Christmas, second chance-fake marriage, romance. With her Nonna being 82 and having heart problems, Antionette ‘Toni‘ D‘Angelo decides to ask her soon to be exhusband if he will fake their relationship during a trip back home for Christmas for her Nonna‘s sake. Also, unbeknownst to everyone, Toni is pregnant. Can they survive Xmas or will the magic of the big Italian Xmas save their marriage? Duh, they forgive each other and fall in love again.

Amish Christmas romance. Naomi‘s Daad is marrying Betty Shutz. After spending all her courting years raising her siblings, taking care of her Daad, the garden and tending her bees, her Daad is asking her to move out. She rebels and takes a job at a bakery and taking care of the widower Nathan‘s 2 kids. Nathan who was married to Ada, Naomi‘s best friend. I loved Naomi and how strong she had to be to withstand the gossip. Happy she found love. Pick!

Holy wowza! What a fantastic book. I have never read Slaughter before and that is all Patricia Cornwell‘s fault. To have read up to an 8th or 9th book in a series and have the pov change when it has always been 1st person and then to bring someone back from the dead 2 books ago, it was awful!!! I swore I‘d never get involved with a series again. But wow this was great. Slaughter had plot, character, and place moving forward in perfect harmony.👇🏼

This was romcom mixed with mystery. Mystery writers Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt get invited to Eleanor Ashley‘s English estate for Christmas. Eleanor Ashley is 81 and the most famous mystery writer of all time with 99 books. The very night they arrive, Eleanor disappears. There is a blizzard, the bridge is out and there is a mansion full of suspects. This was ok. It was cutesy. Aside from a few moments it didn‘t grab me. A low pick.

Leilani Santiago is home in Hawaii, back from 5yrs in Seattle to help out with her mother who was just diagnosed with MS and run the shave ice shack her family owns. This starts out so understated with her discovering the dead body of a surfer inside the shave ice shack. Before you know it, there‘s ancestral land fights, Nazi hunters, Seattle bfs who show up at the worst time. The Santiago family is complicated and Leilani is great to read. Pick!

Hayley, who writes a food and drink column for her local paper in Bar Harbor, Maine, gets so excited when superstar, country music hunk Wade comes to town. But then one of Wade‘s roadies ends up dead. I‘m not a mystery reader, but this was a little ridiculous and a lot of fun. Lee Hollis is actually a brother sister writing duo so I had a lot of fun guessing who wrote what. Like when a guy did a roundhouse backhand. Or 2 women fought until👇🏼

lol, 2 books I finished a romance about country music that took place in Arcadia. My last book mentions Arcadia, and now country music is in this one.

@Michael_Gee I went to the library tonight and totally thought of you when I saw this. That hand is made of meat and those hands on the ouija board are made of cheese. So cute!! The rest of the book is pretty inventive. Thought you might want to look it up. Also, I‘m glad Sigourney Beaver did not make the Titan‘s finals.

This is my 3rd O‘nan in2 months and I love him. Here, we hear Marjorie Standiford tell her story as she sits waiting for her death row execution. Her story is peppered with Stephen King references because the person she‘s telling the story to is the author who bought the rights. Who is it? Mr.King himself. Her life goes from small, normal Midwest town to a boyfriend with a hot car to drug spirals into murder. It‘s great. I‘m an O‘nan fan. Pick!

The House that Built Me by Miranda Lambert. Because I finished a romance set against country music I just thought I‘d share a couple of songs.

Don‘t ask me why, but this is one of my favorite duets. I get mad cause my friend who sings Reba‘s part in the car, (I‘m Linda Davis, lol) won‘t sing this with me because she‘s chicken shit. So I‘ll sing both parts at karaoke.

I was in band in school. For me it was about notes and chords that pulled something from you. Not lyrics. But then I started going to karaoke with a a friend where I was confronted with these lyrics on the screen. These country people are really great storytellers. To be honest on a Friday night I just want good vibes, like give me a bootscootn boogie or whose bed have your boots been under but then sometimes it‘s a sad song night. And then I 👇🏼

This is a book packed with way more than romance. It has a happy ending but to me it was about 2 people and the difficult childhoods they grew up in. How that led them into difficult adulthoods. It‘s set against the country music industry and takes place in a small town with a lot of flavor. Black nails small town people. Their love, their drama. I loved Black‘s writing and how a lot of conversations in here could be country songs. A twangy pick!

I guess Dolores Claiborne did something to me because this is my 1st book in a week and 1/2. This is easy peasy, a 7th book in a series where I didn‘t really feel I had to read any of the other books. Lana Lee is taking a class on Chinese cooking in secret because she runs a Chinese restaurant and the embarrassment is high. After leaving and going back for a grocery list she forgot, Lana finds her teacher dead. This was just an easy nice read.

This is in my top ten this year. The whole book is told by Dolores Claiborne who is telling her story to the cops because she is under suspicion of killing her longtime boss, Vera Donovan, who was found dead after falling down the stairs. Her story doesn‘t start there. It‘s starts 30 years ago when she killed her husband, Joe. It‘s a book about a mother‘s love. What you do when one person is poisoning everyone. The lengths we go through. Pick!

Today I went to eat at our deli at work. While I was paying, the worker, who is this really nice, young man, 22 at the most, saw my book and says-Stephen King, I‘ve heard he‘s good. But he says Stephen like it‘s spelled Steffin. Steffin King. And I didn‘t have the heart to correct him. But I am gonna buy him a book of his short stories.

I read this for bookclub this Friday and I‘m so happy I did because I loved it so much. This reminded me of all the tennis my brother and I watched in the late 80s and 90s. Carrie Soto had a phenomenal career and retired with a bad knee. But a new phenom threatens to break one of her records and she decides to stage a comeback. She isn‘t always likeable but my goodness did I root for her and her awesome dad. This is an all the tennis balls pick!

@AmyG @Jas16 @Centique Jennifer, Amy, and Paula. Thank you ladies for the book mail. I had a really good day and checking the mail today was like the cherry on a hot fudge sundae, with nuts, and peanut butter, and whip cream, and chocolate ice cream. lol. Thank ya‘ll so much.

Marion and Art go to Niagara Falls for their 30th anniversary. They have behind them 2 kids, 2 affairs, a looming bankruptcy and a possible divorce. They‘re at casino to bet it all. Maybe even on each other. O‘nan is this expert pathologist showing all the wounds on the heart of Marion and Art‘s marriage through inner dialogue and their intimate interactions. I had this constant tug on my heart wishing the best for them. A pick!

I loved this. This author introduces you to all these miserable people aboard The Baltic Charisma. A booze cruise. There‘s vampires but you don‘t meet them until he‘s woven you into these peoples‘ unlucky lives, hoping the best for them. That way the author can break your heart as not all of them survive. This was just good solid horror on a boat with vampires. Pick!

Sooooooo it‘s page 83 and I‘m waiting for the vampires to show up. And I hope it‘s soon because I need a reprieve from all the miserableness of the people on this boat. Not a happy story amongst them. Dad‘s a drunk, grandma committed suicide, mom is in a wheelchair and deserves better, I just lost my job, I came because after my husband died the rest of my family forgot about me and to hear another sad tick tock from the clock in my kitchen 👇🏼

We follow the 3 offspring of the uber wealthy Berisha family. A family whose enemies somehow always end up dying. When they go to church, people look away talking of a curse. This was good and I liked it. However, having read Katsu‘s The Hunger and Wehr Wolf, I felt like this was Diet Katsu. There‘s a density missing from this book. Like I wanted chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes slathered in white gravy but she gave me grilled chicken 👇🏼

In a future America, necrophilia becomes legal. There are necrotels, hotels that provide necrophiliac experiences. We follow Ellis, a husband going undercover as a customer, to look for the body of his dead wife at Motel Styx. Nothing is as it seems. It was really good. There are some themes and lessons here. Is it as depraved and disgusting as you think it is? Yes. If you‘ve read Tender is the Flesh, you can do this. A, just cremate me, Pick!

I don‘t know how you take a story with an ever expanding basement, a door in said basement that appears out of nowhere, with a doppelgänger that comes through that doorway, set against a sinking city supposed to be taken care of by a dark multibillion dollar company with a mysterious lesbian as their enforcer and make it so damn boring. What a snooze fest. And I blame myself Litsy, I got in my reader car and got on the book road. Saw all the ??

This is gonna be on my best of the year list. I just kept smiling while reading this horror manga about a coastal town that is cursed by spirals. Yes, spirals. It just kept surprising me over and over again in its creepiness. Ito is a master at drawing these captivating panels. One of my favorite moments is when these two girls, their hair gets cursed by the spirals and they have this hair off. One of the girls, her hair almost chokes the 👇🏼

I‘ve had this for a couple years. Super happy I‘m reading it for this week.

