Books, Cats, Witches, Writing

The Passions of a True Book Addict

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Cat Thursday: Christmas - O Christmas Tree! More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/12/cat-thursday-christmas-o-christmas-tree.html

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Cat Thursday - Happy Halloween 2025 More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/10/cat-thursday-happy-halloween-2025.html

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Cat Thursday - Halloween 2025 More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/10/cat-thursday-halloween-2025-1.html

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Celebrating 16 years of book blogging today! https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/08/celebrating-16-years-of-true-book-addict.html

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Celebrating 16 years of book blogging today! https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/08/celebrating-16-years-of-true-book-addict.html

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Cat Thursday - Happy National Kitten Day More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/07/cat-thursday-happy-national-kitten-day.html

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Cat Thursday - We're fabulous! More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/06/cat-thursday-were-fabulous.html

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Welcome to Storyteller!

Sit Down and Write is now Storyteller! I decided our writing challenge needed a new name and a new vibe. Full details and how to join our Discord here: https://msmwriter.blogspot.com/2025/06/sit-down-and-write-is-now-storyteller.html

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Cat Thursday - Kittens being kittens More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/06/cat-thursday-kittens-being-kittens.html

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The Eulogist by Terry Gamble

This was a very good historical novel. A story of Irish immigrants to America in the decades before the Civil War. A tale of family, of the inhumane enterprise of slavery, abolition, and of human nature. Olivia was a very likable character for me. I enjoyed her telling of the story and I appreciated her unwillingness to believe what everyone else believed when it came to religion. In a conversation with her future husband, he said this to her: "It is one thing to stand in opposition to Christianity as you have done. Another altogether to truly understand people too compromised to worry about the condition of their souls. If there is a God--and like you, I wonder--would He not want us to turn our efforts toward saving each other rather than madly fretting if we ourselves are saved?" Later on, her brother says this to her in a letter: "But it is in human flesh they mostly deal...the trading of which would curdle your blood. I tell you, Livvie. It's as if these people had no heart or mind or sense of pain. I would deny that this was the very country to which we came so long ago, and with the highest of expectations."

These are the stories we need to read and continue reading, lest we forget the horrors in history and the people who suffered so greatly.

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Cat Thursday - Cats are weird (4) More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/05/cat-thursday-cats-are-weird-4.html

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Cat Thursday - Mother's Day More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/05/cat-thursday-mothers-day.html

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Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi

Malfi does it again! I always look forward to his books, as one of my go-to horror authors, his books have a level of creepiness that makes the skin crawl. Along with that there is always a great story. The characters in this story made some bad decisions and they ended up paying for it. What I really liked about the story was the amalgam of supernatural elements. This is a ghost story but it's also so much more. Just when I thought I had it figured out...nope. It kept me guessing until the gripping end.

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Cat Thursday - Current Mood More here: https://www.truebookaddict.com/2025/04/cat-thursday-current-mood.html

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Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Wow! I had heard this one was really good...and terrifying. They were not wrong. Frankly, as a parent, I could not possibly think of anything more terrifying than what happens in this story. When our kids are little, they look to us to vanquish the monster under the bed. But what if that monster turned out to be real? I won't say anything else because this is a spoiler free zone. I will say if you haven't read this, what are you waiting for? Also, I just found out they are making a movie. I hope they can capture what makes this book special.

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The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

I love a good Gothic horror novel and this one is one of the best I've read. Kind of a cross between The Haunting of Hill House and Rebecca, and yet so much more. A genuinely creepy and, at times, horrifying haunting. This is a book you want to keep reading without stopping, straight through to the end.

[truebookaddict]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I've had this book on my TBR for a long time. I am glad I finally read it. I've long been an Oscar Wilde fan. I was in his play, "The Importance of Being Earnest" in high school.

"Dorian Gray" is a good novel. It raises questions about narcissism, morality, even the association of ugliness with aging (and with evil), and the old being less than. It also has one of my favorite quotes, "The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame." So true.

The only problem I had, and it's a minor one, were the long passage describing Dorian's interests, his fleeting passions, and Lord Henry's various monologues. Yet there's no denying that this is an excellent novel of Gothic fiction.

I have seen two film adaptations of "Dorian Gray." The 1945 and 2009 films. Both of them changed the story and I have to say I much preferred the book. Not really a surprise though, right?