Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
I skipped the Amazon First Reads for June, but when the July list came out, I decided to take a chance on them. This month, we were able to choose two of the titles from the list.
I chose a romance and a short story:
First is The Chemistry Test by Georgina Frankie, which is a college romance with a focus on physical disability.
Second is The Toy Car by Rose Tremain, a coming of age story set in Greece and London.
The Tree of Hope is a 300-piece puzzle from Pintoo. I have been wanting to try Pintoo puzzles for a while now and was really happy to get my hands on this adorable one. Pintoo is a brand with plastic pieces that snap together in a very satisfying manner. Another interesting thing about them is that the borders are not really part of the puzzle; they are standard for all of their puzzles and fit on any edge piece.
The pieces were pretty small but they snapped together fairly easily. There were only a couple of times that I had to press hard to get them to fit. It was really fun to be able to pick up the whole puzzle and have it be solidly together. And I just love the image!
Michael has been having some swallowing issues that I recently became aware of. He describes it as a pressure in his chest and a feeling of release after he drinks water. If he is unable to drink water right away, the pressure increases and become painful. I took him to his primary care office and they referred him to GI and gave him a medication to try in the meantime.
We had the GI appointment, and she wants him to continue using the medication and have a couple of tests – a barium swallow and an upper endoscopy. She said that it could be related to reflux, or it could be EOE like I have, or it might be a motility issue. She said the suggestion of achalasia made by the primary care office is unlikely because that is a more severe problem than he seems to be having.
Michael was more nervous about the swallow test than the scope because he has a lot of sensory sensitivities related to food textures. He had the barium swallow test Monday morning and it was unpleasant but he got through it. The first date they had available for an endoscopy was October 20th, so it will be a while until we get to that.
On another note, he has made some real progress with dental work. When he first transitioned to an adult dentist, he needed work done on several teeth and required sedation to handle it. Over the last few years, he has stepped down from twilight sedation to a combination of a pill that he would take an hour before the appointment along with nitrous oxide given during the appointment. This time, he just needed one tooth filled, so the dentist recommended trying it without taking the pill ahead of time. He said he would still give him nitrous if he needed it once they got started, but Michael did just fine without it. I’m so proud of him!
I really enjoyed the #25in2025 challenge that I completed last month; it was a nice way to make sure I read some of the backlist books I had on my TBR. My TBR has grown quite a bit over the last couple of years, and sometimes picking what to read next can be overwhelming. Since I enjoyed that challenge so much, I decided to make myself a focused reading list for the rest of the year.
My focused reading list has 25 books on it. They are all fiction and are all readily available to me, whether through the library/Libby/Hoopla, already on my Kindle, or as a physical book on my shelf. The publication dates range from 2011-2024. I am not limiting myself to these books if there is something else I really want to read, and I am still planning to read one nonfiction book each month.
Here is the list (alphabetical by author):
I am really excited about this list and have already started reading some of the books!
I finished three books this week, two of which were 5 star reads.
⭐⭐⭐
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
I can’t settle on any one word to describe this book. It was weirdly interesting, at times profound, but also a bit odd in places. I did enjoy it, but nowhere near as much as The Midnight Library.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
I am not sure how I missed reading this growing up, but I am so glad I have rectified that oversight now. This was a profoundly moving story that I connected to even as a middle-aged adult. I can see why it has been so well regarded for all of these years and recommend picking it up if you haven’t read it before.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Yoga Pant Nation by Laurie Gelman – Class Mom #3
It has been six years since I read book #2 in this series, but I had no problem jumping back in with Jen Dixon and her ongoing role as class mom for her son Max. This was a fun, well-crafted novel with great characters and engaging storylines. Highly recommend!
The clues for weeks 2 and 3 of the puzzle challenge I am doing on Facebook were barnyard animals and musical instruments. I was able to redo puzzles from my shelves for both of them.
Farm Life is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. This one fit the clue for barnyard animals with its cows and chickens.
Koala House Party is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo, and the artist is Uta Krogmann. This one is a house cross section with a music room containing several different instruments.
I enjoyed redoing both of these and am looking forward to the next prompt tomorrow!
Sunset Mountains is a gorgeous 250-piece puzzle from Wentworth Wooden Puzzles. This is my first wooden puzzle, but I have heard only good things about this brand, which is made in Britain. They also are quite a bit pricier than cardboard puzzles, which is one of the reasons I haven’t tried them out before now.
The opportunity to do this puzzle came about because I am a Patreon supporter of a puzzler I follow on YouTube. She decide to offer this as a traveling puzzle to her patrons, so I signed up for it. The puzzle was sent to me by the first person who got it, and I will be sending it to the next person on the list in a few days.
This puzzle was a joy from beginning to end. The pieces are laser-cut into intricate shapes with a few pieces being shaped like identifiable objects – those are called whimsy pieces.
I decided not to start with the border because it was quite dark and I wanted to get more comfortable with how the pieces fit together. So I pulled out the brightest colors first and worked out from there. Once I got about 2/3 finished, I did the rest of the border and then filled in the darkest pieces.
After I finished the puzzle, I took the whimsy pieces out so that my friend Renee could see them when she came over to my place the other day.
I would love to do more wooden puzzles, but I’m not sure they are in my budget. Either way, I’m really glad that I got to do this one!
At the beginning of this year, there was a challenge floating around Bookstagram called the #25in2025 challenge. The idea was to identify 25 backlist books from your TBR that you wanted to read this year.
I came up with my list in mid-January, and I am excited to say that I have now read all of the books! (To be totally transparent, I did replace two of the books from the original list when they were hard to track down.)
There were some really good choices in this bunch, and I am so glad I did it. Here is the list of what I read as part of this challenge:
Fiction/Romance
Thrillers
Nonfiction
Have you read any of these? Did any of them stand out to you?
Village Toy Shop is a 500-piece puzzle from Sure-Lox, and it is part of their Touch of Frost series. I got this one for free from the friend who recently moved away, and I was very happy to find that it had all of the pieces.
Don’t let the picture fool you, it was quite a bit darker than it looks and very difficult. I knew it was going to be a hard one when the sky and snow were the easy parts, lol! The building pieces were extremely dark and it was slow-going putting them in, but I did eventually get it finished.
The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland – Lost for Words #1 – I recently read the second book in this series and wanted to go back and read the first one. I am just starting it, but I have heard good things about it.
Yoga Pant Nation by Laurie Gelman – Class Mom #3 – I read the first two quite a while ago and am finally getting around to reading this one. It promises to be a fun read.
Fiction
Middle Grade
Nonfiction
Fiction
Nonfiction
Feel free to add me as a friend on Goodreads or StoryGraph. I’m always looking for new recommendations!
In So Many Words 