I liked this very much. One of the most Cormac McCarthian books I‘ve read. Told in 2nd person we follow Constable Jacob, a veteran of the Civil War in Friendship, Wisconsin. If I didn‘t know this was published in 1999 I would have said this was his pandemic novel. Diphtheria sets upon Friendship and we see Jacob‘s struggle with his faith as more and more of the town falls ill. The writing was superb and the story just kept building. Super pick!

This is an anthology where all the stories are based on found footage. I will say that I don‘t think the writing is strong in most of these but their narratives left an ick on me and for that reason it‘s a pick. My favorite one has to do with a young closeted lesbian who is surviving the best way she knows how-with murder. lol it‘s an awesome story. Others include an alien landing off the coast of Africa and an Outback boogeyman slaughter. Pick!

I liked this even though I wish it was smoother. We follow Henry Hotard in 2 timelines. One is him as part of a ghost hunting team on the up and up, with his girlfriend Jade, and best friend, Toad. The other is him a year later dealing with his new reality after a crash where he is confined to a wheelchair. Before the crash there was new ghost hunting case involving whistling, and now when he‘s alone he hears the same whistling months later. Pick.

So female rage with cannibalism is the new thing. We meet Ronny Nguyen, teenage daughter of Vietnamese parents. Her family is reeling from the sudden loss of her older brother, Tommy. She goes to a high school party where something horrific happens while something horrific is discovered. I enjoyed following Ronny and her frustrating coming of age. In a world dangerous to young women I rooted for her rage. Pick!

Look alive, Litsy, it‘s finally happened. I got the senior discount without even asking for it. Lololol To celebrate the occasion, I just wanted to post some of my favorite horror books featuring older main characters. Does the aarp newsletter just start appearing too? Or do they actually wait until I‘m older?

I really liked this grief horror, tragic horror romance? London has been saved, having all of its zombies eradicated. We meet Kesta, a virologist who keeps her husband turned zombie, Tim, chained in her flat until she can figure out a vaccine. This was not the zombie story you expect but it was fascinating. It‘s very zombie CSI. The writing, character exploration of grief, what governments do, it sounds like a lot but it was done very well. Pick!

This was a low pick for me. All stories take place in the universe of Stephen King‘s The Stand. There were more “meh, this is just ok” stories in here than I thought would be. There are so many stories with animals in here. Most were really successful. At the end of The Stand, Stu asks Franny if humans ever learn their lesson, and she just stays quiet. This leads me to my favorite section of these stories. The Wheel, where all the stories 👇🏼

The person on the bot right is Albhora, a contestant on Dragula which is like Drag Race but for the goths. Dragula is judged by the two on the left, The Boulet brothers. In one challenge, one brother said Albhora was the best, amazing. The other brother said she was the worst. When it came to the results one of the brothers said-at the beginning of the season we said we have the final say on who wins and who goes and we stand by that and for 👇🏼

Kids from a neighborhood play a game of Hide and Seek and break the rules therefore allowing this malevolent god of Hide and Seek to take them to this shadowy upside down version of their world where it tortures them with with their deepest fears. Some of these kids had fears that were so sad. It‘s reminiscent of those kids on bikes novels from the 90s and 80s with the power of friendship. It‘s middle grade and a pick!

The girl was thickkk at 1154 pages and I did it! It‘s so good. It‘s funny there were some illustrations in this book because they weren‘t needed even though they were cool. King paints a picture of all of his characters so perfectly. Even without the horror of a viral apocalypse I would have read books about Frannie, Stu, Larry, and Nick all on their own. King is so good at the psychology of his characters. Pick!

I liked this. It made me think of a stack of pancakes. We follow different timelines. There‘s a plague, exiled 1800s Englishmen, 2100s moon colonies, and some clever time play, and confusing names for a gender. I read a certain person as a woman for a whole chunk of the book until someone called them son. All this because there‘s a woman named Vincent in here. It just threw me off. Great book. Pick!

It‘s hard to see but on the left you have The Stand by Stephen King and on the right, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St.John Mendel. The Stand uses what I call Bible type. It‘s so small. Today I took a break from it to read Sea of Tranquility for bookclub tomorrow and boy what difference. It was powderpuff. Like the 2 hours it takes to read 70ish pages of The Stand I almost finished The Sea of Tranquility, lol. Back to The Stand.

While reading The Stand last night I put on The Ruins in the background to run. I forgot how decent it was. The book is exquisite. Talk about an exercise in characterization AND alien killer plants. Which reminds of this episode of The Drabblecast where the story is about an alien plant and its symbiotic relationship with an elephant. Try it. https://www.google.com/search?q=trunk+to+trunk+the+drabblecast&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8...

Omg The Stand is a thiiick book. But it reminds me of this short story I heard on the drabblecast podcast. The Stand has a virus and Jimmy‘s Roadside Diner by Ramsey Shedaheh takes place after an apocalypse due to a virus. It reminds me of The Road also. It has heart and gore and hope. Give it a shot. https://www.drabblecast.org/2012/07/12/drabblecast-249-jimmys-roadside-cafe/

1. Our Share of Night by Marianna Enriquez. A sweeping multigenerational story of a medium who serves a cult in Argentina trying to ensure his son‘s safety. Adela!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Off Season by Jack Ketchum. Horrific cannibalistic fun.

3. The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene. Septuagenarians at the end of the world. Satanists, mutants, worms, and rain, sooooo much rain.

I just read the little prologue where Charlie wakes up Sally so they could get off base after he saw all those government employees dead of the virus. I turned the page to this and I just smiled. So excited to reread this.

I love Cosby‘s writing. It‘s cinematic and it moves. “Bug” Beauregard thought he had left his life of crime behind but his financial circumstances have made him a part of that “one last job” trope. The one that is messy, the one that just pulls you in further into the life you thought you escaped, the one that has a lot of collateral. Ooof, sooo good. Side note: I love that on one of Ryan Kennedy‘s recent romance books, he blurbs her! Love it.

Sometimes you go into horror thinking you‘re getting the Evil Dead 2013 experience and then sometimes you go see Malignant where these bubbles of laughter come out and you had no idea those were in there. This was hilarious to me. This takes place in 1980s Hollywood. We follow a horror director make his ultimate horror movie using a cursed camera. This harpoons the movie business and actors. So crazy. The end fizzled a bit for me. Still a pick!

Josephine, who as young girl lost her parents due to political violence, will meet up with her older brother and his girlfriend at a huge house on an island in the middle of nowhere. The house where their childhood friend Hiraya lives. The one whose family was rumored to be witches, aswang, cursed. There they will play a game that to the winner, they‘ll get a wish. A wish that could fix everything. This is set against the people‘s revolution👇🏼

I loved this a lot. Becky Spratford has collected 18 essays from some of today‘s best horror authors on why they love horror. My favorites came from Brian Keene, David Demchuck, Paul Tremblay, and Grady Hendrix. Really wtf, Grady? His was soooooo good. He starts his essay talking about the time he found the severed arm of a small child in his father‘s refrigerator. It is wild. And sad. Most of these are how made up horror allows them to👇🏼

Read this for bookclub this past Friday. We had a good time. Would you want to know how and when you will die? This book starts off with this woman on a plane from Hobarth to Sydney. She just goes down the rows pointing and predicting how and when people will die. Bless this author for all the details she gives her characters as we follow their lives to see if the predictions will come true. A book about death that has so much life. Pick!

#ozlittens @CarolynM @Rissreadswithcats have ya‘ll been? Do ya‘ll have a favorite? I went up and looked up the big things. The pineapple was my favorite. And the prawn and lobster would scare me. The kookaburra was cool. lol

Jack Jr. awakens from a 2yr coma in which Covid has happened, his bf/fiancé has left him, and he is taken back home by the family he hasn‘t really talked to in years. Back to work at the Korean-Japanese restaurant he was raised in but escaped. This was slice of life, lots of sushi, forgiveness, family, parents. What do you do when one day your whole life has changed? I chuckled, just read along, chuckled again and would tear up so often. Pick!

This is a real low pick for me. I liked the premise a lot. Which was Mr.Litt during the pandemic gets depressed and to stop from losing himself in doomscrolling decides to pick up surfing. Instead of dwelling and drowning in despair he picks himself up. And then he goes surfing with his brother in law who is opposite of him in a lot of ways. There‘s just something about trying something new but bringing your same neuroticism to the new thing.👇🏼