#WhereAreYouMonday
The first half of this takes place in NYC (though the MC lives in Chicago) but now we're in Mumbai to get some answers.
@Cupcake12

Another day, another book.
Yesterday's attempt did not work for me either (I hate this pattern 😖) so I'm trying this one and I feel good about it. 🤞🏻

I get why all the other mothers hate Florence- I hate her too. She's self-absorbed and irresponsible. She's a bad sister and friend and, despite loving her son, is a terrible mother. She's morally flexible and does something quite awful in an attempt to protect her child from suspicion in the disappearance of a classmate. This was such an entertaining train-wreck I could not put it down! And the actual mystery (of the vanished boy) was good.

I‘m fortunate in that my life has contained more good and neutral days than bad ones but I don‘t know how I would have kept on keeping on without books. 💗

I'm struggling to read right now (witness 8 books for all of June 😬) and the Fiona Davis book I started yesterday is not working for me right now. I know I love her so I'll come back to it later. In the meantime, I'll see if this grabs me. 🤞🏻

My best book of the first half of 2025 (HOW can half the year be over already??) is.... These Silent Woods!
I've read some really good books this year! I'm looking forward to the next 6 months of reading.

Starting a new book this morning (I love holidays 😊📚❤️🤍💙)
#BackPorchReading

I loved this! It's the summer of 1975, and Mary Jane has a job nannying for a family in her neighborhood. The father is a psychiatrist and is treating a rock star who is staying with them, along with his famous wife. Mary Jane's parents are cold, rigid, and conventional, so the free spirited lifestyle she encounters in the other household opens her eyes to new ideas. I will be watching for more by this author.

Just one more work day this week! 🎆 Time to relax and start a new book.

My #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin books for July 2025 😊
@TheAromaofBooks

Apparently I didn't read much in June. 🤔 My favorites were the Hillerman books, I need to get the next one.

I'm way behind on my #TravelingThrills book. Sorry @Jerdencon @TheAromaofBooks 😬
I'll try to finish this week.

#WhereAreYouMonday
I'm in 1970s Baltimore and, while I've never been to Maryland, the 70s vibe is taking me right back to my childhood! 🥰
@Cupcake12

There were some good things about this (representation galore, good family- and found family- relationships) but the parts I didn't like (insta- everything, a way too alpha Alpha Male*) tipped the scales too far for me. I'm really not the target audience so that's probably the problem. 🤷‍♀️ (*he was very sweet to her but I'm not in the mood for that level of overbearing.)

I'm #onmountaintime for a few more hours. 😍
This was surprisingly deep for a book marketed as a thriller- which feels inaccurate. David has a one-night stand & when he wakes up, the guy in his bed is dead. Fearing he'll be blamed for the death, he calls his literary agent & they decide to take the body back to the hotel room where they originally met. But when he gets there, the guy's husband catches him in the room! (No, David didn't know he

I'm reading while escaping the heat in the mountains for a couple days. 😊 This political thriller is a quick, entertaining read but it's #goodnotgreat
Every character in this book (except the child, Bella) is unlikable and morally gray so, even though the reader is rooting for the James family, it's hard to

This was cute! I loved both Aiden and Lucie (and Maya and Grayson) and I was rooting for them. I loved that the plot evolved around a radio show and that Lucie is an auto mechanic. And that she has a nearly perfect coparenting set-up with Grayson.
The last few years I've found romance boring/annoying, so I haven't read much of the genre, but maybe I'm getting over that. 🤔🤞🏻 I'll try more by this author.

This was great! But also quite sad- small spoilers in comment. I'm glad I picked this series up again. I read them long ago (I was in HS, I think) and I've always remembered liking them and, upon rereading a couple, I can say I very much enjoy Hillerman's writing and I like being in Joe Leaphorn's head.

#WhereAreYouMonday
I'm in Baltimore. Only 4 chapters in but this is good (and funny) so far.
@Cupcake12

#BackPorchReading 😊

I loved the setting of this and the premise (Sea witches! Shipwrecks! Sunken treasure!) but it fell flat for me. Mari's storyline was better developed so I enjoyed it more and I admired her. Haven's story should have been full of adventure & romance and it was, -ish. But I feel like we only got the outline of her story: she only went diving once before being betrayed by her dad's buddy & her employers, and I felt like a lot more should have been

Weekend reading plans: I'm finally going to finish Amalfi Curse and I need to read the Nancy Drew today. Also need to make progress on AVLV and I'm eager to jump into MJ.🤞🏻

Y'all! My son introduced me to Epic: The Musical (of the odyssey) on Spotify and it's amazing! I'm listening to it while reading this graphic novel version of the tale for a fully immersive experience. 😄

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3HvgaZeBWbr7UjFeicPFRI?si=TGRqwulCRjG13ABqQO3V...

#WhereAreYouMonday
I'm in Italy 🩵💙💜
@Cupcake12

For #JaneAustenThenAndNow I've read the novellas related to Northanger Abbey. There are 3: As Much As He Can deals w General Tilney & it was not bad; The Art Of Sinking is about John Thorpe & I couldn't finish it 😬; For Mischief's Sake is Frederick Tilney's story & the one I liked best of the three.
These stories try to flesh out Austen's rogues, often w an aim of leaving a better impression of them. It sometimes works for me but not always.

#BackPorchReading I 💜 Saturdays 😊

This was good but was too long; both narratives felt too drawn out but the unusual format was intriguing. It was heartbreaking to consider the stories of women and girls forced into plural marriages and the effect it had on the children (and surplus boys) as well. Both timelines were interesting but I felt that the story of Jordan and his mother could have been fleshed out more.
Between a pick and a so-so.

It's a chilly morning for porch reading, but, as always, it's making me happy. Our road trip was fun but there's no place like home! I started this while we were in Moab, as I wanted to read something set in Utah, and I'm still plugging along.

Here are June's #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks 😊

#WhereAreYouMonday
Today I was, both physically and figuratively, in the Navajo Nation (reservation) and at Four Corners Monument. 🧡
Pictured: the Shiprock monadnock
@Cupcake12

May wrap up; I can't believe it's June already! A lot of these were good. My favorite is tagged.

Our roadtrip starts today! Yay, family vacay!
But first, I got up early for a (very) little alone time and to get a start on this pretty book.

This was sweet and adorable and romantic- with some underlying deep topics- and I loved it! Wish I hadn't waited so long to read it

@Jerdencon and @TheAromaofBooks I mailed two #TravelingThrills books to Denise today- the tagged and The Last To Disappear 😊

I was hooked early and the mysteries kept me turning pages. But I didn't connect with any of the characters and I had to force myself to finish. It wasn't bad but I didn't actually care about what was going on.
This is has excellent reviews everywhere so maybe it's me.

I'm getting invested in this, so I'm reading a little when I should be focused on working. 🙃 Or, if not working, cleaning my desk off so I have more than 1 square foot of work space! I'm starting to feel squeezed between the computer monitors on one side and a wall of books on the other. 😬

I've been meaning to read her for ages and I really wish I hadn't waited so long because I loved this! Both Hannah's and Mallory's stories engaged me from the beginning and kept me interested all the way through.
I'm off to investigate her blacklist.

This was a fast, entertaining read. It was exactly what I was in the mood for yesterday so it's a pick for me.

Tried #backporchreading but it is cold today. 🥶 So now I'm inside to start this book.

There's much love for this book but it didn't quite click for me. There was a lot I liked, especially the descriptions of island, the ocean, & the animals. I even liked all of the main characters, which I thought was impressive for so many. But it all became #toomuch - every one of those 5 characters was burdened with grief & secrets. And the sense of oppression, while well written, wasn't for me. Still, I was mostly enjoying it till the end. 😩

My long weekend has started and I could not be more delighted. 😊
I'm enjoying my back porch while starting this book.

#WhereAreYouMonday
The tagged book started in North Carolina and is currently at Bletchley Park, with plans to end up in Germany. The shores of WDS are on a remote island, closer to Antarctica than anywhere else. Enjoying both, so far.
@Cupcake12

What's in a name? Potentially quite a lot! This is good. Not feel-good- because some of it is difficult to read- but interesting, well written, and thought-provoking. I'll watch for more by this author.

It's porch reading season again! 🥰 Starting this while enjoying tea and a breeze.

A little pre- work reading this morning, and a million flowers on our snowball bush, started the day off right. This is good, so far, but some scenes are hard to read.

Finished this during the grandbaby's swim lesson.
I really enjoy Heller's writing. His love for nature, his self sufficient MC, and musings on human nature, literature, and poetry are all very appealing to me and I would have been satisfied if that's all the book offered. I can see a version of this where Jack manages to heal a bit while working as a fishing guide for the über wealthy on a beautiful river for a few weeks. But almost immediately

#WhereAreYouMonday
This is NF about Shakespeare and scholarship questions about his plays so I'm "in" 1600 England. So far it's interesting.
@Cupcake12

A little bit of reading time before we go watch the grandbaby in his final soccer game of the season. 😊

I can‘t explain my lack of interest but I‘m having to force myself to read this so I‘m giving up #next

There were parts of this I enjoyed along with parts I really disliked. I ended up skimming the last third because I was pretty tired of Ammalie by then.