Category: Saturday Miscellany Page 10 of 25

I didn’t have a lot of time on the InterWebs this week, which leads to a small miscellany. ¯_ (ツ)_/¯ C’est la vie. But I did enjoy these pieces and think you will, too.

No New Releases caught my eye this week, which is good—I am literally 2+ weeks behind this year (and it’s the second week of February!!!), I don’t need the temptation.

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:
Banning books in the land of the free
What books hate most in readers.—I can’t read the story this is in response to (but the headline and subtitle make me think I’d have enjoyed it), but this is a fun post.
Can Detective Novels Withstand the Moonlighting Curse?—Seasonally appropriate, even if I dispute the existence of said curse.
The Many Levels of Mystery: ‘Whodunnit?’ to ‘Whydunnit?’ and Beyond (this is about much more than mystery or crime writing)
Reading Ireland Month is Coming—If I’ve heard of this before, I’ve completely forgotten it. Sounds like a fun idea. Head on over to 746 Books to check it out.
For the love of wild romance—Outside of the lack of Eames-appreciation, the only things wrong with this post is that it isn’t longer and published somewhere more eyeballs won’t land on it.
Let people enjoy their books how they see fit—it’s truly ridiculous that this needs to be said. But since it does (repeatedly), at least it’s said well.
5 Misconceptions About YA

The kind of activity by a Publisher (Indie or not, but an Indie has more freedom to do) that deserves attention:
We don’t want your money honey. Seriously, we don’t.—Fahrenheit Press points to some great charities to help earthquake victims in Syria & Turkey and will be donating all profits from their store this weekend, too.

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:
A New Way to Read Gatsby—huh…
The art of exclamation marks!—Huh!!
For a Mystery Novel, How Much Sex Is Too Much Sex?—I think this is a pretty good way to think of it from the author’s POV. From the reader’s, too.
There’s Nothing Wrong With Anyone’s Personal Library—even without the response to a certain link I shared last week (the one Peat described as “incredibly smugly middle-class”), this is a good read.
Best of the Best: 2015 to 2022—Like the Stephen Writes I linked to recently, I’m impressed that anyone is capable of compiling a list like this.
Why I Believe It’s Important to Clearly Indicate the Age Category of Books
Why Adults Love Young Adult Fiction
So, You Own a Tiny Human. How About Some Book Recs?—I could go broke from this post alone…95+% of these look great
The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie- A Mom/Son review—I love the idea behind this!
I don’t know why I’ve never thought of doing something like this, but I might have to in ’24: Authors I wanna give a second chance to in 2023 and Try Again Authors for 2023

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen—I have no idea what this book is about, and want to go into it blind. I just assume it has something to do with Vampires. Probably some family drama, too. It’s from Mike Chen, that’s enough to put it at the top of the TBR.
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano—single mom, novelist, and definitely-not-an-assassin Finlay Donovan gets into more hijinks involving a killer, the Russian mob, and her nanny.

This is a shorter and very eclectic collection for you this week. Hope you enjoy.

I didn’t see any New Releases to tempt you with this week—you’ll have to find someone else to add to your TBR pile–did I miss something I should’ve listed 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:
Reading is precious – which is why I’ve been giving away my books—I appreciate where Cosslet is coming from, but I’m not that good of a person
Adventures in Not-Writing—one writer’s journey through not-writing
Real Shit and Book Shit with K.R.R. Lockhaven—a great interview with friend-of-the-blog K.R.R. Lockhaven
The Enduring Appeal of the Teen Detective: From books to TV, why we keep going back for more young gumshoes
Asian Sleuths—Slueths & Sidekicks (a site I need to spend more time on) has a nifty list of Asian Detectives/Detective-type Characters. I’d read a decent percentage of this list, which surprised me—also it’s probably a sign that we need more Asian Detective stories.
Crime Fiction Heroes: To Age or Forever Young?—Not surprisingly, Paul Levine comes down on the “To Age” side (I do, too, and have thought of a piece like this for forever…maybe I don’t need to now)
Molly Templeton asks (and offers some answers), What Makes a Story Comforting?
Why the SF Canon Doesn’t Exist—I’m not sure I buy all of Duke’s conclusions and reasoning. But I appreciated this piece and will probably keep chewing on it.
The Chronicles of Prydain Overview by Jason Dodge—I will read about Prydain any day, and I liked this overview enough that I wish it was 2-3 times longer.
My A-Z Of Books – A—Steven Writes commemorates their 5 year anniversary by kicking off a series of “all of the most significant things for each letter, such as the authors and books I have read; the most memorable characters I have come across, and the most captivating settings” from A to Z. Daunting project that will result in some great reading for those of us who don’t have to compose it.
Our Engagement With Book Reviews—this is why I don’t look at individual post engagement 🙂
On Good and Bad Books—Peat Long takes an interesting route to defining a good book (I think I agree, too, for what it’s worth)

Let’s start with a question that I’ve been meaning to ask for a bit–can any of you readers suggest US-based book bloggers who focus on (to some degree or another) on Crime Fiction? I was recently asked for some suggestions but both attrition and time have whittled down those that I follow to be almost entirely UK-based bloggers. (nothing wrong with that, but it skews things)

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:
American book reading statistics for 2022 and 2023 (complete USA survey data)—I was pretty surprised by some of these stats (and wonder about the truthfulness of some of the self-reporting, but I usually do). Big thanks to David Leonhardt for dropping by to share this with me.
I wish Amazon had been honest about why it’s sunsetting AmazonSmile—it’s not technically about reading, but…it’s close enough. I’m with this writer, when I got this email, I smelled something.
Mystery Writers of America Announces 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominations—I haven’t read nearly enough of these
Does Historical Accuracy Matter in Historical Fiction?: With fiction, the answers are never quite so simple.
TBRCon2023—the all-virtual sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention, streams live from Jan. 22-29, 2023. There’s some really appetizing programming coming up (and the early panel that went up Wednesday is one I definitely have to check out)
2023 Blogging Goals: The Year of Playing Catch Up—this is probably the smartest list of blogging/reading goals I’ve read for this year. I need to remember to steal this next year.
Speaking of smart things I need to steal, Peat Long continues to think and write well about genre. The most examples are this week’s On Sci-Fantasy and Approaching Genre and Horizontal and Vertical Genres: A Concept
Book Reviews vs. Beta Reading
Let’s Talk Bookish: Collecting Books
Five Year Blogging Anniversary – Top 10 Books—5 Years is a good milestone, but I’m more impressed by the fact that Stephen Writes was able to come up with a Top 10 over that timeframe.
I really appreciate this thread from John Palladino about liking things from “bad” people. I’ve tried to write something like this before, but ended up messing it up.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Killer Story by Matt Witten—Theoretically, a story about a journalist launching a podcast to solve the murder of an estranged friend (and save her journalistic career). But it ends up being more than that—including becoming one of the best Crime Fiction novels I read last year. Here’s my take on the book.
Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh—Sherriff Bree Taggart has to deal with more murder and shenanigans. This time involving an internet dating site.
Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart by Jen Sookfong Lee—a “memoir-in-pieces that uses one woman’s life-long love affair with pop culture as a revelatory lens to explore family, identity, belonging, grief, and the power of female rage.”

I don’t know about the rest of you, but my 2023 reading has started off strong. If things keep up at this rate 2023 is going to be fantastic (I don’t expect it, but it’d be nice).

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:
5 Ways To Be a Healthier Reader in 2023
It turns out that people don’t want a coloring book based on a novel about domestic abuse.—I’ve never read Hoover, but I’ve watched a little of back and forth about her work lately. My jaw dropped, though, when I saw that there was going to be a coloring book based on the book. I’m so glad things worked out this way.
So I was wrong last week when I predicted I was at the end of the 2022 wrap-ups that I wanted to share. Here are two more:
2022 : The ones that got away—I liked this idea enough that I almost came up with my version, but decided it’d be too depressingly long.
My end of year stats for 2022: late, of course.—love the graphs…
In Search of New Reading Rituals
What to expect in 2023, according to science fiction—what a fantastic idea…
Between Utopia and Dystopia: the Mixtopian Borderlands—Mixtopian is a word I’m going to be adding to my vocabulary (maybe? I mean, I hope to…it’s a nifty category)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper—the author’s name should be enough, but if you need more…”a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in” tries to discover who gunned down her boss.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett—A charming and cozy(ish) Victorian Fantasy, that I really can’t sum up in a sentence or two. Maybe you’d be better off reading my post about it from last month.
Early Grave by Paul Levine—Jake Lassiter’s last case has him facing off against High School Football. It’s a heckuva ride, as I talked about earlier this week.
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire—I’d say this wasn’t your typical Wayward Children book, but is there a typical one? I just finished this last night and it’s likely one of my favorites in this series. Heart-wrenching, tense, and full of beautiful sentences—with a couple of nice cameos from books in the series.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Blue Bell and jason Lee who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

Running a little late today, it’s been a weird day. (also, I have a bumper crop of links today)

