Friday, November 13, 2026
Three Short Reviews: DR. JEKYLL AND MR.HYDE; TREE OF KNOWLEDGE: POEMS; TRUE OR POO?
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Friday Book Snippets: PYTHON'S KISS
He was the second, perhaps the third, Nero owned by my grandparents.
A stone is, in its own way, a living being, not a biological being but one with a history far beyond our capacity to understand or even imagine.
In Ojibwe mythology, Mishipeshu, a reptile with the head of a cat, stands sentinel at the gates of the underworld, where the mortal becomes eternal. Louise Erdrich’s remarkable story collection navigates this terrain where life and death are inextricably entwined. Python’s Kiss probes the essence of our humanity in moments both intimate and grand, inviting us to consider the nature of existence; the wonder, bravery, shame, loneliness, yearning, and terror that drive and define us. (Publisher)
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Click here to enterWednesday, November 11, 2026
Nonfiction November -- Week Two
Week 2 November 9-15 - Nonfiction Journeys - This week choose a book that reflects a journey for its author or for the reader or both. This can be a physical journey, an emotional, psychological or spiritual journey or a combination of these. Any nonfiction title that leaves its author/protagonist and/or reader in a different place at the end from the start point is good for this challenge.
Hosted by Frances at volatilerune.blog
Beverly Gage, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, embarked on a series of thirteen road trips around the U.S.A. to highlight important moments in the country's history. Gage visited museums, roadside attractions, reenactment sites, even souvenir stores. Some of the places she visited are well known sites (Independence Hall) and others are much more obscure (spending the night in a missile silo turned into an Airbnb). She doesn't try to tell a sanitized story of only heroic moments but also uses her road trips to point out places and events that highlight our country's challenges and mistakes. The words of the Declaration of Independence that gave birth to a new nation in 1776 have been consistent touchstones over the years since, but various people and groups have embraced the Declaration and molded its powerful words to fit a particular viewpoint or support causes across the political spectrum. Gage shows that Americans can honestly face their history -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- and still love their country.
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Classics Club Spin #46
Time for another Classics Club Spin. I just looked at my list and discovered I have exactly 20 books left on it. I decided to not pick out the long ones and replace them with some short novel instead. I'm going for it. I'm listing them all. I may not finish the book if it is one the clunksters, but I'll have a nice start on it going forward.
- Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List.
- Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday 15th November 2026.
- CC will announce a number from 1-20.
- Read that book by 3rd January 2027.
- The Good Earth / Buck
- Death Comes for the Archbishop / Cather
- Don Quixote / de Cervantes
- Heart of Darkness / Conrad
- The Tale of Two Cities / Dickens
- Crime and Punishment / Dostoevsky
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / Doyle
- Invisible Man / Ellison
- The Scarlet Letter / Hawthorne
- Odyssey / Homer
- On the Road / Kerouac
- Elmer Gantry / Lewis
- Midnight's Children / Rushdie
- King Lear / Shakespeare
- Dracula / Stoker
- Anne Karenina / Tolstoy
- War and Peace / Tolstoy
- Scoop / Waugh
- The Importance of Being Ernest / Wilde
- To the Lighthouse / Woolf
Monday, November 9, 2026
TTT: Characters I Enjoyed "Meeting" in 2026
Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I Enjoyed "Meeting" in 2026
(A bit of a tweak on today's theme of characters I'd like to meet in person.)
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| Joan Goodwin Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid |
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| Captain Antonio Corelli Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Berniers |
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| PJ Halliday The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett |
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| Theophilus Zilaves -- aka Theo Theo of Golden by Allen Levi |
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| Daphne Fuller Whistler by Ann Patchett |
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| Pepper Mills Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel |
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| Alix Watson The Astral Library by Kate Quinn |
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| Elise Mabel Fitzpatrick Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth |
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| Emma M. Lion The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower |
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| Artie Dam The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout |
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Sunday Salon: Post Election Glow and More
- Racism by the republicans was on clear display this election cycle with several states gerrymandering their legislative districts to diminish the chances of Democrats and people-of-color retaining/winning them. In Mississippi people were kicked off the voter rolls because they had low credit scores (I kid you not) and who has the highest chance of lower credit scores? Why poorer people-of-color, of course. But these people all understood the assignment to make sure they were not dismissed. Of all the gerrymandered districts it looks like almost all became dummymanders, with Democrats holding onto almost all of them (a few are still question.) Mississippi is poised to select a Black man, Scott Colom. Take that racists! (Dummymanders)
- New records for women as a result of this election:
- 132+ women will serve in the next House of Representative starting in January. A record.
- In Congress there will be 31 Black women, 26 Latinas, 3 Indigenous women, too. (Rutgers)
- There will be 17 women governors, 14 of them Democrats. Among them: Keisha Lance Bottoms (Black, Georgia), Gina Hinojosa (Latina, Texas), and Deb Haaland (Native American- Pueblo tribe, New Mexico.)
- TEXAS goes blue all the way through (every statewide office is now Democratic, State House flipped blue), Talarico to Senate! Thank you Texans!
- I've been busy doing to opposite of doom scrolling the past week. Still keeping my fingers crossed for Alaska and Mississippi senate. The numbers are too close to call but both of these democrats are in the lead.
- TTT: My Perfect Day -- I hope my family members read this because you will recognize the setting.
- TTT: Halloween Freebie
- Review: The Things We Never Say
- Nonfiction November, Week One
- TTT: One-Word Reviews
- In Celebration of the Election Results, Nov. 3rd
- Review: Homestead
- Review: Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry
- Six Degrees of Separation: Novellas
- Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward. Audio. For Goodreads challenge. 34% complete.
- The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan. Print. For National Book Award Challenge; Nonfiction in November. 25% complete.
- True or Poo?: The Definitive Field Guild to Filthy Animals Facts and Falsehoods by Nick Caruso. Print. Nonfiction November. 60% complete.
- Tree of Knowledge: Poems by Victoria Chang. Print. National Book Award challenge. 80% complete.
- The Land and Its People by David Sedaris. Audiobooks with Don. Nonfiction November. 50% complete.
- Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones. MG Audio. Loved it. 5 stars.
- Python's Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich. Audiobook with Don. Best story collection I remember reading. 5 stars.
- Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry by Ada Limon. Print. Nearly perfect defense of poetry, especially for these fragile days. 5 stars.
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Audio. Classic novella.
Saturday, November 7, 2026
Six Degrees of Separation: Novellas
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| Host: BooksAreMyFavoriteandBest |
I'm participating in Novellas in November again this year so I was pretty delighted to see that this month's six-degrees challenge is about novellas.
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| Black and White by Paul Volponi, c. 2005. Read in April 2012 199 pages After reading this book, I planned an author project for a class of high school juniors which culminated with a Zoom call with the author. It was one of the highlights of my teacher-librarian days. |
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| Mister Orange by Truus Matti, c. 2011. Read in February 2014 156 pages Part of the story focuses on the art of Piet Mondrian. I trip-trapped down a personal research rabbit-hole to learn more about Mondrian, his art, and the museums where it is displayed. |
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| The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, c. 1927. Read in November 2023 160 pages This book started me onto a Thornton Wilder tangent where I read a few other books by him or about him, including his famous play, Our Town. |
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| Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, c. 1955. Read in November 2024 122 pages This book is so unique I had to do additional research on it and the author, on surrealism, and magical realism. Want to know more? Click on the title for my review. |
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| What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella, c. 2024. Read in October 2025 133 pages The novel is about a woman with brain cancer. My research helped me learn that the author was struggling with the same cancer and has since died from it. |
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| The Stranger by Albert Camus, c. 1942. Reread in July 2026. 123 pages I first read this book in high school. When I went to see The Stranger at the movies this year, I decided a reread was in order. That led to extensive research about existentialism, absurdism, the author, and the time period. |
Friday, November 6, 2026
Review: AGAINST BREAKING: ON THE POWER OF POETRY
Thursday, November 5, 2026
Friday Book Snippets: HOMESTEAD
June 1956 -- God made the trees and men make the kindling.
January 1957 -- Blizzard wind a howl and rack for days, and the blessed quiet when a storm dies down.
Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all. But over the next few years, as they work the land in an attempt to secure a deed to their homestead, they must face everything they don’t know about each other. As the Territory of Alaska moves toward statehood and inexorable change, can Marie and Lawrence create something new, or will they break apart trying? (Publisher)
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enterWednesday, November 4, 2026
In Celebration of the Election Results November 3rd
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| Democrats (donkey) represent the American people! |
This past weekend I was with my sister and brother-in-law. While the men talked football the conversation with my sister turned to politics. I asked her if she was looking forward to November 3rd and the end of the midterm campaign season. She said she was so anxious she wasn't sure she wanted the day to come because prior to that day hope was still alive.
- The first ever Indigenous woman was elected to the Senate -- Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota
- Three Black women will be serving in the Senate together, the highest level ever -- Juliana Stratton from Illinois will be joining Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks from Maryland.
- The House of Representatives 2027 class will have over 100 female representatives for the first time.
- Annie Andrews is the first female senator who won an election in South Carolina.
- and more...



































