Botanical Line Drawing: 200 Step-by-Step Flowers, Leaves, Cacti, Succulents, and Other Items Found in Nature by Peggy Dean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I chose this Kindle book because I had been drawing the flowers in Inky Wonderlands with Johanna Basford and I wanted to draw more real flowers. There are no photos of the models that Dean may have used in the book so I have to believe her line drawings are what she named them.
There are always five steps for each illustration. Sometimes I question where she started or question how she got to the next step. There is a Table of Content but no Index.
I used this book to practice line drawings with pencil and then ink the sketch; I practiced with fine liners; I practiced with brush pens. I stored this for reference in case I want to use other media such as color pencils or watercolors.

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Wreath Between the Lines by Daryl Wood Gerber
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This ebook was the Dec 2020 Serial Read from Barnes and Noble.
I took a star away because I did not like the protagonist, and the author did not earn any stars back by the end of the book. Not even four chapters of recipes earned it a star for being more of a cookbook than a cozy mystery.
I found the protagonist to be a judgemental gossip, and I did not wish to be involved in her point of view. I prefer to read along when the protagonist is more curious.

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The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I downloaded it during Barnes and Noble's #monthofthanks promotion. These second epilogues will be enjoyed by the fans of her series.

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The Girl with the Pearl Pin by Lynne Connolly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I downloaded this ebook in 2020 when I had difficulty downloading books from my library in the cloud on one of my Nooks. I expected a mystery with a romance which should have given it 4 stars. However I took away a star because this prude was unprepared for the descriptions of sexual activity--I mean there is not much skin revealed in the cover art--and I am reluctant to recommend it to my friends.

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The Last Ride by Gregory Payette
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I just finished book 1 as part of Nov 2020 Serial Reads and found this one on Hoopla through my local library.
I took away a star because I thought another murder beyond what Walsh was investigating was unnecessary for the story line.

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Gatsby Girls by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I downloaded this ebook to my Nook library when Barnes and Noble offered it for free in November 2014. I shelved it with my Nook Classics in my Goodreads library which is more of a location than a shelf.
The eight short stories, inspired by Zelda, were first published in Saturday Evening Post between 1920-1922. I enjoyed these short stories much more than the required Great Gatsby. Even though it has only been 100 years since these were written, I notice a huge difference between what Fitzgerald wrote and my understanding of the culture of the wealthy where these Gatsby Girls flourished attending dances, proms, and seeking husbands likely to maintain a level of society.

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A Blessing to Cherish by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I looked forward to reading another story about Ingeborg, and this is not the story I expected. In my imagination, based on all the stories from all the novels, Ingeborg was much older than the 55 years that she is in this book. Surely, she must be older than I am by now. I had been sharing this series with my 93-year old father who had been raised by his grandmother who was also born around 1858. The stories of life on the farm and the town of Blessing reminded him of his childhood. In chapter 8, I was uncomfortable with how disconnected David was with his own children and how he judged them as harshly as he did his board of directors, with an inability to separate family from business. I was uncomfortable because it seemed to reinforce my own father's judgements and righteousness at the end of his life when he could not understand nor respect the difficulties of decisions made in the time of a pandemic. I recommend it to fans of the series because it cannot be read as a stand-alone. .


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