Cat Thursday - Only cat parents truly understand

Welcome to the twice a month (on the second and fourth Thursday) feature that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite cat meme you may have come across, famous cat art, or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

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Classics Club Spin #40

And the spin landed on #4....The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde....to be finished by April 11.

What is the spin?

At your blog, before Sunday, February 16 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain "to be read" on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List.

You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.

On Sunday, February 16, we'll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by April 11, 2025.

For full details and to join in, visit the Classics Club blog here.

My list

1. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
2. The Human Chord, Algernon Blackwood
3. The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories, Algernon Blackwood
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
5. Taras Bulba, Nikolai Gogol
6. The Centaur, Algernon Blackwood
7. Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol
8. Grendel, John Gardner
9. Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens, Paul Huson
10. A Room with A View, E.M. Forster
11. The Witch of Ravensworth, George Brewer
12. The Werewolf, Montague Summers
13. Viy, Nikolai Gogol
14. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
15. The Collector, John Fowles
16. The Devils of Loudun, Aldous Huxley
17. In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires, Raymond T. McNally, Radu R. Florescu
18. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
19. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, Nikolai Gogol
20. Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot

Click here to view my entire Classics Club list

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Cat Thursday - Funny Cat Valentines

Welcome to the twice a month (on the second and fourth Thursday) feature that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite cat meme you may have come across, famous cat art, or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

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Cat Thursday - Yes, cats will help

Welcome to the twice a month (on the second and fourth Thursday) feature that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite cat meme you may have come across, famous cat art, or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

Whelp, I already messed up! When I decided on the new schedule of first and third Thursdays, I thought I was posting on the first Thursday, when in fact it was the second Thursday. So, you will see the change in the intro paragraph above. Sorry about that!

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My Year In Books -- a meme

Anne at My Head is Full of Books inviting me to join in on this fun meme. How could I resist? You can participate too. Check it out here.

My Year in Books

Rules?

• Answer the questions with titles from books you read in 2024. (Some may end up being silly, others may seem overly serious.)
• The goal is to have fun.
• Participate by copying the questions below. Erasing my answers and inserting you own.
• Once you've created your post, link it below so others can see it, then visit others' posts to see how they answered the questions.
• Spread the word. Let's see if we can make this a thing again this year!

Questions:

In high school I was: Knowing (Mark Cox)

People might be surprised: I Was a Teenage Slasher (Stephen Graham Jones)

I will never be: Medusa's Sisters (Lauren J.A. Bear)

My fantasy job is: Arranging Words (Fran Abrams)

At the end of a long day I need: Fairy Tale (Stephen King)

I hate it: At the Edge of the Orchard (Tracy Chevalier)

Wish I had: The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)

My family reunions are: And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)

At a party you’d find me: They Lurk (Ronald Malfi)

I’ve never been to: The Last House on Needless Street (Catriona Ward)

A happy day includes: Lone Women (Victor LaValle)

Motto I live by: The Rules of Magic (Alice Hoffman)

On my bucket list is: A Winter Haunting (Dan Simmons)

In my next life, I want to have: When Women Ruled the World (Kara Cooney)

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Cat Thursday - Who's the boss? The cat

Welcome to the twice a month (on the first and third Thursdays) feature that celebrates the wonders and often hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite cat meme you may have come across, famous cat art, or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

Happy New Year! Yes, I missed another post last week. This has led me to realize that I'm having trouble keeping up so I've decided to change Cat Thursday from weekly to twice monthly. Posting days will be the first and third Thursday each month. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with this schedule. Thanks for bearing with me!

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2025...Reading Challenges, First Book of the Year, and my Word for the Year

I honestly cannot believe how fast 2024 went by! While it wasn't a terrible year, some things happened that made it less than ideal for me. Not going into details, but I'm sure many can relate. But let's put 2024 in the past where it belongs and get down to a new year of optimism and reading plans. I mentioned in my 2024 reading year post that I reached my goal of reading 50 books in 2024. I'm setting my 2025 goal at 60. We shall see if I can surpass last year. I'm certainly going to try.

First book of the year - Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry

Of course I'm starting off the year with a horror novel. I have always loved the legend of Sleepy Hollow ever since watching The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad as a kid. So far, this one is really good!

I'm also reading Winter King: Henry VII and The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn for my book group on Goodreads, True Book Talk. 

My word for the year

Last year, my word was Release and I think I did a pretty good job of doing just that. In 2023, I was struggling with empty nest syndrome so Brave was my word and then I chose Release last year to help me accept and release what I could not change. This year I chose Courage to help me cope with what is going on in our country and the world, and also to have the courage to keep going with my weight loss (I've lost 80 lbs since April 2024), and writing, and finishing, my novel. 

The new year for me always comes with a fresh start at reading challenges. This year I'll once again be doing Book Challenge by Erin (which is twice a year), in addition to the four challenges I host.

Challenges listed below:
Book Challenge by Erin 22.0
2025 I Read Horror Year-Round
1000 Books Project 2025: Sigrid Undset's Krisin Lavransdatter
2025 Book to Movie (and TV) Challenge
2025 Read Your Shelf Challenge

First up...the twice a year challenge - Book Challenge by Erin 22.0 (Facebook group)

First round of the year runs Jan - April.

Freebie: Horseman, Christina Henry

Added to 2024 TBA - The Hacienda, Isabel Canas

Artist (writer) as main character - The Writing Retreat, Julia Bartz

Sunset on cover - Holly, Stephen King

Jenna Bush Book Club rec - Camp Zero, Michelle Min Sterling

Title starts with I - Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman

City/Town in title - The Last Witch of Langenburg, Thomas Robisheaux

Female villain - Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin

Author w/ first name of Erin - Lake of Sorrows, Erin Hart

Climate change fiction - Portent, James Herbert

This is a private Facebook group. You can check it out and join here. You can join in at any time during the four months. Second challenge of the year starts July 1st. Categories announced in June.

Now on to the challenges I'm hosting...

I host this challenge at my sister blog, the horror blog, Castle Macabre. 

I have some ideas on what I'll be reading, but not sure on all of them yet. I'm going for the Chilling level again this year. I completed the level in 2024 so I'll stick with it for now.

Here are the prompts and levels...

• Vampires
• Witches
• Folk Horror 
• Written by a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) author
• A Ghost Story
• Written by a female author
• Cosmic Horror
• Frightening Cover
• Adapted as movie/series
• Katsu, Ketchum, King, or Koontz
• Black, gray, orange, or red cover
• Book featuring a Cryptid (mark off one BINGO square!)

Levels:

Spooky: Read 6 books from 6 categories
Chilling: Read 12 Books from all 12 categories
Frightful: Read 2 books from each category for a total of 24 books
Horrifying: Read 3 books from each category for a total of 36 books

I'm sure you noticed that last prompt up there. That's right...I've added an optional BINGO challenge with a Cryptid theme. Fun, right?! Check out the BINGO card!

Full details and sign up here.

The next three challenges are hosted by me at Gather Together and Read, my reading community site.

Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter - January through August

Honoring women: A woman's life saga.

We have already started reading. The reading schedule is posted here.

Full details and sign-up here.

My main level...

The Enthusiast: read 1-3 books
Also, additional levels...
Not Ready to Let Go: read at least one (1) book made into a movie or series in 2023
Living in the Past: read at least one (1) book made into a movie in previous years
The Movie Was Better (What?!): watch the movie(s) for the book(s) you read.

Potential books:

Wicked, Gregory Maguire (2024)
The Witching Hour, Anne Rice (reread) Second season of streaming series (1/5/25)
The Pale Blue Eye, Louis Bayard (2022)
The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay (2023)
Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann (2023)

Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin - House of the Dragon streaming series (2022, 2024)

The Keep, F. Paul Wilson (1983)

My Lady Jane, Cynthia Hand - streaming series (2024)

Dune, Frank Herbert (2021 and 2024) streaming series Prophecy (2024)

Klara And The Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (2025)

The Running Man, Stephen King (2025)

Full details and sign up here.

Pretend your house is a library: A strategy for actually reading the books you own.

My "holds shelf"...

My full list of books on my holds shelf are listed on my 2025 Reading Challenges page located in the blog menu above.

Full details on how this challenge works (you can adapt it to fit your needs too!) and sign up here.

Last, but not least, my independent project called Backlist Challenge. I'm keeping track on a separate page which you can see up in the blog menu. As always, there are also links in the menu to my long term challenges like the Classics Club, etc.

That's it! What is (was) your first book of the year? Do you have a word for 2025? What are your reading plans? Doing any challenges, or perhaps thinking of joining one (or more) of mine?
Whatever your plans are, I wish you a Happy New Year of peace and prosperity, and great reading of course!

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