Welcome

Hi! My name is Margot. My blog is about the things I love to do. That could be what I'm reading, places we visit, my family, food, or whatever else is happening. I hope you'll stay and visit a while. Contact me by email: joyfullyretired (at) gmail (dot) com.

What I’m Reading

Saying It Well

Justice

Forever

The Sense of an Ending

Wish You Were Here

A Moveable Feast

Clarissa

The Odyssey

My Book Rating System

A = Excellent in every way
B = Very good story
C  = Good/Average
D = Poor
F = So Bad I couldn't finish it

Archives

Book Review: Austenland

Author: Shannon Hale Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2007 Genre: Adult fiction My Rating: A Summary: Jane Hayes is single, thirty-three-years-old, with a successful career as a graphic illustrator. Jane can also be described as a devotee of Jane Austen, although it’s hurting her love life. That’s because she compares every man to Mr. Darcy – the Colin [...]

Book Review: Treasured Amish and Mennonite Recipes

Subtitle: 627 Delicious, Down-to-earth Recipes from Authentic Country Kitchens Author: Mennonite Central Committee Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing, October 1, 2011 My Rating: A I’ve contributed to and helped publish church cookbooks over the years. Those books usually contains favorite recipes from the congregation’s best cooks. Well, here’s one that is the mother, no make that [...]

Book Review: Wings: A Novel Of World War II Flygirls

Author: Karl Friedrich Publisher: McBooks Press Genre: Historical Fiction My Rating: A Summary from the publisher: Sally Ketchum comes from dirt-poor farm folk. She has little chance of bettering her life until a mysterious barnstormer named Tex teaches her to fly—and becomes the first person worthy of her love. But Tex dies in a freak [...]

Book Review: Dance Hall of the Dead

I just finished listening to an excellent audiobook: Dance Hall of the Dead. It’s the second book written by Tony Hillerman in 1973. If you’ve read any of Tony Hillerman’s books, then you know Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. In this story he’s dealing the murder of a Zuni boy and the disappearance of his best friend, [...]

Book Review: Let the Great World Spin

It took me a couple of months, but I finally finished this multi-award winning novel. It is so rich and deep that I found myself needing to stop and absorb the book before I could go on. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann is a character driven novel. It’s special for many reasons [...]