“I thought maybe it was just me,” frowned Her Momness. “Then I read some other reviews. And it’s definitely not ‘just me.’ So there!”
Here’s why Mom found To Be Where You Are so disappointing. (The short version).
A Summer Reading Record?
Do you do Summer Reading Programs? Mom used to. She’s been kinda straddlin’ the fence on SRPs since about 2018. Why? Cuz she set a personal record for books read that summer: 156 books. From June 1 to August 31. No. really. Click here for more.
She hasn’t jumped into an SRP full-bore since. “Cuz Kimmi, how in the world am I gonna top 156 books in three months?”
Well. You know Her Momness. I bribed her with chocolate.
A New Record?
So. Did Mom set a new personal record for Summer Reading?
Well, not quite. We tried. Really. And we got close.
But there was so much other stuff goin’ on this summer, if ya know what I mean. (And yes, I totally aced that semi-annual check-up at the vet’s. Thanks for askin.’)
Including audio books and read-alouds, Mom read 139 books this summer. It’s not 156+. But not bad, eh? (Apparently, some people will do almost anything for a Triple Chocolate Meltdown a la mode.)
You can find some of Mom’s summer favorites at 6 Best Reads of Summer.
Honorable Mentions:
- The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation – Rosemary Sullivan
- Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River – John N. Maclean
- One-Eyed Cat (review forthcoming) – Paula Fox
- Where the Children Take Us: How One Family Achieved the Unimaginable (review forthcoming) – Zain E. Asher
I’d let Mom tell you more herself. But she’s snoozing right now. Or “resting up.” Or something.
Psssst!
Mom hasn’t tackled a Goodreads Reading Challenge since shortly after the Ark made landfall. The last one she did was in 2018: 383 books. In one year. She says, “No way can I do that again, Kimster. Not even close.”
But I’m scouting up new supplies of chocolate. Just don’t tell Mom yet, okay?
You gonna eat that?
6 Best Reads of Summer
Whoosh! Or Whoof! Where did summer go? Mom and I were just getting used to long days and more sunshine. Before I could bark twice at the Powder Puff sauntering by on her afternoon walk, the season is done-ski. That makes Mom and me kinda sad, if ya know what I mean. (Summer winding down. Not the Powder Puff.)
Summer Wrap-Up
Anywho, since we recently posted a list of Summer Stinkers (as in, Do Not Waste Your Time, Do Not Collect $200 or even a penny), one of us thought now would be a good time to do a Summer Wrap-Wrap thingy. Like when we highlight our favorite reads from the summer. Books with heart. Solid writing. Something to say that matters. You might be surprised how hard books like that can be to find these days. Or maybe not?
Anywho again. Here are our 6 Best Reads of Summer (in no particular order). Drum roll please…
‘Among the Innocent’ is Un-Put-Downable!
“The former chief believed Harrison had chosen death over being accused of murder. Now the real killer had returned. The clock was ticking.”
Among the Innocent
By Mary Alford
Revell, 2022
Genre: Crime/Murder Mystery/Thriller/Romance/Christian Fiction
Via: Author Request
Pages: 295
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Un-Put-Downable.”
That’s a new word Mom and I just made up. You already know what it means. So here’s the scoop on this gripping and intense barn burner. We couldn’t put it down!
Big Kitty Litter Box in the Sky Awards, Part III -or – 9 Summer Stinkers (Skip These & You Haven’t Missed a Thing)
Kimber: Nobody wants to waste their valuable time reading stinkers, right? That’s why Mom and I launched the BKLBITS (Big Kitty Litter Box In The Sky) Awards awhile back. How does a book make the BKLBITS Award list? Like this:
Short criteria for Big Kitty Litter Box in the Sky Awards:
- A pointless slog to the Middle of Nowhere littered with unsympathetic cardboard characters we don’t know, don’t want to know, and could care less about.
- Poor writing littered with spelling and grammatical errors and typos.
- Political polemics disguised as fiction.
- Badly overwritten, tedious and mundane. Dull as a box of rocks and twice as dense.
- Does not enrich, enlighten, educate or inspire in any way.
- Gratuitous violence and/or profanity
- A snoozefest
So here, without further ado, are the Mom and Kimber BKLBITS Awards, Part III:
High Octane Action Fuels ‘Sleeping Bear’
Sleeping Bear: A Thriller
By Connor Sullivan
Published by Emily Bestler Books/Atria Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 2021
Genre: Fiction – Action/Adventure/Thriller/Spy Novel
Pages: 388
Via: Library
Note: Occasional foul language.
What’s the last book you read that whizzed by like greased lightning? That grabbed you from chapter one and didn’t let go until the last page? The action-packed, high octane thriller Sleeping Bear is that kind of a book.
