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2026 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


27 / 30 books. 90% done!

2026 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2026 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


39 / 50 books. 78% done!

2026 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona
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- California (7)
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- Delaware
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- Texas (3)
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- Washington, D.C.*

International:

- Australia (6)
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- Fiji (1)
- France (1)
- Ireland (2)
- Italy (1)
- Mexico (1)
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- Norway (1)
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- The Bahamas (1)
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My Progress:


34 / 51 states. 67% done!

2026 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


24 / 25 books. 96% done!

2026 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

My Progress:


29 / 50 books. 58% done!

Booklist Queen's 2026 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


38 / 52 books. 73% done!

2026 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


34 / 52 books. 65% done!

2026 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


22 / 40 books. 55% done!

2026 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


24 / 51 books. 47% done!

2026 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2026 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


19 / 25 books. 76% done!

2026 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


44 / 52 books. 85% done!

Shelf Reflection Candy Reading Challenge for Kids (and Adults)

My Progress:


54 / 65 books. 83% done!

2026 Countdown Reading Challenge

My Progress:


55 / 55 books. 100% done!

2026 Series Reading Challenge


23 / 36 books. 64% done!

Dragon Rambles' Law of Fives Bingo

Dragon Rambles' Law of Fives Bingo

My Progress:


70 / 125 books. 56% done!

2026 Southern Literary Reading Challenge

My Progress:


9 / 9 books. 100% done!

2026 Reading Challenge (by Linz the Bookworm)

My Progress:


36 / 60 books. 60% done!

2026 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge

2026 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge

My Progress:


10 / 40 books. 25% done!

European Reading Challenge 2026

My Progress:


7 / 50 books. 14% done!

2017 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge (retired challenge - doing old boards for fun)

My Progress:


67 / 125 books. 54% done!

2026 Reading Challenge Addict Reading Challenge

My Progress:


4 / 5 challenges. 80% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


98 / 100 names. 98% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


76 / 80 skills. 95% done!
Tuesday, August 04, 2015

For Clever, Screwball Adventures and Laugh-Out-Loud Hilarity, the Spellmans Can't Be Beat

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

If you read this blog with any kind of regularity (If you don't, you really should!), you know I generally prefer to write my own plot summaries for the books I review.  Sure, it's a reinventing-the-wheel kind of thing, but hey, I'm just a masochist that way.  By torturing myself in this manner, I've gotten a small glimpse of how tough it is to write brilliant back cover copy.  So, when I come across a summary that captures the essence of a book as perfectly and fetchingly as this one does, I have to share:
The Spellman Files is the first novel in a winning and hilarious mystery series featuring Isabel “Izzy” Spellman (part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry) and her highly functioning yet supremely dysfunctional family of private investigators.                                                                                                                                                         Meet Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors—but the upshot is she’s good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family’s firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people’s privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who’s become addicted to “recreational surveillance”); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed “Lost Weekends”). But when Izzy’s parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy’s new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there’s a hitch: she must take one last job before they’ll let her go—a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

See what I mean?  You want to read this book now, don't you?

As soon as I read the above description of The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, I was sold.  The novel sounded quirky, charming, and hilarious.  And guess what?  That's exactly what it is.  I'm not sure I've read a more hysterical mystery novel.  Seriously.  This one had me chortling, snorting, and just loving every minute of Izzy's screwball capers.  Clever, engaging, fun, addicting—all of these adjectives describe The Spellman Files.  For pure entertainment, you really can't go wrong with this one.  There's not tons of substance here, but who cares?  Engrossing fluff that makes me laugh-out-loud is a rare and beautiful thing.  I simply could not get enough of this book.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Spellman series [Curse of the Spellmans; Revenge of the Spellmans; The Spellmans Strike Again; Trail of the Spellmans; and The Last Word]

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:



for language, sex, depictions of illegal drug use, and mature subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find
Monday, August 03, 2015

The 100 Fails to Live Up to the Promise of Its Oh-So-Appealing Premise

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

If the juvenile delinquents locked in the Colony's prisons felt expendable before, now they know just how disposable the government considers their lives.  One hundred of the incarcerated teens are being sent on a mission that can only be described as suicidal.  The kids' objective is to recolonize Earth, a planet long ago ravaged by nuclear war.  Abandoned hundreds of years ago, the place may be habitable again.  Or not.  Breathing its radioactive air is a risk no one wants to take.  Who better to embark on an exploratory expedition, then, than one hundred young criminals who are already slated to die?  Either they'll be killed on Earth or they'll succeed in repopulating the planet, creating a new home for the Colonists whose ancestors left it for the safety of space several centuries ago.  

Among the teens are Clarke Griffin, a 17-year-old apprentice medic who was arrested for treason.  Her real crime is much, much worse.  Wells Jaha, the chancellor's son, purposely got himself incarcerated so as to guarantee him a trip to Earth with Clarke, the girl he loves.  Only she refuses to forgive him.  Not a convict, Bellamy Blake breaks into the transport ship to protect his younger sister.  The only set of siblings left in the world, the Blakes refuse to be separated, even if it means dying together.  Glass Sorenson managed to get herself off the doomed ship, only to find the world she thought was secure to be anything but.  

Somehow, the teen convicts must learn to survive in a strange land.  Each hiding their own secrets, they have to figure out how to work together to eke out some kind of civilized existence in a savage wilderness.  With constant danger from without and within, they may perish before the week is out.  If they don't, they may just save their world, becoming the most unlikely of heroes.  What will become of The 100?  Will they unite to build a new future for themselves and the other Colonists?  Or will they die before they even have a chance to start? 

The LOST-ish premise behind The 100, a debut YA sci-fi novel by Kass Morgan, intrigued me from the moment I heard about it.  Poised to enjoy an adventure full of danger, suspense, and drama, I began to read it.  The more into the book I got, though, the more my enthusiasm waned.  Why?  Because while the novel had so very much potential, what it didn't have was a well-developed story world; complex characters; a tight plot structure; and enough conflict to keep things interesting.  I was expecting a taut, riveting survival tale, not a melodramatic, but anti-climatic, soap opera.  Needless to say, The 100 turned into a huge disappointment for me.  Part of my dismay, I'm sure, has to do with the book being way over-hyped.  Still, I had hoped for a better story, one that at least lived up to the promise of its oh-so-appealing premise.  Didn't happen here.  Bummer, that.

(Readalikes:  Premise reminded me of the t.v. show LOST as well as the Gone series by Michael Grant [Gone; Hunger; Lies; Plague; Fear; Light])  

Grade:


If this were a movie (and it is—a t.v. series, anyway), it would be rated:


for language (no F-bombs), violence, sexual innuendo, and intense situations

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find
Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Ruth Galloway Continues to Charm in Second Intriguing Mystery

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for The Janus Stone, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, The Crossing Places.  As always, I recommend reading series in order.)

Fresh from helping police find a kidnapped child—and narrowly escaping with her life—forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway isn't expecting to be thrown into another case quite so soon.  But, when a construction crew discovers bones beneath an old mansion they're tearing down, she's called in to help.  Because the remains are those of a child with a missing head, Ruth suspects the bones may be of ancient Roman origin.  She's wrong.  The victim died much more recently, which leads Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson to wonder if he/she could be one of the kids who went missing years ago when the mansion was used as a Catholic orphanage.  

Ruth is eager to help Nelson, who's become a little more than a friend, figure out what happened to the child.  The fact that she's pregnant doesn't slow her down.  Eerie happenings at the construction site, however, give her pause.  Is her spooked imagination working overtime?  Or is someone trying to warn her away from the investigation?  To what lengths might that someone go to stop her from finding the truth?

The Janus Stone, which takes place a few months after The Crossing Places, brings back many of the delightful characters from the first book in Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series.  My favorite is Ruth.  I love that her character is ordinary and understated, but never dull.  Besides her newest mystery, she's got plenty going on in her life, which makes The Janus Stone an engaging and compelling read.  My only complaint with the novel is that it lacks the vivid, atmospheric setting that made the first book so memorable.  Because of that, I liked The Crossing Places better.  Still, I'm continuing to enjoy this series with its exciting puzzles, enjoyable characters, and twisty plotlines.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other books in the Ruth Galloway series [The Crossing Places; The House at Sea's End; A Roomful of Bones; A Dying Fall; The Outcast Dead; and The Ghost Fields)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language (a few F-bombs, plus milder invectives), blood/gore, violence, and references to sex

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find
Tuesday, July 28, 2015

TTT: Fictional Bookworms, Unite!


I love Top Ten Tuesday, especially when the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish provide us with a really fun topic to ponder.  This week's certainly fits the bill:  Top Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds.  It was actually harder than I thought it would be to come up with ten, but I managed!

Before I get to my list, though, I want to be sure you all know about the giveaway I'm running right now.  Courtesy of the wonderful folks at Doubleday, I'm giving away a hardcover copy of Jennifer McMahon's spooky new thriller, The Night Sister.  It's a shivery, twisty novel that's so well crafted it will keep you reading and guessing 'til the very end.  Trust me, you want to win this book.  The giveaway ends on Saturday, August 8, so enter today.
Okay, on to the list.  I predict that my first five choices are going to be making lots of appearances today.  Maybe the last half will be more unique?  We'll see.  As always, I would love to take a look at your list.  Leave me a comment and I'll be more than happy to return the favor.

Top Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds: 


1.  Hermione Granger (Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling)—No surprise here!  Hermione is an unabashed bookworm, and thank goodness for that.  How many times does she save herself, her friends, and the world at large because of something she read in a book?



2.  Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee)—Lee's new book expands the character of Scout's dad quite a bit, which is causing a stir among Mockingbird fans.  Whatever your opinion of him now, one thing is for certain: Atticus loves to read.  He teaches his children the importance of reading, although his choice of bedtime story material concerns Scout's schoolteacher just a tad ...  


3,  Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery)—Anne's very active imagination is fueled, in part, by her love of the written word.  Not only does she love to read a good story, but she writes her own as well. 


4.  Jo March (Little Women series by Louisa May Alcott)—In the very first mention of Jo, she's pegged as a bookworm.  She also writes the plays she and her sisters act out.


5.  Matilda Wormwood (Matilda by Roald Dahl)—Is there any fictional young lady who loves to read more than Matilda?  Probably not.  


6.  A.J. Fikry (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin)—This bookstore owner loves books, even though they fail to give him as much comfort as they did before the death of his wife.  I love his philosophy that "You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to this question, What is your favorite book?"


7.  Madeline Whittier (Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon)—Madeline is allergic to just about everything, so she spends all her time inside her sterile home.  She has to order books to be delivered there in special, germ-free packaging.  Since she can't be around other people, the stories keep her company.  Madeline also gets extra coolness points for being a book blogger :)


8.  Simon Watson (The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler)—Simon Watson is a young librarian living on the Long Island Sound in a house that is slowly crumbling into the sea.  He adores books, of course.  It's the unexpected arrival of a very special one that changes everything he thought he know about his family, his world, and himself.


9.  Jess Brightwell (Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine)—Jess lives in a world where it is illegal for a person to own an original copy of a book.  Although he spends his childhood "running" volumes to wealthy buyers for his father's black market business, books mean more than just money to Jess.  So great is his reverence for the written word that Jess's father accuses him of having ink for blood.



10.  Brick Heck (The Middle t.v. series, played to perfection by Atticus Shaffer)—Okay, this one is a cheat since it's from tv, not literature, but I think my favorite fictional bookworm of all time is probably Brick.  With no social skills at all, he has no reservations whatsoever about keeping his nose pressed into a book 24/7.

So, there you have it, ten fictional bookworms.  Who did you choose for your list?  Do we have any in common?  I can't wait to hop around and find out.

Happy Top Ten Tuesday!

P.S.  If you haven't entered me fabulous giveaway, do it now.       
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