December Wrap Up

It's the last day of the year and the month. Honestly, I'm still unsure how I feel about either of those facts. This has been an odd year. Maybe they're all odd but the farther away they get the better most of the seem. I don't know, and that feels too deep of thought for this post. But this month has been weird without a doubt. First, a snowstorm (not so stranger for the PNW), then an ice storm (very stranger for this neck of the woods), and then Christmas was here. Now it's New Year's Eve. All these facts have thrown off my work week and my schedule. So half the time I don't know what day it is, and half the time I feel like my head is on backward.

January is gearing up to be just as strange because I get to start my year off with jury duty! So that's also going to throw a wrench in my first couple of weeks. Mostly by making them very long! But at least that's one of those things with a light at the end of the tunnel to know there's an ending to the madness.

Now on to the books I read this month!

Books Read: 6
BINGO Books: 1 

Pages Read: 1542

Currently Reading: A Little Old Lady Up to No Good by Helen Tursten

HAPPY READING!!

From Crook to Cook - Review

Author: Snoop Dogg

Genre: Cookbook

Format: Hardback

Pages: 192

This has been on my TBR for a while and now finally it is mine! A huge thank you to my Aunt and her family. I wanted no time cracking this one open. I'm a sucker for cookbooks from old school ones from way back when to celebrity cookbooks. I've even got a few theme ones based on books and different genres. So this fits right in on with the rest of my cookbooks on my self.

My absolute favorite part of this book is that whoever helped Snoop Dogg create this book didn't try to change his voice. It does actually sound like he's telling all of you all of these stories about the recipes. I also really liked how odd this book was put together. It was perfect with the bright pages and photos throughout. It's definitely not a normal cookbook, but it was a lot of fun.

While not every recipe inside of these pages is for me, I did find a few I'd love to try. A few others I'd give it a go if my kitchen was bigger, but some of those recipes require counter space I just do not have in my apartment.  Others have so much cheese I'll probably never recover. Some made me wish I was a better baker because they sounded delicious, but I can hold my own with any meal. Baking and I are hit or miss. 

It stresses me the hell out.

But, I shoved a handful of tabs into this book, and I can't wait to have a reason to try these recipes. And, if your fan of Snoop Dogg, I suggest giving this was on a buy. It was fun! Some of the recipes even come with a playlist!

HAPPY READING!!

Book Haul

I did it, I went to Barnes and Noble during their Hardback sale, which was also a buy one get on half off. Add on the fact I had a gift card, and I went a little crazy. Because I bought eight new books. All of them are on my TBR, one is a sequel to the book I'm currently reading (and adoring), and all are one's I've gotten from the library but had to return before I was able to read them. So now they are sitting on my TBR shelf, judging them with the rest of them. Right where they belong!

The store was crazy busy with people taking advantage of the sale, and probably in the same boat as me, with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Mine had been burning a hole in my wallet for a couple of months, just waiting for the perfect time to use it, and that day was yesterday. I knew it was going to be crazy because everyone coped up with the weather out here being crazy and weird. I was not expecting that many people. 

So yay lots of people reading going into the new year! 

Did anyone else jump on this sale and get a book haul?

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

 

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.

Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.

As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words.

As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

Why I'm Waiting: Creepy scarecrow? Creepy cornfield? Two things have creeped me out since childhood. So of course I'm all about it!

HAPPY READING!!

Luck Girl - Review

Author: M. Rickert

Genre: Horror

Format: Paperback

Pages: 112

I couldn't think of a better book to pick over Christmast than Lucky Girl. Because there's no better time for a Krampus Story. Also, I wanted to squeeze in one more Christmas read before the holiday was over. The bonus was that this is the fastest I've jumped on a Night Worms read. I also went into this book with high hopes. because I've heard nothing but good things about it from all over Bookstagram. 

This is where we get to the downside of this book. It really hit the middle of the road for me. It started out really stronger with a group of new friends celebrating Christmas together, telling their own kinds of ghost stories. I was also digging the story inside the story as we slowly started to get Ro's background story. All of this set everything up to something spooky and gnarly.

There was this great build-up of Ro getting the bell and then being invited to the estate. At this point, I figured out who the bad guy was, and I was like yes, feed him to Krampus! I was on board this train. 

What I ended was getting was a jumbled bunch of meh...

Personally, I thought the whole wrap to the book didn't fit. Ro was such a careful and paranoid character up until the last few pages. Then all of a sudden she was in love and everything was fine and the world was right again. After everything, she'd been through. It was just hard to believe that she wouldn't have been suspicious. I just felt like the last third of the book was disjointed and didn't work. And, the death of the stalker felt wrong in my soul as well.

He just gave it so easily. I felt like there should have been more of a fight, after every terrible thing he'd done to win Ro's heart. To finally have her, to just leave and end up like that. I don't know, it felt rushed like the author was trying to get to the next time jump. To the next Christmas.

