#serenesaturdays @TheBookHippie

Tunes blasting, cleaning house (purging and getting in all the nooks and crannies) is oddly satisfying and calming.
Weird, right?

I have been puttering all day in anticipation of @dabbe 's arrival and now it is time for a little Prosecco/reading break.

If you liked The Book of Lost Things or A Monster Calls, I think you would really love this story about a young boy who moves to Brighton with his mother and new stepfather. Made me cry.

@Chrissyreadit not sure if this fits the bill for #tagyoureit but here is my contribution.

It‘s been a dog‘s age since I have read anything by Jodi Picoult and I had never heard of her co-author, but I 5⭐️ loved this one. Told from the perspectives of a mother whose 18 year old son has been accused of murdering his girlfriend, Lily, and Lily‘s own perspective from the months leading up to her death, this book is thoughtful and heartbreaking. Yes, it‘s topical, but I didn‘t feel emotionally manipulated. I did, however, feel emotional. 💔

600+ more pages with Johnny and Shannon. I laughed. I teared up. There were some pulse pounding moments. Did it need to be this long? No. Were there some things that got on my nerves? Yes. But I really liked the main characters and was content to spend this time with them. I won‘t be reading any more of the series as I expect it will be more of the same.

#WDNCW @dabbe
I don‘t care that some people might think I am too liberal. I‘m 🇨🇦. Even the people I know who identify as conservative would describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal…and in our last federal election they all voted liberal so we wouldn‘t have our own version of the current US hellscape here. #sorrynotsorry

Happy Canada Day! @dabbe I will take you to this very spot when you come to visit!

I mean, I guess it says everything that you need to know when I tell you that I now must go buy the sequel…and I never read sequels. There was definitely some stuff about this book that made me cringe, but it was also laugh-out-loud funny and the two main characters are likeable. You weren‘t wrong, @TheSpineView .

Today is the first day of my summer holidays and it is 30 degrees Celsius of perfection on my deck. Just finished this book which was 80% delightful and 20% 🤷‍♀️, which makes it a pick for me. We'll be discussing it at bookclub on Monday night.

You wouldn‘t necessarily want to be reading this horror novel about Reid, Ana and their one-year old daughter who move into the Deptford, a swanky apartment building in Manhattan, alone at night. It‘s creepy (and campy)- part Rosemary‘s Baby and part ‘salem‘s Lot. It wasn‘t 5-star fun for me, but it was an enjoyable read.

#truefact

I finished it, so I guess that‘s something. I am not really sure I understood it though. Three separate narratives concerning family, identity, fraud. There was something about it that kept me reading, but when I got to the end I was a little bit 🤷‍♀️.

This is the rationale I use every time I purchase books. #sorrynotsorry

After Aaron‘s wife is killed, he discovers some secrets that she had been hiding and it sends him on a journey to finish what she had started. Haunted by grief (and maybe even his wife), this book wasn‘t scary or propulsive, but I did want to keep reading. It was reminiscent of Peter Straub and Thomas H. Cook. More literary than I expected. This was my first book by Malfi, and I would definitely read more. 4⭐️

20% off at Indigo for teachers is a siren call, especially when having a plum plus card gets you an additional 10% off. What‘s a bookworm to do?

#Chatterday2025 Tagged by @kspenmoll @AllDebooks
I am hosting a couple friends tonight before we go see the father of my bestie be inducted into the NB Sports Hall of Fame. This is an impromptu pre-event event, so I guess I will spend the day cleaning and making some nibbles to eat before we head out. If I am lucky, I will get some reading done.
On another note: only one more week of actual teaching before exams…so 🎉

Many thanks to @AmyG and @TheBookHippie for the delightful surprises waiting for me when I got home from school today. Birthday gifts are always lovely, no matter when they arrive. Thank you so much for thinking of me! 😘

Beautifully written novel about a divorced couple who travel across Canada to bring to a close the mystery of their daughter who went missing 20 years ago. Kathleen and Yannick have been estranged for many years, but new information reunites them and they decide to drive to BC together. It‘s a trip fraught with emotion and memory. I loved this one, but it‘s sad.

Happy 64th birthday gift to myself. (Although I clearly don‘t ever need an occasion to buy books. 🤣) I have lots of thoughts about another trip around the sun. And a lot of anxiety (something I don‘t really experience much) about the shitty state of the world. BUT a lot of hope, too. Or is that panic? 🤷‍♀️ Thanks to all the Littens who have enriched my life. Bookish people are the best!

A cold, wet, Victoria Day to finish this story of a girl who arrives in Paris to spend time with her brother only to discover him missing. It was okay.

I was all in for the first 3/4 of this book about a woman who returns to her childhood home after a long estrangement from her mother who is now dying. Horrible things happened in this house at the hands of her father, a convicted serial killer, and Vera now his to reconcile the love she had for him, her fraught relationship with her mother, and , oh yeah, there‘s something under her bed. It got weird.

Can't say that I completely understood everything Lanier said, but I did get the main message: social media is ruining the world and we are its slaves. Not Litsy.

When Mary and her husband Graham move into a remote cottage after a devastating tragedy, Mary finds that she is not alone. Over 100 years earlier, 13 year old Eliza‘s life is forever changed when an accident brings James Dix into her orbit. Dual timeline grief horror that was both creepy and heartbreaking. It‘s been on my tbr shelf for ages, and so I am glad I finally got around to reading it. It‘s a whopping 500 pgs, but well worth the time.

#truth

#justification

Yeah, not so much with the believability, but the beginning was good and I kept turning the pages so ... So. 🤷‍♀️

Independent Book Store Day #bookhaul. ❤️

Fact.

