I'm not sure I'm meant for books like this... 🙄 The fact that it's a Jane Eyre retelling says a lot too, LOL... 18% in and I've already strained a muscle rolling my eyes.

Not the best so far, imo, but still a fun story. Hard and heavy on the YA topics of body image and gender identity and I hated the way the narrator made the girls sound. I'll stick with it but the library only has 1 book on audio? Haha, it's just random... but an appropriate amount of Nonsense, honestly! 😁🍭🍬

I really like this story & these characters but the narrator is either flat or making the characters sound really petulant.

Struggling harder than I ever have... reading is not even possible for me these days. I can't focus or concentrate on the simplest article and I'm thinking about binge watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians... HELP ME!!!! 😫

Got this sucker recently and decided to jump in... even if it stinks, I be happy to have it on my shelves!!! But honestly, this seems like a lot of fun... 🧟‍♀️

I really want to enjoy this book but the narrator is just too difficult for me to listen to. I feel bad but she's just so automated that I find myself drifting and zoning out. This might have to be a read rather than a listen because the trial info is actually interesting!

An interesting glimpse into the world that made Jack & Jill who they were and why they returned home! I love these characters and was really happy to get to know them better! I'm really looking forward to getting through this series!

The jury was chosen after interviewing 109 prospects. At least one black man was interviewed, as blacks were allowed to sit on a jury in Massachusetts as early as 1860. Women, however, were granted permission to sit on a jury in 1950, with the first female juror hearing a trial in 1951!!!

Absolutely hysterical that Lizzie Borden tried to use her period as an excuse for some of the blood in the house!! There was a theory that women were more prone to criminal acts when menstruating. I mean... I totally get it but... lol

Getting this started today... the narrator has such a strange tone and I had to speed it up so she doesn't sound like the automated narration on Instagram!!! 🤣

A short collection of NY State hauntings. There's nothing super interesting about this and if I had paid attention to how short it was, I'd have skipped buying it. The picture is Winfield Hall, the haunted Woolworth mansion on Long Island.

I've read this spooky little walk down Unreality Lane before but listening to it is so much more satisfying! These two remind me a little of the Beales of Grey Gardens, especially towards the end. How are haunted houses created? Step into Blackwood House and find out....

While I liked this book a lot, I feel like it was quite rushed. I already miss Jack and I felt like things wrapped up so quickly and neatly. Yes, I realize this is YA and probably utilizes a different pace so I'm going to be forgiving and grab the next book to see where we go! Points for diversity and encouraging acceptance!

Finally found a book to bust my slump!!! April was becoming the month of DNF and I accidentally fat fingered this open in my Overdrive app. I read half the book in 1 sitting and I'm HOOKED! I tagged the rest of the series in Libby and I might switch to audio to get through it faster! 💜

I absolutely loved this book!!! Melvin Kaminsky has one of the most unique life stories I've ever heard and growing up in the same area of Brooklyn as my grandmother, hearing him read this felt like home. 💜 You'll hear stories from the sets of his iconic films, the development of the Broadway show for the Producers and how he cultivated incredible friendships along the way.

I really just can't go on with this one. I felt like it was sucking my soul away and I was standing by watching it go. Wonderfully written but S-L-O-W... if they make it a series, I'd watch it in a second but I can't give it another 19 hours. Maybe another time...

I think I need a comfort read to get my mojo back... I feel like I'm frantically trying to get all these books started and nothing is sticking. Wishing you a Happy Easter and blessed Passover!!!

Some middle grade books are perfect for all audiences. I don't personally feel like this one is for me. My daughter and I were supposed to buddy read this and she returned it to the library so I'm going to pass and leave the book on her bookshelf. Moving on...

I'm not sure what I expected from this thriller but it was okay. I felt it pushed the YA boundaries a little, even if that wasn't the intention. A teen sees his best friend get abducted and makes some bone headed teenage decisions to confront the kidnapper. Not super gory and kind of suspenseful but I wouldn't read this again.

Really enjoying this, simply because Mel Brooks is so New York. I love his description of a chocolate egg cream (no eggs involved 🥚) and found out he potentially went to high school with my grandmother! I wish I could share this with her! She'd absolutely love this book! 💜

Day 6- #AGrimmADay : Faithful John - a weird one... a king has a faithful servant & on his deathbed tells him to keep a portrait of a princess locked up when his son becomes king. The new king demands to see the locked room and finds the princess of the Golden Dwelling. He immediately falls in love but will die if he tries to find her. He persists and snatches her. John heard ravens talking about what happens when they land and get off the boat ⬇️

I've been struggling to focus on anything for the last 2 weeks and I feel miserable starting a thread I can't keep up with. Hoping for a clear head and better response from me for #AGrimmADay. Who thought it would be so difficult to read fairy tales! Enjoy this camelia photo taken at my favorite arboretum several weeks ago. Thanks for sticking around. 💜

#AGrimmADay Day 5: The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids - A goat goes to fetch food and leaves her kids home with a warning about the wolf who will eat them. The wolf tricks the kids, breaks in and eats all the kids but one. The mother and the kid find the wolf asleep in the field, then they cut out the kids and replaced them with stones. He wakes up thirsty & falls down a well and dies. A familiar story I've heard before. 👍

Getting this started while I have busy work to do at work. I'm finally getting to the books listed in my 2018 Book Lover's Page-A-Day Calendar! 🤣 It seems a lot of them are on audio so I'll have plenty to refer to outside my wheelhouse!

#AGrimmADay Day 4: The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was - A bone headed kid wants to learn to shudder because nothing scares him. His father sends him away after he broke a sexton's leg by pushing him down the stairs as the sexton tried to scare him. He is told to spend the night with men on the gallows. He tries to warm them up instead. He's told to spend 3 nights in a haunted castle and isn't scared by the black cats, ⬇️

Day 3 - Our Lady's Child: A poor wood-cutter meets the Blessed Mother in the woods who offers to take his child and raise her in Heaven. The child turns 14 and is given 13 keys. Mary tells her she can use 12 but not the last otherwise it will lead to great unhappiness. She does and it does, lol. She grows up in the woods, unable to speak, until a king finds her and marries her. More below: ⬇️⬇️⬇️ #AGrimmADay

Day 2: A cat values the friendship of a trusting mouse so much that they decide to help each other in preparing for winter. They save a pot of fat which the cat decides to sneak off and eat. When winter comes, there's no fat left and as the mouse is realizing it, the cat eats her. A leopard and it's spots, so to speak. #AGrimmADay

Day 1: A princess loses her golden ball & promises a frog that he can be her companion if he retrieves it. She's a brat, of course, and runs away without him. The king is angry that she doesn't keep her word. The frog asks to sleep in her bed and she's mad about it. He says he'll tell the king and she throws him at the wall! That causes him to turn back into a prince and the next day they go to his castle. Iron Henry in the comments: #AGrimmADay

I've had this one probably since high school & I've read a handful of stories here and there. I think I'd like to do a series of posts about each story rather than review the book after reading the whole thing. #AGrimmADay 🤷‍♀️

Okay, I did get misty eyed at the end but it was because of Henry. This wasn't the worst book I've ever read but it was a Twilight Zone episode at best. Serling or Matheson could have hammered the point home in 30 minutes, not 17 HOURS! Beaumont would have been awesome but super dark, which would work here. The lesson? Life is short, live well. Don't make deals with strangers in the woods after dark, either.

🙄 This book needs to be half as long as it is... 12 hours later and we still need to discuss how the next morning is always awkward, how nobody remembers and exactly how many freckled stars are charted across the perfect face of Addie LaRue. And everyone's painfully beautiful...

**UPDATE** 1 hour left and I want everyone to die already. 😵 Yes, I'm a grumpy old ass.. LOL

While I completely understand Addie continually is forgotten, I'm not so sure as a reader, I need to constantly be reminded about the process. At least an hour could have edited out already by cutting out the flowery repetition!! 🙄

Got this started yesterday because it was available and it isn't awful... a bit hyped up so I'm trying not to be let down but it's interesting so far!

So much fun!! In a world where ghosts are commonplace citizens, an anomaly is growing and putting spirits out of existence! Not horror exactly but the ghost element gives it a horror feel. This was funny, a little creepy, and poignant as a pair of twins, one living and one dead, try to help each other find an answer to this phenomenon.

An amazing peek into how messy life can get and the lengths people will go to in order to make things right. Lynette has struggled through mental illness, depression and a suicide attempt, making life difficult for her mother and developmentally disabled brother. I loved this story and these broken characters. I didn't love the authors hard lines of good and bad. It made a great story feel immature but didn't take away from the story too much.

Totally unexpected Libby find but this book is amazing so far! Lynette has a checkered past, including violent outbursts, running away and a suicide attempt. She's trying to create stability for her mom and developmentally disabled brother but not through the most legal avenues.

I've read this a few times in my fangirl days. I always liked this story but Lord, is it slow! Lots of unpopular opinions from me on King. I hate how often he uses the words slut and whore. I hate the way he rambles. But I love Jake and I still kind of love Roland. ❤

"Go, then. There are other worlds than these."

#StephenKingProject

Tell me your book was written by an Irishman without telling me he from Ireland. 😁 While I know how to pronounce this, I'm not sure I've ever seen this name in a book before! 💚🍀

On the other hand, I'm not sure I'm going to make it through this one... the undertaker has sex with a grieving client, she has a heart attack during it and dies, then he starts getting excited by her daughter while they're making double arrangements. 🙊

WOWZERS! A teenager is imprisoned for the brutal murder of his girlfriend. A documentary has shattered his family but also created reasonable doubt. When the rest of the Pine family is found dead in Mexico, it's up to Matt to find out what really happened. I NEVER saw the end of this coming and the twists and turns had me guessing until the end! 👏👏👏 #audiobooks

Left turn, Clyde!!! I'm really stumped as to what's really going on here and I love it!

Desk lunch since I'm leaving early for the Scholastic Book Fair at my daughter's school! I won this from the one Goodreads giveaway I ever participated in, LOL. Thanks to Sarah & #bookspin, I'm finally getting to it! @TheAromaofBooks

I went from one semi-autobiographical middle grade novel to another. This has a Charlotte's Web feel but it's a bit more coarse, as the author was truly a farmer's son.

I remember loving this when we read it in 8th grade, but now it feels so foreign and antiquated to me. I'm assuming we had a bit of help when we read it, as everything pertains to life in the early 20th century but I'm not really enjoying it too much. 🤷‍♀️

Getting the oil changed before work today and I am SOOO glad nobody else is here to watch me crying! 😭 While my family was never homeless, we struggled so much financially when I was growing up. This one is going to be death by a million cuts.

Loving our balmy 45° weather and partaking in some sunshine...

We've started watching What We Do In the Shadows recently and I just keep thinking this is the beginning of the end... This isn't a vampire novel, though, just a haunted house story. 🤣🧛‍♂️👻

I'll be taking a moment to acknowledge Sylvia today on the day of her untimely passing. 💔
💜Don't think you're so alone that there is nobody to hear you. You are loved, you are special, you are worthy, and you are enough.
💜Don't hesitate to reach out for help if you're struggling mentally. Your brain lies.

A fictitious account of the Collyer's life as told by Homer Collyer. My first Doctorow and I enjoyed his writing, as well as the creative spin on this infamous NYC legend. "This room looks like Collyer's attic!" For years, I never knew why my grandmother would say that...

Enjoy this book about NY's most famous hoarders but definitely research their true story. #Bookspin2022 #February @TheAromaofBooks

Love at first sight? No thanks, I'm out...

Guess I'll be passing on that virtual author visit too.

Listening to this for a virtual book club meet with the author next month but it's so repetitive and annoyingly whiny... I hope the story picks up! However, I've been following the narrator Therese Plummer and get journey back to health after a horrific car crash and it's so refreshing to hear her reading it!