Rules to Live By (Notes to self)
Taking a page from Marcus Aurelius’ Mediations, I sat down and wrote the following in my journal this morning. 1.Stay True to Your Values.Let your personal ethics guide your actions. Trust Your Instincts, not Your Anxiety.Fear is real, but it is seldom based on fact. Recognize anxiety for what it – a distortion of reality. Look past your anxiety to see the real situation. Only then should you listen to the guide in your head. Be Kind and Generous. Be Humble and Grateful.Be a positive force in the world. Life other’s up. Look at both sides. Love your neighbor and your enemy. In the end, what...
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Review: Sinners of Starlight City
Sinners of Starlight City by Anika ScottMy rating: 4 of 5 starsWhat a refreshing change of pace from all the WW2 books I've been reading! I'd never read Anika Scott before, but based on how much I enjoyed Sinners of Starlight City, I'll definitely read her again.Set...
Thoughts on a Birthday Weekend
I turned 59 yesterday. Not a milestone birthday, but dangerously close As a result, I found myself spending a good portion of this week taking stock. How do I want to spend the last decades of my life? What changes over the next twelve months to become that person?...
Barb’s Book Reviews, July 7, 2023
It’s summer reading time. Despite having a crazy June, I managed to squeeze in some reading. Several of the books were for research, but there were two historical fiction reads that fans will love. The Spectacular by Fiona Davis: Fiona Davis’s books have always been...
June Recap, aka Putting on Blinders
June began in San Antonio at the Historical Novel Society’s North American Conference, the first in-person writing conference I’ve attended since 2019. I’d forgotten how energizing it was to be around other writers. From the moment I stepped into the hotel lobby, I...
Barb’s Book Reviews, June 2, 2023
It’s been books aplenty, books galore at my house this month as my desk is piled high with research reading. Fortunately, in between learning about Ziegfeld girls and prohibition, I managed to squeeze in four awesome – and I mean awesome – fiction. Only the Beautiful...
Of Tenacity and Perseverance
When my son was a young teenager, he dreamed of being an elite-level gymnast. Only one thing held him back: lack of physical ability. “Some gymnasts are strong. Some gymnasts are flexible,” his coach liked to say. “You are neither.” What my son did have was tenacity....