Not new, but new to me.
“With all of my heart, I believe it is true that there is a heaven for animals too.”
“You‘ll grow older, I will, too. But when you meet your friends again, they‘ll see you as they saw you then.
And you‘ll find they always knew how much they were loved…and how much they loved you.”
(I really hope so.)

So cute. ☺️
A little ghost tries to find a place of his own to haunt. It isn‘t easy!
But then, he, and his crow companion, find more than just a new home. ❤️
Loved the story and the illustrations are so expressive. 👻

“…Captain Zane rides to the top of the hill…After a moment, his horse whirls, and he jogs down to us.” 🤔
I had to look up horse movements: walk, trot, canter, gallop, lope, pace, amble, rack, tolt, (wait, there‘s more!) piaffe, passage, gait, cadence, and, jog!!! Well, I visualize and I just had an image of a horse in a tank top, shorts, and a terry cloth headband stuck in my head. Jogging. (Yes, I‘m weird) 🏃‍♀️🐎🏃‍♂️ 🤭🤣😝

While each book has a murder or missing persons, there‘s an overarching mystery that keeps me coming back. When Sophie‘s body washes ashore, Mila must return to France to care for her stepsister/best friend‘s daughter, Ani. She also takes Sophie‘s job at her stepmother‘s investigative service, leaving behind her life and fiancé back in England. Why were Sophie and her husband out sailing during a storm? So I wait for the next installment.

Light spheres could be placed in … wait for it … scones. ? 🥐 hmmm, perhaps 🤔 sconces would work better? 🤭

I think she had some really good ideas, but she told the reader instead of showing things so it was a frustrating read for me. I‘m not sure if I‘ll read the next or not.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gosh, I loved this book. Every day a father asks his son if he‘s made new friends at school. He hasn‘t…not exactly. He draws faces on balls (Roland & Barry) and his milk carton (Coco) to be his friends until he makes some. Dad asks Tomasso to bring his crew for pizza…so he does. But there is no judgment or disappointment; they eat and Tomasso introduces all his “friends”. And they both know he‘ll be fine until he makes new friends.

This is heartwarming and lovely. A little ghost lives alone in an attic until the little girl downstairs encroaches on his territory. Slowly, he comes to realize that having a friend is not so scary after all. I really liked the charcoal illustrations.

Well, the title didn‘t lie. 🤣

I‘ve read better elimination/survival novels but I always like to give Kate Alice Marshall a try.

Lord love a duck, but the trunk was heavy.

Hmmm, could it perhaps be because of the body? 🤔🫣🤫

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

I love The Bakery Dragon!
Ember is too little to scare people to get their gold, but when circumstances bring the baker and Ember together, he finds that golden bread can be a treasure too.
I thought he looked adorable washing his hands in bubbles. 🥰🐉

Good start to October. Immersed in folklore, this book features haunting music, unholy bargains, a sea witch (of sorts), shapeshifters, ghosts, and children who fight evil with everything they‘ve got. Really unexpected and really enjoyable.

Salem‘s Lot-Stephen King. I was reading it in college…home for the weekend. Instead of going upstairs to my room, I slept on the couch, nearer my parents. I think my Dad said something like: bad dreams? 🤣 Yep
Bird Box-Josh Malerman. So claustrophobic with the masks
Fantasticland-Mike Bockoven. A hurricane traps people at a theme park where they fight for their lives…some of them were so beyond creepy. 😬
@dabbe

While well written and cleverly done, I found the ending out of character and unsatisfying.
But I can‘t say more without revealing the plot. 🤫😑

The last three books I‘ve read all revolve around poison. ☠️ Hmmm… 🤔 😳 😬

I loved the whole thing: the simplicity, the story, the drawing. 😊👍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Silliness 😂

Just in time for Halloween! 🎃 👻🐌

It‘s 1954. A woman wakes, disoriented, on a bus with barred windows. Her ears are bleeding. She has a tag that says Dorothy but she knows she is not Dorothy. She‘s confused, but she knows that she‘s a time traveler. Unfortunately, the bus is taking her to a psychiatric hospital so telling them she‘s from another time will not go over well. I was sucked into this…but the ending was rushed, packed full of new info… I think for a sequel.
Iffy. 🤨

I generally like Megan Miranda.
Maybe the title was working subliminally on me (You Don‘t Belong Here) cuz
I had to bail. 😝😉

“It made him think, suddenly, of Nagamaki Plaza, though he wished his mind had not chosen that particular American classic as a reference point. For one thing, MacAdams was about a stone too heavy to be climbing in the ventilation.”
So. I believe this is a reference to Die Hard, in which case wouldn‘t someone fact check it to find out it is Nakatomi Plaza in the movie? 🤔 Just one of the weirdest editing things I noticed. ☹️🥺

Yes, it‘s the Orient Express. 🚂 Yes, there is murder. (Actually murders) 🫣
But this feels more like Hitchcock than Christie. 📚
I can usually pick out the bad guy but this had me shifting through characters as fast as I was flipping pages.
I really enjoyed it.

Maddie and her dogs have a lot to prove when the sheriff calls for her help to search for a lost senior named Eileen. When they hear the agitated older woman humming they break into “Come on Eileen” to let her know they are coming to help. (as one does) 😆 It‘s only natural after their success that the press and public decide to call them ‘The Midnight Runners.‘ Loved Maddie, loved her dogs, loved the eccentricity of the whole book. 👍🐕‍🦺🐾

After her husband dies, Maple is left penniless so she makes a living by creating intricate dollhouses. When she finds first client dead, she creates a dollhouse to recreate the crime scene. This is an interesting homage to Frances Glessner Lee, the mother of modern forensics because of her detailed “nutshell” dollhouse sized dioramas of unexplained deaths which were used for training homicide investigators and are also considered works of art.

One of the characters wears a T shirt that reads:
Tequila: “It might not be the answer, but it‘s worth a shot.” 🤭 🥃

Frisbee!
Best day ever at the dog park, especially when you‘re making new friends.

Read the books: enjoy Liz Danger‘s T Shirts….
Never Forget - with a picture of Pluto 1930-2006 beneath, and This is not a drill (pictured with a hammer)
And, Look both ways before you cross me
Am I easily entertained? 👍 Yep. These books definitely are entertaining. 😆

“Kitty says she never calls Faye ‘Faye,‘ she always calls her ‘Fay.‘”
“What?” “She says she always calls her ‘Fay‘ without the extra ‘e.‘”
“They sound alike, ‘e‘ or no ‘e.‘” “Kitty says Faye knows.”
Quirky, funny, murdery, spicy…so much fun.

He woke up with no eyebrows and no idea how he‘d gotten into such a position.

@ShyBookOwl

So far it‘s amusing and weird and wonderful.

I‘ve read the last two pages multiple times now … not that I think they‘re going to change … it‘s just I love one of the characters so much (the little gargoyle) and it‘s breaking my heart what‘s happening … maybe I just don‘t want to leave. It‘s going to be such a long time waiting … cliffhangers 😰🥺🫣

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Digging up a grave in a foggy, freezing cemetery at one in the morning was not how Miles wanted to spend his Thursday night.

Dahlia Lively is a Miss Marple-type character in a popular detective series. Rosalind King (60s) played the original Dahlia in the movies. Caro Hopper (40s) played Dahlia on the TV series. Posy Starling, child star, now grown up, plays Dahlia in the latest film. They should be rivals. But.
Instead, these three actresses who all have skeletons in their pasts, become unlikely friends, and team up to solve mysteries. 3rd book in this cozy series.

(Addie) “Let‘s figure out how we‘re going to get out of here.” She pointed to an air vent above them. …I could try to get it open, but I‘ll need a screwdriver first.”
(Mimi) “Well, there‘s some oranges over there, but I don‘t see any vodka.”
(Addie) “Very funny.”
(Me) Mimi is a hoot.

Two words: Secret passages.
Two more words: Septuagenarian sleuth …
And a whole bunch of words … teams up with her granddaughter to solve a murder while attending a Jazz Age theme party on Mackinac Island during a cyclone blizzard. 🥶
Great fun. 👍

You might want to read it…just to find out what they‘re up to. 🤭

This is hysterical … I love it so much. ❤️

I have no words…this is so much fun, and funny. I think kids would love this. Well, this kid did. 🤣

I thought this was just going to be another cute counting book…but it‘s a wonderful story of inclusion and a mother‘s unconditional love. ❤️ 💕 💗

I got to see Louise Penny. She was so funny. She was walking back and forth on the stage and her silk scarf kept slithering off her shoulder. Finally, after picking it up (one more time) she laughed and said something like, perhaps we hadn‘t expected to see Salome‘s Dance of the Seven Veils. She was great. 😊 👍

@BookmarkTavern

What?!?!! Is this a fun, funny, reassuring picture book, or is it an ominous warning?!

Since I‘m getting older by the minute…perhaps I am not the intended audience for the humor. 🤣😂

“Are you providing atmospheric music again?” Niko asked suspiciously.
“I‘m attempting to provide the optimal landing experience for my passengers.” The music grew slightly louder.
Niko decided not to object. The accompaniment actually sounded nice, the music swelling as the station loomed in all its unkempt, ragged, crazy quilt—glory before them. (Niko, the captain speaking to Sexy Thing, her ship.)
I love this series. ❤️😂❤️😆❤️🤣❤️

I had hopes but I guessed the murderer within the 1st twenty pages and the other twists very early.
And this really bugged me: the year was 1999 the MC mentioned that the original Planet of the Apes was playing at the local theater…How. Would. She know it was the original? The remake was in 2001. With two authors, editors…why did no one catch that? There were things repeatedly alluded to that made it strange…it just wasn‘t for me. ☹️

I found this to be a charming, funny, mash up. A little boy riding his hippocampus through a snowy jungle runs into Robert Frost and they both attempt to tell Frost‘s poem in their own way.

I hope it entertains and also introduces Frost to readers. 👍

“I guess I see myself in books,” she said. Always. I love words. … It‘s hard to explain. Words have just always been my people. And I don‘t forget them after I‘ve read them.”

This was an enjoyable English mystery, pubs, old manors, … murder. 👍

Only if we understand, can we care.
Only if we care, will we help.
Only if we help, shall all be saved.
Jane Goodall
(Another beautiful book by Aaron Becker. )

You know that old urban legend: a boy driving down a lonely, country road, sees a girl, gives her a ride. She‘s cold so he gives her his letterman‘s jacket, drops her off. Next day he realizes she still has his jacket, goes back…it‘s a cemetery…and his jacket is hanging over a tombstone. 😧🪦 😬
Yeah, different story … but it‘s the same road, man.
Freaking, do not go down this road.

This is adorable. A little bunny makes the l o n g trek down the hall to check on his Dad, since his Dad forgot to check on him. The illustrations are faded and fuzzy and perfect for a dreamy, time for bed book.

I am just crazy about the artwork in this book. So vivid.

Hey! Guess what?! The sky isn‘t really falling.

I liked this take on an old classic.

I thought this was just a redo of Hansel and Gretel but the author very intricately wove in several other fairy tales so that I was just completely drawn in. I really enjoyed this and look forward to following Kell Woods anywhere…breadcrumbs and all. 🤭

Loved the non-traditional take on princesses, the punny humor was great, I thought the illustrations were terrfic; this just illustrates that authors and readers both really love cheese in every way. 🧀🤣👍