Sunday, June 14, 2020

Books: May and June

Our library opened up for curbside pick-up and we began participating in mid-May.  We can look at the online catalog and either email our choices or use the online system to reserve the books, then we're notified when the books are ready to be picked up.  We drive to the parking lot and call the special number with extension and they deliver the books to the back of our car.  We get to keep them for more than two weeks and aren't assessed any fines during this time.  When we return the books to the outdoor book drop, they're kept in quarantine for 4 days before being checked in.  We aren't assessed any fines during that drop-time either (just in case we turned in the books on the date they were due, but they weren't checked in til 4 days later).  The boys and I have really enjoyed perusing the online catalog and selecting fun books.  I include a book or two for Avery on my library card's order.

Both boys kind of stick to a theme when ordering books.  Noah usually looks up police officers, school buses, fire trucks, and garbage trucks.  Michael sticks to Pokemon, Super Mario, or Dog Man.

I sometimes include books that I've read before in case I'm in the mood for a sure ending to the story.  I also pick out new (to me) books and I recently found out that the library stocks cook books so that will be fun to try this summer. 

In May, I checked out The Flatshare and The Cat Who Talked Turkey.  I finished The Flatshare in a day.  It was super cute with just the right amount of intrigue to progress the story along at a quick pace, but not too much to make the story too suspenseful.  I began reading The Cat Who Talked Turkey prior to our weekend beach trip in May and brought it with me, but didn't really find time to carve out and read during that trip.  Usually, I get through books in that series quickly, but this one wasn't moving fast enough for me to want to renew it.  I checked out several other books I've read before, but with the trip and preparing for the construction crew, I didn't read the ones I'd read in the past (Summer Rental and Beach Town.)  They were both by Mary Kay Andrews-- one of my favorite authors.   

In early June, I was in the mood for historical novels and historical fiction so I checked out Dutch and English on the Hudson, a historical account of the creation of towns along Long Island.  It was fairly intriguing at first, but was slightly difficult to decipher due to the old English spelling of various words. 

I also got into a theme myself and checked out Magnolia Table Volume 1, Home Body, and Capital Gaines. It was fun to read through Joanna Gaines' family recipes and learn more about how she likes to cook for her family (they hardly ever go to restaurants, which was inspirational to me).  I also enjoyed Home Body because I had already been thinking of how I could continue to make my home an enjoyable resting place for my family, and had some ideas floating around for how to maximize space, etc.  The ideas presented in Home Body really lined up with the thoughts inside my head, so it was refreshing and fun to realize that I really have what it takes to spruce up my home without spending so much money.  Capital Gaines had interested me for a while and I wanted to see what Chip Gaines had to say about his career in real estate flips and how we should pursue our dreams without fear.  It was a fun, quick read; I finished it in a day.

While researching books by author name "Gaines," the catalog recommended a book by Ernest Gaines called A Gathering of Old Men.  The story line sounded entertaining, so I checked it out too.  It was about a shooting of a Cajun farmer in 1970 Louisiana, and about the sheriff who had to figure out who the shooter was since a women and several old men all claimed to do it.  It was a very entertaining read since page one and really captured my attention.  I finished it in a day or two.  The author told the story from the perspective of several different people in the book and it all took place over the course of one day.  It was very interesting to read about the perspectives of different people and the story line ended honorably. 

This week, I put in a request to check out some light fiction reads and a historical non-fiction about the wife of a US President in the 1840s.  Hopefully those will be ready for check-out early this week.

I plan to check out Magnolia Table Volume 2 in July and probably another Cat Who book. 

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba




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