Nightmares Before Christmas

Found this today on Lady M's blog and just had to share it.

Certainly not looking forward to next month when the Orange Ogre takes over the White House again with his motley crew of political misfits. A nightmare that will take place after Christmas. 

Thursday 13--More Christmas Humor

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  

Still more humor for the holidays. There seems to be a never-ending supply. Some are old, some are new. And I'm not done yet...

Buzzword Reading Challenge 2025

 Doing this one again. Here is the Youtube announcement.

Jan: Pardonable Lies--Jacqueline Winspear

Feb: The Beach Club--Elin Hilderbrand

March: The Signature of All Things--Elizabeth Gilbert

April: The Travelling Cat Chronicles--Hiro Arikawa

May: How Not to Fall Apart--Maggy Van Eijk

June: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind--Shunryu Suzuki

July: Don't Read the Comments--Eric Smith

Aug: It Started With a Secret--Jill Mansell

Sept: Late For the Wedding--Amanda Quick

Oct: Attack of the Jack!--R.L. Stine

Nov: For Never & Always--Helena Greer

Dec: Secret Santa--Fern Michaels

Challenge completed on December 8

Book Discussion: TBR for the Rest of This Month and Year

 

Another year is coming to a close, and the reading challenges for 2025 have already started popping up. A few I did this year (and in years past) have yet to show up, however.  

But as I begin signing up for next year, I am still trying to finish those left for 2024. A few have prompts been hard to find books for, and it looks like I may not finish those challenges.This would be the first time I did not fill all categories on every challenge. 

As I said in this signup post today, two categories from the same challenge this year have been difficult to find books for. Our public library will close for the holidays starting on Christmas Eve. I don't know how many more books I will check out before then, and I don't appear to have any books at home that will work for the categories.  Four categories remain on the Feminist Challenge, and the same is true for all of those. Even if I don't finish all those categories, I plan on participating next year, if the Feminist one is offered again. I've completed all but one of those with monthly prompts. This all the detail I want to get into for now.

I always try to turn in all library books before it closes for the holidays (though they do have a drop box on the sidewalk), so I can read books from home during the holiday closure. But I may have to change that plan this year if I try to fill all categories before the year is over. But now I'm counting on not finishing those remaining categories. I always aim to complete as many as possible throughout the year, and that's what I am going to do. I like just participating, and that's what makes it fun.

I also want to squeeze in some more holiday books before Christmas Day, though I cannot be too certain how many of those I will get either. 

A year-end post will be coming at the end of the month.

2025 Book Bingo Reading Challenge @ Modern Gypsy

I will be doing this one again, though I'm not certain about finishing the one this year. I have only two categories left and they are proving somewhat difficult. Just the same, I want to be in again in 2025, getting as many as possible.

My Books:

1. Released between 2010 and 2020: The Blackbirds--Eric Jerome Dickey
2. BIPOC Author: It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit--Justin A. Reynolds
3. Nominated for the  2024 Goodreads Choice Awards: The Rom-Commers--Katherine Center
4. Gothic Fiction: Everyone Knows You Go Home--Natalia Sylvester
5. Beach Read: The Beach Club--Elin Hilderbrand
6. Your Choice: Tweet Cute--Emma Lord
7. Feminist retelling: Spindle's End--Robin McKinley
8. Steeped in the past: The Girls With No Names--Serena Burdick
9. First book in a duopoly: Openly Straight--Bill Konigsberg
10. Set in a library: The Reading List--Sara Nisha Adams
11. Genre Don't Often Read: Big Magic--Elizabeth Gilbert
12. Set in the Middle East: The Master and Margarita--Mikhail Bulgakov
13. Flower on the cover: Pieces of Happiness--Anne Ostby
14. Graphic novel: Banned Book Club--Kim Hyun Sook
15. Dual timeline: The Blackbird Girls--Anne Blankman
16. Memoir: Tiny Beautiful Things--Cheryl Strayed
17. About mental health: How Not to Fall Apart--Maggy Van Eijk
18. Languishing on TBR: The Wednesday Sisters--Meg Waite Clayton
19. Author with same initials as you: The Beach House--Jane Green
20. Released in 2025: Under the Same Stars--Libba Bray
21. A favorite author: A Spark of Light--Jodi Picoult
22. Courtroom drama: 16 Lighthouse Road--Debbie Macomber
23. Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble: The Witches--Roald Dahl
24. Nominated for the Hugo Awards: A Sorceress Comes to Call--T. Kingfisher
25. Recommended by a favorite book blogger: Intermezzo--Sally Rooney

 Challenge completed on November 15

Christmas Yard Decorations

The gingerbread house was made from recycled campaign yard sings, taped to gather and covered with brown shipping paper. The small stake lights are the solar-powered lights I got at Dollar Tree last month. I wanted to get them before they ran out, and sure enough, the last time I looked, the store was out of them. The candy canes are also solar-powered and they came from the last place I would have thought to look, Tractor Supply Company. I'd looked up where to find such decorations, and the ones on Amazon seemed quite expensive. I looked up where else to find the candy cane lights, and among the stores that came up in my search was Tractor Supply. I had to go to Gilroy last Sunday, and the nearest Tractor Supply store is in that town, so I decided to take a look before going home. The candy canes were on sale last week and this was the only chance I'd get to look for them in store. Sure enough they were some and I decided to take four of them. BTW, I don't know if I'd even been in this store before, and when I worked at Home Goods in Gilroy, I could hear the loud speaker at Tractor Supply from the HG parking lot. I'd considered also looking at Walmart (also nearby), but Walmart always gets crowded on Sunday.

I began talking the house the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I got everything up by Thursday before dark.

Historical Fiction Reading 2025

 Once again, doing this one, getting as many books as possible. 

20th Century Reader - 2 books

Victorian Reader - 5 books

Renaissance Reader - 10 books

Medieval - 15 books

Ancient History - 25 books

Prehistoric - 50+ books

My Books:

1. The Mammoth Hunters--Jean M. Auel
2. Nightcrawling--Leila Mottley
3. East of Eden--John Steinbeck
4. Sunrise Canyon--Janet Dailey
5. Pardonable Lies--Jacqueline Winspear
6. Eleven--Tom Rogers
7. The Last Train to London--Meg Waite Clayton
8. The Girls With No Names--Serena Burdick
9. The Signature of All Things--Elizabeth Gilbert
10. Gods of Jade and Shadow--Silvia Moreno-Garcia
11. Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains--Susan Elderkin
12. The Master and Margarita--Mikhail Bulgakov
13. Yellow Wife--Sadeqa Johnson
14. Hello Beautiful--Ann Napolitano
15. Around the World in 80 Days--Jules Verne
16. The Blackbird Girls--Anne Blankman
17. The Girl Who Knew Too Much--Amanda Quick
18. Collected Stories & Poems--Edgar Allan Poe
19. Rider of Lost Creek--Louis L'Amour
20. The Last Letter--Rebecca Yarros
21. Mad Honey--Jodi Picoult
22. Dream When You're Feeling Blue--Elizabeth Berg
23. The Wednesday Sisters--Meg Waite Clayton
24. Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell
25. Fingersmith--Sarah Waters
26. On Agate Hill--Lee Smith
27. The Fountains of Silence--Ruta Sepetys
28. A Man For All Seasons--Robert Bolt
29. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict--Laurie Viera Rigler
30. Under the Same Stars--Libba Bray
31. The Berry Pickers--Amanda Peters
32. The Women--Kristin Hannah
33. A Spark of Light--Jodi Picoult
34. The Great Train Robbery--Michael Crichton
35. The Case of the Missing Marquess--Nancy Springer
36. In This Grave Hour--Jacqueline Winspear
37. The Pull of the Moon--Elizabeth Berg
38. The Short History of a Prince--Jane Hamilton
39. Three Junes--Julia Glass
40. Late For the Wedding--Amanda Quick
41. Legacy of Secrets--Elizabeth Adler
42. Cantoras--Carlina de Robertis
43. Silver Bay--Jojo Moyes
44. Fourth Wing--Rebecca Yarros
45. Girl, Serpent, Thorn--Melissa Bashardoust
46. Cat's Cradle--Kurt Vonnegut
47. The Bone Houses--Emily Lloyd-Jones
48. The Diviners--Libba Bray
49. A Snake Falls to Earth--Darcie Little Badger
50. Bonanza Girl--Patricia Beatty
51. White Teeth--Zadie Smith
52. Cruel Crown--Victoria Aveyard
53. Milkman--Anna Burns
54. Borderline--Lawrence Block
55. The Queen's Fool--Philippa Gregory
56. Good Dirt--Charmaine Wilkerson
57. The Bookshop on the Corner--Jenny Colgan
58. Skirting the Grave--Annette Blair

Last book read on December 31