Well...I'm working from home at the moment. I'm trying to be optimistic about this whole new lifestyle I'm committed to. It's all kinda scary to be honest. I've been checking in with my friends who live in Europe and Asia (and who have been dealing with this longer than me) so I started prepping much earlier figuring that either I'd need it or I would just fill up my hurricane box. I also ordered a bidet...because why not? Then of course, for some reason, everyone went insane and began buying toilet paper in bulk.
I think the bidet might have been the smartest thing I ever did. Amazingly, a few days after I ordered it--the company ran out of stock. Yup, America (ok, a segment of) is getting on that bidet lifestyle. I bought mine from Tushy...but I'd be careful when looking them up on social media because there's a porn company with the same name. Which I discovered when checking on shipping times. So uh...the bidet people are @lovetushy and not at tushy. As a warning. Or you know...a new interest if that's how you swing.
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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... 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. 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. 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. 9/24/2019 The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial KillerRead NowI picked this book up pretty much the moment it was released. I kinda talked about it but I didn't ever review it. I really like Skip Hollandsworth's articles and writing style so even if I wasn't interested in the topic itself, I knew that this book was going to be right up my alley. Of course, it's a real life historical mystery, so it's absolutely something I'm interested in.
This book is about a series of murders that took place in Austin in the 1880s, after the Civil War. Some of these murders (if not all of them) are thought to have been perpetuated by one person--presumably America's first serial killer. This was around the same time as Jack the Ripper and like his/her British counterpart, these series of crimes remains unsolved. It's somewhat difficult to write a long book about a series of unsolved murders, committed in the past, with unreliable evidence, so Hollandsworth also brings in the changing culture of Texas (a Confederate state). He covers politics (Austin was the new capital city), politicians (quite a few Confederate soldiers came back to run the state), new inventions, society changes (how servants lived) and how crime was taken care of during this time period. Skip Hollandsworth has about 30 pages of articles from Texas Monthly if that's of any interest. His newest (as of today) article is titled The Serial Killer of Laredo: The Serial Killer That Hid In Plain Sight Among the Border Patrol's Ranks. One of the most fascinating articles he wrote is called "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas," about how Bernie Tiede murdered Marjorie Nugunt. The town (Carthage, Texas) rallied around Bernie during his arrest and trial (and his release). Honestly, it's one of these true-crime cases that is just...bizarre. 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. 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 GentillThis book is highly recommended on a forum I visit about unsolved mysteries, which may or may nor be an odd hobby. Robert Kolker didn't take the normal approach to this serial killer, which I really like. Kolker focuses on the women that went missing and were later found on Long Island deceased.
Apparently Netflix is creating a movie/series on the book and case. Also, the 911 audio recording of one of the victims mentioned in the book is supposed to be released, although I'm not sure if that will do anything.
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. My phone bricked up and I lost all my pictures because somehow I didn't set them on any backup plan...so that was fun. Luckily I have a new phone now (and a backup schedule) but yeah, that sucked.
So this book is actually set in the UK and noting that the blurb is down my alley (murder-mystery)...I honestly picked it up because of the cover. Isn't is eye-catching? That yellow and blue/gray combo is perfection and I'm seeing it in other covers now. I bought it at Target because I have a Target problem. I'm working on it. I picked up some computer glasses at Target yesterday because I've had a spat of migraines...maybe because of the weather but maybe because I've been working on the computer a lot (?). They're not prescription, they're the "blue light filtering glare reducing" lenses. Meant for digital screens at least. So we shall see how that turns out. It's this exact pair as an aside.
I bought this book from my local indie last year but sat down and read it over the holiday break. I honestly picked it up because Liz Nugent is Irish and her bio on the flap looked impressive. Plus the cover (American, hardback edition at least) was creepy. Insta-buy! I received this from the publisher through NetGalley. I requested specifically because of the setting. Not only is it set in Scotland but features Glasgow! I love Scotland and Glasgow is such a fun place. Tons of history and really cool people, it's the perfect setting for a book.
I bought this book in my local bookstore under the misapprehension that this was more of a murder-mystery type book but it's not (not a complaint). It's a more suspenseful novel about friendships and romantic relationships.
I received this book in a subscription box in June 2016. It was one of the better boxes for me because it was “Roaring 20's Mystery” theme. I ended up canceling this subscription because the extra goodies weren’t making up the value for me and many of the books were remainders.
This book is also a remainder, but the author was new to me and the setting was Australia. My mind went to Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which is coming out with a movie as an aside. I love Miss Fisher's. So this book is part of a series, which I didn't know. I bought this book on a whim from either Target or Barnes and Nobles. That being said, while I'm not familiar with the series you can read this book as a standalone but I think it would have been better having read the whole series. This book is listed as number eight in the series, as a fyi.
Down the Darkest Road is a murder mystery by Tami Hoag, who writes a good murder-mystery read. I read this a few months ago without looking up the synopsis as Hoag is pretty much an auto-buy for me. I got this at a bookstore, but I can't remember which one now. It was either Barnes and Noble or Borders (RIP).
This series has 32 books, spanning over twenty years all set in the Victorian era (1881 in fact). I'm a bit conflicted about this series. I'm on book six, and I can't decide if I like it or not. I rated the first book as a four (3.5 tbh), and the rest as three. I just don't know if I want to continue on for twenty seven more books. Perry has won the Edgar Award, which is usually a good indication for me. I tend to love Edgar Award winners.
Anne Perry has a different path to authorship than most. I was unaware of her story before reading (she was involved in a murder as a child) and I'm not sure it made a bit of difference to be honest in how I view the work. |
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