Hey friends!! Thanks so much for your comments on my other post - so glad you all are enjoying the #PromptMaze challenge, even if some of us are hopelessly lost in there! 😂 I realized after I posted it that I've done these quarterly and technically Q4 doesn't start until OCTOBER 1, not September. But since I (a) already created the Q4 maze and (b) am hoping to have a separate #Scarathlon maze for October anyway - here's the Q4 maze, quite early!⬇

Hey there #PromptMaze friends!! Hopefully you aren't as lost as I am! 😂

I'm working on the Q4 Maze and will hopefully have that ready in the next few days!! I am also thinking that there will be a bonus Christmas/holiday maze that will match up with all the #WinterGames reads that I have planned, which also kind of got me thinking about a bonus maze for #Scarathlon - they probably won't be as long as the quarterly ones, but still!!

Let me ⬇

For my #WeeklyForecast the Windowsill of Optimism isn't looking too different from last week 😂 Out-of-state family goes home Tuesday evening, so things should calm down around here a bit after that. Peaches are still going strong, but last week should have been our high-water mark with those for the season as well. Currently reading the tagged (funny so far). I should have one more week of random-draw reads before I start panic-reading all the ⬇

This has been a week of chaos!! Work is insane, family is in town, and things are a lil crazy! 😂 It looks like I've read more this week than I actually have, since 2 1/2 of these books I read last weekend haha Not a lot of reading happening, but overall life is pretty good and it's hard to complain. Really enjoyed both Mrs. Kip and The Hidden One. The tagged book I read for #TrappedonanIsland and liked it a lot - my biggest complaint was that ⬇

I absolutely love the Kate Burkholder series, and book 14 did not disappoint! I'm always a bit sad when Kate's investigations take her away from Painter's Creek and the crew we have gotten to know there, but really, it makes sense since how many murderous Amish can there really be in one small town?? 😂 It's not absolutely necessary to read this series in order, but I highly recommend it, as Kate's backstory and character are developed so well⬇️

This one is a little difficult to describe. Clara Kip is 79 and had just found out that not only does she have cancer, it is so advanced that she only has a week or two to live. With no living relatives, she enters hospice care. Meanwhile, 22-yr-old Aidyn Kelley is a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star, wanting to do more than fluff pieces and research for the senior reporters. When she makes a mistake, she's "punished" by being sent to ⬇️

@Cinfhen - Trick move, yesterday's post was last week's photo. HERE is the current status of the Windowsill of Optimism! 😂 Although I took this yesterday morning and have already finished two of the books pictured, including the tagged!! So progress!! #WeeklyForecast - nothing here is urgent (yet) so it should be a week of random draws. I just started Ten Thousand Doors last night and we'll see where we go from here!!

Hey #LMPBC #GroupV - Just checking in as I haven't heard anything in a while!! I haven't received a book from @jimfields3 yet and thought I would make sure that it hasn't gone astray!! I know that @Fredthemoose received the tagged book, but wasn't sure where all the rest were in the process 😂 @BeckyWiththeGoodBooks

D-E-F for the #AlphabetGame - A Dog for Davie's Hill is one I picked up a book sale based on the illustrations and the fact that I love border collies. The story is a little disjointed, but still a pleasant story, especially for younger readers who may not be as distracted by the complete lack of plot haha

Emily's Runaway Imagination is classic Cleary and one of my favorites. I love this old library discard edition.

Forever is the third book ⬇

I've seen the #AlphabetGame bouncing around Litsy and thanks to a tag from @AmyK1 decided to jump in! I always have a lot of trouble playing these games because I'm terrible at remembering books under pressure. 😂 So I thought I would just start at the beginning of my shelves and go through until I found a book with A... and then keep going until I found a B... etc!

Afraid to Ride is by one of my all-time favorite author/illustrators, C.W. ⬇

#BookReport is a little weak this week 😂 As anticipated, orchard work is going a bit crazy, plus my niece is in town (staying at my parents') for only two weeks so my days off have been full of family shenanigans. I DNF'd two of my Kindle books for the #22booksin22 challenge - I may have to check and see, but I'm pretty sure I've DNF'd almost all my books for this challenge so far, which means I was really bad at picking out free Kindle books ⬇

@Clwojick stranded me with some solid reading - these are the books with me while I am #TrappedonanIsland !! I am hoping to read at least two of them. For now, they are all going on my Windowsill of Optimism and we'll see which ones get drawn to actually read!!

Thanks for this super fun challenge @aperfectmjk !!!

I never actually posted my own #BookSpin list!! I have two lists - one that I use for my actual #BookSpin book, comprised of classics and other hefty tomes I've been meaning to read. Then I make a #BookSpinBingo list, which is all the books I want to read for the month. I've been leaving myself a lot of free spaces for backlog/catch up, but my trick is that I have to fill them in in order - I can't just choose the one that makes a bingo! I'm ⬇

Here's the #BookSpinBingo card! First, I put our official numbers (3 & 14) back in the mix. Then I drew them all out & wrote them down as I went, meaning the official numbers are just mixed into the card with the rest! As you can see, 21-25 are both labeled with their numbers & also as free spaces, so you can use them to match however you wrote your list. To score a bingo, just read books (in any order) that are in any row or column!! MORE INFO ⬇

Good morning, everyone! The moment you have all been waiting for!! Our official #BookSpin number is THREE!! Our official #DoubleSpin number is FOURTEEN!! I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyone's lists & am really looking forward to seeing your reviews!

My next post will be the #BookSpinBingo card!!!

My tagging/tracking system has changed this year, so if you didn't get tagged PLEASE let me know so I can add you to the (semi) permanent ⬇

@aperfectmjk - here are the books that washed up on the shore with you!! These are all books I've enjoyed, although for entirely different reasons haha Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on at least one of them!!!

#TrappedonanIsland

This wasn't my favorite Margolin thriller, but it was still a solid read. Ami is a struggling single-mom attorney who rents her over-the-garage apartment for extra income. Her current boarder seems friendly and kind, but during a Little League game he loses control and almost kills two men with his bare hands. Ami finds herself sucked into the situation more and more as the man tells her a story that sounds unbelievable, of a special secret ⬇️

Oh dear, adding the August books to the windowsill has created a bit of a traffic jam! 😂 Plus I still have to find out what my August #TrappedonanIsland read(s) will be!! This also doesn't include the six chapter-a-day(ish) books I'll be reading as well because I definitely do not have a problem!!

For the immediate #WeeklyForecast - I actually have DNF'd two Kindle books since yesterday, so those are slowly getting cleared out. Starting the ⬇

First full week back at the orchard and my #BookReport for this week reflects it 😂 I finished the final Bridgerton book - fun and fluffy, like the whole series - and bailed on two different books. A Lesson Vengeance just wasn't vibing for me, and Ocean of Storms was sooo boring. I'm going to skim ahead and find out what was on the moon, though! Currently better than halfway through the tagged book, which is okay but much more slowly paced than ⬇

The final Bridgerton book was more of the same, really - perfectly pleasant with likable characters but nothing mind-blowing. Sometimes that's exactly what I want, though! I enjoyed the series overall but do think they are somewhat over-hyped as I am not convinced that they are particularly superior to other historical romances. I won't avoid Quinn in the future, but also don't feel a burning need to add her other books to the TBR.

Somehow, it's already the end of the month!!! Which means it's time for July's #20in4 readathon. I'm going with a goal of 1000pgs for the weekend as I'm not exactly sure what is going to go on the next couple of days. I'm also trying to decide if I want to finish or bail on the tagged book. I want to find out what's on the moon, but I'm at 28% and it's still just blah blah blah setting things up and SO boring!! It may be time to skim to the end!😂

Oh my gosh, what the heck, we're only a week away from AUGUST?!? This summer has been busy but good. The peach harvest has officially started, so we are rolling into my busiest time of year - orchard time!! 😁 I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing what you all have been reading this month & am looking forward to your lists for August!

Remember, I'm using the same tag list all year, so just let me know if you want to be added or removed. Challenge info ⬇

This month's #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead was one I hadn't read in probably 15-20yrs. It wasn't one of my favorites growing up, but I enjoyed it a lot more as an adult - I found myself relating to some of the storylines that bored me when I was 20. There are a lot of characters here, and I still enjoyed some stories more than others, but overall this is one I liked. It's interesting to see some of Montgomery's personal tropes assimilated into this⬇️

#FallingForFallSwap is back!! I absolutely ADORE autumn, so this is one of my favorite swaps of the year!! Check out @Avanders 's page for more details and the link to the form to sign up!!

I'm super excited about participating this challenge, hosted by @aperfectmjk !! You create a GR shelf labeled “trapped on an island“ and then get matched up to someone else, picking books from their list that they “have“ to read that month because those are the “only“ books that survived the shipwreck and washed up on the island with them! 😂 Looking forward to both picking and reading books for this one!! #trappedonanisland

It's been a hot minute since I posted a #weeklyforecast as I was sick last weekend and gone the weekend before!! The windowsill is still pretty full, especially considering there is only one week before August's books go up (!!!) but I actually have been reading quite a lot lately. I'm down to the final books in both the Bridgerton and Percy Jackson series, so hopefully both those series will get checked off soon. Three of these are 2022 books ⬇

I got behind on the chapter-a-day read and then just bolted ahead and finished it 😂 I wasn't sure what to expect of this one, having never read Pym before, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable. I was slightly let down by the sitcom-like ending where things all return to basically the way they were at the beginning, but can also see how that fits into the overall theme of the story. I can see myself trying another Pym in the future.

Roberts's latest book seemed to hit a different tone than many of her earlier stories. A much slower pace than most of her books, this one is more about Booth as a person than it is about romance or the thriller aspect of his being a thief. I actually did enjoy it because I liked Booth and also enjoyed a lot of the descriptions of places (this book made me want to visit New Orleans), but I can see why a lot of people didn't care for it. ⬇️

Not my all-time favorite Wodehouse but still a lot of fun. I don't know how he makes me totally roll with loads of coincidences and nonsense, but I do, and I love it. There is just no other author out there whose writing relaxes and entertains me the way his does.

This is for my other #LMPBC group and is heading your way today @mabell !!
@Chrissyreadit @julieclair

Read this classic for #LMPBC and it was a really interesting one. A lot to ponder here on what "sin" really is and how self-absorption can change us. I felt like Wilde asked a lot more questions than he answered, but he would probably tell you that his job is to ask questions, not answer them lol
@fredthemoose this one is heading your way today!!
@BeckyWithTheGoodBooks @jimfields3

#MtTBR
#BookSpinBingo

Last review for now - I actually really enjoyed this romantic suspense, although I definitely wanted an epilogue as it felt like everything got wrapped up really fast. I had some quibbles with both the main characters - I felt like Lil was really hanging onto the bitterness for what happened when they were both 19, for pete's sake, like she never once said something like, “OMG we were literal CHILDREN so maybe I should be a little more ⬇

This one had two of Roberts's early-80s novels in one book, and they were both pretty terrible haha

Her Mother's Keeper was definitely for you IF you prefer a lot of grabbing and aggressive kissing over actual communication. Island of Flowers I enjoyed more, but the fact that she wouldn't just tell her dad what had happened really annoyed me, and why was Dillon such a dick like all the time?? Not the hero for me. Still, this was good ⬇

This may have been my favorite of the series so far. I absolutely loved Hyacinth and Gareth together, and Gareth's grandma is such a fave. There was enough snark and banter to make me laugh but not so much that it felt like they didn't actually like each other. My only complaint was that the entire diamonds storyline felt so contrived and unrealistic - and also unnecessary - but that's just me lol

When I don't feel well, I want fluff, so I picked up the next book in the Chesapeake Shores series. In the first three books, about three different siblings (of six) the background story is the parents, who have been divorced for a long time, slowly getting back together, and this book focused on them. I did enjoy it, but also didn't feel like the whole situation with Megan's gallery was very well resolved. That's really been my overall issue ⬇

A small review binge upcoming...

I'm not sure if it was me, the stories, or the fact that I was starting to get sick when I was read them, but they just didn't hit the spot for me. I don't get on with short stories very well, but I always think I'll read a collection like this to see if a new author tickles my fancy. While there were some interesting concepts here, they were really mostly too insta-love-y for me. I also didn't realize that ⬇

Hey friends!! Ended up being unexpectedly offline for several days, but I'm back!! Lots of notifications to catch up on, so sorry if anyone was feeling ignored!! I also have loads of book reviews to post, but we'll see when that happens. 😂 In the meantime, here's a picture of the side garden... it's actually gotten even crazier than this the last few days as it's been dumping rain for three days!

