Book Love & Coffee Mugs

  My daily bag! Here's a tote made lovingly by my husband.  I chose the leather color and texture as well as the color of the straps.  It was custom-made!  My one request was a large pocket on the outside - particularly for sunglasses and keys.  And yes, there are two additional pockets on the inside. During quarantine and all our time at home he taught himself leabthercrafting and this is one of many of the projects he has completed.  Since then we've attended a few leather shows together where crafters share the work as well as suppliers allow you to demonstrate their tools and machines.  Its fascinating and I've gone from 0 to 50 in a short time learning all about his new hobby.   The great part is that there's always a quiet corner that I can find with my book when I've exhausted by interest and he's still at it.  So now to this book! The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian (April 2021) " Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves

  As I reflect back on how my 2022 reading year ended, I'm thrilled with the stack that arrived almost by happenstance.  Several favorites were not purchased, they were gifted or shared as another's favorite read. I've come to treasure those most of all. Nowadays we're gathered less frequently - and rarely press a book into another reader's hands - yet when one arrives by mail I'm just as thrilled and flattered to be the recipient of such a treasure.   Book recommendations are so meaningful, and appreciated.  A good friend of mine owns an indie bookstore in Coeur d'Alene, ID and has shared I'd be a great 'hand seller' - one who listens and then finds just the right next read - handing it to them with care.  That's how I envision it taking place. This stack above were my favorite reads in 2022.  Of course there were so many that didn't make the stack - and often because I listened on audio and don't own the physical book.  And let'

  Having just put the Thanksgiving holiday behind us I begin to think about the stack of books that I will put together as the 'best reads of 2022'. Are they the most recent reads? What if I read it in 2022 but it is released in 2023? What are the rules!? As I have started a stack in the corner of my den with the best books I've read this year I'm thrilled to say that I have more than ten.  And although I may whittle it down to a total of ten, I'm so glad I have so many to praise as we move into the last month of the year. What reads will December bring that may bump a few off?  Only time will tell!

  "The way to turn an ex-lover into a friend is to never stop loving them, to know that when one phase of a relationship ends it can transform into something else. It is to acknowledge that love is both a constant and a variable at the same time." Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow X3 The story of Sam, Sadie, and Marx wrapped itself around my little finger and next let go. From the beginning all the way until 'game over' I was clutching to the intricacies of their relationships for dear life. This was not a story about gaming that involved people. It was a beautiful written, compellingly addictive story that involved gaming. Relationships are the key to our existence. Wether the game of life, or in this story the game of Friendship. We were not meant to walk this journey alone. It is those we share this road with us - for a moment, a day, a week or a lifetime that color our world. Their addition to our story colors our world, brings music to our senses and fills in our the gap

  "You do have to let youth take its course." Brandi Carlile, Broken Horses From April 2021:  " The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, producer, and six-time Grammy winner opens up about a life shaped by music in this candid, heartfelt, and intimate story." What a beautifully, heart-felt story written, read and performed by the author.  Her story is one of hope.  The lessons she has taken from her upbringing, her experiences and her reality are eye-opening.  Others may have been hardened, walked away,  come  bitter and regretful.  Not Brandi Carlile.  She lives for the experiences.  Her story is shows the difference between owning who you are and blaming the world for what's all around you.   And her voice!  The songs she sings on the audiobook are melodic interludes to her story.  These are her stories to tell.  As the reader I'm so glad she opened her heart and her soul to share them with us.

  Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours for this #gifted copy of Legends of the North Cascades by Jonathan Evison! Published June 2021. Description:  " Dave Cartwright has had enough. After three tours in Iraq he has come home to Vigilante Falls in Washington State only to find that he feels incapable of connecting to the people and the place that once defined him. Most days, his love for his seven-year-old daughter, Bella, is the only thing keeping him going. When tragedy strikes, Dave makes a dramatic decision: he will take Bella to live in a cave in the wilderness of the North Cascades. So begins a compelling adventure, a story of a father and daughter attempting to cope with a breathtaking but harsh environment. Once they are settled in the cave, Bella retreats into a different world, that of a mother and son who had lived in that same space, but thousands of years before, at the end of last Ice Age. As the two dramas begin to merge, a timeless odyssey unfolds, both as a meditation