Weekly Mews: Still Breathing

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.

You would think after spending several hours in Urgent Care and then the ER, I would have managed to get lots of reading done yesterday/today, but no such luck. Although, to be fair, I did not get much reading done last week either due to us all being sick and my muddling through work as best I could. I did end up taking one day off from work because I felt so awful and couldn't manage it. I wish I was one of those types of readers who when sick could spend hours reading, but, alas, that is rarely the case. And in this instance, I have just been so tired, my focus off, and my head hurting so much it has been too challenging. We had to cancel our travel plans to visit my in-laws for this week, sadly. Maybe next year. So, this post will look look a lot like the last one in that my reading status has pretty much stayed the same. I hope you are all well!

Reading Now

I am still reading Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes and Ever After (The Hollows, #11) by Kim Harrison. I am actually enjoying both books--and it's not their fault my reading has taken a dive lately.

What are you reading right now? 

Up Next

My husband and daughter both finished reading the first volume of the manga series, Uncle From Another World by Hotondoshindeiru, and I hope to pick it up soon. 

Thank you to everyone who voted in my July TBR List Poll! I think my daughter was disappointed her pick didn't win, but I assured her I still want to read all three of this month's contenders, even if not right away. I specifically chose books this month that sounded light and funny--being that I need more of that in my life right now. 

The paranormal cozy mystery, Bait and Witch (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries #1) by Angela M. Sanders, came in third place with 8 votes while the rom-com fantasy, Enchanting Sarah Greenberg by Jennifer Inglis, came in second with 11 votes. Cherie Priest's Grave Reservations (The Booking Agents #1) won by 13 votes. I am eager to get started on that one. 

Thank you again for voting! What will you be reading next?

My TBR List is hosted by the awesome Michelle at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

What I Have Been Watching

We are one episode away from the Season 4 finale of Stranger Things. It has been an intense season. I started out watching the show on my own when it first came out, but talked my family into watching (re-watching in my case) the first three seasons with me right before we started season 4 and now they are hooked too. My husband and I have also been making our way through the first season of Poldark (2015 version). I have not read the Winston Graham books the television series is based on and am not sure I will, but we are enjoying this period drama series.

What are you watching? 

My Cats (just because)

Thank you for voting! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Reading!

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© 2022, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Weekly Mews: Hanging In There (Help Me Choose My Next Read--Vote in My July TBR Poll)

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.

I am linking up Stacking the Shelves hosted by Team Tynga's Reviews and Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently. 

Can I have a do-over for 2022? Or maybe a fast forward to a part of the year that will not suck. It has been a very trying time for my family--and for the U.S. for that matter. I admit my reading and blogging has suffered quite a bit as a result. Nothing much is holding my interest for long. I am just taking one day at a time.

Reading Now

I currently am reading Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes as well as Ever After (The Hollows, #11) by Kim Harrison. 

What are you reading right now? 

Up Next

I could use your help in choosing my next read. These three recently caught my eye as I was browsing through my e-reader. Which one do you think I should read next? 

Enchanting Sarah Greenberg by Jennifer Inglis

Food critic Sarah Greenberg is a normal thirty-nine-year-old content with her ordinary life. In fact, the only real excitement she has is the occasional hand she lends at her family's Chicago magic shop.

Until one day when the ordinary becomes extraordinary and a simple introduction to her boyfriend's teenage daughter unearths a family trait long dormant in Sarah.

Without even trying, she can do magic.

Her newfound, though late-blooming abilities make her part of a world she never imaged and her family's long lineage of Magycians unravels Sarah's world. 

But when she discovers her family’s store is danger of being taken away by an old acquaintance named Zondra Bex, Sarah is forced to face an enemy more skilled and decades older than she.

Sarah must learn to develop her skills to protect her family from a foe that wants to wield the power embedded in the store’s location and rule the Magyckal world. But will embracing her newly discovered abilities eradicate everything she believed herself to be?

Part rom-com, part The Dresden Files with a dash of Jewish mythology, Enchanting Sarah Greenberg is a funny, fantastical look into a woman’s struggle to find herself, believe in herself, and prove to everyone that she is extraordinary in her own way. [Goodreads Summary]

Grave Reservations (The Booking Agents #1) by Cherie Priest

A psychic travel agent and a Seattle PD detective solve a murder in this quirky mystery in the vein of Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files and Charlaine Harris’s Aurora Teagarden series.

Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted.

After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack.

Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she’s been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar’s open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected. [Goodreads Summary]

Bait and Witch (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries #1) by Angela M. Sanders

Librarian Josie Way moved to small-town Oregon to lay low. Instead, thanks to newfound magic abilities—and a killer on the loose—she’s leapt out of the frying pan and into a cauldron of trouble . . .

Josie Way loved working among the Library of Congress’s leather-scented stacks—until she uncovered corruption and made herself a target. As Wilfred, Oregon’s new librarian, Josie can stay undercover until the case goes to court. But life in this little town isn’t as subdued as she expected. The library, housed in a a Victorian mansion, is slated to be bulldozed. Still digesting the news that her safe haven is about to become scrap lumber, Josie discovers a body in the woods . . .

Almost as shocking, Josie learns that she’s descended from a long line of witches—and her powers have suddenly sprung to life. With help from a spoiled alley cat who just may be her familiar, Josie’s thumbing through a catalog of suspects, hoping she can conjure a way to save her library—and her life. . . [Goodreads Summary]

Thank you for voting! What will you be reading next?

My TBR List is hosted by the awesome Michelle at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

New to the Shelves

Mouse and I added more books to our bookshelves in June.  Let's take a look!

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

Hicotea (Nightlights #2) by Lorena Alvarez Gomez

Sleepless Domain - Book One: The Price of Magic Vol. 1 by Mary Cagle

Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Mapmakers and the Lost Magic by Cameron Chittock, illustrated by Amanda Castillo 

 The Legend of Brightblade by Ethan M. Aldridge 

 The Dream Book: A Young Person's Guide to Understanding Dreams by Patricia Garfield 

 Girl Giant and the Monkey King (Girl Giant and the Monkey King #1) by Van Hoang

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Falling by T.J. Newman

Trouble with the Cursed (The Hollows, #16) by Kim Harrison

and a fitting quote from her second book in the series, The Good, the Bad and the Undead, 

as a dedication in her latest novel:

What new books made it onto your shelf recently? 

I hope you have a great week and month of July! Let me know what you have been reading!

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© 2022, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Where Is Your Bookmark: Scoundrels and Pirates & Hot Cocoa

A weekly meme where readers share the first sentence of the book they are reading and say what they think. Hosted by the amazing Gillion Dumas of Rose City Reader.

There was no possibility of walking to the library that day. [opening of The Wisteria Lady of Lady Scoundrels]

A weekly meme in which readers share a random sentence or two from page 56 or 56% of the book they are reading. Hosted by the wonderful Freda of Freda's Voice.

"Arithmetic," the captain had scoffed. "What nonsense! I won't allow it. You need to live your life like wild poetry!"

He'd snatched the book, tossed it on the hearth fire, and given her a toy gun instead.

The memory tugged on her as she tried to haul herself out of drugged unconsciousness toward a familiar smell of old dusty wood. [excerpt from 56% of The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels]

I only recently started reading India Holton's The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels and so am not too far in yet. It's silly and fun. It wasn't quite what I was expecting even having read the synopsis. I look forward to reading more. 

A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them. [Goodreads Summary]

Have you read this book? Does it sound like something you would enjoy?

Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

Do you drink tea or coffee while reading? (submitted by Billy of Coffee Addicted Writer)

 

I am not a tea or coffee drinker. More likely than not, you will find me drinking water while I read and occasionally hot cocoa, preferably with whipped cream on top (but marshmallows will do in a pinch). 

What better way to drink hot cocoa than in a bookish themed mug? For Connect Five Friday, I thought I would share 5 mugs that I wouldn't mind adding to my mug collection: 

Connect Five Friday is a weekly meme where readers share a list of five books, 

read or unread, or bookish things, that share a common theme. 

Hosted by the  Kathryn of of Book Date.

What is your preferred drink while reading? 

 I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Be sure and tell me what you are reading and are up to!

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© 2022 Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get to When They First Came Out, but Still Haven’t Read

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana at The Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is the Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get to When They First Came Out, but Still Haven’t Read.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

China Dolls by Lisa See

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Three Souls by Janie Chang

Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy #1) by Ilona Andrews

Station Eleven by Emily St, John Mandel

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? What books were you excited to read when they first came out but still haven't managed to get to? 

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© 2022, Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.