Good morning! Today’s post will link up to The Sunday Salon, The Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves, for weekly updates.
**Mailbox Monday is hosted at the home site: Mailbox Monday.
And let’s join Kathryn, our leader in It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, at Book Date.
Here we are, almost finished with July, and the week sped by like most of the weeks lately. In fact, if the Pandemic would end this quickly, wouldn’t that be great? Reading and blogging have definitely helped me keep my mind away from the horrific events of 2020, and that has worked primarily because of the distractions of those activities. I finished my third book of the week today, and it was my final NetGalley ARC for July. But on the heels of that one come two books in early August (the 4th and the 11th). So the stress continues. When in this kind of situation, I ask myself “how did this happen?” Usually it involves being unable to pass up a good book.
I will work harder to prevent that in the future!
Meanwhile, I have found time for shows on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. I finished (and loved!) the second season of In the Dark.
Let’s grab some coffee and take a closer look at the week.
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LAST WEEK ON THE BLOGS:
Tuesday Excerpts: “The Summer Deal”
Plumbing the Depths of My TBR…
Bookish Friday: “Girls of Summer”
Coffee Chat: One Step Forward, Another Step Back…
Review: The Girl from Widow Hills, by Megan MirandaReview: The Safe Place, by Anna DownesReview: Playing Nice, by J P Delaney – (NG-7/28/20)
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INCOMING BOOKS:
Empty physical mailbox! I did download two e-books.
He Started It, by Samantha Downing
The Lost and Found Bookshop, by Susan Wiggs
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CURRENTLY READING:
The Request, by David Bell
Then I plan to start on my August ARCs.
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That was my week. What did yours look like? Here is one of my recent meals in the apartment, tuna salad with a dinner roll, and a glass of wine from my bottle. The dining room offers sweet wine that is not very satisfying. LOL.
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I just read a good review for He Started It so I hope you love it!
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I’m glad to hear that, Mary; I’m looking forward to it. Enjoy your week.
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I loved He Started It and The Request. I hope you enjoy them too. NetGalley is very dangerous for me and I’m so far behind with my reviews.
The tuna salad looks good. Have a great week!
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I have been trying very hard to pass over the NetGalley books that come my way when I already have many each month! Now I’m down to two for August, one for September, and one for December. I will try not to add more!
Thanks for visiting, Yvonne, and I’m really loving The Request so far. I’ve heard good things about it and about He Started It.
Enjoy your reading.
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Reading and blogging are keeping me sane too. They give me something good and happy to focus on. I hope you enjoy your new books!
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I don’t know how I would manage without books and blogging…and the blogging community. Hang in there, AJ.
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Thank goodness for reading and blogging, right? What would we do without them?
The Lost and Found Bookshop has a nice cover.
Good luck w/ the ARC’s! And yay for good wine. 🙂
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Thanks, Greg, I can’t stand sweet and pathetic wine, lol. But to have good wine, I have to buy my own, or sometimes my granddaughter buys me a nice bottle.
Enjoy your books and your blogging. Stay safe.
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Ooo looks like you had a nice week of reading and that lunch looks yummy! 😋 I too have found the weeks are flying by and agree wouldn’t it be great if the coronavirus sped away that quick, too! Take care and happy reading. 😃
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If only we could move beyond the Pandemic sooner rather than later! But until then, our books help us stay sane. LOL
Thanks for visiting, Jessica, and stay safe.
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I couldn’t agree more, but you’re right: thank God for books! You’re welcome and thank you. 😊
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The Lost and Found Bookshop – looking forward to that. For us it doesn’t publish to September 17th then I have to decide what format I’ll buy it. I love the USA cover to the one that is for the rest of the world.
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I hope to read it soon, Kathryn; I do love books about bookshops and libraries. Enjoy your read when you get it! Stay safe.
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The Lost and Found Bookshop sounds kinda tempting… I’m such a sucker for anything with books/libraries/bookshops. 😀 Enjoy!
My weekly roundup/STS post.
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Me, too, Shanaqui, books do make the best topics for reading. Enjoy your week!
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He started it and The lost and found bookshop both seem really good! Hope you get to enjoy them.
My week was good, back at school and it makes a difference… You can read all about it here The Sunday Post
Have a good week!
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Good to hear, Mareli; enjoy the week ahead and all the books you can read!
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I so understand the pain of not being able to say no to good books, especially on Netgalley. The Lost and Found Bookshop sounds perfect. I might check that one out.
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I have scrolled past a few books lately, but I must admit that they weren’t from favorite authors. The real test will be when those faves pass my way. Sigh.
Enjoy your week, and thanks for visiting, Gayathri.
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I completely lost my head when lockdown started, ate far too many salt and vinegar crisps and requested faarrr too many books on Netgalley! I’m now working my way through them… Have a great week, Laurel:).
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That kind of thing happened to me, too, Sarah, except, for me, I kept going to Amazon to order things. Now I have so many new clothes and handbags that I can’t use except in the privacy of my apartment, that it is crazy. LOL.
I ordered a lot of books from Amazon, among other things; replacement copies and new hardcover/paperback books for my bookshelf. Now it is finally almost full…and so is my closet.
BTW, those salt and vinegar crisps sound good!
Enjoy your week.
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This year is like some weird version of time that is passing so fast yet seems so suspended. Praying for the end of this pandemic. I’m ready to resume my normal life – but not yet obviously!
Stay safe! I am glad you have your own wine to sustain you!
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Yes, having my own wine is a plus. I discovered issues with my cork screw when I first started opening my own bottles, so I got a speedy fancy corkscrew from Amazon that I haven’t used yet, but the video I watched makes it look easy. But needing a video to figure it out does give me pause. LOL.
I suspect that our New Normal will be quite different from the old one, but maybe that will be a good thing.
I discovered that I have had to unfollow some people on Facebook (some of them family!) because of their offensive posts.
Have a great week, Erin.
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Lol!!
And I think you are right, we will be looking at a new normal for a while. Hopefully one day we will move about our lives with ease again, but I suspect it will be a while. 😦
Me too!!! I have to actually just avoid Facebook altogether – some people!
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It’s a quandary, I think. I choose not to accept books from NetGalley as I just can’t seem to keep up with ebooks. Physical books remain on my shelf until I read them, and I can easily see what I need to read. I don’t feel obligated to read anything that people just send me, and I have severely limited my requests. I know I am missing out on some good new books, but that’s all I can do. I enjoy seeing what you and others think of the new, and then I can request these from my library or buy them myself.
Your meal looks great. I’m glad you are able to get your own wine.
I bet The Lost and Found Bookshop will be a good one.
Have a good week and take care.
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Thanks, Deb, I have stopped requesting NetGalley books, and now only accept those offered from authors I already know and love. Plus I try nowadays to pay attention to the calendar and avoid stacking too many in a given month. It is getting easier to do!
I am looking forward to The Lost and Found Bookshop…and my other books. Enjoy yours, and stay safe.
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I love tuna salad. I should make some for dinner this week. Good idea. And it is funny you had to add your own wine because the other stuff is too sweet. I think that is always a problem in groups. Have a good week. https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2020/07/weather-friday-it-was-cool-and-overcast.html
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I know, it is funny! The sweet wine is a problem for me, and one week, they actually had a decent wine and so I went on and on praising them for it, and they had it for about a week before returning to the sweet stuff. I’m thinking their usual wine must be cheaper!
We can’t get the tuna salad very often when they are serving us in our apartments, so I am sad about that. I guess I could order the ingredients from my grocery app and make my own.
Enjoy your tuna salad, Anne.
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I totally agree with you! The COVID should pass as fast as that!
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Wouldn’t that be great, Sophie! Enjoy your week and your books.
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Netgalley should come with a warning! It’s worse than chocolate!
Have a good week.
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So true, Heather. I used to request and accept so many books, but I have cut down drastically, which does make for a saner reading experience. Enjoy yours!
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The Lost and Found Bookshop is one I plan to read. Happy reading with that one.
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Thanks, vvb32, I do hope to enjoy it.
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I haven’t read any of your this week or coming up yet in July but it looks like you enjoyed this week’s reads! I definitely get things I want on Netgalley and then I need to read them all. So stop over to my blog as I made cheesecake brownies this last week. lol
Anne – Books of My Heart Here is my Sunday Post
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I must definitely check out those cheesecake brownies! Thanks, Anne, and enjoy your week.
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Don’t get too stressed about the ARCs! You’ll do fine. I’m sure your own wine is much better LOL. I don’t like the (too) sweet wines either. I’ll have to check out In the Dark … haven’t seen it yet. I’m in California at the moment … hope they can get the CV cases back under control. Trying to stay safe. Enjoy your week.
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Thanks, Susan, I had been hanging in there with the lockdown, enjoying going on alternate days to the dining room, but then they imposed total lockdown again. So I’m frustrated. But enjoying my books and viewing.
I loved In the Dark, and finished the two seasons available.
I am totally angry about how #45 is trying to turn on a dime and pretend he has done all he can.
I also hate how he’s sending Federal officers into cities to stir up violence!
I will try to stay off the news for a while. Enjoy your week.
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I am definitely spending more time blogging during the Covid crises. I take walks, watch Netflix, cook, and blog. Thanks for the recommendation on “In The Dark” – I’m looking for a new series. have a good week.
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I love viewing on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon….and I’ve started exploring Peacock. Blogging is good, too. I need to take more walks, but we can only walk around the facility or in the courtyard at scheduled times!
I hope you enjoy In the Dark.
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Yeah, I suffer from the same stress-inducing malady of not being able to pass up on some books! But at the same time those same books help me get distracted from all that is happening out there. Enjoy your new books.
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Yes, our obsession with books and how they distract us can definitely save us now. Thanks for visiting, Laura, and enjoy your reading.
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I’m reading Playing. Nice this week, it looks like you loved it so that bodes well!
The weeks do seem to be vanishing alarmingly fast, I wish they didn’t.
Wishing you a great reading week, stay well.
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I hope you enjoy it, too, Shelleyrae; I’m always happy when a review book keeps me engaged!
Enjoy your week and your books.
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It’s always so much fun to get books from Netgalley, until they start adding up and it feels like a bit of pressure.
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Ah, yes, balancing that stack of ARCs takes planning, doesn’t it? Lately I’ve been trying to arrange things on the schedule and pass over books that would make a month too crowded.
Thanks for stopping by, Marg, and enjoy a stress-free reading month.
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These last two years I’ve been promising myself that I will cut back on arc reading. I’ve made some movement on it (one of which has been to unsubscribe from emails so that it’s easier to avoid temptation) but my eye still gets caught by them far too often. Or I totally clear the boards but the authors who I arc read for all release books over the same few weeks.
I WILL beat my arc addiction one day…
Enjoy your reading this week, those books look really good.
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Good luck with that, Louise; sometimes we have to turn a blind eye to books we might love. Enjoy your week, and thanks for visiting.
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I like the look of the Susan Wiggs book. I am so far behind with my reviews I just posted one that was due in March. I will be glad when 2020 is over and hopefully we can all put it behind us and start afresh.
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Ah, yes, wishing 2020 over does sound good…as long as it ends well, with the virus curve flat and the election results satisfactory, lol.
Enjoy your week, Veronica.
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Totally agree….you can’t pass up a good book.
I overextend myself, but I somehow get all of them read and reviewed.
ENJOY all of your books and your week, Laurel.
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Thanks, Elizabeth, I like arranging the review books in a way that controls and balances them while keeping things interesting.
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Passing up books is so hard!! I usually fail. I just started Into The Dark and am loving it. Finished up The Handmaid’s Tale season three (it had me in tears at the end). Looking forward to the Susan Wiggs books.
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Oh, yes, so many sad moments in The Handmaid’s Tale… Also In the Dark.
I am also eager to read the Susan Wiggs book. Enjoy your week and your books, Nise.
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It is remarkable how quickly time is passing. Of course, with every day being the same, it is pretty understandable. I hope you enjoy this week’s books. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
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So true, Kathy; some times I have to stop and think “what day is it?”
Enjoy your books and your week.
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Looks like fabulous books this week. I would download both of the ones you did.
I’m with you on the pandemic–get out of her quickly. I’m tired of this stuff.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
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So glad you could visit, Cheryl; stay safe and enjoy your books!
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It would be great if things would calm down – virus and violence. Reading and blogging sure does help redirect our attention.
It is easy to load up on NetGalley once you start looking!
I hope you enjoy The Request. That is one I am interested in.
Happy Reading!
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I just finished The Request yesterday, and loved it! The pace was just right and the issues and themes kept me glued to the pages. Thanks for visiting, Martha, and enjoy your books.
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Passing up a good book is so hard, I completely get it! Hopefully you’ll enjoy them all.
He Started It certainly is on my wishlist, I enjoyed the author’s previous book. Have a great week and happy reading!
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So hard, Kay, but sometimes necessary. We all need the distraction of good books, but not the stress of deadlines.
Enjoy your reading.
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It is hard to pass up books and I try to avoid going to NetGalley lol. Enjoy your week ahead and happy reading. The Susan Wiggs book looks especially good.
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I think so, too, Nai, and it is definitely hard to pass up books! Sometimes I add them to a list so I can buy and read them later, without pressure.
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