For the Love of Reading: #WOYBS and #Shareyourshelf

Welcome to my What's On Your BookShelf post. The #WOYB link party is hosted by Deb, Jo and Sue....all gals I follow on a few other link parties. I love their blogs. Go check them out. #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge You can link up on the third Thursday of the month.

I also decided to link this with #shareyourshelf hosted by some great bloggers I follow, like Joanne. I'll link it on the week they post theirs, which is the first Thursday of each month. 

My rating system:

⭐ DNF (which there's a reason), story lacking any depth, grammatical or spelling errors (too many), just did not enjoy it and enough to it that I wouldn't recommend. Don't bother reading

⭐⭐ Story line is a bit all over the place, struggle to read it but maybe it had some redeeming parts. Characters  or story line weren't believable or too unrealistic. I wouldn't want to read it again. Too many storylines going on at the same time. Read it or don't read it.

⭐⭐⭐ Solid story line and characters. I liked it but didn't necessarily LOVE it, but I didn't HATE it either. I may have felt that it dragged on, or had parts that weren't necessary to the story. Maybe was a little hard to follow. Probably wouldn't recommend but it wasn't a total disaster.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ A really great read that I enjoyed picking up each time. I enjoyed it from front to back. The characters and storyline were really good.  As someone said "a truly good book, but missing the cherry on top".  Go ahead and read it

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book knocked it out of the park and I couldn't put it down. OR it was a book that really opened my eyes to something or taught me something about someones life. One I have bookmarked and even taken notes. It left me wanting to read more by the author or more in the series. Definitely go read. 

I've probably already said it....I love my rating system, but I'm not always great at following it. I hate leaving low ratings...lol.

I forgot to link up to Share Your Shelf this month. I now have it on my schedule so hopefully I remember. 

I can't believe it's already December! It was a good reading year. I participated in several challenges and I'll post graphics with the completed challenges in January. 

Challenges I participated in:

Goodreads challenge...started with a goal of 75 but reached that in October so upped it to 100, I'm 1 book away from finishing that, which means I'll probably go over by 1 or two. Not sure what my goal will be next year. I'm not sure more than that is doable for me.  

52 book challenge....by the end of December, I will have completed it. It was challenging and I wasn't going to read books that did not interest me just to check it off the list. I'd rather leave it blank, but I managed, through some digging, to find ones that I didn't mind reading. 

The MTW challenge through the Murder They Write FB group I'm in. That was fun. 

I will also participate in my in person book club and I decided to re-join the pass along book club I was a part of. I almost decided not to, but it was fun, so I'll at least do it for this year. 

Another goal I have for next year is to do a better job documenting my reading and reviewing the books I read. I have a few reading journals that I haven't used. I also want to utilize my blog IG page (which I never use) for doing book reviews, bookish thoughts, quick videos with recipes from the book....we'll see how it goes. 

Let's get to Novembers reading.

What I read in November: I usually like to give a synopsis of each book, but I'm pushing it time wise so may not do that on all of them, especially if I gave a synopsis on my post last month. 

Shadows of Serenity: A Culinary Cozy Mystery Set in Thailand by Sabina O ⭐⭐⭐

I used this for one of the prompts in the 52 book challenge and it was one I already owned. I don't know where the culinary part of this came in. When I think culinary I think bakery, cafe, cooking or baking is at the forefront. Not this one. It was slow and I pushed through it. The story follows travel blogger Harry as she arrives at a yoga retreat. Eventually a body is found, and suspicions grow. It didn't really focus on her travel blogging that much either. 

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was for my pass along book club. A very interesting story line that did not go where I thought it was going to go. It jumps back and forth between time lines and I had a little bit of trouble following at first. In the current timeline history repeats itself when a second Van Laars child goes missing after attending the summer camp owned by her family. Her brother disappeared several years earlier. I had seen this one on several peoples reading lists. 

The Booklovers Library by Madeline Martin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Now this book completely deserved 5 stars. I listened to it on audio which I highly recommend! This was the second book by the author. While not a series, they do tie into each other very briefly. This story follows widowed mother Emma who is in need of a job to provide for herself and her daughter but there are restrictions that prohibit widowed women with children from many employment opportunities. She persuades the manger of the Booklovers library to take a chance on her. As Germany begins to invade and the threat of war is imminent, Emma must make some hard choices, one being to send her daughter to live elsewhere. It's a story of tragedy, friendship, family, healing and reconciliation, and love. 

Crime and Parchment (Rare Books Cozy Mystery #1) by Daphne Silver ⭐⭐⭐⭐  

This one I read for the Murder they Write challenge for November...the prompt was "won an award". I already had this book so was excited to apply it to a prompt and check another one of my hundreds of ebooks off as read. Rare book librarian Juniper returns back to her grandmas home (which her sister has turned into a bed and breakfast), after her ex-brother in law contacts her mysteriously about a missing manuscript. Of course, someone dies, though and she never meets up with her brother in law who kind of goes missing too. I would read more in the series.                                                                                                      

The Wedding People by Alison Espach ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was also for the pass along book club. This was decent, a little quirky, slightly dark but humorous...it just didn't quite end the way I thought it would. I believe I gave a synopsis of this one in my last post. 

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The book by Madeline Martin (though I didn't know this when I read the other book)...I loved this one just as much. It fit two of the prompts for the 52 book club challenge..I loved the characters and the way it tied in to the other book. This is one I will definitely recommend, and I loved the audio..

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka ⭐⭐⭐

One of the prompts for the 52 book club was a fairytale retelling. I found this one and it was a quick listen. It tells the story from the wolf's perspective. It was funny, and how it really is true that we often only listen to one side of a story, which may not be entirely true. 

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown ⭐⭐⭐

I had hoped this one would be better than it was. It moved slowly and just never had those moments of "wow". It felt like it dragged on and the ending just didn't come together that great. 

Never Too Late (Henlit, #1) by Jo Barney ⭐⭐⭐

I feel like I'm hitting a lot of 3's this month. This one was in my kindle library and fit a prompt so I went with it. Edith wakes up Christmas morning to find her husband has died in his sleep. As she navigates dealing with his death (they had a shotgun wedding, and a not so great marriage), she discovers secrets that need answers. It had redeeming qualities, and it wasn't all bad, it just lacked something. 

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (Mrs. Pollifax #1) by Dorothy Gilman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved this book and will definitely listen to more of them. I had moments I laughed out loud. Emily Pollifax is tired of just "living" life, she wants to do something different. So, she signs up to become a CIA agent and her first "assignment" has her in the throes of a cold war. Definitely worth the read. 

What I'm Currently Reading: 

Maame by Jessica George

This was my final book for my Passalong book club. I've seen it on many reading lists. I'm actually listening to it, and enjoying the narration. There are many F-bombs which aren't my favorite, but the premise of the story is good. When Maddies mom comes home from Ghana, the 25 year old spreads her wings and moves out (she lived at home caring for her father, her brother doesn't come around much and her mother is always in Ghana), a story of unconventional family, tragedy, finding out who you are, friendship and more. I'm about 45% of the way done, so curious to see what happens and how it all plays out. 

Holidays & Homicides: short story collection. This is a fun collection of short cozy mysteries that recently was released. 3 of my favorite cozy mystery authors have a short story in the collection. It's a fun, light read. 

I'm actually almost done with one of the books that has taken me forever to read; The Book of Joy by Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama. It's taken forever not because it's not good, but I just don't sit intentionally and read it. It is really good and I like to have a pen ready to underline. I think if I focus I can finish it this month. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin