📬 I mailed my #WinterNatureCardSwap cards on Friday @TheBookHippie !
I started working on them in November! Not sure how it took me so long but here we are. 😊
📪 Thank you to everyone who sent cards already! They are always a bright spot in my day! 💌

This is my first collage for a winter journal challenge I‘m participating in on Instagram this month.
The prompt was Sticker Soup and I coincidentally got some stickers for the #winternaturecardswap that day!

#LitsyCrafters

Thank you @LiseWorks for helping me finish Blacktop Wasteland in time for book club!

#SnowyDecemberReadathon
#Bookly #BooklyApp

I‘m joining all the fun things late!
#10BeforetheEnd
#BookspinBingo (I‘m going to use every book in the picture 2x, my Jolabokaflod gift & books in progress for the last row. ☺️)
I think I signed up for #MidWinterSolace too!

Just trying to finish all the challenges before the end of the year! Last year I read 7 books in December. 🤞🏼

Thank you
@ChaoticMissAdventures
@TheAromaofBooks
@AllDebooks
@TheBookHippie
@Chrissyreadit

November 2025 will now be known as the month I first read We Have Always Lived in the Castle!
🍄‍🟫🍄🍄‍🟫🍄🍄‍🟫

#Bookly #BooklyApp

I went to Maui Friends of the Library in Kīhei yesterday and came away with some fun stuff! They had tons of lovely Hawaiiana and I had to keep reminding myself how much space is left in my suitcase!
2 books, 2 cds (yes, I still listen to cds 👵🏻), and a set of cards made by a Maui artist named Shanti Rowley! +1 free bookmark
Very friendly staff as well. 🌺📚 Mahalo!

This book has a lot of succinct humpback whale information, + black and white and color photographs. It suited my purpose to prepare me for a whale watching tour perfectly. It was published in the 1990s so I don‘t know that I would necessarily recommend it as I‘m sure there are other books with more updated research.
I took this where we saw a mother and calf near Lahaina, intending to take it with whales, but living in the moment won!
🐋🐋🐋🐋

I‘m on vacation!

Getting ready for vacation! 💇🏼‍♀️📘

Here‘s another one I checked out from the library so I would remember to add it to the wishlist! 😅
It has a map! 🎡🎢🎠🫣

Gotta be ready for whale watching on Tuesday! Wish me luck! 🤞🏼🌺🐋

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

My husband wanted to go to the library last weekend so I checked out 2 books I‘m sure to return unread due to being short on time and long on end of year goals. But they‘re going on the wishlist! 💙🧜🏻‍♀️

I really enjoyed this witchy book! A family inherits a house from a great aunt they didn't know. Upon arrival things immediately get weird, but no one seems to remember anything except 1 of 5 daughters, teenage Josephine. We know from the start she has some type of mind reading capability & it‘s fun (and scary) to see how she uses her abilities. I recommend this haunting story if you don't mind leaving your lights on at night! 🧙🏻🧙🏻🧙🏻🧙🏻

I never gave credit to Bombadil for his invaluable help with my TBR stack photo for November!

#DogsofLitsy #TomBombadil

I had fun playing #ErasGhostBingo with @Charityann last month! I only got Bingo by using books for multiple prompts so I did not count them for #HauntedShelf.
I added stamps, stickers, and used an orange highlighter.
#LitsyCrafters

I have 2 long flights this month so hopefully I can make it through my stack!

🌺 Hula - I‘m going to Maui for my 50th birthday!
🫆 Blacktop Wasteland - for book club
🍄 We Have Always Lived in the Castle - currently reading and loving
🐋 tagged - we‘re going whale watching on my birthday! Gotta be prepared! Also Nonfiction November
🌊 The Cliffs - for #keywordreadingchallenge and my sister wants to read it with me

#nonfictionnovember #tbr

My final total is 756 points for #GrimReaders !

#HauntedShelf was so much fun @CSeydel and @PuddleJumper !

🧙🏻 My character costume on Halloween was Elphaba!

This weekend I started my second by Shirley Jackson! So far I‘m liking the buildup and definitely want to read more about the main characters.

🍁 Loving the fall background @rachelsbrittain !

#weekendreads

Thank you so much @Readergrrl ! I ripped open your package first thing yesterday morning & it was the perfect way to kick off Halloween!
I appreciate your thoughtfulness in selecting things I would love: a book from my wishlist, things with ravens or crows, and a wax seal kit for scrapbooking! And the perfect snack to eat while I read and scrap!
Thank you again!!
And thank you for hosting @BookwormAHN ! I love this swap!
#mws #modernwitchswap

October is always a fun reading month for me and this year was not an exception!
#HauntedShelf and the #GrimReaders helped me keep up the pace in a busy month!
Thanks again @CSeydel ! Now it‘s time to tally points…

#bookly #booklyapp

Thank you for hosting the #Spookyspots #Bingoboard @AllDebooks !
I didn‘t get a Bingo but I had fun trying!

#LitsyCrafters I used washi, a wooden stamp, and labels you can‘t quite see.

Boo @BookwormAHN ! 👻
I received my #ModernWitchSwap package!
Can‘t wait to open it! 🧙🏻
#MWS

I mailed my #ModernWitchSwap package today! It will be in my witch friend‘s hands on Saturday!

Thank you for hosting @BookwormAHN !

#MWS

👻 Late halfway point check-in!

I have 427 points so far and I‘m having a blast!
Thank you @CSeydel and @PuddleJumper !

#HauntedShelf #GrimReaders

🍂 Photo taken in Flagstaff, Arizona 2 weeks ago

I loved this creative story about a little girl who shows up at an ornithologist‘s study site and declares she‘s an alien. I spent most of the book going back and forth between deciding she‘s alien and then deciding she‘s a little girl which was part of the fun. The author also tackles mental health, and sprinkled in a little romance as well.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌲Taken last week in the forest outside of Flagstaff, Arizona
#hauntedshelf #grimreaders

🚧 I read this for Banned Books Week!
🦗 It was a sweet science fiction story about our distant future. Most science fiction I read is dark and scary so this robot story was refreshing for a change.
Banned I‘m guessing for a non-gendered main character? Yet I remain a woman after reading it.
🤖 I‘ll definitely continue the Monk and Robot Series!

🤖🤖🤖🤖

#hauntedshelf #GrimReaders

Burton aficionados will recognize any number of visual ideas that are wrapped into his later work, especially The Nightmare Before Christmas.
RE: Beetlejuice p. 155

#hauntedshelf #grimreaders

Many were moved by the dream of creating or recreating a radical Jewish culture that was leftist, diasporic, and queer.
p. 223

#hauntedshelf #grimreaders @CSeydel

Boris documented it all in real time in the haunting documentary Vu iz mayn heym? (Where Is My Home?), which is dedicated “in Memory of Bessarabian Jewry” and opens with a valedictory flip through the uniquely Bessarabian Jewish names in Kishinev phone book.
p. 218

#hauntedshelf #grimreaders @CSeydel

This was my second Dick (I loved Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep!). I read this one for the #ClassicLSFBC .
I liked how it started, but the second half of the book had too many unreliable narrators and characters so it got kind of confusing for me. Fortunately there were a lot of humorous moments.
🏺🏺🏺

Thank you @RamsFan1963 !

🌧️ Photo taken last Saturday morning. I got to read on the porch while it rained - such a nice fall experience!

I I had a good reading month. Not enough time to read but lots of good stuff to read.

My October TBR is my final point grab for the #grimreaders in the #hauntedshelf challenge!

🤖 A Psalm for the Wild-Built - #BannedBooksWeek
⭐️ Where the Forest Meets the Stars - currently reading
👻 tagged - ARC
👻 Ghost Story &
🔪 We Have Always Lived In the Castle - #keywordreadingchallenge
🦍 Future Home of the Living God - #wian2025

Good luck Grim Readers! 💀📚

I‘ve been reading this for a month & It will take me another month to finish because it‘s dense with information. However, as a teacher of students learning English I find it so interesting. This is about an organization in New York City documenting the 700+ languages spoken there, and also their attempt to save some languages that are going extinct by recording people and cataloging words and grammar.
👯‍♀️ I‘m reading this with my book club.

I have a list of recommendations based on scare factor to satisfy every reader.

🔪 Strange Magic by Syd Moore - I love this series - unlikely sleuths, a witch museum, light romance, & a lot of feminism
🔪🔪 The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - unreliable narrator meets psychological thriller
🔪🔪🔪 Misery by Stephen King - psychological thriller with the dial turned up + the gore too
🔪🔪🔪🔪 NOS4A2 by Joe Hill - scariest book I‘ve ever read

There‘s still time to sign up for #HauntedShelf with @PuddleJumper !

You can still sign up here: https://forms.gle/wmcY27wyx6awp3EfA

#GrimReaders 👻📚

This week I finished this book and I loved it. I wasn‘t supposed to finish until the end of the month for a readalong on Instagram but I couldn‘t help myself.
The characters are living in a future pandemic where your illness covers you in scales and causes you to eventually self combust. Other people armed with misinformation about the illness turn to militias to handle it.
Excitement ensues.
🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒

I played with miniature dolls as a kid so the idea of being able to make them come alive was next level for me!
I also loved The Little House on the Prairie books.

Thanks for asking @BookmarkTavern !

#SundayFunday

Currently reading The Fireman with Bombadil. We love weekends.

#DogsOfLitsy

Here are some books I don‘t have time to read this month. 😂

🪴 Galactic Pot-Healer - for #classicLSFBC
🗽 Language City - for book club, p. 115/378
⚠️ A Psalm for the Wild Built - for Banned Books Week which is in October this year? Rescheduled accordingly
⭐️ Where the Forest Meets the Stars - for the #keywordchallenge
🔥 The Fireman - for IG group read, p. 463/750
🤠 The Gunslinger Born - for #losersclub with @BarkingMadRead

#tbr

Thank you for hosting the #SummersEnd Readathon @Bookwormjillk ! I met my goal by finishing The Last Days of the Dinosaurs before the end of the month!
Bonus, I also got to read more from The Fireman and Language City!

Lots of reading but I only finished The Last Days of the Dinosaurs for #naturalitsy.

#bookly #booklyapp

☀️ My goal for the #SummersEnd Readathon is to finish The Last Days of the Dinosaurs for the #naturalitsy group.

🦖 Since August 28th I‘ve read 43 pages in 1 hour and 25 minutes for the #Readathon !

🦕 128 pages to go!

📚 Thank you for hosting @Bookwormjillk !

This week I got my copy of A Melody of Crimson Regrets. I‘m very excited because it was written by my niece‘s husband! Sounds like it will be a cool vampire story.
🧛🏻 What are you excited to read?

The sign made me do it!

We got a new Barnes & Noble where there used to be a Forever 21! They didn‘t have what I was looking for but I still managed to bring 2 books home (The pretty sprayed edges were calling my name!).
Our new school librarian told me she almost loved the A Court of Thorns and Roses series more than Harry Potter so I finally caved and got a copy (Night Court Edition 😍🖤).

I read this with @BarkingMadRead and the #losersclub last month.
I would classify this as a thriller but I feel it was a stronger overarching political commentary on gun laws and possibly eminent domain. In the early 1970s Bert and his wife lose their house to fair market value and a highway.
Read if you like a slow descent into madness & bad choices.
⚠️🚧⚠️🚧

🤡 Taken with the newest addition to my King collection - It duck from Five Below!

📚 I finished 13 books between the last day of school and the last day of the library summer reading game.
I read:
🏠 Roadwork
🐩 Travels with Charley
⏰ Recursion
👠 tagged
🚚 Full Throttle
🐢 The Beach House
👰🏻 Four Aunties & a Wedding
📝 The Friend
🍎 North Woods
📕 The Invisible Hour
Not pictured:
🧜🏻‍♀️ The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman
🍏 Because I Had a Teacher by Kobi Yamada
🔮 Labyrinth: Coronation Vol. 1 by Simon Spurier

#summer

Finally got my August TBR picture ready!

Currently reading
👨🏻‍🚒 The Fireman at home
(Instagram group read for August and September)
🦖 The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black in my purse
(for the #naturalitsy group)

Up next
🗣️ Language City by Ross Perlin for my book club

🌵 Taken with our Prickly Pear

#tbr #AugustTBR

Here‘s another page from my #WeekInTheLife project. I documented my plane read and adult beverage which mean I‘m officially on vacation. 😊
(Photos from June) I used stamps, stickers, and the cell phone is punched out of a catalogue.

Thanks again @Catsandbooks !

#ShowAndTellTuesday #LitsyCrafters

Last Saturday we watched Happy Gilmore 2 and loved it! There were so many good cameos including this one with The Shining. 😆

I had a great reading month - I got a BINGO in Book Soin Bingo, read 2 books with my sister, and read 3 books for buddy reads!

#bookly #booklyapp