The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 1-7-24

Posted on January 7, 2024January 6, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

I think this is this coming week’s schedule. I’m sure about everything except the Patterson, mostly because this is not my first attempt at reading something by him, but previous attempts have resulted in DNFs. I’m hoping that the classic detective angle will get me to the end of this one, so I can say I finished one if I want to be judgy later. Which is a terrible attitude to be starting a book with, but it’s the one I’ve got.

The picture above is Luna on the catio, being very talkative about something. Or screaming. Or possibly both. I’ve had that expression on my face a LOT this week as I figure out Instagram – or more accurately, figure out the ins and outs of the graphics program (Canva) I’m using to create images for Instagram. Words I’ve got, images, not so much. Not to mention the whole hashtag game. But, as I said in yesterday’s Stacking the Shelves, I do believe I’ve made the transition from ONE step forward, TWO steps back, to TWO steps FORWARD and only ONE step BACK.

That’s progress, isn’t it? (Take a look and you’ll see. I hope…)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-24-23

Posted on December 24, 2023December 23, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Today is Christmas Eve. Once upon a time, this day would be a literal shopping hell on earth. I find myself wondering how much that has changed with online shopping being so ubiquitous.

Whether today is the official or unofficial start of your holiday, or merely part of your holiday weekend. Let me wish you Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas as appropriate for you and yours. (Galen will be doing the Xmas Day post, so this is my opportunity to wish you the very best of the holiday season.

Speaking of the very best, sometime this week I’ll be posting my Best Books list for the year. As soon as I finish Paladin’s Faith to decide whether or not it belongs on the list!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Let It Snow Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Winter 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Fall 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop is Sherry

Blog Recap:

A- Review: Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan
A++ Review: Fall by Tracy Clark
A- Review: Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor
Winter 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
B Review: The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper
Stacking the Shelves (580)

Coming This Week:

Christmas Day 2023 (Guest Post by Galen)
Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher (review)
Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman (review)
Murder at the Serpentine Bridge by Andrea Penrose (review)
Best Books of 2023 (feature)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-17-23

Posted on December 17, 2023December 16, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Let me start with this picture, because it explains everything a bit too well.

On the one hand, it’s adorable. Lucifer and Luna are sharing space, even if it’s not exactly a cuddle. (We miss seeing cuddle puddles, as this bunch just doesn’t cuddle with each other at all.) On the other hand, it’s kind of a metaphor for my schedule this week, with Lucifer serving as the immovable object, and Luna peeking over his ear with the somewhat semi-planned interruptions to that object. I’m about 3/5ths sure of the week ahead. The other 2/5ths, well, we’ll see…

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop (ENDS WEDNESDAY!!!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Let It Snow Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop is Carl

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: We Are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull
B Review: The Good, the Bad and the Uncanny edited by Jonathan Maberry
A Review: Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey
A- Review: Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard
A+ Review: To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas
Stacking the Shelves (579)

Coming This Week:

Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan (review)
Fall by Tracy Clark (review)
Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor (audio review)
Winter 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher (review)

Thanksgiving 2023

Posted on November 23, 2023November 23, 2023 by Galen Charlton | Author : Galen Charlton | Holidays> Thanksgiving

Galen here, once again borrowing Marlene’s blog to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

As always, we are thankful for our cats (and Luna, pictured here, is thankful for quilts to nest underneath). Unlike 2018, 2020, and 2022, there have been no changes in our feline population: Lucifer, Hecate (and how did she suddenly become five?), George, Luna, and Tuna have been trucking along.

For today, “Harvest Moon” by Longfellow:

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-12-23

Posted on November 12, 2023November 11, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

I’m in the midst of a ‘reading weekend’ for Library Journal, so this past week fell apart at the end because my ’round tuit’ broke and that ‘so many books, so little time’ thing absolutely bit me in the ass. I needed to get started earlier than I planned and I just didn’t have another book in me, so the results of a previous LJ reading weekend appeared on Friday. I still plan to get to Chaos Terminal, but it will be later in the month.

