February Silent Book Club

A huge thank you to everyone for joining us on Wednesday for an hour of reading! Winter is finally with us, so thanks for braving the cold to come to eat and read with us. If you couldn't join us, no worries, we'll be back in February! We meet every third Wednesday, so our next meet-up is February 19th. As usual, everything will kick off at 7pm at Leftcraft, and we're easy to spot. They put us right in the middle of the restaurant at the long tables! 

All readers are welcome, no matter how you read or what you read! Yes, even audiobooks are still considered reading at our Edmonds Silent Book Club. So, if you're looking for something warm to do in February, come reading with us! If you have any questions about the location, the menu, or anything at all, feel free to reach out to me here (or my Instagram @Bookish_Whispers) or the Edmonds Silent Book Club Instagram, @silentbookclubedmonds.

HAPPY READING!!

Book Mail

So way back in December, I was flipping through NetGalley to see if anything tickled my fancy. You know like you do when you're bored, but also trying not to request too many things then overwhelm yourself. It's a delicate balance, that I usually manage these days. But, while I was trying to maintain that balance, I saw what I thought was amazing! I wouldn't call myself a Disney Adult (for many, many reasons) but I have a few movie favorites, one of which is Brave. So when I was dinking around on NetGalley and saw that the movie was turned into a small comic I was super excited and immediately added it to my TBR.

While adding it to my Goodreads TBR, I realized that the publishing company Papercutz had a whole series of turning Disney movies into comics. Two of which are my absolute favorites. So at the start of December, I went through and added the three that I needed to add to my library. Because both Atlantis and Sword in the Stone are two of my top favorite Disney movies. They are also two of the most underrated Disney movies. Mad Madame Mim is still one of my favorite Disney villains.

I was as patiently as I could be waiting for these to arrive. Not only had I added them to my pre-order, but their publishing dates were all Christmas Eve. So, I knew staff were gone for the Holidays, but I was itching to get my hands on these. Finally, they arrived. They are amazing, and now I need to find someplace to display them. Which means another craft project on my list because I'd like to display two of these covers out on my wall.

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.

Breaking away from history as told through the lens of kings, queens and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers and oddballs. Through these stories you will meet characters such as: 

• The Chevalier d'Eon – a fencing master, spy and diplomat who came out as a woman in 18th-century London
• Ellen and William Craft – a married couple who made a daring escape from slavery in the American south 
• Peter the Wild Boy – a child found living in the woods in Germany who was taken to the royal court in England
• Caroline Herschel – the first British woman to be paid for scientific work, and a discoverer of comets
• William Buckland – the man who wrote the first account of a dinosaur – yet who also ate the heart of a French king
• Eleanor Rykener – a gender-bending sex worker from medieval England who spilled juicy gossip about her clients in the clergy Juliana Popjoy - a society beauty who lived in a tree for years
• Paul Robeson – athlete, singer, actor, polyglot, activist... and handsome to boot
• The Rebecca Rioters – a roving crowd of Welshmen who destroyed tollbooths dressed in skirts and bonnets.

These poignant and often hilarious true stories show us that the world as we know it was built by a wider array of historical figures than we experienced in our schoolbooks.

Why I'm Waiting: This sounds like a lot of fun!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

 

    HAPPY READING!!

Night Worms Unboxing

January Theme: Moody Midnights

First Night Worms of 2025! There's been so much book mail this month, but I'm always most excited to see what Sadie and Ashley put together for Night Worms. January's box is a little different for me, I haven't heard of either of these books or their authors. One is more up my alley than the other, I tend to read more Gothics than sapphic thrillers, but anything with an ancient evil attached is worth cracking open. 

I'm super excited for Beneath the Poet's House, it's an interesting take on the Poe story and an unsung person in his past that I've only seen as a footnote. Feast While You Can has been snagged by my roommate for her TBR pile. So everyone was excited about something in this box. The tea will be amazing because my voice is wrecked from all this coughing. It smells so good! And, I need to find a place for the Reading is Sexy sticker. 

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!

After returning to his hometown, Paul, the beleaguered host of a small-time podcast, discovers a longtime friend committed suicide in the dilapidated ruins of Paul’s childhood home. Desperate to find answers, Paul interviews friends and locals hoping to find closure. He finds himself in a chilling downward spiral of his memories and the land he grew up on. Has his past caught up with him or is there something far more sinister at play?

HAPPY READING!!

Mini Review

This was fun. It got bonus points because Grandma got to go along on this adventure, and I think we can all agree she's one of the best characters in the series. It did lose a point because Cricket was nowhere to be seen. Perfect for younger readers and Disney lovers alike.

