Category: Books Page 83 of 161

WWW Wednesday, November 17, 2021

There’s not as much turnover from last week’s WWW Wednesday to today’s for my taste. Every book this month (text or audio) has taken/is taking me longer to get through than I expected. Not a big deal, just one of those things…anyhow, here’s this week’s WWW:

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart and am listening to The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone, Lauren Fortgang (Narrator) on audiobook.

The Tower, the Zoo, and the TortoiseBlank SpaceThe Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Michael Connelly’s The Dark Hours—a very timely book—and Master of Formalities by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator) on audio. Oddly for a Meyer book, I’m not sure what to think yet.

The Dark HoursBlank SpaceMaster of Formalities

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan—I don’t know if I can do another mythology book from him anytime soon, but I’m curious about this. I’m also curious about my next audiobook Super Powereds: Year 1 by Drew Hayes, Kyle McCarley (Narrator).

Daughter of the DeepBlank SpaceSuper Powereds Year 1

Speaking of curious—what’re you reading?

Saturday Miscellany—11/13/21

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 Sleep Comfort Month: Rethinking Night Reading—Passing this along as a PSA. Something I should pay more attention to, I know.
bullet Is Superman Circumcised? favourite to win Oddest book title of the year—I’ve somehow not heard of this prize before, but you know I’m going to be looking forward to the nominees every year.
bullet Fahrenheit 451 Is Controversial Because It’s Honest—it’s (sadly) an evergreen topic, but this week made this piece seem especially relevant.
bullet Loose Ends: A Literary Supercut of Sci-Fi Last Sentences—These 137 last lines have been arranged “into a sequence of interconnected vignettes. In these ways “Loose Ends” doubles as narrative and archive, short story and data analysis.”
bullet Books and Bookish Gifts for Every Reader on Your Holiday List
bullet What Makes a Long Book Feel Too Long?—Molly Templeton muses on book length
bullet The #R3COMM3ND3D2021 series over at Damp Pebbles offered up another good-looking batch of recommendations this week. Check out the contributions from:
bullet Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog
bullet EmmabBooks
bullet Modern Gypsy
bullet Kate from The Quick and the Read
bullet Anitha @ Series Book Lover
bullet Author Rachel Sargeant
bullet On Writing Negative Book Reviews
bullet What I’ve learnt from reading fiction – part 5—Love this idea (I tried it here once, and then had a few weeks where I didn’t learn anything worth passing along).

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Blood Brothers Podcast Episode 73 with Michael Connelly—a fun chat with Connelly

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly—Ballard’s on the hunt for a murderer and a pair of rapists. You know, the typical light fare that’s Connelly’s trademark. I’m a little over a quarter of the way through and it’s great.
bullet Swashbucklers by Dan Hanks—is one of those books I can’t imagine summarizing in a few paragraphs, much less a sentence. Click that link there to learn about it. Looks fun.

WWW Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Maybe it’s the whole end of DST thing, but my sleep has been out of whack for a couple of days, which is making it difficult to post anything. I’d intended to spend my lunch hour cleaning up a post for today, but I got my eyes dilated this morning, and they’re not focusing very well yet. So much for that idea. At least I’d already assembled this for WWW Wednesday, right?

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading the incredibly fun Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition by Nick Kolakowski and am listening to Master of Formalities by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator) on audiobook (which is likely to be as fun, I’m not that far into it yet, so I don’t know).

Love & Bullets: Megabomb EditionBlank SpaceMaster of Formalities

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice—which was spectacular—and the entertaining The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone, Lauren Fortgang (Narrator) on audio.

The Man Who Died TwiceBlank SpaceThe Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m looking forward to seeing what Renee Ballard is up to in my next read, The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly. My next audiobook should be The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone, Lauren Fortgang (Narrator).

The Dark HoursBlank SpaceThe Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss

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

Saturday Miscellany—11/6/21

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 Justice Department Sues to Block Penguin Random House Acquisition of S&S
bullet Self-published? No thanks.: Why do readers value ‘real’ publishing more than self publishing?—a look at the other end of the spectrum
bullet Three Publishers Get Real About Independent Publishing: What does it take to make indie publishing work?
bullet Redemption for Doctor Watson: Olivia Rutigliano reads the detective duo as a brilliant double-act, designed by Watson himself.—absolutely.
bullet Twitter Is The Worst Reader—I disagree with a lot of Lee’s tweets (none cited here, I think, but other things I’ve seen), but this kind of thing is just horrible.
bullet Why Don’t Books Have A Credits Page?—fantastic idea.
bullet Why Cliché Is My Safe Place? Familiarity.
bullet Fantasy Subgenres: A Plethora of Choices—An updated guide to the mini-genres in Fantasy by Witty & Sarcastic Book Club
bullet Hopepunk, Optimism, Purity, and Futures of Hard Work by Ada Palmer—I keep seeing the label “hopepunk,” but have been too lazy to track down what it referred to–but who doesn’t want to read something hopeful? So I was very glad to see this piece this week on my feeds. An answer I didn’t have to work for! Now to I need to start reading some of this stuff, it sounds great.
bullet 5 Hopefully Not Deadly Sins of Book Blogging: It’s High Time To Confess
bullet Damp Pebbles’ #R3COMM3ND3D is back. This yearly celebration of the best of the year is off to a great start with contributions from:
bullet Blogger Nicki Richards
bullet Blogger Lisa from ReadandRated
bullet Blogger Yvonne – The Coycaterpiller Reads
bullet Blogger Sharon Rimmelzwaan
bullet Author Anne Coates

