Live rock and roll last night, a run this morning, live classical (or more accurately Romantic and Modern) orchestral music this afternoon (and live rock and roll last night), and now a glass of wine and the tagged spooky book before playing euchre with my little family. A nice, balanced weekend!

Soup, apples, spooky book...it's starting to feel like autumn around here!

This was super spooky overall, but there are a couple of things that detracted from my experience. The main one is that Bela's maturity level shifts too much. One moment, she seems like a kindergartener, wanting to cuddle with her parents and unfamiliar with grown-up words, and the next, she's grasping philosophically mature concepts her schoolteacher told her class. And the ending is lackluster. But I still got chills, so there's that.

https://www.wordsalive.org/2024-author-event-fundraiser

Hey, SoCal Littens! In San Diego on October 30, there's an author event with Paula Hawkins that's also a fundraiser for Words Alive, the literacy non-profit with which I've volunteered for the past several years! If you plan to go, let me know...it would be awesome to meet up in person! (I'm going to just the author part after dinner.)

Swaps are on their way, both supposed to arrive at their respective destinations by October 9! Hopefully I packed the boxes well enough...as always, I'm going to be super nervous until I know everything has arrived undamaged! 🤞🎃🍁🍂

#HHS24 #HHS #HauntedHollowSwap @wanderinglynn
#AHRS2024 #AllHallowsReadSwap @MaleficentBookDragon

Did I just add a new book to my TBR only because a main character has my first name? Yes. Yes, I did.

Not all of my #5JoysFriday are represented by photos:

1. Kitty cuddles.
2. More concerts and plays on the horizon.
3. I negotiated a truce with my trepidation and recorded and submitted 2 auditions this week.
4. I figured out a fix for a sound issue in my recording space, and I feel a little like a superhero.
5. Even if it's not really cold here yet, I have declared it soup season.

@DebinHawaii

As usual, Emilia Fox's narration is a fantastic way to enjoy a Miss Marple mystery. I love her character voices so much, I listen to her on 1x. The mystery in this one is fun, and I love the strong women characters.

This is the first of my #castthedie titles done! @PuddleJumper

I seem to be in the middle of a bunch of titles that I would describe as "meditations." This one is relatively interesting, spanning the course of 20 years and dealing with events that happened well earlier, but it's also rather slow and kind of frustrating in the way that life is often frustrating...a whole lot of tedium punctuated by getting sort of what you want but not quite. So, a qualified pick for me.

My October #bookspinbingo card, all ready to go!

#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

1. going to the beach! (Because tourists are mostly gone, we always have heat waves so air temp is comfy, and the water temps are the warmest they are all year.)

2. I'm not sure there's a SoCal autumn book or movie. Maybe The Big Lebowski?

3. Pumpkin pie and apple cider. (This is the only one that's the same regardless of where I'm living. 🙂)

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

My completed #bookspinbingo card for September. I got a bingo! (I did not, however, read either my #bookspin or my #doublespin.)

@TheAromaofBooks

I agree with other reviewers about this one: The first half is lovely and heartbreaking in a way, but the second half lost me a bit. The prose is beautiful but a little overwrought at times, the author (and narrator of the audiobook) luxuriating a little too self-consciously in her own language.

Sayers has a tendency to have her characters (usually Lord Peter) make a point with a very large number of words. Usually, I like this, but in this novel, it feels tedious. This novel has a seemingly complex mystery with a relatively simple solution that's revealed fairly excruciatingly right before the novel abruptly ends. I wonder what was going on in Sayers's life when she wrote this one because it seems like she wasn't really focused on it.

Maybe this one is tedious because the audiobook is narrated by the author (something I don't usually prefer), or just because it feels so much like Flamethrowers in tone, and I'm not in the mood. Or maybe I'm just poised for spooky season and have no patience for anything else right now. Either way, I'm comfortable setting this one aside.

My first time participating in #CastTheDie with @PuddleJumper !

The Agatha Christie is my lucky title, The Girl on the Train is new, and the other two have been in my TBR for ages.

It's funny...today in acting class we had an assignment to determine our acting "type," which involved just these kinds of questions!

1. Quiet, kind, intense
2. Quirky, intelligent, creative (but I'm okay with the other ones, too)
3. Not from a book, but Ed from Raising Arizona.

@Eggs #WondrousWednesday

This book does a great job of contextualizing sexuality in historical terms and explaining how accepted "truths" about sexuality aren't static but shift over time and between cultures. The chapter on consent is a little weak and contains the only statement I really take issue with (it needs more context or to be left out). I appreciate how this book discusses sexuality as part of our whole lives rather than something separate.

1. There's a lavalier that belonged to my great-grandmother that I technically own but which is with my mom for now. The oldest thing in my possession might be my son's tuba, which was manufactured in 1974, or my mom's wedding rings from 1972.

2. This one is pretty recent. I'm not sure if it will last, but it has the feeling of a timeless book that's also set very much in its time.

@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday

October multi-tasking TBR, for #bookspin #bookspinbingo #hauntedshelf #blackcatcrew #castthedie

I hope I got all of the tags right. I'm sure I'm forgetting/messing up something!

@TheAromaofBooks @PuddleJumper @BookwormAHN

This book is a meditation on existence, perspective, and what it means to be human. There's not really any plot, and listening to the audiobook was kind of like listening to a creek flowing by or to yoga studio music. It prompts big thoughts, but there's not much to it.

Photo: Contrail from a Starlink satellite launch a few months ago.

I read this one (tagged) in April on a trip to Zion National Park (pictured), and I've been recommending it to people who like spooky reads ever since. I love that there's so much more to it than just the spooky stuff.

If you're looking for something chilling to read in October, I recommend The September House.

#BlackCatCrew @BookwormAHN #HauntedShelf @PuddleJumper

I'm so excited for #HauntedShelf! October is my favorite reading month! (Followed by December and February.) Sign-ups run through September.

Link to the original post for info and sign-up link: https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2771648

#BlackCatCrew @BookwormAHN @PuddleJumper

After a frustrating doctor visit (I'm starting to think there‘s no other kind), I treated myself to some library time. I am SO looking forward to October! These are two authors I've never read before, and I figured it was a good time to remedy that.

This was a little tough to read/listen to at first because it brought back so many feelings of powerlessness and shame from my adolescence in the 1990s, but ultimately I loved hearing Hanna's story of moving through trauma and finding joy in midlife (spoiler alert?). It makes me want to take creative risks. Also, her time in Durham, NC, overlapped with mine...I wonder if we ever crossed paths without my knowing it? (probably not)

1. I read almost all of the Murderbot books in August, but I've tagged the first because it ignited the spark for me!

2. All of them! Paper because of the tactile experience, ebooks because I can read in the dark and pack "light" while still taking a shelfload of books, audiobooks because I can read while doing housework.

3. Probably mystery/thriller/horror these days.

#WondrousWednesday
Fun questions, @Eggs !

My #WhatsNewWednesday: My voiceover website is live! ctlvoiceover.com

And I have a favor to ask in the comments ⬇️

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Read4life @TieDyeDude

I got rid of our magnetic poetry set more than a decade ago, but I enjoy making pseudo-poetry when I find it on the refrigerators of short-term rentals.

My Halloween aesthetic...sort of a mix of autumn hiking, haunted houses, and cozy drinks (and books).

#HauntedHollowSwap #HHS #HHS24 @wanderinglynn

1. Usually 3-4 times (workout clothes, daytime clothes, work clothes if I'm teaching or if I have a concert or meeting, PJs).

2. A favorite from my kids' little-kid days.

@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday

Made it to Literati Bookstore while in Ann Arbor! I was tempted by many books but ended up buying just a game (Good Words) for my elder child, who did not join us on this trip. Also got to visit TWO coffee shops (Comet and Hyperion).

1. It might be the recency effect, but I love Planet Word in Washington, DC. I also love to visit the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, if that is considered a museum.

2. My very favorite since Ms. Kowalik read it to our class in third grade!

Thanks for the tag, @TheSpineView ! #Two4Tuesday

There are a surprising number of books with this title. This one is quiet with a pace both leisurely and conveying urgency, echoing the collision of the way time is reckoned on the mainland with the way it runs on the island. Overall, I enjoyed this novel and was glad to have the audiobook to help me with the Welsh pronunciations. In the end, it left me wanting, which is apt but unsatisfying.

I've had an emotional week (nothing too awful, just feeling overwhelmed due to a malfunction with my empathy filter), which was punctuated this afternoon by a cathartic crying jag triggered by seeing a racoon family that hadn't made it safely across the road. How murder mysteries became comfort reading for me, I have no idea, but here we are. Hopefully, I can find better emotional balance soon. Until then, hooray for escapism!

The stadium's restrictive bag policy kept me from bringing a book, but my first MLB game was surprisingly interesting even without it. If I go more often, I might try to find a slim paperback that fits in my pocket as I'm told there isn't usually a grand slam in the 9th inning. Maybe Cannery Row or something by Vonnegut.

I always enjoy the quality time I spend with Monsieur Poirot, but although I listened to the end of this novel three times, there are still 1.5 details I cannot figure out. I can't tell if Christie was trying to be delicate or mysterious by not providing a thorough explanation or if she just figured it would be obvious, but I don't quite get it. And there seem to be an awful lot of extraneous characters in this one, too. Not a fave for me.

1. From my ability to see and appreciate small moments of beauty even when things look grim overall.
2. Anne Shirley has this quality, and she's a great cheerleader for her bosom friends.

@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday

Using Cover Collage from TheStoryGraph (with the help of PicCollage to make a square) to visualize my August reads. I think I sense a theme here...

This installment is quite vulnerable and emotional compared with the earlier books. It has Murderbot connecting (reluctantly) more with its human side, which is interesting.

Why, yes, I did work on this September #bookspinbingo card in the movie theater while waiting for Deadpool and Wolverine to start. As one does.

And when we got home I helped my spouse practice sprinting, and we learned that despite the fact that I'm a foot shorter than him, I can consistently beat him at the 40-meter dash (but he's waaay faster at 1/4 and 1/2 mile). Now I'm tired and have really earned some reading time!

@TheAromaofBooks

August's #bookspinbingo card! One bingo, and I read my #bookspin for this month. I read so many Murderbot books, I used up all of my free spaces and swapped out some of the "official" books to make more room. Hopefully I've planned a little better for September, but if not, I will feel no shame making more modifications to my list!

@TheAromaofBooks

I'm ready for September! Hopefully some of the many titles making repeat appearances will move to the "finished" or "DNF" category before October.
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

I'm headed to Michigan in a couple of weeks for a very short trip (two non-travel days). Any must-see bookish spots (or awesome cafes) I should make sure to visit while I'm in the Ann Arbor area?

Kitty-enforced downtime: It's very important to Silo that I take time on a Saturday morning to read and drink some coffee while we listen to the birds through the open window.

A little partying before bed. I risk disturbing my sleep hitting the Pellegrino so close to bedtime, but sometimes you just have to live it up.

It's refreshing to be back in the novella-length Murderbot adventures, even though it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure out that Book 6 actually takes place before Book 5. This one feels more like a crime drama with an overlay of sci-fi, but it's all good.

This photo represents several big parts of my life right now: books, music, and plants (and maybe Sharpie markers).

Oops! I finished this one the other day and forgot to review it! This is the first novel-length installment of the series, and the pacing definitely feels more novel-like. I found the interwoven additional storyline a little confusing (although I get why it's there), but I really like the relationships and the bizarre sci-fi elements.

Photo: Camille guarding our house; she's our version of a SecUnit.

I'm not very far into this one, but there's a part in chapter 1 that reminds me of this display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, showing all of the elements that go into making a cell phone. "Fancy rocks. Rocks plus time...We're Stone Age people still" (9).

Wait...Amazon owns Litsy and LibraryThing??? WHY must they infiltrate everything? At least there's still libro.fm and bookshop.org and biblio.com and TheStoryGraph and Kobo and Libby/Overdrive and public libraries. For now, at least.

Whew! It took ages and a combination of the book-book, ebook, and audiobook, but I finally finished. The best adjective I have for this book is "comprehensive." There is SO MUCH in this history of Palo Alto and how the philosophy that built it has had worldwide influence. It's kind of depressing, but it also helps explain why San Diego is different from the Bay Area, despite similar industries (although it's less different than it used to be).