Happy New Year! #TheSundayPost

   

The Sunday Post is a blog news 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 your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

Hi! How are you? Happy New Year! I decided to try a new New Years' tradition for 2023. Have you ever heard of this? 

I'm looking forward to a year of peace, joy, and happiness! I plan to do my best to keep up with reading and then writing about my read here. I have a plan for January--so I'm off to a good start. 

If you are off work this upcoming week and are looking for things to watch. I highly recommend the Love, Lizzo documentary on HBOMAX.  

Thanks for visiting my blog! This week I'll be sharing my thoughts on these books: 

Long time no see--and Unf*uck Your Brain review

 Happy New Year's Eve Eve! I'm having a heck of a time trying to type because I'm wearing a wrist brace. Right before Christmas, I fell while running and injured my wrist. On the plus side it's not my writing hand but I definitely need it for typing. I have to keep the brace on until 1/9.

This has really crushed my plan to do lots of blogging while I'm on break from school. I go back to work the same day I have a follow up appt and should most likely get the OK to stop wearing the brace.

How are you? Did you get any new books for Christmas?

Recently I saw that this book was free with my Audible subscription, I downloaded it and listened to it in one afternoon.

This is written and told in a very casual and swear word filled style. Obviously the title of the book is your first clue on that. I didn't find the language off-putting and I found some beneficial information and advice.  Below are my key takeaways-

1.  Anger is a secondary emotion. 

2. Our brains have a story telling mode, which is great but can lead to trouble if you are  reliving a trauma. 

3. Grouding helps if you are having PTSD, anyone can have PTSD and it doesn't always last long term.

4. You don't have to keep going back over traumatic events. You can let it go.

5. Journaling is a very helpful way to work through your trauma.

I appreciated the broad definitely of trauma used by Faith Harper. What is a difficult time for one person  may not be for someone else.

I would recommend this book as a good starting point or a refresher for anyone that feels stuck or is looking to change their behaviors.

4 stars!

#COYER 10 Year Annivesary Challege

 

I can't believe 2013 is 10 years ago but here we are. I found the COYER challenge a couple of years ago. I love the idea of working  on reading books  already own, but I'm not the best at keeping up with posting on the challenge. I appreciate that the COYER Community is pretty forgiving when it comes to consistency.  

My goal this year is to set aside the time to follow through with the challenge. I'm glad for the first season/semester of 2023 we can count any book format because I really want to read some of the physical books on my shelf that are currently collecting dust.

I am also going to take part in a challenge within the challenge for Janaury-- Can you read a series in a month. I am going to make a separate post about that next!

You can find out more about COYER and join me by clicking this sentence. 

How about you? Do you participate in any reading  challenges? 

Happy November! Thanksgiving is Coming and I'm in Holiday Planning Mode #TheSundayPost

   

The Sunday Post is a blog news 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 your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

How was your first week of November?  I feel pretty good about mine. I ordered our Christmas photo cards from Walgreens. I ordered a few heat-and-serve side dishes from Boston Market for our Thanksgiving Feast, it's a family Tradition. I took down the Halloween decorations, left up all the general fall decorations, and added my Thanksgiving decorations. This year I finally got a blow-up turkey for our front yard, something I've been wanting to do for years but the price wasn't right until this year! I also ordered a couple of Thanksgiving-themed Snoopy shirts. Fun for me and fun to wear when I work at the school with kiddos. Plus I canvassed twice for my congressman, and we completed and dropped off our mail-in ballots. 

I also sent my Tastefully Simple recipe newsletter  Here is a link to it if you'd like to check it out click here

What have you been up to? Do you happen to have any fun Christmas-themed reads you can recommend to me? Esp. if I can do an audiobook--

Today I'm finishing Cold Days another book in the Harry Dresden Files and I will have a review on either Monday or Tuesday. Then I'm diving into a Lucy Stone Thanksgiving-themed mystery! 

Harry Dresden Book #12 Changes

 Could this book have been more aptly titled?  Not likely.  What happens in this installment of the Harry Dresen Files, really threw me for a loop. Talk about not expecting it. Oh my goodness I thought I knew a few times where this book was going and I was wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Did I love this book? No, I don't know if I like what happened.  I can't discuss what plot point I didn't really like because it would spoil not just the book but the series from this point on. I definitely enjoyed the book even though I didn't like the direction of Harry. It just goes to show the skill of Jim Butcher's writing.

Good writing= Strong reader feelings. 

As the series continues on, and this book is certainly the turning point, Harry is becoming more and more a part of the Never Never and the fairie realms and I think I miss the good old days when he worked as a consultant for the CPD.

Jim Butcher keeps me reading, I say that for sure.

5 stars for this unpredictable ride. 

#NetGalley Review! The Second Book in The Pies Before Guys Series!

 As someone who enjoys cozy mysteries and all things cozy, I obliviously watch the Great British Bake Off.   I loved that A Good Day To Pie  takes place at the baking competition. What sets this book above other books with a baking or cooking competition is that it is the first time I've read a cozy that uses a reality TV competition vrs a one day baking competition.  Misha Popp's baking competition is like Great British Bake Off  meets the Lifetime TV show Unreal if Agatha Christie was the executive producer.  

Setting the second book in  a cozy series in a different location and introducing almost all new characters AND using swear words is a bold move. This series continues to break some of the classic cozy tropes, but I think it stays true to the genre at its heart. Having the baking competition taking place at a mansion where all the contestants and crew have to stay for the full two weeks of the show's taping is quite a clever closed room mystery.  

The baking scenes are also mouthwatering.  I could really go for a pie, cake or cupcake just thinking about these scenes. 

All in all this was a book I really enjoyed and I give it 5 stars. 

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are mine! #AGOODDAYTOPIE

Happy Halloween (almost) The Sunday Post 10/30

   

The Sunday Post is a blog news 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 your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

A few photos of Halloween's past. I'm still pretty proud of that Olivia pumpkin Anna and I crafted long ago. Did you do anything Halloween-y this weekend? Do you get trick-or-treaters?  We don't get any trick-or-treaters, which I find to be a major bummer. This year youngest child is at college so I can't pester her to carve a pumpkin. Middle kiddo spent the past few weeks making a Halloween costume and he won a contest--so that was exciting.  He was a character from the video game Metal Gear Solid #5 -- Venom Snake. Oldest Child is working at our local Haunted Hayride and this year he is playing an evil doctor!  

Fun to see the kids enjoying Halloween as young adults! Today me, the middle kiddo, and maybe the hubs will be carving pumpkins--mostly because Tom wants me to make roasted pumpkin seeds. They are so good when they are fresh out of the oven! 

Happy Halloween! 

Before Spooky Season Ends Give This a Listen

 On the one hand, I do love the holiday season and for me, it starts November 1st--hey I like to plan stuff so i need to be organizing and planning before Thanksgiving--, and on the other hand, it seems like August was last week.   Checking my calendar reminds me that while I feel like October just started, we are in fact just a few days away from Halloween! 

If you are looking for something to listen to put you in a spooky state of mind, I recommend this audiobook, The Grand Hotel: A Novel by Scott Kenemore. It is included in your Audible Plus subscription and it's a nice spooky anthology that has a comment thread but is made up of many short stories. If you like Aaron Mahnke's 13 Days of Halloween podcast, this audiobook is perfect for you. 

I don't recall if it contains "R" rated material, I think it might be OK to listen to with kids, but definitely check into that yourself before putting it on for the whole car or house to hear! 

4 Stars for a nice anthology filled with ghosts and ghouls and a nice twist at the end!

Finally Not Feeling Sick AND a *Delighful* new Holiday Romance by A Debut Author!

So I started off September with Covid finally catching me. I was so close to getting that next booster when BAM! I was infected. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad. I have had way worse colds and cases of flu.

Unfortunately, shortly after getting over the covid fatigue, I caught a cold--did I mention I'm working at a school with kindergarteners and first graders?  Yep, so you can see how I wound up with a cold. Any who so that turned into a sinus infection.   Yesterday I finished antibiotics and am now feeling much better. The dumb cold was worse than Covid for me. That's why I get vaccinated for all the stuff I can get vaccinated for, I really don't want any flu or more Covid or anything else. 

My reading has been at a snail's pace and watching TV shows and movies has been more my speed.  This week I have managed to start feeling good enough to read!  

Today I am sharing a new book from a debut author, Kelly D. Reynolds.  Kelly is the creator of the romance book reviews podcast Boobies & Noobies. This is her debut book and it is a delightful, hot, full of sexy times holiday novella.  The book is set in LA and takes place from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  One of the things I liked about this book is that it takes place over weeks instead of days. It's light on the angst and heavy on Nora and Bowie falling in love. Kelly does a great job of putting just the right amount of holiday season--we have a Santa pub crawl, a tea room,  a cute dog, and talk of scones as well as a loving description of an actually delicious fruitcake. 

Best of all we have two likable leads who are grown folks who talk about what they need and want in a relationship and a wide open-door romance with toys and more! 

5 Stars!

Add this book to your kindle today --you'll thank me later! 

Harvest Cookies and Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder Thanks NetGalley!

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder is the first book in a new series by Valerie Burns. I was able to read an ARC from NetGalley. The story takes place in a small town in Southwestern Michigan right on the shores of Lake Michigan. This is a charming area of the United States and a good place to set a cozy as there are many cute towns that cater to tourists with picturesque little downtowns and many people visit throughout the year. Tourists are always helpful in cozy mysteries when you don't want to kill off all the townspeople.

The star of this series is Baby the Bull Mastiff. Baby is left to Maddy in Aunt Octavia's will along with Aunt Octavia's "BabyCakes Bakery" and Aunt Octavia's gorgeous lakefront house. Maddy is pretty annoying at the beginning of the book, very self-centered, and materialistic.  She is very smart though and quickly realizes she is at a crossroads, she can continue to live off her father or she can be her own person. I liked her growth in this book. 

I look forward to seeing where things go in book two. There is a setup for more murders and betrayals ahead --and that's putting it mildly!

4 stars

#NetGalley #TwoPartsSugarOnePartMurder

****

Harvest Cookies

I used the Tastefully Simple Ah Sugar! Sugar Cookie mix--just add butter and milk and topped the cookies with candy corn.  Candy Corn is, of course, very controversial--but I will go out on a limb and just let you know I do like Candy Corn in the fall. How about you? 

The cookies came out flat because I used almost melted butter instead of just softened butter.  Live and Learn!