Saturday in the Garden | Squirrels in the Attic

Night Time

I like to garden and generally putter around in my yard and my Saturday in the Garden posts serve as my pseudo- garden journal, plus round-up of my week in reading, watching and blogging.  Occasionally, I'll whine, rant or gush about something in a GAK section. 

OUTSIDE

I apparently have a squirrel (or two) living in my attic.  My neighbor had to inform me of this because SHE STUDIES MY HOUSE (but that's another story) and saw them going in.  I haven't confirmed yet - my attic space is not easily accessible - but it does not surprise me.  I like wildlife and encourage their presence but squirrels and attics are likely not the best combo.   My plan is to live trap the squirrels and release outside and seal up the holes they are using to get in.  Timing will be key. Wish me and the squirrels luck!

While dealing with this situation isn't what you'd call fun, it does give me good perspective and empathy with people who call my work with some kind of a wildlife damage complaint or issue.  I can feel their pain but will still always counsel for trying to live as peacefully with the natural world as possible. This means taking a little trouble on ourselves to adjust our homes and landscapes to prevent or mitigate conflict rather than wanting to obliterate all living things in our immediate environs for daring to try to share "our"space. We're all just trying to get down the road of life and deserve the chance to travel it as we need.  

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Finished up Shetland. It's an atmospheric and pretty well done mystery series. It has made me desperately want to spend a month (or so) hiking and exploring Scotland.  Anybody wanna go?  

I also got back to and finished the last season of Father Brown.  

Reading 

FINISHED SINCE THE LAST TIME I POSTED

Nada.  I am reading, I promise!  I have a few too many books going right now so it's slowing me down.  

CURRENTLY READING

• The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2) by Cinda Chima Williams: The continuation of the story started in The Demon King!  
• The Likeness by Tana French: The second in the Dublin Murder Squad mystery series. This one features Cassie from In the Woods in the lead role.
• Spirit Animals: Hunted by Maggie Stiefvater: The second in this middle-grade series, each written by a different author.  
• The Fatal Flame (Timothy Wilde #2) by Lyndsay Faye:  The last in a trilogy of historical mysteries set in mid-19th century New York.  
• The Whispering Skull (Lockwood and Co. #2) by Jonathan Stroud: This is an awesome YA/middle-grade series about ghost hunters in Britain. 
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Birdman (Jack Caffery #1) by Mo Hayder:  A Crime/Mystery/Thriller series starter that my Book bub subscription brought to my attention.
• Think of a Number (Dave Gurney #1) by John Verdon:  Ditto the above but I think this one is set in the U.S. and not Britain. 

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

Nothing here either.  I was traveling last weekend and had a number of busy nights this week.

HAPPY NATIONAL DOG DAY!

Saturday in the Garden | The Books Ahead of Me

I like to garden and generally putter around in my yard and my Saturday in the Garden posts serve as my pseudo- garden journal, plus round-up of my week in reading, watching and blogging.  Occasionally, I'll whine, rant or gush about something in a GAK section. 

OUTSIDE

It is so nice in Iowa right now and I took advantage and had breakfast on the veranda (i.e. the concrete pad there) this morning. And while the temperature and humidity have been great we continue to get little rain.  I've done a good job watering this year, so most of the plants are doing well, except for my tomatoes.  The Beam's Pear have slowly died one by one and the Patio Roma have continued to mostly produce tomatoes with blossom end rot.  I don't know why I have such trouble with tomatoes which are supposed to be pretty fool proof.  Well I guess I'm a bigger fool than even they can withstand.  My speculation is that I've got some tomato disease, like wilt, in the soil in all the beds and it doesn't seem to matter where I move them.  I've got one more spot I'll try them next year, fingers crossed.

GAK

Recently, for some reason, the number of my books marked as "read" on Goodreads.com caught my eye.  I just broke the 800 book mark and while some of those are books I added from Before Goodreads (BG) most are those that I've logged since I joined in 2008.  It's not a particularly impressive number compared to most but it is still a lot of books and I found it making me feel really happy.  I suffer occasionally from the anxiety of realizing that there is a finite number of books I will get to read in my life (because if there is something to worry about, I'll worry about it without fail, it's my superpower). The fact that in this roughly 10 year period I've gotten to 700-750 of them feels really good, gives me hope and shifts my thoughts towards all the myriad of books I have in front of me in the years to come and away from what books I will miss.  

