Welcome to Litsy!

It always seems like a great reading month is followed by a slump. Or is that just a me thing? I put some books that I‘m super excited about on my November tbr.

https://wildwoodreads.com/2025/11/03/november-2025-tbr/

@AmyG I squealed when I opened both books! I‘m so excited to read them. The Ghostwriter has been catching my attention and I almost bought it the other day! And I may or may not have had a fourth of the Sour Patch strawberries already. 😅

@MaleficentBookDragon

#allhallowsreadswap2025 #ahrs2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was the only audiobook that held my attention last week enough to listen to it instead of exclusively playing “The Life of a Showgirl”! (Which, of course, I‘m still doing!) The Appalachian setting was palpable and I loved the different versions and allegorical interpretations of the local legend of the “Witch of Quartz Creek”. The ending didn‘t fully work for me, but I liked it overall and would read another book by this author! 🎧

Really enjoyed it.

Great read for this time of year! Very atmospheric. Spooky mystery with excellent characters.

#tlt @dabbe - I got lower than expected. I've never seen so many flavors of Oreos!

I haven't read a mystery that gave me this much of a sense of place in a while. 'The Witch's Orchard' is very atmospheric, set in mountain country. Annie is a PI, hired to find out what happened to three missing girls ten years ago. The second girl was returned, but the other two were never found. I really liked Annie as a character. She was very well-rounded. I hope this becomes a series as I would follow Annie's mysteries anywhere. 5 stars.

“A ninth generation Appalachian herself, Archer Sullivan brings the mountains of North Carolina to life in The Witch‘s Orchard, a wonderfully atmospheric novel that introduces private investigator Annie Gore.”

FULL SPOTLIGHT: https://tinyurl.com/35mj4n28

@archer_sullivan
@stmartinspress

I really enjoyed this series starter starring PI Annie Gore and set in the Appalachians of North Carolina. Good world building with an almost Gothic creepy feel to it. Good plot but a bit over-the-top denouement (which I can live with 🤣).
Looking forward to more in this series.

4.25/5⭐️

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7810942375

26-29 Jun 25 (audiobook)
Interesting look at why certain groups of people appear to vote against their own interests and support Trump‘s Republican Party specifically in Appalachia. Highschild interviewed many people living in the region with the highest rate of Trump supporters in the US and reported her findings. Particularly notable was the statistic that far more republican voters believe poverty is a result of one‘s own actions and failures.