Always Me

Happy Sunday Funday and welcome to my final and thirteenth weekly update for Summer of Horror 2026 (my fifth of August), a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy .  I can't believe it's all over!  These three months really flew by, didn't they!  I can't believe I finished my original tbr and checked off quite a bit of my watchlist to.  Keep reading to see what I've gotten up to since last week. My Summer of Horror This Week: Sunday Funday: August Week 4 Update Music Monday: Holiday Sweater Top Ten Tuesday: Horror Locations I Really Don't Want To Visit The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Koko ( Blue Rose Trilogy #1) by Peter Straub Music Monday: Nobody What I've Watched This Week : ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ The Boroughs - Netflix - I finished up the last three episodes of The Boroughs and it was a lot of fun. It's a shame it was cancelled because I definitely would have continued on with it. My ...

  Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday!  Let's share some songs we've been enjoying!  If you would like to link up with me, please see the rules below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url.  Hello everyone! In honor of the final day of the  Summer of Horror 2026 , a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy , I'm featuring music from the Nobody  YouTube channel.  This channel makes a variety of great playlists and the one I'm sharing feels like a perfect fit for today.  Give a listen to a ...

Happy Sunday everyone! Today I'm sharing my my eigth update for my August progress for the year long reading challenge called The 52 Book Club's 2026 Reading Challenge .  You can see my original tbr here .  In August, I completed 3 books for a total of 46 read so far out of 52 total books on my tbr.  Only 6 books to go!  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in August: 49. From the 800s of the Dewey Decimal System ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ Poems and Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien  was on my tbr for quite awhile and I had been eyeing it at the library for a long time. While I wouldn't call all of the stories and poems featured here favorites, it was just good to read more from Tolkien that I wasn't already familiar with. My favorite short poem from this was easily The Cat. As far as I'm concerned, that one was absolutely perfection. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . 44. Literary Device: Personification ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van...

  Happy Sunday everyone!  I can't believe it's already the end of August!  Today I'm sharing my my eigth update for my progress for the year long reading challenge called the 2026 Popsugar Reading Challenge .  In August, I completed 3 books for a total of 44 read so far out of 50 total books on my tbr.  Only 6 to go!  You can see my original tbr here .  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in August for this challenge: 26. A book with a character who navigates infertility ❋ ❋ The Children of Men by P.D. James  would be a different story for me if I hadn't already seen the movie that it was adapted from. For me, this is definitely a case of the movie being far, far better than the book that inspired it. I will say though, world-building is the strongest element. A lot of what took this down was the characterizations. I wasn't interested in anything happening to any of them. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . 20. A ...

Happy Sunday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my eighth update for my August progress for the year long Beat The Backlist 2026 reading challenge, hosted by Austine Decker.  You can see my original tbr here .  In August, I completed 1 book for a total of 18 read so far out of 24 total books on my tbr.  6 to go!  Without further ado, keep reading to see my thoughts on the book I read in August: 20. recs in real life: recommended by a family member or close friend ❋ ❋  ❋ ❋ The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland  is a must read history book. Even though the author's style didn't always quite work for me, I still think that more people need to know this story.  It's depressing that it feels so timely. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . Are you participating in this challenge?  Have you read this book?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting dow...

Happy Sunday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing my August update for Bookforager's Picture Prompt Book Bingo 2026 .  In August, I completed 2 out of 14 read so far of a total of 16 books on my tbr.  Without further ado, keep reading to see my thoughts on the book I read in August for this challenge: 5. A hot air balloon ❋ ❋ ❋  Airborn ( Matt Cruse #1) by Kenneth Oppel  was quite a fun adventure with engaging characters and writing style. As much as I liked this, though, I think it's definitely a case of simply being a book that I would have absolutely loved even more if I read it back when it was new and I was younger. I'm not sure if I'll continue on with this series or not at this time. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . 11. A hand holding a threaded needle ❋ ❋  ❋ ❋ Such Wicked Intent ( The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein #2) by Kenneth Oppel  is a great finale and retelling/ prequel of one of my favorite classics. It's been a w...

Happy Sunday everyone! Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the book I read in August for Choose Your Own Adventure: Year In Adelia 2026, The Boardgame , an additional challenge to G. @ Book Roast 's Magical Readathon .  You can see my full tbr here .  Without further ado, check out my mini review below: August - 8B - Use Truelight (the darkness here is all consuming, it's dimming your light spells, the torch goes out, even your thoughts are turning against you.  You've read that only Truelight works under these mountains, luckily you've been gifted some and it's time to activate it) - read a book with a world "light" in the title ❋ ❋ Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky  wasn't quite my style unfortunately. I really liked the idea of this one as a light fantasy, but the tone of the author's writing style didn't mesh with what he was going for in my mind. It worked well for the sci-fi I've read from him but not so much here in comparison. My r...

Happy Saturday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my plans for the SeasonAthon Academy Semester Five  which is hosted by Completely Melanie , with cohosts BookAndBuJo and AStar Reads .  I participated in SeasonAThon's Spring Into Reading Athon 2026, but this will be my first time participating in SeasonAthon Academy.  This round will run through all of September and all of the prompts are themed to college coursework to earn your "Bachelor of Reading."  There are five required courses (some of which have multiple prompt options) and one group book which you can elect to use to complete one of your courses.  Without further ado, here are my plans for each prompt: Group Book: Half City ( Harker Academy #1) by Kate Golden - I actually own a copy of this so I was really excited to see this was the group book.  It sounds like it will be a lot of fun!  I think I'll use this as just the group book and select five totally different books for the other tasks. ...

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope everyone's had a good August.  This year is really flying by, isn't it!  I've now completed 16 tasks for Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed in August required me to r ead/try a recipe from a cookbook about a culture whose food you’ve never eaten and a  book by a librarian .   I selected  FUSÃO: Untraditional recipes inspired by Brasil by Ixta Belfrage  and  A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month:   ❋ ❋ ❋ FUSÃO: Untraditional recipes inspired by Brasil by Ixta Belfrage   has some great photography. Honestly, I can say I was much more interested in the history and culture segments than the actual recipes. I already know that I won't be making any of the recipes in this book though.  Let me just say, I have no idea where I'd get some of the regular ingredients for th...

      On Friday's I take part in two weekly link ups - The Friday 56, currently hosted by Anne @ My Head Is Full of Books , and Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Anne's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my Summer of Horror 2026 (hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy ),  Koko ( Blue Rose Trilogy #1) by Peter Straub .  Okay, this has been sitting on my shelf for about a million years and I'm finally going to give it a try. B...

        Happy Thursday everyone! Welcome back to Books from the Backlog , the weekly linkup I'm taking part of which is hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books .  This is a great way to put a spotlight on books that I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile.  I don't know when I'll get to my weekly featured book, but I hope to some time hopefully soon. This Week's Neglected Book: The Queen Is Dead ( The Immortal Empire #2) by Kate Locke Published: February 5, 2013 Genre: Steampunk Urban Fantasy My Copy: Format: Hardback Pages: 333 Where I Acquired It: Ollie's Bargain Outlet Summary (From Goodreads): Nothing lasts forever---and immortality isn't all its cracked up to be.  When her brother Val gets in over his head in an investigation of Half-Blood disappearances and goes missing himself, it's up to Xandra, newly crowned Goblin Queen, to get him back and bring the atrocities to light. Xandra must frequent the seediest parts of London, while also coping...

Happy Wednesday everyone!  It's that time!  Time to start my Autumn Equinox 2026 classes at Orilium for the Magical Readathon , hosted by G. @ Book Roast .  During the Spring Equinox this year , I started working toward completing my new Calling of a Moon Warden.  Anyway, this Autumn Equinox runs all of September.  This semester I'll be taking 4 courses: I need an O in Elemental Studies, a Q in Astronomy, a Q in Restoration, and and O in Spells & Incantations (that's 6 books in total).  To earn a Q that requires me to read one book to fulfill a specific prompt and to earn an O that requires me to read two books.  Keep reading to see what I plan on reading to complete my course of study for this semester: Elemental Studies O - Enchanted Forestry: Forest My choice: Hunted by Darcy Coates - This sounds like it will be quite an unsettling horror story from a favorite author. Astronomy O - Birthchart Numerology: Popular book from year: your DOB = XXY...

  Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Bookish Places I’ve Visited, but in honor of Summer of Horror 2026 , a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy , I'm going to do something a bit different and share Horror Locations I Really Don't Want To Visit.  Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order by title: Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer - New Creations craft store - no, thanks! Dracula by Bram Stoker - Dracula's castle - nah!  The above gif is from the movie Horror of Dracula (1958) which stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and is one of my favorite adaptations. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales  by Edgar Allan Poe - The House of Usher - I'll just stay home okay! Fear Street by R.L. Stine - Fear Street and Shadyside - Another one I'll stay away from, thanks!  Readin...