Looking and Listening

Walkin' and Readin' Wednesday!

As seen in my neighborhood:

Sweet void kitty, and I've forgotten her name.

Leopard slug, found on sidewalk, about 3 inches long.

Shy kitty.

Another shy kitty.

Zoomac is the opposite of shy!

🐾 😽 🐾

Recently listened to audiobooks that I recommend:

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

Narrated by Imogen Church

Published: June 23, 2020

Goodreads Blurb: "This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the audiobook you are expecting."

Wikipedia Blurb: "A fantasy novel...set in an alternate 19th century London, with supernatural creatures such as angels, and is based on the Sherlock Holmes stories."

My two cents: OH YEAH!  The Angel of Crows as Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Doyle as John Watson...except they aren't.  Great fun; loved this.  The Hound of the Baskervilles is forever changed in my mind now.

The Frozen People, Ali Dawson Series Book #1 by Elly Griffiths

Narrated by Julie Maisey

Published: July 8, 2025

Goodreads Blurb: "Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team can travel back in time to look for evidence."

My two cents: This author really makes characters come alive, like she's living inside their heads!  Book #1 ended on a cliffhanger, and the wait for Book #2 The Killing Time is still months away, and I have no patience.

The Poisoner Series by I.V. Ophelia

Book #1: The Poisoner, 2024

Book #2: The Arachnid, 2026

Book #3: The Cannibal, 2026

Narrated by: Matt Sykes, Sebastian Brown, and Stephanie Willis

Amazon Blurb: "This gothic paranormal romance series unfolds in Victorian-era London and 1890s Buffalo, where humans encounter vampiric beings called Vipera. Alina Lis, a botanist and poisoner who targets unsavory men in her own sense of justice, encounters Silas Forbes, a Vipera resistant to her deadly poisons. Their attraction develops amid escalating tensions between human and Vipera worlds."

My two cents: The blurb doesn't do this series justice.  Alina may get knocked down, but she doesn't only get mad; she gets even.  She makes her opponents believe that she's playing their game, while finding ways to save herself and her loved ones.  Adult stuff, plus, you know...vampires. 

📚 🧛‍♀️ 📚

Receptacle Love

6/19 is International Box Day!

Yes, cats often LURV cardboard boxes, but some humans seem to hoard them.

No one that I know, I've just heard about it...

Am thankful that we haven't run out of boxes in a long, long, long time.

😹

In honor of June is Audiobook Month,

I recommend Elly Griffith's Ruth Galloway series:

The Crossing Places (2009)

The Janus Stone (2010)

The House at Sea's End (2011)

A Room Full of Bones (2011)

Ruth's First Christmas Tree (2012)

A Dying Fall / Tomb of the Raven King (2012)

The Outcast Dead (2014)

The Ghost Fields (2015)

The Woman in Blue (2016)

The Chalk Pit (2017)

The Dark Angel (2018)

The Stone Circle (2019)

The Lantern Men (2020)

The Man in Black (2020)

The Night Hawks (2021)

The Locked Room (2022)

The Last Remains (2023)

Jane McDowell, Narrator

Archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway lives alone in a remote area called Saltmarsh near Norfolk, England when she's asked to help identify bones found nearby by Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson.

In some parts, uncovered bones could be a fresh corpse, or a 3,000 year old Early Iron Age burial.

And oh, the mysteries, murders, antiquities, museums, local legends, and complicated loves that ensue.

📚

Let's Hop!

#NationalAuthor’sDay

 November 1 is National Authors Day!

I primarily listen to audiobooks downloaded to my phone, and with speed set at 1.3x (I also am a speed-reader, something I was taught while a youngster in school), I listen while doing many other things all day long.

Some of my favorite authors, in no particular order, with links:

Laurie R. King

Robert Galbraith

C. S. Harris

Elly Griffiths

Diana Gabaldon

Nick Louth

Jim Butcher

Anthony Horowitz

Deanna Raybourn

Kelley Armstrong

Sabrina Flynn

My current 'want to read' list has 569 books, which does NOT include all the books in an author's series; just the first.

I am a member of several book groups on Facebook, and a question I ask people is, "What are you reading?"

I use Goodreads to keep track of everything, and have access to a handful of libraries AND a Audible account to feed my reading habit.

I am a reading addict; there, I've typed it!

Authors are amazing people; they create new worlds, characters, and emotions in their heads, then are able to publish these stories for the public's enjoyment.  

The above images were found on social media, and included purely for the enjoyment of our readers.

So, what are you reading?

Tell us in the comments!

Dr. Ruth Galloway, cat lover

The Ruth Galloway Mystery Series, written by Elly Griffiths

Image from the interwebs

The Crossing Places, 2009
The Janus Stone, 2010
The House at Sea’s End, 2010
A Room Full of Bones, 2011
A Dying Fall, 2012
The Outcast Dead, 2014
The Ghost Fields, 2015
The Woman In Blue, 2016
The Chalk Pit, 2017
The Dark Angel, 2018
The Stone Circle, 2019
The Lantern Men, 2020
The Night Hawks, February 2021
The Locked Room, October 2022

***

I recently discovered the Ruth Galloway series, written by Elly Griffiths, on a Facebook group.

This series, to me, is like eating potato chips; you can't have just one!

Or more like the saying, "Cats are like potato chips; you can't have just one"?

Anyhow, one aspect of this series is that Ruth loves her cats!

Ruth is an archaeologist, living in North Norfolk, U.K.

She teaches at the nearby university, and finds herself involved with the local police when a skeleton is discovered and they call upon her unique skills at identifying buried bones.

There are other fun things, like druids, saltmarshes, spectral hounds and boogey men, and some good old romps in the sack!

She pines for her cat, Flint, whenever she's away from home for more than a few days.

*Warning*

Cats are harmed in the first two books, and that in itself would put me off a series (and a writer) in a heartbeat!

However, the author has made it very clear that she deeply regrets writing about such cruel things, and I've encountered no more of this type of nastiness in any of the other books.

The author is a true cat-lover.

I've halfway through book #13!

I'm told there is a TV series based on these books, but I haven't seen it...yet.