I have so many fall lists of books! And really, too many books to list here on the blog. I am going to have a full list available next Friday on my Ko-Fi for anyone who will want to see alllll the books I have researched and compiled. Until then, please take this humble offering.
Love’s a Witch || Uncharmed || Rewitched
Love’s a Witch: Witchy cozy romance, set in Scotland. Enemies to lovers.
Ghost Business: I can’t wait to read this one! The second in the Boneyard Key series and the main FMC runs a ghost tour business.
Crazy Spooky Love: Cozy little ghost hunting romance. Also high on my own list to read this fall!
Potions and Prejudice || The Lone Wolf Cafe || Cat Dragon
Potions and Prejudice: Cozy witchy romance, enemies to lovers. And this cover is gorgeous!
Lone Wolf Cafe: Spooky sapphic cozy, with a witch and a werewolf. Also, baked goods!
Cat Dragon: Another that is on my own list. I just don’t have enough time to read all the books that I want to! I have to admit I just want to read this because of the idea of cat dragons. How cute would that be?
I can’t wait to get started with the spooky or spooky adjacent reads!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! It was a crazy muddled up week but a good one! Wyatt and I even had a “book date” at Barnes and Noble, where we got books and treats from the cafe and hung out. He loved it, my little book boy.
Read Last Week:
It was a sad reading week for me. I had a hard time settling down with a book after Cat’s People, and I floundered around while also waiting for my library holds to come in. I ended up reading an old middle grade from the 90s by Betty Ren Wright. Still good, still scary, after all these years.
Reading This Week:
I had one book finally come in from the library, and I am waiting on one more that I am going to buddy read with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings.
I am starting Isabella Nagg today, and hopefully The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder comes in within the next few days. I am sure it will. Lisa and I are reading that one together.
We have been sort of floundering around in tv land. I need to find some shows. We started Joe Pickett, and then halfway through the first season decided we weren’t all that interested in it. Now we are watching Renegade Nell, and Billy likes it but I sort of don’t. But it is only one season so I can handle watching a few episodes to make him happy. Lol.
We also watched Lisa Frankenstein last night and it was such a weird, fun movie! I loved the 80s vibes, which were immaculate. It had all the tropes of 80s movies, and the costumes and music were fantastic. It was silly and the horror/gore level was probably reminiscent of The Santa Clarita Diet or my Best Friend’s Exorcism, if you watched either of those. And there are fun little Easter Eggs throughout, from the name Frances Owen (Practical Magic) on a headstone in the opening, to Lisa exclaiming “Damn it, Janet” (Rocky Horror) to the end which is a nod to Notting Hill and also to director Zelda Williams’ father, Robin Williams.
And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
A few months ago, I was thinking to myself, I just need to get through summer to fall, then we would be on the other side of Wyatt’s surgery. And then, it seemed so far away. And now here we are. The other side. A new season, a new journey.
I have been reading here and there on the internet about people who prefer fall and winter to summer, how we like these months because there isn’t the pressure to feel busy, to feel like we are soaking up every single second in activity and making the most of the sunshine and hot weather. There is probably some truth to that. I do like to embrace fall for the coziness. It does seem more acceptable for some reason to work on my embroidery in the autumn, to spend more time reading, to fiddle around with all of our little creative projects. But I also just love the weather, the cool crisp days, the chill in the morning. I love wearing jeans and sweaters and boots, I love the crunch of the leaves underfoot. I love fall baking and making soup, bopping around my kitchen listening to Stevie Nicks and Van Morrison and Taylor Swift (especially her Folklore album). I love that mosquitoes die and tea can be hot again. I love wearing darker lip colors in the fall, something new for me. I love scary stories, and bonfires, and fall hikes, owl prowls right on the cusp of winter.
I am actually busier in the fall than I am in the summer. We have back to school, and now Scouts-turned-Blackbirds. Our calendar for September and October is filling up, with field trips and get togethers, a special date night at the end of the month, a baseball game, festivals. I would like to take Wyatt to a high school football game this year, to hear the crowds and the band, because I know my kid is not going to care much about the actual game. He is more like me, and gets wrapped up in the atmosphere.
This fall I want to learn how to make cinnamon rolls, really good cinnamon rolls, and apple pie. I also want to make oatmeal cookies, maple cookies, peanut butter cookies. Some sort of baked good every week, like my grandma used to make, every week in the very same kitchen. My grandpa had a sweet tooth and my grandma baked everyday, whether it was a sweet treat or a chicken pot pie or a meat pie. And pancakes on the Blackstone every Saturday morning, while we eat outside on the deck in our pajamas, our coffee steaming, the birds singing.
(I got these images on Pinterest and I am working on finding the artists so I credit. Once I find them all I will update here!)
Fall is afoot in my online life as well! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are hosting two opportunities to link up together – one for Comfy Cozy Cinema, and the other is a monthly bookish link party for anything bookish at all! Share your bookstore shopping moments, book reviews, fashion inspired by book covers, whatever bookish posts you post. We also host drop-in crafternoons, which are monthly zooms where we just sit around and chat and work on whatever projects we feel like. I have embroidered and colored and once I painted my son’s little free library. So whatever floats your boat! We always have a good group and a good time! If you are interested send me an email!
Comfy Cozy Cinema posts go up on September 25th. We went for comedic, cozy, and then took some liberties near Halloween with some spookier movies.
And here is the linky for the bookish link party for September!
And with that, I think I am going to get moving. I have a small child here waiting for me to take him on our “book date” at Barnes and Noble. I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone!! We had a very big week of very important appointments; it was rough but I also feel like we can put it all to rest for a while and move on. (hopefully!)
I had the perfect book to read during this crazy week though.
I absolutely loved this book. Definitely a five star for me. It is wholesome and heartwarming and not only did it feel like a warm hug, I wanted to hug it back. I checked it out from the library but I need my own copy. It’s a very simple story, but also so impactful. It is going to be a hard book to follow. I am still in that world and that feeling which makes moving on to another book difficult!
Not a whole lot right now. We have been watching Joe Pickett at night and that is it. However, Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are about to begin our Comfy Cozy Cinema this month and we will be busy watching movies that feel cozy, make us laugh, and around Halloween, maybe feel a little spooky, but not too spooky! Feel free to join in! We will have a linky and our first posts will go up on the 25th of September!
And that is it from me today! I will be around visiting blogs later tonight and tomorrow morning! I hope that whatever you do today you do something that makes you smile!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! Last week was pretty nondescript around here – it was just busy with a lot of just life things which were not super exciting. I barely even got a chance to read.
I did read one book!
It was cute, but not…I am not sure. It was cute. I love the concept of a baby dragon cafe in a cozy fantasy, but it was not the best written book I have read in this genre. Perhaps the author is still finding her voice. I am willing to give this series another chance with the second book, which comes out I think next week, although I probably won’t be reading it for a while, since I will be moving on to my fall TBR!
This week:
My goal is to finish these two books this next week or so, to finish up my summer reading.
What have we been watching? Hmm. Not much. Billy worked a lot this past week because of some big project they had to finish, and I hate watching shows without him honestly. So I watched a lot of YouTube at night. I should do a big round up of YouTubers I like soon, maybe. I am actually getting closer to the idea of starting my own, but I am having a hard time deciding on what all I want to do with it, and I don’t think I have the right equipment. That is something I am going to explore this fall.
And that is it from me today. Not the most exciting update! I hope that whatever you do today you do something that makes you smile!
Ok I am diving in to fall content because I can’t wait. It is still hot and gross and sticky here, so this is a bit of daydreaming on my part. Can’t I just set the AC super low and cover up with a blanket and have some tea and read some scary stories?
Let’s start with these short little classics of horror and mystery, to just give us a little taste of the season to come. A little autumn amuse-bouche if you will, while we wait for the real thing.
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood: Written in 1907, The Willows is described as early modern horror, and precursor to the weird fiction movement, which is something I am reading a bit of these days. This cover is absolutely chilling to me!
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James: My cousin, who I have shared books with since we were children, has told me over and over for years to read M.R. James. Maybe this is the year! And hmm, I wonder if he has this copy for his study; if not I am thinking this would be a perfect gift for Christmas.
The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins: This short story (novella?) is on my list to read this year. And this edition and cover looks gorgeous and spooky!
Autumn Chills by Agatha Christie: We need to have the Queen of Mystery on this list! I think short stories are a great way to get to know an author before diving into a whole novel, and this collection of autumnal stories is a good place to begin!
Carmilla by J. Sheridan La Fanu: This book was so groundbreaking for its time. It pre-dates Dracula by twenty-six years, and the vampire is a woman. It is sometimes referred to as sapphic, but I hesitate to call it that based on a few things. However, it was a scandalous book in its day, and I feel like the focus on women and sexuality and power is one of the reasons why Dracula is more well known.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Hands down, one of my favorites on this list. I read this in college and fell in love with this whole story. And speaking of feminism, Mary Shelley’s mom, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a pioneering feminist in literature and writing. Just throwing that out there.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: So I haven’t actually read this one. I know the story, roughly, but I should probably read it one day. I knew I had to include it on this list though!
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: A spooky one alright. Is it a ghost story? Or something else? It is open to the reader’s interpretation. It’s been a very long time since I read this so I don’t remember too much about it. Maybe it is time for a reread.
And there we go. A little bit of fall near the end of summer, on this rainy (here at least) day.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone!! I seem to be in like a fall deep clean kind of mood lately. I have been reorganizing and straightening and getting rid of stuff like crazy around here. Maybe I am nesting, preparing for fall and winter like all the little animals outside are doing. All I know is that our art cabinet is extremely organized right now, and that somehow in my cleaning frenzy I lost one of my sandals. I can only guess that I accidentally threw it out, which makes me sad because I loved it. Lol. However, all of this has had a side effect – now I want Billy to paint our whatever room. A few years ago, we flip-flopped the rooms in our house. It’s a very small house, and we had a room we barely used, the dining room. I realized that we could have more space if we moved our couches and television into the dining room, which we now call the den, and moved all of our other stuff into the living room. So the old living room area now has our dining room table, art stuff, animals, and just leisure activity paraphernalia. But we never know what to call that space! Anyway I am so sick of that paint color and if Billy isn’t able to paint it, then I am going to. I am not a great painter but I just can’t deal with the darkness in that room anymore. Lol.
Phew! Moving on.
Read Last Week:
Last week I read Monk and Robot books 1 and 2. I was gifted this collection edition of both books from an internet friend and I loved reading them back to back. These are just such wonderful stories and I have my husband listening to them as well.
I also read Pat of Silver Bush, which now that I think of it, was another gift! I was blessed with some book mail this summer! Pat is a mixed bag for me. I loved so much of the book, but then, I didn’t like some of the other parts. Review I hope this week, but if you want a sneak peek of it, check out my Instagram. I almost always review there first. I feel like it is a good place to sort of form my thoughts. I don’t know why it makes a difference but it does for some reason. Maybe because I feel like I need to be more succinct, which inspires me to really think about what I am saying instead of just rambling like I am right this minute. Actually this whole post is sort of a ramble!
I tried reading a romance, Out of the Woods, but there was a heavy topic in there that I was not feeling up to so I put it aside.
Last week Billy and I watched Nautilus. It is not the greatest, in terms of production, but it somehow makes it feel more camp. Like we are watching a sci-fi show from the 50s or 60s, sort of over the top and silly, but despite that, we really like it. Or maybe that is why we like it! I feel like mid-season it really started to gel a bit more and get a bit better, and I love the set of the interiors. It just looks so cool, like old school nautical mixed with Victorian era . I also really like how this series does not shy away from the horrors of colonialism, and denounces it, with many characters in the show being survivors of what they call “the Company”. It makes for a very diverse cast and shines a light on some of these historical events that perhaps today’s students don’t know about. I also really like the main female character, Humility, and her enthusiasm and talent for engineering and science. It had a lot going on at first, but it all started to settle in together nicely. We have one episode left that we are going to try to watch tonight, but we also are watching K-Pop Demon Hunters today, so it might be tomorrow instead.
And that is it from me today my friends! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! It was a pretty good week around here. I have been catching up on a lot of projects and work that I haven’t had time for, and it feels good to get those things done. We also had the grand opening for Wyatt’s Little Free Library last Sunday! He was so excited and proud!
As far as reading goes, I started Pat of Silver Bush and it was slow going at first to get into it. I had a hard time with reading Judy Plum’s dialect and it was just distracting me and I would read about two pages and put the book down. I finally was able to settle down with it yesterday and now I am on a roll. I love how Pat is such a little homebody.
I will be continuing to read this, and when I finish I have this one all lined up.
This wasn’t on my August TBR but I found it while at the library and I thought the cover looked so happy I had to pick it up.
Billy and I finished up Season 3 of Dark Winds and it was amazing. That show is so well done. I already can’t wait until Season 4. We also watched Death Valley, which I really enjoyed, and we just started watching Nautilus. Nautilus is like the perfect amount of cheese and action. It reminds us both of Firefly for some reason.
And that is it from around here! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
I have two book reviews up for today, one middle grade translated fiction, the other horror/weird fiction.
Let’s start with Seacrow Island.
Seacrow Island was written by Astrid Lindgren, who is best known for her character Pippi Longstocking. Confession time: I never liked Pippi. She was too unpredictable for me and I didn’t care for that. So I never read any of Lindgren’s other books, assuming I wouldn’t like them either. And honestly, the next one I tried was last year for language arts with Wyatt, and – we didn’t like it. We tried reading Ronia, and we were so bored, so I put that one down and we read something different. However, I saw this book online and I was like, ok one more shot Astrid. And I am glad that I took the chance and read it because I loved it. It was cozy and delightful, filled with quirky characters and animals.
This is the perfect little summer read! I was transported to this small island, filled with family and friends and wonderful animals. I absolutely adore the loyal Bosun, Pelle and his love for all creatures great and small, from wasps to seals and dogs and everything else under the sun. I did have a little cry but overall this book is just perfect for reading and daydreaming. It reminded me of The Penderwicks and the dad reminded me of the father from The Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink, a little helpless and haphazard. It’s just a wonderful story of children being children and idyllic childhoods, and like I said in my post the other day, now I want to find a small island in the Baltic to summer on with my family.
Chlorine by Jade Song is a a debut book, but it’s a powerhouse. It is a short read, but not a fast one. It is intense, complex, visceral. That was the word that kept coming to me while reading it and describing it to people around me, visceral. Raw. Sort of gross and fluid filled. You forget actually, that you are reading a horror novel, and not some modern classic coming of age, although it is that too. The horror is a slow unraveling; the is a book about ascending and transcending and descending. I didn’t want to put it down while reading, and the times that I did have to come up for air, I was thinking about the book, because there is a lot to think about. I could never do it justice in a review.
Ren’s mother gifts her a mermaid book as a small toddler, still in daycare. She is a very gifted child and even though the book is far too advanced for her age, she can read it. Her pre-school teacher refuses to believe it though, and tests her on reading the book at different times during the day, trying to trip her up. Which is totally despicable to do to a child, but it sets the tone for Ren’s life. Always under pressure, always being tested, always needing to live up to different expectations. Not from her parents; her parents were not like that. They had expectations for Ren, but they were not “tiger parents”. They just wanted the best for her, but mostly stayed out of her way, especially her dad who lived in China. Her mom wanted to make Ren happy, that was obvious. She loved her daughter.
On the surface, this book is about a young girl and her obsession with swimming, with mermaids, with perfection. Once you dive deeper though, there are other themes that stand out. Pain. Isolation. The betrayal of her body, of men. And then the shocking climax to it all, and then the murky ending – Ren exerting bodily autonomy, searching for freedom.
Ren’s love of mermaids leads to a desire to join the swim team, which then turns into a journey to perfection, staying a star swimmer, pleasing her coach, who is not only mercurial in temper but also inappropriate and lecherous. He has exacting expectations for their diets, for their performance, but particularly for his top swimmers, for Ren. The pair make for a good team in terms of swimming and winning, but it is also very destructive for Ren, so much so that when she gets a concussion she goes to practice too soon, before she is healed.
I have a lot to say about this book, and just like when I read The God of the Woods, I am not comfortable typing it out because of spoilers. If you want to listen to me ramble about this, I am posting a video, but beware that I will be giving away spoilers in talking about it fully. I will probably post tomorrow, and make a new blog post with the link.
This book is amazing. It is also gross, repellent in some places, and requires many trigger warnings. In fact they are listed in the author’s note at the start of the book. They are listed as racism, misogyny, self-harm, eating disorders, homophobia, depression, and sexual violence. It was not an easy read at all, but it was a read that I absolutely ended up being glad that I read. It is not feel good. It is not cozy. It probes your brain and makes you think and is horrifying and sad. It is well written though, and I can see this becoming a book that is studied and dissected in university classrooms. It is powerful and alarming and weighty, for a book about needing to stay afloat.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! It was a pretty good week last week, with a good doctor’s visit for Wyatt. Today I have to mega clean the house, and then later my nieces and brother and SIL are coming over to hang out. I am looking forward to seeing them!
Read Last Week:
I read Seacrow Island, which I absolutely loved, and I also read another in the Campers and Criminals series. Seacrow Island made me want to find an island in the Baltic Sea to summer on with my family. It put me in mind of The Penderwicks and also of Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink in some ways.
Reading This Week:
This week I feel like reading something a bit weird, but also wanting to finish up a few I had started earlier this summer. I will be reading Chlorine, hopefully finishing Otter Country, and then making some headway into Pat of Silver Bush.
We finished up The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down, and watched a few episodes of Brokenwood that we have already seen. I would like to start from the very beginning again so I might have to do that on my own. Not sure I can get Billy to commit to that. We also watched The Haunted Mansion, and a movie called Finding You, which was yes, a bit cheeseball, but I absolutely loved it for how Hallmark it felt. Sometimes you just need that, and last night I definitely needed it. Plus it had Saoirse-Monica Jackson in it and I love her. It actually could have had more of her in it honestly. The setting itself was absolutely gorgeous, a small coastal town in Ireland.
Around the Interwebs:
I am planning on catching up on commenting on blogs this week! It’s my big blog goal. I am all about catching up around here. And while I do that, I am also thinking about fall and fall movie watching. And Comfy Cozy Cinema!
And I think that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 