Category: Blog Series Page 136 of 220

The Friday 56 for 4/9/21: Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh

On April 9, 2021

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice

RULES:
The Friday 56 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:
Cross Her Heart

Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh

It felt like time was speeding up, moving too quickly, out of her control.

An African American woman in clean black scrubs moved out from behind the desk. “I’m Dr. Serena Jones. I took care of your sister.”

Matt did the introductions, but Bree’s hearing sounded muffled, Dr. Jones turned to face her. “You can see your sister on a monitor—”

“No.” Bree cut her off.

“I didn’t think you’d take that option, so I had your sister moved to a private room,” Dr. Jones said as if Erin were her patient instead of a corpse. “This way.”

The sense of impending doom grew heavier with each footstep down the tiled hallway. Bree kept her eyes on the back of Dr. Jones’s shirt. They went into a small room. In the center of the space, a sheet-covered body occupied a gurney. Dr. Jones walked around to the opposite side of the gurney and faced Bree over her sister’s body. Matt stayed at Bree’s side.

The doctor waited until Bree lifted her eyes to hers and nodded.

WWW Wednesday, April 7, 2021

By HCNewton

On April 7, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I may be having a hard time finishing a book post lately, but that’s not for lack of material—my reading is going full-steam ahead, so at least I can do a WWW Wednesday.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

This is one of those odd times where I’m doing a couple of books at once—I’m reading Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America’s First Frontier by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin, Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh, and am listening to Slow Horses by Mick Herron, Gerard Doyle (Narrator) on audiobook (which is so good, I’m wondering why I didn’t move on to the rest of the series after I read it a couple of years ago).

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Kate Sheeran Swed’s Prodigal Storm (I can’t believe I misspelled that title last week) and No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne, Luke Daniels (Narrator) on audio.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be The Art of Violence by S. J. Rozan—I should have read this last fall, and can’t wait to finally get to it—and Next to Last Stand by Craig Johnson, George Guidall (Narrator) on audiobook.

Blank Space

What about you—reading anything good?

Down the TBR Hole (25 of 29+)

By HCNewton

On April 7, 2021

In Books, Down the TBR Hole, News/Misc.

Down the TBR Hole
Okay, I’ve pulled another batch of 50 off the list to start culling from (part of me was hoping it’d be 60, giving me a nice, round 300 as a total). These are all books that I added in the last 14 months, which I think should make me more inclined to want to read them all (unlike something from 8 years ago, my interests/tastes haven’t changed that much). But I cut the majority of this entry’s batch.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s things like that which keep my interest in this project.

This meme was created by Lia @ Lost in a Story—but Jenna at Bookmark Your Thoughts is the one that exposed me to this, and as my Goodreads “Want To Read” shelf is scarily long, I had to do this.

The Rules are simple:

Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf
Order on ascending date added.
Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
Read the synopses of the books.
Decide: keep it or should it go?
Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week! (or whenever)

What distinguishes this series from the Mt. TBR section of my Month-end Retrospectives? Those are books I actually own while Goodreads contains my aspirational TBR (many of which will be Library reads). The Naming of the two is a bit confusing, but…what’re you going to do?

(Click on the cover for an official site or something with more info about the book)

	Living by God’s Promises by Joel R. Beeke, James A. La Belle Blurb: The authors “draw from stellar Puritan treatises on divine promises by Andrew Gray, Edward Leigh, and William Spurstowe, and offer them in contemporary language for today’s readers. [I]t will help you treasure the promises that God establishes in Christ and conveys in His covenant love to comfort you in sorrow and strengthen your faith.” My Thoughts: Good idea for a book, the Table of Contents appeals to me. But I’ve been underwhelmed with the last few books I’ve picked up by Joel Beeke. Now, Beeke has been of tremendous help to me in the past, and it feels wrong to not want to read a book from him. But I think I’d better wait for something from him that I feel compelled to read, if that makes sense. Verdict:
	Red Noise by John P.Murphy Blurb: “Red Noise is the story of an asteroid miner who just wants to be left alone. But when she arrives at Station 35 to sell off her cargo, she finds the place a disaster area, run into the ground by competing gangs and crooked cops who are happy to cheat her out of every last credit too…It has sword fights and cheap booze and grenades and cranky old guys throwing insults and very few nuclear weapons.” My Thoughts: A Western/Japanese Samurai movie set in space. How do you say no? Verdict:
	A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White Blurb: “A washed-up treasure hunter, a hotshot racer, and a deadly secret society…on a race against time to hunt down the greatest warship ever built. Some think the ship is lost forever, some think it’s been destroyed, and some think it’s only a legend, but one thing’s for certain: whoever finds it will hold the fate of the universe in their hands.” My Thoughts: I don’t remember what podcast I heard someone talk about this book on. Nor do I remember who was talking about the book, or really what they said. What I do remember, very distinctly, is the impression that I had to read it. The description sounds like something I might like. If for no other reason than to maybe see what it was that I responded to from my first exposure, I need to get this. Verdict:
	The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Blurb: Prequel to The Hunger Games, you may have heard of it. My Thoughts: I ordered this weeks (months?) before it came out, because I have a finely-honed instinct to do that with anything involving The Hunger Games. And it’s been sitting on my shelf since it arrived. I have absolutely no motivation to open it up. I think I’m done with Panem, I really don’t give a rip about Snow–I assumed I would (and I’m probably right) once I got a few chapters into it. I’m not saying I won’t get around to it one day, but for now, it’s gone. Verdict:
	The Wild by Owen Laukkanen Blurb: “Dawn isn’t a bad person–she’s just made some bad choices: wrong guy, wrong friends, wrong everything. But she wasn’t expecting her parents to pay a boatload of money to ship her off to OUT OF THE WILD, a wilderness boot camp with a bunch of other messed up kids to learn important “life lessons.” It’s true that Dawn and the other cubs will learn a lot–but it’s not what any of them expect. Because what happens in the woods isn’t what their parents planned. Sometimes plans go very wrong. And this is one of those times.” My Thoughts: If Owen Laukkanen it will be compelling, it will be tense, taught, and well-executed. But…nothing about this grabs me. Similar to his book about a disaster at sea (or something along those lines). Verdict:
	Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas, Alison Layland (Translator) Blurb: “For hyper-particular publishing heir Jonathan Grief, the day starts like any other—…all it takes to put a crimp in his routine is one small annoyance. Someone has left a leather-bound day planner with the handwritten title Your Perfect Year in his spot on his mountain bike at his fitness course! Determined to discover its owner, Jonathan opens the calendar to find that someone known only as “H.” has filled it in with suggestions, tasks, and affirmative actions for each day. The more he devotes himself to locating the elusive H., the deeper Jonathan is drawn into someone else’s rich and generous narrative—and into an attitude adjustment he desperately needs.” My Thoughts: It feels very Fredrik Backman meets Dash & Lily. Or something like that. I saw this referenced somewhere last year and picked it up. Just need to get around to it. Verdict:
	Burn by Patrick Ness Blurb: Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum My Thoughts: It’s Patrick Ness, so it’s going to be good. Also, there’s a dragon. But something about description leaves me apathetic. Convince me I’m wrong about this one, readers. Verdict:
	The Faith Machine by Tone Milazzo Blurb: The team goes “to Africa to retrieve the Faith Machine. Built by the Soviets to turn prayers into suffering, the psychotronic device fell into the hands of a demented warlord. Tragically, the mission fails and the madman slaughters hundreds of innocents while the machine burns…While spy agencies from around the world want retribution for the catastrophe in Africa. Park’s team outplays enemies left and right, while uncovering the true threat. There’s another Faith Machine, one destined to bring hell on earth.” My Thoughts: This is another that I wish I could peg down what introduced me to the book. I can see the appeal–psychic Specical Agents. But the premise of this particular novel isn’t going to be something I enjoy. Verdict:
	Broken Genius by Drew Murray Blurb: “In 2011, Will Parker, the young prodigy CEO of a big tech company makes a coding mistake that costs a college student her life. To assuage his guilt, Will pursues a career in the FBI Cyber Division. Now, Special Agent Will Parker is called to investigate a murder scene at a Comic-Con event in the Midwest, where the victim has ties to a radioactive quantum computer that Will was working on before he left his gig as CEO…Will discovers the victim was holding an auction for the computer on the Dark Web—and the bidding is still live.” My Thoughts: I remember linking to a post by Murray last year about the use of tech in thrillers in a Saturday Miscellany. I liked what he had to say about that and want to see how he applies it. Verdict:
	The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad by Mike Birbiglia, J. Hope Stein My Thoughts: There’s probably some pretty funny stuff in this collection of Birbiglia’s stories of parenting a young child mixed with his wife’s poems about the same events. But my gut tells me the balance of this book is going to be something I’m not satisfied with. Verdict:

