Weekly Mews: August Wrap Up & A Witchy TBR List Poll (Please Vote!)

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer, where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz where participants discuss what they are reading and other bookish topics. I am linking up to Nicole of Feed Your Addiction's Monthly Wrap-Up Post, where any book bloggers who write monthly wrap-up posts can link up and visit other bloggers to see what they have been reading.   I am linking to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Team Tynga's Reviews and Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently. 

New to the Shelves:

Irresistible e-book sales . . . 

The Clockwork Scarab (Stoker & Holmes #1) by Colleen Gleason

Mortal Arts (Lady Darby Mystery, #2) by Anna Lee Huber

Something Read, Something Dead (Lighthouse Library Mystery #5) by Eva Gates

Read and Buried (Lighthouse Library Mystery #6) by Eva Gates

Murders and Metaphors (A Magical Bookshop Mystery #3) by Amanda Flower

What I Am Reading: I am nearly finished with In My Attic by Lina Hansen, a quirky and fun paranormal cozy mystery, and am thinking I may dive into Don't Hex and Drive by Juliette Cross next. On my nightstand is A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter by Nikki Giovanni, a book of poetry, that I started reading recently.  

What I Am Watching: My husband and I are working our way through the fourth season of Lucifer. It's completely unbelievable, but utterly entertaining and a nice escape. We are continuing to watch the Star Wars movies. We re-watched Han Solo and Rogue One. Han Solo gets a lot of flack, but taken on its own, it's actually a fun movie. I really like Rogue One. I think it's the third time I have seen it. We also enjoyed seeing the original Star Wars movies, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, most recently. My favorite of the Star Wars movies have always been Star Wars: A New Hope, and I love how all the other movies support and play into that original film in some way. 

I recently dived back into The Originals, a vampire spin off of Vampire Diaries. I find The Originals less romantic (?) and more violent than its predecessor, but I am enjoying it. I never watched the show when it originally aired, other than the first couple of episodes.

Off the Blog: August was a month of transition as we eased out of summer break and into the new school year. It's hard to believe school has been underway for four weeks already! We are finding our new rhythm. Mouse is all signed up for the new dance season (she's taking fewer classes) and is taking a virtual music theater class through the L.A. School of Music. It's an eight week program. She attended a virtual choir camp through them the end of July, which she enjoyed. 

Virtual school seems to be going well for us. It has its drawbacks, of course. But I cannot tell you how grateful I am given some of the horror stories I am hearing from friends and family--both on the  parent and teacher side of things. We are all doing the best we can. Sometimes I catch snippets of the class and can hear the teacher's frustration at trying to keep all those students on task after he has had to repeat the same instructions again and again to make sure everyone has found their way to whatever program or app they are all using. Our district hasn't run into some of the hacking issues or outages that neighboring districts have had to deal with fortunately (knock on wood).

Mouse was not too thrilled about the video options the teacher offers for her Physical Education (P.E.) requirement, and so I offered to dance with her on her Just Dance game. It gets me up and moving too, which is a plus. We have been having fun with it--even if I am the most uncoordinated person you have ever seen trying to dance. 

Work has picked up for me considerably, and I have been put on a new project along with my usual duties. My new staff person seems to be settling in well. We have two more new staff coming in within the next week or two, and I will be sitting in a couple of interviews for another addition this coming week. The higher ups are discussing what our new normal will be--what the work-from-home/in-office rotation will look like or if it will continue 

Mouse was able to spend time with a couple of her closest friends one weekend this past month. Her dad and I have been so cautious these past five months and her two friends and their parents have been too. The girls had a blast together. Mouse and her two friends are all only children, and I am sure being able to be around other kids for even a short while must have been such a nice change from being stuck at home with just their parents for company. My husband and I enjoyed visiting with our friends in person too. We're back to isolating again for the time being, making sure everyone is healthy and stays that way. 

Fire season is well underway throughout California, and as expected, it is a bad one. It's been devastating for the land, animals, and people impacted. The air is smoky just about everywhere you go. Twenty-twenty will go down as the year everyone wished they could forget . . . 

On a lighter note:

My computer needed more personality. What's more fitting than a couple of cats? 

My grandmother celebrated her 103rd birthday this past month. While I couldn't be there (she lives on the other side of the country), several family members who live closer to her were able to celebrate with her, the first time in months she's been allowed in-person visitors (she does have a mask which appears in other pictures, just not this one).

Mouse's Summer Fall Show Costumes for the Grease Musical and Le Corsaire Ballet. This year the shows will look a lot different with no stage or live audience--at least not in-person.

The cats. A rare photo of them together.

My husband brought home a can of Lysol Disinfecting Spray after a grocery run. 

This is what happened next:

Here is what I finished reading in August:

• Wolf Gone Bad (Stay a Spell, #1) by Juliette Cross
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Ink and Bone (Great Library, #1) by Rachel Caine
• The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library, #1) by A.J. Hackwith
• Checked Out for Murder (Haunted Library Mystery, #4) by Allison Brook

I did not spend much time blogging the beginning of August, with the exception of my weekend posts. I I took a much needed break the second half of the month; and, towards the end, I actually found time to work on some reviews, polishing up some I never posted, playing catch up with those I never got to, and prepping outlines for future posts. It's still a work in progress, but I feel a like my head is a little more into the game than it has been. 

Reading wise, I still find myself straying too often from books, but I am loving what I am reading. Wolf Gone Wild was a fun and much needed escape. Ink and Bone was every bit as good as all of you said it would be. I got so much out of Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist. Oh, how I wish I could visit the Unwritten Books Wing in The Library of the Unwritten! And I enjoyed my time in Clover Ridge in Checked Out for Murder. 

This Past August In Bookish Mews:

• Weekly Mews: Welcome to August (New Books, Recent Reads & My August TBR List Poll--please vote!)
• Weekly Mews: Reading, Watching and My August TBR Poll Winner
• Bookish Mewsings: Ink and Bone / The Library of the Unwritten / Checked Out For Murder

And In Case You Missed It This Week: 

• Waiting to Read Wednesday: I Do Not Come to You by Chance / Well Played / The Talented Miss Farwell / How to Fly
• Where Is Your Bookmark? (Then & Now - A Peek into In My Attic)

Tell me what you have been up to! What are you reading, listening to and watching? How was your August? Do you have anything planned for this month?

Thank you for helping me decide what book from my TBR collection I should read next:

My TBR List is a meme hosted by the awesome Michelle at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and take a poll as to which you think I should read. I will read the winner that month, and my review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

It is that time again! Break out those spooky reads and movies and join the Readers Imbibing Peril (R..I.P.) fun! Joining in is simple this year. Follow @PERILREADERS on Instagram and Twitter, post about what you are watching or reading using the hashtags #RIPXV and #PERILREADERS. Or if you want, share what you are reading on your blog.  Are you participating in this year's R.I.P. XV?

This month I am going with a witch theme in honor of R.I.P. XV. Which one of these three books do you think I should read next? 

Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw 

Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meets the Salem Witch trials in this haunting story about three sisters on a quest for revenge—and how love may be the only thing powerful enough to stop them.

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself. [Goodreads Summary]

The Rules of Magic (Practical Magic Prequel) by Alice Hoffman

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy. [Goodreads Summary]

The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles #1) by Laurie Forest

Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people—including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians—is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of rebels…if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to fear.  [Goodreads Summary]

Thank you for voting! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Reading!

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