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This is a Good Book Thursday, October 10, 2024

This week, I remembered I had a TV and plugged it in. The last thing I saw on it was Barbie (with Krissie/Anne Stuart and Pat Gaffney), so it’s been awhile. But it’s easier to crochet watching TV than it is reading, although I do both. I’m thinking about watching Hitman, but really more tempted to go back to the Doctor Whos, starting with Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith, even if it’s just the first episodes of each. They’re such brilliant introductions to the new Who’s. In the meantime, I’m still re-reading Aaronovitch, although I feel a Pratchett binge coming on. Also started Lessons in Chemistry, had to put it down for some reason, and never went back, so it’s glaring at me from my bedside table.

What did you read this week?

142 Responses

  1. LOL, our tv is still not plugged in after our move from last December. But dh manages to get anything we want to watch via his macbook: the few dancing shows, hockey games – and the documentaries we love to watch are either on the channels mediathek or on the streaming platforms anyway.
    Busy busy work meant I didn’t get to read a lot: finished Rookie Move and loved it (but then I like and occasionally love most of Bowen’s work), and re-listened to Cait Nary’s Season’s Change and Eli Easton’s The Stolen Suitor. Loved the first one again, liked but not loved the second one. But wow, Easton’s book got an awful cover that totally missed the description of the MC it most likely should portray. I know that some authors do it themselves (which I doubt Easton did here).
    Imho the cover even in the ebook era is still one big factor why at least I pick up a book unless I’m following a recommendation. Good example: the London calling books by Alexis Hall: I noticed the first book thanks to its lovely cover.
    And I remember the thoughts that went into finding the right cover illustrations for Jenny and Bob’s two new series.
    Well, the cover of neither book I read this week would have attracted me, the Bowen book (I came across 3 different cover designs, one was of a horrible faceless hunk) for I picked up because I like her as a writer and came across the cover reveal for her next Hockey Guy’s book (I like all the covers of this series a lot, it follows the Him/Us model), the Nary book was a recommendation by the lovely Arghers (not a horrible cover but it wouldn’t have made me pick it up), the Easton one (especially horrible) was a long-ago-search for a book I could listen to and I knew an Easton book would not be bad.

    In between I’ve read a couple of samples that have been deleted since. One was Face off by Chelsea Curto – seemed to be a good enough story, but it felt too chatty for me, too many words that I could skim without missing the story and I’m too impatient for this right now. Anyone knows this feeling?

  2. I sampled/DNFd several books that were just so bad. So bad. But the reviews were fine, so yeah, yay something for everyone I guess. Now rereading Maybe This Time.

    So no books, but I have some excellent tv reccs!

    I watched the first episode of Ludwig with David Mitchell, excellent! The MCs twin, who is a police officer, goes missing and the MC accidentally ends up impersonating him to try and find him. Charming so far.

    I also watched a ghost story movie a while ago, All of Us Strangers with Andrew Scott. I genuinely want to say it was haunting. But the main recc here for anyone who hasn’t tried it yet is Fleabag. Well, it’s not a team story, or an HEA romance, but it’s brilliant. (Andrew Scott is the hot priest, hence the connection. Also a really creepy Moriarty).

    This week we’re watching Tour de France Unchained, and I’m not really a sports doco watcher, but this is put together so well, it’s fascinating. And it really is team! (The Wrexham football sports doco series season 1 was also a great, well made, watch. Huh, maybe I am a sports doco watcher).

    2. I really am clumsy these days, butchering my own name in the name section replying to Allanah… and now I don’t seem to know how to fix it, sigh.

    3. Allanah, I totally second your recommendation of Fleabag. Touching, funny and smart. Loved that series!

    4. I’ve just finished Ludwig – binged it on iPlayer. Trust there’s going to be another series. The last episode was especially good.

  3. I think that I have worn myself out of rereading, but I still feel too tired to try anything new.

    I am, however thinking of going to see The Wild Robot in theaters this weekend. The last movie I saw on the big screen wat The Boy and the Heron, so it will be a treat. I feel like I want to support anything coming out that isn’t a sequel or a remake and it looks good.

          2. The trailer does indeed look amazing!

            Does Flow end well? I’m a wuss – when Baymax “died”, both the kids and their mum were traumatized.

  4. I recently finished the audiobook of Sheine Lende, by Darcie Little Badger. It was an enjoyable story about a teen trained in search and rescue. When her mom goes missing on a search, Sheine has to find her mother and the lost children her mother was seeking. However, it’s more complicated than one might think. It’s a world that involves magic, so to rescue the missing children and her own mother, Sheine needs to utilize her own magic abilities.

