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willaful

willaful

Joined April 2022

Pretty sure my last words are going to be “where did I put my Kindle?“
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willaful
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#Scarathlon #PhotoChallenge Team #MischiefAndMayhem

I wanted to pick something for this prompt I'd actually want to read, and I figured Kingfisher wouldn't let me down.

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willaful
Sheets | Brenna Thummler

Sweet concept and characters but waaaay over the top; the ludicrousness of the villainy and the abject misery of the reality don't sit together comfortably.

My second #Scarathlon book.

#20in4

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willaful
Truly Devious: A Mystery | Maureen Johnson
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A real page-turner and a @#$!#% cliff-hanger! Do not start this without the next book available.

#Scarathlon word search words: blood=13, killer=6, ghost=4, dark=67, spooky=3, evil=1, crime=37, trick=4, treat=1, costume=6, party=23

#CastTheDie #1

Third book finished during #20in4 . Correction - fifth! (But only 2 were started during it, and one was a short graphic novel.)

@Andrew65

PuddleJumper Amazing! 18h
Andrew65 They all count, whenever you started them or whatever the size of books, so 5 it is. Brilliant 👏👏👏 17h
17 likes2 comments
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willaful
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LeahBergen I love the old Jackson and Fowles! 1d
PuddleJumper 🖤🖤 1d
willaful @PuddleJumper 😂

@LeahBergen My favorite cover is this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6789469-we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle . Which I also own, but it's blue! And too fragile to read anymore, so I keep an extra copy.
1d
LeahBergen I love that cover, too! 1d
17 likes4 comments
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willaful
October Fun | Eileen Spinelli
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We can turn our bucket lists into BINGO boards for extra points! I added a few tasks to make it come out even.

#Scarathlon #BucketList

PuddleJumper What a great idea! 1d
13 likes1 comment
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willaful
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This isn't a TBR (except for walkaway) because I mostly read ebooks.

Wish I could've gotten one of our Monarch visitors into the picture!

#AutumnPlease #OrangeStack

@iconEggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Beautiful 🧡🧡 1d
27 likes1 comment
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willaful
Word Bingo | Donn Byrne
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#ISpyBingo You wouldn't believe how many books I read this month with windows on the curtains but no visible curtains. But the windows in The Enigma Game definitely have blackout curtains, even if they're not obviously visible. 😂

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You Spin Me Round | Sam O'Reilly

For #BookSpin I DNF'd Even Though I Knew the End -- will try it again in a better frame of mind -- and read Ten Things I Hate About the Duke for #DoubleSpin. I also read Tramps and Vagabonds, Nasty, Brutish and Short, and DNF'd The Scandalous Letters of V & J, so there was some good movement on my list.

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Yay!! Great month!! 3d
16 likes1 comment
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willaful
Readathon: Occasional List : Geleentheidslys | Gauteng (South Africa). Education Media Service

My goal for the #20in4 #Readathon is to read 10 chapters per day. Today and tomorrow I'm finishing up reads before the #Scarathlon starts - 2 chapters of A Passage to India, 7 chapters of Old New York, and the rest will be Passage by Lois Bujold.

On October 1st I'm reading Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson and starting some new buddy reads for the month.

@Andrew65

PuddleJumper Good luck! 4d
Andrew65 Great to have you with us, good luck 😁 3d
19 likes2 comments
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willaful
The Enigma Game | Elizabeth Wein

#BookedInTime #WorldWarTwo

Wonderfully atmospheric period details, and incisive portrayals of several marginalized people in wartime England/Scotland, one who can “pass“ and one who definitely can't. All inspired by true events, including a devastating episode in which a little boy assumes half-Jamaican Louisa is a Nazi, just because she has brown skin.

I found the quick switches of multiple points of view disrupted the narrative.

@Cuilin

Cuilin WWII ✅🎉 3d
12 likes1 comment
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willaful
October Fun | Eileen Spinelli
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My #OctoberBucketList. We tend to have really nice Octobers, so it's a great time to garden. And very handy for outdoor parties, because my group of friends are all still covid-cautious.

This is an album my husband plays every Fall.

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Me: “How many times for I have to tell you? Desires are not reasons for actions.“

Kid: “Okay Boomer, I've read Hume.“

Me: “What? I'm not even a Boomer. I'm Gen X.“

Kid: “Reason is a slave to my passion, Xoomer.“

Can't tell you how many times I've had this basic conversation with my kid. Nothing pisses off a Gen-Xer more than being called a Boomer. 😂

Megabooks Very true!! 6d
14 likes1 comment
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willaful
Scarenthood | Nick Roche
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TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 7d
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willaful
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I think Chase didn't have quite enough inspiration from “Ten Things I Hate About You“/The Taming of the Shrew because the plot of this feels a bit overstuffed and lopsided. But as always, the romantic relationship is delightful, as His Dis-Grace the Duke thoroughly reforms and even becomes an early Victorian feminist under the taming influence of a strong, capable woman. A fun read.

#doublespin

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 1w
18 likes1 comment
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willaful


I think maybe you have to actually be a fan of reality shows to enjoy this? Because all the glowing reviews just loved the pettiness and drama, and I really didn't. And it felt very weird that this was a YA book; none of it quite made sense to me.

There's decent arcs for the main characters and some laughs, but it was disappointing after the author's previous books.

#TBRTarot

CBee At least it‘s off the TBR 😊 2w
willaful @CBee and it was on my #bookspin list too, so double bonus. :-) 2w
CBee @willaful perfect 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 1w
15 likes3 comments
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willaful
A Passage to India | E. M. Forster
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“The had started speaking of 'women and children'--that phrase the exempts the male from sanity when it has been repeated a few times.“

Part of the fascination of reading older books is seeing how little human nature actually change over time.

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1) “The Phantom of the Paradise.“ I imprinted on it as a child. Still have the soundtrack album.

2) I love how much my husband loves it. He can't wait to feel Autumnal and put on George Winston music.

3) Paranormal romance.

4) Adding to the TBR/TBW. 😁

5) I had it last year! We rented a popcorn machine and showed movies outside to our friends. It was awesome.

Team #MischiefAndMayhem

PuddleJumper 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛ 2w
20 likes1 comment
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Scarabian Nights | Nancy Holder
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It's not too late to sign up for the #Scarathlon ! Be on a team and have fun doing Halloween-y reading and watching!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnawYo1IDsBAr2s_LlqzBQlxM8KGwIqDxE1Dm4...

PuddleJumper ❤️❤️ 2w
Faranae I can't decide if I want to do this or not. I don't actually care for spooky season, and I'm such a mood reader (and I've been peeking at the buddy reads from different teams and been a bit “lol no“). But it also looks fun. Is there something similar in December? 2w
willaful @Faranae I feel almost certain there must be! 2w
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The Scary Book | Thierry Dedieu
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PuddleJumper Looks great! 2w
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The Die Is Cast | Jenny Rogneby
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My #CastTheDie choices, to coincide with #Scarathlon

@Puddlejumper

PuddleJumper Nice list! 2w
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My #scarathlon watch list for team #mischiefandmayhem

I don't have a whole lot of ideas, but I'll probably get some from others. My TBR on the other hand...

@PuddleJumper

willaful Oh, and I'll watch the last episode of “Only Murders in the Building“ in October. 2w
PuddleJumper I keep meaning to try Good Omens 2w
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willaful
All Done by Kindness: A Novel | Doris Langley Moore

“For a moment or two Quiller toyed dizzily with the idea of double-crossing the man who had made him wear running shorts.“

“He himself was so far from having any pretensions of being an amateur that he could not even claim to know what he liked.“

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

willaful What a hoot! It was like a more proper, British precursor to Donald Westlake.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry over the meeting of DaVinci conspiracy theoriests. The more things change...
3w
jlhammar 😂 A total hoot! Such a fun read. Just finished last night. Hope to post my review soon. 3w
Ruthiella Yes! I also thought about conspiracy theorists today when I read the chapter with the anti-da Vinci society! 😂 3w
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Midnight Duet | Jen Comfort
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#TitlesAndTunes Midnight Duet is a modern day “Phantom of the Opera“ and by all account, both main characters are total drama queens. 😁 And “Black Widow“ features the verse, “I'm gonna love you, until you hate me... I'm gonna love you like a Black Widow baby!“

