Category: Books Page 26 of 158

Saturday Miscellany—9/14/24

On September 14, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

My friend Tony has been really good about finding errors in these posts the last few weeks—as much as I appreciate someone editing me, I think I’ve checked this well enough that he won’t have to send me any notes. But I look forward to the texts showing me that I’m rwong.

(I made that typo and decided to keep it in so that he’d have an excuse to text)

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 How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon
bullet Doom scrolling: We may be close to rediscovering thousands of texts that had been lost for millennia. Their contents may reshape how we understand the Ancient World.—this brings out a geeky side in me. It also makes me very glad that I didn’t pursue this field, I cannot imagine the patience it takes.
bullet Language and Leonard Michaels: On the current state of literature and literary culture—a provocative bit of writing
bullet The Not-So-Nice Origins of ‘Bookworm’
bullet Empathy and Crime Fiction: How Do You Make Readers Root for the “Unrootable”?
bullet A Literary Map of South Asian America—because my TBR wasn’t long enough…
bullet “…I Grew As A Writer To Make It Work.”: Blind to Midnight’s Reed Farrel Coleman—a good interview with Coleman (not that I’ve come across a bad one with him…)
bullet Writing Action with Nick Kolakowski—were I a writer looking to hone my action scenes, I know I’d want advice from Kolakowski. (I’m tempted to sign up as a non-writer)
bullet A Goodbye to 20 Books of Summer (in more ways than one!)—awww, man…..I’ve come to depend on this challenge as a way to get me back on track on some reading goals (sure, I could just, you know, exercise discipline without an outside force…). But more 10 years sounds like a good time to take a break and relax.
bullet Tips for Requesting Book Reviews From Book Bloggers
bullet A Fantasy Fan’s Guide: Understanding the Subgenres
bullet Your Literary Analysis Can Be Wrong (With a Defence of Paddington Bear)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Tea, Tonic & Toxin Longmire Novels: First Frost by Craig Johnson

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Voodoo River by Robert Crais
bullet The Scriptlings by Sorin Suciu
bullet The Forsaken by Ace Atkins (nice to see that even a decade a go I could get ridiculously behind)
bullet And I mentioned the release of five books that I really wanted to read, but only have made time for two of them: Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman (speaking of Coleman); The Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison; City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett; Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg; and Yesterday’s Hero by Jonathan Wood (the three I didn’t get to are still calling my name!)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Robert B. Parker’s Buzz Kill by Alison Gaylin—I enjoyed Gaylin’s first Randall novel (as you can tell from all the nothing I’ve said about it), and am looking forward to see her stretch her legs with it
bullet Nightmare of a Trip by Maureen Kilmer—a horror-comedy about a family’s road trip. Kilmer doesn’t even need to bring in anything supernatural to make the horror bit stick.
bullet Thinking Through Writing: A Guide to Becoming a Better Writer and Thinker by John Kaag & Jonathan Van Belle—I can’t see myself reading/working through a textbook at this stage of my life. But I should. Regardless, this looks like a good one.

'Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.' — Gustave Flaubert

WWW Wednesday, September 11, 2024

By HCNewton

On September 11, 2024

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

Library Due Dates, a faulty memory, and one of “those” weeks have conspired to make me change my reading schedule for 5 times since I posted my last WWW. So, expect to see the entries from my “Up Next” section from last week in the next couple of months (I’m so glad the question is “What do you think you’ll read next?”). I’m the only one who cares, but it irks me.

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?

I’m reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (a book I received in the mail on release day in 2021 and somehow haven’t read yet), On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God edited by Matthew Barrett (a book I really should’ve considered the page count of before requesting from NetGalley), and am listening to Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, read by January LaVoy on audiobook (a perfectly fine book incapable of nuance or subtlety).

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Nadine Matheson’s The Kill List and Marvel: What If . . . Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire, read by Allyson Voller on audio.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Candle & Crow by Kevin Hearne set in a world I’m not ready to say goodbye to, but apparently I will be. My next audiobook should be Chasing Embers by James Bennett, read by Colin Mace.

Blank Space

Are you reading anything good?

Book Blogger Hop: Our Library Journeys

By HCNewton

On September 11, 2024

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. What role have libraries played in your reading journey? Do you have any recommendations for books or fond recollections involving libraries?

First off—Library Card Sign-Up month? I didn’t know that was a thing—glad I got to do something to commemorate it.

What role have libraries played in my reading journey? That’s sort of like…man, I don’t know, I should be able to come up with a snappy metaphor. Maybe by the time I’m done with this.

As far as I recall, I didn’t really use a Public Library until I was at least semi-literate—maybe it was after I was reading things at the Fun with Dick and Jane level. I have one or two very vague memories of that first library (mostly chaotic) before my family moved across the state.

I’ve repeatedly told the story about when my family and I realized how important reading was to my young brain—once we settled into our new town, it wasn’t long before I got a card—and boy howdy, did I use that thing. We didn’t buy a lot of books then (that got underway when I discovered used bookstores and thrift shops in junior high…but that’s a story for another time), so the public library—with a little supplementing from various school libraries—was how I got my reading material. I visited at least monthly, I think bi-weekly was the norm, although there were summers I walked there daily.

The librarians got to know me pretty well—as well as my shy/timid near-pathologically introverted self would allow, at least they got to know my reading habits. Looking back on it, I know it was small—I may have known it then. It certainly didn’t get a lot of new books—particularly in the “Juvenile” sections (except for the very Juvenile books). That selection probably led to my love of re-reading. I knew where my friends were found on the Fiction and Non-Fiction shelves, and visited them often. But I enjoyed the variety it did have—especially when I could start reading the things in the non-Juvenile section. I honestly don’t know if my being unable to go there was a parental rule, a library rule that I aged out of, or just an impression that I had that no one corrected. But Ian Fleming, Erle Stanley Gardner, Eric Van Lustbader—and soon Robert B. Parker, Rex Stout, and Mickey Spillane—were waiting for me to discover.

In high school, we moved to a larger town—the library was bigger, and the collections were, too—I was able to read a new-to-me book or two from authors I loved that I hadn’t been able to find in my old library and I was able to find some new friends, too. The catch was that we lived outside of city limits, so my parents had to pay for my library card to make up for the taxes we didn’t pay. What a relief it was (for my conscience) the next year when I got a job there, so I got that fee waived.

Obviously, I was in hog heaven working there—and it exposed me to so many new authors, new topics, new…everything. Reshelving returned books helped me see what people were consistently reading, and eventually, I’d get curious, too. Or putting one boring-looking book back next to something else would get me to pick up the something else. Dave Barry Slept Here is one that I distinctly remember coming from that. That’s also how I learned that C.S. Lewis wrote things other than the Chronicles of Narnia, I’m inexplicably embarrassed to note.

Other than the University library, I pretty much stopped using them for a decade or so after High School. I wasn’t going to pay for a card just to use over the summer months as I scrambled to save up money for the next year—also, I was buying enough by then that I could keep myself in books when I found/made time to read things that weren’t for class.

Fast-forward to the time when my older kids could write their own name—which was the library’s standard for getting their own card. I’d let them browse for something that’d catch their eye, and while they were doing that…I’d go browse myself. This got me experimenting more about what I was reading—oh, also, this library was bigger yet than the last one—and kept growing. That experimenting—plus my reading priorities shifting and freeing up—led to me reading more and more, and…well, here we are.

I read my first Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Benedict Jacka, Faith Hunter, Patricia Briggs, Seanan McGuire, Lee Child, Rainbow Rowell, David Rosenfelt, Rick Riordan, Mick Herron, and Ian Rankin because of that most recent one. I could go on and on, but I just thought I’d pick a few names that show up time and time again here. I don’t browse the stacks too much anymore, I have lists of books I want to get—and usually place requests via the website. But I’m still using that library regularly, and my not having at least two books checked out from there at a time is strange (I have two on my desk now and two waiting for me to pick up as I write this).

Really, I wouldn’t read what I do now if I hadn’t read something in the library that sparked me to look for more like it—or encouraged me to move far away. Which would lead to/from something else, and something else, and something else for 4+ decades now. And I hope that continues for decades more.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the “do you have any recommendations for books…involving libraries” part of the prompt—I covered that in my Books about Books and the People Who Love Them post last month (along with a few other things).

Are your stories about libraries sound similar? Or have you had a different experience with them?

Saturday Miscellany—9/7/24 (corrected and revised)

By HCNewton

On September 7, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

On Tuesday, i say to myself, “No need to jot down a note about the release of my buddy Joe’s new book, I’ll remember that on Saturday.”

Saturday, almost 4 hours after posting my Saturday Miscellany, a friend (after pointing out an embarrassing typo, sadly not both of them), says: “What? No mention of Eyes of Empire being released? (which is even more mortifying). Sorry, JCM!!

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 Can fairytales and fantasy compete with Fortnite? How to get kids reading at any age—Spoiler: Yes.
bullet Can a Book Save Your Life?: The mega-bestselling author Matt Haig and the limits of the therapy novel.
bullet NaNoWriMo gets AI sponsor, says not writing your novel with AI is ‘classist and ableist’—there just aren’t enough SMH emojis, Picard holding his head in his hands/Fillion grasping for words gifs in the world…
bullet The seven kinds of friendships you find in literature: a taxonomy.
bullet In Praise of Reference Books: Reference volumes should be valued as least as much as fiction and other nonfiction books—Yes!
bullet Why Thrillers Matter
bullet Three Helpful SF-Related Rules of Thumb, According to Me
bullet Quiz: Can You Identify These Crime Novels From Their Library of Congress Subject Categories?—I could’ve done better
bullet Top Ten Tuesday: serve and enjoy—I rather enjoyed this TTT
bullet Fantasy and Feminism #1: Elden Ring—Before We Go Blog brings the first in a series “that provides analysis of strong female characters and their role in stories that tend toward the grim as well as dark.”
bullet Blind Listening: When Aphantasia Meets Audiobooks—I was sure I shared this before…oops. Thanks for the reminder, Celeste!
bullet Tough Questions with Marie Sinadjan—how does our favorite UK-Based Filipino speculative fiction author and book reviewer handle Witty & Sarcastic’s gauntlet?

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman
bullet Bad Little Girls Die Horrible Deaths by Harry Connolly—I should revisit this collection sometime
bullet Free Fall by Robert Crais
bullet And my TBR was overburdened by the releases of: Hidden by Benedict Jacka; The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire; Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs; Maplecroft by Cherie Priest; Personal by Lee Child; The Drop by Dennis Lehane; and What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Eyes of Empire by JCM Berne—Rohan has his hands more than full it seems in the Fifth Turn in the Hybrid Helix. Going to be fun watching him try to deal with it all.m
bullet Safe Enough and Other Stories by Lee Child—non-Reacher short fiction. Color me curious.
bullet Roverpowered by Drew Hayes—a new wizard and her familiar launch a new series.
bullet Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness—I’ve read one fantastic and one pretty good book by Ness, this MG read looks fun enough to try.

Credit @thejenkinscomic (Hat Tip: @Cool_Comic)

WWW Wednesday, September 4, 2024

By HCNewton

On September 4, 2024

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

One half of the Mystery/Crime novels I read last month came in the last two days—the other was an audiobook re-read. July wasn’t much better—if you take audiobooks out of the equation, it was 53 days between that kind of book for me—which is pretty much unheard of. You can believe that I have built up a healthy stack to work through. I don’t mind the break…it’s just weird.

Other than that, September’s off to a bang—I’ve been surrounded by several reminders of why I’m a reader (and blogger). If I only could find more time for that…

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?

I’m reading The Kill List by Nadine Matheson, which is as disturbing as I’ve come to expect from Matheson. I’m listening to Marvel: What If . . . Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire, read by Allyson Voller on audiobook, which is so much better than I’d hoped.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Peter David’s Buddy the Knight and The Queen of Sorrow and Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer, read by Stephen R. Thorne on audio. Both of them did so, so many things right—and so little wrong.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Chronos Warlock by Shami Stovall and I’m so eager to dive in. My next audiobook should be I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue, read by Nasim Pedrad.

Blank Space

What’s got you excited (or maudlin, or disaffected, or…)?

Back to School Book Tag

By HCNewton

On September 3, 2024

In Book Tag, Books, News/Misc.

Back to School Book Tag
When I saw this over at Chasing Destino last week, I thought that seems like a bit of seasonal fun. I might want to try that. And as I did try it, I discovered it was a bit of seasonal fun. (phew)

It was created by That Book Gal blog, and if you desire to jump into the Back to School Fun, be sure to tag the creator.

English – Name your favorite author’s (or books) writing style.

Cover of Mortal Stakes by Robert B Parker

Mortal Stakes by Robert B. Parker

I just can’t get enough of Robert B. Parker’s style–even when the novel is “meh,” his voice…man, oh, man. (the similarities between his and so many other authors I follow blindly show just how much I love his voice).

This is a dangerous topic for me, style is so important in my tastes, I could list two dozen others here…I’m going to leave it with two others that I can’t help but think of…

Cover of Dead Beat by Jim Butcher Cover of The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

Math – A book that made you frustrated!

Cover of the Meifod Claw by JW Bowe

The Meifod Claw by JW Bowe

I literally just searched my posts for the word “frustrated” and this one came up. Sorry to Mr. Bowe but man, this book did.

Science – A book that really made you think or question things.

Cover of The Appeal by Janice Hallett

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

You just can’t get through Hallett’s fascinating and mind-boggling book without having to rethink everything you’ve read in it by the end.

History – Your favorite book from a different time period.

Cover of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Did anyone really think I’d say something different?

Art – Your favorite book with pictures.

Cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams and Chris Riddell Cover of The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams and Chris Riddell and The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht

This was a stumper for me (especially with all of the board books and picture books that I’ve been swimming in lately), but the artwork in these two are just great.

Drama – A book you would love to see turned into a movie.

Cover of Whistful Ascending by JCM Berne

Whistful Ascending by JCM Berne

I don’t know how it could happen, but I’d preorder every Blu-Ray collector’s edition today. (outside of animation…maybe when the Invincible team start looking for their next project).

Music/Band – A character with a similar music taste to you.

Cover of The Heathens by Ace Atkins

The Heathens by Ace Atkins

There was a character, TJ Byrd, that Atkins made a Spotify playlist for–I listened to it a lot. It’s not really representative of my taste as a whole, but it hit a sweet spot. (and every other character that I could tie to a specific taste made me think, “eh, that’s too ____ for me”)

Lunch – A food from a book you would love to try.

Cover of Kneading Journalism by Tony Ganzer

Kneading Journalism by Tony Ganzer

Between how bad I am at baking bread, and the fact that I might have celiac…this isn’t something I should try (but man, did I want to)

Bus Ride Home – A book or author that is relaxing.

Cover of And Be A Villain by Rex Stout

Any Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin book by Rex Stout

Reading Stout is like coming home after a long day. It takes me less than a page to be comfortable and forget whatever chaos is around me.

Extra Credit – A book someone recommended that you enjoyed.

Cover of No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

I could name so, so, so many–and I feel like I’m insulting people who aren’t Carol who’ve recommended books to me. But this is the most recent and the freshest in my mind.

Sorry to not mention one of your recs Nicole, Micah, Jodie, Paul, Sean, Jamie, Mom…..

As usual, I’m not tagging anyone in this—but I’d like to see what you all have to come up with. How’re you hitting the books?

gif of Fozzie looking for laughs
See what I did there? Hitting the books…Ha!!

August 2024 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On September 2, 2024

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

I finished 28 titles (8 up from last month, 3 up from last August), with an equivalent of 9,408 pages or the equivalent (3,017 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.86 stars (.18 up/down from last month).

I really thought that I was going to be making some decent progress on Mt. TBR this summer, and I was on a decent path, but I stumbled a little bit–not that Epic Sale of Beloved SFF Books and the Narratess Indie Sale didn’t help (a week will and a voracious appetite didn’t either).

My posting wasn’t quite what I wanted, but when is it? I’m giving my self a pass on that. My focus (for good or ill) was on reading this month, blogging was less of a priority. I’d like to say that next month will be different, but I’m not going to hold myself to that.

Any who, here’s what happened here in August.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Still Reading

Redemptive History & Biblical Interpretation

Ratings

		Average =	3.86
	3		0
	4		0
	8		0
	8		0
	5

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2023	6	47	68	153	5
1st of the Month	3	52	76	161	8
Added	4	11	4	3	2
Read/ Listened	3	5	5	2	4
Current Total	4	58	75	162	6

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 19
Self-/Independent Published: 9

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	0 (0%)	6 (3%)
Fantasy	9 (21%)	29 (19%)
General Fiction/ Literature	5 (18%)	18 (12%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	2 (7%)	53 (35%)
Non-Fiction	2 (7%)	16 (11%)
Science Fiction	2 (7%)	11 (7%)
Theology/ Christian Living	3 (11%)	20 (13%)
Urban Fantasy	4 (14%)	22 (14%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	1 (4%)	4 (3%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Some Further Thoughts about The White Door by Pierce Taylor Hibbs
A Farewell to Arfs by Spencer Quinn: The World Breaks Every One, Except Maybe Chet
The Last Shield by Cameron Johnston: You Will Sit Up and Say, “Yippee-ki-yay”
Mystery Science Theater 3000: A Cultural History by Matt Foy and Christopher J. Olson: They Riffed, so the Internet Could Snark
Steam Opera by James T. Lambert: Choosing It Not Because It Was Easy…
The Legendary Mo Seto by A. Y. Chan: And Though She Be But Little, She Is Fierce
The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong: The Real Magic Here Isn’t Supernatural
The Glass Frog by J. Brandon Lowry: A Fairy-Tale-esque Fantasy for All Ages
A Quick Thought about the Audiobook No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister, read by a full cast
Cursed Cocktails by S.L. Rowland: Mixing Drinks and Starting Over
The Lord Jesus Christ: The Biblical Doctrine of the Person and Work of Christ by Brandon D. Crowe: Christology 101
The Teachings of Shirelle by Douglas Green: A Goofy Dog’s Wisdom

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

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

Saturday Miscellany—8/31/24

By HCNewton

On August 31, 2024

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

While prepping this post, I took a glance at what books are coming out next month, so I can get on library waitlists and whatnot. Reader, I tell ya, my brain is melting. Tiffany McDaniel (one of my absolute favorite authors) is releasing a middle grade series. That’s strange enough, but the first book is described as, “a light-hearted and whimsical middle grade fantasy about a young girl who must save her witch aunt from an uncommonly voracious hat.” if you’ve read just one book by her, you’ll get what I’m saying.

Anyhow, we’ll save more thoughts about that until later next month. In the meantime:

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 Suspected burglar caught after sitting down with book—I’d pick up a copy of the clearly engrossing book if it was available in English (or if I read Italian), this is such a great advertisement for it. (the headline is good enough, but it’s worth reading the rest of the story)
bullet The New Trend In Book Covers Is Old-Timey Animals—good-bye to the era of color blobs
bullet Labors of Love: Eli Cranor on Education, Empathy and Experience —Great interview with Cranor (practically a tautology, I know), about one of those “why haven’t I read this book yet?” novels
bullet What Lasts and (Mostly) Doesn’t Last: On the books that are remembered, rejected, repudiated, and rediscovered
bullet 20 Old Words for Ignorant People: From ‘wantwit’ to ‘dorkmunder’ to ‘ninnyhammer.’—I’m such a sucker for lists like this. I’m going to work on getting #17 into my working vocabulary first (probably directed toward my dogs), but the rest sound almost as good.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Hounded by David Rosenfelt
bullet Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman—Coleman’s start to my favorite run on the series (yes, that includes the original).
bullet Lullaby Town by Robert Crais
bullet I noted the release of: Lock In by John Scalzi, The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter: The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, Book 1 by Rod Duncan, and Once Upon a Rhyme: Volume I of the Charming Tales by Jack Heckel (I only got around to half of these, probably the right half for me)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet An Honorable Assassin by Steve Hamilton—I was truly worried that we’d seen the last of Nick Mason. Phew.
bullet Amari and the Despicable Wonders by B. B. Alston—Amari’s third book promises to be action-packed. It wouldn’t suprise me if Alston get at least one of Amari’s opponents to see the light and abandon the path they’re walking. But I hope they get smacked around a little first (I’m not proud of that). Still, I’m looking forward to seeing Amari and her friends step up here.
bullet Marvel: What If . . . Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire—I’m not What If . . .‘s biggest fan, but “Peter Parker” and “Seanan McGuire” together override any disinclination I have.
bullet Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman—this looks like a ridiculous amount of fun that I probably should’ve read before now
bullet Kayfabe by Chris Koslowski—a humorous novel of about a brother and sister in professional wrestling.
bullet The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard—great premise. Probably too feline-y for me, but I might get to it

20 Books of Summer 2024: Wrap Up and Other Summer Reading

By HCNewton

On August 30, 2024

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

It’s time to wrap up this challenge run by Cathy at 746 Books.

Last week, I honestly thought I’d be posting “well, I got 18.5 out of 20 this year.” Maybe a full 19. I guess I wasn’t too optimistic in July, either. But as of yesterday, I finished all 20 of this year’s selections. That’s the earliest I’ve completed this challenge in the four years I’ve done it.

Most of these were as good, if not better, I expected. A couple were just good enough, but I’m still glad that I read them. There was one that I DNF’d, and I do regret that–thankfully, I had a blast with the substitute. I only read 6 of my Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2024 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge), although, to be fair–one of them only came out Tuesday, so I haven’t had much of a chance to get it. Sure, 5 of those 6 were for a tour or an ARC that I wanted to post about by publication. The four that have no deadline attached will hopefully be tackled next month. Hopefully.

Speaking of writing about…I’ve only written about 7 of these (3 posts should’ve been posted this week, but I couldn’t quite finish them before sleep overtook me). That’s my other September goal.

Anyway, it’s done, I had fun–I read things I’ve been meaning to get to for months (if not years). Color me satisfied.

✔ 1. This is Who We Are Now by James Bailey
✔ 2. Blood Reunion by JCM Berne
✔ 3. Ways And Truths And Lives by Matt Edwards
✔ 4. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
✔ 5. Grammar Sex and Other Stuff: A Collection of (mostly humorous) Essays by Robert Germaux (my post about it)
✔ 6. The Camelot Shadow by Sean Gibson
✔ 7. Last King of California by Jordan Harper
✔ 8. Steam Opera by James T. Lambert (my post about it)
✔ 9. The Glass Frog by J. Brandon Lowry (my post about it)
✔ 10. The Legendary Mo Seto by A. Y. Chan (substitution) (my post about it)

✔ 11. Curse of the Fallen by H.C. Newell
✔ 12. Heart of Fire by Raina Nightengale
✔ 13. Detours and Do-overs by Wesley Parker (my post about it)
✔ 14. Bizarre Frontier Omnibus #1 by Brock Poulson
✔ 15. Howl by e rathke (my post about it)
✔ 16. Bard Tidings by Paul J. Regnier
✔ 17. Panacea by Alex Robins
✔ 18. Cursed Cocktails by S.L. Rowland (my post about it)
✔ 19. Big Trouble in Little Italy by Nicole Sharp
✔ 20. The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong (my post about it)

20 Books of Summer '24 August Check In Chart

Highlights from July: Lines Worth Repeating

By HCNewton

On August 29, 2024

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

Highlights from the Month

Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs

He was so in love with Mary Jo it made me feel like songs should start spontaneously playing anytime they were together.

The Last King of California by Jordan Harper

Murder is a type of magic. It has powers so a single person killed with intention can haunt the world more than a million lives ended by car crashes or cancer.

Again he has that feeling like he’s standing with his toes poking over the edge of this flat earth. He thinks on something he read in a novel in Intro to World Lit, before he quit going to class altogether. About how when you peek over the side of a cliff and get that swooshing feeling in your belly, that it isn’t a fear of falling. In fact, the book said, it is the opposite. Vertigo is the fight in your mind between the part that wants to save you and the part that wants to fall.

[She] takes shallow breaths to deal with the smell. [His]’s place doesn’t smell like death. Death doesn’t smell like anything. It’s the hungry slime of life that stinks.

Life grabs you in its jaws like a bear and all the flailing around and the screaming you do while it eats you, that’s what we call free will. Like the bear’s not there, like all this wailing and fury and fucking up everything is just what we choose to do.

Then maybe once or twice in a life you see someone flip loose from the bear’s mouth altogether and walk free through the world, and it scares the hell out of you.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

“Paranoid? Probably. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face.”

Never let it be said that Harry Dresden is afraid of a dried, dead bug. Creepy or not, I wasn’t going to let it ruin my concentration.

So I scooped it up with the corner of the phone book and popped it into the middle drawer of my desk. Out of sight, out of mind.

So I have a problem with creepy, dead, poisonous things. So sue me.

The Camelot Shadow by Sean Gibson

He raised his eyes to the window to watch as snowflakes fell from the sky with a nonchalance that seemed defiantly at odds with their short lifespans.

“I understand you are a highly regarded scholar.”

“I suppose you might say that I know quite a lot about very little of consequence.”

Fridays are very agreeable days, perhaps owing to their position in the week. Whatever the reason, I find them very accommodating, days that one can depend upon to provide succor no matter what ignominious events Tuesdays and those dastardly Thursdays have wrought.

He was a trim man of average height whose lips curled in a perpetual smirk, one that indicated both his willingness to be amused by life and his expectation that life do something to reward that willingness.

“If wits are to be our primary weapon, I fear that we may be bringing a metaphorical bayonet to a gunfight.”

“I would have said an olive fork.”

“I’m not very good at not knowing what I can’t do.”

Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Days of death are days when we weigh our relationship with love in our bare hands. Days when we remember what has gone, and fear what is to come. The joy love brings, and the price we pay. When we give thanks but also pray for mercy.

Swiped by L.M. Chilton

But just as I was about to close the app, an emoji popped up on the screen.

Of course, it was the fucking winky face, my least favorite of all the emojis, the text equivalent of yelling, “Not!” after a sentence.

I always thought that Sarah had an overly-romanticized view of marriage. Her parents had the sort of relationship you only see in Richard Curtis movies–dedicated, loving, and solid as a rock. She’d grown up in a gorgeous and massive cottage in Haywoods-Heath, surrounded by idyllic countryside, and while she didn’t technically own a pony–I was pretty sure that she hung out with one on a regular basis.It was classic British rom-com territory, so no wonder she always dreamed of a bumbling English fop to sweep her off her feet.

I was so angry at the world I just wanted to shut everything away. His manic pixie dream girl had curled into a pangolin of grief, and I couldn’t blame him for slowly backing off.

(“pangolin of grief” might be the best phrase I read this month)

A Study In Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

“Well, I for one, thought your hypothesis was remarkably elegant. It really is too bad that sometimes inconvenient facts surface to thumb their noses at remarkably elegant hypotheses.”

“Poo to inconvenient facts.”

This Is Who We Are Now by James Bailey

I’m struck by how much thinner his hair is than last summer, when it was thinner than the time before. It disappears in half lives, always tending toward complete baldness but never quite getting there.

Danny drives the way he does everything else. Overconfidently.

Midnight Riot/Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Being a seasoned Londoner, Martin gave the body The London-Once-Over, a quick glance to determine whether this was a drunk, a crazy, or a human being in distgress. The fact that it was entirely possible for someone to be all three simultaneously is why Good Samaritan in London is considered an Extreme Sport, like base jumping or crocodile wrestling.

If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you’ve broken the news, so that you’re forced to be there when someone’s life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn’t bother them—such people are not to be trusted.

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)