The casting announcement for the movie was so funny that it pushed this up to the top of my reading pile… and I had a great time. I should read more contemporary romances was my main takeaway.

The premise for this one wasn‘t as strong out the gate as her previous novels but the second half redeems it - and I was HOOKED - I‘ve been in such a reading slump of late and this managed to get me to read my Sunday away!

Love it when Murder, She Wrote gets mentioned 🥰

While slightly overlong at almost 500 pages this was a lot of fun! I‘m looking forward to reading the sequels at some point.

I was so excited to read this, I was basically sold just for it being part of Penguin‘s Weird Fiction imprint and Algernon Blackwood‘s (isn‘t that just such an authors name?) Wikipedia page made for interesting reading.

The book itself is essentially a collection of John Silence‘s case notes. Anyway, I wanted to love occult Sherlock Holmes but I lowkey hated it and was mostly bored throughout.

I was so happy to be able to repurchase my very first Kip & Co sheet - after 6 years of being in high rotation, my foot went right through it (nothing like having to remake your bed after you‘d already gotten cosy) ANYWAY, they also have a collaboration with Margaret Preston (sadly no love for double beds) but I couldn‘t resist this pattern on a silk pillowcase (and well, free shipping 😉)

Nana DNFed this library book telling me that the first few chapters just had awful people in it. She seemed most upset that there were jewel thieves on board. PROFESSIONAL ONES. 🤣 Did not know that she felt so strongly about people who steal jewels for a living. Anyway, she said she couldn‘t recommend it to anyone but lowkey I kind of want to read it now, she was just so 😩 about JEWEL THIEVES!! Who steal jewels professionally. 💎🚫

I‘m not in the right frame of mind for this book BUT I loved this quote

If you take the story on its own merits, you are left with some uncomfortable questions for the Postman - even though he is not painted as the villain of the story.

If you take the story with the understanding that it the words for / explaining a ballet - it‘s still a strange little thing BUT I see the vision and think it would actually be kind of cool.

I was scrolling through my camera roll and came across this GEM from lockdown 2020 when I had to work from home - and had the surreal experience of accepting book deliveries into my tiny apartment 🤣 I‘d accession and catalogue them, then load them up in tote bags, shove them into the boot of my car, ready for when I had my next library click and collect shift. Truly a time that feels like a fever dream…

I took @julesG ‘s suggestion of OIL before attempting to peel (THANK YOU!!!) AND aside from my Nana defaulting to EMU when I said I needed oil (she‘s hard of hearing, we got to olive eventually 🤭😳) it went pretty well, not painless but I didn‘t lose a layer of skin! I‘m probably still going to wrap my wrist when I‘m working but I think it‘s just about there…

I found an Animorphs book in the wild (an op shop) and it was only a $1 - I knew going on a side mission between physio and work would be a good idea (I wanted the veggie pies from the deli and to see the newly renovated indie bookshop - fitting in an op shop was an added bonus)

Back to the physio today and got taped again… something tells me that the white adhesive tape is not going to relinquish my skin gently when the time comes comes to remove it 😩

On the positive side, I washed my hair before the appointment so at least showering in the morning is going to be more straightforward.

Things I did instead of reading this evening :

- failed at deciding on a new show to watch
- vibed to a “top hits of 2006” playlist
- bought 2 dresses that I‘d been thinking about
- dusted and decluttered my bed side table
- bought tickets to the jousting this weekend
- continued to wonder where some of my misplaced objects are
- looked guiltily at the pile of library books I probably won‘t get around to reading

Sometimes I remember to provide context before I text something unhinged

TBD if she is in fact, here for the brain rot

How do you even review a book like this? Part of me feels that the less you know going in, the better. The title acts as a trigger warning, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor a couple of times because things did get, for lack of a better word, psychotic.

It caught my eye at the book store and the quirky chapter headings sold me completely (my favourite being "XXVI. Is Fraught with Some Danger, but for Whom, the Reader Must Determine.")

The way I was SURPRISED that this happened in England and NOT Australia 🤣

https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/unfair-dismissal-boss-dickhead/

Did not pack my pockets very well this morning and have left home without my AirPods 😫

Yesterday, I was at the physio, when he busted the tape out & all I think was I SHOULD HAVE WASHED MY HAIR THIS MORNING 😫

It‘s sort of getting better but also I‘m not loving having it taped. My goal is to leave it on til at least close of business tomorrow. I‘ve been wearing my wrist support brace on top (as instructed)

I‘ve started 2 audiobooks because I didn‘t trust myself not to 🤣 at my work desk with one of them. Reading motivation LOW!

“This isn't supposed to be a scary story. It's supposed to be disturbing. There's a difference.”

Hmm!! HMMM even!

I think I‘ll try another.

It was my grandpa‘s birthday yesterday - we had a family lunch (I made his favourite soup - minestrone!, followed by Black Forest cake) and it was just really nice! He‘s not been having a good year, health wise and I wasn‘t convinced we‘d all be here and smiling for his birthday but we made it! And things in this moment are good.

Spotify would struggle to find an artist I was less interested in seeing tbh.

I‘m posting this here because my Mum has already endured my rant about How To Make Gravy coming 9th in the recent TripleJ Hottest Australian 100 of all time.

Idk what‘s worse, being injured (I‘m so tired of patrons moving library furniture around) or being told that my managers are “reviewing available duties within my restrictions”… it‘s my right hand/wrist and I‘m right handed… genuinely what am I going to be doing tomorrow? It‘s a public library, everything is manual handling.

I loved this! I do wonder why I was completely fine with snow leopards, moose and pandas showing up at the same watering hole but when I got to kangeroos, I was like this is a bridge too far 🤣 where are we?

Loved finding all the frogs scattered across the pages - I found my little glasses wearing guy on most of them! 🐸

Continuing my Graham Base journey and I‘m 😍 with the frog in glasses on the very first page!

I picked up library books from my grandparents this afternoon and Nana told me mournfully that she thought this was the second last Sebastian St Cyr mystery… she was so happy when I told her that she wasn‘t even at the halfway point of the series yet…

😃 = her face

So far, it‘s been a drop everything to read / stay up past her bedtime series and I love that for her!

Loved the premise, it‘s very topical, it sadly fell flat for me, only finished it because it‘s short.

I introduced an 🇺🇸 friend to NetGalley and she was approved for this book 5 months ago… *angry muttering about Australian book rights* to be fair, I had forgotten that I‘d requested this, mostly because I didn‘t think I was likely to get it.

Everytime I come across a mention of Chopper, I flash back to my most terrifying library enquiry which started with a man asking if we had Chopper on DVD and then, unprompted, while I was looking it up on the catalogue, added that he‘d been in Pentridge Prison at the same time as Chopper. Different cell block though.

👀

🇦🇺 VEGEMITE MENTIONED 🇦🇺

Vegemite is great! (I wouldn‘t call it a treat tho 😝 it‘s a staple!)

I worked the closing shift at the library tonight and at one point, I looked across to see if the water dispenser needed filling (it sadly is not plumbed in) and there‘s a young adult on their hands and knees drinking out of one of the taps… genuinely baffled at the thought process that got them there. (Most people have their own bottles or we have paper cups at the desk, you just need to ask).

A short book that packs a punch. I had a great time not joining a single dot - I read it in one sitting and I can't say that I even had a theory which is very unusual for me. Strange Buildings is being translated and will release in March 2026 and i'm ready to be bamboozled again! Thanks for the buddy read @julesG

It starts with a troll playing Godzilla on a bridge and it ends with the reveal that Baba Yaga is a multi level marketing guru… and the small business of averting a war between humans and the fae happens in the middle. So you know, the usual EXCEPT no one got kidnapped…

Mercy & Adam were a bit cute in this one. Possibly the end of the walking stick? An enjoyable outing!

I was reminded of this book recently and couldn‘t remember if I‘d ever actually read it? Graeme Base feels very familiar to me as a 90s Aussie kid but I‘ve never been particularly patient (even though Where‘s Wally had me in a chokehold) so carefully searching for visual clues wouldn‘t have appealed - so it‘s very possible that I didn‘t… anyway, it‘s pretty cool (I read the answer page and made no attempt at decoding. I know who I am)

Ooh! Arrived earlier than anticipated (it‘s the Libby way)

Are you up for a buddy read this weekend @julesG ?

Today in libraryland ranged from having to knock on a toilet door to ask them to turn their music down (baby shark doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo) to a patron spiralling over a lost bookmark (returned in a book several months ago & no longer in lost property) that ended with a proclamation of reporting the “theft” to the police…

Is it a full moon? Is a planet in retrograde?

Cassie, Cassie, CASSIEEE

I love that the Megamorphs books switch between all the Animorphs kids - it really adds to the drama and so much happens in this one. From getting flung back in time and eating trex meat around a campfire, to Magic School Bus and Hansen (lol) references to the Big Bang… there was a lot happening, that‘s barely scraping the surface.

Disappointing that the trex morph wasn‘t retained when they made it back to their time 🦖

I‘ve been laughing at this all day.

(I used to watch this movie all the time with my siblings AND when the OG painting came to the NGV, we went to visit it)

In the last room of the Cats & Dogs exhibition there was a room with no gallery cards, which I find deeply annoying HOWEVER since I just finished Sabriel, I was like - is that ??? and it is!!!

Formally titled Girl with sword and white cat by Gregory Rogers, this was the cover illustration for Sabriel by Garth Nix, when it was published in 1995 by Harper Collins.

And tbh, if I can sneak Garth Nix into a conversation - I will.

Sabriel has been languishing on my “books I want to reread” stack ever since I bought the 25th anniversary edition during lockdown (so just the standard 3-5 business years on my shelf 🫣)

The beginning was a lot slower than I remembered but this is proper, detail heavy high fantasy and I‘m a little out of practice.

I switched to Tim Curry‘s audiobook version for the second half and that was a great life choice.

The Abhorsen reread is back on!

In which Mae makes a bad choice, sticks with it, doubles down on it and ignores all criticisms in the pursuit of solving the mystery by confronting a mob boss about it. Common sense and self preservation? Haven‘t seen them.

I had a year away from Normal, Kentucky mostly because my library didn‘t have this available on audio but now they do, so here I am! And I had a good time!

I weathered a few g‘days but was not particularly vibing with the writing style when I got to the “Why… it‘s the Huge Jacked Man!” line and the cultural cringe smacked me so hard in the face that I hit the return button on my digital loan. There might be a really heartwarming story here and maybe I could have given it a bit longer but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hugh Jackman was my final straw.

My books for today‘s book chat - we had 18 people show up… we usually have about 9-12 people… So 18 is extra impressive, especially on such a wintery day.

So many things going wrong at the same time in this one.

Really enjoyed seeing Mercy pull a revenge prank that she‘s famous for… even if Adam really shouldn‘t have let it get to the point where it became necessary (like, letting Christy answer his phone more than once… really dude?)

This was a good one! (Also my first time listening to an audiobook on libro.fm)

I visited my grandparents after work tonight and it was so nice. Pa‘s been in hospital/rehab for the last month and it was pretty scary for awhile - and tonight I shared a meal with them, caught them up on what I‘d been up to and listened to Pa‘s analysis of the meals on wheels soups & when I was leaving Nana pressed this coin purse into my hand with gold coins for the laundromat (she saves them for me) and it was just kind of everything really.

I swung from ☺️ to 🙄, wildly throughout this - I‘m perhaps not cut out for cozy fantasy but I‘m also just not here for stories that are driven by men feeling entitled to women‘s care & labour (in this case, the hapless Mr Nagg & well, the basil plant). Also not quite enough character depth & everyone except Grimalkin the not quite cat was hard to root for. There was some lovely moments & I really did enjoy the authors narration of the audiobook.

Me : I‘ll just take a small handbag with me, because I want to travel lightly today.

Also me : I think this paperback would fit in my coat pocket..

(Isn‘t Algernon Blackwood just such an author name?)

This has a Janice Hallett quote on the cove. I love her books & how they bamboozle me & I was🤞🏼this would do the same! & it did! I had 1 thing right & lots of theories.

The writing feels somewhat simplistic, hard to know if that's just his style or if it‘s the translation. This held me at a slight remove from the story but how events unfolded had me hooked. It's the sort of book you want to reread to admire how it all comes together.

I need to stop walking past book shops…

Chadstone Readings had a James Islington signing today - Chadstone, being the largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere, is normally a place you wouldn‘t find me BUT I hadn‘t realised that James was Australian AND I‘m aiming to get to a million steps for the walking challenge I‘m in (& the advantage of walking means avoiding the carpark).

I spelt my name for the cashier & didn‘t realise I‘d gained an E until after I‘d joined the line 😝