My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend! No (official) fireworks, but at least the skies here were blue and I was able to enjoy being outdoors in the sun.

What did I read during the last week?

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: SO good. My review is here. And I LOVE that the publisher has paper dolls to go with it! Check out how amazing there are, here.

Here’s a peek at page 1 of the paper dolls:

Okay, what else did I read?

Alice by Christina Henry. I’ll be honest — I just did not enjoy this book. I’ve loved the two other Christina Henry books that I read (The Girl in Red and The Mermaid), but this one just didn’t appeal to me at all. Violent and dark, but no characters to really care about. So far, I’ve yet to encounter an Alice in Wonderland retelling that I’ve actually liked, so maybe I should stop trying! Unfortunately, I bought the sequel to this book at the same time that I picked up this one, and now I have little interest in reading it.

Well Met by Mary Jen DeLuca: Fun, sweet audiobook set at a RenFaire. My review is here.

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton: Why, oh why, did it take me so long to get around to reading this book? It was AMAZING. My review is here.

Pop culture & TV:

I’m STILL watching Jane the Virgin, but should be done this week and ready for something new to binge. Meanwhile, my son and I have been working our way through the Fast & Furious movies, which are ridiculous and yet so much fun. This week’s pick:

Yup, there’s a submarine in the middle of a car chase. It’s wacky.

Puzzle of the week:

Since I seem to be doing these weekly, I thought I’d make it part of my Monday routine to share my most recent:

Cute, right? This one was a lot of fun. My problem is that I’m a wee bit obsessive when it comes to puzzles, so once I start, I basically don’t do anything else until I finish. So, I’m allowing myself one per week for now. After all, puzzle time takes away from reading time, and we can’t have that.

Fresh Catch:

Why yes, I did get some new books this week!

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss: I read the first book in this trilogy, The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, about a year ago, and thought it was delightful. And now that the 3rd has arrived, it’s time to continue the series. Picking back up with book #2.

Now playing via audiobook:

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski: And back to The Witcher I go! These audiobooks are so much fun.

Ongoing reads:

Outlander Book Club’s re-read of Outlander is underway. We’re reading and discussing one chapter per week. This week: Chapter 4, “I Come To the Castle”. Anyone who’s interested is welcome to participate, so just ask me how.

I took Don Quixote off my reading list a few weeks ago, and then regretted it, so I’m diving back in. My book group is reading and discussing two chapters per week, and I was about 10 chapters behind… but after a big sprint of reading this weekend, I managed to catch up to the group!

So many books, so little time…