Pages & Paws

Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie

Category Archives: Random Stuff


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What I’ve Learned Since The Earth’s Crust Cooled – or – Mom’s Birthday List

 Psssst! Hey buddy and buddy-ette.

Yeah. You. Can ya spare a cake the size of New York? Cuz today’s Mom’s birthday. And that’s how big the cake’s gotta be in order to accommodate all them thar candle thingies.

I was gonna tell ya how old Her Momness is today. But let’s just say she was an eye witness to the parting of the Red Sea and leave it at that, okay?

Anywho. In honor of this auspicious occasion, Mom came up with a list of 40 Things I’ve Learned Since the Earth’s Crust Cooled. We’re calling it The Birthday List. The short version. In no particular order. It goes like this:

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Clean & Uplifting Alternatives to Kristin Hannah Novels

Kristin Hannah is a “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author.” She’s “Superb at delving into the character’s psyches and delineating nuances of feeling.” Her books are “full of honest emotion.”

Yawn.

So. Not. Impressed. Truth is, kids, Kristin Hannah novels are a mixed bag. Yeppers, she’s a prodigious talent. Greatly skilled at weaving masterful, suspenseful tales packed with emotion and dripping with drama. Her stories are compelling and usually read-it-in-a-day kind of quick.

But they often leave us feeling like we oughtta wash our eyes out with soap. Or take a shower inside our head.

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30-ish Favorite Authors of All Time

Hold on to your bacon, friends! Cuz Her Royal Momness has come up with a Royal Doozie this time! Yes sirree, Lassie!

You know how the more you read, the more you begin to get favorite authors? Realize that no matter what they publish, the way they write and structure their work is going to pull you in every time? Like that nice, juicy burger left unattended on the backyard barbecue, so when no one was lookin’…

What?

Oh, right. Favorite authors of all time.

This is harder than you may think. And think. And think. And think again. But some hoomans asked about our fave authors the other day. So we’re up to the task. Or the Royal Doozie, as the case may be.

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25 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

Being all magnificent and everything.

Kimber here. Letting you know The ‘Ole Curmudgeon is being her curmudgeonly self today. Again. Still. Ya see, we just saw this post somewhere about “50 Most Popular Fantasy Books of the Last 3 years.” Or some such Tom Foolery.

The ‘Ole Curmudgeon: “Three years? Seriously? That’s not even a bat of the eye lash. Especially for those of us who were on a first-name basis with Moses. And eye-witnesses to the Parting of the Red Sea. Sheesh.”

Well. You know Mom.

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Age 1-1/2 years ... with a book, of course!


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How to Get the Most out of Goodreads

 

Hey buddy and buddy-ette!

Can you spare five minutes? Good. Cuz that’s about all the time I’ve got on this Reading Goods thing. Ya see, Mom has her I’m Reading: Do Not Interrupt on Pain of Death face on. You know. With those eye glass do-dads and a furrowed brow. (No idea what that means. If you do, kindly holler.) So I gotta get this in like, pronto!

Squirrel!

Wait. Where was I?

Oh yeah. Reading Goods. You may know it as Goodreads. But let’s not get picky here, Buttercup.

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Summer Reading Olympics & Going for GOLD!

 

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re either: 1) A humungous book lover, 2) A humungous dog lover, 3) Both, or 4) Tired of kitty-sitting the neighbor’s feline.

Well. Have we got a deal for you.

The Challenge

Ya see, Her Royal Momness stumbled upon this “Summer Reading Challenge” thingy about three months back. (Stumbling. Ya know. Like Mom finds most things. Don’t tell her I said that, okay?)

Bronze, Silver, or Gold?

Anyhow, this SRC Challenge ’24 is hosted by the 52 Book Club. Since 2024 is a Summer Olympics, this year’s reading challenge had an Olympics-ish flavor. With 24 sports-inspired book prompts. Participants chose which “medal” they wanted to aim for, based on the number of books they planned to read during the summer in line with select Olympic-ish book prompts: Bronze, Silver, or Gold?

Via The 52 Book Club:

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25 Golden Oldies From the 1960s, Man

“Hey, man. It’s the 60s.”

One of us has been wanting to say that for the longest time. Like, whoa. Gnarly, dude. Totally.

Anyway, She Who Is Older Than Dirt came up with a harebrained idea the other day. Another one.

“Hey, Kimmi!” says Her Royal Momness.  “Let’s do a post on best books published in the 1960s. As in, most memorable titles of that decade. You know. The Classics.”

And that’s how we got here. The short version. Sort of.

Official!

So here, without further ado – whatever that means – is The Official Mom and Kimber List of Most Noteworthy and Pawsome Books From the 1960s (original publication date, not anniversary or later versions). Yes, we’ve read them all. More than once. Like, totally. Recognize any of these?

In no particular order:

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11 Cozy Reads for Cold Winter Days

What?

So Her Crankiness is grumping about this thing called “winter.” Seems Mom’s kinda tired of the thing. She keeps saying stuff like, “Cold. Gray. Pouring rain. Dark too early. Let’s move to Miami!”

No clue what that means. But I thought today would be a good day to warm up some cozy reading suggestions. So I got my Thinking Cap on and came up with the following. (Okay, okay. Mom helped. A little. But it was mostly me.)

These cozy winter reading suggestions include books that are either set during winter or there’s plenty of snow and cold in the pages. So grab a hot cuppa, a warm blanket and find your next great winter read (Yes, we’ve read all of these):

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A Tribute & The Morning

Her Momness and I love Christmas! If Christmas was a dessert, we’d eat it up with a spoon! The decorating! The music! The lights! The tinsel and mistletoe. Food, festivities, ugly sweaters and sappy seasonal movies. The rejoicing. Christ the Savior is born!

But the season can also be tough. Bittersweet. Memories of lost loved ones seem especially keen at this time of year. Especially when the loss is fresh.

I’ll let Mom fill you in:

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Encore: A Reviewer’s Review of Reedsy Discovery

You know that feeling you get when a million-ish people read your latest stroke of brilliance? And another million-ish are looking for it? It’s not quite as good as sinking your teeth into a nice, thick, juicy rib eye steak…

Wait. Where was I?

Oh yeah. Popular blog posts.

Her Momness and I have been fielding lots of requests for an encore of our post about Reedsy Discovery. A fair amount of peeps have weighed in on this review site for indie titles from an author’s point of view. But a review of Reedsy Discovery from a book reviewer’s POV is as scarce as a slim sow.

We fixed that.

Rather than re-post that stroke of genius again en toto, we decided the best way to do an encore is to provide the link to the original post. With some updates. So here ya go. You’re welcome:

A Review of ‘Reedsy Discovery.’

You gonna eat that?