I love the unique history, culture, and diversity of Texas. Houston abounds with cultural attractions like the theater, symphony, and museums. The shops are amazing and abundant. The Houston medical center is world-renowned, a fact that I appreciate as I age! I also have learned over my own travels that we are a food destination, and deservedly so—the food is varied and scrumptious! The climate and scenery are terrible, though. 😂
#MajicMonday

They are not book characters, but they are fictional! I love my Sanderson sisters and Marvel‘s Scarlet Witch! 🖤🖤

This week, mine is from my dog, Oliver. Oliver: We do not care that you had to pause your movie just ten minutes ago to let me out—it‘s time to do it again. We do not care that once we get outside, we spend an inordinate amount of time just staring at nothing or smelling one spot in the grass while you wait impatiently at the door. We do not care because that is the price for having fur babies! 😁
#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday

I love the sound of this word, and also that I am able to work it into conversation upon occasion! 😁
#WeirdWordWednesday

As a child and a young woman, I collected dolls. As a teacher, I have an addiction to office supplies. I‘ve retired but still find myself irresistibly drawn to colorful college-ruled composition books and rainbow packs of gel pens! It‘s a compulsion! 😂 I also collect jigsaw puzzles (I finally have time to work them!), seasonal decorations, and literary dolls and action figures. And, of course, books, the lifelong collection! 📚
#MajicMonday

Some more of Mark‘s humor! 😂 #WhatTheDickens

Mark Tapley is such a great character! I love his sense of humor! #WhatTheDickens

Okay, horror is my favorite so I couldn‘t pick just three! 😫 The tagged book is my favorite out of all of them, though. Being a devout Stephen King fan, I think It and The Shining would be the next two. Hooray for Halloween prompts!! 🎃👻🧟‍♀️💀🧛🏻‍♀️🕷️🖤
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

We do not care that we have an appointment this Friday to finalize my availability as a substitute in my former district. Today is October 1st which means Halloween season is officially here and the #HauntedShelf festivities have begun, so we are not going to think about getting up at 5 am to deal with rowdy teenagers right now! 😂
#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday

Okay, listening to this and feeling mildly queasy—and this is not even hard-core body horror! I guess I‘m a lightweight! 😂 I do know that if I could have five minutes alone with a sharp instrument and Shelly, I think I could overcome my squeamishness . . . 🤬🔪🪓

This popped up in my Facebook feed and I thought it was appropriate for this 1st of October! 🎃👻💀🖤
#WeirdWordWednesday

Here is my #HauntedShelfTBR ! The tall stack are books I haven‘t read, and the shorter will be rereads. This is, in all probability, the “impossible aspirational pile” mentioned in the instructions, but hope springs eternal, right? 😂 🎃🕷️👻🧛🏻‍♀️💀🧟‍♀️👹🕸️
#HauntedShelf #RestlessSpirits

I‘m on Chapter 17 and I have to say—as fond as I am of dear Tom Pinch, I might be even fonder of Mark Tapley! His kindness and thoughtfulness is admirable, but I really love how he subtly puts the often insufferable Martin in his place! 😂
#WhattheDickens

Holy cow, am I loving this series!! It‘s AMAZING!! This is the third in the series and introduced a VERY unusual and sinister villain. If you are spider-phobic, this book might prove difficult for you . . . 😬🕷️🕸️

I recommend The Witching Hour by Anne Rice as a possible October read. It‘s been around awhile, and has a TV series, but the book is different. I‘m a lifelong horror fan, but this book unsettled me more than any other horror book I‘ve read. So if you are looking for actual creeps and chills this spooky season, you might give it a try!
#HauntedShelf #RestlessSpirits

My favorites (all of the spooky persuasion!) are watching scary movies ❤️, going to a haunted house (the attractions only, unfortunately—I would love to go to an actual haunted house!), and we‘ve been on a few awesome ghost tours over the years. Have yet to see a ghost, but hope springs eternal! 😁 Happy spooky season, everyone! 🎃👻🧟‍♀️🧛🏻‍♀️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

My favorites (all of the spooky persuasion!) are watching scary movies ❤️, going to a haunted house (the attractions only, unfortunately—I would love to go to an actual haunted house!), and we‘ve been on a few awesome ghost tours over the years. Have yet to see a ghost, but hope springs eternal! 😁 Happy spooky season, everyone! 🎃👻🧟‍♀️🧛🏻‍♀️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

I love the flow of this word and how it‘s sound mimics its definition. Here are a few masters of mellifluence: Morgan Freeman, my beloved Alan Rickman 💔, James Earl Jones, and the luscious Matt McConnaughey!
#WeirdWordWednesday

You still have time to sign up! It‘s going to be spooktacular! 👻🎃🧟‍♀️🧛🏻‍♀️👹💀

Here‘s the link: https://forms.gle/wmcY27wyx6awp3EfA

We do not care that we got the email authorization today to submit fingerprints for our substitute application because we are still enjoying our lazy days after working since we were sixteen! We will get around to it, eventually. . . . but not today, because today, we don‘t care!! 😂😂
#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday

I enjoyed reading this, but I don‘t know why. Maybe it‘s because of the action and the dragons. I‘m not sure what the reasoning behind making Violet like Mr. Glass in the Unbreakable movies is, but her physical limitations got old. Between her bones breaking and constantly popping out of her joints, I‘m not sure how she finds the time to be the chosen one, but she does. 🙄 Regardless, I enjoyed the world Yarros creates!

1. Got a new ALA book planner!
2. Hit 45K on Litsy!! I tried to catch it right on the money but never seem able to.
3. Read Dickensian prose!
4. Created this mini-arrangement as a gift for a friend. I know it‘s not much, but my mom always did ALL my floral arrangements (she was gifted in that department) so this is uncharted territory for me.
5. My cousin introduced me to “dirty sodas” and a new addiction has been born!
#5JoysFriday

Anthony and Jonas Chuzzlewit are grifters, but at least they‘re honest about it: “Hypocrite! why, we are all hypocrites. [To Pecksniff] The only difference between you and the rest was . . . you would deceive everybody, even those who practice the same art . . . Now I, when I have a business scheme in hand, tell Jonas what it is, and we discuss it openly” (123). Unlike Pecksniff, they‘re open about their chicanery!
#WhattheDickens

Okay, don‘t hate me, but I‘m not a big fan of the pumpkin spice thing. I‘m okay with the coffee, but not so much the Oreos and M&Ms! Hence my low score. I would also like to take this moment to express my EXTREME displeasure that this is the first I have heard of these spooky Cadbury eggs! Why have I never seen them? I have been waiting patiently for Easter every year when I could have had Cadbury goodness at Halloween!! 😡
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

We don‘t care that the school district is taking forever to process our sub application! That just allows me to continue to go to bed at 2-3 a.m. and get up at 10 a.m. (I‘m a creature of the night)! 😂
#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday

I was looking for one weird word that I had run across in The Mayor of Casterbridge, but ran across this one. This one is definitely not as weird as my original choice, but I like the way it sounds. Thanks for the tag, @CBee !
#WeirdWordWednesday

I think my old age really pays off in these challenges. Having been around forever means I‘ve seen a LOT of movies that were made in the 1900s! 😂 My favorites that I watch EVERY time they come on are: Hocus Pocus (can pretty much recite the lines with the actors! 😂), Moonstruck (“Snap out of it!”), and You‘ve Got Mail (such great writing)! Thanks, @dabbe for this fun challenge! ☺️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

Okay, this is super late, but I‘ve never let a little thing like deadlines interfere with my fun! 😄 The three books, The Crucible, Fahrenheit 451, and The Woman in White, are three of my very favorite books. I‘ve also been privileged to teach them, which brings a whole new level of understanding of them. ❤️❤️❤️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

In Chapter 5, we see more of Tom Pinch‘s sweetness and generosity when he meets Pecksniff‘s new pupil—none other than young Martin Chuzzlewit! Tom immediately takes to him and is unperturbed to find himself crowded uncomfortably into the carriage with Martin‘s luggage. My favorite part is Tom‘s visit to the bookstore: “all those rows on rows of volumes, neatly ranged within—what happiness did they suggest!” (78). Tom‘s a reader!!❤️
#WhattheDickens

Dickens‘ tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the Pecksniff daughters are so droll! “Miss Pecksniff . . . was all girlishness, and playfulness, and wildness, and kittenish buoyancy . . . Moderately buxom was her shape, and quite womanly, too; but sometimes—yes, sometimes—she even wore a pinafore; and how charming that was!” (22-23). This is an eye roll in text form! 😂😂 #WhattheDickens
“It was perfectly charming, and worthy of the Pastoral age, ⬇️

We do not care that it was still August when we put up our Halloween decorations! It‘s never too soon to celebrate all things spooky! No offense, Fall, but we‘re ready for things that go bump in the night!! 🎃👻👺🧛🏻‍♀️🧟‍♀️
#WDNCW #WeDoNotCareWednesday #Halloween!

I really liked this—a LOT more than Gone Girl! Granted, we have dueling psychopaths (sociopaths?), but it still came off more believable than Gone Girl. I could identify with Lily Kintner and understand why she makes the choices she makes. I did not see most of the twists coming and was invested in the story. Highly recommend!

1. I had fun getting my Halloween decorations up (and picking up a few new ones)! Yes, I know it‘s still August—so what?!?
2. My niece had her baby. After three days of labor and some complications, mom and baby are doing fine!
3. I love my husband dearly, but he works from home and we‘re ALWAYS together! I just had 4 days home ALONE!
4. Friday night in my recliner, reading with Schitt‘s Creek playing!
5. I discovered HTeaO!
#5JoysFriday

This was recommended to me by a member of my Facebook horror group and he was so right! It‘s only the first book in the series but I can tell I‘m going to love it. It‘s a dynamic crime mystery/thriller with a soupçon of the paranormal thrown in. Charlie Parker is a former police detective who has lost his wife and child in a gruesome murder (this is the very beginning, so no spoilers). His quest for justice takes him on a wild, mystifying ride!

I love how Jonathan Maberry builds complex worlds in his stories that cross over into other series, a la Stephen King. This series pulls in characters from his Rot and Ruin series, as well as his Joe Ledger books. It‘s also clearly the prequel to the Rot and Ruin series, providing the backstory for the genesis of the virus. It‘s unique and science-based, which I like. An action-packed, quasi-plausible zombie apocalypse! What‘s not to like? 🧟‍♀️

Integrating my former library office pictures into my home. Having artwork that celebrates books and reading all over my house fills me with such joy! ❤️❤️

This was . . . different! The name is certainly fitting, because this lady was all kinds of crazy! I listened to the audio and loved how she would just slip some gruesome or outrageous statement into what started out as a normal sentence. I liked the uniqueness of it. I will definitely watch the movie when it comes out.

I just retired from education, so this is a particularly poignant question for me. I loved the kids—most of them were so sweet and so much fun! I loved being a librarian (unfortunately only two years out of my 18 year career) SO much! It was so much fun! And I loved (and still do) the friendships that I made during those years—such wonderful people! ❤️
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

One of the best days of the year!! Make sure you spend some time today celebrating! 📚❤️🎉 #NationalBookLoversDay #BookLoversDay

1. Retirement officially started this week—no more 5 am alarms! ?
2. Also, no professional development, planning, grading, parent calls, state testing, etc. ?
3. My new leisure has allowed me time for my bookish social media, largely abandoned this last school year.
4. My son‘s fiancée said yes to the dress! (This is not her—I can‘t reveal it to the public before she does)!
5. We watched Sinners, an epic vampire movie! ??‍♀️❤️
#5JoysFriday

Oh, my gosh! How am I JUST now learning about this?!? I am so in for Chuzzlewit in September! The weird thing is that I have two other groups (one GR, one FB) who are doing that book at that time, as well. Great minds think (and often read) alike! 😁
#WhattheDickens

It‘s hard to just choose three, and I‘ve definitely seen some of my favorites posted by others today. Here are three of the many I love! All three are from texts that I‘ve taught and passionately love! ❤️
#TLT #ThreeLineThursday

I chose the word “tintinnabulation.” It was a spelling word I had as a 4th grader and it stuck with me ever since—I don‘t know why! 🤷‍♀️I seriously doubt it was in a 4th grade spelling textbook! 😂
#WeirdWordWednesday

A friend in my horror books group on Facebook told me about the Charlie Parker series. It‘s not horror, per se, but it certainly is gripping! There‘s a smidge of paranormal but really too little to count. I‘m really enjoying them (this is only my second) and I feel that I‘m pretty picky when it comes to crime thrillers.

We just got home from a five-week road trip in our trailer—our first long trip! Of course, bookstores had to be visited along the way! This is my multi-state haul. It includes books from Vroman‘s in Pasadena, CA, The Last Bookstore in Burbank, CA, Powell‘s in Portland, OR (of course!!), the Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene, OR, and one from Bend but I forgot the name of the store. 😬 I think I showed remarkable restraint for that many stores! 😂

I‘ve been off of Litsy for awhile (traveling), so this is my first time to see this. @dabbe always has such great challenges! We do not care that the school supplies displays are in full swing in the stores because we have retired!! I never again have to feel that sense of impending doom at the sight of stacks of composition books, notebook paper, and boxes of pencils and Crayola markers! 😁🎉
#WDNCW

Enjoying nature with my book! ❤️📚

Setting up my new reading tracker today. My kids don‘t arrive until next week, so getting ahead of that chaos! ❤️💚

A challenge after my own heart—or waistline! I have a lot of enthusiasm for my favorite cookies but there are clearly many new types of cookies to explore! Thanks for a tasty and festive challenge, @dabbe ! 🎄🎅🍪

My score shows that I have a lot of Christmas movies to watch! I have two lists:

Movies Not Included
1. Jingle All the Way
2. Four Christmases
3. Fred Claus

My Dark and Very Profane Christmas List 🖤❤️💚
1. The Ref
2. Krampus
3. Bad Santa
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

Thanks, @dabbe !