Group Reads

Cats Literature

Halloween Bingo 2021: Card, Spells, Markers and Book Pool

Phew!  I’ve had blog display issues for the better part of August due to a stupid WP plugin acting up (and of course, it was a plugin allegedly intended to “facilitate” the import of content into my chosen theme — haha, right), but luckily they were resolved just in time for Halloween Bingo! (Gosh … […]

Read More
Cats Literature

Halloween Bingo 2020: TA’s Game Preparation Post

Note When updating this post during the game, the books actually selected will be highlighted in bold print and with a check mark (√) next to them. Updates Spell invoked: Bingo Flip with Lora — STONE COLD HORROR replaced by READ BY FLASHLIGHT OR CANDLELIGHT Also, as our game hosts have made it clear that […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature

Discworld December Group Read: Guards! Guards!

  In all the Festive Tasks excitement, let’s all not forget that our December group read also starts today — and it’s a truly great one (IMHO one of the best books in the entire series): the first book of the Night Watch subseries, and though actually written almost exactly 30 years ago, Pratchett could […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

2019: The Books I’ve Been Most Thankful For

24 Festive Tasks: Door 11 – Thanksgiving: Task 2 Tell us: Of the books that you read this year, which are you most thankful for, OR was there one that turned out to be full of “stuffing”? Alternatively, which (one) book that you read anytime at all changed your life for the better?”) With another […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Cats Cooking - Food - Drink Fun and Games Lifestyle Linked Items Literature

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 […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Terry Pratchett: Pyramids — Halloween Bingo 2019, Eighth Extra Square (Monsters) & Discworld October Group Read

  I haven’t decided for which bingo square I’ll be using this, but from the blurb and from what I’ve read so far, it will fit — at a minimum — the Supernatural, Creepy Crawlies, Deadlands, Monsters, Ghost Stories, Relics and Curiosities, Murder Most Foul, and Grave or Graveyard bingo squares; possibly / probably also […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Discworld: October Group read starts TODAY

The Discworld Group’s October group read is the series’s first stand-alone novel, Pyramids. The blurb: “In Pyramids, you’ll discover the tale of Teppic, a student at the Assassin’s Guild of Ankh-Morpok and prince of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi, thrust into the role of pharaoh after his father’s sudden death. It’s bad enough being new […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

Terry Pratchett: Monstrous Regiment

I had initially been planning to read Terry Pratchett’s Pyramids (also the Discworld group’s October group read) for this square, but given that I was ready for the square before October had rolled around and I still want to do the Discworld group read in any event, a quick switch to another one of Pratchett’s […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Cats Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

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 […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

Terry Pratchett: Guards! Guards!

This is a book that ought to be read today more than ever: The eighth Discworld novel and the first book of the Night Watch subseries — but first and foremost, an exploration of just how a political system can fail and slip into dictatorship right before everybody’s eyes. Whatever it was that motivated Pratchett […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

Halloween Bingo 2019: The Third Week

Well, the third week really hit my bingo experience out of the ballpark this year — and not only Pbecause it finished with my first completed bingo; that was actually just the icing on the cake.  But it included no less than three absolutely knock-out fabulous books, plus a fourth that was almost as good […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Cats Fun and Games Linked Items Literature Reviews

Halloween Bingo 2019: The Second Week

A day late (though hopefully not a dollar short), here’s my “second bingo week” summary; and it’s a summary of a much better week than the first one turned out to be.  (So, yey!)  For one thing this is due to the books, all of which were either outright winners or at least enjoyable on […]

Read More
Fun and Games Literature Reviews

Bob Berman: Earth-Shattering

Neither as “epic” nor as “profound” as the blurb promises, and definitely higher on the “popular” than on the “science” part of “popular science writing”.  Based on his style of writing, I can very well imagine Berman as a personable guide at his local observatory or as a host of popular radio science programs; the […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature Reviews

Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters

Like a fine wine … … the kind of book that only gets better the more often you return to it. I’ve revisited Wyrd Sisters three times in the last two years alone, and every single time I’m savoring every single minute of the experience.  Definitely one of my favorite Discworld novels — next to […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/10 (Day 10): Most Anticipated Read for 2019?

MR suggested a group or buddy read of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments — I’d definitely be up for that.  (Ditto Toni Morrison’s Beloved, if it comes to that.)  If I can work up the nerve, I may reread The Handmaid’s Tale prior to bingo just so as to have the continuity experience; either way, I’m […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Fun and Games Linked Items Literature

Discworld: Here is your bimonthly belated reminder …

… that the next group read is upon us and has (umm, theoretically) already started, on August 1, to be precise. (I swear I was going to post about this earlier this time around, but oh well …) The book is Wyrd Sisters, the second of the Witches subseries — and the first book in […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature Reviews

Jan Zalasiewicz & Mark Williams: Skeletons: The Frame of Life

Less Than What It Could Have Been OK, so I admit I didn’t check on the authors’ scholarly credentials before picking this up — if I had, I might not have been so disappointed to find that this is not, after all (not even in part) a book dealing with the way in which skeletons […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature Reviews

Jan Zalasiewicz & Mark Williams: Skeletons: The Frame of Life – Reading Progress Update: 20 of 320 Pages (approximately)

Page count is approximate because I don’t have the book with me at the moment. Anyway, I made a start and finished the first chapter.  A very different tone from the likes of Brusatte, Kean and, in their own way, also Liz Kalaugher and Matin Durrani (the authors of Furry Logic).  And a welcome change, […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature Reviews

Terry Pratchett: Sourcery

Ooooh, I like this one. It’s got a “knife to a gun fight” reference (only involving porcupines) and a [literally] kick-ass heroine, takes digs at Aladdin and The Lord of the Rings — especially The Two Towers –, the Four Horsepersons of the Apothe…ca…thingamagig make an appearance, and the Librarian is taking a stand — […]

Read More
BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature Reblogs

The Flat Book Society: Open for July nominations!

Reblogged from: BrokenTune   Hello, With the current Flat Book Society read of Napoleon’s Buttons (by Penny Le Couteur) on the way, I have cleared the list of votes to make way for new new nominations. Please add any titles you’d like the group to vote on as the July group read. And if you haven’t […]

Read More