shannonigans

When you hit your 100-book reading goal for the year in September, the rest of the year feels a bit like a free-for-all. I am chaos, destroyer of TBR piles everywhere! So December was basically me reading a few books here and there in between time spent decorating a Christmas tree (that then took a

At the start of every month, I make a list of books of I want to try to read in that particular 30-ish days. There were 19 books on my list for November. I read one of them. Oops! That book, “Legends & Lattes,” was one of my favorites this month, but it was a

Well, I finally broke out of my reading slump — and I did so in a rather big way. As in: I read 18 books this month. Yeah, I’m not quite sure how I did that, either. Helps that I basically have no life, I guess! I tried to mostly pick ~spooky~ books for the

Reading slumps are the worst. August was a weak month for me (“weak” being relative, of course), and I had high hopes for September. I thought “My Cousin Rachel” would put me in a sufficiently fall mood (Another Daphne du Maurier book, “Rebecca,” is one of my favorite classic novels), but it took me ages

I only read 10 books this month — lol at “only” — because I found myself overwhelmed with all the options at my fingertips. I just didn’t know what book I wanted to read. And so, for about the first two weeks of the month, I essentially read nothing. But one night I realized I’d

Two things happened this month that simultaneously increased and decreased my reading productivity. On one hand, I was asked to dogsit, which meant I had access to an absolutely perfect little porch where I could sit with my tea — both at morning and at night — and fly through pages as I was enveloped

I know I said almost this exact thing last month, but June felt especially dark (thanks so much, idiotic Supreme Court justices!!), so I turned to my handy-dandy bookshelf and immersed myself in fake worlds instead of having to face an ever-terrifying real world. Basically, as soon as I finished a book, I started another

This month felt particularly bleak from a societal stand point, so, toward the end of the month, a lot of the books that were sitting on my TBR list got left there as I turned toward books that seemed more comforting and engaging (or toward mindless scrolling on TikTok). Still, I read a number of

I feel like I never need to tell anyone ever again that I can’t stick to a genre — I can just show them this picture! Mystery? Check. Contemporary romance? Check. Mysterious contemporary romance? Check. And then throw in some high fantasy, historical fiction, YA verse prose, magical realism — and unhinged women doing psychotic

This was supposed to be a productive reading month. And then I had to finish a giant chunk of my ghostwriting project. And then my mom had hip surgery. And then TikTok finally gave me the ability to put my favorites into folders (yes, I did spend weeks organizing all 10,000 videos I had saved

This month was a productive but messy one, because I made two big mistakes: I joined NetGalley and started requesting ARCs like crazy, thinking I’d get approved for maybe one or two (not nine million); and I finally got a library card (which I can use with my Kindle account), and all my loan requests

Last year, I decided I would go big with my reading goal for the year: 65 books. I’m pretty sure I reached it by August. So, this year, I decided to go even bigger: 100 books. I’d say I’m off to a pretty good start with the 13 books I read this month. I finally