June 2017 Book Report

Cop Under Fire (2017) by Sheriff David Clarke Jr.

Sheriff Clarke writes about his battle as a conservative black man going against what he calls Black LIES Matter and the rest of liberal thinking.

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The Mistletoe Secret (2016) by Richard Paul Evans

Still hurting from his divorce, Alex stumbles across a blog written by a lonely woman. He begins to fall in love with her and determines to find out where she lives. She has no other information about herself other than the initials LBH. From other clues in her writing, Alex narrows his search down to a small town in Utah.

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Twelve Days of Christmas (2016) by Debbie Macomber

Julia blogs about her unpleasant neighbor and her plan to kill him with kindness in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. It’s an uphill battle at first, but as her blog audience grows, so do the feelings between Julia and her “Ebeneezer.”

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The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint (1993) by C. Dale Brittain

Second book in a series. Wizard Daimbert is the Court Wizard for a little backwater kingdom called Yurt. Not a whole lot to do and an easy gig. He’s friends with the Court Chaplain, Priest Joachim. The King decides to go on holiday, leaving his not-too-bright nephew in charge. Then strange stuff starts happening…

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Burning Secrets (2016) by Rebecca Adams

Tearoom Mystery. Jan and Elaine try to find out who tried to burn down one of Macy’s cottages and stole a family vase. The vase turns out to be a very valuable antique worth a LOT of money.

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A Yankee Flier in the Far East (1942) by Al Avery

Great little read! Written as more of a “boy’s” book that talks about the exciting life of a military pilot. There were several of these books written around that time. Heroic Stan Wilson and his friends March and Bill fight the Japanese and Nazi spies near Rangoon in WWII.

Myrtle Is Happy (For Now)

OK. I promised to let you know what I did with my latest altered book, and how I finally appeased my muse, Myrtle. I made this book for my daughter’s birthday, and tried to capture her essence in the pages. There were a lot of sayings and poems that I felt fit her, and tried to put some kind of image with each. Here are three examples:

This one is to give hope for lifes many, many trials. Sarah has gone through more than her fair share, but has not given up. I admire her for that.

The quilt is made of many different pieces of fabric, and I liken that to the many pieces in our lives that we fashion into our personal quilts. Plus, Sarah’s MIL quilts a lot and has gotten Sarah interested in it as well. It was accompanied by a poem I wrote.

I just love this one! I’d seen something like this with a bird as an illustration, and I knew right away that I wanted to use the words with a different image. I don’t recall where I found the image of the woman, but I loved it. She seems to embody joy, and I added clip art wings to her. I will probably use this page for other altered books.

So now my task is to finally get around to making an altered book for ME. So keep your pants on, Myrtle…it will get done!

That Crazy Place—America

I read an article about some of the things that visitors to America find odd or off-putting. Some of the things are valid, some not really.

Portion sizes for food or drink. Yeah, we do love our food, and plenty of it. I frequently will eat about half of a meal in a restaurant and bring the rest home to have the next day. Apparently this is JUST NOT DONE in some countries. I figure, if I paid for it, I’m darn sure gonna get my money’s worth and not leave it behind. According to the article, portions in Europe are 50-100% less than American portions. I think “doggy bag” would be “sac chienchien” in France.

The number of drive-through places. And the sheer size of this country. Americans don’t walk if they can possibly drive. I chat a lot with a Brit penpal and I remember how surprised she was when I told her how long it took to drive from Oroville to Los Angeles. She was blown away. Her family can drive 3 hours and be in Wales! And Carol walks just about everywhere. There are so many store and places within walking distance of her home. She was surprised when I told her how long it took to just drive to Walmart. And that Chico was a good 40 minutes’ drive away. And another thing…our cars are considered really big!

So many ads for lawyers!! Billboards all over the place!! TV commercials!! Visitors might come to the conclusion that we are a litigious people…

And speaking of commercials, the ads for prescription meds are fairly terrifying. All seem to include the possibility of death, along with lesser, but still scary, side-effects.

A lot of visitors are shocked by the number of squirrels in America, and the fact that they are so darn BOLD!!

The number of detached houses and all the space around them. I read long ago that America is the only place where we have a front yard of just grass, and it’s just there for looks.

For the most part, Americans are incredibly friendly to complete strangers, and it kinda spooks some visitors. We will smile at ANYONE!! We are also considered a bit too open and uninhibited. Personally, I think that’s a good thing.

The gap at the bottom of restroom stalls. Apparently elsewhere, there is a complete door that no one can look under. The ones here leave a visitor feeling terribly exposed.

Now here is where I COMPLETELY agree with visitors…TAXES on purchases!! If the price tag says $5.45, it should cost $5.45, not $5.45 + 39¢ equaling $5.84. If you want $5.84 for the item, put that price on the tag!!

So yes, things can be weird in America in the eyes of a visitor, but I still love her! ♥