Holdin' that weekend closely

TGIF

A library hold came up, ELIZABETH SAILS by Kristin Owens. Stand alone. 

Beth Schiff ghostwrites autobiographies for politicians, except her own life doesn’t warrant a footnote. Excitement is re-watching classic movies with a Whitman’s Sampler. But when her adventurous Aunt Ethel dies, Beth must scramble out of her comfy sweatpants and into some Spanx to find the missing will aboard a luxury cruise ship. Figuring out which fork to use at dinner becomes the least of Beth’s worries. The will isn’t lost...it’s hidden. Aunt Ethel devised an elaborate scavenger hunt and each exotic port stop forces Beth to confront her list of insecurities to get the next clue. If she fails, millions revert to a much-hated relative, Max, who is responsible for her dismantled family. When someone starts trying to sabotage her search—the game becomes personal—and her energetic septuagenarian tablemates rally to help. But Beth must make the puzzle pieces fit before the cruise ends or Max gets his greedy hands on the money destined for charities.

Published 2024; 368 pages. I was thinking this could be for the scavenger hunt "blue on cover" but now I'm thinking it could count for the prompt "new release" since it came out in October. 

I finally figured out what to do for Christmas Eve food. We're having turkey and stuff for Day but I have sprints Eve evening. Eve has always more informal so I was trying to think finger food or snack-ish things. I completely and totally had forgotten about the cheesy sausage meatballs that were so freaking nummy. THAT is what I'll make and lots of them. Steve also wants me to make Chex mix. 

I was able to give Mom her Christmas shawl yesterday. She liked it. 

Now I have to madly finish the black/white ombre one for Christmas gift this weekend. I'd also like to finish THE WAY OF KINGS this weekend as well. 

Sprints tomorrow. Crochet, reading, napping, making Chex mix, making a vat of soup, walking Keo, etc. 

Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

WTF

Thursday. Receptionist out for half day. 

We've been given our scavenger hunt prompts for January. 

1) Blue on cover

2) New release

Plus, January is a month I host a readathon - the MidWinter HistMyst so I'll be focusing more choices on historical mysteries (not a hard thing). Also in 2025, I'm doing my best to read what I own, or from a library or Kindle Unlimited. Here's the options for blue on cover thus far:

And I have this one from the library holds. I'm not sure yet if I'll read it or not but it would also qualify. 

For the new release prompt - we're of course able to interpret at we'd like. There are some new releases that I purchased in the last few months during my reading slump that I've not read yet. The new release I have in January doesn't come out until the end of the month so too late for this scavenger hunt. 

I've also been clearing out my monumental Kindle library of samples and books I'm not interested in anymore. A much-needed herculean task.

I'm giving mom her Christmas shawl today. It's so freaking soft. 

Sprints tonight. Chapter 19 of Advent Calendar Cozy Mystery Bedtime Read-Aloud. Crocheting and reading.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Mid-week blahhh

Wednesday.

I'm still reading THE WAY OF KINGS. However, an emergency crochet project has popped in to my free time. If you recall, earlier this year I was making a black/white ombre poncho for our previous service manager. I stopped working on it when was starting to be a jerk. And of course he left us. 

Long story short, I'm going to turn this into a quick afghan and gift it to our neighbor Mark. 

So I now have until approximately Christmas Eve-ish to get it done. It's going to go fast and I'm just adding another skein but that will be what I'll be doing for a little while. I can watch YouTube, or Patreon, or listen to an audiobook. 

No sprints tonight. Chapter 18 of Advent Calendar Cozy Mystery Bedtime Read-Aloud. Steve has the gun range.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Wanna go

Tuesday

Nothing really to report. 

Reading THE WAY OF KINGS. I'm at 74%, page 863. I'm crocheting on my two projects. I'm watching the NCIS reactor on Patreon. 

Sprints tonight. Chapter 17 of Advent Calendar Bedtime read-aloud afterward. 

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Mondays

Monday

I've solved my wedding blanket problem. I've been wanting to do a second -- or maybe it will be the only, we'll see - for the wedding in March. Her favorite color is orange and secondary favorite color is blue. I've tried many, many different yarns, color combos, etc., for weeks. Last week, I saw a YouTube vid of combining together the Caron Latte yarn (my favorite and is ombre) with a YarnBee yarn (what I had finally chosen as the yarn I wanted to go with but the combinations weren't working). But the video had the Caron Latte just be cream all the way through and that wasn't working exactly for me either. But THEN! I combined the cream Caron with the cream YarnBee; the Caron orange/red/beige with the orange YarnBee for a through-color of orange; and the blue ombre Caron with the dark blue YarnBee for that through color. It worked! 

So I have two projects to get done - one in February and one in March. 

I've been continuing in THE WAY OF KINGS by Brandon Sanderson. I'm at page 828 which is 71% of my edition. 

I started to watch a new YouTube reactor. He's doing the NCIS series, starting from the beginning. They're at, what, season 20 now? He's British, older gentleman, and he tries to solve the crime of the week along with the story. I joined his Patreon so I can watch the whole reaction, not the edited one.

So that's what I'll be doing tonight. Crocheting, watching vids, and reading. No sprints tonight. Reading chapter 16 in CHRISTMAS AT GLITTER PEAK LODGE Advent calendar bedtime story read-aloud.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

TGIF

Friday

No plans this weekend other than reading THE WAY OF KINGS and crocheting on two gifts. 

We're getting to the end of 2024 and in reader land, one usually makes lists of what has been read in the current year and what one will read in 2025. And I've stated that this time I will 90% of the time read what I own, however here are the books thus far that are of the 10% in 2025:

And finally, here is a photo of our Christmas tree at work this year. 

Sprints tomorrow afternoon. And chapter 13, 14, and 15 of the Advent calendar cozy mystery bedtime story this weekend. 

Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Is tomorrow ever gonna get here?

Thursday 

More about my reading plans for 2025:

Not only do I want to read what I own in 2025, there are also some books/series that I'd like to re-read. Conceivably, I have been reading books as an adult for 40 years. Perspective changes with life experiences so things I read 20+ years ago will have a different impact than reading the same book now. And there are SO MANY series that I abandoned or just neglected getting back to over the years and they piled up because the author insists on continuing to write them - Elizabeth George, Tasha Alexander, Victoria Thompson, Martha Grimes, Peter Robinson, Kathy Reichs, Val McDermid, etc. - and in a lot of cases I do HAVE these books because I auto-bought them year after year meaning to get to them. 

Sprints tonight. Then chapter 12 of the advent calendar bedtime story. 

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster