In honor of Independence Day in these United (at least officially) States of America, I’ve decided to take most of the day off from my typical blather. I hope you enjoy some time with your family and friends, take in a parade, enjoy the weather (or enjoy some form of relief from it), have some good food and drink, marvel at Joey Chestnut, or catch up on your reading (possibly all of the above).
To people outside this country, I hope you’re having a great Tuesday!
This is not as promising as I wanted it to be.
My plans this year focused on the two series that I’ve started—Literary Locals and Grandpappy’s Corner–both of which are going okay (frequently in fits and starts, but making steady progress). Then there’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own.” How am I doing on that?
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2022 |
5 | 45 | 42 | 143 |
| End of 1st Quarter | 4 | 44 | 54 | 142 |
| End of 2nd Quarter | 5 | 50 | 56 | 145 |
Let’s see how I’m doing with the rest of my plans and move on to the Reading Challenges…
2023 Book Challenges
Goodreads Challenge
At the end of June, I was at:
12 Books
I got behind in March, and I haven’t been able to get back on track. But I really want to read these, I’m not too worried about it. But it’s not looking good.
2023 While I was Reading
I could be doing a little better on this—as usual, I’m not really planning the books for this challenge. I do have a few picked out that will fit the categories. When October hits, if I haven’t read everything on the list, I’ll get serious about hunting.
Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I’m on-target for this one (as much as I can be), and have even got a couple of the Stretch Goals accomplished.
January – End to end temptation I give you permission to read the most recent book you have got on top of your TBR. For many this is one we only get to read eventually but for now I want you to pick up the newest book in Mount TBR and read it. Can you remember the last time you did that? It’s a good habit to get into and January is all about starting good habits: The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
February – Short steps For the shortest month of the year I want you to read 28 short stories. This can be a TBR collection, anthology or even backlog of magazines that you have. Life is fast but use this challenge to appreciate the skill of the short story writer. Play your skills right you may get more than one book read this way. eh…I get partial credit for this, Noirville contained every short story I had unread, but it’s only fifteen stories. I did read extra novellas for the Stretch Goal, though. So I’m calling this okay?
Stretch Goal – Read four novellas one for each week of the month. Bad Memory by Jim Cliff, Anna and the Vampire Prince by Jeanne C. Stein, and Broken by Don Winslow (which is six novellas).
March – Fresh Starts This time for the beginning of spring you need to start a series you have never read before. Release this work from Mount TBR! Justice Calling by Annie Belletstr
April – Open and Shut Case For the month named after the latin for ‘to open’ you need to read a standalone book with no sequel or links to any other book. Something new and something you can let go after reading it: The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow
May – Crowning Glory? the UK has a lot of bank holidays including a coronation this month so suitably let’s pick a book about revolution or a change of those in power. Questland by Carrie Vaughn
June – long reading days or longest nights Irrespective of your hemisphere you have time for reading either in the joys of summer or depths of winter. Your challenge here is to find the largest tale on Mount TBR and finish it. Let that monster get off your back: Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;
I’ve got 2 of the 24 categories taken care of. So, I guess I’m behind–but I do have many of the rest picked out. I just need to set some time aside to knock those out.
|
|
Looking over this, it’s good that I take these on for fun, if I was serious about these things, I think I’d be getting a little worried. More than anything, the number of books I listed above that I don’t have linked to a particular post tells me how far behind I am on writing. 
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)
I finished 31 titles (13 up/down from last month, 5 up/down from last June), with an equivalent of 7,780 pages or the equivalent (2,146 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.66 stars (.01 down from last month). Obviously, it’s important to note that 8 of these were children’s/picture books—once again, I realize that I need to find a new way to track those things.
I did manage to post a decent variety of things (not as much as I intended to, but, since when do I?). Overall, it was a busy and good month around here.
So, here’s what happened here in June.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 . |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
||
|
Still Reading
 |
 |
 |
 |
Ratings
|
2 | |
1 |
|
2 | |
1 |
|
12 |  |
0 |
|
6 |  |
0 |
|
7 | ||
| Average = | 3.66 |
|---|
TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2022 |
5 | 45 | 42 | 143 |
| 1st of the Month |
5 | 49 | 52 | 145 |
| Added | 1 | 8 | 11 | 1 |
| Read/ Listened |
1 | 7 | 7 | 1 |
| Current Total | 5 | 50 | 56 | 145 |
Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 20
Self-/Independent Published: 12
| Genre | This Month | Year to Date |
|---|---|---|
| Children’s | 8 (26%) | 19 (13%) |
| Fantasy | 2 (6%) | 14 (9%) |
| General Fiction/ Literature | 2 (6%) | 12 (8%) |
| Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller | 8 (26%) | 44 (29%) |
| Non-Fiction | 4 (13%) | 13 (9%) |
| Science Fiction | 3 (10%) | 15 (10%) |
| Theology/ Christian Living | 2 (6%) | 15 (10%) |
| Urban Fantasy | 2 (6%) | 15 (10%) |
| “Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) | 0 (0%) | 4 (3%) |
Review-ish Things Posted
Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th), I also wrote:
Enough about me—how Was Your Month? Hope it was as good as mine.
Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
Something about not being able to focus for the last three nights (thanks, neighbors) have made me think about this song…
A Geerhardus Vos Anthology:edited by Danny E. Olinger
DETAILS:
Publisher: P & R Publishing
Publication Date: March 11, 2005
Format: Paperback
Length: 363
Read Date: January 1-June 25, 2023
Danny Olinger literally wrote the book on Geerhardus Vos,* but he’s been studying him for a lot longer than that. As a part of his own personal study, he’s taken notes—he’s written quotations that meant a lot to him, seemed important, and so on—basically (as he put it in the Preface) “the best” of what he was reading. He built upon this foundation to assemble this anthology.
* 2018’s Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian.
Arranged topically (and those topics are arranged alphabetically), this is a collection of excerpts of varying lengths (all pretty short) from his published and published writings—the crème de la crème of one of the best of the 20th Century.
There’s also a great introduction by Olinger outlining Vos’ importance and work.
My guess is that this book isn’t meant to be a devotional read, it’s a resource—a reference book. A quick way to find some of Vos’ insights and then know what work to consult for more. That’s a better use for it, for sure. But I liked the way I read it.
So I took this as a letter at a time (although some letter’s entries were long enough that I split them in two). It made for a nice few minutes once a week to think about a variety of bite-sized nuggets of Biblical Theology.
Some were pithy, some took a little chewing to get through—all were insightful and useful (although some took some thinking to figure out how they were useful). Most of all, each one made me curious about the work they were excerpted from.
One aspect (I’m not sure if it’s a pro or a con) of this book being a collection of short (1 sentence to 4 paragraphs or so) thoughts is that some jumped out at me more than others, I’m pretty sure that I could restart it today and different things would grab my attention.
This is a great way to get an easy-to-read introduction to Vos. Grace and Glory might be better—but this is nothing to sneeze at.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
Here’s a quick check-in for this challenge run by Cathy at 746 Books.
So far, I’ve read 4 2/3—which puts me a little behind last year (still far ahead of 2021, though). I should read at least 1 1/3 this coming week, so I’m feeling pretty good about where I am. Since one of those four that I have finished was The Ink Black Heart and that took a week or so, I’m not that worried. None of the rest of these are nearly that much of a commitment.
(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).
It seemed like my dogs were conspiring against me completing this post today—but if you’re reading this, it means I outsmarted them.
That seems like a low bar to overcome, but some days I swear they’re smarter than me (I realize I’m opening myself up to some fun in the comments here).
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Is This the Oldest Book in the World?—from a “notebook recording tax accounts for beer and oil in Greek around 260 BC.” Of course it has to do with taxes.
On the Pitfalls of Book Promotion in the Internet Age—as with most things by Tom Rachman, this is a good read. “Promoting a book can derange you. After years of quiet toil and noisy typing, you clutch a published book, and step forth to meet the public, eight billion humans who, mystifyingly, seem not to know that your new novel just came out.”
Speaking of book promotion, Goodreads Has No Incentive to be Good
Holding Out for More Heroes—I’ve never understood the anti-Paladin stance, personally. Sign me up for more, too.
Amazon Product Names for Famous Literary Objects
5 SFF Books Whose Plot Is Centered Around Music—When I saw the headline, I assumed Tabler was goig to overlook Year Zero (like seemingly everyone but the bookseller that hand sold it to me years ago)—instead, she lead off with it! The rest of the list is populated by books I’ve been meaning to get to, and probably should.
Witty & Sarcastic Book Club has another series definitely worth the time to check out: Poetry and Song in SFF—I’m not saying this is going to turn me into one of those people who don’t skip those bits, but it might.
Featuring J.E. Hannaford
Featuring Michael Williams
Featuring T.R. Peers
Featuring K.R.R. Lockhaven—(I actually do read most—maybe all—of the verse in his books)
Featuring Joshua Gillingham
Featuring Ashley Anglin
Engagement: Bringing Authors and Reviewers Together—a must-read for bloggers/authors (IMHO)
What are Graphic Novels: An Introduction for Beginners
Five Ways to Tackle Your TBR—I’m not sure I understand the last method…people do this?
Should Adults Recommend Older Books to Kids?
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Fiction Fans Whiskey & Publishing with Nicholas Eames & Peter McLean—a fun chat about publishing with Eames and McLean (with a little bit from Sara and Lilly)
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn—probably the best prose released this week, and likely the most heart-breaking book, too. And I don’t even know anything about the book, it’s just what you expect from Chorn.
The Imposters by Tom Rachman—As with Chorn, I know I want to read it without knowing anything about it, but I went ahead and read the description, which starts: “Dora Frenhofer, a once successful but now aging and embittered novelist, knows her mind is going. She is determined, however, to finish her final book, and reverse her fortunes, before time runs out. Alone in her London home during the pandemic, she creates, and is in turn created by, the fascinating real characters from her own life.”
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson—the title sells it. “Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne and epic fantasy in this captivating adventure that throws an amnesiac wizard into time travel shenanigans—where his only hope of survival lies in recovering his missing memories.”
The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis—a Rom-Com featuring alien abduction and a theme wedding? Hard not to be curious.
Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to NovelLives and danigarciagimenez who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.
The Ballad of Bonaduke—DETAILS: Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #27 Format: Kindle Vella Story Read Date: June 29, 2023
This is bad
This is really bad
…
I’m losing.
A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink. He pulls off whatever he did, gets his money and some booze and stumbles off into the darkness to drink himself into oblivion so he can start again the next day. He’s hit by dark memories (probably what’s driving him to the drinking) of fire, pleading, and screaming. There’s going to be a price to pay for his grift, and he’s trying to be ready.
Before then, he gets himself drunk and we get some of his tragic backstory. As he ponders this, he decides to use some of his ill-gotten-gains to buy more booze and walks into a liquor store robbery. He foils it in some sort of magical fashion, gets some more to drink, and heads off to the park to drink until he’s arrested (probably for the failed robbery). At least that’s his plan, but it gets interrupted by being hit by a car. He wakes up on some sort of short, metal bed and is unsure what’s going on. It turns out that some group is subjecting him to a test—if he passes, everything will be explained to him (and hopefully the reader, too). He passes—and is brought somewhere for answers, or maybe training, or maybe another test. Time will tell (or things are going to get really annoying). Answers aren’t quick to come—but the mysteries and questions keep piling up.
Things get hairy and Bonaduke leaves and finds himself back in the neighborhood he started from. Taking refuge in a homeless encampment, Bonaduke has to make some decisions. He starts to get his thoughts in order when the police begin a raid at the camp. During the raid, he’s apprehended by…well, we need to find out. But first, the interrogation kicks off—Bonaduke tries to work his grift to get him out, and while that effort starts off promisingly…it didn’t quite go the way he’d intended. He finds himself by a group of squatters who seem to have strapped a woman to a chair for reasons that can’t be good. He attempts to rescue her before he even realizes what he’s doing, and…
[I really need to tighten that up, hopefully I have time for that next week]
That title doesn’t fill you with a bunch of hope for what’s about to happen, does it?
We left Bonaduke in a pretty precarious situation. And it gets worse this episode starts.
And then…well, I’m not precisely sure what happens (yet?), but it’s big.
I know I’m being vague, but it’ll be an episode or two before we get a real idea what happened.
I hate to complain about typos (really)–but there’s one in the final line that took away some of the impact, which is a crying shame, because it was a good one.
I think I liked the episode, but I’m a little afraid that Slaywood might be getting vague and indefinite (maybe even muddled) rather than mysterious and enigmatic. But in time, I trust we’ll get some resolution.
I don’t really have much to say about this episode–I like the directionit’ headed, but I’m going to need to see more before I have much more to say.
This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.
RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.
from Page 56 of:
The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman
Who could turn away from a movie with a title like They Saved Hitler’s Brain in hopes of seeing Hitler’s brain at some point? (It paid off, as you got to see his whole head in that one.) As much as everyone ridiculed Plan Nine from Outer Space, who among us wasn’t somehow charmed by the oddball dialogue? (“The saucers are up there. And the cemetery’s out there. But I’ll be locked up in there.”) Who could forget sitting through the Japanese monster movie without monsters, Attack of the Mushroom People, and yet be stunned by the downer ending?
It’s been too long since I posted a Literary Locals book, so I’m glad to get a chance to do that again. I had a quick Q&A with Lawley a few months ago about writing in Idaho, if you’re curious.
Cutthroat Cupcakesby Cake Lawley
DETAILS: Series: Cursed Candy Mysteries, #1 Publication Date: July 21, 2020 Format: eBook Length: 262 pgs. Read Date: June 22, 2023
“How do you kill a person with a cupcake topper?”
“When it’s drenched with as much raw magic as yours are, so many different ways.” Sabrina ticked off options on her fingers. “As a potion additive, as part of a ritual, ingested by the magic-user to add to their own power. Yeah, those are probably the top three.”
“Yours was used to create a potion which was then added to a beverage the victim drank, from what we can tell,” Miles added helpfully.
I really didn’t feel so good.
Lina’s having a slow day in her store—a year-round custom-made candy store with a Halloween theme—when everything she knows about her family, herself, and the world as a whole changes.
Lina discovers that magic is real and that she’s a witch in one of the worst ways imaginable to learn these things—by being arrested by a supernatural cop for killing someone with an item you cursed.
This cop is a wizard with the International Criminal Witch Police who has a certain amount of leeway in his jurisdiction—since he’s easily convinced that Lina has no idea how she may have cursed the candies in her shop, he offers to cut a deal with her—if she helps to track down the person who used her unintentionally cursed items, he won’t pursue charges (ignorance of the law yada yada yada could still get her a few years as an Accessory). Apparently, once you know what you’re looking for it’s easier to find traces of your own magic than it is to find someone else’s, so it makes sense to recruit Lina into this investigation, even if she doesn’t know anything about the magical side of things.
Lina’s curious about this whole witch thing, desperate to not be convicted of a crime—and fairly attracted to this detective, truth be told. So she puts her store in the hands of a new (witch) acquaintance for a few days and takes the offer.
“The three of you are it? For the entire city of Boise?”
Bastian huffed. “City? Town.”
“Hey, now. No smack-talking Boise.” I’d only lived here five years, but that was long enough to recognize that the place definitely had its charms.
“I’m not talking smack. I’m stating a fact. It’s a town, not a city. But to answer your question, the three of us cover the greater Boise area.” His lips pulled into a grimace. “Insomuch as there is a greater metro area.”
You know right away that this is some sort of fantasy—there’s no way that a homemade candy shop—particularly a Halloween-themed candy shop—survives in downtown Boise for as long as Lina’s has. Yes, the idea is appealing, but it’s easier to buy the idea of the magic, to be frank.
Outside of that, putting this series in Boise helps ground it—Lawley has some good fixed locations for things and is able to use that geography to her advantage. But no one who is unfamiliar with Idaho’s capital is going to suffer for it—it’s a nice bonus for those of us who make the same drive as Lina does to know how long it takes so we know how long the uncomfortable silence (or whatever) will be. But that’s about it.
I drank my exceptional espresso with exactly the right amount of cream and tried to keep my annoyance at recent events to a minimum. Nothing like a rotten mood to ruin good caffeine.
This is pretty “cozy” on two fronts—the magic and the mystery. We only get very broad brushstrokes about magic, how it works, what it can/can’t do, the society of witches/warlocks/wizards, and so on. Lawley gives us enough details to keep the story moving. We do get to see some magic at work, and get a sense that some ritual and effort is necessary—but Lawley’s not coming at this like Butcher, Rowling, or Harrison.
The mystery part of the book is solidly in the cozy area as well—we’ve got a candy store owner, a detective who works out of a coffee shop, and a whole lot of generally nice people (even a suspect or two are pretty nice when you get to know them).
The effect of both of these is to make you as comfortable as if you’re relaxing with one of the some of the drinks and treats described while the world passes by.
Maybe I should have dithered, asked for more information, heck, even asked for the questions first. But this was the guy who’d cured my headache. Despite having locked us in my store earlier and disabling my phones, he seemed a stand-up sort of guy. Maybe he wasn’t warm and fuzzy, but…I trusted him. And that’s saying a lot given the fact he arrested me.
I initially thought this seemed like a charming idea for a cozy mystery series, but I wasn’t prepared for the extent of its charms. I devoured* this in one sitting and if I owned it, I’d have likely rolled right into the sequel (I will be rectifying this situation soon). I want to use words like cute and adorable, but those both feel condescending, so I’m sticking with charming for now. Enchanting might work there, too. But that’s a little too something given all the witchiness of the book.
Lawley’s not afraid to have a little fun with the premise—the first (aware) witch we meet is named Sabrina, for crying out loud.
*Pun intended, naturally.
The characters are all great (I thought about spending some time talking about them, but why ruin your fun?). The candies are tantalizing—even for someone who abstains from sugar. The coffee shop owned by the detective (there’s not enough supernatural crime to be a full-time job in this area—and he needs a cover story for the non-magical folks) will cause cravings for sure.
Basically, this is a light-hearted, sweet, appealing, and charming book. I encourage you to grab a snack, pick up Cutthroat Cupcakes, and get lost in the world for a little while. You’ll feel better for it.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén