Weekend Reading Goals

 

I do have work and I do have to keep things around this place cleaned up and such, but I want to take at least 2 books off of my TBR list! 

So I am going to try to read 24 hours (not straight but I'll keep a timer) between now (cheating I know..it's only Thursday!) and Sunday at midnight. 

I want to finish up The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu and Xmas Break by JE Rowney. 

If I finish one of these before the deadline then I will add it here. I will update on Monday what I finished up! 

What are you reading this weekend? 

25 Days by Per Jacobsen (Quick Review)

 

Okay so this book is about a family that takes a lil family trip up into the mountains where they have no choice but to interact with each other and spend good ole quality time together. No cell reception, no tv, no internet, etc. Sounds like torture to me, but whatever floats your boat! See they are growing distant (at least Beth and Adam are) and this time spent in nature might just do them good? Their daughters Abby and Chloe also need a healthy dose of sisterly bonding too. They have a lovely cabin with plenty of rustic amenities, a barn full of cutesy animals that they have to attend to while they are there (I'd love that!) and plenty of nature to frolic in. Oh yeah, and it's December so Christmas is just around the corner. Maybe this will help the family get closer than ever? I know one thing that will do the trick! How about a crazy person leaving fun lil secret santa type of "gifts' in a mystery stocking hung up on the barn door that appears every morning? Oh? Sounds creepy you say? Well it just might be...

Okay so the nitty gritty of this review is that I liked it. It's not without its flaws and not without it's eye roll moments but it's at least a fun read. It's quick, it's a simple concept and done relatively well. I had a good time with it.  

You are also supposed to read it like an advent calendar, you know 1 chapter per day until Christmas, but I am too impatient for that so I just plowed through it. Now for the negatives: 

It wasn't creepy (at least to me). It was described as a story that would chill you to the bone and it just wasn't. Also, I didn't really get the Christmas-y vibes from it. I know it's not exactly a Christmas book, but I mean..look at the cover! Characters were under developed in my opinion. I didn't really feel like I knew the characters well enough to always care what was going on, I think this would have been remedied by a few more pages.

So have you read the book? What did you think of it? 

I give it a solid 3.5 out of 5 starts. 

What I'm Reading This Week

 

I'm sorta kinda on the ball with my reading goals this month. I wanted to get 5 books finished by the end of the month/year and I am already 2 down (cheating a lil with The Three Body Problem, but I did finish it in December!). 

So I hope to get at least 2 finished this week. My son comes to visit this weekend so I don't predict there will be too much book time involved then. I will do my best though! 

I have a review going out on Wednesday for 25 Days by Per Jacobsen, so watch out for that. I won't spoilerize my own review but it was pretty fun. 

So here's what's on my stack for this week:

Gonna finish The Dark Forest. 

Going to start this one. 

So what are you reading? 

2024 Yuletide Spirit Reading Challenge and Readathon! (and Updates)

 I'm participating in this Challenge/Readathon, but mostly doing the readathon part. I was going to attempt the bingo challenge but I couldn't figure out what to do with the prompts. I might still try it, but that's TBD at the moment. 

I selected the Mistletoe challenge which is to read 2-4 books this month and I think I'm well on my way! 

This is the bingo card (just in case I decide to give it a whirl!)

Now the last couple of weeks I've been sick with something, probably bronchitis so my energy has been less than zero, but I'm thinking I'm on the mend (woo hoo!) so the last couple of days I've really been digging into reading again!

My Progress: 

Tuesday 26th: The Three Body Problem-88 pages read

Wednesday 27th: The Three Body Problem- 182 pages (finished)

Book 1 Finished!

I haven't been feeling great again, and my energy has been zero so my reading has slowed down a bit but I do plan on reading a whole bunch this weekend!

I'm currently reading 2 books now..well 3 but we'll just count the 2 until there's significant progress in that 3rd one. 

I'm on page 51 of The Dark Forest and just started 25 Days. 

Finished: 25 Days by Per Jacobsen.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 

                                                                look at this creepy ass cover!

The Blurb: (From Goodreads)

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

I've wanted to read this for forever, but always jumped to something else. I started this book in October for Spooky Month, but I finished it up a few days ago. 

My first impression was that I loved how Jackson writes characters. Each one of them felt like real people with real personalities and real quirks. Eleanor is as meek as a mouse and starts off really folded into herself. She feels the call to the house and her great "adventure" and that is what made me love her so so much. 

Luke is just kind of there living his life and experiencing this with a "okay whatever happens happens" kind of mindset. A chill dude. He's funny and seems to be open minded to pretty much whatever the house and the other characters throw at him. 

Theodora is a drama queen, but a seemingly kind-hearted and caring (in her own way) person. She's more about the experience than anything. She seems very interested in understanding how Eleanor works and prodding her a bit to come out of her shell and live life. 

These three work together as a character group to make this story feel like it's unfolding in a way that makes sense. This is obviously a creepy "haunted house" book, but the story is very character driven, especially from Eleanor's perspective. The house itself takes a back seat and there's not that much actual haunting rather than a nice creep factor. 

The book is a quick read (I'm just a slow reader sometimes) and it's gonna drag you in. It doesn't seem like much is happening but if you pay attention to tonal shifts in how character's interact you will enjoy the building up of tension straight to the finale, which is bleak and sad but seemingly inevitable. 

I really enjoyed it and do recommend it for a quick and creepy read. 

Sidebar: 

This book has been made into several movies, bot direct interpretations and indirect. I've watched and enjoyed most of them barring the very old movies. I would suggest reading the book before you delve into the movies/mini series first though. 

Blowing the Dust Off This Blog

 

Hi there! It's been a while! I have made the decision to reopen this blog! I know it's been quite a while but I missed the old girl. We go back a loooong way, my son was a babeh (he's 20 now) and well I kind of miss it. So here I am! I contemplated re-opening it in January but I thought that was dumb..plus I am impatient. 

So I am now finished with school. I have free time again and I have the itch to get back into reading and maybe even doing review tours again (is that still a thing?) For now though, I'll just do my own personal reviews. 

My TBR for November (my birthmonth!) goes as follows: (this is a tentative starting stack) 

• The Haunting of Hill House-Shirley Jackson -Finish it 
• Bitten-Kelley Armstrong 
• Fairytale-Stephen King
• The 3 Body Problem 
• Fourth Wing
• Red Rising

I am excited to blow some dust off this blog and get her going again! 

How are you all doing?