Oh Blogs...

 Fun fact: 

I like writing a blog.

Fun fact: 

no one reads them, or at least mine.

Fun fact:

I often think of deleting this, and not having a blog.

Fun fact:

once someone from Ireland clicked on my blog, that was exciting.

Fun fact: 

I can't quite make myself delete the stupid thing.  

Fun fact:

I'm keeping it for now, but it's really dis... dis something, to write into the void.

Fun fact:

No one will read this blog post either.  So why am I writing it?

Fun fact:

I don't know!  

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

Yesterday afternoon/evening I attended two and a half hours of tennis match, followed by running home, stuffing food in my mouth, switching kids' and going to an hour and a half of soccer practice. Let's just say, I had some reading time...

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix was on my Kindle and I read most of it while sitting in my folding chair watching sports.  I have read one other Grady Hendrix book, and much like the first one, this one is a combo of love the humor, gross not exactly scary horror, and what did I just read?  

This is the story of Orsk, a knock off of Ikea, and... it's haunted.  

Amy doesn't really like her job, or her boss Basil, but when someone starts breaking into the store and destroying the showroom, Amy is incentivized to stay overnight to find out what's going on. 

I am pretty familiar with the layout of Ikea, and their catalog, which might helped my enjoyment of the story...  I really liked the set-up, the middle part of the story was OK, and the ending was good.  

I have been starting a lot of books recently, and not finishing many, so the fact that I had a chance to finish something in one day was nice.  

Will I ever look at an Ikea the same way ever again?  No!  Do I want to ever be in an Ikea at night?  Nope!  Will I read another Grady Hendrix novel?  Of course.  

I gave this 4.25 stars.  Funny, gross, and kind of quirky.  Except for the gross bits, my kind of story :)  

To Everything There is a Season: Spring 2023

 Reading:  Mistborn.  Yes, still.  I'm on page 120 something. Good, but I swear there are three times as many words on each page as a normal book. 

Writing: I was on a writing binge last week, but got sidetracked by life mainly family members walking into a room, declaring it's a disaster, and then leaving without cleaning anything.  Nothing ruins my writing mood more than being cranky.

Eating: I can't get enough jalapeno artichoke dip and tortilla chips lately.  

Lamenting: the stupid weather.  It's almost the middle of April, there was a chance of snow last night and I had slush on my windshield this morning.  I can't garden with winter gloves on, come on sun, I know you exist!  According to a weather website, on April 26th we'll hit 60 degrees.  Two more weeks...

Listening:  to nothing new, I made a playlist last year, and it's still awesome.

Creating: I bought a sublimation printer, but the stuff to use with it is still being shipped.  Also, I don't have anywhere to put it...

Watching: CSI: Las Vegas with the husband, and Top Gear (the American one) with the family.  Adam cracks me up...

Wishing: spring would get here, and my house would clean itself.

Looking forward to:  summer vacation.  There is only one holiday between now and the end of the school year (June 20th?) which is definitely makes the end of the year ten very long weeks...  My high school and middle school kids have this Friday off (spring conferences), but the elementary kid does not which is kind of stupid.   

And that is my 'ing' life as of April 12th.  I'm going to put my shoes back on, it's cold in here...

  

End-of-Month Reading Report: March 2023

I wish there was a way to show a grid of what I read on Storygraph instead of having to find each individual book cover, because I read a lot last month... I'm going to skip the covers for now since I know what they look like and I'm the only one who reads this stupid blog.

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Lara Love Hardin and Anthony Ray Hinton.  This is about an innocent man on death row for thirty years, and how he finally was released.  Everyone should read this.  Also, the state of Alabama :(  It didn't really go into a lot of what happened after he finally came home, but otherwise all the stars.  

Beat the Backlist challenge: read a book with the word 'lost or found' in the title.  

Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly.  I really enjoyed this book about a deaf girl who bonds with a whale who is a loner because his whale frequency does not match other whales.  I knocked this down a half star because there were parts that were super un-realistic about my home state and travel times.  I'm not sure if this is too spoilery but let's just say, if you go swimming in the ocean you're going to get hypothermia.  It's 55-60 degrees year round... Otherwise, it was a really great book.

Garlic & the Vampire by Bree Paulsen.  Cute graphic novel about a garlic that is picked by the other vegetables to go on a quest.  

A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga.  The group-read for Middle Grade March.  I really enjoyed this story about a rover being sent to Mars and his mission.  A bunch of people didn't "relate to the robot" and thought this was boring (and character driven cue crowd running away from the character driven novel) but I did not have that problem.  Middle Grade March prompt: sci-fi or dystopian + written in the last year.

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff.  A story about a foster kid, who likes to draw, and her various placements.  Really good. 

Phoebe and her Unicorn in the Magic Storm  by Dana Simpson.  Numero #6 in a graphic novel series we have laying around.  Lots of sarcasm and there's a unicorn, I enjoy reading these.

The Stonekeeper, Amulet #1 by Kazu Kibuishi.  Graphic novel I borrowed from one of my kids. It was OK but I've already forgetten anything about it.  

The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories about everything we eat by Matt Siegel.  I chose this because it had secret in the title (Buzzword word for March) and it was less footnotey than the first book (also about food) that I was going to read.  I think it was the first book that had the story about cleaning the fish section at Whole Foods (barf!) but this one also had some info that made me lose my appetite.  This was informative and I enjoyed most of it, although it got a little dry in some places. 

The Giraffe and Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl.  I'm trying to read/reread all the Roald Dahl books we own, and have never read this one before.  Not my favorite, but I can cross it off the list now.  

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.  This takes place in 1968 in Oakland and has to do with the Black Panther movement.  Also, it's part of a series.  I liked the sibing relationship, Delphine was great, but her mother I didn't get... I want to read the other books so I guess I liked it.

All that Remains by Patricia Cornwell.  Book #3 of my reread of the Scarpetta series.  I liked this one, about a serial killer that leaves bodies in the woods in a certain pose.  

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket.  Book #3 in the Baudelaire orphans tale.  In this one they go to live with Aunt Josephine who is afraid of everything and eat a lot of cold soup (I made gazpacho last summer and can say I don't like cold soup either.)

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai.  Novel in verse about a Vietnamese girl making her way in the United States after they are evacuated from Vietnam.  Really good.  Middle Grade March prompt: sky on the cover. 

The Penderwick's by Jeanne Birdsall.  A story about four sisters and their dad who rent a house for the summer and their adventures.  First in a series, really enjoyed, writing was written in a nostalgic way that I can't explain... wish I could do that.  Read Your Bookshelf challenge, book that starts with 'p' and Middle Grade March--award that was not the Newberry.  

Fish in a Tree by Megan Mulally Hunt.  The story of a dyslexic girl hiding the fact that she can barely read.  Some people complained making it to 5th grade barely being able to read was unrealistic, I don't think it is... Middle Grade March prompt a neurodiverse character.  

The Return of Zita the Space Girl.  A graphic novel.  I thought this was book #2 but it's book #3 which might explain why I didn't know what was going on and didn't enjoy this one as much.  Middle Grade March prompt: sci-fi.  

March 2023 reading statistics, because yes, I'm a nerd.

pages read: 3898/30000

fiction/non-fiction: 14/2

adult/ya/mg: 3/0/13

novels:14

novellas: 0 (and what is a novella anyway, and how does one find them?)

short stories:0

plays: 0

graphic novels:4

physical/ebook/audio:15/1/0

owned versus borrowed from the library:12-4

books that are part of a series: 8

average rating: 4.02

books owned but not read at the beginning of the year 323.  Books owned but not read at the end of the month: 312 (yeah, I bought some books this month...)

books purchased in March: 6 or was it 7?

2023 goals tracking:

things read that were not novels: 4 this month, not sure on the entire year at the moment 

live, interactive reading "events" I participated in: 3 this month, 7 so far this year?

novels over 500 pages read: 0

books taking place in New England: I think I read one this month,but  I can't remember which one it was though... need to work on this.

series finished: 0

most read genres: middle grade (16) although I'll keep repeating this, middle-grade is an age not a genre...  (6), mystery (13) fantasy (5)  huh?  

And that was March.  I was not expecting to read that much, but a lot of things were short... I'm not complaining.  

Three Years, Thoughts

Not going to go too into anything because reminiscing tends to make me going into a spiral of everything I did wrong and what I should have done instead... but it has been three loooong years since a certain germ landed in my state and everything stopped.  I know some places it was business as usual, here they did such things as closed all the rest stops, and crime scene taped off all the playgrounds... not business as usual because it was closed.

Anyway, I have kind of been wondering lately what non-pandemic me's alternate timeline would look like... 

Husband not working from home, would equal a house that isn't perpetually one room short.  Funny thing is he wanted to work from home (part-time) for years and was always told no way.  I kind of miss having my dining room only be a dining room... but he enjoys not spending ten hours a week stuck in traffic.  If we could only have predicted the future when we bought this house...

I think alternate reality me would like people a lot more... Not that I liked them much in the first place, but the pandemic really exposed that a lot of people really don't give a crap about other people.  There's nothing like being told, while you are sick with Covid, that it's fake and insert a bunch of wacko political rambling here.  

I'd still have lost three youngish family members (due to various not Covid reasons), but they could have at least had funerals. 

I'd probably have a job right now... or not.  The whole worldwide germ-fest thing kind of threw off my plans, but while my stay-at-home-momness has become invalidated due to husband-work-from-homeness, he can't do any of the stuff I usually do because... he's working.  The dude barely takes a lunch break, stop working to spend 5-10 minutes driving the kid to school everyday?  Are you kidding?  He did it all when I had jury duty for four days in 2021, and the world almost stopped spinning. 

Jury duty while wearing a mask was a once in a lifetime (I hope) event...

Glad we aren't doing virtual school anymore...  Don't miss it, don't really even want to discuss my feelings on the experience.  Alternate timeline me thoroughly enjoyed sending her kids away for 6-7 hours a day and her reluctant kindergartener not being ripped out of school just when he started to like it.

Alternate me would probably have less books.  Covid made me do a little too much mail-order retail therapy.  The library being closed to browsing for over a year (and quarantining the books) didn't help...  

Would we have adopted guinea pigs?  I had been thinking about it before Covid, but it was  being stuck at home that made me give in.  The girls are neurotic, and it's super annoying to find someone to watch them when we go on vacation, but they are entertaining.

Long story short-- physically, we still live in the same house, have the same jobs, have the same kids, and drive the same (old cars), so that would probably be the same in either reality.  Mentally though... 

Yes, yes it was.  

Very glad it's [mostly] over.  

 Also, I would like to say due to my Covid-is-coming hoarding we never ever got close to running out of toilet paper, or art supplies.  I did buy a planner in 2020 (for the first and last time) so there is that...

End-of-Month Reading Report: February 2023

 I had 12 books on my potential reads for February, picked up nine of them, and finished eight and read one that was not on my to-read list.  I had an average reading month...  my average rating was down this month, and it seemed like books took forever to finish... On the other hand, I've read every day since January 1st, so go me.  February 12th (post reading retreat hangover) I only read six pages, otherwise I did pretty good.   In no particular order the winners this month were:

The Long Walk-- Stephen King

In this story, Ray for some unknown reason, along with 99 other young people is on a walk.  A long one.  Whoever makes it the farthest wins?  This was a Richard Bachman Stephen King book, so it wasn't quite the Stephen King I'm familiar with, but it was pretty good.  Lots of Maine geography in here.

Reading prompt: I read this for a book with a verb in the title for The Buzzword reading challenge.  I also have a goal to read more Stephen King-check and more books set in New England (Maine in this case) so check check.  

The Swimmers-- Julie Otsuka

In this novella (I'm calling it that) which I listened to on audio, there is a swimming pool.  We meet all the people that frequent the place, and then a problem develops with the pool.  Then we zoom in on one character for the rest of the book.  The writing was lovely, and I was interested in the story, but it was almost two separate shorter stories that didn't never came back and connect at the end.  After I got used to the weird omni-2nd person narration of this, I was intrigued, but let down a little by the end.  I'd read more from this author.

reading prompt: no idea.  I just picked it because the audio was only four hours long.  

The Reptile Room-- Lemony Snicket

I am attempting to reread/finish this series this year, one book a month.  It was typical Lemony Snicket, the Baudelaire children are still orphans, Count Olaf is still evil, and there were indeed reptiles in this installment.  All the weird dark humor I loved in the first book, is present in this one.

reading prompt: none but part of my goal to finish some series this year.  

Ordinary Grace-- William Kent Krueger

I already said somewhere that I really enjoyed this book.  It's about a 13-year-old named Frank Drum whose father is a Methodist minister, in a small town in Minnesota.  Over the course of the summer, many people die and the story is Frank dealing with it, and solving a mystery.  It tugged at my shriveled black heart strings, that is for sure.  Highly recommend, although reviews online complain it's too religious, I didn't think so.  I really liked the brothers' relationship in this story.  Also W.K.K. lived in the P.N.W. at one point, which is kind of neat.

reading prompt: Read Your Bookshelf a book thats color compliments a book cover from January.  Apparently the opposite of navy blue is sickly weird green and this was as close as I could get.  

Murder at Mallowan Hall -- Colleen Cambridge

In this story we follow Phyllida who is head housekeeper at Mallowan Hall, where Agatha Christie and her husband something or other  Mallowan reside.  Then a murder happens and Phyllida tries to solve it.  I though the perspective of having Agatha Christie make appearances was interesting, but the book was a little draggy for 260 pages...  it's the start of a series.  Would I read the next book?  Not at this point, but maybe later.  

reading prompt: Brianna's online book club pick for February.  

In the author's blurb at the end, it is stated Colleen Cambridge is a pseudonym for a popular author.  I am going to have to find out who that is... 

Go Back for Murder --Agatha Christie

I said I wanted to read more plays and non-novels... this one was kind of bleh.  I've already forgotten who all the characters were and why they were in this.  There was a lot of talking, and not much plotting... the stage directions were helpful/not helpful (The Mousetrap didn't have those) OK actually kind of distracting...   

reading prompt: my goal to read more things that are not novels--check.

The Last Cuentista -- Donna Barba Higuera

I did not finish this.  I will probably pick it back up later.  I was about halfway through when I put it down which is why it's even on here.  In this sci-fi, character I forgot her name, is sent into space, in some sort of effort to find a new habitable planet.  She is given something to make her sleep through the trip, but it doesn't work.  Also her memory is supposed to be wiped, but it isn't.  The character is very close to her grandmother, and there is a lot of stories and reflections about her culture in here.  It just got slow, and I decided to take a break...

reading prompt:  probably something to do with sci-fi or ya.  Or is this middle grade?  I guess it's considered middle grade.   

Call Us What We Carry-- Amanda Gorman

More Brianna tries to read things that are not novels, in this case poetry.  It was OK, but I think it flew over my head.  It's not you, it's me book.

reading prompt: read more poetry.  

Body of Evidence --Patricia Cornwell

My second Patricia Cornwell reread this year.  A reclusive famous author has been hiding in Florida, returns home and is immediately murdered and Scarpetta is on the case.  Besides being slightly dated (it was written in the early 90s) it's the same Scarpetta I used to love.  I kind of want to binge read the whole series, but am only reading one per month.  Also, Amazon (?)  is making a Scarpetta TV show. I will probably have to watch it at some point.  I'm not sure how they are going to fit Jamie Lee Curtis in as Kay's sister, as she barely has any parts in the books (at least the first two.)

reading prompt: finish a series, Brianna (two year plan, there are 26 books so far in this one, and counting)

and at the last minute, I finished this tiny book: 

Walking with Ramona, Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland-- Laura O. Foster.

I used to go to the same library she went to. Someday I'd like to do this tour...

February 2023 reading statistics, or welcome to the nerd files.

pages read: 2,560 (6,667/30000 for the year)

fiction/non-fiction: 7/2 

adult/ya/mg: 7/0/2

novels:6

novellas: 1  

short stories: 0 

plays: 1

graphic novels:0

physical/ebook/audio:8/0/1

owned versus borrowed from the library:4-5

books that are part of a series: 3

average rating: 3.97

books owned but not read at the beginning of the year 323.  Books owned but not read at the end of this month: 315.  

books purchased this month/year: 4/5

2023 goals tracking:

things read this year were not novels: 7 

live, interactive reading "events" I participated in this year: 3 (my online reading retreat was 24 hours long but I only counted it as one event.)

novels over 500 pages read: 0

books taking place in New England: 2

series finished: 0

most read genres: mystery (11), middle grade, and YA (4 each) I need to rethink this section because The Storygraph is overlapping stuff... and also, YA and middle grade are not genres... So it should be mystery (11), classics (3), plays (if that's a genre...3) contemporary (3)  And then of course, one of those contemporaries is actually a romance... this is making my head hurt.

March 2023 To-Read List

 February's subtitle is "well that didn't go as planned."  Hoping for a more predictable March...

Graphic novel.  I liked the first one.  It's sci-fi so it would fill one of the Middle Grade March prompts: middle grade sci-fi. 

Or if I'm not in the mood for graphic novels, this one is also sci-fi and middle grade and on my bookcase. Book one of a three book series.  We own all three...

3rd Scarpetta book.  Series goals and all that stuff...

Middle Grade March prompt...a book that won an award that was not the Newberry.  Also fits my Read Your Book Shelf challenge of read a book with the next letter in the alphabet from your last month's choice (which was Ordinary Grace.)

A play.  I've heard of it, and have no idea what it's about.  Fits one of my reading goals though...

Short stories.  I'm not sure I'll read this entire thing in a month, but maybe I'll find a new favorite mystery author...

Middle Grade March: sky on the cover.  I think this is written in verse which is always fun.

Not what I was planning on reading for the Buzzword Challenge word "secret" but  found this while browsing the library, and since half my life involves buying food, planning what to cook with food, cooking food, cleaning up food... it seems like something I'd like to read and looks more interesting than the two novels I own with 'secret' in the title.

Ok... update: I previewed a little of The Secret Life of Groceries and it was way more scholarly than I was expecting.  So, I just happened to also grab this one from the library and it also has secret in the title.  So I might choose this one as it's a little lighter and not so full of footnotes...  

Middle Grade March prompt: a neurodivergent main character.  Dyslexia.  Also, my two favorite college math professors were named  Mullaly and Hunt not that I think they combined their forces and wrote a book, but the author's name caught my attention for that reason.  

Continuing my Lemony Snicket fest. There's probably a window involved in the plot, I'm guessing...  

This fills the Midde Grade March prompt of a book written in 2022.  It also would cross off the "a book with a robot or dragon" prompt in the Beat-the-Backlist challenge.  I don't have this one in my hands yet but I'm #2 on the library waiting list.

And I'm just going to keep putting it on my tbr until I finally pick it up and read it:  

It's fantasy.  It's the much loved Brandon Sanderson.  It's been on my tbr about 47 times, maybe this will be the lucky month.

Can I read 12 books in March?  Eight of them are middle grade or on the shorter side, so it's possible.  Of course that would mean a miracle happened and I actually read Mistborn... so, no.  I can pretend I will though.  

Happy March reading bookworld!

February 2023 to-read list

My super ambitious, but kind of made- itself- that- way- because- of- all- the -books- I- checked -out -of- the -library- that -need- to- be- read February 2023 to-read list.  I put all my holds on hold, until I can catch up...

 

Buzzword reading challenge (a verb in the title) : The Long Walk by Stephen King.  I own this.

Read Your Bookshelf Challenge: complimentary color to my January book (navy blue), which means I needed a book with a weird ugly green color: Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger sort of fits that... also owned.

Beat the Backlist: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson--according to the internets this has a heist plot in it... it is also 500 pages + which I am trying to read more of... Is this book intimidating (fantasy is not my thing) yes.  Do people rave about it?  yes.  Do I want to read at least one thing Brandon Sanderson wrote sometime in my life?  yes.  I own the entire trilogy.

Reading prompt: a book with a heist in it

I didn't put any more Beat the Backlist challenges on this month's list (or my to-read list would be 500 miles long) and because Mistborn is intimidating enough, but if I read something that happens to fit, I'll count it.

Other goals/challenges and book categories:

Things that are not novels:

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (poetry)--library book.

Go Back for Murder-- Agatha Christie (play)--library book.

My online book club:

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge--library book.

Series:

The Reptile Room-- Lemony Snicket--own the entire series.

Body of Evidence-- Patricia Cornwell--owned.

The Lost Fairy Tales--Anna James--library book.

all of those are book #2 in their series...

And finally random books I'd like to get to or finish:

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera--library book.

Snow Falling on Cedars (which I started in 2022 so doesn't count for any Beat the Backlist prompts...) owned.

Can I read...9, 10, 11...yikes books in February?  I don't know.  Four are on the shorter side... Maybe I'll have two great reading months in a row, it could happen... 

Happy February!

And I forgot: 

which I am listening to on audio.  I think I need an intervention :P  

End-of-Month Reading Report: January 2023

The second half of January wasn't quite as good as the first half but still pretty great.  I read anywhere from 20 to 250 pages a day this month so I can't complain.  4000 pages of my 30,000 page goal this year, down.  Woohoo!  More on my January reading statistics (because I like them) at the end of this post.

These Silent Woods--Kimi Cunningham Grant

I read this for my online book club, and then didn't go to the meeting to discuss it :(  I enjoyed this story about a dad and his eight-year-old daughter living out in the woods, for reasons that are eventually revealed.  It didn't make me cry (because I have no soul) but came pretty close.  I did not think the epilogue was necessary and was too much of a neat little bow wrapping it all up.  Otherwise, I really liked this not exactly fast paced, not quite a thriller, survival story, quite a bit.

Reading prompt: Beat the Backlist-- a character is keeping a big secret.

Z for Zachariah--Robert C. O'Brien

This is a young adult story where we are thrown into the world of Ann (16) the only person left alive, after some not-much-info-is- given nuclear event.  Ann lives in an isolated valley that was protected from the war, but everything else on the planet is gone.  Trees, animals, people... and then one day she spots someone walking towards her house (he is not named Zachariah) and nurses him back to health.  I mentioned in a previous post, about the author not finishing this before he died, and I could not pick out which parts he wrote, and which parts he didn't, except maybe the abrupt, wait what happens next? ending.  The story was written chronologically sort of in journal format and besides Ann being very insightful and too cliche (this was published in 1974) for being a girl, I enjoyed the story. I like how she went to the store and shopped whenever she needed new clothing, not like anything on TV where the apocalypse happens and takes all the clothing with it.  The story was very bleak though, and the ending... 

Reading prompt: Beat the Backlist-- title of the book has a Z in it.  

A Place to Hang the Moon--Kate Albus

In this middle grade story, which reminds me a lot of The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe...three kids are sent to the countryside to avoid the bombs in London during World War Dos.  All they want is a forever home (a place to hang the moon)  and due to circumstances, that is not what they receive.  I really enjoyed the story, and wanted to strangle a few characters...  

Reading prompt:  I can't remember...  I think it was a book you meant to read last year.  

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-- (Sir) Arthur Conan Doyle

This is #3 in the Sherlock Holmes series, but my first trek into the detectives cases.  I read a story, or two a day and it took two weeks to finish this.  The stories are definitely written to a format and I was surprised by the opium dens and cocaine just flying around.  My favorite story was The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.  

Reading prompt: Beat the Backlist-- novel in verse, poetry, or an anthology.  "Technically" an anthology is supposed to be written by multiple authors according to some people (not all of them) so I cheated here... do I care?  No.   

My Life Undecided--Jessica Brody

In this YA, story, after making some very questionable decisions, Brooklyn decides every time she makes a decision she will make it a poll on her blog.  Amazingly, with no effort whatsoever, people find her blog and read it and make all her choices.  I'd like to know her secret to her blog success... otherwise this was a cute story, which I mostly enjoyed.  I don't find a lot of YA that I relate to these days (I don't think it's my age, it's what's being published) but Jessica Brody usually works for me.  

Prompt: Beat the Backlist-- main character is under 18.  Buzzword Challenge: life or death in the title.    

The House--Raelynn Drake

I listened to this because it was a short (one hour) audiobook, and I thought I'd count it as a novella.  It was something... It's shelved as a middle grade, with YA aged characters, and if a Scooby Doo episode was a trope, this would fit right in. I was confused, bored, did not root for the characters at all, and was glad when it was over, which considering it was only an hour long, that says something.  This tied for lowest rated book this month.   

Reading prompts: none.  I considered the Beat the Backlist prompt about a house being central to the plot (there was a haunted house in here) but thought that would be cheating... I can find a better "house" book to fit this one.

Cici's Journal--Joris Chamblain

This is a MG translated from French graphic novel.  In this Cici who would like to be a writer, goes out in search of stories to write about, and she has a writing mentor (I need one of those...) There were two episodes in here, and I liked Cici's relationship with her mom.  I'm glad I read it.

Prompts: I don't think I chose one.  Someone online recommended this, so I may go back and use that one... we'll see.

The Mousetrap--Agatha Christie

And my final book of January... well 1/4 of a book/play.  The only copy of the Mousetrap my library has is four plays in it, and it was in large print.  I only read the one story, and this was not the actual cover.

In this story two young people have decided to start a rooming house or a bed and breakfast, and their first occupants begin to arrive, and then one of them is murdered.  It's snowing, no one can leave, and someone is a murderer!  Unlike The Importance of Being Earnest, this one did have descriptions of the house, and where everyone was standing which was helpful.  I enjoyed this, and the twist at the end.  I would love to see this in "action" but it's not streaming anywhere, and I am not able to fly to England to see it live (it is the longest standing play ever performed or something.)  

Prompts: haven't decided... it does take place during a snowstorm so I could use it for that one, it is also under 170 pages (it's 70 pages when not in the large print edition).  I'll decide later...

For January overall,  I don't know how people can read this much (or more) on a continual basis.  It was a lot, and I was lucky I didn't dnf anything, or get into a slump.   

I'm proud of myself for reading everything I put on my to-read list (and then some) though, but don't expect to ever do that again...   I am also glad the longest month is over (it always feels like January is twice as long as any other month) and I'm ready for February.  

January 2023 reading statistics, because if my inner nerd isn't already showing, it is now:

pages read: 4107/30000

fiction/non-fiction: 15/2

adult/ya/mg: 10/2/5

novels:11

novellas: 0 (and what is a novella anyway, and how does one find them?)

short stories:12 (or one collection...)

plays: 2

graphic novels:1

physical/ebook/audio:15/1/1

owned versus borrowed from the library:9-8 

books that are part of a series: 6

average rating: 4.01

books owned but not read at the beginning of the year 323?  Books owned but not read at the end of the month: 313.

books purchased in January: 1

2023 goals tracking:

things read that were not novels: 4 (the goals was more of these than I read in  2022 not a specific number, so far so good)

live, interactive reading "events" I participated in: 2 (online reading sprints)

novels over 500 pages read: 0

books taking place in New England: 0 (Pennsylvania, Colorado, England, England, England, England,Washington, Fiji...  wait My Brother Sam is Dead too place in Massachusetts... OK change that to 1, go me.)  

series finished: 0

most read genres: mystery (6), and according to The Storygraph second  place is YA (4) but two of those are definitely middle grade, so actually 2nd place is classics (3) this month.  That's different.

February to-read list coming soon... stay tuned.