Lovely springtime – my favorite season! I’m working on gardening projects, celebrating warmer days, and reading (as usual).
Word of the Month
Encourage
Poem of the Month
The Strengthening
It starts with an epiphany
A knowing of the heart
A realization of truth
That suggests a new start.
This change must take place
For peace to begin anew
One heart growing strong
To protect what is true.
Bible Verse of the Month
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
– Revelation 3:20
Quote of the Month
“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”
— Jodi Picoult
This month’s reading diary is at the bottom of this page, after the book list.
My Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/lindajm
☆ – I own the book and am ready to read.
★ – I’m reading it.
✓ – I finished reading it. Yay!
⇗ – Still reading at the end of the month.
DNF – I did not like it or finish it.
∅ – Stalled – I started but didn’t finish.
↓ – I didn’t even start. Complete fail!
My Personal Challenge This Month
My May reading goals are
1. A buddy read – something I rarely do.
2. Continue with the VT Christian Reading Challenge & the Christian Fiction Reading Challenge.
3. Get my “currently reading” list of books back under control. Prioritize!
A few book choices for this month
✓ History: The Pioneers, by David McCullough
This is a buddy read with a Booktube friend. – Finished on May 12. Great history book about the settlement of Ohio. Here’s my Goodreads Review – 5 stars.
✓ Naturalist Memoir: The High Sierra: A Love Story, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Wonderful, wonderful… a book about hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Still reading… UPDATE: I read this book and loved it, so much. It made me want to hike in the Sierra Nevada Mountains again. Maybe I will. Here’s my Goodreads review. 5 stars!!!
★ Nonfiction: The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
This is a rather intense nonfiction book about all things “library” but it is focused on the arson burning of the Los Angeles library on April 29, 1986. I’m 60 pages into it at the beginning of the month. I like it – except where the author inserts herself with long paragraphs about how much she adores libraries – that gets rather tedious after a while.
✓ Academic Sociology: Hobos, Hustlers and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco, by Teresa Gowan
I’m very close to the end of this book now. I read about ten pages each time I pick it up. – Finished on May 19 . . . great and scholarly ethnography of a woman’s study of 38 homeless men living in San Francisco in the 1990’s. Interesting, but the academic writing style was difficult to endure. My review. Four stars.
✓ Romantic Suspense: Wildfire at Midnight, by Mary Stewart
During May I’ll be reading Mary Stewart’s second novel… I’m reading them in chronological order this year. UPDATE: I finished this on May 10. It was a closed-door mystery set in Scotland on the Isle of Skye. my review – five stars, because I like Mary Stewart novels!!
✓ Christian Mystery/Suspense: Concrete Evidence, by DiAnn Mills
I’m still reading this – currently in chapter nine………. a rancher and his granddaughter, plus a FBI agent. Mystery! – later – I finished this on May 13. Interesting mystery set in the lovely state of Texas, mainly on a ranch there. Here’s my Goodreads Review. 4 stars.
☆ Christian Historical Fiction: Come Down Somewhere, by Jennifer L. Wright
I’m looking forward to reading this novel… I’m seeking out Christian fiction to review, and this is by a writer I’ve never heard of before.
✓ Christian Historical Fiction: Long Way Home, by Lynn Austin
I very much enjoyed the Lynn Austin books I read last month so I’m excited to be able to read and review this novel in May. – Finished this on May 23. What a great book… it is a WWII novel from two viewpoints… young women named Peggy and Gisele, one in the USA in 1946, and the other in Europe in 1938. I really liked this. Here’s my Goodreads review. Five stars.
✓ Christian Fiction: Under the Magnolias, by T.I. Lowe
I’m reading this for the Christian Fiction reading challenge. Set in South Carolina! A place I’ve never been to. – Finished May 18 – Good YA coming of age fiction. My review. Five stars.
✓ History: California: An American History, by John Mack Faragher
A rather startling and vivid history of California. Not for children! There are some scenes of graphic violence between Native Americans and Spanish invaders. – Finished this book on May 28… loved learning about California history from this book that focuses on multicultural relationships of all types. Well done! Here’s my review. Five stars.
✓ True Crime Memoir: The Year We Disappeared, by Cylin Busby, John Busby
A Father-daughter memoir about a crime and subsequent consequences. This is an impulse read for me. I just heard about it this morning, found it available as an audiobook on Overdrive, and got it… now I’m committed to read it. Hmmmmmm. Well, this is my first time to use Overdrive/Libby, so it is all experimental at this point. – Finished on May 20. I read this only two days and could hardly put it down. It is a very interesting memoir! Here’s my review. Five stars.
