BW12: Literary Mishmash

 

Happy Sunday! This week is a mishmash as we are in the midst of a family celebration of my father's 95th birthday so I threw a bunch of stuff together for your delight. 

Our Literary Legend this month is Sir Thomas Malory and his Le Morte D'Arthur about King Arthur and Legend of the Round Table, a classic arthurian fantasy.  

" Published in 1485, Sir Thomas Malory's epic poem Le Morte d'Arthur became the standard source for future Arthurian works such as Idylls of the King by Lord Tennyson and T.H. White's The Once and Future King.With its expressive, vigorous dialogue, Le Morte d'Arthur resounds with colloquial liveliness and ceremonious dignity, the style for a fifteenth-century gentleman. This audio recording grips the listener with the fascinating, fateful story of Arthur's ascension to the throne as a boy, his marriage to Guenevere, the formation of the Round Table Knights, the quest for the Holy Grail, the ill-fated passion between Lancelot and Guenevere, the treachery of Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred, and the ultimate destruction of Arthur's realm.A superb story of adventure, love, honor, and betrayal, Le Morte d'Arthur is filled with dramatic power and deep, tragic irony."

One of our Bingo Quest categories is David Bowie who also enjoyed reading and you can find his top 100 books on his site.  Read them alone or join the David Bowie Book Club and readalong with their top ten choices for 2026.  Check to see how many you have read so far! I've read four and currently have A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon in my stacks to read this year. 

Spring has sprung so check out all the spring reading lists popping up like wildflowers all over the world wide web. 

Happy Wanderings! 

BW11: Kickin up our heels for Spring

Happy Sunday!  Who else is kickin up their heels with the arrival of Spring on March 20th?  I think springtime is my favorite season. The temperatures are perfect, the flowers are starting to bloom, the urge to take on a new project, or declutter. And read new books or dive into old favorites.  

We have an eclectic mix of lists this week to peruse, which may also lead to a bunch of rabbit trails. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. 

Town and Country Magazine's The 49 Must-Read Books of Spring 2025

ABA's The Spring 2025 Reading Group Guide Preview

Pretty Little Memoir The Perfect Spring 2025 Reads for Every Mood

Milkweed Org's Spring 2025 Catalog

Book Bub's Here Are the Must-Read Books of Spring

Goodread's Spring Reads 

Happy Spring!

BW12: March Equinox

 

Happy Sunday! This week we celebrate the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.  It seems Spring has sprung already in our neck of the world. The temps are rising and it was a balmy 70 degrees yesterday while I was running here, there, and everywhere. Today is also Let's Laugh Day, the 20th is not only the March  Equinox, but International Day of Happiness as well. The 21st is  World Poetry Day, the 22nd is As Young as You Feel Day, the 23rd is not only my dad's 92nd birthday, but also National Chip and Dip Day. The 24th is National Cheesecake day, and the 25th is International Waffle Day. I think the person who makes up the calendar was hungry.  LOL! 

Let's dive into spring (or autumn reads, depending on where you are)  with Beyond the Bookends list of 107 Sensational New Spring 2023 releases or She Reads Most Anticipated Books of Spring 

In the Southern Hemisphere, dip into the Republic's list of 23 African Books to Expect in 2023 or Australian Fiction authors new releases through March 2023. 

Read a book with Spring or Autumn in the title or Spring or Autumn flowers on the cover. 

Read a book that takes place during Spring or Autumn.

Join your local libraries Spring or Autumn 2023 reading challenge. 

Our post is brought to you by the letter L this week which means loads and loads of love, laughter and life to explore. 

Have fun following rabbit trails! 

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BW12: Spring Fling or Autumn Optimism

 

Today we celebrate the March equinox, welcoming Spring or Autumn, depending on where you are in the world.  Both seasons have something in common - nature's showcase of beautiful colors, bright and bold as well as rich and warm.  So let's dive into the season with our Spring / Autumn Reading Fling. 

