Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome [Book Review]
Summary “Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889, became an instant success and has never been out of print. In […]
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Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson [Book Review]
Summary
“Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls – a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place – Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the “Saturday Night Ghost Club.” But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.”
-From Amazon.com
Review
I absolutely picked up this book from impulse while wandering around my library. Initially I thought it was going to be a completely different kind of book, based on the title. The title indicated it would be more ghosty and so I thought it was going to be a spooky-ish read, but while it had some vibes of that, that was really not the message of the book. But wow, was it good.
The story essentially followed these children and their Uncle through ghost stories and visiting all these strange ‘haunted’ locations in the town. It was about halfway through, closer to three quarters, that I started to realize there was more here than I realized. Some things that the Uncle was saying, and how the author described his reactions, indicated there was something more. I’m not going to spoil it at all, but I was not ready for the ultimate message.
The ultimate message was that some ghosts are kind of good and fears as a child are absolutely not the same as fears as an adult. The ending absolutely had me in tears. Big time.
Because it is one of those books that you have to read it to get it, I can’t really spoil much about the story itself. However, the writing was simple. It was just over 200 pages and I sat down and read it in about 2.5 hours one afternoon sitting outside. It was a wonderful little atmospheric read, giving Stranger Things vibes to the town, the main characters and the time period. While the writing style, and character development, wasn’t massive or anything to write home about, the story is what had the book be really entertaining. It was kind of a curveball at the end I didn’t entirely see coming and it was incredibly emotional, at least to me.
This would be a great beach read or a palette cleanser book – something short, easy to digest and get through in a timely manner.
I would give this a solid 5/5 for the message and maybe a 4/5 for the writing style and such. But I do recommend it!
Happy Reading!
Find The Mug of Your Dreams: Gifts for Book Readers
Book readers inherently love a warm drink to go along with it. Whether that be coffee, tea or hot chocolate, you need a great mug to enjoy your drink in. Nothing is more enjoyable than a warm beverage in a beautiful mug.
Recently I’ve been looking around for some new mugs as a lot of mine are older, and stumbled upon some gorgeous ones from Etsy that I wanted to share. But honestly, if you want a gorgeous and unique mug and don’t want to go to a large brand store, Etsy is SO your go to!
And yes, I acknowledge that Etsy is going to be more expensive, but you are supporting a small business and getting something gloriously unique!
PINK/ORANGE Beach Inspired Coffee Mug
Made to Order Iridescent Cotton Candy Mug
Stemless Wine Glass in Green Glaze
Hand painted Colorful Ceramic Coffee Mug
Yellow Handmade Ceramic Mug, Colorful Tea or Coffee Cup
16-20oz. Purple mug cup with handle
Made to Order Handpainted Strawberry Mug
24 oz Large Ceramic Mug Handmade Crystalline Glazed Large Coffee Cup
Book Collecting: The Long Term Implications
I love having books and love having them on display. I feel surrounded by the characters and the covers mean a lot to me. But something most of us don’t think about is the longer term implications of collecting books.
I see posts on Instagram all the time of people with absolutely enormous libraries with thousands and thousands of books – many which are hard cover. And sure, they are gorgeous for the ‘gram and are gorgeous to look at, but what about long term?
I’m coming from a place with this post as someone who is cleaning up and tidying after the passing of a family member who was a massive book lover. So these are things I’ve realized recently that make me pause before I buy a ton of books. It’s not something we want to think about, but it’s a reality that we have to consider. And it isn’t even about death, but about the reality of a ton of books!
Books depreciate in value most of the time.
Like a car, the moment you purchase a book it is going to depreciate in value. Very rarely will a book be re-sold for the same price or more than you purchased it for. And those hard cover special editions of books that you know are not going to be popular in 20 years…yeah they won’t be worth much. Books are not an investment strategy and while not everything is about investments and a return, it’s something to be aware. When many have access to free books through a library, purchasing books is a massive expense. I’m a big fan of second hand as at least then you can own the book but you didn’t have to pay the crazy new price. It’s just pre-loved!
And god forbid there is a natural disaster which is becoming more common – fires, floods, hurricanes – once those books are gone so is all your spending. And while buying books is certainly not about a financial investment at all, in a time where many people are struggling to make ends meet and live life, yet choose to spend hundreds and hundreds on books, that may not be the best option when there are libraries out there (going to do another post on this soon).
Example of some of the books that we have, but not all!
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They take up a ton of space and are difficult to move!
For those of you with lots of books, you know how much space they take up. But if you have to downsize or move, they take up a ton of room. They can massively up your moving costs if that ever happens just naturally in your life or because of a situation. One box of books is a lot more difficult to move than you realize and with books being weird sizes, they are very challenging to pack and move. We all like to think we won’t ever move but the reality is, most people will have to move in their life. And the extra space for the books means a larger house needed, storage units and increased moving costs.
Getting rid of books is hard!
It is incredibly surprising how difficult it is to get rid of books! People always say just donate them, but it’s increasingly difficult to do so. Donation locations don’t want books or are limiting how many you can bring due to space and they can’t sell them. Libraries only take so many books and only in certain qualities so that they can resell them.
I even tried to sell my books for a $1 a book and that barely shifted the books at all. And then when I did it as free pickup it was still limited and a constant struggle! Others only have so much space so they can only take so much.
Then you have to throw what is left away. Which means throwing away money that was spent. Not to mention having to get them somewhere to throw them away, paying for a dumpster/skip to get rid of them, and physically moving books to
Now if you’re like me, someone who also is collecting a small amount of books, adding all of these books to my collection is impossible. Not to mention I don’t have the storage space to take a lot of them, or the energy to. consistently dust that many books.
You cannot feel guilty having to get rid of this many books. It more hurts me throwing away the money for books that were maybe read once. We have a book that was bought for $250. We’d be lucky to get $50 for it now and that’s on the off chance. Most likely I could sell it for free or have to just get rid of it. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars of books here and besides the ones I am keeping that I can read and will enjoy and have sentimental value, they are worthless unfortunately, and that is just the reality.
I see all these people on Instagram with massive rooms filled with books, and sure, buy those books. We don’t have to think about time after we move on and someone else has to deal with it. But it is something to keep in the back of your mind as it’s not just about when you pass on, but also applies to moving, downsizing and just general maintenance in life. So buy those books that you really want, but be smart about it.
The Future of Books with Project 2025
While I try to avoid getting political on this website, some things you just cannot stay silent about. I’m sure you’ve been seeing a lot about Project 2025 going around right now.
If you don’t know anything about it, I’d do some reading up on it. And if you’re brave enough, you can go to the website where the actual like 900 page book is hosted to actually read it. And I would recommend you sometimes do when people mention parts of it. There is a lot of misinformation out there and misinterpreting of the words, sometimes to make parts seem way worse than it is and then to make other bits seem better.
But the part that I want to focus on today is the bit wanting to ban pornography. Now I’m not going to be focusing on actual pornography – such as the videos with live actors and adults and the dangerous world that can lead into with illegal actions.
I’m talking more about smut writing today and the larger impact that this will have on the reading community.
Pornography by definition is “printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.” And smut books have just that.
So what did Project 2025 say?
“Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
There’s a few bits in here that should really worry you. Let me just call it out for you.
“The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
Just read that a few times and digest it.
Now while we don’t know what this is going to look like in action, the broad wording allows for very broad interpretations. And until you are told otherwise (and even then), you assume that very broad interpretation. That’s usually how it works out. So do you know what this could mean? This could mean:
- Authors could be imprisoned because they wrote it (who knows if it is going forward or retroactively)
- Publishing houses could get fined or employees and leaders in those places could go to jail
- Teachers who have books with adult themes or sex ex books could be registered as a sex offender
- Librarians who have smut books in their library could be registered a sex offender
- Book store owners and staff could be jailed
- Sites that hose their information could be banned – if you have book excerpts
- Fanfiction sites would be removed
The list just goes on and on.
And you may be saying to yourself, this would never happen. This is too extreme and would never happen like that. Sure, it probably won’t happen over night but it most certainly can happen. It is just a matter of time. We saw how fast other rulings went into effect and how fast it caused damage.
They said the same thing about what Hitler did and tried to do. If we fail to learn from history it will repeat itself.
Now I’m not telling you who to vote for at all because living in the United States of America we have something that so many other countries don’t – the freedom to choose and vote for who we want. But certain people in this election may try to change that.
And for those of you interested in not voting because you don’t like the other guy, just remember, every person that does not vote is technically skewing the numbers which gives the other guy a chance.
We are voting between freedom and not freedom. And only one of those options will allow you to speak out if you don’t like what the leadership is doing. The other option will restrict your freedom, remove your free speech and begin to crack down.
This is exactly the kind of things that George Orwell was writing about in 1984 and in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.. We are seeing the beginnings of it and if you can’t see it then you need to take a good hard look around. This should absolutely terrify you.
They’ve already begun to come for our books by banning them. This is just the next step.
Build a Tiny Oasis of Literature: The Joy of Little Free Libraries
Curb appeal gets a whole new meaning with a charming little library nestled on your property. I have always wanted to have one and I hope, when I have my own house, I can one day. These miniature havens of books, known as Little Free Libraries, are more than just adorable decorations; they’re vibrant hubs of community connection and a celebration of the joy of reading.
Anyone can be a steward of literature! Whether you’re a bookworm with overflowing shelves or simply someone who appreciates the magic of a good story, here’s why building a Little Free Library on your property might be the perfect project for you.
Sharing the Love of Reading:
Little Free Libraries operate on a simple yet powerful principle: take a book, leave a book. This fosters a culture of exchange, encouraging exploration and discovery for all ages. Imagine a child on their way home from school, peeking into your library and finding a new adventure to embark on. Or a neighbor rediscovering the joy of a forgotten genre. Your little library becomes a touchpoint for the community, fostering a love of reading and a sense of shared experience.
Building Your Tiny Library:
The beauty of Little Free Libraries lies in their creativity. There are no set rules – unleash your inner architect! Repurpose an old birdhouse, transform a retired mailbox, or build a miniature replica of your favorite literary landmark. The Little Free Library organization itself offers a treasure trove of resources, including building plans, kits, and inspiration for unique designs, which you can check out here.
Beyond the Build:
Once your library is up and running, the real magic begins! Here are some tips to keep your little library thriving:
- Curate a Collection: While there are no hard and fast rules, consider offering a diverse selection that caters to different ages and interests. Include children’s books, classics, mysteries, and even the occasional magazine.
- Welcome All Readers: Post a welcoming sign explaining the concept of take-a-book, leave-a-book. Encourage donations of gently used books in good condition.
- Embrace the Seasons: Decorate your library for different holidays or seasons. Scatter some fall leaves around its base in autumn, or hang twinkling fairy lights during the winter.
- Spread the Word: Register your library with the Little Free Library organization [1] to be included on their map, letting the world know about your literary haven. Promote it on neighborhood social media groups or local newsletters.
More Than Just Books:
Little Free Libraries can be more than just book repositories. Think outside the box (pun intended)! Here are some additional ways to spark community engagement:
- Seed Exchange: Add a small compartment for seed packets, encouraging neighbors to share their gardening bounty.
- Free Art Supplies: Leave a basket of crayons and coloring paper, inviting budding artists to express themselves.
- Community Message Board: Attach a small corkboard where neighbors can leave messages, swap recipes, or organize activities.
A Lasting Impact:
Building a Little Free Library is a project with heart. It’s more than just adding a charming touch to your property; it’s about fostering a love of reading, promoting community connection, and leaving a lasting impact on your neighborhood. So, grab your hammer, unleash your creativity, and get ready to share the joy of stories with the world, one little book at a time.
You can actually purchase pre-made ones online to make life easier, like these ones:
This one you can assemble and I believe comes from the actual organization that runs it.
And while this one isn’t necessarily as pretty as others, it will weather very well!
Happy Reading!
