Vincent Price is a master storyteller of the old school raconteurs. Anything he wrote will be an amusing, heartwarming read. This audio version is read by his daughter, Victoria Price (a good reader but unfortunately doesn't have the exaggerated mid-Atlantic accent like her father). Vincent Price grew up in a typical middle class midwestern home with many family pets. The only times in his life he did not have at least one dog or cat he was living in temporary no-pets apartments for a play. Vincent and his first wife separated in December 1947. They had family dogs which he knew would live with his son. He bought himself a pure mutt the day after Christmas. And this is Joe. The book follows Joe from puppyhood to 14 years old (and still alive) at the time Vincent wrote it. It's the usual tale of doggie hijinks and misadventures culminating in a courtroom drama. (A neighbor, upon learning that Vincent Price was an actor and under contract with a studio, blamed poor Joe for a bicycle accident. Spoiler: Joe's upstanding character shines through and the dog is vindicated!) Vincent Price's second wife brought many many animals, including purebred poodles, to their home, but Joe was always Vincent's dog.

Gough provides plenty of illustrations, which is great in a craft book. I had no problem following along as I practiced the different knots and techniques. Ditto for the project ideas. She uses a clear difficulty rating system in the project ideas section. My two complaints: 1. The project ideas section does not start simple and build to more difficult projects. The first project idea is a 2/4 difficulty. The next project is 3/4. And then the third project is 1/4. 2. She uses projects for practice in the knot sections. These projects are not rated for difficulty, only the projects in the actual Project Ideas section. I thought some of the knot practice projects were pretty complex.

This is Schaub’s third “year of no” family project recorded on her blog and then published in book and audiobook forms. She and her husband and two daughters tried to reduce, reuse, and recycle everything for one year. Zero waste. Many things really were just a matter of thinking about items and retraining themselves to recycle everything which could be recycled and ditto for composting. She acknowledges that they have more composting options living in rural Vermont than most families. They just had to worry about their compost piles attracting critters and the pets *really* loving the smell of some of the compost when added to potted plants. She quickly discovers that plastics are the real problem. She spent most of the year reading articles and blogs, calling and emailing manufacturers (and stores and recycling companies), and even taking an online class on plastics. Which she also acknowledges isn’t feasible for most people, even in 2020 which was the unfortunate year she started this project. She researched and tested many zero-waste and biodegradable and eco-friendly items, with usually frustrating results. She sums up the year of no garbage (and her previous projects) as a year of awareness.

A whimsical Tea Shop Mystery (19th in series) set in the Low Country of SC. Theodosia investigates the murder of a prominent banker from Charleston. Love the tea time tips & recipes from the author @the end of the book

The author spent over 200 pages of a 400-page book talking about everything other than the body she was on-scene to investigate. It should not have taken that long for the main character to examine the body. Sheesh!

What if you love your best friend but feel trapped in a life with her? What if you love someone but the thing you can give her that will make her happy is a lie? What if the people who love you most, who you love most, have depths you haven’t realized? Kate and Bertie, BFFs since high school, spend a magical day at the Louvre while it’s closed. But Kate feels trapped in her life. Bertie isn’t ready for changes. Undercurrents of resentment and anger mar their last vacation together. Tuesday at the Louvre ends with Kate going one way, Bertie another. Bertie wakes up the next morning and it’s Tuesday, Louvre day. The next day is alsoTuesday. Deja vu mingles with the increasingly open hostility between the two friends. And then one day it’s not Kate with Bertie in the Louvre, but Dylan, the boyfriend she didn’t know she had. End of the World House is set in the near future or possibly just an imaginatively described present — bombings and growing police presence in the US, mega-conglomerate corporations so wealthy they have rockets, ever larger tent cities of homeless people, droughts and floods, and grocery shortages. This is the second book I’ve read this month about reliving an event until you get it right. It’s definitely the better written of the two. It certainly has a more satisfying ending.

This is a good introduction to the history of Indigenous peoples in the Americas as told by them. The interactions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups is the main focus. The big events, like Andrew Jackson’s defiance of the Supreme Court and the Trail of Tears, I knew from high school American history. Others I have read about in a collection of biographies of women during the western expansion, Gold Rush, etc. It’s a short book, not meant to be comprehensive. And it has its own biases. The only real mention of African-Americans and Indigenous peoples is a positive paragraph under “Reclaiming Our Music” listing famous musicians with both heritages. There’s nothing about owning black slaves that was part of George Washington’s requirements for Indigenous peoples to prove they were civilized enough to be treated like white settlers. It’s still a well-written history of things glossed over or completely disappearing from history books and classes, and therefore worth reading.

This is a story about teen alcoholism. The book is divided into four parts (background - out of control, hospital, rehab, recovery). The main character Bella has been thrown a lot of punches such as her parents divorce, her grandmother dying, and her boyfriend breaking up with her. She thought she had everything under control until one devastating night that landed her in the hospital. A great read!

Started slowly, but got better once Essie was introduced. However, the book didn't know what genre it wanted to be. There was a bit of romance, a bit of a murder mystery, a bit of WWII, and a quite a bit of racial prejudice against Native Americans in the 40's. Could have been better if the author had focused on just one genre.

Very good biography