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT8cg7LStwk (Just Dance version)

@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB

BarbaraBB Those lyrics 🔥 👍🏽 1mo
Cinfhen Cool choice of book! And I love Iggy 🤘🏼 1mo
14 likes2 comments
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willaful
Faint of Heart | Kerilynn Wilson
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#ISpyBingo I was looking through my August books, thinking surely someone who reads as much romance as I do would have read a book with a heart on the cover? And I found this. 😂

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 1mo
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willaful

An enjoyable read despite some infuriating characters who do not get the comeuppance they deserve! #tbrdeckofcards

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TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 1mo
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willaful

A thoughtful reframing of the endless TBR problem:

https://www.oliverburkeman.com/river

Faranae It would probably be more helpful to me if I did not, in fact, think that my failure to read the entire contexts of the British Library is both a personal failing and a testament to the innate tragedy of mortal existence. 😂 1mo
willaful @Faranae well, there is that. 😂 1mo
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Paradise Lodge | Nina Stibbe

“I'd only ever had one boyfriend and it hadn't gone well. I'd realized pretty quickly that this boy and I were incompatible (because of everything he said and did), so I told him it was over. It took months for him to get the message. It was so excruciating, I thought I was going to have to pay someone to kill him.“

willaful Another favorite quote: “It was time to speak to my mother--who knew all about dealing with problems, and was as kind and compassionate as you get in an English person.“ 1mo
TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 1mo
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The Sleeping Soldier | Aster Glenn Gray
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I suspect Aster Glenn Gray must be independently wealthy, since she spends so much time on research and virtually none on trying to get people to actually buy her books. 😂 But she has a bunch of loyal fans and deservedly so. This fairy tale retelling/friendship story/college story/young adult historical romance/time travel tale weaves disparate threads in in an immersive, quietly moving, and astonishingly insightful way.

#backlistreadathon

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Faranae I'm assuming this is some litsy game and not that you're applying romance tropes to Poe's horror tales. 😂 2mo
dabbe @Faranae Well, Poe did like nothing better than a dead woman to obsess over. 🤣🤣🤣 2mo
Faranae @dabbe Definitely the “forbidden love“ trope 💀 😱 😂 2mo
willaful @Faranae I'm an old world romance kinda gal. 2mo
dabbe @Faranae Most definitely! 🖤🐦‍⬛🖤 2mo
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Miss Pym Disposes | Josephine Tey
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1. public school ridiculously early, like this week. My kid starts college at the end of the month.

2. I *love* school stories, of all kinds! This, Gaudy Night by Sayers, Cat Among the Pigeons by Christie, Witch Week by Ibbotson, Dragonsinger by McCaffrey, Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Sachar, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, Little Men by Alcott -- too many to count!

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“At the spiritual level, Yavilah believes, racism interrupts the human connection with the divine.“ pg. 251

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My #bookspin book, which also amused me to use for the “high/low“ #ISpyBingo space. (And red lipstick!)

Not really my cuppa; I'm not a fan of accident/humiliation humor. Kept reading mainly for the pov of a non-binary character. Overall I liked it pretty well, but I think the author isn't great at third-act break-ups--they always seem to be based on mental breakdowns.

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!!! 2mo
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I thought of the perfect image for this, a Jules Feiffer cartoon which ends with a man saying “I love you Dorothy!“ and her thinking, “What terribly poor judgement.“ Alas, I cannot find it.

This is a much rougher read than you'd expect, light in tone but serious in topic. I almost DNF'd but am glad I didn't, because I actually related quite a bit to depressed, pessimistic Lizzie, who's married to a kind, generous optimist.

willaful (My husband and I are a grumpy/sunshine relationship and he's sunshine.) I thought it ended too abruptly and I'd really like to know that George got what he wanted and deserved in the end. But it was an intriguing and thoughtful portrayal. 2mo
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Half the board filled and not a single bingo, of course.

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Yay!! Fabulous month!!! 2mo
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My #bookspin for August. Although I DNF'd my book for July -- The Algorithm Will See You Now, I found the prose too pedestrian -- I did read *eight* other books from my July list, and one from my regular list (Unmask Alice. Two, if you count The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, but I'm leaving her on the list.)

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! Fabulous month!! 2mo
12 likes1 comment
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Going Remote: A Teacher's Journey | Adam Bessie, Peter Glanting
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A thoughtful memoir that looks at the nature of community college and the additional barriers created by the 2020 lockdown. Very powerful use of the graphic novel format.

(My own daughter was one of the community college kids left behind: not from technological or financial issues like many, but from a brain that doesn't work with zoom and that suffered so much from isolation.)

#doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 2mo
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willaful

A shame this has a very poorly aged plot device -- the heroine thinks the hero is “touched in his attic“ -- because it's otherwise charming.

#ChristmasInJuly @Littlewolf1 @Roary47

Faranae That is the weirdest euphemism for crazy I've ever heard??? 2mo
willaful @faranae it's classic Regency slang -- or possibly made up by Georgette Heyer, who knows. 😂 (Actually, some people definitely know, maybe they'll weigh in.) 2mo
Faranae @willaful Georgette Heyer has a lot to answer for and cannot be considered a reliable source of Regency anything. 😂 2mo
11 likes3 comments
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Flawless | Elsie Silver
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I'm almost flabbergasted by how hideous AND non-communicative these covers are. It's a pleasant contemporary sports romance.

Faranae Is the sport cattle roping, because that's the only way this cover makes sense??? 3mo
willaful @Faranae bull riding. And the skulls are far more likely to be from the riders than from the bulls. 3mo
Faranae @willaful Yeah, no kidding! Bull skulls are more a ranching thing in the first place. Funny thing, I lived next to a rodeo clown for a while. He had a clip reel video about rodeo and his career, and it had a 3 minute memorial segment for all the dead bull riders he'd known... 3mo
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A quiet, character driven romance in which Alexei finds love and emotional healing while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Very moving, and also a good, non-stereotypical portrait of an autistic person.

My choice for “mountain on the cover“ for @faranae 's #URC challenge.

Faranae Apparently, hook-ups and recreational drug use are traditions of the PCT in addition to the usual emotional healing motivations (the AT is much more restrained!), so I'm delighted there's a gay romance set on it. Genre alone makes for a vast improvement over Strayed's Wild. 😆 3mo
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#MidYearBookFreakOut I love this hashtag!

1. This is How You Lose the Time War. For book published in 2023, We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian,

2. ok, this is embarrassing but... The Heir Apparent's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells. 😊

3. Happy Place by Emily Henry. I started it on audio but even though I usually love that narrator, didn't get into it.

4. Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon. Loved the Ex Talk and Weather girl.

cont.

willaful 5. The Way Home by Peter Beagle. I hated the second story with the fire of a thousand suns. It inspired a new tag: “Wish I had never read this.“

6. Yellowface. I didn't expect it to be such a page turner.

7. T. Kingfisher

8. Andy from We Could Be So Good. He's such an adorable mess. 😁

9. Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes

10. We Could Be So Good. I bet it made me cry, too, I just didn't tag it.

cont.
3mo
willaful 11. I almost never buy print and it's hard to gauge the beauty of ebooks. But my daughter gave me The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and it's quite pretty.

12. I do very little obligatory reading these days, so don't have an answer, except that I would like to finish up the prompts for @faranae 's challenges. Also I have a long list of KU books to read while it's free. 😁
3mo
Faranae I want more of Ursula Vernon's White Rat world books. And I didn't mind the het romances in them! 3mo
willaful @faranae praise indeed! 3mo
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I Spy Fly Guy | Tedd Arnold
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I've decided to find my weird canva efforts charming.

Very close to a second bingo this month! I started False Colours by Alex Beecroft for the “fire and water“ square but it was more war-ish than I felt up to.

#ISpyBingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 3mo
Faranae Your canva efforts ARE charming! I'm hoping my ineptitude at litsy is equally charming. 😅 3mo
willaful @faranae I think it's kind of hard to go wrong here. :-)
3mo
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Cinfhen Im loving seeing everyone‘s choices!! Fun picks 🥳 3mo
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Bummed to say I DNF'd both my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin books, Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Part of my great DNF-fest of 2023! 8 books in June alone, so far!

On a brighter note, I did read If This Gets Out and am listening to Moral Follies by Alexis Hall, from my June list. And I read Shades of Wicked and several books by Sarah Rees Brennan, from my May list.

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks So disappointing!!!! Sometimes you just have to go through a DNF-fest though to get to the good ones!! 3mo
willaful Better to be disappointed than to struggle through a book you're not enjoying and be even more disappointed! 3mo
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This month's #bookspin reflects the fact that a) I'm feeling overloaded and need to just read for fun for awhile and b) I have a 3 month free trial of Kindle Unlimited and a huge backlog of interesting books in it. (True story: I was just about to subscribe to KU again on the *very day* that they raised the price, and I just can't bring myself to pay that much!)

@TheAromaOfBooks

TheAromaofBooks I keep a wishlist of KU books and then about once a year get the free trial and binge through the list 😂 3mo
willaful @TheAromaofBooks Yeah, that's pretty much been my strategy, and sometimes they'll offer a reduced rate upon cancellation. I hope it isn't bad for the authors! 3mo
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I couldn't wait and devoured the rest in one gulp! Will wait for Sunday though. #SUNDAYBUDDYREAD

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Running Out of Time | Margaret Peterson Haddix

I enjoyed this very much when it first came out, and now there's a sequel I decided to reread. It's wonderful suspense for kids. I suspect recent events might have inspired the author to revisit the idea.

@purpleness #rereadingsummer

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Two Are Better Than One | Carol Ryrie Brink
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@TheAromaofBooks Twinsies!

Family Sabbatical was my absolute favorite Brink though. I'm so happy it got reprinted!

TheAromaofBooks Yay!!! I have never read Family Sabbatical - is it a sequel to Family Grandstand?? I know she's most famous for Caddie Woodlawn, but that's not a particular favorite of mine. I love The Pink Motel 😂 4mo
dabbe My childhood friend and I loved this book so much, we tried writing a book together, chapter by chapter, just like Chrystal and Cordelia. Ours was a romance at a dude ranch because, of course, as Arizonans we knew EVERYTHING about cowboys and dudes and ranches. 🙄🤣🤩 I still have my well-worn, original paperback that is barely taped together. I refuse to ever throw it away. 4mo
Faranae @TheAromaofBooks You've solved a childhood mystery for me! I had a book as a kid about a motel in Florida, which I had a love-hate relationship with (my family moved to Florida and it was NOT as the book advertised, thank you SO much). I had no idea anymore the title or author, and now I know! 4mo
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willaful @TheAromaofBooks Yes, and you must read it! And did you know there was a sort-of sequel to TaBTO? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229851.Louly?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=wUSi9... Unfortunately, I didn't hold one to my former library copy and I bet it's pretty hard to find.

@dabbe that's so fun! I always wanted to do stuff that kids in books did, but I never had any other bookworm friends. :-(

@Faranae Hooray!
4mo
TheAromaofBooks @dabbe - Oh my gosh, that's SO fun! I hope your characters found their HEA 😂 4mo
TheAromaofBooks @Faranae - Oh my gosh, that's fantastic! I LOVE it when a childhood-book-mystery gets solved!!! Believe it or not, The Pink Motel is not the only book with that plot line I own - I also have this one wherein the family inherits an apartment building in Florida as well 😂 4mo
TheAromaofBooks @willaful - I saw that sequel when I was updating my Read status on GR yesterday - doesn't look like a very common one, though. She is one of those authors whose books I just snatch up if I ever find one, but they are not always easy to locate!! 4mo
Faranae @TheAromaofBooks I feel like I need to explain to all these authors that Florida is not a delightful sunny paradise where one can have quirky adventures, but in fact a swampy nightmare that most resembles Dante's Acheron. 4mo
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@purpleness #rereadingsummer

I loved this when it first came out but have never read it since. How wonderful to find it still lives up to its title. Such strong, appealing characters who somehow find each other.

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Yellowface | R F Kuang
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I took advantage of a “lucky day“ loan, so I'm a bit early for #CampLitsy. What a fantastic read! I feared it would be a slog but I tore through it. Looking forward to the discussion.

Also my very first #ISpyBingo! @TheAromaOfBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 4mo
Megabooks Yay! 👍🏻👍🏻 4mo
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