Nightmares are real. Secrets, violence, parental neglect & sibling rivalry unspool in a black family. Racism makes the terrible more terrifying. And dark humor keeps the reader laughing at unexpected times. 4.5 stars for this scary, funny horror novel & sibling drama. #horror #familydrama

Grateful I got to hear Tananarive Due speak about her personal journey writing “The Reformatory” and her thoughts on Jim Crow horror, as well as the Salem Horror Festival‘s theme of “the horror within” as it applies to her work. Loved her terrifying & thought-provoking novel! #horror #racism #ghosts

Suspenseful story (I listened to the audiobook) featuring layers of family secrets. Recommend to dark mystery and thriller fans. Tarot card readings a bonus. Good narration, too. #secrets #audiobooks

Indie bookstore day special editions to gift. Including The Cheese of cheese-touch fame!! #bookhaul #indiebookstoreday

Easter is about hope. May we all find moments of hope in these dark times. Happy Easter to those who celebrate! #happyeaster

Enjoying this audiobook I got from Libby with my library card. Had a fever yesterday, & the upside was I could nap & listen... gotta love checking out a good audiobook with your library card for free! #amlistening #audiobooks

Good read in the "Who Was" series for kids 9-11 who enjoy books like "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory." Dahl had an adventurous life, made a comment or 2 he rightfully had to apologize for, and lost family members to illness/accidents. This is explained in kid-friendly ways, but too complicated for kids under 9. 4.5 stars. #kidlit #roalddahl

Had to buy it used, but Pandito is excited for another volume of Calef Brown poetry! Pandito loves to celebrate poetry month by reading the wonderfully weird poems of Calef Brown! #poetry #kidlit

Can't wait to spend time with Vera later this month! #newin #mysteries

Whether you peacefully march, call & write letters to Congress, boycott, educate, donate to civil rights groups &/or provide childcare, thank you for however you resist, American bookworms! #handsofflibraries #handsoffschools #resist

Happy We Need Diverse Books Day! Panda & Red Wolf have a few suggested reads for kids. ("Ada Twist, Scientist," also great, is somewhere in basement, lol.) #kidlit #kidsneeddiversebooks

This is not a drill, America. Call congress today & demand staff at IMLS be reinstated. Hands off public libraries! #callCongress #defendlibraries

She treasured expressive words as "some girls might have treasured jewels." I'm taking a course to hone the skills to add line editing to my developmental editing service for fiction writers. My prof. suggested we read this book. #writing #editing

📚Americans: Please contact Congress. Even if you think your reps. support libraries, they need reminders to stay strong against the bullies in our gov. Readers across America thank you! 📚#librarymagic #resist

Americans, please take 5 min to take a stand for our wonderful, crucial libraries: https://app.oneclickpolitics.com/campaign-page?cid=9CyapZUB9sorxFLO4J0c&lang=en #protectlibraryfunding

Am reading. #womenwriters #weekendreading

Time to reread & then share Atwood's all-too-relevant classic in our LFL... #Atwood #womenwriters #lfl

Thank you, American teachers & school librarians! I stand with you and Moms Rising to oppose cuts to public education. Parents & Moms Rising appreciate you! Learn more: https://www.momsrising.org #fundeducation #protectourkids #thankyouteachers

👁️Sunglasses & sleep mask needed after reading this Stoker-award-nominated chiller about a Korean-American college student trapped between racist, chauvinistic men and her growing hunger for eyeballs. Unique, clever, scary read during my work trip to Hawaii. I am now afraid of eyeballs. 👁️ #horror #unique #clever #diversebooks

Not for book group or black history month, but he's local and damn it's good! Dolly Cat & I were up late reading... #creepy #great #currentread

Inspiring true story of an African girl who is adopted by an American and works hard to become a ballerina. Great illustrations. White dance teachers try to get her to quit ballet and dance jazz or hip-hop, but she never gives up on her dreams. This true story includes a positive portrayal of international, transracial adoption, so if that offends you, ok, pass on this one. #blackhistory #blackauthors #kidlit

Inventive, character driven, classic soft sci-fi. A woman loses her family & most of humanity to war and is forced to start again amongst a strange race of alien "traders." #5stars #scifi #blackauthors

Classic for a reason. Survival & impossible hope. Stayed in my heart & mind for 20 years. #readthisnow #5stars #blackauthors

Read & learn while those in power intentionally spread confusion. (Pic via Insta Thief of Memory.) #reading

"You must praise the mutilated world..." Trying to find beauty amidst the bleak... for at least four years... #poetry #hope

Friendship. Destruction. Demons of the storm & sea. If Stand by Me were set in Puerto Rico during a hurricane...and there was a monster. One of the best books I read this year! #noir #horror #friendship

Great gift haul from my local indie bookstore, Copper Dog Books, on this small business Saturday! All set for family gifts and my contribution to my book group‘s Holiday Wishes family. #givebooks

Privilege of quiet by the fire at my sister‘s house. Time to dive in to the dark promise of intense noir.

