Book Talk

I have my GoodReads updates linked to the blog, and I may include a monthly book review once I get going, but for now I thought I'd share my favorite links to find new books. By far the one I mine the most is the Indie Next List. It's at IndieBound.org, A Community of Independent Local BookSellers:

https://www.indiebound.org/indie-next-list

The list is updated monthly, and also includes a separate list for books that are newly in paperback. I head there every month with high expectations, and I always find at least a few gems.

Parnassus Bookstore, in Nashville (owned by author Ann Patchett), has wonderful lists and blog posts on a semi-regular basis.

https://parnassusmusing.net

Ann's new book, The Dutch House, is on my TBR list.

I subscribe to the Washington Post (and if it's in your budget you should too! It's very reasonable!) and they have a terrific book section:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/

NPR is an excellent resource as well, and their end-of-the-year concierge is always extensive and well done.

https://www.npr.org/books/. Sign up for their newsletter!

Finally, the book I've most enjoyed in the last month or so is The Long Call, by Ann Cleeves. Here's an excellent review of it: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/long-call.

Cleeves wrote the Shetland books, (which later became the excellent tv series) among others, and she's a wonderful writer. The atmospheric sense of place in her books is mesmerizing.

Murray the four-month-old sheepdog puppy is under the kitchen table as I write this post; he's becoming more well-behaved every day. Since it's a Sunday in January, the NFL playoffs are on in the living room. Mark is downstairs working on our basement project: the former pool room is now a listening room, and Mark is adding shelves. I can hear an occasional swear word. 😼

Happy Reading, and Happy Sunday!

A Very Short Story of a Trailer and a Dream

We bought our trailer in August, 2014, the year before Mark retired.

When Mark decided he was going to retire I asked him if there was anything in particular he wanted to do with his time. “Camp more,” he said.

I loved the idea. BUT my days of sleeping on the floor of a tent were over. Result: a 25-foot trailer, new to us.

I haunted Craigslist for weeks. We drove all over south and central Michigan looking for the right used trailer. In the end, I was the first person to see an ad from 6 miles down the road. We saw it and we bought it. We love it. We still love it five years later, and this year we did renovations! More on that at a later date.

My original idea was a blog devoted to camping in the Great Lakes. It’s still my plan! But wait, there’s more: My poetry muse has been dormant for years, my freelance business doesn’t keep me very busy anymore, and I want a creative outlet to occupy that hole in my heart. And so here we are.

I’ve started this first entry many times over the past five years, only to decide it didn’t say what I wanted it to say. But I’m not sure what I want to say, beyond that I love the Great Lakes, and camping, and memories. So this blog will be about those things, along with the minutiae of life, because that’s what I love to read: the daily lives of others and their memories.

Let’s spend the Winter doing that, shall we? And when Spring comes, camping will commence!

Bunnie, (aka my BFB), in our BRAND new trailer!