Today’s cat picture is Luna, who both looks like she’s posing for her closeup AND reminding everyone that cat people are never permitted to go to the bathroom alone. She’s multitasking – that thing I kind of failed at earlier this week.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop (ENDS WEDNESDAY!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A- Review: Twilight Falls by Juneau Black
Spotlight + Excerpt: The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman
B Review: A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
B Review: The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow
Stacking the Shelves (574)

Coming This Week:

System Collapse by Martha Wells (review)
The Star and the Strange Moon by Constance Sayers (review)
Calamity by Constance Fay (review)
In All Things Give Thanks Giveaway Hop
The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman (blog tour review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-5-23

Posted on November 5, 2023November 4, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Did you remember to “fall back” last night? And just how badly do you end up wishing they’d just make up their damn minds and stick to one or the other? I wish we stayed on Daylight Saving Time all year round, but then I’d also enjoy the day more if it started later. People who have to put kids on school buses seem to prefer Standard Time because it’s dark in the morning when they have to get the kids on the bus. I honestly don’t care enough to even argue the point. I’d be thrilled if they’d just pick one and stick to it even if it’s not the one I’d personally prefer. You’d think this would be a popular enough thing that even Congress could pass something, but NOOOOOO.

Rant over until March 10, 2024.

This week ended with a “flail and bail” where I flailed over the last two books I intended to review this week and bailed on both of them. I just hit a wall of “I can’t even” after several days of horror and horror-adjacency in a row, Halloween was OVER and the new month just screamed for different books. So it goes.

A couple of Sunday Posts ago I mentioned that Tuna’s size is a bit hard to measure because he doesn’t seem to pose for pictures where a size comparison can be made. Galen caught the above picture earlier this week with both Luna and Tuna in the frame. Tuna looks huge and Luna looks tiny by comparison. It’s still not a great way of judging Tuna’s size, as Luna isn’t really a small cat. She’s pretty much an average sized cat – she only looks small in comparison to her brother. Which means that Tuna in photo is even larger than he appears!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop is Will G.

Blog Recap:

A- Review: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather
B+ Review: The Dead Take the A Train by Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
A- Review: Warriorborn by Jim Butcher
B+ Review: Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens by Andrea Penrose
Stacking the Shelves (573)

Coming This Week:

Twilight Falls by Juneau Black (review)
The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman (spotlight + excerpt)
Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty (review)
Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
A Power Unbound by Freya Marske (audiobook review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-22-23

Posted on October 22, 2023October 20, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

I did switch up one thing last week. I had originally planned to post my review of The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror this past week – at least until all the candy displays at Publix hit me with the clue-by-four that Howloween is coming up SOON and that I had enough horror or at least horror-adjacent books to do a bit of a theme around the howliday. So a switcheroo was made.

Last Sunday’s cat picture was a bit of ‘Tall Tuna is Tall – and confuddled!’ so this week’s picture is ‘Long Luna is Long’ – just not as long as Tuna. We need to get a picture of Tuna with some perspective in it to show just how big he is, but so far he has NOT been cooperative!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
A++ Review: Generation Ship by Michael Mammay
A+ Review: Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree
A- Review: Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 edited by R.F. Kuang
B+ Review: Keep by Anna Hackett
Stacking the Shelves (571)

Coming This Week:

Under the Smokestrewn Sky by (Seanan McGuire writing as) A. Deborah Baker (audio review)
A Duke’s Lesson in Charm by Sophie Barnes (blog tour review)
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume Four edited by Paula Guran (review)
Phantom Pond by Juneau Black (review)
Night Train to Murder by Simon R. Green (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-8-23

Posted on October 8, 2023October 8, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

The backyard doesn’t look quite like that at the moment, because Fall is pretty much falling all over the place. The tree cover behind the house is lush for a lot of the year, but now is the time when the leaves start falling with a vengeance and suddenly we have neighbors again.

The cats, of course, find the whole falling leaves thing utterly fascinating. George was in these very seats a couple of nights ago, chirping at the falling leaves in the hopes that they were birds he could lure in. Meanwhile, the catio has become an all-day place for kitties to lounge as the temperatures have begun falling in as much earnest as they ever do around here.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A Review: The Hunter’s Apprentice by Lindsay Schopfer
A- Review: Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
B Review: The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar
Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop
A- Review: The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church by Rachel L. Swarns
Stacking the Shelves (569)

Coming This Week:

Indigenous People’s Day 2023: Two Courts (guest post by Galen)
An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka (blog tour review)
Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie (review)
A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett (review)
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (audio review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-10-23

Posted on September 10, 2023September 9, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

I’m sure about every day this week except Wednesday. I’ve already read or listened to all the books, but I didn’t write up Mammoths at the Gates for Reading Reality back when I reviewed it for Library Journal, so I need to do at least a re-skim for this week. It was lovely and adorable and so much fun – like every book in the Singing Hills Cycle so far – but my round tuit just wasn’t fully polished that weekend.

Turning to something – or someone – else that is rather round, take a look at this recent picture of Luna, Tuna and George. Luna and George are out on the screened-in catio, while Tuna is looking on mournfully from the inside side of the cat door. George and Luna spend a LOT of time out on the catio, especially George, but Tuna doesn’t go out there. We don’t think he actually CAN – or at least that the width of his whiskers is telling him that he won’t fit through the door. Lucifer doesn’t go out because he doesn’t wanna, Hecate doesn’t go out because she’s a grumpy little girl who would much rather be an only child, but it’s pretty clear from Tuna’s face that he wants to REAL BAD but thinks he can’t.

So his sister and her buddy tease him unmercifully about it!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Hello Autumn Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

Labor Day 2023
B Review: Payback in Death by J.D. Robb
Hello Autumn Giveaway Hop
Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop
B Review: Forgotten History by Christopher L. Bennett
Stacking the Shelves (565)

Coming This Week:

9/11 (Guest Post by Galen)
Fury by Anna Hackett (review)
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (review)
An Unsuitable Heiress by Jane Dunn (blog tour review)
Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen MacDonald (audiobook review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-3-23

Posted on September 3, 2023September 5, 2023 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Last week I was not exactly in the village of Running-on-Time when I put the Sunday Post together and I neglected to include a cat picture. Therefore, this week’s picture includes not one but two cats. As an added treat, it’s a picture of the very rare sighting of Hecate and Luna co-existing peaceably and in proximity. They don’t really fight the way the boys do, they just generally refuse to occupy the same space at the same time. The kitty television outside the windows must have been particularly good that day!

This was the first week in quite a while where the books I thought I was going to read were the books I actually read. This coming week is probably the same, if only because there are only three of them. Galen is continuing his series of holiday guest posts tomorrow for Labor Day, and there’s a blog hop on Thursday.

Friday’s book is the second book in the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, after the previously reviewed Watching the Clock. It’s the kind of book I normally pick up at the last minute because I’m desperate – or at least desperately flailing – but this time it’s a deliberate choice because Friday, September 8 is Star Trek Day. I thought about reading more of the Star Trek Autobiographies series (I loved The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, after all) but I’m feeling a bit weirded out by them now because they were all published before Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds happened. Which means those ‘autobiographies’ have been superseded by events that were not yet revealed when they were written. Which led me back to the Department of Temporal Investigations because even though some of those events may have been superseded by later reveals, we wouldn’t know anyway because the whole point of the Department is to smooth over that kind of thing. And the first book was oodles of fun, so I expect a good reading time no matter what.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Old School Giveaway Hop is Brigette

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: Big Little Spells by Hazel Beck
A- Review: A Duke’s Guide to Romance by Sophie Barnes
B Review: Devil’s Gun by Cat Rambo
A- Review: The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (564)

Coming This Week:

Labor Day 2023 (Guest Post by Galen!)
Payback in Death by J.D. Robb (review)
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (review)
Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop
Forgotten History by Christopher L. Bennett (review)

Current Giveaways:

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