This is a Good Book Thursday: Grrrrrr

~ Jenny

Power came back on Tuesday night, but the internet didn’t.  Then there was a big snow storm.  Power is out again.  NOT HAPPY.  But I am plugged in at the dinner about to have an amazing late breakfast so, hey, for the moment, I’m happy.

Thank god I have rechargeable lamps, battery lamps, headlamps.  And back-up batteries.  And paper books.

So what are you reading this week?

UPDATE: Power is on, internet is back, Jenny is happy.

66 thoughts on “This is a Good Book Thursday: Grrrrrr”

  1. Stayed up late last night to finish Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs. Charles and Anna are one of the best paranormal couples out there. Highly recommend.

    I have Penny Reid’s Marriage of Inconvenience waiting for me this weekend. You know it’s a big new release Tuesday when four pre-ordered ebooks hit your kindle at 11:00 pm!

      1. I think you will really enjoy it. I could not put the second half down (which is why I was up past midnight to finish!)

  2. Not reading this week, because I read too much last week. Well, trying not to read. If the Libby app starts downloading one of my holds, I will probably not be able to resist. But the last two weeks included Ngaio Marsh’s first sixteen books and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting them. She stands the test of time pretty well — some of the early 20th century attitudes will make a modern reader cringe, but not so much as to make the books unbearable. But the mysteries, the characters, the settings, and the language are actually even better than I remembered. She has one line that still sticks about a character’s feet feeling like sponge wrapped with burning wire — it evoked the exhausted, walked too long feeling so well that my own feet hurt in sympathy.

  3. I am currently re-reading a trilogy by Nora Roberts: Blue Dahlia, Black Rose. Red Lily.
    It’s set in a plant nursery and has loveable characters, a trublesome ghost and romance.

    1. I have 2 of those that I’ve picked up at yard sales (or somewhere), but I haven’t read them yet due to not really knowing what they were about. Thanks for cluing me in. I may have to pick one up as a way to pass this cold, snowy day.

  4. I binged on Alexis Hall. I went a book too far (‘Looking for Group’, which is YA, and really needs the sex scenes it doesn’t have, and also hard to follow if you’re not into video games). But I enjoyed the Spires ‘series’ (they’re not really linked), especially ‘Glitterland’ and ‘For Real’. Although the best ones are definitely ‘How to Bang a Billionaire’ and ‘How to Blow it with a Billionaire’, which is where I started. Alas, they’re not standalone, and the final book in the trilogy is now postponed until next February.

    After a couple of false starts, and hair-raising complications with my house purchase, I’m rereading Heyer’s ‘The Talisman Ring’, for comfort.

    1. PS. Just off to a talk by Ben Aaranovitch (‘Rivers of London’ series). I gave up on the last but one: too dark. But I’m hoping he’ll be interesting. Plus want to support our excellent bookshop, who put on lots of these events.

      1. Oooh, I’m so jealous. I’d love to hear him talk in person. Especially if he brought Kobna Holdbrook Smith with him! Looking forward to next book in November, and he recently announced that it would be released in the US at the same time as in UK, and that KHS would do the audio. Yay!

  5. Yay for paper books. I think I have two overdue Library books here somewhere in the hoard. I must find asap.

  6. Read an awesome book about a UK librarian who gets laid off and decides to move to Scotland and run a bookstore out of the back of a van. The title escapes me now. Also read The Hating Game, and loved that – sort of Pride and Prejudice meets The Rosie Project. Currently reading the new Alyssa Cole book – a Cinderella story about an overworked grad student who is getting emails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince, if she’ll just send her ID info for verification…. she assumes it’s a scam (it’s not). Will report back once I’ve finished it, but the royal secretary’s increasingly frustrated emails are gold.

    1. The Hating Game was a great read. For some reason it reminded me of Bet Me. Maybe it was the family dynamic towards the end. I re-read Bet Me as soon as I finished The Hating Game.

    2. I liked that bookstore-in-a-van book too. 🙂 By Jenny Colgan: The Little Shop of Happy Ever After. aka The Bookshop Around the Corner.

      That Alyssa Cole is on my wishlist!

      1. I noticed a book in a bookstore called The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy.

    4. I can’t wait to get the Alyssa Cole. This line in the blurb made me put a hold on the ebook (my usual practice is to add one to my wish list and check back): “she’s learned that the only things she can depend on are herself and the scientific method.” Be still, my heart!

  7. I’ve discovered Magic Jigsaw Puzzles for my Kindle and so have no books to add.

  8. Re-reading The Black Sheep by the incomparable Heyer. I always love that one for the banter between Miles and Abby.

    1. “No, no this isn’t an elopement! I’m abducting you!”

      “My dear girl, you don’t consent to an abduction!” You consent to an elopement , and I knew you wouldn’t do that.”

  9. I binged on Ilona Andrews’ Edge series – thanks everyone for the recommendations. Overall I liked them – interesting characters, interesting world, meaningful adventures. For true romance junkies, I felt the romances were sub-plot here, and in some cases their progression wasn’t as smooth/believable as the main plot development and there was maybe a little inconsistency in characters’ behaviour. But if you like adventure as the main plot, then I add to the recommendations for them. I read four books in less than a fortnight (and I have kids and word, who needs sleep) so they were definitely doing something right!

    Also, Kaldar Mar was fun – hello Davy Dempsey.

  10. I’m on a small Meredith Duran binge. She’s an auto-buy, but I don’t always read my auto-buys right away. Anyway, her latest is getting excellent reviews (of course) and in one of those reviews, it mentioned that the h/h from her debut, Duke of Shadows, appear. So I re-read Duke of Shadows and was floored all over again, and then went to The Sins of Lord Lockwood (the new one). Loved that book as well. I realized that one of the secondary characters is the hero of the last book before Lockwood, A Lady’s Code of Misconduct, so that’s what I’m reading now.

    There are so many, many things I love about Duran: her characters are intelligent, the emotion is real, her prose is clean and evocative. I never trip on characterization or word choice and I love that she’s willing for her characters to be Not Nice. You understand why they’re Not Nice — it’s not just inherent vileness, it’s often pain. It’s also not, “I’m going to take my pain out on you.” It’s more, “I will bite you because I’m in pain and if you come closer you’ll make the pain worse; I will bite you because I’m in so much pain I can’t contain myself.” And that’s not conscious. Consciously, there’s all kinds of justification going on, but I can feel the pain as well. We do that. People do that. Good people. So I can’t fault characters who do it, especially when it’s clear that when not in the grip of extraordinary emotional pain, they never bite.

    1. I bought Lockwood as well but I haven’t read Duke of Shadows yet so I’m waiting until I can read them both. She’s such an intelligent writer-I really enjoyed Lady’s Code of Misconduct as well.

    2. I have overnight read Duke of Shadows. It was so good. I am so tired this morning and now I need to deal with kids’ Saturday sport and dance classes. But thank you thank you thank you for this recommendation. Are all hey books that wonderful? (Say no, or I’ll need to tie myself to the mast, Ulysses style).

  11. Not reading much, but I rented Thor: Ragnarok for the snow storm, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Many jokes, good score, best recent use of Led Zeppelin in a movie, manly men, a Valkyrie.

  13. I’m reading a new book by one of my favorite British romance authors, Katie Fforde, called A Country Escape.Chef from the city moves to a farm in the country that a distant relative will leave to her if she can make a go of it. Lots of yummy talk about cheese.

  14. I’ve been reading Work Rules! Insights from inside Google that will transform how you live and lead By Lazaro Bock. Interesting. He tells stories. Totally not a romance.

  15. I just read Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, the sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale set in a fantasy medieval Russia with lots of folk tale influence and a little romance, gorgeous and satisfying. Also Jo Walton’s Starlings, a collection of short works that reminded me of Joan Aiken’s short stories for children which I loved.

    I’m currently reading Alyssa Cole’s Princess in Theory just like Cate M and listening to Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine, wonderful narrator and compelling and heartbreaking story which I think will have a happy ending.

  16. A Rogue of Her Own by Grace Burrowes. It’s a #TimesUp story during the Regency. Really enjoying it

  17. Ursula Vernon’s Alter Ego T. Kingfisher’s 2nd book of (I hope) a duology just got to me, and I have to get enough paint off myself that I can touch my tablet with clean hands. Clockwork Boys is the title. The first one made me SO happy – a disreputable band of people on a mission, and Vernon’s particular voice, that is so specific, and so down-to-earth, and so willing to look at the ramifications of whatever strange idea she has lately acquired. I love her work so much.

    1. I only stumbled across her books last week, and gobbled down the NINE GOBLINS and both books of the Clocktaur Wars. The latter had, for me, just the right combo of fantasy and romance. I like my fantasy with a subplot of romance, rather than romance with a subplot of fantasy. Read another author some months ago that I thought would be what Clocktaur Wars was, but that other books was too much romance, not enough fantasy. So these books made me happy. If you do Twitter, she’s worth following.

  18. A pile of books just arrived from the library. I’ve been looking forward to The girl in the tower, by Katherine Arden – the second in the series, it’s essentially a fairytale set in early Russia. Not a light read, and probably not for anyone in any of the cold bits of the northern hemisphere; as I live in a temperate rainforest (and it’s barely autumn), the grinding cold of an early medieval Russian winter is a novelty. It’s beautifully written, and not just-more-of-the-same.

    Waiting to be picked up is Heart on fire by Amanda Bouchet – the last in the series, I’ve been hanging out for this since I finished the last one! It’s a classic fantasy adventure, with wonderful three-dimensional characters, an interesting world and magic system, and a hot romance. No weak women in this series

  19. Just finished Lake Silence by Anne Bishop. I had a very hard time putting it down which is par for the course for a new Anne Bishop for me, but I was at a work conference and spent most of the morning/lunch/afternoon breaks reading which is not usual for me.

    It’s set in her Thaisia world but a mostly new cast of characters and different location from the previous books, which makes for a very interesting read. I really enjoyed it.

    1. This is on my list and I have specifically, purposefully not begun it cause I need sleep tonight, which means I can’t get caught up in a book and stay up late reading. So glad to know that it’s good!

    2. I just read Lake Silence, too. I was hesitant because I loved the characters and settings of the original five books and was disappointed that she was moving to a different place with new characters. But I loved it. I really like this world. There is no romance (in case this is a deal breaker).

  20. Reread Seanan MacGuire’s Incryptid series, which I actually like better than October Daye (which is good, too, just not as funny.) Love her riffs on reality TV, and the latest one sends up theme parks. So much fun.

    1. I’ve enjoyed the Incryptid series, apart from the one set in Australia – seriously, if you want to set something here, ASK AN AUSTRALIAN! It was all so wrong, so Hollywood cliched – and I’m sure she could have got someone to check it for her.

      However, I still adore the mice 🙂

  21. I read Deborah Blake’s Dangerously Fierce, which just recently came out, and had a lot of fun with it. Pirates! Kraken! Puppies!!

    I also read Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis (thank you to all those who recommended it!) and was seriously annoyed to find that I can’t buy the follow up books in eBook format on Amazon Australia. Grrr. Argh.

    I also read the three novellas that (so far) make up Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Belladonna University series, about life at a magical university. I will read pretty much anything Tansy Rayner Roberts writes, and these are just adorable. The first is called Fake Geek Girl.

    1. My library system has three Alethea Kontis books in HTML and Adobe Epub (I don’t read books online, I’m trying to reduce my screen time). Maybe your library system has them too? I’m in Melbourne.

      1. Ooh, good point! I’m in Canberra, but I still have an account at a Melbourne library.

  22. I read the first two of Elly Griffiths’ Stephens and Mephisto murder mystery series and as there are only four of them so far, I will probably break my golden rule of 3 and go through the whole series. They are mostly set in and around Post war Brighton – an area I know well and have a strong theatrical thread running through them that I love. The period details feel very authentic, the sense of place is great, good mystery and excellent characters. I love Max Mephisto…

    1. Totally love Elly Griffiths. I live in Brighton part of the year and it is so much fun to mentally follow the characters around town.

      I also recently reread all her archeology series – the Ruth Galloway series – and I highly recommend them, too. Ruth s a wonderful character.

      1. I read and enjoyed the first few Ruth Galloway but haven’t kept up. Will definitely get back to them. But these Stephens and Mephisto ones hit my buttons more. I have a weakness for old time theatre and any plots that address that will always get my attention. Plus I have photos of my courting parents in Brighton during the period….

  23. I’m reading a Calvin and Hobbes collection to my five year old. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes I feel like I’m giving him all sorts of horrible ideas.

  24. I finished reading Bear Town by Fredrik Backman, started Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, and Backman’s A Man Called Ove arrived in yesterday’s mail!

  25. I’m reading The Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness by David Casarett. So far I’m enjoying it. It’s nice to see the contrast between American and … Shoot I don’t remember, but I think it’s Thai culture.

    How forgetful of me.

  26. This week I finished Ms. Marvel, Vol 1: No Normal. Also (re-)read Sirens of Titan, by Vonnegut (it’s been ~30 years). And I just read an absolutely lovely little book by Tove Jansson titled The Summer Book. It’s a series of vignettes involving an elderly grandmother & her granddaughter, set on a remote island off Finland. It’s not at all cutesy, though there are moments of humor. Instead it’s spare, deep, & a bit sad. I hugely recommend it.

    I am doing the “Read Harder” challenge this year – all of the above satisfy various tasks. Reading the forums for it on Goodreads has my TBR list growing at a crazy rate. It’s the first time in a while I’ve been so excited about so many different types of books. 🙂

  27. New Emma Jameson is finally out and $3.99!!!!!!!!!

    Trying to hold out until Sunday to start reading………

  29. Just did the beach/promenade walk on Twitter for those wanting a taste of warmth.

  31. I just finished Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas. It featured some characters introduced in the earlier Ravenal titles and I enjoyed seeing how they had developed.

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