Short weeks are long

 Wednesday.

 I got some library holds come available so some reads are going to have jump the queue. 

 Currently reading DEADLY SUMMER NIGHTS by Vicki Delaney. 1st of 3 in series featuring Elizabeth Grady and her mother, running Haggerman's Catskills Resort, in 1950s New York.

It's the summer of 1953, and Elizabeth Grady is settling into Haggerman's Catskills Resort. As a vacation getaway, Haggerman's is ideal, and although Elizabeth's ostentatious but well-meaning mother is new to running the resort, Elizabeth is eager to help her organize the guests and the entertainment acts. But Elizabeth will have to resort to untested abilities if she wants to save her mother's business. When a reclusive guest is found dead in a lake on the grounds, and a copy of The Communist Manifesto is found in his cabin, the local police chief is convinced that the man was a Russian spy. But Elizabeth isn't so sure, and with the fate of the resort hanging in the balance, she'll need to dodge red herrings, withstand the Red Scare, and catch a killer red-handed.

Published 2021; 304 pages. Very atmospheric - picture Dirty Dancing or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season two. This will count for scavenger hunt next weekend, the prompt is "summer". 

These came in today:

 And I already had a couple others. The nice thing is to try them without buying them.

 I started the second block for the afghan last night. I started four times. One of the times looked pretty good but I don't think I'm getting the right count across somehow. I may try again tonight but I really need to focus on reading, right?

 Steve's got the gun range this evening.

 

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Realizing 3-day weekends end ....

 Tuesday

The weekend was pretty darn good. I started over the first block on the afghan project and finished it and I like it much better. I did much better on it.

Currently reading MURDER AT KENSINGTON PALACE by Andrea Penrose. 3rd of 7 in series featuring The Earl of Wrexford, a scientist, and Charlotte Sloane, a satirical cartoonist working under her dead husband’s name, in Regency London.

 Though Charlotte Sloane’s secret identity as the controversial satirical cartoonist A.J. Quill is safe with the Earl of Wrexford, she’s ill prepared for the rippling effects sharing the truth about her background has cast over their relationship. She thought a bit of space might improve the situation. But when her cousin is murdered and his twin brother is accused of the gruesome crime, Charlotte immediately turns to Wrexford for help in proving the young man’s innocence. Though she finds the brooding scientist just as enigmatic and intense as ever, their partnership is now marked by an unfamiliar tension that seems to complicate every encounter. Despite this newfound complexity, Wrexford and Charlotte are determined to track down the real killer. Their investigation leads them on a dangerous chase through Mayfair’s glittering ballrooms and opulent drawing rooms, where gossip and rumors swirl to confuse the facts. Was her cousin murdered over a romantic rivalry . . . or staggering gambling debts? Or could the motive be far darker and involve the clandestine scientific society that claimed both brothers as members? The more Charlotte and Wrexford try to unknot the truth, the more tangled it becomes. But they must solve the case soon, before the killer’s madness seizes another victim...

Published 2019; 387 pages.

 Read over the weekend IT COULD BE ANYONE by Jaime Lynn Hendricks. Stand alone.

 To anyone on their flight out of New York, they appear to be five best friends excited for a destination wedding in Miami. No one would guess that each of them has a reason to want the groom dead. Trevor Vaughn, the groom in question, wooed his bride-to-be by first becoming close with her friends—which is to say that he learned all of the five’s darkest, most dangerous secrets and blackmailed them into convincing Fiona to say “I do.” The friends were forced to convince a doubting Fiona to go through with the wedding, no matter what, and now the charade is set to continue all the way to the altar.Trevor has his own reasons for wanting to marry into Fiona’s family, and he’ll stop at nothing to make his plan a reality. But when he dies of an apparent allergic reaction at the wedding, surrounded by such close enemies, the possibility of murder isn’t far behind. And for the authorities investigating the case, anyone present could be a suspect...

Published 2022; 312 pages. 2.5 stars. Any one of the group could have done it to the evil bad mean guy who deserved to die. I was hoping for a good twist but it was meh.

I also read THE LATE MRS. WILLOUGHBY by Claudia Gray. 2nd of 2 in series featuring Juliet Tilney and Jonathan Darcy in Regency England.

 

 Catherine and Henry Tilney of Northanger Abbey are not entirely pleased to be sending their eligible young daughter Juliet out into the world again: the last house party she attended, at the home of the Knightleys, involved a murder—which Juliet helped solve. Particularly concerning is that she intends to visit her new friend Marianne Brandon, who's returned home to Devonshire shrouded in fresh scandal—made more potent by the news that her former suitor, the rakish Mr. Willoughby, intends to take up residence at his local estate with his new bride. Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley are thrilled that their eldest son, Jonathan—who, like his father, has not always been the most socially adept—has been invited to stay with his former schoolmate, John Willoughby. Jonathan himself is decidedly less taken with the notion of having to spend extended time under the roof of his old bully, but that all changes when he finds himself reunited with his fellow amateur sleuth, the radiant Miss Tilney. And when shortly thereafter, Willoughby's new wife—whom he married for her fortune—dies horribly at the party meant to welcome her to town.With rumors flying and Marianne—known to be both unstable and previously jilted by the dead woman's newly made widower—under increased suspicion, Jonathan and Juliet must team up once more to uncover the murderer. But as they collect clues and close in on suspects, eerie incidents suggest that the killer may strike again, and that the pair are in far graver danger than they or their families could imagine.

Published 2023; 390 pages. 4.5 stars

Otherwise, the weekend was fine. I walked Keo twice a day. I napped some. We watched John Wick 4. I watched a couple reading sprints on YouTube. It was three whole days and it was nice.

 

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Friday! Long weekend ahead!

TGIF

Reading 1000 Pages Challenge update

Sunday: 551 pages. 

Monday: 100 pages. 

Tuesday: 50 pages. 

Wednesday: 67 pages

Thursday: 100

Total: 

 Remaining: 132 . I thought I'd be hitting my goal easily, but I've had problems focusing on reading task in the evenings or staying awake long enough to make a dent.

For the long weekend, and to give Steve something to watch because he prefers viewing his entertainment rather than reading something, I signed up today for the first-week-free promotion of Disney+ and ESPN+ bundle. We can catch up on the Marvel and Star Wars movies/shows and he can watch Formula One racing, Monaco Grand Prix going on this weekend. And then I'll cancel.

So much leisure activities so little time. Read! Nap! Crochet! Figure out live streaming finally! Clean! Going to the coffee shop tomorrow. Hanging with Keo. For three days.

But mostly just not stressing. Going with the flow. Just relaxing the brain.

 Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Contemplating the longest week ever

 Thursday.

Reading 1000 Pages Challenge update.

Sunday: 551 pages. 

Monday: 100 pages. 

Tuesday: 50 pages.

Wednesday: 67 pages

Total: 

 I don't know. I'm pretty sure I read last night but apparently not much. I was tired though.

Steve's got another gun range orientation thing tonight. I'll be doing more of the same from the last few nights except hopefully involving more actual reading.

 

Have a good day

 

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

I shun the day

 Wednesday

Reading 1000 Pages Challenge update. Not a great reading night for me but I did watch some good BookTubers. 

Sunday: 551 pages. 

Monday: 100 pages. 

Tuesday: 50 pages. Total:

 I told you it drops off during the work week.

I'm also trying to make progress in the many series that I'm reading so I'm also starting A TREACHEROUS CURSE by Deanna Raybourn, 3rd of 8 in series featuring Veronica Speedwell and Stoker in 1880s London.

London, 1888. As colorful and unfettered as the butterflies she collects, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t resist the allure of an exotic mystery—particularly one involving her enigmatic colleague, Stoker. His former expedition partner has vanished from an archaeological dig with a priceless diadem unearthed from the newly discovered tomb of an Egyptian princess. This disappearance is just the latest in a string of unfortunate events that have plagued the controversial expedition, and rumors abound that the curse of the vengeful princess has been unleashed as the shadowy figure of Anubis himself stalks the streets of London. But the perils of an ancient curse are not the only challenges Veronica must face as sordid details and malevolent enemies emerge from Stoker’s past. Caught in a tangle of conspiracies and threats—and thrust into the public eye by an enterprising new foe—Veronica must separate facts from fantasy to unravel a web of duplicity that threatens to cost Stoker everything. . . .

Published 2018; 320 pages.

I also have many category romances now that I need to get working on them. And my crochet project. Still wanting start the YouTube channel thing. Book writing. And the journal projects on the back burner....

 

 Steve's got the gun range tonight. I must leisure activity HARD.

 

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

I AM smiling

 Tuesday. Receptionist back.

I was able to read some last night and participate in the sprint at the end of it. I had to help Steve drop off his truck to get it warrantied or whatever after work and of course it's road construction season and you can't get anywhere. Period.

 And then Keo's habit is to go for a walk right when we get home.

 But my book is good so I read 100 pages. My 1000 Page Challenge today so far is:

I'm hoping to settle on something to listen to while working on invoices today. I'm very close to finishing a audio I'd started quite a while ago and very close to finishing so ... I will. 

LADY ANNE AND THE HOWL IN THE DARK by Victoria Hamilton. 1st of 4 in series featuring Lady Anne Addison in late 1700s Georgian EnglandPublished 2009; 388 pages.  I actually only had a few minutes left in it.

I have SO MANY books I've started to read -- or re-read -- that I've abandoned. I should just go through and finish them.

I'm going to start to listen to the audio of a new book, A DEATH OF NO IMPORTANCE by Mariah Fredericks. 1st of 4 in series featuring Jane Prescott, a lady’s maid in 1910s New York City.

 

 Invisible until she’s needed, Jane Prescott has perfected the art of serving as a lady’s maid to the city’s upper echelons. She works for the Benchley family, who are dismissed by the elite as “new money,” and who cause outrage when their daughter Charlotte becomes engaged to notorious eminent playboy Norrie Newsome. But when Norrie is found murdered at a party, Jane discovers she is uniquely positioned to find the killer—she’s a woman no one sees, but who witnesses everything; who possesses no social power but that of fierce intellect. Jane also knows that in both high society and the city’s underbelly, morals can become cheap in the wrong hands; scandal and violence simmer just beneath the surface—and can break out at any time.

Published 2018; 279 pages.

I've also increased -- again -- my goal for number of books read this year. I believe initially I'd said 36 for 2023. Then, having a cracker of a year, I increased it to 60. I'm about to achieve that goal and we're only halfway through the year. I've upped it to 100 books.

 Which is absolutely wonderful, yes. Tonight will be pretty much the same. Walk and feed Keo. Fix Steve's dinner. Read and also watch some book vids on YouTube since some of my favorites have released some today.

 Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster