Hello Everyone! I don’t think I’ve posted this picture my cats, Myra (left), Puck (top), and Hero (right) – and I needed a picture for this post.

I just wanted to drop a quick note and say that I’m going to try to make Wednesdays about discussion posts in the spirit of Feed Your Addiction and It Starts at Midnight’s Book Blog Discussion Challenge. I can’t promise to post every week (I just had a baby, after all), nor can I promise that all my discussions will be about books or book blogging (the world is a many-splendored thing, after all). I will try to stay away from politics, other than side issues like, perhaps fracking. (Good Frack! I just pulled fracking out of nowhere!)

I have heard that well-written discussion posts garner a heck of a lot more hits than book reviews. Personally, I’m a book review sort of person, but I also have a lot of thoughts running through my head. Maybe I should share them with you. So to all those book bloggers out there – Do you find discussion posts get more hits than reviews? What kinds of discussion posts would you like to see on my blog? How do you come up with ideas? 

Thanks for your thoughts!

Summary: The Montrose family has moved to a small mill town to get away from the scandals of the big city. Lydia, who considers herself the less attractive of the sisters, suffers from the rumors that her more beautiful sister Catherine has brought upon the family. She feels she will never find someone who will love her and take her despite the rumors. When she meets a handsome and mysterious man, she wants desperately for him to love her, but knows that it is hopeless. On top of those problems, Lydia is realizing that she may be more powerful than she believes – there have been witches in the family…

My Thoughts: I loved it. The romance was adorable, and on top of that, there was drama that added a lot to the plot. Highly suggested to anyone that likes non-smutty paranormal romances.

Yes, this is another first day photo, but it has the happy parents in it. 🙂 Looking at this picture, I realize how much IL has grown already. He was 6 lbs 8 oz, and is now 6 lbs 15 oz. That doesn’t sound like much, but he is noticeably bigger. He is eating quite a bit, and is otherwise healthy.

D & M are doing a great job of adjusting to their new life with a baby. D feeds him regularly, and M has agreed to feed him in the upcoming month to help earn his reverence badge in Cub Scouts.

D, sadly, had a stomach bug and missed school for a couple days. Probably being overprotective, I quarantined IL in his nursery until she was better. Which meant I finally got caught up on blog comments!

My mom, and neice L with IL.

And my dad feeding IL.

Reading in the upcoming week

I am listening to two audiobooks: Fool Moon, for my Dresden Files Group Read, and Vaccine Race. I know I’m being too careful, yet again, but I don’t want IL to hear Fool Moon because it’s scary. A nice nonfiction work is so much more educational. 😊

My Serial Read is Scarlet Letter, and my work of fiction is American Overdose.

Completed this week

This was also considered ok for baby ears, and I got plenty of quality time with IL while listening to it.

Acquired this week

Nothing

Summary: Harry Dresden is America’s only Wizard. In addition to doing small occult detective jobs on the side, he is a consultant for the special division of the Chicago Police. When someone is brutally murdered, he must find out who the culprit is – making some enemies in the process.

My Thoughts: This is my second time reading this book. I started the series over for my Dresden Files Group Read that I started hosting in November. (Anybody is welcome to hop in whenever they please, even if they have not joined us for the first few books in the series). I enjoyed this book as the pinnacle of Occult Detective series beginnings. Harry is likable, yet makes stupid mistakes all the time. The other characters are weak in comparison, but I know from experience that they will develop with time. The plot is solid, and mostly not predictable. It’s a fun book, suggested for anyone who likes urban fantasy.

Thanks for anyone who participated in the first month of the Dresden Files Group Read. I’m sorry I didn’t get this post up on time. I was busy preparing for the earlier-than-expected induction of IL.

QUESTIONS:

• What did you think of Storm Front overall?
• Is this your first time reading a Dresden book?
• How about your first occult detective novel? Have you read others in this subgenre?

I loved Storm Front, and gave it 4 stars, as can be seen in my review. As far as occult detective novels go, I think Dresden is the gold standard.

This is not the first time I’ve read this book – in fact I’ve read the first three. But I restarted reading them for the sake of others who wanted to join this project from the beginning.

I have partially read three other occult detective series, if the Nightside novels (Simon R Green) and the Iron Druid Chronicles (Kevin Hearne) count. The third is certainly in that subgenre: Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovich).

Books and Chocolate is hosting Back to the Classics 2019! I’m looking forward to joining in the fun this year, though I already have a lot of challenges going on.

Good news! After 2.5 days of induction, my baby (IL) was born on 12/7/2018. Baby and mother are healthy and well. IL is a sweet baby who rarely cries and is quite cheerful either being held or hanging out in his pack and play. So far, anyway. Never know what will happen when he grows older, lol. D and M are enjoying their new baby brother, and Aaron and his mom have been so helpful to me.

IL did have high bilirubin levels at first, and got to spend a day and a half in a tanning bed, due to an AB O incompatibility. (In other words, I’m an O, and my body produced antibodies against his blood cells because he’s a B.)

I was discharged from the Mother Baby program for people with bipolar disorder already because I have had no symptoms of post-partum depression, anxiety, or psychosis. I can always go back if I DO have symptoms, but if I don’t need that level of care, the 5 hours a day 4 days a week was only causing more stress than it was solving. So, yay! more free-time than I expected in the first four weeks after IL’s birth. I look forward to at least some time to read.

On the blog

Believe it or not, nothing has happened on my blog for two weeks! I do have several reviews that I need to catch up on – most notably last month’s Dresden Files Group Read post. I’ll get that up tomorrow, promise!

Reading this week

Nothing new.

Completed in the past two weeks

Despite good intentions of listening to Sense and Sensibility while being induced, I was too distracted to do so. I did get some Haunting of Hillhouse watched, though. 🙂 Aaron and I are about half way through now.

Acquired

Off the blog

Well, the countdown has started for inducing baby – that is, it’s scheduled for the 5th of December. Yes. That’s next Wednesday. And I’m freaking out. I’m excited too, of course, but having a date makes it all seem so imminent. I have been doing my shopping for the baby, double-checking of the bags I’ve packed for the hospital, and doing some finishing touches on the nursery. We have a post-birth sleeping plan (I’ll sleep from 6pm till 12am, and Aaron will sleep from 12am till 6am). Of course, we can cat-nap while the baby is sleeping, but we’re switching off baby-feeding-duty. I’m thinking of setting up an air mattress in the nursery for the first little bit so that we can keep the baby monitor out of the room with the person on sleeping shift.

I’ll also be in a program specifically designed for post-partum mothers who have bipolar disorder for a month after the birth, so reading time might be dramatically reduced. Luckily, my mother-in-law will be around to take care of the step-kids while I’m in the program.

I just realized TODAY that I had to shop for Christmas as well as for the baby! So I just did all my online shopping in one go. Most of the presents are books, of course, but there are a few non-readers that I bought presents for, too.

I made a ticker for my weight loss post-partum, too. My plan is to lose one pound a week, which will put me at 140lbs somewhere in the summer of 2020. lol. I’ll be keeping track of calories consumed starting the 10th, and start training for a walking marathon that will take place in September. My original plan was a Tough Mudder, but I realized that was just silly. Then I planned for a century bike ride but realized that it would be hard to train for that with a baby in tow. So walking marathon it is. I can walk with a baby in tow, surely? I’ll keep you updated on how my weight loss and training is going!

Reading this week

Still Serial Reading Gulliver’s Travels for my Educated Mind Project. American Overdose is an ARC that I am a few days behind on finishing (I’ll be more than a few days by the time I finish, but oh well). The Mark of the Raven is an ARC released on December 5 (yeah, I’ll be behind on that one, too). I’ll be listening to The Soul of an Octopus in general, but during my labor I decided to listen to Sense and Sensibility, since I can listen to that with great distraction and still understand what’s going on – I’m very familiar with the story. The induction will probably last several hours (inductions generally do), so maybe I’ll even get close to finishing it!

Completed in the past two weeks

Finally finished Washington Black for my Litsy Markup Postal Book Club. Just in time to mail it out! Burning Magic was a cute little kid’s book that I decided to jump into because I was having readers’ slump. And The Witch of Willow Hall was an ARC provided by NetGalley and Graden House Books (Release date Oct 2). Review coming soon!

Acquired

This will probably be the last of my ill-advised over-requesting of ARCs. I think. NetGalley provided The Mark of the Raven (Bethany House), Roam (Central Avenue Publishing), and The Sisterhood (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers). The Lathe of Heaven and The One and Only Ivan were on sale at Audible. Dopestick and Educated were purchased with kindle credits that were about to expire.