I love Gert and Larry so much! This second series has been a lot of fun. There is kind of an overall plot if you squint and turn your head to the side. I have been loving all the little mini stories so much, though, the Billy Goats Gruff story was my favorite of this volume. I have my fingers crossed that we're getting a Volume Eight. While I wouldn't say this one ended on a cliffhanger, but I do have some questions. Like is Gert stuck in the form, if yes, are we getting a Kaiju issue? Lastly, how kind of hell is Cloudia raising because she looked like she was about to commit a crime? I just want to know what kind of crime. World domination? Or, just be random bits of crime because she can?

HAPPY READING!!

Book Haul

My place has this community portal where you can take polls, leave reviews, post photos, etc., and earn points. All year, I play all the silly games and post little adorable pictures of my cat or the food I cook. I take every poll and fill out all the reviews. I try to earn all the points I can, and normally at the start of December, I cash out all my points for a Barnes and Noble gift card at the end of the year, or the beginning of the next, so I can do a little haul. For whatever reason that escapes me, I didn't cash any points out in 2023, so there was a lot, which meant I had a pretty hefty sum to cash out this year. On top of reward cash for Barnes and Noble getting ready to expire. 

So because I've been ill and work has been crazy busy with the holidays, I jumped online to do a bit of retail therapy. Listen I have bronchitis and coughing so much my stomach muscles hurt, I needed some joy. Honestly, I didn't go all that crazy. I stuck to books I really wanted from favorite authors, and one I got told by a friend I just had to read on my Manga, Manhwa, journey. So I have a super small haul, with a month left in case I need another little treat later.

Not in the photo is the gem of this haul because it's too thin and wasn't easy to get in the stack, but also because I'd cracked it open. I finally got my hands on I Hate Fairyland, Volume 7! I've already read it and loved it, a mini-review coming tomorrow. The Next stop is without a doubt The Metalhead Next Door. It's a toss-up as to who is going to read Gibson's newest book first, me or my roommate. Sometimes she snipes my shiny new books because she knows I have a whole library (and a stack of actual library books) to read from.

Listen I'm starting this year out right, with buying books that I do not have space on my bookshelf for, and I have two more on the way thanks to Night Worms. Some call it a problem, even hoarding, I call to collecting because I understand that I now own more books than I'll have read. But, if you haven't at least looked at the cover of Evocation in person, you have to. Not only is the dust cover beautiful, but the actual hardback is gorgeous, so even if this book isn't for you, you should bask in its glory. 

Anyone else start their 2025 with a book haul?

HAPPY READING!!

January Silent Book Club

It may be a new year, but nothing has changed about the Edmonds Silent Book Club. We're still meeting at Leftcraft in downtown Edmonds, everything kicks off at 7 pm. All readers are welcome, it doesn't matter what you're reading or how you're reading. Come and join us for good food and meet other readers! The first Silent Book Club meet-up of 2025 is on January 15th! So if you're in the North Seattle area we'd love to see you there!

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.

On Halloween night, Josie and her two best friends, Jackson and Alison, sneak into the infamously haunted Bachelor’s Grove cemetery. They are hoping to prove the existence of a famous ghost to secure coveted editorial spots on the school newspaper. Instead, they are chased out by a security guard before they gather any evidence…or so they think.

Later, a sinister meme appears on their phones. It’s an image of the “phantom farmhouse,” an evil apparition rumored to appear to unlucky visitors at Bachelor's Grove—luring them in…and never letting them out—with the words I’m watching dripping down the screen.

Soon, strange and scary things begin to happen all around them. When a second meme from the same number arrives, this time with a countdown, they realize they have only three days to figure out who is terrorizing them. As they investigate, the trio must use their journalistic skills to uncover the truth, or risk becoming a part of the graveyard’s sinister past forever.

Why I'm Waiting: I know this is geared toward younger readers but does sound super creepy.

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Cornell was found hanging in a barn, four months pregnant, after a disgraceful liaison with a charismatic Methodist minister, Reverend Ephraim Avery. Some (Avery’s lawyers) claimed her death was suicide…but others weren’t so sure. Determined to uncover the real story, intrepid Victorian writer Catharine Williams threw herself into the investigation and wrote what many claim is the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The case and Williams’ book became a sensation—one that divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. But the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell’s death. Until now.

In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to 19th century small town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—such as “forensic knot analysis” to determine cause of death, the prosecutor’s notes from 1833, and criminal profiling which was invented 55 years later with Jack the Ripper—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams’ research to find the truth. Along the way she also examines how society decides who is the “right kind” of crime victim and how America’s long history of religious evangelism may have clouded the facts both in the 1830s and today. Ultimately, The Sinners All Bow brings justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given.

    HAPPY READING!!