A Summary of October:

A Summary of October:

I’ve been busy reading books, but I don’t write full reviews on all of them. Some of them I don’t review at all, but most of them get a line or two on GoodReads. So, if you’re really looking for a take on a book you’re trying to decide whether or not to read, you can check my GoodReads account. I’m Judi Easley there. If I haven’t reviewed it at all, I probably didn’t find it worth writing about, nothing special.

So, what have I been reading? Well, in the last week of September, I had been reading the ‘Fall of the Cities’ series by Vance Huxley. I found that I couldn’t take it anymore. The books are written very well and the stories are fascinating, but I can only do so much of the dystopian life. If you haven’t read them, do try them. I read three and a half of them before it got to me, so don’t be surprised if you can’t get through the whole series. I’m sure it’s happened to others as well.

I owed reviews on a couple of books, so I got those read and the reviews written. Those were Her Renegade Cowboy by Lora Leigh, A Reckless Match by Kate Bateman, Kissing Under the Mistletoe by Suzanne Enoch, Amelia Grey and Anna Bennett. Then I got started with some embroidery and used Plant Lady Embroidery: 300 Botanical Embroidery Motifs & Designs to Stitch by Applemints. I read parts of this and skimmed other parts. I’m using it as a reference in a project I’m working on adding embroidery to a shirt, so it may take awhile to do. Along with the alphabet, I’m adding plants and such to complement the letters. Maybe I’ll post a photo when it’s done along with the book.

Another reference book I’m working with now is The Genealogy and History of the Ingalls Family in America by Charles Burleigh. It’s an old book that I’m using to help me with my family genealogy. Anyone out there from the Ingalls family of Lynn, MA, USA? Please, feel free to contact me through this blog.

Then I picked up Trouble on Main Street by Kirsten Fullmer and ended up reading the whole series. Where There’s Smoke, Shadows in the Salon, and Problems in the Pub were just as good as the first book, if not better as I got to know the personalities of the characters and the town. It’s a fun series that you have to play along with and just try to keep all the ladies straight in your head as they go about solving crime and causing trouble all over town in high and low places.

After that, it was ‘In Darkness We Must Abide’: The Complete First/Second/Third Seasons by Rhiannon Frater. This is a vampire series, of course. It’s a pretty good one, too. It argues the two sides of the vampire question, to drink human blood or not and it plays out completely in a full trial. Then I had a witchy cozy mystery. The first in a series, Miss Spelled by Morgana Best. This was okay. I think I need to read another in this series to see if it improves because it has potential. This first book just doesn’t seem to quite make it. But perhaps things improve with the next. At times, the first in a series is awkward because it is conscious of setting up the series and tries too hard. I’ll have to see how it goes.

I felt really silly when I finally looked back at my reading history for this next author. I knew this story. The characters and other things in it just felt so familiar. Like I had already read the story. Pursued by a Dragon by Linda K. Hopkins is the prequel to a series…which I have already read all but the last book. Duh! Well, there’s a reason we keep lists of what we read.

It seemed really out of season to pick up a book with a beach scene on it, but it was the next one on the stack, so next up was The Secret of Seaside by Agatha Ball. This is a cozy series that takes place in a town that’s an island, Seaside. I’m currently reading the second one, Murder’s a Beach. And I have the third one, which I will probably start tonight, Mystery Comes in Waves. It’s a pleasant series, but nothing startling. The reader spends a lot of time in the young lady’s head while she runs around doing things she probably shouldn’t do.

Looking ahead to the weekend, it looks like a couple of romances with military types and a Regency, then a couple more cozy mysteries. But if I get hooked working on my embroidery, I have a new sci-fi my son recommended that’s an audiobook. A big change of pace. My daughter reads epic fantasy and writes fanfic. My husband reads British mysteries. My son reads dark fantasy, fanfic, and sci fi. I read a little of just about everything. So I’m never sure what I’m going to get when one of them suggests a book to me.

I think that will do it for October. November is always a busy month, leading up to December which is sheer chaos. So I may not get as many books read as I usually do. I’ll do my best to keep sharing here and on GoodReads with what I am reading. Stay healthy, happy, and keep reading.

Judi