Also, for a book that was about how Krampus made the main character a horror writer, I mean yeah in the abstract sense it did. I was just expecting there to be more Krampus in the story with a title like that. Not these random couple of glimpses we got. And, the ending was also meh. It left me unsatisfied in a way that sucked. 

This book had loads of potential and I loved Ro as the main character and narrator. I just wished it wasn't a novella. Being so short I feel lost so much of what there could have been in this story. It needed more pages to flush everything out. I think being so short is what hurt this book the most because I adored the writing style of this author.

Don't get me wrong I love short horror, done right it can scare the pants off me. But I never felt scared with this book, never felt on edge, I just felt like Ro was quickly telling me about her trauma and then how she repeated her mistakes again as an adult. I just needed more. But, I'd definitely pick up another book by this author. 

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

   

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.

HAPPY READING!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Just wanted to reach out a wish a HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone who follows Bookish Whispers! It's because of all of you guys that keep doing this. Views have grown over the last six years to numbers I never thought I'd see when I started this little blog. I can't thank all of you for that because I love seeing the foot traffic every day whether I post or not, and I adore all the people I've met through Bookstagram.

So I hope all of you have a great Holiday Season no matter how that looks. And, I'm looking forward to seeing how the next year unfolds!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Gremlins - Review

Author: Greg Gripe

Genre: Horror

Format: Paperback

Pages: 278

This was one of my favorite movies growing up, and it's' one of my favorites to re-watch around Christmas time. So back in November, I was super excited to snag this off the shelf at a bookstore back in my hometown.  And, I couldn't think of a better time to crack it open.

I will say that I went into this expecting nothing. Book adaptations from movies at best are the movie scene for scene with nothing new added. At worse they turn out to be every moment edited out of the movie.

Gremlins oddly fell somewhere in the middle. While it was scene-for-scene in parts, there were also a bit more that I don't feel like we got in the movie. Billy and Gizmo are the main characters of the movie, but with a book, we got a bit more of the other characters. Both of Billy's parents got chapters of their own from the point of view. Even Mrs. Deagle got a few chapters from her point of view, and I stand by she deserved everything she got.

And, she's got the coolest death in both the book and the film.

The best part of this book, in my opinion, was the fact that both Gizmo and Stripe had chapters in their point of view. It was cool to finally learn a little more about the Mogwai. I've not seen the second movie, so I don't know if we learn about the origins of the Mogwai there, but we did in the movie which I thought was pretty cool.

We also learned a few more rules about the Mogwai as creatures and why they turn into Gremlins. I thought it was pretty neat. Creature features have always been my favorite, so it was kind of cool to learn more about the little guys.

Plus, Stripe is my favorite character in the movie. So getting chapters from his point of view was fun. 

This book turned out to be more fun than I thought. Though, it did kind of drag about the last third of the book, about where the movie would have gotten good. For some reason it felt like two of the chapters dragged on, and I think it's because I knew how it was going to end, and at that point, it seemed silly to keep going. But I did read its cover to cover because I do like the end of the movie.

So if you're a fan of the movie, this is a fun read, especially with the movie soundtrack playing in the background.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison . . .
They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be

Why I'm Waiting: I really like Kate Alice Marshall's books, so I'm excited about her next release.

HAPPY READING!!

2023 Reading Goals

There's about a week and a half left in 2022. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact the year is at an end. Mostly because I'm having a hard time with the fact that Christmas is this weekend. A part of me feels like I should still have at least another 2 weeks before that happens. Alas, I am wrong, Christmas is in five very short days. Three and a half of which I'll be at work. All of this is a long of saying, what the hell happened to this year?!

Still, with just eleven days left in the year, it is time to set new goals for 2023. Well, they aren't new goals, just restart the ones from last year. While I exceeded my reading goal this year, I don't want to add extra stress by increasing that number, 65 is a comfortable number I know I can reach. The whole point of this is to have and track what I read. Not stress myself out for a silly number that at the end of the day doesn't matter. Sixty-five is a goal I know I can reach and complete, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Reading Goal: 65 Books

Pages Goal: 15,000 Pages

BINGO Goal: 2 BINGOs

Not all my goals are ones I know I'm going to reach. Our BINGO challenge has been hit, or miss, for me. Some years I do absolutely great and smash it. In other years, getting an actual BINGO is like pulling out my own teeth. So two felt like a good compromise, and a good way to knock some books off my physical TBR.

The pages read are a whole other story. I'm going to be a few thousand pages short this year from reaching the same goal in 2022, but I'm not going to let that discourage me. I'll set it again this year and see how I do. 

On top of these goals, I'm also doing the BINGO Reading Challenge with my friends. You can help decide what books to put in our squares this year, by clicking here! That's the only other reading challenge I have planned for myself this year. I've done a few others in the past, but I found last year that I don't keep up well with Bout of Books anymore with the nature of my new position. And that job also makes Dewey's 24-hour readathons impossible because I work every weekend. So, if anyone has a 2023 reading challenge they think I should jump into, drop me a comment below and I'll see if I can fit them into my reading for the new year!

HAPPY READING!!

Cannibals and Evil Cult Killers - Review

Author: Ray Black

Genre: True Crime

Format: Hardback

Pages: 576

This was one of those books that I never planned on reading, or even knew existed until a coworker put it in my hands. They knew that I liked true crime and horror books, and this had been sitting on their shelf for a bit. All they'd done was flipped through it a couple of times here and there.

I read this book cover to cover, only skipping over the chapter on Manson. I've read Helter Skelter so I didn't need another deep dive into that crazy. Not that the rest of this book wasn't filled to the brim with crazy.

It starts with small stories of cannibals from all over the world. Just a few paragraphs to sort of lay the scene. Easy you into the idea of what you've got yourself into, and then full-on crazy on a nonstop bullet train of what in the actual hell am I reading. I couldn't tell you because I hit plenty of walls where I thought, that's enough of this book.

But I always picked it back up! ALWAYS!

Each section in this is well-researched and jammed packed with information, but each section flows nicely and I never felt overloaded with information. It almost felt like I was watching a small news section on each case. This makes sense with this being published by Times Warner.

It's a creepy as hell book that left me asking myself weird questions after during the cannibals' portion. While the cults section left with questions. A laundry list of them, but none of those questions could be answered in the book. 

For example, why do so many cults that start off with good intentions go wrong so quickly? Why does it take such violent measures to happen before any kind of law enforcement steps in when hinky crap is going on?

This book made my brain run in circles. So it took me nearly a month to read this. I couldn't read it for long stretches, otherwise, my brain might have melted.

My only gripe about this book is that it's poorly edited. I found several spelling mistakes throughout the whole book. There were also several continuity issues. The latter threw me off more than anything when the wrong names were used, only for me to realize it was an editing mistake.

So, if you fan of true crime or horror and see this on a shelf. It's worth a flip through, even if you don't read it cover-to-cover. I learned a few things along the way. Had some weird dreams too. 

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

   

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

There’s something almost magical about the way Maya’s grandmother cooks--and although Halmunee may be losing her memory, she always knows how to make the most delicious gimbap. Maya doesn’t remember her family’s old life in Korea, but she learns new recipes and stories when they cook together--stories that Maya's mom would prefer stayed in the past, especially if they involve Maya’s father.

One summer day, as Maya and Halmunee are making patbingsu, something unbelievable happens: a single delicious bite transports Maya and Halmunee back in time, into the memory itself. Halmunee explains that their family has the ability to time travel through food--and Maya can do it too, if she practices.

As she eats her way through the past, Maya tries to unravel the mystery of what life was like in Korea, and what really happened to her dad. She learns that time moves in ways she couldn't imagine . . . and that sometimes, families keep secrets to protect the ones they love. Brimming with heart, and interspersed with Korean family recipes that readers can make themselves, this is a story to savor.

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Reviews

 

This was okay. I liked how this story was told, in pieces and came together in the end. It was creepy and I loved the look of Krampus' little henchmen. But, some of the panels were so dark that I couldn't make out the characters. Also while they were tring to give it a sort of It's a Wonderful Life / Christmas Carol vibe. I got distracted at the end because the guy who was suppose to do better, had no pants. Why did he have no pants... Also, his little ghost of Christmas past/present/future felt odd. I think I'd prefer a not so happy ending.

I read this book about two years ago during the lockdown, and I thought it was adorable. I only recently found out it was made into a series. The third book is due to hit shelves in January 2023.  Cause this series is both ridiculous and adorable.

HAPPY READING!!

2022 Favorite Reads

I am having the hardest time accepting that Christmas is a week and some change away. All day at work yesterday it was blowing my mind that next weekend is Christmas. This means the year ends in two weeks and some change. I feel like I might have lost a month or somewhere in the middle of the year. I've lost days in December. 

Where do they go? Did someone take them? 

Anyway so close to the end of the year means looking back at the books I've read. There have been a lot of them, and for the most part, I lucked out this year with some good reads. I have a solid amount of three-star reads. Which is great!

It means that in the end, I enjoyed most of the books I read. My DNFs were pretty small this year, too. Pretty sure I only kicked about three books to the curb. A couple I shelved for later because I wasn't in the right mindset to read them. Better to wait than force myself to read a book and then dislike it because I was in a mood.

But, of all those books, what follows are a few of my favorites:

And yes, I still have some solid reading days left in the year. I plan on squeezing in a few more reads before 2023 kicks down my door. So if any of those I squeeze in should have made the list. Then there's always next year. Because all know I'll be spending the first day of 2023 curled up reading.

I'm too old and too cranky, and my TBR is too big to be going out on New Year's Eve!

Speaking of TBR. I love to keep growing. Tell me about some of all of your favorite reads this year.

HAPPY READING!!