Chase Waskey
Bookstagram Bonanza Edition
October 9, 2020
Dear Book Lovers,
Happy Friday everyone! I am so happy to introduce you to today’s Guest Writer, Chase Waskey. I met Chase online a few years ago when I was starting up Dear Mr. Hemingway. Through the years, we have managed to chat all things books and writing, while never even meeting in person. Chase is the creator of the very successful BLOG, The Bookend Diner, and Bookstagram page, @thebookend.diner (over 28,000 followers 😮). If you have never visited her blog or Instagram page…MAKE IT HAPPEN. You will not be disappointed.
Chase started her account in April of 2019 as a creative outlet for discussing the books she was reading and the different cookbooks she was sampling recipes from. The name “Bookend Diner” stemmed from her combination of books and cookbooks but also from her desire to open up her own bookshop diner one day. Chase’s account highlights all of her favorite reads and cookbooks. She does a phenomenal job creating a “buzz” around upcoming titles and her photography is absolutely lovely to look at.
Chase lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her two dogs, cat, and husband. Two of her favorite books are Where the Crawdads Sing and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Chase is a coffee lover, has a serious sweet tooth, and, rumor has it…wants to raise chickens (just like me ❤️).
I hope you enjoy her letter to Mr. H. The book she recommends today is officially on my TBR. Thanks Chase!
❤️❤️❤️
Kelly
P.S. Chase just celebrated her birthday yesterday. If you pop on her page, be sure to wish her well 🎉!
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Dear Mr. Hemingway,
Do you ever feel like you’ve taken on too much at one time?
In a world that is filled with things to do, places to be, and people to meet, I often find myself saying “time needs to slow down”, “where has the day gone?” or “there’s just not enough time in the day.” As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that this is the case and, to be completely honest, I don’t like it. I find myself aching to have more time to sit back and enjoy the beautiful fall day and to have the opportunity to take my dogs on an extra-long walk.
I recently received a book that made time stand still for me because I genuinely felt as if the author reached into my mind and extracted these thoughts that I had tried, and failed, on multiple occasions to formulate. Once she had pulled these thoughts from my mind, she then sat down and wrote a book. I’ve not encountered a book that was so eloquently written and able to portray such pure, heartfelt emotion. But, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue did just that.
Right as I finished reading this book, I read that it took the author, V.E. Schwab, nine years to put this book together. It shows. This incredible, breathtaking, heartbreaking, resonating story reflects all of those years of research, note-taking, formulating, and creating.
It took me a solid week to read about Addie LaRue because as much as I wanted to know her story, I also didn’t want her story to end. I didn’t want to miss a piece of her beautiful life and the world that she saw. I felt as if I were walking along beside her through this three hundred year journey of loneliness. Can you imagine? Three hundred years of being alone, of no one remembering your name, and not being able to leave so much as a footprint in the snow behind. But, yet, she did, and she became stronger with each year that passed.
While reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I kept thinking that this would make a remarkable movie, but then I would think that there is no way that a movie could ever do this story justice. I’m still torn on my feelings, but I do know one thing; I want Addie LaRue’s story to live on, and I want to read it and live it over. It is not a book that should be read once but read again and again.
Nine years was what it took to put this beautiful book together and, in my opinion, it was nine years well spent.
My dear Mr. Hemingway, I hope that you will take the time to read this beautiful story.
Sincerely,
Chase
P.S. Click on my book pic below to purchase.