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

The TV slump is still going strong, though I have been watching Voltron a good bit this week. Netflix just released season 3 of the anime(?) that features a giant space robot made out of giant robotic lions.  I'm only a couple of episodes into season three and all sorts of surprising things are going down!  I'm going to start blaming all my character flaws on the fact that we only had idiotic, simplistic cartoons when I was young.

Listening

A couple of new podcasts have caught my ear.

Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell which investigates, analyzes and debunks some common truths held by society.  It's fascinating and at times depressing.

By the Book with Kristen Meinzer and Jolenta Greenberg is a fun podcast where the hosts pick a self-help book and follow it, to the letter for two weeks and report back on it.  It's funny but also seriously and thoughtfully evaluates each book's validity.  I really like the format and approach!

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• Prose and Cons (Magical Bookshop #2) by Amanda Flower:  A cozy mystery series set in a charming New York village with a magical bookshop.  
• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson:  This is the second memoir by "The Bloggess" that focuses specifically on Lawson's struggles with mental illness with a humorous touch.  I liked it better than her first book, personally, even though it has quite a bit of filler.  The filler is hilarious which helps and the substantive chapters are really good and thought-provoking.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender North and South by Gene Luen Yang: The most recent installment in the graphic novel series that continues Aang and the gang's adventures.  I think it's my favorite in the series thus far.

CURRENTLY READING

• The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2) by Cinda Chima Williams: The continuation of the story started in The Demon King!  
• The Likeness by Tana French: The second in the Dublin Murder Squad mystery series. This one features Cassie from In the Woods in the lead role.
• Spirit Animals: Hunted by Maggie Stiefvater:  A 
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz:  Heard about this on Book Riot's new podcast Read or Dead (all about mysteries).  I love Anthony Horowitz and this is homage to Agatha Christie!
• The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are by Robert Wright:  I heard an interview with Robert Wright this week where he posits that humans current evolutionary state is not really designed to make us happy in the modern world.  It was a fascinating idea so I added this book which is one of his earliest works on Evolutionary Psychology.
• Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment by Robert Wright:  See above.  This is Wright's newest book which is what the interview was about.
• The Surrender of Lady Jane by Marissa Day: I can't remember where I heard about this one but it's a fantasy romance about a British nobleman under the sway of the Faerie Queen Tatiana who sends him on a mission that requires him to seduce a respectable widow name Jane and GUESS WHAT HAPPENS????  I think they fall in love.  Just a wild speculation.
• The Bride Behind the Curtain by Darcie Wilde: This is a Regency romance by an author I recently read a mystery by.  
• The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein:  Can I tell you how much I want Teleportation to be a thing.  SO SO SO MUCH.  So science fiction books that feature teleportation and also how it might be evil are good ones for me to read.  This was very highly recommended by Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum.  

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

- Didn't actually post anything this week, though I composed many brilliant posts in my head. - 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Saturday in the Garden | Bees and Dogs Not Getting Along

I like to garden and generally putter around in my yard and my Saturday in the Garden posts serve as my pseudo- garden journal, plus round-up of my week in reading, watching and blogging.  Occasionally, I'll whine, rant or gush about something in a GAK section. 

OUTSIDE

The pear tomatoes are starting to ripen so I've been munching on those.  I also got to roast some beets that I grew for like the first time ever!  With many of the herbs and wildflowers blooming, I'm also seeing more pollinator activity which makes me smile.  Even a bee using the bird bath!  Looks like a honey bee, though I'm no expert on bee i.d.  Of course my interest in the bee, attracted the attention of Rudy, who, in the absence of other prey, likes to stalk and try to eat bees.  Not only is it dumb on his part but now I feel like bee-kind will feel betrayed because apparently I planted all this attractive vegetation to lure them to their deaths by dog.  Sigh.... Sometimes dogs and gardens don't mix.

Phlox

I have really been enjoying my potted plants this summer and am happy to have the jasmine and gardenia in my life.  Funny how plants warm my heart:).  It's an outlet for my nurture gene... which may be a gene I made up but it sounds reasonable.  

Jasmine

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Nothing much actually.  TV slump continues.  I have been watching a lot of booktube videos lately. so I guess that counts.

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima:  I had a slow start with this one but ended up really loving it!  I've already started reading book two.  
• The Devil's Novice (Brother Cadfael #8) by Ellis Peters: This is one of my favorite historical mystery series about a monk in medieval England.  It had been a while since I'd read one of these and it was nice to be back with Cadfael.  
• A Useful Woman (Rosalind Thorne Mysteries #1) by Darcie Wilde: This is the start to a historical mystery series set in Regency era England.  I really enjoyed it and it was a smidge more substantive than I was expecting.

CURRENTLY READING

• The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2) by Cinda Chima Williams: The continuation of the story started in The Demon King!  
• Prose and Cons (Magical Bookshop #2) by Amanda Flower:  A cozy mystery series set in a charming New York village with a magical bookshop.  
• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson:  This is the second memoir by "The Bloggess" that focuses specifically on Lawson's struggles with mental illness with a humorous touch.  
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

- Big List Next Week!

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

TUESDAY: Quiet Genre Books  - A list of SFF and Mystery novels that are on the quieter side
THURSDAY:  Review | Queens' Play (Lymond Chronicles #2) by Dorothy Dunnett

Bunnies really do love carrots.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Saturday in the Garden | The Prettiest Day in Pretty Land

I like to garden and generally putter around in my yard and my Saturday in the Garden posts serve as my pseudo- garden journal, plus round-up of my week in reading, watching and blogging.  Occasionally, I'll whine, rant or gush about something in a GAK section. 

OUTSIDE

Today is the prettiest day in pretty land. Robin's egg cloudless sky, low humidity, 80ish degrees.  Oh summer, you minx, just when I thought you were becoming unbearable.

The garden has definitely entered that part of the season when things are starting to go to pot.  I've already mentioned that most of my tomatoes in pots are a bust and now two of my Beam's Pear in the raised bed are dying...loaded with fruit of course that will now never ripen. *sob* On the up side the few prairie plants I've somehow coaxed to live in my shady yard are looking better than they ever have.

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

In an attempt to break my TV Show slump, I am being SUPER creative and watching...MOVIES.  I have been out of the habit of watching movies for years now but I thought the shorter form storytelling may be the break I needed.  This week I watched Trolls (cute!), Iron Man and Iron Man 2.  I'd seen the two Iron Man movies before but it had been a long while.  The first one really is insanely delightful and Robert Downey, Jr. was made for the role of Tony Stark.

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• The Line (Witching Savannah #1) by J.D. Horn: This is an urban fantasy series that's been on my TBR for a while.  This was good. not great but good.  Mercy, the main character is a bit of a Mary Sue but I didn't want to shove her off of a tall building so that's something and the story frequently zigged when I expected it to zag.
• Spirit Animals: Wild Born by Brandon Mull:  This is a middle grade fantasy series where each of the books is written by a different author and what a list of authors it is!  It got on my radar because Garth Nix is one of the authors but also on the list are Maggie Stiefvater, Shannon Hale and Marie Lu. So despite the fact that the idea for the series sounds so gimmicky (it's a book series paired with a video game apparently) I wanted to give it a try. This wasn't anything that's going to break molds or change lives but I really enjoyed it!

CURRENTLY READING

• The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima:  Epic YA fantasy that sounds super duper amazing!  I'm finally starting to really get into this one!  Have been reading it in the lounge chair most of the afternoon.
• The Devil's Novice (Brother Cadfael #8) by Ellis Peters: This is one of my favorite historical mystery series about a monk in medieval England.
• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson:  This is the second memoir by "The Bloggess" that focuses specifically on Lawson's struggles with mental illness with a humorous touch.  
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• You Die When You Die by Angus Watson: Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum really liked this one and I am drawn to that title, weird morbid person that I am.  
• Lost Boy by Christina Henry:  I like stories about the villains of popular tales that reveal that the villain isn't really all that bad. This looks like a satisfying, though dark, Captain Hook origin story. Also recommended by Mogsy. 

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

WEDNESDAY: REVIEW | Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith.  My favorite of this series thus far and a 5 star read. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

SATURDAY in the GARDEN | Look At Them Roots!

I like to garden and generally putter around in my yard and my Saturday in the Garden posts serves as my pseudo- garden journal, plus a round-up of my week in reading, watching and blogging.  Occasionally, I'll whine, rant or gush about something in a GAK section. 

OUTSIDE

You may have heard before that prairie/prairie plants are fantastic at holding soil, preventing erosion, loss of topsoil and improving water quality by keeping the soil out of streams, rivers, lakes and ponds.  This is why:

Holy roots, batman!  Prairie plants have prodigious root systems!  That little squiggle on the far left is Kentucky Bluegrass, the most popular lawn grass.  Buffalo grass is a prairie grass often suggested for lawns because it stays quite short, like Kentucky blue, but it's root system does not - it's the plant on the far right.  One of my favorite prairie plants has one of the longest root systems and it is having a spectacular year in Iowa this summer.  It's Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) and is 5th from the left in the diagram above.

It's tall, has a bright sunflower like bloom and staghorn shaped foliage.  They make me happy everytime I see them looming over the prairie at work or in the prairie roadsides.  Definitely a plant I will try to establish if I ever have a sunny yard, though I will need to be patient - Compass Plants take a few years to mature to the point of looking like the above but once they do each plant can persist up to a hundred years!  Now that's a perennial.  By the way they are called compass plants because their leaves tend to orient in a north-south direction so also useful for navigation in case my yard is so large or I get so dotty that I get lost easily:). 

In my vegetable garden, I am excited, as I often am, about root vegetables. I am actually, for real, getting some edible beets for the first time, ever!  They aren't huge but I have 5 at the moment that are of a size I can cook and eat. Wow.  I gotta get excited by the little things.

Yum!

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

I finished the K Drama I was watching, Faith - it was okay but not one of my favorites.

I started watching some episodes of Shetland on Netflix which Greg at A Book Haven brought to my attention. This is a British crime drama set in the Shetland islands.  Doug Henshall is the lead actor who I last saw chasing dinosaurs, and looking, quite frankly, awkward about it, in Primeval. He is a much better fit here.

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• Checkmate (Lymond Chronicles #6) by Dorothy Dunnett:  The last one *sobs*!  
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson:  YA epic fantasy that has been on my TBR for ages. It's pretty good though I do agree that the body image/eating disorder stuff is a little on the sketchy side which was the main complaint I heard about it going in. Overall, though I found it to be mostly kind of generic so not sure what the buzz about it was?  It's fine, just nothing special in my book. 
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud:  A middle-grade novel about ghost fighters in Britain.  This book is great  - gave me some Jackaby feels.  Will be continuing with this series.

CURRENTLY READING

• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!
• The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima:  Epic YA fantasy that sounds super duper amazing!  Starting to make some headway on this one though I am having a little bit of trouble engaging.  Problem isn't the book, I don't think, but the fact that my mood right now is for mysteries.
• Career of Evil  (Cormoran Strike #3)by Robert Galbraith: Listening to in the car.  I think Robin may be a target in this one (to get at Strike) and I am not sure I feel good about this?  But so far liking it.   
• A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell #2) by Deanna Raybourn: A mystery set in the Victorian Era in Britain, featuring a pair of Natural Historians as the amateur sleuths.  Book one was one of my favorite reads during the first half of the year.

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Merivel: A Man of his Time by Rose Tremain:  This was on sale on Kindle and it looked like an intriguing Historical Fiction novel about Robert Merivel, who was a courtier to Charles the II during the Restoration period in England.  He apparently made an appearance in one of Tremain's earlier novels as a side character.  
• They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer: Got this through Audible's sale this week.  I love Heyer's mysteries almost as much as her Regency Romaances. Almost.
• Berkley Street by Ron Ripley:  This was free on Kindle though I found it through the Audible sale.  It sounds like a mystery but more on the horror/suspense side?
• A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde:  Another through the Audible sale.  This is a mystery with a female sleuth, set in Regency Era England.  Yay!
• Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier: A retelling of Beauty and the Beast by one of the masters of fairy tale re-telling.  Recommended by Fine Print.
• Time and Time Again by Ben Elton:  An interesting looking time travel novel recommended by Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum.
• The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss: Also recommended by Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum.  This is a YA novel that features a gang of some of the daughters of historic "monsters" (such as Dr. Jekyll, and Dr. Frankenstein). 
• All System's Red by Martha Wells: A science fiction novel about a "murder bot" who achieves sentience and independence.  Recommended by Greg at A Book Haven. 
• Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner: I've never read anything by Ellen Kushner and since I recently read an article about how she is one of the authors that is a huge fan of Dorothy Dunnett, I decided I need to.  This one was recommended by my favorite podcast, Get Booked. 