A Page Turner
I was going to read “a few chapters” just to get a feel for the story. Next thing I knew, I was 59 chapters in and goin’ for broke! Talk about a “page turner”!
‘The Waltons’ Lives on in ‘Lessons from the Mountain: What I Learned from Erin Walton” by Mary McDonough
Ah, August! The shoulder of summer. Deep summer has passed. But the sullen skies and cherry-cheeked winds of autumn are still waiting in the wings. Isn’t August a great time for a little trip down memory lane? That’s what we’re doing today. With a review from March of 2012. Cue Jerry Goldsmith musical score in 3, 2, 1…
Lessons from the Mountain: What I Learned from Erin Walton
By Mary McDonough
Kensington Publishing Corp., 2011
For millions of American television viewers, The Waltons was a Thursday night staple. It was in my house. Candidly, I considered the second Walton daughter the least credible character in the whole clan. Mary McDonough’s Lessons from the Mountain: What I Learned from Erin Walton provides some explanation, connects some dots and offers a glimpse into the girl who portrayed the red-haired Erin and her post-Waltons life.
Pride & Prejudice Revisited in ‘Miriam’
Miriam*
By Linda O’Bryne
Page Count: TBC pages
Genre : Historical
Today we’re doing a spotlight of this Jane Austen-ish book by British author Linda O’Bryne:
About the Book
Many years have passed since the dramatic events of Pride and Prejudice. In The Cousins of Pemberley series we follow a new generation of heroines – cousins with lives as different and interesting as those enjoyed by their mothers.
Mary Bennet – overlooked, laughed at, despised – married a missionary and vanished into a life of service out in Africa.
Mary Bennet – overlooked, laughed at, despised – married a missionary and vanished into a life of service out in Africa.
But now Miriam, her daughter, is coming to England, disliking everything she has been told about her family.
Her aunts and cousins are expecting someone quiet, dull and bookish, just like her mother, not the quick-tempered, impulsive girl who arrives.
How can this adventurous girl with her desire for freedom possibly fit into their well ordered world?
And what havoc will she cause as she tries?
Miriam is the third book in the Cousins of Pemberley series,
About The Author
Fiction has always been my go-to world, a place of entertainment, excitement and imagination – I am told that I wrote my first story when I was four about a lady who had twenty children! Sadly it has been lost for posterity.
I have been writing all my life in the time I could spare from having a “proper job”, mostly for children under the name of Linda Blake, stories of ballet dancers, pony riding and talking animals! Not all in the same book!
But my love of romance, a great tendency to say “What if..?” and the endearing characters of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice have now resulted in a series of books that will take the reader forward to the next generation of heroines.
I am retired, live in Kent and am a keen member of my local drama group. Directing and acting take up a lot of my time – I have been given the onerous task of writing the Christmas pantomimes – but I still need to cope with a large garden, doing daily battle with the heron who thinks my pond is his own breakfast buffet and keeping in touch with friends and family scattered all over the world.
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon | Instagram
Note: We did not receive this book in time to read and review. So we’ll leave that to you. *Also, the cover for this book was “under wraps” when we were wrote this post, hence its absence.
FRIDAY FEATURE: “Tech-Save Us”
Mom and I like to feature new talent and fresh voices from time to time. Today it’s author Gib Check. Okay. So it’s not exactly “today.” This post is actually from 2011. (Yeah. One of us is older than dirt. I won’t tell you who.) Gib was one of our very first guest authors. So we’re honoring him today with a revisit of one of his submissions from yesteryear.
So grab a chair and sit down for some chuckles and “oh yeah!” moments with Gib’s humorous ode to modern day technology, Tech-Save Us. Does this sound familiar?
‘Little Dirt Road’ Offers PNW Pizzaz
Little Dirt Road
Bad Men on Whidbey Island
By Ted Mulcahey, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 242
Via: Book Blog Tour
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Kimber the Magnificent here.
Bet you’re wondering why Mom and I agreed to jump on the blog tour for this murder mystery/action/adventure thingy. Glad you asked. We joined for two main reasons:
- The sub-title. As Californian transplants to the Pacific Northwest, Mom and I know exactly where Whidbey Island is. Ditto Bellevue, San Diego, and most of the other West Coast settings for this clever action/adventure/whodunit. But the Real Reason for joining the tour? See below:
- Emma the German shepherd. (You know who voted for that furry friend, right?)
So…
The Story
Kevin and Jenne (“Jenny”) O’Malley are “trouble magnets.” You won’t find that on their business cards. But the Washington-based interior designers seem to draw trouble wherever they go, even on vacation. That’s what happens when a cantankerous ex-client turns up dead in their room at a swank lodge in Napa Valley.
Pages & Paws 