Books - The Irresponsible Reader

June 2025 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

On July 4, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

There we go…fairly timely and everything.

In June, I read 22 titles (1 down from last month, 2 down from last June), with an equivalent of 6,416 pages or the equivalent (302 down from last month), and gave them an average of 4.2 stars (.5 up from last month).

One note that means something only to me. I can’t quite see how this month’s selection for the Science Fiction Book Club counts as SF, so that’s why there’s a goose egg in the chart below (I put Station Eleven under “General Fiction.” Feel free to convince me I’m wrong in the comments).

So, here’s what happened here in June.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Still Reading

Ratings

		Average =	4.18
	6		0
	2		0
	10		0
	2		0
	2

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2024	3	68	78	167	10
1st of the Month	3	76	87	171	12
Added	2	1	11	4	2
Read/ Listened	0	1	6	0	5
Current Total	5	76	92	175	9

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 18
Self-/Independent Published: 4

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	0 (0%)	6 (4%)
Fantasy	4 (18%)	18 (16%)
General Fiction/ Literature	5 (23%)	18 (16%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	6 (27%)	26 (29%)
Non-Fiction	2 (9%)	23 (21%)
Science Fiction	0 (0%)	12 (13%)
Theology/ Christian Living	2 (9%)	12 (13%)
Urban Fantasy	2 (9%)	11 (10%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	1 (0%)	1 (1%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Dark Neon & Dirt by Thomas Trang: Pressure’s High Just to Stay Alive ‘Cause the Heat is On
The Core of the Christian Faith by Michael W. Goheen: How (and why) to Be Salt and Light Today
Return to Sender by Craig Johnson: The Misadventures of the World’s Worst Undercover Sheriff
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C. S. Lewis: A Portrait of a Reader/Thinker as a Young Man
A Graveyard for Heroes by Michael Michel: The Canvas is Bigger, but the Intensity Remains.
The Great Gatsby: Alphabetised Centennial Edition by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Chris McVeigh: A Classic Reorganized
The Amazing Twin Chicken Freedom Fighters by Zephaniah Sole: The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized
I See You’ve Called in Dead (Audiobook) by John Kenny, Sean Patrick Hopkins: Friendship and Funerals
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis: Do you listen to the angels on the outskirts?

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

2025 WWW Wednesday—July 2, 2025

By HCNewton

On July 2, 2025

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

It’s July already. Can someone help me put the brakes on 2025? I saw this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, so it must be true.
On July 2, 2025, we will officially reach the halfway mark of the year. At that point, we'll be closer to the year 2050 than to the year 2000.
That’s the kind of thing that makes you want to run into the comforting distraction of a book, isn’t it?

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman	No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy, read by Jessica Almasy

I’ve been kicking myself for waiting so long on this new Arthurian tale, and I still am. But I’m cutting myself some slack because I actually am reading it. I just might finish it today, too. It’s so good folks, if you’ve slept on it like I have–quit it.

No One Leaves the Castle is just silly fun, and Almasy is a perfect narrator for this one. I needed something like this book this week.

What did you recently finish reading?


The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos	How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by (and read by) Ryan North

Hopefully, you’ll see a full post on the Borgos book here tomorrow. But basically, it’ll make fans of Books One and/or Two very satisfied. And will likely convert anyone new to the series.

North’s book is the perfect combination of snark, information, and odd-as-all-get-out trivia. I don’t know how to explain it.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt	Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

An Andy Carpenter prequel, eh? Never thought I needed to know anything about the time before Open and Shut (yeah, no dog related puns–how odd!), but now that it’s here–I’m pretty curious.

Just in time for Rivers of London #10’s release next week, I’m tackling #9 on my revisit.

You doing anything to celebrate Friday night (in the U.S., anyway), or will you be cuddled up with a book and some headphones to block out the noise?

20 Books of Summer 2025: June Check-In

By HCNewton

On June 30, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, Fantasy, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

A quick check-in for this Reading Challenge hosted by Emma of Words and Peace and Annabel from AnnaBookBel (you can read more about it here). I don’t typically like to do this kind of thing until the first of the next month, but since I doubt that I’ll read 500 pages today, I figured I might as well get this up since I won’t be able to finish the post I initially planned for today. So, I’ve read 1 1/6 books for this challenge (hopefully 1 1/2 by the end of the day). It’s not the most auspicious start, but I’ll take it (and I’ve had worse starts).

So here’s the list:

1. The Lords of the West End by Peter Blaisdell
✔ 2. King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
3. Mississippi Blue 42 by Eli Cranor
4. Guard in the Garden by Z. S. Diamanti
5. Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson
6. The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
7. Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
8. Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
9. Sabriel by Garth Nix
10. Lirael by Garth Nix

11. Abhorsen by Garth Nix
12. Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation by Jim O’Heir
13. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by Jason Pargin
14. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
15. A Tail of Mystery by Paul Regnier
16. Samurai! by Saburo Sakai with Martin Caiden and Fred Saito
17. The Crew by Sadir S. Samir
18. When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
19. Remarkably Bright Creatures: Shelby Van Pelt
20. Leveled Up Love by Tao Wong & A. G. Marshall

(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

On the other hand, I’m doing pretty well with my Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge)

1. Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch
2. Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic
3. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
✔ 4. The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos
5. Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

6. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
✔ 7. The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart
✔ 8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
9. Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue by Spencer Quinn
10. Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt

Okay, if you think it as a percentage, I’ve read 14% of the books I called my shot on for the summer. Again, inauspicious. July promises to be a good one for reading—I hope/expect that I’ll be looking better in 31 days.

(and no, I don’t see a conflict between this and the Orangutan Librarian’s recent post about competitive reading. This is me comparing myself with my goals, or my past self, or—worst of all—my expectations.

20 Books of Summer '25 Chart June Update

May 2025 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On June 28, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I know, this is incredibly late, but I need to get this out of the way before I can start June’s wrapup in a couple of days. I’m also aware that almost no one cares about this stuff–but I’ve come to find that it really helps me think about how I’m spending my time. And, occasionally, someone sees something interesting in one of these posts. So, I continue to press on.

What did may look like from 50,000 feet? I finished 23 titles (1 down from last month, 3 up from last May), with an equivalent of 6,718 pages or the equivalent (496 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.7 stars (.1 down from last month).

So, here’s what happened here in May.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to












	7
		1

Still Reading


</a

Ratings

		Average =	3.73
	2		1
	2		0
	4		0
	7		0
	4

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2024	3	68	78	167	10
1st of the Month	3	76	88	171	11
Added	3	1	5	0	5
Read/ Listened	1	1	6	0	4
Current Total	3	76	87	171	12

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 18
Self-/Independent Published: 5

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	0 (0%)	6 (5%)
Fantasy	2 (9%)	14 (13%)
General Fiction/ Literature	4 (17%)	13 (12%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	6 (26%)	23 (21%)
Non-Fiction	6 (26%)	21 (19%)
Science Fiction	2 (9%)	13 (12%)
Theology/ Christian Living	1 (4%)	11 (10%)
Urban Fantasy	2 (9%)	9 (8%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	0 (0%)	1 (1%)

Review-ish Things Posted

The Ten Commandments by Cornelius Van Til: A Brief Look at the Law
Good Trouble by Forest Issac Jones: Marching toward Victory
Hive by D. L. Orton: A Wild Time Travel Ride
Class Clown by Dave Barry: A Chuckle-Filled Peek Behind the Curtain
Rift by Cait West: An Important and Moving Story, That Didn’t Completely Work for Me
Kaua’i Storm by Tori Eldridge: A Thriller + So Much More
Killer Conversations with Rex Stout and John McAleer: Ridiculously Fun (and insightful, too, if you’re into that sort of thing)

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th),and 31st), I also wrote (and/or posted):

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

Saturday Miscellany—6/28/25

By HCNewton

On June 28, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I get it…publications need to make money to pay authors, but man…too many things I had set aside for today’s list were behind them. Rats. Still, found a few things for the budget-strapped amongst us.

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 “Bookworm, Cliché, Deadline…” And Other Unexpected Etymologies
bullet Former Auburn football player turned novelist to receive top state literary award
bullet The 144 Most Read Books of the 2025 Reading Challenge (So Far)
bullet Jim Butcher WRITES WOMEN WELL?—this interview made me crack up (just the rules laid out at the beginning make this worth it)
bullet What a Five-Star Review Means to Me—this is really close to my thoughts, phew, one thing I don’t have to write
bullet Competitive reading needs to calm down—indeed
bullet Captivating Characters of June—Another tantalizing entry in this series. I have my pick for the month (like I have every month I haven’t participated), will I get something put together? Oooh, the suspense.
bullet Monthly Manga Mania Featuring Firsty Duelist: Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba—if I read enough of Firsty Duelist’s stuff, I’m hoping I can convince my kids I’m fluent in Manga.
bullet Who’s moving to Germany with me—never been more tempted to emigrate

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson
bullet The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
bullet And I mentioned the release of one book I read and two books I don’t ever remember hearing about (probably my loss) The Cartel by Don Winslow; Tin Men by Christopher Golden; and The Leveller by Julia Durango

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Wraith and the Revolution by A.J. Calvin—was in my notes for last week, but I somehow overlooked it. It’s still available, believe it or not, however. This SF novel looks great.
bullet Bookish Words & Their Surprising Stories by David Crystal—this also came out last week, but I didn’t know about it until I read the excerpt linked above.
bullet The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart—this sequel to last year’s Assassins Anonymous is just dynamite, as I’d have written convincingly if I’d found the energy this week. Just take my word for it (or nag me until it shows up on the blog)
bullet Pride and Pompousness by Katie Cook—the third volume in her Nothing Special series follows up the story from Vol. 2, where the appearance of a long-lost heir (our pal, Declan) threatens the succession of power in fairy royalty.

2025 WWW Wednesday—June 25, 2025

By HCNewton

On June 25, 2025

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

Oh, hey…time for this post…

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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos	How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by (and read by) Ryan North

Unless the next 80% of this book goes off the rails in a big way, Borgos has locked himself a spot in my TBRs for years to come with this one.

Say you’re a time traveler stuck in the past and you need to recreate civilization–but by cheating, because you don’t want to have to do the trial and error bit, North’s book is exactly what you need.

What did you recently finish reading?


Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel	False Value by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

I’m stunned by Station Eleven, it seems beyond good. I’m not sure exactly what Mandel was trying to accomplish there (still working on that), but that book is a doozy.

False Value was just as fun as I remembered–but the pacing was different than I expected. It just threw me a little bit from time to time–you’re doing X already? When is Y going to happen? etc. Memory is a funny thing, eh?

What do you think you’ll read next?


The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman	No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy, read by Jessica Almasy

I’ve been curious about Grossman’s take on Arthurian legend since I first heard about it–time to put the curiosity to an end. Past time, really.

It’s been a dog’s age since I spent time with Healy, this book looked like a good excuse to fix that.

How are you closing out June? Also, how is it the end of June already?

Saturday Miscellany—6/21/25

By HCNewton

On June 21, 2025

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 Could the Semicolon Die Out? Recent Analysis Finds a Decline in Its Usage in British Literature and Confusion Among U.K. Students
bullet Why Read: Seven Books About Our Passion and Need for Reading
bullet Books About Books: Why We Write Them and Why We Read Them: On the charms of the bookish mystery.
bullet While we’re on the topic, Carol at Reading Ladies posted this check-in yesterday: Bookish Books
bullet Bad People, Good Art—James Lloyd Dulin wrote a very good guest post on a (sadly) evergreen topic. I think he’s onto something with his approach, FWIW.
bullet My School Experience Barely Seems Reflected in Books
bullet Maggie Stiefvater’s The Subtle Terror of Rereadability and the joys of turning pages slow, not fast might be the best thing I read online this week (says a life-long fast page turner)
bullet Places with Teeth: Genius Loci and The Living Worlds of Speculative Fiction—Which isn’t to cast aspersions on Tabler’s work here (would love her to revisit this in an expanded version)
bullet Coffee Table Books- Books You Can Dip into and Savour in Small Sips—you can never have too many of these around (sadly, due to my grandkids, dogs, and lack of coffee-table mean that mine are tucked away on shelves)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Schmudgeon of Curmudgeon talked to JCM Berne (video link/audio link)—they covered a lot and had a lot of fun. Berne may have convinced me to revise my opinion of the opening of Wistful Ascending, too. (I think that means that I have nothing bad to say about the book at all)

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz
bullet Crossed Blades by Kelly McCullough—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea by Helen Lewis—”a timely and provocative interrogation of the myth of genius, exploring the surprising inventions, inspirations and distortions by which some lives are elevated to ‘greatness’ – and others are not”
bullet I Think I’m in Love with an Alien by Ann Aguirre—A “quirky sci-fi rom-com” where “alien meets adorkable” looks like silly fun. Which sounds really appealing right now.

2025 WWW Wednesday—June 18, 2025

By HCNewton

On June 18, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., 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?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby	Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart, read by Patricia Rodriguez

I sort of feel like I should be holding my hands in front of my eyes as I read King of Ashes, the book starts dark and doesn’t lighten up. The three primary characters keep doing things I know are going to end horribly. But I can’t look away.

Actually, the same could be said of Stewart’s book. Even if she’s only 1/3 right, anyone reading this is going to lose some sleep.

What did you recently finish reading?


How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle	The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Marisa Calin, read by Aubrey Hartman

Dayle’s Civil War satire was a heckuva read. Not sure how I’ll manage to say something about it. But will be trying soon.

For an MG fantasy, Calin’s book was pretty dark. Also cute and heart-warming. Which is a fun combo, you have to admit.

What do you think you’ll read next?


The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart	False Value by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

More from the Assassins Anonymous world? Yes, please

I’m picking up the pace on my Rivers of London revisit, so False Value is next. As I recall, some of my favorite lines of the series here.

What are you reading this week?

Saturday Miscellany—6/14/25

By HCNewton

On June 14, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

A small list this week, with an accidental (but appreciated) focus. I clearly didn’t spend much time online this week.

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 The Real Jay Gatsby: Did F. Scott Fitzgerald model his titular character after his real-life Princeton school-mate?—huh.
bullet S.A. Cosby’s newest book was released this week, and I’m enjoying all the interviews/features I’ve run across. For example:
bullet S.A. Cosby on “King of Ashes,” Crime Epics, and the Softer Side of Monsters—Kowlakowski’s interview/look at the book (I’m going to have a hard time not stealing from this when it comes time for me to post about the book)
bullet Southern Culture on the Skids: S.A. Cosby’s King of Ashes—that first sentence should give Cosby’s readers pause.
bullet S.A. Cosby’s New Thriller Blends Southern Noir with Family Drama
bullet The Ultimate Summer 2025 Reading List: Sun, Fun, Math, and Counting—I really enjoy LitHub’s Lists of Lists like this
bullet In civilized nations that do things like this, June is National Crime Reading month. In honor of that Raven Crime Reads (one of my favorite accounts to follow) is posting a recommendation a day in the genre. Follow this thread and you will find more good books to read than you can handle (or you can enjoy when your tasts match up with Raven’s well-developed palate)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet The Conversation with Nadine Matheson Coffee Break with S.A. Cosby: King of Ashes—a fun chat about Cosby’s new book (and a little more)
bullet The Thriller Zone Why You Shouldn’t Miss Thomas Trang’s Debut: Dark Neon Dirt

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest (Kali Ciesemier, Illustrator)
bullet Paw and Order by Spencer Quinn
bullet The Fold by Peter Clines
bullet Premonitions by Jamie Schultz

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet A Graveyard For Heroes by Michael Michel—as my dialogue coach Trent would say, “It is so money, baby.” This is the second of five installments in the Dreams of Dust and Steel series that is likely to end up on my all-time favorites list.
bullet King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby—hey, did I mention that Cosby has a new book out? Southern Crime and Family drama come together and bring us something dark—and likely spectacular. Hopefully I get to start this bad boy today. If not, Monday can’t come soon enough.
bullet Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall—the writer/creator of Broadchurch‘s first novel looks like a great time. (if you’re into moody, dark, police procedurals)

REPOST: Quick Fire Fantasy Book Tag

By HCNewton

On June 12, 2025

In Alex Bledsoe, Book Tag, Books, Chronicles of Prydain, Fiction, News/Misc., Nicholas Eames, The Band, The Blackwood Saga, Tufa

I’m not going to finish the post today that I meant to put up yesterday. So…let’s look at this again (all but the third prompt are still valid). I’ve been thinking a lot about the Fantasy genre. Might as well keep the trend going…

I saw this over at Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road, and it seemed like a fun way to revisit some Fantasy Favorites, and indulge in a bit of nostalgia while I was at it.

Play along, will ya?

Rules:

Thank the person who tagged you and link back to their post
Link to the creator’s blog (thebookwormdreamer.wordpress.com) in your post
Answer the prompts below – all fantasy books!
Tag 5 others to take part
Enjoy!

5 star book

The Lies of Locke Lamora
I’ve read this at least 4 times and love it more each time. A Con Novel, a Heist Novel, a story of Found Family and vengence gone wrong (and, right, if you think that’s possible). I can’t get enough of Book I of the Gentleman Bastard Sequence. It’s fun, it’s suspenseful, good fight scenes, and characters you want to spend more time with.

Oh, and the fantasy world is pretty cool, too 🙂

(I have a very short post about it here)

Always going to recommend

The Chronicles of Prydain

The Chronicles of Narnia made me a Lewis fan. The Chronicls of Prydain turned me into a Fantasy fan (which is why I had to use the covers I owned as a kid). Yeah, it’s written for what we’d call today a Middle Grade audience, but when I listened to the audiobooks a year or two ago (or when I read them to my kids a decade ago), I thought it was just about as effective as you could hope. A little bit of fun, a dash of romance, a hero quest straight out of Campbell, a decent amount of magic (but not too much), a good mythic basis—and a oracular pig! It’s also probably the series that taught me that you’ll end up having emotional attachments to characters to the extent you may get teary about when they die and/or say good-bye to each other (and, yeah, did as an adult).

(my posts about the audiobook series)

Own it but haven’t read it yet

Bloody Rose

I tried to read this last year, and failed. I’m hoping to read it this year, and am likely to fail. I less-than-three’d Kings of the Wyld (in print and audio) so much, I don’t know why I haven’t made the time for the sequel.

Would read again

The Brothers Three

The first of The Blackwood Saga is everything I loved about portal fantasies as a kid—but it’s written for adults. Some good characters, a good amount of growth (especially in the later books in the series), good fight scenes and a pretty cool world to explore. This worked for me in ways I didn’t expect—and the sequels have done a good job building on this one. I’ve yet to read the newest in the series, but this one feels like a good comfort-read if I needed one.

(my post about this one)

In another world

The Warlock in Spite of Himself

(I probably would’ve gone with Brooks’ The Magic Kingdom for Sale, but Bookstooge beat me to it in his post).

I honestly remember very little about this novel, despite having read it several times. But the last time was probably in 1990-91. I was able to find a couple of the later novels in the series, too—just not enough for me at the time (I probably could now—yay, Internet). Still, somehow this is what sprang to mind when I thought of a fantasy on another world. A cool combination of SF and fantasy, as I recall.

Back on Earth

The Hum and the Shiver

(and the rest of the series, too, but this is good enough—as good as many series hope to be in itself)

A magical people with amazing musical talent in the Smoky Mountains, dealing with modernization, an Iraqi war vet, and a feud going back generations. I’m not a believer in magic, but Bledsoe makes me want to with these books—this is the best of a great series, and thinking about it now has got me thinking it might be time for read #4 of this one.

As for the tagging . . . nah, I’ll just leave this open to all my readers, I’d love to see what you all would put here. (W&S Book Club, here’s another chance to talk about The Dragonlance Chronicles—you’re welcome)

Category: Books Page 14 of 159

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

You doing anything to celebrate Friday night (in the U.S., anyway), or will you be cuddled up with a book and some headphones to block out the noise?

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

How are you closing out June? Also, how is it the end of June already?

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you reading this week?

Rules:

5 star book

Always going to recommend

Own it but haven’t read it yet

Would read again

In another world

Back on Earth