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.

From the deserts of the Southwest to the shining Atlantic Coast, the USA is as sweet as it gets. In this tour de food, B. Dylan Hollis takes you on a delicious road trip to taste everything from the coffee-crazed creations of the Pacific Northwest to the larger-than-life sheet cakes of Texas.

You’ll be hitting the pavement in vintage style as you journey with Dylan through the culture capitals of America to savor the very best bakes the nation has to offer. His retro recipes span the decades from the 1900s to the 2000s and feature famous (and forgotten) desserts from every state.

With his signature wry humor, Dylan explores the US and uncovers the history of nostalgic local favorites, including Boston Cream Pie on the cobbled streets of Beantown, Beignets in the sultry heat of jazzy New Orleans, and Date Cream scooped up poolside in Palm Springs.

Baking Across America is the highly anticipated successor to Baking Yesteryear and delivers 100 wild, wacky, and wonderful recipes from every star-spangled corner of the good ol’ US of A.

What I'm Waiting: I adored Baking Yesteryear, and I can't wait to see what's inside Dylan's next cookbook!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train.

Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater.

So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what's real and what’s in her head.

She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can't ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women.

As Cora will soon learn, you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts.

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially 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'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Callie, Declan, Lasser, and Radish find themselves amidst a plot to overthrow fairy royalty in the third installment of the hit Webtoon series Nothing Special, featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes material from the inimitable Katie Cook.

Laurel Poppyfield, matriarch of the fairy Poppyfield family, is dying. She holds the majority of the Poppyfields' magic, and has no heir to give it to. Or so she thought until Callie, Declan, Lasser, and Radish walked into the family estate trying to find someone to heal Declan's wing. It turns out Declan is Laurel's grandson and practically fairy royalty, and the timing of his arrival could not be more perfect.

Not everyone is happy about Declan's sudden appearance, though. Leir, one of Lasser's older brothers, has worked for years to become a trusted presence in the Poppyfield home. He was Laurel's top choice to inherit the family's magic before Declan showed up, and he's not about to let his plans get ruined. It's up to Callie, Declan, Lasser, and Radish to thwart his nefarious schemes before the Poppyfield magic falls into the wrong hands.

The third installment of Katie Cook’s Nothing Special collects the final 25 episodes of Season 2 of the webcomic.

HAPPY READING!!

Indie Bookstore Day

 

IT'S INDIE BOOKSTORE DAY! If ever there was a time to buy that book you've had your eye on, it's today. Honestly, any day is a good day to support your local bookstore, but I know the current climate of the world makes that hard.  

And listen, I understand not everyone has a local small bookstore to support, but there are so many online options like bookshop.org. But it's also a good reason to make your way to the local library!

Local libraries also need support these days. So if you cannot make it to the bookstore, don't forget you can 'shop' the aisles at the library. You can snag that new release, grab a movie, or chill in their comfy chairs and read to little on that book you've been meaning to pick up again. 

But if you can get and spend some money this weekend. It's INDIE BOOKSTORE DAY! After my shift today, I will a hundred percent be popping into mine. Because it is on my way to my bus, which is both a blessing and a curse.  

 

HAPPY INDIE BOOKSTORE DAY!

Reading Goal Update

Okay. Okay. I'm kind of crushing my Reading Goal for this year. Apparently, I'm five books ahead, which means I can hit a slump this summer without worrying about it. Because someone has bought concert tickets for nearly back-to-back shows one weekend. Which is going to mean I'm going to need the longest nap between that and work. But, it's not just my reading goal I'm ahead on. I'm actually ahead on my page count goal as well, a new experience for me. Normally, I'm like two hundred pages, or something, behind. 

Ugh, I don't want to take the TBR goal. It was a lofty goal for me because I'm a collector of books, and the to-read pile rarely, if ever, gets smaller. It hasn't helped that a lot of the books I've been reading so many library books and Kindle books. My 2025 TBR stack is nearly doubled, don't ask me how. I mean, I know how, but we aren't going to talk about that. It's fine.

Sadly, I know I won't be hitting my SBC events because I'll be missing the May Book Club for an author event. This is the first time Joe Abercrombie has been in town, and I've been able to go. So I'm excited to get a couple of my books signed and hear him talk about his new book. Even though I'm sad to be missing book club, this should hopefully be the only one!

I have no idea about BINGO. This year's card is hard. I'm twenty-six books into this year and still no BINGOs, though I'm getting closer at a few places.

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Reviews

Originally, it was the title of this one that drew me to pull it off the library shelf. The cover convinced me to flip over and read the back. I'm so glad I did because I enjoyed this one. At first, I wasn't sure about it, but I decided to tough it out, and I'm glad I did. Because the last two-thirds of this was really good. I like the main group; it's set up like an adult Scooby-Doo. I liked the creature they picked for which was off the beaten path with the Hopsville creature-esque look. Also, one point for the end of the book because the artwork for that was killer, and what hooked me to borrow volume 2! 

I don't think I can explain how fast I got off Instagram to put this book on my Kindle. Grady Hendrix has become one of my favorite authors in horror. This book shows a hundred percent why. It was so creepy and told a complete story in just 36 pages. Somehow Hendrix wove a story so complete that I didn't need more after I finished the book. It absolutely broke my heart and creeped me out at the same time. Yet I wasn't left feeling like something was missing. Just that I just need to read something happy. Because that was a heavy 36 pages. I even like that we didn't fully understand the Blanks. Just like we never fully got to see what exactly they had done, only that it was horrible and there was no escaping it. I liked the not knowing in this case; it seemed to add to the anxiety the entire time. Would I read more about these creators? Yes, I would trip over my feet to do that. Do we need more? No, no one is emotionally ready for that.

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.

The story of the vengeful barber Sweeney Todd has gripped fans across literary, stage, and screen renditions—but little has been told of Mrs. Lovett, Todd’s partner in crime. Until now.

Enclosed herewith: a bloodcurdling correspondence of horror and intrigue, based on the original Victorian penny dreadful that started it all.

“Your fingers may bleed with paper cuts as you tear through The Butcher's Daughter . . . I am spellbound."—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

London, 1887: At the abandoned apartment of a missing young woman, a dossier of evidence is collected, ordered chronologically, and sent to the Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police. It contains a frightening correspondence between an inquisitive journalist, Miss Emily Gibson, and the woman Gibson thinks may be the infamous Mrs. Lovett—Sweeney Todd’s accomplice, “a wicked woman” who baked men into pies and sold them in her pie shop on Fleet Street. The talk of London Town—even decades after her horrendous misdeeds.

As the woman relays the harrowing account of her life—from her upbringing on Butcher’s Row in the unruly streets of Victorian London to her daring escape from a mad doctor—her missives unlock an intricate mystery that brings Miss Gibson closer to the truth, even as that truth may cost her everything.

A hair-raising and breathtaking novel for fans of Sarah Waters and Gregory Maguire, The Butcher’s Daughter is an irresistible literary thriller that draws richly from historical sources and shines new light on the woman behind the counter of the most disreputable pie shop ever known.

Why I'm Waiting: They had me at Mrs. Lovett and her terrible, terrible pies!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Hollis Brown is stuck. Born to a Blue-Collar American Dream, Hollis lives in a rotting small town where no one can afford to leave. Hollis's only bright spots are his two best friends, cool girls Annie and Yulia, and the thrill of fighting his classmates.

As if his circumstances couldn’t get worse, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger named Walt results in a frightening trap. After unknowingly making a deal at the crossroads, Hollis finds himself losing control of his body and mind, falling victim to possession. Walt, the ghost making a home inside him, has a deep and violent history rooted in the town Hollis grew up in and he has unfinished business to take care of.

As Walt and Hollis begin working together to put Walt’s spirit to rest, an unspeakable bond forms between them, and the boys begin falling for one another in unexpected ways. But, it’s only a matter of time before Hollis’s best friends begin to notice that something about Hollis isn’t quite…right.

With the threat of a long overdue exorcism looming before them, will Walt and Hollis be able to protect their love and undo the curse that turned their town from a garden of possibility into a place where dreams go to die?

HAPPY READING!!

May Silent Book Club

A huge thank you to everyone who came to read with us last week! So many of us gathered for an hour of silent reading. I couldn't believe that we filled three of Leftcraft's large community tables. I think that might have been our biggest crowd yet. It was amazing to see, and I hope we can continue to see a crowd like this summer! It was so much fun to see what everyone had been up to and what everyone is currently reading.

If you couldn't come to the April meet-up, no worries! We'll be gathering at Leftcraft again on May 21st at 7 pm! Sadly, I will not be at this Silent Book Club. I'm going to see one of my favorite authors talk about his new book on the same day. But I can't wait to hear all about the meeting, and I hope our sub-in hosts have a full house!

Hope to see you there!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially 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'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Can they survive the story within?

When legendary horror author Mortimer Queen passes, a group of writers find themselves invited to his last will and testament reading expecting a piece of his massive fortune. Each have their own unique connection to the literary icon, some known, some soon to be discovered, and they've been waiting for their chance to step into the author's shoes for some time.

Instead, they arrive at his grand manor and are invited to play a game. The rules are simple, solve the riddle and progress to the next room. If they don't, the manor will take one of them for itself.

You see, the Queen estate was built on the bones of Mortimer's family, and like any true horror story, the house is still very, very hungry.

With the clever, locked-room thrills of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone with the ghostly horror of The Fall of the House of Usher, How to Survive a Horror Story is a bright, biting, thrill-ride that begs us to contemplate how the best horror stories come to be.

HAPPY READING!!

Book Mail

Everyone, remain calm because this is not a drill. It's finally here, in my hands. Murder by Cheesecake is not only on shelves but now in my house. The downside is I am unbelievably busy with work this weekend because of Easter. So it is going to have to wait until my next day before I crack the spine on this one. I have such high hopes for this because it combines two of my favorite things: cozy murder mysteries and the Golden Girls! I'm sure it's going to be worth the wait. But I'm so excited for my next day off. 

I'm going to need so many snacks...

I'm absolutely not keeping my chill about this. I totally have NetGalley books and library books that I should be finishing before I start this. But I make no promises. There is a small chance I will start and finish this in a day. I've been known to do it.

HAPPY READING!!

Red Rabbit - Review

Author: Alex Grecian

Genre: Western / Horror

Format: Paperback

Pages: 455

As a huge fan of Alex Grecian's The Murder Squad, I was excited for him to deep into a western. Not just any Western, though, one based in my home state. I had high hopes I was going to enjoy this. Thankfully, I was not disappointed; I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Having read other books by Grecian, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into with this book. And, for the most part, I was correct. There were some creepy jump scares here and there. So parts that broke my heart, and one single part that nearly made me lose a small portion of my lunch.

And, it's been a while since a book has grossed me out that much. 

What I didn't expect was how much of an oddsey this book was. When you first start this book, you're not sure how all these characters fit together. All these different parts that don't look like they fit together at all, or shouldn't fit together.

There were only two parts of this whole book I called from the start, and that was who and what Rabbit was. After that, all of my theories were wrong. There were a couple that were close, but still not correct. 

Red Rabbit has a lot of twists and turns throughout. Enough to keep you reading, but not enough to make you wonder if they were ever going to make it to Riddle. I will admit that it even had me not realizing how important one character was until it was almost spelled out to me, despite the foreshadowing. 

