Music Monday’s originated at The Tattooed Book Geek‘s fantastic blog and has shown up here and there since then.
What other band could I pick today? And this video is just so good.
Another Girl
by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator)
DETAILS: Series: A Kings Lake Investigation, #4 Publisher: Tantor Audio Publication Date: January 23, 2024 Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hrs., 38 min. Read Date: February 13-15, 2024
What’s Another Girl About?
Serena Butler is loaned out to do some plainclothes intelligence gathering in a nearby city. She misses a check-in with her handler, right after saying something tantalizing about making some new friends. This galvanizes her team back at King’s Lake and her DCI pushes her weight and rank around to get involved in the investigation into her disappearance–and the drugs investigation Butler was helping with.
At the same time, there’s an apparent hit and run for the Murder Squad to look in back at home–and while they do their due diligence with that, their concern for one of their own clearly has captured their attention (also, an absent pathologist means a delayed autopsy, so they can only do so much).
A Change of Focus
Initially, DCI Cara Freeman and DC Serena Butler carried most of this book–although DI Tom Green gets a lot more focus than he’s ever received before. And that was just great, I always liked him, but I wanted to see him get to shine a bit. Freeman and Butler are a great pairing and really establish this as a different kind of entry in this series.
Yes, when Waters shows up roughly mid-way through the book, he ends up getting a lot of the focus, as we’re used to. Still, the narrative really does take advantage of Waters’ absence and explores the team and uses the multiple POVs to a greater advantage than Grainger has in the past. I don’t want Waters to get pushed to the background on a regular basis–but man, I really appreciated this.
But this is Serena’s book, really. We start with her assignment hitting a bump in the road and we finish by it going deeper than she was ready for. But throughout, we get to learn a lot more about this character that’s been around for twelve books and really takes on new life and a greater depth. She’s been a favorite of mine from early on in her first appearance–and I like her more now that I understand her better. Honestly, if she got her own spin-off series in the future, I’d be game, or just for more books like this. (a book that uses Green more would also be welcome, but given the way his character typically operates, I’m not sure that’s possible).
DC’s Shadow
DC Smith (it still feels strange to call him David) has always loomed large over these King’s Lake books, but it seemed to me that it was a little larger this time than it had been since Songbird (but it’s not like I keep statistics or anything). He’s either mentioned in conversation (by people on all sides of the law) or thought of by Chris and Serena–who will remember some advice/guidance he gave them–which allows Granger to slip in a line or two using his DC voice–and I’m always going to be in favor of that.
Which, I guess, brings us to:
A Word About the Narration
This is an audiobook, so I need to talk about the narration. But as I keep saying, I don’t know what to say about Gildart Jackson’s work on this series that I haven’t said umpteen times.
When his voice starts coming out of my phone, my mind instantly settles in for a good time. There’s a calmness that he evokes in me almost instantly (note: it’s not his voice, I rarely felt calm during the Alex Verus books). He catches the humor, the tension, the camaraderie, the…I don’t know, the spirit of these books. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I’m not picking these up in print (although, I know at least one non-audiobook person who says they’re great in print), I have to have Jackson’s voice.
So, what did I think about Another Girl?
Grainger doesn’t frequently put his King’s Lake characters in peril (I thought about listing exceptions to that rule, but I won’t–but the point stands), this series is about typical investigations. But when he does, he does it effectively. And boy howdy, he does so here. I haven’t been this concerned for the fate of a Grainger character since A Private Investigation‘s close.
But more than just the danger aspect, watching Serena deal with the pressures of working undercover (especially as she initially wasn’t supposed to go as deep as she ended up) was so well done. Equally well done was watching her team fret about her when they couldn’t contact her and weren’t sure what was going on.
The hit-and-run story never got the time I initially expected, but the way that Grainger worked it into the overall storyline was his typical well-done work. He was able to weave it into the drugs story and show how it is about much more than drugs.
This tied this particular novel into something we first saw in On Eden Street and will likely show up for at least one more novel. Which isn’t to say that this novel isn’t largely a stand-alone like the rest, but there’s something that will tie it to further books.
I think I’ve rambled enough–possibly too much. I had a great time with this one, and as always I strongly encourage you to give this one a try. It would serve as a fine jumping-on point to the series (like every book so far), but if you have the time and means, I’d suggest starting at the beginning. Or somewhere. Just start with Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson, and the detectives in and around King’s Lake Central.
I came across this post a couple of days ago, and thought I’d put it up again—and not only because I’m struggling with another post, but it sure helped.
The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones – 1899-1981
by Iain H. Murray
Trade Paperback, 496 pg.
Banner Of Truth, 2013
Read: Jan. 12 – Feb. 9, 2014
This is a frequently flawed book, and at times it was only a sense of duty/politeness to the person who eagerly pressed it into my hands that I persevered. But in the end, I couldn’t help but walk away awed at both the man and the book that tried to summarize his life (yet, I don’t think you’ll see me picking up the two-volume version this was condensed from anytime soon).
The first fifty or so pages, recounting his youth, medical school/early practice, and conversion — and even the beginnings of his ministry — were pretty tedious, and more often than not, far too detailed.
Once Murray was able to focus on his first years of ministry in Wales, and his eventual move to Westminster Chapel, the book took off. It’s clear that the hand of the Lord was upon his ministry, and gave him much evident fruit. It’s impossible to disagree with Murray’s explanations for Lloyd-Jones’ success, and I can only imagine ministers would benefit from reading this with an eye for how to reform their own work. Throughout the chapters detailing his pastoral work — particularly the chapter “Sundays in the 1950s” — Murray’s affection for, and devotion to, Lloyd-Jones threatens to overwhelm the narrative, and at times it seems that “the Doctor” could do nothing wrong. I remarked during that chapter that I wasn’t sure if I was reading biography or hagiography, which may seem a bit harsh. But really, Murray became a rabid fanboy here.
The chapters devoted to the controversies over Evangelical unity, conflict with Graham, Packer and Stott (and names that didn’t register with me) were again, far too detailed for my taste — but it’s understandable, I think. Murray was trying to set the record straight on certain issues/incidents, to make sure the historical record gets Lloyd-Jones’ perspective on them (particularly when others, claiming to speak on his behalf, got it wrong). Not having a dog in those fights, my eyes glazed over more than I liked, but I sure didn’t go back and re-read to make certain I didn’t miss anything. Murray is able here to critique Lloyd-Jones a bit in these chapters, which was good to see.
The final chapter, depicting the final three years of his life, as his cancer was gaining the upper hand, was moving, inspirational and convicting. Lloyd-Jones continued to preach when able, to correspond with and advise younger ministers, write and start Murray on his biography — spurred on by the knowledge that his death was near. Lloyd-Jones spoke of paying attention to death, dying the right way — with an eye to the glory he was going to, and anticipating it. No way that I try to summarize will do it justice, just read it for yourself. You might want to keep a Kleenex™ handy. This chapter made all the stuff I’d grumbled and trudged through worth it.
Not Murray’s best — but obviously a work of love for the subject. Can’t imagine a little of that won’t rub off on the reader.
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Running late today…no interesting story behind it (which is good and bad), just a thing that happened. But I do have a few things to share for whenever you see 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:
The Loss of Things I Took for Granted: Ten years into my college teaching career, students stopped being able to read effectively.—this is disturbing
Can We Please Put an End to Overperformed Audiobooks?
20 Modern Whodunits to Read if You Love Golden Age Mysteries —this is a pretty good listicle from The Real Book Spy
Coming to Terms With “Cozy” Fiction: Categories and genres are weird things. Sometimes they make perfect sense; sometimes they feel like mental sandpaper.
Why is there an obsession with rehabilitating villains??—while I wouldn’t want to argue against rehabilitating anyone in real life, I think the Orangutaton Librarian hits on something here when it comes to fiction.
The Various Things Ratings Can Mean—Peat Long drops some wisdom
Books with Relationships for People who Don’t Love Love: 2024 Edition—the atypical Valentine’s Day list is back with some good recommendations.
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells
Hide by Lisa Gardner
And I mentioned the release of Grimm: The Chopping Block by John Passarella—the Grimm tie-in novel that I never got around to tracking down.
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown—a strange world of magic, time travel, and books. I quite enjoyed it.
