Link to week 28

Howdy! I was born and raised in the south before we headed out to wild and wacky California. But my roots will always remain in Texas where I was born, then Alabama to Georgia during my formative high school and college years. Yes, I was one of those who used to call everybody hon or sweetie or darlin. And dropped the g's on all words ending in ing. I had to work hard to lose the accent once we landed in California, however my southern accent still creeps back in when I'm tired or I hear someone speaking with a drawl. But Y'ALL has stuck with me ever since. And I bet y'all are wondering why I'm telling you this. Why our next 52 Books Bingo category, of course! 🙂 Time to dip our toes into the wonderful world of Southern Fiction. What is Southern Literature? What Makes Southern Literature Unique? Southern Gothic Literature 36 Deep-Fried Delish Southern Books And Writers 12 Southern Novels That Will Knock Your Boots Off Seven Atmospheric Mystery Suspense Novels Set in the South Goodread's Listopia of Best Southern Literature Our letter and word of the week are Y and Yesteryear Link to Book Week 27 Visit 52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini and perpetual challenges.

Hugs.

Yes, I had a tuxedo cat years ago who went a bit nuts with catnip. Imagine hearing a weird sound and turning around to see my cat with his nose to the holes in a ball with catnip inside, snorting as he breathed it all in. Then making a mad dash about the house, rinse, repeat. Reminded me of a character from a movie snorting cocaine off a table. Never again.

Oh! I loved Estep's writing. Will have to get a Sense of Danger. I recently added Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses to my TBR. Speaking of Space Opera's J.S. Dewes Divided Space was excellent as well as S.K. Dunstall's Stars Beyond. I currently have John Scalzi's Old Man's War in my stacks.

Fantasy and paranormal romance is more my style too! what have you been reading?

Finished The Cat and the City. Not my cup of tea. Too crude and not very uplifting. Good premise with cat tying all the tales together but the stories left me depressed

Currently reading The Cat and The City by Nick Bradley. It's odd and intriguing. On my nightstand: Carlos Ruiz Zafon's second book in the Cemetery of Lost books - The Angel's Game. I finished Shadow of the Wind and didn't remember any of it, so like reading for the very first time. Plenty of twists and turns and tales within tales. Rebecca Zanetti's first book in her Deep Op's series - Hidden Brandon Sanderon's third book in the Stormlight Archive - Oathbringer George Eliot's Middlemarch (not making much progress but hope to soon.

Link to week 27

Happy Sunday! July is upon us and our newest crime spree category brought to us by Sandy and Amy is all about American mystery authors. Not all of us want to venture too far from home, and The American authors have plenty to offer as well. From the start of hard-boiled detection starting in the 1930s (Carroll John Daly) to Navajo mysteries (Tony Hillerman) to mystery writers that spanned several generations (Rex Stout). Authors to explore: Dorothy Hughes (1931-1978) Raymond Chandler (1933-1959) Rex Stout (1934-1975) Baynard Kendrick (1937-1961) Sue Grafton (1967-2017) Lawrence Block (1958-present) Robert B. Parker (1974-2010) Tony Hillerman (1970-2006) Challenge: Pour yourself a stiff drink, grab a dame, and spent a weekend contemplating the grittier side of life by reading an American-centric mystery. And our countdown begins as we go backwards through the alphabet with A to Z and Back Again. Our letter and word of the week are Z and Zeugma. Link to Book Week 26 Visit 52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini and perpetual challenges.

During my web wanderings today I came across a fascinating article about The Norwegian library with unreadable books: "Some of the world's most celebrated authors have written manuscripts that won't be published for a century – why?"

I enjoy Brad Meltzer's books as well. The first one I read was The Millionaires and once I started reading it couldn't put it down. I've heard great things about this book. Will have to check it out. Loved this one too. Have you read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Equally hard to put down once start reading. I enjoyed the whole series. Will have to reread soon.

Yes it does. I read 1984 as well as Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and got so much more out of the stories from when was younger. Interesting dinner conversations and how it related to the present.

Continuing to peruse the Ilona Andrews recommendation list and adding more to my virtual tbr pile. Good news is that most of the books are available on Kindle Unlimited. Including the Murderbot series (except for the last book) which makes me quite happy since I wasn't willing to pay $11 for 150 pages. Now I can read the rest of the books. Also added a dark fantasy, Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson, an african/sci fi trilogy Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, and volume one of a fantasy web novel The Wandering Inn. I watched The Giver, based on Lois Lowry's book the other night on Netflix which was excellent. Highly recommend!

I'm about halfway through the comments and have added some new to me authors to my wishlist and kindle unlimited. Thanks!

Welcome back. Glad you have fun!

If you've seen Wanda Vision and No Way Home, I think those will be enough set up for it.

I know. None of The Eternals made sense.

I'm feeling much better. I didn't have to sit with the heating pad today which is good and I'm finally able to sit comfortably while on the computer which is a big plus. I've got my Z's all lined up and went back through the Inspector Chen series, realized I haven't read Don't Cry or Hold Your Breath, so will be reading one or the other or both. I like Laura Griffin and Rebecca Zanetti sounds good. I just downloaded the Kindle unlimited Hidden from her deep ops series.

It was a great Halloween type film and knew going in it had horror elements. I loved it and thought the scene fighting with the musical notes was really creative. The only Marvel movie I haven't liked is The Eternals. Now that one had really horrible acting.

I finished The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections which was interesting and full of an odd collections of characters, but I really didn’t like the lead character until she managed to redeem herself in the end. I’m in the midst of several books. Don’t know why I do that to myself. Brandon Sanderson’s 3rd book in the Stormlight Archive Oathbringer as well as rereading Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s first book in Cemetery of Forgotten books with Shadow of the Wind. Puzzler’s also on the virtual nightstand and I’ll be getting back into Middlemarch soon. And no I haven’t figured out the name of the song yet!

Link to week 26

Happy Sunday! We're half way through the year and Summertime has arrived in our neck of the world, and Wintertime for those on the other side of the world. And I've got nothing. Well, not really. I've got a song crashing through my mind, an unfortunate earworm that I can't identify which will drive me loopy until I figure it out. In the meantime, let's dip into a bit of half time randomness. Once a year I watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi's The Danger of a Single Story and get something different out of it every time. I love her books. I just finished reading The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk so the Ted Talk about The World's Most Mysterious Book fascinated me. And while wondering through Ideas.Ted.Com came across 70 books to make you feel hopeful: A special reading list. You're welcome! While falling down some rabbit hole about 25 Beautiful Literary Maps, it lead me to Kenocartographobia. No, I didn't know what it was either. The fear of Maps. And wouldn't you know it, Goodreads has a list. I just discovered the newest book by A.J. Jacobs, The Puzzler, which I of course, had to get instantly. If you haven't read any of his books, start with The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible) and also check out Jacob's favorite recent reads. And given that our letter of the week is Z, check out books by authors whose last names start with Z. My choice is of course, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. ~Cheers~ Link to Book Week 25 Visit 52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini and perpetual challenges.

Glad to hear you've healed and back to reading! Sorry to hear about the covid brain fog. Hope you feel better soon. I loved The Nightingale and enjoy Kristin Hannah's books. The very first book I read of hers was Night Road back in 2011 and have been reading her stories ever since. I currently have The Secret Keeper plus Magic Hours in my tbr. I got the four book bundle in ebook and look forward to reading it. One thing I discovered is I can't listen to steamy love stories on audible. I get embarrassed even though I'm alone in the car, thinking the people in the car stopped next to me at the stop light will hear so would turn it way down. LOL! Decided rather would read a steamy love scene than listen. Thanks for all the great reviews. I have many of the same books.

I'm having a little cheese with my whine.... LOL!!! 4 1/2 weeks after fracturing rib and it's one step forward, two steps back every few days. My back muscles are so stressed, I'm sitting with heating pad most of the time while I'm at home so reading a lot. I was having a crappy day the other day at work and totally lost my temper with one of my technicians. But it was deserved as I caught him in a lie and now he's going to have to work to gain my trust again. I finished Hidden Salem which was good except they spent too much time on the build up and just a few pages on the climatic part. Also finished two paranormal romances by Jayne Castle and her alter ego Jayne Ann Krentz with Illusion Town (#14 Harmony) and The Vanishing (#1 Fogg Lake) . Started a military romantic suspense drama - DeathWatch by Dana Morton, #1 in her Broslin series, about a woman running and trying to stay one step ahead of an assassin. Picked up the 2nd book in Empire Drowning series - Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart, and another library mystery, Department of Rare Books & Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk the other day. Looking forward to reading both sooner, rather than later.