Today is a 'hub' day .... yesterday (February 8th) was the start of the third year of my blog. Today is my normal post day. Tomorrow is Umbrella Day. :-)

Thanks again to my regular readers for your ongoing support, and for the book recommendations. I love having a stack of books on my 'to be read' shelf, or a list of books I want to read. It's sort of like a security blanket. :-) I created a spread sheet of the titles I've posted and it was over 1200 books long!

Canadian Reader always leaves interesting books behind after a visit and The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai was no exception. Moving backwards through time it's the story of a house that was, at one time, an artist's ... retreat ... hostel ... ? It may be haunted. This was a strange read for me. I did not connect with any of the characters and yet, I kept on reading until the end!

Are you in a book club? I have some friends who are and intend to check if they've seen Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist, by Tim Federle. Now, I don't drink but I chuckled over the twisted titles of well known books and enjoyed the brief synopsis of books I'd either read long ago, or not at all. There are some suggestions for non-alcoholic drinks and munchies that sound really good, too.

February 10th is Umbrella Day. Oddly enough there don't seem to be a lot of books about umbrellas, but I did find two beautifully illustrated books for children. The Umbrella, by Jan Brett. Carlos heads into the cloud forest looking for many of the animals who live there. He doesn't find them, can you? (Hint: the title is a clue).

Also titled The Umbrella, this one, by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, is a wordless book about a dog, and umbrella, and a world tour. Be sure to start and end with the pictures on the end pages.

Reading Hermit With Dog