Notices by Cindy Sue (cindysue@bookstodon.com)

Seems like an appropriate day to have finished Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang.

@bookstodon

A single mom, working at the truck stop, living at a motel asks for help with used toys for birthday gifts on a local FB group. My 18 year old has a pile of new in box art kits and science kits to donate to wherever. So I messaged the mom- you can have them all, you can choose what you want. So tomorrow my husband and I will drop off these kits for these kids.

It doesn't take much to help someone out. Maybe what they need, you are trying to get rid of. It's that easy.

#HelpPeople #community

And we have been pushed back to 11:30pm tomorrow. While this is unfortunate, I do still hear them working in my neighborhood so maybe I will be awakened by every light in the house coming on in the middle of the night. Otherwise, back to the library tomorrow so the kids can get some more work done.

Still no power though I hear that they have restored power on the north side of Higgins Lake so hopefully they will work their way around to us tonight.

Watched a huge branch fall near the driveway. It hit the power pole, but amazingly the lines all stayed up. The pole and lines shook for quite some time.

Heard from some people heading south that there were a lot of linemen heading north on I-75. So help is here and more is coming.

#michigan #IceStorm

Zoo is the strangest dog I have ever had. She will only give me a nose kiss. She will look at me and if my face is close enough, she will lick the tip of my nose. She will give the kids kisses all over their faces. Me? Just my nose.

She just came inside from the bitter cold and I was rubbing her down to warm her up and I got my nose kiss. Nothing more, nothing less. Then she was on her way to sit next to her favorite person, the 15 year old.

#dogs #kiss

"I found the pillow first! You can't have it!"

#DogsOfMastodon

I told my husband that I was going to run to the library. He asked if I had gas in the car. I said nothing because I knew the dreaded DESPERATELY IN NEED OF GAS light came on last night. Well, apparently you can make it from my house to the other side of the lake, where the nearest gas station is, with the light on. Maybe I shouldn't try it again, but I made it!

@Fragglemuppet Love we Teddy Ruxpin!!! I searched out the DVDs when my kids were littles and they grew up on him!

I just walked outside to get something out of the car and there are fireflies every fucking where! I haven't seen so many here in Higgins Lake since I was a kid! I ran inside to get my husband and the kids. You could see them flashing deep into the woods across the street. So cool! Made me happy!

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar was simply the most beautiful book I have read all year. My local indie bookseller posted this the other day saying that he loved it on audio. I looked it up on StoryGraph and saw that it had illustrations in the hardcover. I knew I had to get it. I drove up to the bookstore and grabbed their singular copy and I am so glad that I did. Absolutely, positively beautiful. The writing is lyrical. I just love this book. Perfection.

@bookstodon
#books #bookstodon

I am finally caught up with laundry! I feel like I have succeeded at life today!

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng- by Kylie Lee Baker is fucking brilliant. I still have 3 chapters left, but I am on the edge of my seat. The writing is very well done. The story line is phenomenal even as it is disturbing. Trigger warnings for racism, hate crimes, gore, violence. It's a definite 5 star read for me thus far.

@bookstodon
#books #bookstodon

The 14 year old just insisted that they were going swimming. It's 59° right now and the water temp is 45°. I understand that it's the start of summer and I do know that I did the same stupid thing every Memorial weekend when I was growing up, but holy moly! It's gonna be chilly!

Higgins Lake Memorial Day 2025- almost 7pm, every one has left, but us locals.
#Michigan #lake #HigginsLake

There are three bones around and two dogs. You would think each dog could have their own bone, but, no, Zoo walks up to Zeus and steals his bone right from his mouth. Now to help Zeus find another bone...
#dogs

Where are the FUCKING Democrats? What are they FUCKING doing? Stop sitting on your hands, stop fucking compromising, stop. Just fucking stop. AND DO SOMETHING!

They're all just proving what I have thought for years, they'll be fine so they don't fucking care. They are proving to be just as bad, if not worse because they pay lip service to shit (at least MAGA doesn't lie about what they're doing), than the Republicans.

I am DONE with these pieces of shit.

End rant. #USPol

#introduction since I haven't done one in a long while.

I am Cindy. I am the admin and owner of bookstodon.com and woodworking.group

I am a former librarian. I live between northern Michigan and the upper peninsula of Michigan. The woods are my home.

Books are my thing. I post a lot of dog pictures. I have 3 cats, but I can't get pictures of them so they are missing from the feed. I have 2 teenagers.

I pay attention to everything. Sometimes I wish I didn't.

I picked this up randomly this morning. It is easy to read, but not an easy read, if that makes sense. It is written in small vignettes, journal form. The author's husband dies unexpectedly making her a widow in her thirties. It is heartbreaking and gut wrenching, but beautiful. Highly recommend if you're looking for something meaningful to read. I found my stomach dropping at points and I may not have cried, but I could feel tears coming. It is a brave book.

@bookstodon
#bookstodon #books

So this is what I am thinking about: The majority of my neighbors have known me for most of my life. All those around me are Trump supporters. They have watched my kids grow up. They KNOW us. I should be able to say that my family is safe in my own neighborhood, but I don't really know that we are.

Do we leave? Where the fuck do we go?

In the past we have had people ask about making donations to help curb our cost of running the server.

As Bookstodon.com is a labor of love (books are my real life obsession), we will never ask for donations.

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#donations