Life: It Goes On - March 29

Happy Sunday from sunny Omaha, where we continue to ride the temperature roller coaster. Wednesday it was 83 degrees, yesterday it was 53 degrees, tomorrow it will be 87 degrees, and Wednesday it will be 46 degrees. I've taken to just keeping a couple of coats in my car; and in the morning, when I get to work, I decide whether or not I need one and, if I do, which one to wear.

I've been hobbled all weekend by a knee that suddenly started hurting Friday evening. One more way for my body to tell me I'm getting old. Finally feeling better, but it's made for a lazy weekend. On the plus side, I've finally powered through a book. Which I a good thing, because I just picked up three more from the library last week and I have five audiobooks checked out! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I've been bouncing around. Not because I'm not enjoying the books, but because I have so many I need to listen to whichever is coming due soonest and set aside those that can be renewed in favor of those that can't. Right now I'm a little over half way through The One Hundred Years of Lenin and Margot by Marianne Cronin. 

Watched: As much NCAA basketball tournament as possible, The Voice, and a couple of episodes of The Gentlemen. The latter is not a show I'd pick, but the Big Guy enjoys it so I stay in the room, reading or shopping online while I "watch."

Read: I'm finishing Claire Lombardo's latest, Same As It Ever Was, today. It's almost 500 pages long and not the kind of book that has had me racing through it despite its length, so I'm happy to be done with it. 

Made: In this week's episode of strange things the Sheppards ate, I made bougie macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. Used ditali noodles, chicken broth, dijon mustard, cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken and apple sausages and I must say it turned out quite well. Could I recreate it? Not exactly because I never pay any attention to how much of anything I put in dishes that I'm making up. 

Enjoyed: Book club on Tuesday. I'd been battling a headache all day, but good company and lots of laughs helped tremendously.

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: After a lazy weekend, my plans for this week will be to get done the things that I didn't get done over the weekend, 

Thinking About: Easter. It kind of snuck up on me and I don't know that any of the kids will be able to be here. Without my dad around, there hardly seems any point to cooking a big meal, which I'll miss. 

Feeling: Disappointed. I've been wanting a king-sized bed for years and I had finally talked BG into getting one. Then we measured and realized that it won't really fit where our bed most logically needs to be in our room. I almost feel like BG had measured it out, realized it wouldn't work, then said yes so that he could look like a good guy, knowing it wouldn't work. Not really - he would never do that; don't be mad at him on my behalf! 

Looking forward to: Last week had a lot going on so this week I'm looking forward to a quiet week. 

Question of the week: If you've ever had a holiday arrive with no family there, how did you celebrate? Did you still do all of the foods? 

The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose

The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose

Read by Lauren Ambrose

11 hours, 3 minutes

Published May 2025 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Molly Gray's life is about to change in ways she could never have imagined. As the esteemed Head Maid and Special Events Manager of the Regency Grand Hotel, two good things are just around the corner-a taping of the hit antiquities TV show Hidden Treasures and, even more exciting, her wedding to Juan Manuel. 

When Molly brings in some old trinkets to be appraised on the show, one item is revealed to be a rare and coveted artifact worth millions. Molly becomes a rags-to-riches sensation, and a media frenzy swirls as she prepares to sell her priceless treasure. Then, on auction day, the treasure suddenly vanishes. and Molly and her friends find themselves at the center of the boldest art heist in recent memory. 

But the key to this mystery lies in the past, in a long-forgotten diary written by Molly's Gran. For the first time ever, Molly learns about her grandmother's secrets: how she was born into a wealthy family and fell head-over-heels in love with a young man her parents deemed below her. As fate would have it, Gran's greatest love was someone Molly knows quite well.

My Thoughts: 

The Pros: 

• Lauren Ambrose' reading. I'm sure these are quite enjoyable books in print, but Ambrose brings the characters to life, especially Molly. If you're interested in reading the series, I highly encourage you to "read" the audiobooks. 
• The back story - how Molly's Gran came to have a daughter with the Regency Grand Hotel's doorman, Mr. Preston. It wasn't going to be possible to have yet another death in the Regency Grand (I mean, no one's going to stay there if there are deaths there regularly, right?), so Prose had to find another way to work a mystery into Molly's life. 
• Molly. She's always an interesting character who's endeared herself to readers, and to so many people in her life. 

The Cons: 

• The story of how Molly came to be in possession of a rare and coveted artifact is a little improbable.  I wondered how Prose would it out, because it was equally improbable that Molly would suddenly become unbelievably wealthy. The truth of that felt equally improbable to me. Still, it's make believe and sometimes you just have to get over what feels improbable. 
• I'm not sure where Prose can go from here. There is the Christmas book that I reviewed in December but between all of these books, things seem pretty well tied up. 

The Verdict: 

Fans of the series will enjoy this one. The books are light and fun and great for reading between heavier reads. 

Life: It Goes On - March 22

Happy spring?! Yesterday it was 94 degrees here. We ate dinner on the patio, but had to cut our time short out there because we were getting too warm. Crazy for March; in fact, a new all-time high for March in Omaha. Also hard to believe it's spring when we're having fires in this state that we typically wouldn't see until August; thanks to a very dry winter and high winds of late, we've had the biggest fires the state has ever seen. 

Mind you, a week ago, we were in a blizzard warning. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Since I last updated, I finished The Silver Linings Playbook, started Perfume (but had to return it before I finished it), and I'm now listening to Stoner, by John Williams. 

Watched: So. Much. Collage Basketball! I love to watch all of the games, mens and women's. But the highlight so far has been our Husker men winning their first ever NCAA tournament game and then a second game that puts them into the Sweet 16. Nebraska fans traveled en masse to Oklahoma City so make that arena feel like a home game - it's been so exciting to watch them this weekend. 

