I‘ve been canning, roasting and processing tomatoes and peppers the past couple of days so am behind! Here is my list: such a close call since reading SHJ‘s Mongrels!! But still vampires, Thriller! Salted caramel. Scary costume. Pumpkin Patch. Sweaters and fuzzy socks go together! Both! Corn Maze. Hallloween Party. #deadserious @TheAromaofBooks @AmandaBlaze

My October #bookspin Bingo list is focused on books I started but I‘d not finish me some mysteries. Let‘s tackle TBR! Also for #Hauntedshelf. Looking forward to joining #DeadSerious! @TheAromaofBooks @OriginalCyn620

I enjoy castaway survival stories. And I love Grann‘s writing. This did not disappoint.

First time read for me. Loving it. Steinbeck vibes.

Looking forward to diving into some Mary Oliver and finishing up my history on Robert the Bruce! Still reading Scottish history from my last vacation. #bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Really getting into this gripping account of shipwreck, mutiny, murder and castaways. The perfect book to take along on our first adventure on a lake with our new houseboat! 😂😂😬😬😬😳

A reread for me and loved it has much as the first time. I grew up in a timber town really ravaged by Weyerhaeuser and other companies. Clearcut watersheds, doused with 2,4 D, unsustainable logging and then the layoffs and unemployment, and all the social ills that come with that. I knew first hand many of the incidents and people that inspired actions and characters in the book. And damn, I just love trees! Such a poetic book.

My barely legible #bookspin list. Back on the bandwagon. @TheAromaofBooks

Loved exploring this used bookshop in Pitlochry. We picked up an old history book on the Inner Hebrides. We absolutely loved exploring these magical islands.

Headed to Edinburgh today from Pitlochry Scotland. Recommendations in Edinburgh for a bookish person? Photo is of the ruins of the nunnery on the Isle of Iona. What a beautiful and special place to visit.

An interesting read about the development of Herceptin, one of the newer cutting edge immunotherapy cancer drugs for women like me who have HER-2 positive breast cancer. I was struck how ego, aggressive competition can spur scientific breakthroughs. Nonetheless I declined chemo and Herceptin 2 plus years ago. Did surgery and radiation which went really well. I remain in remission but know I have a high likelihood of it returning. ⬇️

One of the best memoirs I‘ve read in a long time. Sinclair tells her story of growing up in Jamaica under an increasingly abusive Rastafarian father and difficult circumstances. Her tenacity, poetry, writing and her mother forged her escape. I knew nothing of the founding and tenets of the Rasta religion before reading this memoir.

Exploring Loreto Baja and visited this lovely little bookstore, Caballo Blanco. Planning to sit in the nextdoor coffee shop and catch up on tagged book! And noting it‘s time to reread Steinbeck‘s Log of the Sea of Cortez, his funny, descriptive and moving journal of traveling by boat with his good friend Ed Rickets from San Fran, down Baja coast and up the Sea of Cortez in the mid-40s.

One of my #weekendreads. Hmmm…not sure about this one yet. My read on the plane to Baja! @rachelsbrittain

Did not immediately grab me, but loved the latter part of the book and it is staying withe me. Beautiful writing. Almost like a group of short stories collected around a place and a house from Puritan times to modern day. I wrote my college senior thesis on perceptions/views of wilderness in early colonized America. Synopsis: don‘t believe everything the 2nd generation Puritans wrote, and Roderick Nash got some things wrong. 👇

Getting some quiet time with this collection before meeting up with people. Oh, Cherie Dimalene, I didn‘t need a horror story about ticks this week. We are having a bad tick year where I live and pulled 4 off my dog. And I‘ve had Lymes! But I am enjoying this collection! Just be lucky there is no tick Emoji! 😳😬😳😬

A soft pick for me. Brilliant in its structure with the story of a tycoon and his wife told from 4 different perspectives. Just so…much…..finance.

My messily written Boobspin list. #Bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

Hmmm….I need to think about this one more. Soft pick but might grow on me more. Very ambiguous ending. About grief, anger, feeling on the outside because of economic background, cultural background, temperment, and evil evil Alexa-like devices. I did take several Mexican-Indigenous/American authors with me on vacation, and enjoying the overlaps. Vampires of El Norte and tagged both feature cucuys, the Spanish/Mexican boogeyman.

