Big Book Summer Challenge, and My Love for Litsy

It’s Tuesday! I missed my goal of posting last Saturday . . . SIGH, but here I am, rarin’ to go with a new post. This one is mostly about Litsy. Back in March, I went looking for a book club app that I could potentially use with some of my best and bookish friends. Well, they weren’t as into it as I was, so I sleuthed further and discovered Litsy. We all signed up, but I’m the one it grabbed onto. And it hasn’t let go; I LOVE it. It’s been described as instagram for books, but I think that’s selling it short. The tagline is “where books make friends,” and *that* rings true to me. It’s a lovely, gentle community filled with readers who become friends, have all kinds of contests, readathons, and challenges, and generally have a great time making reading even more fun than it already is. If that’s possible! I’m taking part in two challenges this summer, one of which started on Memorial Day Weekend: The Big Book Summer Challenge, which I heard about on Litsy.

Hosted by Sue from Book By Book

What’s this challenge about?

It was started by Sue Jackson at Book by Book, and you can read about it here: Big Book Summer Reading Challenge.

What Are My Books?

I decided on 4 chunksters to read this summer. Why? Because my horoscope's ruling number is 4, and since I'm also participating in a Read Your Sign Challenge in June, I decided it was a sign. Snortle.

1. Here Be Dragons

 https://www.literatibookstore.com/book/9780312382452

Pages: 720

2. The Belle of Two Arbors

https://www.literatibookstore.com/book/9781943290215

Pages: 673

3. The Distant Hours

https://www.literatibookstore.com/book/9781439152782

Pages: 576

4. The Secret Life of Violet Grant

https://www.literatibookstore.com/book/9780425274842

Pages: 528

It was a different kind of Memorial Day Weekend for us, but the weather has turned glorious, and that helps greatly. Mark's dad, who is staying with us for a month, is settling in a bit, which is a big relief. But I really miss playing euchre with Bunnie and Tony. Next month!

A Murky New World

It's murky out there in this world. It's rainy in my corner of the world. It's confusing, it's frightening, and it's often frustrating. But I can tell you that in our slice of Michigan (rural, conservative) everyone (for the most part) is taking wearing a mask and social distancing very seriously. That's good news, and I choose to concentrate on the good as much as I can.

Michigan is starting to open, and I remain hopeful that I'll have camping stories and pictures to show to you at some point. We still plan to camp at the bottom of the hill this summer, but we'll probably be day campers down there until mid-June, as Mark's dad is staying with us for a month, and we won't want to be down there at night with him alone in the house.

I was thinking earlier today about sports. I don't just love sports, I love looking forward to sports, so this year has been difficult in that respect. It's the absence of looking forward to things that feels so sad to me today. So I sat down to write myself out of that sadness. And yes, it's working. There's so much to look forward to (obviously, Anne, she thinks to herself), but at the top of my list is seeing our closest friends, going to my local library, and camping. By the end of the month I'm hopeful we'll be able to do all three to some extent.

What's at the top of your list? If you're reading this, I'd love comments. Also, I hereby commit to two posts per week. Since it's Tuesday now I'll make them Tuesday and Saturday.

Camp in place!

Above, you can see the location of our camp in place. Mark has been busy getting it ready since late March. He'll take the trailer down the left side of the hill, where the path is clear and the slope isn't too steep, then he'll swing the trailer around to the empty spot in the middle, and leave it facing the field to the left of our property. We have lots of firewood; I know a firepit is in our future. Mark has new hoses so we'll have water down there, and we have a generator just for the trailer that will also come in handy. As you can see, the oaks have finally leafed out! I took the picture yesterday. It's emerald green here n the Irish Hills.

Until Saturday at the latest! Stay as sane as you can.