Top Ten Tuesday...

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Ten Signs You Know You're Book Lover.

Fun, huh? You should join in. What signs show that you're a bibliophile? Here are mine:

You know you're a Book Lover if.....

1. Your To-Read list is longer than your To-Do list.

2. Your only card that's "maxed out" is your library card.

3. Your bookshelves 'runneth over'...onto your floor, under your bed, stacked next to your chair...

4. At lunchtime, you care more about the book you're reading than the food you're eating.

5. You talk about your favorite characters like they're close, personal friends.

6. You'd rather buy books than shoes.

7. Your hardest packing decision when going on a trip is not only which books to bring, but how many you can fit in your suitcase.

8. Your decorating style of choice is Bookshelf Chic.

9. You don't have one favorite book (or author), you have many.

10. Sometimes you wish everyone around you would just shut up and let you read in peace.

Happy Reading!

Bookish suspense...

An innocent sleepover takes a horrifying turn when three 12-year-old girls sneak out of the house in the middle of the night in search of a dark and deadly urban legend. The investigation that follows will tear up the small town of Pitch, Iowa. What really happened that night? What part did the three girls play in it? And who is Joseph Withers?


My thoughts:  Before She Was Found by Heather Gudenkauf is a riveting psychological thriller that's hard to put down. It's told in several different voices and styles, which I actually liked. Cora's journal entries from before the sleepover were my favorite and really helped build the suspense. The other two girls, Jordyn and Violet, were seen more through the eyes of their parents and the police. And their online conversations. I really liked how Gudenkauf wove the separate narratives together. It's very compelling the way the bits and pieces of this mystery come together. The ending did feel a bit abrupt, but I'd still give this one 4 stars. I'll definitely be checking out Gudenkauf's other novels. If my library ever reopens.

Happy Reading!

Book Love by Debbie Tung

This is a delightful collection of 'book love' moments. The illustrations are charming, and the captured moments so real they often made me smile and nod my head in agreement. Some even made me laugh...something everyone needs about now. Book Love is a very quick (and very fun!) read. It'd make a great gift for any bookworm. Here are three of my favorite pages:

Happy Reading!

Haiku Reviews...

Aurora Blazing (Consortium Rebellion #2) by Jessie Mihalik

When her brother is kidnapped,

Bianca does whatever's necessary

to find and rescue him.

Space Opera/Adventure .... 381 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(Great sequel to Polaris Rising which was one of my favorite reads last year.)

The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld

Though her sister's been 

missing for years, Naomi refuses to

stop searching for her.

Mystery .... 261 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(I really liked Denfeld's previous novel, The Child Finder, which is also about Naomi and her search for a lost girl.)

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

Eight tattered books. That's all.

But to Dita and the other children

they are life...and freedom.

YA Historical Fiction .... 407 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

(This well-written novel is based on the true story of Auschwitz survivor Dita Kraus.)

Happy Reading!

A 5-Star Thrill Ride...

The Orphan Program was a secret government agency that took orphans and trained them to be covert operatives and assassins. Evan Smoak was 12 when he became Orphan X. He went on his first mission at 19. Ten years later, he managed to escape from the program and disappear. Now he's the Nowhere Man, a well-trained weapon and rumored protector of the innocent and desperate. He lives by the rules he was taught as Orphan X:  one mission at a time, always play offense, master your surroundings, never make it personal, and most important of all, never let an innocent die. But his current case is testing all those rules...and all his survival skills, too. Because the bad guys aren't just gunning for his client. They're gunning for him.

I loved this book! Evan Smoak is like a combination of Jack Reacher, Gabriel Allon, and Jason Bourne, three of my all-time favorite tough guys. He's great. And so smart. I loved watching him outwit his enemies. But my favorite moments were his interactions with the 8-year-old boy who lives downstairs. This book is jam-packed with action and suspense. And it's so well-written. I could not put it down. And I was sad when it ended. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

Happy Reading!

Coronavirus craziness...

So most of you know I like to read apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, especially books involving zombies, natural disasters, EMPs, and even pandemics. But while I like to read about these things, I've never wanted to actually live through one.

But here we are. Right smack dab in the middle of a worldwide pandemic.

I think the worst thing for me is that unsettled feeling that comes with not knowing what will happen next, and the worry I have for my mom who is part of that older and most vulnerable population. If I get sick I'll be fine; if she does....  Watching the news doesn't help. Neither does the fact that normal life as been so disrupted. Public schools, libraries, and other places closed. Church and other events cancelled. Panic buying at the grocery stores. It's all so crazy!

I have to keep reminding myself that even though it might feel like the end of the world, it really isn't. Things might be hard, but we've lived through hard things before. And nothing bad lasts forever. This pandemic will come to an end. Life will go back to normal. Until then, I just have to keep breathing... and believing. And I have to cling to those things that make life worthwhile:  my family, my faith, love, laughter, good friends, hope, prayer, and those shining moments of happiness that come even in the midst of all the darkness.

Hang in there everyone! 

Stay well. Stay calm.

And never stop looking for the positive things in life.

Especially now.

P.S. Woke up to a 5.7 earthquake this morning. Fun times! Thankfully, there was no damage where I live and my family is all doing fine. I wonder what fun thing will happen next. 

Top Ten Tuesday...

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is an easy one: My Spring 2020 TBR list.

I have a lot of favorite authors with new books coming out this spring, so their books are the ones I chose for my list. I can't wait to read them all!

Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

The Last Odyssey by James Rollins

A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber

Who Speaks For the Damned by C.S. Harris

Murder on Pleasant Avenue by Victoria Thompson

The Goodbye Man by Jeffery Deaver

Chaos Reigning by Jessie Mihalik

The Secrets of Bones by Kylie Logan

Happy Reading!

A bookish gem...

"Because it's complicated explaining why you love a book. And I can't always do it. There are books that when I've read them I feel ... well ... something stirs inside me."

The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Feret-Fleury is one of those unexpectedly and delightfully charming books that don't sound like much at first, but are actually quite enchanting. The story centers around Juliette, a young woman who loves books but who is disenchanted with her job and the dull routine of her life. Though she does like making up stories about the people she sees riding on the Metro every morning. Then, one day, she stumbles upon a cramped and dusty bookshop in an out-of-the-way Paris street and everything changes for Juliette. The owner asks her to pass along some of his books to strangers that she meets. And unexpected things happen...in their lives, and in hers. That's the magic of books. They can change lives. And that's what I liked about this gem of a novel. The Girl Who Reads on the Metro is a bookish fairy tale with it's own quirky, happy ending.

"If she had learned one thing, it was this:  with books, there were always surprises."

Another favorite quote:

"...Juliette was sitting cross-legged, the books arranged in a fan around her. Seventeen books. She'd counted them. Held them, sized them up, flicked through them. She'd inhaled the smell of their folds, peeked at the odd sentence, words as appetizing as sweets, or sharp as blades.... So many words. So many stories, characters, landscapes, laughter, tears, sudden decisions, hopes, and fears. But for whom?"

Happy Reading!

And the spam goes on....

I love getting comments on my blog.....EXCEPT when they're those obnoxious spam comments that I have to delete. But these made me laugh. So I thought I'd share them:

• Hi, its fastidious piece of writing on the topic of media print, we all understand media is a great source of facts.  (It is?)
• I am looking for a mont blanc replica pen.  (Good luck with that.)
• I'm now not positive the place you are getting your info, but good topic. I must spend some time learning more or working out more.
• He says the quantity of curiosity signifies that the group should be capable to coordinate bringing extra towers up on the first sealift shipment of the summer for people to garden in their own homes.  (Now I'm curious!)
• Birthdays are all the time special to an individual.  (So true!)

Happy Reading!

March's bookish art...

Pablo Picasso -- Head of a Woman Reading

"Books give me an escape from reality,

even if it's only for a few minutes."

Innocence by Sean Danker

"...if my life was a building, the very foundations were made of reinforced irony."

The Admiral is back! And once again he's in trouble. This time he's locked up in "the most brutal penitentiary in regulated space". What happens there is also aired as real-time entertainment for those outside. No one ever escapes. But the Admiral has a plan.

"The key to winning is never to play anyone else's game.  Always make sure they're playing yours, and by your rules. The house always wins."

While this book is #4 in the Evagardian series, it actually follows book #2, Free Space in the timeline. (The third book in the series, The Glory of the Empress, follows different characters and is set before book #1, The Admiral.) Besides the suspense of the Admiral's current situation, this book also gives a glimpse into his past and how he became what he is. Though there's still a lot about him that remains a mystery.

"I haven't always made the best decisions, and there's an argument to be made that I might not be the nicest person. But I don't lose."

I love this character so much! I wish there were many more books about him because I would read them all. But I guess I'll take what I can get. Here's another favorite quote from this book:

"When things like elegance and logic are just broken pieces on the floor, there's still nerve. Aggression could never fill in all the gaps, but a little audacity could go a long way." 

Happy Reading!

(I know this series certainly made me happy.)

Just for laughs...

John Atkinson's take on life always makes me laugh. 

Here's another one of his cartoons that had me grinning:

Have an awesome day!

Haiku Reviews...

Tracking Game (Timber Creek K-9 Mystery #5) by Margaret Mizushima

Mattie and Robo

must track a wild predator...

and a murderer!

Mystery .... 280 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.   (I love this series!)

Unfed (Undead#2) by Kirsty McKay

Bobby must escape

Xanthro, fight zombies, and find

Smitty and her mom.

(All while not getting bitten!)

YA Adventure/Survival .... 278 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

(A fun sequel to Undead.)

The Beantown Girls by Jane Healey

Three friends from Boston

head to Europe as Red Cross

Clubmobile girls.

Historical fiction/WWII .... 347 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver

When a video game

is played for real, Colter Shaw

must track down a killer.

Mystery/Suspense .... 399 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(I can't wait to read the next book in this new series!)

Happy Reading!