Book Lady Linda’s September 2026 Reading Report

September is here, and I’m on to a new project… planning a possible new business venture. It all started a few mornings ago when I woke up and the first thing in my mind was that I could do this. More information later, as I must wait to see how things work out.

Word of the Month

Hope

Bible Verse of the Month

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” – (Hebrews 11:1 – ESV)

Prayer of the Month

Lord Almighty, I know You are with me, guiding me every day, and I have no better hope than to hope that Your will leads me through this life, each and every day. I pray You heal my world, my country, my state and my family. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

My Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/lindajm

Finished Reading in September

✓ Christian Fiction: The Lumber Baron’s Wife, by Lynn Austin

I enjoyed this dual timeline novel that tells the story of a beautiful girl, Kate, married and then abused by an aging self-centered lumber baron in historic Michigan. In the present day Ashley and her husband arrive to do conservation and historic preservation work in the town where Kate once lived. My review.

✓ Ancient Poem: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Author’s name lost to antiquity

I very much enjoyed reading The Epic of Gilgamesh. It was written most likely during the third dynasty of Ur approximately 2100 BC. and is considered by many to be the oldest example of ancient narrative literature still in existence. I got my copy from Audible. Along with the audio version, which takes only a little over an hour to read, there was a PDF so I could read it while listening. The narrator’s deep voice was a blast to listen to especially when he said “Humbaba,” the name of a monster in the forest. Review.

Reading Intentions

Here are a few books I’m currently reading and making progress on.

★ Creativity: Syllabus, by Lynda Barry

This book is wild. Every page resembles the cover. The book does actually give her syllabus and class notes for classes she taught. I’m trying to follow along with the assignments as much as I can. Great fun. I’m about half-way through as of September 1. The crayon drawing at the top of this page was one of the class assignments.

★ History: Letters and Papers From Prison, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On a much more somber note, I’ve decided it is my time to study the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in part, by reading this book. It is a strange feeling to read his letters of expecting to be able to go home to his family when I know what I already know about how this all ended for him.

★ History: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

This is the other half of my study of Bonhoeffer’s life.

A personal story: When I was a teenager my father had a penpal in East Germany. He had corresponded with this man, Hermann Dumke, before World War II but they quit writing because of the war. Much later, when I was about 12 or so, he re-found his old penpal and they resumed correspondence. Hermann had two daughters, Erika and Marika. Since Marika was about my age she and I exchanged a few letters too. One year she sent me a stuffed horse and Steuf-hoeffer is what I called it for all the years I had it. Every time I see Dietrich’s last name I think of that stuffed horse!

I thought Bonhoeffer meant “good horse” but no, I looked for the meaning. Bon means bean and hof means farm, so the name means “bean farmer.” Actually, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his father were both pastors.

★ Classic Fiction: Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen

This is my current audio-read. I own this annotated paperback copy as well. I very much enjoy listening to a chapter and reading it in the book at the same time, stopping to read all the annotations as I come to them.

Did Not Finish – aka: DNF

No DNF’s yet this month.

As of this year I no longer have a diary section at the end of my monthly book posts. I discontinued it because I rarely use it. However, if I have anything more to say about anything, I’ll write it down here. It just won’t be in a diary-type format.

9/2 – I will go ahead and write something today. Rain came back to our town today after a long hot summer. I’m always happy to see rain this time of year so long as there are no lightning-caused fires. This morning, however, I was mobbed by cats when I opened the front door to deliver food to them. It was quite intimidating and I eventually just put the cat dish on the ground right there next to the door, and shut the door. It was a matter of self-preservation! They wouldn’t let me walk to the table where I usually put the food. It has to be on the table, which is 2 feet in height, so the skunk can’t get to it. Last night the skunk explored my porch three times looking for fallen kitty kibble. I know this thanks to my Ring cam. Ever since I quit leaving the cat food out all night long, the raccoon and foxes have given up and gone elsewhere for food.

9/8 – Six years ago I woke up to find myself in a perilous situation. The forest north of me had caught fire very close to my daughter’s home. I phoned her and she was already notified and gathering a few things. They had only five minutes to get out then one of the cars kept stalling and she had to abandon it. It was the car my mother gave me in 2017 right before she died. The car burned in the fire. It was a windy day and the fire quickly spread south toward town, toward my home. Over 200 homes were burnt that day including my daughter’s, my son’s, and mine.

However – things change. Six years later I’m now in a better home (on the same property). My daughter owns a home north of here and my son moved to Nevada. I’m living a peaceful and happy life.

9/13 – What I’ve noticed lately is that more and more of my days can be described as “peaceful and uneventful.” This suits me fine. Each day is the same. I feed the cats. I sit at my desk to update my day book and composition book journal. I do my daily Bible study (currently Psalms and 1 Kings, plus random sections of the New Testament). I sometimes go out to do a little gardening or inspect deer damage. I read books. A lot of books.

Speaking of books, this is how I’m doing it now. I have all the books on the top shelf of a little bookcase next to my reading chair. Right now there are about 25 books — more than I care to add to this page. They are all included on my Goodreads page if you really want to see the extent of my current reading adventures. Some of the books are digital only, but most are paperback or hard cover. I use WheelOfNames.Com to choose ten books to read during the day. I read them in order of choosing. I read until I feel it is too tedious to go on, then I choose another. Between books I’ll get up and do something more active. Usually. When I’m done with a book I place it on the shelf, on the end closest to where I sit. This way I can see at the other end of the shelf which books are not being randomly chosen. Right now the furthest is Mansfield Park. It is not a priority; I’m reading it just for pleasure anyway.

Re: Mansfield Park – I’m reading the version with all the annotations. I’m very much enjoying reading the extensive annotations. I’m learning a lot about life in England in that era.

9/17 – The proposed business venture has been ruled out as of today as the rent request of the landlord was more money than I could hope to ever gain in net income. I live in a very tiny mountain town where sales are not going to be frequent for what I was going to offer, which was mainly books on creativity, local books, and art. So I’m considering plan B – to turn my van into a traveling bookstore of sorts… doing the same thing but not paying rent. My intention was actually intended as a community service project to encourage creativity of all sorts in this area, but I will not do it by incurring a huge financial loss every single month. Besides $400 rent, he wanted me to pay for renter’s insurance and electricity. Plus a deposit. Plus I would have had to pay a lot for inventory to sell, to get started. It was just too much to ask when I know I’ll never earn enough money to pay that rent! There are only about 1000 people living in this town, maybe less as many left due to the 2020 fire. A few years ago he rented the same space to the Chamber of Commerce for either $100 or $150 (I can’t remember which.) I wasn’t expecting him to ask me for $400. Maybe rents in general have increased since then but our local population dropped and there’s no way for a tiny business venture to be able to pay what would be a normal rent in a larger city.