Category: Books Page 23 of 163

WWW Wednesday—March 12, 2025

On March 12, 2025

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

INTRO

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?


Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames	Bibliophobia: A Memoir by Sarah Chihaya, read by Traci Kato-Kiriyama

Bloody Rose has been on the top of my To Be Read pile since it was published in 2018, but I wasn’t sure it could live up to its predecessor, so I put it off, and off, and off, and off…I have to stop running from it. The first 100 pages don’t live up to Kings of the Wylde, but what does? It’s still plenty of fun (as I expected)–and there’s plenty of time for it to get better.

When this posts, I’ll be about 30 minutes into Bibliophobia, so I really don’t know much about it. But how do I not get sucked in? I mean, look at this first paragraph from the blurb:

Books can seduce you. They can, Sarah Chihaya believes, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you. And anyone incurably obsessed with books understands this kind of unsettling literary encounter. Sarah calls books that have this effect “Life Ruiners”.

This book is a memoir about her life with some Life Ruiners. I don’t know that I can think about books that way (check with me in 7 hours of this), but it sounds fascinating.

What did you recently finish reading?


Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs	Ashes Never Lie by Lee Goldberg, read by Eric Conger, Nicol Zanzarella

Breaking Bread with the Dead is another stack of reasons that I want to be Alan Jacobs when I grow up.

As I said about Ashes Never Lie last week, Sharpe & Walker + Eve Ronin = fun.

What do you think you’ll read next?


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	A Little History of Music by Robert Philip, read by Zeb Soanes

As intimidated as I was to start Bloody Rose, I’m even more intimidated by A Drop of Corruption. The first in this series is one of the two best books I read last year. I doubt I’ll say the same about this one, but I bet it’ll be in teh running.

As for A Little History of Music? Eh, I was in the mood to learn a little something. Seemed like a good fit. (although I have a few library books on hold, if one of them comes through I can remain a little ignorant a bit longer)

CLOSING QUESTION?

Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 books with a place in the title

By HCNewton

On March 11, 2025

In Books, News/Misc.

This week’s topic is, “Top 5 books with a place in the title. Any location or place in a title is fine — just share your top five with us.” I’m adding the proviso that these are the first five that I could think of with favorable memories, there are likely some I liked better (in a true Top 5 version), but these are all solid reads that tell us a lot about the location, where the place is important–even integral to the plot (which is probably why they occurred to me when thinking about place).

	The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams The universe is a place, it’s actually all the places. So it’s a good one to start with (in addition to the whole alphabetical thing). Sure, it’s kind of depressing to think of it ending, but at least you get a good meal beforehand. Even if it’s sentient, it’s at least tasty. And then you get to see all of Creation come to it’s timely end.
	Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell We go from evereything everywhere to a tiny town in England. Sure, it’s a very important town, playing a vital supernatural role–so that makes up for the change in size. It’s a cliche to describe a city as a character in a book/movie/etc. But it really is true here, still, it’s a cliche, so I won’t say it..
	6 Ripley Avenue by Noel Holten 6 Ripley Avenue is not a place anyone wants to be. Including most of the people who work there. And that’s before the murders start. It’s a probation hostel for violent criminals (for Americans, think of it as a half-way house for parolees). In addition to the staff (some of which should not be trusted, some of which should not be in this particular line of work), eight of these parolees live at the titular location. And then, as I said, people start to be killed. And the Airbnb rating really starts to tank.
	Perelandra by C.S. Lewis Yeah, the Venus we can see is beautiful (hence the whole “Venus” thing). It’s captured imaginations for centuries now. But underneath the clouds, the planet known as Perelandra is exponentially better than our wildest imaginations. You could almost call it Edenic. (arguably you should call it that). Ignore the plot if you wanted to (I’m not sure you should, but you could), the descriptions of the planet, the animal and plant life there, the geography…it’d be perfectly worth your time.
	The Black Mountain by Rex Stout Is this the best Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin novel? It’s not even in the running. But it is striking in its singularity (it largely takes place in Montenegro, near or under the shadow of the Black Mountain). It centers on regional politics, regional history, and leaves our poor American narrator out in the cold of most of the action. I really enjoy it because of the differences, at least 70% of what I know about Montenegro (particularly pre-1990s Montenegro) comes from this book (this says more about me and my education than it says about the book).

Joel and the MST3K Bots asking What Do You Think, Sirs?

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

By HCNewton

On March 11, 2025

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

I finished 25 titles (6 up from last month, 3 up from last February), with an equivalent of 6,424 pages or the equivalent (1,116 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.4 stars (.4 stars down from last month).

My late 2024 slowdown in posting continues, and I’m getting better with accepting that, while still trying to figure out how to get around it. But basically, I’m reading a lot and enjoying talking about that–that’s good enough for me.

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

Still Reading

Cover of Wisdom for Life by Michael P. V. Barrett

Cover of A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel by John Colquhoun

Cover of Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski

Ratings

		Average =	3.4
	0		3
	1		2
	7		0
	10		0
	3

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	4	68	80	168	9
Added	1	3	4	3	4
Read/ Listened	2	20	6	0	4
Current Total	3	69	78	171	9

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 20
Self-/Independent Published: 5

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	3 (12%)	9 (4%)
Fantasy	2 (8%)	9 (4%)
General Fiction/ Literature	3 (12%)	9 (4%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	4 (16%)	9 (20%)
Non-Fiction	4 (16%)	7 (16%)
Science Fiction	3 (12%)	11 (5%)
Theology/ Christian Living	3 (12%)	0 (0%)
Urban Fantasy	3 (12%)	6 (14%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)

Review-ish Things Posted

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis: His First Apologetic Work is a Mixed Bag
I Have Too Many Things to Say About Robert B. Parker’s Buried Secrets by Christopher Farnsworth
The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis: Everyone Has to Start Somewhere
Grandpappy’s Corner: Little Aiden: A Big Kid Book for Toddlers by Albert and Anna Choi, Bettina Braskó (Illustrator): Aiden’s a “Big Kid” Now (well, bigger)
Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire: Things Get Serious
Grandpappy’s Corner: Goodnight Darth Vader by Jeffrey Brown: Han Snored First
Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People by Nicholas G. Piotrowski: Looking At The Heart of the Bible’s Narrative
Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp: The Last Days of Maggie Dunn
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis: What Can Happen When a Bad Review Copy Falls Into the Right Hands
Installment Immortality by Seanan McGuire: G-G-G-Ghosts!
(slightly updated) REPOST: Buddy the Knight and The Queen of Sorrow by Peter David: A Tale of Friendship, Devotion, Bravery and Heart

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

Saturday Miscellany—3/8/25

By HCNewton

On March 8, 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 The Best Villains in Literature Bracket: Ides of March Madness—LitHub is about to crown the ultimate Villain in Lit. Vote now (if you can choose…some of these are brutal choices)
bullet Inside a Collection of ‘Imaginary’ Books
bullet The Digital Packrat Manifesto—the case for building your own digital library (and choosing your digital storefronts with care)
bullet From the Gut: A Literary History of Indigestion—Oddly fascinating piece (and you must read the footnotes)
bullet Harper To Publish New Collection of Stories and Essays by Harper Lee—Huh. Well, might as well, I guess. Probably will be better than that last published book with her name on it
bullet Turns Out, There’s a Sequel to The Westing Game—this is, no doubt, the item from this list that I’m most invested in. It’s possibly the single piece of writing I’m most invested in this month.
bullet Thomas Trang’s “Dark Neon & Dirt”: A Gritty, Twisty Riff on L.A. Noir—Nick Kolakowski talks to Thomas Trang about Tran’s upcoming book (which looks great, incidentally)
bullet Speaking of Nick Kolakowski, The Writer’s Dossier 3/3/2025 – The Nick Kolakowski interview—Kolakowski talks about things like his latest novel (which you really should read), evolving as a writer, and his experience with Craig Ferguson
bullet Tolkien Against the Grain: The Lord of the Rings is a book obsessed with ruins, bloodlines, and the divine right of aristocrats. Why are so many on the left able to love it?—pretty sure I’d have never thought about considering this
bullet A New Harper Lee Book is Being Published: Why Is There No Controversy This Time?—Brianna asks a good question
bullet Three Years of Roars and Echoes—Congrats to Lashaan! The man responsible for at least 70% of the comics/graphic novels I’ve read in the last decade, and almost all of the Tolkien from that period, too.
bullet Carol’s Captivating Character of February Link-Up—a good pick (and a good reminder for me to finalize my choice)
bullet bedsidebibliophile succinctly nails the thinking behind a 5 star rating
bullet If you don’t “awwww” at this bookstore’s story, there’s something broken in you

