Yes, I'm ready for a couple days off

 TGIF. Long week. Ready for weekend.

 

 I've got the coffee shop tomorrow. I want to go but I also don't want to go.

 

 I'm still reading the sci fi book. It's politically and technologically a dense read so I'm not speeding through it. But I'm liking it a lot so I don't really mind.

 

I took advantage of a Harlequin sale, buy three get two.

 Just getting my romance read fix ready to go.

 

 I feel like I haven't read as much as I've wanted to this week. I've got reading sprints this evening and on Sunday but I want to just make huge advances in my books and start something more on my TBR.

But .... seriously. Must. Read. More.

 No other plans other than reading, napping, and maybe cleaning.

 Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

The look of attitude

 Thursday. Receptionist called in.

 

I took Keo to the vet last night so not a lot of reading done. He wasn't feeling well. Wasn't eating, had thrown up a little in the afternoon, and was drooling a lot in the evening. They couldn't really tell what the issue was but they took blood and on the positive side, his numbers there are improving.

 

 I didn't sleep very well last night so I wound up reading at that point. I finished the Moonlight Harbor book. I gave it 3 stars - liked it enough.

 

  Tonight ... hey maybe I'll read.

 

Have a good day

 

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

I'm fine. Eff Eye Enn Eee

 Wednesday

 My reading plans for the week have been torpedoed by two books coming available from a library. But first, I had started the first couple pages of the new Elly Griffiths. Annnnd.

I had skim-read the previous book in the series because it was dealing with the shut downs of the last couple years. I just didn't want to deal with it. Lived through it. Don't want to read my entertainment about it. And the author apparently isn't done with it yet. The book is set in 2021 still.

So I'm kinda automatically not wanting to read it. Which is sad. But I was notified this morning of the two holds. We'll see if these will hold my attention.

 THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN by Susanna Hoffs. Stand alone.

 Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song—written by world-famous superstar Jonesy—but Jane hasn’t had a breakout since. Now she's living out of four garbage bags at her parents’ house, reduced to performing to Karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Rock bottom. But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she’s seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight—the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it’s not Jane’s past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy's earlier hit, and into the light of her own? 

Published 2023; 368 pages. The author knows of what she speaks -- she was in The Bangles.

And ROMANTIC COMEDY by Curtis Sittenfeld. Stand alone.

 Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life. But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman. Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right? With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.

Published 2023; 300 pages. Of course, this is imitating Saturday Night Live, etc.

Steve has got the gun range tonight. I've got the usual.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Tuesday ... mleh!

 Tuesday

I didn't get as much reading done last night as I was hoping. I did, however, make a big batch of dog snacks, prepped for a couple days of my meals, etc.

 I'm liking the Honor Harrington book I'm reading a lot and I'm really getting into the depth of the politics and intrigues of all the worlds, but I also have a new release today I'd like to start.

THE LAST REMAINS by Elly Griffiths.15th of 15 in series featuring Dr. Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist, and Harry Nelson, a detective chief inspector, in the Saltmarsh area near Norfolk, England.

 

When builders discover a human skeleton during a renovation of a café, they call in archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be modern—the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily’s Cambridge tutor and also on another archeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared—Ruth’s friend Cathbad. As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily’s bones were found. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The trail leads Ruth a to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?

Published 2023; 364 pages. 

 Interested in another, lighter, read, WELCOME TO MOONLIGHT HARBOR by Sheila Roberts. 1st of 7 in series.

 

 Once happily married, Jenna Jones is about to turn forty, and this year for her birthday—lucky her—she’s getting a divorce. She’s barely able to support herself and her teenage daughter, but now her deadbeat artist ex is hitting her up for spousal support…and then spending it on his “other” woman. Still, as her mother always says, every storm brings a rainbow. And when she gets a very unexpected gift from her Great-Aunt Edie, things seem to be taking a turn for the better. Aging aunt Edie is finding it difficult to keep up her business running The Driftwood Inn, so she invites Jenna to come live with her and run the place. It looks like Jenna’s financial problems are solved! Or not. The town is a little more run-down than Jenna remembers, but that’s nothing compared to the ramshackle state of The Driftwood Inn. Aunt Edie is confident they can return it to its former glory, though Jenna feels like she’s jumped from the proverbial frying pan into the beach fire. But who knows? With the help of her new friends and a couple of handsome citizens, perhaps that rainbow is on the horizon after all. Because, no matter what, life is always good at the beach.

Published 2018; 320 pages.

That's my TBR for the week, I'm thinking. A sci fi, a mystery, a romance. I'm not doing an official 1000 page challenge but I'd like to focus on something like that again each week. I feel like I'm getting reading done when I focus on it. 

 Tonight, feed Keo and Steve. Hopefully read lots. Bed.

 Have a good day

 

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Not looking; not acknowledging

 Monday.

  I had a pretty good weekend. I had my hair cut.

 

Well ... I'm shorn. I requested a half to an inch off. You know, a trim. She did at least two. Or so.

And the coffee shop was fine. Just me, Ann, and Jody. I would have preferred a nap but there it is.

I was able to do some reading. I had started this one previously and it just wasn't the right time for it then. Apparently this was the time. Over the weekend I read MR. CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY by Susan Elia MacNeal. 1st of 10 in series featuring Maggie Hope, a typist turned spy for MI-5, in 1940s London

 

 London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history. Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family’s hidden secrets, she’ll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin’s murderous plan and Churchill himself.

Published 2012; 380 pages. 4 stars.

I've got reading sprints tonight. I'm back to reading the sci fi by David Weber. Tomorrow, I'll have a new release to add to it.

 Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Smell the Friday

 TGIF

Well, once again my mood-read gene has kicked in and made a wreck of my intentions. I've jettisoned all books I was kinda sorta listening to. And I finished the C.S. Harris. Now it looks like I'm in the mood for some Honor Harrington sci fi. I had started this before but it is a deeply political saga so I've started over. And I'm reading it while listening to the audio because a) the performer is excellent and b) there are a lot names and places to keep track of and pronounce so this helps. 

 Currently reading MISSION OF HONOR by David Weber. 12th of 14 in series featuring Honor Harrington, scifi.

 

 The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming. She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality. But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.

Published 2010; 571 pages or 24 hours 13 minutes in audio. Side note, I realized I only had the first one of this series in physical book form (somewhere) and this is a series that I'd like to have available should the zombie apocalypse happen. I've ordered the series in paperback for my collection. 

 I read 114 pages yesterday. 965 total. 35 to go to hit 1000 pages read for the week. I will hit it today no problem.

 

 I've got the coffee shop tomorrow. I'll take Keo again with me since he did so well last time. No other plans except the usual.

 Have a good weekend

 

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Weekend Eve Eve

 Thursday. One more day to go.

 

I took Keo to the vet last night after work. Another sore opened up on his hip (popped like the proverbial pimple only much bigger) so I was hoping they'd a) clean it and b) make sure it isn't some new illness or infection. (A-They didn't. B- it isn't.) And because we didn't have an appointment, they had to fit us in so we were there an hour and a half. Therefore I didn't get stuff done in the evening like I wanted to.

They did renew his antibiotic that we just finished because it seemed to be working on his bumps and maybe holding off anything else developing. He gets one more half Prednisone tomorrow and then I won't have to give him anymore of that poison. Weight, he's up to 102 pounds so he's getting healthier in muscle tone with what I'm feeding him. He's still on the thyroid medication. 

 So tonight, I need to make some dog cookies for sure. Keo's homemade dog food might last until Saturday. Maybe. Or I could just do it tonight and get it over with.

 

And I won't do it in the crockpot because that drives him crazy with wanting food all day/night. In other news....
 

 Read 189 pages yesterday. Lost an hour and a half reading time while at vet -- I didn't read while keeping him calm. Total pages read since Sunday: 851. 149 to go.

 

I'll finish the C.S. Harris book today. I'm at 82%. Maybe even during lunch. 

 

That's about it, I think.

Have a good day 

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster