Month: July 2020

Weekend Book Friends #5

Weekend Book Friends #5

It’s the weekend and although the sun is shining, it’s dreadfully cold. Perfect weather to move all the week’s work aside and pull the books and weekend shenanigans closer. Daddy’s been away the whole week, so we are eagerly awaiting his return. In the meantime, Mommy is busy wit a bit of Diamond Painting and finishing her audio book so that she can start with one of the books in her Audible folder she just can’t wait to start with. I’ts part of the Hello Sunshine Book Club and we love all those books! Or most of them. Excited for this one:   Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . . Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares? Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who […]

Posted July 31, 2020
23 Comments

Wednesday Wisdom from The Little Prince

I believe that all bookworms start off as exactly that – a worm. Yes, we tend to stick with the title “Bookworm”, but that isn’t actually what we are, is it? We leave our cocoons eventually and become butterflies that fly to different worlds and realities on our magical wings of words and stories.  Some of the time, this is a natural process and the little worm turns into a beautiful butterfly all by itself. (With a bit of help from Goodreads, Amazon, Litsy, etc) More often, I believe, the little caterpillar needs to be nudged a bit. Something, or someone needs to show you what is waiting for you out there for you to really spread your wings and take of into the magical world of books.  My nudge came from a wonderful, enchanting friend. Her name means Star and that is exactly what she is. A bright, twinkling star that will forever be my north star towards the horizon of the bookish sea. She introduced me to the most wonderful characters, whom I might have stumbled on by myself, but somehow, I don’t think it would have been quite the same.  Most worth mentioning, is the lovely Little Prince, who […]

Posted July 29, 2020
5 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Reasons why Reading and Blogging is good for you in 2020

It’s Tuesday and time for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a freebie, so you can pick your own topic and just run with it. Yea!  My mommy started blogging again about 6 weeks ago, after more than 2 years. I wish I can tell you the difference it makes in her general psyche. Not that she was a psycho, though. I am convinced that if you cut my mommy open, words and stories and tales will come flying out like butterflies. That I’ll catch.  So for this week’s freebie, I’ve decided to compile: 10 Reasons why Reading and Blogging is good for you in 2020.  The past couple of months have been a bit of a tough time for the human race. All over the globe, people have been forced into lock down and it is having a massive effect on people in a gazillion different ways. Us felines love having our humans stuck at home. Well, most of the time. So let’s see how blogging and reading can make your experiences a bit easier.  1. It gives you something to do I will never ever understand the word or the concept […]

Posted July 28, 2020
27 Comments

The Sunday Post #5

Hooray, hooray! I couldn’t be happier today. Even if you offered me my very own packet of perky pink salmon. Do you SEEEEEE our template?? This was the template my Mommy chose originally when she started blogging again, about a month or so ago. Obviously I nudged a bit. The template is called “fluffy white kitten”, it couldn’t be more perfect if I invented, drafted, designed it myself. BUT, we couldn’t get it to work. Mommy couldn’t add any of the add-on’s and there were no option for comments. And that just won’t work for us. We love to chat!  Yesterday morning, she was playing around on the blog and saw the blogger update. I just looked at her with my big green eyes and tried my best to get the message through to her little brain. “Load the fluffy kitten template, Mareli. Come on – come on – come on, you can do it….”  And guess what?? She did! And it works!! So what do you think? Mommy also finally managed to import all the posts from her previous blog, she really was on a roll here!  How was your week? We had a lovely week! The weather was […]

Posted July 26, 2020
28 Comments

Bear Town by Fredrik Backman

Title: Bear Town Author: Fredrik Backman Published: 2016 (Simon and Schuster) Pages: 432 Format: Paperback Recommend to: If you like ice hockey, small town politics, the difference between right and wrong and good and evil – read this.  Rating:  Synopsis: People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.Beartown explores the hopes that bring […]

Posted July 25, 2020
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Weekend Book Friends #4

Weekend Book Friends #4

It’s Friday and the most beautiful day out there. It’s also the first day my mommy has opened the blog and doing anything one here. It’s been a busy week, but a good one. We’re just about done with Bear Town by Fredrik Backman and we need to find something else to read this weekend.  Mommy got a bit distracted from her Alphabet challenge (Halfway through a reading challenge) the last couple of weeks, she needs to get back on track! She needs to read a book starting with the letter “F” and she just can’t decide which one to read. That’s what Weekend Book Friends are for! YOU can help us decide which one to read! Our options are:    When Atlanta housewife Abigail Campano comes home unexpectedly one afternoon, she walks into a nightmare. A broken window, a bloody footprint on the stairs and, most devastating of all, the horrifying sight of her teenage daughter lying dead on the landing, a man standing over her with a bloody knife. The struggle which follows changes Abigail’s life forever. When the local police make a misjudgment which not only threatens the investigation but places a young girl’s life in danger, the case […]

