My recent (unsupervised) (late night) eBay purchases finally arrived!

I recently discovered the Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast and the second episode covers Wilkins‘ Tooth & The Ogre Downstairs… I had Ogre on my bookshelf but Wilkins‘ Tooth proved harder to locate as there is no ebook and the library didn‘t have it (hence eBay) (and well, they referred to Reflections in the 1st ep. so I thought I might as well). Excited to get reading!

A delight, as expected.

While I‘m often reluctant to read anything with a romantasy label attached - I ended up really enjoying this.

It‘s got a very modern vibe in an otherwise fantastical, somewhat historical European setting. I loved how enterprising both sisters were & how they came to reconcile their history to their present circumstances & I do love an unconventional happy ending.

I‘m quite tempted to find myself a copy of Angela Carter‘s The Bloody Chamber…

I really should have stopped reading this when Manny kept snapping his fingers at Wyoming as a way of cat calling.

For reasons I don‘t fully understand, I finished this. And I hated it, in all its misogynist, libertarian, all talk almost no action glory.

And it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1967?!

😍

Just two best friends hanging out… and eating tacos. Aspirational, really.

The Mood Reader River took the book I was reading out of my hands and gave me this one instead and I loved it! Listened to the first episode of the Eight Days of DWJ podcast as well and delighted in the extra insights.

#12booksfor2025

and we‘ve made it through to the end!

I was complaining to a colleague that I didn‘t feel like any of my audiobooks and instead of telling me to 🤫 she threw some recommendations at me - and this was the result!

Unclear if I need to be concerned about how relatable I found Marisa - like, is it relatable to the millennial experience ™️ or do I need to reflect more on how I coped with 2025? It‘s probably fine 🚍

I‘ve just discovered that this podcast exists!! Each “season” contains 8 episodes and covers a decade of DWJ‘s books. They seem to be chronological.

The podcaster co-hosts are both authors themselves (Emily Tesh & Rebecca Fraimow) and big fans of DWJ. I‘m going to take this as my sign to get back into reading her books.

I‘ve never really bothered with podcasts, but this one seems like it couldn‘t be more for me, if it tried.

#12booksof2025

And here we are in December! I had two 5 star reads in December and since it‘s my birthday month, I‘m going to post both 😝

The Everlasting was the rare book as birthday present and I adored it! Alix E Harrow crafts such beautiful stories. A delight!

#12booksof2025

November saw me finish Hazelthorn and there‘s just something about botanical horror!

Love seeing CG Drews career really start to take off - I‘ve followed them on IG for such a long time (well before they started on the road to publication) that they feel like an old friend! Excited for their next release.

#12booksfor2025

In October, I finally read a very popular book - I tend to avoid super hyped books but the casting announcement for the movie struck me as quite funny and I decided for full enjoyment, I needed to have read it. And I had such a good time!

I‘m now slowly making my way through Ali Hazelwood‘s backlist.

#12booksof2025

In September we supported women‘s rights AND wrongs. And wow, did Winifred lean into the wrongs.
And personally, I loved that for her.

#12booksof2025 : August

Everytime I read urban fantasy I wonder why I spend time in any other genre 🤩 I made good progress with Mercy & Co in 2025 - to the point where my series finishing avoidance is kicking in BUT this was a delightful entry - we got Adam‘s POV for the first time and just the way past storylines were built on, just some great character development.

#12booksof2025

July came with the option of buddy reading this horror mystery tale and I‘m so glad I took it up.

I love it when a book keeps me guessing and Uketsu had me bamboozled and I loved every minute of it!

#12booksof2025

Halfway through the year & my favourite book of June was a stunning West African inspired fantasy novel - which admittedly hooked me with a comparison to Howl‘s Moving Castle & an absolutely stunning cover BUT the story itself is absolutely glorious and I look forward to reading more by the author.

#12booksof2025

May bought me this book and I really needed it, life had derailed in ways I didn‘t see coming and I definitely processed some big feelings while I was listening to this on my walk to and from work.

It‘s one that‘s on my reread pile.

#12booksof2025

The Animorphs series in general has been a highlight for me this year - originally published in 1997, Little Me was too busy reading Baby Sitters Club books to even give these a second look 🤣 and I really missed out! Better late than never!

The storylines are often bonkers and the themes are BIG and often heavy but there‘s always some banter and great friends to soften the blow…

#12booksof2025

My favourite book from March was this debut fairytale from Australian author, Kell Woods. It‘s a blend of many tales but the central character is Greta and follows what happens to her, post gingerbread cottage.

#12booksof2025

My favourite read for February had Practical Magic vibes (sisters with unusual abilities) but YA and set in a small Appalachian town with a Winged Moth Man haunting the hollow and causing all sorts of problems and dragging many secrets (some years old) to the surface.

#12booksof2025

My favourite January read was this gothic fever dream of a novel (and I mean, it‘s also a contender for best cover 😍) this had me in a chokehold the entire time - from finding it at the library to reading the last page.

I love when the internet comes together to be obsessed with something.

(Art by Gabrielle Drolet, found via Instagram)

I got a little distracted by watching the new Taskmaster Champion of Champions episode - because some true icons were competing - I made myself a cup of tea and devoured the chocolate ⭐️

Thank you to my Santa @MrsMalaprop - everything is beautiful and I look forward to reading both books.

The Amber Owl & The Incandescent have both been looking forlornly at me all throughout the year, so now that I have them at home…

#aussiesecretsanta

Ok well, it took me a minute to remember where I stashed this (I yeeted it right to the back of bottom shelf of my pantry. Totally normal spot) AND now it‘s opening time!

Merry Christmas Eve to my fellow #AussieSecretSanta‘s

I read this book so slowly because I was so sure that it was going to hurt my feelings… and it did BUT it was worth it. All the threads of this story get woven in so beautifully, right down to the last overdue library book.

I got this book for my birthday and was lucky enough to buddy read it - and hating on Vivian Rolfe together was such a beautiful experience - as Vivian is one of the best written villains, I have ever read.

⬇️

Well WELL well

(Colour me unsurprised)

I almost returned this unread, as I could see there was quite a few people waiting on it - but happily, I pushed play - and ended up discovering one of my favourite books of the year.

Marisa is someone I found, somewhat uncomfortably, relatable. Her life looks good on paper but the reality doesn‘t quite match up. I empathised and laughed out loud on several occasions (especially the part with the out of office emails).

Now that I‘ve had my birthday - I can concentrate on Christmas…

We are a week out from #aussiesecretsanta opening day - so this is my last check in. I‘m hoping everything is either in transit or received…

Unrelated but I love this statue, and I couldn‘t resist taking a photo when I saw the Santa hat when I wandered past it on Wednesday.

Didn‘t land as well for me as the first book - but I still find the basic premise of astrology and cats offering to read your natal chart and give you life advice quite appealing 🤭 (it also kind of made me want to listen to Aquarius by Aqua and Aquarius/Let the sunshine in by The Fifth Dimension)

Birthday adventures!!!

I‘ve been looking forward to this exhibition ever since I found out about it - and it did not disappoint! I love planning a little birthday travel adventure - and was able to convince my Mum to come with me (she‘s the OG Ken Done lover in the family so it was only fitting!) - Sunshine Coast not having daylight savings confused us so bad 🤣 the sun set just after 6pm and we were like, what has happened?! lol

Prison Break : Penric will try basically anything to put a ring on Nikys‘s finger edition.

Putting Penric in situations is always a good time (and this was no exception as those situations just kept on coming)

A Christmas time reread - even though I remembered how the puzzle pieces went together, I really enjoyed revisiting.

Hey #AussieSecretSanta‘s I‘ve been a bit lax with checking in - my Nana passed out in the heat last week and ended up fracturing some neck vertebrae, things were pretty scary for a hot minute but have started to improve (although a neck brace for summer was not on her Christmas wish list) however my brain is still 🫠 (2025 has been traumatic)

How we all doing? Parcels starting to arrive? Mine arrived today and it does look super tempting 👀

If you take the library staff out of the library… the results is not going to be good.

If you are in Melbourne, there is a rally next weekend. If you are concerned about the general direction of this decision, there is a petition campaign being run by CPSU Victoria ⬇️

https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/hands-off-our-state-library?

This is an odd sort of book - from it‘s no frills cover to the transcript style that it‘s presented in.

I‘m not a true crime reader generally so I don‘t really have anything to compare this to. I think it‘s a bit lacking because it was initially conceived as a podcast and it has instead ended up as a book - but I found the discussion interesting as all the authors bring quite a lot of experience to the telling.

This book was a fascinating character study about someone who feels invisible in the world latching on to the life of a complete stranger and trying unsuccessfully and with mixed results to befriend them. Obviously it starts on shaky ground, and boy do things slowly but surely escalate.

Short, quirky and ultimately pretty unsettling.

That feeling when you wrap the presents, can‘t find the Christmas cards and then entirely forget to pick them up when you leave for work in the morning 🫣 (they were in a bag near the front door and everything)

#AussieSecretSanta - hopefully this will be coming to a post office tomorrow! And I know a couple are already in transit! Love that!

It‘s finally time to break this beauty out!

Day 1 was a book mail rubber postage stamp 😍 I‘m taking that to work with me (because that‘s my nearest stamp pad)

Thanks @LapReader - this was part of my #aussiesecretsanta gift from you ❤️

What is a power surge that knocks phones and internet out on a workday if not an opportunity to knock off early and go shopping?!

I took the opportunity to pop into my local indie bookstore and choose the books for my #aussiesecretsanta! And well, there was a shoe shop with a 25% sale on right next door 👀

Then a little salad haul from the green grocer and I‘m strolling home, happy that I‘m not navigating peak hour traffic!

I was super pumped to get a (digital) ARC for this and then promptly fell down into the depths of the dreaded reading slump and barely read anything for a month. This book helped me claw my way out of it.

I adored this, I love how CG puts sentences together,
I love gothic, I love botanical horror, I love reading the same book as my friend and texting unhinged theories… all in all just a good time!

I needed the shelf trophy, obviously 🤣

Today in libraryland, a kid felt compelled to infodump some “fun” facts from a history book that included that the hammer & sickle are a symbol known around the world AND that a picture of WW2 soldiers hanging out of train windows for last hugs was “weird and unsafe behaviour” at a loss for what to say, my reply was… well war isn‘t exactly safe either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ & then friends, I bailed (the Christmas fiction display wasn‘t going to refill itself)

My Ariana Grande obsessed sister has been disappointed with me for at least a year because I didn‘t see Wicked in cinema… I said I‘d wait for the second one to come out… which is how I‘ve found myself at a double feature 🤭 who wants to go to bed early on a Sunday? Leaving the cinema at midnight is way more fun!

There‘s insta love and there‘s whatever the heck happened in this book. It‘s not a bad read, it‘s just needed to be a novel to allow for character development and depth because otherwise it‘s very Girl, WHAT are you doing?

👀

It was all pretty cute and less chaotic than I expected! The cake looked amazing but you could tell which guests it was for once it started to get cut up.

It was Teddy Bears Picnjc themed which is why the birthday girl is wearing a lovely gingham bow and Teddy bear ears.

It‘s stormy weather today and instead of getting cozy and settling down with a book, I‘m off to a teddy bears picnic themed birthday party for my neighbours dog…

The millennials dilemma : do I spend my evening listening to West End Girl or The Princess Knight (which takes its inspiration from Legally Blonde)

A hauntingly claustrophobic read with an unreliable protagonist who has been living alone in a secluded area after a pandemic sweeps the nation, causing eye contact to drive people to into mindless homicidal rages. And then one day, Riley meets a man in the woods - a new neighbour - and things start to unravel or maybe the unraveling simply speeds up?

This was a short and snappy read because one just simply needed to know what was happening!!

Matches have been sent out #AussieSecretSanta‘s - please let me know if something doesn‘t look right or if nothing has come through.

The answer to the chocolate question appears in a bolder font.

Remember to send parcels out by the 6th December so that they arrive in time for a Christmas Eve opening.

Now‘s a good time to spruce up your Litsy TBR in case your Santa needs some inspiration.