Miscellaneous Musings

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Winter 2024-2025 To Read List

December 17, 2024 By Long and Short Reviews 67 Comments

Winter is a time of year when I tend to get a lot of reading done due to how snowy and cold it can be outside.

Here are ten books coming out this winter that I’m looking forward to checking out. If no release date is included, that means that title is already available to buy or hopefully even borrow from your local library if you have one!

1. Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchinson

Why I’m Interested: I’m too much of a city person to ever want to live off grid in the middle of nowhere, but I do enjoy reading about such things! (See also: that old fable about the city mouse and country mouse who take turns visiting each other and realize that not all mice like to live in the same sorts of places!)

2. A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

Release Date: December 24

Why I’m Interested: The plot sounds cozy and sweet.

3. Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Release Date: December 24

Why I’m Interested: The first book in this series has been on my TBR list forever. Maybe the sequel coming out will convince me to finally read it?

4. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Release Date: January 14

Why I’m Interested: Mr. Hendrix writes such attention-grabbing books that I always keep an eye out for what he’s come up with next.

5 .Something Like Fate: A Novel by Amy Lea

Release Date: February 4

Why I’m Interested: This looks like a cute romance.

6. Raised By Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn

Release Date: February 4

Why I’m Interested: The blurb made it sound like a thoughtful graphic novel about dealing with loneliness.

7. Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin

Release Date: February 11

Why I’m Interested: The fabulous title. How could I not want to read something this playful?

8. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3) by Heather Fawcett

Release Date: February 11

Why I’m Interested: Just like with answer #3, this is a series I’ve been meaning to read for a while now and am hoping to find the time for soon.

9. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

Release Date: February 11

Why I’m Interested: We all go through hard times in life eventually. What interested me about this tale is how many different conflicts and difficulties the protagonist had to deal with at once. It’s difficult when that happens, but I have hope that she’ll get through all of them.

10. I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com (Cosmic Chaos, #1) by Kimberly Lemming (black

Release Date: February 18

Why I’m Interested: Cheeky, self-aware titles are the best, and this one looks like it will be great fun to read.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings Tagged With: TBR Lists, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2025

December 14, 2024 By Long and Short Reviews Leave a Comment

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

For comparison’s sake, here were my Bookish goals for 2024. I achieved most of them as least partially.

This year I would like to:

1. Write more film reviews for Long and Short Reviews. I find it easier to read for 15 to 30 minutes here and there as I work on book reviews for them than I do to set aside 2 or 3 consecutive hours to watch a movie. Let’s see if I can change that this year.

2. Read more from the solarpunk genre. Like cozy mysteries, these are such soothing stories because I know everything will turn out okay in the end. Generally, they’re even pretty comforting in the middle of everything.

3. Whittle down my TBR list. This is a never-ending goal for me!

4. Use humor more often in my reviews. One of the things I think some of the other LASR reviewers – and even a lot of TTT reviewers whose blogs I have visited over the years – do really well is find playful ways to word things. My reviews are generally more serious in nature, but I’m wondering I can switch things up a little in certain cases.

5. Review more of the books I read, especially for indie authors. I know how important reviews are to them, but it can be hard to find the time to review everything or even to know what to say for certain books.

6. Avoid spilling tea again on my phone while reading an ebook. (Luckily, the tea had cooled down and it was only a few drops of it!)

7. Avoid spilling anymore crumbs on my phone while reading, too. Can you sense a theme developing in my life? 😉

8. Listen to audiobooks regularly. They are such a handy way to squeeze in more reading time.

9. Read more nonfiction. If you’ve read any great books in this genre, I’d sure like to hear about them.

10. Read more poetry.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings Tagged With: Goals, Top Ten Tuesday

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for December 11, 2024

December 11, 2024 By Long and Short Reviews 2 Comments

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

NOTE: THIS IS THE FINAL WEDNESDAY WEEKLY BLOGGING CHALLENGE FOR 2024… BUT MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK FOR JANUARY 1, 2025 FOR NEXT YEAR’S TOPICS! We hope to see you all then.

Myths or Legends from Where I Live

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge Tagged With: Blog Hop, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Top Ten Tuesday: Books to Read During a Storm

December 10, 2024 By Long and Short Reviews 36 Comments

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Yes, I am the same Astilbe who submitted this topic to Jana. I was thrilled to learn she picked it.

All of the books on this list feature blizzards and snowstorms. I don’t know about all of you, but I like reading about blizzards and snowstorms while they are happening so long as I’m tucked safely at home and don’t need to go anywhere until the roads are ploughed and okay for travelling on again.

1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

2. The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury

3. The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin

4. Let It Snow by John Green

5. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

6. A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor

7. The Day After Tomorrow by Whitley Strieber

8. Ghost Story by Peter Straub

9.Chance of a Ghost (Haunted Guesthouse Mystery, #4) by E.J. Copperman

10.Who Stole Stonehenge? by Leela Cutter

Do you also like to read books about bad weather while the weather is snowy or stormy where you live?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings Tagged With: Top Ten Tuesday

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for December 4, 2024

December 4, 2024 By Long and Short Reviews 1 Comment

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Something I Wish Would Come Back into Fashion

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge Tagged With: Blog Hop, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Book of the Month Poll Winner ~ A Celtic Yuletide Carol by Jennifer Ivy Walker

November 30, 2024 By Long and Short Reviews 1 Comment

A Celtic Yuletide Carol by Jennifer Ivy Walker
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Historical Romance
Rated: 5 stars
Review by Snapdragon

Once a royal Breton knight, Sir Cardin is now infamously known as Basati, the Basque Wolf. Savage and sullen, he drowns his guilt in raucous taverns, accruing enormous debt and acquiring vengeful enemies.

Ulla, widowed daughter of a Viking chieftain, is a skilled archer who lives as a recluse in a secluded woodland cottage. Rendered mute by trauma, she avoids humans, preferring the company of her wild wolf and falcon as she hunts in the Forest of Brocéliande.

When his mother’s dying wish calls Basati home, he finally meets the son he abandoned at birth and Ulla, the enigmatic priestess who is teaching the boy to hunt. As the holidays approach, Basati finds himself smitten with the beguiling beauty as he bonds with his once forsaken child.

But past enemies plot against him, and Basati is ensnared in darkness.

Can music lure the savage wolf into the light of love?