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Kitty Cats and Panic Attacks

@kittycatsandpanicattacks

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full-time statistician & cat mom, part-time reader
ATX | vegan 🌱

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Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke 👩‍🌾

Natalie has built the picture-perfect life of a trad-wife influencer, complete with a handsome cowboy husband, beautiful farmhouse, and seemingly effortless homemade bread… but behind the scenes, it’s all carefully manufactured. One day, she suddenly wakes up in the era she romanticizes online and realizes she’ll do whatever it takes to escape.

Whenever a book gets super hyped online, I’m naturally a little skeptical, but this one absolutely delivered. It’s very Ballerina Farm-meets-Ruby Franke and I genuinely could not put it down. Was the ending a little unbelievably goofy? Sure 😂 But honestly, the more I sat with it, the more I realized the breadcrumbs were there all along and it actually made sense in the context of Natalie’s story. Natalie is such an interesting character to follow: deeply unlikeable, but so psychologically fascinating that I couldn’t look away from her disturbing thought processes. Definitely not a book for everyone, but DAMN, was it the book for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars!
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#thriller #yesteryear #fictionbooks #fivestarread #literaryfiction by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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6 days ago

Q3 2026 Camera Crumbs 📸

Mercury in retrograde tried to keep things interesting, but I still had a pretty decent time!

Got some rings I didn’t need, smashed a geode, cried over Heartstopper, had lots of vegan brunch, and a got a heat-sensitive mug to show for my summer reading efforts!
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#q3recap #cameraroll #cameracrumbs #photodump #summer2026 by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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13 days ago

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim 🥢

After Ji-won’s dad leaves and her family starts falling apart, she begins experiencing increasingly disturbing dreams that blur the line between reality and something much darker. The dreams are filled with bloody rooms and unsettling blue eyes (eyes that look just like her mom’s obnoxious new boyfriend’s) and soon her fixation on them becomes impossible to ignore.

This was a wild ride where I was cheering Ji-won on the entire time, and with those short chapters, “just one more chapter” quickly turned into me consuming (pardon the pun) the entire book. This is EXACTLY my kind of horror—bloody, unhinged, and feminist. Easily a contender for my favorite book of the year, and that ending… one of the best horror endings I’ve ever read. 👏 I am so excited (and scared in the best way) to pick up Molka by this author soon!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars!
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#horrorbooks #fivestarread #bookrecommendation #recentreads #booksandcats by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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19 days ago

Currently listening to Strangers by Belle Burden on audiobook and THE TEA? piping. hot.

Also somehow accidentally acquired THREE hockey romances on my last library trip (the first two Game Changers books + Tessa Bailey’s The Au Pair Affair). Was this intentional? No but I guess I am subconsciously drawn to hockey players now?

No plans this weekend except cleaning + meal prep, which means I have officially scheduled myself for chores, wine, and being checked out from the outside world while I dive into my audiobook🍷🎧
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#CurrentlyReading #CurrentlyListening #Audiobook #WeekendReading #BookishWeekend by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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a month ago

Wonder by RJ Palacio 🐕

Wonder follows August Pullman, a fifth grader with a facial difference who is attending a mainstream school for the first time. He wants nothing more than to be treated like an ordinary kid, but his classmates struggle to look past his appearance, and the story eventually expands into the perspectives of the people around him.

I teared up so many times reading this. While this is a middle grade book (and I genuinely don’t think I’ve picked up a middle grade book in years) I think this is one that even adults would enjoy and get something important from. It’s also a rare occasion where I actually think the multiple POVs helped the book’s message rather than making the story feel jumbled or confusing. Now I need to watch the movie 😊

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars!
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#wonder #middlegradebooks #contemporarybooks #fivestarbook #fivestarread by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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a month ago

August 2026 Reading Wrap-Up:
- Wonder by R. J. Palacio ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Heartstopper Vol. 6 by Alice Oseman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Soul Searching by Lyla Sage ⭐️⭐️
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3 FIVE STAR READS across completely different genres!!! So honestly a very good month of reading ☺️

August also gave me my first middle grade read of the year (and probably of the last several years) with Wonder, which was such a sweet, emotional, heartwarming read!

Unfortunately, Soul Searching was a huge disappointment for me which especially sucks because Lyla Sage’s book tour for the sequel is coming to Austin next month and I REALLY wanted to go.

Meanwhile, The Eyes Are the Best Part is officially a STRONG contender for my favorite book of the year. Absolutely unhinged, disturbing, fascinating, and exactly the kind of reading experience I want sometimes.

And finally…no one talk to me about Heartstopper concluding 🥹
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#bookrecap #augustreads #monthlywrapup #readingwrapup #bookrecommendations by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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a month ago

Soul Searching by Lyla Sage 👻

Collins Cartwright is forced to return to her hometown when a developer threatens her parents’ antique shop, only to end up renting a room above a new-to-town upholsterer’s store. She’s already dealing with changes to her paranormal abilities, so the last thing she needs is the undeniable chemistry between her and her new roommate, Brady Cooper, making everything even more complicated. And with a bunch of matchmaking ghosts determined to push them together, Collins can’t help but wonder if their “temporary” living arrangement might be the start of something more

I adored Lyla Sage’s other series SOOOO much, so I really wanted to love this one too… but unfortunately, this one was kind of a drag for me. The pacing felt a little off — we had such a slow build-up only for everything to wrap up super quickly, and the romance just wasn’t really doing it for me. And honestly, the ghostly/supernatural aspect was probably my biggest disappointment because I was excited for it, but it ended up feeling like a miss for me. I may still pick up the second book because Collins’ sister feels like a much more compelling character to me, but I guess we’ll see! 👀

⭐️⭐️ 2 out of 5 stars!
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#RomanceBooks #BookReviews #RomanceReader #RomComBooks #SpookyRomance by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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2 months ago

Five star predictions based on my Pantone birth chart 🎨

Even though many of the book covers of my five star predictions aren’t “perfect” matches for the Pantone colors, it was still fun to go through my bookshelves.

ALSO- let me know if we have any of the same placements because I’m nosy!
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#TBR #BooksAndAstrology #PantoneColors #AstrologyPlacements #FiveStarPredictions by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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2 months ago

Recently finished the final Heartstopper volume and I am UNWELL 🥹 What a heartwarming ending to such a cute series. I need to dive right back into this series… is it finally time for me to watch the Netflix series?

Currently reading Wonder which is my first middle grade book of the year (possibly of MANY years lol). Even though it’s written for a younger audience, I genuinely think adults would still get so much out of it. And I have definitely teared up more than once.

And finally, I’m trying to get more into movies lately, specifically rewatching all the YA classics from the 2010s (think like The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, The Maze Runner, etc.) Basically I’m just trying to relive my teenage movie era but with adult responsibilities.

Speaking of The Hunger Games… I’m hoping to rewatch the whole series in time for the Sunrise on the Reaping premiere in 3 months so I’m up against a deadline. 🫡 is anyone else doing a rewatch/reread?
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#currentlyreading #readingupdate #bookrecommendations #booksandcats #catsofbookstagram by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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2 months ago

Cheers to the July wrap-up! It was a month of thrillers, fantasy, nonfiction, and one audiobook that just wasn’t my vibe oops

- Reckless by Lauren Roberts (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars)
- Who Killed Nessie? by Paul Cornell (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars)
- Unfuck Your Brain by Faith G. Harper (⭐️⭐️ 2 stars)
- The Housemaid Is Watching by Frieda McFadden (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars)
- The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell (⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars)
- Lore Olympus, Vol. 1 by Rachel Smythe (⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars)

Apparently 4 stars was the theme of the month! I’m pretty happy with this stack overall… even though not every book was a new favorite.
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#ReadingWrapUp #MonthlyWrapUp #BookRecommendations #Bookish #BookLover by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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3 months ago

The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell ✨

Amanda Montell explores why our brains are so prone to irrational thinking, arguing that the constant overload of information has amplified the cognitive biases we all rely on to cope with uncertainty. Through examples from celebrity worship to staying in bad relationships—she explains the psychology behind these mental shortcuts and how to approach them.

I really liked Wordslut by Amanda Montell, so I went into this one with pretty high expectations—but it just didn’t hit the same for me. It leans more into pop psychology than I expected, and I think the book would’ve been stronger if the chapters were tighter and covered more biases instead.

Overall, I definitely didn’t hate it, and there were still plenty of interesting insights throughout. It’s just not one I can enthusiastically recommend. However, there is one exception, I highly recommend reading the chapter on the sunk cost fallacy and how it applies to romantic relationships… that one really hit home for me 😭
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#psychologybooks #bookreview #behavioralscience #nonfictionbooks #nonfictionreads by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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3 months ago

Pepper and I have been chugging away at our librarys’ summer reading challenges (yes... I somehow joined two one tracks reading minutes and the other tracks books).

Finished Project Hail Mary last month, and now that it’s streaming I’ve been meaning to watch it… What does it say about me that I’ll happily spend two weeks reading a book but somehow a 2.5-hour movie feels like a massive commitment? 😅
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#CurrentlyReading #SummerReading #LibraryReads #CozyReading #BooksandCats by @kittycatsandpanicattacks

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3 months ago