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:
Last week, I linked to a short list of the new works that have entered the Public Domain this week. Here’s a couple of better lists from Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain and LitHub
Please, let this be the strangest story in publishing for the year. I’m not sure I can take anything worse. A romance author returned to social media after faking her own death in an apparent book-promotion ploy: ‘I simply want my life back’. Michael Gallagher’s substack has a good overview and some responses from the author
AI-Narrated Audiobooks at Apple Books, reports The Guardian and The Verge
Yesterday was Sherlock’s Birthday: Happy 169th Birthday, Sherlock Holmes—I particularly enjoyed reading how they came up with the date.
What Can We Learn from Barnes & Noble’s Surprising Turnaround?: Digital platforms are struggling, meanwhile a 136-year-old book retailer is growing again. But why?
37 Years Later, We’re Still Living the Nightmare of White Noise
Good Company: Mickey Haller and the Enduring Appeal of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’
What I’ll Be Doing In 2023—Benedict Jacka outlines the way the rest of the year will (hopefully) go, featuring the release of his new series!
Are we really going to start disinfecting our used books?—really??
And a few more (probably the last?) Best of/Year in Reviews for 2022:
The damppebbles Top Ten(ish!) of 2022
2022 in Review: Reading Stats & Year in Review—Reader Voracious goes crazy with the stats
Goodbye 2022! The best reads of my year plus stats!—from Runalong the Shelves
The Orangutan Librarian shares My Reading Stats for 2022 – A Bookish Overview!
Bookforager’s 2022 Progress Report
Top 10 Books Read In 2022 from Peat Long’s blog. You should also check out the 2022 Peaties
Reader@Work’s Year in Review: A Look Back at 2022
Mike Finn’s My Twelve Best Reads in 2022
Kerri McBooknerd’s 2022 Reading Wrap Up
Best Reads of 2022 —from Jo Linsdell
In case you’re looking for inspiration for 2023, here’s a few ideas:
My 2023 Bookish Intentions—from Never Judge a Book by its Cover
Fi’s Bibliofiles sets out to Slay the Series
A Look Ahead at 2023—for Reader@Work
The Case for Touching All Your Books
Quenby Olson has given us all a justification for collecting unread books
5 Middle Grade Books For Adults
Top 10 Humorous Science Fictions for 2023
My Love Affair with Words

A Little Help for Our Friends:
Caffinated Beverages—the new online home for Jeremy Billups art and books. Check it out!

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Thing in the Snow by Sean Adams—”a thought-provoking and wryly funny novel—equal parts satire and psychological thriller—that holds a funhouse mirror to the isolated workplace and an age of endless distraction.”
Courage under Fire : Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6 by Steven A. Sund—the former Chief of the Capitol Police talks about the fateful day

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Aditi Kundu, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

So here we are at the end of 2022. Before my neighbors start blowing things up and terrifying one of my dogs (I’m so glad the other has lost most of her hearing), why don’t I bring you this week’s Miscellany? Things take a dark turn early on (death and decline), but we get celebratory soon enough, never fear.

Thanks for reading this (and whatever else you’ve read here lately)! Hope you enjoy your New Year’s Eve (or whatever you call today wherever you are). See you in 2023.

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:
Public Domain Day: 9 Noteworthy Titles To Look Out For—A quick look at some of the bigger titles entering Public Domain tomorrow.
Louise Penny sets the record straight on the ‘cozy mysteries’ myth
An Interview with Jordan Harper, Dark Poet of SoCal—If there’s a polar opposite of Penny, it might be Harper. I’m looking forward to reacquainting myself with him soon.
The best reading skill no one ever taught you—take this with whatever size grain of salt you want, but I thought it was interesting enough to pass along
Death of the Author: Reading, Respect, and Reverence—this didn’t go the way I thought it would based on the title. I like his thinking.
Death, Rites, Lore, & More: How do various fantasy books look at these things?—one of those things you read and wonder why you never considered it before…(someone needs to do a sequel or five with other authors/books)
Thoughts on Long Career Authors and Decline—Ignoring the fighting words about Butcher, I liked chewing on this from ol’ Peat
How Do You Decide What to Read Next
Book Quotes to Love in 2022—There are some really good lines here
Harlan Coben got a thread of one-star reviews going on Twitter this week. There are some great ones here. Something for me to aspire to.
We’ve got some more great Best of ’22 lists to embiggen your TBR Stacks (I could pretty much fill the first six months of ’23 with what I’ve picked up from these lists lately):
Ramona Mead’s The Best Books I Read in 2022
The Orangutan Librarian gave us Just Some of the Great Books I Read This Year and My Top Ten Books of 2022!
Books of the Year, 2022!—from
Chicks,Rogues and Scandals
Top 22 Reads of 2022—from Fi’s Bibliofiles
My ’10’ Favourite Books of 2022 & My Book of the Year—from Beneath A Thousand Skies
TCL’s Top Ten Favorite Books of 2022
The Belgian Reviewer’s My top 10 favourite books of 2022
Best Books of 2022!—from Jennie Reads (I did just take a quick break to go order one off this list)
One other atypical category from Steven Writes The Best Settings I Read In 2022—seriously, his lists this year make me feel dull and uncreative while I plan mine.
Okay, maybe we should start looking at 2023 now, eh? (we’ll get back to 2022 next week I assume) with the 2023 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template—a few years ago, I gave up my spreadsheets for this fantastic tool. I don’t use it fully, but I like what I do use.
Now, what to fill that spreadsheet with? Here’s a couple of great list of Reading Challenges, if you’re thinking of trying 1 or 20:
65+ Fun Reading Challenges for Adults 2023
The 2023 Master List of Reading Challenges
I’ll share the Challenges I’m doing next week (probably), but I wanted to highlight a couple I found on these lists that I particularly liked. Great creativity went into these:
2023 We Didn’t Start the Fire Reading Challenge
Read Your Bookshelf Challenge—(I might give this one a try, just for the novelty of the approach)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Vinyl Resting Place by Olivia Blacke—A nice little cozy set in a family record store, the series has promise. I talked about it a bit earlier in the month.

Several of you are dealing with frigid temperatures, some are dealing with power/heating issues, but hopefully even more of you are in getting an extra day or two off from work and maybe even getting to enjoy some time with friends and family. (Please, please, let the verb be “enjoy” and not something less pleasant.) Anyway, I hope you’re having a good one and are able to stay warm enough for whatever you’ve got going on this weekend.

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:
We’re drowning in old books. But getting rid of them is heartbreaking.
Lit Hub has collected the Biggest Literary Stories of the Year: 50 to 31, 30 to 11, and the Biggest 10
How a Great Audiobook Narrator Finds Her Voices
Shop Talk: The Year in Review—I’ve really enjoyed seeing behind-the-scenes with Eli Cranor’s series this year. Here, he looks back on the last year of Shop Talk.
Six Classic Books That Live Up to Their Reputation
We’ve got some great Best of ’22 lists to embiggen your TBR Stacks (I’m taking notes off of these and am starting to worry about the number):
CrimeReads posted 9 different lists this week (so I’m not going to provide individual links), and all of them have some great stuff.
LitReactor has enough staff that it took two posts to get theirs up. The Best Books of 2022 – Part I and The Best Books of 2022 – Part II
These are favorite book characters in 2022, read and published in 2022.—favorite characters might be a better idea than favorite/best books.
Top Five Most Dramatic Twists I Read In 2022—not only a great idea for a list, but the way Stephen writes about them without giving anything away is pretty impressive. Ditto for his Top Five Most Dramatic Twists I Read In 2022.
Favourite Reads of the Year – Stand-alone Edition!—another clever approach
Top 12 Reads of 2022
Weird, wonderful, and under-the-radar books that Jane Alice NEEDS you to read—Not necessarily reads from this year, but some great recommendations from a local bookseller
I Read 365 Books This Year And Here Are My Recommendations For Your Highly Specific Needs—I didn’t want this to get lost in the rest of the list, because…wow.
How Do You Measure a Year in Reading?—Unsurprisingly, this post by Molly Templeton has a lot of wisdom and food for thought.
Let’s Talk About Reviewing—the 1000th post on Queen’s Book Asylum has some good thoughts on reviewing
10 Fun Ways To Choose Your Next Read—I’ve tried several of these already but looking to use some more of them.
PSA: How To Read 100+ Books A Year—for those who aren’t introspective misanthropes like the Bookstooge, he has some handy tips.
What Challenges are you setting yourself for the New Year?

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Elias, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

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:
Before we turn the page on 2022 Idaho, let’s talk about how books were in the ‘eye of the hurricane’—local public radio looked back at the book-related controversies in the state this year
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest “Winners” for 2022—these winners and Dishonorable Mentions are all worth your time, but I’m going to have to insist that you all take a moment to read the Children’s Lit & YA entries.
The Ultimate Guide to 35 Popular Book Genres—I’m not certain that Reader’s Digest can speak that authoritatively on this, but this is pretty solid.
Legally bookish: Reese Witherspoon and the boom in celebrity book clubs
Here are a few more Best of ’22 lists to embiggen your TBR Stacks:
You can sod off, 2022, but leave the books please—from Criminal Minds (the blog, not the CBS show)
Top Five Powerful Books I Read in 2022—an interesting approach to the idea
The 13 Best Literary Adaptations of 2022—from LitHub
14 Authors Share the Best Books They Read in 2022—from NetGalley’s blog
Operation 2022: Success! (Or Favorite Books From this Year)—from Witty and Sarcastic Book Club (so much temptation!)
The 103 Best Book Covers of 2022—I love this post every year on LitHub, so many pretty pictures…
How to Plan for Your 2023 Reading Challenge—It is the time of year for this project…some good advice from NetGalley’s blog
Self-Education Project Part Two: The Extended Great Books Reading Plan—or you could take this approach…zowie
Speaking of advice here’s some more: Bookish Gift Ideas #1 and Bookish Holiday Gift Ideas—likely too late for Giftmas or whatever you celebrate. But good for the rest of the year, too
746 Books is 9 today!—746 Books turned 9 this week and Cathy reflects on her Quixotic project.
While I Was Reading announced an end to their well-deserved and understandable hiatus: Welcome Back
QOTD: Do you use bookmarks? I do, just not actual ones. Here are some weird/random things I (and my daughter) use!
5 reasons why we love morally gray characters and 5 books that feature them

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (and, for the second week in a row, a couple that I missed recently):
Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood—Pentecost and Parker are hired by a mystery writer to find the killer who keeps lifting their method of killing from her short stories.
Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes—Fred the Vampire Accountant spends a semester as a college professor. Sure, why not? I can see him really enjoying that. I just doubt he’s going to get to spend too much time teaching.
Destructive Reasoning by Scott Meyer—a serial killer targeting actors playing Dr. John Watson. Sounds like a case for the Authorities! (because their funding source is about publicity first and crime-fighting second) I didn’t think we’d get a second novel featuring this team, so this is just gravy to me.

It’s that magical time of the year…the Goodreads Choice Award Winners have been named and everyone is griping about it. Haven’t read any of the winners, but this year’s crop looks better than the last few, IMHO.

Running late today, so that’s all the introduction you get (I can hear the cheers now). On with the links!
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:
‘I want to savour every word’: the joy of reading slowly—Sounds great. I honestly don’t think I’m physically capable of it.
I’m sure most of you saw this tweet where a disappointed author vented about the small showing at a reading and then got all sorts of encouragement from all sorts of authors—it’s a great thread and then it got picked up a whole lot of news outlets (like NPR).
Now You Too Can Bake Like Emily Dickinson This Holiday Season—I’m not sure why anyone would want to, but…
The gift that actually does keep on giving.
How Edgar Allan Poe Reinvented American Literature – and Science Writing
Don’t Kill the Dog—an author reflects on that cardinal rule
10 of the Best Gifts for Book Enthusiasts (That Aren’t Books)
#R3COMM3ND3D2022 The After Show Party #BookBlogger—a quick recap and look back at this great series
It’s December, which means it’s time for Best Of lists…where people tell you about all the books that you heard great things about but didn’t get around to:
Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2022
The Best Crime Novels of the Year: 2022 from CrimeReads
My Top 10 Reads of 2022! from Out of This World SFF
Everything Counts As Reading
I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie: Six Alternative Uses for Shelf Bending Novels—Paul Goat Allen has some great tips
Here’s how I view negative reviews
Quotables: Words that Stuck with Me in 2022—Witty & Sarcastic Book Blogs shares great lines from this year’s reading

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Blood Brothers Podcast Episode 114 with Andrew Child—this great conversation makes me wish I liked his contributions to the Reacher canon more.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (and one from last week I thoughtlessly overlooked):
The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington—a comic collection of interviews with various Fantasy heroes that looks like a lot of fun. Check out this here review for a better (and informed) take on it.
Bodacious Creed and the San Francisco Syndicate by Jonathan Fesmire—the third installment in this Steampunk/Western/Zombie Adventure series is out and looks like a good ‘un
My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby—Cosby’s first book has been reissued and I’m kicking myself for not hunting it down after Blacktop Wasteland.
Gone edited by Stephen J. Golds—30 pieces of short crime fiction from a great-looking lineup of writers
The Perception Of Dolls: The Fantoccini Street Reports by Anthony Croix, edited by Russell Day—I’m not even going to try to summarize this. Just click the link. It’s Russell Day and Fahrenheit Press, ’nuff said.
Grit, Black, Blood by Ashley Erwin—another one I don’t think I can summarize in a sentence or two (without reading, anyway).