Dear Virginia, Here goes your letter, although there isn’t much to write about. I guess I told you everything over the phone. Hope you get better soon, it’s awful to be sick. Well, what do you want me to say? I can’t think of anything. I didn’t find much to do tonight in Fulton, I didn’t feel like bowling, so I came home and listened to the radio. There weren’t even any pretty girls around. I guess a fellow has to go to Mexico to find them. (‘Or New Haven’) I would have come down to see you, but on second thought the place for a sick girl is in…
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Here are the reading challenges that I am taking part in this year. I’ll update these graphics at the end of each month. PopSugar is a challenge I tried last year, but did not complete. So I’m trying again this year! There are forty regular prompts and ten advanced ones, and each year the list has a theme. This year is a throwback year, so there are prompts such as a book from the year you were born and a book you read more than ten years ago. A book with a rabbit on the cover had me scratching my head until I realized that it’s the year of the…
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It’s the first reading wrap-up of the new year! I got off to a blazing start with 21 books this month, which is about double what I had been doing the past few months. And this was also a huge month for audiobooks! It’s so nice to have a book in my ear while I’m driving or while I’m doing boring tasks at work. This month I also took a deep dive into the Osemanverse, starting with a reread of my beloved Heartstopper series. I’m hoping to wrap up with the last few books in February. And let’s talk about reading challenges for a minute. Last year I tried to…
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OK, I need to vent and I guess this is my default place to do it now. You can probably just scroll on by because this is really just an anger release for me. I have a question to ask those of you who are sticking around for this post: when did it become acceptable for adults to act like children? Because we seem to have an epidemic of that happening right now. I swear I feel like I’m in high school again, with the rampant gossip and rumors and backstabbing that I’m witnessing. I mean, I hated high school because of immature classmates, subtle and overt bullying, and the…
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I’ve always loved the idea of yoga. I wanted to try it, but as an oversized person I was always hesitant. I went to one class at the local YMCA several years ago, and while I did mostly enjoy it, it was a little above my ability level. I also felt very uncomfortable, as I was by far the largest person there. Everyone seemed welcoming and accepting, but my anxiety brain had already determined that everyone was judging me for my body size. I never went back. Then last year a friend of mine was teaching a small class, and the others in the class were also friends of mine,…
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Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters Publication date: 31 January 2023 from Forever Publishing Twenty twenty-one’s Satisfaction Guaranteed was my first exposure to Karelia Stetz-Waters’ work, and it was insta-love. It’s become a comfort read for me, and I’ve probably read it too many times. Now she’s releasing the pug-tastic Behind the Scenes, and it’s more of what we’ve come to love about her work. Ash is a former filmmaker and current workaholic who relaxes by watching ASMR food videos by a woman who never shows her face. Rose is a business consultant who spends her off hours…making ASMR food videos in which she never shows her face. When the…
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Dear Virginia,I received your letter yesterday and was glad to hear that Shirley wants to go with us Saturday. I have talked with Leon and I guess he is going to try to get away, so we ought to have some fun. What was the matter with “Pete” that she couldn’t go? Didn’t she enjoy her evening the other night? Well, there isn’t much to talk about. I have to go to work soon anyway, so I guess I may as well close. By the time you receive this letter it won’t be long until we see each other, so be good. Love,Harry P.S. Tell Shirley to live in hope.Bye,…
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Over the past couple of years I have been working on improving my mental health, after years of suffering from anxiety and depression. I plan to be completely transparent about my journey in these posts, because I hope that reading my story will help someone else out there get the help they need. Below is a Facebook post from November of 2020, which was when I first sought help. I figured sharing that here would be a good place to start. And please, if you are struggling and need help, reach out to someone. The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available any time, to anyone. Call 1-800-273-8255 or call, text,…
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Begin Again by Emma LordOut now from Wednesday Books “Anything worth doing starts with a mess.” Emma Lord is pretty much becoming the queen of sweet YA/NA books. I first discovered her with Tweet Cute, which was lovely, and then last year’s When You Get the Chance was an absolute delight (I still need to get You Have a Match off my bookshelf and read it). Lord brings that charm again in the upcoming Begin Again, which follows Andie Rose as she navigates life at her dream college while also living with the shadow of her late mother, who was also an alum of Blue Ridge State. Andie has a…
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Audiobook Review Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman Out now from Harper Audio This one took a little while to find its feet, but once the plot started to take shape, I was all in. Georgian London is the setting for this historical gem, and the best word I can find to describe the vibe of the story is “atmospheric.” As a long-time fan of Greek mythology, I did enjoy this take on the story of Pandora’s box, and our heroine, Dora, is an orphan, a jewelry designer, and a spitfire of a woman who can hold her own even under the restrictive culture of the time. This tale is told through…
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Locust Lane by Stephen Amidon Out now from Celadon Books I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but this one grabbed me from the first page. There is the mysterious death of a young woman, a crew of secretive teenagers and their parents who are harboring secrets of their own. Throughout the book, Amidon expertly pulls at the threads of the mystery which binds all of these people together. The story is told through multiple points of view, but interestingly only those of the adults. I usually have a tough time when there are a lot of characters in a book, but I followed these plot lines quite easily. Locust…
