Made it!

TGIF

And it's a three-day weekend

My focus this weekend is to finish GOVERNOR by David Weber & Richard Fox by tomorrow night. 

And crochet on the wedding bedspread. I started it last night ... it's huge. Seriously. What was I thinking. I'm going to have to crochet day and night for the next few weeks. 

Yes. Yes I am. 

I'm getting audiobooks planned out so I can work on it. This book, the Tom Bradby spy book, City Spies. Then next week the second book in the GOVERNOR series comes out. I've got the audiobook also for that coming. 

After that, I'm not sure.

Sprints on Saturday afternoon. Otherwise, crocheting, reading, and napping.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Soon....

Thursday.

I'm supposed to be getting the new yarn for the do-over wedding blanket today. If it is there when I get home after work, that will be my focus for the next six weeks. 

I got the yarn for the do-over Kevin Christmas gift yesterday so I worked on that last night and I like it SO much better. I'm proud of this one. 

I'm enjoying the re-read of GOVERNOR. I'm glad I'm doing it. 

The vampire book not as much but I'm hanging in there. 

Sprints tonight. Much reading and crocheting.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Seriously?

Wednesday. Not the weekend yet.

I'm starting Spy vs Spy September Readathon a little early. 

Listening to TRIPLE CROSS by Tom Bradby. 3rd in Kate Henderson trilogy.

Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help.A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London.Against her better judgement, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods. Her one-time allies no longer trust her. And neither do her enemies.With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay?

Published 2021; 361 pages. The stakes have risen for Kate - both sides are squeezing her in a no-win situation. 

No sprints tonight. Steve's at the gun range. I'll be reading and crocheting my heart out.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster 

Give me strength

Tuesday

September is around the corner. New releases and Spy vs Spy Readathon imminent. 

Here's what's on my TBR ... for the moment. 

Plus the scavenger hunt prompt(s). I still haven't decided whether to do the first one or not. (Food truck or cart on cover). Not inspired nor is it really my jam. The second prompt, (Did I read that?), I have some ideas. It can be interpreted in any way, but I'm thinking of doing a retelling book. Like a retelling of Shakespeare and I've found some options.  

Sprints tonight. Reading and crocheting during or after.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Monday ... we are not amused

Monday

The weekend was pretty okay. 

I finished the Jen DeLuca. Gave it 2.5 stars. Not impressed, sadly.

I have a new release next week, a science fiction. It's been three years since the prior book came out, the first in the series. I realized yesterday that it might behoove me to re-read that first one as a refresher to what was going on.

Currently listening to the audiobook and re-reading GOVERNOR by David Weber & Richard Fox. 1st of 2 in Ascent to Empire series.  

For more than fifty years, the Terran Republic and the Terran League have been killing one another. The death toll has climbed ever higher, year after year, with no end in sight. But the members of the Five Hundred, the social elite of the Republic’s Heart Worlds, don’t care. Rear Admiral Terrence Murphy is a Heart Worlder. His family is part of the Five Hundred. His wife is the daughter of one of the Five Hundred’s wealthiest, most powerful industrialists. His sons and his daughter can easily avoid military service, and political power is his for the taking. There is no end to how high he can rise in the Republic’s power structure. All he has to do is successfully complete a risk-free military “governorship” in the backwater Fringe System of New Dublin without rocking the boat. But the people sending him to New Dublin have miscalculated, because Terrence Murphy is a man who believes in honor. Who believes in duty—in common decency and responsibility. Who believes there are dark and dangerous secrets behind the façade of what “everyone knows.” Terrence Murphy intends to meet those responsibilities, to unearth those secrets, and he doesn’t much care what the Five Hundred want. He intends to put a stop to the killing. Terrence Murphy is coming for whoever has orchestrated fifty-six years of bloodshed and slaughter, and Hell itself is coming with him.

Published 2021; 476 pages. I'm very looking forward to the book next week. 

I had vowed to read a vampire book. I put one recommended to me on hold at the library. it said 6-8 weeks. Of COURSE it came up yesterday. So about to start BLESS YOUR HEART by Lindy Ryan. 

It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny―Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since That Godawful Mess that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her infant daughter Luna, alone. But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi―the original vampire―are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town. As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.

Published 2024; 302 pages. I'll count it toward GarbAugust. 

Waiting on yarn to show up for re-start of all projects. 

No sprints tonight. 

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

TGIF

Friday

It's been a tough week so I'm looking forward to time to decompress. 

