Let’s Talk About Bookworm Shame

Well, not much has changed in the last few years. I continue to read, continue to swear I’m going to post more here, even draft a few reviews. And then – I never hit publish.

Most of the time work is so all consuming (usually at least a 10 hour work day) so I could lay the blame there. With Monday through Friday spoken for, how am I expected to do anything on the weekends except the stuff that doesn’t happen during the week? The usual adult responsibilities – groceries, laundry, cleaning, family obligations.

Here’s the catch, though. Like all book lovers I know I’m not the only one who uses what little time they do have to actually read. But, it seems, reading is all I have made much time for, not leaving space to write reviews, write my own novels or do much else for joy.

So here I am, yet again, typing an apologetic post for this blog that Katie and I came up with years ago, that she’s the only one who seems to actually commit time to.

How am I going to fix it and what started the shame spiral?

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2025 DNFs

Every year brings tons of new reads, as well as some books that we never quite finish. Each book has a unique reason why it was set aside whether that’s the writing style, plot, or the fact that it was simply started at the wrong time or in the wrong place.

The list below is a mix of all of them, as it often is every year.

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Review — The Haunting of Rookward House by Darcy Coates

An eerie house with a single light on in the attic with a dark and stormy sky behind it The Haunting of Rookward House
By: Darcy Coates
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Rating:


Darcy Coates is no stranger to tales of haunted houses where the ghosts are the stars of the show. The Haunting of Rookward House by Darcy Coates is no exception. This is a tale of anger, of feeling trapped and alienated, and an obsession so powerful that even death can’t stop it.

Review — Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

Home is Where the Bodies Are
By: Jeneva Rose
Release Date: April 30, 2024
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Award: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery/Thriller (2024)
Rating:


Jeneva Rose’s 2024 novel Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose is a captivating tale of mystery and suspense that will hook readers of literary fiction and family drama from start to finish. The front cover of the hardcover edition perfectly draws readers in—it looks like a VHS tape. However, the contents are not nearly as bloody or horrific as the cover may suggest.