This is my 2nd Emily Henry and my 2nd bail. She is just not for me. The forced witty banter, the cookie cutter plot. I made it to page 80, but I am moving on. 🤷‍♀️

Plucked from my tbr shelf, this is a lovely (and sad) story of Myra, a 51 year old outreach nurse, who finds herself caring for Chip, the golden boy she loved from afar in high school. Chip has terminal cancer and their friendship sustains them both. This is a quiet novel that is life affirming and hopeful, but also super sad.

A group of teenagers in Wesley Falls wage war against a powerful church and its pastor who is clearly not quite human. Twenty years later, they return home after the death of one of their group. Yes, it screams IT, but I very much liked these characters and while it‘s not as good as King‘s book, it was well written ( for the most part) and a page turner.

https://www.readyourcolor.com/ is a free quiz that asks you to choose whether or not you would read or pass on a variety of books based on a brief description and then spits out what colour of reader you are. It also suggests a number of titles you might like to read. I felt like my result was pretty accurate. If you take the quiz, let me know what colour you are!

Thanks for the tag, @dabbe
I love all the flowers in spring and I buy myself tulips almost every week once they hit the grocery store. I even love dandelions. Lilacs! And lupin when they appear in June.
I am grateful for all the things you‘d expect: family, health, meaningful work, and a fun summer visitor that I get to look forward to!
#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

So, this is what I woke up to this morning. Blech.

I read it all and it was all bad. Clunky dialogue, too many threads, unbelievable characters, ridiculous and convenient resolutions. And almost 500 pages. I knew way early that I wasn‘t going to like it because of the writing, but I thought “I‘ll just keep going because of the mystery.” Just no.

When a personal photo turns up in the private collection of a convicted pedophile, Ryan Flannigan is sent back in time to her life in the 1970s. Ryan and her mother, Fiona, move from their summer theatre enclave, to a West Village apt complex where Fiona‘s dreams of fame are transferred to Ryan. This book is well written, evocative of a time and place, and examines the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. 4⭐️

It had all the elements of a book that I should love but there was something missing. I felt like I was told about people‘s feelings, not shown them and so I didn‘t really believe in these relationships. It‘s been compared to The Paper Palace, but it isn‘t nearly as well written. This one reads like it was written to become a TV series, and I suspect that‘s where it will end up. Easy read.

This book has been on a lot of best horror book lists, including lists of extreme horror. I must have a high tolerance because I didn't find it extreme, although there was some squick and definitely some uncomfortable scenes. Lori is in love with a serial killer who tests her loyalty by sending her to retrieve a key and find the River Man. Lori, as it turns out, has also done some bad things. This book is dark, imaginative and also kinda heart💔.

This is a tough one. Roan is a skilled equestrian who dreams of one day competing in the Olympics, following in the footsteps of her medal-winning father, Monty. Theirs is a close relationship. Too close. When she becomes involved with a boy at school, her carefully compartmentalized life starts to unravel. This book is graphic and heartbreaking and potentially triggering, but I was wholly invested in Roan and HATED her “Daddy”.

Lily was my reading buddy this afternoon as I finished this cracker of a book. Rose, Lloyd, Sami and Marta are scholarship students at High Realms, a school where they do not fit in & are mercilessly tormented. When one of the school‘s most popular students is gravely injured, three of the friends do whatever they can to protect the fourth. Fabulous dark academia.

Although some bits were a little slow going, this debut was definitely a cut above. A woman and her two children hide after a home invasion...but was the whole thing just a figment of her imagination because of earlier trauma? Smart, well-written and definitely some pulse-pounding moments.

#notbookishbutnotpolitics
Visiting with my kids in Halifax and had coffee at the most adorable new spot, Crème. The high tea menus were in the books- see The Scarlet Letter pic- and when you opened the book, a butterfly flew out. Such a pretty spot and the desserts were yummy!

#bookhaul When the world is a dumpster fire, buy books. All the Wicked Girls came all the way from the UK. Midway was written by a guy I‘ve known for 40 years. His daughter is also my son‘s best friend. He‘s a well known musician in these parts, and this is his first novel.

I made it to page 106. Charlie and Vivian were married for 4 years 40 years ago and they have now reunited. In the 100 pages I read, their reunion was problem free and without any meaningful postmortem of their lives. When Vic‘s adult daughter meets Charlie, she says hey, I hear you have a drinking problem, let‘s open these expensive bottles of wine and drink them. I just didn‘t like the characters or the way this book was written. #hailthebail

I really enjoyed this family drama which centres on the Joseph family and the girl who enters their life. What secrets do people keep in the name of love? I loved this writer‘s novel Shiner and this book was similarly quiet and thoughtful. 4.5 ⭐️

Grace Sebold is ten years into a life sentence for the murder of her boyfriend Julian when documentary filmmaker Sidney Ryan agrees to take a look at the case. This was okay…a bit repetitive and misused blood splatter, which I found sort of weird. Lots of red herrings and the ending was unexpected, but also not the most riveting book of its type I have read.

Nine months ago I posted a picture of a book haul. Here‘s an update on how many I have read. Of those Girl A was the best. How are you making out tackling your tbr piles?

Storm day means Lily and I are bundled up at home and I got to finish this book about ice dancers Kat and Heath, a sport I loved back in the day. Objectively not a fabulous book (it was a lot of telling and big things were resolved way too quickly and for two people who were supposed to be so passionate about each other, if felt a little sterile in the sex dept) and yet I loved every single second of it. Totally would watch the limited series.