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

MONDAY: Twenty of my favorite "Found Family" Stories

WEDNESDAY: The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett - The Beginning

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Saturday in the Garden | Pepper Surprise!

OUTSIDE

At the end of last year I bought a gardenia and jasmine plant and one of them bloomed!  I didn't keep the tags and can't tell them apart!  I think it was the gardenia!  It was nice and smelled pretty.

I have had no luck growing milkweed at home, because of the oft whined about fact that my yard is shady and any moderately sunny bits have food plants growing.  My work place has LOTS of milkweed though and I came across this fellow on Friday.  A big ole Monarch butterfly caterpillar, munching away. nom, nom, nom.

Good news and bad news in the garden?  I have a pepper?!  A very odd pepper.  I don't remember that either variety I chose to plant was long and skinny like this....hmmmm.... The bad news?  My first and biggest tomatoes have blossom end rot.  This happens every year, dang it and is due to a lack of a particular mineral in the soil (calcium maybe?).  The culprit for there being a deficiency is usually a watering issue, usually not enough.  In the past, I have sucked at watering because I am lazy but I thought I was doing so well this year. :(  Back to good news!  I harvested the garlic!

GAK

It's been a short but sadly traumatic week at work.  Several people were abruptly fired and a major re-organization took place.  It was done in a manner that showed a real lack of empathy and respect and at least two of the folks that were unceremoniously laid off had 30+ years of service in an agency where the majority of employees are passionate about what they do and see it as a vocation and calling.  They are not just working for a paycheck, in other words.  Being fired is not just scary from a I just lost my job perspective but also means that this thing you care about and have devoted your life to is not valued and is going to receive at best, much less care.  In other words it's devastating.  The positions were eliminated because of budget cuts.  

Along with my sorrow for these people, is also the fear and anxiety this causes for the future.  Could this happen to me?  Is someone who has no idea what I do or what impact it has going to decide my job is non-essential because of politics essentially?  Will my decisions, instead of being motivated by what would be best for the resource I am charged with protecting, start to be colored by what is politically acceptable in the current climate?  It's a slippery slope that undermines morale, and has an insidious effect on how everything is done.  All I can do is do my best, try to hold onto my self-respect and start socking away as much money as I can in an emergency fund.  

So. How do you deal with uncertainty?

In other news, I offered Ella one of my precious few sugar snap peas and SHE GROWLED AT IT!! What sort of rabbit am I raising?

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Weirdly, I am having a similar issue with both my current TV show and one of my current books.  They both have gotten SUPER angsty in the romance department and I guess I'm just not in the mood so I'm dragging my feet with only a teeny tiny bit left to go. My lack of tolerance probably has to do with the real life drama this week has thrown at me (see above).  The TV show is the K Drama I started last week, Faith (or The Great Doctor).  I actually really like the central couple a lot, they may actually be my fave K Drama pair ever, though the rest of the show is just okay, but they have gotten so freakin' emotional.  Because she's dying of poison. Again. Pfft. #KDrama-Drama

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• Strong Poison  (Lord Peter Wimsey #6) by Dorothy L. Sayers: This one was a little disappointing for me, I'm sad to say and I think Lord Peter's grand romance is a bit of a let down but I'm guessing it picks up a bit in future books.  
• A Murder in Time by Julie McEwain:  About an FBI agent who ends up sent back in time to Regency era England, just in time for a series of gruesome murders to take place which she must solve.  Fun book though it had some problems.  
• Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott: Anne Lamott is a famous writer about faith from a very liberal standpoint.  This is a series of essays with no strongly discernible theme besides getting through life, while trying to be a decent human being.  It was good.

