Tuesday, March 21

Top Ten Tuesday - Favorite Book Heroines

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 

On occasion I'll be joining in the Top Ten Tuesday posts hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl 


This week's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is: TTT Rewind, so we can pick a previous topic we missed or would like to redo. Since my first TTT post was just last week, I decided on Favorite Book Heroines, which was the topic just before I got started.

 Anne Gilbert from the Anne of Green Gables series (Lucy Maud Montgomery) - Anne (along with Nancy Drew, to be fair) was my earliest favorite. I've always loved her imagination, flair for the dramatic, and whole-hearted devotion to those she loves.

Jo March from Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) - Jo was my favorite of the four sisters, and as the main protagonist, I suppose she's meant to be. I genuinely liked her and would have loved to have her as a friend, stubborn and unconventional though she was, because she was independent and loyal as well.

Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - No surprise in this choice of a favorite either! Elizabeth's weaknesses remind me a bit of my own―a dry sense of humor that can sometimes get her in trouble, and a tendency to speak bluntly what's on her mind. But she's still a lovely and interesting person, and I hope my strengths are similar to hers as well.

Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen) - Elinor is the other Austen heroine that I love best. Although Elinor's reserve and seriousness almost cost her the chance at love, she is the steady rock that holds the little family of Dashwood women together with grace and devotion.

Lady Kiera Darby from the Lady Darby series (Anna Lee Huber) - Kiera is a favorite because she is continuously seeing how her hardest experiences, and her talents and skills, can be used to pursue justice and help others. She's been though a lot and doesn't take the love of her husband and family or the second chance she's been given for granted.


Lady Julia Grey from the Lady Julia Grey series (Deanna Raybourn) - In a similar vein, Lady Julia loves assisting her husband in untangling mysteries, and as quirky a character as she is, she's one of the most conventional in her entire family. 


Lady Georgiana from Her Royal Spyness series (Rhys Bowen) - Georgie is delightfully witty and adventurous, and although her impulsiveness gets her into all kinds of scrapes, she's spirited and clever and seems like so much fun.


Clara Blackwell in Hope Between the Pages (Pepper Basham) - Clara is the modern day character in this dual timeline story, and I like her (and her historical counterpart Sadie) so much because she's a modern struggling and wannabe businesswoman who loves books and history, and who grabs a chance for her own fairytale ending.


Kiya in Counted With the Stars (Connilyn Cossette) - This book was my introduction to the author, and this lead character was one I loved from the start. Kiya is an Egyptian slave who believes her Hebrew friend and walks out of Egyptian captivity with the Hebrews in the Exodus. The lead characters in Cossette's follow-up books have all been favorites as well, but Kiya holds a special place for me.


Deborah in The Prophetess (Jill Eileen Smith) - There are several authors that do a marvelous job of bringing Bible stories and characters to life in novels based on Scripture. Cossette, Smith, Mesu Andrews, and Angela Hunt all come to mind. This novel based on the story of Deborah, Israel's female judge is a favorite because of Deborah's unusual status and circumstances. She's a very real woman, wife, and mother in this compelling novel.


Sophie in Until the Dawn (Elizabeth Camden) - This novel was my introduction to the author Elizabeth Camden, and the character Sophie intrigued me from the start. Like most of Camden's heroines, Sophie is an independent-minded young woman seeking success in a time and field of interest that was dominated by men. Sophie's area of interest is meteorology, and against the odds she works hard to pursue her goals and she also speaks up for others who feel lonely and forgotten.


This article will be linked at Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl .

©2008-2023 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.



Friday, March 17

Friday Fun - The Friday 56 and First Lines for March 17, 2023

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


I've been dying to read this one since I first saw it mentioned on someone's blog, and I couldn't believe I'd missed it! It's now on my TBR for as soon as I finish my current novel.

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But I didn't particularly want to get caught like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar. I was too old to get lectured by somebody barely old enough to buy liquor.

~from page 56 of Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn


Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.

They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman―and a killer―of a certain age.



The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your e-reader.
*Find a snippet, short and sweet.
*Post it, and share in the Linky.

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NOVEMBER 1979

"My mother always says it's common as pig tracks to go around with a run in your stocking," Helen says, eyeing Billie's ripped hosiery critically.

~From the beginning of Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn





Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader.

*It's Book Beginnings on Fridays! Time to gather with our fellow book lovers and share the opening sentence (or so) of the books we are reading this week. Or share from a book that is on your mind right now -- whatever catches your fancy.

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RimSP button

First Line Fridays is hosted at Reading is My SuperPower

*Share the first line or two of the book closest to you, then visit other FLF participants.
*Please keep posts family friendly or clean reads.
*Link back to Reading is My SuperPower within your post or grab a button.

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And here is the weekly bookish question in the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  

This Week's Question: Do you post every day on your blog and/or social media?

My Answer: I think it's safe to say I post on my personal Facebook every day, at least once. I don't do nearly as good a job of posting regularly on Instagram though, and those are really the only social media platforms I use.

Between three blogs, I usually publish something every weekday and once on the weekend.


Book Blogger Hop

©2008-2023 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.



Thursday, March 16

Down The TBR Hole - March 16, 2023

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 

Welcome to my latest edition of Down The TBR Hole! Jody at the blog I'm Into Books has offered this solution to help remind us of all those books we added to our Goodreads list in the distant past and hopefully start managing the list. The idea is to start cleaning up our Goodreads TBR lists of all the books that have piled up over time, and share our progress in the link-up every Thursday. Here's how Jody explains it:

Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you're scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. 

So here's what we'll do: On the Goodreads to-read shelf, order all your books ascending by date added. Look at the first four (or more) books on the list, read the synopses and decide whether the books should stay or go. Post in the link-up and share using the hashtag #DTTBRH and tagging @Jodyblogs.

I've left this until very late in the day because I managed to waste my entire morning on the phone trying to sort out insurance issues and getting nowhere. I was going to skip this week but then I realized that I may have skipped last week, and honestly? I was in the mood to throw stuff in the trash after my frustrating phone marathon.

Here's what I found on Week Five:

Maid Marian by Elsa Watson - a retelling of Robin Hood. Probably good, but I don't think I need it right now. Gone.



Shakespeare: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd - If I was still teaching Literature, I would want to read this, but since I'm not I guess I'll pass.



The Seashell On the Mountaintop by Alan Cutler and Paul Hecht - I suppose I must have put this on my reading list in an effort to understand where the ridiculous notion of the earth being millions or billions of years old came from. What nonsense. Also gone.



Leonardo da Vinci - The First Scientist by Michael White - I thought long and hard about whether to send this one down the hole, but in the end, I did it. Interesting it might be, but I know myself well enough to know I'll never get to it.



The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf - Finally! I thought I might have to keep going until I found one I was keeping, and this is it. It's a historical novel about King Arthur that apparently allows the main characters to be basically good people rather than having them all be dark and corrupt. I hope I do get to read it at some point.

 

This post will be linked at Down The TBR Hole hosted by Jody at I'm Into Books.
#DTTBRH

©2008-2023 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.



Tuesday, March 14

Top Ten Tuesday - My Spring To-Read List

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 

On occasion I'll be joining in the Top Ten Tuesday posts hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl 


This week's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is: Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List

I'm not a best-seller reader, so my list consists of the books that are next―or that I expect to be next―on TBR stack and list.

After the Boxes Are Unpacked: Moving On After Moving In by Susan Miller - I actually just started this yesterday. My dear friend gifted it to me because I'm still trying to get myself settled emotionally after our move late in 2022.



Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn - Raybourn is a favorite author and I just purchased this novel of hers to add to my collection. Plan to start reading soon! And I am a bit behind with the Veronica Speedwell series too, and hope to get at those soon.





Murder Most Fair and A Certain Darkness, both by Anna Lee Huber - Huber is another favorite author, and these two in her Verity Kent series have been on my bedside table to read for a very long time, so I'll get started on them very soon.

   


The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden - recently purchased and will probably be my next Kindle read.



When Tomorrow Came by Hannah Linder - I read and reviewed a previous novel of Linder's and think I'll be on the review team for this one as well.



All That's Fair by Amanda G. Stevens - another Kindle purchase from a little while ago that I plan to read soon.



These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant - Added this to my TBR after reading a blogger's review.



Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt - I have this on hold at the library but not sure how soon I'll get it. The list of holds is quite long.



Women Talking by Miriam Toews - Also on a long library hold list for this one.



What titles are on your Spring TBR? Have you read any of the books on my list? Leave a comment and let me know!

This article will be linked at Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl .

©2008-2023 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.



Monday, March 13

What I'm Reading - March 13, 2023

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next! Although the Book Date link-up happens weekly, I don't update that often. Usually I do this around the middle of the month, and try to share my monthly bookshelf summary on the last Monday of the month. Here's what I've been working on lately.


I finished reading . . . 

The Letter From Briarton Park by Sarah E. Ladd - Cassandra tracks down clues about her family's identity in an unfamiliar village and finds it difficult to know whom she can trust when rumors and secrets abound. (Read my full review HERE)



In Spotlight and Shadow by Rachel Scott McDaniel - A dual timeline story set in Pittsburgh with a young actress in the 1920s accused of jewel theft, and a contemporary young woman dealing with severe stage fright. (Read my full review HERE)



Shirley, I Jest: A Storied Life by Cindy Williams - an autobiographical memoir from the beloved comedic actress. (Read my full review HERE)



The Cairo Curse by Pepper Basham - Newlyweds Frederick and Grace encounter a deadly mystery on their trip to visit relatives on an archaeological expedition in Egypt. (Read my full review HERE)



If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) by Betty White - A collection of short anecdotes about her life, career, love of animals, and more. (Read my full review HERE)



I'm currently reading . . .

In The Shelter Of Hollythorne House by Sarah E. Ladd - Charlotte Grey is a young widow in precarious circumstances and one of the watchmen assigned to protect her is her first love, Anthony Welbourne.



A Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber - Lady Kiera and Sebastian Gage stumble on another deadly mystery when Kiera notices forged artwork while attending her cousin's wedding.



This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin - A look at how our music preferences may be shaped and how our brains respond to and process music.



Next on the stack . . . 

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
Radio's Greatest of All Time by Rush Limbaugh with Kathryn Adams Limbaugh and David Limbaugh
Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber
A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber

   


   



What I'm Highlighting . . . I had the chance during the Write 28 Days Challenge to tell a fun story about How We Won the Lottery.



On my blogs recently . . . 

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:



On my main coffee break project, A Fresh Cup of Coffee:



And on my "first cup blog", Homeschool Coffee Break:



What are you reading?

 ©2008-2023 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.