Right now I’ve made it through the first five books of the series and I’m currently reading Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. Next up is The Deathly Hallows and I’ll have finished this entire series! The books track the movies pretty closely, but do have various differences, which is fun and unexpected. I love the series – I really love the movies. I’m not sure if the book series is something I’d read again, but you never know. I won’t lie; it’s kind of nice knowing what happens. Sometimes the anticipation of “what’s going to happen” in a book sets my anxious nerves on edge.

I got quite a few books for Christmas that are stacked up and waiting to be read. Most were off of my Amazon wish list. I don’t know a lot about them yet, but I’m excited to get into them.

I read Kathryn Croft’s Silent Lies last year and found it pretty interesting. It had been sitting my wish list for a while and I finally grabbed it. Totally loved it. I added her book The Warning afterward and got it as a gift. Once I find an author I really enjoy, I like to grab a couple of their works and see what I think. This book sounds like it may follow a similar style as to the first book of hers that I read, so I’m intrigued to see how it goes.

Another book on my Amazon Wish List that sat that for quite some time was Lucy Dawson’s The Memory. I think it’s been on my list for a couple of years. I don’t think I ‘ve read anything of hers before, so I’m looking forward to see what kind of style writer she is and if I enjoy the story. Anything that I can get dropped into is fun for me. I’ve looked up her other works and they seem like good reads as well. I’ll see how this first one goes and then decide. But I know me. I’ll probably love it. I have a habit of pain stakingly picking an author and then loving everything they’ve ever done (with a few exceptions).

I grabbed Broken Girls by Simone St. James off of Thriftbooks.com. It had been on my Amazon Wish List as well, but I could never decide if I wanted to pull the trigger and read it. I’ve never read anything by this author so I just wasn’t sure. I added it onto a TB order on a whim and it’s sitting waiting to be read. I get anxious reading authors for the first time, so I hope I enjoy it. Like I’ve mentioned before, I do tend to fall in love with whatever I read, but sometimes I get disappointed in the story. Or worse, I can’t finish the dang book at all. Thankfully, that has only happened once or twice.

Now, onto two nonfiction books. I gravitate to fiction, but I honestly love true crime books and true stories as well. If it’s got some adversity, I want to feel that pain with you. These two books, His Bright Light and Almost Perfect were on my wish list as well. I don’t remember how I stumbled across these book. I’ve always been drawn to true crime and true life stories – how did this awful thing happen and why? I just have to know! I’m a sucker for these types of shows on television as well. I’ve watched reruns of Unsolved Mysteries and Disappeared more times than I can count. These two books fall into these categories and I think I’m most excited to read them.

The last book on my list is a bit sentimental. It’s the last book in Shirly Murphy’s Joe Grey series, Cat Chase the Moon. The series is about Joe Grey – he’s a talking cat who helps solve crimes with other talking cats and their human counterparts. My friend Jeanne got me started with this series many years ago and I fell in love with it. This book is sentimental for a few reasons. Jeanne passed away in 2019 so we never got the chance to read this one together. It’s also the last in the series because Mrs. Murphy has been unable to continue writing. It’s rather heart breaking that there won’t be any more Joe Grey adventures. This is a series I’ll read again and again. It’s fun and adventurous and holds a special place in my heart.

My Goodreads goal is to read 30 books this year, so at some point I’ll post additional books, but this will get 2021 started. Good reading, everyone!