I was also forced to watch this today by my daughter while we decorated the tree. It still sucks 25yrs later! #WinterGames #TeamEvergreen 6pts

#PoetryMatters #Day1 #Tiny Now this is my kind of tiny poem! #TeamEvergreen 6pts

#DecemberDreams #Day1 #Advent I would love this advent calendar one year! So Santa, I‘ve been a good girl this year!🙏 #TeamEvergreen 6pts

#WinterGamesDailyPhotoChallenge #Day1 #RedCover Starting the games PC with this gorgeous red & gold SE of Circe by Madeline Millar. #TeamEvergreen 6pts

Kicking off #WinterGames & #20in4 #readathon behind as usual, but at least I got my tree finished! Couldn‘t quite fit the angel in the picture but the hubby is thrilled to finally have his train working🚂Still working on my games #bujo but I‘ll get there eventually🫣Starting my reading with the #FurrowedMiddleBrowClub read for Nov/Dec. Good luck everyone! #TeamEvergreen 1pt

I totally forgot to post my #Bookspin #Doublespin & #BookspinBingo list for December! There‘s a few #buddyreads but it‘s mostly a very eclectic mix. Hopefully I‘ll read a fair few of them this month🙏

Bk4 of the Jill Kismet series was as violent & bloody as the first 3. In a good way! The Cirque have come to town unfortunately & Jill is loath to allow a circus of hellbreed & traders inside the city limits,but an ancient pact forces her hand. But when performers start being killed & strange possessions & zombies turn up, she‘s on the run trying to find the common denominator before all Hell breaks loose. Literally. #BookspinBingo #SeriesLove2023

Your 5 presents have been delivered @mom_of_4 to read while you‘re #snowedin this winter.❄️ Hope you like my selections!

My tentative #WinterGames TBR for #TeamEvergreen is a mixture of seasonal reads, thrillers, scifi, mystery & translated stories. There‘s a few ebooks & audiobooks as well so I‘m pretty much set but I‘m sure I‘ll be adding mood reads on top! 26pts

Bk4 & last from #NovelNovember #readathon is the 3rd of the Jill Kismet series.This series reminds a lot of the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie, which I also love! Jill‘s given a dirty cop case but before she can look into it, she‘s almost killed 3times.And finds a scurf infestation linked to a hellbreed. Someone seriously wants her dead. Backed up by Weres she has to rid her city of infection before she ends up gone. #BookspinBingo #SeriesLove2023

Bk3 of #NovelNovember #readathon I finished Sunday. The 2nd Jill Kismet is even more bloody than the last. Kiss is having a busy few months, chasing Traders & hellbreed through the night. Then bodies start turning up mutilated & something big, lethal & smelling of Sorrows is hunting her city. Perry, the hellbreed leader who thinks he owns her, is up to his usual tricks, Jills just trying to keep her city safe. #BookspinBingo #SeriesLove2023

Bk2 of #NovelNovember #readathon I finished this Friday but I was being lazy🤷🏻‍♀️I love this series. A very dark horror/fantasy/magical realism(it‘s hard to pin it in a genre)it‘s a “guilty pleasure” read. Jill Kismet is a hunter,Santa Luz under her protection.When her trainer is killed by a Sorrows, she‘s left alone to keep back the hellbreed that threaten her city. Full of weres, demons & blood. #BookspinBingo #SeriesLove2023 #NoShameReadathon

Bk1 of #NovelNovember #readathon is this months #ClassicLSFBC book. I know this is a classic SFF book by a celebrated author, but wow did I want to punch the MC then go take a shower! Won‘t go into a full review here, I‘ll wait till we all discuss this, but it‘s definitely a so-so from me. Great storytelling, horrible protagonist. #BookspinBingo #NoShameReadathon #Rushathon

I completely forgot about the #NovelNovember #readathon so I‘m a bit behind unfortunately. I managed to document 3hrs of my new #audiobook of a NF I‘ve been wanting to read for ages. It‘s a lot of info to take in so I‘m switching to this months #ClassicLFSBC book for awhile. My goals are:
📚Read 3 books at least
⏱️Read for 24hrs minimum
😵‍💫Clear the nargles from my brain so I can actually concentrate!

Where has the year gone?!?

1. Jaxon
2. Tavis
3. My library.
Those two gorgeous babies are my grandsons & they are my reason for fighting so hard. And I‘m so grateful for my library & for my hubby who brought my dream to life. Love all three of those boys soooo much! Now I just need a granddaughter and life will be as perfect as it‘ll ever get.

