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.

Sadly, winter sniffles caught up with my household this past week — just enough to keep us housebound and force us to cancel some plans, but fortunately, not bad enough to cause any real problems!

The upside for me was lots more reading time than I might otherwise have had… although on the negative side of the scale, barely leaving the house meant that I barely listened to audiobooks, so I’m way behind where I thought I’d be.

Puzzle of the week:

Being home all week gave me extra time for puzzling — yet another silver lining! This week’s puzzle was from Cobble Hill. I loved the intricate design, and it was nice to shift to another puzzle company after doing a bunch of Ravensburger puzzles, to get to enjoy different shapes and connections.

As always, my puzzle photos are never good enough to really show how pretty they are in person… so here’s what it’s supposed to look like:

Affiliate purchase link: Amazon

This puzzle is hereby approved by our kitty. Or anyway, the puzzle box gets the stamp of approval!

What did I read during the last week?

For a Limited Time Only by Peng Shepherd: Free via Amazon’s Prime Reading program. This short fiction with a unique time travel twist packs a surprisingly powerful emotional punch. I’m so glad I read it! And now, I’m eager to try more by this author.

107 Days by Kamala Harris: I found this political memoir to be informative, but of course also quite a bittersweet experience. My review is here.

Murder at Haven’s Rock (Haven’s Rock, #1) by Kelley Armstrong: I wasn’t at all surprised to find that I loved this book! A great start to a spin-off from one of my favorite series (the Rockton books). My review is here.

The Man Who Died Twice (The Thursday Murder Club, #2) by Richard Osman: Just as much fun as the first book! I’m eager for more. My review is here.

A Jane Austen Year: Celebrating 250 Year of Jane Austen: I also thoroughly enjoyed leafing through this gorgeous coffee table book! I took a slow, leisurely approach, and loved it — find out more here.

Pop culture & TV:

I’m slowly working my way through a selection of Oscar-nominated movies and roles. This week, I watched One Battle After Another. I can see why it’s getting so much buzz! It’s action-packed and, on the surface, not something I would typically gravitate toward, but there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, and the individual performances are terrific.

After that, I finally sat down to watch Frankenstein on Netflix. What a gorgeous production! It’s visually stunning and so well done. Honestly, Oscar Isaac was robbed by not being nominated for the best actor Oscar for this film, and same goes for a lack of a best director nomination for Guillermo del Toro.

I’m certainly not trying to watch ALL the nominated performances — there are plenty that just don’t interest me. Besides these two, I’ve also seen Sinners (which was excellent). Hamnet is high on my list of movies to watch, but I’m waiting for streaming, so it might be a while. Same for Marty Supreme. And I still need to watch KPop Demon Hunters!

How about you? Have you seen any of the other nominated movies or performances? Any you’d particularly recommend?

Fresh Catch:

No new books this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon: My book group’s January pick. My library hold came in later than I’d hoped, so I’m behind… but made good progress over the weekend.

Now playing via audiobook:

Anne of a Different Island by Virginia Kantra: I missed out on most of my usual audiobook time this past week, so I really only got to start this one a couple of days ago. I like it so far!

Ongoing reads:

My longer-term reading commitments:

• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: My book group’s current classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 51%. Coming up this week: Chapters 17 & 18.
• The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien: My book group’s journey through the LOTR books continues! Progress (relative to the entire LOTR opus): 68%.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…