How do you choose between a murder mystery that pays homage to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and a WWII book that focuses on Italy after the fall of Musolini? Answer: you don't. I chose one as my free first reads pick and pre-ordered the other.

Well now I'm a total mess, wondering if my Pepsi tried to curl up in my arms while I cried over him in my lap. 😭😭

Ezekiel 48 from the Buggre Alle This Bible that Aziraphale owns. Made me laugh out loud 😂😂

An employee loaned me this book after I told him how difficult it is to get from the local library. Excited to start reading it.

When a violinist is brutally murdered in his locked room in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard sends inspector Ian Frey to investigate alongside the very Scottish Detective McGray. McGray's division investigates the supernatural and Frey is a sceptic. This story had exactly what I was looking for in an October read: atmosphere, insanity, a cursed musical instrument, devil lore. It was spooky at times, funny at others, and intense.

A man consumed by a meaningless life is going to do something he‘s never considered doing before. He‘s going to enjoy the day…

For Jonathan Grief, the day starts like any other, but all it takes to put a crimp in his routine is one small annoyance. Someone has left a leather-bound day planner with the handwritten title Your Perfect Year on his mountain bike. In his search for the owner, he begins to find meaning in his own life.

"That boy looks like every dark corner of a fairytale. The wolf in bed. The dark apple in the witch's palm."

Patricia McKillip knows how to weave a beautiful tale. I am in awe of her ability to create beautiful, magical worlds that draw me in. They seem so simple, but are always written so deftly and the emotion of them is so subtle and genuine.

"You are not terrible", he said softly, "and I think you do love him, or you would not be so grieved. Be patient. It will be over soon."
"Soon is such a long word," she whispered.

This month for National Library Card Sign up month, my local library was offering newly designed library cards for free. I love my new card! The old one was a plain, ugly yellow. This is so much better. Of course I had to pick up a couple of murder mysteries to read too.

This exchange made me laugh.

"He wished he didn‘t know what he had lost. Maybe then every day wouldn‘t feel like this. As if he had once known how to fly, but the skies had shaken him loose and left him with nothing but the memory of wings."

My two picks for Amazon first reads this month. The tagged book is about a young witch in France who emerges from a curse to find the vineyard she was supposed to inherit is in possession of a stranger. She must find out who put the curse on her. The second book is about women in WWII who make dresses for the wives of Nazis while actually being in the French resistance. I guess it was a French kind of month.

Went to the Barnes and Noble book haul and got these books for $11. These were the two books I purposefully went looking for and I was a good girl and didn't get any others, although I did look around.

1) Shadow of the Wind
2) Anne of Green Gables
3) Ha! Countless books on my TBR
4) Women Wartime Spies. I actually didn't rate it, but it was fascinating.
5) @Heatherinterrupted @BookAndABrew @RavenclawPrincess913

Everyone, my bestie @Heatherinterrupted just joined Litsy! Give her a warm Litsy welcome and go follow her. 💜

This book was beautiful. If Green Angel was about grief, then Green Witch was about learning to live again. Alice Hoffman really is a genius and I know these books will stay with me a long time.

"She takes a fishhook from her pocket. It‘s small. It looks light, but when she places it in my hand, it is surprisingly heavy. 'This is how much love weighs', she tells me. 'Nothing if you don‘t take it when it‘s offered. Everything if you accept what‘s given to you.'"

"I said I had nothing and that people with nothing are unable to dream. But I was wrong. Dreams are like air. They never leave you. It takes less than nothing to begin. Start with a pile of rocks. Moonstones, night stones, stones the color of snow. Start with heartache, thorns, vines. Let there be mud on your clothes, nails in your boots, ink on your skin, pain deep inside you. Let it grow and don‘t be afraid."

"Esk gazed down defiantly. Granny glared up sternly. Their wills clanged like cymbals and the air between them thickened. But Granny had spent a lifetime bending recalcitrant creatures to her bidding and, while Esk was a surprisingly strong opponent, it was obvious that she would give in before the end of the paragraph." Ha! Gotta love Terry Pratchett's wit.

A beautifully written book about loss and moving on. Alice Hoffman does magical realism so well and this book was no exception. A deceptively simple book with such deep meaning.

This book is only $.99 today on Kindle and Nook! This book is the start of a fantastic series. I couldn't put this book down when I read it. Stayed up until 3am to finish it. Highly recommend.

"As far as I was concerned the future was a book I could write to suit myself, chapter after chapter of good fortune. All was right with the world, and my place in it was assured, or so I thought then. I had no idea that all stories unfold like white flowers, petal by petal, each in its own time and season, dependent on circumstance and fate. The future is something no one can foretell."

Going to start reading this book. I have an hour before I have to get ready for work and reading seems like a good pastime.

So I got distracted and read a different book before picking this one up. It was definitely not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more of an epic fantasy, but it was more Victorian kind of Steampunk with faeries. It was a quick read and I enjoyed it and plan on continuing the series.

"Time won't fix me. Time allows me to become more skillful at hiding how much I hurt inside. Time makes me a great liar. Because when it comes to grief, we all like to pretend."

Happy National Book Lover's Day! Today, I set up our TBR shelf in the library/reading nook in our new apartment. I told my husband there's still room for more. 😂😜

Haven't been on here a lot lately as life's been a bit crazy. This is my Amazon first pick for the month and it sounds so good.
Berlin, 1989. As the wall between East and West falls, Miriam Winter cares for her dying father, Henryk. When he cries out for someone named Frieda – and Miriam discovers an Auschwitz tattoo hidden under his watch strap – Henryk‘s secret history begins to unravel.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the first book in the series. It took me a while to read it through the chaos of moving, but I found myself thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. Looking forward to the next book.

After much deliberation, this will be my next Kindle read. Edinburgh, 1844. Aileana Kameron only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady, she's spent the year since her mother died developing her ability to sense the presence of Sithichean, a faery race bent on slaughtering humans. She has a secret mission: to destroy the faery who murdered her mother. But when she learns she's a Falconer, her quest for revenge gets more complicated.

This book is free on Kindle today: David Hobbs, vacationing with his wife Miriam, inadvertently stumbles upon a small cloth 'keepsake' bag and a human tooth. Miriam begs David to hand the bag and tooth over to park officials, but he ignores his wife's pleas and secretly keeps the items. The action opens a doorway that had been closed for nearly a hundred years and unleashes hell on earth, or at least hell in the lives of David and Miriam.

This book is free on Amazon today. The description was this: An ex-nun, possessed by a demon, solves mysteries with her demon pal while running a tattoo shop in Cobbler Cove. Made me laugh, so decided to buy it.

This month, Amazon is letting you pick out two free books for first reads. These are my two choices. The tagged book is about a woman who finds a picture of her grandmother in the arms of a Nazi and sets out to find out the story behind it. My second choice is a 1920's murder mystery where the main character's inheritance is at stake.

Going to read this book next. I enjoyed the first one, so hopefully I'll like this one too.

Finished this book...finally. It's been difficult for me to read the past month. I've been reading mostly cozy mysteries, as that's all I can get into, but I've had this library book for a while and I've renewed it as many times as allowed and it's due today. I really did enjoy it, as I have enjoyed all the Lady Darby mysteries. I want book eight already.

My husband and I went on a road trip today. We went to an independent local bookstore and this is what we bought.

I think it's safe to say I love this series. I've now read the first two books, a novella, and am going to start on the third book in the series. It's a fun series that is easy to read, so I think it helps with mourning my kitty, Pepsi. It's just enough to keep my mind off of it, but isn't difficult to get into.

Today, I had to say goodbye to my Pepsi boy. He loved books almost as much as I do. My husband always said he was definitely my cat. I'm heartbroken and don't know what to do with myself. 💔 I'm going to try to read because I don't want to do anything else.

I'm so glad I took the chance on this book. I loved it! I was immediately invested in the story and the life of the main character, Mei. Even though my life is very different from hers, I felt like I could relate to her, maybe because I too am a daydreamer. I had a hard time putting it down. When I was getting closer to the reveal, I found my heart was pounding as I read. I definitely recommend this one!

My Pepsi hasn't been feeling good for about a week. 😿 We have medicine for him and he's definitely better than he was, but still has more improvement to make. He decided to take a nap on some books while I read.

The dedication in the front of the book. Lol.

This cozy mystery set in Japan is free for Kindle on Amazon. At first, I wasn't certain if I wanted it(not certain why, as I love Japan). Then I saw the series is called Miso Cozy and I laughed. Starting it today.

Got these three books today at a local used media store for $14. I'm so excited to read King of Scars and The Rules of Magic. The Night Circus both my husband and I love but didn't own, so now we can re-read it.

"Is that a two-way mirror? Good. I don't like the idea of there being people on the other side of a mirror. It's creepy." I hate mirrors! They totally creep me out, especially dark ones. Glad I'm not alone. Lol. This quote is actually from the book A Dash of Pepper, but it's not on Litsy, so I tagged another book by the author.

"Wisdom tolerates blustered opinions, the better to dismiss them later with discovery. "

"Sometimes he feels certain that if men could but be made to hold still and think at length on the vast incomprehensibility of creation, wars would cease altogether."

My husband and I are currently living month to month until we find a new place to live. We've been slowly packing. Today, I decided to start packing up the books in our bedroom. Eight boxes so far and there's still five more shelves of books, plus my tbr books in the living room. Sigh.

My husband bought me this book two years ago. I've decided to finally read it.

I stayed up late to finish this, knowing I'll be tired in the morning. But I couldn't put it down. Love this series! 💜

My Amazon first pick for the month. When Amy‘s estranged husband offers to watch their kids for a few months, it‘s no surprise Amy is a bit thrown by the idea of having time to herself. Amy ventures to New York City, where she embarks on a “momspringa” and attempts to reinvent herself. She learns to let love back into her life—and really, how to live again. Her journey is punctuated by moments that are very, very funny and also deeply insightful.