It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Nov 2

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and are about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Happy November, everyone! Can you believe we are in month eleven of 2026? It blows my mind. Hope you had a nice week. Mine was good, yet emotionally exhausting. Last Thursday, I attended the ribbon-cutting for the new Veterans Home in Holyoke. It is amazing! I haven't been there since my father-in-law's death. It was nice, however, to connect with friends who also lost loved ones during the early months of the pandemic. Here are some photos from my week:

Date night dinner on Halloween

New Veterans Home in Holyoke, MA

Some of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home Coalition who advocated for the new home

Theo is not a fan of the scarecrow

Evening walk in our woods

Have you decided on your books for the Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon? Look for my post later this month.

I have decided that if I finish a book, it won't appear on my list for the week. I will simply post my review when it's time. If it is for a virtual book tour, the date that I plan to post the review will appear in the list of upcoming events. 

I still haven't started Harboring the Enemy: The Civil War Heroine History Forgot by R. C. Duffy yet. Not sure if I can before it expires. 

I bought an Audible copy of this book so I can read it in time. The TV MBA: Business Lessons from Popular Culture by Rhymer Rigby is great, though I find his reading speed hard to follow.

I am enjoying Starry-Eyed Christmas by Sheila Roberts. This is for a December review.

 

You can read my First Chapter Review of Shifta by Miles Joyner later today.

The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles still didn't get any attention this week. I wish I could get more downtime. Not looking likely with my work schedule and a trip to see the Lil' Princess coming up. 

I am looking forward to reading Soledad and the Curse of the Phoenix by Mindy Baker. 

I will be reading Just Enough Room for Christmas by Robin Currie soon. 

Upcoming Events

• Yuletide Murder at Sea by Sue Stewart - Nov 4 (Interview)
• Still Wild: Poems from the Bear Shack by Suzanne Sunshower - Dec 14 (Review)
• Starry-Eyed for Christmas by Sheila Roberts - Dec 16 (Review)
• Sugar Sand Land by Patricia Leavy - Dec 17 (Spotlight & Giveaway)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme was last hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. It appears to be on hiatus, but I will keep sharing new books. 

Only two new arrivals this week. One for review and one was free with a promotional credit. 

A Match Made at Christmas by Amy R. Anguish et al.

T is for Traffic Cone: The City Pigeon's Alphabet by Sarah Feingold

Christmas Year Round

This week's Journey through Christmases Past looks back at 1955. So many interesting things happened that year. Find my post here. 

Authors are signing up for my latest idea. The Christmas Memory Collection will feature authors sharing memories, traditions, and other holiday stories. Check out the details here if you wish to participate. Space is limited. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Recent kidlit arrivals appear here.

Laura's Little Houses

Wished Michael Landon a happy birthday. He would have been 90 on Halloween. See that post here.

I also asked which Little House on the Prairie character I should profile next. Please weigh in here.

That's it for me. I am in and out today, so I will check in as I can. Enjoy your day!

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favorite Memory From My Childhood

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but if you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews requests that you share your link in their weekly post on their website (which will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Visit the other bloggers participating to see what they discuss that week. Comments are appreciated. 

Happy Wednesday! Halloween is almost here. Are you going out with kids or grandkids this weekend? I'm not even sure we will be home. Ever since the Lil' Diva started her new job, she comes here to eat on Friday nights, so date night is now Saturday.

This week's prompt should be interesting. Haven't I already said that my childhood was so traumatic that I blocked most of it out? That is what makes me a good writer--tons of inspiration. 

While this might sound too unoriginal, any memories that involved holidays were my favorite. The extended family would come over. We had a silver bowl of mixed nuts on the table with the nutcracker. A crystal bowl of butter mints sat on the coffee table. We had thin mints in a cardboard box. At Christmas time, strips of ribbon candy in colorful rectangular boxes and bags of hard candies were spread on different surfaces. The women handled the cooking: turkey, mashed potatoes, meat stuffing, and turnip. The men set up the long tables so everyone could eat together. We played games. Some sporting event or parade was probably on the TV. These were the moments when we seemed normal. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Haunted Lighthouses I Dare You To Spend A Night In and Tell Me Something Tuesday: Who Do You Want on Your Team During the Zombie Apocalypse and Why?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

Welcome to the final Tuesday of October. We are only four days away from Halloween, my second favorite holiday. It's truly a shame I haven't decorated for it. I might try on Wednesday or Thursday, but my work schedule is weird this week. 

Today is a Halloween freebie, and I wanted to be creative, so I asked AI for a few ideas. Then I tweaked the best idea to my liking. Here are the...

Top Ten Haunted Lighthouses

 I Dare You to Spend A Night In

1. The lighthouse on a Scottish remote island from The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke: Nothing like spending some time in a lighthouse built over a cave that was once used as a prison to house women accused of witchcraft. 

2. The Maiden Rock Lighthouse from The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex: Would you spend a night in a lighthouse in a remote area miles from the Cornish coast where three lighthouse keepers have disappeared? 

3. The lighthouse in The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox: Now, this would be an interesting place because the area is home to a reclusive widow accused of witchcraft, a transcendentalist preacher haunted by the memories of his former life, and a killer inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Doesn't that lighthouse give you the warm and fuzzies? 

4. The beacon at Lizard Light Cottage from The Ghost of Lizard Light by Elvira Woodruff: You could share your space with a ten-year-old boy who died in a shipwreck and help him solve the mystery of his father's death. That sounds tame enough.

5. The lighthouse from The Watch House by Robert Westall: Would you spend the night in an abandoned lighthouse in a seaside village filled with a treasure trove of history and strange writing that appears in the glass display cases?

6. The lighthouse in The Forlorned by Angela J. Townsend: Imagine having the fun of staying the night in a house the newest resident calls "damned." You will visit with ghosts and learn more about the island's evil past. Doesn't that sound inviting?

7. The lighthouse in Shadows Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft: Spend the night in a decaying Massachusetts town with deformed inhabitants with bulging eyes and scaly skin where the villagers are prone to human sacrifices. Would you even cross the border into that town? 

8.  The lighthouse in Haunted Lighthouse by R. L. Stine: How about packing an overnight bag to stay in a lighthouse on Cape Cod that is said to have nearby boats filled with singing ghosts? Did I mention you might disappear?

9. The Cape Lookout light in The Haunting of Cape Lookout Lighthouse by J. D. Ricks: You had to know an OBX lighthouse would make the list. Here, you could hang your hat in a lighthouse with doors that lead where they shouldn't, stairways shift under your feet, and the dead whisper through radios and hidden rooms. Doesn't that sound charming?

10. The beacon from The Lamplighter by Crystal J. Bell: Wouldn't a nineteenth-century whaling village known for its lucky ship figureheads and people disappearing into the night fog make you want to extend your stay? Maybe not. 

Tell Me Something Tuesday (TMST) is hosted by Jen Twimom at That's What I'm Talking About. TMST is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics, from books and blogging to life in general. Participation is optional, and you can leave your comments in the weekly post when you participate. Check it out if you're interested in joining.

This week's Tell Me Something Tuesday prompt asks: Who do you want on your team during the zombie apocalypse and why?

This was an easier question to answer than I was anticipating for Halloween week. In the early years of my blogging life, I discovered Karina Fabian's Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator. From California to Utah to sometime in the future, Neeta Lyffe is exterminating zombies. Who else would I possibly need? Though Vern, who is a dragon private investigator, can handle demons pretty well. I wonder what he thinks of zombies. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Oct 26

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and are about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Welcome to the last Monday of October. Can you believe how fast we got here? Christmas is less than 60 days away! I will never be ready this year, but spending time with family counts the most. 

Hope you had a fabulous week. Mine flew by. It was filled with appointments, another visit from the Lil' Princess, training, and tossing around some business plan ideas for 2027. Here are photos of the other fun things: 

Our evening walk behind the house

Fall looks good from my driveway

Tweaked the Autumn Spiced Jam recipe I found on Insta

ChatGPT fun of asking the AI to put me in a TV show it thinks I should be in

Lazy Sunday morning for Theo and Travis

ProWritingAid is hosting Novel November (NovNov) again this year. I might do some writing, but I won't participate. Our local writers guild is also holding a November event. I will cheer from the sidelines. 

Have you decided on your books for the Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon? I will create a post for my list in November. Who knows how many I will get to, but it will be fun anyway.

This week's reading world looked like this:

Poor The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles didn't get any attention this week. 

I still haven't started Harboring the Enemy: The Civil War Heroine History Forgot by R. C. Duffy yet. 

I read more of  The TV MBA: Business Lessons from Popular Culture by Rhymer Rigby. Such fascinating material. 

Look for my review of  Still Wild: Poems from the Bear Shack by Suzanne Sunshower in December.

Finished Building A StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller. Check out my review here. I also finished The Knot: Problems Can Be Solved by Seth Godin. You will find that review at the same link. 

Read more from Starry-Eyed Christmas by Sheila Roberts. This is for a December review.

 

I plan to read Shifta by Miles Joyner for a First Chapter Review coming November 2.

I am also looking forward to reading Soledad and the Curse of the Phoenix by Mindy Baker. 

Upcoming Events

• Shifta by Miles Joyner - Nov 2 (First Chapter Review)
• Yuletide Murder at Sea by Sue Stewart - Nov 4 (Interview)
• Still Wild: Poems from the Bear Shack by Suzanne Sunshower - Dec 14 (Review)
• Starry-Eyed for Christmas by Sheila Roberts - Dec 16 (Review)
• Sugar Sand Land by Patricia Leavy - Dec 17 (Spotlight & Giveaway)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme was last hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. It appears to be on hiatus, but I will keep sharing new books. 

Somebody, please stop me! I grabbed a few Kindle freebies and an audiobook since we last visited. I also ordered three used books and the latest from Sheila Roberts. That should be it for 2026, though I might have one more Audible purchase in me. 

I Once Knew A Guy Named Charlie by Jacklyn Smith

Blogging for Today's Writer by Edie Melson

Have Yourself A Merry Little Meltdown by Sheila Roberts

The Mistletoe Express by Tara Baisden

Montana Christmas Magic by Kaylie Newell

Once Upon a Christmas by Jane Porter

A Home in the West by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith

Christmas Year Round

This week's Journey through Christmases Past looks into the tumultuous year of 1837. Find my post here. 

Authors are signing up for my latest idea. The Christmas Memory Collection will feature authors sharing memories, traditions, and other holiday stories. If you wish to participate, you can find the details here. Space is limited. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

This week, I posted a few Halloween books for kids and teens that were released this year. You can find that post here.

Laura's Little Houses

Thanks to some time off, I finished my character profile of Harriet Oleson. If you loved Katherine MacGregor's portrayal as much as I did, you can read that post here.

That's all from me this week. By the time we reconnect for next week's post, November will be here. Bring on the holiday season!