I really liked this—a LOT more than Gone Girl! Granted, we have dueling psychopaths (sociopaths?), but it still came off more believable than Gone Girl. I could identify with Lily Kintner and understand why she makes the choices she makes. I did not see most of the twists coming and was invested in the story. Highly recommend!

1. I had fun getting my Halloween decorations up (and picking up a few new ones)! Yes, I know it‘s still August—so what?!?
2. My niece had her baby. After three days of labor and some complications, mom and baby are doing fine!
3. I love my husband dearly, but he works from home and we‘re ALWAYS together! I just had 4 days home ALONE!
4. Friday night in my recliner, reading with Schitt‘s Creek playing!
5. I discovered HTeaO!
#5JoysFriday

This was recommended to me by a member of my Facebook horror group and he was so right! It‘s only the first book in the series but I can tell I‘m going to love it. It‘s a dynamic crime mystery/thriller with a soupçon of the paranormal thrown in. Charlie Parker is a former police detective who has lost his wife and child in a gruesome murder (this is the very beginning, so no spoilers). His quest for justice takes him on a wild, mystifying ride!

I love how Jonathan Maberry builds complex worlds in his stories that cross over into other series, a la Stephen King. This series pulls in characters from his Rot and Ruin series, as well as his Joe Ledger books. It‘s also clearly the prequel to the Rot and Ruin series, providing the backstory for the genesis of the virus. It‘s unique and science-based, which I like. An action-packed, quasi-plausible zombie apocalypse! What‘s not to like? 🧟‍♀️

Integrating my former library office pictures into my home. Having artwork that celebrates books and reading all over my house fills me with such joy! ❤️❤️

This was . . . different! The name is certainly fitting, because this lady was all kinds of crazy! I listened to the audio and loved how she would just slip some gruesome or outrageous statement into what started out as a normal sentence. I liked the uniqueness of it. I will definitely watch the movie when it comes out.

I just retired from education, so this is a particularly poignant question for me. I loved the kids—most of them were so sweet and so much fun! I loved being a librarian (unfortunately only two years out of my 18 year career) SO much! It was so much fun! And I loved (and still do) the friendships that I made during those years—such wonderful people! ❤️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

One of the best days of the year!! Make sure you spend some time today celebrating! 📚❤️🎉 #NationalBookLoversDay #BookLoversDay

1. Retirement officially started this week—no more 5 am alarms! ?
2. Also, no professional development, planning, grading, parent calls, state testing, etc. ?
3. My new leisure has allowed me time for my bookish social media, largely abandoned this last school year.
4. My son‘s fiancée said yes to the dress! (This is not her—I can‘t reveal it to the public before she does)!
5. We watched Sinners, an epic vampire movie! ??‍♀️❤️
#5JoysFriday

Oh, my gosh! How am I JUST now learning about this?!? I am so in for Chuzzlewit in September! The weird thing is that I have two other groups (one GR, one FB) who are doing that book at that time, as well. Great minds think (and often read) alike! 😁
#WhattheDickens

It‘s hard to just choose three, and I‘ve definitely seen some of my favorites posted by others today. Here are three of the many I love! All three are from texts that I‘ve taught and passionately love! ❤️
#TLT #ThreeLineThursday

I chose the word “tintinnabulation.” It was a spelling word I had as a 4th grader and it stuck with me ever since—I don‘t know why! 🤷‍♀️I seriously doubt it was in a 4th grade spelling textbook! 😂
#WeirdWordWednesday

A friend in my horror books group on Facebook told me about the Charlie Parker series. It‘s not horror, per se, but it certainly is gripping! There‘s a smidge of paranormal but really too little to count. I‘m really enjoying them (this is only my second) and I feel that I‘m pretty picky when it comes to crime thrillers.

We just got home from a five-week road trip in our trailer—our first long trip! Of course, bookstores had to be visited along the way! This is my multi-state haul. It includes books from Vroman‘s in Pasadena, CA, The Last Bookstore in Burbank, CA, Powell‘s in Portland, OR (of course!!), the Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene, OR, and one from Bend but I forgot the name of the store. 😬 I think I showed remarkable restraint for that many stores! 😂

I‘ve been off of Litsy for awhile (traveling), so this is my first time to see this. @dabbe always has such great challenges! We do not care that the school supplies displays are in full swing in the stores because we have retired!! I never again have to feel that sense of impending doom at the sight of stacks of composition books, notebook paper, and boxes of pencils and Crayola markers! 😁🎉
#WDNCW

