Puzzle #55 - White Mountain - Writer's Paradise - 1000 pieces

Puzzle #55 - White Mountain - Writer's Paradise - 1000 pieces

I tried something a bit different this time and do think it was positive.  Not sure I will do it everytime, but know that it works well. As I was flipping over pieces and sorting for edge pieces, I also sorted for color.  It took a lot longer to do that sorting, but it made it easier to work on sections as I was putting the puzzle together.  I can see now what everyone is always talking about!

White Mountain puzzles are nice.  Thick, sturdy pieces, good image color, interesting images - very nice.  But boy, do they have a ton of puzzle dust!

that red typewriter was a lot of fun!

really vibrant and pretty!

This was a fun and enjoyable puzzle.  That last bit along the bottom, with the brown desk, was super-duper hard.  But even then I didn't get frustrated per se - just knew I needed to work it out.  So still better than the grass on that one beach image!  I loved the vibrant colors of this.  Interesting things to look at and put together.  A very nicely imagined puzzle.  So many good puzzle elements.

Finished August 28, 2022

Puzzle #55 - White Mountain - Writer's Paradise - 1000 pieces

Puzzle #54 - Sunsout - State Fair Picnics - 300 pieces

Puzzle #54 - Sunsout - State Fair Picnics - 300 pieces

Image by Joseph Burgess - 

I did this one in honor of coming home from the state fair.  I had taken it with me to the fair thinking I might solve it there - 300 pieces and not too big for the camper.  But I didn't.  So I wanted to finish it immediately here at home.  Another nice, easy, quick puzzle - LOTS of puzzle dust, but good solid pieces.  A pleasant thing to look at and remember how much fun we had at our own state fair over the last two weeks.  A very pleasant diversion for a couple hours this evening.  

Paired with Meiomi 2021 Pinot Noir.  :) 

Finished August 21, 2022

Puzzle #54 - Sunsout - State Fair Picnics - 300 pieces

Puzzle #53 - Sunsout - Main Street Memories - 300 pieces

Puzzle #53 - Sunsout - Main Street Memories - 300 pieces

Image by Ken Zylla - 

Another 300 piece puzzle that was fun to just sit down and complete.  I didn't want to leave town with a 'real' puzzle underway, but wanted the relaxation of a puzzle.  I am finding these Ken Zyla puzzles with cars in them to be just the ticket for this kind of situation.  I love the cars and the scenes AND that I can start and finish in one short sitting.  I will begin a new puzzle when I return - probably a 1000 Springbok.  But there really is a place for 300 piece puzzles in my collection.  Nice to know.  

Paired with McManis 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon  - 4.5 stars   :)

Finished August 16, 2022

Puzzle #53 - Sunsout - Main Street Memories - 300 pieces

Puzzle #52 - Bits & Pieces - Victorian Spring - 300 pieces

Puzzle #52 - Bits & Pieces - Victorian Spring - 300 pieces

A lovely puzzle by Joseph Burgess.  Quick and easy (good for coming home from the fair - before going back again!) but pleasant.  I remember liking this image way back when I bought it (one of the first orders I made).  It was very nice and fun.  Relaxing.  I am doing better with the brain thing on the turned and random pieces.  I like random cut in other brands but these can sometimes be a bit much for me.  That is why I like Bits & Pieces puzzles in 300 and maybe 500.  They are a wonderful diversion at that size.  Don't think I would want them at 1000.  Interestingly, no puzzle dust... best of probably any other company I am thinking.

Finished August 15, 2022

Puzzle #52 - Bits & Pieces - Victorian Spring - 300 pieces

Puzzle #51 - Ravensburger - Tropical Island Charter - 1000 pieces

Puzzle #51 - Ravensburger - Tropical Island Charter - 1000 pieces

Love a Ravensburger puzzle.  Solid pieces - feel good in hand.  Vivid colors.  This looks like it could be a bit more difficult, though, with all the blues and browns.  However, it is fun and just challenging (so far).  Not frustrating.  I am seeing some small bugs (yuck!) and am wondering if they came from the puzzle?  I don't understand this... but have killed about 3 small bugs crawling - very tiny.  On the puzzle table in the midst of the pieces.  It feels like it comes from the puzzle...but who knows.  Is this a thing that happens??

Had to spread out working on this puzzle - really busy this week.  But enjoyable to just pop in and do a few pieces.

Finally got the camper (mostly) packed so can sit down to finish this one up.  I had begun to wonder if that one lone piece near the middle was just missing, but nope - it was there with all my sky pieces - just looked like sky!  :)

This was a fun puzzle - so pretty - vivid colors.  Good pieces but I did notice that this one would sort of poof up a bit.  I kept using my hand to smooth it all over and press it back down.  No big deal, but something I noticed.  And I had a couple more instances of finding those teensy tiny crawling bugs.  What is that???  It is not from my house!  I really think it must have come from this puzzle??  Because the bugs are on my puzzle board - no where else.  yuck... Are they connected to the puzzle dust??  Overall, a very enjoyable puzzle.

Finished on August 7, 2022

Puzzle #51 - Ravensburger - Tropical Island Charter - 1000 pieces

Book Lovers

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Read July 2022

Okay, I listened to this one in the pool and it was laugh out loud funny!  Brianna gave me the paperback version for my birthday and I started reading it but my book club books kept knocking it 'out of line'.  So I started listening in the pool.  I'm so glad, too!  I was hooked completely by 3 chapters in.  

Nora Stephens is a literary agent in New York City who finds that far too ofte, in her own real life, she is the 'other woman' in those Hallmark movies.  The one who gets dumped when her boyfriend goes to a small town to do some cutthroat business and instead falls in love with the sweet local baker, or inn owner, or florist, or... you get the picture.  We have all seen those Hallmark movies.  She recognizes she is the one back in the city sitting on her Peloton barking at the (soon to be ex) boyfriend.  Pretty fun setup for a book, really.  

Like any good Hallmark movie, though, you can see it all coming.  Within the first chapter I knew that the guy, Charlie Lestra, was going to be from the small town in North Carolina, Sunshine Falls.  But, the beauty of a book like this is that it doesn't matter.  You are truly along for the ride.  And it was a delightful one indeed. 

Side note about the audio version of this book... as I said I was listening to it in the pool.  I must admit that more than once I found myself lowering the volume just in case anyone was near enough to hear it!  ha!  

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Read July 2022 - Zoom Reading Circle

This was a book for my Zoom Reading Circle group.  I'm so glad we chose this to read.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a slow moving book - truly one that is about the journey - but I sailed right along with it cherishing each bit.  

It is one of those books that goes back and forth in time from the 1940's World War 2 years to the mid-1980's.  I love that type of book so that never puts me off.  The story is told from the eyes of Henry Lee, a chinese man who lives in Seattle - in the same general neighborhood where he grew up.  Henry is a gentle quiet man who seems unassuming and always does the right thing.  As the story goes on and we see more of his childhood experiences, we discover that he has a true strength of character and has since he was a young boy.  We learn about his first love, a Japanese girl named Keiko Okabe who, along with her family, was sent to a Japanese internment campe in Idaho during the war.  This book does a good job of illuminating that period in our nations dark history.  I was aware of this because my own Mama grew up in Powell, WY where the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp was located and she remembers well the Japanese men who would be allowed out in the community by day to work for area farmers - including her own father. 

The author stated in an interview that he did not set out to write a morality book explicitly stating what is right and what is wrong.  He felt he could simply tell the story with the facts and allow the reader to discern.  I think that is a powerful way to get the story, and all its pain and sorrow, through to people.  It is also true that in any bitter, there is always some sweet.  This is a Chinese confucian saying, apparently, but I have always found that to be true in my own life.  This book touched my heart.  I felt the joys and the sorrows of the characters and also felt that it was so true to life.  Things aren't always wrapped up neatly - but there can always be hope.  I feel Jamie Ford left us with a great deal of hope at the end of this book. 

I rated this book 5 out of 5 stars.  Zoom Reading Circle rated it 4.2. 

Below are some things I shared with the Zoom Reading Circle group...

 
I'll share this video link here because it is too long to play for the group tomorrow. But some of you might be interested in it - I was! It is about Oscar Holden and the jazz scene in Seattle in the 1940's. I didn't realize, until I went looking for videos, that Oscar Holden was a real person and not just a great character in The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. https://youtu.be/ISj4ObElhG0

And one more link to an NPR interview with author Jamie Ford. While the story itself is not 'true' it is certainly based on true events and has some elements of the author's family life woven into it.  So interesting.  

https://www.npr.org/2009/02/07/100377332/jamie-fords-corner-of-bitter-and-sweet

Another link...

https://www.knkx.org/artscape/2014-09-15/panama-hotel-jazz-music-project-tells-story-of-the-historic-seattle-landmark

And just one more

https://historylink.org/file/11074

Mary Jane

Mary Jane by Jessica Anne Blau

Read July 2022 

Oh my goodness, I loved this book!  It is a little trashy but in a totally wholesome way.  Is that even a thing?  It must be because it perfectly describes this book!  :D 

The story is about a 14 year old girl in Baltimore during one fateful summer in the 1970's.  She is from a very uptight, conservative, staid family but she gets a summer job as a nanny in a freewheeling but extremely loving household.  Mary Jane quickly goes through many phases of confusion about this exciting new family (their house is messy, they don't eat regular menu planned meals, and they are clearly more liberal in their thinking - AND their dress!)  But as summer goes on she learns what it means to feel loved and seen and accepted into this big rollicking family. 

Add in the fact that a famous movie star and her rock star husband are also there for the summer - he is drying out and working through his issues with the psychiatrist dad - and that is to be kept a secret from everyone in the neighborhood, including Mary Jane's parents... you have a truly charming coming of age story that I would read again! 

This is a perfect summertime read.  Great fun and you will fall in love with all the characters. 

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Side note - 

As I was reading the book I couldn't help but think the movie star wife is a weird composite of Marie Osmond & Cher and the husband was similar to Greg Allman.  Also note - if you read her Q&A at the end of the book she basically says she really did get hired to write the biography of a famous movie star and it didn’t work out so she just poured a lot of that into this book.