04/30/21
Filed under:
General
Posted by:
Ann @ 3:07 pm
I hope this blog finds all my readers in good health, and feeling a bit more optimistic as we begin May 2021… than we were last year, facing May 2020. Since we’d both rec’d the Covid injections and with blessings from my husband’s doctor, we felt so optimistic that we took a road trip on I-90 to Rapid City, S. D. We left the day after Easter and returned April 14th. It did us both a world of good and was easy driving since we stayed on the same highway for the entire round trip, (3,670 miles). We chose our destination because that’s where our grandson, his wife and infant son live.They are both in the Air Force. We had a wonderful time. The baby is 3 months old, so alert, sweet, and cuddly. He also has the cutest laughter, straight from his little tummy! They have a lovely home and were gracious hosts; they’re both working hard to complete their bachelor degrees while on active duty. I spent hours on the rocking chair with the baby, singing him the same songs I’d sang to his daddy and granddaddy. They also drove us to see the local attractions which included, the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, small herds of wild buffalo free-roaming on state park lands, as well as the Badlands. The weather was cool and very windy in S.D. but no snow and decent driving weather.
I’ve read only three books this month:
News of the World by Paulette Jiles. 2016. Historical Fiction. (My book club’s book choice for this month.) A well researched, layered and powerful novel about a ten year old girl who was captured by the Kiowa when she was six, after witnessing the massacre of her parents and siblings. She’d forgotten the ways of the white people; and behaved like a captured Indian girl. The elderly Captain Kidd was given the task of returning her to her childless aunt and uncle. The Captain made his living traveling throughout northern Texas in the perilous unsettled years after the Civil War with a stack of newspapers from the east, London, Europe and beyond. It is beautifully written, descriptive and full of insight. I highly recommend this novel.
The Second Battle Of The Alamo by Judy Alter. 2020. Historical Nonfiction. (I won this book on an online giveaway contest, I never win contests so I was excited to read it!) It is another well researched book about Texas. The feisty preservationist and historian Adina De Zavala and heiress Clara Driscoll are bigger than life, real Texas women, who lived in the late 1800’s to the middle of the1900s.This wonderful book tells the story of how these two very different women reluctantly joined forces to save the Alamo,Texas’s most famous landmark.This was a great book to dabble into US /Texas history. I thought I was pretty good on my historical facts until I started reading this gem of a book.I highly recommend The Second Battle Of The Alamo.
Life and Other Inconveniences by Kristan Higgins. 2019. Contemporary fiction. This was a wonderful book that kept me burning the midnight oil several nights. It is a real page turner, a family saga dealing with four generations, rich and poor, well developed believable characters and many plot twists. I highly recommend this novel, it is my first Kristan Higgins book, but it will not be my last. I don’t know how I missed her, she’s a N Y Times best selling writer with more than twenty books plus three series to her name. Wow!
Story Circle published my review of Dignity in Death: Accepting, Assisting and Preparing for the End of Life by Barbara Frandsen. You can read the enter review by clicking:
We’re still binge watching Heartland, and totally loving it. We are in the middle of Season 11. Prime now also provides Season 12, but not 13 yet. Season 14 is currently available as a weekly show on Canadian TV. and the good news is, Season 15 is currently being filmed. Lots of good television shows to anticipate in the future. We have so many friends and family who are also enjoying nightly viewings of Heartland!
We’re also enjoying Atlantic Crossing on PBS. It’s an excellent series about Norway in WW2.
On Monday my Mother Love, Willow Lane, Book 2 will go live on for another BookSweeps Mother’s Day Giveaway. **I will send you more info about that Monday evening or Tuesday.**
Till next time, keep reading my friends.
Later,
Ann