With the exception of Mosque, I picked these up for free.

Mosque is good, and if you have read the author's other books, it is like those.

Be Brave! Be Bold! is actually pretty good and is about famous Latinias.  While I know the book is intended for a young audience, there could have been a bit more in the bios about the women at the end.

The Little Horse is a Christian story about a horse who was present at Christ's birth.  It is actually one of the better ones.  It reminded me of Nestor the Long Eared Christmas Donkey or the Little Drummer Boy Christmas shows.

The Aesop Box Set  contains a few fables, but the illustrations are good.  It's nice.

Mama Daycare is a sweet book that presents the fear of going to school for the first time in a different way.  It was cute.

The Perfect Potty Book is extactly as advertised.

Arial Chef - not the best, but the bits at the end about how to make Sushi were nice.

Big Splash - good if you like Dinos

It's Not Easy Being Unicorn and Kaulele the Fairy Tern are the best two.  Wonderful story about unicorn that you can see being adapted by Pixar.  Interesting story about a bird.

I don't even know how to start talking about this book.  It's insane.

I first heard about it from Irresponsible Reader and I've been enjoying Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles for a few years.  And it's subtitle sold me:

Once A Pun A Time...

So I was expecting a funny read and I was expecting the puns, but I wasn't at all expecting the sheer enormity of innuendo and entendres: double, triple - possibly quadruple, but I suspect some of it went over my head as I struggled now to drown in the Monty Python-esque silliness of it all.  Examples include a chapter involving the band of unlikely heroes traveling through the elven Morning Wood, with more innuendo, puns and entendres than you can possibly imagine, and later in the book a trip to a pub called Balzac's, where the chef is the famous "wrinkled Balzac", and the house speciality is candied nuts.

It's quite frequently over-the-top, but it's still hilarious and sometimes sweet and a little bit shocking in unexpected ways.  My favorite character was Gustave, the talking goat, by a large margin, though the rest of the band of unlikely adventurers all have their own charms too.  

It's incredibly well-written and it's obvious the authors had a good time writing it, but Luke Daniels did an exceptional job narrating this book.  This is one of those rare instances where I think the reader would lose something by reading a physical copy.  Daniels owns this book and the characters in it, reading it like a dramatisation.  I recommend the audio unreservedly for anyone looking for a goofy good time.

I started the book in August, but it was due back at the library before I was half finished, and I didn't get it back until after Halloween Bingo started, so it qualifies. As there were scenes involving necro-bees and acid leeches, I'm going to use this for the Creepy Crawly square.

A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassinati...

If you watched the adoration of Putin last year by a certain orange tinged president, this book will make it even worse.

This does not mean to say that the other world leaders come off much better, but if you needed reason beside election influence and the Crimea to blackball Russia, this book presents it. And I am not even talking about the murder of Litvinenko.

Seriously a good book.

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I am in love with Oberon! It is no secret that I am a dog person. I have three dogs and would probably have more if the county I live in didn't set limits. So I am always drawn to stories involving dogs but Oberon is a special kind of dog and I just love these short pieces that are told completely from his point of view. I think I started smiling as soon as I hit play on this audiobook and didn't quit smiling until it was over because it was just that much fun.

This story starts with Oberon, Orlaith, Starbuck, and Atticus taking a ride on a train. There is a squirrel on the train and the dogs are not happy about it. Once they reach their destination, they run into some bigger problems. There is a dead man that looks just like Atticus. This had me wondering who the real target was and I completely understood why Atticus and Oberon needed to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I thought that the mystery was really well done. It was fairly complex considering this is a pretty short piece. I found myself guessing until the very end and was surprised by a few things that developed along the way. Atticus and the dogs make a wonderful team and I love how much help the dogs were in finding the clues.

Luke Daniels does a fantastic job with this series. I couldn't imagine experiencing this story in any format other than audio. I really love the way he is able to bring Oberon to life and I feel that he is able to capture his canine way of looking at life. He delivers all of the more humorous parts of the story wonderfully as well as the more serious scenes. 

I would recommend this series to others. I do think that readers of the Iron Druid Chronicles will appreciate this tale from Oberons point of view. I think it could also probably work as a stand-alone. I kind of jumped ahead a bit by reading this one now but had no issues keeping up with the story. I can't wait to read more of this wonderful series!

Initial Thoughts
This was fun! I love Oberon so getting an entire story from his point of view is just a delight. I was really intrigued by the mystery in this one and thought it was really well done. Plus now I know that some squirrels really are evil. Luke Daniels does a fantastic job with the narration of this series as always. I couldn't imagine experiencing this story in any other way than audio.

Book Source: Audible Purchase

So far, I have read two books off the list: Last of the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics by Lawrence O'Donnell. I got lucky and found in really good condition a copy of All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in the free book swap area of my library. 

Next up is getting to 1968 by Mark Kurlansky and The Making of a President 1972 by Theodore White. This will set me up to reading about Watergate during the summer and giving me time to tackle Shadow from September to December.

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Inspired by the podcasts Slow Burn (season one) from Slate and Bagman by Rachel Maddow, I decided to do a deep dive into the Nixon administration, specifically Watergate.  I already read the Nixon/Ford section of Clint Hill's Five Presidents just to get my feet wet. I may not get to all of these, but I hope to read enough to have a good grasp on what happened.

My Nixon Reading List:

1. 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky

2. Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics by Lawrence O'Donnell (Read March 2019)

3. The Making of a President 1972 by Theodore White

4. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein

5. All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

6. Last of the President's Men by Bob Woodward (Read January 2019)

7. The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It by John Dean

8. Breach of Faith: The Fall of Nixon by Theodore White

9. Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate  by Bob Woodward

10. The Nixon Tapes 1971-1972 by Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter