@MaleficentBookDragon thank you so much! You were too generous. You are so thoughtful and I love everything you sent. I couldn‘t fit everything in the picture because you sent so many things!

Now I have to apologize. I am still waiting on part of your swap gift 🙈. It was supposed to get here last week, but tracking says it‘s still in transit. I am so sorry, and I hope you weren‘t too disappointed when you opened your box. The rest is coming soon

It‘s here! @MaleficentBookDragon I can‘t wait to open it! Yours should arrive on Monday 🎃👻🧟‍♀️ #witchpleaseswap

It‘s on the way! It should get to its destination by Monday. Whew! 😅 #witchpleaseswap @monalyisha

I couldn‘t fit everything that @IheartYA got me into one picture, so here‘s the other half of my goodies! Patty, I can‘t believe you went to so many stores to find that Milky Way Midnight! I will savor it in appreciation of your sacrifice. Also I can‘t wait to try the dark chocolate Twix! Thank you for everything. You are so sweet to spoil me so thoroughly. I hope you love your swap box as much as I love mine!

@rather_be_reading #hocuspocusswap

Holy smokes @IheartYA ! I feel thoroughly spoiled. It is unbelievable all the amazing things you sent. The oven mitt made me squeal with delight when I first opened the box. Thank you so much!

#hocuspocusswap
@rather_be_reading

Today we kick off the beginning of Chocolate Season! (Yes, in my world, that‘s a thing 😝). I‘m cooking brittle, cutting truffles, making fancy chocolate granola, and listening to this fascinating audiobook. It‘s narrated by Cassandra Campbell who is one of my favorite narrators, and the book itself is compulsively readable. Weinman looks at Nabokov, Sally Horner, and other cases relevant to the topic and period. One of my faves for 2018 I think.

This was me as I headed out of the post office, realizing I forgot to take a picture of the package I sent to @IheartYA Patty, if you would like the tracking info, let me know. They said it will get to you by Friday. #hocuspocusswap @rather_be_reading

Oh. My. Gursh. This turned out to be NOTHING like I thought it would in the best way possible. First I thought it was like Christopher Moore wrote Wicker Man, and then it took some reeeaally dark turns. This is a weird mystery with a “hot mess” protagonist, and would be great for a book club as there‘s a lot to discuss about mental illness, cancer, life as a 30-something, coercive control, and a what just happened?-style debatable ending. 5 ⭐️s

@IheartYA I just wanted to let you know that the final item for your box came in, but I won‘t be able to ship it until tomorrow. I‘ll post again when it‘s in the mail. I just didn‘t want you to worry about the status of your #hocuspocusswap box 💜🎃💜🔮💜💀💜

It came! I‘m so excited for opening day. Thanks @IheartYA ! I‘m still waiting on a crucial part of your package, but if I don‘t get it by October 1 I will ship what I do have and send the last item when I receive it.

#hocuspocusswap

1. Merricat from We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Marian Halcolmbe from Woman in White
2. Purple is my favorite, and pink or neon/pastel colors are my least favorite.
3. A latte and a ham and cheese croissant. You know, the breakfast of champions 😆
4. When I have time I like to bake and make chocolate pieces. I also bullet journal.
5. My glasses! I‘m basically blind without them.

#humpdaypost

“...a light unexpectedly sprang up, and I saw Carmilla, standing, near the foot of my bed, in her white nightdress, bathed, from her chin to her feet, in one great stain of blood.”

Thank you so much @heikemarie I am blown away at your generosity. First, you packaged everything so beautifully that opening this box felt magical. Then I opened your lovely card, and you overwhelmed me with your kind words and well-wishes for Fall. Then you amazed me with how thoughtful your gifts were. Everything inside the box made me smile, and the copy of Mad Madame Lalaurie made me squeal so loudly it alarmed my cat 😹. Thank you!!! #FFFS

After a long day at work I came home to this lady slacking off 😂

Today calls for a cozy! In the kitchen today I am cooking up some of our “Milk Tea” brittle to submit to the Good Food Awards, and also cooking sesame brittle for Dandelion Chocolate. I‘m definitely going to smell like toffee by the end of the day, and I‘m not mad about it 🍫😋

Look what came in!!! How am I supposed to wait the 21st to open it? I‘m so excited 🤗 The package I‘m sending will go out in a couple days.
#FFFS #FallingForFallSwap @Avanders

1. 🎃 but real pumpkin, not just pumpkin spice
2. Team fireplace over here!
3. Cake. I like tart, but not pie. I think it‘s a ratio thing... 🤔
4. 🦉 I love owls
5. Addams Family 100% tbh I think they are real life family goals.
6. Anne Rice
7. Halloween 24/7/365

#allthefall

I was listening to this on the speakers at the kitchen I work in today. A guy eventually came in to make his artisanal pickles. I don‘t think he got the salad jokes... 🤷🏻‍♀️

🔪Ursula from The Little Mermaid or the Castavets from Rosemary‘s Baby
🕯Vanilla, salted caramel, sweet scents
🚫corn, potato, apple
👻Spooky! Maybe a little humor if it‘s not too cheesy
🌕Mary and Dani
🎃Witches! Then vampires.
🔮 I love Ouija and witchy things 💜

@AsYouWish

🎶If you‘re stressed and you know it read a cozy
If you‘re stressed and you know it read a cozy
If you‘re stressed and you know it
Then your face will surely show it
So if you‘re stressed and you know it read a cozy 🎶

Thank you @AprilMaesBookHabit !!! I love the books and goodies you sent! The mug is hilarious and the perfect thing for me to take to work 😂 I can‘t wait to taste the treats you sent, I have never seen these before! Thank you so much for everything, and thank you to @JenlovesJT47 for hosting this #itstrulycriminalswap

@AprilMaesBookHabit I received your package and I can‘t wait to open it! Also I realized after I sent your package that I forgot to put a card inside 😣

I hope you like your goodies!

@JenlovesJT47 #trulycriminal

My swap package is on its way! Should be there by Wednesday. No pic of the wrapped goodies because the wrapping paper is a surprise. Can‘t wait til Friday! #itstrulycriminal #itstrulycriminalswap

I love when books I‘m reading have cross-over. I‘m currently listening to the audio version of Undead Girl Gang, in which one of the characters has a cat named Binx. The book on my nightstand that I‘ve been slowly chipping away at is Hocus Pocus and The All New Sequel. It‘s a minor crossover, but it‘s just what I‘m looking for. I‘m in the Halloween spirit 🎃👻🧟‍♀️

1. Disappearance At Devil‘s Rock
2. Daphne du Maurier
3. Drop Dead Gorgeous (the one with Kirstie Alley and Kirsten Dunst)
4. Deviled eggs!

#manicmonday @JoScho

This book is everything I need right now. I want it to never end!

This book is so twisted and I love it 😂

Since I was working in the neighborhood today I decided to drop by Borderlands in SF for a few books! If you are in San Francisco and want a place to take a stroll where you can find amazing books, food and chocolate, check out Valencia St. between 18th and 20th Streets. I snagged the tagged book, a used copy of House of Leaves (for $10!) and Bird Box

1. Marjolaine (a really complicated French chocolate cake that is hard to find😫)
2. No, I prefer chocolate chunks
3. Yep... 😅
4. Podcasts and audiobooks. I‘ll be home in the car a lot today so my ears are ready for some good audiobook time.

#Friyayintro @jesshowbooks

For the last couple of days I feel like I‘ve been traveling around the world from the kitchen that I work in. Our kitchen is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I am making our sesame brittle in collaboration with Dandelion Chocolate, who has graciously provided us with chocolate from Camino Verde, Ecuador. To top it off, my ears are traveling to India as I listen to Widows of Malabar Hill. Traveling through books and chocolate=best staycation 😊

Guys, I have been waiting for this day since this book was published and now it‘s here!!! 😍 #audibledailydeal

If you have some extra Audible credits, check out this deal that is good until 7/18. I had some credits so I got Snap, Witchmark, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Definitely my favorite Prime Day deal so far!

1. Resting up for next week‘s intense schedule. Hopefully lots of reading will be involved.
2. Sunset
3. I‘m more of an overcast weather person
4. Dark brown
5. Howdy @reginacharlotte 💜

#friyayintro

I took the Which Pevensie Sibling Are You? quiz on Book Riot and I got Lucy. I didn‘t expect that 🤔. Take the quiz here: https://bookriot.com/2018/07/06/chronicles-of-narnia-quiz/?utm_source=Sailthru&u...

Squeeee!!! I can‘t wait for this bookmail! I pre-ordered it as a birthday gift to myself and it‘s coming! 🤗🎃👻🔮📚

Just joined the readathon! Who else is participating?

I think this book may be my graphic biography 😹

I love this excerpt from Providence. Very relatable. Also I often refer to my guilty pleasures (such as Hallmark Christmas movies and culinary cozy mysteries) as Marshmallow Fluff for my brain #happiness #junkfood #lifegoals

Flowers and sunshine on my #audiowalk today. The tagged book is much more lighthearted than you would think too. Definitely recommend this on audio.

One of my favorite finds at Book Go Round in Saratoga, CA today 😂🐧☠️

Took a walk to my local Little Library to drop off a copy of The Woman In The Window by AJ Finn, and I was able to pick up The Club Dumas! Bookish fortune is in my favor today, it seems 🤗

It's Amazon First Reads day! I snagged the tagged/pictured book. Looks like a great true crime read. Do you participate in Amazon First Reads?

Cheese plate and strawberries for an early lunch break. So far I'm enjoying Mister Tender's Girl. It has a few cozy elements and is set around Halloween which is a bonus for me. I always get the itch for Halloween at summertime.

This reminded me of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, except this is a YA noir and the narrator is a cranky teenager. Jude abruptly flies home from her trip to the East Coast of the USA to Pasadena California, where her BFF has committed suicide. Only Jude isn't convinced it was a suicide, and she is determined to find some answers. Great for kids experiencing grief or trauma. 4 ⭐️s

Not book related, but Meowingtons is having a 50% off the entire site sale for Memorial Day, so I took the plunge and snagged a fruit tart cat bed for Lydia. I am so excited that my little floof will get to snuggle in this poof (pastry) 😻

2. No special plans today, just work. The weather is good for cooking brittle, so that's what I'm going to do.
3. Either macaroni salad or fruit salad.
#manicmonday

"If you are never to see yourself depicted... not in story nor song nor poem nor painting nor prose... no shred of a tale by some distant kindred soul who saw and knew and felt then as you do now, and else another who loved and bore witness... never see yourself except as crude caricature, mythical beast, or Magdalene penitent... you believe no other like you ever existed. You begin to wonder if you even exist at all."

I'm only in the beginning of this one, but I am LOVING what Bennet has done with this series! The female characters are powerful in the ways that men fear most #insextsyearone #netgalley #queer #graphicnovel #horror

Just started on #NetGalley and this is the fist galley I snagged! Can't wait to start #InsextsYearOne What do you think about the series?

4.5 ⭐️s. This was a page-turning domestic thriller with 2 unreliable narrators. Finn is a man who tends to black out with rage. One night, Finn focuses this rage at his girlfriend, Layla. He blacks out, and when he comes back he can't find Layla and doesn't remember what happened. 12 years later Finn is engaged to Layla's sister Ellen, and with the wedding approaching the happy couple discovers that Layla might still be alive #ARC @StMartinsPress