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Wendy Stephenson Sisk

@priestlakepie

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Pacific Northwest gardener, reading addict and huckleberry picker.

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Books for the Bees 🐝🐝🐝

@so.many.books_so.little.time hosts this bookstack challenge for the good of honeybees and other pollinators every August. As a former very frustrated beekeeper, I’m all about the bees. How was I supposed to know I live in the worst place in Texas to keep them? 🤷‍♀️

Elizabeth will donate $2 per bee stack or flatlay. Last year, because of Bookstagrammers like you, she donated $150 to @pollinatorpartnership. This non-profit is the largest one in the world that is dedicated solely to the protection and conservation of pollinators (bees, bats, birds, butterflies, and beetles) and their ecosystems.

The rules are very lenient. The books can be black and yellow or any color if they’re about bees. (How do you like my hybrid stack?) Or the titles can spell an appropriate word—bees, honey, pollinator, buzz, etc. (Seriously, does anyone own two books with titles beginning with Z?)

Remember to tag @so.many.books_so.little.time and use #honeybeestack. National Honeybee Day is August 16, but the challenge lasts all month. Let’s help our pollinators (without them, we’d have no food) by helping Elizabeth dig deep into her pocketbook and surpass her 2025 donation!

Tagging a few for this most important cause!

Now about this stack. Once again, @bs_for_real was in charge of finding appropriate books because I still can’t climb stairs. Once again, he went to the wrong bookshelf and then had the audacity to tell me the books were not where I said they were 🤣 He rounded up books for this challenge and also for one requiring blue books. Serendipitously, two of the blue books concern bees— and that’s why I have a hybrid stack!

If you had the opportunity and the outdoor space to keep bees, would you do it? Why or why not?

#bookstackforacause #honeybee #pollinators #nationalhoneybeeday

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BOOKSTACK FOR A CAUSE: Compassion for Our Planet

First, let’s talk about this picture. Nearly all my books are upstairs, but I’m still unable to use the staircase. So when I saw that @salboreads is doing her annual bookstack for @compassionforourplanet, I asked my husband @bs_for_real to get some green books for me. I told him exactly where they were, and I said I only had five or six. Then he showed up with this monstrous armload. He’d stopped at the first bookcase he came to (there are nine of various types upstairs) and grabbed every green book he found. After all his hard, self-induced labor, I knew he had to be in the picture. His error aka lack of listening worked for the good—except for a couple, all these books are about gardening, which is surely good for the planet and us!

Sally does this challenge in honor of her mother, whose favorite charity was Compassion in World Farming, which works to bring awareness about the plight of animals raised for food. Unlike Sally, I’m not vegan, but I don’t believe animals should live in cramped cages or pens their entire lives, only to end up on our dinner plates. And don’t get me started on growth hormones! After killing an animal, Native Americans would thank the beast, large or small, for the gift of its life—and then use every part of the animal. That’s compassion—and gratitude!

Sally is donating £50 to this cause. Your stack can be green books or books which highlight what you love about this planet.” Remember to tag @salboreads and use #compassionforourplanetstack.

Tagging a few but no pressure.

What do you love best about our planet? I love its diversity!

#bookstackforacause #compassionforourplanetstack #greenbookstack #myhusbandrocks

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📙📕Thursday Flatlay/
13 Books on Thursday📒📗

[☀️Summer covers edition☀️]

Last week's summer titles stack got me thinking about covers that scream SUMMER: swimming, sunshine, pools, fruit, flowers, palm trees ...and so, a cover challenge is born. Give me all your covers that remind you of the summer months, whatever hemisphere you're in. For me it's heat and light and water and color. What is it for you?

