The Readers Block

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore has everything I love- eccentric booksellers, a dusty old bookstore (one that is open 24 hours, no less!!!) secret societies, 500 year old books and mysteries, codes, Google, and the search for the secret of life and immortality! Had I not listened to the audiobook version narrated by Ari Fliakos, which I thought very good, I probably wouldn't have been able to put the book down and would have finished in a day anyway. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it! Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Today I decided it was about time I renewed my library card, as I'd let it expire more than a year ago. I was only using it to download Kindle books using Overdrive, and thanks to Netgalley and a few other sites I have downloaded more than enough books to keep me from missing the digital lending library here. That, and the hundreds of physical books I have here at home that are still waiting to be read! But on another post here a user mentioned audiobooks and Overdrive as a way of beating her slump (Thanks Christine L.!!!) so I figured I'd give it a try. I think I'm hooked! Not only did I finish an entire book in half a day, (something I haven't been able to do since having kids!!!) I did it while getting the entire house clean and all the laundry done!!! Hallelujah!!! Look out Goodreads Challenge, I'm coming for ya!!!

Another great collection! Thank you Netgalley! For me, the "scariest" story in the collection is definitely THE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF FREDDIE PROTHERO by Peter Straub. Anything that involves a child scares me to my core and makes me feel totally helpless. I Love You Charlie Pearson is freaky good. I didn't see that coming, thought it would go in a whole other direction. I like when I can be blindsided. I think these collections are just the thing I need when the block sets in. They lift me right out of my doldrums and spark my interest again. Kind of like cleansing the palate between courses, they are the sorbet of my reading diet. =) Dark Screams: Volume Three by Peter Straub My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

I requested this book from Netgalley as a way to continue reading outside of my normal genre, as that seems to be the unofficial challenge I set for myself this year, and the one I've been sticking to. Judging from the reviews, Karen White seems to be pretty well known. I had no idea what to expect beginning this book, and because my favorite genre is horror, it took awhile before I realized I could trust the characters. Feel for them. Even like them. Set in Beaufort, South Carolina the story begins in the 1950's with a plane crash, then moves back and forth through time to today and tells the story of Merritt Heyward, a recently widowed woman from Maine who inherits her husband's boyhood home, and the secrets that are concealed there. Shortly after Merritt moves in, she is "visited" by her stepmother, Loralee, and 10 year old half brother, Owen. Unbeknownst to Merritt, Loralee has secrets of her own and no plans to leave. The Sound of Glass has a touch of a