The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 4-20-25

Today is Easter Sunday, so Happy Easter to all who celebrate. If you’re still chasing Easter Eggs, then a Hoppy Easter to you as well.

Reading-wise, this was certainly a good week, with A++ rated A Drop of Corruption edging out the merely A+ rated Who Will Remember for book of the week. The one and only negative thing about either book is that there is not any currently available word on the next book in either series. Inquiring minds desperately need to know!

I think I’m sure about what’s coming this week, even though that statement feels a bit like, “I think I can, I think I can.” I’ve faffed around with two of the slots, and re-faffed, and fluffed a bit, and I think this is it. The order is absolutely subject to change, however.

Turning to other orders, or at least to someone looking like they are giving orders, today’s cat picture had to be split in two to fit, but I promise that this began its life as one single picture. We call this one, “Three cats working, one cat supervising.” Somebody found a bug. Everyone had to watch the bug and stare at the bug and poke at the poor, frightened, tiny little bug. Except Hecate. Her job is not to catch the bug. Her job is clearly to supervise the other cats because they might be doing it wrong.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Rain Drops on Roses Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Spring, March Madness, Earth Month and Mother’s Day Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Spring 2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop is Elizabeth

Blog Recap:

A++ #BookReview: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
B #BookReview: Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman
Rain Drops on Roses Giveaway Hop
B #BookReview: A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic by J. Penner
A+ #BookReview: Who Will Remember by C.S. Harris
Stacking the Shelves (649)

Coming This Week:

Shadow of the Solstice by Anne Hillerman (#BookReview)
Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd (#BookReview)
A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang (#BookReview)
Single Player by Tara Tai (#BookReview)
Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong (#AudioBookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 4-13-25

Spring has certainly sprung on the holiday front, as Passover began yesterday at sunset and ends at sunset next sunday, April 20, which is also Easter Sunday. Mother’s Day can’t be far behind!

One thing that is behind is this year’s Blogo-Birthday Celebration Week. All the winners of all the giveaways have been notified. Thanks again to each and every one of you for participating in the Celebration! I hope to see you all again next year. Bring your friends to the party!

As a side note, I’ve discovered something interesting about the way that Rafflecopter works. If I merely ask for participants in the giveaway to comment on the post, somehow I get literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of entries – most of which are not legit. If I ask for participants to answer a question, I don’t get as many actual comments. But I also get a considerably more reasonable number of participants and they’re all REAL. C’est la vie.

Today’s cat picture is Hecate, being just a bit contemplative. This is a particularly good picture of her little face and does an excellent job of showing off her pretty golden eyes. She’s also just a bit on the defensive, as she’s stolen my chair!

 

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop (ENDS TUESDAY!!!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Spring, March Madness, Earth Month and Mother’s Day Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Spring 2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Sunday Post Blogo-Birthday Giveaway is Cali
The winners of the Big Blogo-Birthday Giveaway are Jan and Debbie
The winner of a book by Tanya Huff is Heather
The winner of a book in the Sherlock Holmes Adventure Series by Bonnie MacBird is Chris
The winner of any book from my Best Books List or Your Wishlist is Diane
The winner of the STS Blogo-Birthday Giveaway is Barbara

Blog Recap:

C #AudioBookReview: The Sirens by Emilia Hart
B #BookReview: Hunter Squad: North by Anna Hackett
A- #BookReview: One Level Down by Mary G. Thompson
A- #AudioBookReview: Trap Line by Timothy Zahn
B+ #BookReview: Last Chance to Save the World by Beth Revis
Stacking the Shelves (648)

Coming This Week:

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (#BookReview)
Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman (#BookReview)
Rain Drops on Roses Giveaway Hop
A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic by J. Penner (#BookReview)
Who Will Remember by C.S. Harris (#BookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 3-30-25 + Giveaway!

Today marks the start of Reading Reality’s FOURTEENTH! Annual Blogo-Birthday Celebration Week. Which means that today starts an entire week of giveaways. YAY! I’ll get more into the whole Hobbit Birthday thing of this week’s celebration in tomorrow’s post, which will include one of the big giveaways, but today is just a bit of a kickoff to start the festivities. Please come back every day this week to get in on ALL the prizes!

In the meantime, this week just finished was still a regular week of blogging and reading and reviewing – and it was a good one. First, I get to give one more shoutout to the marvelous historical mystery, The Railway Conspiracy by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan. It just so happens that this was the title I highlighted for this week in last Sunday’s Post, and now it’s the Book of the Week because it got this week’s highest rating. It was an absolutely excellent read/listen and I can’t recommend this one highly enough – although I do certainly keep trying!

It’s not a Sunday Post without a cat picture so here’s today’s poster cat. Hecate is dozing in the sun on one of her favorite perches, making the world go away as only a napping kitty can.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Spring, March Madness, Earth Month and Mother’s Day Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Spring 2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

B #BookReview: The Cat Who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
B #BookReview: Luminous by Silvia Park
Grade A #AudioBookReview: The Railway Conspiracy by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan
B #BookReview: The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen
A- #BookReview: Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler
Stacking the Shelves (646)

Coming This Week:

Blogo-Birthday Celebration Week Begins! + Giveaway!
Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop
Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff (#BookReview + Giveaway)
The Three Locks by Bonnie MacBird (#BookReview + Giveaway)
Blogo-Birthday Celebration + Giveaway!

 

~~~~~~ GIVEAWAY ~~~~~~

Welcome to the very first giveaway of this year’s Blogo-Birthday Celebration! As I write this on Friday, the weather this weekend in the ATL is expected to be a glorious spring day on Saturday and a nasty thunderstorm on Sunday. Which sounds like a perfect spring weekend to me – a day to go out in the sun AND a day to stay in and read. Spring might not even have sprung yet where you are, but it will eventually, so what’s your favorite thing to do on a beautiful spring day? Answer in the rafflecopter for your chance at one of Reading Reality’s usual prizes, the winner’s choice of a $10 Amazon Gift Card or $10 in Books.

And don’t forgot to come back tomorrow for another giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 2-23-25

This has been a week. Well, it’s been one of THOSE weeks. I’ve had a terrible cold, which I’ve been trying NOT to give to Galen. There’s no reason for both of us to be sick. I’ve had a chance to read a couple of longer books, as reading is one of the few activities that works for me (so does, oddly, playing video games). I can prop the iPad up high enough that I don’t have to look down to read, which works because looking down makes my nose run and then the whole thing turns into a mess. The cats are loving my extra warms, but I make too much noise coughing and sneezing to let them rest on me for too long. No one is happy, but everyone is trying.

However, this week’s picture is of someone who is, well, trying, for other meanings of that word. Here’s Hecate, explaining in one simple picture why we can’t have nice things. She’s trying to tear down the bathroom door – and based on the deep gouges on either side – she’s succeeding.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the January Wellness, Super Bowl & Valentine’s Day Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Books in the Winter 2024-2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

#GuestPost: Presidents’ Day 2025
A- #AudioBookReview: Thaumaturgic Tapas by Tao Wong
A- #AudioBookReview: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
B #BookReview: One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed
B #BookReview: The Desert Talon by Karin Lowachee
Stacking the Shelves (641)

Coming This Week:

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (#BookReview)
A Scandalous Affair by Leonard Goldberg (#BookReview)
Stone Certainty by Simon R. Green (#BookReview)
Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill (#BookReview)
The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig (#BookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 1-12-25

Last week’s picture was of Hecate as the “Girl Cat with a Pearl Earring”, although I didn’t catch the resemblance to the famous painting until a few days later. This week’s cat picture is either Hecate surveying HER domain, or Hecate’s Winter Wonderland. After all, it’s always HERS, even if it’s seldom covered in snow.

We only got about 2 inches of snow here in Atlanta, but it was the heavy wet stuff and it stuck. (There’s a better picture of just how much snow and what it looked like fresh in yesterday’s Stacking the Shelves.) The whole of the ATL shut down in anticipation – which turned out to be a good thing as it doesn’t snow often enough here for there to be any plows or for people to get used to driving in it. (As I write this on Saturday the streets and driveways have already melted but the grass is still snow-covered.)

In the meantime, Hecate is keeping an eye on things just to make certain that the snow doesn’t do anything that she hasn’t given it permission for.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the New Year New You Giveaway Hop (Ends Wednesday!!!)
$10 Gift Card or $10 Books in the Winter 2024-2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: Holmes is Missing by James Patterson and Brian Sitts
A- #BookReview: Blood is Blood by Will Thomas
B+ #BookReview: Rebellious Grace by Jeri Westerson
B #BookReview: See How They Hide by Allison Brennan
A- #AudioBookReview: Free as a Bird by Hailey Edwards
Stacking the Shelves (635)

Coming This Week:

The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks (#BookReview)
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire (#BookReview)
The Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (#BookReview)
Winter Wishes Giveaway Hop
The Serpent Under by Bonnie MacBird (#BlogTour #BookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 1-5-25

I don’t know about you, but I woke up on January 2 and it felt like someone flipped a switch somewhere, because suddenly after the holiday ‘twilight zone’ life snapped right back to normal. OTOH, I stayed up New Year’s Eve playing videogames instead of partying. There’s still a bit of a hangover, but it’s not nearly as debilitating late the next morning!

Howsomever, Hecate is still looking back wondering WTF at 2024 in her little rearview. Or over her cute but not so little kitty butt. I ask you, is that a face or is that a face? (I wonder if in her little brain, she’s looking back at Tuna’s look from last week and commiserating?)

But the show must go on! After all, there are new and more books to read in 2025, which is always a YAY regardless of what else happens. Although speaking of things happening, it looks like Amazon woke up one morning, remembered that they actually OWNED Goodreads, and decided to start playing with things. I know that Amazon sees all and knows all, but if you’ve linked your Amazon account and your Goodreads account they started combining stuff regarding challenges and display of books read that tells a little too much all in ways that may or may not work for you. They certainly didn’t for me and I had to fix a couple of things to make their ‘fixes’ go away. Hopefully that’s not the shape of things to come for the coming year but I’m not holding my breath. Or as I sometimes say, I wouldn’t bet my own money.

Still and all, HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to 2025!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Books in the Winter 2024-2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the New Year New You Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Dashing December Giveaway Hop is Lisa B.

Blog Recap:

Grade A #BookReview: Unquiet Spirits by Bonnie MacBird
C #AudioBookReview: Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey
New Year, New You Giveaway Hop
Most Anticipated Books of 2025
A- #BookReview: Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz
Stacking the Shelves (634)

Coming This Week:

Holmes is Missing by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (#BookReview)
Rebellious Grace by Jeri Westerson (#BookReview)
The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis (#BookReview)
Blood is Blood by Will Thomas (#BookReview)
Free as a Bird by Hailey Edwards (#AudioBookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-22-24

It’s only three more sleeps until both Christmas and Hanukkah. Are all of your presents wrapped and ready to go? This morning’s cat picture is of Hecate being oh-SO-helpful last weekend while we were wrapping presents. It took repeated applications of the Monster Vacuum to keep the cats off the dining room table long enough to get the job done. Miss Hecate kept popping back up on the table and/or getting underfoot much too quickly after each application – but it did work (mostly) and isn’t she adorable?

Last week’s readings didn’t quite go according to plan. In my head, I thought that the audiobook of Blood Jade was about 10 hours, and that I’d be ready to switch to the text on Wednesday to finish the book in time for a Friday review. My head was in error on both counts. The story is awesome, the narrator is marvelous – Natalie Naudus is one of my faves, especially for stories like this one – but the audio is more like 15 hours and I wasn’t ready at all to give up the fantastic audio in order to listen to the voice in my head who sounds much more like me than a professional narrator.

Very much OTOH, I expected – and I’ve started the book so I know I’m right at least so far – that Echo would be terrific and compelling. But it’s also set in a typical February in Chicago, and I wasn’t quite prepared to face THAT. (I lived in the Chicago area for more than 20 years and February sucks. It’s too damn cold, it’s still much too dark, and spring feels like it’s eons away even if it’s (probably, hopefully) not. Now I’m into the book and I’m sure I’ll get it done if I haven’t already by the time you read this. (I’m writing on Friday.)

One final note on scheduling. Officially, the Winter 2024-2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop started yesterday, so if you want to get in on it immediately hop on over to Versatileer and check it out. Howsomever, I’ll be posting Reading Reality’s entry in the hop tomorrow, on Monday, December 23.

“Just one more thing,” to quote a classic TV detective of yesteryear. This is the last full week of 2024 – as difficult as THAT might be to believe. This year has gone by SO FAST. Nevertheless, 2024 is on its way out the door, which means that it’s time for Reading Reality’s Best Books of 2024 post, coming this very Friday.

There’s LOTS in store here this holiday week. I hope you’ll take a bit of time to stop by and see what’s up! Happy Holidays!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Holiday Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Dashing December Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop is Nancy

Blog Recap:

Dashing December Giveaway Hop
A- #BookReview: Wedgetail by M.L. Buchman
B #AudioBookReview: Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur
B #BookReview: Miss Amelia’s List by Mercedes Lackey
B #BookReview: Love in Other Worlds edited by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Stacking the Shelves (632)

Coming This Week:

Winter 2024-2025 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
Echo by Tracy Clark (#BookReview)
Xmas Day (#GuestPost by Galen)
Blood Jade by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle (#AudioBookReview)
Best Books of 2024 

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-8-24

It’s beginning to look a lot like the end of the year is coming on fast. Entirely too fast! Which means both holiday presents to wrap and New Year’s Resolutions to make.

I’m not really talking about actual New Year’s Resolutions – because those seldom work. It’s more about cogitating on what changes need to be made for Reading Reality. Last year it was the decision to start posting on Instagram, something I’d been debating for a couple of years and finally made the plunge because Twitter was getting weird and I felt the need to start posting on a different – and less weird – social media channel.

And Twitter/X got even weirder and more toxic, so I think the Insta decision was a good one. But it’s looking like it’s time to bail on the whole X thing and that’s what I’m looking at now, both at Bluesky and Threads. If you have any thoughts or experience or both on either service, I’d be VERY interested in hearing about it!

With cats in the house, wrapping presents is always a problem. They ALL want to HELP. Which means playing with the wrapping paper. After all, if it interests us, it interests them even more! And we pay SO MUCH attention to THEM when they’re playing with it. Even better – at least from their perspective.

So, we brought the vacuum cleaner into the room with the big table. We’re planning to run the “Monster Vacuum” while we wrap. Based on past performance, we think a five minute blast of Mr. Vacuum will vacate the room for at least an hour!

Because that little story absolutely BEGS for cat tax, here’s a picture of Hecate looking rather dignified. This might become her “official” portrait.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Holiday Giveaway Event!

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Holiday Book Bingo Challenge Giveaway in the 2024 Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon is Kai

Blog Recap:

Holiday Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!
A- #BookReview: How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis
A- #BookReview: A Snake in the Barley by Candace Robb
C+ #AudioBookReview: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
B #BookReview: The Hero She Deserves by Anna Hackett
Stacking the Shelves (630)

Coming This Week:

Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner (#BookReview)
Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron (#BookReview)
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood (#AudioBookReview)
Dead as a Dodo by Hailey Edwards (#AudioBookReview)
I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander (#BlogTour #BookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-17-24

It’s beginning to look a lot like…it’s getting much too close to the holidays! Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, and it’s time for Caffeinated Reviewer’s annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon. Reading Reality is one of her elves this year, so my challenge post is coming up OMG THIS THURSDAY!

Speaking of the holidays, and the season, and everything, today’s cat pic is Hecate, managing to show off that she is both a bit round like a pumpkin AND has pumpkin colored patches on her underside that match the floor a whole lot more than I thought.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop is Cindy

Blog Recap:

#GuestPost: Veterans Day 2024: Readings
A- #BookReview: The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond
A+ #BookReview: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
A- #AudioBookReview: Crazy as a Loon by Hailey Edwards
B #AudioBookReview: The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi
Stacking the Shelves (627)

Coming This Week:

Feuds by Mercedes Lackey (#BookReview)
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (#BookReview)
Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher (#BookReview)
Ho-Ho-Ho Readation 2024 Book Bingo Challenge (#2024HOHOHORAT)
The December Market by RaeAnne Thayne (#2024HOHOHORAT #BookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-15-24

Hecate is often the “odd kitty out” in our cat pictures. She’s never been an only child, but it’s really clear that she’d prefer to be. She certainly is our problem child, as in the last two weeks we’ve discovered that she a)has crystals in her urine, which is a condition that mostly affects male cats. It’s also a condition which necessitates prescription food, so everyone is getting even fancier food now. And b) she has asthma. If it’s seasonal, well, that’s every spring and fall around here. Fortunately, the little witch is very food motivated, so getting her to take her meds with a treat is going well – at least for the moment. She’s a cat, we expect that to change but we’ll take the win while it lasts.

She seldom appears in pictures with the rest of the clowder, so after all of her little issues this month so far – and OMG September is only half over – she deserved a picture of her very own. We even managed to get one where she exhibits a bit of dignity along with her tortitude!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Early Fall Giveaway Event

Blog Recap:

A- #BookReview: This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
B #BookReview: Fury Brothers: Take by Anna Hackett
A- #BookReview: A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
B #BookReview: We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda
Grade A #BookReview: Chasing New Suns by Lance Robinson
Stacking the Shelves (618)

Coming This Week:

Falling Into Leaves Giveaway Hop
The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman (#AudioBookReview)
The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club by Susan M. Boyer (#BookReview)
The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak (#BlogTour #BookReview)
Blood and Magic by Lauren Dane (#BookReview)