Category: Books Page 109 of 160

Saturday Miscellany—3/14/20

I crashed hard last night minutes before I was supposed to write my Fridays with the Foundling post (which means I didn’t do the reading for next week’s, either). But apparently, I needed it.

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 9 Ways to Support Your Independent Bookstore During Coronavirus—Yeah, I agree, many of the ways Americans are reacting to this are silly. But small businesses (and those who work for them) are getting hit hard. If I talked about things other than books, I’d talk about helping them. But I don’t. So, here, go help a bookstore.
          bullet Need cheering up right now? Try reading a romance novel: Bestseller Milly Johnson calls the genre ‘aloe vera on anxious lives’ – and it has kept me going sometimes. Here are my favourites to swoon over—I won’t be doing this, but I appreciate the approach.
          bullet How Flawed is Acceptable?—I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get the same result as this Book Riot piece does, but it’s a good thing for people to talk about
          bullet When Not to DNF—This Book Riot piece, on the other hand, I think is a pretty good approach.
          bullet Why Slow Reading Is Perfectly Okay: The author of Do Nothing calls for enjoying words as a luxurious meal, rather than a hurried buffet.—Sure, as someone who can’t stop obsessing about how much/little I read in a month, this may seem hypocritical, but Headlee is on to something here. I should probably try her book…
          bullet Jeremy Billups—I’ve talked about his children’s books (click here), and now you can read them for free (before buying them and helping the guy out, is what I’d recommend).
          bullet Did I miss the announcement that this is Historical Fiction Week? I kept stumbling across things about it, like: Adventures in Historical Fiction: History is Everywhere (And Full of Surprises)
          bullet And: How historically accurate does historical fiction have to be?—Personally, I like extremely accurate, or not at all. The stuff in the middle annoys me.
          bullet And again (sure, same blogger, but…) Some Fun Alternative History I Actually Like
          bullet BOOK TROPES—A Fangirl gives her Personal Opinions…most of which I agree (especially the Miscommunication bit…). However, when done really, really well, I won’t complain about any of these.
          bullet Where I’ve Been—the Tattooed Book Geek took a breather recently and talks about it here.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
          bullet The Guardian’s books podcast featured Ben Aaronovitch on Rivers of London—great interview

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
          bullet Dead Wrong by Noelle Holten—Her arrest led to his conviction and imprisonment already, so why are his victims dying now? I blogged about it yesterday
          bullet Madam Tulip and the Serpent’s Tree by David Ahren—Derry and Madam Tulip dip their toes into a pop musician’s life and find a whole lotta trouble. I blogged about it Monday
          bullet The Starr Sting Scale by C.S. O’Cinneide—A retired(?) hitwoman helps the police. I talked about it on Tuesday.
          bullet Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole—”The Coast Guard must prevent the first lunar war in history”. Cole brings his real-world experience in the Guard to SF in what looks to be a great read. I couldn’t even to begin to guess when I’ll talk about this.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to imyril, KetoJENic Vibe, Shreya Roychoudhury, tiffosaur, *Flora*, posssumpapaya, and Shayleene MacReynolds for following the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

WWW Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Hey, it’s that day after Tuesday and before Thursday–must be 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 Peasy George & Weezy, no?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading Dead Wrong by Noelle Holten (so different than the first in the Maggie Jamieson series, but just as good) and am listening to The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, James Cameron Stewart (Narrator)—Pro Tip: don’t start that audiobook on a day when you’ll be interrupted at work 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Never a good way to start an audiobook, but with this one, it’s worse than normal.

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished C.S. O’Cinneide’s The Starr Sting Scale and my last audiobook was Venators: Magic Unleashed by Devri Walls, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator).

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be The K Team by David Rosenfelt (as part of my great NetGalley Catch-Up). I’m not sure what my next audiobook will be. Maybe Cursor’s Fury by Jim Butcher, Kate Reading (Narrator).

