Weekend reading plans

Lighthouses and girls with flowers on their faces?

Hello, friends,

Here we are again, back at the weekend. My recent weeks have felt like they’re going by at nine million miles an hour, largely, I think, because we’re at the tail-end of summer reading at my library—our program traditionally starts and ends later than most other libraries. Even though we’ve scaled the program way, way back this year, I’m pretty wiped out, because we’re still without a children’s person, so I can’t tag out of any of the programming. But it’s almost done, and then I’ll take a multi-day nap.

If I can keep my eyes open, I’m hoping to do a bunch of reading this weekend. Here’s what’s at the top of my pile at the moment.


Book covers: Chantal Acevedo’s The Curse on Spectacle Key, and Kenneth Oppel’s Ghostlight

The Curse on Spectacle Key, by Chantal Acevedo
Amazon | Bookshop

A boy and his family move to a dilapidated lighthouse, planning to renovate it into their forever home… but hadn’t counted on it being cursed. Also there’s a creepy doll that might be moving around on its own?

Ghostlight, by Kenneth Oppel
Amazon | Bookshop

A teen working a summer job giving lighthouse ghost tours accidentally raises a real one. Oops. (I adore the cover art on this one, it’s so striking.)


Book covers: Katrina Leno’s Horrid and Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms. Did I pick these because of the similar creeptastic covers? Maybeeeeee?

Horrid, by Katrina Leno
Amazon | Bookshop

A teen and her mother move from California to her mother’s creaky old childhood home in Maine. Among other issues, there is a locked room in the house that her mother says is just for storage… but it turns out that it’s a child’s bedroom that’s been untouched for decades? I’m sure there’s a reasonable, non-creepy explanation.

Where Darkness Blooms, by Andrea Hannah
Amazon | Bookshop

Set in Bishop, a town that’s all about windstorms, sunflowers, and missing women. So many are missing that when three disappear in one night, everyone just shrugs and is like, “Huh, sounds legit.” So I’m sure everything in Bishop is just SWELL.


More lighthouses


Speaking of things that are still seared into my brain: Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse (2019). Currently rentable on Amazon.

Looking to add to your TBR list?

  • If I don’t stop browsing these Mock Newbery lists, I’m not going to have time to eat, let alone catch up on sleep.
  • Charlotte’s weekly round-ups of MG SF/F coverage from around the web are the definition of DANGER ZONE. I always find something new-to-me there.

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Last weekend’s plans

Weekend reading plans
Hello, my dears, Given that I have plans with my Treasured Sister on Sunday, my reading time this weekend is already in Questionable Territory… and that was before I bought a few small add-ons for The Sims 4 and added a whole mess of movies to my ongoing watchlist. Sooo we’ll see what happens.

I read ONE of the three… and then something not remotely on the list, which is pretty par for the course for me? I love making plans, but seem to have difficulty adhering to them?


Me and Josh, prepping for winter. (Actually a GIF from The Lighthouse.)

That should all keep me busy? When I’m not baking to stock the freezers with zucchini bread and whatnot for winter?

(Unless/until I change my mind and do something completely different???)

What do you have going?

Talk to you next week,
Leila