Contact email: mesreads AT gmail.com
###Winner Announcement Posts are linked here.###

GIVEAWAYS ARE NOW LOCATED ON THEIR OWN PAGE - CLICK ON TAB ABOVE; Giveaways also linked on right sidebar.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Sunday Post October 24, 2021/It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday October 25, 2021

Sunday Post #318 Chairs, Compliance, and Storms

I am linking with Sunday Post at Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? now at The Book Date (at Wordpress)
What Are You Reading? is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.



I continue to work away at my desk. I had a case settle in mediation this week. I have two other cases pending Judge rulings. I am currently spending extra time on two commercial closings to take place in the next few weeks. I plan to do some will signings this week.

I don't have plans for Halloween but I helped our GFWC Marianna Woman's Club with the pumpkin painting tables at the community local Pumpkins in the Park on Saturday. The tent to the far right in this picture was the painting station. There were food vendors to the left and under the pavilion some local market vendors with lovely gift items.


It was fun and those kids were very creative painters!
Several of us had cold weather change sniffles and sneezes early in the week.
Temperatures should be nice this week ranging from 67 to 79 during the day and 47 to 65 at night.

I had a lot of good listening this week! Plus a couple of shorter ebooks. All #FraterfestRat books. I finished five audiobooks and two ebooks. I posted three reviews and my usual memes.

I visited 17 blogs last week.
Shout Out this week to Two Girls & Their Bookish Life. Ro and Tee are hosting an online Book Club. Check it out.

Audible offerings for free children's titles ended June 30.
Audiobooks.com is still sharing some free listens for children.

These were last week's posts:
  • A2020- #FraterfestRat Audible Book Review: Black Virus: Black Rust, Book 1 by Bobby Adair; Genre: Horror, Post-Apocalyptic; My Rating: 3.75 of 5.0 Overall; Story 3.75; Narration 4.0.
  • A2020- #FraterfestRat Audible Review: Dead Acre by Rhett C. Bruno, Jaime Castle; Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Western; My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.5; Narration 4.5.
Finished Reading:
1. Audible/Smartphone (ATBR)
Ghostsitter - A Crazy Inheritance audiobook cover art

Ghostsitter - A Crazy Inheritance
By: Tommy Krappweis
Narrated by: Michael Braun, Marc Vietor, Jay Snyder, Dina Pearlman, Cynthia Darlow, Stephen Bel Davies, James Fouhey, Jeena Yi, Jessie Cannizzaro, Kevin T. Collins, Mateo D'Amato
Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
#FraterfestRat #3. This is great fun - good for adults and children! Source: 6/20/2020 Free Audible Plus Catalog.

About This Audible Original
A whole-family listen for fans of Hotel Transylvania and The Addams Family.
When Tom is invited to the reading of a will of a great-uncle he’s never heard of, there’s no way to know what to expect. But on the long list of possible things to inherit, a travelling carnival ghost train is the very last on the list.
To get his full $10 million inheritance, all Tom has to do is run the antique ride until his 18th birthday. Easy. Except for a strange caped-creep he’s never met, who’s trying to con him out of the money...and the actual ghosts and ghouls who call the ride home.
Over the decades, vampire Vlarad, zombie Wombie, Hop-Tep the mummy, werewolf Welf, and ghost girl Mimi have created their own unique family, and they welcome Tom into their circle as a first-time "ghostsitter".
Keeping the spirits secret from the outside world is not easy, but with wit and ingenuity, Tom proves, time and again, that he is exactly the right person for the job.
©2015 Tommy Krappweis (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC



2. ebook/NetGalley App (NG2021)
58918781


The Secret Halloween Costume
by Sophie Vaillancourt
#FraterfestRat #4. This is a nice Halloween story promoting fun rather than scary costumes.
Source: NetGalley 2021.

Click on book title for full description.



3. Audible/Smartphone (ATBR)
Murder by Other Means Audiobook By John Scalzi cover art


Murder by Other Means: The Dispatcher, Book 2
By: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Zachary Quinto
Series: The Dispatcher, Book 2
Length 3h 33m
#FraterfestRat #5. This is a good, short mystery series.
Source: August 2020 Audible Plus Catalog.

About This Audible Original
From Hugo and Audie Award-winning author John Scalzi comes an exciting sequel to The New York Times best-selling, number one Audible hit The Dispatcher, performed by the incomparable Zachary Quinto.
Welcome to the new world, in which murder is all but a thing of the past. Because when someone kills you, 999 times out of 1,000, you instantly come back to life. In this world, there are dispatchers—licensed killers who step in when you’re at risk of a natural or unintentional death. They kill you—so you can live.
Tony Valdez is used to working his job as a dispatcher within the rules of the law and the state. But times are tough, and more and more Tony finds himself riding the line between what’s legal and what will pay his bills. After one of these shady gigs and after being a witness to a crime gone horribly wrong, Tony discovers that people around him are dying, for reasons that make no sense...and which just may implicate him.
Tony is running out of time: to solve the mystery of these deaths, to keep others from dying, and to keep himself from being a victim of what looks like murder, by other means.
©2020 John Scalzi (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC



4. Chirp Audio/Smartphone (ATBR)


Gustav Gloom and the People Taker
Written by Adam-Troy Castro
Narrated by Jesse Vilinsky
Run Time 4h 42min
#FraterfestRat #6. I enjoyed this story that combines darkness with sweet friendship.
Source: November 2020 Chirp Purchase $0.99.

Publisher Description
Enter an exciting new world of shadows from Hugo Award nominee Adam-Troy Castro. Meet Gustav Gloom.
Fernie What finds herself lost in the Gloom mansion after her cat appears to have been chased there by its own shadow. Fernie discovers a library full of every book that was never written, a gallery of statues that are just plain awkward, and finds herself at dinner watching her own shadow take part in the feast!
Along the way Fernie is chased by the People Taker who is determined to take her to the Shadow Country. It’s up to Fernie and Gustav to stop the People Taker before he takes Fernie’s family.



5. Audible/Smartphone (ATBR)


Once Upon a Haunted Moor: The Tyack & Frayne Mysteries, Book 1
By: Harper Fox Narrated by: Tim Gilbert
Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
#FraterfestRat #7. This is a good, short mystery series.
Source: August 2020 Audible Plus Catalog.

Publisher's Summary
Gideon Frayne has spent his whole working life as a policeman in the village of Dark on Bodmin Moor. It's not life in the fast lane, but he takes it very seriously, and his first missing-child case is eating him alive. When his own boss sends in a psychic to help with the case, he's gutted - he's a level-headed copper who doesn't believe in such things, and he can't help but think that the arrival of clairvoyant Lee Tyack is a comment on his failure to find the little girl.
But Lee is hard to hate, no matter how Gideon tries. At first Lee's insights into the case make no sense, but he seems to have a window straight into Gideon's heart. Son of a Methodist minister, raised in a tiny Cornish village, Gideon has hidden his sexuality for years. It's cost him one lover, and he can't believe it when this green-eyed newcomer stirs up old feelings and starts to exert a powerful force of attraction.
Gideon and Lee begin to work together on the case. But there are malignant forces at work in the sleepy little village of Dark, and not only human ones - Gideon is starting to wonder, against all common sense, if there might be some truth in the terrifying legend of the Bodmin Beast after all. As a misty Halloween night consumes the moor, Gideon must race against time to save not only the lost child but the man who's begun to restore his faith in his own heart.
©2013 Harper Fox (P)2018 Audible, Inc.



6. eBook/Kindle App (e2021)
55658433. sy475


Witches and Poppets: Steampunk Vasilisa the Fair:
A Steampunk Fairy Tale Short Story
by Melanie Karsak
#FraterfestRat #8. This is a quick, charming story.

Source: October 2021 Author notice free.

Just in time for Halloween! From New York Times bestselling author Melanie Karsak comes a spooky retelling of the fairy tale Vasilia the Fair.



7. Audible/Smartphone (ATBR)


Countdown: A Prequel Story to Patient Zero
By: Jonathan Maberry
Narrated by: Ray Porter
Series: Joe Ledger, Book 0.5
Length 19m
#FraterfestRat #9. I have been eyeing this zombie series and I liked the Prequel and the Joe Ledger character.
Source: September 2020 Audible Plus Catalog.

Publisher's Summary
“I didn’t plan to kill anyone. I wasn’t totally against the idea, either. Sometimes things just fall that way, and either you roll with it or it rolls over you. Letting the bad guys win isn’t how I roll.”
Meet Joe Ledger, Baltimore PD, attached to a Homeland task force … who’s about to get a serious promotion.
©2008 Jonathan Maberry (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.



Currently Reading:
1. Chirp Audio/Smartphone (A2021)
Book cover for America Falls Episodes 1-2 by Scott Medbury with featured deal banner


America Falls Episodes 1-2
Written by Scott Medbury
Read by Adam Barr
Run Time 11h 12min
#FraterfestRat #10. I finished Episode 1 of this post-apocalyptic on 10/24. I will continue with Episode 2 after Vampire Knitting Club.
Source: 2/21/21 Purchase at Chirp $1.99.

Publisher Description
No Maze. No Zombies. No games.
After a surprise biological attack, America, the most powerful nation on Earth, quickly succumbs, with over 99.5% of the adult population killed. As society unravels and a ground invasion of his country begins, loner Isaac Race must form a connection with a ragtag group of survivors and elude not only the invaders, but other dangers and chaos unleashed in Post-America.
These are the first two action packed episodes of the bestselling AMERICA FALLS, a compelling series about who we are and who we have to become in order to survive.
This audio duet includes: Hell Week and On The Run



2. Audiobooks App/Smartphone (ATBR)
41882197. sy475


The Vampire Knitting Club
By Nancy Warren
Duration: 6 h 7 min
I realized I still have another day for 2021 #FraterfestRat list. I decided to try to finish this as a "V" in my audio alphabet challenge.
Source: November 2020 VIP pick from Audiobooks.com.

Summary:
At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do.
Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop to Lucy. And a lot of people going in and out who never use the door-including Gran, who is just as loving as ever, and prone to knitting sweaters at warp speed, late at night. What exactly is going on?
When Lucy discovers that Gran did not die peacefully in her sleep, but was murdered, she has to bring the killer to justice without tipping off the law that there's no body in the grave. Between a hot 500-year-old vampire and a dishy detective inspector, both of whom always seem to be there for her, Lucy finds her life getting more complicated than a triple cable cardigan. The only one who seems to know what's going on is her cat . . . or is it . . . her familiar?



3. ebook/Kindle App on Phone (ebTBR)
58950207. sy475


The Duke and the Spoiled Wallflower
by Tessa Brookman
I will pick this back up when #FraterfestRat is finished. I've decided I like the primary characters. 
Now this is on old for the week while I read for #FraterfestRat.
Source: Received from author team for review.

Click on book title for full description.


I'm sure there will be another audio which I will pick when I am ready.

October 24, 2021 - I am on track. I love seeing new things each time I read the Bible. I am glad to still be current with morning reading. I am reading/listening to the NLT Tyndale version of the Bible on You Version App so Hubby and I are reading the same passages each day.
No new study yet.


I completed seven books so I will be busy with reviews this coming week.
My NetGalley shelf now has 3 old ebooks titles, one of which I still plan to read start this month. 
I have two author titles remaining in queue. I'm still working on reading these.
(Plus a few that I received from facebook links and newsletter sign-ups, not specific review requests.)
Still many titles through InstaFreebie and many new author requests I haven't replied to.

Welcome to Mailbox Monday.

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This Meme started with Marcia at A Girl and Her Books (fka The Printed Page) and after a tour of hosts has returned to its permanent home at Mailbox Monday. Thanks to the ladies sharing hosting duties: Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, me and new to the team, Velvet at vvb32reads. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

I requested/received no new review titles this week.
I selected my VIP pick at Audiobooks.com for October.
I picked up three Audible Plus books.
I again resisted purchasing audios this week.
I picked up two free Kindle titles.

(Note these are in my Amazon library, NOT on my Kindle until I download and transfer them.)
Are your mailbox and TBR piles blooming?

Review Titles
NONE

Won
NONE

Purchased
NONE

Free
One Audible Plus Catalog titles:
Northern Wolf
By: Daniel Greene
Narrated by: Bradford Hastings

Series: The Northern Wolf, Book 1
Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

The Nine, A Novel
By: Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg
Narrated by: Ari Flihaakos, Marnye Young
Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
(I saw this at Two Girls & Their Bookish Life)


Distress Signals
By: Catherine Ryan Howard
Narrated by: Alan Smyth, Bronson Pinchot, Suzanne Toren

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins




I choose my Audiobooks.com Free October VIP book.
Nine, Rachelle Dekker
Nine
Author Rachelle Dekker
Narrator: Sandy Rustin

Duration: 10 h 4 min



Two Kindle Titles - from Facebook links.
Framed: A Charlie Hardwick Police Detective Thriller (Hardwick #1)
Tom Meitner


The Rancher takes his Convenient Bride: a Sweet Marriage of Convenience Western Romance (The Rangers of Purple Heart Ranch Book 1)
Shanae Johnson

Other Free titles often found at Bookbub, Bookfun, Ereader News Today, Inspired Reads, Pixel of Ink or Kindle ebooks.

9 comments:

  1. You've got a lot of spooky stuff in your corner of the world to read. I do hope you enjoy all of them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such cute pumpkins, what a fun activity!

    Wishing you a great reading week

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooh looks like you got to lots of books that put one in the Halloween/fall spirit!! Haha I hope you enjoy your current reads, and have a great week! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice looking variety of books. The Vampire Knitting Club caught my eye. I'll have to look for that one. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are doing very well on your Fraterfest Readathon! Only a couple of hours to go...

    Elza Reads

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your Pumpkins in the Park sounds like fun.

    Neat books this week. Hope you enjoy them.

    https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2021/10/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-and_24.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. The pumpkins look great! I love the Halloween themed books you've been reading.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are always appreciated!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails