… Because you really can teach an old dog new tricks!
At the start of the year, I set out to read authors who were new to me, rather than falling back on my standard bearers. That does not mean you won’t see a title or two from John Irving, Jodi Picoult, or some of my other all-time favorites, but this year’s list introduced many new …
Continue reading “The Non-Accidental Reader, 2025: Untried authors, meh. Favorite authors, 5 star!”
The Danube River was not the famous Blue Danube during this tragic period; the river ran red.
Here are the remaining titles that I read in 2024. This year’s reading choices marked a real, but deliberate departure for me from earlier subject matter. Always drawn to historical fiction, I have been pulled to books related to WWII, the Holocaust, the Resistance, and the like. There came a point where I decided I …
Thanks to a more relaxed year and some long flights, 2024 was a banner reading year for me. I read 29 novels (23 last year), with three authors making multiple appearances. Once again following the lead of my eldest son, Zachary, here is a list and brief comment about this year’s reading list; books appear …
I am sure this comes as no surprise to those who know me. As the calendar turns to a new year, my thoughts turn to a new project for the house. In fact, my mind turns to the next project before the last project is even complete. So here I sit, in my home office, …
Continue reading “The Accidental Remodeler: It’s a New Year. Here We Go. Again.”
My husband Allan introduced me to the art of constructing jigsaw puzzles eight years ago. Together, we built a 500-piece jigsaw of garden seed packets and I was hooked. From that point on, I never built less than a 1,000-piece puzzle, and he never built another puzzle. He, on the other hand, discovered Legos, beginning …
Continue reading “The Accidental Lego-Build: Not for the Faint of Heart”
I grew up on words. My family were/are avid crossword puzzlers and Scrabble was a mainstay in our household; I was playing against my brothers’ college friends when I was 8. To be fair, I can’t balance a checkbook, but I was raised on words. So it should come as no surprise that I was …
Continue reading “The Non-Accidental Reader: Books I Read in 2023”
Those of you who know me or follow this site know that I am a “serial remodeler.” I have dedicated several posts to the projects, both large and small, that I have undertaken at home. You can rest assured that those projects will continue in the months and years ahead, because that is simply who …
As we neared the end of last year, my daughter-in-law kindly asked me if I would like her to notify our children that it was time for them to respond to their annual profiles for the family holiday newsletter. The newsletter is a time-honored Steinert-Threlkeld tradition, started by my late husband Tom at the birth …
You might think it an easy thing — considering what to be called as a grandparent. I understand that there is absolute magic in the names Grandma, Grandpa, or whatever else will spill from your grandchild’s mouth, when he or she starts to recognize you and verbalize. I get that. But those who know me, …
Continue reading “The Accidental Grandmother Name: Hiding in Plain Sight”
The Accidental Blank