Tagging a few folks who sometimes like to play along on these things (but not always, because very few participated last time I tagged folks! Not taking it personally 😂) Never any pressure, though, and if you're not tagged but so inclined, please do a post of your summer covers! 🙏🏼

My summer covers books:

🏝️Hula - Jasmine Iolano Hakes
🥵 The Heat Wave - Kate Riordan
🌱 Salt Houses - Hala Alyan
🌼Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
👘 The Guncle - Steven Rowley
☀️ Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
🌺 Speak to Me of Home - Jeanine Cummins
🍊 Commonwealth - Ann Patchett
🌄 The Shock of the Light - Lori Inglis Hall
🐦‍⬛ The Comfort of Crows - Margaret Renkl
🌅 The Sun walks Down - Fiona McFarland
🌊 One Leg on Earth - Pemi Aguda
💦 Pool House - Mary HK Choi

📚

What is a cover that screams summer to you? I'll be excited if you do a flatlay or post, but if not, please tell me one or two and why!

😎🍹☀️👙🕶️🍨⛱️🌻🍉🩱🏊‍♀️🌞🍧🍦🧊

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Fifteen books on Friday

[JULY/Color Challenge bookstack edition]

Last week, the lovely Amy @northerly_heart_reads tagged me in the always entertaining 3-color book stack challenge. She posted a striking stack of red, black, and white books, reminiscent of a deck of playing cards. I was excited to see what I could come up with in those hues!

Then @merrengray , also tagged, posted her stack and confessed she was feeling defiant, posting the same colors as Amy. Upon closer reading, turns out we had been assigned blue, white and yellow. Hmmm, now I had a decision to make: rule follower, or rebel?

I let my books guide me, and as I am wont to do, blended challenges: I have spelled the month of JULY in blue, yellow, and white. I am compliant and a combiner (because I am lazy and also love to up the ante!) Not that Amy cares--she always tells us to make it our own, go wild or not, and have fun. I do like this trio: these are the colors for my high school team the Rams, my NBA team the Golden State Warriors, and the Ukraine Flag. Plus blue skies, lemons and sunshine! What else do you love in these colors?

My July books color trio:

💙J - Jamaica Inn
🤍J - Joyride
🩵J - Jane Eyre
🤍J - Just Mercy
💙U - Us Against You
💛U - An Untamed State
🩵U - The Unsettled
💛L - The 💙 Songs of WEB DuBois
💙L - Lost & Found
💛L - The 🩵 Prescription
💙L - Lost Souls Meet Under a Full 🌕
💛Y - Year of the 🐯
🤍Y - You Could Make This Place 🤩
🩵Y - The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
💛Y - Yellowface

I've read all but 4 of these--ask or tell me about any of them!

And I've tagged a few of you--no need to do both the spell-the-month stack and the color challenge. Just choose one! Or don't; no pressure! And I'm going to make it even easier: if you are doing the color stack, choose any three colors you want! How's that for simple? Please consider yourself tagged and join in if you'd like!

💙💛🤍

What's up for you this weekend? Seeing friends, eating BBQ, and some fireworks for us.

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🌎 Happy #twelvebooksontuesday! 🌍 I’m currently reading Greenwood by Canadian author Michael Christie, which has me thinking about trees, the earth, conservation, and the general peace of nature, inspiring this week’s flatlay of #earthcolorsoncovers, which also happens to be one of my favorite color combinations.

For your Tuesday consideration:

📗Greenwood (CR)
📘The Island of Missing Trees
📗One Hundred Years of Solitude
📘Reservoir B!tches
📗The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild
📘Wandering Stars
📗Prodigal Summer
📘North Woods
📗Half of a Yellow Sun
📘The Axeman’s Carnival
📗Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants
📘Ghost Forest (tbr)

I’ve read and loved all of these except Ghost Forest, which I plan to read and love this month.

I’ve tagged a few of you I think might want to participate (no pressure), and if you see this and want to add your own earth colors, please consider yourself tagged!

Happy reading, and have a great week!
💙B

#naturebooks #blueandgreenbooks #bookishflatlay

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Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers! ❤️

I was tagged by @lanternhillreads to do a pink book stack or a flat-lay, and I did both! The stack has books with pink spines but different colored covers, and I’ve read all but three of them. Of the ones in the flat lay, I’ve read all but four.

I’ll tag a few to play along, but any and all are welcome to join in the fun! Please be sure to tag me so I can see your pink books!

Do you have any plans for today? We’ll be spending time with family and friends at my daughter and son-in-law’s cabin on the river, just grilling and chilling!

