Tag: Miscellany Page 104 of 175

WWW Wednesday, July 21, 2021

The month is melting away and I’m starting to worry about my reading goal for the month (which is about as lame as it sounds, I realize, but that’s where I am). Returning to the office has really messed with my reading, and has wrecked my audiobook listening, so not a lot has changed since last week, but, still it’s time for 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 new Quinn Colson novel, The Heathens by Ace Atkins, and am listening to the first Peter Ash novel, The Drifter by Nick Petrie, Stephen Mendel (Narrator), on audiobook.

The HeathensBlank SpaceThe Drifter

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Neil Lancaster’s Dead Man’s Grave–a gripping read–and Veiled by Benedict Jacka, Gildart Jackson (Narrator) on audio.

Dead Man's GraveBlank SpaceVeiled

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be All Together Now by Matthew Norman, with a striking premise. My next audiobook should be returning to the tales of the Tufa with Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe, Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator).

<

p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://www.hcnewton.com/irrreader/alltogethernow.jpg” alt=All Together Now” width=”125″ height=”189″ border=”0″ />Blank SpaceWisp of a Thing

Hope you’re reading something good, tell me about it!

Saturday Miscellany—7/17/21

Like I said Wednesday, I’m back in the office after 15 months and I spent most of the week trying to adjust my reading/surfing/blog-hopping habits. So I really don’t have a lot for this post. On the other hand, as of yesterday, my NetGalley Feedback Ratio is at 99%, so, you know…what do I care about anything else right now?

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 Print Book Sales Soar in Year’s First Half—that’s some nice news
bullet 3 Ways to Become a Better Reader with Audiobooks—libro.fm has some good tips
bullet Why do so few men read books by women?—good food for thought
bullet Goodreads Tips & Tricks, Vol. 2—for those who want to use the ubiquitous/oft-maligned Social Network more effectively
bullet Favourite Book Quotes of 2021 so far!—this is a good idea for a post, and filled with pretty good content.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Heathens by Ace Atkins—Quinn Colson and Lille Virgil are on opposite sides of a murder investigation—and probably a new stage in the local politics/organized crime saga, too. But that’s not in any of the official descriptions. I’m hoping next week is when I get to dive into this.
bullet Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster—DS Max Craigie investigates the murder of Scotland’s most powerful crime family in the first novel of a promising-looking series. I’m starting this one today.

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

The Friday 56 for 7/16/21: August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones

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:
August Snow

August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones

(for context, I think it helps if you know that the first speaker is the Chief Medical Examiner)

“So what brings you and Tubby McGlutton’—-he nodded to Danbury-—“to my Little Den of Decomp?”

“Eleanor Paget’s body,” Danbury said. “And don’t be calli’ me no ‘Tubby McGlutton,’ nay-gro.”

“Oh, please, Ray,” Bobby scolded. “You’re twenty pounds overweight. You smoke two cigars a day. And I’m sure, like every other over-forty black man who just has to show how successful he is in Detroit, you probably have three Courvoisier and Cokes three times a week at the Pontch. Oh yeah, son, I got a cold storage drawer with your name on it.” After eviscerating Danbury and taking a breath, Bobby said “Paget’s pretty straight-up stuff: GSW to the right temple.”

WWW Wednesday, July 14, 2021

After 15 months of telecommuting, I’m back to just commuting–this is wrecking my sleep and reading–and therefore blogging–habits. I’m still managing to do some of all three, but I’m having to make plenty of adjustments. Which is why things are a little light here this week. Still, I have been able to scrape together enough for 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 very fun ARC for A Good Day for Chardonnay by Darynda Jones and am listening to Veiled by Benedict Jacka, Gildart Jackson (Narrator) on audiobook.

A Good Day for ChardonnayBlank SpaceVeiled

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Andy Redsmith’s Know Your Rites and the audiobook of Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch read by Aaronovitch and: Penelope Rawlins, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Alex Kingston, Ben Elliot, Shvorne Marks, Sam Peter Jackson, and Felix Grainger.

Know Your RitesBlank SpaceTITLE

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones, I’m looking forward to seeing what waits for me there. My next audiobook should be The Drifter by Nick Petrie, Stephen Mendel (Narrator) (largely because my library just added it to their Overdrive collection)..

August SnowBlank SpaceThe Drifter

What about you? Reading anything good?

Saturday Miscellany—7/10/21

I’ve been out of town for most of the week and had limited internet time–so I didn’t have much of an opportunity for surfing. I was able to find a few things for this week’s post, but it’s a little small.

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 Andy Serkis to Narrate All 3 The Lord of the Rings Audiobooks—I’ve had The Hobbit narrated by Serkis in my libro.fm shopping cart for months, but couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger on it. But if he’s doing these, too? Think it’s time.
bullet The Making of ‘Soul Taken’ A Mercy Thompson cover—this is fascinating (even if you have no interest in Mercy Thompson)
bullet 13 books perfectly summed up with one-liners from Gilmore Girls.
bullet 10 Reasons Why I Love Reading—Reading Ladies Book Club had a good entry for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt.
bullet How Book Lovers Spend Their Time . . . And . . . We Don’t Have a Problem!

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Tender is the Bite by Spencer Quinn—Chet and Bernie hunt for a client who didn’t get around to hiring them I tried to convey my enthusiasm a few days ago.
bullet Dog Eat Dog by David Rosenfelt—Andy Carpenter heads to Maine to defend his latest client I opined about it recently

The Friday 56 for 7/9/21: In Plain Sight by Dan Willis

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:
In Plain Sight

In Plain Sight by Dan Willis

“My point is that we don’t know what we’re dealing with, and until we do, I suggest we limit possible exposure.”

“My boys have been in here for almost an hour,” Callahan said.

“And they’re probably fine, but let’s move everyone out of this room until I can run some tests.”

“All right,” Callahan agreed, then he shouted for everyone to stop what they were doing and go. “Don’t be too long, Doc,” he said once his men were gone. “I’m sure the Chief has heard about this by now and he’s going to want a report…soon.”

“We’ll be as fast as we can,” Iggy said and Callahan withdrew.

“You said you didn’t think it’s contagious,” Alex said once Callahan was out of earshot.

“I just wanted him and his men away from this room,” Iggy said. “It’s going to be hard enough to figure out what happened here without the police stomping all over everything.”

WWW Wednesday, July 7, 2021

I’m writing from a refreshingly chilly hotel 607 miles south(ish) from home, in Cedar City, UT. The trip is making things a little strange on the reading front (and non-existent on the audiobook front)–but I still think I have enough fodder for July’s first 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 Know Your Rites by Andy Redsmith (a book I meant to read two years ago) and the audiobook A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones, Lorelei King (Narrator) is providing our road trip entertainment.

Know Your RitesBlank SpaceA Bad Day for Sunshine

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Liam Perrin’s Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights and last week I wrapped up Blood Trade by Faith Hunter, Khristine Hvam (Narrator) on audio.

Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued KnightsBlank SpaceBlood Trade

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be The Good Byline by Jill Orr (another book I meant to read two years ago) and if we have time on the return trip, we’ll listen to An Accidental Death by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator), because my wife should meet DC Smith–otherwise, I have no idea what I’m doing next.

The Good BylineBlank SpaceAn Accidental Death

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

Saturday Miscellany—7/3/21

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 Don Winslow Book Club was announced this week, will be giving its first picks on the 5th. I’m not sure how this is going to be different from Winslow’s hard push behind books/authors he likes on social media. But am betting he’s about to do some real damage to my Book Budget.
bullet The Impossible Question at the Heart of Every Book Tour: Jason Mott on Attempting to Answer “What’s Your Book About?”
bullet The Crime Books Top Authors Read Twice Because They’re Just That Good —Not only is this a good list of really good books, but I love some of the comments about them.
bullet When In Doubt, Look Around—Matthew Norman talks about finding inspiration for his new novel, All Together Now.
bullet Immortalizing Jack Reacher: Authors of long-running series face a difficult question: how should their characters age?—this is an interesting question authors need to wrestle with (and readers need to decide what they think of that choice), it has some special appeal to me as it compares the approaches of Parker/Atkins to Spenser and Child/Child to Reacher.
bullet Have I Outgrown YA?
bullet How to Get People to Read Your Bookish Blog and Keep Coming Back For More!—some decent advice and/or reminders
bullet How to comment more on non-interactive book blog posts?—I keep trying this, good prompt to keep at it.
bullet The 57 Best YA Books About Food that Will Make You Hungry Immediately—the fact that someone could find 57 YA books about food is pretty astounding. (personally, I’d have pushed this post back a few months until it could be 60, that 7 would drive me crazy)

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Keepers by Jeffrey B. Burton—Mace Reid and his cadaver dogs are back and neck deep in Chicago City Corruption. I had some pretty enthusiastic things to say about it recently
bullet Pug Actually by Matt Dunn—Doug, a rescued Pug, decides he needs to help his person fix her love life. I’m eager to see how Dunn approaches this.
bullet I’ll Pray When I’m Daying by Stephen J. Golds—”The Story of a Bad Man Becoming Worse.” A corrupt Boston Detective’s life falls apart. Looks gripping. Hearing a lot of good things about it. Be worth buying just for the cover…

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Amanda @ Bookish Brews, Joseph D. Newcomer, and Hit-Man Slade who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

The Friday 56 for 7/2/21: The Watchman by Rob Parker

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 56% of:
The Watchman

The Watchman by Rob Parker

But thankfully, the coast appears to be clear—yet, as soon as my idiot brain thinks that, I know it’s not and stop.

From the recess of the front door emerges one of the Secret Service guys, gun up. He’s fixed on Grosvenor. ‘Freeze, old man,’ he instructs.

This is the best look I’ve had at any of them so far. All black, attack vest and jet combats. Tactical sunglasses that don’t do anything apart from make you look a proper twat, and for all his supposed ocular advantage, he hasn’t seen me

20 Books of Summer 2021: June Check-in

20 Books of Summer
One summer.

Three months.

93 Days.

20 books.

Are you in?


Once again I’m taking part in the 20 Books of Summer Challenge fro 746 Books. Annnnnd my June was pretty, um, dead. Between book tours, review copies and catching up on NetGalley ARCs, I’ve read absolutely nothing from my Summer Roster. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

I’m posting this update mostly to push myself to get on it—a little public shaming. Because my lack of progress in June means it’s going to be a little more of a challenge to finish this than I’d anticipated. Absolutely do-able, but it’ll take a bit of effort.

I did actually read about 30% (so far) of the first book today…so, you know, it’s practically in the the bag.

And here’s the fairly untouched list (subject to change, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

1. A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall by Andy Abramowitz
2. The Dead House by Harry Bingham
3. The Run-Out Groove by Andrew Cartmel
4. Love by Roddy Doyle
5. The Ninja’s Blade by Tori Eldridge
6. Small Bytes by Robert Germaux
7. A Reason to Live by Matthew Iden
8. Twiced Cursed by J. C. Jackson
9. The Dime by Kathleen Kent
10. Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster
11. The Magnificent Nine by James Lovegrove
12. The Mermaid’s Pool by David Nolan
13. All Together Now by Matthew Norman
14. The Good Byline by Jill Orr
15. Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights by Liam Perrin
16. Fools Gold by Ian Patrick
17. Know Your Rites by Andy Redsmith
18. The Far Empty by J. Todd Scott
19. August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones
20. In Plain Sight by Dan Willis

20 Books of Summer '21 Chart

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