• Read a book with flowers or leaves on the cover.
• Read a book with the colors of spring or autumn on the cover 
• Read a book with Spring or Autumn in the title
• Read a book about a Spring or Autumn Fling. (oh la la)
• Read a book about life beginning.
• Read a book about rebirth.
• Read a book about life changing. 
• Read a book about wine or with wine on the cover 
• Read a book with any of the words from the poem below on the cover

 

Spring And Autumn.

By 

Thomas Moore 

Every season hath its pleasures;

Spring may boast her flowery prime,

Yet the vineyard's ruby treasures

Brighten Autumn's soberer time.

So Life's year begins and closes;

Days tho' shortening still can shine;

What tho' youth gave love and roses,

Age still leaves us friends and wine.

Phillis, when she might have caught me,

All the Spring looked coy and shy,

Yet herself in Autumn sought me,

When the flowers were all gone by.

Ah, too late;--she found her lover

Calm and free beneath his vine,

Drinking to the Spring-time over,

In his best autumnal wine.

Thus may we, as years are flying,

To their flight our pleasures suit,

Nor regret the blossoms dying,

While we still may taste the fruit,

Oh, while days like this are ours,

Where's the lip that dares repine?

Spring may take our loves and flowers,

So Autumn leaves us friends and wine.

A to Z and Back again - Our letter and word of the week are L and Life

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Please share your book thoughts reviews and link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have a social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. The link widget closes at the end of each book week.

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BW12: March Equinox

Nature is putting on a spectacular show as we transition into Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Patricia Cisco's poem captures the season.  It's also Autumn in the southern Hemisphere with the season's fall leaves of orange and yellow and red.   I have John Denver's You Fill Up My Senses running through my head so your mission is find titles or stories that resonate with the sights, sounds, and/or smells of the season. 

Song Of March

© Patricia L. Cisco

With winter's footprints in the past,

and snows begin to melt at last.

With longer days and shorter nights, 

the wayward winds of March take flight.

Four winds she holds within her grip,

then hurls them from her fingertip.

Her woolly, fleecy clouds of white,

she sets in skies of blue delight.

Her wild bouts of gusty breezes

roar through valleys, hills, and trees.

That high pitch whistling song she sings

awakens earth and flowering things.

She tears a hole in heaven's sky

so sun can shine and rain can cry.

She gently calms as spring draws near, 

as blooming daffodils appear.

She welcomes April showers in, 

then gathers up her dwindling winds.

Now her long journey home begins,

knowing she'll be back this way, 

upon a cold, late winter's day, 

when nights grow short

and days grow long.

Listen for her whistling song!

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BW12: March Equinox

Splash of Spring by Karen Hale

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener

seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~ Albert Camus

Spring is in the air in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern side of the world. Nature's paint palette,  combines rich, deep and bold colors with brilliant hues to entertain the eye.  Just imagine the synergism as we blend the seasons to enrich our reading as well as our bookshelves.  

Dive into your trusty thesaurus to look for words that speak to you of either autumn and spring.  Mix them together to discover a new read or revisit an old friend.  

A random pick of cozy earth on Amazon brings up P. Bodi's Mountain Earth's Kitchen Cozy Mystery Series.   Hope orange resulted in Irene Hannon's   Hope Harbor series as well as RaeAnne Thayne's Hope Crossing series.  Blue leaf resulted in Lynn Truss's fabulous and fun book -  Eats, Shoots and Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.  If you haven't read it yet, now is the time.  

Add another layer to include our theme of the month with mystery or nordic authors and see what comes up.  Cozy mysteries are always fun to curl up with when you need something light. Spring brings to mind Debbie Macomber and her Blossom Street or Cedar Cove series.  Check out Cozy Mysteries Unlimited for Spring themed and Fall themed reads.

Try something completely new and delve into the symbolism or magic of the Equinox with Danu Forest's Magic Of ebooks.  

While you are having fun following rabbit trails, don't forget to check out Goodreads Best Books for Spring reading as well as PW's Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2017. 

Happy Reading! 

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BW12: Vernal Equinox

Spring has arrived in the northern half of the hemisphere and Autumn has already come out to play at the beginning of the month in the southern half.  Whether you are experiencing flowers blooming or leaves turning all shades of yellow, red and orange, nature is putting on quite a show right now.  It's also time to pull out your trusty thesauruses or thesauri, which ever you prefer saying  and start plotting out your spring or autumn reading lists.  Or maybe take a look at Synonyms.com and see what you can find. Perhaps a book with capriole or galumph or caper in the title!

I think I'm going to take a different tack with Spring this year since the season is all about beginnings, growth, discovery and blossoming. A new copy of  Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way just arrived. I signed up to join a group of folks in my online writing community who will be diving in on April 7th. I read it a few years back and since then my original, very marked up, well used copy disappeared into the garage, boxed up along with numerous other books while we deep cleaned our bedroom. So I splurged on another copy - it is, after all, a new beginning...again.  *grin*  

Also in the offing is the annual April challenge -  Blogging from A to Z - created by Arlee Bird, and is now in its 7th year.  This will be my first time participating and I'm looking forward to it with excitement as well as trepidation.  As of March 21st, My Two Blessings will be nine years and as my posting has become rather sporadic lately, am attempting to get back into the groove.  Come join me and all the riotous fun. Come up with a theme and talk about books, life, homeschooling, clowns, engineering, maps or whatever your clever and intriguing minds think up.  

Still need some ideas for Spring or Autumn -- Check out The Millions Most Anticipated: The Great 2016 Book Review or  for something completely different - The 18 Books that investors will be reading over Spring Break!

Happy Reading! 

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BW12: Happy Spring!

Josephine Wall's Hope Springs Eternal

The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hillside’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven -
All’s right with the world!

~Robert Browning

Happy Spring! In keeping with our mystery theme this month, I looked up books with spring in the title and found several interesting mystery titles. 

 How about something hard boiled

Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler

Or a bit British

G.M. Malleit's Pagan Spring

Maybe a psychological thrill

Clifford Irving's The Spring

Or gut wrenching suspense

Rick Riordan's Cold Springs

or a step back in time 

Charles O'Brien's Death in Saratoga Springs

Find something with Spring in the title to read this season. And no, you don't have to stick with mysteries.  *grin* 

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History of the Medieval World - Chapter 15 (pp 100 - 105)

Northern Ambitions (China 420 - 464 AD)

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BW12: Spring Beckons

Spring officially arrives on March 20th and with it comes the feeling of rejuvenation.  The feel of the sun,  flowers and trees blossoming, birds singing, squirrels chattering  and mornings sitting out on my patio enjoying nature.  The desire to begin spring cleaning and throw out all the old stuff to make room for the new.  Plus the urge to clean up our garden, explore the nursery, go crazy buying too many flats of plants and get busy digging my fingers into the soil.  And for some unknown reason,  I'm always reminded of Robert Frost and his poem Spring Pools.

These pools that, though in forests, still reflect

The total sky almost without defect,

And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,

Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,

And yet not out by any brook or river,

But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.

The trees that have it in their pent-up buds

To darken nature and be summer woods---

Let them think twice before they use their powers

To blot out and drink up and sweep away

These flowery waters and these watery flowers

From snow that melted only yesterday.

Tell me what you think of when you hear the word Spring.  Words that immediately come to mind for me are rebirth, flowers, buds, seeds, sunshine, bees, birds, sing, bright, pink, new.     Goodreads came up with an interesting lists related to Spring or Flowers or sunshine. 

Decided to get creative and use some of the words from Frost's Poem to find a spring book to read.   Not as easy as you think or else I'm just getting really picky.   Unlike Winter, in which my stacks were full of wintery reads, I don't seem to have nary a one relating to Spring.  Unless I want to count The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. *grin*

Join me in reading books with spring or spring related words in the title for the season of Spring.  

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