Enjoying nature with my book! ❤️📚

Setting up my new reading tracker today. My kids don‘t arrive until next week, so getting ahead of that chaos! ❤️💚

A challenge after my own heart—or waistline! I have a lot of enthusiasm for my favorite cookies but there are clearly many new types of cookies to explore! Thanks for a tasty and festive challenge, @dabbe ! 🎄🎅🍪

My score shows that I have a lot of Christmas movies to watch! I have two lists:

Movies Not Included
1. Jingle All the Way
2. Four Christmases
3. Fred Claus

My Dark and Very Profane Christmas List 🖤❤️💚
1. The Ref
2. Krampus
3. Bad Santa
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

Thanks, @dabbe !

I just finished listening to this and loved it! It‘s a clever, snarky, darkly humorous whodunnit. The audio has multiple narrators (all excellent) and it really brings the podcast element to life. Highly recommend!

My favorite holiday reads are:

1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (of course)
2. Nos4A2 by Joe Hill
3. The Cajun Night Before Christmas

Thanks for the tag, @dabbe

#TLT #ThreeListThursday

I finally have time to post again and I‘m catching up on my tags. I clearly haven‘t spent much time watching the older classics! Thanks for not forgetting about me, @dabbe , and keeping me in the loop! ❤️ #TLT #ThreeListThursday

The Boy‘s Life is paperback and has an obvious crease on the cover. It‘s in fair to good condition. Betty and The Jane Austen Book Club are both hardbacks in excellent condition.

I‘ll have more tomorrow!
#Book2Book

Water for Elephants is a hardback library copy in very good condition. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is paperback in excellent condition. #Book2Book

Both Juliet and The Duchess are paperbacks and in excellent condition. Juliet is a signed copy.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post—it has been a VERY hectic week!

#Book2Book

Wow! So many iconic songs! My favorites are still from the 70‘s/80s era, but so many legends like Etta James, Marvin Gaye, etc. in the list. Also, I forgot to include “Rocket Man” by Elton John! ❤️ Thanks for the tag, @dabbe !
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

1. Podcast—I‘m never in favor of anything that requires me to be on camera!
2. I go back to work tomorrow 😭 so my summer is over, but I‘d like to read Fourth Wing in August!
#Two4Tuesday

I‘m so excited!! Nineteen books ahead of schedule! This has never happened before! This is the first year I have kept track of how many pages I have read every day, and it has really been motivating.

July was a GREAT reading month! My favorites were:
1. Frankenstein - I‘m embarrassed that it took this long for me to read this classic. Loved it!
2. Demon Copperhead - I love that Kingsolver took the work of one of the OG social justice warriors (Dickens!) to illustrate the societal scourge of opioid addiction. Well done!
3. The Fisherman - this horror novel lived up to every rave review I‘ve ever read for it (and there were a lot)!
⬇️

“And what about the cook, Marco Antonio, a one-legged, no-ear grotesque straight out of Gormenghast” (107). Nothing like reading a book that has lingered forever on your tbr only to have it shame you for ANOTHER book that has been on your tbr way too long! 🤦‍♀️ Okay, okay, I‘ll read Gormenghast next! 😂

I‘m a day late, but it‘s summer, so it‘s all chill, right? 😁 I‘m trying to stay chill—I go back to work next week! 😫 Anyway, here is my library. I spent weeks last summer organizing it by genre. It‘s alphabetical by author within the genre. I had just gotten to the point where I couldn‘t find stuff! This room is definitely my happy place, and it‘s the only library I have left since my librarian position was cut. 😭
#WondrousWednesday

OMG!! Now they‘re reenacting my favorite Poe short story!! IYKYK!! I‘m in English teacher heaven right now! ❤️😂😂

“Everybody else going through the terror and joy of their first crushes, their first dates, their first kisses while Oscar sat in the back of the class, behind his DM‘s screen, and watched his adolescence stream by. Sucks to be left out of adolescence, sort of like getting locked in the closet on Venus when the sun appears for the first time in a hundred years” (23). A nod to Bradbury!! ❤️❤️

“High school was . . . for a fat sci-fi-reading nerd like Oscar, a source of endless anguish. For Oscar, high school was the equivalent of a medieval spectacle, like being put in the stocks and forced to endure the peltings and outrages of a mob of deranged half-wits” (19).

Now a character has used “Jack Torrence” as an alias! I‘m loving this book! ❤️❤️

I am absolutely loving the Pendergast series! The mix of crime thriller with a supernatural twist is the perfect combination. I‘ve enjoyed the first books, but I‘m super-excited about this one because it gives a nod to one of my favorite literary villains, Count Fosco!! ❤️❤️

I did marginally better this week, but there were still SO many bands I didn‘t recognize! The funny thing is that most modern music that is forced on me (through commercials and shows/movies), I actually enjoy! Like the 50 times I‘ve watched the video of Tom Holland‘s lip sync performance to Rihanna‘s “Under My Umbrella.” It‘s a good song! 😂 Can‘t wait for the next list! Thanks for the tag, @dabbe ! ❤️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

1. I‘m an English teacher and love wordplay, so I liked the multiple meanings in my Litsy handle. I‘m an upbeat person, so I‘m usually happy; therefore, my life is lit (great). Also, I‘m all about books, both personally and professionally, so my life is lit(erature)! 😁
2. Driving, household tasks, bathing, and exercising.
3. Tagged book. Just finished audio of The Warm Hands of Ghosts.
#WondrousWednesday

Just as Charles Dickens used his stories to shed light on the societal ills of his time, so Kingsolver uses this revamped tale to emphasize the pervasiveness of the opioid crisis. I feel that it‘s a little like cheating—she never had to work out which characters get together, die, etc. Dickens did that! I loved figuring out each character‘s mirror in David Copperfield, though. It also lacks the humor Dickens weaves throughout. Still loved it!! ❤️

1. My amazing daughter was here all week for a visit!
2. We had a great time at my sister-in-law‘s lake house.
3. We spent the day Wednesday in Galveston enjoying the beach and some shopping on the Strand.
4. During the aforementioned shopping, I acquired this Scrooge nutcracker!!
5. We were graced with a cold front this week. In Texas. In July. That‘s pretty much as believable as snow at the equator. The highs were 92-93!
#5JoysFriday

My musical tastes are firmly mired in the 70s and 80s, so pretty much anything from the 90s on is foreign to me, which accounts for my score. There were some great songs on this list, and my favorites are:
1. Rosalita
2. Don‘t Fear the Reaper
3. Freebird (iconic)!
4. Under Pressure (no other band will EVER be like Queen!)
5. Africa

Great list, @dabbe !
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

Enjoying the beach with Demon Copperhead!

I loved most of it:
1. The premise—serial killers who take out bad guys.
2. Rowan reminded me of Cassidy from Preacher, whom I love!!
3. The weirdest meet-cute EVER!
4. The humor and dialogue worked for me.

Weirdo that I am, I was fine with the eye-gouging and cannibalism, but the sex scenes were TMI! I don‘t think I‘m a puritan—I feel like there are other women who read those passages and said not no, but hell no! Overall, I enjoyed it!

Listening to this while I wait for Beryl to hit! ⛈️🌊💨☔️

1. My parents named me Cindy with the reasoning that it‘s what everyone would call me if I was named Cynthia, but I much prefer Cynthia (SO many people call me that!). I love long, traditional names like Arabella, Letitia, Catherine, Sabrina, etc. We named our daughter Victoria Elizabeth! 😁
#Two4Tuesday

No, but I often don‘t start a series until it is well-established. I am not one of these who are constantly ingesting new releases. I have a lot of book media and am aware of the trending titles, but I don‘t rush to pick them up. For example, I saw the juggernaut Fourth Wing all over the internet and while I did buy the book and the sequel, I still haven‘t started it. I plan to this summer, but other books‘ voices are louder! 😄
#SundayFunday

My dear friend recently went to Ireland and Salem, MA, and she thoughtfully brought me a few keepsakes from those regions. Of course, they were book-related! 🥰 I love having friends who know me so well!

I‘m a little disappointed with this list—it‘s way too heavy on the kid movies. I know they are money makers, but there are other huge movies from that era, like Twelve Years a Slave, Knives Out, The Quiet Place, etc. that weren‘t even included. My favorites on the list were Thor: Ragnorak, Deadpool (both), and Guardians of the Galaxy (all). I can‘t believe they didn‘t have What We Do in the Shadows—one of my GOATs!!
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

1. “Books break the shackles of time—proof that humans can work magic.” Carl Sagan
2. “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” W. Somerset Maugham
3. “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass
4. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” Stephen King
Okay, I‘ve limited it to four! 😄
#WondrousWednesday