Books Are Cool, Reading Is Cool

Monday, June 8, was Name Your Poison Day.

At one point, Lucky looked at the calendar and called out, "Name your poison, Nichole!"

Without missing a beat, Nichole called back, "Ricin!" 

 

I told her the Daisy Dalrymple books I've been reading have had poison used several times. Mystery books are cool. I like that we've got generational mystery readers. My mom introduced me to Agatha Christie books when I was younger and I got into them. I introduced Nichole to Agatha Christie books when she was younger and she got into them.

 

For the Orem Library Adult Reading Challenge this year, I needed a book recommendation from a friend. Nichole recommended a mystery book for me. She's my friend.

It is fun to have book discussions with my children. I love that books and reading are one thing we all have in common in our family. We may have differences in tastes. I wouldn't recommend my "kissing books" to everybody in the family. I did make everyone watch the movie, Seeking Persephone, but only a couple of us have or will read the book. It doesn't stop me from sharing with Jeremy when I'm really enjoying parts of those books, though. 

We do all enjoy similar books from time to time, though. I've taken book recommendations from Lucky before who reads more junior fiction books than I do generally. We all like Terry Pratchett books on some level. Audiobooks on car trips can be fun. We went through the whole (original) Fablehaven series on audiobooks a while back when we were traveling more. 

 

Isn't this funny? I just wanted to mention the funny interaction that happened on Name Your Poison Day then I kept going about mystery books then books in general and... blah blah blah blah blah.

Books are cool. Mystery books are cool.

Here is a picture I made three of my children pose for so I could put it on this blog post.

Oh, look. Jr. Jr. is reading a Fablehaven book. Lucky is reading a Terry Pratchett book. Nichole is reading a mystery. I did not tell them what books to grab. I just told them to grab a book. Ha Ha.

Mother's Day 2026

I feel like this Mother's Day, some of the celebrating was spread out over a few days.

A few days before Mother's Day, Jet brought home a card he made at school. 

Friday, Jeremy brought me Mother's Day flowers with a card. I love my husband.

Sunday, Jeremy made me breakfast.

Jr. Jr. drew a picture for me.

See. She's holding 5 eggs. I have 5 children. 

 

I got to teach a short Relief Society lesson then we had muffins and yogurt and fruit and socializing for the women.

When Jeremy was going to take most of the kids home (Lucky stayed with me for choir), Jet seatbelted a Mother's Day card in so it would be protected. 

Lucky gave me a card, a candy rose, and two pictures taken by high school photography students. Awww. I love them.

Jeremy gave me a present- a portable selfie stick tripod. I used it when I FaceTimed my mom for Mother's Day- hands free use of my phone. Although I picked it up and pointed it at different family members plenty. Tee Hee.

Later, I found Timothy, the banana slug, using the wrapping paper for a home. Have I mentioned I love my family?

I got to rest and spend some time looking at Jeremy's latest book.

I didn't have to make dinner. Jeremy fixed it for us. It was a hit with the family.

Jet entertained me using his Spidey powers.

I told everyone for Mother's Day, I wanted them to play D&D. They hadn't in a while and I knew Jr. was waiting very patiently to play again. The others couldn't play video games because it was the last day of Screen Free Week so they didn't have a good excuse not to. Bwah ha ha ha.

Jr. made chocolate chip cookies.

On Monday, I found out I missed a present from Jet in his backpack. He decorated a keychain for me.

Awwww. 

I enjoyed my Mother's Day(s) this year. 

I love my family. 

Perfect Date

For the past couple of months I've been part of an Instagram book club with Megan Walker to read her books, Lakeshire Park and Miss Newbury's List, in preparation for her book, The Duke's Bargain, which comes out on May 5. It has been wonderful learning behind the scenes details from Megan as well as hearing experiences from other readers. Do you know how many of us have memories of berry picking from our youth?

When I found out Megan was coming to Utah to do an event at the Provo Library with Joanna Barker and Esther Hatch who both had books come out recently, as well as several other authors, I made sure to get a ticket. 

The event was a speed-dating/speed-friending kind of event. The authors each spent six minutes at a table with readers who got to ask questions and chat before they rotated to another table.

I loved how it was done because I got to chat with some authors I hadn't been able to chat with before.

Afterward was a Q&A session then book signing.

 

Before the event started, I met up with Amber from that same book club and we hung out the whole time, both got our hugs from Megan Walker, and got to be each other's picture takers with the authors (I didn't get pictures with all the authors but that's okay). It was fun.

Book Club Buddies!

I got a bunch of swag (not all pictured. Let's just say I have plenty of bookmarks to lose now), and got The Duke's Bargain (before release date) by Megan Walker, 

 

and If You'll Have Me by Esther Hatch, 

 

and A Love Most Daring by Joanna Barker. 

Those last two books I really got into when I read (or listened to) them earlier- see my March 30, 2026 post about A Love Most Daring.

 

I also got pictures with Jennifer Moore 

 

and Jentry Flint 

 

and Arlem Hawks.

 

It was a fun way to do an author event and I'm so glad I went.

I love events with the Provo Library.

 

P.S. That day was the perfect date to do this event since April 25 was Perfect Date Day. The speed-dating style fit right in with it.   

Jeremy took the kids out that morning for some birding. Their weather was not too hot and not too cold. It was also Celebrate Trails Day so they walked around the visitor's center at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

P.P.S. Since April 25 was also World Penguin Day, we ate fish sticks. Even though it was National Plumbers Day, I did not wear my Mario shirt to my event. I wore my Gentlemen's Gamble shirt. 

 

The Gentlemen's Gamble

You know I like when authors convince me (they don't have to try that hard) to read their books (if it's the type of book I would read). See my post from September 14, 2024.

I found out about a new series that came out this year written by multiple authors called The Gentlemen's Gamble series. The idea is that this group of friends make a wager when they're younger that whoever is the last to marry has to pay each of the others in the group 100 pounds. They kind of forget about it and then years later one friend writes to all the others that he has gotten married and reminds them all about the wager so it's a scramble for them all to get married.

A couple fun things about this series are: 1) the authors kept the release order of the books secret so we didn't know who was going to lose the wager. 2) each of the books have the same prologue but written from the hero of that book's point of view.

I haven't finished the series yet (I'm still two books away- I've listened to four on audiobook) but I do know the order of the books at this point. The series introduced me to a new author (and the last two books are from authors I have not previously read so I'm still waiting) and I got to read books from three authors who I have read books from before. One of them is Anneka R. Walker, who is one of my favorites, as you know.

In April, the authors held a Gentlemen's Gamble virtual event where they talked about the books and answered questions. It was pretty fun. Before the event they emailed BINGO cards so we could have fun catching little things that were mentioned throughout the event. 

They also did some giveaways and I won a tshirt. It says, "Team Gentlemen. Honor Intact. Hearts Compromised." 

I am enjoying this book series and I'm glad I found out about it.

 

 

Breakfast and a Movie

To celebrate The Sheriffs of Savage Wells movie coming out the beginning of this month (based on the book by Sarah M. Eden), my husband, daughter, and I had an "American West" breakfast with recipes from the book, Whisk Me Away (by Michelle Wright), which also has quotes from The Sheriffs of Savage Wells book.

We ate Crustless Quiche, Biscuits with Raspberry Honey Butter, and to drink we had White Lightning Moonshine (Sweet Tea). Read the "Sheriffs" book or watch the movie (or both) to learn the origin of that drink.

As we ate, we watched The Sheriffs of Savage Wells movie. I laughed so much and got so giddy seeing the quirky characters from the book on screen. 

A Couple of April Celebrations

April 2 was National Burrito Day. We had burritos for dinner and took some to Jr.

It was also Hans Christian Andersen's Birthday, aka International Children's Book Day. We got another Discovery Kit from the library so for a couple of days we read children's books and did alphabet puzzles and activities, since this one was Alphabet themed.

April 3 was Fish Fingers and Custard Day so we had fish sticks and vanilla pudding.

We also continued on with our Holy Week family scripture study discussing Good Friday. 

Getting Into a Book

This is what happens when I get into a book.

I told my husband I couldn't listen to what he was saying because I was at the part of my book (A Love Most Daring by Joanna Barker) where it was grrr with the thing then aaaaaaaaagh then pew then blaaaaaah (tongue lolling out to the side and eyes closed). 

It's not always easy to type out sound effects. There were hand gestures, too.

My son came in a little bit later and asked, "Is this a kissing book?"

"Yes, it is, but also..." and I repeated the sound effects and gestures.

I was too in the moment to get a picture so you get a picture of one of the times I was waiting for kids and reading the book. I spent plenty of time in the past with the other books in this series while waiting to pick up or drop off kids.

And for the record, my husband was very forgiving about me not listening to him.

 

After I finished the book, I was able to go to an online book club with the author where we talked about the book, favorite scenes, characters, and lots of fun things.

Books are awesome! 
 

St. Patrick's Day 2026

You know we like to get creative with our celebrating.

When planning St. Patrick's Day dinner, I asked my husband for suggestions. Thinking about cabbages, potatoes, he said what sounded good was stuffed cabbage. Mmmm.

At the time, I was listening to an audiobook set in Ireland, and they kept mentioning brown bread. So I figured brown bread would be good and a side of onion roasted potatoes.

As I was looking for a recipe for brown bread, I found one for German Brown Bread, and the creativity light bulb came on. 

So for St. Patrick's Day, we had Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage, German Brown Bread (recipe from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again), Irish roasted potatoes (onion roasted potatoes but with seasonings you would use in Ireland), and Utah lime green jello with whipped topping (because it's green. We did skip the carrot shaving this time).

For dessert we had Shamrock Shakes (adapted from Jordan Page's A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 1).

Yeah. Creativity is fun when it comes to celebrating.