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Brought to you by the verb “to read”

In the past, present, and future tense.

As in have been reading, are currently reading,

And might read next…or are considering reading next…

This is my variation on the meme done by others,

And very well, I might add.

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Revivor of http://www.Wednesdays

What have/are/will you be reading? Link it here at https://www.athoughtfulreveal.com/ and share your reading adventures with me.

Accreditation of the art is actively being researched 9/22/2019 jee

I have been reading a lot this week…

The Last Collection by Jeanne Mackin is a story about the friction between fashion designer Coco Channel and Elsa Schiaparelli just before the Germans invaded Paris. This was very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pencils and Process by Jon Amdall is part memoir and part art process book. Jon is not the greatest artist in the world, but he shows you how he works and shows improvement in his process and that is the whole point. He wants to encourage those of us who aren’t the greatest artists to go ahead and draw and keep drawing and improve with practice.

The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory is a holocaust story. A young woman is caring for her father, who is very old and dying. She discovers that he was a prisoner of the Germans during the war. She also discovers a woman prisoner’s dress with letters sewn into the seams that did not belong to her late mother. The book is the story of the letters and the tale they tell and how they change her life. This is a heartbreaking story as is the situation the young woman finds herself in with her current life. I wasn’t sure which was sadder, the past or the present.

Cooperative Lives by Patrick Finegan stayed strange all the way to the end. It did get more interesting, but still strange. It will take a detailed review to describe this one.

Ivory Apples by Lisa Goldstein was a delight to read. A fantasy where the good and bad characters go back and forth over and over until the end when good finally conquers evil. There’s an elderly aunt who wrote the book, literally, that has everyone all worked up. But she’s changed her name and become a recluse. She speaks to no one but family. That doesn’t stop people from trying to find her or trying to talk to her or bothering her family to find her. The magic spreads to another member of the family and the secret is out! Once more than one person knows something, it’s not a secret anymore. The children don’t know who they can trust, but they know who they can’t trust. When it comes down to actually solving the problem and getting things straightened out at the end, Aunt Maeve is revealed and all sorts of disasters happen. But good conquers bad and all is well.

The Kidnapped Bride by Steve Higgs is a pretty good cozy mystery. I think I’ll be reading more in this series and probably more by this author as well. This isn’t his only series.

All Cats are Introverts by Francesco Marciuliaro is a fun read. Lots of photos of cats being cats and cats being humans, if you know what I mean. The poems are all about how cats deal with humans and what they do to them and how they act. Very funny. Something cat lovers will appreciate greatly.

How to Look Elegant Every Day by Virginia Lia was an interesting little book. I tripped over it on Amazon when I was looking at style books. Ms. Lia starts with a definition of style and then some great examples of women we can all agree are elegant, Grace Kelly, Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, and Jackie O. She covers all aspects of being elegant, not just looks, but the way you act and how you feel as well. It was rather interesting and made me want to “clean up my act” a bit.

The T-Shirt and Jeans Handbook by Suze Solari was about using jeans and a t-shirt as the basis of your style. First, you have to find the correct style of jeans for your body and the same for the t-shirt. Then Ms. Solari showed you how to add layers and accessories to this basic outfit to really create a look with flare. Her other book in this series of style books, The Curvy Girls Style Handbook worked with several different real women, not models. She used their own clothing and showed them how to use her concepts of the V at the neck for length and the B for belting to reshape and reuse their clothes to create totally different looks to compliment their body shapes. She created a look for each season for each of the women. I found both books to be short on examples, but rather interesting. I just wanted more examples. The Curvy Girls book had all the clothing on the women and that was well-done. But the first book had the clothing just laid out flat and it really looked bad. Even when it was on a manniquin it looked bad. It should have been on a person.

The Original 30 Chic Days Blog Series by Fiona Ferris is taken from Fiona’s actual blog. She did this series on being chic. It was a daily entry on how she was chic each day for 30 days and she turned it into a book. She’s a Brit who’s a total Francophile. Only French women are chic in her opinion. So everything is related to something French or how the French do things. It gets a bit repetitive at times and if you’re not into reading blogs, I would think it would be a bit strange as well. Other than the French references, she does have some fun things to say and some interesting ideas about lifestyles.

Do I Have to Wear Black to a Funeral? by Florence Isaacs. This book covers what has changed since your parents’ day in the way of funeral tradition. How funerals are arranged. What is expected of people before, during and after funerals. What form condolences should take. And even what you should wear. Is it really okay to text your condolences?

I am currently reading…

Rowan’s Lady by Suzan Tisdale. This is the first of two books. This is a medieval historical romance from 2013.

Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk, narrated by Raphael Corkhill and Marisa Calin. I haven’t had much time to listen to this, but I am going to make time this week to listen.

New to my bookshelves…

The Minimalism Challenge by Minimalism Co. Another book I tripped over while looking at style books that seemed like it might be interesting, especially since we keep trying to downsize and end up buying things instead.

Draw Your Day and the Draw Your Day Sketchbook by Samantha Dion Baker. This is an attempt to get me drawing again and hopefully get my drawing skills back so that I can start keeping a journal with sketches in it that I won’t cringe about.

And I have three romantic ARCs from NetGalley. Because of You by Allie Boniface due out in October and If You Tame Me by Kathie Giorgio due out September 26th. The third one is The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz due out in March of next year.

I’m well caught up on my GoodReads Reading Challenge now. In fact, I’m ahead by a few books at this point. That probably won’t make me slow down any though. I read what attracts me and what I’m offered that fall into my genres. What have you read this week?