I found this receipt tucked into the book I‘m starting today. I was confused by shipping charges from my local indie. I order online from them a lot but I drive the short distance to pick up my order when it‘s ready. Then I checked the date: April 12, 2020. It must have been one of the first orders I placed during lockdown once they were allowed to have one or two employees at a time working to keep their business afloat.

I fell behind on this series. I wish I hadn‘t, but this was the perfect book to break a slump. I love Harris‘s writing style, and it‘s great to be back in her version of Regency England with Sebastian and friends. The ending felt a bit rushed and too neat, but I can overlook that in favor of the joy I get from reading the rest. Too dark to be considered a cozy, but not so graphic as to be unbearably traumatizing. TW in comments.

Cute MG mystery with the dog as narrator. I would probably have really enjoyed this when I was 8-10. As an adult, I found the canine narrator rather annoying. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I love this series and was so happy to have it selected for #bakerstreetirregulars. I have read the whole series in print and on audio multiple times. It does require accepting the racist, colonialist, sexist, and classist viewpoints as belonging to the historical setting. That aside, it‘s a fun romp through late 19th century Egypt, with entertaining characters, mystery, adventure, and a touch of romance.

I have no business reviewing poetry. I rarely enjoy it and I am even less likely to understand or “get” it. So, I won‘t rate this based on whether or not I liked it. I‘m honestly not sure. I will say that I liked the mixed formats of the collection, especially the poems supposedly written with predictive text. Those were clever. There are two other poems written with footnotes and I loved those. That format was unique and fun.

I saw this on a lot of #auldlangspine lists, so I decided to finally give it a try. This is a delightful cozy fantasy. Compelling writing, interesting characters, and all the good stuff - adventure, danger, shadowy characters, plus coffee and baked goods. 😂

I‘m dying with these books, y‘all. All the meddling and snooping and ADVERBS. So. Many. Adverbs.

As always, there‘s plenty of danger, suspicious looking characters, and as noted in the quotes in the photo, meddling and snooping. I enjoyed this one more than the last, though. I definitely rolled my eyes a lot less.
#nancydrewbr

This is probably my least favorite of the series. The plot dragged, and I have so many questions left unanswered. As always, I love the dynamic between Will, Faith, and Amanda. I just expected more - I still feel like I need a shower after reading it, but the overall reading experience fell flat.

This is a wonderful picture book for helping kids understand and cope with anxiety. It even has a section of tips at the back. I love the illustrations and the writing.

I absolutely love the Narwhal and Jelly books, so I thought I would try out another Clanton series. While still a pick, it‘s filled with spudtacular puns, after all, it just doesn‘t have the same magic for me as Narwhal and Jelly. I think it‘s because Snot is such a grump. This just feels a little less joyous.

It‘s been a rough day, so I checked this out from library and read it to Bailey who likes to chase bees. She didn‘t seem impressed, but I found it delightful. 🤣🤣🐝🐝

Made my #bookspinbingo board at lunch. My #bookspin is A Master of Djinn which has been on my TBR for ages and #doublespin is When God Was a Woman.

If the Bookly app did a calendar graphic like Bookmory, I feel like you‘d have the perfect reading app. Until then, I will either make my own calendar in Canva (unlikely), or just stare enviously at others‘ calendar graphics. 😂 It was another slow reading month with a lot of bails. Children‘s books saved my stats, and Karin Slaughter‘s book, while definitely NOT for kids, was my favorite read of the month.

There are lots of big emotions all handled with delicacy, kindness, love, and grace in this final book. The whole trilogy is so soft and warm.

A soft, gentle hug of a book - the illustrations are beautiful, the story is inclusive and kind. There‘s compassion, empathy, and joy. It makes for a lovely break from my typical, darker reads.

@Darklunarose posted about this series earlier today and I immediately had to see if my library had digital versions. They have all three and I flew through the first one. I love the artwork and adore all of the characters. I especially liked the intro to tea dragon husbandry at the end. 🐉

#unpopularopinion I do not care for the writing at all. It‘s tedious and I am not connecting with any of the characters. I should want their backstories, I should care about the solutions to the various cases, but I don‘t. The prose is just not engaging. It could be my current headspace or the fact that I‘m not a big Patterson fan 🤷🏻‍♀️. #bakerstreetirregulars

Tentative April #bookspin list. I don‘t think I‘ll have time to start anything on this list based on the things I currently have in progress and my workload this week, so it probably won‘t change. It‘s always fun to play with colors,backgrounds, and fonts in Canva, even if I don‘t get through much of the list.

I know this is blasphemous, but I like the TV show so much better. The plot here is slow and tedious, and wow! Talk about someone who should not be writing female characters 🤦🏻‍♀️. I gave it 116 pages. (Side note, my library copy is the grossest book I‘ve ever checked out. I don‘t know how many people have spilled food and god only knows what on the pages, but hardly one has been spared assault from patrons 🤢)

Karin Slaughter writes thrillers that you can't put down no matter how much you want to escape the horrific subject matter. This was probably the most brutal of the Will Trent series to date, with the possible exception of the first one. I've read horror novels that were less terrifying. That said, it's well-written, captivating, gut-wrenching, and practically perfect. It is simultaneously the worst and best book I‘ve read this year.

Oh, Nancy. You are not aging well. The “subtle” ads for other books in the series are starting to irritate. The mystery is even more predictable than the earlier books, and I swear I‘ve seen this as a Scooby-Doo episode. 😂 The cultural appropriation was not funny, though, and I could feel my blood boil as Nancy & Co. went shopping for authentic “squaw dresses” as party costumes. 🤦🏻‍♀️ #NancyDrewBR

I adored this picture book. It has beautiful messages about community, sharing, and gratitude. It‘s the picture book selection for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library‘s 2024 Community Reads program.

Every March, my county library system hosts a community read. This year‘s theme is food and the tagged book is the MG selection. I loved watching CiCi adjust to life in America through a cooking contest. Seeing her grow, learning to trust and make friends, and discover how to honor her Taiwanese heritage, was heartwarming.

I have two books in progress, but the #bookspin and #doublespin numbers came out today. This is my #doublespin and is all I want to read. I think I‘m going to make myself read at least a few chapters of one of the other books, but I will probably cave and start Nero later today.

Ann Patchett‘s writing is gorgeous and skillful. Meryl Streep‘s narration is equally brilliant. If family stories, contemporary/literary fiction are things you gravitate towards, I think you‘ll love this. I can see the appeal and all of the positive reviews are totally justified. I got a third of the way through the audiobook. It‘s just not for me, and that‘s okay.
#auldlangspine

March #bookspin bingo board. 🤩

I clearly need to create better #bookspin lists. 😂 I only read one book from February‘s list. I did use up all the free spaces, though. 🤣🤣

I won‘t finish anything tomorrow, so this is my wrap-up for February. Thanks to comfort audiobook rereads and catching up to the #nancydrewbr group, I actually managed to finish 9 books this month. Considering what a dumpster fire the first half of the month was, I will take this as a huge win. The Last Widow was my favorite of the new-to-me books. Slaughter is incredibly talented. #februarywrapup

Ha! I‘ve been saying I expect the criminals in these books to call Nancy meddlesome, and it finally happened. I enjoyed watching this one play out. Nancy really can do anything. My only complaint this time is all of the exclamation points. So! Many! ‼️‼️‼️🤣🤣
#NancyDrewBR

I decided not to recreate the wheel this month, especially since I only read one book from February‘s list and it was neither the #bookspin nor the #doublespin. 🤦🏻‍♀️ For March, I replaced those three titles, the library books that I returned unread, and all of the St. Martin‘s imprint titles. We‘ll see if I have any better luck reading from this list this month.

Trying to catch up to the #NancyDrewBR group. I loved the side characters in this one, especially Miss Flora. The villain, Nathan Gomber, was a quintessential cartoon villain. I really expected him to say “I‘d have gotten away with it if it wasn‘t for that meddling girl”. 😂 The stakes are definitely higher in this one, with missing fathers and more physical danger. While I like Helen, I really want Bess and George, and I hope we get them soon.

Karin Slaughter was exactly what I needed to break through this reading slump. Action packed, as always, and absolutely terrifying, I loved it and didn‘t want to put it down.

After weeks of bailing on almost everything (this is only the 3rd book I‘ve finished this month which is unheard of for me), I decided to take the advice Littens always seem to give each other about ending book slumps - change genres or reread an old favorite. I decided to let Jim Dale reread HP for me. I don‘t think the slump is broken, but I am grateful for the comfort (re)read. Onward to Chamber of Secrets

I remember reading a lot of Nancy Drew as a child. I also remember liking the Nancy Drew Files that came out in the mid-80s better than the originals, thinking they were more readable. That still holds true. I find the prose here clunky, but there‘s a Scooby-Doo “meddlesome kids” vibe to Nancy that I adore. This gets points for nostalgia if nothing else.

I FINALLY finished a book this month! This was a mildly creepy middle grade horror novel with big lessons on racism and facing your fears. Well-written and engaging, it‘s perfectly narrated by Bahni Turpin.

If Love Could Kill is my #bookspin and Spellbound is #doublespin I‘ve been battling my insurance company over critical medication for two weeks and have been too sick to do much reading. Fingers crossed that now that they are finally doing the right thing and I can get back on my meds, that I will be able to actively participate in life soon.

February‘s #bookspin list is a combination of library books and NetGalley titles with a couple of random TBR titles thrown in. Several of the new releases I am most excited about are, sadly, published by St Martins/St Martins imprints, and St Martins still has not addressed concerns over rascism and Islamophobia at their imprint, Wednesday Books, so I‘m trying to honor the boycott until they do. I‘ve covered the titles on my list.

I read a lot of mystery/crime fiction and it can start to feel exploitative, especially when the victims are BIPOC and the authors are white. Lillie is a Cherokee citizen, as is the main character here. This is a well written mystery centered around missing and murdered Indigenous women in a small Oklahoma town. There‘s more to it, of course, but no spoilers here. I‘m definitely interested in reading more of Lillie‘s work.

This week has been A Lot personally, so I haven‘t finished anything as I haven‘t had the mental capacity to read for any length of time. I am enjoying everything in progress though. I know I‘m probably replacing childhood memories with The Cure trivia, but it‘s totally worth it. 😂 The audiobook is giving me life right now. 🖤

I tried. I really did. I reached the 42% mark, but no more. I expected this to center on the torso murders of the early 20th century. A series of gruesome murders of which I knew nothing. Instead, I‘ve basically had to sit through a love letter of an Elliott Ness biography. 😡 Check, please!

I picked this up for my local indie‘s January virtual book club/reading challenge. I went into it blind, and it‘s not at all what I expected based on the title. It‘s kind of an enemies to lovers romance with warring factions racing up and down various timelines. The audio was a little tough to follow despite separate narrators for the two POVs, but still well done.

It‘s been a struggle to stick with anything this past week. Nothing is holding my interest so I‘m just not reading much. I‘m hoping to change that by bailing on my #bookspin, since it‘s getting all “hidden/forbidden relationship” angsty and I wanted to supernatural, isolated setting, high body count, not angst, so I‘m mad at it. 😂 Fingers crossed that the tagged book grabs my attention and doesn‘t let go.

Mine is an unpopular opinion, I know, but The Rescuers was one of the first Disney films I remember, and it will always be my favorite. The film and this book couldn‘t be more different. I didn‘t care for the writing style and, ugh, the misogyny. I know it‘s in line with the time it was written, but it was more than I can tolerate in my present mental state. That said, I‘m glad I read it. #childrensclassicread2024

This is a detailed look at the history of witch trials and demonology. It focuses on 13 trials as a deep dive into the actions and beliefs that drive witch trials - misogyny, patriarchy, and white supremacy being chief among those justifications. The text is very dry, though, which makes this a difficult read, and the narrator delivers the text in the manner of a dull university lecture. A pick for the content, but a low one for the tedium.

This was an interesting, informative look at the first criminal trial using genetic genealogy as its primary evidence. The cold case is a horrific murder of two young Canadians on a trip to Washington State. This book not only details the crime, but also delves into the privacy concerns around public and private DNA databases, and a history of the development of forensic genetic genealogy, especially the work of CeCe Moore and Parabon.

I‘m fascinated by the mixed reviews of this one. I enjoyed it, and while I can see that some elements were unnecessary, it never felt bogged down to me. The audiobook narrator is great. It touches on a lot of issues, but what I liked most was watching Bodie‘s perspective shifts as she uncovered new-to-her details of the people and events surrounding the murder of her boarding school roommate. #auldlangspine

Starting this one today, but Alma has pushed my expectations even higher than they were. Simmons‘s THE TERROR is one of my all time favorites and kicked off an obsession with Arctic and Antarctic exploration tales. Please don‘t let me down. 🤞🏻

Book Angie is horrible, and things reach a point in this novel where I‘m just as mad at Will for enabling her behavior as I am at Angie. That aside, this is classic Karin Slaughter - violent, graphic, and unputdownable.

When the library is not your friend…

Why do all the holds come in at the same time? Why must I work for a living? 😩😩

This short story isn‘t in the database. This is an absolutely terrifying story, simply because it‘s rooted in reality, from cyber-bullying, incels, and victim-blaming to police and college administrators doing worse than nothing. Written as a series of social media posts, it is a timely warning about the potential dangers of social media and toxic masculinity, but also: “cluck, cluck motherf*ckers”.