Goodness, I didn't mean to fall off the face of the planet. I have read a bunch of books since the beginning of the year (about 75 actually). Most have been re-reads or DNFs (which I totally count because I skim through to the end). I'm not sure what I'll post about because I don't want to write 75 different reviews. Ice Storm was one of my re-reads (I think I've read it more than five times at this point).
The RWA (Romance Writers Association) fall-out is still going on. It's interesting in the sense of watching a company deal/not deal on social media or with crisis management. To be fair...I might be the only person who loves watching company's deal with social media fall-out. In the middle of all that, Flatiron Books (a publisher) began their hype tour of one of their newly published books, called American Dirt. I read the blurb and it's not my normal type of book so I didn't pay any attention (I saw one blurb about it being a new "Great American Novel" which I thought was over-reaching simply because you can't know what books will stay in the populace conscious. It's a fairly overstated marketing term for new books anyways). Then this one person who I'm super BEC about joined the conversation about the issues around the book, the release and publishing. So I tuned out....because I just can't with that person but uh...it's a good conversation to have. Back to the book...
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I managed to catch the most ridiculous, drawn out cold. It lasted for two weeks! I've never taken so much time off work but I did get full use out of my ridiculous adult onesie collection (I've got a shark and a panda, get jelly). I wish I could say I read a ton more books but I was so miserable I couldn't get lost in any book. I did manage to finish a few by the end of the cold, including the Tami Hoag book (Night Sin) I've been keeping in my purse. I'm not rushing to reach any reading goal as I've reached it so I don't know how many more books I'll get to before it's 2020 (!!!).
Ice Blue is a re-read for me. I have a physical copy, an e-book and the audio book. I like audio books but my mind wanders so I tend to only get the versions where I've read the book so it's not a stress. I will say the audio book narrator is really decent in this one. One of the characters is Japanese and the book before had a strong (and not sure if it was correct, it threw me when I first heard it) accent whereas this one is not strong and not verging on a trope). I have to be honest...I really enjoyed parts of this book but didn't enjoy other parts. It made it hard to rate internally. I'm also not a purist (or Janeite, in any definition) of the cannon. Most adaptions or derivations might be enjoyable (depending on writing style). I was also keen to see the movie that was made from this book, at least I was at the time.
To be frank, since I'm still unsure how much I liked or disliked the book and I'm not quite keen on the casting...I've left off the movie (sorry!) but P.D. James does have a nice writing style and as deviations go, this book is okay. I haven't really sold this book have I? This is why I'm never going to be big in the book community (alas) but seriously...if you're not bothered by Pride and Prejudice continuations, this will all be okay. I think. This is the third book I've read by Jenn Bennett. The other two being Alex, Approximately and Starry Eyes. I received Starry Eyes in an Uppercase Box and bought the other two from the bookstore. I like Bennett's books because while they're light-hearted, they're still well plotted with some serious issues. Often characters (even lead characters) are not white. They're also LGBTQ+ friendly (although not lead romances in the three I've read). YA is often times ahead of the curve with inclusion.
It's a YA fictional contemporary romance. It's set in Seattle (each of the three books mentioned above are West Coast set, which to me as an East-Coaster, is like visiting a different locale). I mean, people surf here but not like they do out West. Cold As Ice is the second book in this series. I'm kinda combining them. The Ice Series is around seven books and the Fire series is an offshoot, set in Louisiana more or less. So far there is only three books in the Fire series and I'm impatiently waiting for the rest. This book also got a new cover but as of this moment I only have the older hardback and an e-book. The cover from the hardback and the new paperback are vastly different (but it looks like an updated eBook cover).
The setting for this is the Caribbean waters, England (Wiltshire and London) and America (New York and California...I think). Three of the characters reappear in this book from the first book and one new character is introduced. You don't have to read the first book to follow along with the plot here, but it does add to the development of The Committee story line. The older paperback/e-book cover is below. The icicle motif continues, even though it doesn't quite make sense since most of the beginning action takes place in the Caribbean. Still looks cool though. So awhile back I mentioned that I thought Anne Stuart changed publishers. She got new covers for some of her re-published works and some of her back list was being digitized. That doesn't necessarily mean she got a new publisher but I was struggling to find her in my local indies for awhile.
This series of books are all romances with a reoccurring plot line where the super secret organization known as "The Committee" is involved. Normally I'm not overly into governmental spy/military agencies with no oversight from Congress (::coughblackwatercough::) because that's how you get into multiple decades of a war in which many people die and no one goes in for war crimes that probably should. I got off track. These books are not blackwater-ey. Which is good. Nor are they full of alpha-military-assholes (although they are a band of mercenaries). Also good. The main leads tend to be Anne Stuart's norm of "bad boys" and her norm of slightly frigid career women. Granted, I just read a long form associated with Ronan Farrow's book about NBC and their cover-up of Weinstein and Laurer so I think frigid career women tend to be more of a defense because of men like that. It works in my head right now. 10/10/2019 Fun Little Coffee Table Books: A Day In The Life Of Marlon Bundo and Then You Die of DysenteryRead NowI picked up these books on a whim (and also because John Oliver makes me laugh/The Trevor Project is a lovely organisation). The first was from John Oliver's show with proceeds from the book going to The Trevor Project and AIDS United.
The book is titled A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo and was written by Jill Twiss and illustrated by EG Keller. The illustrations are in a watercolor style with soft colors. The story is fairly uplifting...although the stinkbug (the bad guy in the book) absolutely is reminiscent of VP Pence. That's fine with me of course, I think Pence is able to withstand some ribbing. It's a short book (40 pages) and is written for children (or at that level). It's really adorable. I think I started this during a bubble bath and then finished it the next morning over coffee. I have a little sun room that's perfect to have a Sunday morning coffee if you're a heathen. The picture is a bit blury below, I got enlarged in the whole process of putting it on the blog. I mean, to be honest, it's a snapshot from my insta page...because the coffee moves. That's a fun little app find there.
Anyways. I was a bit hesitant to start this book because it's always a 50/50 shot with male authors isn't it? (More like 80/20 innit). I have to say, Olsen did not let me down. There is violence (I mean, a serial killer killed multiple people here) but it's not detailed and graphic. There actually isn't a whole lot of violence against women and the main character isn't as flat as most female-centric books written by male authors. It sounds like faint praise but I mean this as high praise. Gregg Olsen did well! Don't come for me with #NotAllMen. I get it. It's enough men writing women poorly that I don't feel bad for saying it. Also, it's enough men that the last time I talked to the bookseller at my local indie she mentioned that one of the books I picked up (and then re-shelved) had poorly done female characters. She did recommend a better (male) author who had actually worked hard to not have flat lady characters, so I ended up purchasing that one. It's a thing. Well, I suppose the next couple of weeks will educate a bunch of people in Constitutional Law...including me. What a time to be alive (a stressful, stressful time!).
I'm also thinking about getting Invisalign. Well, I put down the payment so I'm absolutely getting it. I was the bad child who didn't wear a retainer and my teeth shifted. My bottom teeth are worse than my upper part, and you can't really even see my bottom teeth but it bothers me. I figure I might as well make myself happy (plus I've saved up for it). It was cheaper than what I budgeted by $1000 so that was exciting. It covers all my dental visits, all the retainers and any future retainers, etc. I think it's a good deal plus it set my overly-anxious mind at ease because the doctor will be checking all my teeth out as they move (every month more or less). I know other companies are cheaper and use tele-dentistry but that doesn't make me feel secure. I guess I want a dentist up in my mouth (in a professional capacity). Strangely, the only time my teeth didn't bother me was in the United Kingdom. Not that the Brits had bad teeth--although I'm aware of the stereotype--the beauty/fashion standards were different. For example, not every actor and actress on television (news, commercials, shows, etc.) had perfectly capped, white teeth. Not every CEO. Not every single model. It was really interesting seeing how I reacted to everything as well. My wardrobe, hair and makeup all changed to I fit in more. I'm back in the USA though...and my teeth really bug me again. I might finally kick my gum habit. This has nothing to do with the book. At all. I just wanted to tell anyone I'm getting Invisalign because I'm kinda excited. Right, so Famous In A Small Town is a Young Adult (YA) contemporary fiction. It deals with a group of friends in a small town named Acadia that are going into their last years of High School. The main character is named Sophie and Sophie is head of the student side of the Band Fundraising Committee. Her goal is to send the band to California for a parade/competition. This would look good on her college admissions essay (which she carefully plotted out, unlike Lori Loughlin and co.). Her big idea is to get the hometown songstress, Megan Pleasant, to come back and perform, raising money for the band. Unfortunately, Megan Pleasant has vowed to never return. This is the second book in the Burning Cove series that is written by Amanda Quick (nom de plume of Jayne Ann Krentz). I didn't continue on with buying the series (although I might get it from the library) simply because the third book doesn't quite match to the first two covers in my opinion. It is quite pretty but I think these books hover around three stars for me so I saw no need to complete my collection.
Anyways, this book is the second book in the series but they're loosely collected and can be read as stand-alone books. I think that's my favorite type of series sometimes because I don't always enjoy the massive backlog of characters who start popping up as series get longer. It's exhausting. I think Anne Stuart jumped to a different publishing house because now her backlist is being re-released in ebooks. I bought this book before then...and had to hunt it down online in order to get a physical copy. Anne Stuart tends to write romances in several genres and with different plots. I've found that I enjoy them...even if they're not my normal genre.
My favorite series from her is her Fire and Ice series because it's action-adventure/mystery/romance/international spy stuff. Her heroes tend to be bad. I've seen them listed as gamma heroes, which is a different take on the alpha/beta romance hero (not the weird incel nonsense in which they base male worthiness on a impractical 'study' on wolves). I had never heard of gamma heroes before I looked up this type of male romance counterpart--it was unlike anything I had read before. I don't always like every authors approach to them but I like Stuarts and they tend to make sense...her bad boys are villainous bad boys. Granted, in real life...I would assume these men need to be medicated. Heavily. I probably don't really need to talk about any of that because this book doesn't fit into that category at all. This book is set within the art world (painting and curation) which is such an insane, slightly unregulated world anyways. The book was written in the 1980s, so that was fun to go back to (with the note that it's a romance from the 80s...so I wasn't sure what type of asshole/Gordon Gekko type male romance interest would show up). I don't know if the ebook is different, sometimes with re-releases things change. I have only read the print version below. So this hurricane did a doozy on everyone didn't it? It legit just chilled in the Bahamas. Didn't move at all. For DAYS. Insane.
It didn't not go to Alabama. It was never going to go to Alabama. Anyone with a brain would note that. Everything is flooded here but I have internet now so that's exciting enough. I've also got an emergency meeting with my volunteer group tonight to mobilize for the food pantry and homeless shelter in the area. So I'm not sure how these posts are going to go up. I might just try an catch up on all my sub-boxes. For this book, it's a Shakespeare work of course (slightly abridged) but written using manga/graphics/comics. I love this type of work because I think it's a great way for people to be introduced to Shakespeare. This book is by Amanda Quick, which is a nom de plume for Jayne Ann Krentz. It's what she writes her historical romances under. Krentz/Quick has written a donkey load of books (like 50+) and this was my first one. I think. She looked familiar on the back cover but she also has the same 'author' hairstyle and and pose as a lot of other authors. Something went wrong (or different) with my Kindle reader...and my carousel went away. It wasn't life shattering or anything, but it's where my magazines and TBR books show up on when downloaded. It accidentally became 'out of sight, out of mind' for me there and when the carousel showed up again...I realised that I had a pile of Economists and Atlantics to read through. So...I'm reading articles in between "editing" pictures. I use "editing" loosely as I have no desire to spend hours getting the saturation correct on a picture. It's not that I'm not keen on presenting well overall...but that's all exhausting. Also, reading think pieces on whether or not Scotland might go for independence eventually on a hard Brexit is far more interesting. This particular book might seem like an odd thing to write about, as it's a collection of comics by illustrator Sarah Andersen. Andersen's comics are all over the web (at least all over Imgur and Reddit) and I adore them. When I saw one of her books at the bookstore, I picked it up because it's a definite happy read.
That being said, it is a collection of comics. So not a narrative novel like I've been reading but whatever. All the love to Sarah Andersen. This book is a retelling of the movie You've Got Mail, which is also a retelling of The Shop Around the Corner and Parfumerie . It's the first Jenn Bennett book I've read (although I received one of her books in a book subscription) and I bought it at a bookstore because the cover is cute.
Overall, I thought it was cute and light. I have it rated 4 stars although there were some things that annoyed me (the same things that annoyed Emma actually). Oh my god...this book. Holy cow. This is the third UK/Ireland area book I've read recently...and they've all been mindfucks. What it is in the water there?
I love it. I received this book from Netgalley via the publisher HQ Digital. Which is a digital first imprint from Harper Collins. I fully realize that Ireland and the UK are vastly different but I guess I'm grouping them together via geographical nearness...don't write me hate mail. Both of these books were ARC from NetGalley. I've been a slow reader with all these books because sometimes the format is not ready for commercial use yet. A Few Right Thinking Men is a fictional book, set in Australia in the 1930s. It's by Sulari Gentill and is the first of her Rowland Sinclair series. The Last Stone is a true-crime book about a cold case investigation that was solved. A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill7/15/2019 Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare; Manga Shakespeare edition, illustrated by Emma VieceliRead NowI am always down for modern adaptions and different interpretations of the classics, especially if they use transmediation. Movies like "10 Things I Hate About You" (The Taming of the Shrew) down to a modern vlog of the "Lizzie Bennet Diaries" (Pride and Prejudice).
This version takes a sideways step into graphic novels/manga in order to tell the story. The words are straight Shakespeare but the illustrations and layout move the story along like a visual play would. I'm sure there are people who prefer the original in all things but I think this would overlook the fact that things like this offer a gateway into intimidating literature. Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's comedies and was probably written in 1598 or 1599. The option below does cut some of the play to work into the graphic format, but it's not super obvious to me.
I think my book slump is over. I was struggling for awhile so I decided to re-read an Anne Stuart book as she's one of my favorite authors. I was hoping for a jump start and it worked because I read two books that have been sitting on my kindle for a month!
Also, I got to hear the fabulous Maeve Higgins on NPR and about died from her quips on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. Apparently urinal is pronounced differently in other parts of the world and now I know. I bought this book myself because I actually like Northanger Abbey more than any other Jane Austen works. Don't tell...
Val McDermid's version of Northanger Abbey is part of the Austen Project, a re-imagining of Jane Austen's work. They have four books out at the moment, I've read this one and Eligible, the Pride and Prejudice reworking. I enjoyed this one more than Eligible but it was because I couldn't get into Curtis Sittenfeld's writing although I did enjoy her taking Pride and Prejudice to Cincinnati. I was also excited to read something by McDermid, a Scottish crime/mystery writer who's written a book series I've enjoyed that features Dr. Tony Hill. |
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