✓ True Crime Memoir: Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases, by Paul Holes
I got this book from my local library. Interesting and sad and terrible. It is by a man who worked at solving crimes in the county I used to live in. I’m very familiar with some of the locations mentioned in this book. El Sobrante. Pittsburg. Antioch. ect… I even realized I met one of the crime victims and I didn’t know he’d been killed until I read this book. Sad, sad, sad. I grieved. I added that to my list of things I’m grieving over. – Finished reading this on May 29. Here’s my review. Four stars, because I liked it enough but cannot love a book with so many sad, terrible crimes in it.
★ Christian Fiction: Her Mother’s Hope, by Francine Rivers
This is the last book I need to read to complete the Christian Fiction Reading Challenge.
∅ Christian Nonfiction: No More Faking Fine, by Esther Fleece
I need this. I’m having an emotionally difficult time with events in my life, right now. I need to lean into God and find my comfort there. The Lord is so good to us. While relatives may be insensitive to my grieving process, God will suffice. He heals my broken heart. It all makes me remember I can trust God (my rock). Later – I’m stalled… not far into it. I will get to it soon I hope but right now, I have other reading priorities.
My May 2022 Reading Diary
May 1 – Who knows what might happen this month? The future is so unpredictable to all but God. I expect I may be reading a few books… or maybe Jesus will come and rescue me and carry me home. Meanwhile… I’m happy as can be because I moved back to my land after 18 months. My home burned in a forest fire in 2020 and I’m now getting a chance to live on my property again. I’m still in the borrowed travel trailer. All utilities are connected. It is so much more peaceful here than in the RV park.
May 4 – I’ve had some busy days – but look at this – an entire morning to sit and read, and then this afternoon the library is open. So, praise the Lord. Life’s good right now and I’m happy enough. I started reading The Pioneers, my buddy read this month. Cool. It is about the westward expansion from the original 13 states, to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Not a trek across the entire country, but this is interesting enough. I also started another Christian book, No More Faking Fine – due to my own needs right now. It is about lament. I need to add that to the list.
May 6 – I have two priority books right now: High Sierra, because I have an advance copy to review and it will be published officially in four days, and it is really, really interesting!! … And The Pioneers because I’m doing a buddy read and don’t want to fall behind my reading partner’s reading speed. It is another very interesting book, a history of expansion from New England into Ohio in the 1780’s. I’d like to get through these… soon. I’m going to resist adding more books to my priority list until these are finished. Then… well, wait and see.
May 7 – I had a good reading day. I’m feeling hopeful. It was sunny this afternoon after a heavy rain this morning. It will rain again tonight. It felt so good to be in my own yard this afternoon in the sunshine. My setting of priorities for reading – that was a good idea…
May 8 – It snowed. This is the latest in the year I’ve ever seen it snow in this town.
May 9 – It hailed. The weather keeps on changing. I’m nearing the end of a few books.
May 10 – I finished reading The High Sierra: A Love Story, by Kim Stanley Robinson. What a great book. It is part memoir, part geology, part biographies… really a great collection of chapters – all about hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Here’s my Goodreads review. 5 stars!!! Later… I also finished reading
Wildfire At Midnight by Mary Stewart this evening. Here’s my review at Goodreads. 5 stars for this too, because I like Mary Stewart novels. Can’t be helped. She has a cult following among some readers. Her books are classic 1950’s – at least for this one, her second-published novel.
May 12 – I expected it would take the entire month to finish reading The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough, but instead I found the book so interesting, I finished it today – on May 12. Here’s my Goodreads Review – 5 stars.
May 13 – Today I finished reading a Christian murder mystery suspense thriller – Concrete Evidence by DiAnn Mills – my first time to read this kind of literature. Some of the characters were Christian. It was set on a cattle ranch in Texas! I love Texas, where my mother lived. Here’s my Goodreads Review. 4 stars. Also today I started a new Twitter account. I deleted my old one about a year ago. This one will be only for books and reading!
May 17 – I finally made another video.
May 18 – I finished reading Under the Magnolias by TI Lowe – My review. Five stars.
May 19 – Rarely have I been so happy to finish reading a book. Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco was an interesting study of 38 homeless men in the 1990’s – but the writing style was scholarly and just so very hard to read. Glad it is over. Sorry homelessness isn’t over. So Sorry. My review. Four stars.
May 20 – I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook version of The Year We Disappeared and finished it in only two days. Here’s my review. Five stars.
May 23 – I finished an awesome novel today – Long Way Home by Lynn Austin. I think she’s my favorite author right now! Here’s my Goodreads review. Five stars.
May 28 – Today I finished a great history book about my home state, California! Here’s my review. Five stars.
May 29 – I finished reading a true crime book from a LEO perspective: Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases, by Paul Holes. Here’s my review. Four stars.
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