While in Santa Fe, New Mexico yesterday my husband & I discovered George R. R. Martin owns a bookstore there, Beastly Books. We had to stop by! Too bad he wasn‘t there, but he had been in recently and signed a bunch of books. So I was going to be good, but I had to have a signed copy of Old Venus, right?!
Cute little store decorated with Game of Thrones fan art, movie/show props, friendly staff, & lots of banned book support.
🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉

Today I got to visit op. cit. books for the 2nd time. This is the bookstore for people who love the thrill of the hunt & don‘t mind doing some digging. Some of it is organized, but a lot of it is a giant book stack maze. If there‘s something you‘re looking for & you‘re in a hurry, the owner has a keen memory for where things are.
Today I took my husband for the first time & he said This is what our house would look like without me. 😂
📚📚📚📚

I finished my book on a plane ride to New Mexico last night. I thought this was the last book in the series so I was bummed by the ending, but then I read online that there‘s another one coming out in 2025 (Strange Maven)!
I love this series - very feminist, very light romance, amateur sleuthing, and progressively more supernatural as the series continues.
👻👻👻👻

#serieslove2024

Finally got around to my November dream stack - again I have a week off and somehow believe I‘ll be able to accomplish 2 months worth of reading in that time. 😅
🌙 Currently reading Strange Tricks
🐴 When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky - book club
📚 Invisible and Maybe in Another Life for the #keywordreadingchallenge
🌧️ The Wizard of Sun City for #wian2024
🌶️ Remembering Santa Fe - going to New Mexico next weekend for my nephew‘s wedding!

My first check in total for #hauntedshelf was 718.
In the second half of the month I got 1,266 points.

My final total for Team #Flerken is 1,984.

Thank you @PuddleJumper for hosting, helping, and cheering us on!

🌙 Weekend plans: books, bed, and Bombadil!

#DogsOfLitsy
#weekendreads

Feliz Dia de los Muertos to those celebrating! This was taken at the Scottsdale Public Library a few weeks ago - a beautiful shrine to authors and illustrators.
It took me 3 photos to get the entire offrenda, just to give you an idea of the size! 🕯️💀🧂🚰

Thank you @PuddleJumper , Team #Flerken, #HauntedShelf, #Spookoween, and @TheSpineView for encouraging more reading in a busy month!
I didn‘t reach my lofty goal of 6 books, but I got 1 book read that‘s been on my shelf for awhile, 1 book read for book club, & took a big bite out of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. I read enough of an ARC to write a review, & enjoyed an essay related to an art exhibit seen this month. +2 new authors to 🧡!

Turns out having 4 days of stomach flu is good for 1 thing: finally finishing some books for Team #Flerken!
I started this earlier in the month when I got my book tattoo. It was so good 4 hours of needles on my skin went fast. I ironically had to put it aside to read a book for book club. Maybe fortunately bc it is also a nice distraction for stomach flu. This book had me flipping pages fast and shouting No! F*c&! And Aah!
📕🧛🏻‍♂️📕🧛🏻‍♂️📕

1. I teach first grade so yes! I‘m thinking of going as a bat like Stellaluna.

2. Currently reading The Southern Book Club‘s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and it‘s pretty darn good so far!

Thanks for asking @TheSpineView !
#Two4Tuesday

Hey Team #Flerken, I finally finished a book this month!
This was my first by Ann Patchett and I‘ll definitely be reading more by her. This was an excellent story of grief, hope, resilience, love, and MAGIC. The characters seem so real to me. I even feel like I‘ve held the rabbit.
Read if you like unconventional relationships, found family, the American dream, and women uplifting women.
🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇

#HauntedShelf

🎩 I started this yesterday for my book club on Saturday. That‘s the 5th book I‘ve read part of this month, and I have finished 0 for various reasons.
🪚 Sorry team #Flerken! If there were points for starting a book, reading part of a book, dnfing a book…I would be killing it! 😅
🐇 Enjoying this one so far anyway!
🪄 Taken today in line at a new-to-me vegan bakery that was very cute but medium yum.
#hauntedshelf #alwaysbringabook

📚This week I‘ve been trying to finish up the first quarter of the book for a book chat with friends on Sunday. Some of the stories are like wow, women. 💪🏼(P.S. This book is 812 pages so my arms are going to look like 💪🏼 when I‘m done.)
📕 This is not my copy of the book or my bookshelf! I first learned of Phyllis Rose when we rented her house last summer. Without realizing it was hers or who she was we got her house with her amazing library!

🐴 hay ride
🎃 carve pumpkins
🍁 nature walk
👻 haunted house
📖 curl up with a book
🍏 caramel apple
🫘 chili & cornbread
🎃 pumpkin spice

Thanks for asking @Eggs ! #wondrouswednesday
👀 Read this book to my class today, team #Flerken!

Team #Flerken Point Check-In for #HauntedShelf!

I either have 328 or 518.
I read for 1 readathon #Spookoween, and it says 10 points per Readathon.
If that means I read for 1 readathon, 10 points, I have 328 total so far.
If that means for each hour read in a readathon, 20 x 10, I have 518.

Thank you @PuddleJumper !

Went to the Scottsdale Civic Center Library for the 1st time today. Loved this display for National Hispanic Heritage Month!

🏳️‍🌈 Happy National Coming Out Day!
Today I read an essay from this book to celebrate! I became aware of this artist when I went to see the Barbie exhibit at Phoenix Art Museum. Barbie was awesome, but Laura Aguilar is the one I‘ve thought of most since then.
📸 Arizona friends - I urge you to go see Nudes in Nature before November 17th when the exhibit ends. Chicana lesbian photography at its finest.

I watched playoff baseball and read Harry Potter like everyone else in America tonight. 🤩 Had some KC family at the game so I bet you know who I was rooting for! 💙

🔎 I found the word Veil on this page for the #HauntedShelf word search.

#flerken

Thank you @BookBoggart for getting me to 1,000 followers! Thank you to everyone who has been following along on my bookish journey!

Chipping away at this book, hoping I can review it in time.
Taken secretly by my dh today while waiting for the food to come.

I‘m trying, team #Flerken!

#HauntedShelf

Getting crazy on a Friday night with my reading buddy, Nova!
We found DARK and NIGHT on these pages, earning 30 points for team #Flerken !

#HauntedShelf #wordsearch #dogsoflitsy

1. Tagged! Last in a series I‘ve loved!

2. Our neighborhood has a Trick or Treat parade every year. We get up to 100 trick or treaters. We love decorating and handing out candy.

3. Pumpkin Candy Corn 🎃

4. Reading and #Flerken Fun!

#HauntedShelf

The Library Book really slowed down my reading speed last month! A lot of interesting information to take in.

#bookly #booklyapp

Here‘s my October TBR for #HauntedShelf and team #Flerken.

Read
🧙🏻 Strange Tricks
🐇 The Magician‘s Assistant for book club
🪰 Maeve Fly
🧛🏻 The Southern Book Club‘s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Finish
💔 Broke Heart Blues - ARC
⚡️ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Wish me luck!
Do you want to be tagged in everything @PuddleJumper ?
Thank you for leading our team!

Happy Banned Books Week! I got to showcase my banned books shirt collection this week!

Thank you to my husband for being a good sport and taking my picture every day! 🤩

🎈 Here‘s 1 of my King shelves to celebrate!
📚 My favorites so far after 35 years reading him:

11/22/63
Billy Summers
Creepshow
The Dark Tower Series
Different Seasons
Doctor Sleep
Dolores Claiborne
Duma Key
The Eyes of the Dragon
Everything‘s Eventual
Fairy Tale
Full Dark, No Stars
The Green Mile
If It Bleeds
Insomnia
The Institute
Just After Sunset
Later
The Long Walk
Misery
The Outsider
Pet Sematary
Salem‘s Lot
The Shining
Skeleton Crew

🎃 #Spookoween Readathon?! Don‘t mind if I do!

👻 My goal is to read 6 books, and I tagged Strange Tricks because that‘s one I really want to read next month.
🦇 I need to read 19 more books to reach my end of year goal so hopefully this will help push me there!

👯‍♂️ Thanks for hosting @TheSpineView !

1️⃣ Pjs, work clothes, comfy clothes, pjs = 3, 4 if I walk the dogs
Weekends: ~4 depends if we leave the house

2️⃣ I think I‘ve got the right one in the series with the stylist character.
I‘ll tag another in case I‘m wrong.

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView ! 🙌
#Two4Tuesday

🔥This week I‘m reading about the largest library fire in US history. I should say that‘s what it was about at first, but now it‘s evolved into the history of the Los Angeles public library system. I‘m about halfway through and I‘m still into it.
📚 Taken at Burton Barr Central Library today even though it‘s not a library book

If I‘m judging by August, September is almost over but here‘s my tbr for the month anyway:

📚 currently reading The Library Book with my sister #reesesbookclub
🔺Invisible for the #keywordreadingchallenge
💪🏼 The Norton Book of Women‘s Lives for a buddy read - first quarter done by next month
💔 Broke Heart Blues - #EarlyReviewer
🪄 Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire Illustrated Edition for #bannedbooksweek

I need a time turner…

🥳

#bookly

#Two4Tuesday

1. I don‘t know if I can pick a favorite, but this year we had a blast at the museum in Gateway Arch National Park.
2. I love this series, and I wish The Essex Witch Museum was a real museum I could visit. I have 2 books left to finish the series, hopefully this year!

Thanks for asking @TheSpineView !

30 years ago today I got my “laugh now, cry later” tattoo. I don‘t regret it, but I‘m ready for something more relevant to my life now. Stay tuned for new things to come…

Anyone else thinking about getting a bookish tattoo?

#tbr #tattootbr

Dust Child is a fictional story set in Vietnam told from 3 POVs & timelines: an Amerasian orphan dealing with racism & poverty as he makes his way in life, an American veteran dealing with PTSD from the war, & a young Vietnamese woman who moves to Saigon during the war. It‘s sad but the writing is excellent. It took me to Vietnam every day.
Read if you like sister stories or historical fiction.
🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃
The author kindly commented on my IG post!

A 599 page book + back to school = 1 book finished

But I finished it! And it was a vg book!

Hope you had a better August!

#bookly #booklyapp

🇻🇳 I‘m reading Dust Child for book club.

💀 Photo taken downtown Phoenix on stormy Friday evening

✔️ author‘s name is in the wrong order on the tagged book

#alwaysbringabook

If you liked The Eyes of the Dragon you will love King‘s latest dip into the fairy tale genre pool. This one‘s centered around a 17 year old modern day boy & his love for an old German Shepherd named Radar.
Yes, he got all the fairytale elements in there making them fresh with King twists.
Read if you like fairytales, Stephen King, or dog stories.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Thank you @BarkingMadRead for hosting #losersclub! Sorry it took me 1 month to read.

If you‘ve seen the Netflix show (I took the liberty of improving the annoying Netflix promo fake sticker on the cover) the book is nothing like it at all. The only thing the same is a haunted house and the names of the characters. That was ok with me because I liked this story too. It totally gave me the creeps!

👻👻👻👻

This was an excellent historical fiction/magical realism story about 4 generations of Dakhota girls & their dolls. The first 2 generations of girls are forcibly placed in “Indian Schools” & navigate the disturbing experience with help from their dolls. The next 2 girls & their dolls have generational trauma to live with as a result. Wonderfully written!
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

📚 Read for book club
📚 Taken with a mini Cabbage Patch doll from my childhood

Friday was Educator Appreciation Night at my local independent bookstore which means free book swag for my treasure box, and used picture books for my students and class library! For myself they also had a 20% discount so I got Weyward (wish my picture could capture the shimmer of the insects! 😍) and Uncommon Type (I read the first story - Tom Hanks, wow!). I got The Scorpio Races for free (can‘t resist a horse story).
Thank you Changing Hands!

📚 Happy National Book Lovers Day from Bombadil! We love reading books together by the pool.

🐕 Currently reading Fairy Tale and we can‘t wait to have more reading time together this weekend. There‘s a German Shepherd named Radar in the story, Bombadil‘s favorite part.

📚 What are you reading, fellow book lovers?

#DogsOfLitsy
#NationalBookLoversDay

I finished 12 books between the last day of school & the first day of school.

I read:
🦈 Jaws
🐦‍⬛ The Book of Delights
🍆 Dial A for Aunties
👻 The Haunting of Hill House
👠 Under the Duvet
♦️ Crows and Cards
☕️ Something I Might Say
🌺 Maui Ink: Supernatural Tales
🐪 Cress
🧑‍💻 Billy Summers
👶🏽 A Council of Dolls
🇺🇸 The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy

I had a great reading summer: prizes from the library, good books, & I read on a train!

I‘m pretty sure this is a dream tbr for this busy month. But my goal is:

🪶 When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky and The Library Book for the #KeyWordReadingChallenge

📕 Dust Child for book club

💪🏻 The Norton Book of Women‘s Lives - buddy reading with 2 friends. We‘re going to read it in quarters over the next year.

🦮 Fairy Tale - currently reading for the #losersclub with @BarkingMadRead

Stay cool! 😎

#bookclub #tbr #augusttbr

Aw summer reading! I‘m sorry to see those lazy days go, but I got some good reading done and 4 more books off the tbr pile this month.

#bookly

I got a Bingo for July #bookspinbingo !

#Bookspin - The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy ✔️

#DoubleSpin - Jaws ✔️

Also read on the board, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Something I Might Say by Stephanie Austin.

Thank you @TheAromaofBooks !

Who else had a shelf full of these books?

😢

My county‘s reading program ran from June 1-July 31. I read 4,515/1,000 minutes for my Summer Reading Game! Nice to be an overachiever! 😅

The big prize was to choose a new book from a big list of books and I chose Never Whistle at Night - it‘s been on my wishlist. I also got 4 tickets to a WNBA game, a state park pass, and a coupon for a free used book from the library bookstore. I love my library!

#justreadppl

This week I read my friend‘s book, essays of grief, first with the loss of her father followed by the loss of her grandmother. I thought I already read them all, but discovered I hadn‘t when I had to read a local author to get BINGO. Reading them compiled & sequenced, I got to experience the essays all again in a new way, and read some new material too. I was really moved by the progression of pain throughout. You should read it too.
☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️

🦉📜 An owl brought my letter tonight! Time to go back to Hogwarts.

#Ravenclaw

The author makes the case that the Doctrine of Discovery fueled America‘s historically terrible treatment of Indigenous people and Black people. I like how the author divided the book into 3 parts of the country, with 3 similar patterns of land grabbing and lynching, and how the communities are reckoning with their history to create a “path forward” today.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Read for my book club and it‘s also my #bookspin book!
#bookspinbingo

This year is the 50th anniversary since Jaws was first published. The story still holds up after all this time. We‘re unfortunately still asking what‘s more important: human lives or money?
🚧 This is a banned book!
I have seen the movie many times over the years, & I enjoyed most differences between the two.
Speaking of movies, I was randomly rewatching Back to the Future 2 & laughed at the Jaws 19 prediction.
🦈🦈🦈🦈

#doublespin #bookspinbingo