It‘s finally cold enough to try this hot chocolate from Samoa. #FoodAndLit

Daisy and I are answering some snail mail this morning.

I enjoyed this book of connected short stories about two sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, New Brunswick. The stories take place over a span of 70 years and are sort of like Anne of Green Gables or Sarah Plain and Tall but with sex and swearing. So many Littens would love this book. Check it out!

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

1) the moon has been amazing
2) prioritizing daylight walks on these dark days
3) pumpkin cream cheese bread
4) work meeting in a fancy hotel
5) a new governor

Have a good weekend all.

Train delays equal more reading time I guess.

A fun book about serious topics. I enjoyed this book about a community of friends. #ReadingUSA #Indiana

Two quotes from my reading this morning:

From Kamala‘s mother
“Kamala, don‘t ever let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”

From Angela Merkel

“Don‘t you ever let them make you cry.”

#TodayILearned #NFN

#TodayILearned that the National Ice Core Lab in Denver stores ice from Greenland which scientists can petition to analyze. #NFN

I really liked this family novel that took place over Thanksgiving weekend. The regular Thanksgiving drama is overlaid by the shadow of a tragedy that took place years ago and was never properly dealt with. I really liked the relationships between these characters and the way they clearly loved each other even when they were treating each other badly. This book had all of the November moods.

(ARC from Net Galley)

#TodayILearned that there are no male High Arctic black flies. The females have figured out how to reproduce without them. #NFN

It‘s dark out so I‘m using my extra hour today to biggie size my #hyggehour

I‘m on the couch flipping between an ARC, Kamala‘s book, and my book club book. I took tomorrow off to do a college tour with my son so I‘m feeling pretty relaxed.

I love Brendan Slocumb‘s not the norm heroes. In this book a cello prodigy takes on the bad guys and kicks butt. Make sure you read the afterword.

I‘m still a bit in shock that it‘s November 1st. I read a decent amount of books in October, but I‘m looking forward to a slower schedule in November that really lets me sink into something good.

I didn‘t realize this was out of print when I picked it to read this month. I finally tracked it down and I‘m glad I did. The short stories in this collection were creepy and unsettling in the best possible way. My favorites were the one about the misunderstood vampire and the murdering baby.

I wanted to re-read this one before I start the latest in the series. I liked this one more than the last few in the series. Hoping for more Three Pines in the next one.

I read this graphic novel every Halloween when I‘m waiting for trick or treaters. It has great illustrations and touches on Halloween and other holidays and family issues and grief. But it does it all in a natural and fun way.

I didn‘t realize this was a kids book when I put it on hold at the library, but I read it anyway. And so did everyone who came into my house over the last few weeks. It was such a fun and interesting book! Great illustrations and informative text. We might need to go on a spooky lake road trip.

Of the 19 books I read in October these were the top 12. Looking forward to #NFN starting today!

Happy Halloween 🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

1) a relatively quiet week was a great joy
2) a trip to Delaware last weekend was better than expected and I got time on the beach and at the pumpkin patch
3) cat sitter got my shy cat to come out of his shell with pictures to prove it
4) daylight walks and the last of the pretty leaves
5) blood orange juice in my seltzer has been making me smile this Halloween

Have a good one all 🎃🎃🎃

I think I have my November #bookspinbingo list together, but I probably will still be working on October for the next couple of weeks. The month was just too quick! I‘ll tag my November books in the comments.

A dark and spooky wait at the bus stop this morning. Luckily I have the Dark Maestro to protect me.

I nominated this book for #CampLitsy25 but I‘m actually really glad it wasn‘t picked and I got to read it in Fall.

It starts with a woman faking her death to escape her abusive husband and then goes full throttle into serial killers, feminism, the supernatural, and family ties. I don‘t want to give too much away but I just loved it.

#YuleSeasonSwap @thebacklistbook

I like most of these things except I‘m more for depth than fluff, and don‘t do a lot of romance. Although if there‘s fluff with depth that really hits the sweet spot.

Made a date with myself this morning to catch up on my bookclub book and eat pie.

Look what I got!🌲🌲🌲

Love my Halloween socks.

This was a decent quick read about a woman living in the big city who gets fired just in time to take over her Aunt‘s farm in rural Utah. Of course there is murder.

Frankenstein was enjoyable enough. As usual it wasn‘t at all what I thought it would be, but that‘s not a bad thing. My favorite chapters were the ones where they were on the boat. My least favorites were when Frank would just faint for months at a time.

Picture is of the pumpkin I bought today because the lady at the register said it looked like Frankenstein. (I didn‘t tell her she meant the creature.)

It‘s #HyggeHour time! I‘m going to catch up on some journaling and reviews and then dive into this Ray Bradbury book I‘ve been reading. It‘s not really cold out but it got dark early so I switched to hot chocolate tonight. Looking forward to a week of sleeping in my own bed.

One of my favorite things about #NonFictionNovember is hearing about all of the little tidbits everyone picks up from their reading. Please share using the tag #TodayILearned during the month of November.

This was a hard book to read, but important and informative.

This is the second book I‘ve read in this series about solving crimes in the National Parks. I like them. This one featured grizzly bears in Montana. I‘m looking forward to reading more.

I‘m hoping that we have just survived our last struggle week for a while and that things are about to calm down for us. It was such a strange week emotionally between my daughter‘s confirmation and our Aunt‘s funeral.

1) fall colors and spooky decorations
2) Confirmation went off without a hitch
3) My car is fixed and it carried us off to Ohio safely
4) two days at home for a bit of normalcy
5) good conversations while cooking dinner with my son

Last post for tonight- my #10beforetheend list. Most of these I‘ve started but have wandered away from for one reason or another. @ChaoticMissAdventures

We listened to this short audiobook in the car today and enjoyed it. Rick Steves has great philosophies about traveling and I enjoyed hearing about his early adventures.

We‘ve listened to this book a dozen times before in the car and we could probably listen to it a dozen times more. It‘s just a really good audiobook.

Rookie mistake- I picked this for a reading challenge before I figured out if I could even access a copy. I ended up ordering it a month ago and it finally got here. I can‘t wait to dive into this elusive book!

I read this for #FoodandLit #Samoa @texreader @catsandbooks

It's a novelization of Robert Lewis Stevenson's life. I didn't really get a feel of Samoa from it, but I did enjoy the relationship between RLS and Fanny. They both were ill at certain times in their lives and the ways they took care of each other were touching.

Anyone read any really good Samoa books?

Is anyone interested in a #NFNovember Readathon this year? Or is someone already hosting and I missed it? #NFNovember

It‘s #hyggehour

Between work, my daughter‘s confirmation, and leaving for a funeral tomorrow I have been going nonstop for a week. I‘m so grateful for this hour which reminds me to wind down.

This has been a really trying and sad week due to a death in the family, car stress, and just normal October business. So glad to have this reminder to acknowledge the joys. #5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
1) an encyclopedia set my husband and I rescued
2) getting pictures back up on the walls after painting
3) Halloween decorations and cat costumes
4) peaceful sunrises on the porch
5) productive college planning with my son

This was a hard book to read, but also one I‘ve been anticipating for a long time. It‘s astonishing how much this dystopian novel felt like now. I‘m not sure what to think about the ending.

Halfway through the month! It‘s time to update everyone on #OneSnackToRuleThemAll

Chocolate is in the lead with an astounding 43 votes!
Pumpkin and Apple are very close at 14 and 11 votes respectively.
Poor candy corn only has one vote.

Can any snack catch up to chocolate? We shall see!

Dear CVS,
We do not care that there are only 5 days left to pick up that prescription. We did not ask for you to refill that prescription. We especially did not ask for you to refill that prescription the day after we picked up the prescription we actually did need. Lose my number please. #WDNCW @dabbe

Very dated, and an improbable number of antique stores for one area. Not even a secret passage or a submarine, but still looking forward to the discussion tomorrow.

Chaotic #hyggehour tonight. Can‘t decide what to read, my car is still in the shop, and people keep coming in to steal my snacks. Hoping to find some peace in my little corner of the kitchen.

Okay, here we go. #NancyHasBeenPoisoned

This was a fun locked door boarding school mystery with shout outs based on the board game clue. I enjoyed the story even if the ending was somewhat obvious

The TV is finally off, and the cat has finally settled down. It‘s time to sneak in a few quiet hours of reading while I wait for the kids to get home.