CURRENTLY READING

• Checkmate (Lymond Chronicles #6) by Dorothy Dunnett:  The last one *sobs*!  This the book I'm dragging my feet on a bit (see above) - I KNOW.  I can't believe I'm saying it.  It's one of my favorite romances of all time and this is still my favorite HF series but only 40 pages left to go and I just can't even with Lymond and his lady love.  *exasperated sigh*
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud:  A middle-grade novel about ghost fighters in Britain.  
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!
• The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima:  Epic YA fantasy that sounds super duper amazing!  I haven't made it too far into this yet because I'm physically reading so many things right now.  If I can just finish Checkmate...
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson:  YA epic fantasy that has been on my TBR for ages.  Listening to this on my phone.  It's pretty good though I do agree that the body image/eating disorder stuff is a little on the sketchy side which was the main complaint I heard about it going in.
• Career of Evil  (Cormoran Strike #3)by Robert Galbraith: Listening to in the car.  I think Robin may be a target in this one (to get at Strike) and I am not sure I feel good about this?  But so far liking it.   

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley: Historical fiction about a woman, stuck in a subservient home who decides to buy a traveling library. Recommended on the Get Booked podcast.
• Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory: Multigenerational tale about a family of psychics.  Recommended on The Bibliosanctum.
• Royal Bastards by Andrew Schvarts:  As the title suggests, this is YA fantasy that features a band of friends, all bastards of the nobility. Recommended by The Book Smugglers and Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum.

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

TUESDAY:  My Favorite TV this Year
THURSDAY: REVIEW |  Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo  Absolutely adored this duology.

HAVE A RELAXING WEEK!

SATURDAY in the GARDEN | Pretty House Things

Rainy Day in the Garden

OUTSIDE

Knock on wood the garden is moving into its middle stages quite well!  Sure I only got a handful of radishes but I've also gotten a handful of Broccolini - I'm liking this new designer vegetable.

The Sugar Snap Peas which are one of my favorites and which I planted way late are finally producing pods and the tomatoes are getting robust and some even have flowers.  The peppers are also finally starting to grow.  The peppers and tomatoes like the warm, wet weather we've been having the last week or so.

I'm also anxiously anticipating my garlic being ready to harvest. The scapes have come and been cut off and now I'm just waiting for the plants to start looking really crapola which is the sign it's ready to harvest. Mine are getting there - the rule of thumb is that 5-6 of the bottom leaves should be yellow/brown before you yank them.  It's going to be a very small harvest this year:( and I think I may need to buy seed garlic rather than use my own cloves.

GAK

I went on another tour of homes with one of my friends and  these were some of the elements that appealed to and inspired me:

As you can tell I was really enamored with some interesting tile work (mostly in one home) and the "outdoor" spaces.  Anything strike your fancy?

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

I've continued to watch the BBC mystery show Father Brown featuring Mark Williams (aka Arthur Weasley) as the titular character.  It's fun and suits my zone out, brain dead requirements at the moment:)!

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

• The Disorderly Knights (Lymond Chronicles #3) by Dorothy Dunnett: Last week I indicated that at the halfway mark I was not liking this one as well as books two and three.  Then the second half happened and I am now full-on obsessed with all things Lymond.

CURRENTLY READING

• Pawn in Frankincense (Lymond Chronicles #4) by Dorothy Dunnett:  SO it's happened as was inevitable.  The Lymond Chronicles have taken over my life.  I want to do nothing but listen to these books.  So glad to be re-reading - it's if anything, better the second time through.  It is no fault of Strong Poison or The Screaming Staircase that I have pretty well abandoned them in order to main line Lymond. 
• Strong Poison  (Lord Peter Wimsey #6) by Dorothy L. Sayers: Only a few more of these left :( but I hear Lord Peter gets a girlfriend in this one - Ooooohhhhh!
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud:  A mid-grade novel about ghost fighters in Britain.  
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

• The Girl with the Make Believe Husband by Julia Quinn:  This one's set in the U.S. which is odd for Quinn.  It sounds delightful and was recommended by Danya at Fine Print.
• Why I Loathe Sterling Lane by Ingrid  Paulson:  Another rec from Danya.  I don't usually read contemporary romance but this looked intriguing.
• The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell:  Making my TTT list this week about some of my Dad's favorite mystery writers reminded me that there are several I'd like to try.  Coincidentally this book popped up on sale this week, too!
• From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell:  See the above note about the TTT.  I haven't bought this one but wanted to put a reminder to check this book out which is the first in her biggest series.  
• City of Lies (Counterfeit Lady #1) by Victoria Thompson:  I saw this on somebody else's TBR and immediately became intrigued.  I've read a bunch of books in Thompson's gaslight mystery series (which is historical) and really enjoy her female protagonist in that book!
• Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton:  Historical fiction revolving around Paleontology - Sign me up! Recommended by Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum.

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

TUESDAY: TOP TEN TUESDAY | Mysteries that My Father Loved
THURSDAY: REVIEW |  Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart  This second book in the series solidified my love for this series!

Can you tell from this picture Ella and I's respective feelings for one another, lol? #grumpyrabbit

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Saturday in the Garden | And the TBR Groans

OUTSIDE

The rains have finally stopped and it's been a beautiful week to be outside.  I've taken advantage of this by chilling on my patio at dusk most nights, soaking in the ambience. It's my favorite time of of the day in the summer despite the onslaught of mosquitos.  Anyway, the soundtrack of my backyard in the evening consists mainly of Common Nighthawks and Chimney Swifts.

Common Nighthawks are cool medium sized birds with a very distinctive and camouflaged look to them.  And if you've ever walked around a city or town at dusk, you've likely heard their call and not realized what it is.  They are a bird of open areas that nest on the ground and don't even build nests and they've adapted to nesting on the flat gravel rooftops of cities and towns.  I'm pretty sure there is at least one pair that nests nearby but haven't tracked down where.  Usually I just sit and stare into the sky at their silhouette and enjoy their flyovers.


Swooping around lower in the sky than the Nighthawk are dozens of small, chittering swifts.  My favorite description of these birds in silhouette is "cigar with wings".  Chimney swifts nest gregariously in colonies in vertical hollows, often chimneys, which earns them a bad rap (and their name).  I don't know where the ones that fly over my yard are roosting (I don't have a chimney) but I'm glad they have found a home nearby.

Chimney Swift Chittering

Both of these species and their vocalizations have come to represent Summer nights to me.  What sounds and sights do you associate with this time of year when dusk comes later and nights are short?

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

I've been watching the BBC mystery show Father Brown featuring Mark Williams (aka Arthur Weasley) as the titular character.  It's one of those delightful, small town, amateur sleuth British mysteries that I can't get enough of and which the BBC does so well.  They are based on a series of books by G,K, Chesterton.  The show is somewhat newly available on Netflix Streaming.

Reading 

Finished Since the Last Time I Posted:

Both of these books were good listens and really hilarious.  Highlight of the week goes to Shrill. I was not really familiar with Lindy West but I'm glad I am now better acquainted!  Her collection of essays/memoir is hilarious but also tackles some serious issues with which she has grappled, mostly under public scrutiny. 

• First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones: I can't remember where I first heard of this book/series but it's been on my TBR for ages.  It's a hoot and pretty entertaining but it is not threatening to be one of my faves of all time.
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West: A memoir of a journalist, feminist and comedian.  

CURRENTLY READING

• Strong Poison  (Lord Peter Wimsey #6) by Dorothy L. Sayers: Only a few more of these left :( but I hear Lord Peter gets a girlfriend in this one - Ooooohhhhh!
• The Disorderly Knights (Lymond Chronicles #3) by Dorothy Dunnett:  I'm about halfway through this one and am finding on this go round that I don't like it as much as the first two, which is odd.  Lots can happen in half a book though!
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud:  A mid-grade novel about ghost fighters in Britain.  
• Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch:  Non-fiction about eating psychology and biology.  I've been dipping in and out of it for the last few months!

Added to the TBR:

This is a list of books that I have added to my Goodreads TBR list this week.  It helps to burn the books I want to read a little more firmly into my mind, maybe get them on some other folks TBRs and gives me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

Last week I mentioned that because I hadn't been in the blog world for a couple months, I hadn't added any books to my TBR.  Well, get ready because here comes the flood!

• The Lawrence Brown Affair by Cat Sebastian: I don't remember where I picked this one up but is a Regency Era queer romance featuring a "mad" scientist. All righty - I'm in!
• Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R. Fletcher: I'm pretty sure I heard about this one from Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum and I've been meaning to read a Michael Fletcher book for ages.  This is a dystopian, cyberpunk books which sounds really interesting.  There's a wild west dressed 4 armed cyborg-looking fellow on the cover. 👍 I actually just noted that it is on sale for $1.99 - excuse me while I go snap that up.... Done!
• Renegades by Marissa Meyer: Despite my disappointment with her last book (Heartless - full disclosure - I have not finished it)  I still have hopes and loves for Marissa Meyer.
• The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo:  Short stories set in the Grisha Universe. DEFINITELY reading this bad girl.
• Wilders (Project Earth #1) by Brenda Cooper:  I first saw this at Greg's Book Haven but have then seen it a couple of other places as well.  It's an interesting sounding dystopia about a girl and her robot companion.
• No Saints in Kansas by Amy Brashear:  This is a fictional re-telling of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood told from the perspective of the murdered family's friends in the aftermath of that brutal killing.  Discovered it on He Said Books or Me.
• That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston:  Heard about this gem from Danya at Fine Print! From Goodreads: "Set in a near-future world where the British Empire never fell and the United States never rose, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world."
• Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1) by Chelsea Mueller:  Another rec from Danya that I featured on my TTT list this week. 
• The Refrigerator Monologues by Cathrynne M. Valente:  Telling the story of the women who are "fridged" (killed with the sole purpose of exploring how it affects the male lead) in superhero stories. From Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum.
• River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey:  Killer Hippos. Greg's Book Haven. Also Nathan at Fantasy Review Barn.

The next several books are from an awesome list of diverse books A Dance With Books put together for her TTT. 

• The Tiger's Watch by Julia Ember: This original sounding narrative includes soldiers which have bonded animal companions and a protagonist who is gender fluid.
• The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee: From Goodreads - "The struggle to get into a top-tier college consumes sixteen-year-old Genie Lo's every waking thought. But when her sleepy Bay Area town comes under siege from hell-spawn straight out of Chinese folklore, her priorities are suddenly and forcefully rearranged."
• The Belles (Belles #1) by Dhonielle Clayton: From Goodreads - "In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful."
• The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan:  Looks like a high fantasy epic with a unique setting AND...
• The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan: This author also writes a mystery series that sounds very cool. 

Did you know Leigh Bardugo wrote a Wonder Woman novel? Now I do too!

• Wonder Woman: Icon by Leigh Bardugo: YooHoo!

The next two are from the Fangirl Happy Hour Podcast:

• White Tears by Hari Kunzru: This sounds like a terrifying literary horror novel. Not my usual fair but Renay and Gin Jenny sold it hard.
• 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline: Non-fiction book about a mysterious group of people who conquered the world in far antiquity.

The next four are from the The Washington Post's Summer Book List (great list by the way -lots of non-fiction):

• Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari: A projection of how humans may evolve in the future.
• Hunger: A memoir of (my) body by Roxane Gay:  I've never read anything by Roxane Gay and this book focused on body image sounds like a good spot to start. 
• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann:  Non-fiction true crime about a series of murders in the Osage Nation.
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman: Gaiman's version of the Norse myths?  Yes, Please!

The next two from Lark at A Bookwyrm's Hoard: 

• Murder, Magic and What We Wore by Kelly Jones: Regency era YA murder mystery with magic.  I am so reading this!
• The Waking Land by Callie Bates

And the final one from Silver Petticoat Review: 

• The Vinegar Girl  by Anne Tyler:  A modern re-telling of Taming of the Shrew (by ole Bill Shakespeare). 

On the BLOG since I last Posted:

TUESDAY: TOP TEN TUESDAY | Recent Fantasy Novel Additions to my TBR
WEDNESDAY: REVIEW |Eon and Eona by Alison Goodman. Mixed feelings. Really liked Eon, struggled with Eona.
FRIDAY: REVIEW | Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins Charming and Delightful.

Your life is not complete until you share it with an imperious, disdainful rabbit

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!