The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond—magically-enhanced con artists? Count me in.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar—this is one of those books that I’m not going to pretend to be able to describe in a sentence without reading, but it looks promising.
The Ballad of Bonaduke—
Episode 47: Coming Clean
DETAILS: Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #47 Format: Kindle Vella Story Read Date: February 15, 2024
The Story So Far…
A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink. He pulls off whatever he did, gets his money and some booze and stumbles off into the darkness to drink himself into oblivion so he can start again the next day. He’s hit by dark memories (probably what’s driving him to the drinking) of fire, pleading, and screaming. There’s going to be a price to pay for his grift, and he’s trying to be ready.
He’s abducted by some representatives of a mysterious group who subject him to a test—if he passes, everything will be explained to him (and hopefully the reader, too). He passes—and is brought somewhere for answers, or maybe training, or maybe another test. Time will tell (or things are going to get really annoying). Answers aren’t quick to come—but the mysteries and questions keep piling up.
Things get hairy and Bonaduke leaves and finds himself back in the neighborhood he started from. He takes refuge in a homeless encampment shortly before a police raid. He’s apprehended and finds himself an interrogation room and shortly escapes after using his grift (but with results he didn’t quite intend). He finds himself by a group of squatters who seem to have strapped a woman to a chair for reasons that can’t be good. He attempts to rescue her before he even realizes what he’s doing, and seems to have succeeded—well, the two of them got away from the group anyway—breathing but bruised. They make their way to a fast-food taco joint and Bonaduke really needs to refuel to keep going. He tries, but fails to get food because he keeps passing out. Thankfully, the clerk is the same guy from the liquor store and he both recognizes him and gives him first aid. The woman (Zero) wakes up and shows some abilities of her on as she helps them escape from her captors who’ve tracked her down. One thing leads to another—Zero and Bonaduke’s magics don’t mix well (at least until they understand what each other can do?), and they end up in a video-game race against the squatters in a tricked-out version of Eric (the clerk’s) car. Note, I said video-game race, not a video-game-style race. They’re actually in one. When dumped back into reality, he’s surrounded by bruised and broken bodies (of people and cars). And then he gets into a supernatural fight and survives…just.
Or maybe not. But he gets better. And then his new…friends? Acquaintances? People who keep popping up in his life?…start explaining exactly what’s going on to him while they set up a new HQ and try to teach him about his abilities (and everyone tries to understand them).
What’s Coming Clean About?
His experiment continues, but as he tries to get some equipment to help him understand what he’s doing, he ends up having to tell Alan what he’s up to. This results in–you’ll never believe this–the two of them having a conversation, Alan helping Bonaduke understand what he’s doing and how to improve things. Then they go to involve the others.
So, what did I think about Coming Clean?
I actually grinned at one point where Bonaduke’s cleverness came back to bite him a little. But more importantly, wow…a conversation, coming clean about something–treating each other like people. It’s about bleeping time. And the way this episode resolved–both in terms of plot and character? I really, really liked it.
I have some measured optimism for the next episode or two…
I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for Jake Kendall’s The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession! The Tour has been going for a couple of days now–go check out https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours from now until the 26th to see a what those who’ve read it have had to say. But in the meantime, let me tell you about the book.
Book Details:
Title: The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and ObsessionClytemnestra’s Bind
Genre: Art History Fiction, Short Stories
Publisher: Neem Tree Press
Format: Paperback/Ebook
Length: 272 pages
Publication Date: February 22, 2024
About the Book:
Spanning three hundred years of art history, The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession tells the stories of those with an insatiable hunger for creation – those who may sacrifice friendships, careers, romance, and even their own happiness in pursuit of a vision.
Weaving art styles such as Cubism, Surrealism, and the Baroque into his prose, Jake Kendall has crafted a vivid and inventive collection. Each story is complemented by a black and white illustration, drawing out the visually evocative nature of the writing and offering readers a unique artistic delight.
Book Links:
Amazon UK ~ Amazon ~ Goodreads
About the Author:
Jake Kendall was born in Oxford and studied an MSc in Creative Writing with the University of Edinburgh. He takes inspiration from the visual arts, a theme that formed his debut collection. The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession (Neem Tree Press) refracts contemporary issues and anxieties through timeless imagery and artistic movements. Jake lives and works in Edinburgh and spends his free time visiting bookshops, exhibitions, theatre, and independent cinemas.
My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.
I’d make some joke about books being my true Valentine or something here, but Mrs. Irresponsible Reader reads this occasionally—and why test her sense of humor?
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 (really) finally reading City on Fire by Don Winslow (yeah, I said I was reading it last week, but as soon as I started I was reminded of a looming Library due date), and I’m listening to Another Girl by Peter Grainger, read by Gildart Jackson on audiobook.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands and the great Soundtrack of Silence: Love, Loss, and a Playlist for Life by Matt Hay on audio.
What do you think you’ll read next?
My next book should be A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen, and boy howdy, am I eager to dive in. My next audiobook should be Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter, read by Khristine Hvam—I can’t believe it’s been three years since this came out, I need to refresh my memory a bit before I dive into the next one.
What books are stealing your heart today?
We all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (yet, publishing companies spend big bucks on cover design/art and we all do judge them that way). But, the opening sentence(s)/paragraph(s) are fair game. So, when I stumble on a good opening (or remember one and pull it off the shelves), I like to throw it up here. There are so few writers that can grab you like Winslow can from the get-go.
from City on Fire by Don Winslow:
Danny Ryan watches the woman come out of the water like a vision emerging from his dreams of the sea.
Except she’s real and she’s going to be trouble.
Women that beautiful usually are.
Danny knows that; what he doesn’t know is just how much trouble she’s really going to be. If he knew that, knew everything that was going to happen, he might have walked into the water and held her head under until she stopped moving.
But he doesn’t know that.
So, the bright sun striking his face, Danny sits on the sand out m front of Pasco’s beach house and checks her out from behind the cover of his sunglasses.
This week’s topic is, “Top 5 books about music. February seems to have a ‘national ukulele day’ so what are your top 5 books about music, musicians, or instruments.” I had a very hard time cutting this down to five when I was thinking about novels, so I decided to do a Non-Fiction list as well. This was a bit trickier, actually. Maybe if I tried harder, I could’ve come up with a better list, but I didn’t have that kind of time. But once I had the idea for this list I had to finish.
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 A Dream About Lightning Bugs by Ben Folds Sure, the big appeal of this book is to learn more about the career of Folds and the Ben Folds Five, and there’s some good material on the ups and downs of Folds’ personal life. What he says about music and the creation of it–both his and others’, that gets it on this list. Also, I’m a pretty big fan of the author, that doesn’t hurt. |
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 Soundtrack of Silence by Matt Hay It’s dangerous to put this here because I’ve barely scratched the surface of the book as I compose this. But something about the premise and the early execution, the nice way that he’s working in references and lyrics to music makes me think it’ll be worth calling one of my Top 5. |
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 Dear Mr Pop Star by Derek & Dave Philpott It’s kind of a stretch to include this one, but this book brought me so much joy that I don’t care. I’ll vigorously apply a shoehorn to get it to fit. It’s not about music or musicians, per se. It’s a collection of “deliberately deranged letters to pop stars from the 1960s to the 90s to take issue with the lyrics of some of their best-known songs.” For example, they write to Starship about “We Built this City” going into a great amount of detail about the nature of foundations, different types of them, etc. and how this makes their “design project” the “most ludicrous” in the history of architecture. But what separates this book from similar tomes, what makes it special is that on the very next page, you get to read a response from Martin Page, who co-wrote the song. Page mounts an impassioned defense of the song — full of references to Rock classics as proof. Each letter printed in this collection is answered by a songwriter, musician, or other representative of a musical act. Some of these responses debate the premise of the Philpott’s letter, some answer in the same vein, others take the premise and run with it in their own way — some appear to be in on the joke, others appears to be flummoxed that anyone would take their lyrics in this insane manner. |
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 Sundry Notes of Music by Ian Shane We all know how a song can tie you to a moment in your personal history. Just hearing it can take you back to a moment, to a feeling, etc. There’s also how the lyrics of a song can hit you just right and inform a period of time in your life. We all know it, but few of go where Shane did and write a memoir (of sorts) tracing significant songs. |
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 Love is a Mix-Tape by Rob Sheffield A stray thought about this book led to this list. This is simply a fantastic book, a chronicle of Sheffield’s time with his wife, Renée, from their meeting to her untimely death at the age of 31. He frames his account in discussions of mix tapes he or she made for various times/events in their lives. The songs, and the feelings they evoke, are just as much part of their story as anything else. There’s a lot of humor, a lot of heart–and then some heartbreak and the aftermath. I really should make some time to re-read this. |
This week’s topic is, “Top 5 books about music. February seems to have a ‘national ukulele day’ so what are your top 5 books about music, musicians, or instruments.” I had a very hard time cutting this down to five (as you can plainly see from all the “See also” books I mention), but I have a list I’m happy with. But I think I could’ve gone for 20 without breaking a sweat.
Oh, yeah, I did call this “My Fiction List” up there in the title. There is another one coming…
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 Thank you, Goodnight by Andy Abramowitz A pretty successful lawyer/one-time rock star takes one more swing at music success–if only he can get his band to forgive him for how he treated them when they were at their peak. Until I read my post about it, I honestly remembered very little about the book (it’s coming back to me now)–but I recall being blown away by Abramowtiz’s depiction of the highs and perils of superstardom, and the way the character had to work to get his old friends to see past his faults. See also: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby, The Jackals by Adam Shaw, The Rome of Fall by Chad Alan Gibbs, The Love Song of Johnny Valentine by Teddy Wayne |
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 The Buffalo Nickel Blues Band by Judie Angell I don’t remember what grade I was in when this book came into my life–I’m pretty sure it was due to a Scholastic Book order form. I can’t remember if my mother or I picked it for me–but it’s almost certainly the first book I read about a band/musicians (outside of Fflewddur Fflam, anyway). So, yeah, pretty much every book in this post owes the fact that I care about novels about music/musicians. I haven’t touched the book since the Reagan administration, and don’t know what happened to that copy. But I could still probably muster a full blogpost about it. It got into my blood, the way a great song will do. It’s about the shortlived career of I-want-to-say-middle-schoolers in a local band playing music that appealed to both adults and their peers. See also: Rock On by Denise Vega |
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 The Commitments by Roddy Doyle I’m fairly certain that I’ve used this book on 1/3 of the book tags I’ve done over the years. That’s hyperbole, but it feels true. It’s one of those books (see the last on this list) that was so formative for me that I still use it as a filter for books/films/shows that I read/watch to this day–and it all started with the video for “Try a Little Tenderness” from the movie soundtrack–the four of us in my freshman dorm room stopped whatever we were doing when it came on–and naturally, I had to rush to the arthouse theater when it finally arrived. When I saw it was based on a book, you can believe I wasted no time in getting my hands on it. More than any book on this list, you can hear the music this band listens to or performs. Doyle is able to catch the rhythm and sound so perfectly I can’t imagine anyone else coming close (but would love to see it). |
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 Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman Maybe it’s recency bias that puts this here. I’m not sure I care–Norman captures the joy associated with performance and the joy of watching an excellent performance in a way that few others do. He also captures the feeling so many of us had about 90s rock and the culture around it. See also: This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs, Not Famous by Matthew Hanover, Runaway Train and Grenade Bouquets by Lee Matthew Goldberg, About a Boy by Nick Hornby |
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 High Fidelity by Nick Hornby Is there anything more cliché than this choice for a white dude of my age? Probably not. But I’ll defend this choice. There’s a reason that every guy my age talks about this book–Hornby hit something in all of us. Rob (and the rest of the gang) were able to find a passion in the music of their lives, and through that were able to find ways to express their feelings outside of that. What Rob (and the rest, but especially Rob) says about music and its power would probably be co-signed by every character in these books, and most of the readers of them.
See also: Post-Graduate and Radio Radio by Ian Shane, About a Boy by Nick Hornby |
Yes, I mentioned a few of those See Also books multiple times. I had a hard time limiting them to a listing with just one book. Many of them probably could’ve fit in more places than I listed, too…but things were getting out of hand.
And I’m not sure where/if I should’ve worked in The Name of the Wind.