Category: Currently Reading Page 35 of 71

The Friday 56 for 7/8/22: The Self-Made Widow By Fabian Nicieza

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
The Self-Made Widow

The Self-Made Widow by Fabian Nicieza

At 7 in the morning on Monday, Kenny sat in a makeup chair before his segment on Fox & Friends. He had been on the network often enough that he’d lost any sense of the jitters. The segment went smoothly. The negative was that clearly none of them had read the advance galley of his book, but the positive was that they let him do the bulk of the talking during his segment.

As he left the studio on Sixth Avenue, Kenny got a text from Albert congratulating him on a job well done. He pocketed the phone and entered the subway station. He didn’t really care. Insofar as it would help the book sell, he was satisfied, but Kenny had gotten to the point where appearing on other people’s shows wasn’t enough. He wanted his own show.

Not on a stupid cable news channel talking about the hot air of the day. Something more. A Vice meets adorable but serious Jacob Soboroff meets Columbo magazine type of thing. But for a streaming platform, with episodic storytelling, blowing the lid off unsolved murders, corporate crimes, political scandal.

He didn’t want to wait any longer. He felt he had been waiting his whole life.

WWW Wednesday, July 6, 2022

It’s time for WWW Wednesday already? I think I said something like this a couple of weeks ago, but the third 3-day weekend in 6 weeks is really messing with me. I’m glad we get a couple of months without one. I don’t remember being this discombobulated by an extra day off as I have with the last two. Okay then, let’s get this taken care of, try to get me on some more solid footing.

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 Botanist by M.W. Craven (and am having a really hard time putting it down) and I just started listening to My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett, Katherine Parkinson (Narrator) on audiobook. Yeah, last week, I said it was going to be my next one—but between the holiday and the way that Harry Dresden trumps anything else for me…

The BotanistBlank SpaceMy Mess Is a Bit of a Life

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age by Emmy J. Favilla—which was amusing, educational, and (for some) provocative. Yesterday, I listened to the new Dresden Files novella The Law by Jim Butcher on audio.

A World Without WhomBlank SpaceThe Law

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be the collection Short Tails by Spencer Quinn and my next audiobook should be Long Lost by Linda Castillo, Kathleen McInerney (Narrator), another novella. I seem to be hitting some quick reads at the moment (maybe my brain is making up for the week it took me to get through Don Winslow)

Short TailsBlank SpaceLong Lost

Tell me what you’re reading!

20 Books of Summer 2022: June Check-in

20 Books of Summer
Just a quick check-in on the challenge hosted by Cathy at 746 Books.

I’ve read 5 of the 20–and am about halfway through a sixth. Compared to last year at this time, I’m in great shape–because I hadn’t read anything off my list. I’d hoped for a little more, but since I don’t have anything of the weight and length of The Border left on my list, I figure I’ll breeze through most of this (there are at 4-6 likely one-day reads on the list, so that’ll help). I picked a good and entertaining list this year—and I’m chipping away at ol’ Mt. TBR, too.

1. The Deepest Grave by Harry Bingham
2. Condemned by R.C. Bridgstock
✔ 3. Payback by R.C. Bridgstock
4. Persecution by R.C. Bridgstock
5. AMORALMAN: A True Story and Other Lies by Derek DelGaudio
✔ 6. Against All Odds by Jeffery H. Haskell
7. One Decisive Victory by Jeffery H. Haskell
8. With Grimm Resolve by Jeffery H. Haskell
9. A World Without Whom: The Essential Guide to Language in the Buzzfeed Age by Emmy J. Favilla
10. Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker
11. Divine and Conquer by J.C. Jackson
12. Mortgaged Mortality by J.C. Jackson
13. The Ghost Machine by James Lovegrove
14. Roses for the Dead by Chris McDonald
✔ 15. A Wash of Black by Chris McDonald
16. Whispers in the Dark by Chris McDonald
17. Down the River unto the Sea by Walter Mosely
✔ 18. Crazy in Poughkeepsie by Daniel Pinkwater
19. Ghost of a Chance by Dan Willis
✔ 20. The Border by Don Winslow

(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).
20 Books of Summer '22 Chart

June 2022 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

I didn’t expect June to be as productive as this—especially because a few books in the middle took a day or so longer than I’d estimated. That doesn’t happen that often, but I’ll take it. The short version: 26 books, 7,251+ pages (or the equivalent)–with one audio-only novella that I don’t have a page count on; 3.7 Average Stars—with one I’m still not sure how to rank—I had a bunch of 4-Stars this month that helped to make up for the 1-Star that I’m still rankled about (I’m also rankled about the gag order from the Book Tour group I’m no longer working with).

I have one abandoned and two still-in-draft-mode non-review posts I’d hoped to get up, but in general, my output was pretty good.

All in all, it was a pretty decent month. Let’s take a deep dive into what happened here in June:
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Attachments Dirt Road Home Gated Prey
I Just Don’t Know 3 Stars 4 1/2 Stars
Adult Assembly Required In Divine Company There Goes the Neighborhood
5 Stars 4 Stars 1 Star
Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections Crazy in Poughkeepsie Noodle and the No Bones Day
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
How to Take Over the World Deep Hole Payback
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
You Are Not Your Own We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Against All Odds
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
The Lost A Wash of Black An Explorer's Guide to John Calvin
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Love and Other Monsters in the Dark Holy Chow Amari and the Night Brothers
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Movieland Their Dark Designs Growing Downward
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
Daughter of the Morning Star The Border
4 Stars 5 Stars

Still Reading

The Story Retold Faith & Life Songbird
A World Without Whom

Ratings

5 Stars 2 2 1/2 Stars 0
4 1/2 Stars 3 2 Stars 0
4 Stars 10 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 2 1 Star 1
3 Stars 7
Average = 3.7

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2021
9 45 42 144
1st of the
Month
6 53 40 141
Added 4 6 4 2
Read/
Listened
5 7 1 2
Current Total 5 52 43 141

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 12
Self-/Independent Published: 14

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 1 (4%) 2 (1%)
Fantasy 1 (4%) 16 (12%)
General Fiction/ Literature 5 (19%) 11 (8%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 10 (38%) 53 (39%)
Non-Fiction 1 (4%) 12 (9%)
Science Fiction 3 (12%) 12 (9%)
Theology/ Christian Living 4 (15%) 21 (16%)
Urban Fantasy 1 (4%) 13 (10%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 0 (0%) 1 (1%)

Review-ish Things Posted

  • Black Nerd Problems (Audiobook) by William Evans & Omar Holmon: Essays on Life, Race, and Nerddom
  • A Snake in the Raspberry Patch by Joanne Jackson: A Family and a Small Town in Upheaval In the Shadow of a Brutal Crime
  • In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin: The Past and Present Collide for Rebus, Clarke, and Fox
  • What Is Christianity? by Herman Bavinck, Gregory Parker Jr. (Translator): Short, Sweet, To the Point
  • Dirt Road Home by Alexander Nader: From the Motor City to Small Town Tennessee
  • Attachments (Audiobook) by Rainbow Rowell, Rebecca Lowman: I Stumble All Over the Place Trying to Talk About This
  • Noodle and the No Bones Day by Jonathan Graziano, Dan Tavis (Illustrator): A Great Dose of Adorableness to Pick Up Your Day
  • Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman: She Gets by with a Little Help from Her Friends
  • In Divine Company by Pierce Taylor Hibbs: Communication Failure?
  • Crazy in Poughkeepsie by Daniel Pinkwater: “Crazy” Might Be An Overstatement, How About “Ridiculously Odd”?
  • Payback by RC Bridgestock: A Decent Start for this Procedural Series
  • Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold! (Audiobook) by Terry Brooks, Jeremy Arthur (Narrator): A Nostalgic Trip I Maybe Shouldn’t Have Taken
  • Against All Odds by Jeffery H. Haskell: It’s the Chance He’s Gotta Take
  • The Lost by Jeffrey B. Burton: Mace and Vira Race the Clock to Find a Kidnapped Girl
  • We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Audiobook) by Dennis E. Taylor, Ray Porter (Narrator): Big Laughs and Big Ideas Litter this SF Adventure
  • Love and Other Monsters in the Dark by K. B. Jensen: A Truly Impressive Batch of Short Fiction
  • Holy Chow by David Rosenfelt: Keeping the “Semi” in Andy’s Semi-Retired Status
  • An Explorer’s Guide to John Calvin by Yudha Thianto: Calvin 101
  • A Wash of Black by Chris McDonald: This is How a Series Should Start
  • Movieland by Lee Goldberg: It’s No Walk in the Park for Eve Ronin

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th), I also wrote:


Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

The Friday 56 for 7/1/22: Short Tails by Spencer Quinn

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
Short Tails

Short Tails by Spencer Quinn

(it might help people to know that the narrator is that handsome guy on the cover)

I barked my low rumbly bark. Bernie rose and followed me to the top of the ridge. We gazed into the distance, a hilly distance with everything so clear in the early morning light: giant red rocks, tall saguaros like green men stuck in the ground, a tiny black blur of circling buzzards. The bubble gum smell grew stronger. I started making my way down the ridge.

“Chet? We haven’t finished breakfast.”

I kept going.

“You know we’re on vacation?”

Vacation was what again?

“Hang on. It’s steep.”

It was? Somehow I’d missed that, and now it was too late, what with me already at the bottom, the making my way down part having turned into a sort of bounding.

