So sorry I’m late! Today was pairing day for Broke & Bookish Secret Santa, which means I was deep in my email sending out matches instead of writing my TTT post! Today’s topic was submitted by Lydia Schoch, and is: Book Characters I Wish Were Real People. Feel free to tell us why! Would you date them, be friends with them, adopt them, etc.?
I will do my best to come back with a list later, but I’m going to bed now! Can’t wait to read your posts this week!
Welcome to another TTT! And happy November! Today’s topic is a throwback to 2022 that everyone seemed to have a lot of fun with: One-Word Reviews for the Last Ten Books I Read. I’ve been reading a lot of Gothic novellas recently for my spooky season reading, so that’s the bulk of what you’ll be seeing here (my list goes backwards from most recent to least). I’m excited to see what words you all come up with to describe your recent reads!
1. Harrowing Hall by Sky Purington
Spoopy.
(Spoopy means that something is scary in a cute or silly way, so it’s not actually scary. It’s more of the cozy side of Halloween, rather than the creepy one!)
2. Where the Wolf Howls by Mia Pride
Cheesy.
3. Highland Ghost by Elizabeth Rose
MELODRAMATIC.
4. The Haunting of Rose Abbey by Kathleen Ayers
Atmospheric.
5. The Secrets of a Moonlit Night by Elisa Braden
Chilling.
6. Forbidden to Fall by Martha Keyes
Disappointing.
7. Til Quest Do Us Part by Ivelisse Housman
Uneventful.
8. A Married Little Christmas by Abby Jimenez
Wonderful!!!
9. The Bodyguard’s Fall by Cindy Steel
Implausible.
10. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder by Ally Carter
Intriguing.
Kind of a mixed bag of words, huh? Can you tell which ones I liked?
Do you find it tricky to sum up your feelings about a book in one word?
Welcome to another TTT! Halloween is this Saturday, so today’s topic is a Halloween Freebie! Pick any Halloween-themed topic your heat desires. I love aspects of Halloween, including atmospheric reads, candy, pumpkins, black cats, and cute kids in costumes. Super scary is not for me, so I’ve chosen to share my favorite Halloween books from when I was a kid!
1. Popcorn by Frank Asch
2. Trick or Treat, Little Critter by Gina Mayer and Mercer Mayer
3. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
4. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz and Kara McMahon (Adapter)
5. The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain
6. Clifford’s Halloween by Norman Bridwell
7. Franklin’s Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois
8. Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
9. Clifford’s First Halloween by Norman Bridwell (I really loved Clifford!)
10. Sherlock Chick and the Case of the Night Noises by Robert M. Quackenbush (This is not Halloween-themed, but it was spooky for little Jana!)
Did anyone else grow up in the late 80’s and the 90’s like I did, and read any of these? It was so much fun strolling down memory lane and coming up with this list today.
I hope you have a safe and happy Halloween this weekend!
Welcome to another TTT! Every once in a while I enjoy putting a topic on the schedule that focuses on the person rather than the books. I love fostering community and friendships in the online bookish world, and today is one of those days! Today’s topic is Top Ten Things That Make Up My Perfect Day. Share the people, places, activities, foods, circumstances, etc. that make a day perfect for you. Go into as much or as little detail as possible!
I can think of many perfect days, but I think the one that warms my heart the most is during my favorite time of year with my mom!
1. It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving and all my chronic health conditions and pain is under control. I feel good!
2. The house has been well and truly decked out for Christmas, and everything is twinkling and glowing and festive. The mess of all the decoration storage boxes is already packed away.
3. The carols of Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Burl Ives, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, and Tony Bennett are playing in the background.
4. It’s snowing outside and everything is blanketed in snow.
5. My mom and I spent the morning cozied up with our laptops shopping the last of the Thanksgiving weekend sales and chatting (while eating leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast, of course).
6. After the shopping is done, we spend the afternoon baking Christmas cookies and other treats.
7. We DoorDash Olive Garden for dinner. Hello, chicken alfredo (sub out the grilled chicken for crispy chicken) and breadsticks (with more alfredo sauce for dipping, naturally)!
8. We head out to drive through the most amazing Christmas lights display. It’s seriously magical, and all the snow has made everything even more bright and glowy.
9. Then it’s home, jammies, and a Hallmark Christmas movie while we munch on the cookies and rice krispie treats we made earlier.
10. I climb into bed with my cats and a Christmas-themed romance novel and read by the light of my little Christmas tree until I can no longer keep my eyes open and fall asleep all warm and cozy.
What does your perfect day look like?
Are you surprised I chose a Christmas perfect day? Probably not. lol.
NOTE: In other news, the InLinkz saga continues. They have migrated my subscription to their new website, which is more secure and actually supported so it won’t malfunction anymore. It also means the linky will be a little different moving forward. The biggest difference is that your link will have a little icon image to go with it. When you paste the link to your TTT post into the form, InLinkz will populate the form with a few images from your blog that you can choose from. You will also be able upload your own image if you’d prefer (like maybe your blog’s logo–the size of the icon will be roughly 100×100 pixels). Unfortunately, I can’t have a linky with no images so if you don’t want to use an image at all feel free to upload a colored square. Just Google Image “colored square” and pick something pretty so the list looks nice! lol. The cover of your favorite book works as well! Or a photo of your pet! I love animals. I’ll start using this new linky next week and if we all hate it, it’s back to the drawing board!
Welcome to another TTT! Thanks so much for all your well wishes last week. I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to respond to comments yet. I am still really sick. I went to urgent care on Saturday and was diagnosed with severe pneumonia. I’m on antibiotics and steroids for my pitiful little lungs and am feeling better, but not back to normal yet. I saw my regular doctor today and my oxygen saturation has risen a little and my lungs are sounding better, so I’m on the right track. It’s just going to take more time. I am, however, feeling well enough to write up my list for this week’s topic, which is Book Covers Featuring Autumnal Colors and was submitted by Wordy Witterings.
I did autumn-themed books for my Fall freebie topic a couple weeks ago, and all of those covers had autumnal colors on them. I clearly didn’t think through my schedule when I decided on that topic for my freebie pick. lol. There are some fall reads left on my to-read list that were not featured in my previous post, so I’ve included those this week. As for my other picks, I looked for covers that are predominately mustard yellow, brown, olive green, burgundy, and/or orange even though the books themselves may not necessarily fall themed.
In other news, I believe I’ve figured out my linky issue. It turns out I was using an old version of InLinkz that hasn’t been supported since 2019. Why nobody there told me, I’ll never know. They are in the process of transferring my account to their new system and are letting me keep my legacy subscription pricing so YAY! Once that’s done, things should be back to normal and we won’t have to worry about things malfunctioning anymore.
Anyway, that so many words. Here’s my list!
Feels Like Home by Courtney Walsh
Love & Shooting Stars by Lindsay Rochester
You Had Me at Pumpkin Patch by Anita Faulkner
Pumpkin Spice and Not So Nice by Becky Monson
Just Between Us by Madison Wright
Pumpkin Patch Proposal by Susanne Ash
Rootbound by Tarah DeWitt
Always Be My Pumpkin by Linda McEvoy
Autumn Kissed by Deborah M. Hathaway
Twig’s Traveling Tomes by Gryffin Murphy
What’s your favorite color?
Have you read or plan to read any of these books?