Thanks for the tag @AnnR ! Gardening and watching Star Trek with my Dad. Baking with my mom. And traveling with both of the . I hope I‘m remembered for contributing to river and fisheries restoration efforts. Just started tagged yesterday….is it a take on the Sackler family? Intrigued. @Eggs #wondrouswednesday

I suspect this won‘t be everyone‘s cup of tea as a slow-paced novel. I have a serious book hangover though. Beautiful writing. 5 stars for me. A servant girl flees the colony Jamestown in the 1600s and makes her way through the land. A contemplation on survival and death, and strangely uplifting.

Loving this pyschological horror book. Beware of Alexa! And how lovely to read a horror book with the daily vulture who comes to the pool at our Mexican rental house. We‘ve had black vultures, turkey vultures, tropical king birds and a snake all come for a drink.

I love Roz Chast and her off-the-wall humorous New Yorker cartoons. This collection was just okay for me, mostly because I‘m not particularly fond of listening to descriptions of dreams. But some funny ones for sure.

I loved the setting: 1840s northern Mexico (current south Texas), Rancheros defending their land, cattle and lives from the Yanquis working to take over. And vampires! And insight into the class hierarchies and treatment of women. And deep love between a working vaquero and a daughter of a Patron. But I don‘t read romances and these veered too much that way for me. So me, not the book.

I loved the setting: 1840s northern Mexico (current south Texas), Rancheros defending their land, cattle and lives from the Yanquis working to take over. And vampires! And insight into the class hierarchies and treatment of women. And deep love between a working vaquero and a daughter of a Patron. But I don‘t read romances and this veered too much that way for me. So me, not the book.

I‘m on vacation for #joyousjanuary. It‘s minus 7 degrees in my town. Happy to be reading and hanging out with the resident black vultures that visit our pool at our house in Mexico we are sharing with friends. Plan to finish the tagged book, a Joy Harjo poetry collection, Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and The Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. @Andrew65

Sharing a house with friends in Mexico. I‘m leaving this collection out on the communal table so all can enjoy if they so choose.

All the stars. I was not expecting to love this book so much. I‘m not into gaming. At all. And yet this novel spoke to me in so many ways. Really, it is about how we deal with grief and loss in life, about friendship. I got a bit teary towards the end.

Definitely doing #readaway2024. Here are the print books I brought on vacation as a start. I also want to get through some lingering chunksters including Anna Karina, Ninth Street Women, Ducks Newburyport. Also Brothers Karamazov! So glad @BarkingMadRead is leading us on a group read! @DieAReader @Andrew65 @GHABI4ROSES

Seems an appropriate book for where I‘m sitting. The minuses of over-developed tourism. Loved reading Hiaasen on my trip to Florida last year! So funny although some of his writing hasn‘t aged well. But happy to have escaped the cold weather to Mexico! Also, any good recommendations for Mexican history books?

Many thanks to the organizers of Scarathlon! I was away from internet as much as possible—we had a beautiful October fall in the Inland NW USA! So I didn‘t participate much here but I did have a good reading month. Word count 1600, bucket list 30,spooky reads and regular reads 110, 2 readathons 2600 points. 3740 combined with first half month: 32,220 points. Thank you @Bookwormjillk ! #teambookloverrs

Love the history & themes SMG uses. Set in 80s Mexico City in the movie industry. Sound editor getting squeezed out of jobs by sexist boss & an actor w/waning career due to old scandal, childhood friends, meet film director who years ago worked on films with Nazi occultists. Spooky evil magic story ensues when they agree to help director dub an old film. Next up: Bad Cree. #scarathlon #TeamBookLovers

Hah! Happy Thursday.

Had it not been for the #scarathlon word count stats for this book, I would have few points to offer #teambooklovers halfway through the month. But this gory novel offered an embarrassment of riches. So despite few posts, not having my bingo points together except for the 24 hour and quick sprints, I managed 27,328 points, 27,120 from this book alone!. @Bookwormjillk

Love SGJ but I‘m not into slasher movies and this is an homage to slashers as was the first in this trilogy. Loved his dark humor as always and themes of gentrification, stolen land. One chapter about the ghost girl Stacey Grqves haunting the drowned town under Indian Lake was especially beautifully written. So a so-so read for me.

Looking forward to #OutstandingOctober readathon! The weather has been fabulous the past 2 weeks in the Inland NW of USA so little time spent reading and little time w/ decent cell or internet. Need to catch up on #Scarathlon for #TeamBOOklovers! Need to read tagged—I‘m sucked in just 10 pages in! Want to finish Don‘t Fear the Reaper, Silver Nitrate and Beware the Woman. Weather is changing, time@for some cozy reading. @Andrew65

I‘m only now posting my #bookspinbingo card! #bookspin is Silver Nitrate—already a bit into that one. And looking forward to Beware the Woman. Filled the board with monsters, murders and mysteries! #scarathlon #TeamBOOklovers

Late posting due to little cell/internet access (which I love). Did more than 20 chapters and read 12-plus hours! Made great progress on Silver Nitrate, Silvia Morena-Garcia's newest, Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life, and SGJ's Fear the Reaper, which was the perfect creepy book to be reading on an Idaho lake, since it takes place on such a lake, and I know the country and setting well. Thanks @Andrew65 for hosting another #20in4 #readathon!

#scarathlon Without thinking, brought SGJs sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw up to our boat. First book featured a murderous rampage on an Idaho lake w/ themes of colonialism, gentrification, slasher films. Where am I reading it? At night in a deserted marina on an Idaho lake, a place also feeling the squeeze of wealthy people from elsewhere taking over. End of season, all lights are turned off too.. which I like. But…ooh. #BOOklovers 😳😳🔪🔪

Only about 70 pages in so will be finishing this wonderful book in October. I‘m lovin‘ the lichens! And (mostly) black cover! Yay first day of #scarathlon! Black. #photochallenge #BOOklovers

Ready for some spooky shows!! #Scarathlon #TeamBOOklovers @AllDebooks

#Scarathlon bucket list ready to go! #TeamBOOklovers @AllDebooks Need to think about a Halloween costume!

Jumping into #20in4 readathon hosted by @Andrew65 ! Hope to clear the decks for #Scarathlon by finishing Entangled Life and Villette!

It's not too late to sign up for #scarathlon, my favorite Litsy community event of the year. Fun challenges and a great opportunity to dive into those monster stories and spooky thrillers. My most anticipated read of the month is tagged! Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnawYo1IDsBAr2s_LlqzBQlxM8KGwIqDxE1Dm4... @staycurious @clwojick @bookwormjillk #BOOkLovers

1. Spending a spring or fall day out in nature with my border collie Jackson, hiking, birdwatching and reading, solo. 2. My love of cheese and a cocktail at night. I eat healthy but I need to ratchet it up so that I stay in remission from cancer. 3. I haven‘t really gotten back to the gym since Covid. I need to do that. And—I want to make a habit of sending a card, making a small unexpected gesture to a friend once a week.

Terrible photo and messy handwriting, but my dark and spooky #Bookspingbingo list for October. Indigenous and Mexican authors and some well known writers I‘ve not yet read. Early bird points for #scarathlon @Bookwormjillk @TheAromaofBooks #TeamBOOklovers

1. I‘ve had a bit of a bad reading month…too many books going at once. But I think it will be the tagged! I love fungi. I‘m loving the beautiful poetic writing and the information. 2. Reading some spooky books and getting some solo fall fishing/camping in and reading in front of the camp fire! #TwoForTuesday @TheSpineView

1. Fish feeder at salmon farm 17 yr. Don‘t eat farmed salmon to this day. Became a life long wild salmon advocate. Salmon farms do great harm to estuaries and spread disease to imperiled wild salmon. 2. Not ones I‘ve been paid for, other than the occasional stint as an assistant in commercial river trips. 3. Burned out spectacularly in an advocacy career. Climbing out of the ashes and balance is my main priority! @Eggs #wonderouswednesday

A soft pick for me. Beautiful prose. Loved the structure. Love her poems. Just so much focus on bitter divorce and mothering and that‘s not my favorite cup of tea.

My boat book for the weekend. I‘ve been waiting for DJD‘s next novel for more than 20 years. Brothers K is one of my favorite all time novels. The River Why was the first literary fiction set in the landscape where I grew up and made a big impression on me at 22. Twenty years later is was hell of a lot of fun to end up working with David on efforts to remove 4 large dams to restore Columbia-Snake salmon & steelhead runs. Yay! He finished it!!