Delightful Book Mail!

I haven’t been so delighted with a mail delivery since Amazon sent me an order in a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel-themed box!

In early June, Edward Underhill, a trans author whose books I love, announced in his newsletter that he would be signing pre-orders of his newest book, The House of Now and Then, through Scribbles Bookshop, a signed copies only romance book store. I was bummed because I’d already pre-ordered it during a Barnes & Noble 25% off pre-order sale (raise your hand if you, too, keep a pre-order list in your phone…). But he went on to say that he’d also be signing all of his backlist. YAY!!! I own all of his previous books in paper, except his first book, Always the Almost, a queer YA story, which I’d gotten as an ebook, so I went from bummed to stoked in two seconds flat!

Yes, I really do get this excited over books 😊

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What Mare Read in 2025

This year I read 79 books/novella’s, down quite a bit from last year. I spent a lot of time during the late summer and fall editing the book I’m writing, so that obliterated a chunk of my reading time… When I decided to do another revision on the book, all those hours spent on editing seemed like a waste, but I learned a lot about my own writing foibles, so not a total squandering of my time. The revising continues…

I keep lists of books I want to read everywhere ~ one on my phone Reminders list, one on the phone Notes, plus an Excel spreadsheet ~ LOL! The Reminders list is titled B&N and comes in handy when Barnes & Noble runs their 25% off pre-order sales, which are almost as exciting to me as the Scholastic book sales at school many moons ago. I love the anticipation of getting a new book in the mail weeks or months later ~ it’s always good to have something to look forward to! 😊 The 25% preorder sale is on now until 1/1/26, for B&N Rewards members.

I ran through the two Barnes & Noble book journals (See the 2024 post) I used to record and review the books I read, so I bought a pretty notebook (below, right). The journal only allowed one page per book, with specific information to fill out and a star rating system ~ not much room to write my thoughts. Since the notebook I’m using now is just simple, lined pages, I can write as much as I want about each book without squishing my writing and sometimes adding sticky notes. Loving the freedom! YAY!

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