Denise's Reading Blog

Thursday, November 5, 2026

2026 Prizes for the Let’s Read Together: Summer Reading Challenge ☀️ Hosted by Cozy Books Corner & Romance Books Corner. 💛

Complete the challenge by reading all 9 books and you'll unlock your completion rewards!

Finish the challenge and you'll receive:

• A surprise printable
• A collection of free ebooks
• A collection of free audiobooks
You'll also be entered to win bonus prizes including book boxes, reader t-shirts, and Barnes & Noble gift cards.

You did it... now let's talk prizes!

If you've completed all 9 books, it's time to officially wrap up your Summer Reading Challenge and claim your rewards!

Everyone who successfully completes the challenge will receive:

A surprise printable

A collection of free ebooks

A collection of free audiobooks

PLUS, completed participants will be entered to win some of our bigger prizes, including reader book boxes, t-shirts, and Barnes & Noble gift cards! We will announce these winners in the Facebook group and via email.

* Limoncello Yellow by Traci Andrighetti
* Exercise Is Murder by Bruce Hammack
* The Guest is a Goner by Carly Winter
* Kittens Cupcakes & Conundrum by Amity Allen

* Eternal Love (reborn) by Danielle Wolfe
* Left Undone by Tess Barnett
* Down the Aisle by Rose Chase
* Jack by McKenna James

Cozy Audiobook

Romance Audiobook

Free Fall Reading Tracker

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

My October 2026 Reads

🧴 Audiobook That I Listen To While Doing Skincare:

✅ 1. 🏠 The Forbidden (Krewe of Hunters, #34) by Heather Graham

🍂 Peoria Main Library's 'Fall Into Reading!' Fall Reading Program and Reading Challenge / Choose Your Adventure Reading Challenge: 🍂

✅ 2. [🐦PEORIA LIBRARY🐦]: 🍂 Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls) by Misty Wilson

MCLD Native American Heritage Month

Cute!

Phoenix Library Cute Pic

Book thank you pic

Welcome to the Little Free Library network

Loved this pic in my LFL email

Halloween at MCLD!

Cute pumpkins in MCLD email banner

Phoenix Harvest Festival

Cute pic from Phoenix library newsletter

Peoria Public Library - Holds Are Ready For Pick Up

Beautiful pic from email

Goodreads Fall Reading Challenge

Here's a cute bookish pic I got in my email.

Friday, October 2, 2026

My September 2026 Reads

🧴 Audiobook That I Listen To While Doing Skincare:

✅ 1. 🌎 Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1) by Abby Jimenez

📖 MY PERSONAL READS:

✅ 2. 👯‍♀️ Sister BFFs by Philippa Rice

✅ 3. [🐦PEORIA LIBRARY🐦 & 🌞GLENDALE LIBRARY🌞] 🌊 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

✅ 4. [☀️PHOENIX LIBRARY☀️]: 🌃 Night, Neon: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates

Friday, September 25, 2026

Review: Night, Neon: Tales of Mystery and Suspense

Night, Neon: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finished reading this book on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 5:59 p.m.

View all my reviews

🌃 Night, Neon: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates

I first saw this book when I visited the Burton Barr library in downtown Phoenix. I was really attracted to the book cover. I took a picture of it to put it on my Goodreads bookshelf. Then I got a free three month subscription from T-Mobile Tuesdays for this book service called Everand. I wanted to do a personal reading challenge since I am in the off season of reading challenges. I get one free audiobook every month and I cannot keep it once the free trial runs out like I can with Audible. So I decided to do the reading challenge. I saw the audiobook was on Hoopla. I should have looked there too before unlocking the audiobook on Everand, but it’s already unlocked, so I am sticking with this book! I borrowed a physical copy from the Phoenix Public Library and picked it up from the Palo Verde outdoor locker. I think that this book will be a great read! Here I go! 😃

“One of them was a massive mahogany bureau, atop of which a row of framed photographs had been placed with loving attention.
For you are securely in the world only if there are such photographs of loved ones to testify to your existence, and your worth” (14).

“But time is required for such an effort, as time is required for any growing thing to take root, send up shoots, falter into life, ‘flourish’” (34).

* In chapter 2 (Curious) it made me laugh when the narrator said it was none of your business what he bought from the grocery store.

“Though the library is one of my places of refuge, in recent months I have been avoiding it. I am not sure why. Sometimes such impulses grip me—instincts for which there are no name, though possibly they are, like most instincts, related to self-preservation” (37).
I love the library!

“Isn’t the point of literature to inspire readers to imagine?” (155).

* I liked the book cover and many of the stories were quite mysterious indeed. I finished reading this book 3 whole days ahead of my reading schedule! 😃

I liked how the bookshop owner said that mysteries are like fairy tales for adults! The best part is at 4:54 in the video.

Monday, September 21, 2026

🍂 Peoria's Fall Into Reading Program! 🍂

I am so excited! 😃

Reading Program Goal: 15 hours = 3 prizes!
Link: https://peoria.polarislibrary.com/polaris/custom/fall_reading.aspx

Here is a Instagram post that I printed out and put in my LFL and my walls. I added the learn more part.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Review: Part of Your World

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finished reading this book on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 8:06 p.m.

View all my reviews

🌎 Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1) by Abby Jimenez

I think I first got this book when we went to pick up our Summer Reading Prizes and they had a cart of books that we could choose from. This book was in that cart and I think I chose it. I liked the cover and obviously the book title reminded me of Disney’s, “Aladdin.” This has been in my physical bookshelf for a while now.

“‘I’ve never done an audiobook,’ she admitted.

‘Oh, you should. It’s like a movie for your ears” (117).

It really is like a movie for your ears. Lolz! I also thought it was funny how the audiobook narrator said the last line of this quote.

“I sat up and gawked at her.

‘What? Seriously. If you left, would you feel worse than you do right now?’ she asked. ‘If you just said “Fuck it” and dipped, would you be as unhappy as you are today?’

I blinked at her. Because the answer was remarkably simple. ‘No.’

‘You don’t have to feel like this. You literally don’t. Quit. Leave. Pick him. Pick yourself.’

I stared at her a long moment. Then I started to breathe hard.

I wasn’t allowed to think about leaving. I couldn’t be the one to make this suggestion, because it was too selfish and too self-serving. It was a forbidden fantasy, too traitorous for me to even entertain. But the second Bri spoke it into the universe, my heart grabbed onto it and ran.

Because what if I did?

What if I quit?

What if just for once I did what I wanted? Instead of thinking about my parents or the legacy or the plethora of people I’d never met who would benefit one day from me staying where I was.

My mind immediately went there and played out quitting in my head, like a movie on fast forward.

I was mentally in my car, driving to Wakan, diving into Daniel’s arms, sobbing into his neck, begging for his forgiveness.

The relief at just thinking this was palpable.

The thought that I could end my misery, stop my suffering, was such an enormous weight off my shoulders, I felt like I wanted to jump off the bed and bolt from the room. I could feel the idea getting so big and alive in just the few moments it was out, it no longer fit into the tiny box of impossible things that I had kept it in.

What if I did…

But I couldn’t. Could I?

How could I live with the guilt? With the shame?” (343-344).

I liked this quote. The thought process was nice to see. I wanted to save this quote.

This was an 🧴 Audiobook That I Listen To While Doing Skincare. It was a nice story. I might want to read the next in the series.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Cute Halloween Book Pic!

And because you all clearly know how to PARTY... we're doing it again.

We're already planning a Halloween Party, and we'd LOVE to have you join us! We're still putting together all the spooky, bookish details, but as soon as everything is finalized, we'll email you everything you need to join us.

What we can tell you is the date: October 27th at 7 PM CST.