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Prog.Gaming and Stephanie who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger!

WWW Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Here we go, the first WWW of November.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading The Appeal by Janice Hallett, it is unlike any crime novel that I’ve ever read. I’m listening to Shadow Writes by Faith Hunter, Khristine Hvam (Narrator) on audiobook for my monthly check-in with Jane Yellowrock.

The AppealBlank SpaceShadow Rites

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Chuck Wendig’s creepy and goofy Dust & Grim and The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, Katherine Kellgren (Narrator) on audio–which was fun but left me wanting a bit more.

Dust & GrimBlank SpaceThe Case of the Missing Marquess

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be another dose of septuagenarian fun with The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman and I have no idea what my next audiobook will be, I’m not feeling incredibly inspired by anything I”m seeing.

The Man Who Died TwiceBlank Space???

Hit me with your Three W’s in the comments!

90s Music Book Tag

90s Music Book Tag
I’ve seen this on various blogs, but can’t seem to find the creator, so I can’t credit them. I’d like to if anyone knows who did it. I saw this first at Read to Ramble, put it on my “do this tag list,” and promptly forgot about it. Then I was reminded of it on Witty and Sarcastic Book Blog—and it took me over a year to get around to it. I liked the category she added so I used it, and seconds before hitting “Publish” decided to add one of my own.

Also, just for fun, I added the music videos. Might as well sample a bit of the tunes we’re talking about, right?

What’s My Age Again – Blink 182

At what age did you discover your love of reading?

I’ve talked here before about the family vacation where I was such a pain in the keister that my parents had to stop and find a place to get me a couple of books so I’d be tolerable to be in the car with (Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective and Sugar Creek Gang: Screams in the Night—unleashing my Mystery/Detective obsession), which is when I was 7. But I’d been reading like crazy before then, I just didn’t think about it as a thing.

All Star – Smash Mouth

What is your favorite genre?

Is anyone expecting me to say anything but Mystery/Detective/Crime? It’s no contest, really, as it’s never less than a third of what I read in any given month.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Deep Blue Something

What’s your go-to reading snack/drink?

I don’t think I typically snack while reading—probably occasionally, but not enough to have a go-to snack (if this were a TV Tag, on the other hand…). A go-to drink? Probably water, I guess, really just whatever is witin reach. Coffee, hot tea, even a beer or a single-malt.

I did a post a few years ago, Pairing Potent Potables with your Perusals of Prose, where I talked about matching what you drink with what you read. Maybe I should revisit that sometime.

Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers

What book do you ALWAYS recommend to people?

I don’t know that there’s one book that I’d always recommend—not in a “one book to rule them all” sense, anyway. It varies based on who I’m talking to, their interests, and the genre we’re talking about.

But…I guess Jane Eyre, The Golden Spiders, Early Autumn, The Name of the Wind*, Ender’s Game, Red Rising, Dead Beat, The Rook, Dawn Patrol, Kings of the Wyld would likely top the list of fiction. On the non-fiction front, it’d likely be How the Irish Saved Civilization, Christianity & Liberalism, The Bruised Reed, How to Think, or The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction.

* Unless I think they’re going to be someone who whines about book 3.

I’ve never understood the appeal of RHCP—so I used “Bedrock Anthem” instead.

…Baby One More Time – Britney Spears

A book or series you have read more than once?

If I actually responded to this prompt, it’d turn this tag into the longest post I’ve ever done. Every title I listed after the last prompt would work here.

Tearin’ Up My Heart – N’Sync:

A book that broke your heart to finish?

Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan. Nothing else needs to be said.

Crush – Jennifer Paige

Who was your first bookish crush?

I don’t know, really. This is a topic I always stumble on in these tags. Maybe Sally Kimball? Turtle Wexler or Eilonwy, daughter of Angharad (and so on) would be likely candidates, too. Yeah…Eilonwy is probably it.

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

A book that you read as a teen that you still love today?

Well, there are just so many. I’m not sure if that says that my tastes are adolescent. It just might. Jane Eyre again, the Gideon Oliver series, The Oathbound Wizard, Magic Kingdom For Sale-Sold!, I think I was a teen when I read the bulk of the Fletch and Flynn novels. I’m sure I could go on, but who’s paying attention at this point?

Hurt – Nine Inch Nails

What book do you love that deals with heavier subjects?

This is another question that could end up with too many answers. I’m going to limit it to Dennis Lehane’s Gone, Baby, Gone. This was my introduction to Lehane and the series and it hit me like a ton of bricks—I distinctly remember a couple of years after it was released my wife and I renting the audiobook for a road trip from a truck stop (a practice I’d all but forgotten about until I started this sentence), and both of us were on the verge of tears and laughing at each other for being self-conscious about it. There’s child abandonment, addiction, child abduction, police corruption, and while dealing with those topics (and others) honestly—it’s exciting, gripping, and frequently fun.

Superman’s Song – Crash Test Dummies

What’s your favorite superhero book?

It’s Superman! by Tom De Haven. This version of Superman’s origins, set in the 1930s, felt like the perfect modern take on the classic version of the hero. It felt 100% Golden Age Superman and completely fresh at the same time.


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

October 2021 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

October in a nutshell: 31 books, 8,079 pages (or the equivalent), 3.5 average—even with more 3 Stars than I’ve had in a dog’s age. All the 3s make me feel better about things, I’ve wondered if I was being too free with 4’s lately. All said, I’m pretty satisfied with this month—I’m terrified by the number of things I haven’t written about, though. I should read some bigger books to help me catch up.

So, here’s what happened here in October 2021.
Books Read

Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes) See Her Die Beast Boy Loves Raven
3 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
What God Has to Say about Our Bodies Dead Mercy Pug Actually
4 Stars 4 Stars 3.5 Stars
Pure How to Resist Amazon and Why The Ninja Betrayed
4 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
But For The Grace A Good Day for Chardonnay The Church: An Introduction
4 Stars 4 1/2 Stars 2 Stars
Tear It Down Grenade Bouquets Based on a True Story
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
Abandon All Hope Junkyard Bargain Everything Happens
3 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
Dark Heir The Case of the One-Eyed Witness Breaking Silence
4 1/2 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake The Trinity and the Bible Dark Arts and a Daiquiri
3.5 Stars 5 Stars 3 Stars
The Conjuring of Zoth-Avarex Squirrel Do Bad Finlay Donovan Is Killing It
4 Stars 3 Stars 3.5 Stars
Gated Prey Dust & Grim Fallen
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars rating305 Stars
The Glorious Feast of the Gospel
3 Stars

Still Reading

Things Unseen The Appeal

Ratings

5 Stars 2 2 1/2 Stars 0
4 1/2 Stars 4 2 Stars 1
4 Stars 6 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 4 1 Star 0
3 Stars 14
Average = 3.5

TBR Pile
Mt TBR October 21

Breakdowns
“Traditionally” Published: 12
Self-/Independent Published: 19

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 0 (0%) 2 (1%)
Fantasy 2 (6%) 18 (7%)
General Fiction/ Literature 4 (13%) 17 (7%)
Horror 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Humor 2 (6%) 7 (3%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 11 (35%) 98 (39%)
Non-Fiction 2 (6%) 17 (7%)
Science Fiction 2 (6%) 17 (7%)
Steampunk 1 (3%) 1 (0%)
Theology/ Christian Living 4 (13%) 30 (12%)
Urban Fantasy 3 (10%) 44 (17%)
Western 0 (0%) 0 (0%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wroteotherwriting (and a few things others wrote)

Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th), I also wrote:

What about you, how was your month?

Saturday Miscellany—10/30/21

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 most brilliant bookshops in the world—Also known as “a bunch of places I’ll never step foot in (and Powell’s).” But the pics make me want to be a world-traveler.
bullet 5 Things You Didn’t Know About People Who Are Passionate About Books—The statistic in the first paragraph is hard to swallow, so I’m not sure about the facts, but it’s interesting anyway.
bullet Is Amazon Changing the Novel?
bullet 1-Star Reviews of My Favorite Novels—Matthew Norman looks at some reviews his favorites have received—which helps him put negative revews he’s received in perspective.
bullet Shop Talk: Michael Koryta Writes 1500 Words and Gets to Ring the Bell—I really love this series by Cranor, and this look at Koryta’s process is just great.
bullet I haven’t watched Ted Lasso (though I want to), but still dug this thread by Scott Lynch about a character’s reading choices (not just for the fantastic description of The Da Vinci Code.
bullet A Bookworm’s WORST NIGHTMARES!!—don’t read this post late at night if you want to sleep.
bullet The Things I’ve Heard: Confessions of an Audiobook Narrator

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Author Stories Podcast Episode 1179: Lee Child And Andrew Child Talk Jack Reacher—the Jack Reacher authors talk about the process behind the first two collaborations and more

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg—the third Eve Ronin novel continues to impress. I had a little to say about it earlier this week.
bullet Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child—Reacher in the Southwest—that’s all I know, more than I need to know to pick it up.
bullet Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest—Priest’s new series featues travel agent who’s an “inconsistent psychic” and a Police Detective working on a cold case.
bullet Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan—Riordan leaves his mythology-based work for a contemporary 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Color me curious.

WWW Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The wheels have really come off of my plans for the week–boh in terms of writing and reading. Real Life can be such a drag, you know? But we’re at the mid-point, and hopefully, I can recover a bit. And if not? At least I’m spending some time with these good books that I’m about to talk about in this WWW Wednesday.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading the third DetectiveEve Ronin thriller, Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg, and am listening to book about a woman on the other side of the law, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano, Angela Dawe (Narrator) on audiobook.

Gated PreyBlank SpaceFinlay Donovan Is Killing It

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Stephan Pastis’s Squirrel Do Bad, a MG Graphic Novel, and Dark Arts and a Daiquiri by Annette Marie, Cris Dukehart (Narrator), another adventure for Tori and her mystik pals on audio.

Squirrel Do BadBlank SpaceDark Arts and a Daiquiri

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Dust & Grim by Chuck Wendig—which might be a bit too much MG in one week for me, but library due dates are calling the shots, you know? My next audiobook should be Fallen by Benedict Jacka, Gildart Jackson (Narrator), as I get close to wrapping up this re-read through the series.

Dust & GrimBlank SpaceFallen

How are you spending the last week of October?

Saturday Miscellany—10/23/21

Wow, I’m about 2 hours behind schedule for the day…so I’m not going to try to come up with anything to lead off this week’s post.

Well, maybe a little…I tend to share a meme or something like that with these posts, just stuff I stumble upon. This week, author R.T. Slaywood created one that made my day–had to be used (as self-aggrandizing as it may be).

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 Will supply chain issues affect the books you want? Depends on what you’re reading.—that last line is a bit ominous, do we have to go through this again? Might be time to buy stock in a bidet company.
bullet Another Pandemic Surprise: A Mini Indie Bookstore Boom—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet PW’s best books of 2021—Is it really time to start these already???
bullet Serial Thinking—I would not have put First Things on my list of places to look for solid takes on the Chet & Bernie books, but John Wilson delivers that, a thoughtful take on “genre” vs. “literary” fiction, and thoughts on the making of serialized fiction—in one short piece.
bullet Goodbye To Goodreads—I absolutely get why authors would abandon the site–outside of opportunities to market themselves anyway. But how many times does it have to be said? Reviews–especially amateur ones–are for readers, not writers. (there are plenty of other reasons to avoid Goodreads, and I’m not trying to defend the site, this just seems silly)
bullet Audiobook History, or: Why Audiobooks Matter!
bullet 8 Things to Do While Listening to Audiobooks—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
bullet A Thank You to The Write Reads Gang—one of those posts that can’t be said often enough.
bullet Do you use bookmarks? I do, just not actual ones. Here are some weird/random things I (and my daughter) use!—there are some very odd things in this list (can’t imagine some are that good for the binding, either)
bullet Books to Video Games—I’m not a gamer, but a couple of my kids are, but I thought this was interesting. While I’ve seen (and purchased as gifts) several books adapted from games, I can only think of a couple of books that have been adapted to games–The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Below the Root (oh, and the obligatory Sherlock Holmes/Nancy Drew—every medium has to have them). The age of both of those games suggests how much of a gamer I am.
bullet Why I’m Keeping My Book Blog
bullet Common Problems Book Bloggers Have and How To Solve Them—good advice
bullet 5 Things I Look for Before Following a Book Blog
bullet Don’t be a Stranger: How to Make Connections in the Book Blogging Community
bullet To All The Books I Didn’t Buy,—loved this.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet It’s a Wonderful Woof by Spencer Quinn—The first (novel-length) holiday Chet and Bernie book is a great bit of fun. I enthused about it recently.
bullet Best in Snow by David Rosenfelt—Andy’s dog, Tara, literally digs up a new case for him in this holiday themed novel. I talked about it a little a couple of weeks ago
bullet title by soandso—The eBook release of the Audible Original. Shining Smith #2 features a road trip, a handful of battle scenes and some surprising character developments. I had a little to say about it earlier this week.
bullet The Last Time She Died by Zoë Sharp—first in a new series has a heckuva hook. Not one I can do justice to in a sentence or so, better just click the link.
bullet Dust & Grim by Chuck Wendig—half of the reason I’m interested in this book is to see how Wendig can write for MG audience. The other half is that it takes place in a monster mortuary—which just sounds fun.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Carol who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger!

Page 83 of 161

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén