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Sunday, January 7, 2024

January 7th's Sunday/Monday Post

It's the first weekend of 2024!  That must mean it is time for my first Sunday/Monday Post of the year.  I'll be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
Mailbox Monday
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

I had a quiet New Year.  Church Sunday morning, and then a quiet day at home.  Yes, I stayed up until midnight.  Actually, I stayed up until about 1 AM.  There were some fireworks, but none of the pot banging and yelling that we often have.  I was awake in time to watch the Rose Parade live, too, which doesn't usually happen since it is so early here in California.  Can you tell I'm not a morning person?

The one complication last Sunday is my laptop shut down again when I plugged in my external hard drive to run a backup.  Fortunately, I had saved the files I needed in Gmail, but it was still a pain to use my old computer.  I bought a new laptop at Best Buy after church, but I haven't done anything with it yet.  I've really started to wonder if it is the hard drive or the laptop.  Any ideas how I could test that out before I commit to a new laptop?  (And any thoughts on Asus laptops?)

No, I haven't started undecorating from Christmas yet.  That was on my agenda for today, but it just isn't going to happen.  Honestly, I think I'm going to struggle to get the two reviews written I need to write and the others edited.  All I really want to do is curl up and veg.

Let's see, what else?  We got the month closed at work without too much in the way of surprises.  It's nice that it wasn't fiscal year end this month.  As much as I had having to deal with that around Thanksgiving and then into December, it's nice that the December close is fairly quiet.

My cough is getting much better.  It's still there sometimes, but not nearly as bad as it was even a week ago.

My life group at church met Saturday morning to clean the church.  After that, I stopped at a local nursery and picked up some pansies for my planters.  Hopefully the wire I have in them know will keep the squirrels from digging them up, although I did see one sniffing around the box a couple of hours ago.

Pun of the Week:


I went to the butcher’s the other day, and I bet him fifty bucks that he couldn’t reach the meat on the top shelf.  He said, “No, the steaks are too high.”

This Past Week on the Blog:


This Coming Week on the Blog:


Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post
Monday - Favorite Books Reading in 2023
Tuesday - Book Review: Mushroom Capped by Cathy Wiley
Wednesday - Movie Review: The Thrill of It All
Thursday - Book Review: Knot of This World by Mary Marks
Friday - Friday Post
Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:



I'm kicking off the new year by telling you about four books, one ARC and three cheap Kindle sales.  (And I'm still kicking myself for missing one.)

Let's start with the ARC.  That was curtesy of Steve Hockensmith.  He's got another anthology of Holmes on the Range stories, this one titled Black List, White Death.  It's got two novellas and a short story in it.  After this, I'll be caught up on the recent releases in the series.  I'll probably wait until March to read it.

I've been eyeing The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett for a while.  This is the first in the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series.  Yes, Queen Elizabeth II is the sleuth here.  I am intrigued by that.  Anyway, the Kindle version went on sale this week, so I snagged it.  As if my writing this (Saturday night), it is still on sale.

I've also been eyeing the Middle Grade National Parks Mystery series for a while now.  The first one, Mystery in Rocky Mountain National Park, went on sale last weekend, so I snagged it.

Finally, in one of my cozy mystery groups on Goodreads, someone had mentioned they recently read and enjoyed Dead Before Dinner by Kat Bellemore.  Since it is set in New Mexico, and there aren't a lot of series set there, I went to take a look and discovered it was free.  Can't pass that up.  (Still free as of my writing this if you want to take a look.)

(And the one that got away?  Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister.  It went on sale for one day, I couldn't remember what it was about and forgot to go back and look at it later.  Then someone was raving about it the next day, and I remembered how much I wanted to read it, but it was back to regular price by then.  Oh well.)

What I'm Currently Reading:

As I type this Saturday night, I am once again between books.  That seems to happen quite a bit, doesn't it?


I took a break from mystery for one book and read The Chalice of the Gods, the sixth Percy Jackson book from Rick Riordan.  I hadn't read any of these books since the last Heroes of Olympus book came out.  I was a bit worried I wouldn't remember all the characters, but I felt right at home very quickly.  And I'd forgotten just how funny the books could be.  I laughed the entire way through the book.  Look for my review next Sunday.

That means this Sunday, I'll be starting The Kill of It All by Diane Vallere.  This is the ninth book in the Madison Night mysteries about a mid-century modern decorator who is a huge Doris Day fan.  It's been six months since I read one of the books in this series, so I'm looking forward to catching up with the characters.

That's it for me.  Have a good week.

31 comments:

  1. I've heard Asus is a good brand. Happy New Year! We had fireworks too- I was like who is spending hours out in 30 degree weather shooting fireworks? :)

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  2. I've been meaning to try out The Windsor Knot, it looks like fun! Hope you enjoy the new books.

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  3. Happy New Year Mark! I hope that you get your computer troubles sorted. Have a great week.

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  4. Hope you get your computer issues figured out. Happy New Year and have a great week!

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  5. Good series set in Albuquerque, New Mexico: J. Michael Orenduff’s Pot Thief mysteries.
    Have a great year in blogging and in real life.
    best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  6. I haven't taken down my holiday decorations either. It's on the list for today, but I will be happy if I just get the ornaments down. I'll miss the lights the most when they're gone, so I don't mind if they stay up for a bit.

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  7. My suggestion would be to first try plugging the hard drive into your desk computer and if it works with that then the issue might be the laptop. But before drawing that conclusion, use the disk clean tools to clean up and defrag etc the external drive. Then run the same on your laptop before plugging the drive back into your laptop to see if it helps at all.

    Wishing you a great reading week

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  8. This may be my year of reading kid books. I have been plotting out my own kid book series where a grandfather leaves a treasure map for his g-kids, so I felt like I had to buy one of the National Park Mystery series. Fortunately, one was on sale.

    I'm glad your cough seems to be getting better. I hope you are able to resolve your problems with your computer.

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  9. Laptop issues are no fun. Mine now shuts down when it gets to about 50% charge. Not a good sign. It is 7 years old so I am probably due for a new one soon. I am a Mac person so have no words of wisdom about Asus to offer.

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  10. Mushroom Capped really has my attention. I can't believe I haven't read this series yet. At least this is just the second book, so I'm not too far behind. I hope the computer issues get worked out soon. Have a great week!

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  11. Oh no, I'm sorry about the one that got away. I really enjoyed Wrong Place Wrong Time, it was so well-written and such an interesting premise. I hope you find it again with a great price soon!

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  12. I hate having computer issues! Hope you get yours sorted. I'm not sure what to recommend, I have an Elitebook, but I hate the color display. I loved my old Dell.

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  13. I am rarely between books, LOL! I seem to dive right into the next one, but I don't think it's necessarily a great thing. Sorry about your computer issues. I hope you are completely over your cough soon. have a great week.

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  14. That pun is just filled with puns! Lol! I hope you get your computer issues resolved. I've never had a laptop. I have a desktop that is about eight years old. It's a little slower than normal, but overall not bad. I wonder how much longer it will last. Glad you're feeling much better. Good luck with your pansies and keeping the squirrels away. I read The Windsor Knot a couple years ago. I'll be interested in reading your thoughts on that one when you get to it. I've been seeing Dead Before Dinner free on Kindle for a while now. I've always passed on it, but since you said you know of others who have enjoyed it, I decided it was time to grab it. So I did today. I hope you continue to feel better and you have a great week. :)

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  15. I had a cold on New Year eve so I didn't stay up till midnight. There were neighbors shooting off fireworks. Event hose it is illegible to shoot them off in the city I live in.
    Have a great week.

    Sunday Post

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  16. No fireworks but we definitely stayed up until midnight. Eleanor loves New Year's because it is the one night she gets to stay awake until nearly one AM.

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  17. I had a quiet NYE as well. It was nice. I'm also not a morning person. I hope you have a great week!

    https://jennielyse.com/sunday-news-50/

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  18. My family and I went to see the Rose Parade in person one year--getting up that early to find parking and get good seats is not something I need to do again. Haha. It was fun though. And very cold that year. I wish I knew more about computers to help. I hope you are able to resolve the issue without too much expense. Your new books all sound good! I will have to check out Dead Before Dinner. Oh, I see the second book is free too! Thank you for pointing the series out. I might have to try the Percy Jackson series. My daughter has the first book, but I don't think she's read it. We've been watching the series on Disney and enjoying it. I hope you have a great week, Mark!

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  19. Glad everything got closed out without many issues. Good excuse to veg, if you ask me. Christmas trees are still up at our house Doubt they will come down for a couple weeks.

    Your books sound great. Hope you enjoy them.

    https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2024/01/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-and_7.html

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  20. I hope you sort out your laptop issues! I always freak a little when I have those kinds of problems. Here's hoping! Enjoy your week.

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  21. I barely managed to stay awake until midnight New Year's Eve which is odd because I'm usually up well past that. I hope you find a fix for your computer issues. My current laptop is an HP which is working well for me. I like the Bennett series. I had The Windsor Knot for review from Edelweiss and have continued on with the series. Queen Elizabeth, along with her new Assistant Private Secretary Rozie Oshodi, solve the mystery of the death on a young Russian pianist who was a guest at Windsor Castle. Rozie does the leg work on Her Majesty's command as Her Majesty works behind the scene to solve the crime and subtly guide the various police forces that are investigating. Loved the look inside Windsor Castle and portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.

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  22. Please ignore my previous comment. I copy and paste my invitation to see my blog but I had copied something else and didn't go back to the correct link. Here's the correct paste. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  23. Glad you are feeling better and the cough is improving. Computers can be such jerks at times. I love the cover of Death Before Dinner. Hope you have a great week!

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  24. I seem to kill a laptop every few years, so I'm no help. I've never been able to fix one. I also haven't undecorated from Christmas. I love looking at all my Christmas cards. I hope you're having a great week.

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  25. I stayed up to Midnight too. I didn't care for the TV parties though. I've been dealing with trying to replace my laptop hard drive with a new one my son got me. The computer won't boot to the new drive. Eventually I will have my IT people look at it.
    I love that pun.
    Nice book haul. Happy Reading!

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  26. Squirrels are so annoying. Have a good week!

    Jill
    http://www.allthebooksihaventread.com/

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  27. THE WINDSOR KNOT should be good.

    Hope you are having a good week.

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  28. We finally undecorated this week. My husband has decided to leave everything up until after 12th Night, which is Jan. 5 or 6th according to which ever calendar is used. We listened to Bill Bryson's The Secret history of Christmas and learned so many little details about our favorite holiday.

    Happy New Year.

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  29. My husband has an Asus laptop and likes it. The only issue is that the the point where you plug the charger cord in has gotten really particular so you have to be very careful when using it plugged in. That said it's years old and that's the only real issue. Looks like some good books! Hope you're having a great week!

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  30. Ugh...computer problems. Hope they're resolved by now.

    How cute! I didn't know squirrels like pansies!

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    Replies
    1. It's not the flowers. They like digging up my flower boxes, which uproots my plants.

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