Bonus for how Grecian used the Bender family in this story. A very clever way to wind them into the story. However, it lost a star for what happened to Ned and Willie. That was some bull, and we all know it. Ned deserved better.

I said, what, I said.

I am, however, glad I bought Rose of Jericho, which is the next book in this series. I'm curious about what kind of trouble the trio of ladies is gonna find on the East Coast. So that's moved to my 2025 To Be Read pile.

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.

A riveting, deeply researched, blood-on-the-spurs biography of Belle Starr, the most legendary female outlaw of the American West.

On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley—better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet “Belle Starr”—was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.

While today’s household names like Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane had dubious criminal bona fides, Belle’s were not in any doubt. She led a gang of horse thieves (a very serious crime in an era when horses were often the basis of one’s livelihood); was romantically involved with two of the West’s most legendary outlaws, Cole Younger and Jim Reed (her first husband); and participated in stickups and robberies across present-day Texas and Oklahoma. When Reed was murdered, Belle crossed into Indian Territory, where she assimilated into the Cherokee tribe, a matrilineal society, and soon married Sam Starr, a direct descendant of Nanye’hi, the greatest female warrior in Cherokee history.

Dane Huckelbridge, acclaimed author of No Beast So Fierce, probes a life rich in contradictions and intrigue. Why did a woman who had considerable advantages in life—a good family, a decent education, solid marriage prospects, a clear path to financial security—choose to pursue a life of crime? The life of Belle Starr is one of almost endless trauma: the horrors of the Civil War, which destroyed her hometown and killed her beloved brother, Bud; the untimely deaths of her first two husbands, both of them murdered; a stint in Detroit’s notorious women’s prison. Her career coincided with those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and yet Belle Starr was a very different sort of feminist icon.

Queen of All Mayhem is a triumph of biography, revealing one of the most-mythologized figures of Western lore as she truly was.

Why I'm Waiting: Because I lived in the Midwest for 20+ years and I've never heard of Belle Starr.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche’s hot flashes. Rose’s cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can't balance the groom’s family’s snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again!

Dorothy quickly realizes she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a newfangled VHS dating service, she believes she’s found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she’ll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup.

As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place. That is until Dorothy’s date is found dead, face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It’s up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially 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'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Every woman who has lived on this farm has died. Emily just moved in.

When Emily Hauk's mother dies, it's time for her and her husband, Josh, to finally leave San Francisco. A farm in rural Nebraska is everything they want for a fresh start: clear skies, low costs, and distance from the grief back home. 

They should have asked why the farm was for sale. 

Three years ago a teenage girl went missing from the farm. Soon afterward, the girl's mother mysteriously died. The deeper Emily digs the more stories she uncovers of women connected to her new home who've met their own dark ends.

With each passing day Emily's sanctuary slips further away. The barn seems to move throughout her property as though chasing her. Her mother's favorite music drifts across the cornfield. She swears she saw blood in one of the farmhand's trucks. And the screams that wake her are not fox howls, no matter how many times her husband says they are. If she wants to claim this place as her own she'll have to find out the truth before whatever watches from the cornfield takes her, too.

HAPPY READING!!

Surprise Book Mail

LOOK AT IT! LOOK WHAT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! ROYCE IS INSIDE THERE!!

Listen, this is as calm as I'm going to be over this because I squealed in our mail office when I saw who the second package was from. Yes, I got the email saying books had arrived and some had been mailed. What I didn't know was that one of my packages was the one that had left. That's like the downside of Kickstarter. Sometimes you know when it's coming, and sometimes you get little book surprises in your mail slot. I've been waiting for what feels like years for this book. Not because of the Kickstarter, just from the little nuggets about this job we got in the other books of the series. I'm so excited to dive into this. 

Also, bonus, I forgot this book had a few of the sketches from Sullivan's notes. Amazing!

The only downside is I have so many good books sitting on my physical TBR, and I have one more in route for next week. I think this summer is just going to be outside trying to do some sort of damage to this pile. Because it started out in January as manageable, and now. I don't know what has happened. I mean, do but I'm denying this fact. Not that it matters because for the first time in years I have a new Royce book! And this will be the next physical read after Red Rabbit.  

HAPPY READING!!

Night Worm Unboxing

April Theme: Buried Hearts

It's my favorite time of the month because Night Worms is here! I know nothing about either of the authors because I haven't read them before, so that's also exciting. Both of them have my attention for different reasons. I like how weird Blood on Her Tongue sounds, and I love the surprise we got with this book. I didn't realize it was going to have little decoration (I don't want to spoil too much). As for Nowhere small town books always catch my eye in horror because I grew up in a Midwest small town, surrounded by corn and open fields. So I get the creep in that.

Both of these stickers are a lot of fun! They have gone into the collection drawer with the others until I found a forever home for them. I'm not a keeper of stickers. I feel like they are meant to be stuck on stuff! I am super excited about the coffee, and it came at the perfect time because I have an empty coffee pot. So I will be giving this a try this morning. I really like this brand and I haven't really had a flavor I didn't like to some degree!

Another killer month from Night Worms! So a huge thank you to both Sadie and Ashley for adding not only my book collection but beverage collection as well!

HAPPY READING!!

Cat Got Your Tongue - Review

 

Author: Hannah Shaw

Genre: Nonfiction / Humor

Format: Kindle

Pages: 128

This won't be a long review, but I didn't want to bunch this one up with the other mini-reviews. One, because NetGalley and Ten Speed Press were amazing and sent me an early copy. Two, because this was absolutely adorable, and I need to fawn over it in more than just one paragraph! Maybe in two or three. 

For those that may not know, Hannah Shaw is also known as the Kitten Lady. To badly summarize what she does, she educates and rescues kittens (probably cats of all sizes), and you should look her up on Instagram. I've been following her off and on since 2020. So I didn't think twice about requesting her newest book.

I do love a good coffee table book about cats, and Cat Got Your Tongue? will be added to that collection in July when it hits shelves. Because this was adorable, super fun, and I want to support Hannah Shaw. I great reason to add this one to my collection.

My favorite part of this book was that Shaw included the sayings in the original language. Not just a, here's the translated version and where it's from. Having the original language just felt more representative of the region the saying was from. 

My second favorite thing was the illustrations. They were so much fun and really cute. I  definitely had favorites of not just the sayings but of the illustrations as well.

Cat Got Your Tongue? is a quick and fun read that anyone of any age can enjoy. It's perfect for the cat lover in your life. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and cannot thank Ten Speed Press enough for a chance to read this a few months early. 

Also, we have a cat saying in our house. When we get invited to things that aren't our vibe, we tell them, "Oh no, I'm an inside cat." I use it all the time.

Cat Got Your Tongue? hits shelves on July 1st, 2025!

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.

In this delightful comic twist on the magical world of The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia is just your average monster-slaying dad, trying to raise young Ciri to be a good kid while teaching her all about life as a Witcher.

Young Ciri's extensive training at Kaer Morhen, the witchers' stronghold, includes everything she needs to learn to survive the many threats in her world ... as well as all the antics and fun of a little girl bonding with her adoptive dad and family.

With help from Geralt and Ciri's closest companions—including the motherly magic of Yennefer of Vengerberg, and the wisdom of uncle Vesemir—these adorable tales of a non-traditional family will make you laugh, make you sigh, and make you realize that raising a Little Witcher is not that different from raising any other kid. Sure, bedtime stories might include warnings of monsters who fart when surprised, and Geralt might invoke the Witcher Code to get Ciri to brush her teeth or clean her room, but even the formidable White Wolf knows when to surrender when it comes to bedtime battles or Afternoon Tea with the toys.

Why I'm Waiting:  Because I love the Witcher and this sounds adorable.

HAPPY READING!!