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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time
The topic was originally supposed to be Non-Bookish Freebie, and today is my birthday(!) so I thought I’d do a non-bookish list about me today and share a little more about me. I’m not sure how many of us will do the original topic, but either way, I hope to learn more about you too!
Ten Non-Bookish Things About Me
It’s my birthday! – October 14th! I’m a Libra baby! Unfortunately, I’m not celebrating this week as I got sick unexpectedly, but maybe once I get well.
Yes, I am into astrology, tarot, numerology, and other metaphysical practices – I started practicing tarot and other witchy stuff as a child and became a professional tarot reader and numerologist as an adult.
I’ve also worked at a bookstore and as a wedding singer – I’m pretty sure most of us bookworms have worked at a bookstore or a library, or with books at some capacity, at one point or other! Music is another big thing for me, so singing seemed like another thing I would enjoy, and I’ve sang with a couple of bands for weddings and corporate events.
And was also an investment consultant – This is probably the job that is most unrelated to any of my interests, but I met my husband here so it turned out great!
My husband is a musician and we bonded over our love for music – I have dated musicians before meeting my husband and I swore I would never date musicians again! Joke’s on me, huh?😂
We make beautiful music together! – Not an euphemism! 😂 We actually make music together and have just released a few songs (and more coming soon!) under the name SpaceBlaze! I’ve added our Spotify playlist to the sidebar if anyone wants to check them out, or if you don’t use Spotify, you can try any of these platforms.
We also have three cats together – Button, Pepper, and Loki. We lost Loki a few months ago, but he’s still very much in our hearts and minds. Click the link for the cat tax! They are Malaysian cats, and we brought them with us when we moved to Canada.
We’re Malaysian cats too – We moved to Canada in 2018 and sometimes I’m surprised to realize that we’ve been here for seven years. It’s weird to be an immigrant because after seven years, I still feel like I’m new here. There’s so much I don’t know, and sometimes I don’t even know what I don’t know.
I knit and crochet in my free time – These days it’s more crochet than knit, but I realized I haven’t posted many pictures of my crochet projects here. It looks like I only have this post and this post featuring my crochet pieces. I should really change that!
It was surprisingly difficult to come up with ten non-bookish things about me – Books are such a huge part of my life, and probably the thing I talk most about. In fact, I’m probably cheating with this one, and the one about working in a bookstore, because they’re bookish-related, but this has somewhat inspired me to explore other interests so I’ll have more to talk about next time!
What are some non-bookish things about you? Do we have any non-bookish things in common? What non-bookish things would you like to try?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Non-Bookish Freebie
Taking the opportunity with today’s topic to post pictures of my cats! We lost Loki (the white-ish one) a few months ago, but he’s not forgotten and he’s still a very important part of the three MeowsCateers. Some of the pictures aren’t the best quality but I hope their cuteness comes through!
The Three MeowsCateers
Basking on the windowsill
Staring into your soul
Dozing cats
Nom-noms
Cuddle pile
Do you have any pets? Share stories about them in the comments! I’d love to hear them!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
May and June 2025 Wrap Up
Hello my friends, I have been so very absent on the blog to the point that this month’s wrap up is actually a combination of May and June. I have posted some book reviews but only because I have a compulsive need to keep track of the books I read and record my thoughts about them. Even so, I’m far behind on keeping up to date on writing the reviews, and I haven’t replied to any comments in the last couple of months. I am so sorry!
A lot of things have happened that have kept me busy, but only two worth mentioning right now;
First, we lost one of our beloved cats, Loki, very unexpectedly earlier this month. One day, he was fine and perfectly happy as usual, the next day he started having seizures and vomiting. We took him to the vet in the afternoon, but he wasn’t getting better, and we ended up having to go back later that night to put him to sleep.
It was a horrible day.
He was the most vocal and active of our cats, and it’s very noticeable that he’s gone now. We miss him every day, and it still hurts to think of him. The worst thing was how sudden it was. He was only nine years old and had no signs of any health problems. I don’t know why this happened. We’ve been cuddling our other two cats, Button and Pepper, a lot more than usual lately, and they’ve been more receptive to it as well. They notice he’s gone too and have been more affectionate with us.
The second thing is a happier thing, although it has me nervous. I’m going back to school for an Accounting certificate this fall. I had been busy with paperwork and applications, and recently just got my acceptance letter! I am very excited and nervous at the same time. It’s been a long while since I’ve been in school but I also love learning new things and once upon a time, my biggest aspiration was to be a “professional student”.
I still have a lot of things to organize and prepare for going back to school but there’s a couple of months to go. Being so absent from the blog these last couple of months, I do worry that I might not be able to keep up with the blog once school starts, but I like fixed schedules and routines and I’m expecting things to settle down once I adjust to the student lifestyle once again.
Now on to the book updates;
My May 2025 TBR Intentions
I did manage to finish all the books on my TBR intentions in May. Yay! The ones on the list were the priorities and I wanted to leave space for mood reads, and I got some in.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (The Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers
Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My June TBR intentions were chosen because my online bookclub was having a friendly competitive read-off event, where the team that got the most points for books read would win. There were exponentially higher points for books over 1000 pages and 1500 pages, so I made my list with that in mind, although some books were chosen because they were BOTMs, and/or had end-of-June deadlines. I also did end up reading a lot more than expected because I was trying to distract myself from Loki’s passing.
For May, the notable books were Perdido Street Station, Rose Madder, and The Ghost Bride. For June, the notable books were Les Misérables, Gone with the Wind, Scarlett, and Oz: The Complete Collection. I won’t go too much into detail about the books here because these are two months’ worth of books and I’m somewhat rushing this post as well.
In brief, Perdido Street Station is a little wordy but the world-building is incredible, and the story is haunting and heartbreaking and lives in my head rent-free. Rose Madder is a Stephen King book and everyone knows I’m a fan. It’s not gory horror, but it’s psychological horror and that really gets me. The Ghost Bride is a reread and written by a Malaysian author about the early 1900s’ in Malaya. It’s so reminiscent about my life, family, and culture in Malaysia, and I love that it incorporates our folklore into such a vivid fantasy story.
I listened to Les Misérables on audio and absolutely loved the experience of it. It is a little long-winded but I enjoyed it still! The whole story infuriates me but it’s told so well that I can’t help but love it, and I feel like this is one of those books where I’ll come back to and get more out of every time I reread.
Gone with the Wind, and Scarlett, are two of my favorite books that I’ve read over and over again. My experience and thoughts about them have changed over the years, but this last read was very nostalgic and I appreciate them for the works that they are.
Oz: The Complete Collection is the collection of books 1 through 14 of the Oz books. I have never read them, not even the first book, and I had no idea there was so much to the stories! Reading them as an adult, I’ve fallen in love with the stories and the characters, and it makes me wish I had read them as a child. They are just so magical and imaginative, they were so fun to read!
July 2025 TBR Intentions
My online bookclub is continuing the competitive read-off event in July, so I’m planning to continue with the big books, plus also July’s BOTMs and other buddy reads with July deadlines.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
How was the last couple of months for you? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful July with lots of great books!
Prose and Cons (Magical Bookshop #2) by Amanda Flower
Magic, books, and cats collide in a village near Niagara Falls in the latest Magical Bookshop Mystery from the author of Crime and Poetry .
In Cascade Springs, New York, Violet Waverly and her grandma, Daisy, are the proprietors of Charming Books, where the power of the written word is positively enchanting…
October in Cascade Springs means tourists are pouring in for the annual Food and Wine Festival, and Daisy hopes to draw those crowds to the store. She asks Violet and the local writing group, the Red Inkers, to give a reading of the works of Edgar Allan Poe in the shop’s back garden to entertain the revelers. Everyone eagerly agrees.
Yet their enthusiasm is soon extinguished when Violet discovers one of the writers dead during the event. After the shop magically tells Violet she’ll need to rely on Poe’s works to solve the murder, she enlists the help of her trusty tuxedo cat, Emerson, and the shop’s crow, Faulkner. But they must act fast before someone else’s heart beats nevermore…
Rachel Dulude. Still all good! I’m really enjoying her narration.
My Thoughts
I love that each book focuses on one “book theme”; the first book featured Emily Dickinson, this one featured Edgar Allan Poe. Their works provide the clues to solving the mysteries that the MC, Violet Waverly, has to figure out. However, I sometimes feel like it’s a bit of a reach and the clues don’t really do anything to help Violet. Or else Violet isn’t very good at solving the cases. She still makes stupid decisions, which I forgave in the first book, but that are starting to annoy me in the second book.
I do love the cat though. Emerson is the best cat and I love him. There are a lot of good things about this book. I love the ensemble characters. I love Chief Rainwater. I love Grandma Daisy. I love Sadie and Lacey, and I love Lacey’s husband for his food and making me hungry through the page. I love that there’s magic and books and smart animals. It’s a fun read.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Crime and Poetry (Magical Bookshop #1) by Amanda Flower
From Amanda Flower—who writes the national bestselling Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries as Isabella Alan—comes the first in the new Magical Bookshop Mystery series.
Rushing home to sit by her ailing grandmother’s bedside, Violet Waverly is shocked to find Grandma Daisy the picture of perfect health. Violet doesn’t need to read between the lines: her grandma wants Violet back home and working in her magical store, Charming Books. It’s where the perfect book tends to fly off the shelf and pick you…
Violet has every intention to hightail it back to Chicago, but then a dead man is discovered clutching a volume of Emily Dickinson’s poems from Grandma Daisy’s shop. The victim is Benedict Raisin, who recently put Grandma Daisy in his will, making her a prime suspect. Now, with the help of a tuxedo cat named Emerson, Violet will have to find a killer to keep Grandma from getting booked for good…
Now that I’m finished with the 2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge, I thought I’d try to make a dent on the other reading challenges I signed up for. This was a bookish book, and it’s a series, so there’s lots more bookish books to read!
The Narrator(s)
Rachel Dulude. I love her! It was smooth listening all the way! I especially love it when she narrates the cat’s meow; it makes me believe it was a real cat!
My Thoughts
Seriously, this book hits all the right spots for a witchy book lover! There’s a magical bookshop, there are magical books, there’s a resident crow and the most adorable cat! There’s also a birthright legacy passed down from grandmother to granddaughter in regards to taking care of the bookshop, and I love everything about it!
There’s also a murder mystery to solve, of course, and I just love how the story unfolds.
It’s not perfect; there are still characters making bad decisions, some things happen too conveniently, and I have issues with one of the characters – Audrey, the victim’s daughter – being so vilified, due to personal beliefs. However, this is meant to be a light-hearted cozy mystery, and so I’ll take it the way it was meant and not analyze it too deeply. It’s actually really well-written and I really enjoyed this book. I plan to read the next books in the series too!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings.
A Good, Good Life
Hey friends, I’ve missed you all since the week before! I’m still catching up from all I’ve missed; I’ve got a ton of laundry to do, work I haven’t done, and a couple weeks’ worth of blog visiting and commenting! Please bear with me while I get myself caught up!
As for my friend’s visit, it was awesome! We had lots of fun and did a lot of stuff (and I had to take a couple of days to rest from all the activity I was not used to!) – I took her to the zoo of course, and to the annual big book sale in Calgary, signed her up for our public library tour – she’s a friend from my online book club so she was thrilled with all the book-related activities, I promise!
She was also very happy to meet my cats, the pictures above were all taken by her. They had fun hanging out with her although they were wary at first. We also did some tarot readings, had long chats and some really big laughs, enjoyed a few meals together. It was a great time and I was sad when it was time for her to leave. There were tears! 😭
All the happy things:
It was so nice to hang out with my friend! This is actually the first time we met in person after years of hanging out online, and it was just a joy!
I grabbed lots of great books from the book sale!
I have always loved the zoo and the library, but I have a new appreciation for them, and other local fixtures, after seeing them through a visitor’s eyes.
There have been more walks around the neighborhood with the husband on nice days.
And another dance party while cleaning the kitchen together!
I made more cookies!
My book haul! There were several more, but these are the ones I’m excited about and I hope to read them sooner rather than later.
The Books
Books I read last (two) week(s):
Funny Story by Emily Henry – I think this might have become my favorite of Emily Henry’s books. I loved the banter, and it made me laugh out loud several times. It was just so fun to read.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – I loved this book but for very different reasons. It’s heavy and difficult to read emotionally, but it was very good, and I feel like this is one I’d come back to and find new things to take away.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Another favorite from TJR. One of my top TJR books is Malibu Rising, and we first meet Carrie Soto there in a cameo. We get to know her better in this book and I’m definitely a fan.
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth – My book club buddies were talking about this book and I couldn’t resist buying into their hype. I’m glad I did because it was really good. I finished it very quickly.
The Woman In Me by Britney Spears – I grew up with Britney and really enjoyed her music. It’s horrifying to find out all the ways she’s been used and exploited because of her success. I have so much respect for her strength. I know I couldn’t have handled half the things she went through.
What Happened To Nina? by Dervla McTiernan – This had been on my radar for a while and I finally finished it. It’s such an interesting look at the things we’d do for our loved ones. How far would you go? I think the social horror aspect of it is what scares me most.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – Many of you recommended this book after I finished reading Clap When You Land, and I’m glad you did because it was so good. I loved Xiomara’s voice and listening to it on audio, narrated by the author, made it all the more powerful.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells – Just finished today! I’ve been waiting a long time for the audiobook and it’s worth the wait, but I feel so impatient to read them all, so now I have a dilemma – read them all quickly on ebook? Or wait for the audiobooks to be available, one by slow one? 😩
Books I’m reading:
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley – On a physical copy. This is a reread. Robin McKinley is one of my favorite childhood authors but for some reason I only rated this one two stars at the time. My book buddies have told me unequivocally that I’m wrong and it’s great, so I’m trying it again. To be fair, it’s been so long I don’t remember anything about it at all, so I might agree with them and shake my head at my younger self’s bad take.
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center – On ebook. I’ve been meaning to read it for months! It was on my TBR before The Bodyguard, but I finished that some time ago so I thought I should finally get to this.
Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft – On audiobook. I’ve seen a lot of recommendations for this book on some subreddits and it came up recently while I was browsing Libby’s catalog, so I thought I’d read it. It’s been pretty eye-opening so far but I’m only 20% in.
Finish all the books I’ve already started, but I think I also have to catch up on some book reviews, and updating my books read on Goodreads and The Storygraph. I feel like I’ve also lost sight of some of my reading challenges, so I’m going to try to get back on track and focus on the books I wanted to read.
How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is a Freebie so I’m going with Books with Cats in the Title. If you’re wondering how I came about this brilliant topic, what I did was reach out for the first object on my left, and it was my cats! (I might have cheated, but you’ll never know!)
Top Ten Books with Cats in the Title
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood – I read this as a young adult and it made a significant impact on me. It showcases the dynamics between girl friendships in a time where girls were pitted against each other. I feel like we’re getting better but there’s still a lot of progress to be made. It’s been a while since I read it so maybe it’s time for a reread.
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody – I’ve been reading this book on and off because I find it fascinating, but there are spoilers for a lot of books I haven’t read so I skip parts and sometimes put it down until I read the books in question.
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron – Nonfiction books about animals inevitably make me cry. I read this book a long time ago and I barely remember the details, but I definitely remember the sobbing.
White Cat by Holly Black – I read this so long ago I don’t even remember reading it, but I love Holly Black and apparently there are two more books in the series. This is a great excuse to reread and read the other books too!
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss – Can you believe I’ve never read this?
Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat – I haven’t read this one either, but I’ve seen the memes and love them!
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa – I remember hearing a lot about this book a few years ago, and I was initially planning to do a buddy read, but I got busy at the time and then just never came back to the book. If you’ve read it, is it still worth reading?
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams – A classic I’ve heard about but haven’t been interested in. I’d love to hear what other people think about it.
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – Another classic, one that I am interested in reading. Hopefully soon.
Cat Daddy by Jackson Galaxy – My husband and I watched many episodes of My Cat From Hell before we ever decided to adopt our cats, and it has helped us so much in understanding how to care for them. The book was good too; it had a lot of touching and interesting stories about himself and his experience with cats.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings.
Cold, Cats, Cookies
I was in a funk this week. I didn’t have my usual energy this week and spent a couple of days being moody and just laying in bed reading (might be I was just using the moodiness as an excuse to stay in bed and read, but you have no proof).
To be fair, it was a really cold week, with temperatures going down to -36 Celcius, so it’s just much more comfy to hide under the covers than try to do anything else. Even the cats were so cold, all three cuddled up together, which they very rarely do! Also, to be clear, I didn’t have a cold. It was just really cold, and I had a mood.
I did bake some cookies though, which took a lot of time because I made 4x the recipe, but it was yummy and totally worth it! And we got some heat from the oven too, so win-win!
On the reading front, I finished The September House and The Librarian Spy, so yay! I also posted my notes and reactions for The September House that I wrote in my e-reader as I was reading. It’s password-protected and spoiler-filled, but if you’ve read it and are interested in my notes, password is “SPOILME0002”.
I also finally got Light Bringer by Pierce Brown on audiobook. It’s the sixth book in the Red Rising series, and I’ve been so anxious reading about characters that I’ve loved since the first book. Things haven’t been going their way for a while, and I’m just really afraid for them. If this was the final book, I would be expecting a good resolution, but there’s going to be a seventh book, so I’m not sure if we’re going to be left hanging again.
For nonfiction, I’ve started reading The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner and it’s really kicking my ass, to be honest. I’m reading it very slowly, and it’s bringing up a lot of difficult topics. I’m sure it’s good for me to work through them, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for it right now.
I’m pretty sure I can finish Light Bringer this week. I’m not so sure about The Dance of Anger, I’m contemplating if I want to leave it for another time, but even if I decide to continue, I will be going slow, so it’s going to take me a while.
I also just got The Switch by Beth O’ Leary on audiobook, and I got a physical copy of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries from the library, so they are on the list right after Light Bringer. I’m feeling pretty happy because I’m doing well with actually reading the books I listed on my Winter TBR a few weeks ago. Let’s hope I keep it up!
How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!
