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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

 

 

 

The Sunday Post #253

 

 

 

 

Public Service Announcement

 

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On The Blog Last Week

 

• On Tuesday I shared some books with winter vibes.
• On Wednesday I posted my most-anticipated releases for December.

 

 

 

 

On The Blog This Week

 

• On Tuesday I show you what I’m (hopefully) going to read this winter.

 

 

 

 

In My Reading Life

 

Last week, I read two chunky books. I finally finished Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. People, I started this book on Thanksgiving! It usually doesn’t take me 3 weeks to read any book. Lady Audley’s Secret is a classic from the mid-1800s. It stars a lawyer whose best friend goes missing and is presumed murdered. The lawyer sets out to find him. Or his corpse. This book took me forever to read because parts of it are brilliant, and other parts are complete slogs. The plot is twisty and full of scandals, like a Victorian-era soap opera. Everybody is hiding something, and the characters have giant reactions to every bit of news. I enjoyed those parts. They’re fun. I didn’t like the author’s rambling writing style. She’d go on tangents or describe the minutiae of a character’s daily life. That’s when I’d put the book down and not pick it up for a few days. The plot did not need 500 pages. I just wanted to get on with the murder investigation! I’m glad I read it, though. Overall, I enjoyed it. I definitely want to read more from the Victorian sensation novel genre. So . . . recommendations, please!

The other chunkster I finished was Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. This is a sequel to The Shining and follows the main character from that book, Dan Torrance. He’s a grown-up now. I enjoyed Doctor Sleep immensely. I actually liked it more than The Shining. It’s about vampires who travel around the US in motorhomes and feed on children who “shine.” One of the vampires wears a fancy hat, so the book automatically gets bonus points from me. I love a good fancy hat. Doctor Sleep is disturbing and faster paced than many of King’s other books. The creepy creatures from The Shining make a comeback. Even the Overlook Hotel makes an appearance. I loved revisiting the familiar spooks from the first book. The plot is intense, as you’d expect. I didn’t know how two old dudes and a child would defeat a vampire clan, but they did it. And not in a way that I saw coming. The ending is clever. Stephen King still has a problem with sexualizing every female character, even when sex scenes and descriptions of boobs and pubic hair don’t add anything to the story. If you can look past that, I recommend this book. I didn’t sleep much last week because I wanted to read this novel. I couldn’t put it down.

Right now, I’m reading Brooding YA Hero: Becoming A Main Character (Almost) As Awesome As Me by Carrie Ann DiRisio and Linnea Gear. It’s satire that makes fun of young adult literature. I’m also reading Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky because apparently I want to read horror right now. Both books are okay so far. I haven’t read very much of them.

 

In The Rest Of My Life

 

Five things that made me happy last week:

 

1. Thank you to everyone who has entered my giveaway so far. I’m giving away a $100 book shopping spree. You still have time to enter.
2. I ran 10k without walking up the big hills. Usually I chicken out on the hills and walk. Not this time! It was below freezing when I did it, too. I felt like a badass. A cold, exhausted badass who was questioning my life choices while alone in the wilderness.
3. We finally dug the Christmas decorations out of the basement and put them up. Now the inside of the house is decorated! I’d like to acquire or unearth more decorations for the outside, but who knows if that’s going to happen. I’m lazy.
4. I mailed my Christmas gifts, including my Secret Santa gift. The post office wasn’t crowded! It was packed on the day I went to pick up flat rate boxes. I was worried I’d have to spend an hour in line with potentially diseased strangers. No one wants that. I got to the post office 19 minutes after it opened, and I was 3^rd in line. Victory. Go early, my friends.
5. Christmas cards from my bookish friends:

 

 

 

I’m Overflowing With Holiday Spirit

 

 

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!