It's Been Too Long! #TheSundayPost #MidSeptember!

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.  See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Hi Everyone! Long time no post!  I'm so happy to be writing this week!  I'm very glad we are on the cusp of fall. This summer for me was hot, long, and tiring.  I used to love summer but these last few have been, ah, less than ideal.  So onward to the beauty and crisp temperatures of fall. 

It is now less than a month until the Chicago Marathon!  As I have said before, I have been raising funds for Imerman Angels, a wonderful group that provides peer support to anyone diagnosed with cancer.  Now we are getting so close to the marathon!  Eeek!  This is the part where I start getting nervous about the big day! 

Have you watched any good shows lately?  I cannot rate Only Murders in The Building on Hulu high enough.  It's a true delight! If you enjoy murder mysteries, true crime podcasts, or cozy mysteries. You've got to watch this show! 

This week I'll be reviewing the following books: 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are having a wonderful September so far!

Happy Friday! My Review is Featured on Books of My Heart!

 

I am excited to share that my review of the latest installment in Books of My Heart's annual Read-Along is up!  Check it out here!

The book really started slow for me, but by the end...Wow!  So much is happening! 

This week my gig as oldest child's ride back and forth to college resumed, so I'm adjusting my schedule to a few driving days each week.  He's a senior so this will be my last year of driving him around!  He doesn't have a driver's license and has no interest in driving. Maybe that will change in the future? Who knows! Once he is done with school, he'll be looking for a job that he can take public transportation to and from, luckily we live in an area with that option. 

At the moment, I am about halfway through reading an ARC of :

 It's fun to see how Carrie has become the go-to town mystery solver. She is the Jessica Fletcher of Clover Ridge! 

#TheSundayPost TBH, I've think I've had enough humidity for one year.

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.  See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

On the whole, this was a good week, I read two books and I was able to get my runs in on schedule.  I even got my new running shoes (on clearance!) My footwear for the marathon is decided!

 I also wrote an outline for the youtube meal prep I'm doing on Wednesday night. Today I realized that I need to have gloves so I can keep my hands clean while prepping or the video is going to have too many times where I stop to wash my hands.  

 So I have a pack of gloves I can use. I also decided that I'm going to have one of the meals finished so I can do the prep and then, a moment later, reveal the finished dish! 

This weekend I'm writing a review that will be the highlighted review for Anne's Read-along over at Books Are My Heart   

Next week I'll also be posting a review of a #NetGalley ARC for a cozy series I love! The Haunted Library Mystery series is so fun! 

How was your week?  Did you do anything fun?  Read any good books lately? 

While Justice Sleeps! A thriller by Stacey Abrams

 

A rarity in my bookcase, a hardback version of a book. I received this book from my dad for my birthday. A great choice on his part as it was on my TBR list and my library hold list.  While Justice Sleeps is a thriller about a cover-up that goes all the way to the President.   Our main character is  Avery, a Supreme Court Justice Clerk. Avery is not just book smart, but street smart, she is passionate and she is able to keep working on a problem until she is able to solve it with not just a good outcome, but the best possible outcome.

The book contains many details about how the court system works, a fair amount of discussion on genetic research, and some new vocabulary words for me. I enjoyed that this book required more attention and taught me about things I didn't already know. It's a challenging ride, which I appreciated! I also appreciated that Avery isn't beat up or attacked physically over and over in the book. She outsmarts not outfights. 

I thought the ending left things open enough that there could be a series staring Avery--if Stacey Abrams has time to write it! 

All in all a quality thriller 4.25 stars from me! 

Week 3,4 and now 5: Thursday #BCSM Post: Notes on taking Lynparza aka Olaparib

 

My mom gave me this mug when we visited a couple of weeks ago. Being agnostic, it didn't hit me on a spiritual level, but I really enjoy the quote from proverbs. I might like the bible more if we chucked everything outside the beatitudes and proverbs. Oh and the part where Jesus tells rich people they suck! 

Exciting news I'm on my second bottle of this drug!  One bottle (ie one month) down 11 to go. Taking this drug as prevention against a possible recurrence has given me a deeper respect for those who are living with metastatic cancer who take this drug until it stops working. It's not easy and there have been about three days each week where I want to just stop taking it. However, I remind myself of that old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Plus there is no cure for metastatic breast cancer.

Side effectwise, I had too many days of fatigue and nausea and that lead to me not posting for a couple of weeks. This week I am hoping I have turned a corner, the fatigue has been greatly reduced.  The nausea is much less frequent. I tell you what, if I had to pay for this drug out of pocket, boy I don't think I could do it, it's not pleasant to take, it would be hard to justify if the cost was say $100 or more a month. 

Fingers and toes crossed that my tolerance of the drug continues! 

Some October in August! #MrsClausandtheHalloweenHomicide #NetGalley

Having enjoyed Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings, I was excited to request an ARC of the second book in the series from NetGalley.  I know it's only mid-August, but I'm ready to start getting excited for spooky season.  

Liz Ireland does a nice job of expanding the Mrs. Claus Universe I enjoyed learning about snow monsters as part of the newfound Halloween traditions of the town.  I love how April had embraced her sleuthing tendencies and is building lasting relationships in her adopted home. 

Unlike most cozy mysteries, there is no body in the first chapter.  In this story there is a different inciting incident and then you read on with bated breath wondering is someone about to get it?  Who is going to be the victim?  The only thing I would like to see in the book would be to have Nick be a more in-depth character. I feel he is not as fleshed out as his mother, sister, or sister-in-law, or even as much as elfman Jingles.

This seasonal cozy has a great mystery and is chock-full of the Halloween spirit. 4 stars!  Or should I  say 4 🎃🎃🎃🎃!!!

 Definitely add this to your fall reading list! 

 

#TheSundayPost #I'mBack!

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.  See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Talk about making plans-ha!  We went on our vacation and I think I read about 5 pages. The husband was not feeling well, vertigo, nausea, headaches--daughter was not feeling well. My medication usually means I'm not up to par...I did most of the driving.  Husband and Daughter felt better when we got past the mountains on the way home. I think it was a case of altitude and maybe mold or other allergies.  It wasn't Covid, so I guess that is something since where we vacationed has a low vaccine rate, and only about 1 in 10 people we saw were wearing masks indoors. While we are all vaccinated, we wore masks when indoors in public places due to the spread of the Delta Variant. 

The house we rented was as nice as the pictures, to be honest, I felt like I did as much cooking and cleaning as if we were home.  My new goal is to vacation at an all-inclusive! The main purpose of this trip was to see my parents so that we were able to do and that's what counts. It had been years! 

We also got to see my brother from Canada and it had been four years since we had gotten to see him. One of our kids stayed home because he couldn't get off work, which was a bummer, he was missed!  My other brother and his family came down with Covid right after we arrived, so we did not see them at all. They are not vaccinated.  

It is a real disappointment to have done everything we can to not catch or spread Covid only to see far too many people choose not to do what they can do to stop the virus from infecting other people. If I had to describe our trip in a phrase, I would call it emotionally taxing. 

Since we got home, I've been noticeably fatigued--stupid medicine.  I hope I will figure out how to manage the fatigue--ie. how to feed myself more energy and how to manage my life so I'm not overpromising and underdelivering.  An example of that is I was going to have a garage sale this week, but by the time we were headed home last Sunday I knew I was not going to pull it off! 

What I can manage to do this week is share my thoughts on these three books--

Thanks for reading my blog.  Typing things out helped me feel better!  How was your week? 

Second Book in a Witchy Cozy! #TwoWickedDesserts #NetGalley

 Two Wicked Desserts is the second book in Lynn Cahoon's Kitchen Witch Mystery series. I would say that this is a paranormal lite cozy.  I think if you are not interested in a cozy that really leans into the magic, you will probably enjoy this series as while there is some magic, the amateur sleuth still solves the murder using traditional questioning and observations.

I like Mia our main character, she is steadfast and remains calm even when bad people are after her.  There is a nice slow romance with Trent, who is a grocery store owner and not in law enforcement, which is nice.  Instead we have a competent sherrif in Mark Baldwin and Mark and Mia have an entertaining bit of bickering throughout the book. 

The food and catering talk in the book is mouth-watering and the pets and Mia's grandma give the story just right amount of magic.  This second book is a nice continuation of the first and I look forward to what happens next!

4.5 Stars for Two Wicked Desserts

***

Now that it is August is it time to start reading books about Autumn? What do you think?  I think anytime after my birthday (which is in August) is a fine time to start dreaming of the fall. 

#TheSundayPost! Bye July! Hello Air Fryer August!

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.  See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Hi, Hi! I'm starting to feel much more like myself, I think it is the ton of water I am drinking and the adherence to small meals.  I am happy to report that even with the new medication, I managed to run 11 miles today! Thank goodness the weather was less humid, that helped so much.  I am hoping this month I will be up to speed with my reading.  We are going on vacation and I am thinking I should take like 5 books, just in case the WiFi is dicey, plus it's a long drive. 

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I decided to start selling Tastefully Simple again; and since my favorite part of that is talking about making meals, so starting in August I'm going to do Zoom meal preps.  I'm looking forward to figuring out how to my own little cooking shows. This month I'm starting with meal prep with our Air Fryer 5-meal kit! We have a recipe for Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower I'm going to try!

How was your week?  We enjoyed watching Outer Banks Season 2 on Netflix. It's a great little escape. 

Books I'll be posting about this week:

And hopefully at least one more book TBD! 

Happy August!

Fanciful, Magical Cozy Hits The Spot! The Ghost Camper's Tall Tales by Elizabeth Pantley

 This is the third book in Elizabeth Pantley's Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic series. I enjoy the whimsy of this series and the real coziness of the magic.  Houses and gardens changing daily to suit the needs of their occupants--how cozy! 

I was having a rough week and this book was a perfect escape for me.  On one hand, you have the ongoing mystery of Hayden's missing mother, and a new murder in Destiny Falls and on the other hand you have the magical mansion and grounds of the Caldwell Family ---plus a witch, ghosts and telepathic cats. This is a book to read and forget all your worries. 

The book is out on Monday 8/2 via Amazon. Treat yourself to a fun tale, that could be even more fun read around a campfire! 

The twist with the solo ticket to Gladstone at the end was so sweet.  

4 Stars!  Whimsy at it's best!