Books Removed in this Post: 6 / 10
Total Books Removed: 143 / 290

Anyone out there read any of these books? Did I make the right call with any of them?

(Image by moritz320 from Pixabay)

Saturday Miscellany—4/3/21

By HCNewton

On April 3, 2021

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

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:
bullet Library E-Book Bill Advancing in Maryland—am not sure this is the best way to address the issue (not sure it isn’t, either)
bullet Douglas Adams’ note to self reveals author found writing torture—Good piece about Adams, but an absolute garbage headline. Anyone who knows anything about Adams doesn’t need that revealed. Tantamount to headlines like, “George RR Martin Procrastinates,” “Don Winslow Has a Thing or Two to Say About the Drug Trade,” or “David Rosenfelt Features a Dog in his Next Book.”
bullet How Hank the Cowdog Made John R. Erickson the King of the Canine Canon: He wanted to become a serious literary novelist, like Faulkner or Hemingway. Fortunately for millions of Hank the Cowdog fans, he failed.—I never understood the appeal, but I know many who got it. Interesting feature about Erickson (who I did not realize was still publishing).
bullet Why are there so many book summary apps?—Something else I’ve never understood the appeal of (even if I drew the same conclusions as this post). Worth it for the last paragraph.
bullet Why Do So Many Novels Feature Golden Retrievers?
bullet To wait, or to buy. A look at the impact those who wait to buy and binge-read series can have on the book writing business.—Great post.
bullet So, You Want to Start a Book Blog…—FanFiAddict’s David W. has some good thoughts for people thinking of diving in
bullet The Expectations We Put On Ourselves as Book Bloggers—she wrote this so I didn’t have to. I’m not sure if it was just the encouragement I needed this week or if it served as the excuse I could use to produce so little 🙂

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to josbees andrtslaywood who followed the blog this week.

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK XVIII., iv. – vii.

By HCNewton

On April 2, 2021

In Fiction, Fridays with The Foundling, General Fiction/Literature

Fridays with the Foundling
We’re in the last book, nearing the end of the novel and therefore ehhhhhh-verything is going to be revealed. And things at Mrs. Miller’s are busy for Squire Allworthy this day.

Square, who the reader may remember as the less-religious tutor for Tom and Blifil is dying, and has got real religion. Now has been driven to confess to everyone he can think of to clear his conscience and hopefully make things right.

As part of this effort, he sends a letter to Allworthy, in part, he states:

Believe me, my friend, this young man hath the noblest generosity of heart, the most perfect capacity for friendship, the highest integrity, and indeed every virtue which can ennoble a man. He hath some faults, but among them is not to be numbered the least want of duty or gratitude towards you. On the contrary, I am satisfied, when you dismissed him from your house, his heart bled for you more than for himself.

Allworthy also gets a letter from Thwackum, having heard of the murder accusation, who goes on and on about Tom’s villainy—and tries to get Allworthy’s support for a job. Allworthy’s a little shaken by this, but not that much.

But wait, there’s more.

We then discover that Allworthy’s lawyer, Dowling, was one of the men Nightingale talked to at the alehouse when he got the truth from Fellamar’s goons about the attempt to press him into the Navy via this trumped-up charge. Nightingale assumed Dowling was there, like he was, to gather information to help Tom. Allworthy is stunned by this news. Blifil explains it away—over the outspoken skepticism of Mrs. Miller.

Patridge stops by right then to update Mrs. Miller, but Allworthy corners him and

asked him many questions concerning Jones, as to his health, and other matters; to all which Partridge answered, without having the least regard to what was, but considered only what he would have things appear; for a strict adherence to truth was not among the articles of this honest fellow’s morality or his religion.

Allworthy then gets everyone to leave and speaks frankly with Partridge, accusing him of being Tom’s father. Partridge denies it, ” he was no more the father of Jones than of the Pope of Rome”. It’s at this point that Mrs. Waters shows up, and things get really interesting.

Also, it should be noted that by now, that anything that Mr. Square has said has quite been forgotten.

Partridge calls on Mrs. Waters to be a witness—if anyone can state definitively that he’s not the father, it has to be the mother, right? But, no. She flat out states that’s not the case (which will greatly relieve Tom, I’m sure)

I’m not really going to try to summarize what says:

“I am not his mother; nor would I now think myself so for the world….So far what I confest,” said she, “was true, that these hands conveyed the infant to your bed; conveyed it thither at the command of its mother; at her commands I afterwards owned it, and thought myself, by her generosity, nobly rewarded, both for my secrecy and my shame.” “Who could this woman be?” said Allworthy. “Indeed, I tremble to name her,” answered Mrs Waters. “By all this preparation I am to guess that she was a relation of mine,” cried he. “Indeed she was a near one.” At which words Allworthy started, and she continued—“You had a sister, sir.” “A sister!” repeated he, looking aghast.—“As there is truth in heaven,” cries she, “your sister was the mother of that child you found between your sheets.” “Can it be possible?” cries he, “Good heavens!” “Have patience, sir,” said Mrs Waters…all suspicions were afterwards laid asleep by the artful conduct of your sister, in pretending ill-will to the boy, and that any regard she shewed him was out of meer complacence to you.”

The hits keep coming. The reason she showed up wasn’t to drop that bomb on everyone, but this—she’s been approached by someone thinking she was Mrs. Fitzgerald. As such, she might be interested in someone coming along to give financial aid for the prosecution of Tom. Who was this less-than-scrupulous man?

Mr. Dowling, of course. Things are not looking good for him.

This section really goes with Fielding’s promise to not give us a whole lot of fancy writing or anything with flair anymore—just the events. That’s all we got. Nothing clever, just a lot of exposition. And a lot of things to chew on. I really miss the flavor of the previous 17 books, but if he’d kept that up, Fielding would’ve taken at least 7 or 8 chapters to give us as much exposition as he did in these four.

The Friday 56 for 4/2/21: Prodigal Storm by Kate Sheeran Swed

By HCNewton

On April 2, 2021

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice

RULES:
The Friday 56 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:
Progigal Storm

Prodigal Storm by Kate Sheeran Swed

(yup–I’m finally finishing the trilogy!)

…the full blast of the mocking tone still hit him in the chest. As if he’d been the one to hurt her.

“I could kill you right now with my bare hands,” she continued. “Or a kitchen knife, or the Edinburgh I’ve got strapped to my hip. You’re already trusting me.”

An old quote about protestations and truthfulness floated into his mind, a passage his Laura would have appreciated.

A Few Quick Questions with…Robert Germaux

By HCNewton

On April 2, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Before I get to the questions, I have to say that I’m surprised that we haven’t done one of these before–I did post a Q&As with Germaux as part of tours for Hard Court and One by One, but those questions came from the tours. I’m glad I finally got the chance to ask these few questions.

We’re talking about Small Talk and the Daniel Hayes series today, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug the Jeremy Barnes books, too. Where did Jeremy come from, and what would readers want to know about him before they dive in?
Jeremy is my alter ego. As I often tell people, other than the fact that he’s younger, smarter, taller, stronger and has way more hair, you can hardly tell us apart. As for what readers should know before they dive into a Jeremy Barnes mystery, well, JB (a high school English teacher in a previous life) can quote Shakespeare as quickly and easily as he can land a mean left jab, has an irreverent sense of humor and a definite soft spot in his heart for life’s underdogs.

But before you gave us Jeremy, you published Small Talk and introduced us to Daniel Hayes and his team. What was the inspiration for that series and Hays in particular?
Actually, I wrote three books about Jeremy Barnes before I wrote Small Talk. I held off putting those three books on Amazon because my agent at the time had hopes of finding a traditional publisher for them. While he was doing his best in that ultimately unsuccessful endeavor, I came up with the idea of a serial killer novel. Since I couldn’t see a private detective hunting a serial killer as effectively as a police detective who had all the tools of a large urban police department at his disposal, I created my Daniel Hayes character.

Daniel’s not a lone-wolf detective like Bosch or Rebus, he comes with (and works within) a team. While being more realistic isn’t the typical choice for Detective Fiction—why did you make that choice? Talk about the team a bit.
I wanted Daniel to work with a small group of people with diverse backgrounds and talents, a team that could bounce ideas off each other as they searched for the killer. Writing their interactions allowed me to show my readers how the investigation progressed from one level to the next as they closed in on that killer. Each member of the team brings something different to the table. Ted has a long history in local law enforcement, Samantha’s a respected city cop with an FBI contact who helps them in their hunt for the killer, and Henry’s a young suburban cop with great instincts. Together, Daniel (a former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates) and his team are a classic example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Take a moment and compare the two series—what are the limitations and advantages to writing a lone PI and a Police Detective?
Interesting question, H.C. I’ve never really thought about these two series that way. I guess the advantage to writing my Jeremy Barnes books is that I’m able to focus solely on JB’s determination to solve the case, by whatever means necessary, whereas Daniel has to be aware of the legal constraints imposed upon him by the system within which he works. Both he and JB will ultimately get the job done. It’s just that they sometimes take different paths to get there. Again, great question.

Both of your series are based in Pittsburgh, a city that I honestly don’t think I’ve read novels set in before. Is that one of your reasons behind choosing it? What is it about the series that draws you—and why do you think it’s ignored in favor of LA, New York, Boston, Chicago, etc.?
The easiest answer to this question is that old adage: Write what you know. While I’ve been fortunate enough to visit many far-flung locales, from Tahiti to Paris to Rome, I’m a yinzer at heart, born and raised in Pittsburgh. I find the city’s wealth of diverse neighborhoods, from the Oakland area (home to both Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh) to the Hill District (site of many of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle of award-winning plays) to be a treasure trove of fascinating people and places for my novels. The other cities you mentioned do, indeed, get more attention in terms of settings for books, probably because they all have that big city “panache,” but I think we’re seeing more and more books and, especially, movies being set in and around Pittsburgh.

In addition to your mysteries, you’ve put out some humor collections, and two “General Fiction” (for lack of a better term) novels. Are there genres you wouldn’t want to try? What is it about Mystery novels that brings you back to them?
I wouldn’t try to write anything in the horror or supernatural genres. Although I know they’re enormously popular, and I definitely acknowledge and applaud the writers who are successful in those literary categories, I’ve just never been bitten by that particular bug. As for my love of mysteries, it probably goes back to my childhood, when I couldn’t get enough of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I devoured those books.
Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I’ve recently invented). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Small Talk?
Any of the Spenser novels written by Robert B. Parker, along with Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole books and Harlen Coben’s Myron Bolitar mysteries.

What’s next for Robert Germaux, more Jeremy Barnes, Daniel Hayes, or do you have something else up your sleeve?
I just finished Grammar Sex 3, my third book of humorous essays (I like to call them my Grammar Sex Trilogy), so that will be out soon, along with Leaving the LAW and Speak Softly, two of the early Jeremy Barnes novels. And just recently, I finally figured out the plot for a sixth JB book, so I’ll be getting to work on that.

Thanks for your time and these answers, and I hope both the Jeremy Barns and Daniel Hays books have enough success that you can keep going with them!
Hey, H.C., this has been fun. Thanks!

WWW Wednesday, March 31, 2021

By HCNewton

On March 31, 2021

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

Here we are at the end of the month—and before I start seeing what I accomplished around here, let’s check in with a WWW Wednesday, all right?

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?