WWW Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Here we are, knocking at the end of June, preparing for that wonderful time of the year where it seems like half of the people in my subdivision are trying to terrify my dogs into moving to Canada. Why don’t we commemorate it with a WWW Wednesday? My current book is taking a lot out of me–and it’s cutting into my audiobook time, so I’m not making a lot of progress with those, either. I’m not complaining (much), because it’s such a good book–but man, it’s taking a lot out of 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?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m making slow and steady progress through the monumental The Border by Don Winslow. I’m listening to Songbird by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackon (Narrator) on audiobook, it’s a spin-off or sequel or continuation or…something to the DC Smith series and it’s very strange listening to this next phase with these characters (good! but strange).

The BorderBlank SpaceSongbird

What did you recently finish reading?

I most recently finished Lee Goldberg’s Movieland and Daughter of the Morning Star by Craig Johnson, George Guidall (Narrator) on audio.

MovielandBlank SpaceDaughter of the Morning Star

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age by Emmy J. Favilla and my next audiobook should be My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett, Katherine Parkinson (Narrator) (I largely checked this out for the title).

A World Without WhomBlank SpaceMy Mess Is a Bit of a Life

What about you?

The Friday 56 for 6/24/22: Movieland by Lee Goldberg

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56% of:
Movieland

Movieland by Lee Goldberg

Duncan put the bag down and picked up the one containing Netter’s watch. It had come through the crash unscathed. “The only Rolex I’ve seen that’s bigger than this is the one in the Calabasas clock tower.”

Netter’s watch had clearly been built to last, Eve thought. Rolex could use it as a selling point. You might not survive a car crash, but your watch will.

WWW Wednesday, June 21, 2022

I’m very glad that the U.S. is now celebrating Juneteenth, but I tell you what, that day off is messing with me. I did manage to get some good reading in over the weekend, but still feel like I’m out of sync with reality. Anyway, let’s tackle this WWW Wednesday, and see if that helps calibrate my mind.*

*Narrator: It won’t.

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 Movieland by Lee Goldberg—it’s so good to be back in Eve Ronin’s world—and I’m wrapping up Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston, Imani Parks (Narrator) on audiobook.

MovielandBlank SpaceAmari and the Night Brothers

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished David Rosenfelt’s predictably fun Holy Chow, K.B. Jensen’s very strange Love and Other Monsters in the Dark, and We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, Ray Porter (Narrator) on audio.

Holy ChowBlank SpaceLove and Other Monsters in the DarkBlank SpaceWe Are Legion (We Are Bob)

What do you think you’ll read next?

Two of my most anticipated 2022 releases arrived at my house yesterday (The Botanist by M.W. Craven and The Self-Made Widow by Fabian Nicieza), and I’m beyond tempted to throw out my carefully (for me) constructed plan and dive into them. I’m pretty sure I won’t do that, but you never know. My next book should be The Border by Don Winslow, it’s been a week and a half since I read a paper book—that’ll be a nice change—even if this thing is intimidating. My next audiobook should be a quick return trip to Daughter of the Morning Star by Craig Johnson, George Guidall (Narrator).

The BorderBlank SpaceDaughter of the Morning Star

What are you reading here in the first few (official) days of Summer?

The Friday 56 for 6/17/22: Against All Odds by Jeffrey H. Haskell

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 55 (because 56 was blank) of:
Against All Odds

Against All Odds by Jeffrey H. Haskell

“Don’t worry, sir, you’re in good hands. I’ll take care of everything so you can focus on your research,” she said with a smile.

She was certainly chipper. An optimist to keep him company wasn’t a bad idea. Not to mention, nothing made an old man feel young like a beautiful girl at his side. He sighed. Those days were long past, but the reminder would be nice. Not that she would think of him that way, nor would he ever try anything. It would just be nice to have her along.

Yes, this was going to be the best year of his life.

The aircar swooped out of the sky and came to hover next to them. Iker picked up his bag and loaded it in the trunk with a smile, daydreaming about how the future of the galaxy was about to change.

WWW Wednesday, June 15, 2022

I don’t have the vim, much less the vigor, to come up with an introduction, let’s move on with the 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 first in a SF trilogy, Against All Odds by Jeffrey H. Haskell, and the short story collection, Love and Other Monsters in the Dark by K.B. Jensen. I’m listening to We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, Ray Porter (Narrator) on audiobook–it’s a blast and Ray Porter is a great narrator.

Against All OddsBlank SpaceLove and Other Monsters in the DarkBlank SpaceWe Are Legion (We Are Bob)

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished the procedural Payback by R.C. Bridgestock and the novella Deep Hole by Don Winslow, Ed Harris (Narrator) on audio.

PaybackBlank SpaceDeep Hole

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be A Wash of Black by Chris McDonald and my next audiobook should be Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston, Imani Parks (Narrator)–I really could use its sense of fun and hope.

A Wash of BlackBlank SpaceAmari and the Night Brothers

And you?

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