I've decided to scrap the wedding afghan for Clayton and Mindy and start over with a softer, easier one to do. The yarn will get here next week so I'm cranking out on Mom's Christmas gift. 

Trust me. It will be easier this way. I gotta do easier right now.

Sprints tomorrow afternoon. Much reading and crocheting.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

One more day

Thursday 

Currently reading:

HAUNTED EVER AFTER by Jen DeLuca. 1st in new romantic series.

Small Florida coastal towns often find themselves scrambling for the tourism dollars that the Orlando theme parks leave behind. And within the town limits of Boneyard Key, the residents decided long ago to lean into its ghostliness. Nick Royer, owner of the Hallowed Grounds coffee shop, embraces the ghost tourism that keeps the local economy afloat, as well as his spectral roommate. At least he doesn’t have to run air-conditioning. Cassie Rutherford possibly overreacted to all her friends getting married and having kids by leaving Orlando and buying a flipped historic cottage in Boneyard Key. Though there’s something unusual with her new home (her laptop won’t charge in any outlets, and the poetry magnets on her fridge definitely didn’t read “WRONG” and “MY HOUSE” when she put them up), she’s charmed by the colorful history surrounding her. And she's catching a certain vibe from the grumpy coffee shop owner whenever he slips her a free slice of banana bread along with her coffee order. As Nick takes her on a ghost tour, sharing town gossip that tourists don't get to hear, and they spend nights side-by-side looking into the former owners of her haunted cottage, their connection solidifies into something very real and enticing. But Cassie's worried she’s in too deep with this whole (haunted) home ownership thing… and Nick's afraid to get too close in case Cassie gets scared away for good.

Published 2024; 352 pages. I really liked her first series, the Ren Faire one. I had hopes for this one, but it's just not as good. It's not bad .... just not the same level.

Also, DEATH BELOW STAIRS by Jennifer Ashley. 1st of 7 in historical mystery series featuring Kat Holloway, highly sought-after young cook to the wealthy, beginning in 1880 London

Highly sought-after young cook Kat Holloway takes a position in a Mayfair mansion and soon finds herself immersed in the odd household of Lord Rankin. Kat is unbothered by the family’s eccentricities as long as they stay away from her kitchen, but trouble finds its way below stairs when her young Irish assistant is murdered. Intent on discovering who killed the helpless kitchen maid, Kat turns to the ever-capable Daniel McAdam, who is certainly much more than the charming delivery man he pretends to be. Along with the assistance of Lord Rankin’s unconventional sister-in-law and a mathematical genius, Kat and Daniel discover that the household murder was the barest tip of a plot rife with danger and treason—one that’s a threat to Queen Victoria herself.

Published 2018; 336 pages. I've had this since it was published ... and I have all seven of the books. 

And for GarbAugust - probably the last of this time around, MICHELANGELO'S NOTEBOOK. 1st of 4 in series featuring Finn Ryan, 

 While studying art history at New York University, brilliant and beautiful Finn Ryan makes a startling a Michelangelo drawing of a dissected corpse-supposedly from the artist's near-mythical notebook. But that very night, someone breaks into her apartment-murdering her boyfriend and stealing the sketches she made of the drawing. Fleeing for her life, Finn heads to the address her mother had given her for emergencies, where she finds the enigmatic antiquarian book dealer, Michael Valentine. Together, they embark on a desperate race through the city-and through the pages of history itself-to expose an electrifying secret from the final days of World War II-a secret that lies in the dark labyrinthine heart of the Vatican.

Published 2005; 358 pages. 

On tangent note, I don't make it a secret that I don't care for vampires in books. I have read some along the way such as A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES series -- when it was first published. It was supposed to be about the Bodleian Library and a witch but then this damned vampire showed up but I was already hooked --  and I've read TWILIGHT a way long time ago to form my own opinion about a hyped book. 

However, on this morning's show I mentioned again my disfavor, and one of the viewers asked why. 

But I got to thinking that maybe I should be not so closed about it.

My September TBR is huge with new releases and Spy vs Spy Readathon but I considered maybe adding one here in the last part of August ... or I could do it in October which would be more seasonable I suppose. There are A LOT of vampire-centric books out there. 

Well, if I do it, I've kinda narrowed it down to these:

And maybe I should not do the Christopher Paul book and do one of these for GarbAugust.

Sprints tonight. Reading and crocheting.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster