Shop Hops

 I LOVE Shop Hops!

7/1 - 8/31/2025  All Mid-Atlantic Shop Hop (PA-NJ-WV-VA-DE)

8/1 - 8/31/2025  Tri State Paper Crafting Shop Hop (Ohio-Indiana-Michigan)

9/24 - 10/4/2025  Buggies and Buds Shop Hop (Eastern PA)

          Dover - Treasures Old and New

          Ephrata - L & L Rubber Stamps & Scrapbooking

          Greencastle - Stampin' Station/Home of Purple Daisy Design

          Honey Brook - Shady Lane Impressios

          Lancaster - Country Cottage Creations

          Lititz - Cozy Crop House

          Mechanicsburg - Joys of Life

          Paradise - Farmhouse Memories

Bits and Bobs

 TrashyTreasyours creates cute ephemera to stick here and there with different sizes of circle punches, distress ink, stencils, fussy cuts, stickers..... So easy and almost mindless.  Video here.

Inspiration for Art Pages that are Actually Easy Enough for Me to Do!!!

 Stamps, distress inks and a tiny bit of fussy cutting....I can actually pull this off myself!  Super short video and I have all the materials!  vickyp

15. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Lusbuskes

listened on Audible (purchased)

464 pgs. (13:20)

2025
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 3/31/25
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Early 20th century Montana

My comments: Three points of view:  1930s Millie, 1920s Alice, 1910s Colette, all coming together in the end.  The story is set in Montana in various small towns and cities.  It is Alice's vision to have a library in a boxcar that travels from lumber camps to mining sites throughout Montana.  Conditions are super hard for the working men, and "the company" is the royal ruler of all.  Colette's father is a miner and a union man. Alices's father is an extremely rich mayor and supporter of "the company."  Millie is an orphan from Texas who now works in Washington DC and comes to observe the group of people that are writing a travel summary for the government.  Once I began to easily tell the three women's voices apart the story became quite fascinating.

Goodreads synopsis:  Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes. 

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.

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.

Use a strip of washi for the base, layer on strips of scraps, then run a line of stitching down the middle - washi won't gum up the sewing machine!  Silverandsparkles2474 shows us in a quick, simple SHORT 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! - (though as she continues along, she's getting longer and longer....) 

          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 32:  How to Make Vintage Wallpaper Pockets.  These are almost like a "coin envelope" more than a pocket....But she gives a few hints about working with wallpaper.

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.

Day 97:  How to Make Easy Pockets with what's on my desk.  Easy indeed!  4  x 4 3/4 with a punch top, layered collage and a focal point to decorate.  Easy Peasy, but really effective.

Day 99:  How to Make One Sheet Wonder Botanist Sticker Jnl. Cards....Using a cut-up sheet of 12 x 12 paper and one scrap with one torn book page and one botanical sticker, journal cards are created - quite a few of them!

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.

6. Head Cases by John McMahon

#1 FBI PAR Unit

listened on Audible (purchased)

352 pgs.

2025
Adult police procedural/series
Finished 2/2/25
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 4.25
Setting: The team is based in Florida, but this takes place more on the west coast

My comments: Gardner Camden is a savant autistic who has a photographic memory.  He was raised by a really savvy mother (who happened to be a psychiatrist) who's taught him how to survive in the real world.  He remembers everything she's taught him.  He is part of a special FBI unit called PAR, which is full of incredibly smart (and eccentric) people who have screwed up in the FBI. But boy, can they figure things out! This story looks like the first of a series.  The plot was terribly complicated and intense....and really good.

Goodreads synopsis:  Head Cases follows an enigmatic group of FBI agents as they hunt down a murderer seeking his own justice in this electrifying—and commercial—series debut.

FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He also has a blind spot on the human side of investigations, a blindness that sometimes even includes people in his own life, like his beloved seven-year-old daughter Camila. Gardner and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, the FBI’s hidden edge, brought in for cases that no one else can solve.

When DNA links a murder victim to a serial killer long presumed dead, the team springs into action. A second victim establishes a pattern, and the murderer begins leaving a trail of clues and riddles especially for Gardner. And while the PAR team is usually relegated to working cold cases from behind a desk, the investigation puts them on the road and into the public eye, following in the footsteps of a killer.

Along with Gardner, PAR consists of a mathematician, a weapons expert, a computer analyst, and their leader, a career agent. Each of them must use every skill they have to solve the riddle of the killer’s identity. But with the perpetrator somehow learning more and more about the team at PAR, can they protect themselves and their families…before it’s too late?

With an enigmatic case that will keep readers on the edge of their seats and a thoroughly engaging ensemble cast, John McMahon’s Head Cases is a triumph.

5. Deep into the Dark by P. J. Tracy

#1 in a series about an LA Female cop (Det. Margaret Nolan), although she wasn't really the protagonist in this first book....

listened on Audible

339 pgs.

2021
Adult murder mystery/police procedural
Finished 1/29/25
Goodreads rating: 3.77
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary LA

My comments: Sam Easton is an Afghanistan war vet with some shattered (and recurring) memories who becomes deeply involved in a series of murders that become more and more related to him.  Tracy's writing is eloquent, I really love the way she puts words together!  Looking forward to more of her writing.

Goodreads synopsis:  Sam Easton—a true survivor—is home from Afghanistan, trying to rebuild a life in his hometown of LA. Separated from his wife, bartending and therapy sessions are what occupy his days and nights. When friend and colleague Melody Traeger is beaten by her boyfriend, she turns to Sam for help. When the boyfriend turns up dead the next day, a hard case like Sam is the perfect suspect.

But LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, whose brother recently died serving overseas, is sympathetic to Sam's troubles, and can't quite see him as a killer. She's more interested in the secrets Melody might be keeping and the developments in another murder case on the other side of town.

4. Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie

listened on Audible while sick in Tucson

371 pgs. (9:49)

2023
Adult contemporary mystery
Finished 1/22/2025
Goodreads rating: 3.84
My rating: 4
Setting: 2008 northeastern Oklahoma

My comments: A queer Cherokee archaeologist/investigator for the BIA returns home to her native Oklahoma after three years to search for her missing sister.  This one got a little slow in more than one place, but ultimately was pretty decent storytelling, adding fuel to the fire in the history of missing Native American females, which has been going on - and almost completely ignored - for years and years.

Goodreads synopsis:  A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women…one of them her sister.

There are secrets in the land.

As an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land's indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own.

While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.

When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, vanishes, Syd knows she must return home. She refuses to let her sister's disappearance, or the remains, go ignored—as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.

But not everyone is glad to have Syd home, and she can feel the crosshairs on her back. Still, the deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing indigenous women cases going back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in the town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.

The truth will be unearthed.

3. The Big Empty by Robert Crais

#20 Elvis Cole and Joe Pike

listened on Audible - purchased

373 pgs. (8:25)

2025
Adult Contemporary Mystery/series
Finished 1/20/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.65
My rating: 5
Setting: southern California

My comments: Interesting, edge-of-your seat story that pretty much had me guessing till the end.  What else can you ask for in a murder mystery procedural?  A protagonist/PI with a sense of humor?  Check.  Interesting, well-flushed out characters?  Check that off, too.  Disturbing murders....unfortunately.  This was a good one.

Goodreads synopsis:  Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn't find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired, but now, ten years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole.

Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a loser, but Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.

As Elvis Cole and Joe Pike follow Tommy Beller's trail into the twisted, nightmare depths of a monstrous evil, the case flips on its head. Victims become predators, predators become prey, and when everyone is a victim, can Elvis Cole save them all?

In a case that tests Elvis Cole's loyalty to his clients and himself, the truth must come out no matter the cost. Elvis must face The Big Empty and see justice done.

2. The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

listened on Audible (purchased)

339 pgs. (10:18)

2025
Adult Historical Fiction Mystery
Finished 1/18/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.11
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Egypt, 1930s & 1978; NYC 1978

My comments: As likable as the story was, I had to suspend belief on some of the coincidences that too easily occurred in places in this story.  Spoilers ahead!  Annie and her point of view were likable and heartfelt, but also pushy and nosy, pushing the plot uncomfortably.  And since Charlotte kept her name and had a prominent position in the Egyptian antiquities community, it's very hard to believe that someone in the same business, albeit in a different country than the US, would not have realized that she was still alive.  And I truly can't believe that in the late 1970s anyone would be just allowed into any of the closed-off tombs like Charlotte and Annie were, no matter their expertise or credentials.  Lots of coincidences and incongruities, unfortunately.  Set in the mid 1930s in Egypt and in 1978 New York, it flip-flopped back-and-forth between those two time periods with the same protagonist.  Such mixed feelings I have about this book!  So much to love, so much to frown about.  3?  3/5?  4?  Eek!

Goodreads synopsis:  From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.

New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

1. The Walking Fish by Rachelle Burk

read on Kindle

192 pgs.

2015
Middle Grades CRF/STEM
Finished 1/12/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 5
Setting: Summer at the protagonist's cottage on Glacial Lake

My comments: Rachelle Burk is coming to my school at the end of the month, and I had never heard of her before.  This book was great!  It was very well written, had humor, and honestly portrays a middle schooler who's a good kid but twists things around a little to suit herself and is naturally curious.  It's a perfect STEM/STEAM read!

Goodreads synopsis:  A humorous, exciting tale of an ordinary girl who makes an extraordinary scientific discovery—a blind fish that walks

When seventh-grader Alexis catches an unusual fish that looks like a living fossil, she sets off a frenzied scientific hunt for more of its kind. Alexis and her friend Darshan join the hunt, snorkeling, sounding the depths of Glacial Lake, even observing from a helicopter and exploring a cave. All the while, they fight to keep the selfish Dr. Mertz from claiming the discovery all for himself. When Alexis follows one final hunch, she risks her life and almost loses her friend. Walking Fish is a scientific adventure that provides a perfect combination of literacy and science.

How Do You Fill Up a Junk Journal?

Or.....I've made my junk journal, now what do I do with it?

This is the question of the day.

There's not right, no wrong.

There's just what YOU/I want to do!

Easy Ways to Use, Love and Fill a (Junk) Journal by joie de fi is short (9:49) and useful.

There's a wonderful article on House of Mahalo's website entitled "52 Junk Journal Prompts to Help You Write in Your Junk Journal" that's a terrific read full of wonderful ideas.  No, it's not a YouTube video, it's an actual article.  I think I'll go to this over and over again.  Read it here.

2025 Reading Goals & Book Girls Challenge

I'm looking forward to reading more historical fiction this year, and I want to amass a list of books about books and bookshops and libraries and librarians, contemporary as well as historical.

Historical Fiction Read

     1.  

The Book Girls have a challenge this year that appears to be exactly what I might be looking for!  The booklist for the month of January, "Novels with Characters Connecting Through Books," is wonderful.  It can be found here.  I think I'll list the books and check to see if I've read any/many of them....

     (Reading Challenges shortcut is here.)

January - Novels with Characters Connecting Through Books

     I must read one I've never read before

Henn, Carsten: The Door-to-Door Bookshop, 2020 set in Germany

Hanff, Helene: 87, Charing Cross Road 1970 - read this when I first lived in Tucson

Miller, Kirsten:  Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books, 2024, set in Georgia

Storey, Kate: The Memory Library, 2024, set in England and Australia

Butland, Stephanie: Found in a Bookshop, 2023, set in England

Hawkins, Karen: The Book Charmer, 2019 set in NC

Wood, Monica: How to Read a Book, 2024, set in Maine

Jaswal, Balli Kaur: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, 2017, set in London

McKinlay, Jenn: Love at First Book, 2024, Martha's Vineyard & Ireland

Kamali, Marjan: The Stationery Shop, 2019, set in 1953 Tehran & contemporary CA

Williams, Beatriz; Lauren Willig & Karen White: The Author's Guide to Murder, 2024, set in the Scottish Highlands

Shaffer, Mary Ann & Annie Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 2008, England

Lauren, Christina: Love and Other Words, 2018, set in SF & Healdsburg, CA

Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief, 2005, 1939-1954 Germany

Adams, Sara Nisha: The Reading List, 2021, set in a London suburb

Gilmore, Lucy:  The Library of Borrowed Hearts, set in the 1960s & present day WA

Brooks, Geraldine: People of the Book, 2008, spans decades & continents

Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451, 1953, set in future midwest

Halpern, Sue: Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, 2018, set in NH

Seierstad, Asne, The Bookseller of Kabul, 2002, set in 2000s Afghanistan

Bickers, Tessa: The Book Swap, 2024, set in England

Forest, Kristina: The Neighbor Favor, 2023, set in NYC

Colgan, Jenny: The Bookshop on the Corner,  2016, set in England & Scotland

Alexander, Poppy:  The Littlest Library, 2021, set in England

Sampson, Freya: The Last Chance Library, 2021, set in England

2025 Charitable Contributions

of Steven Ted Graves....24 years without him

1/16/25  Cattail Farms - 24 cans wet cat food Amazon monthly subscription     $17.64

2/6/25  Elizabeth Warren through Act Blue    $24.00

2/11/25   Donor's Choose "Help My Students Learn to Crochet" Ms. Hurley, Pawtucket, RI  $24.00

2/11/25   Empty Bowls, CALC, Carlisle, PA to benefit Project Share (to be held March 10)   $50.00

2/14/25   The Trevor Project (in honor of Mary Graybill's birthday on 2/21)     $24.00

2/22/25  Cattail Farms - 24 cans wet cat food Amazon monthly subscription     $17.64

2/25/25   Parkinsons Foundation (In memory of Mom)      $24.00

2/25/25  Donor's Choose "Crochet for Change" Ms. Gowie, Washington DC     $24

3/2/25  Habitat for Humanity in memory of Jimmy Carter AND Steve      $24

3/15/25  Audubon/Nat'l Audubon Society          $24

3/21/25  Cattail Farms - 24 cans wet cat food Amazon monthly subscription     $17.64

4/8/25  Donor's Choose "Crochet Club Fundamentals" Ms Cottrell, Pittsburgh PA   $24

4/9/25 Kid's Corner Early Childhood Education, Bar Harbor, ME (plus Small chge)     $25.03

4/11/25  Cystic Fibrosis (Trinity Kane)     $24.00

4/20/25  Cattail Farms - 24 cans wet cat food Amazon monthly subscription     $17.64

2025 Reading

Published in the Current Year - 2025

1.  The Stolen Queen - Fiona Davis (3.75) HF

2.  The Big Empty (#20 Cole & Pike) - Robert Crais (5) Myst Series

3.  Head Cases (#1 PAR Unit/FBI) - John McMahon (4.25 )

4.  The Forest of Vanishing Stars - Kristin Harmel (4.25)

5.  The Boxcar Librarian - Brianna Lusbuskes (4.5)

YA

1.

Middle Grade

1. The Walking Fish - Rachelle Burk (5)

Historical Fiction

1.  The Stolen Queen - Fiona Davis

2.  The Forest of Vanishing Stars - Kristin Harmel

3.  The Boxcar Librarian - Brianna Lusbuskes (Early 29th century Montana)

Shorts

1.  Cut and Thirst - Margaret Atwood (4) 35 pgs.

REAL Books

1.  

eBooks

1.  The Walking Fish - Rachelle Burk

Series

1.  The Big Empty (#20 Elvis Cole & Joe Pike) - Robert Crais

2.  Deep into the Dark (#1 LA Det. Margaret Nolan) - P. J. Tracy

3.  Head Cases (#1 PAR Unit) - John McMahon

4.  Dark Storm Rising (#15.5 Kate Burkholder) - Linda Castillo

4.5 or 5 Stars

1.  The Walking Fish - Rachelle Burk

2.  The Big Empty (#20 Cole & Pike) - Robert Crais

3.  The Boxcar Librarian - Brianna Lusbuskes

DNF

1.  

Novels Read in 2025

January 

1.  The Walking Fish - Rachelle Burk, 2015 Kindle (5) 192 p. 1/12

2.  The Stolen Queen - Fiona Davis, 2025 Audible (3.75) 1/18

3.  The Big Empty (#20 Elvis Cole/Joe Pike) - Robert Crais, 2025 Audible (5) 1/20

4.  Blood Sisters - Vanessa Lillie, 2023 Audible (4) 1/22

5.  Deep into the Dark (#1 LA Det. Margaret Nolan) - P. J. Tracy, 2021Audible (4) 1/29

February

6.  Head Cases (#1 PAR FBI Unit) - John McMahon, Audible (4) 2/2

7.  The Return of Ellie Black - Emiko Jean, 2024 Libby (4) 2/4

8.  Cut and Thirst - Margaret Atwood, Audible (4) short story 2/8

9.  The Forest of Vanishing Stars - Kristin Harmel - 2025 Libby (4.25) 2/22

March

10.  The Vanishing Season - Joanna Schaffhausen (#1 Ellery Hathaway) 2017 Libby (4) 3/1

11.  Dark Storm Rising (#15.5 Kate Burkholder) Linda Castillo 2024 Audible (2,75) 3/2

12.  The Nature of Disappearing - Kimi Cunningham Grant, 2024 Libby (3) 3/5

13.  Fourth Wing (#1 Empyrian) - Rebecca Yarros, 2023 Audio (3) 3/16

14.  Listen for the Lie - Amy Tinterra, 2024 Libby (4) 3/21

15.  The Boxcar Librarian - Brianna Labuskes, 2025 Audible (4.5) 3/31

April

16.  A Steep Price (#6 Tracy Crosswhite) Robert Dugoni 2018 Audible (4.5) 4/10

17.  Cold as Hell (#3 Haven's Rock) Kelley Armstrong, 2025 Libby (4) 4/13

18.  Bright Side - Kim Holden, 2014 Audible (5) 4/16