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Stone Quarry by S. J. Rozan
bullet Pin Action: Small-Time Gangsters, High-Stakes Gambling, and the Teenage Hustler Who Became a Bowling Champion by Gianmarc Manzione (I’d forgotten about this one, not sure I’m glad to be reminded)
bullet The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
bullet I talked about the release of: A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly; Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs; Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire; Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne; and Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster): Life Lessons and Other Ravings from Dave Barry by Dave Barry

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp—Domestic thriller, a look at grieving and preparation for death, and a rollicking good time. I raved about it recently (and will do so again at the drop of a hat)
bullet Cold Iron Task by James J. Butcher—I have no idea what this third Unorthox Chronicle is about, because I can’t let myself be tempted, I just have too much to do. I’ve even loaned it to a friend just to get it out of the house so I can focus on some other things.
bullet Guard in the Garden by Z. S. Diamanti—A cozy fantasy about an injured Dwarven soldier finding his second act. If this is half as charming as it looks, you’ll be in for a good time
bullet Thaumaturgic Tapas by Tao Wong—you have to give this a second look for the title alone, right? The Nameless Restaurant struggles with success
bullet Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano—My patience for Finlay’s antics is waning, but these are still guaranteed good times. Bringing in her nosy neighbor? Yeah, this should be fun.
bullet Kills Well With Others by Deanna Rayburn—These senior assassins are called back into action.
bullet I’m a Dumbo Octopus! by Anne Lambelet—this kid-level introduction to cephalopods looks adorable
bullet See Friendship by Jeremy Gordon—A “young man who learns the devastating truth behind his friend’s death, propelling him on an odyssey of discovery into the nature of grief in the digital age, the limits of memory, and the meaning of friendship.”

GUEST POST: How Reading Can Help You Grow a Short Story into a Novel by Reena Bhojwani

By HCNewton

On March 7, 2025

In Books, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Earlier today, I posted a spotlight about Reena Bhojwani’s novel Fragrant Soup. Now, I’ve got this look behind the scenes as Reena describes part of how she transformed this short story into a novel. I know she has more to say along these lines, and I hope she comes back to share some more. Either way, I’m very glad to present this Guest Post.

How Reading Can Help You Grow a Short Story into a Novel

I grew my short story of 5000 words into a novel with the same name that’s now over 62,000 words long.

So the question is how? And the answer is not linear. Although, one of the things I did very consciously and throughout was: reading.

I jumped in with both feet and scoured the Internet and the local libraries for books. I read some non-fiction articles, blogs and memoirs, but I also tried to read within the genre I was trying to write, which brought me to various forms of Asian fantasy stories. I tried to keep it to Young Adult and Middle Grade Asian and South East Asian Fantasy stories because they were closest to my target. However, on the side I continued to read romance novels, thriller, horror and a bit of middle grade fiction but not specifically Asian fantasy. I needed to know what was out there so I would know how to answer the annoying question “What books are your books like?” And also “What books are you books not like?”

Some other reasons to read widely were:

For sensitivity: This was me reading as a writer to see how sensitive or potentially offensive subject matter was dealt with when I read within my genre. For example, how certain descriptive phrases were written or how certain (possibly) taboo concepts were covered by certain writers. Taking notes either on a separate page or on post-its to then stick into the book as I read started becoming a habit.

For style: Again, this would mean reading as a writer. To be aware of nuances in dialogue, description and pacing. When I read other genres, I noticed things like choice of narrative perspective, chapter lengths and other devices that I would otherwise have allowed to slip through the cracks. Why certain things were done and certain choices were made while others were not. This is where I started noticing there were several books written with snippets of Mandarin, but I didn’t come across any with Cantonese in them.

For inspiration: I ended up getting so many ideas for my story while I was reading other pieces of fiction. However, inspiration doesn’t mean plagiarising. Sometimes I got an idea because there was a plot twist I was reading about or because a new character was introduced and I thought, “THAT’S IT! I can do that! EUREKA!” That doesn’t mean I took their character and shoved it into my narrative. It just made me realise that adding a character could help me make a certain part of the story work better. And equally, I had moments when I thought, “It makes sense now. This character/part/section has to go. It’s time to kill this darling.” Not because I knew they needed to go but because I realised.

While reading, I came across so many books in a series that I eventually realised I could turn my story into a series… and so I did! (Well, I started. I’ve only finished book 1 and the ‘Sneak Peek!’ Section of book 2!) Inspiration came come from content, style or just general concepts.

For what doesn’t work: The more books you read that you DON’T LIKE or that have been criticised in the field you’re interested in, the more insight you will get about what NOT to do, or what to watch out for or avoid, which is sometimes more helpful than what to do. The key is knowing not to get too caught up in it all. Take what you need and move on.

It’s important to note though that reading should happen all the way through in the ideal world, but there’s aren’t enough hours in a day and many of us can’t quit our day jobs or read through the night and function properly the next day, so some form of a balanced book diet with a frequency of your choice is best.

There are lots of tidbits of advice I have after I chose to grow my short story into a novel, so if you want to know more, you’ll have to comment on write to me and let me know. You can find me at www.inspiredmusehk.com.

You can find more information about Reena Bhojwani and her books at her website, Inspired Muse.

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WWW Wednesday—March 4, 2025

By HCNewton

On March 5, 2025

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

What a difference a week makes–after talking about a few lackluster (or worse) books at the end of February, I ended the month very strong and the first books of March have continued that streak. It’s a nice place to be.

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 Library Game by Gigi Pandian	Every Tom, Dick & Harry by Elinor Lipman, read by Piper Goodeve

I just started The Library Game today. I thought Pandian had wrapped up this series with the last book, I’m glad to see that I was wrong and I’m eager to see where the series goes from here.

Lipman’s Ms. Demeanor was entertaining enough (although it had its drawbacks), and I’m curious to try something else by her.

What did you recently finish reading?


Perelandra by C.S. Lewis	Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow, read by Wil Wheaton

Perelandra blew me away this week, just as much as it did 20+ years ago when I read it the first time.

A couple of weeks ago in a Saturday Miscellany post, I said something about getting around to trying Doctorow sometime, the manager of Shared Stories told me that I really should start with Red Team Blues. He was right.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs	Ashes Never Lie by Lee Goldberg, read by Eric Conger,Nicol Zanzarella

It’s time for me to wrap-up my review of Jacobs’ trilogy.

And I’ll be tackling Ashes Never Lie on audio. Sharpe & Walker + Eve Ronin = fun.

How’s March starting for you?

Book Blogger Hop: Weekly Blogging Time

By HCNewton

On March 4, 2025

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

How much time does blogging take out of your life weekly?

Sure, I know technically that Billy is asking something else, but I can’t help but read that as, “How bad is my time management?”

First, I’m not counting reading time. That’s a related, but separate, hobby. At least for the purposes of this post–also, it’ll help the hours stay low.

Secondly–I’m not sure if I should count time sharing, re-posting, and other social media-type interactions to promote this blog and others. That’s kind-of blogging time. But also, not really. I’ve also been bad about that lately. Ideally, I’d say I spend 30-45 minutes each weekday on that. I’d be happy if I spent a half hour a week on it over the last couple of months.

So, now, to the blog. Thirty minutes a day minimum (even when I don’t actually hit “Publish” or “Schedule.”). Three hours a day maximum. That’s 180 minutes-1080 minutes a week. That’s almost part-time job territory on the fuller weeks.

I’m really wishing I hadn’t done this math now, he types, shaking a metaphorical and resentful fist in the direction of Coffee Addicted Writer.

Fellow bloggers, what’s your weekly time look like? Any tips for me? (other than mainlining more caffeine or writing less)

Saturday Miscellany—3/1/25

By HCNewton

On March 1, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I’ve barely been online this week, so I’m very glad that A Literary Escape and Pages Unbound posted some highlights from the month for me to glean from—I’d have enjoyed their posts regardless, but they helped bulk up this post.

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 Ascendance of the Book Ladder: The history of a totally necessary invention—We all want one, why not learn a little about them?
bullet Little Free Library Study Reveals Benefits for Book-Impoverished Communities —No one will be (should be) walking away from this study saying, “Who’d have imagined this?” But it’s good to see someone finding evidence.
bullet Face Value: Translating Divergence—”Clare Richards underscores the significance of D/deaf, disabled, and/or neurodivergent writers and translators presenting their community on their own terms.” (as interesting as they are, I need to stop reading pieces from this site, it’s doing unhealthy things for my TBR)
bullet When Books Invade (But Make It Friendly)—This is one many of us can relate to, I expect. Particularly the first paragraph under “Why Read?.” Just from reading her historical book last year, I had the idea that Nadya Williams and I belonged to the same tribe. This is one more bit of proof.
bullet Taking the “Shoulds” Out of Reading—I really don’t auto-post everything Molly Templeton writes, it just feels like it. Worth the read for the last ‘graph alone (but the prior ones are good, too)
bullet Psychological Thrillers Are Finally Giving Middle-Aged Women Their Due—”[N]o one is pushed to the brink like a menopausal woman. And no one can fight for her life like her either.”
bullet Embrace Graphic Novels
bullet The Health Benefits of Reading Every Day
bullet About Community and the Future of the Narratess Indie Sale
bullet How to break up with Amazon as a Book Lover—It ain’t easy, so here’s some help
bullet If you’re not ready to do that yet, What Are Kindle Points & How Do You Use Them?
bullet The Classics: Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen in Verona, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo and Juliet

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet I didn’t post about any books, but I talked about the releases of: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister and Canary by Duane Swierczynski

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet His Truth Her Truth by Noelle Holten—Unreliable narrators in a domestic psycholigical thriller from one of this reader’s favorites. My March is pretty much planned already, but I’m going to squeeze this one in somehow.
bullet title by soandso—”a podcast producer agrees to host a new series about modern dating—but will the show jeopardize her chance at finding real love?” I don’t know that this would’ve popped up on my radar if Alan Sepinwall hadn’t been talking about it, but If he vouches for it, that’s good enough for me.
bullet The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton—”Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important question: how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?” Go read the link for the whole blurb

Thriller – This or That

By HCNewton

On February 28, 2025

In Books, Miscellany, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Thriller - This or That

Thanks to it being named The Write Reads’ Blog of the Day, I read February Reading Challenge: Dive into the World of Thrillers with “This or That” a few weeks ago, and instantly spent too long thinking about it. I know the post called for social media posts or comments to reply, but I decided to go for this instead. I thought I’d work in some recommendations along with my answers, but I have 143 pages of posts about this genre and that’s just too much to sift through.

Still, the prompts got into my head and I had to get something out.

1. Psychological Thriller or Action-Packed Thriller?

A good psychological thriller will keep me on the edge of my seat and jumping at shadows like everyone else. But I typically prefer the action-packed thriller—as long as there’s some depth to it, some decent psychology to the action and/or characters. Mindless action and destruction can be fun for a little bit, but they’re ultimately dissatisfying. By the same token, a bit of action goes a long way to improving a psychological thriller.

2. Unreliable Narrator or Detective Protagonist?

I won’t turn up my nose at a well-written unreliable narrator (or do I?). But Detective Protagonists are what got me into reading, sustained me when I really didn’t have time or resources to really read fiction, and—as anyone who’s spent 5 minutes looking at this site knows—I still read an unhealthy amount of Detective Novels. No contest.

3. Slow-Burn Suspense or Fast-Paced Plot Twists?

I honestly can’t decide—I’ve argued with myself for a few days over this. I really can’t choose. I probabaly read more Fast-Paced reads with good twists, but a Slow-Burn can be so satisfying that I don’t want to discount them. (as long as the slow-burn is actually burning, and not just meandering). This one’s a coin-toss.

4. Domestic Thriller or Crime Thriller?

I can enjoy and really get into a solid Domestic Thriller, one of my favorites so far this year is one. But Crime Thrillers are really my thing, part of that is their similarity to a good Detective novel. But it’s more than that—whether it’s a jaded criminal, a newbie criminal (who very likely won’t be around long enough to get jaded, a normal person having the worst day of their lives (whether or not they made a bad choice to put themselves there), or something beyond the typical Crime Thrillers—I can read those all day.

Go read the original and weigh-in there.

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WWW Wednesday—February 26, 2025

By HCNewton

On February 26, 2025

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

I’ve hit a run of not-great books lately. Nothing horrible, just books that I wanted more from. I’m sure that streak is about to end, but for now, getting through them (in the hope I’m about to be proven wrong) is such a slog. It actually saps some mental energy

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?


Beast of the North Woods by Annelise Ryan	Good Material by Dolly Alderton, read by Arthur Darvill & Vanessa Kirby

Ryan’s latest adventure is both more-of-the-same (but it’s still fresh enough to keep working) and I-can’t-believe-she’s-doing-this. In short, I’m enjoying this–it’s possible I’ll have just finished this about the time this posts–I imagine I’ll be pretty satisfied about now.

I don’t know why I’m still listening to Good Material, I have to say. Andy is very likely the least likable protagonist I’ve come across in months. And I’ve read/listened to books with murderers and assassins as the main characters. Andy is just a whiny man-child whose stand-up had better be a lot funnier than his narration. I’ve yet to see any reason for this story to be told–or what the story is, really. Maybe it’s the narration by Arthur Darville, and my subconscious recognized him and kicked in the loyalty he’s earned from screen roles (the rest of my brain caught up as I was putting this post together). Also, I’m at 56% and have yet to run into Kirby (and was surprised to learn I’m supposed to).

What did you recently finish reading?


Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson	Passageways by Rebecca Carey Lyles, Editor	Johnny Careless by Kevin Wade, read by John Pirhalla

I’m so glad that I finally finished Snow Crash (although you could argue that Stephenson didn’t actually finish it, he just stopped writing). A lot of it fell flat, but when it worked? It was so money, baby…

Similarly, there were some really good starts to short stories in Passageways, but few of them delivered on the end (or middle, too often).

I’m not sure that I’m going to muster up the energy required to say much about Johnny Careless, it’s a thing I listened to. I wouldn’t rail against it, but I’m sure not going to encourage anyone to give it a shot.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski	Dead Money by Jakob Kerr, read by Rachel Music

For years, all I’ve needed on a cover is “Nick Kolakowski” to want to read it. But I know that most of you need more than that to get convinced–okay, this is a modern PI noir set in the seedy side of Hollywood–where so much of the best PI noir from the last 100 years comes from. I expect this to be fast, furious, and a little unnerving.

Yeah, Dead Money was in this spot last week, too. But I decided I wanted a genre break, so I put it off. This debut thriller still looks pretty good to me.

Category: Books Page 23 of 163

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

CLOSING QUESTION?

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

How’s March starting for you?

How much time does blogging take out of your life weekly?

Fellow bloggers, what’s your weekly time look like? Any tips for me? (other than mainlining more caffeine or writing less)

1. Psychological Thriller or Action-Packed Thriller?

2. Unreliable Narrator or Detective Protagonist?

3. Slow-Burn Suspense or Fast-Paced Plot Twists?

4. Domestic Thriller or Crime Thriller?

Go read the original and weigh-in there.

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Is February ending on a high note for you?