Just a note - this may already be floating around Litsy since I haven't been on much this week - but bookshop.org has free shipping through today!! Their shipping costs actually do keep me from purchasing from them sometimes, so today is a great time to stock up!! 😁

Thanks for the tag @Eggs @TheSpineView
1. I'm not sure about “the most“ but I have read this book probably 20 times and it does make me cry every time.
2. This is tough - I read all over the place. Romance, I guess??
3. There are so many that I love and revisit. LM Montgomery is on my mind, though, so at this exact moment I may go with The Blue Castle 😂
#WondrousWednesday
Want to play @eeclayton @Kimberlone @swynn ?

I have mixed feelings about this series. I really love the fun, obnoxious family and the setting, but sometimes the "drama" feels so contrived, and in this book it just seemed like the main characters went in circles and I never was convinced they actually went forward (spoiler below). I own some of the later books in this series which is why I started it, but I think it gets one more chance before I throw in the towel!

I feel like this is the Swanson book everyone recommends, and I finally got around to reading it. While not as frenetic as some of his other stories, the pacing was still excellent and kept me turning the pages. My only real eye-roll with Swanson's writing in general is that literally every character he writes is somewhat obsessed with/primarily motivated by sex, which gets old to me. Still, a great thriller with some fun twists.

Finally got to the next Bridgerton books. I really enjoy these while I am actually reading them, yet never feel that push to pick up the next book right away. I liked Francesca and Michael, although it took a little too long to actually get them together. A fun fluff read, but nothing here that felt especially memorable. Soft pick.

#SeriesRead2022 @TheSpineView
#19822022 AND #192025 (2004) @Librarybelle

Apparently it's Litfluence giveaway week!! 😂 Fabulous achievement hitting 100k @Nessavamusic - congratulations!!! Thanks for hosting a #100kGiveaway !!

Can't wait to see what fabulous books you read during your next 100k!!!

Woohoo!! Congratulations on hitting 25k @Hazel2019 !! Thank you so much for having a giveaway as well!! #Hazel201925K

Can't wait to see what you read during the next 25k!!

After purchasing this book for a dime back in 2008, I decided it was finally time to read it 😂 It was a sort of odd little story. A Warsaw family is separated during WWII when the father is sent to a prison camp and their mother is sent to Germany to work on the farms. The children escape and live on the streets. When the father manages to escape prison and make his way back to Warsaw, he can't find his family but leaves a message that he will ⬇

Happy 4th of July and Happy #LitsyLoveSummerSwap opening day!! @Hazel2019 thank you so much!!! I'm so excited about all three of these books!!! The card is gorgeous, snuggly socks are always a win, and the bookmarks are so pretty and unique - I especially love the ginkgo one, which ironically got cut out of the picture haha And 50 bags of tea! YAY! Thank you so much!!!

And thank you for hosting @kdgordon88 @rsteve388 - such a fun swap!!

This was a #TBRDeckofCards draw from April that I finally checked off!! I didn't enjoy this one as much as some of West's other books. It's been a while since a YA read made me feel so old! 😂 Autumn gets locked in the library and immediately starts panicking about being BORED. IN A LIBRARY. So I wasn't sure if I was going to like her from the get-go. There were a few things I found confusing (aren't public buildings set up so that you can ⬇️

#WeeklyForecast - the windowsill is full again, thanks to the influx of July challenge books!! I'm currently working on my June #LMPBC book (The Color of Dragons), and need to read the tagged book this week as it is due back at the library. Beyond that, I have my #BookSpin (The Hidden Hand), the #PemberLittens' buddy read (Excellent Women), July #LMPBC (A Picture of Dorian Gray), and a nonfiction read (Nudges) all on the go at a chapter-a-day-ish⬇

With all the #BookSpin excitement yesterday I neglected to post my #BookReport ! A pretty meh reading week for me, a combination of house projects, racing cars on the PlayStation, and getting sucked in to a terrible paranormal romance series on Kindle Unlimited 😂 I did read the tagged book, finished the Jane Austen at Home buddy read, and also read The League of Gentlewomen Witches, which for some reason isn't in my picture. I also DNFd an ⬇

Here's the #BookSpinBingo card! First, I put our official numbers (12 & 15) back in the mix. Then I drew them all out & wrote them down as I went, meaning the official numbers are just mixed into the card with the rest! As you can see, 21-25 are both labeled with their numbers & also as free spaces, so you can use them to match however you wrote your list. To score a bingo, just read books (in any order) that are in any row or column!! MORE INFO ⬇