Just think how easy it will be to double your pages read this week. HAHAHA. No ... no stress in my life. *wildly eyes John's textbooks, the dirty laundry, my own work to-do list, and the list of colleges I was supposed to start researching for Sophia* We're totally fine here. LOL. I've had those months too!

I am a chapter into YOU LUCKY DOG this morning and am loving it. Normally I'm not a fan of contemporary anything but this premise sounded so charming. Just what I needed today.

*removed*

I just have to draw attention to @Violet Crown's signature because it's too clever. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO for Consul 2020 "Pragmatist for the People" 😃

Does anyone remember my bold plans to read John The Witch Family last night? Show of hands who thought I was a little ambitious with that plan. Yeah. There was no reading to him last night, he was exhausted after trick or treating and passed out in bed before I could tuck him in. Our neighborhood was light on kids trick or treating but lots of houses were participating in safe ways. Either people had a bucket of candy on their front steps or they'd have a card table setup with candy and the resident would sit ten feet back in a lawn chair so kids could help themselves to candy. A few people did it the old fashioned way (knock on door style) and those people all wore masks along with the trick or treaters.

I'm doing NaNo too. I'm attempting to not be a rebel but really I should be editing something rather than doing new words. What's your NaNo username?

I think I posted on Monday that I'd jump on "tomorrow" and post my books. Is this Tuesday? No? Well let's pretend it is. Finished: Too Late to Die (Sheriff Dan Rhodes #1) by Bill Crider - I discovered this while searching for something like the Patrick McManus Bo Tully series and enjoyed it. It's nothing like the Bo Tully series but more of just a 1980's small town sheriff cozy-ish mystery. There was charm in reading about someone trying to solve a mystery in times that sounded modern (ie not Regency England) but without a cell phone. A Killer in King's Cover by Iona Whishaw - Recommended by @mumto2 because she and I seem to have 100% overlap on mysteries we enjoy. Highly recommend if you like historical cozy mysteries. I've got the second ready to be picked up at my library but my library has the most random COVID hours now so I won't be able to get it until Tuesday.

Oh my goodness. I'm now on hold with my local bookstore to see if they have a copy of this because I'd love to start it with John tonight!

I grew up with Roald Dahl but I didn't discover Enid Blyton until we were in Scotland with @Violet Crown and her littlest daughter told John about them. Now we're big fans. DS and I are almost done with The Enchanted Wood and we are loving it. Some of my categories might take me a decade which is a 10 number ... so it's all okay. 🙂 So glad everyone is okay. We've had a few scares and it's so stressful. We're trick or treating this year but thought really long and hard about not going. Everyone is going to mask up and I'm going to hold the candy bag but I'm still nervous. I'm also expecting it to be lame because I doubt there's going to be many houses with lights on. *sigh* It's tough having a little boy that's so excited about it and just doesn't understand why all the things he loves have been canceled. That's a relief!

Hello! I finished books. No, no, keep your seats. No applause necessary. I was even going to post which ones I finished and gush about how much I liked them but WTM is not letting me do links right now so we'll try that again when I'm on my laptop tonigh. *ugh* What an interesting eclectic list! You seem to be doing really well with your 10x10's this year. You do such excellent thorough reviews of the non-fiction you read that I feel like I get the important stuff without having to read the book. Thank you for taking the time and energy to review them! It's always so appreciated. And now I know I need to sleep more. This is so funny and reminds me of a conversation Sophia and I had today. She fainted during Mass at school today (don't worry ... it's just one of those things that happens at Catholic school ... there seem to always be a kid that passes out from not eating breakfast or something ... today it was my kid but she's fine). I had to go pick her up at school because she was too shaky to drive home. The nurse, a secretary, and a teacher we passed as I was helping Sophia out of the school all commented on how extremely pale Sophia looked and how they hoped she got feeling better. As soon as we get in the car Sophia turns to me and says, "Don't these people realize this is my natural color!" And she's right. She's got dark hair and hazel eyes but is very pale.

I've got a stack of mysteries on my night table and audible player (phone! Lol) and reading chair that are all like 85% finished. What is wrong with me? I don't know. I don't know that anyone does. So the next time I report in I'll have a huge long list of finished books. Or I'll be 90% finished. And @mumto2 is being so patient because almost all the books are one's she's recommended I read. I hope she doesn't give up on recommending books to me because I'm a slow reader these days. John and I are making our way through all the classic Roald Dahl books alternating with the Enid Blyton books. So that'll keep us busy for a long time to come. Apparently I'm getting through read alouds. Maybe I should see if John is interesting in listening to some cozy British historical mysteries at night?!?! I say that as a joke but I think Sophia was only two years older than him when she listened to her first Agatha Christie.

Reading the first one now ... standby for report in the next day or two depending on how life goes. 🙂

Super interested to hear your opinions on Gatsby as an adult rereading it ... Will this be your first reread since high school? I think it might be one of those days because I read this quote and got all teary eyed. Whew. I'm going to need more coffee! Great link. Thanks!

FINISHED: Um ... can I count last weeks BaW thread as read because that's about it these days. I think I only missed a week but things look different around here anyway. Life is good but busy. I'm falling into bed exhausted at night. DD is back in school (as in ... back in a building two days a week). DS is hanging out with mom. And we've also hired someone to help with the company. Which surprisingly cuts into my inter-netting time. I feel a little lazy jumping on here or Goodreads when my employee is ten feet away drafting. And I managed to delete two quotes but at least I remember them ... kinda. @JunieI'm getting DD The Goblin Emperor for Christmas. I hope DD and your sister will enjoy it. I'm hoping my DD doesn't stumble across it in a library or on Kindle before she gets it as a present. @mumto2Thanks for posting the cool cat book and the description. I have a friend that loves Murakami and is super hard to buy for. Now I know what book she's getting for Christmas.

So we finished another Boxcar Children (it doesn't matter which one but it was one of the original 19 actually written by Warner at least). John loved it so much that he immediately bought it on Audible so he could listen to it again. (Never mind my annoyance that I've discussed WITH EVERYONE IN MY HOUSE NOT TO BUY AUDIBLE BOOKS THROUGH THE ALEXA. You see the Alexa always buys them with a credit when sometimes it's only a $4 book which is so much cheaper than a credit. *rant over*) But it was sweet and I was reminded of why I suffer through these books. There's something classic about these "kids going on adventures and solving mysteries" that just appeals to young children. And they love to hear the same story over and over. So my deal with him right now is that every third read aloud we do can be a Boxcar Children book. But MTH books have been moved to the "books to read to yourself" category. This mama has her limits.

Ditto all of this. Except 17-years-old and now 21 years ago! (My how the years fly by ...) The bone health is such a good reminder that I don't think of much!

I just hit 52 books for the year but a substantial number really didn't count because they're shorter read alouds like Boxcar Children and MTH. For the statistics junkies I've put my breakdown below. 52 books (including short read alouds but not picture books) 19 X Audiobooks 20 X Brit Trips 12 X Read Alouds 9 X Books on the craft of writing

Wow. That's a great list of books! We've got The Star of Kazan in John's bookshelf to try to read soon.

FINISHED: Avalanche (Sheriff Bo Tully #2) by Patrick McManus -- I have two ratings for this book. Because I'm super opinionated that even my opinions have opinions! Well ... let's just get into it. 5 star book -- Excellent narrator and side characters and mystery. Everything tied up so well. It's just what you want when you're looking for a cozy mystery with a fun setting. After years of being the outdoors-man's Dave Barry McManus knows how to do humor and a modern "wild west" setting better than anyone. 2 star book - Tully's interactions with women were so weird and unrealistic. Every woman was in love with him. They hounded him. They tried to kiss him and lure him away alone. He was repeatedly turning down offers to hook up with them. It might have been intended as a running joke but the joke didn't work for me. In fact it started to annoy me and take away from everything I did enjoy about the book. It read as author wish fulfillment/fantasy and ... I'll just leave it as weird.

I'm always on the lookout for good narrators ... that's an author and a narrator I've been wanting to try out. Now I'll just have to see where I can get my hands on a copy!

Thank you! I picked this one up!

*eye roll* Jumped. The. Shark.

Happy anniversary! I love the strawberry bouquet idea. How fun. Kevin and I had our anniversary yesterday. Can't believe he's put up with my bossing him around for so long. 🥰 We drank some wine and played board games with the kids.

Amy smiles at Junie. "We can still be friends."

Preach it sister! And I don't ever need to read details of an old man peeing off the side of a boat. Ever. My real life already consists of lots of peeing on car tires or trees or on occasion the toilet seat lid because six-year-old boys wait until it's an emergency situation to go to the bathroom.