Sunday Post, 1/08/2023

January 8, 2023 Sunday Post 16

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimberly, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week, take a look ahead, and showcase our new treasures—I mean books!

Last Week

We left New Mexico on Sunday, and had a fairly uneventful 3-day trip home, barring some heavy rain on Tuesday in Tennessee. Since Wednesday, I have been unpacking, settling in, and trying to catch up on—well, everything! The clothes and such are unpacked and I’ve been pushing laundry through, but there are still a couple of boxes of gifts and other stuff to put away.

I’m also working my way through my email, which I pretty much ignored since the day before Christmas. (And wow, does it build up fast!) And I have several tasks to do before next Saturday’s fiber guild meeting. For someone without a current indexing project, I feel very busy! But I managed to bake some pumpkin-chocolate-chip bread yesterday: one loaf to thank our neighbors for keeping an eye on the house and the mail, and another loaf for us.

Also, we discovered upon arriving home that one of the toilets had started leaking. Luckily, Mr. Bookwyrm had thought to turn the water off before we left on our trip, so it didn’t leak the whole time we were gone. And all it needed was a new (proprietary) flapper, so he fixed it today.

Beginning tomorrow, I am committing to spending at least a little time writing every day, regardless of how much else I have on my plate.

On the blog: I’m still trying to catch up on all the year-end and new-year stuff on the blog, and organize my 2023 reading. I made good progress:

  • I set up and published the review links page for The Backlist Reader Challenge.
  • I set up all my reading challenges in the Ultimate Book Blogger plugin, and created a 2023 Reading Challenges page.
  • I have mostly finished setting up my 2023 reading spreadsheets, which I use to keep track of my reading generally; the diversity of authors and books I’m reading; the various challenges I’m participating in; which ARCs I’ve requested, read, and reviewed; what books I acquire; and so forth.
  • I decided to do a #23in2023 challenge, so I picked my books for that; the post is almost ready to publish.

But there’s still a lot to do: notify the winner of The Backlist Reader Challenge giveaway, catch up my review notes notebook, set and post my bookish resolutions for 2023, create a challenge wrap-up post for 2022, and see if I can get at least a little ahead on recurring posts like Top Ten Tuesday… not to mention all the reviews I need to write.

Recent Posts

Looking Ahead

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching

Reading: I finished reading The Time For Love by Stephanie Laurens. I reread Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz (ARC), and I am currently reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (ARC); both come out this month, so I need to review them. After that, I will go back to An Enchantment of Ravens (Margaret Rogerson), which is terrific so far, and also start Well Met (Jen DeLuca) for COYER book club. And I will be buddy-reading A Darker Shade of Magic with a friend from COYER.

I paused my reading of Without a Summer over the holidays, but I plan to get back to it once I finish the books above.

Listening to: On our drive home, we finished listening The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien, and started The Return of the King. Both are read by Andy Serkis, who does a great job. I’m still listening to the BBC World Service podcast of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising, about which I have mixed feelings. Now that we’re home, I have dived back into Season 3 of the Writing Excuses podcast.

Playing: Wordle, Spelling Bee, and Pokemon Go, occasionally.

Watching: In the hotels on our way home, we watched about half each of The Avengers: Endgame and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. (The second half, in both cases. We had seen both movies before, so it worked out.) Once we got back, we decided to continue our LOTR rewatch (started back in October) with The Two Towers, while the book was still fresh in our minds, and followed that with The Return of the King.

Added to the Hoard

Purchased (Kindle)

Kindle: Witchcraft; The Shadow of Memory; Jane of Lantern Hill; All Shall Be Well; The Eye of the World

(Click title for Goodreads page or my review.)

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay kind… and may you find books a haven in the coming weeks.

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16 Responses to “Sunday Post, 1/08/2023”

  1. Erin @ Cracker Crumb Life

    I am adding Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries to my list to read ASAP! And I keep thinking about The Dark is Rising the past few weeks; I think seeing it here is a sign I need to read it again.

    Have a great week! It sounds like you got a lot accomplished!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I love the whole Dark Is Rising series, and need to reread them. I joined a readalong this year, but got distracted by travel and NaNoWriMo; the only one I reread was Over Sea, Under Stone. I have mixed feelings about the BBC dramatic adaptation that I’m listening to now; there are things they have done well, and things that aren’t working for me. (I’ll be reviewing it in a week or two.)

  3. Berls

    Coming home from a trip is always a lot and mix that with the holiday season, it’s sure to be a bit overwhelming! I’m glad y’all had turned the water off so you weren’t greeted with a flood – bad situation not as bad for sure. Good luck with all your tasks this week!
    Berls recently posted…Sunday Post with Berls | January 8th 2023My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      The leak wasn’t external, thank goodness; the water in the tank kept trickling into the bowl, and then of course it would trickle into the wastewater pipes. No mess, thank goodness (been there, done that years ago. Ruined a bunch of my favorite out-of-print books by my favorite author, which were on a bookshelf on the floor below.) Thankfully, no external damage this time. But it would have been an expensive water bill!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      That, and catching up on everything you let slide while you were away. (Email. So. Much. Email.) But it’s also good to be home.

  8. Katherine

    You got so many great books! I love Connie Berry and Deborah Crombie and Jane is one of my favorite Montgomery books. Good thing you had your water turned off! We had a toilet start leaking and while it all stayed internal our water bill took a hit. Have a wonderful week!

  9. Literary Feline

    I am glad you made it home safely! The pumpkin-chocolate-chip bread sounds so good! You’ve got me craving some now. I’m hoping to get to Emily Wilde’s book soon. I love that cover and it sounds so good. I am close to finishing A Darker Shade of Magic and think that will be today. If I wasn’t so tired last night, I would have finished it then. I hope you have a wonderful week.
    Literary Feline recently posted…Can’t Wait to Read Wednesday: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun / A Courage Undimmed / The TerrorMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      The bread was delicious! And the Emily Wilde book is delightful. It looks like the beginning of a series, so yay!

      I got mixed up over which book I would be buddy-reading, and changed it to Well Met by Jen DeLuca, but it turns out I was right the first time, and it’s A Darker Shade of Magic. So I will be starting that soon.