Share-a-Tea December Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?
• How many books did you read for this challenge throughout the year?
• What was your favorite book?
• What was your least favorite book?
• Did you enjoy this reading challenge? Would you be interested in participating again?
• What one thing would you change about the challenge?

Currently reading:
KJV Reader's Bible. 2016. Holman Bible Publishers. 1840 pages. [Source: Gift]

Finished this month:

• Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 1852. 438 pages. [Source: Bought]
• A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens. 1843. 96 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Cricket on the Hearth. Charles Dickens. 1845. 84 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Battle of Life. Charles Dickens. 1846. 88 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain. Charles Dickens. 1848. 100 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Librarian of Auschwitz. Antonio Iturbe. Translated by Lilit Thwaites. 2017. 424 pages. [Source: Library]

Looking forward to:

• Frameley Parsonage
• Emily of New Moon

Favorite quotes:

• Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good. Harriet Beecher Stowe
• It is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm. Harriet Beecher Stowe
• What is freedom to a nation, but freedom to the individuals in it? Harriet Beecher Stowe
• My private opinion is, and I hope you agree with me, that we might get on a great deal better than we do, and might be infinitely more agreeable company than we are. Charles Dickens
• We count by changes and events within us. Not by years. Charles Dickens
• Life, any life, is very short. But if you've managed to be happy for at least an instant, it will have been worth living. Antonio Iturbe
• A book is like a trapdoor that leads to a secret attic; You can open it and go inside. And your world is different. Antonio Iturbe

 This month's teas:

• PG Tips Black Tea
• Earl Grey
• Green Tea
• English Breakfast
• Peppermint
• Candy Cane Lane
• Lady Grey

New Teas:

• Sleepy Time Peach
• Buttermint

Next year's challenge sign up post:

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea November Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?
• Would you be interested in participating in this challenge next year? 2018 sign ups are open.

Currently reading:

CSB Spurgeon Study Bible, Holman Bible Publishers (B&H). 2017. 1840 pages. [Source: Gift]

Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 1852. 438 pages. [Source: Bought]

What I have finished for the challenge this past month:

• Boy Called Christmas. Matt Haig. Illustrated by Chris Mould. 2015/2016. Random House. 240 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• Tru & Nelle. G. Neri. 2016. HMH. 336 pages. [Source: Review copy]
•  Tru & Nelle: A Christmas Tale. G. Neri. 2017. [October 24, 2017]. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 304 pages.  [Source: Review copy]
• Snow & Rose. Emily Winfield Martin. 2017. Random House. 224 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• Brave Red, Smart Frog: A New Book of Old Tales. Emily Jenkins. Illustrated by Daniel Eason. 2017. Candlewick. 104 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• Giant Pumpkin Suite. Melanie Heuiser Hill. 2017. Candlewick Press. 448 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• When Christ Appears: An Inspirational Experience Through Revelation. David Jeremiah. 2018. [January] 196 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Favorite quotes:
none to share this month

This month's teas:

• PG Tips Black Tea
• Earl Grey
• Black Cherry Berry
• Green Tea
• English Breakfast
• Peppermint
• Candy Cane Lane
• Sweet Harvest Pumpkin
• Cranberry Vanilla Wonderland
• Chocolate Mint
• Stash's Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea

New Teas:

• Sugar Plum Spice
• Lady Grey
• Salted Caramel

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea October Check In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

Currently reading for the challenge:

The New Testament in the Language of the People. Charles B. Williams 1937. 572 pages. [Source: Bought]

The Austen Escape. Katherine Reay. 2017. Thomas Nelson. 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]

What I have finished for the challenge this past month:

Adam Bede. George Eliot. 1859. 624 pages. [Source: Bought] (Becky's Book Reviews)
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. Mem Fox. Illustrated by Julie Vivas. 1984/1985. Kane/Miller. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

Dollmaker of Krakow. R.M. Romero. 2017. 336 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Pop-Up Shakespeare. The Reduced Shakespeare Co. Illustrated by Jennie Maizels. 2017. Candlewick. 64 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Holy Bible: Revised English Bible. 1989/1996. Cambridge. 1264 pages. [Source: Bought]
Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World. Eric Metals. 2017. Viking. 416 pages. [Source: Borrowed from friend]
 Uncomfortable. Brett McCracken. 2017. Crossway. 224 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Adam Bede. George Eliot. 1859. 624 pages. [Source: Bought] (Operation Actually Read Bible)


What I'm Looking forward to starting:
Haven't decided...yet!

My favorite quotes:

• Weaknesses and errors must be forgiven—alas! they are not alien to us. ~ George Eliot
• We may determine not to gather any cherries and keep our hands sturdily in our pockets, but we can't prevent our mouths from watering. ~ George Eliot
• A man can never do anything at variance with his own nature. He carries within him the germ of his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent fools of ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the legitimate conclusion that we carry a few grains of folly to our ounce of wisdom. ~ George Eliot
• Sleep comes to the perplexed—if the perplexed are only weary enough. ~ George Eliot
• Pity that consequences are determined not by excuses but by actions! ~ George Eliot
• The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food—it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on. ~ George EliotExamine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings—much harder than to say something fine about them which is NOT the exact truth. ~ George Eliot

This month's teas:

• PG Tips Black Tea
• Earl Grey
• Black Cherry Berry
• Green
• English Breakfast
• Peppermint
• Candy Cane Lane
• Sweet Harvest Pumpkin
• Cranberry Vanilla Wonderland
• Chocolate Mint

New teas:

• Stash's Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea (LOVE)

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea September Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

What I am currently reading for the challenge:

• Holy Bible: Revised English Bible. 1989/1996. Cambridge. 1264 pages. [Source: Bought] 
• Adam Bede. George Eliot. 1859. 624 pages. [Source: Bought]

What I have finished for the challenge this past month:

• The Wretched. Victor Hugo. Translated by Christine Donougher. 1862/2013. 1456 pages. [Source: Bought]
• Catch-22. Joseph Heller. 1961. 453 pages. [Source: Library]
• The Wife Between Us. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. 2018. St. Martin's Press. 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• Verdict of Twelve. Raymond Postgate. 1940/2017. 208 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• The Case of the Lucky Loser. Erle Stanley Gardner. 1957. 192 pages. [Source: Bought] 
• The Case of the Fiery Fingers. Erle Stanley Gardner. 1951. 192 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Case of the Daring Decoy. (Perry Mason #54) Erle Stanley Gardner. 1957. 198 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Case of the Gilded Lily. (Perry Mason #50) Erle Stanley Gardner. 1956. 188 pages. [Source: Bought]
• The Circular Staircase. Mary Roberts Rinehart. 1908. 197 pages. [Source: Bought]
• Godspeed: Voices of the Reformation. David Teems. 2017. Abingdon Press. 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]  
• Sing!: How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church. Keith and Kristyn Getty. 2017. B&H Books. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy] 
• Martin Luther: A Spiritual Biography. Herman Selderhuis. 2017. Crossway. 288 pages. [Source: Review copy]
• ESV Reformation Study Bible. 2015. Edited by R.C. Sproul. Reformation Trust. 2560 pages. [Source: Gift/Bought] 
• The Living Bible. 1974. Tyndale. 1090 pages. [Source: Bought]

What I'm looking forward to starting:

I would love to read some Victorian literature for my challenge. These are the slots I need:

_ 10. A book published between 1861-1870
_ 13. A book published between 1891-1901
_ 19. A book by Elizabeth Gaskell
_ 20. A book by George Eliot
_ 22. A book by a new-to-you female author
_ 27. Biography, Autobiography, or NONFICTION book about the Victorian era
_ 31. A Christian book fiction or nonfiction
_ 32. A children's book

My favorite quotes:

• Love each other always. That’s about the only thing in the world that matters: loving each other. ~ Victor Hugo
• It’s God who determines the lot that falls to us. He’s up there, he sees us all, and he knows what he’s doing among his great stars. ~ Victor Hugo
• When the heart is on the slippery slope, there is no stopping it. ~ Victor Hugo
• It’s not enough to be happy, you have to be content. ~ Victor Hugo
• The first step is nothing, it is the last step that is hard. ~ Victor Hugo
• To love, or to have loved, is enough. Ask for nothing more. There is no other pearl to be found in life’s shadowy convolutions. To love is an achievement. ~ Victor Hugo
• Everything can be parodied, even parody. ~ Victor Hugo
• Love is the foolishness of men and the wit of God. ~ Victor Hugo
• When grace is combined with wrinkles, it is enchanting. There is a sort of dawning in the full bloom of old age. ~ Victor Hugo
• One of his anxieties was that he was being made to think. ~ Victor Hugo
• Alas! to have climbed does not preclude falling. This can be seen in history more frequently than anyone would wish. ~ Victor Hugo
• Peoples, like stars, have the right to go into eclipse. ~ Victor Hugo
• The poetry of a people determines its progress. ~ Victor Hugo
• ‘What is the cat?’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s a correction. The good Lord, having made the mouse, said, “Oh dear, that was a mistake!” And he made the cat. The cat is the mouse’s erratum. Mouse plus cat are the revised and corrected proofs of creation.’ ~ Victor Hugo
• Love is an ardent forgetfulness of everything else. ~ Victor Hugo

This month's teas:

• English Breakfast
• Chocolate Mint
• White Tea
• Green Tea
• Peppermint
• Earl Grey
• Sweet Dreams

New teas:

• PG Tips Black Tea -- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
• Bigelow Benefits: Cinnamon & Blackberry Herbal Tea -- Love

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea August Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

What I'm currently reading for the challenge:

ESV Reformation Study Bible. Edited by R.C. Sproul. Reformation Trust. 2560 pages. [Source: Gift/Bought]

MEV Personal Size Large Print. Passio. 2014. 1952 pages. [Source: Bought]

The Wretched (Les Miserables) Victor Hugo. Translated by Christine Donougher. 1862/2013. 1456 pages. [Source: Bought]

Adam Bede. George Eliot. 1859. 624 pages. [Source: Bought]

Books I've finished this month:
 Books! Books! Books! Explore the Amazing Collection of the British Library. Mick Manning. Illustrated by Brita Granstrom. 2017. Candlewick. 48 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Hide and Seek. Wilkie Collins. 1854. 384 pages. [Source: Bought]
The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old. Henrik Groen. Translated by Hester Velmans. 2017. 384 pages. [Source: Library]
Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. 1860. 640 pages. [Source: Library] 
Asking the Right Questions: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Applying the Bible. Matthew S. Harmon. 2017. Crossway. 144 pages. [Source: Review copy] 
Reformation Sketches: Insights Into Luther, Calvin, and the Confessions. W. Robert Godfrey. 2003. 151 pages. [Source: Library]
The Bruised Reed. Richard Sibbes. 1630. [Source: Bought]
 The Return. (Amish Beginnings #3) Suzanne Woods Fisher. 2017. Revell. 330 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Looking forward to...

• Finishing Les Miserables
• Continuing Adam Bede
• Beginning Catch 22

Favorite quotes:

From Les Miserables:

• Youth, even in its sorrows, always has its own brightness. Victor Hugo
• Don’t you know, to do nothing is a fateful choice to make? Victor Hugo
• Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater vision? You choose. Victor Hugo
• To replace thought with daydreaming is to mistake a poison for sustenance. Victor Hugo
• Destroy the mine of Ignorance, and you destroy the underminer, Crime. To put in a few words some of what we have been writing about: the only social peril is darkness. Humanity is of one kind. All men are of the same clay. With no difference, here below at least, in their predetermined fate. The same obscurity before, the same flesh during, the same dust afterwards. But ignorance mingled with the stuff of humankind blackens it. This incurable blackness spreads inside man and there becomes Evil. Victor Hugo
• To read aloud is to lend authority to your reading. There are people who read very loudly and seem to be vouching on their word of honour for what they are reading. Victor Hugo
• He never went out without a book under his arm and he often returned with two. Victor Hugo 
• ‘Peace is happiness settling down.’ Victor Hugo
• What tidal waves ideas are! How quickly they drown all that it is their mission to destroy and bury, and how swiftly they create tremendous depths! Victor Hugo

 From Adam Bede

• Imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity. George Eliot
• Let evil words die as soon as they're spoken. George Eliot, Adam Bede
• When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. George Eliot
• My life is too short, and God's work is too great for me to think of making a home for myself in this world. George Eliot, Adam Bede
• "Ah, dear friends, we are in sad want of good news about God; and what does other good news signify if we haven't that? For everything else comes to an end, and when we die we leave it all. But God lasts when everything else is gone. What shall we do if he is not our friend? George Eliot, Adam Bede
• I know a man must have the love o' God in his soul, and the Bible's God's word. But what does the Bible say? Why, it says as God put his sperrit into the workman as built the tabernacle, to make him do all the carved work and things as wanted a nice hand. And this is my way o' looking at it: there's the sperrit o' God in all things and all times—weekday as well as Sunday—and i' the great works and inventions, and i' the figuring and the mechanics. And God helps us with our headpieces and our hands as well as with our souls; and if a man does bits o' jobs out o' working hours—builds a oven for 's wife to save her from going to the bakehouse, or scrats at his bit o' garden and makes two potatoes grow istead o' one, he's doin' more good, and he's just as near to God, as if he was running after some preacher and a-praying and a-groaning. George Eliot, Adam Bede 

From Hide and Seek

• Art wouldn't be the glorious thing it is, if it wasn't all difficulty from beginning to end. (120)

From The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen

• Someone ought to bring a class-action lawsuit against the packaging industry for physical damage and mental distress. They have to be doing it on purpose. If they can send people to the moon, surely they ought to be able to come up with an easy twist-off lid. (157)
• We lose some capacities as we age, but being a busybody isn't one of them. (292)

From Great Expectations

• "If I give you the money for this purpose, will you keep my secret as you have kept your own?" "Quite as faithfully." "And your mind will be more at rest?" "Much more at rest." "Are you very unhappy now?" She asked this question, still without looking at me, but in an unwonted tone of sympathy. I could not reply at the moment, for my voice failed me. She put her left arm across the head of her stick, and softly laid her forehead on it. "I am far from happy, Miss Havisham; but I have other causes of disquiet than any you know of. They are the secrets I have mentioned." After a little while, she raised her head, and looked at the fire Again.
  "It is noble in you to tell me that you have other causes of unhappiness, Is it true?" "Too true." "Can I only serve you, Pip, by serving your friend? Regarding that as done, is there nothing I can do for you yourself?" "Nothing. I thank you for the question. I thank you even more for the tone of the question. But there is nothing." She presently rose from her seat, and looked about the blighted room for the means of writing. There were none there, and she took from her pocket a yellow set of ivory tablets, mounted in tarnished gold, and wrote upon them with a pencil in a case of tarnished gold that hung from her neck.
  She read me what she had written; and it was direct and clear, and evidently intended to absolve me from any suspicion of profiting by the receipt of the money. I took the tablets from her hand, and it trembled again, and it trembled more as she took off the chain to which the pencil was attached, and put it in mine. All this she did without looking at me. "My name is on the first leaf. If you can ever write under my name, "I forgive her," though ever so long after my broken heart is dust pray do it!" "O Miss Havisham," said I, "I can do it now. There have been sore mistakes; and my life has been a blind and thankless one; and I want forgiveness and direction far too much, to be bitter with you."

This month's teas:

• English Breakfast
• White Tea
• Green Tea
• Peppermint
• Earl Grey 

New teas:

• Wild Raspberry Hibiscus (really like)
• Peach/Honey White Tea (really dislike)
• Moroccan Mint (really like)
• Sweet Dreams (love, love, LOVE)

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea July Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

What I'm currently reading for the challenge:

ESV Reformation Study Bible. Edited by R.C. Sproul. Reformation Trust. 2560 pages. [Source: Gift/Bought]

MEV Thinline. Passio. 2014. 1184 pages. [Source: Bought]

The Wretched (Les Miserables) Victor Hugo. Translated by Christine Donougher. 1862/2013. 1456 pages. [Source: Bought]

Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. 1860/2016. Macmillan Collector's Library. 640 pages. [Source: Library]


Books I've Finished This Month:


RSV Bible. 1977. Oxford University Press. 1904 pages. [Source: Gift]

Looking forward to...:

• Finishing Les Miserables
• Finishing Great Expectations

Favorite quotes:

From Les Miserables

• True or false, what is said about men often figures as large in their lives, and above all in the fate that befalls them, as what they do.
• Man exists in the flesh, which is at once his burden and his temptation. He drags it around with him and gives in to it.
• To sin as little as possible, that is the law of mankind. Not to sin at all is the angel’s dream. Everything earthly is subject to sin. Sin is a gravitational force.
• Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers. Vices are the real murderers. The great dangers are within us. Never mind what endangers our life or our purse! Let’s be mindful only of what endangers our soul.
• To put an end to abuses is not enough, attitudes must change.
• He did not study God, he yielded to the radiance of God.
• But it is no more possible to pray too much than it is to love too much;
• ‘You didn’t have to tell me who you were. This isn’t my house, it’s the house of Jesus Christ. This door does not ask whoever enters whether he has a name but whether he is in distress. You’re in distress, you’re hungry and thirsty: you’re welcome here. And don’t thank me, don’t say I’m inviting you into my home. No one is at home here except whoever needs a refuge. I tell you, a passing visitor, this is your home more than mine. Everything here is yours. Why should I need to know your name? Besides, even before you told me, I already knew your name.’ The man eyes widened in astonishment. ‘Really? You knew me by name?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the bishop, ‘by the name of “Brother”.’
• The good Lord has given indigestion the task of teaching our stomachs a lesson. And remember this: every one of our passions, even love, has a stomach that mustn’t be overfed.
• The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that you are loved, loved for yourself, better still, loved despite yourself.
• The mind is no more to be prevented from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to the shore. For the sailor, this is called the tide. For the guilty man, it is called remorse. God stirs the soul as he causes the ocean to swell.
• Diamonds are found only in the darkness of the earth. Truths are found only in the depths of the mind. It seemed to him that having descended into those depths, having long groped in the pitch-black of that darkness, he had at last found one of those diamonds, one of those truths, and he now held it in his hand. And he was dazzled by the sight of it.
• Every event is a bend in the road. And all of a sudden you are old.
• If you want to understand what revolution is, call it Progress. And if you want to understand what progress is, call it Tomorrow. Tomorrow comes into effect irresistibly, and does so even today. It always achieves its end by strange means.
• The best of us are not exempt from a selfish way of thinking.
• Before you grasp a thorny stick, you put on gloves.
• This book is a drama whose main character is the infinite. Man is the secondary character.
• Facts, however, are not easy to confound, and they remain obstinate.
• Man lives by affirmation much more than by bread.
• To be lost in thought is not to be idle. There is visible work and invisible work.

From Great Expectations:

• Some medical beast had revived Tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence. On this particular evening the urgency of my case demanded a pint of this mixture, which was poured down my throat, for my greater comfort, while Mrs. Joe held my head under her arm, as a boot would be held in a bootjack.
• Joe's station and influence were something feebler (if possible) when there was company than when there was none. But he always aided and comforted me when he could, in some way of his own, and he always did so at dinner-time by giving me gravy, if there were any. There being plenty of gravy to-day, Joe spooned into my plate, at this point, about half a pint.
• Neither were my notions of the theological positions to which my Catechism bound me, at all accurate; for, I have a lively remembrance that I supposed my declaration that I was to "walk in the same all the days of my life," laid me under an obligation always to go through the village from our house in one particular direction, and never to vary it by turning down by the wheelwright's or up by the mill
• In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice.
• "There's one thing you may be sure of, Pip," said Joe, after some rumination, "namely, that lies is lies. Howsever they come, they didn't ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don't you tell no more of 'em, Pip. That ain't the way to get out of being common, old chap. And as to being common, I don't make it out at all clear. You are oncommon in some things. You're oncommon small. Likewise you're a oncommon scholar."
• If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never get to do it through going crooked. So don't tell no more on 'em, Pip, and live well and die happy."
• That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
• Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.

This month's teas:

• English Breakfast
• White Tea
• Earl Grey (Black/Green Organic)
• Peppermint
• Candy Cane Lane
• Sweet Harvest Pumpkin

New teas:
I tried Peppermint tea and loved it. I tried Oolong tea, but, I'm not sure if I like it or not. It may take another cup or two before I make up my mind.

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea June Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

What are you currently reading for the challenge?

RSV Bible. 1977. Oxford University Press. 1904 pages. [Source: Gift]

The Wretched (Les Miserables) Victor Hugo. Translated by Christine Donougher. 1862/2013. 1456 pages. [Source: Bought]

 Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?

• The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope
• Reformation Heritage Study Bible -- KJV
• Anne of Green Gables Treasury by Carolyn Strom Collins
• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia by John Dunlop
• Death of a Cad by M.C. Beaton
• New Testament Words for Today by Warren Wiersbe
• Sins We Accept by Jerry Bridges
• The Altogether Unexpected Disappearance of Atticus Craftsman
• Skunked by Jacqueline Kelly
• Counting Sheep by Jacqueline Kelly
• The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale
• Conversion by Michael Lawrence
• Buy My Hats by Dave Horowitz
• Hat by Paul Hoppe
• Prickly Jenny by Sibylle Delacroix
• Matilda's Cat by Emily Gravett
• Piggy's Pancake Parlor by David McPhail
•  Princess Cora and the Crocodile
• Bear's House of Books by Poppy Bishop
• The Great American Story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang by Chloe Perkins
• Be Quiet by Ryan T. Higgins
• How This Book Was Made by Mac Barnett
• Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb
• The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?

I just started the newest translation of Les Miserables. So I imagine between that and my current Bible, I'll stay busy!

Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea.  

• Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. ~ Henry James
• Because a book can have words and pictures and paper and tigers, but a book still isn't a book, not really, until it has a reader. And then you came along, and you read this book through to the very last page, which was how this book was made. Mac Barnett
• “Have you drunk your tea?” asked the son. “Yes, and enjoyed it.” “Shall I give you some more?” The old man considered, placidly. “Well, I guess I’ll wait and see.” He had, in speaking, the American tone. “Are you cold?” the son enquired. The father slowly rubbed his legs. “Well, I don’t know. I can’t tell till I feel.” “Perhaps some one might feel for you,” said the younger man, laughing. “Oh, I hope some one will always feel for me! Don’t you feel for me, Lord Warburton?” “Oh yes, immensely,” said the gentleman addressed as Lord Warburton, promptly. “I’m bound to say you look wonderfully comfortable.”
  “The fact is I’ve been comfortable so many years that I suppose I’ve got so used to it I don’t know it.” “Yes, that’s the bore of comfort,” said Lord Warburton. “We only know when we’re uncomfortable.”  ~ Henry James
• There are as many points of view in the world as there are people of sense to take them.~ Henry James
• We see our lives from our own point of view; that is the privilege of the weakest and humblest of us; Henry James

What teas have you enjoyed this month? Green Tea. White Tea. Earl Grey.



© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea May Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

Currently reading for the challenge:

• KJV Reformation Study Bible
• Living Bible
• Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?

• Doctor Thorne
• We're All Wonders
• Squirrel in the House

Books I've finished but not posted reviews yet:

• Prisoner's Base by Rex Stout
• Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat 
• Basic Christianity by John Stott
• Champagne for One by Rex Stout

Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
I imagine I'll keep on with the classics and the Bible. It seems to be working for me!

Favorite quotes:

• Look with kindness and you will always find wonder. ~ R. J. Palacio
• Christ is the center of Christianity; all else is circumference. John Stott 
• It is more natural to us to talk than to listen, to argue than to submit. John Stott
• How is one to have an opinion if one does not get it by looking at the things which happen around us? ~ Anthony Trollope
• People must be bound together. They must depend on each other. Of course, misfortunes may come; but it is cowardly to be afraid of them beforehand. ~ Anthony Trollope
• “You haven’t got another cup of tea, have you?” “Oh, uncle! you have had five.” “No, my dear! not five; only four — only four, I assure you; I have been very particular to count. I had one while I was—” “Five uncle; indeed and indeed.” “Well, then, as I hate the prejudice which attaches luck to an odd number, I’ll have a sixth to show that I am not superstitious.”  ~ Anthony Trollope
• When one is impatient, five minutes is as the duration of all time, and a quarter of an hour is eternity. ~ Anthony Trollope
• We strain at our gnats with a vengeance, but we swallow our camels with ease. ~ Anthony Trollope
• Wounds sometimes must be opened in order that they may be healed.  ~ Anthony Trollope
• Love can only be paid in its own coin: it knows of no other legal tender. ~ Anthony Trollope  

All my teas these days seem to be Stash. Organic Earl Grey Black and Green Tea, Organic Chai Black and Green Tea, English Breakfast Tea, Organic Premium Green Tea.


© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea April Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

Currently reading:

KJV Reformation Study Bible. So far I've finished Genesis, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, Matthew, Mark, Romans, 1 Corinthians.

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Books I've finished and reviewed since March check-in:

• Washington Square. Henry James. 1880. 288 pages. [Source: Bought]
• Steppin' Out: Jaunty Rhymes for Playful Times. Lin Oliver. Illustrated by Tomie DePaola. 2017. 32 pages. [Source: Library]
• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. Langston Hughes. 1996. 96 pages. [Source: Library]
• The Three Clerks. Anthony Trollope. 1858. 648 pages. [Source: Bought] 
• Wish. Barbara O'Connor. 2016. FSG. 240 pages. [Source: Library]
• Unveiled Hope: Eternal Encouragement from the Book of Revelation. 1997. 244 pages. [Source: Borrowed]
• Here I Stand. A Life of Martin Luther. Roland H. Bainton. 1950. 336 pages. [Source: Bought]   
• Pursuit of God Bible -- NIV. 2013. 1587 pages. [Source: Gift]
• The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia #6) C.S. Lewis. 1955. 221 pages. [Source: Bought]
• Joni: An Unforgettable Story. Joni Eareckson Tada. 1976. 205 pages. [Source: Bought]

Books I've finished but not reviewed yet:

• Prisoner's Base by Rex Stout
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
• Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

Favorite quotes:

• “it doesn’t take long to like a person — when once you begin.” Henry James
• “The alphabet of common sense is something you will never learn,” the Doctor permitted himself to respond. Henry James
• Wherever there are two men, there will be two opinions. Anthony Trollope
• “We always lose when we evaluate ourselves according to someone else’s ideas or standards. And there are as many standards as there are people. A jock measures you by your athletic ability; a student by your brains; a steady by your looks. It’s a losing battle,” he said, striking a sour piano chord for added emphasis. “We have to forget about what people say or think, and recognize that God’s values are the only important ones.” Joni Eareckson Tada
• Children have one kind of silliness, as you know, and grown-ups have another kind. C.S. Lewis
• Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. C.S. Lewis

Favorite teas:
I'm still loving Stash's English Breakfast Tea. I'm still drinking away my green tea...and my white tea. I have tried two new teas this month.

• Stash's Organic Early Grey Black and Green Tea
• and Stash's Organic Chai Black and Green Tea

I haven't drank sweetened tea all month. 

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea March Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

I'm currently reading two books for my tea-time: Here I Stand by Roland H. Bainton, a biography of Martin Luther.  But most often, the NIV Pursuit of God (aka "Tozer Bible"). I'm on-again-off-again reading 1984 by George Orwell. I hope to get back to it soon!

The books I've finished and reviewed:
Ugly. Robert Hoge. 2016. 208 pages. [Source: Library]
Bobbs Merril Third Reader. Edited by Clara Belle Baker and Edna Dean Baker. 1924/30/39. 293 pages. [Source: Bought]
A Stolen Heart. Amanda Cabot. 2017. Revell. 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Trumpet of the Swan. E.B. White. Illustrated by Fred Marcellino. 1970. 272 pages. [Source: Library] 
Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse. Henry Beard. 1994. 96 pages. [Source: Borrowed.]
French for Cats. Henry N. Beard. 1991. 96 pages. [Borrowed] 
Advanced French for Exceptional Cats. Henry N. Beard. 1992. 96 pages. [Source: Borrowed]
Holy Bible. 21st Century King James Version (KJ21) Edited by William D. Prindle. 1888 pages. [Source: Bought]
The Best Short Stories. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by David Magarshack. 2001. 320 pages. [Source: Library] 

The books I've finished but reviews aren't posted yet:

• Stepping Out by Lin Oliver
• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes
• Wish by Barbara O'Connor

Book(s) I'm looking forward to reading in April:
Haven't planned that far ahead?!

Favorite quotes:

• The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. (E.B. White, Trumpet of the Swan, 50)
• "Sam, if a man can walk three miles in one hour, how many miles can he walk in four hours?" "It would depend on how tired he got after the first hour," replied Sam. (E.B. White, Trumpet of the Swan, 76)
• Everyone is entitled to his likes and dislikes and to his prejudices. Come to think of it, I don't care for pistachio ice cream. I don't know why I don't like it, but I don't. (E.B. White, Trumpet of the Swan, 114) 
• I knew I was ugly. But everyone is uglier than they think. We are all more beautiful too. We all have scars only we can own. (Ugly, Robert Hoge, 200)  
• Life is sweet even in sorrow. It's good to be alive, however hard life is. (Dostoyevsky, 177)

 What teas have I enjoyed this month?

• Triple Leaf Tea's White Tea. I love, love, love THIS one. I don't drink it sweetened. I've actually gotten down to just one sweetened tea a day! (That would be my cinnamon tea or my chocolate mint tea). 
• Stash's English Breakfast Tea. This isn't my tea-time read-a-book tea. This is my first cup of the day, isn't life great with a cup of tea BREAKFAST tea. I don't drink it sweetened.
• Stash's Fusion White and Green Tea blend. I try to have three cups of green tea a day. And I've been having this one count as one of my green teas! (The green tea I drink is Bigelow).

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea February Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

I'm currently reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. And (of course) I'm continuing to read the Bible as well. I typically read the Bible for my morning tea break and then a fiction or nonfiction book for the other teas of the day.

I've finished a couple of books for this month.

Mandy. Julie Andrews Edwards. 1971. 320 pages. [Source: Bought]
The Newcomer. Suzanne Woods Fisher. 2017. Revell. 336 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Hiroshima. John Hersey. 1946/1989. 152 pages. [Source: Bought]
The Adolescent. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. 1875/2004. 647 pages. [Source: Library]

A few more reviews haven't been published yet. I'll share about them next month.

I'm looking forward to finishing The Idiot. And then maybe I'll pick up Doctor Zhivago?

Favorite quotes:

Every man has the right to voice his conviction into the air.  Dostoyevesky

Ah! So you,too, suffer sometimes because a thought won't go into words! It's a noble suffering, my friend, and granted only to the chosen; a fool is always pleased with what he says, and besides, he always says more than he needs to; they like extras. Dostoyevesky

Let us suppose, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. But if he is not stupid, he is monstrously ungrateful. Dostoyevesky

Once you have recognized the truth and seen it, you know it is the one and only truth and that there can be no other, whether you are asleep or awake. Dostoyevesky

I've enjoyed my chocolate mint tea. They also make a cinnamon tea that is AMAZING. 

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Share-a-Tea January Check-In

• What are you currently reading for the challenge? 
• Have you finished any books for this challenge this month?
• Is there a book you're looking forward to starting next month?
• Want to share any favorite quotes? It could be from your current read. It could be about reading. It could be about drinking tea. 
• What teas have you enjoyed this month? 
• Do you have a new favorite tea?

I usually have a couple of books that I'm currently reading. I usually read the Bible while drinking tea at least once or twice per day. And another book for the other tea times. The Bible I'm currently reading is the 21rst Century KJV Bible. I finished my other tea book Friday afternoon. So I'm going to be picking another one to start on today or tomorrow! (I've also been reading off and on in Steven Lawson's Foundations of Grace.)

Yes, I've finished several books. In late December, I finished Three Treatises by Martin Luther. If I'd not had such a WONDERFUL experience reading this one while drinking tea, I never would have started this challenge. Initially I wanted to call it the Tea-o-logy Reading Challenge. But didn't want to potentially limit interest by saying it was only for theology! The next book I read for this challenge was a very short read at the start of the New Year, William Goldman's The Silent Gondolier. Next, I read a Newbery winning children's classic, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. These three were mostly tea reads. Mostly. But the next two were longer--much longer--and I read them whenever, wherever. The New English Bible was one of them, and the Karamazov Brothers was the other.

I haven't picked out my next books yet.

Favorite quotes:

Brothers, be not afraid of human sin, love man even in his state of sin, for this is already a likeness of divine love and is the highest love on earth. (Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Karamazov Brothers, 399) 

We are not here on this earth for long, we commit many bad deeds, and we say much that we should not. Therefore, let us all take advantage of any opportunity of social interaction to say a kind word to one another. (Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Karamazov Brothers, 936)

I did come across a character sketch by Anthony Trollope of a servant who loved tea a little too much!

Mrs. Kelly kept two ordinary in-door servants to assist in the work of the house; one, an antiquated female named Sally, who was more devoted to her tea-pot than ever was any bacchanalian to his glass. Were there four different teas in the inn in one evening, she would have drained the pot after each, though she burst in the effort. Sally was, in all, an honest woman, and certainly a religious one; — she never neglected her devotional duties, confessed with most scrupulous accuracy the various peccadillos of which she might consider herself guilty; and it was thought, with reason, by those who knew her best, that all the extra prayers she said, — and they were very many, — were in atonement for commissions of continual petty larceny with regard to sugar.
On this subject did her old mistress quarrel with her, her young mistress ridicule her; of this sin did her fellow-servant accuse her; and, doubtless, for this sin did her Priest continually reprove her; but in vain. Though she would not own it, there was always sugar in her pocket, and though she declared that she usually drank her tea unsweetened, those who had come upon her unawares had seen her extracting the pinches of moist brown saccharine from the huge slit in her petticoat, and could not believe her.

I drink a lot of different teas. The past two weeks I've really come to LOVE my chocolate mint tea. Most of the time while drinking this one I was reading Dostoevsky. My second favorite tea I enjoyed this month was Bigelow's Lemon Ginger with probiotics.

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews