October 23rd-October 29th, 2022

 The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly or for a monthly wrap up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

#4 Dry Spells

Predictably the next few weeks will be dry spells with no books arriving, which honestly makes me kind of sad, but I understand its temporary, that it won't last forever, I hope. But still though. I am really wanting some books that have recently come out, but yeah, expensive, and I am pretty much reading and reviewing books from a publishing company and some publicists. (Also need to work on reviews...) 

This week I went to pack meeting of cub scouts and am proud of my son. Although my son and I have shown up previous times with den meetings, he didn't get the badges for times we showed up (Little background: His den class has at least 30 kids, 27 boys and 3 girls, and two men run the den, and when I asked I was told that next month he'll get badges.) but he stood there quietly on stage without crying or making a scene. On Friday am planning Cicis (In Russian Cicis means breasts) Pizza and this Sunday will be den meeting. My son also got top part of cub scout uniform and on 5th of November there will be a sailing boat competition. We are looking forward to Halloween! 

Last Week On The Blog

The Queen of Izmoroz by Jon/Kelley Skovron

This Week On The Blog

Possible Reviews The Autodidacts By Thomas Kendall, The Bronze Drum By Phong Nguyen; The Bone Flower By Charles Lambert; There Are No Happy Loves By Sergio Olguin. 

New Arrivals At Svetlana's reads and views 

None 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 

(From The Book Date)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

I am continuing to read The Wizard of Eventide by Jon/Kelley Skovron as well as Summer Lightning by Roberta Silman. I also realized that I have an e-book copy of The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dale and figured I will read that as an e-book instead soon, which is why its not on the list. Although I'm really enjoying both books, it seems as if I'm reading pretty slowly.  I also feel as if October is not a good month for reading books for me. 

Reading:

 
 243/400                                  81/317

Plans: 

  

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works:

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

You’ll find the schedule of upcoming TTT topics below so you can plan ahead. I’ll post a Linky here on the blog each week so you can link up your post (if you want). If you don’t have a blog, post your picks in the comment section below! Have tons of fun talking books and getting to know your fellow bloggers!

NOTE: If a weekly topic is listed as a “freebie”, you are invited to come up with your own topic. Sometimes I will give your topic a theme, such as “love”, a season, or an upcoming holiday. That just means that you can come up with any topic you want that fits under that umbrella.

You’re more than welcome to use the Top Ten Tuesday image I designed above (or any of my older/seasonal ones), or make your own that fits your site’s theme.

October 25: Halloween Freebie (Favorite Supernatural Reads/.Supernatural Reads I want to read)

1. The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause- I was introduced to this gem when I was in middle school, but when I read it, just...wow. Also its good to read as an adult. What I loved: character that looked like me with dark hair and eyes as well as character into darkness. I also loved the vampire brothers. 

2. Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden- So this is another treasure I discovered when I was in high school (Fine, as a teenager in 90s and early 00s before Twilight Mania, I loved vampires...) on an emotional aspect, this is pretty much what I would have wanted from an Anne Rice novel. From my memories, Anne Rice novels had a lot of, well, navel gazing. 

3. Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike- I promise, no vampires in this book,  but instead a teenage treasure that I re-read over and over again, still being struck by the words, the atmosphere. Also, when reading at night, its just terrifying. Its a story about five teens that get trapped in a ghostly town and one by one they begin to die. 

4. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu- First of all, I'm not being paid by Japan to promote Tale of Genji. But instead its a classic that truly speaks to my soul. There are quite a few spernatural elements to the story, one is titled Evening Blossoms where Genji's possible conquest dies because of another woman's possession. (Quite a few of Genji's paramours die that way, now that I think aboiut it...) but it does make use of ghosts, supernatural and spirits. 

5. Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin- It's not a book I normally mention, which is odd because I really did enjoy it a lot when I read about ten or so years ago. I first heard of it from an ex and I desperately wanted to read it, which I did about few years later. The version I have is split into five volumes, and above is cover from first part. I also will compare it a lot to Tale of Genji. Yes, this has a lot of supernatural aspects like death, spirits, fairies, reincarnation, etc. 

6. Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en- So I hadn't read it, although oddly enough I am familiar with DBZ and original Dragonball which is based on the novel, but I should read it. I read a short version of it to my son which he liked and I also liked, (especially the peaches part.) 

7. The Nine Cloud Dream by Kim Manjung- I discovered it a short time ago, but I have a lot of passion for South Korea/Korea and would love to expand my knowledge by reading this gem. 

8. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause- So I read her previous book The Silver Kiss and I have high hopes that if I should read this one, it will be good too. 

9. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho- My friend, G-d rest her soul, has gifted this book to me and I recall that she spoke a lot about how wonderful it is. I think it does have supernatural elements, doesn't it? 

10. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras- I'm not 100 percent sure, but I did hear the book has magical realism within the pages and I'm looking forward to going there. 

Shelf Control

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title:  Feels so Right 

Author: Isabel Sharpe

Published:  2012

Length: 219

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Therapy Notes:Patient is in pain, uncommunicative.

Must work on acceptance of injury, as well as standard treatment for L4-L5 disc rupture.

Seriously sexy guy.

Must think unsexy thoughts…

Former triathlete Colin Russo is a physical therapist's nightmare. Sidelined—possibly for good—with an injury, he's angry, impatient and a serious pain in Demi Anderson's side. The worst part? The man is hotter than a heat wave in July, and it's all Demi can do to keep her hands from straying where they shouldn't!

But sex is forbidden between therapist and patient. Worse still, every professional stroke of Demi's hands makes the situation—and Colin—hotter. And with every touch, they're coming that much closer to giving in….

How and when I got it: I think I got this about a year to complete the Friends with Benefits trilogy by Isabel Sharpe. I got it on October 16th, 2013. 

Why I want to read it: Basically because its short and I used to enjoy reading Blaze series. 

What do you think? Would you read this book? And if you’ve read it, do you recommend it?

Please share your thoughts!

Books from Backlog

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.

If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link, link back to this post, and then spend some time visiting some of the other posts.

This week’s neglected book 

Book Title: Neverwhere 

Series: None

Publisher: William Morrow 

Genres: Urban fantasy. adult, horror, adventure 

Pages: 460

Format: Print

Source: Was a book tour but at the time didn't have time to read it. It also arrived late after the tour started. I got it on November 25th, 2016. 

Summary:

National Bestseller

Selected as one of NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of All Time

The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s ultimate edition of his wildly successful first novel featuring his “preferred text”—and including his new Neverwhere tale, “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back.”

Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

Neil Gaiman’s first solo novel has become a touchstone of urban fantasy, and a perennial favorite of readers everywhere.

Why did I add Neverwhere to my bookshelf? I think the cover and summary pretty much intrigues me a lot, that's probably why I kept it. 

What are your thoughts? Have you read this book?  Would you recommend it?

Let's Talk Bookish 

October 28: Halloween Freebie!

Halloween is in just a couple of days, so this Friday, write about whatever spooky-season topic you want! Some ideas are: your favorite horror novels, favorite fall reads, or your favorite places to read and write in fall!

I'm really not sure what to write about. While I was doing Top Ten Tuesday, I realized taht there are a ton of supernatural themed novels that I read and never placed them. As a teenager I was a big vampire fan and yes, I have read few Anne Rice novels, which I didn't enjoy and I also realized that its the same character over and over in every book, just that his name was different (conflicted Catholic man who is last of his aristocratic family.) I also forgot to include Han Kang's novels The Vegetarian and Human Acts as well as Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May. 

Maybe in the future I can get more ideas on how to write this particular topic. 

Stacking the Shelves 

Book Titles I got this week: (if available)

None 

Planned Reviews: (If available. Use pictures)

The Autodidacts by Thomas Kendall

Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen

The Bone Flower by Charles Lambert 

There are no happy loves by Sergio Olguin