Posted July 24, 2020
15 Comments

The Sunday Post #4

  Greetings Humans! I am lying here with my Mommy and on the radio is playing a rather upbeat song (LM Radio, you should try it out. They play all the oldies and goodies). But not even the song gets me to lift my pretty head. Goodness gracious great balls of fire – the past two weeks have been long. Mommy says we should rather count them in cat days. Thus, 98 days have passed since we last graced you with our presence. I am very glad to be have Mommy and Daddy back home safely, but I didn’t get all my requested prezzies, so I brought them a lizard or two and rolled the toilet paper down two nights in a row. Not that it helped very much, she still went to school last week Monday. And then she came back half way through the day. She looked furious and thought it best to just purr and look cute. She complained about something called Load shedding. I didn’t really see the problem. She ended up on the couch reading, because she couldn’t work on the computer. Then on Tuesday, the exact same thing happened! She stormed in here again […]

Posted July 19, 2020
17 Comments

Vywervrou-trilogie deur Chanette Paul

Net so voor ek begin om lekker te gesels oor die vroue van Vywerbaai, moet ek eers gou bieg. Soos Corali se familie, is ek ook ‘n dopper en ons kan mos vreeslik lank en swaar dra aan ons vooropgestelde idees. Ek het laas met Chanette Paul te doen gehad toe ek een Kersfees uit blote verveeldheid my sussie se Romanza boekie gegryp het en langs die swembad gaan lê. Die boekie het in sy doel geslaag, maar met Romanza is waarmee ek van daardie dag af, vir Chanette Paul vereenselwig het. Hoe op dees aarde is dit moontlik? Maklik. Vooropgestelde idees. Heel toevallig is dit een van die onderliggende temas (na my krannige opinie, en nee, hierdie gaan beslis nie ‘n literêre resensie wees nie) wat na vore kom in die Vywervroue. Of dit nou Lira is met haar begeerlike voorkoms (ons almal weet wat die vooropgestelde idee oor sulke mooi vrouens met denim kort-broekies is), of dit Mirre se man, Andre, in sy wolf-in-skaapsklere gewaad is, of Corali wat rou oor haar oorlede man en net swart en wit dra, vooropgestelde idees word geskep en geglo. Net soos die Vywervroue, is ek vandag ook baie bly en dankbaar dat ek […]

Posted July 18, 2020
0 Comments
Weekend Book Friends #3

Weekend Book Friends #3

Greetings Humans! Gosh, can you believe it’s finally Friday? It feels as if at least 50 days have passed since we last had a Friday. My mommy and daddy are  home safely and are both back at work. Or at least Mommy was until Wednesday, and then the school got closed due to Covid 19. Bummer for some, for me it means cuddles. It’s been awfully cold across the country and I’m sure everyone in South African would love to just stay in and cuddle. If only everyone knew how to take good care of fluffy little kittens, they could have all done that. Alas. I came from a shelter where it’s rather obvious that Kitten Care 101 still need to be mastered. Mommy is working online and I am patiently waiting for her to close the laptop and open her book. I like the book that she’s reading now, it makes her ponder quite a lot and she strokes my head while doing so. I’ll just go ahead and share it with our Friday Friends while I wait. For our first stop, we will pay a visit to Gilion over at Rose City Reader to share our Book Beginnings.  Every Friday […]

Posted July 17, 2020
24 Comments

Wednesday Wisdom with Bertie Wooster

Yesterday’s Top Ten Ten Tuesday was all about books that make you smile. 10 Books that make me smile.  While drafting my post, I came across my Right ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse and realized that Bertie Wooster and his ever so clever valet, Jeeves, are exactly what we currently need for our rather sour dispositions.  These masks that we are wearing day in and day out, are hindering our smiles to come through. I would given my left arm (yes, I do have the right expression here. I’m just left handed) to see all the clever coping ideas Jeeves would have came up with during our current situation. Not to mention everything that Bertie would have stuffed up and exactly where he would have forgotten his mask, or even worse, his pants. “There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself: Do trousers matter?” (For once, my dear Bertie, I don’t think Jeeves’ reply of “the mood will pass” would have been the correct answer.) We Woosters do not lightly forget. At least we do – some things – appointments and people’s birthdays, and letters to post and all that. But not an absolute bally insult like the above.  Freddie experienced the sort […]

Posted July 15, 2020
9 Comments