Finishing the J.A. Johnstone western series "Have Brides, Will Travel" book 3 Till Death tonight. J.A. is the niece of her late uncle William who's name she writes under. This series is a bit better than the usual Johnstone fare, which is typically pretty formulaic as far as westerns go, but they are entertaining if I want a light read.

I moved some books at my mom's garage sale in the last couple of days, in other news. She posted some sets on Facebook Marketplace and got hits on the Stephen King set from all over the US, people wanting me to ship them ($4 for 5 books was the asking price! Not shipping them! Or delivering them as one person asked!) Some of the inquiries were from North Carolina or Florida, that listing must have been "featured". No, you have to come to my house in Michigan! Someone made a special trip for a box of John Grisham hardcovers from 30 miles away. I sold the Stephen King books to a neighbor today. I have had no hits on my set of Anne McCaffrey "Dragonriders of Pern" hardcover set though, I have the first 17 novels in the series and I am only asking $20. Those are classic sci-fi. On eBay they are selling "lots" of 7 or 8 well worn/used novels for $35 + shipping, I thought I might get *some* kind of interest at my low price. I'll keep them rather than give them away for nothing.

And tonight I found a deal on Humble Bumble for all 19 Ender's Game novels by Orson Scott Card in e-book format for only $18. I have a few of those in print, the first two series and a few of the others... I can get rid of the print books now, no need to move them to a new home ever again. Spent my earnings from garage sales book sales on e-books, that is the way I roll. I am making some money on other junk too, cleaning out my closet, my biggest sale was $50 for a catfish reel.

I started one immersion read, Victoria Schwab's The Near Witch, and while I have been preoccupied with the sale I am listening to J.A. Johnstone's Winchester: 1886, a western.

Finished the Firm by John Grisham 4.5* even though it is now dated. Looking forward to see where the main characters go in the sequel.

Now reading It Starts with Us - Colleen Hoover.

I have been active so listening to Winchester:1887, the sequel to the other book I read, and I haven't made any progress on my immersion read. I made my first batch of salsa verde today, but it has jalapenos and those bother my stomach so I have to wait to eat some until after my morning doctor appointment tomorrow lest I get sick...

Finished it Starts with Us - Collen Hoover 4 stars - the first book was better.

Next up - This is Not My Beautiful Life - Victoria Fedden

I have to agree @Catfish_Fan - I've read The Prince of Tide twice. Both times because I had watched the movie. You get more of the back story about the twin sister in the book. But not a "literary gem".

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree is pretty good so far, and short.

Finished Louisa May Alcott with Jo's Boys tonight, which wasn't as strong as the others to me.

Now I am starting book one of The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell, Dauntless which has been on my TBR pile for a long time. Military Sci-Fi/Space Opera.

Really enjoyed The Amateur Emigrant so I'm following that up with Across the Plains. Also reading The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim.

Started reading The Exchange by John Grisham this evening. It's the follow up to The Firm which I just recently reread. Only 54 pages into it but so far so good. If I didn't need to get to work in the morning I' probably be up reading for another few hours.

I finished the Lost Fleet series and then read Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, which was only ok for me, I say "meh" I could have taken or left it. 3 stars was generous, it wasn't a poorly written book it just didn't interest me so I gave it the benefit of the doubt, maybe it is a really good book to someone else.

I'm reading Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo now, something I checked out from Kindle Unlimited back in 2022 when I saw it there (it is not there anymore) so it has been on the TBR list for quite a while... It is pretty good so far.

Reading a couple of Ellen Hopkins novels, they are short... and banned... so they are worth my time. I have read almost everything by Ellen Hopkins already but there were a few more recent ones I missed. What About Will was good, and I am now listening to People Kill People.

I switched gears from Flameborne by Rosaria Munda to Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk. I was not getting into the first book and will revisit it when I can concentrate better. The Wouk novel is 40.5 hours long and I have 24 to go, I have 3 days left to get it done by the end of the month. It isn't a race though and if I don't get it done by then I have not lost anything.

I finished Youngblood Hawke, which was not as good as I hoped it would be, then read Red River Seven by A. J. Ryan who is the pen name for fantasy author Anthony Ryan. The book was disappointing also. However, I got up to 10,000 pages read in August according to Goodreads, by far my highest count for a single month and a bar that will stand for a long time in my records as unbeatable.

Now I have 2 days left on my library loan of Flameborne so I got back on the list and I'm in waiting position 7 on 2 copies... Hmm... Do I start the book and hope to complete it on a holiday weekend, when I am busy with other things, or just put it on hold until it comes back in? At that point I would probably have to start over to figure out what is going on. I hate it when library loans are only 14 days instead of 21.

I didn't get to read today at all, so I am going to have to go in a different direction, not try to get that book done. I won't pay Amazon $10 for it either, that is why I use the libraries.

There are an infinity number of good books out there to find... I am starting to look at articles with recommendations for the better fantasy and sci-fi literature to pick out, with all the authors to choose from. I want to tackle some of the more impressive novels on my tbr mountain, but like Youngblood Hawke that was a bit intimidating at 800 pages. I don't want too many of those long books in a row, I'd burn out on reading.

The page count thing on Goodreads isn't very accurate as to the length of the books being read. I could read a middle grade chapbook with 450 pages in a day, or I could read a James Clavell novel in two weeks and only get credited for 1000 pages. I use audiobooks so I can look at my hours in a little spreadsheet I made, I wasn't too far off my average from previous months on time listening/reading. I happened to read those Ellen Hopkins YA novels and those are written in poem form, few words to a page, so they added an impressive number of pages to raise my monthly page count.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend, or a good weekend if it isn't a holiday for you.

Reading The Oppermans by Leon Feuchtwanger and I got How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Y is the last letter on my alphabetical list! I'm also dragging my way through Dickens' Hard Times.