It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Each week Kathryn at The Book Date hosts this event to share what you are reading or have read or about to read! Several of you share your latest books on your posts, and I have enjoyed many of your recommendations. Kathryn gives a brief review of her massive reading list, so it is a great read for me every Monday.

I'm not sure if it was Kathryn or someone on another blog who recommended this book, The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. The description on Amazon drew me in "Fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series will devour this hauntingly beautiful tale of love and time travel". Well, yes I am a huge fan of Outlander (the TV series) AND time travel, so yes I had to have it!

My glass of  zin and my iPad!

The main character, Carrie, is an author who is staying near the Slains Castle in Scotland to do research on her latest book. Without revealing too much, let's just say that as she writes, she seems to have an ancestral or genetic memory of her main character, who lives during the first Jacobite uprising. So far I have enjoyed Kearsley's smooth transitions from present day to the past.

Winter Sea is the first book of "The Scottish series", so I am already looking forward to the next one, The Firebird.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I love to read in the afternoons with a glass of white zin!

Today I've decided to join Kathryn at The Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading? This is a linky to share what you have been reading as well as your plans for future reading.

Many years ago I read a series of mysteries by Tony Hillerman about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. These books are set in the beautiful southwestern US, an area I have visited many times, so I love reading about this beloved locale. Hillerman lives in New Mexico and writes with a familiar hand about Indian culture and customs, landscapes, and landmarks.

Recently a TV series called Skinwalkers: The Navajo Mysteries premiered with the first episode Dark Winds. I was not enthused about the casting and screenwriting, and we decided not to pay for AMC Plus, so I am rereading the books instead.

Original book cover of The Blessing Way

I started with the first book in the series, The Blessing Way, which was published in 1970. There are no cell phones, Google, or online databases for detective work in this book, and although this first book is not as good as the later books in the series, Navajo witches, Anasazi pueblos, petroglyphs, and flawed characters keep it interesting. I had forgotten how much I love these books and am really looking forward to a new journey through this series!

I am linking this post to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

To Do Tuesday 12-28-21

Welcome to the last To Do Tuesday of 2021! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Now, what are your plans for New Year's Eve?  It will be Party Town at our house - in our PJ's - haha! Let us know your plans and projects by joining the link party below.

Last week I had big dreams for my goals, but in reality a lot of time was spent in food prep for Christmas Eve brunch with our daughter and little grands. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the kitchen, taking my time with homemade slider buns for the ham and my Granny Mitchell's sugar cookie recipe. Although my husband and daughter were both a little bit under the weather, we still had a great time together. The car racing tower was put together by Papaw and Everett, and it was the star of the day, along with sugar cookies!

Christmas Eve was a good day! 

Here is the list from last week:

1. Make progress on the Wedding Quilt

✅2. Spend Christmas Eve morning with our daughter and The Littles

✅3. Spend Christmas day at home or maybe we will go out to eat

4. Take down decorations and clean the house

5. Work on Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail - last block and layout

✅6. Make and post last Color Challenge block for 2021 - made the block but no post yet

✅7. Bind and do a post on Christmas wall quilt - done and posted here

We just relaxed after Christmas Eve and did a lot of reading (and eating!) This book was recommended by someone I follow on Instagram. Lots of twists and turns and a great read. Now I'm reading Firefly Season by Melanie Lageschulte, the 10th book in the Melinda Foster series. I love these "gentle reads".

If I can stop reading long enough, these are my goals for the coming week:

1. Wedding Quilt - cutting

2. Take down Christmas decorations

3. Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail - last block, layout, and post

4. Color Challenge layout and post

Now it's your turn! Can't wait to read what all of you have going on these last few days of 2021!

UPDATE: Inlinkz continues to have issues with the link for Marsha's blog, so I will provide it right here. Go give her some encouragement and blog love, since her daughter is in the hospital!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter