Used good. Coming from BWB

Your book asked to write you a personal note:

Holy canasta! It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it's time to see the world!

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

I received this from BetterWorldBooks as an early birthday present from Lamilla of Minsk, Belarus.

Thank you so much for this book, Lamilla.

The continuing story of Englishman Chris Stewart, his wife Ana and daughter Chloe as they live in the mountains of Spain. I find it interesting to read but have never felt a longing to give up my urban comforts and move to live indefinitely in the mountains. However, I find it beneficial to read about what it is like to live in the mountains of Spain as I will never do so and probably will never visit them.

This book has been sent to Erishkigal of Salt Lake City, Utah. This book is one of her wishlist books and I promised to send this to her as a belated birthday present when I was done reading it.

I hope you enjoy this book, Erishkigal. I enjoyed reading it.

tabby-cat-owner, your package was a wonderful surprise :) Yes, I knew your were going to send this after reading, but the additions were most unexpected! I'm sorry I took so long to journal, but to say life has not been in one of it's better spots would be an understatement.

I'm looking forward to this read, sure I will enjoy it as much Driving Over Lemons :D

Thank you for a most wonderful Birthday prezzie!!

And Lamilla, thank you for the chuckles at the best release journal ever!

And I absolutely did~ maybe even more so than “Lemons” 😀

Releasing this book to find its next reader~ hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

This wishlist-tag book arrived safely today (despite its packaging having taking quite a beating) - many thanks! Looks like a lovely way to do some virtual traveling! [I appreciate Lamilla's inclusion of the chatty note from Better World Books - that always amuses me!]

I enjoyed this virtual vacation from cold and snowy New Hampshire to sunny (if sometimes chaotic) Andalucia, thanks to author Chris Stewart - whose history included his stint as drummer for the band that became Genesis. But it's his life as owner of a farm in Andalusia, Spain, with his wife and daughter, that led to his career as an author. This is a follow-on to Driving Over Lemons, and in many ways it reminds me of The Olive Farm, though that one's set in Provence.

Amusingly enough, this one opens... in Sweden, where Stewart spends a month shearing sheep in the bleak Scandinavian winter! (That actually did make me appreciate the kinder, gentler winter at home {wry grin}.) This was among several side gigs meant to help keep the Spanish farm afloat, but luckily for him, his first memoir was surprisingly successful - and thus an author is born.

The book goes into lots of aspects of life in a mountainous part of Spain, from relationship drama among the neighbors to issues with weather, crops, and livestock - to the titular parrot, which (I was pleased to find) was an actual character here and not merely some local color. The poor bird did get itself stepped on by a horse at one point, whereupon the family feared for its life, but it recovered and continued to be a colorful if irritating pet - even featuring in a photo, perched on the head of the author's wife as she and their daughter enjoy a dip in the "eco folly".

That last was another entertaining part of the story. After concerns about erosion from flash floods, an "itinerant ecological engineer" designed an ecologically friendly, self-maintaining pool that - while some trouble to set up - sounds pretty fantastic...

By the end of the book, progress has reared its head, with heavy machinery at work on a nearby hillside as part of building a new dam. Since one of my longtime nightmares has been to find sudden massive construction in the backyard of a (dream-fictional) home that I loved, this bit really jarred, but the author and his family seemed to be willing to maintain a hopeful outlook.

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in this roomy, new-to-me Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2021 Wine+Food challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 Great Backyard Bird Count challenge (see www.birdcount.org to join the count). ***

*** Released for the 2021 52 Towns in 52 Weeks challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***