Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Festive Food Truck is a 500-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. This was a redo for me. I needed a puzzle with a sweet treat for a puzzle challenge in a Facebook group, and this one fit the bill.
I enjoy Ceaco puzzles. They are middle of the road when it comes to quality, but they have interesting piece shapes and are usually pretty easy to complete. This artist is a favorite of mine as well.
Dream Library is a 1000-piece puzzle from Villager Puzzles, and the artist is Tara Younggren. I was drawn to this image because of how cozy it looks and how it brings together my two favorite things, reading and puzzling!
The bottom portion and the left side of the puzzle were really satisfying to put together, but things got way more difficult when I got to the window scene with all of the foliage. This puzzle definitely taught me that I don’t like foliage. It was incredibly hard and I was tempted to give up several times. I did persevere, however, and eventually finished.
Even with the difficulty level, it is a beautiful puzzle and the quality was excellent. I plan to buy more from this brand in the future.
The Paris Cooking School by Sophie Beaumont
Summary
There’s nothing quite so beautiful as Paris in the spring; and when you add in the chance to learn the French way of food, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, who can resist? Not Gabi Picabea or Kate Evans who have come from Australia to Sylvie Morel’s Paris Cooking School.
Both are at a crossroads, and learning to cook the French way in Paris, far away from all their troubles, seems like the perfect escape. Meanwhile, Sylvie herself is facing challenges of her own – a mysterious harassment campaign against the School and a reassessment of her relationship with her commitment-shy lover Claude.
For each of the women, that extraordinary April in Paris will bring unexpected twists and transformations that will change the course of their lives.
My Thoughts
This is a lovely book. Gabi and Kate are likeable characters who are trying to find their way despite various difficulties in their lives. I enjoyed their interaction with the rest of the class as well as with the people they meet in Paris. I also liked the storyline with Sylvie, who runs the school, as she deals with her own challenges.
My favorite part was how descriptive Beaumont is, showing us an intimate view of Paris and tantalizing us with mouthwatering descriptions of food, both around the city and in the cooking school. I am such a picky eater, but it made me want to try all of the dishes they encountered.
I am definitely putting her second book, A Secret Garden in Paris, on my list!
The Farm is a 1000-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. I love this image so much. My favorite part about his artwork are the buildings, so I love that this building is so prominent in the image. All of the signs and decorations on the front add so much interest and make it easier to puzzle than a plain building would be.
At the end of September, my church held an event called Brunch & Craft. It was open to anyone who wanted to come, and we were encouraged to bring a craft to do and, if possible, a dish to share. This is the second one of these we have had, and it was a lot of fun the first time.
My friend Suzanne and I decided to do puzzles during the crafting time. We did two puzzles, and our friend Brianne joined us for the first one before settling down to color. My friend Renee, who lives about 45 minutes away, came with me as well and she was doing some crochet.
I really enjoyed the event. I brought a sausage hashbrown casserole to share and had some other delicious treats that other people had brought as well. I brought four puzzles and let Suzanne and Brianne choose which ones we would do. For the first one, they immediately chose Cats in Quarantine, which is a 500-piece puzzle from Exploding Kittens. I have done it a couple of times already and love it.
The picture above shows it in progress, and here is the finished puzzle:
For the second puzzle, Suzanne chose Waterfall Camper, a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco. The artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I have a bunch of her puzzles and really like her artwork.
This was such a fun event. Usually I get drained being around a lot of people, but I was so focused on our little group and the activity of puzzling that I actually still had a lot of energy after it was done. Renee and I went out for a late lunch/early dinner and then ice cream and hung out for a bit at my place before she went home.
I hope we do it again!
Funny Story by Emily Henry
📚Summary
Daphne, a children’s librarian, gets abruptly dumped by her fiance Peter after he decides he is actually in love with his best friend Petra. Having moved to the area to live with Peter, she has nowhere to go and ends up rooming with Petra’s ex-boyfriend Miles (also newly dumped). After receiving invitations to Peter and Petra’s wedding, Daphne and Miles pretend to be dating.
📃My Thoughts
I really loved this book! Henry’s writing is so authentic, and I loved how she showed us more than just the romance. We got to learn about both the main character’s backstories and how that affected their relationships in the present, and we got to see how they learned to open themselves up to friends and family as well as to love.
World Landmarks Map is a 300-piece puzzle from Ravensburger. I had bought it a couple of years ago for a puzzle challenge and recently did it again for another puzzle challenge!
The prompt for this challenge was something that reminds you of high school. I wasn’t sure if I had any puzzles with school related items but when I saw this one on my shelf, I had to do it. During my senior year of high school, I took a geography class as one of my electives. Even though the class was mostly full of freshmen and sophomores, I loved it. It was so satisfying to fill in the maps with all the different countries and other geographical items.
Part of the challenge includes an item to add to the photograph of the finished puzzle, and I chose to use my senior high school yearbook. I flipped through and couldn’t believe that my picture had been cut out of it; I have absolutely no memory of doing that and can’t imagine the reason why!
This was a nice, easy puzzle and would be good for kids or families. The quality of the brand is excellent, although they are known for having a lot of blue puzzle dust in their bags.
Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand – this is #3 in her Paradise trilogy. It’s not my favorite series but I do want to finish it.
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – I was reading this at the beginning of last month too, and I haven’t made much progress. I am not super invested in it and it is a physical book, both of which make me less likely to pick it up and read.
Fiction
Nonfiction
When I made my recent trip to Illinois, I knew I would miss being able to puzzle whenever I wanted, but I didn’t have room to take many puzzles with me. So, in addition to the one new puzzle I took with me – the PieceRelax one I posted earlier – I took these three mini puzzles.
Here are the puzzle details from left to right:
I have done all of these before, but they were the perfect size to pack and I knew they would at least let me scratch the puzzling itch while I was away from home.
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde #2
📚Summary
Following the publication of her encyclopaedia of faeries, Emily Wilde is embarking on a new project, a map of the faerie realms. She is also considering the proposal of marriage made by Wendell Bambleby, a fellow scholar who is actually an exiled faerie king. After assassins show up in Cambridge to attack Bambleby, he and Emily, along with her niece and a fellow academic, travel to the Austrian Alps to look for the door to his homeland. While in the Alps, they are drawn into another mystery regarding another dryadologist who disappeared years ago.
📃My Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. While it was a continuation of a series, it had a lot of new adventures and new information about the faerie world. They didn’t seem to get as involved with the locals as in the first book, but there was a lot more interaction with the fairy folk. Emily continued to develop, especially in her relationships – both platonic and romantic – but she still presented as a realistic autistic-coded character, which I appreciated.
In So Many Words 