I missed #FridayHappyReadingHour yesterday but this morning I am enjoying my coffee and listening to the sound of the rain with the slider open.

I am ready to finish up the tagged for #NancyDrewBR as well as Parrot and Olivier for #OffMyShelf and #10beforetheend today.

Later, after errands and my parents, I will crack in to my pile for #ChristmasCrimeChallenge.

A soft pick. I picked this up because the essay about Tolentino‘s reality TV stint was referenced in “You Wanna Be on Top?” by Sara Hartshorne. Generally I found the collection to be interesting and smart, but maybe it‘s my attention span, the essays were all too long for me - about 30 pages each. I thought a lot about what I‘d have asked her to cut were I her editor. That said, essays aren‘t my usual fare.

#37by37 (only two more books to go!).

#OffMyShelf “made me happy”
#10beforethend
#37by37

This was a posthumous publication of four previously unpublished novels, four short stories and an essay by Pym - a must for any Pym fanatic. The title novel is the longest and the probably best, but I loved all of this collection. I just love Pym‘s sedate and subtly humorous style. Each section has a short introduction by the editor and Pym‘s long time friend, Hazel Holt.

#ChristmasCrimeChallenge

I‘m a little late for my own challenge! 😂 I‘ve settled on my pile of possibilities. Super pleased that some work for other prompts.

1. “Unnatural Causes“
2. “A Fatal Grace” #OhCanada
3. “Crime at Black Dudley” #HashtagBrigade
4. “The Mystery of the Yellow Room”
5. “Poirot‘s Early Cases”
6. “Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” #Roll100
7. “Six Wakes”
8. “Follow Her Home”.
9. “The Quincunx” #10beforetheend

#ChristmasCrimeChallenge

Here‘s a bingo board if that‘s a preferable method of keeping track.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

Attention all #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub members!

We are about to start voting for next year‘s titles and are taking this opportunity to update the tag list. If you are still interested in being part of the club and want to continue to be tagged in 2026, please let us know in the comments below by next week Monday, November 17, 2025.

Thank you and happy reading! 😊📚

#majicmonday

Thanks for the tag @Eggs 😊

The smell of baking pumpkin pie 🥧 is definitely something I associate with the holidays. It‘s the only time of year I enjoy that particular pastry.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
#37by37

A very soft pick. It was a bit of a meandering hodgepodge. Taciturn, middle aged, and slightly witchy charwoman, Ivy Gover, inherits her uncle cottage outside the village of Nethersham in 1930 or so. There are a few village romances, a poignant foster son situation, a mean girl, class consciousness and class clashes. And then there‘s an epilogue 40 years later. It felt a little unfinished.

#OffMyShelf “orange cover”
#37by37 Readathon

A classic in trans literature and I love the non-ending - it felt honest. Maria is having a quarter-life crisis and manages to lose her job, girlfriend and apartment all in 24 hours. What trans wisdom could she possibly impart to maybe trans maybe not trans pothead JamesH in podunk Nevada? Raw, funny, provocative, and insightful. No one has all the answers.

❄️ INVITATION! ❄️

Before we know it, the holiday season will be upon us. @RaeLovestoRead and I are joining forces this year hosting the #ChristmasCrimeChallenge . 🔪 😱

Make a TBR of the crime fiction you want to read between November 11 and December 31.

The prompts are suggestions - follow them or go rogue! Tag us with your pile of possibilities and reviews. We want to know! Tagging those who participated last year but all are welcome. 🤗

#FridayHappyReadingHour

I‘ve had a kind of unproductive work day. Lots of noodling but few results. So I gave up on it and am calling it - the weekend starts now! 😊

Joining the fun for the #37by37 Readathon hosted by @MatchlessMarie starting tomorrow and running till November 13. 😃

My goal is to finish these seven books, most of which will do double duty for other read alongs or challenges: #EBBR #NancyDrewBR #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub #10beforetheend #OffMyShelf

Hey there fellow #EBBR sleuths! It‘s time to get your paws on a copy of this month‘s title if you are interested in joining in. I think I might have read this one before. The kid on stilts is jogging my memory.

This buddy read is open to all. If anyone would like to be removed from or added to the tag list, please let me know.

@LitsyEvents

I took the recommendation from @RamsFan1963 and got the green goddess salad this time at Panera while waiting for Penny at her grooming appointment. 😋🥗📖

#weekendreads

📕Finish up Three Day Road for #OhCanada

📗Continue The Woods in Winter for #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

📘Continue Nevada for #OffMyShelf “orange cover”

📙Maybe finish Civil to Strangers for #10beforetheEnd

Happy Halloween 🎃 #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub readers! Reminding y‘all that our last title in 2025 is the tagged in November. I‘ve started it and I will say, if you are a dog lover, you will appreciate it. #JusticeforMrJones&JimJams 🐶!

Read at your own pace and make sure to tag us in your review and any related posts.

This buddy read is open to anyone. If you would like to be added to or removed from the tag list, say the word.

@LitsyEvents

#OffMyShelf “Nonhuman MC”
#10BeforetheEnd

This was a little too hard SciFi for me - I‘d probably like it better adapted to film. But I am glad to have read it so I know Vinge is not for me. It‘s an ambitious novel with a wide scope. Two children crashland on a planet run by sentient dog packs-only each child end up with a different warring faction. Meanwhile their ship holds the only key to stopping The Blight, which is devouring the universe.

#Offmyshelf “romance”
#10beforetheend

This was a really lovely portrayal of life and love across three generations of women in a family from the 1930s to the early 21st century. Penelope Lively is such a great writer. I can just pick her stuff up, no need to read the blurb. I know I am in good hands.

I bought this used at a library book sale and it had a clipping of the review of the book from the LA Times Book Review from June 17, 2007.

Hello #EBBR friends! Did you read this month‘s title and if yes, how did you get on with it?

Overall I liked it but feel the cases don‘t quite hold up quality-wise compared to the earliest ones. The solution to the first story I feel like I have encountered before, in a Colombo episode or something. 😅 The Case of the Girl Shortstop ⚾️ sadden me. I hope today Edwina would be allowed to play on the team.

#FridayHappyReadingHour Unwinding and transitioning to the weekend.

I‘ve just finished the tagged book, my last #Roll100 for October.

My focus now is on the first two #10BeforetheEnd titles.

And then I need to get started on the #OhCanada pick for Sep/Oct. 🤞

A soft pick. @Jari-chan did warn me!

This reads a little like a novella length fairy tale for adults.

Diane is born to a mother who is incapable of loving her. Despite receiving love and affection from her grandparents, father, & siblings this lack cripples her emotionally and establishes her overachieving adult trajectory. Only through a violent tragedy is she able to close the circle by connecting another victim of the same trauma.

#Roll100

#sundayfunday

Thank you for the tag @Eggs 😊The tagged is the first book that came to mind. 👻

So far the only reading I‘ve managed today is some great signage! ✊🇺🇸

Here‘s my #10beforetheend selection. I‘m always looking for something that encourages me to read what I already own.

A few will do double work for the #OffMyShelf challenge.

The Quincunx will meet #Allergictochunksters and #ChunksterChallenge2025 .

It‘s also a holdover along with The Illusionist from the #14Books14Weeks challenge. 🙊

Wow! 🤯 It doesn‘t get much better than Le Guin, IMO. This book reminded me a little of PKD only it made sense because it was UKLG. 😜

What would you do if you knew your dreams could affect reality? Unfortunately I think most of us would try to use this to our advantage as the terrifyingly normal Dr. Haber does. Who would wish such power away like George Orr?

A great (and short) philosophical novel hidden in an entertaining SciFi story.

#OffMyShelf “flower on cover”

Very sweet, romantic, and charming but not my cup of tea. The comparison to “The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society” is apt (which I also didn‘t love) . This has a similar vibe, though not epistolary.

Eight people come together in post WWII England to share their love of Austen and protect her literary legacy. Their communion helps each of them heal their own trauma and provide a sense of belonging.

#weekendreads

📕For the first time in a long while I am reading the #NancyDrewBR selection on time! 😅

📗”Don‘t Let‘s Go…” is a #Roll100 pick for October 👍

📘”Await Your Reply” is left over from #14Books14Weeks ! 😬

#FridayHappyReadingHour 🥂

Enjoying a Diet Pepsi on ice as I wind down for the weekend. I‘ve got five books on the go and enjoying them all.

The first book in Stout‘s long running Nero Wolfe mystery series. It was a wee bit long-winded but generally satisfying as a whodunnit. What makes it special are the characters: Wolfe tends his orchids and never leaves his brownstone while Archie Goodwin acts as legman and amanuensis (and the Watson to Wolfe‘s Sherlock).

I was curious about the series because Robert Jackson Bennett based his detective team in The Tainted Cup on Wolfe/Goodwin.

#OffMyShelf “pub year ends in 5”

“Well, there are a lot of things we don‘t know and choose and prefer not to know”.

Mantel‘s debut from 1985. Great writing but creepy, very dark and disturbing. There‘s something not quite right about the Axons: elderly Evelyn and her mentally challenged adult daughter Muriel. Unknowingly intertwined is former neighbor Colin, an unlikable school teacher, who is having an affair with Muriel‘s social worker.

Oops! 🙊 I almost forgot to post the #EBBR reminder for October! Hopefully all who plan on reading this next entry in the series either already have their copy or have placed their holds.

Even if the September title wasn‘t my favorite, I always look forward to reading these books each month and remembering how little kid me just loved them.

If anyone wants to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know.

@LitsyEvents

#majicmonday. Thanks for the tag @Eggs

Two things I like about my job:

💼 I get paid. 😜

💼 My boss is awesome! 🤩

One thing I dislike about my job

💼 People who can only delegate but cannot DO! 🙁

#FridayHappyReadingHour

Sitting down with a stack of books and tonic water on ice. Aahhhh….

Officially kicking off the #turnthepage readathon today!

My goal is to just make headway in any or all of the three novels I have on the go at the moment. Unfortunately I have work tomorrow and a busy weekend with some drive time. But I do have the Fleming and the James titles available on audio via Hoopla, so maybe I can listen a bit, if I‘m not too stressed by traffic. 🤞

Hello fellow armchair detectives! What did you think of this month‘s #EBBR selection? No doubt 10 year old me would have enjoyed this as much as any of the previous ones, but old lady me found the cases a little lackluster…maybe a tad uninspired?

I missed a few as usual, though how anyone who is not a whale 🐳 aficionado would know anything about ambergris is beyond me. 😂

#HashtagBrigade

I really enjoyed the re-read. It‘s been decades since I first read it and I got a lot more out of it this second time around. That‘s the beauty of classics and modern classics- they reward multiple reads. While I still prefer the idyllic first section with young (and in love IMO) Charles and Sebastian, I appreciate as an older person the bittersweet feelings for one‘s youth.

Thank you for leading the charge @BarkingMadRead 😊

It‘s always exciting to see what my monthly #Roll100 picks are. I own the memoir “Don‘t Let‘s Go to the Dogs Tonight”. Reading more Gloria Naylor is a permanent goal after loving “The Women of Brewster Place”. The Nothomb title has been recommended by so many-plus it‘s a translation! 👍

#OffMyShelf “recommended”
#AllergictoChuncksters
#ChunksterChallenge2025

Oof! So glad this is over. A 600 page picaresque comic novel that I didn‘t find very funny most of the time. I understand how it will appeal to some readers but alas not I. Buttoned up Raleigh Hayes leaves his ordered life in small town NC to go on a crazy quest to New Orleans on behalf of his estranged father. Along the way he reconnects with what‘s important in life.

#weekendreads

Definitely enjoying the cooler temperatures today.

📕I will finish the Matt Helm today. I picked it up at a FLL along with the James Bond books last week.

📘Handling Sin is my last #Roll100 for September and a bit of a struggle.

📗Loving my revisit to Brideshead for #HashtagBrigade and am reading far, far ahead of planned as a result.

#OffMyShelf “Prolific Author”

I picked this up for 50 cents at the library the other day. While I prefer Christie‘s novels, this was an enjoyable experience/story collection.

Five Poirot, one Miss Marple, two Parker Pyne, and one detective-less story (which felt more like Westmacott than Christie IYKYK). The only one I‘d read before was the Miss Marple, but I had seen all five of the Poirot ones adapted with David Suchet. I ❤️Agatha Christie.

#FridayHappyReadingHour

Let the weekend begin! 😋🧋📚

#Roll100 September pick

Thanks @Bookworm54 for the tip to go the audio route. The narration/performance by Kyle McCarley was excellent!

I enjoyed this “Cinderfella” story only it‘s a half goblin emperor and there‘s not exactly a princess charming at the end. But it is ultimately a heartfelt and heartwarming fantasy. The reader can‘t help but root for Maia, the rejected son of the elf emperor who is unexpectedly thrust on the throne at 19.

Pictured are Cheviots. I thought they were trees until I looked them up. 🙊🐑

Occasionally I have trouble with the classism and conservative attitudes in our #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub titles and this was one of those times.

The male romantic leads are older than their female counterparts and it‘s subtly implied they should be their masters. I didn‘t find the bits meant to be funny humorous and often it felt quite mean spirited. Overall just OK.

#Roll100
#OffMyShelf “One Word Title”

Mary Karr writes beautifully of her tween years and adolescence in Leechfield, Texas in the ‘70s. Not as sympathetic as her first memoir, because it‘s a difficult age for many and particularly for Mary, who is smart but also often impudent and challenging as well as challenged by her home life and the counterculture movement.

I would have made the prologue an epilogue, however.

Waiting at Panera while my dog gets groomed. 😋📚☕️🥗

#weekendreads

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
#HashtagBrigade
#Roll100

I hope to finish Susan Settles Down and Cherry by Sunday. 🤞

Little Free Library find last night while walking Penny the dog. I already have copies of all but the tagged and might re-home two because I have those same editions even. But I couldn‘t resist grabbing them all. 😆

I first read this in the‘90s after seeing this movie. What a difference 30 years and some water under the bridge make! I am far less romantic now and more clearly see how all three of the main characters are trapped in societal pressures and constraints of their age and class in late 19th century upper class NYC.

Thank you @BarkingMadRead for leading the #hashtagbrigade once again! You are making reading the classics both manageable and fun. 😊

I finished the third book for #SummersEndReadathon !

I quite enjoyed this blend of fantasy and crime fiction. The world threatened by toxic leviathans was interesting and different enough from any other fantasy series I‘ve encountered. The characters were well drawn and believable. Dinios Kol is an engraver. He‘s been genetically augmented to have an edectic memory. He‘s a new assistant to the eccentric yet brilliant investigator Ana Dolabra.

#14Books14Weeks

I regret nothing! 😂 But other library books and/or challenges got in the way, so I only read 11 of the planned 14. I will get to The Impressionist, The Quincunx, and Await Your Reply before the end of the year, I hope.🤞

Thank you for hosting @Liz_M ! This is a great challenge and I love any excuse to make a stack of books! 📚