THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for YouTube tutorials. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

BOOKS I FINISHED - MAY 2026

Bumblebee Season, written by Eileen Garvin

This novel involves three overlapping stories. First, a young woman with autism who's floundering in a job she's not suited to and gets placed in a different one. The new role plays to her strengths and includes both a boss and a co-worker who treat her well. Second, a young man who's a paraplegic and a beekeeper. The business he co-owns has taken off at the same time he's struggling to find workers. Third, a young teen from Mexico who's without his family or proper documentation. He's a hard worker and determined kid who doesn't want to be a burden to anyone and also wants to feel like he belongs somewhere.

The story is set in Hood River, just 1 1/2 hours away from my own town - two Oregon communities with a high percentage of migrant farm workers, so the element of the story pertaining to immigration and ICE felt very relatable.

I put this book on hold while it was still on order through the library system because I've enjoyed other books by this author, including the one that this is a sequel to. I don't know if I liked it as much as the other books, but I did enjoy it. Language warning for those who care about that. It wasn't enough to make me stop reading, but it was more than is usually in the books I read and more than I remember from the author's other books.

A Calamity of Souls, written by David Baldacci and narrated by MacLeod Andrews, Sisi Aisha Johnson, Kiiri Sandy, and Cary Hite, with author's note narrated by David Baldacci

A black man is accused of murdering the elderly white couple he works for. A white man agrees to be his lawyer. Then a black woman with far more experience joins him. Set in 1968 Virginia, this novel addresses both the specific details of the situation and the broader issues that were happening in America at that point in history. While the historical accuracy is obviously disturbing, I enjoyed the story and loved having a cast of narrators. I did not, however, like the ending. This was a random "skip the line" option on  Libby. 

8:26:23, "But back to the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It combines the knowledge that we are ego centric beasts, but that we must get along to prosper and live in peace. And really, is it such a burden to be nice and respectful to others?"

The Indigo Girl, written by Natasha Boyd and narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

This novel, which I learned about from a friend, is based on the real life of Eliza Lucas, a teenager from England who worked with her family's slaves and a couple men she knew to produce indigo in the 1700s while running her family's three South Carolina plantations. While this work of historical fiction demonstrates racism, sexism, pessimism, classism, and probably other negative -isms that I'm forgetting at the moment, it's also shows loyalty, friendship, integrity, love, and tenacity. I really enjoyed it. This book made me think of Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, written by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and illustrated by Daniel Minter, a picture book that I read a couple years ago. 

9:13:33, I closeted myself away at our plantation, only keeping in touch by occasional written word, and waited for time to do its healing work. Time trudged by so slowly. I was butterfly pinned by my wings to the canvas of my mistakes.”

Lady Windermere's Fan, written by Oscar Wilde and narrated by Michael Sheen, Emma Fielding, Sarah Badel, Juliet Stevenson, and Samuel West

Chosen because I needed an "available now" option, this short play focuses on a woman's response to the belief that her husband is having an affair. It's a witty portrayal of the difference between the judgments people make about others' morality and what's actually true about their character. I enjoyed the humor in this late 1800s play as much as I do in The Importance of Being Earnest, a play of Wilde's that I've watched live twice and on film once. Bonus points for a full cast of audiobook narrators. 

The Lion Women of Tehran, written by Marjan Kamali and narrated by Mozhan Navabi and Nikki Massoud

A novel that spans seven decades, this is a story of friendship between two young girls growing into women. Set in both Iran and America, it has familial hardships of various kinds, political unrest and activism, class differences and the mistreatment of women, betrayal and estrangement, and deep love, both romantic and platonic. This was a "skip the line" option on Libby that I really enjoyed. 

7:30:28, It sounded adorable for the Americans to have designated a specific hour as a happy one.

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame, written by Olivia Ford

I enjoyed this novel about an elderly woman pursuing a role on Britain Bakes, the baking show she always watches, without telling her husband of 59 years that she's already auditioned. He's fully supportive once he knows, but her experience on the show comes at both a practical and emotional cost. It's a story of ambition, risk, friendship, sacrifice, grief, love, and secrets. Including a secret she's kept from him for 60 years. I learned about this book on What Should I Read Next?, episode 494 - Books brimming with creativity, philosophy, and grace. 

p. 75, To want something, she realized, was to make yourself vulnerable to losing it. 

p. 208, "I'm not expert and I certainly haven't done everything right over the years, but the strongest couples I know have grown together, supporting their partner's changes rather than harnessing or fearing them. It's a bit like growing roses - you don't get to choose exactly which way the stems unfurl, but you help them climb you get the pleasure of watching them flourish."

p. 216, She would never be able to comprehend the strange borrowed time that you experience before bad news hits; the minutes, hours, sometimes days where you reside in a bubble of ignorance, a place where small things still matter, before it is pierced by the needle of perspective.