Read: Claire Lombard's Same As It Ever Was. 

Made: Since I last wrote, we had company for about a week and while they were here I made coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, and lasagna. Yesterday I made Jeff Daniel's favorite sandwich, which has been all over social media. If you haven't seen it, it's a pita with a thick layer of peanut butter on one side, topped with crunched up cheddar and sour cream chips and bbq sauce. Sounds so weird, but I liked it. The Big Guy wasn't as big a fan. 

Enjoyed: Despite the fact that my sister and brother-in-law were here for his father's funeral, we had plenty of time with them to catch up. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I think this will be a pretty quiet week so I'm hoping to get back to doing some decluttering. 

Thinking About: Meatloaf. I've been wanting meatloaf for a couple of weeks now - I think it's time to finally make it. What a strange thing to crave. 

Feeling: We've had a lazy weekend, putzing away on things to be done and taking naps. It's been wonderful! 

Looking forward to: Book club Tuesday to discuss Laura Prescott's The Secrets We Kept. 

Question of the week: Are you a March Madness fan? 

The Bookbinder's Secret by A.D. Bell

The Bookbinder's Secret by A.D. Bell

400 pages

Published January 2026 by St. Martin's Press

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father’s failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man’s profession. But when she’s given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.

Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit.

Lily's search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian’s world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life.

My Thoughts: 

As you know, I often don't read the summary of books (although I must have at some point in order for me to choose this book for review); in this case, it meant it took me a while to figure out what time period in which the book was set. I kept thinking it was a century earlier, which made the fact that Lily was a bookbinder in training even more astounding. 

Even so, a woman in a trade in the first part of the 20th century was remarkable and I enjoyed learning about bookbinding through her. I think we can all recognize the difference between a well bound book and a cheaply bound one but knowing what steps make the difference was intriguing. In Lily's case, the books being individually bound meant that the bookbinder chose the design of the cover so it's conceivable that no two copies of any book remaining from that time period would have the same cover. 

The initial mystery of the first book Lily got pulled me into the story, but I will admit that I was a little confused about how Lily became so obsessed with that first book that she was willing to risk her life and her safety because of it. Because someone else wants that book and wants her to find the remaining five books related to it...in fact, they demand that she find them or they will come after her father, who is already fragile. Here's the next point I struggled with - why would the person who wanted the books assume that Lily would be better able to find them than that person would? Overlooking those points, this story takes readers along on Lily's race to find all six of the books while she also races to find out the reason they are so important and what because of the young lovers whose story is told in those hidden pages. Along the way, we learn that Lily is not the good girl so many heroines of books set in this time period are and it makes her a much more interesting person for it. We're also introduced to a cast of interesting characters, some not so savory, most with secrets of their own. 

I haven't been reading as much historical fiction lately as I used to and this one made me wonder why. I'm always fascinated to go back in time so that we can see how far we've come. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for giving me this history lesson. 

Where The Girls Were by Kate Schatz

Where The Girls Were by Kate Schatz

368 pages

Published March 2026 by The Dial Press

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

It’s 1968, and the future is bright for seventeen-year-old Elizabeth “Baker” Phillips: She’s the valedictorian of her high school, with a place at Stanford in the fall and big dreams of becoming a journalist. But the seductive free-spirited San Francisco atmosphere seeps into her carefully planned, strait-laced life in the form of a hippie named Wiley. At first, letting loose and letting herself fall in love for the first time feels incredible. But then, everything changes.

Pregnancy hits Baker with the force of whiplash—in the blink of an eye, she goes from good girl to fallen woman, from her family’s shining star to their embarrassing secret. Without any other options, Baker is sent to a home for unwed mothers, and finds herself trapped in an old Victorian house packed with pregnant girls who share her shame and fear. As she grapples with her changing body, lack of choice, and uncertain future, Baker finds unexpected community and empowerment among the “girls who went away.”

Where the Girls Were is a timely unearthing of a little-known moment in American history, when the sexual revolution and feminist movement collided with the limits of reproductive rights—and society's expectations of women. As Baker finds her strength and her voice, she shows us how to step into your power, even when the world is determined to keep you silent.

My Thoughts: 

This one is timely, as more and more we appear headed back to the time where choice was taken away from women and women and girls were forced to have babies. We've all heard the stories about women and girls who died from botched abortions performed by unqualified people in unsanitary conditions. But what of the girls who chose, or were forced, to carry their babies to term? What were the places like where these girls disappeared to for months? 

Baker was a "good" girl. She knew what she wanted for her future. She knew what her parents expected of her; and, even though she didn't plan exactly the future they wanted, she knew she would make good. But even good girls want to have fun sometimes and even good girls make mistakes. Because she'd always been so focused on her education and reaching her goals, Baker doesn't have the kinds of friends most high school aged girls do. So when the worst happens, she's left without any support. Even her cousin, May, who introduced her to Wiley, can't help. 

When her mother finds out, she takes charge and Baker finds herself in a home for unwed mothers. Even there the girls are made to feel "less than," the leadership more concerned about making the home look good than in helping the girls. At first Baker is utterly detached from the baby growing inside of her, calling it "The Bun." She has is woefully naive about pregnancy and childbirth. But the home leads Baker to the kinds of friends she's never had and a determination to do help them in some way. 

While the book can be a little overly dramatic, and there's a storyline about a former resident that I felt was unnecessary, I enjoyed reading about how Baker navigated her reality and the stories of the other girls in the home. I appreciated what Schatz left out of the book, as much as I did what she included. And I really liked the way the book ended; we don't get all of the answers, but those answers aren't really important to the book.