil Hayward before and needed one for its life list."

When 2013 begins, Neil Hayward finds himself at a crossroads in his life. Having quit his job in 2012, he still has no idea what he wants to do next. He's turning 40 at the end of the year. He's in a new relationship that's going a little too fast, but that he doesn't want to end. He's struggling with depression. And he fears that the best parts of his life are in the past.

To escape, he goes birding. Because birding is the one thing that always brings him peace and makes him feel better. At first, it's just for one trip to Arizona. Then he goes to Texas. And Florida. And Alaska. Then, without really planning it, he finds himself in the middle of doing a Big Year...and on track to join that elusive club of birders who manage to see over 700 different species of birds in just one year. In the end, he sets a new birding record: 749.

"It's difficult for non-birders to understand the rush of adrenaline and love that you feel when you see a bird you've dreamed about. It's like planning a trip to India. No amount of poring over the guidebooks can quite prepare you for the moment when you walk through the large brass doors in the Southern gateway and behold the bone-white marble of the Taj Mahal...That serenity and sense of timelessness is what seeing a Connecticut Warbler feels like to me."

 I loved this book! Probably because I love birding, too. I am nowhere on the same level as Neil Hayward, but I do know the wonder and joy of seeing a new bird for the first time. This book was such an enjoyable read. Hayward's well-written narrative is conversational, insightful, and humorous. And it's not just about the birds and his travels across America; he also deals with his depression and his relationship with his girlfriend. I found it to be both honest and heartwarming. For me, this was a 5-star read.

Happy Reading!

Other excellent birding books:

The Big Year by Mark Obmascik

Red Tails in Love by Marie Winn

Great non-fiction reads on Egypt...

The Nile:  A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present by Toby Wilkinson

This is a fascinating and very readable book that starts in Aswan and takes you all the way to Cairo, stopping at all the important sites along the Nile. I loved Wilkinson's writing and all his fun facts and stories. And I learned a lot. If you're interested in Egypt at all, I highly recommend this book.

Down the Nile:  Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney

This great read chronicles Mahoney's own trip down the Nile....alone in a small boat that she rows herself. (It sounds crazy, I know.) The people she meets and the sites she sees are so interesting. I like to read this kind of travel memoir, probably because I'm not brave enough to do something this adventurous and mad myself! But I'm glad Mahoney is.

The Seventy Great Mysteries of Ancient Egypt edited by Bill Manley

From the riddles of the sphinx to the lost tomb of
Amenhotep I to the Tutankhamen conspiracy, this tome covers many of the questions and mysteries of Egypt. It has short chapters and lots of beautiful color photographs. Best of all, if you're not interested in the chapters on royal boats or Necho and his fleet, you can just skip them.  I did!

Happy Reading!

A bookish memory...

One of the first books I remember being able to read all on my own is Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop. I especially liked the feeling I got when I mastered the two long words at the end:  Timbuktu and Constantinople.  My Dad even helped me find them on a map. I think that's when my desire to travel to exotic places first began. With those two words. Timbuktu and Constantinople. All because of Dr. Seuss.

Then, in the first grade, I fell in love with Hugo the Hippo by Thomas Baum. Don't ask me why. But I got it from a Scholastic book order and I read it incessantly that entire year. (Apparently, it was an animated film first...which I never knew until now.) I think I still have it in a box somewhere, a bit ratty and torn and yellow with age, but very well-loved. It's a story that takes place in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. Two more words that are fun to say, and two more exotic places I've always longed to visit. All because of a children's picture book.

It was Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Frasier that led me to Edinburgh, and House of Rain by Craig Childs that sent me on a road trip to Hovenweep, Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. And while I haven't been to Zanzibar or Timbuktu yet, I still dream of traveling to both of those places, just as I still remember those two books that started me dreaming in the first place.

Aren't books wonderful?

Happy Reading!

A Real-Life Scottish Fairy Tale...

"What if I took all the imagination and creativity that I poured into my screenplays and invested it in my own life?"

 This is not a book about rockets (even though the author once worked for NASA). It's a book about asking yourself, "What if?" and following your dreams no matter how impractical they seem. It's a book about Scotland, and a very cool second-hand bookshop--reasons enough for me to read this book as I love both books and Scotland! It's part travel memoir, part adventure, and part romance. And it made me wish I could trade places with Jessica A. Fox.

"...the Holy Grail is not the treasure but the dream, like the carrot before the horse. It's the impulse that gets you off the couch and propels your journey. The problem arises when you don't allow your dream to change."

Jessica is a 26-year-old film-maker living and working in Los Angeles when she has a dream that propels her to take an impulsive trip to Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town. There she meets Euan, the owner of The Bookshop. Wigtown feels surprisingly like home to her and Jessica soon finds herself falling in love with it...and with Euan.

"All the best parts of this adventure, after all--Euan, Eve, Deirdre, Edinburgh and all that I adored about Wigtown--had been outside the possibilities of my imagination."

I really enjoyed reading about this Scottish book town. Scotland is such an amazing place...I'd love to go back someday and make my own pilgrimage to Wigtown. If you're into travel, bookshops, and following your dreams, definitely read Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets by Jessica A. Fox.