Amy > Recent Status Updates

That’s a DNF for me. There’s something in the author’s delivery and narration that don’t resonate with me. Since I’m listening to an audiobook, this is too much for me to overcome. I keep cringing or chastising myself for being irritated, which is not helpful in a book about focus, intention, and mindfulness. At this point, it’s the only thing I remember about the book when I walk away from it.

Re-reading to create literature packet for the first unit of the 2023/2024 school year, which, unbelievably, begins in a matter of days.

3/30/23 Reading this sparkly gem of a fairytale for a second time as my 9th-12th grade literature students experience Catherynne M. Valente’s writing for the first time. I’m confident it won’t be their last.

3/30/23 Here we go again. Reading this along with my 4th-6th grade literature students, and I’m so excited to share this perfect little story with them!

My 4th and 5th grade book-club girls are loving this story. It’s quirky, creepy, and mysterious, and it has inspired us to make some fun snacks and crafts.

I’m rereading some fave romances to find one for my overworked, over-stressed, emotionally pent-up husband. You heard that right. I’m doing it for him. Work is relentless & all I know to do at this point is shove a romance at him. It works for me when I’m overwhelmed. Plus, we’ve tried everything else. Mr. Shane & Regency? It’s a long shot. But emergencies call for Tessa D. So…this first. Wish me luck.

I’m about to teach this book again for the first time since 2015, so I’m heading in for a refresher.

Time to put on the headphones and hang out with the Dublin Murder Squad. Because laundry and dishes. That's why. Thank you, Audible, for making adulting bearable.

This is a re-read for me. I’m so excited to be sharing it with my new high school literature classes next week!

As with most books I teach, I end up reading them twice the year I teach them: once at the end of the previous school year as I’m choosing curriculum and once just before my students read it the following school year so that its details are fresh in my mind. With this particular book, I’m more than happy to be reading it again. I can see myself picking this book twice yearly just for the healing beauty of it.

I read the first several chapters of this story years ago when Navessa was uploading them to her website. Tonight, I came across the finished book on Kindle Unlimited and immediately downloaded it. Yay! I may have to order the paperback though. I don’t love reading books digitally. Sure wish I could get over this quirk, but I always abandon my Kindle reads for their paperback or audio versions. Wish me luck…

I’m currently choosing next year’s literature books for the 4th-12th grades at our little school. In history, we’ll cover the Baroque Era, so we try to tie in at least a handful of classics written in that era or more modern books set in that time. I had already decided to add a Kate DiCamillo book to our 4th-6th grade list, when I found The Beatrice Prophecy. It’s so lovely. I’ve already cried twice.

Lisa Kleypas did not disappoint with her Wallflower series, which I just finished, so I’ve moved onto the Ravenels. Though I accidentally started listening to the second book first, I’m way too invested to go back and start book one now. Helen is a sweet baby angel with a surprisingly firm spine and Rhys is my favorite brand of romantic lead, all grit and steel surrounding a huge, tender heart.

I’m taking a break from my gothic TBR for some dragon-themed fun to get me through the next few weeks of school prep. Molly Harper has me covered with her light-hearted, witty shifter romances, and Sean Gibson is helping me power through with his irreverent, funny, high-fantasy, quest novel. Heloise, I need you. Don’t fail me now.

Well, I loved this story. Luke Arnold is a skillful writer and talented audio narrator. I don’t feel eloquent enough to write much of a review today, and I’m saving my energy for wrestling the chaos of my house into some sort of livable order after weeks of neglect. However, I finally have no school deadlines, so I think I’ll spend a precious Audible credit to listen to the sequel now.

“The thing that kills us is the hope. Give a good man something to protect, and you’ll turn him into a killer.”

“She saw me approach and smiled, with lips you could throw to a drowning sailor.”

God, I love biting into a juicy noir tale. I’m here for every second of this bored, overly sexual description. Our hard-boiled protagonist, Fetch Phillips, is slinging cynical yet saucy observations faster than a fry cook at lunch-hour rush. The perfect audiobook to distract me from the dizzy, pre-migraine aura settling over me.

“... I should note that I always have a hard
time telling the difference between a pitchfork being raised in anger and one being raised in joy.”

Andromoche led the lament, sitting at the head of the bed and her hands. "My husband, you are gone from life too young, leaving me a widow in your house, and your son without a father. You did not die in your bed, holding out your hands to me, or speaking me some last word that I could remember through all the nights and days of the long years that I must weep for you."
Ugh. This part makes me cry every time.

“Mutually beneficial marriages have been little better than land contracts for millennia,” the Earl of Thorne continued with infuriating rationality, for someone so astoundingly nude.

😏

“And while ruthlessness may have its place, I believe your brand of strength would garner greater loyalty. That is what makes you dangerous. Not because you would ride in with a blade and take control, but because you could quietly sit in this chair, in the dark, with your book”—the corner of his mouth turns up—“and you could determine the best way to achieve what needs to be done.”

“Ah, yes, the most dangerous person at the party is always the girl sitting alone with a book.”

“I am not heartless,” she says. “But outside of Syhl Shallow, the world is full of men who underestimate women. Men who undermine them. I cannot rule from a place of weakness. I do not have the luxury of mercy and sympathy. Nor will your sister.”