Randomness...

 I've been listening to (and loving!) Alex Warren's new album You'll Be Alright, Kid. I started to list my favorite songs, but then realized I was listing them all, so instead I will just say that this entire album is amazing and I love every song on it. 

Went and saw the movie Now You See Me: Now You Don't. It's as entertaining and humorous as the first one. I love a good caper movie, and with all the magic tricks and illusions in this one it's non-stop fun. 

More glad things from last month:

• Had a relaxing and fun Thanksgiving weekend, with three days off from work and lots of game-playing time with my family.  
• Checked lots of good books out of the library that I'm looking forward to reading this month.
• Watched the Olympic Curling trials on TV. (I love curling!)
• Found a few new healthy recipes using red lentils and garbanzo beans that turned out to be really yummy. 
• BYU's football team pulled off an 11-1 season, which made me very happy. And they've still got the Big12 Championship game to play on Saturday. Fingers crossed they play well and go on to the college playoffs. 
• But my best glad thing is the many kind comments all of you leave on my blog each week. Your support and friendship mean the world to me. So thank you! 

Happy Reading!

Dying Cry by Margaret Mizushima

 

The plot:  This is the 10th novel in one of my favorite K-9 mystery series. Newlyweds Mattie and Cole Walker, and Cole's two daughters, Sophie and Angie, and their three dogs are out snowshoeing when they hear a terrified scream. Mattie, who is a deputy and K-9 handler with Timber Creek's Sheriff's Department, goes to investigate with her dog, Robo. What they discover is the body of someone they know. And he didn't die from an accidental fall; he was pushed. Once again, Mattie finds herself involved in a puzzling murder investigation. 

My thoughts: I love Mattie and Cole; they have such a supportive and respectful partnership. And Mattie's German Shepherd, Robo, is full of personality. He's one of the main reasons I love this series so much. I also like that Colorado setting. The mystery was good, too. But it's these characters and their development over the course of this series that makes these books so memorable and appealing. (And also why I recommend starting with the first book, Killing Trail.)    ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Other books in this series I've reviewed:

Stalking Ground #2

Hunting Hour #3

Burning Ridge #4

Tracking Game #5

Hanging Falls #6

Striking Range #7

Gathering Mist #9

Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme:  THANKFUL/THANKSGIVING FREEBIE.

• I had a bit of a scare earlier this year when I experienced a vitreous gel separation in my right eye. But thankfully, it didn't tear my retina. I am thankful for sight.
• I had a book published in October all because my sister suggested that we write a story together for Kindle Vella. I am thankful for my sisters. 
• I am thankful for my nieces and nephews who go to movies with me, include me in their birding excursions, and who like to hang out and play board games with me. Being an aunt is a true blessing in my life.
• I am thankful for parents who taught me not only to read, but to love books.
• I am thankful that I have a home that has heat in the winter, AC in the summer and indoor plumbing; a car that gets me to work everyday; a job that I like; enough food to eat; and access to medicine. They are blessings I do not take for granted. 
• I am also very thankful that I live in a country that guarantees me certain inalienable rights, freedoms, liberty, and opportunities. 
• Most of all, I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and the mercy, hope, love and grace He brings into my life. 

I am truly blessed!

Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith

 "It may sound corny, but what's wrong with wanting to fight for your country. Why are people reluctant to use the word patriotism?" 

--Jimmy Stewart

Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite actors, so when I saw this biography, I couldn't resist checking it out. Here are a few tidbits from this interesting look at Stewart's life and military service in World War II:

• Stewart played both the accordion and the piano.
• When he went to New York after college to pursue acting, he roomed with his friend, Henry Fonda, who also liked to build model airplanes.
• Once he moved to Hollywood, Jimmy Stewart started taking flying lessons.
• Then, in May of 1941, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a pilot.
• He flew a B-24 Liberator (a large bomber plane) with the Eighth Air Force and took his squadron to England in 1943 where he made over 20 successful bombing runs from the coast of France all the way to Berlin. 
• He was humble, steady, studious and skilled, and rose in rank from PFC to Colonel, eventually commanding the 2nd Combat Bomb Wing.
• After the war, from 1945-1968, he served in the Air Force Reserve, achieving the rank of Brigadier General. 
• He also starred in over 80 movies from 1935-1991, winning a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Philadelphia Story in 1941.
• He was the highest ranking actor in military history, and was buried with full military honors in 1997. 

(And reading this book made me like him even more.)

Happy Reading! 

Haiku Reviews...

 

Dear Bob... written and complied by Martha Bolton with Linda Hope

(Bob Hope's wartime correspondence with the G.I.s of WWII.)

Bob Hope entertained

thousands of G.I.s in WWII;

they loved him for it.

Nonfiction .... 306 pages .... 5/5 stars.

(Nobody supported the troops like Bob Hope did. "Laughter was his ammunition. Peace was his mission. Hope was his name.")

 

Secret or Shutout by Leah Brunner

Hockey goalie falls

for his Captain's sister. Can

she trust him with her heart?

Sweet hockey romance .... 323 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(I've enjoyed all of Brunner's hockey romances. Go Eagles!)

Judge's Girls by Sharina Harris

Daughters. Stepmother.

Black. White. Grieving the man they

all loved the best.

Fiction .... 322 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(A novel of loss, forgiveness, family and love.)

Happy Reading!

The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell

 "It is a truth universally acknowledged that women since time immemorial (or at least since 1995) have been obsessed with Colin Firth. My mother was no exception."

The story:

American Tess Bright has just scored the role of Catherine Morland in a new movie production of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, a book her mom loved.

Hugh Balfour is playing Henry Tilney. 

He's a method actor from England who has immersed himself in the Regency era. And he doesn't think much of Tess.

She's all heart and exuberance (and messes), good at improv, and determined to make Hugh like her. Or at least run lines with her.

They're filming in Hampshire, England, near where Austen lived and also near Hugh's ancestral estate.

Then a freak electrical accident sends them both back in time to Jane Austen's era, two hundred years in the past, where they only have each other and their acting skills to rely on. 

My thoughts:

Delightfully witty and utterly charming. It was so much fun to watch Tess and Hugh navigate the courtesies and customs of the Regency Period all while snipping and snarking at each other. I loved how Tess comes to better understand Hugh's quirks and guardedness, and how she draws him out of his introvert shell. And Hugh helps Tess deal with her grief over her mother's passing and learn to smile and love again. They were an entertaining couple. And all their time travel tribulations and trials were very entertaining. I enjoyed their banter and their friendship and romance and that awkward moment when Tess got to meet her hero, Jane Austen herself.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

November's Bookish Art....

 

William Oliver the Younger
Portrait of a Lady Reading a Book

"I think books are like people in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them."

--Emma Thompson