Always Me

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! Today, I'm featuring three of my favorites from Lydia the Bard .  I just happened to stumble upon her channel on YouTube and got hooked.  She's got quite a variety of music and I've had a good time exploring her music.  Give a listen to Run , Grow Up , and  Way Back When : You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope everyone's had a good February so far.  I've completed my 4 tasks for  Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed in February required me to read a  microhistory  and a book about a cult or cults .   I selected  The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration  by Isabel Wilkerson  and  How Bad Things Can Get  by Darcy Coates  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month: ❋   ❋  ❋  ❋ The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration  by Isabel Wilkerson  is a must read that feels timely and fresh.  I don't think I was quite as invested in this as I was with Caste .  That said, I'm grateful that these stories of these three people and their lives are known.  Wilkerson's style makes a history I otherwise I wouldn't have been all that familiar with co...

      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  Beat The Backlist 2026  books,  The Halloween Moon  by Joseph Fink .  Welcome to Night Vale is one of my favorite podcasts so when I found out about this book from Joseph Fink I thought I'd check it out....

        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 Murder Game by Carrie Doyle Published: April 6, 2021 Genre: YA mystery thriller My Copy: Format: Trade paperback Pages: 384 Where I Acquired It: Target Summary (From Goodreads): What if your best friend and roommate killed a teacher at your prep school? Or what if he didn’t do it, but he’s being framed, and you’re the only person who can save him? Luke Chase didn’t mean to get caught up solving the mystery of Mrs. Heckler’s murder. He just wanted to spend alone time with the new British girl at their boarding school. But little did he know someone would e...

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the book I read in February 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: February -  Pick a direction and work your way towards the number 2 spot. These prompts mainly correlate with your physical shelves and where the books are. 2B West -  book from the middle left side of the shelf ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ The City Beautiful  by Aden Polydoros  is my first work from the author and I know it would be my last. It's not often I read a story with a Jewish main cast that isn't about WWII and/ or the Holocaust in one way or another, so just that is refreshing. I'm also a big fan of historical fantasy and I really liked the style and world-building here. Finally, I want to remind other readers that they can'...

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is a Love/ Valentine's Freebie, so I'm featuring Fantasy With Romance I've Enjoyed Recently. Romance isn't a favorite genre, but sometimes I do like the genre with fantasy.  I wouldn't necessarily consider all of these romantasy.  Here we go in alphabetical order, by title: Divine Rivals ( Letters of Enchantment #1) by Rebecca Ross Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries ( Emily Wilde #1) by Heather Fawcett Holy Terrors ( Little Thieves #3) by Margaret Owen Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan Lore Olympus: Volume Eight #8 ( Lore Olympus #8) by Rachel Smythe Les Normaux ( Les Normaux #1)   by Janine Jannsen Passing Strange by Ellen Klages The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean Sword Catcher ( The Sword of Castellane #1) by Cassandra Clare The Unbroken ( Magic of the Lost #1) by C.L. Clark What are some of your favorite fantasy books with romance?...

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! Today, I'm featuring three of my favorites from  Paris Paloma .  I just came across her music on Pandora and I can't believe I've been missing out for a few years now on her works.  She has such a great voice!  Give a listen to Labour ,  As Good A Reason , and Good Boy (really surprised that Tom Blyth appears in the music video!): You are invited to the In...

      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  2026 Popsugar Reading Challenge  books,  Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil  by V.E. Schwab .  I love V.E. Schwab, so I have high expectations for this novel. Beginning: Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Spa...

        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: A Soldier's Duty ( Theirs Not to Reason Why #1) by Jean Johnson Published: July 26, 2011 Genre: Military sci-fi space opera My Copy: Format: Mass market paperback Pages: 432 Where I Acquired It: Thrift store Summary (From Goodreads): Ia is a precog, tormented by visions of the future where her home galaxy has been devastated. To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary. Why Did I Add ...

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Book Covers Featuring Cool/Pretty/Unique/etc, but I've decided to finish off that series I've been working on with Favorite Books Beginning With The Letter X, Y, & Z.  I've got just about enough titles when combining all three letters together. Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order by title: X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II by Leah Garrett Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins The Yard ( Scotland Yard's Murder Squad #1) by Alex Grecian Yesternight by Cat Winters The Yorkist Age: Daily Life During the Wars of the Roses by Paul Murray Kendall You ( You #1) by Caroline Kepnes You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicity Day The Young Elites ( The Young Elites #1) by Marie Lu Zero World by...

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! Today, I'm featuring two of my favorites from Marino .  I just started hearing his music on Pandora and looked up more of his music because I liked his sound.  Give a listen to Devil in Disguise and I'm Doing Fine : You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

Happy Saturday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my my first update on my January progress for the year long reading challenge called the  2026 Popsugar Reading Challenge .  In January, I completed 11 books for a total of 11 read so far out of 50 total books on my tbr.  I'd say that's excellent progress so far.I think I'm going to have good reading year!  You can see my original tbr here .  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in January for this challenge: 17. A book about your favorite event in the Winter Olympics ❋   ❋  ❋ An Unwanted Guest  by Shari Lapena  was hit and miss for me and it didn't hold my attention as much as I was wishing it would. My favorite part was that one of the characters has the same first name as me. That was a bit exciting! My review is also on  Goodreads  and  The StoryGraph . 38. A book with any type of fruit on the cover or in the title ❋   ❋  ❋ James and the Giant Pe...