Hope that everyone is going into Memorial Day weekend (US BL) with a pile of books at the ready. 

It's pouring cats and dogs here and it looks like it will do so through the weekend. I plan on socially distancing throughout the rest of this month and June no matter that states are re-opening.

Stay safe you guys.

Friday Reads are these two books:

I'm moderately familiar with Westonbirt Arboretum, having visted it several times and across all seasons. It's most obviously spectacular in Autumn, of course, but it has its merits in all seasons. Capturing these merits in photographs is not easy, however. Woodlands do not easily provide potential images that fit the kind of rules that most people formally or instinctively use to choose good photos. There are three main options to deal with this - work really hard to frame images that DO fit the normal rules, go for detail rather than large scale or frame images that break all the rules but work anyway.

All three strategies are employed successfully here. The latter-most impresses me most of all. It's a good souvenir coffee-table book, set out in four sections, one for each season, starting with Spring. Howard's skill in taking successful photos in flat light or out-right misty conditions in the Winter section is remarkable.

Here's a few of my own efforts:

New England year: a journal of Vermont farm life by Follett, Muriel; Waters, Herbert
A journal of day to day happenings, events, school, county fair and different foods and how they are harvested/canned during the year.
Words make you feel as if you are there, in the 1800's.  Enjoyed hearing of the winter crafts and how the community pulls together when one is injured or needs help.
Have seen icecutting done and really appreciate all the hard work it takes. Maple syrup runs best with wind from the west. Such knowledge from this time that could be used today.
Certain trees for sleigh runners.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

This book was very satisfying to read because I've read a few books that have got cheating husbands in them and most of them usually have the wife blaming only themselves, they never slap the mistress and they don't have a makeover and a sexy toy boy to move on with lol.
It sucked me in straight from the beginning as Natalie owns a cafe called La Dolce Vita with her friend and she bakes in her own kitchen at home as the kitchen at her cafe is too small and that is when her husband announces on their anniversary that he wants a divorce as he's now with a woman who is ten years older than him and is not frumpy like Natalie and I was pleased that there was a bit of humour in there when she throws the rubbery muffins that she just baked at him, truthfully I would have wanted to throw the pan and the whole lot at him but it was satisfying lol.
I liked how she met the mistress and basically did what I was hoping she would do, I enjoyed how her and her Anthony got on despite them getting off on the wrong foot as he is her and her friend's landlord and they want the building next door so they can expand their cafe but he won't let them and I liked that at the beginning he came off as a playboy but as the story went on he became more likable and I was rootng for him and Natalie to get together and I liked seeing how they spent time together and when they realised the amount of stuff they had in common with each other.
I enjoyed seeing how Natalie slowly got her confidence back and how she made herself over to be a better person and her thoughts when she realised she was single again, I understood the dilemma about her daughter and how she was going to react at the thought of her parents splitting up, Natalie's sister and her friend made me laugh and I liked seeing them throughout the book and how they helped Natalie to get through it.
Natalie's husband I hated lol, I was waiting to see his reaction aswell as his mistress when he next saw Natalie and I was very pleased especially as she was dressed up and not looking the way she was when she was with him and how she was with Anthony and I enjoyed how Anthony stuck up for her when the mistress tried to belittle her and I thought it was funny when her husband thought that Anthony was an old professor seeing as how Anthony is an astrologer with a phd and he had only heard of him through his daughter and it was amusing the way her husband decided he wanted her back now she had changed.
I liked the ending I thought it was very satisfying as Natalie opened her eyes to what her husband actually was like and she went to get what she wanted and I liked the epilogue.