Need I say more?

Just give me happy stuff, okay? Yes, yes love hurts & women in love are stoopid & most hot guys are untrustworthy cads. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I had no idea the protagonist was to be an also-ran Marvel superhero I knew nothing about.

Her distressing background is mentioned but that‘s about it. She *does* use her superpowers a few times but overall she‘s just who she is, a detective

There are two timelines and two separate sources of no-good to be aware of

Life lesson: it‘s 2024; all the Zoomers want to be influencers. Influencers: easy money but moral value is certainly questionable.

This was a great read. The only thing that made me question the credibility…(edited out for spoiler reasons.)

Great characters, suspense. It will keep you guessing, keep you reading.

This one gets pretty spicy & listen—I read fet erotica but the happy times scenes here made me blush.

Sweet & inclusive & the plot is only too *real* for Black women & women gamers.

Seriously, add it; read it. 🎮🤎🤍🩶

Cord Lockwood encountered a Sasquatch in his youth and the event still haunts him.

He grows up to become a cryptid hunter but minimal proof. However he would rather not present the film & footage he‘s compiled to keep the creatures safe.

Truth though: some of the cryptids mentioned are new to me.

This is a fun short novel. I would definitely read any sequels that get released but while truth—Wouldn't you rather see this as a miniseries?

How dangerous is it for women to travel alone in Australia? If you've seen "Wolf Lake" you'd probably be cautious and I'm not sure "Red River Road" would console you.

The twists & turners will have you reevaluating everything you've read.

Some deets—Katy‘s younger sister Phoebe vanished while van-life touring so Katy tries to follow her tracks to find her.

THEN hitchhiking Beth sneaks into her van. Who‘s lying? Can they solve it together?

"No hair and no teeth, she's covered in scars. No fingers, no leg-"

Well-done if disturbing & violent. They're 17th Century pirates, what you gonna do?

Based on a historical character; god rest her soul. Those were violent times especially for a Black lesbian woman; yet Jacquotte, she fights, she conquers.

You can count this as an #ownvoices by a queer, disabled author. Check, check if you try to keep track of those things. ?‍❤️‍?‍??‍☠️

Oh boy. I don't want to give up any spoilers but this is one dark & disturbing read.

Not a mystery, suspense, yes.

Outright scary, yes.

Will you come to fear & doubt the rest of humanity?

Perhaps.

Worth your time but buckle up for the ride. 😨

Famous Italian 11-volume of YA adventure. Cliched as you‘d assume from 1883–+

Scary, weird & sad…It‘s Junji Ito!

This is a single-shot entry I believe. I‘m not sure I‘d WANT to follow these characters.

No heroes in horror manga, sorry!

1. Read, then probably read some more once I think I‘m done reading. 📖📚

2. A veterinary. I‘ve always loved animals & reading. Both still sing in my soul. 🐩🐾🐈

3. What are these things you call “holidays”? I‘ve no 🤑 nor family. Atheist. I‘ve nothing to celebrate & no one to celebrate them with. 🤷🏼‍♀️

4. 🦌

#MotivationalMonday @Cupcake12

I‘m always behind bookclub reads; be patient with me!

I‘d assumed “The Rescuers” would follow the same plot & structure of the Disney movie. It does not!

There are some genuinely scary parts in the book. I much prefer the book & these characters.

I‘d adored the movie when I was younger! I rewatched it recently & got bored! If you‘ve watch this with your brood what did they think?

(The seagull & Evinrude are highlights imo!)

Exquisite art of horrible things!

Cartoon dementia!

Demons! Demon birds! Demon children speaking Polish!

Great graphic that puts the "graphic" in graphic!

I do like Oni Press. Cute art but not for kiddos. ?? ?

What I liked? Femme-centered! But also a bit-rape centered but given the subject matter thats the territory.

What didn‘t work me—main character Chelsey outclassed as a detective—younger than she should. Ellie—more mature than likely to be at 19.

I personally saw it coming but then again I‘m a power-reader—I can tell given what‘s be said & what‘s not where your “twist” is.

Frankly I‘m over the “big twist” ubiquitous trope in thrillers.

⭐️🌟✨🌟✨

🪶

This is an amazing read

Different time periods & characters

One is George Armstrong Custer

I'd requested this ARC before the October
attack on Israel

It is & remains gut-punch history. Yes it's a
good read but if you are now or remain
unaware of the hows, whens & whys of the
Jewish diaspora this would be a great
starting point.

This is a painful read.

SONG OF SPHERES - Walker Larson

“As an indie author, it's hard to stand out from the crowd. Your reading of the book is a real help. Song of Spheres will appeal to those who like a philosophical/theoretical edge and a character-focused style to their adventure stories. It grapples with questions about our place in the universe and how scientific theories can impact human life. Slow build in first half, action-packed in the second.”

You all may appreciate my review:

These are some dark and twisted tales, rotting bodies, copulation with demons, every form of fornication you can imagine. Disease and desiccation, festering rot.

It gives new meaning to going medieval on someone‘s ass.

You have to be in the mood for it but with that it‘s pretty brilliant.

Do enjoy, heathens. 😈

This book is on its way but I HATE that cover.

I look at it & my mind immediately screams “You put that baby down!!”

🦖

#veganAF #dinosaurs #paleontology

This one isn‘t in the catalogue yet.

Marshall Luthi, indie horror. He‘s always got great cover art.

An ARC I gotta get going on.

My wishes on the ending were not granted,

I‘m at a bit of a loss on the rating. As this is YA I wouldn‘t recommend it for that audience—kids got it rough enough already; don‘t make it harder on them.

I choose this pic for the dog (“India street dog 😢)

I could not, would not *ever* sell my dog. CA Mega Millions is currently $159 Million.

I win it, first thing I‘m gonna do is GET MORE DOGS! 🐕

This book better have a happy ending.

An unbelievable Deus ex machina ending, with return of dog.

Excellent read that deserves an audience. Unfortunately it may bring up a lot of pain & anger, outrage.

Just be kind. Being kind is free to you but you can‘t even imagine how much value it brings to others around you.

This book is a painful read, full of miserable characters that I would never, ever forgive when I became an adult.

Her family? 🚮

I‘m finally getting to this one, on audio.

I‘m getting sads though, the casual mention to animal death & abuse. 😢

1. The book I‘m commenting on so NYC.

2. Not really but my state of the moment is Maine.

3. Deep Deep Woods (Yes, Raggedy Ann & Andy)

My tagging minus @Eggs is completely random.

Do you want to play a game? 🙀

Apologies to anyone that dug still. Different strokes, etc etc.

This is a favorite genre of mine though.

Just wondering, is anyone else over on Fable?

I am, loving it. I can make comments as I‘m reading without the fear of spoilage.

Come see me if you join! (Also good for book recommendations.)

Somebody is killing Priests!

Oh noes! Who could it be? What might be the motive? 🕵️‍♂️

Nothing much new covered here but it‘s a decent listen on Hoopla Free Borrows.

Pic is Giovanni Bonsi, Saint Nicholas, ca. 1365-70. Tempera on panel.

You can listen to a quick talk about it from The San Diego Museum of Art‘s Masterpiece Minute Podcast, where you can also view this piece.

It pains me to leave this review but there are serious issues.

Mexican bad guys do not say “gringo” and “federales”. If you‘re going to set a story with these characters, you need to get that right, do some general research before coming off as you‘ve done none.

For audio: Yes, your narrator can talk like they think Mexican people, Chinese people, East-Euro people sound. You do the entire book like that as it comes off as racist cosplay.

I read, I learn!

This is the first ever billed “techno thriller” I‘ve read. This is a field so not my forte so a good bit of it surely lost me.

I picked it up particularly to get the first in the series to be able to follow “The Enigma Rising
(The Enigma #2)”.

Maybe I‘ll be able to pick up some knowledge along the way? 🧐

#WonderousWednesday

🌨⛷

Did the author a month challenge, starts in Jan, I think? Winter Readathon, #bookbingo as well, I believe. I need to stop overcommitting though!

❄️☃️

I‘ve never associated much joy with Christmas. As ever being single & childless is a lonely life.

I do remember being an 👼🏻 several, several times in my *small* rural Iowa Lutheran church.

Trinity Lutheran? A miraculous memory accurate. The church in the mid-80s.

Still from “It‘s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”!!!

It‘s hard for me to accurately rate this as I absolutely hate books that end the way this one did.

The plot is indeed twisty/turny. Hence the still.

But is it worth reading? Yes.

#winterreadathon 🎄🎅🤶🌨⛷⛄️

 @Ann_Reads

I‘m not very good with upload editing. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Please tag yo selves!!

I don‘t generally read Regencies but a Hoopla Free Borrow audio says I do.

I remember more early ‘70s romances, dating already dated Regency. This one is 2019, never heard of the author but it‘s a good book, usual Regency tropes, spies, smugglers, rich relations.

Pic is “Where there‘s a will…” by Edmund Blair Leighton, painted 1892.

#bookspin

1. Revenge by Yöko Ogawa

2. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two
Teenagers and the Crime…by Dashka Slater

3. The Centurion Immortal by C. Thomas Lafollette

4. Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

5. The Golden Lion of Granpere by Anthony Trollope

6. Twilight Guardians (Wings in the
Night: Reborn, #1) by Maggie Shayne

7. Art World City: The Creative Economy of Artists and Urban…by Joanna Grabski

Question: How does Book Spin work?

Do you choose titles yourself or are they chosen for you?

Is this a completion read you can win? #bookspin

This one confused me. I‘m not sure why. It clearly has a following & the writer has worked on Lumberjanes so, Cool! Lumberjanes!

As you can see we have several mythical creatures working in a coffee stop. The centaur loses his centaur 🍑 to an evil ghost magician & can‘t stop crying over his great centaur 🍑.

Okay then. Just doesn‘t work for me but take your chance & try it.

It‘s currently a Hoopla Free Borrow.

Artifacts was a Hoopla Free Borrow this month so I thought I‘d give it a try. It‘s a Top Cow title, which I don‘t know much about & for good reason.

No capes! Plenty of cyborgs, defrocked priests, big-titty pretty ladies, fantasy guns, violence…

Boring. It is the line that did Witchblade if you dig Witchblade. Top Cow had long runs with Rob Liefeld, which also makes sense & so not for me.

Anyway, enter at your own risk.

My verdict: Boring.

The art here is exquisite. Yes, it‘s an update on A Christmas Carol, y El Señor Murciélago no es el heroe. ?

Dark, but it‘s Batman ffs. ?

Very well done, with much to think about.

What you think you know may not be accurate…but…my trial verdict 👎🏻

This was recommended to me, other wise I would have passed. Sacrilege, I know…but I‘m just not a superhero person, and who‘s the biggest superhero of them all?

Booorriing…🥱

Anyway, here‘s Clark & Lois‘s son, Jon. “…landmark moment in comic book history, Jonathan Kent “…the son of Clark Kent, aka Superman, and Lois Lane — is coming out as bisexual.”

So there‘s a continuity change.

“It happened every spring in Fall River,
Massachusetts. Behind the curtained
windows of the stately house she shared
with her sister on French Street, Miss
Lizbeth Borden heard the children
skipping rope on the sidewalk, chanting
a rhyme to the once-popular tune of
"Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay":
Lizzie Borden took an axe,
Gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had
done,
She gave her father forty-one.”

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

The hype is real.

I‘m playing catch-up here, which means of got more volumes to devour. 📒🤗

#1. Technically Twilight Children by Hernàndez/Cooke, which is boring. Knight Templar by Leslie Charteris was the oldest date added at Jan 5, 2015.

#2. I‘ve canceled more boxes than most have ever bought. BOTM, obvs. Fairy Loot, The Book Drop (greatly missed), Boxwalla Books (ditto), Alignist (ditto ♾)

3. Swedes watch “Ivanhoe” every New Years Eve. Maybe I do another re-read. It‘s a child‘s favorite. ??

#WONDEROUSWEDNESDAY @Eggs

Undeniably great artwork from Darwyn Cooke.

From there, ???

I‘ve not read much by Gilbert Hernàndez, sacrilege, I know. I have read that this work focuses on trash female characters that have a lot of sexual partners & hyper-macho male protagonists.

So, not really written for me. This entire storyline lacks sense & you will not find any character either relatable or likable.

My verdict: Meh. ??‍♂️??

This was just too sophomoric for me. Not bad, but much more suited from younger readers.

It‘s also a bit dated, by author‘s own admission. Ozy & Millie is her juvenilia and dating from the early & mid-90s.

1. Avoid Thanksgiving events as not even Prof‘s mother can figure out that no, vegans don‘t eat tiny pig flesh sausage chunks in stuffing.

2. Stuffing, but just stuffing stuffing, no added sausage chucks & lawd forgive, raisins. What planet are you from, lady? 😒

Hope you all can tolerate my wry & dry sense of humor. 😉

#two4tuesday

@TheSpineView and
@JenReadsAlot

All everyone else: Consider yourself tagged!