Full disclosure: I requested Mexican Gothic from the library back in September or October, which is practically the only time of year that I seek out horror and/or Gothic reads. When my turn finally came up in November, I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for this kind of book but I decided to read it anyway and see what all the […]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl gave us a holiday/seasonal freebie for Top Ten Tuesday this week. I decided to list my top ten Christmas books. I’m not a huge fan of Christmas books for adults. They’re usually too syrupy for my taste. But I do love Christmas books for children and I have quite […]
Welcome to my weekly update for December 6, 2020! Southern California has a stay-at-home order that goes into place tonight (December 6) at midnight and will last for at least three weeks, taking us past Christmas. Ugh. At least it should keep hospitals from being overwhelmed. We experienced our first California earthquake on Friday night! […]
Hosted by Books Are My Favourite and Best on the first Saturday of every month, the 6 Degrees of Separation meme asks us to start with one title and create a chain of bookish connections to see where it takes us. This month, we’re starting with the young adult classic, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret […]
During my first book blogging stint, I hosted a few reading challenges, as much for my own benefit as for anyone else’s. One of the challenges I’ve decided to resurrect is the 2021 New (To You) Narrator Reading Challenge. This wasn’t a terribly popular challenge but I also introduced it in 2016, the year my […]
During my first book blogging stint, I hosted a few reading challenges, as much for my own benefit as for anyone else’s. One of the challenges I’ve decided to resurrect is the Southern Literature Reading Challenge 2021, focusing on books and authors from the southeastern region of the United States. Table of Contents: Definition of […]
During my first book blogging stint, I hosted a few reading challenges, as much for my own benefit as for anyone else’s. One of the challenges I’ve decided to resurrect is the Books in Translation Reading Challenge 2021. It’s pretty self-explanatory, right? Nevertheless, here are the rules. Table of Contents Rules You can read a […]
4 Stars. I grabbed this on a whim as I was prowling through my library’s shelves last week. Who can resist a bright and cheerful cover that also portrays monsters? Not me. This was really cute and contained important messages about friendship; overcoming self-doubt; and living for your own ideals of happiness, not those dictated […]
Welcome to my weekly update for November 29, 2020! I hope all my fellow American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving and the rest of you had good weeks as well! We had a very lowkey holiday because my husband was on call at his hospital. When he’s on call he has to be able to […]
4 Stars. In this information age, we find ourselves bombarded with facts or “facts,” as the case may be. A fringe group believing a kooky conspiracy theory may seem fairly harmless but when large swathes of the population believe anything they read that reinforces their own beliefs, we have a huge problem. Consider these sobering statistics […]
3 Stars. I’m going against popular opinion a bit in my review of this book. Don’t get me wrong; every review I’ve seen is glowing and I don’t exactly disagree. But I don’t fully agree either. First off, I do love this world. It’s interesting and full of magic and enclaves of magicians (Wizards? I’ve already forgotten what they […]