Tag: News/Misc Page 6 of 29

The Firsts of 2023 Book Tag

On August 17, 2023

The Firsts of 2023 Book Tag

This tag was created by Girlxoxo back in 2021. I saw this at A Literary Escape last week, and my first thought was: I need a fast post to make sure I have something to fill my days afk next week. My second thought was that it looked like a fun tag to do. But let’s be real for a second, the first was more important–I had to do extra posts last week to prep, so fast was good. So…here we go:

First Book Read This Year

Harvested

Harvested by Troy Lambert

This starts with our Seattle PI looking into a dog-napping ring and ends up (as you might expect) putting him in the middle of something much, much, bigger.
(my original post about the book)

First Book Reviewed

I really don’t like calling my posts reviews, but for the sake of this tag, I’ll swallow that. I’m a little fuzzy about what they’re asking for, was that the first review of the year? Or was it the first book from this year that I reviewed? Eh…I’ll do both, just because.

The first book I posted about this year was:

Everything’s Changing by Chelsea Stickle

A strange and compelling collection of flash fiction that gave me something unexpected in each piece, featuring some really impressive and disturbing (and disturbingly impressive and imporessively disturbing) prose.
(my original post about the book)

The first book I posted about that I read this year was:

Triptych by by Karin Slaughter

I’ll talk about this down below.

First Book By A Debut Author

Haven

Haven by Ceril N Domace

Domance wasn’t a debut author by the time I read this, but this was her debut. This is a SF book with a layer of Fantasy on top of it–with a healthy dose of Family Drama added to the mix. It’s definitely worth taking a look at.
(my original post about the book)

First Book By A New-To-Me Author

Harvested

Harvested by Troy Lambert

By the end of the month, I will have read three by books Lambert. By the end of the year, it could be four or more. So it looks like our first meeting went well.
(my original post about the book)

First Book That Slayed Me

The Perception Of Dolls

The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day

Slayed me. Haunted me. Took up residence in a dark corner of my subconscious and tweaked a couple of lurking anxieties.
(my original, and insufficient, post about the book)

First Book That I Wish I Could Get Back The Time I Spent Reading It

Triptych by by Karin Slaughter

This first book featuring Will Trent really didn’t impress me–I almost returned it to the library at least 8 times while listening (it was also my first audiobook of the year). My curiousity about one character was satisfied by the end, I didn’t hate the way things wrapped up, and I’ve considered trying one more book in the series. But it was a bad experience for me.
(my original post about the book)

As usual, I’m not tagging anyone in this—but hey, join in the fun!

The Friday 56 for 8/11/23: Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Season One by Kate Baray

By HCNewton

On August 11, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56% of:
>Spirelli Paranormal Investigations Season One” border=”0″ /></p>
<p style=

Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Season One by Kate Baray

“We need a name for this thing,” Jack said. “‘Unnamed nasty thing in the charity shop attic’ just makes him seem creepier. And it’s too long.”

Without hesitation, Marin said, “Joshua.”

“Joshua? Any particular reason?”

Marin glanced at him, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “Does Joshua strike terror in the hearts of his enemies?”

Jack choked back a laugh. “Sold.”

The Friday 56 for 8/4/23: All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

By HCNewton

On August 4, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

Had to take a break last week due to posting toooooo many things. But I’m back to my typical trickle 🙂

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

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

from Page (55 and) 56 of:
All the Sinners Bleed

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

He’d put the phone back in the evidence bag after fighting the urge to put it under his front tire and roll over it five or six times, then set it on fire. Titus had seen his share of horrific things in his twelve years as an FBI agent. The ability of one human to visit depravity upon another was as boundless as the sea and as varied as there were grains of sand on a beach.

The images on [redacted]’s phone were the worst he’d ever seen.

He kept thinking about purification by immolation. It seemed like that was the only thing that could remove the stain of those images from his mind, his heart, his soul. Burn the phone. Scald his eyes with hot oil. Put [redacted] and [redacted] on a pyre and reduce them both to ashes, then scatter those ashes to the four winds. Erase all proof of their existence and the things they had done. But the children in those pictures deserved to have their story told. They deserved justice. Whatever that was these days.

The Friday 56 for 7/21/23: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

By HCNewton

On July 21, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56 of:
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson<

GUARANTEE ONE
Your dimension will have an island of Great Britain populated by a society of humans who work steel, but have not yet discovered gunpowder. They will have a functional society and culture that roughly equates to the Late Classical, Early Medieval, or Late Medieval (pre-gunpowder) Earth time period.

GUARANTEE TWO
The people of Great Britain will speak a language that is intelligible to modern English speakers. We chose our dimensional band specifically for this reason!

The Friday 56 for 7/14/23: The Eternity Fund by Liz Monument

By HCNewton

On July 14, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56 of:
The Eternity Fund

The Eternity Fund by Liz Monument

They weren’t there. We passed over the Klone Zone, and the rows of windowless warehouses that force-grew veg. They slid away beneath us, grey anonymous blocks identical to every other in the district save for the neon leaves that identified their roof apexes. I’d heard tell the lights inside were so intensive that the vegetables grew six times faster than in real daylight. The catch was their adverse effect on human tissue. The non-robotic staff had bleached hands, white-filmed eyes and untreatable skin rashes. And that was only on the outside.

The Friday 56 for 7/7/23: Stray Ally by Troy Lambert

By HCNewton

On July 7, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56 of:
Stray Ally

Stray Ally by Troy Lambert

The shovel in his hands, the white sheet folded up onto the top of his head. The gallows.

The grave behind him. The Lieutenant’s arm around his shoulder.

The camp sign in the next picture. Todd Clarke in the background, watching. He picked up the phone, then thought better of it. Pay phones had become nearly impossible to find. Time to go buy a prepaid cell and make some calls.

This would be the last time, no matter what. Of course, that’s what he’d said the last time.

Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag ’23

By HCNewton

On July 6, 2023

In Book Tag, Books, News/Misc.

Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag
I’d intended on getting this posted last week, you’ll see how well that worked out for me. I’ve done this tag the last few years, and have had a lot of fun with it, even if it took me an unexpectedly long time to assemble this one.

I have really enjoyed reading the posts that several others have put up over the last week or so (like Novel Lives, Biblio Nerd Reflections, Pages and Tea, and Twirling Book Princess…I thought I’d noted a few others, too, but apparently not. Sorry if I neglected you). Hopefully, this is half as entertaining.

I think I did okay at not mentioning some titles too often—but I had to repeat some. When a book is good in one category, odds are it’ll be good in others.

1. The best book you’ve read so far this year?

This was a four-way tie that I whittled all the way down to 3. How’s that for not at all decisive? (the other one gets mentioned a couple of times below).

The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day (my post about it) is a truly impressive work. I have not been able to stop thinking and talking about Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (and I think I didn’t say enough good things about it in my initial post (my post about it) . Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor shows that his debut wasn’t a fluke.

The Perception of Dolls Chain-Gang All-Stars Ozark DOgs

I should probably mention Fearless by M. W. Craven (my post about it)and Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman (my post about it), too. I’m forcing myself to stop now.

Fearless Sleepless City

2. The best sequel you’ve read this year?

It’d be Samantha Jayne Allen’s Hard Rain (my post about it) or Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford. A lot of the stand-out books I’ve read this year are first books in a series and or stand-alones (also, I haven’t read quite as many sequels as I thought I did). Hard Rain does a great job of continuing the growth and development of Annie McIntyre, while telling a different kind of story in that same world. Random raised the stakes from its predecessor and showed that Ford was not pulling any punches—it’s one of those that the more I think about it, the more I’m impressed.

Hard Rain Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air

3. New releases you haven’t read yet but want to.

This list should probably be longer, but off the top of my head (do note, these are books I own, so I should be able to read them easily): Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson Lancaster, All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby, Evidence Pool by Ian Robinson, Blood Runs Cold by Neil Lancaster

Not necessarily in that order.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone All the Sinners Bleed Evidence Pool Blood Runs Cold

4. Most anticipated releases for the second half of the year.

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss and The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher are reflex answers. Sleep No More and The Innocent Sleep are close seconds, to see how Seanan McGuire handles the conclusion of Be the Serpent and how she handles these two books together.

The Narrow Road Between Desires The Olympian Affair
Sleep No More The Innocent Sleep

Not Prepared by Matthew Hanover is technically an answer to this, but I got an advance copy and I’m starting it this week, so….

Not Prepared

5. Biggest disappointment.

I feel like I’m picking on books here, but…

Karin Slaughter’s Triptych (my post about it) was a major let-down for me and made me unsure that I want to try anything else by her. And The Stench of Honolulu by Jack Handey made me reconsider wanting to read humor.

Triptych The Stench of Honolulu

6. Biggest Surprise.

Ummm…how little I liked those last two books?

Eh, let’s go positive again. I assumed (as I always try to) that I was going to have fun with books with titles like Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (my post about it) and A Necromancer Called Gam Gam by Adam Holcombe (my post about it). But I wasn’t prepared to enjoy them as much as I did.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice A Necromancer Called Gam Gam

7. Favorite new to you, or debut, author.

Jesse Q. Sutanto (my post about her book), Ausma Zehanat Khan (my post about her book), and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (my post about his book) would top this list. I can’t believe everyone isn’t talking about Adjei-Brenyah in the same way that S.A. Crosby and Oyinkan Braithwaite were a few years ago (and Crosby still is). Zehanat Khan feels like someone I should’ve been reading for years (and I have some makeup reading to do). Sutanto is just a fantastic breath of fresh air compared to most of the people I read—like Abbi Waxman, but with murder.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice Blackwater Falls Chain-Gang All-Stars

8. Newest fictional crush.

Lola, the corgi in Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen (don’t ask me why I haven’t got a post finished about this yet…) would be my new fantasy dog. Any corgi that can put up with living with a vampire—and actually seem to enjoy it—is a special kind of dog. Honestly, I don’t know that many of her interactions with her vampire, Louise, really won me over (although I appreciated Louise’s devotion to her), but it was the way that Lola helped bring poor Ian out of his shell/emotional wreckage that was so heartwarming.

Vampire Weekend

9. Newest favorite character.

I don’t even know if I can limit this to a handful…Ben Koenig (from Fearless), Vera Wong (from, well, duh), Imaya Rahman (from Blackwater Falls), Juniper (from Mrs. Covington’s), and Nick Ryan (from Sleepless City) all jump to mind. And if I let myself keep thinking, I’d come up with another 6 in 20 seconds. I think I have to go with Juniper (but I could make a case for all of these)

Mrs. Covington's

10. Book that made you cry?

Huh…Don’t think I’ve read one this year. On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel (my post about it) probably moved me the most of the books I read this year. The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow could easily have jerked a tear or two out of me if I’d been in a slightly different mood, ditto for Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire (my post about it).

I think this year’s books have been the literary equivalent of Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. Which is a line I stole from my ’22 post. By the end of the year, something will change that, I’m sure.

On the Savage Side The Once and Future Witches Lost in the Moment and Found

11. Book that made you happy?

Well, really, any book that I rated 3 Stars or higher (most of them for the year) made me happy—it’s why I do this. But I associate happiness with three in particular: Mrs. Covington’s by K.R.R. Lockahven (my post about it), Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (my post about it), and Cutthroat Cupcakes by Cate Lawley (my post about it) (that might be recency bias, but…eh, who cares?).

Cozy/Cozy-Adjacent books like these just make you feel good. These three still make me feel good as I think about them later.

Mrs. Covington's Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice Cutthroat Cupcakes

12. Favorite book to film adaption?

I almost put nothing here (other than a list of ones I’ve intended to get to), but at the last second, I remembered that Bullet Train was adapted from a novel. I have no idea how it is as an adaptation, but I had a lot of fun watching this a couple of months back.

Bullet Train Movie

and another last-minute memory—the TV show Will Trent. Which is all sorts of okay (which still puts it miles ahead of the first book in the series).

Will Trent

13. Favorite post/review you have done this year?

Everything relating to the Literary Locals series and most of the A Few Quick Questions I’ve done this year are probably my favorites, but I have a hard time picking out individual posts from them, so I’ll go with:
bullet They Asked, so I Answer (just about) Anything for My 10th Blogiversary
bullet TEN(!!!!!) YEARS of The Irresponsible Reader. (or, Happy Blogiversary to me.)
bullet Book Blogger Hop: Are Books a Must-Have in Your Home?

I think my favorite review-ish posts would be (although all of them make me want to spend another hour or so improving them):
bullet The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day: Creepy Dolls, Creepy dolls, and Creepy do!!s
bullet Scratching the Flint by Vern Smith: We Didn’t Start the Fire…
bullet Ten Reasons to NOT Read Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas

14. Most beautiful book you have bought or been given this year?

Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall is just a gorgeously put-together book. It’s worth getting just to look at.

Farmhouse

The Hardcover reissue of The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson, Mrs. Covington’s by K.R.R. Lockhaven, and However Long the Day by Justin Reed are pretty attractive, too.

Part about Dragon Was True Mrs. Covington's However Long the Day

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

The lists from my 20 Books of Summer, Books on My Summer 2023 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge), the answers from #3 and 4, and the rest of my challenge reads. That pretty much takes care of the year (but I know I’ll read others, too).
.

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

The Friday 56 for 6/30/23: The Worst We Can Find by Dale Sherman

By HCNewton

On June 30, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56 of:
The Worst We Can Find

The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman

Who could turn away from a movie with a title like They Saved Hitler’s Brain in hopes of seeing Hitler’s brain at some point? (It paid off, as you got to see his whole head in that one.) As much as everyone ridiculed Plan Nine from Outer Space, who among us wasn’t somehow charmed by the oddball dialogue? (“The saucers are up there. And the cemetery’s out there. But I’ll be locked up in there.”) Who could forget sitting through the Japanese monster movie without monsters, Attack of the Mushroom People, and yet be stunned by the downer ending?

The Friday 56 for 6/23/23: Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon

By HCNewton

On June 23, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56 of:
Killing Me

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon

“Here you go.” The kid slid the box across the count handed me a huge collector’s mug. “I gave you the SpongeBob one.”

I put a hand to my chest. “SpongeBob’s my favorite!”

“Mine too.” His face had gone so red it practically matched his polyester uniform.

I slid my carefully folded twenty across the counter, “I’ve only got a hundred, can you break it?”

“Um, sure. I got enough.” He was already pushing buttons on the register.

“So how long have you worked here?” I asked. “I haven’t seen you before.”

“Yeah, I just started a few weeks ago.”

“Lucky me.”

The Friday 56 for 6/16/23: The Worst Man by Jon Rance

By HCNewton

On June 16, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

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

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

from Page 56% of:
The Worst Man

The Worst Man by Jon Rance

Wilf sits at the table staring blankly at his plate, and it’s obvious that eventually one of us will have to ask the burning question, and right now all eyes are on me. I clear my throat.

‘Everything all right?’ I say, trying to sound as casual as possible even though it’s glaringly obvious that everything is not okay. This is one of those moments in life that requires great seriousness and sensitivity and probably shouldn’t be handled in a pub after ten pints of beer.