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: The Girl in the Garden

Author: Kamaia Nair Publisher: Grand Central, 2011 My Rating: A Rakhee is a girl of Indian descent who’s lived in Plainfield, Minnesota all of her ten-plus years. Things seem to be going as normal until her mother starts getting mysterious letters from India. And then, when school is out for the summer, Rakhee finds herself [...]

Book Review: Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

I’ve already told numerous people in person about this book, so I may as well start off by telling you that I really liked this book. I think you should read it too because if you don’t, you’ll be sorry and wish you had. So first, let me tell you about the story. Joy for [...]

Classic Cookbook Survives a Century

One of the signs of enormous love for a book is how many times you renew it at the library. I’ve renewed this book three times. That’s nine weeks, which is the library’s limit for renewals. I checked it back in and asked if there was a hold on the book. No? Can I check [...]

Book Review: The Big Sky

Author: A.B. Guthrie Publisher: William Sloane Associates, 1947 Genre: Western My Rating: A Two years ago I read The Way West by A.B. Guthrie. It was a moving historical fiction about one of the first treks of settlers over the Oregon Trail. (My review is HERE.) That book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in [...]

Books Review: Guilt By Association

Rachel Knight is a Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles. She’s in the elite Special Trials Unit where they handle sensitive cases. Her two best friends are Toni, another Deputy DA in Special Trials and Bailey, a LAPD Detective. All three seem to be in their mid to late thirties and are pretty hip (Does [...]