• General Thoughts,  Pop Culture

    2023 in book reviews

    I read 102 books in 2023 and published my 5th novel, When Does Life Begin? on September 23. Here are my top 10 best reads in traditionally published novels. Top 10 best reads for 2023 (traditional) These are in order starting from favorite read of the year. Shutter by Ramona Emerson. I got to meet Ramona and have her autograph a copy of the novel during a reading at Arkansas Tech University. The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger The Long March Home: A World War II Novel of the Pacific by Marcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee. I met Tosca when she and I participated in a Brenda Novak…

  • 2022 My Year in Books
    General Thoughts,  Pop Culture

    2022 in Books

    In 2022, I met my Goodreads reading goal of 110 books (just barely)! Here are my top 10 fiction reads for the year, all of which I rated at 5 stars.   Fox Creek (Cork O’Connor, #19) William Kent Krueger Orphan Train Christina Baker Kline Heart Bones Colleen Hoover The Keeper of Lost Things Ruth Hogan Breathless Jennifer Niven The Probability of Miracles Wendy Wunder The Midwife’s Secret Emily Gunnis A Day Like This Kelley McNeil Everything Must Go Camile Pagán The Lighthouse Sisters Gill Thompson I also read several nonfiction books in 2022. Here are my top 6, which I also rated at 5 stars. How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing K.C.…

  • General Thoughts

    Water leaks, house fires, and broken plans

    Big plans turned to broken plans I had big plans for the second half of 2022. But, you know what they say about plans… Our home renovations were finally finished (my bathroom and kitchen), I was making good progress on my 5th novel with plans to finish the first draft by the end of the year. That’s not going to happen because life happened and it happened big. Change of plans: the water leak (part one) Right after the kitchen renovation was finally finished around mid-June, I discovered a dark spot on the baseboard in my laundry room and my heart just sank. The water valve behind the refrigerator had…