2020 in Facts and Figures
I already posted my main 2020 in Review and Looking Ahead to 2021 posts a while ago — only on my new blog (separate post to come) –, but I held back on my 2020 reading statistics until the year was well and truly over. And for all my good intentions when posting my mid-year […]
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The New “Pride and Prejudice” Edition, and Other Lockdown Book Haul Entries
24 Festive Tasks: Door 18 – Thanksgiving, Task 1: Be thankful for yourself and treat yourself to a new book – post a picture of it. (This can be a library book.) Although being in temporary lockdown for the second time this year doesn’t exactly prove conducive to my reading (nor did most of […]
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Julie Smith (ed.) & Various Authors: New Orleans Noir
This year’s final bingo book: an anthology of mystery short stories set in New Orleans, by some of the Big Easy’s best-known crime writers. As is usually the case with such compilations, some of the entries struck more of a chord with me than others, but taken together, they definitely conveyed an image of how […]
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Halloween Bingo 2020: The Rest of the Game and Wrap-Up
Sooo, that’s another bingo game behind us already! Many thanks to our game hosts for successfully moving the game from BookLikes to a new venue and organizing one heck of a game despite that venue’s built-in limitations. I had a great time and would only have wished I could have participated more throughout the game […]
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January 2020 Reading
January turned out a bit of a roller coaster in RL, continuing the course things had already taken in December: not quite whiplash-inducing, but with several sickness-prone twists and turns (for however much I’d expected them to materialize) surrounding one major glorious event (which was, however, truly glorious; even if this, too, was something I’d […]
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Books Shipped Long Distance
24 Festive Tasks: Door 16 – St. Lucia’s Day, Task 4: The historic (3d century AD) St. Lucia was Italian; yet, like those of many other saints (including, e.g., St. Andrew and St. Nicholas), the most important celebrations of her holiday don’t occur in her place of origin but somewhere else in the world. List […]
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An “Out of My Reach” Book Wishlist to St. Nick
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Task 1: Write a book wish list to St. Nick / Santa Claus for books that you’ve been eyeing but can’t justify the expense of purchasing. (E.g., art books? Collector’s editions? Boxed sets?) Dear Saint Nick, it would be really nice if one […]
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Books With Antonyms in Their Titles
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 4: The South Korean flag features images of ying / yang (the blue and red circle in the center) and four sets of three black lines each representing heaven, sun, moon and earth and, in turn, the virtues humanity, justice, intelligence and courtesy. Compile a […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)
Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Fifteenth Extra Square – Genre: Suspense
Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1969185/halloween-bingo-2019-fifteenth-extra-square
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Thirteenth Extra Square – Free (Raven / Poe) Square
Well, as it turns out I’m halfway through another bingo card with the extra squares, so I may as well try and see whether I’ll get it together until the end of the month. So that means another Raven square … for which this entertaining Golden Age mystery radio anthology seems like just the thing. […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Bingo No. 3 and Reading Blackout
* Triple Bingo Happy Dance * Well, that went by much faster than I had anticipated … Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! I’ll continue tracking my bingos of course — and since we now have […]
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For any mystery fans still looking for a book for the “Fear the Drowning Deep” bingo square …
… this short story compilation from the British Library Crime Classics series looks like it would fit the bill. (Link to Obi’s review HERE: obi.booklikes.com/post/1956924/post) Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1957146/for-any-mystery-fans-still-looking-for-a-book-for-the-fear-the-drowning-deep-bingo-square
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Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (eds.); Various Authors: A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales
Considering that according to the preface the authors of this collection are supposed to be exploring “the dark side” of fairy tales, most of the stories here come across as unexpectedly light and fluffy. Maybe this is due to the fact that I actually grew up with the real thing — the Grimm Brothers’, Hans […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: The First Week
So, on the plus side, despite serious RL interventions progress on my card is well under way, with four squares (including the centre / free / raven square) marked “called and read”; three of these in a row — plus reading for the remaining two squares of that row also in progress — and several […]
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24 Festive Tasks: Holiday Book Joker
24 Festive Tasks: Door 23 – Hogswatch, Task 2, and Door 24 – Epiphany, Task 2: Tell us: Did you or any kids you know ever have a funny or weird (the good sort of weird) encounter with a department store Santa, um, Hogfather? And: Chalking the door is an Epiphany tradition in some places, to bless […]
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2018 Airing of Grievances: Least Favorite Books of the Year
24 Festive Tasks: Door 19 – Festivus, Task 1: It’s the annual airing of grievances! Time to list the top 5 books that disappointed you the most this year and let us know why! I’ve been blessed with a pretty amazing reading year in which disappointments were few and far between — so it […]
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Skandinavische Weihnachten
24 Festive Tasks: Door 17 – St. Lucia’s Day, Book: Read a book that is set in Scandinavia / Northern Europe, or by a Northern European / Nordic author, or a book newly released in November or December of this year. Various Authors: Skandinavische Weihnachten A charming anthology of Christmas short stories and poems […]
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A Very French Christmas
24 Festive Tasks: Door 6 – International Day for Tolerance, Book: Read any fiction/non-fiction about tolerance or a book that’s outside your normal comfort zone. (Tolerance can encompass anything you generally struggle with, be it sentient or not.) OR Read a book set in Paris. An anthology of French Christmas short stories, from 19th century […]
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Joanne Fluke / Laura Levine / Leslie Meier: Candy Cane Murder
24 Festive Tasks: Door 7 – Mawlid, Book: If you can find a copy, read Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. Or read any book about a leader of a movement, nation, religion or large group, OR read a book with a green cover OR with a half moon on the cover. Well, let’s just say that none […]
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