Beyond the Bookends Winter 2026 Reading Challenge

 Here is the winter bingo card. Although it says Winter 2026, it begins in December 2025.

1. Cozy Mystery
2. Book Set in Italy
3. Office Romance
4. Book Being Adapted
5. Fantasy Duology
6. Book Like Downton Abbey
7. Mystery or Thriller About Writers
8. One of our favorite books of all time OR of the last year

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2026

One of the challenges I look forward to every year. It's come out early this year. The categories have gotten a little bizarre. And some seem difficult, but I'll do my best to complete them.

Main Prompts

1. A book where gardening or a garden is central to the plot
2. A book that features a platonic friendship between a man and woman
3. A book you meant to read in 2025
4. A book that starts with the letter "Z"
5. A book about women astronauts
6. A book with an overweight main character whose story isn't about losing weight
7. A book about a granny hobby
8. A book about a sexless marriage
9. A book with a "type C" character
10. A book about a horse or with a horse on the cover
11. A book with a dad as the primary caregiver
12. A book with "pop" or "sugar" in the title
13. A book featuring a character with a hidden past
14. A book set in Michigan or written by an author from Michigan
15. A book about new beginnings
16. A book less than 260 pages
17. A book about your favorite event in the Winter Olympics
18. A love story that defies social boundaries
19. A book about teen angst
20. A book with a character who does Pilates or Lagree
21. A book about a bachelorette trip
22. A book about a book club
23. A book you were hoping would fit into a prompt but doesn't
24. A book about postpartum
25. A book that explores influencer culture
26. A book with a character who navigates infertility
27. A book with a character who has curly hair
28. A book about debt
29. A book that takes place during harvesting season
30. A travel ghost story
31. A book that makes you feel FOMO
32. A book with an underwater civilization
33. A book about college
34. A book with a trans or nonbinary protagonist
35. A book that makes you want to travel to Italy
36. A book about a mob (fiction or nonfiction)
37. A book about a pop star
38. A book with any type of fruit on the cover or in the title
39. A book with a character who runs a marathon
40. A book outside your comfort zone

Advanced Prompts

1. A book in a different format than your usual: physical, audio, eBook
2. A book inspired by a real song, album, band, or artist
3. Two books written by real-life partners or spouses (1)
4. Two books written by real-life partners or spouses (2)
5. A book that features birding
6. A sapphic comic
7. A book told entirely through letters
8. A book with a shadow daddy
9. A book with a mention of your zodiac sign
10. A book about Afrofuturism

Last Night

Some pictures from last night. A costume contest was held and I took third place. So many of the pictures turned out blurry.

And someone els had the same idea as me. She even wore the same leg warmers and mesh shirt (not visible in the pictures):

Photos From Today

Here are some pictures I took before going to work. I cut the long sleeves off the mesh shirt and converted it to off the shoulder. It was too tight as it was and it was an XL size! Having seen mesh gloves at the Halloween store, I decided to create some myself from the cut-off sleeves. The tank shirt and shoes I already had at home, the shorts and pants came from Goodwill, and the bracelets from Dollar Tree.

We had our party at work today. Here are some pictures.

Group Photo

 Me and a Gothic Butterfly

Me and the Mad Hatter

 The Mad Hatter And Gothic Butterfly 

Some of us then walked down to the bookstore the opened earlier this year. Just before leaving today, I finished reading he book I'd gotten at the signing at the store in March. The lady at the bookstore took this photo.

And just a week or so ago, a used bookstore opened in town (diagonally across the street from the other one). The group above stopped at this one as well. I picked up some books (more on that to come). The photos below are from the used bookstore.

Later tonight I will be off the local bar party. Will get some pictures then as well.

Costume Fun

Here is some costume fun for today! Old and new favorites. Pictures of my 80s outfit to come.

13 Halloween Cartoons

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂    

Only one day till Halloween and here are some old and new favorites.

80s Stuff

This came up the other day in my Facebook memories. I'm doing an 80s costume this year, so I decided to make a post on things I've been finding about that decade.

Here are the things I got from the Halloween store (just the earrings on the right from the first photo, and I can't seem to find a picture of the hair scrunchies I got):

I also saw these at the Halloween store, but decided against them:

I also got this hair clip from a local discount store:

The rest of the stuff I'm using includes clothes from Goodwill and from home, along with glow bracelets from the Dollar Tree. More details to come, along with photos finished outfit.