Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Covers with Black Cats and Tell Me Something Tuesday: What Animal Do You Think Best Represents Your Personality?

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. 

Here we are at Tuesday again. Hope your week is going well. I start today with a closing and hosting a broker's open. 

Top Ten Tuesday asked us to share books with autumnal covers, but since I posted about book covers that inspire me to take a fall road trip recently, it seems like another idea would work better. So, in honor of our black cat, Travis, here are...

Top Ten Book Covers with Black Cats

Hex the Halls by Mindy Kalsky et al.

A Whiskered Perspective by M. G. Spear

Halloween Murder by Leslie Meier

Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by James Dean and Eric Litwin

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

MEOW! by Vanessa Morgan

Where Did Panther Go? by Vivian Zabel

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman

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: What animal do you think best represents your personality? Try not to be unnerved by my answer. LOL!

This is where my love of cartoons shines through. Since my days of watching Looney Tunes in front of the only television in our childhood home, Taz has been my favorite character. Like the Tasmanian devil, I am social in groups where I am comfortable. I consider myself passionate, expressive, and full of life. However, I am also feisty, loud, and impulsive, so I can be a bit unpredictable... though I don't think I am quite as unpredictable as Looney Tunes Taz. 

Looking forward to reading your blogs later today. 

Book Spotlight and Giveaway: Dazzled by the Light: Linda Goodman, Pop Astrology and the New Age by Karen Christino

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Karen Christino will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

New Age trailblazer Linda Goodman wrote best-selling books and empowered millions with astrology’s insights. Strong willed, complicated and fiercely independent, she had three husbands, six kids, legions of fans, and extraordinary success. An idealistic seeker, she believed she could create the world she chose; yet with her daughter’s suicide at 21, she shrank from reality. Dazzled by the Light covers Linda’s West Virginia roots, her relationship struggles, professional achievements and financial setbacks. Enriched with in-depth research, vivid portraits of New Age figures, friends’ candid recollections, and Linda’s effervescent prose, this comprehensive biography illuminates the life and times of an enigmatic icon.

Read an Excerpt

Love Letters radio show, 1957

Before Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs success, her most successful project was a radio show called “Love Letters from Linda.” She was preoccupied with love, and was an adroit letter writer; “Love Letters” combined the two. Her show aired in Pittsburgh, where the family had moved in 1957.

From the perspective of a mother of three in a secure marriage, the project may have helped put her sometimes tumultuous past in context. We can envision Linda writing passionate letters to her ex-husband Bill Snyder overseas in the 1940s, while listening to sentimental standards on the radio. Then ten years later imagining penning the loving and supportive missives she would have preferred, or the kind of letters she and her current husband Sam might have exchanged.

The show allowed her to relive her younger days when life held few limitations or responsibilities, when she was a beauty pageant contestant. Linda was the writer and the announcer for the show, which featured romantic songs from the 1940s. She probably read letters she’d created to depict correspondence between soldiers and their sweethearts at home.

“Love Letters” was broadcast in October of 1957 on Monday and Thursday evenings on WJAS in downtown Pittsburgh, and ran through 1961. Linda probably refreshed the letters and switched up the songs. She, herself, was often nostalgic for the past. But the show was innovative, since “oldies” radio didn’t become popular until the 1960s and ‘70s. Once the family moved to New York City, Goodman set her sights on bigger things.

About the Author: A consulting astrologer for over 20 years, Karen Christino has written nine books about astrology and horoscopes for Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Modern Bride, and Seventeen magazines. She has a B.A. from Colgate University and also studied at Columbia University.

Website: https://karenchristino.com/
Dazzled by the Light book page: https://karenchristino.com/books/dazzled-by-the-light-linda-goodman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014294347020
Dazzled on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B0hZwAWIm

Karen Christino will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Oct 12

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 back to Monday! I hope you had a wonderful week. Mine was filled with gardening, eating out, networking events, and real estate offers. Here are a few photos:

Found these potatoes hiding in the dirt when I emptied the growing bags. That always happens. 

Grabbed a bite to eat for lunch while working one day. It's good to treat yourself every once in a while.

Hanging out with one of the lenders I know. Won a great picnic backpack filled with fun stuff. 

Today, the Lil' Princess is coming home for a few days, which makes me happy. 

As far as reading goes, it was a slower week than expected. I didn't open The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles last week. 

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

I finished She Forgot She Was Free: Returning to the Girl You Were Before the World Got Loud by Giselle Mascarenhas. Look for my review on October 14.

I read a bit of The TV MBA: Business Lessons from Popular Culture by Rhymer Rigby. 

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

I finished The Knot: Problems Can Be Solved by Seth Godin this week. Liked the contents. Probably need it in printed form to make the most of it. 

Then I started Building A StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller. This book is fascinating so far. 

 

Upcoming Events

• She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas - Oct 14 (Review)
• 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 keep sharing new books. 

Two new holiday books arrived this week. 

Starry-Eyed Christmas by Sheila Roberts for a December review.

I grabbed The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin from my wish list. 

Christmas Year Round

This week's Journey through Christmases Past post is about Columbus, Indigenous celebrations, and Canada. Check it out here. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Recent reviews at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection include:

Day in the Snow by Fiona Craig

Counting Winter by Nancy White Carlstrom

I also added another "What Do You Think?" post. This one is about favorite children's books. You can read that here. 

Laura's Little Houses

I am currently working on a character profile of Harriet Oleson. 

Lots going on, but it is all fun stuff. Hoping to take Wednesday off so I can spend time with our daughter before she heads back to Maine on Friday. That's it from my end of the world. Enjoy your week!

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Profession from a Book/Movie/TV Show I'd Like to Try

 

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. 

Welcome back to Wednesday. Glad to have you here. This week's prompt is amazing. I didn't even have to think about it, which makes it even easier. 

From the time I watched Quincy M. E., I've wanted to work in forensic science. I love analyzing and discovering things. They call me Nancy Drew at the office. Eventually, that desire gave way to wanting to be a teacher or a writer. I was a Sunday School teacher for more than 20 years. Can't say I was the best one. I'm glad I never chose education as a full-time job. Thankfully, my writing dreams came true. But forensic science has always fascinated me, and if I ever chose a new career, I would return to school for my Bachelor's in that field. 

Looking forward to reading your answers today. 

Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Signups! #2026HOHOHORAT

It’s time to sign up for the 14th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer. This year’s event will take place from Wednesday, November 25th through Wednesday, December 17th, 2026. During the event, participants will read or listen to as many holiday or winter reads as they can while taking part in challenges. Prizes, hot cocoa, bookish friends, and more!

I stopped participating in anything other than the annual Goodreads Challenge because of my schedule,  but wanting to (needing to) indulge in more seasonal titles, I signed up for the 14th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon today. Kimberly is looking for more challenge hosts, so if you are interested, you can email her through this link: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2026/10/14th-annual-ho-ho-ho-readathon-signup.html

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books that Conjure Up Happy Memories & Tell Me Something Tuesday: If you had to teach a class or give a TED Talk, what would it be about?

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. 

Happy first Tuesday of October! We are having a seasonably cooler week with a fair amount of sunshine. Perfect fall weather. The Big E is over for another year, and now we can focus on apple picking, fall festivals, book festivals, and more. 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about happy memories. What books are on your list that conjure those joyful feelings from days gone by? Here are my...

Top Ten  Books that Conjure Up Happy Memories

Song of the Seasons by Glenys Nellist reminds me how thankful I am to live in a geographic location that includes all four seasons. 

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder brings back happy memories of having a book series that I've come to treasure that was passed down from my sisters. 

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery was a present for my 11th birthday. It was the last birthday before my mother's cancer diagnosis, making it the last year I felt truly carefree. 

The cradle on the cover of Beyond the Code of Conduct by K. M. Daughters reminds me of a hand-crafted doll cradle made by one of my cousins who has since passed away. I still have it. 

Murder, She Wrote by Jessica Fletcher and the numerous other authors credited with the series reminds me of sitting in front of the television in our house and then in my apartment, watching Jessica Fletcher solve crimes in the quaint town of Cabot Cove. 

Every Christmas, my childhood house would welcome the Christmas village, the artificial tree, and somehow had enough room for a mountain of relatives. But some of the fondest memories are of attending midnight Mass together and listening to O Holy Night sung in French. Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam by James W. Moore reminds me of those days.  

This particular edition of The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough was the same one my mother read. I don't read it anymore. The cover is torn off, and the pages are curled. But it is a connection to her and all that we shared. 

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts reminds me of the joy of waiting for The Wizard of Oz to be televised once a year and reliving it all over again. 

The Bastard by John Jakes reminds me that by the time I was 14, no one was paying attention to what I was reading. I remember a lot of steamy romance in this series. 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was also a present for my 11th birthday. I read this series before Anne of Green Gables. It serves as a reminder that my oldest sister always took care of me and thought I deserved something special. 

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 is fun: If you had to teach a class or give a TED Talk, what would it be about?

I am good at training others. I've been doing it since I was a teenager. In college, I took public speaking, which helped me feel comfortable speaking in front of others. Now, I have to be prepared. I am not good at speaking off the cuff. My brain is too distracted thinking about what to say.

This year, I held social media classes and sat on a panel about rentals. In the past, I've shared my experience in promoting books. I created training classes for numerous departments at my last Corporate America job. 

If I ever gave a TED talk, it would be called “Stuck in the Middle with You: Why You Don’t Have to Be in the Top 1% of Real Estate Agents to Be Successful.”

In real estate, there’s so much noise about being a top‑tier producer that the solid and steady mid‑range pros get overlooked. I’m talking about the agents who consistently land in their company’s Top 25 and sometimes break into the Top 10 — the ones who show up, do the work, serve their clients well, and keep the business running year after year. 

Not all of us want to sell 100+ homes annually. Not all of us want to build a team or chase every award under the sun. Some of us simply want to be reliable, consistent producers who make it possible for the brokerage to keep the lights on, delivering for our clients without burning ourselves out.

I’d focus on helping them tune out the pressure to be “more,” build systems that make their work smoother and more efficient, and find the motivation to push through when transactions get messy or the year isn’t shaping up the way they hoped. 

Do you think I've thought about this before? LOL!  This is true of any sales position. We don't need to be pushed into being more than we want to be. 

Can't wait to check out your blogs this week. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Oct 5

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 first Monday of October! Hope you had a great week. We had typical New England weather, cool one day and summer temperatures the next. After my closings on Wednesday, I appreciated a few slower work days. On Saturday, I tackled my first fall cleaning task: getting my upstairs office in order. I'm still working on it. That room will become my writing room, away from the many distractions stealing my attention in my new downstairs office. 

Here are a few photos from the week:

Theo taking a breather after our walk

Travis invades Paddy's space if he dares to sit down

Leaves are turning in our woods

Last week was another decent week of reading and reviewing. I brought The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles downstairs so that I can begin it again. Too much time has passed for me to recall the first few chapters. 

Posted my review of Massawa by Pam Webber on Monday. You can find that here.

Posted my review of Beginner's Guide to Using an AI Assistant by Hank Quense.You can find it here.

I posted short reviews of two books I listened to thanks to Audible: How to Train Your Mind by Chris Bailey and God's Purpose for Your Life by Charles F. Stanley. You can read those reviews here.

I haven't started Harboring the Enemy: The Civil War Heroine History Forgot by R. C. Duffy yet, but I will soon because of the time limit.

I am reading She Forgot She Was Free: Returning to the Girl You Were Before the World Got Loud by Giselle Mascarenhas. This is for a review on October 14. 

I started The TV MBA: Business Lessons from Popular Culture by Rhymer Rigby. 

I am also reading Still Wild: Poems from the Bear Shack by Suzanne Sunshower for a December review.

I am waiting for the arrival of Starry-Eyed Christmas by Sheila Roberts for a December review. 

Upcoming Events

• She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas - Oct 14 (Review)
• 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 keep sharing new books. 

I pre-ordered a new book by Jill Kemerer, which arrived last week. Isn't the cover for His First Country Christmas lovely? This is part of what attracts me to Jill's books. 

Christmas Year Round

My Christmas blog is getting busier as we head into the holidays. Recent posts include:

• Getting Ready for the Holidays - Desserts
• Journey Through Christmases Past - Christmas Television Specials From 1948 - 1978

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Recent reviews at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection include:

• Turkey's Fall Fumble by Wendi Silvano. Read the review here.
• Luna and the Lost Cove by Aria Joy Prichard. This review appears here.

Day in the Snow by Fiona Craig and Counting Winter by Nancy White Carlstrom are coming later this week. 

Laura's Little Houses

In honor of what would have been Michael Landon's 90th birthday on October 31, I am sharing Halloween episodes of Little House on the Prairie. You can read that article here.

Wow! That was a lot. Hopefully, these posts are still engaging to you. I'm looking forward to checking out your blogs today.