E. Menozzi's Blog, page 3

December Reading Wrap-Up and 2023 Reading Stats

Happy New Year!

It’s the first day of the New Year. I’ve created a new Goodreads goal for the New Year. 52 books. Same as it is every year.

But before I dive into my first book of the year, I wanted to take a minute to recap what I read in December and do a little looking back on my year in reading.

what I read in December

Let’s start with what I read in December.

System Collapse by Martha Wells — I listened to this on audiobook, which didn’t work well for me. I think I would have...

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice!

We did it! We made it to the shortest day of the year! Hooray! More daylight, starting tomorrow!

I suppose it’s kind of fitting that I just got Joanna Penn’s new book, Writing the Shadow : Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words, on my Kindle today! I guess it technically releases tomorrow, but it’s tomorrow in New York, so I got my pre-order.

This is one of those books that I kind of bought on a whim. I listen to Joanna Penn’s podcast sometimes. Maybe about half of t...

Top Five: New Release Book Covers

We’re almost there! It’s the day before the Solstice! Let’s do a top five to celebrate…

I was scrolling through my blog reader and saw that Zezee did a top five post recently, and I followed her credit in that post to a Top 5 Tuesday series that is being organized by Meeghan.

Yesterday’s prompt was “Top 5 covers of 2023.” Love it! Let’s go.

Here are my top 5 favorite book covers released this year:

It’s probably no surprise that the majority of my favorites are from my Fairylo...

Currently Reading

Long day. Going to bed to read.

See you tomorrow!

Tweaking My Planner System (Again)

Most of today was spent making progress on cleaning up the novel I’m working on, but I did spend a little time thinking about my 2024 planning system. In a previous post, I mentioned that I’ve switched from using a bullet journal to trying out the half-year Hobonichi Cousin. It’s been working well. Mostly. But there have been a few things I’m not entirely pleased with.

The first of those is that the Cousin doesn’t have a lot of blank pages for free-form planning and notes. So, if you want...

On the Last Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

Today was a surprisingly productive day. I didn’t get everything done on my to-do list, but I never do. I also haven’t done any reading, yet. Well, except for the recipe for that baking project I want to try, and it’s a good thing I finally read that!

I wanted to make panettone from scratch this year based on the recipe in my favorite bread baking cookbook: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Before I get into that, though, I have to put in a plug for how awesome this book is. If you really wan...

On the Eighth Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

Apologies for the short (and slightly subdued) post tonight. I didn’t get as much writing done today as I’d hoped, and I also didn’t do any reading. We’re less than a week out from the shortest day of the year, and I am feeling it today. I am both extremely ready for the solstice (in terms of craving more daylight hours), and absolutely not ready at all (in terms of what I need to get done before then).

As much as I want to just say “F*** it,” and spend the rest of the weekend reading, I ...

On the Seventh Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

I decided to do a little doodling on my Old Favour Passport. I’m creating a different doodle for each shop with the intention of making them look sort of like stamps. The first one I did was a little cat reading a book for Old Tails Bookstore. Then I realized that, with all the visiting I did last weekend, I think I can officially check off the only non-reading prompt (reach out to someone during this festive season). That is for the Rich Pigeon Pub, so I added a pigeon with a top hat doodle...

On the Sixth Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

I did not end up staying up late last night finishing Manslaughter Park, but I did finish reading it this morning. And… I was RIGHT about whodunit! Ha! It was a very satisfying conclusion, and not just because I guessed correctly. I had lots of thoughts about it during my run today. I think I basically drafted an entire review in my head. But I didn’t write it down and after lunch and a shower, I completely forgot about it. I will now attempt to recreate my thoughts.

I really enjoyed this...

On the Fifth Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

Today was another LONG day of adulting with not a lot of writing. Sigh.

It started in the dark, but the sunrise was pretty great…

sunrise on the ferry

I had to head over to one of the other islands for an annual doctor exam, but the inter-island ferry commute and waiting around allowed me lots of time to read Manslaughter Park! Reading also helped distract me from my irrational doctor visit anxiety. I’m now about two thirds through the book, and I think I know whodunit. I’ve had a su...