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📢🗣️ FINALLY! 🗣️📢

Happy Friday, dear readers! 📖 What’s the longest time it has taken you to finish a book?

I added this book to my tbr after seeing it recommended by a couple of friends here—I think it was Wendy ( @priestlakepie ) and Lorrie ( @books.and.darjeeling )—{on a side note, does anyone know why Lorrie disappeared from Bookstagram?}. There might have been others, as well, but I specifically remember talking to these two ladies about this book.

I started reading it on July 3, 2024 and finally finished it on January 10, 2026. So it took me what, about a year and a half? 😅 And y’all, it was totally a case of “it’s me, not you” because the book was great. I don’t know why I kept putting it down and picking up another book. I can’t explain it, because I love history books! And this one was not dull, dry, or boring. I’m literally at a loss. But I’m glad I finally finished it! And then, to top it all off, after I finished it I realized it is the SECOND BOOK IN A TRILOGY! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Y’all, I’m dying! Guess I need to go find the first book now. 🤣

Do you have a similar experience? Can you relate in any way? Please say I’m not the only one.

This was the third book I read this month, and the second book checked off my #tbr26in26 stack ( hosted by @gilioncdumas ).

Book 3 | Valiant Ambition, by Nathaniel Philbrick | Viking Publishing, 2016 | Narrative Nonfiction | 427 pages

Description: An account of the middle years of the American Revolution {{ 💬If only I read book descriptions before reading the book, I might have realized this was not the beginning of the story. }} Washington and Arnold’s complex relationship unfolds as a Shakespearean tragedy, where Arnold’s disillusionment with politics leads to betrayal at West Point. Without the discovery of Arnold’s treason in the fall of 1780, the American people might never have been forced to realize that the real threat to their liberties came not from without but from within.

“Since republics rely on the inherent virtue of the people, they are exceedingly fragile. All it takes is one well-placed person to destroy everything.”

Nonfiction/History/Biography/Memoir/Military History/American Revolution/War

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12 books on Tuesday

[Art on Covers edition]

Unlike my daughter, who painted the beautiful still life here, I don't have much talent for making art. I’ve dabbled in a few mediums, but I'm more crafty with an aesthetic eye than artist.

I do love looking at art, particularly paintings. I feel as if many of us readers may share an appreciation of creativity in all different forms. Would you agree?

Last week, I gathered together some books w/people in paintings covers, but I've been noticing more & more books that use actual paintings, any subject, for cover art:

@cocomellors clearly loves oil portraits for her covers (2 books here); @annnapolitano went for a similar look. @vanessachan & @maudventura_ also have painted face portraits on their covers, while the painting for the cover of Giovanni's Room is a full-length portrait. Others like @kimrgarza & @kristinkovalwriter went for more natural scenes, while Catherine Newman chose a still life. The food-y cover of Lily King's Writers & Lovers is an actual work of art hanging in a museum, SFMOMA--someday I will go check it out!

I read and enjoyed: Writers and Lovers, Hello Beautiful, Four Sisters, Cleopatra & Frankenstein, Penitence, The Storm We Made. We All Want Impossible Things was a much appreciated gift from @inthecommonhours , even if we didn't feel exactly the same about it. The remaining 5 books await me!

I had fun gathering these, admiring their beauty once all collected together. Maybe you've got some books with artwork on the cover? Doesn't have to be paintings (as the wonderful Amy @northerly_heart_reads says “You do you!”) but I'd love to see what art-inspired covers you have.

I've missed doing/creating challenges & haven't tagged (translation: put on the spot 😂) any fellow bookstagrammers in awhile so it's high time I put a few in the hot seat for a #bookchallenge . But anyone whose interest is piqued should consider themselves tagged for this one (of course no pressure if you aren’t vibing with this challenge right now!)

ps Woke up to a tag from @biblioteca.becca , who has declared this #paintingsoncovers week. Great minds! Check out the beauties she found--she's focusing on people.

😍

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Du Maurier followers—- Did you know? Looking at you too @hazevictor_reads2021
#daphnedumaurier

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Do you ever get the blues? 💙

When I was messing about with my nonfiction stacks the other day, I remembered out of the corner of my mind a #blueandoverdue challenge. Come to think of it, it might have been #bluebutoverdue, although I think “and” makes more sense. Anyway, it goes along with similar challenges, like Red But Unread, Orange You Going to Read That, and Green But Unseen. Of course, now I can’t find who started the blue one.

I found these books among my unread nonfiction, all overdue for a read. 📸 See any you would read or have? ⬇️⬇️⬇️

🩵 The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: A Love Story . . . with Wings by Mark Bittner. We had these parrots in our backyard when we lived in San Francisco, so I don’t understand why this is still on my TBR shelf 18 years later.

🩵 A Reader’s Delight by Noel Perrin. I have no idea what this is or where it came from, but I love #bookaboutbooks.

🩵 The Table Beckons: Thoughts and Recipes from the Kitchen of Alain Senderens by Alain Senderens. Another book I don’t remember getting. Who is he?

🩵 As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, edited by Joan Reardon. Do you read books of letters? I always put them off, but maybe I should try harder.

🩵 Deja Reviews: Florence King All Over Again by Florence King. She was a hilarious woman so I look forward to reading this collection of book reviews and essays.

🩵 In Tearing Haste: Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor, edited byCharlotte Mosley. Another book of letters! This one with my favorite Mitford Sister.

🩵 A Year of Good Eating: The Kitchen Diaries, Vol. III by Nigel Stalter. I read the first one but want to read the second before this one.

🩵 Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov. I admit it sounds dry and daunting, but is supposed to be brilliant.

🩵 Paris Lost and Found: A Memoir of Love by Scott Dominic Carpenter. I love memoirs about moving to a foreign country, especially France. So why is this still unread?

I tagged a few, but consider yourself tagged if this looks like fun!

#bluebooks #bookstagramchallenge

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STACK FOR A CAUSE 🍼

What cause can be more worthy than providing sustenance and medical care to starving and sick children in a war-torn country?

Through August 1, you can help Palestinian babies and children get life-saving formula and medical care simply by posting a white stack with the hashtag #bookstackforformula. @kieranjanebooks, who started this bookstack for a cause, will donate $5 to the Gaza Formula Fund and $2 to the PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which provides urgent medical care). @dan.devours.words has jumped onboard and pledges to match all donations, and an anonymous Bookstagrammer is also matching donations. That means each stack is worth $21! Good things grow exponentially 🤍

All you have to do is post a stack of white or cream books using #bookstackforformula. If you have no white or cream books, Kieran suggests posting pages from books—just about anything goes when it comes to helping kids!

Don’t forget to tag @kieranjanebooks and #dan.devours.words.

I’m tagging a few myself, but if you have a heart for kids, please consider joining in on your own!

What cause is near and dear to your heart?

#bookstackforacause #bookstackforformula #pcrf #gazakids #bookstagram #kidsarethefuture

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🥵HEATWAVE STACK🥵

@bethgreenbooks tagged me in this Heatwave Stack challenge, which couldn’t be more appropriate for someone who lives in good old San Antonio, Texas. We’ve already had 27 triple-digit days. That’s nearly a month, y’all, and summer isn’t even a week old!

Besides being a book stack challenge post, this is a reminder to stay hydrated and as cool as you can. Don’t forget sunscreen and a hat (and possibly long sleeves) when you go outside. Several years ago, my husband @bs_for_real had a mild heatstroke (I’d hate to see a severe one!), and ever since then anytime he works outside I make sure he has a big container of water fortified with an electrolyte freezer pop, maybe two! At first, he griped, but now it’s second nature to him.

I was surprised to find so many red and orange books on my shelves. See, even my bookshelf is feeling the heat! I intended to include a fan in the picture, but I forgot. Has the heat fried my brain? Maybe.

Tagging a few but no pressure, and anyone else that wants to participate, please consider yourself tagged. Like Beth said, if it’s winter where you live, you could do a blue and white ice stack instead! (Man, does that sound nice or what?!?)

What’s today’s weather like where you live?

#heatwavestack #summerishere #hothothothot #bookstackchallenge #booklover #booknerd #bookworm #bookstagram

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