Mailbox Monday - Mar 30

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Well, we are back to Monday again. How are you all doing? We are healthy and fine. A lot has been happening around here: some organizing, some cleaning, prepping the vegetable garden for the seeds I ordered, and the youngest is getting ready to head back to school (virtually) tomorrow. Here are a few photos from this week:

A bright orange bird visits our birdbath

How fun to wake up to this face in the morning

A colorful surprise in the mailbox garden

Speaking of mailboxes, mine held two gifts this week.

What did your mailbox hold? Did something special arrive?

Here's hoping you have a blessed week.

Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Mailbox Monday - April 29

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Happy Monday! Hard to believe the end of April is here. I swear the year just started.

We've had a lot going on here. Last weekend was Easter Sunday. First time in 20 years I didn't cook. Yesterday was Orthodox Easter, which we also celebrate. We went to my brother-in-law's house, so all I had to do is make a pie. Felt like a true lazy slob. Of course, not cooking the past two weekends gave me some motivation to clean up around here, vacuum, and then wash the floors.

I also cleaned out a whole bunch of books to bring them to our library's annual book sale. It's always nice to share the books with others and help out the library at the same time. I'm making my final book drop today.

The Lil' Diva is off to NYC with her class on Wednesday and then to the annual Senior class outing on Friday. Hopefully the rain holds off.

The mailbox hasn't been too busy lately. I'm trying to stay on top of reviews for the next month. This one arrived and I reviewed it at The Book Connection.

Then I picked this up for free since the author sent me a PDF copy to review, but I prefer the Kindle version.

That's it from me. Hope you'll share some of your new books with us.

Book Review: How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is a powerful and touching look into grief.

As Aptowicz grabs hold of the success she has worked so hard for, her world is rocked by the sudden death of her mother. In the year that follows, the author battles the overwhelming grief through her writing, sharing these intimate glimpses into her life with readers.

Having lost my mother when I was just a teenager, I was drawn to How to Love the Empty Air. While grief is a very personal thing, there is comfort in the understanding of someone else who has experienced the same tragedy. Apotowicz holds nothing back in this collection. She shares her joys, her sorrows, and her pain in all its rawness. You laugh. You cry. You want to hug her because she feels so close as she stumbles around searching for that new normal that may never feel normal at all. Then she reaches that major milestone--one year after the death of her mother. Not enough time has passed to eliminate the heaviness of the loss, but by the end we can see some joy, a glimmer of happiness and new beginnings.

This is definitely one of my favorite collections. It is the seventh by Aptowicz. I'll be searching out more. If you want deep, meaningful, poetry that tugs at your heartstrings, How to Love the Empty Air is a collection worth reading.

Paperback: 100 pages
Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing (March 20, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1938912802
ISBN-13: 978-1938912801


I received a copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

End of Summer Giveaway! Tons of Books!

Best of intentions with posting these on a weekly basis, but it never happened. I am going to list separate Rafflecopter codes with each Book Package that is up for grabs in the End of Summer Giveaway. We will start with number 2, since I already ran one of these giveaways. Some of these books are ARCs; some I got through the Amazon VINE program; and others were duplicates of books we already had. Most of them have been read only once and a few of them not at all. I'll leave this giveaway running until Veteran's Day. Good luck!

Book Package #2

• Belle of the Glades by Cheryl Abney (Christian MG)
• Wright on Time®: Arizona, Book 1 by Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley (MG)
• ARC of Bindi Wildlife Adventures: Trouble at the Zoo by Chris Kunz (MG)
• ARC of Bindi Wildlife Adventures: Rescue! by Jess Black (MG)
• ARC of The Last Full Measure by Ann Rinaldi (YA)
• Untimed by Andy Gavin (YA)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Book Package #3

• A Quaker Cupboard by David Madden
• Autographed copy of Sprung From the Soul by David Madden
• Autographed copy of Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia by Patricia Neely-Dorsey
• Autographed copy of My Magnolia Memories and Musings by Patricia Neely-Dorsey

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Book Package #4

• Autographed copy of Words to Write By: Author Devotionals compiled by Robin Bayne
• Grit for the Oyster: 250 Pearls of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers by Suzanne Woods Fisher, Debora M. Coty, Faith Tibbetts McDonald, and Joanna Bloss

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Book Package #5

• Beside Two Rivers and Beyond the Valley, books 2 and 3 of Daughters of the Potomac Series by Rita Gerlach (each stand alone historical drama/romance novels with unrelated characters)
• What Did Jesus Say?: The Seven Messages from the Master by Rev. Terry Allan Christian
• Who I Be by Annie Brown
• God's Special Forces: A Manual for Becoming a Young Woman of Quality by Darlene Laney

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Book Package #6

• The Look of Love by Bella Andre (new)
• All He Ever Desired  and All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacey (new Books 5 and 6, stand alone novels in The Kowalski Family series set in Maine)
• Bungalow Nights and The Love Shack by Christie Ridgway (new stand alone books 2 and 3 in the Beach House No. 9 Series)
• Autographed copy of Traveling for Love: Searching for Self, Hoping for Love by Becky Due (women's fiction)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE TABLET OF MY HEART VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR '09

The world turns upside down for a young girl when her father begins a fatal battle with the merciless affliction cancer. Before his illness finishes it’s devastating rampage through her adolescence, she is confronted by a new demon. She falls victim, by the hands of a trusted adult, to sexual abuse. The devastation of these events causes her to question God’s roll in her life, and whether He ever loved her at all. The Tablet of My Heart is a collection of poetry from the journal of that young girl. It is narrated by the author of the journal herself, who paints a portrait of words illustrating her emotional journey from hopelessness to healing. It is dedicated to victims of abuse; to bring to them the realization of hope that there is a light at the end of the silence.

AUTHOR'S BIO:

Elizabeth Walker is the author of the memoir, The Tablet of My Heart.

You can visit her website at www.tabletofmyheart.net.

TO SEE WHERE ELIZABETH STOPS NEXT, VISIT http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/.