14. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tinterra

listened on Libby, but it returned itself (early!) so I had to buy it on Audible to finish.

352 pgs.

2024
Adult Mystery
Finished 3/21/25
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary small town Texas

My comments: Well, that was certainly an entertaining listen.  You never knew who to believe, including the protagonish, who heard voices in her head.  Many violent people, many nutso people, and a whole lot of extra marital screwing going on in this little town in Txas.  I've never enjoyed a podcast-based story before, but this was not bad, the interruption of the podcast kept things moving along perfectly, pushing it in the right direction.  

Goodreads synopsis:  What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

       Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.
       It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.
       The truth is out there, if we just listen.

13. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

#1 Empyrian

listened on Libby

498 pgs.  (21:22)

2023
Adult Dystopian Fantasy (now called Romantasy)
Finished 3/17/25
Goodreads rating: 4.58
My rating: 3

My comments: Well, I made it through hours and hours of what?  Arguments.  Hateful banter.  Battling tactics.  Young people dying.  And dying.  And dying.  Dragons.  I've never been a dragon fan and I'm still not.  And then after 2/3 or the book.....lust.  And more lust.  I'm certainly not opposed to lust, but when it's so much more of the story than the first 2/3 of the book it's a bit eye-rolling.  Major battles, exposed lying, lots of flying through the air and being attacked by creatures that cannot die.  And then, at the very end, switched points of view, from Violet to Zaren.  I refused to give up through all....what....20 hours? and I'm glad I completed it, but it seemed endless.  I'm not its biggest fan.  

Goodreads synopsis:  Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

          But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

          With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
          She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
          Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
          Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die

Creating Snippets for Your Junk Journal Pages

What better way to use up your scrapbook scraps?

Circle Snippets, what could be cooler?  Melina Pylant creates them using either one size punch (1") or three different sizes.  They look cool and are right up my alley to make.  The video's here.

12. The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant

listened on Libby

304 pgs. (9:41)

2024
adult mystery/thriller
Finished 3/5/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.66
My rating: 3
Setting: contemporary Idaho woods

My comments: Relationships, trust, addiction, survival skills and poor self-esteem seem to be the main themes of this book.  I enjoyed the adventure of being miles and miles into land where there's no one else, including no wi-fi.  But I wasn't fond of the way the story kept flipping back-and-forth to tell the whole story.  I usually don't mind this sort of thing, but this one didn't work for me....this could've been told at once in a much shorter, less boring presentation.  Perhaps it switched back-and-forth too frequently?  I just wasn't fond of the way the book was put together and had to force myself to go back to finish it.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this captivating novel of suspense, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when the friend who introduced them goes missing.

     Emlyn doesn’t let herself think about the past.
     How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the man she thought was the love of her life, left her freezing and half-dead on the side of the road three years ago.
     Her new life is simple and safe. She works as a fishing and hunting guide, spending her days in Idaho’s endless woods and scenic rivers. She lives alone in her Airstream trailer, her closest friends a handsome and kind Forest Service ranger and the community’s makeshift reverend, who took her in at her lowest.
     But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. Janessa, it turns out, has become a social media star, documenting her #vanlife adventures with her rugged survivalist boyfriend. But she hasn’t posted lately, and when she does, it’s from a completely different location than where her caption claims to be. In spite of their fractured history, Emlyn knows she might be the only one with the knowledge and tracking skills to save her friend, so she reluctantly teams up with Tyler. As the two trace Janessa’s path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can’t deny there’s still chemistry crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods―and that Janessa isn’t the only one in danger.
      Poignant, suspenseful, and unforgettable, THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING explores what it takes to start over―and the cost of letting the past pull you back in.

Gelli Printing Ideas

Years ago I purchased the tools to do Gelli/Gel Printing, but I haven't a clue of memory about how, exactly, to use them!

This shortish (31:40) video by Brenda Clark, aka The Simple Crafter showed me a quick and easy way to get started again...with the perfect spring project!  Just need the Gel pad/s, brayer, acrylic paints, (for these pastels, black, and white) cheap flash cards, and a variety of  "junk" to leave marks....plastic packing popping paper (LOVE the alliteration!), plastic canvas grids - just a small piece, peeled off- corrugated cardboard that shows the lines (lovel!).   This will be a really FUN project to do!

365 Days of Junk Journaling Ideas

On January 1st, Kate Marshall of Inked Paper Art began a new 2025 series entitled "365 Days of Junk Journal Ideas."

Two great things about these:

They're blessedly short, most are around 15 minutes, very infrequently going more than 20 minutes - YAAAAY!

She shows you clearly what to do and doesn't give a lot of unnecessary chit-chat or long pauses while she thinks or looks for something.

I'm taking it upon myself to watch and annotate them all.

Day 1:  Making Faux Aged Tape using transparent Scotch tape and alcohol ink.

Day 2:  7 Pockets out of one 8 1/2 x 11 inch double-sided paper.  One is a 5-pocket glue-onto-page and there are 2 leftover triangles for corner pockets on another page or pages.

Day 3:  Making a blended background using flicked water over distressed/blended papers.  

Day 4:  Making a 12 x 12 collage master board and how she cuts and uses them

Day 5:  Using upcycled photo slides to create a dangling charm.

Day 6:  Making floating pockets and tabs.  I did!  Here's the front and back:

        

Day 7:  Making  Shaker Journaling Cards.  Lace is the covering that you look through to see the shaker "bits" as she calls them.  She can numerous ideas for what the bits might be.

Day 8: How to Use Your Scraps for Paper Dangles. She piles six layers of different scrappy papers (the first/largest is a good-sized bookmark size) and grommets them together at the top.

Day 9:  How to Make Pretty, Layered Stuffed Pockets. Four pockets lined up, one above the other, then pasted down so that the entire creation becomes a big pocket.

Day 75:  How to Make Large Page Pocket Tucks.  She used 8 x 8 paper.  These are the pockets for yesterday's altered BINGO cards.

Black and White Junk Journal Ideas

From Megjournals "Finishing an altered book: Adding quotes and writing"  on YouTube:

(Don't even need to see the video, she just used a stencil and black acrylic paint.....

11. Dark Storm Rising by Linda Castillo

#15.5 Kate Burkholder

listened on Audible (purchased)

65 pgs. (1:25)

2024
Mystery Novella
Finished 3/2/25
Goodreads rating: 3.99
My rating: 2.75
Setting: Contemporary Ohio woods in winter

My comments:   Kate and Tomassetti head off for their brief honeymoon to the lakeside cabins where Kate remembers great happiness when her family vacationed there when she was 12. They are renting a cabin from an elderly Amish couple and stumble over....what else?...bad stuff happening.  It's not very exciting or gripping, you know exactly what's going to happen, and thankfully no one gets hurt or killed like in her longer novels.  It was....boring.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this short mystery from bestselling author Linda Castillo, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must race through a dangerous blizzard to save an elderly Amish woman from a sinister foe.

Newlyweds Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and John Tomasetti are happily spending their honeymoon at a beautiful Lake Erie cabin that was once part of an historic Amish settlement. But when a violent storm suddenly erupts, Lovina Nisley, the Amish owner of the cabin, goes missing. Lovina is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, so it initially appears the elderly woman simply took the wrong path, but her disappearance takes an ominous turn when her husband reveals that a developer has been threatening them if they refuse to sell him their home. With temperatures dropping and local law enforcement unable to reach them, Kate and Tomasetti must brave the perilous weather to find her. But will they reach Lovina in time to save her life?

10. The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen

#1 Ellery Hathaway

listened on Libby

274 pgs. (8:58)

2017
Adult mystery/thriller
Finished 3/1/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.81
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary small town central Massachusetts

My comments: Ellery had been the victim of a serial killer, saved in the nick of time by a young FBI agent named Agent Reed Markham. Years later she's a top in a small Massachusetts town where no one knows her identity.  However, for the past three years she's been receiving ominous anonymous birthday cards, and there has been three annual disappearances, all at the beginning of the month of July.  She knows something is awry.  So she gets in touch with that FBI agent from fourteen years ago and more problems ensue.  This is good storytelling and kept me quite attentive.  Sick minds.  Very sick minds. A very bad guy and his equally-as-bad copycat. 

    Note:  Abrupt ending

    Another note:  I never really liked or trusted the protagonist, I'm not sure why.....

Goodreads:  Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number seventeen in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only one who lived.

When three people disappear from her town in three years―all around her birthday―Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer all those years ago.

Agent Reed Markham made his name and fame on the back of the Coben case, but his fortunes have since turned. His marriage is in shambles, his bosses think he's washed up, and worst of all, he blew a major investigation. When Ellery calls him, he can’t help but wonder: sure, he rescued her, but was she ever truly saved? His greatest triumph is Ellery’s waking nightmare, and now both of them are about to be sucked into the past, back to the case that made them...with a killer who can't let go.

Paper Clips for Junk Journals

Lolly Palooza does a LOT of different paper clip styles.  For one she mass-makes the center part (the clip and the cardstock holding it together) and they're all ready to just grab and embellish!  Check it out here.

My Porch Prints does three different types of paper clips - hidden, holding a dangle, and with a decorated tops.  All three are fun and easy, and the video's pretty short and to the point.  Check it out here.

Gluebooks

Shanouki's Glue Book - The beginning, her thinking, her choices of materials (above) is....here.  Her theme is SHOES.  Fun!

       Here's her vintage-colored shoe page.

              A red one's here.

Themed Junk Journal Ideas

I want to make a junk journal about books, reading, libraries.......

Cindy Burkhalter Books by Burk has a YouTube video (25:22) that' all about making a junk journal with this theme!  She's titled it Junk Journal Flip Through.   Lots of great page and paper ideas. (In particular, she sews, but hand, sort of sloppily, around a journaling card.  LOVE IT!)

Book Journaling by Elaine has a video (33:10) showing her 2024/2025 journal.  It's tall and has three signatures, each one being a different subject.....Signature 1 is Lists, Signature 2 is Challenges, and Signature 3 is Reviews and Annotations.  That's the part that interests me most....she uses photocopies of the book covers with just a few handwritten notes on ripped paper.  Some are large, some are small.  I think I'd scatter all three types of journaling throughout my book, starting at the beginning and following somewhat in date order as the year proceeds..... This video is titled My Vintage Reading Journal Flip-Through: Junk Journal Style with Freebies and Kits.  Go right to the third section for inspiration.

9. The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

listened on Libby

376 pgs. (11:21)

2021
Adult Historical Fiction - WWII
Finished 2/22/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.25
My rating: 4.25
Setting: 1920s - 1944 Poland, woods

My comments: Set in a huge forest in Poland, mostly in the 1940s during World War II, a young girl is kidnapped by an old lady and raised in the forest learning survival skills, languages, Jewish prayers and customs until she is 21 and on her own.  She meets, helps, and guides a small group of Jewish refugees fleeing from their ghetto when everyone except them has been murdered by the Germans.  This tells the story of this girl and the people she saves and helps and loves.  It's an incredible survival story with a little bit of suspended belief here and there.  Good storytelling.

Goodreads synopsis:  The New York Times bestselling author of the The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything.

After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.

Inspired by incredible true stories of survival against staggering odds, and suffused with the journey-from-the-wilderness elements that made Where the Crawdads Sing a worldwide phenomenon, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a heart-wrenching and suspenseful novel.

8. Cut and Thirst by Margaret Atwood

listened on Audible

35 pgs.

2024
Adult contemporary short story
Finished 2/8/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.13
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Canada

My comments: A short story set in Canada (that's where the author resides) about three older women who have been friends and colleagues for years.   The decide they must find a way to get revenge on a very disliked (male) member of their university literary community for doing something very mean to a fourth friend, Fern,  who is now declining rapidly and they blame it on this past altercation.  Their reminiscing, thoughts on getting older, and plans for murder (lol) are quite entertaining!  I kept wondering how they'd end the story....that seems to be my problem about reading short stories....but I was not disappointed.  I enjoyed this one.

Goodreads synopsis:  Three women scheme to avenge an old friend in a darkly witty short story about loyalty, ambition, and delicious retribution by Margaret Atwood, the #1 bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Myrna, Leonie, and Chrissy meet every Thursday to sample fine cheeses, to reminisce about their former lives as professors, and lately, to muse about murder. Decades ago, a vicious cabal of male poets contrived—quite publicly and successfully—to undermine the writing career, confidence, and health of their dear friend Fern. Now, after Fern has taken a turn for the worse, her three old friends decide that it’s finally time to strike back—in secret, of course, since Fern is far too gentle to approve of a vendetta. All they need is a plan with suitably Shakespearean drama. But as sweet and satisfying as revenge can be, it’s not always so cut and dried.

7. The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean

listened on Libby

299 pgs.

2024
Adult mystery
Finished 2/4/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.01
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary small-town Washington state

My comments: Told from many viewpoints, but two in particular.....Ellie Black, who has just stumbled out of the woods after two years captivity, and Chelsea Calhoun, the detective in their small Washington town who's trying to figure out the case.  Very good storytelling, interesting plot twists slowly revealed, and just a few slower sections in the middle of the book. 

Goodreads synopsis:  Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.