What are you grateful for @LeeRHarry @CarolynM @MrsMalaprop

#WondrousWednesday

Not a great pic, but this came today! Of course I‘m already a few chapters in, i know it‘s trashy but I just can‘t help reading them🧛🏻‍♂️❤️‍🔥🖤❤️ The 30th Anita Blake novel in 30yrs, I‘ve been a total sucker for them from the beginning. Jean-Claude is just so gorgeous! And I love Anita‘s take no shit attitude. And her knives🔪

1. The smell of a summer thunderstorm.⛈️
2. A garden full of flowers, especially gardenia, rose & murraya(mock orange).🌹🪻🌺🌸🌼🌻
3. Ozone & sea salt smell of thundering waves at the beach.🌊

#TLT Tagging @CarolynM @Andrew65 @thegirlwiththelibrarybag

My current read is the last piece of Octobers #BookMail. I thought I posted it when it came but apparently not. Strike & Robin are asked to look into a cult by the father of a member. Robin volunteers to go undercover in the Norfolk commune to rescue him, but ends up in the greatest danger she‘s had to face. With connections to Strikes youth with Leda, it takes its toll on the both of them. Reminds me a bit of Scientology so far, to be honest.

Bk10 of my #BookMail is the new one from the author of The Once & Future Witches. Eden, Kentucky is just another dying town, known only for the reclusive 19th century author & illustrator E.Starling, who disappeared when the spooky Starling House appeared. Everyone agrees it should be left to rot, along with its last heir Arthur Starling. But Opal gets an unexpected job offer which could help her brother get out of town.

Bk9 of my recent #BookMail is this absolutely stunning signed edition. A sequel to ADSOM trilogy, it‘s set 7yrs past those events. The Antari, Kell & Delilah are hardly seen anymore. In Hollands absence, another Antari has risen in White London taking the throne & is willing to feed her city with blood but her growing religious fervour threatens to drown them instead. In Red London, King Rhy is facing a rising rebellion.

Bk8 of my #BookMail is the 1st from Novembers mail. A signed special edition of Donna Tartt‘s 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, it‘s set across decades. 13yr old Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother & largely absent, reckless father, he survives an accident that tears his life apart. Alone in NYC, he‘s taken in by a wealthy friends family, tormented by a longing for his mother, he becomes obsessed with a small painting that reminds him of her.

Bk7 of Octobers #BookMail is a gorgeous signed edition of the Big Yin‘s newest book.Another NF from one of the greatest comedians that‘s ever lived, this one‘s about his itchy feet & his life on the road first as a young busker with a banjo,to riding a trike down Route 66,building an igloo on an iceberg, playing elephant polo in Nepal to eating Witchetty grubs in Australia. He‘s bloody brilliant! My dad is an itchy feet person so I totally get it.

Bk6 of Octobers #BookMail is my first ever manga. The first I‘ve ever owned that reads from right to left. And it‘s a very disturbing looking edition as well. A collection of horror, it starts with the story of a couple who encounter a “weeping woman”, a professional mourner sobbing inconsolably at a funeral. After, the wife, Mako, cannot stop crying. Next, a couple enter the suicide forest to die together & encounter an otherworldly torrent.

Bk5 from Octobers #BookMail is the last of the seasonal Dame Agatha short story collections. An anthology of autumn themed stories featuring all of her famous detectives, including Poirot & Miss Marple. Absolutely loving the cover!

Bk4 of my October #BookMail is another translated novel, this one from Japan. In Jimbocho, Tokyo is an old wooden building with a shop filled with 100s of secondhand books. 25yr old Takako has never liked reading, although the bookshop has been in her family for 3 generations. The pride & joy of her uncle Satoru since his wife left him so when Takako‘s boyfriend reveals he‘s marrying someone else, she moves in to a tiny room above the store.

Bk3 of my October #BookMail is this translated Korean novel. I saw “bookshop” and couldn‘t resist! Yeongju is burned out. With a high flying career, marriage & busy life in Seoul, she gives it all up & opens a bookshop. For the first months, all she does is cry but the long hours in the shop give her time to think about what makes a great bookstore & she starts to organise author events & turns it into a much loved part of the neighbourhood.

Bk2 of October #BookMail is this latest NF. Years ago a young Michael Palin, just before his Monty Python days, was given a box full of family history, photos, diaries & letters. Tossing it aside till the pandemic, he found a photo of a Great-Uncle Harry & became intrigued. Research found he died in the Somme in WWI, but not before having a very interesting life. A nice signed addition, now I have two Python alumnus signature.🐍

Bk1 of November is done! Well, really October/November. Finally got around to finishing this today. This was a reread before I start the new Strike, Running Grave. I quite liked this, it was written during Rowling‘s internet war so it‘s definitely a big FU to the keyboard warriors. People have said it‘s hard to follow which is fair, there‘s a lot of chat transcripts, but if you can keep them sorted it‘s a great read. #SeriesLove23 #BookspinBingo

I know you've all been waiting for this! #WinterGames 2023 sign ups are NOW OPEN! Please share to spread the word. Can't wait to get the festive party started!
https://forms.gle/p6XCtCRVMMLbYDwH8

@Clwojick @StayCurious

Bk1 of the accumulated #BookMail from October is this gorgeous edition of a Hansel & Gretel retelling. Ever wondered what happened after they escaped from the witch? Now grown & living in the same village, Forced into poverty, they‘re living off the addictive gingerbread Gretel makes using the witches stolen grimoire. But with mutilated bodies turning up in the forest, the talk amongst the villagers of witchcraft is now their biggest worry.

My final points tally & roundup for #Scarathlon is:

🎃91,666pts!!!!🎃

With 15 books finished, a 16th 70% read, 11 movies & 5 series of spooky TV series enjoyed, audio journaling, colouring craft done, games puzzled through, bucket list items crossed off & having a great time, it‘s another year done & dusted! #SpookyGhostClub

#HumbleHarvest #Day1 #AllSaintsDay Another beautiful but extremely sad poem.

#PoetryMatters #Day1 #Thrush Let‘s see if I can manage another month of photo challenges! This is a beautiful but very sad poem about a Thrush.

Busy trying to work out my stats for October, starting with my #20in4 #readathon final stats. I was reading up until almost midnight LA time, which is the Timezone I‘ve been using for both this and #Scarathlon readathons. I hit all my goals, I read 3 books plus 70% of another chunkster before time ran out, I smashed my time goal by almost tripling it🙌 & I finished Scarathlon🎃with a huge bang🎉Thanks sooo much to our fearless leader, you rock😘♥️

#HalloweenPoetryMatters #Day31 #Halloween And that‘s a wrap on the photo challenges for #Scarathlon🎃 #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

#AutumnPlease #Day31 #Costume A really good YA Horror about teenagers who get slaughtered at a party by people wearing clown costumes. #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

#ScarathlonPhotoChallenge #Day31 #Halloween Happy Halloween my fellow Scarathloners! Of course I had to use Dame Agatha for this prompt🎃 #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

2nd Last minute #PointsBooster Managed to get a bit more this time. #SpookyGhostClub 160pts

One of the last minute #PointsBoosters for #Scarathlon. Got stuck on 2 & barely passed on a few! #SpookyGhostClub 120pts

Finally put together my November #Bookspin #Doublespin & #BookspinBingo list. I can‘t believe it‘s already this close to Xmas! What the hell happened?!?

Bk15 of #Scarathlon & Bk3 of #20in4 & #FinalStretchathon is done! Woohoo!My annual reread of this Dame Agatha classic is always a joy. Love me some Ariadne Oliver! #31x31 #Falling4Books #Rushathon #Spookaween #AfterDarkBingo #BodyCountBingo #ISpyBingo #PromptMaze #NaturalitsyBingo #BookspinBingo #ScaredyCatRC #OctoberBingo #BookishFirst #ThrillerBooksBingo #OctoberRC #HalloweenReadathon #OctoberBookBingo #ReadLikeHellathon #SpookyGhostClub 5286pts

Pumpkin Spice Latte! Strike that off my #HalloweenBucketList #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 11pts

#HalloweenPoetryMatters #Day30 #Ghouls Halloween is almost upon us my fellow #litsyghouls🎃 #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

#AutumnPlease #Day30 #Poison A non fiction about the Queen of Poison herself, Dame Agatha & all the different ways she used them in her books. #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

#ScarathlonPhotoChallenge #Day30 #Treat This right here is my biggest treat. I told my boys when they moved out I‘m turning their bedroom into a library! Took me 7yrs but I finally got one, thanks to hubby♥️ #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

Think I‘ll try this signed edition as Bk15 for #Scarathlon & Bk3 for #20in4 & #FinalStretchathon #readathon See if it grabs my interest or not. #SpookyGhostClub 1pt

#HalloweenPoetryMatters #Day29 #Night I‘ve always loved this Dylan Thomas poem. #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

#HalloweenPoetryMatters #Day28 #Bat My brothers were serious headbangers, I remember sitting in their caravan in the early 80s, surrounded by pot smoke & listening to this at 100 decibels on a record player with massive speakers!🤘🦇😈

#AutumnPlease #Day29 #Betrayal My gorgeous signed copy of this Bridget Collins is perfect for this prompt! #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts

#AutumnPlease #Day28 #Dark A Ballard & Bosch novel, I have this as an ebook so no pretty book photo I‘m afraid! #Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub 6pts