Happy Holidays

 

I hope everyone had a magical and safe Holiday Season! May there be nothing but books and cozy socks under your tree, and nothing but tasty foods. By some sort of grace, I managed to get the next couple of days off from work. So my plan is to curl up, maybe set a fire, and read! I hope everyone finds time to read whatever you're currently reading. And I hope everyone has a safe New Year!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Waiting on Wednesay

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure.

But goblins don't go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece.

Unfortunately, between them and safety lies a forest full of elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures…a human being.

Why I'm Waiting: Because I'm a huge fan of T. Kingfisher, and her books are an instant addition to my TBR.

HAPPY READING!!

2026 Reading Goals

 

It's that time again, where it's nearly time to put a close on the 2025 Reading Goals and decide what 2026 Goals will look like. After looking back at this year, I decided it was time to adjust a few of my goals. For the last couple of years, 70 books have been my yearly goal, and I've hit it every single time. So, this year I'm going to up the challenge to 75 books. It's not unattainable, but it will push me to not fall into a slump around the holidays. However, on the other hand, I've lowered my page count goal. Since 2020, I have not hit that goal. So I dropped it by a thousand pages, and we'll see what 2026 brings me. 

I also added a more specific goal to 2026: to remove 10 books from my physical TBR. Last year, I read a lot of Kindle books and borrowed many from my library. While neither is a bad thing, it did not help my growing physical TBR. So, for 2026, the goal (and hope) is to remove at least ten of those books from my shelf. This can be either books I finish or books I DNF, but I need to remove some books to new homes. To help with that, a friend and I are going to return all of our library books, set our Kindles aside, and only read books we already own for the entire month of January. We'll see if that helps, or if I'll need to do it again.

Two of my goals I left the same. Always trying to hit at least 3 BINGOs and I want to go to at least 12 SBC events. It would be great if I could hit all 12 of the ones I help co-host, but this year I had a scheduling conflict. If that happens next year, well I'll just have to carve out time to go to another SBC event with another chapter!

Anyone else setting any reading goals for 2026?

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

Hazel Russon’s life in 1879 Utah territory is defined by three the Mormon church, polygamy, and the men who control both. She knows she’s supposed to suppress her sinful dreams of a monogamous life with her sweetheart, and her desire for the freedom to play her beloved piano. Every Mormon woman’s duty is to live obediently and meekly, devoted to her husband and her calling as a sister wife. Her eternal salvation depends upon it.

Commanded to become the fourth wife of a man she’s never met, Hazel is relieved that Jacob Manwaring is attentive and handsome. However, she is shocked to discover that instead of living separately as is custom, all of Jacob’s wives and children live in the same house—a large, dilapidated manor that inexplicably fills Hazel with dread. 

Despite Jacob’s tenderness, Hazel senses dark secrets and resentments among her sister wives. She hears strange music, sees blood oozing from the very walls, and glimpses apparitions that grow more terrifying every day. And as her nightmares worsen, Hazel can’t be sure if she has more to fear from the living—including her mysterious husband—or from a sinister presence that seems to animate the house itself . . .

Drawing on little-known Mormon folklore and the author’s own polygamous ancestors, this fascinating, suspense-filled historical novel debut is by turns darkly romantic, spine-tingling, and wholly unforgettable.

HAPPY READING!!

Night Worms Unboxing

December Theme: Black Magic

What's better than book mail? When that mail is from Night Worms! I've actually been really excited about this month's package because of the book "The Black Magic Murders." The friend I share this box with is familiar with this case, but I know absolutely nothing. So I'm really excited to curl up with this one (which I know is an odd thing to say considering it's a book on murder). I feel like it'll be perfect for January/February when it's too dark and cold to go out and do things. This book got a double bonus because it came with an evidence tag bookmark. We had a chuckle about that.

As for the other book, Dark Sisters, I've been on the fence about this since I first saw it on NetGalley. The cover is absolutely stunning, but based on the synopsis, I'm not sure if it's for me. But! I'm going to trust the two ladies who own Night Worms. If they say it's worth cracking open, I'm going to give it a shot!

I'm actually really excited for the coffee that came with this month's package. This company always puts out fun and pretty good coffee flavors. We're going to brew it over Christmas. Seems like the best and festive way to drink it. I also really like that it's only one serving. So I'm not left with this weird little bit of coffee, and I have to blend with something else, or toss. It's nice and usually doesn't let me down.

The stickers are also adorable! I'm bummed that at the moment I don't have anywhere to put them. I thought I had a spot for the smaller sticker, but I was lying to myself. So I'm back to hoarding my stickers until the perfect spot shows up. Until then, into the sticker drawer they went. Maybe I need to make magnets out of them again...

If anyone has read Dark Sisters, let me know what you thought. I'm setting a January challenge with a friend. Maybe this makes the list!

HAPPY READING!!

Edmonds Silent Book Club

A huge thank you to everyone who came out tonight and read with us. I know this is a hard time of the year to find the time to go and do one more thing. So I cannot begin to describe how thankful I was for the turnout last night. And so many new faces as well! I hope all of you can come read to us within January! 

If you couldn't make it to this month's SBC, don't worry. We'll be meeting again on January 21st, still at Leftcraft, and still kicking off reading at 7:30 pm. I will have the 2026 BINGO cards with me for those who want to participate! If you prefer a virtual card, you can screenshot the bigger card from my Instagram (@bookish_whispers) page. It's on my profile page in the highlights tab. 

Or, you can go click here for a smaller board. Just save that image. That is also the page I'll be updating throughout 2026. So if you want to see how I'm progressing, you can also save that page!

We'll also have the book swap basket back again. So if you have any books from 2025 you want to get out of tour space, we have the basket for you! 

I hope everyone has a magical and safe Holiday Season, and we'll see in the New Year!

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we haven't yet read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released, but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous folks at Breaking the Spine.

Meet Alma Timperley. She
- Run a hotel
- Solve a mystery
- Talk to ghosts...?

December, 1914: After the death of her aunt, Alma Timperley is surprised when she suddenly finds herself the heiress to the Timperley Spiritualist Hotel in a pretty coastal town in Cornwall.

But not everything is as it seems... the hotel offers guests a very special the chance to communicate with the dead.

When the body of one of the hotel's maids is found, it is considered a tragic wartime accident. But the more Alma and the local police try to fathom what happened, the more they begin to realise this is much more than just a death - there might be a German spy in Falmouth.

With the stakes higher than ever, Alma must grapple with her own extraordinary secret if she is going to have more than a ghost of a chance of solving the mystery.

Being able to talk with the dead is one thing; solving their murder is positively ghoulish...

Why I'm Waiting: This sounds like a lot of fun!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

Of the hundreds of murder cases that noted South Carolina attorney Dick Harpootlian has prosecuted, one in particular haunts him. Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins was a serial killer and rapist, a master manipulator who claimed to have killed over 100 people and is known to have murdered over a dozen, including a toddler, and his own teenage niece. Yet it was on Death Row that he pulled off his most audacious murder—killing another inmate with a military grade explosive.

As personable as he was ruthless, Pee Wee defied easy categories. He killed to avenge minor slights as well as for pleasure, using any convenient method—including stabbing, shooting, poison, suffocation, and drowning. Evidence suggested he forced at least one victim to dig his own grave, stand in it, and be shot.

With escalating callousness, Pee Wee murdered acquaintances, friends, family members, and strangers. Yet within his North Charleston community he was well-liked—a family man who took neighborhood kids to the beach and hosted cookouts. Ice-cold within but outwardly charming, he joked with judges, reporters, and Harpootlian himself, but didn’t hesitate to hatch a plot to kidnap the prosecutor’s daughter in order to extort an escape.

Dig Me a Grave is a haunting look at a prolific, remorseless killer, as well as a provocative exploration of justice and the death penalty.

HAPPY READING!!

2026 Book BINGO

Would you look at that! Just in time for Silent Book Club! We're meeting this Wednesday at 7pm at Leftcraft if you want to come read with us! But I digress; the point is that the 2026 Book (Reading) BINGO is finally available. This challenge runs from January 1st to December 31st. Anytime type of reading counts: audio, Kindle, library, etc. As long as the book fits into the category of each square. The only rule is one book per square. So choose wisely! Just remember this is a way to not only help us work our way through our to-read piles (list), or to expand our reading as a whole. If you have any questions, my comments and DMs (@bookish_whispers) are always open.

I have a little more hope for the board this year. Once again, we do get help from our Silent Book Club chapter and from Instagram, but this board doesn't seem as hard as last year's did. Maybe that's just false security because the only square I'm not a hundred percent sure about is the New York Times square. Everything else, I have some sort of idea on what book I'm going to read, might read, could read maybe. Basically, I have more plans going into this year's BINGO board. Fewer question marks, more large piles of books that I should have read days, months, even years ago. 

However, I am taking recs for a book with a solid plot twist! So leave me a comment with books I should look into!

HAPPY READING!!

Cover Runway Sunday

      

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes, the cover initially catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite book covers. Coming soon!

The soil on Crow Island holds secrets, and they’re ready to be unearthed.

J.H. Markert returns with a surreal horror novel perfect for fans of Graveyard Shift and What Moves the Dead.

Eight years ago, a boy took up an axe and slaughtered a dozen people. That odd, troubled boy, Jericho Dodd, has been dead and buried in his father’s yard for years, but ever since that massacre, Crow Island has been a dark and unsettling place.

When Jericho’s father begins digging up the past he buried, a compulsion to dig sweeps over the island and soon everyone else is obsessively churning up dirt, desperate to uncover buried secrets. The compulsion leads to violence and as neighbors turn against each other, the island’s famous tupelo honey, harvested from trees deep in a swamp, changes too.

As dread and paranoia seep up from the ground, it becomes clear that the island itself needs something from its residents–before it digs itself apart for good.

Be careful what you unearth from the dirt before this surreal horror novel can worm its way into you, too.

    HAPPY READING!!

The Peepshow - Review

Author: Kate Summerscale

Genre: True Crime

Format: Audiobook

Hours: 9 hours 43 minutes

This review has been so hard to write because this book is a lot. Mostly because this case is a lot, the events around this case are a lot. Just everything about this stressed me out, ticked me off, and every time I thought I'd heard the last of the worst of it. There was something else. It's a book that just keeps escalating minute after minute (or page, depending on how you're reading). But I was left feeling unsatisfied despite the guilty verdict at the end of the case. 

I just got left with a bad taste in my mouth. Which wasn't what I was expecting with this book. I originally picked it because I hadn't heard of this case. I wasn't expecting just downhill; this case was going to drag me, and how angry it was going to make me. Or the fact that at one point, I'd just be staring at my phone to make sure I heard what I was pretty sure I just heard.

Let me say this: none of this is Kate Summerscale's fault. She did an amazing job researching this case from the do-er, to the victims, to the people who made this case a sensation at the time. It's a thorough look at not just the case, by the climate of the world around the case. Summerscale does an amazing job of painting a picture and telling this story. I also loved how this book was as much about the victims as it was the man who killed them. I kept listening to this book because of her writing.

It's just the case itself that's absolutely nuts. And maybe at the time, no one realized what they were doing, what the press was doing, the harm the Home Office was doing by denying things. Maybe it's easier to see now with all the facts on the table. But I just have a hard time believing that. Someone had to realize there was a fumble on this case. That they'd maybe wrongfully hanged a man for a crime he didn't commit. A child was killed and would never get justice.

Maybe I'm just angry about it still, weeks later, and that's what makes this case so hard to stomach. All that being said, fans of the true crime genre, check this book out. It's something. It got me all riled up and yelling at myself because, just woof.

HAPPY READING!!