Sunday Post 104

Hi everyone!

Through Monday, I am linking with the following: 

Reading Reality, who hosts Stacking the Shelves

Readerbuzz, who hosts Sunday Salon

Caffeinated Reviewer, who hosts Sunday Post

The Book Date, who hosts It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

On the above blogs you will be able to see links to the posts from others who are participating in those blog hops, and if you're a blogger, you can join too. 

It's good to see all of you again! I can't believe it's been about one month since I've published a Sunday Post! About a week after Malice Domestic ended, life threw me some curve balls and I needed to focus my attention and time elsewhere. 

When things were finally beginning to settle down, my neighborhood and beyond were hit with a 10+ hour power outage. (Some people around here lost electricity for days!) We were lucky this time considering our last power outage lasted 27 hours a couple months ago. Both outages were caused by high winds, with the most recent one being accompanied by a severe thunderstorm. The storm was fairly brief, but fierce. After the the storm left and took our electricity with it, the sun came out. It was as if it was laughing at us. 

I'm just really glad it happened in the evening when we were past the heat of the day and moving into the nighttime hours. It came back on at 4 a.m. the next day, thankfully.

The day that the electricity came back on was hot and humid, but the next day was very comfortable. In fact, we've had cool weather with low humidity for the past two weeks since then. I can't stand the heat and humidity of late spring and summer, so this has been quite a treat. Next week we'll be in the 80s and possibly 90s, so I'm enjoying the cooler weather while I can. At around 1pm today we were in the very comfortable upper 50s!

When I first moved into my condo in 2005, and for many years after that, we rarely had power outages. It has definitely increased recently. Every time we have a thunderstorm or high winds, I get nervous. As I'm typing this on Saturday night, it is once again very windy. Hopefully, the power stays on!

So with all the discombobulation, I really needed some time to recalibrate. One thing I have consistently kept up with is reading. I set a goal at the beginning of the year to read at least one chapter each day. So far so good. Some days it has only been one chapter and some days it has been more than one chapter.

IN THE BOOKS

RECENTLY FINISHED

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I listened to Maverick, Movies, and Murder (Katie and Maverick Cozy Mystery 1), written by Mary Seifert and narrated by Erica Sullivan.  This was tough for me to get into. It is a puzzling mystery with interesting characters, but there was a lot going on and it was difficult for me to keep track of everything.

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I listened to Mimi Lee Gets a Clue (Sassy Cat Mystery 1), written by Jennifer Chow and narrated by Natalie Naudus. I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The theme of animal cruelty took me out of the story. I also had a difficult time connecting with the talking cat. Otherwise, it is a strong mystery with fun characters. 

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I read an ARC of #Throwback for Murder (Trending Topic Mystery 4), by Sarah E. Burr, and I loved it! This book will be released this coming Tuesday, June 3rd. My review is set to be published on Monday, so I hope you'll come back and read why I loved it so much. In the meantime, you can read some excerpts here.

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I read The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler: Vienna's Sherlock Holmes, by Balduin Groller. This is the English translation of a book of short stories that were originally published in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Since I became an avid reader a few years ago, this is the first book of short stories I've read. I'm planning to publish my review on Thursday. 

IN PROGRESS

I read the chapter on mazes in The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaw to the Meaning of Life, by A. J. Jacobs. This chapter also included labyrinths. I thought the distinction between mazes and labyrinths was interesting, and now I want to find some labyrinths to explore.

I started reading Banshees, Boomboxes, and Bones (Bewitcher's Beach Mystery 4), by Emily Fluke. I'm loving it so far. It's very fast-paced and fun. Some elements of it remind me of Harry Potter. This is a paranormal series I've been enjoying from the beginning. 

I'm listening to #FollowMe for Murder (Trending Topic Mystery 1), written by Sarah E. Burr and narrated by Laura Darrell. I read this book two years ago and I've been reading each installment after that as they are published. I'm reading/listening to this one again because it's the pick for a a book club I'll be participating in soon and it's also part of a summer challenge. 

UP NEXT

My next audiobook listen will be Take the Honey and Run (Bee Keeping Mystery 1), by Jennie Marts. This is the June pick for The Cozy Mystery Book Club. I'm actually terrified of bees...lol...but this looks like a cute cozy mystery. 

I'm also going to read an ARC of What the Spell? (Spellbooked Magical Cozy Mystery 1), by Elle Wren Burke. Her newsletter subscribers played a role in writing this book. Every couple of weeks, she had us vote on certain elements of it, such as the title of the book, which animal the familiar would be, what the familiar's name would be, etc. It will be fun to read the final product.

ON THE SCREEN

• The Food That Built America - I'm on Season 4, but I'm going to take a break from this show while I indulge in Disney+ content during the month of June.
• Murder, She Wrote - I watched a few more episodes in Season 4. I'm enjoying this season so far.
• Sherlock Holmes - On Sherlock Holmes Day, I watched one episode from the 1980's series that I have on DVD. The one I watched was The Naval Treaty. I really enjoyed it. I then read the short story, which I also enjoyed. I'm impressed with how true to the stories the television series is. Do you have a favorite Sherlock Holmes story?
• The Golden Girls - I watched the pilot episode, which I enjoyed. I can't remember ever having watched a full episode of this series before that. I decided to dive into it since there's now a cozy mystery book based on the characters from the show.
• Diagnosis Murder - This is another show I had never seen before I watched S04 E18 called Murder, Country Style. I loved it, mostly because it was all about country music and it had a lot of country singers in it. I'm not sure I'd enjoy the series as a whole, though, because I don't really like medical settings.
• Captain America: Brave New World - I finally watched this since it's on Disney+. Overall the movie was just okay for me.
• The Personal History of David Copperfield - I thought I would enjoy this movie more than I did. The plot was fine, but I thought it was a little slow. I still want to read the book, eventually.
• Hallmark and Great American Family - I'm not going to list all the movies I watched on these two channels. Just know that during the month of May, I did enjoy a plethora of cozy mysteries and cheesy romcoms. :)

ON THE BLOG

• Sunday Post - 05/03 - Weekly Recap
• Book Review - 05/06 - Chocolate Bunny Betrayal (Holiday Cozy Mystery 5), by Cindy Quayle
• Movie Review - 05/08 Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To the Moon and Back
• The Friday Six - 05/09 - Bookish response and excerpts, Feline Friday, Nature pic
• Puzzle - 05/10 - Shells

Have a great week!