Hit me with your Three W’s in the comments! (no, really, do it!)

Top 5 Saturday: Trilogies


The Top 5 Saturday weekly meme was created by Amanda at Devouring Books.

Rules!

  • Share your top 5 books of the current topic—these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
  • Tag the original post (This one!)
  • Tag 5 people (I probably won’t do this bit, play along if you want)

This week’s topic is: Trilogies. I immediately wrote down three of these, and then thought a bit and came up with 8 more. I whittled those down to five—the ones that had the biggest impact on me/my development as a reader. I left a lot of good candidates out, but at the end of the day, these are the biggies for me. I’ve read them all multiple times (except #4, honestly—only read that twice), and would gladly do so again tomorrow (well, okay, in three weeks, am too busy in the meantime).


The Foundation Trilogy
by
Isaac Asimov

Hari Seldon, uber-mathematician, creates a new science combining mathematics and social sciences to predict (and shape) how humanity will react to the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire. He uses this science to come up with a way to shape the future, helping humanity survive the challenges on their way. I read this sooo many times in high school—for years it served as the ruler by which I judged all SF. Also, other than his Black Widowers mysteries, my favorite works by Asimov.

Yeah, there were a couple of sequels (not nearly as good) and other related works, but these were a trilogy for so many years, I have no problem ignoring the others.


The Deed of Paksenarrion
by
Elizabeth Moon

Wow. This is just…wow. Rather than submit to the arranged marriage her father has planned, Paksenarrion, takes off and joins the army. Eventually is trained and recognized as a Paladin. A fantastic hero’s journey that I wish I remembered more of. I remember being blown away by it and hating that the trilogy ended.


The Barrytown Trilogy
by
Roddy Doyle

Can I talk about these in less than 1500 words? These books focus on the Rabbitte family in Dublin. The first chronicles the oldest son’s attempts to launch his career as the manager of The Commitments, the second is about the very unplanned pregnancy of the eldest daughter (and her father’s struggle to accept it—followed by his outrageous pride for the kid), and the last focuses on the father’s attempt to provide for his family after he becomes unemployed by opening a chip van (a precursor to today’s food truck obsession). They’re all as funny as you could hope, full of hope, sadness, and love. I’m getting excited just by writing this snipped about them.


The Dragonlance Chronicles
by
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning were my obsession in eighth grade—one I shared with as many people as I could. I’m pretty sure the fantasy I respond to today is the fruit of these books. And I’m totally okay with that. Say what you will about the quality of these, they hold a special place in my heart (right above the cockles, near the blockage on the right)


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy
by
Douglas Adams

Was there any doubt? I can’t stop talking about Adams/This Trilogy (see my Annual Towel Day posts, for example). From the moment I read the first chapter (three or four times before I moved on to Chapter 2) to the point when I heard the radio series to getting the planet icon tattooed on my arm to today and all points between. This Trilogy has been at or near the top of my list, and will stay there for a long time to come.

I maybe should’ve added Colfer’s 6th volume, but…I decided to go old school.

Saturday Miscellany—3/7/20

I knew this week was a busy one and that I hadn’t had a lot of downtime for goofing around/finding stuff for this post (yeah, the two go hand in hand). But I was pretty surprised when I pulled up the list of things I saved to My Pocket this morning. This is going to be a tiny post. Also, today ended up mirroring the week in the way I couldn’t actually do anything beyond look at that list until now. I now realize that this is on the verge of becoming one of those rambling intros a food blogger puts before they cough up the recipe.

So, without further ado (and I had a bit in mind), here are the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    I didn’t see any New Releases this week that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon—w00t! A chance to make progress on the old lists!

Thoughts at the beginning of March

I liked doing a post like this last month so I’ll try it again.

I’ve done one Book Tour already this month with two to go (including this week), and with 3 or 4 books I’ve received from authors (most of which are a hold-over from last month, I must admit).

Something I don’t do often (and it’s been years since I did), but am glad to have happening: I’m doing one book tour for an audiobook and reviewing an AARC (is that what you call an Advanced Audiobook?), I’ve listened to the AARC and IT.WAS.AWESOME.

There are 4 books I’m doing tours for/promised an author I’d read this month (plus one from December that I thankfully didn’t give a firm commitment to).

And then, as I said four weeks ago (it’s literally the same sentence and graphic)–My NetGalley Shelf needs to get cleaned out this month:

Lastly, I have A Blight of Blackwings, The Border (paperback), and Imaginary Numbers still taking up space on my TBR shelf.

It feels like this year has gotten out of my control already–and I know with the way the ol’ day job is looking for the next 3 months, I bet I’ll still be talking about a lot of these books as upcoming reads in early April. So much for having fun with this post, just elevated my blood pressure instead…

That aforementioned audiobook got me thinking yesterday. Here it is March 3, and I’ve already got 4 things I fully expect to show up on my 2020 Best of non-Crime List and a strong contender (or two) for the Crime Fiction list. This is insane. If this trend continues, I won’t be able to produce a Top Ten, but I’ll have read so many great things, I won’t really care.

February 2020 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

The short version: 17 books, 5715 pages, 3.6 Average. The same number of books as January, a thousand (or so) more pages (not sure how that worked), a decent average rating. Things are ramping up at work for a couple of months, and I’ll be stunned if my numbers don’t slim down a little until June. All in all, a pretty decent month (unless you compare what I did to my February Plans post…but we can ignore that, right?)

So, here’s what happened here in February.
Books Read

A Beginning At The End Bloody Acquisitions Burn the Dark
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
House on Fire Academ's Fury QualityLand
3.5 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Hi Five Hidden Steel The Gene Wizards
4 Stars 2 Stars 2 Stars
Shadow of the Batgirl Lies Sleeping Every Day Matters
3 Stars 5 Stars 3.5 Stars
Highfire God Save the Child Dark Harvest Magic
4 Stars 5 Stars 3 Stars
Madam Tulip and the Serpent's Tree Venators: Magic Unleashed
4 Stars 4 Stars

Still Reading

Tom Jones Original Cover Institutes of Christian Religion vol 1 The Identity and Attributes of God
The In Between False Value

Ratings

5 Stars 2l 2 1/2 Stars 0
4 1/2 Stars 1 2 Stars 2
4 Stars 6 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 2 1 Star 0
3 Stars 4
Average = 3.6

TBR Pile
Mt TBR January 20

Breakdowns
“Traditionally” Published: 10
Self-/Independent Published: 7

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 0 (0%) 1 (3%)
Fantasy 4 (24%) 7 (19%)
General Fiction/ Literature 0 (0%) 3 (8%)
Horror 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Humor 0 (0%) 1 (3%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 5 (29%) 11 (31%)
Non-Fiction 0 (0%) 2 (6%)
Science Fiction 3 (18%) 3 (8%)
Steampunk 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Theology/ Christian Living 1 (6%) 1 (6%)
Urban Fantasy 4 (24%) 8 (22%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
I had a post that I was very excited about, but everytime I tried to write it, it went off in another direction than I wanted and I couldn’t get it back in line. Maybe next month, maybe it’s (another) one for the Trash Heap. On the successful side, other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th Sat), I also wrote:

How was your month?

Saturday Miscellany—2/29/20

I had high hopes for output this week, but didn’t get to them all. Nor did I get to surf around as much as I’d expected. C’est la vie—but I got extra sleep this week (that I apparently needed, about a bonus night’s worth). Still, we’ve got some good odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    This Week’s New Releases I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • False Value by Ben Aaronovitch—I’m about 1/3 of the way into the new Rivers of London novel and it’s a doozy! Good jumping on point for those wanting to check out this series.
  • Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire—the latest InCryptid novel is 1. the thickest so far, 2. features Sarah (who we haven’t seen enough of for…years, I guess), making it 3. a sure-fire win.
  • The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold—” A former soldier turned PI tries to help the fantasy creatures whose lives he ruined in a world that’s lost its magic.” ‘Nuff said. (for me, anway, if you want a bit more, check out this post from The Witty & Sarcastic Book Club)
  • Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore—a young woman starts experiencing her life at random ages.
  • Finna by Nino Cipri—a couple of minium-wage employees on an adventure across the multi-verse.
  • Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold—a promising looking modern Red Riding Hood retelling.
  • For many not in the US Fifty-Fifty by Steve Cavanagh came out this week. But because I’m envious of them, I’m not going to provide a link to it. It’s a childish and useless gesture, I realize. But if I have to wait a year+ for this book, they’ll have to wait that long to get a link from me.


Top 5 Saturday: Books Inspired by Mythology


The Top 5 Saturday weekly meme was created by Amanda at Devouring Books.

Rules!

  • Share your top 5 books of the current topic—these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
  • Tag the original post (This one!)
  • Tag 5 people (I probably won’t do this bit, play along if you want)

This week’s topic is: Books inspired by Mythology. Which you’d think would be super-easy—and it was fairly easy—but coming up with a fifth took a little more work than I expected.


Bad Blood
by
Lucienne Diver

An Urban Fantasy featuring a strong, snarky, female PI who doesn’t believe the family legend that she’s descended from Pan and Medusa. But when Apollo himself shows up to hire her, she starts to come around . . . I admit I don’t remember a lot of this (I read it 7 years ago), but it was one of the first I thought of when I decided to do this list and I do keep asking myself why I never got around to reading the rest of the series.


American Gods
by
Neil Gaiman

Honestly, not my favorite Gaiman (maybe on a second read that’d change). But man, there are passages in this book that are pure magic. Epic in scope, but filled with fantastic characters, and Gaiman’s prose, you can absolutely understand why it’s beloved and so widely-read.


The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
by
Douglas Adams

Unless I read something I cannot recall, this was the first book I read that made use of mythological characters in a contemporary setting. I absolutely loved the idea and wondered why more people didn’t do that. Clearly, they do (just see the rest of this post and the others posting on this theme today), but at the ripe old age of 15, it was revolutionary to me. Odin, Thor, Loki and a few other Norse dignitaries are flitting about London and the area, inflicting damage, killing innocents, and driving nursing home staff crazy. Throw in Dirk Gently and Adams at his best and you have a killer read.


Hunted
by
Kevin Hearne

Members of five (I think) pantheons show up in this book—in what’s probably Hearne’s finest use of them all. A good story for Atticus, Oberon, and Granuaile (Oberon has his best dramatic moment, as I recall) aside from that, but a great way of blending the various pantheons into the Iron Druid’s world. One of my Top 2 in the series.


The Lightning Thief
by
Rick Riordan

How can you have a list like this and not include this book (or one of the legion it spawned)? The book that started a craze and gave Riordan the ability to quit teaching. This set the template for all of Riordan’s myth-inspired books (be it Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Norse mythology) and is just fun (unlike some of the latter books which got a bit preachy and tedious). It’s not quite Potter-level of fame/influence, but it’s the closest we have in the States, a nice collection of kids, a creative way of brining myths to the 21st Century, and a rollicking good time.

Down the TBR Hole (2 of 24+)

Down the TBR Hole

Back for Round Two!

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:

  1. Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf
  2. Order on ascending date added.
  3. Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
  4. Read the synopses of the books.
  5. Decide: keep it or should it go?
  6. 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)

Monster Hunter Vendetta Monster Hunter Vendetta by Larry Correia
My Thoughts: I read and enjoyed Monster Hunter International years ago, probably would’ve jumped on this follow-up if my library had a copy of it—or if I’d had the cash for it then. I liked International enough, and have heard primarily good things about the rest of the series. Gotta give it another shot.
Verdict:
Thumbs Up
City of the Sun City of the Sun by Daid Levien
Blurb: A P.I. with a dark past hunts for a missing child.
My Thoughts: I don’t remember what attracted me to this. Looks perfectly decent, but I have so many mysteries that I know why I want to read, I’m going to pass on this.
Verdict:
Thumbs Down
Unicorn Precinct Unicorn Precinct by Keith R.A. DeCandido
My Thoughts: See what I said about Monster Hunter Vendetta.
Verdict:
Thumbs Up
Jack Reacher's Rules Jack Reacher’s Rules by Lee Child
Blurb: “…this one-of-a-kind book compiles timeless advice from maverick former army cop Jack Reacher, the hero of Lee Child’s blockbuster thrillers…”
My Thoughts: Why haven’t I read this yet?
Verdict:
Thumbs Up
Two Pints Two Pints by Roddy Doyle
Blurb: “Two men meet for a pint in a Dublin pub. They chew the fat, set the world to rights, take the piss… They talk about their wives, their kids, their kids’ pets, their football teams and – this being Ireland in 2011–12 –about the euro, the crash, the presidential election, the Queen’s visit.”
My Thoughts: Doyle going the comedic route? (which is what it seems like) A sure-fire win. (and there are two sequels…)
Verdict:
Thumbs Up
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
Blurb: “Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He’s been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends. But Budo feels his age and thinks constantly of the day when eight-year-old Max Delaney will stop believing in him. When that happens, Budo will disappear.Max is different from other children. Some people say he has Asperger’s, but most just say he’s “on the spectrum.” None of this matters to Budo, who loves Max unconditionally and is charged with protecting him from the class bully, from awkward situations in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom stalls. But he can’t protect Max from Mrs. Patterson, a teacher in the Learning Center who believes that she alone is qualified to care for this young boy.

When Mrs. Patterson does the unthinkable, it is up to Budo and a team of imaginary friends to save Max—and Budo must ultimately decide which is more important: Max’s happiness or his own existence.”
Verdict:
Thumbs Up

A Ticket to the Boneyard A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
My Thoughts: The first seven of these were compelling, and I’m not sure why I ran out of gas with these. A friend has been castigating me for that choice for a few months now. Gotta get back on that horse.
Verdict:
Thumbs Up
Dixie City Jam Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke
My Thoughts: I admired and respected the first six of these more than I enjoyed them. I’m betting this would be the same. Life’s too short.
Verdict:
Thumbs Up
The Nightgown The Nightgown by Brad Parks
My Thoughts: A 32-page prequel to the Carter Ross series seems like it’d be 20 or so minutes of fun, but I can’t see me getting around to this (unless Parks writes another Ross book or two—might renew my interest, but even then…a singular short isn’t my style)
Verdict:
Thumbs Down
Trouble in Paradise Trouble in Paradise by Marcia Clark
My Thoughts: See above, but re: the Rachel Knight series.
Verdict:
Thumbs Down

Books Removed in this Post: 4 / 10
Total Books Removed: 7 / 240

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—2/22/20

Running late today, my normal time for assembling this post was taken up by a valiant attempt at a little DYI around the house. The results speak loudly about my fitness to spend my time reading and talking about books and far away from tools.

But from the better late than never department, here are the odds ‘n ends over the week about books and reading that caught my eye. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:

    A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode you might want to give a listen to:

  • Author Stories Podcast Episode 810 | Roxanna Elden Interview—I read a little about this book a few months ago (as I recall), but had forgotten about it until this great chat with Garner. I really appreciated her take on the audiobook narrator.

    This Week’s New Release that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:

  • A Deeper Song by Rebecca Bradley—the newest DI Hanna Robbins, the last two in this series have been among the best procedurals I’ve read in the last couple of years, I expect this will join the list. Bradley’s last novel is still collecting virtual dust on my Kindle, but I might read this one first.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Wednesday Reads, Eamon, Graphic Design Eye and ARJung for following the blog in some format this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

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