Who went overboard at the Friends of the Library used book sale? Def not me! It‘s all for the library, right? 😉

Laundry or reading horror and fantasy stories? Dolly Cat votes reading. #catlady

It‘s another great day to buy spec fic by African-American authors. #shortfiction #blackauthors

Dolly Cat encourages Americans to vote! Local gov and School Board elections matter too, to support libraries & oppose book bans. Yay, democracy! #pleasevote

If the US election goes the wrong way, I am moving to Three Pines! This audiobook just jumped to the top of my to-listen list! #audiobooks #gamache

Bertha Bones says “Happy Halloween!” She‘s living her best life. #happyhalloween

Not a thriller, but a moving depiction of a brave girl grieving her mother & fighting her eating disorder. Thriller plot thrown in does not maintain tension. It‘s a women‘s fiction book about motherless daughters & anorexia and would be a better book if the first 3 chapters and last 3 chapters weren‘t trying so laboriously hard to make it seem like a thriller. #justok

I enjoyed this audiobook, but wish I hadn‘t finished it before I have to take 6 boys to a corn maze! Corn maze murderer pov I won‘t soon forget… #horror #audiobooks

My local indie bookstore just got this beauty for me. Super excited to buddy-read it with my neighbor by Halloween. #horror #excited

Twisty installment in a good series. Loved the creepy setting: a MN village with a prison nursing home. It‘s full of Finnish immigrants and secrets, but slightly preferred the pov of the female cold case agent in the previous book. Looking forward to the next book. 4.5 stars. #mystery #uniquesetting

Heartwarming story of a young Muslim girl who spends lunchtime in the library while fasting during Ramadan. Based on the author‘s own experience, this sweet picture book has been challenged/banned, like some other children‘s books with strong Muslim characters. #bannedbooks #kidlit

Added banned books to my LFL today. Bottom line: book banning is a threat to democracy. #bannedbooksweek #readbannedbooks #lfl

Great page turner. Van Reed, cult survivor, detective, vigilante-she‘s one hell of a protagonist. The cold case she‘s investigating is compelling. My TBR is huge, but I might jump straight into The Reaping on audiobook!

Happy birthday to Agatha Christie! #mystery

Fun who-done-it with strong AAPI characters. Vera Wong‘s An “auntie” Miss Marple with attitude, & she will solve the case of the dead man found in her tea house-even if the cops don‘t want her to do it. Her band of suspects all all hiding something, yet pull together to help Vera. Very funny audiobook narration. #5stars #mystery

Determined and talented, this Native-American prima ballerina, rarely discussed in mainstream pop culture, was a force in the dance world of the 1940s-1960s. She tried to honor her Osage heritage & live her dreams. For it‘s frank discussion of her father‘s alcoholism, I would recommend this for 9 years and up. #5stars #dance #indigenousculture

When things get crazy, I need poetry & the sea. #reread #poetry #beachpeace

Current lake read. At least last summer‘s trip to Sicily to see my husband‘s family didn‘t involve rats? #amreading #vacation

Haunting in more ways than one! Spooky ghosts, child abuse & racism plague a Florida reform school in the 1950s. The onslaught of cruelty young Robbie & his sister Gloria encounter can be difficult to listen to, but plot twists and a compelling, ghostly ending make it worth it. #ghoststories #horror #StokerAwardnominee

Only good thing about getting pneumonia is audiobooks. This very scary read, which is up for the Shirley Jackson award for best novel is a truly scary look at haunting of the supernatural and societal kind in the Jim Crow American South.

Library book group chose this witty, moving book about a sarcastic octopus, Marcellus, & a widow finding new & unusual friends (like octopi & grumpy Scottish grocers) late in life. Wouldn‘t have been one I would pick, but it was moving, memorable & featured the best sarcastic octopus ever! Surprised by how much I enjoyed this! 5 stars. #litfic #womenover60 #octopusnarrator

So good! Loving this library book group pic. The narrator reading the Pacific Octopus‘ chapter is brilliant!