These are brief encouragements to keep going, reminders that we are each unique, special, loved, and worthy. There‘s nothing particularly earth shattering here, but if you need a pick-me-up, it‘s worth dipping into. I wouldn‘t recommend reading it all in one go, though. It‘s nice to actually finish a book, even if I didn‘t love it. Not being able to stick with anything is very stressful and that makes it harder to stick with something. 🤦🏻‍♀️

#auldlangspine2025 sign ups are live! This is one of my favorite things every year. @monalyisha does an incredible job pairing reader. Thank you, Alyisha for all of your hard work and for doing this year after year. 💖

Ridiculous, delightful, and amusing. The audio narration is great. This is lighthearted escapist fantasy and the perfect distraction from reality.

*Thanks to Zeitgeist Publishing for the free copy.* Being new to herbal medicine, I found this informative & encouraging. I like that the author discusses issues around sourcing herbs. The layout of the book is good, enhancing its usefulness as a reference guide. There‘s some annoying repetition though, maybe poor editing, or legal CYA, but I was internally screaming “yes, yes, consult a medical/herbal professional. I GET IT!”

This is a fun cozy fantasy series and I enjoyed spending time with Reyna, Kianthe, and their griffins. There‘s plenty of adventure, painful puns, a bit of a body count, and of course, pirates. It took awhile to really get going, but overall it was enjoyable. I‘m making allowances for the pacing to simply be a personal problem focusing thanks to the dumpster fire of life right now.

It has been next to impossible to read this week, but I picked up the next #nancydrewbr book because I knew I could power through it in about 90 minutes. Sadly, my efforts were not rewarded. Honestly, I think this is my least favorite of the series so far. It‘s filled with annoying characters, and while the plot made me roll my eyes, as usual, it just wasn‘t nearly as much fun. Even Scooter is like “why did we bother?” 😂

…and now my official TBR. There‘s only 11, which is doable. I‘m pretty sure I‘ll hit 11 books read, so the only question is will it be this 11 or something else. 🤔

My money is on something else. 🤣🤣 #moodreader

The Free Spaces were kind this month! I have high hopes for multiple bingos.

#bookspin
#doublespin
#bookspinbingo

I‘m finally going to have to stop putting off Rednecks now that it is my #doublespin. The #bookspin book is an IG ad I fell for. 😂😂

16 books finished for October and very few were spooky season reads. Oops. In my defense, though, there was a surprise new Smiley, and that overrides just about all other considerations.

I‘ll do my official wrap up later, but I keep up with my #bookspin board all month. I bailed halfway through my bookspin, didn‘t get to the #doublespin, but still managed a #bookspinbingo by 7:30 last night.

Delightful. It was a happy accident that brought me to this series and each installment has been great fun. I love murder mysteries where everyone is trapped on a remote island. Throw in a missing, cursed treasure, two fake (?) mediums, and precocious 8-year old twin boys, and you have a recipe for a fun cozy-ish mystery.

After reading Karla‘s Choice, I had to go back to the original Smiley stories, starting with this first one. It‘s definitely more murder mystery than espionage story, but it introduces a character who will become significant in later Smiley books (and I‘d totally forgotten about that!). This is at least my 3rd time reading this one. It‘s safe to say I love it still.

Not sure why this list felt so hard to put together, but it‘s done. I may start A Pirate‘s Life for Tea before the end of the month. If so, I‘ll swap it out for Curses are for Cads. I just can‘t decide which of them I want to read first. #bookspin
(EDITED TO MOVE REDNECKS TO THE PRB CHALLENGE CATEGORY AND REPLACE ITS SPACE WITH LORE OLYMPUS VOL 7)

Was I nervous about anyone, even Le Carre‘s son, taking on my favorite fictional spy? Yes. I needn‘t have been. Harkaway captures the heart of the original, while still keeping his own style and cadence. I loved being in his version of the Circus, revisiting old friends, and getting a new, deeper backstory to the cold war that exists specifically between Smiley and Karla.

I kind of love when ebook preorders drop a little early. I should go to sleep, but…Smiley and Karla?!? How am I supposed to resist that?

I cannot fully express how much I detested this book. Everything about it was ridiculous, from the structure to the conclusion. The constant breaking of the fourth wall wasn‘t clever. It was annoying. The audiobook narrator‘s voices for various characters, and her inability to keep them consistent, didn‘t help. This is apparently going to be a series. I will not be reading more.

As usual, I devoured this book. It‘s a heartbreaking read. Slaughter is a gifted thriller writer and this latest installment in the Will Trent series is just as compulsively readable, horrifying, and gut-wrenching as the others. Faith‘s description of the case is perfect, but potentially spoiler-y, so I‘ll put it in the comments under a spoiler tag.

I bought these exclusively for the artwork. The illustrations are gorgeous. There‘s a weird gap in the story that makes it feel like a bit of text is missing and I kind of wonder if I got a dud copy since the title is different (I ordered direct from the author). I‘m not sure if a small child would notice, though.

Maybe it's my mood, or maybe it's the audiobook format on this one, but I just found the whole thing to be a tedious advertisement for Adam's TV show, Kindred Spirits. I didn't find anything to be particularly deep, transformative, or comforting. (October selection for The Morbidly Curious Bookclub)

I‘m giving this one a pick with serious reservations. The mystery itself, finding an unknown object in an unknown oak tree, was fun. The desecration of Native American burial grounds? Not so much. I‘m also pretty anti-angst in most of what I read, so the jealousy subplot was annoying and the damage to old oak trees was heartbreaking to read. I also think we should add at least a 1/2 count to #NNK thanks to the goat. 😂 #nancydrewbr

Not thrilled with the Native American plot line, but trying my best to remember the time period in which these were written. I like Clem already, though.

A soft pick - I think I got this translated middle grade historical mystery as a Kindle freebie. I don‘t know how popular the series is in Sweden, but I think something gets lost in translation. The pacing is off and the prose is choppy. The ending is so abrupt. However, I liked the main characters and the setting. The main mystery leads to the discovery of other secrets that I‘m sure will be explored in future books.

I found the fantasy mythology interesting, but the more I think about it, the flatter the characters seem to be. There‘s so much filler leading to the big reveal & cliffhanger, that you lose motivation for many of the characters‘ actions. It‘s clearly set up for at least a duology, I can‘t find any information about book two. It‘s a pleasant enough read, but I don‘t care enough about the story to continue on with the series, if it gets completed

I have read this every October since 2019. It‘s sweet and fun and I just love Deja and Josie. It‘s a graphic novel that just feels like Autumn. You can practically smell the pumpkin patch and the fair foods. Mmm. Now I want s‘mores and kettle corn.

One of my core beliefs growing up was that the US was good. This book puts the final nail in the coffin of my decaying faith in this country. US foreign policy is a monstrous beast. The number of genocides we have encouraged, funded, and instigated, is mind-boggling. This book is thoroughly and thoughtfully researched and the audiobook narration is clear and well done. I knew I‘d be angry when I finished. I am also heartbroken and horrified.

I‘m still working on my two bingo board graphics, but here are my official titles and unofficial/spooky season #bookspin and #doublespin titles. There‘s no way I‘ll finish my October TBR, let alone get to extra bookspin board numbers, but it‘s still shaping up to be a fun month of reading.

I am too impatient to wait for the #bookspin numbers to create my October TBR. This is mostly library books and buddy/bookclub reads, with space holders for #bookspin and #doublespin. I have my official list and I couldn‘t help myself - I created a second list of just spooky season reads and will have unofficial bookspin and doublespin books, too.
EDIT: updated with bookspin/doublespin selections

Thanks to super short reads for #bannedbooksweek, I finished 17 books this month. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was my favorite. I‘m saving my official October TBR for after the #bookspin numbers come out, because right now my list of books for October has 50 books on it. There‘s no way I can read them all. 😂😂

Random pick from Libby, which turned out to be interesting. Having grown up in Florida, I found the insights into alligator poaching, the people who participate in it, and how law enforcement tries to stop it. The narrator was good, too.

I can‘t believe it almost October already. That just feels insane to me. My #bookspin list is mostly library books I‘ve checked out and NetGalley titles. I have a second, seasonal TBR also going. I‘m not sure I have enough titles for their own book spin board, but I may make myself an unofficial second list. Why not? PRB seems to have stopped announcing the official challenge book, so I just listed the category and will pick my own book.

I honestly have no idea how this book got on my radar. I don't love the illustrations, but they aren't bad. The story is a pretty fun fantasy - kind of Narnia-esque, I think, or maybe it's just a common fantasy trope. I enjoyed it and I imagine it would be lots of fun for the target audience. I probably won't go out of my way to read more of the series, but if it pops up on my Hoopla suggestions list and I have check outs left, I'll carry on.

This is clearly a meticulously researched novel. The history here is fascinating and I loved the insights into the minds of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and the behind the scenes diplomatic procedures. However, this was more like reading a textbook than a novel - dry and without emotion. As history, this is excellent. As a novel, I think it struggles. It lacked the sense of urgency I expected from a Cuban Missile Crisis narrative.

It‘s Banned Books Week! I nearly forgot about it and my reading schedule is packed right now with library books that have long hold lines so my checkout time can‘t be renewed, so I tossed together this TBR for the week of mostly short reads. All of these books are on the Top 100 Most Challenged books from 2010-2019 from ala.org.

I continue reading this series for Juliet Tilney and Jonathan Darcy. I want to see them together. I adore them. However, I like each book in the series less than the one before. There‘s too much angst in this one, the result of misunderstandings that could easily be cleared by open conversation, and too much repetition of suspicions. It‘s almost as over the top as old school Nancy Drew novels. So, I don‘t know if I‘ll continue the series.

I loved the first book in the series and was disappointed by this second book. There‘s no sense of urgency, no heated banter, and goddess knows I hate anything that even hints of a love triangle. Hate. It. Plus, the general plot was completely ridiculous, even for a cozy-ish fantasy. I‘m not sure if I‘ll bother with the third book when it releases next year, although I‘d like to learn more of Rosie, so maybe.

I almost forgot about reading Nancy Drew this month! Lots of danger in this one, with several Noggin Knockouts, although this time it‘s not Nancy‘s noggin that takes a beating. 😂 The mysteries here were clever and I liked how they came together. This may be my favorite to date. Random thought: I don‘t remember the plots or titles of the ones I read as a kid, I remember this cover! #nancydrewbr

The summary for this sounds terrible and cheesy. In reality, it‘s compelling and sweet. I didn‘t want to put it down. It‘s a little too high stakes to be cozy fantasy in my book, but it‘s also not high heat Romantasy. I think it has strong Practical Magic vibes.

This is an interesting look at cannibalism throughout the natural world and different types of cannibalism. I appreciate that the author tried to stay away from sensationalism, particularly around human cannibalism and I now know way more about insect reproduction and reproductive organs than I ever wanted to know. The audiobook is well narrated, too. This is the September selection for the Morbidly Curious Bookclub and my #bookspin.

Throughout this fake dating romance, Aspen notes that the novels that followed her breakout debut lacked emotional depth. They were more skilled, better written, but heartless. That‘s how this book feels - devoid of authentic emotion. From a technical standpoint, it meets the genre conventions, but there‘s some truly terrible dialog, whole paragraphs that made me cringe, and don‘t even get me started on the completely ridiculous character names.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS IS THE BEST ROMANCE TROPE. I will not accept arguments to the contrary. Megan Bannen does a wonderful job crafting the primary couple, their initial loathing of each other, and the intense chemistry leading to the inevitable conclusion. The secondary characters are absolutely delightful. The world building is haphazard and I felt lost for the first 50 pages and just finally decided to roll with the weird things.

#bookspinbingo board all set for September! Cannibalism, the September selection for The Morbidly Curious Bookclub, is my #bookspin and The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is my #doublespin.

If you enjoy behind the scenes details on musical theater development, or if you enjoy Hadestown, this will probably be a good fit for you. I am obsessed with the musical, and listened to the original Broadway cast recording as I read. Listening to the finished version of a song and then reading details of how it changed from the original idea, through various workshops, collaborations, and venues was fascinating. 🖤

With literally a minute to spare before midnight, I finished While Idaho Slept, bringing my total books read to 14. The top row were my favorites, but I didn‘t hate anything I finished. Lots of new-to-me authors and new series, which is both good and bad. 😂 #augustwrapup #auguststats

Out next year, I received a digital arc from the publisher via NetGalley. This is everything I dislike in a thriller - rich people behaving badly and not a single likable, sympathetic character (no one to root for). The worst part? I couldn‘t put it down. It‘s a well-written tabloid train wreck and I could not turn away from it. I needed answers and I had to see how the drama played out. Kudos to Hays for keeping me hooked!

The social media marketing boycott of St Martin‘s is officially over, which means I can finally read, review, and probably gush over books I‘ve been dying to read. So, I‘ve changed my September #bookspin list to accommodate a bunch of titles that have been sitting on my NetGalley shelf.

This is a post-apocalyptic, locked room mystery. Its clever and the plot is unlike anything I can remember reading. It‘s well written, with complex characters and seamless world building. The audiobook narrator has a pleasant voice and does a decent job of differentiating between the characters. All in all, this was a good mystery and a pleasant read.

I can‘t believe August is almost over and we‘ve had our first Faux Fall. I am looking forward to real Fall. My list is mostly genres as opposed to specific titles since I have a new class starting up and work gets crazy with the holidays. I don‘t want to feel locked in to specific books. We‘ll see how it goes. 🤷🏻‍♀️#bookspin

I enjoyed being back with the mystery-solving duo of Juliet Tilney and Jonathan Darcy. They're adorable, and I'm rooting for them to become more than just friends. As for the mystery in this book, there are plenty of suspects and red herrings. Gray has done justice to Austen in her exploration of the feelings and motivations of all involved. However, there's also a lot of repetition. I think a sharper editing pen would not have been amiss.

I used to think I didn‘t like Romantasy. Apparently, I just hadn‘t found the right book/author/series. I loved this conclusion to Oraya and Raihn‘s story. I found the character, romance, and story arcs believable (as much as fantasy can be believable). Just gorgeous.