Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard Book by Joan E. Strassmann

I very much enjoyed this book and it comes as a reminder about how important it is to keep in mind the things that are literally right outside your door. And the slow in the title is not a reflection on the intelligence of the birder, but rather that you are slowing down and taking your time rather than marching from house to car and back again, but rather taking your time to see what is on offer in your own neighborhood. It is a push back against the relentless drive to incessantly add to birding life lists; the book advocates for deep study in one area rather than spotting a bird and moving on to the next one. The commoner can be just as fascinating as the exotic. The book covers 16 birds, from Blue Jays to Snow Geese, that can be seen in her part of St. Louis. What makes her book particularly compelling is the research she shares on each of these so-called common birds--they are so much more varied and interesting than at first glance. The book also breaks down the sections based on location, covering her home as well as sites which are within a 20-mile radius of home. She gives examples of the differences that motivate different birds when they are competing for resources and what the outcomes might be between everything from interspecies competition to competition between siblings in the nest and what factors might dictate the outcome. This is maybe not a book for an experienced birder, or a competitive life list birder, but rather for someone who wants to experience more of the world right around them.

Yumiko Higuchi: Embroidery and Applique Artist and Her Books

Wow, wow, wow. This book and this artist are both equal parts amazing! Yumiko Higuchi is a world-acclaimed Japanese embroidery artist renowned for her exquisite needlework masterpieces. Her unique work balances modern and traditional aspects of the art form. Most of her books delve into designs from the natural world, which is true of this one as well, but here in addition to embroidery, she is adding felt and applique as well and the effect is beautiful.

She was initially a handbag designer, and her designs translate well to garments, tea towels, and various flavors of bags. In the past I have made bags, but only in the context of a class, and it would be really cool to pre-embroider and applique material that would then be cut out and sewn into a bag. I got this book out of the library but knew immediately that I had to add it to my own library, and she has quite a few additional books published that I suspect are worthy of hunting down.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

It surprised me how much I enjoy the Bridgerton televion series. My family is not surprised--I loved Downton Abbey and watched it on my own. We usually watch this sort of light television fare together and therefore it is unusual for me to soldier through a multi-season series without them, so it is notable, but these period drama/soap opera series do have a tendency to hook me in. This is the starting book of the series that the series is based on, and I did a combination of reading and listening to it. I was somewhat hampered by having seen it already, and being pretty sure it had a different ending, at the very least, because it is not the stuff of romance novels, to put it mildly. The series has otherwise stayed pretty close to the novel, albeit with a larger cast of characters and more fleshed out personalities. The inner thoughts in both Daphne and Simon's heads are nice to hear--that doesn't happen much when the book goes to the big screen, and while I would do it in the reverse order as a rule (book first, screen version second), I enjoyed this, and have already started the second book in the series.

The Last Letter From Your Lover (2021)

This is unabashedly romantic and more of a rmoantic drama than a comedy. It is based on a book of the same title by Jo Jo Moyes, and while I do not read much of her work, this seems more sentimental than even she usually goes. There are two times here--which is easier to see than it is to write about, at least here it is. There are also two different love stories here. In the present day, Ellie, a journalist who has no interest in romance, is assigned to write about an editor who has recently died. She has to get past a rather frosty and formal archivist named Rory to get access to the editor’s archive, and there she finds a swooningly That part of the story is set in 1965 London: there’s the wealthy and gorgeous young couple, Jennifer and Lawrence Stirling--he's a bit distant and she's a bit young. Through a series of flashbacks we learn of her passionate affair with a journalist that her husband introduced her to, and the series of near misses that they have at happiness. In the present day Ellie is busy unraveling the story in the present day, hunting down who they were and what happened to them, and then it all comes together in the end. This was surprisingly tense to watch and surprisingly sweet in the end.

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

This Reese's Book Club pick is on the lighter side. It is a bit of a mash up of The Princess Diaries with a dash of Hamlet on the side. Princess Alexandrina Villiers is a 29-year-old living in self-imposed exile in Tasmania, working hard as a medical resident. he thought she was free of palace constraints, as her twin brother and father stood ahead of her in the line of succession. She had renounced royal duties to forge a life on her own outside the spotlight that is honed on all things royal, and thought she was out of woods, with a brother to follow in her father's footsteps and a plan for her twin to sire an offspring or two. However, after a tragic avalanche claims the lives of her brother and father, Lexi is suddenly thrust to the front of the line of succession and there is her uncle vying for the crown--much like Princess Margaret, he thinks he is better suited to the job and with Lexi taking herself out of contention, that he will have control of the royal reigns when his mother dies. Lexi has other plans--she comes back for a year into palace life and shifts all the pieces about on the royal chess board, leaving the royal succession looking a bit tossed up in her wake.