Not Without My Daughter, written by Betty Mahmoody with William Hoffer

The author is an American citizen married to an Iranian man who'd lived in America for many years. They, along with their four year old daughter, went on a two week trip to Iran 1984 so that he could introduce them to his family. Then he held her hostage. Desperate to leave him, but unwilling to accept offers to smuggle her out of the country that required leaving their daughter behind, she ended up spending 18 months trapped in a country not her own, away from her parents and older kids, denied freedom because of her gender, and with a husband who'd become totally different than the man she married. This book, which was recommended to me by a friend, is the story of her imprisonment and escape. Her experience was terrifying, which made the book fascinating. 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, written and narrated by Timothy Snyder

This "skip the line" Libby option is just under two hours long, so it was a convenient choice when I needed an audiobook one evening. Encouraging people to learn from world history, this book looks at the past, present, and future. While the focus is obviously to recognize and oppose tyranny, I appreciate that many of the lessons are good general advice for individuals and communities, regardless of political climates.

1:02:36, Journalists are not perfect, any more than people in other vocations are perfect, but the work of people who adhere to journalistic ethics is of a different quality than the work of those who do not. We find it natural that we pay for a plumber or a mechanic, but demand our news for free. If we did not pay for plumbing or auto repair, we would not expect to drink water or drive cars. Why, then, should we form our political judgment on the basis of zero investment? We get what we pay for. 

Send Down the Rain, written by Charles Martin and narrated by Adam Verner

There are a lot of storylines going on in this novel. A woman and her children under the clutches of an evil man. A woman widowed when her husband dies in a terrible crash. Migrant workers trying to provide for their families. A Vietnam veteran dealing with PTSD more than 40 years after the war. It's a story of love, commitment, sacrifice, and secrets. Although I enjoyed the story, the narrator's speaking felt like mood music, a cadence that felt like every sentence should carry emotional weight. Not annoying enough to bail on the book, but still noticeable. I chose this book because I'm slowly working my way through the author's backlist, in no particular order.

1:40:14, Hope has a funny way of cracking people down the middle, cutting through the tough places. 

6:39:53, "War has a way of killing you whether you die or not."

PUZZLES I FINISHED - MAY 2026

Springtime in Paris - Artist: Shutterstock image - Page Publications - 1,000 pieces

Although the pieces themselves weren't awesome, I loved the scene. Especially all the windows.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for scissors. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful some neighbors came over to ask for cuttings as I pruned a shrub in our yard because I met new people and they were eager to propagate. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

5/15/26 - WORTH REPEATING

*****

Fill your church with multitudes and with eloquence and with incense and with color till the eye is weighted by its oppressiveness, but if the waiting, panting, broken heart is not there, Christ is miles away, yes, on the other side of the horizon, with His back to us. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost. He comes to our poverty, weakness, and self-renunciation, not to our wealth and strength and self-assertion. 

- Joseph Parker in In His Presence: Daily Devotionals Through the Gospel of Matthew, compiled and edited by Lance Wubbels 

*****

Failure aint the opposite of success.
Its part of the syllabus.

~Snoop Dogg // 1/17/26 Facebook post

*****

Goodness and beauty and contentment; they grow the deepest roots in the darkest places. They just do. And it's not a good time. But it's also like really, really beautiful, and sometimes just enough of a glimmer in your hard season to help you get through another day. So if you are in that place, in a place of just wishing this would all be over, be honest and kind in it. 

~ Kendra Adachi // 12 Ways to Be a Better Problem Solver, Part 2 // The Lazy Genius

*****

Because if you want to grow, something has to go. Growth always involves goodbyes. Not just to possessions, but to habits, routines, expectations, sometimes people or past versions of ourselves. This is where our progress often slows down. We say we want to change but we hesitate when it asks something from us. So we delay the decision. We keep what's familiar. We carry more than we need to. But every step forward requires something to be left behind. Of course the clearer you are about who you want to become, the easier it becomes to release what no longer supports that life. So you get clear on the person you want to be and the life you want to live. Then start saying goodbye to everything that isn't that. 

~ Joshua Becker // 4/7/26 Facebook reel // Becoming Minimalist 

*****

You know, trust is the oxygen of all human relationships. So you starve a relationship of trust and you will starve it, of its vibrancy, potentially you'll even starve it to death.

~ Lysa TerKeurst // 7 Things That Build and Break Trust in Your Marriage // Therapy and Theology

*****

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that we have so many fantastic neighbors. What's one thing that you're thankful for?