    1. I really enjoyed Little Badger’s earlier book Elatsoe so I also got Sheine (which is apparently a prequel). But it’s been sitting on top of Mount TBR for far too long because I really wanted to go forward with a sequel, not backwards with a prequel. Hopefully, knowing you enjoyed it will inspire me to finally dig in, lol.

      1. It’s really good. I didn’t see it so much as a prequel as just a different story in the same universe.

  5. Read two more books in the Manna Francis Administration series and onto the final one. One of the cases takes place in America so it’s interesting to see the dystopian world building she has created there with fundamentalist Christian values and laws, compared to the more licentious Europe, yet with greater political restrictions and harsher limitations.

    I’m also reading the Naomi Novik short stories.

    1. I liked the Novik short stories and the preview of her new series.

      Also, while totally unbelievable, catch High Potential, a new series.

  6. I did finally make it grocery shopping yesterday, but even that was so belated that the trip ran into rush hour.  I didn’t get any of my reading written up yesterday.  Below is one review written earlier.  I hope to add more books later today.

    Robert Harris, Conclave, 2016.  A novel about the election of a fictional new pope.  The unnamed fictional old pope in who has just died followed policies a lot like those of Pope Francis.  But the work is not a roman a clef, and even if it were, if is now outdated. The number of Italian cardinals eligible to vote is now considerably smaller than Harris depicts, for instance.  It looks to be well researched, however. The events depicted here differ, I imagine, from the sort that have influenced recent conclaves, but they make for exciting reading.  Harris (not a conventional religious adherent of any sort but, per interviews, not an atheist), clearly is rooting for the winds of change rather than the conservatives, but is not heavy-handed about it, and depicts unworthy cardinals on both sides. 

    I see that a movie based on the novel has had some screenings but not yet a general release.  Reviews suggest that it is reasonably faithful to the book.  Someone recommended this book to me shortly after it was published. I didn’t forget, but unfortunately took years to make it to the top of my to-be-read list.  I will have to investigate other Harris novels, with unrelated storylines.  Finally, I stumbled upon the below-linked interview and found it insightful.

    https://catholicherald.co.uk/robert-harris-interview-a-complete-atheist-couldnt-write-this-book/

    1. I saw Conclave at the Toronto Film Festival and it was one of my favourites. Stunning performance from Ralph Fiennes.

    2. Patrick, I read The Conclave some years ago and also found it fascinating.
      Very intense and it felt very well researched. As a Catholic, it rang true.

    3. I read Conclave years ago too, and enjoyed it. Didn’t realise there was a film but I can imagine Ralph Fiennes in the role.
      I like Robert Harris, especially early ones (Archangel, Enigma and Fatherland)

  7. I’ve been reading through Brandon Sanderson’s “secret project” books – books he wrote during the pandemic with the expectation that they might never be published and were just for fun. I recommend any of the three although each is quite unique.

    Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was lovely; a very original world. Both the written book with its illustrations and the audio were well done. The MMC “Painter” wakes up in Yumi’s world, looking and sounding like Yumi, while she is incorporeal. He helps (or rebels) against her until the next day when their positions are reversed and she is in his world (but as herself) and he is incorporeal. They battle nightmares come to life, robotic machines, and their personal issues to find growth, community, and ultimately love (as well as solving world problems). Very satisfying and superbly written, IMO. I especially liked Yumi’s art of stacking stones.

    The Frugal Wizard’s Guide to Medeival England has been mentioned here before and I really liked it.

    The Sunlit Man was great! Part sci-fi, part fantasy, using vaguely Western tropes: loner with mysterious past; riding into the sunset, etc (although this sunset is potentially lethal) In this world, no one can survive in the sunlight without burning up, so they are constantly on the run, circumnavigating the planet, to escape the dawn.

    There is one more in this loose group of books that I’m still waiting for from the Library.

    1. I just finished listening to Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I enjoyed it, it was a very interesting world and I’m curious about what will happen next, but thought it was unnecessarily wordy. Do the next books get a little tighter?

  8. I finished off Bridgerton #1, the Duke and I (by Julia Quinn). I did enjoy it, as the characters do talk to each other, and apologize to each other for things they do. And there isn’t a magical HEA – they work toward it together. I’ll be happy to read another.

  9. I was having a hard time settling on a book, so reread KK Charles’ Simon Feximal and Spectred Isle. Then stuck with the ghost theme because it’s October and reread Jordan L Hawk’s Forgotten Dead and Rattling Bone books, which are at the top edge of how scary I can handle.

      1. “The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal” is one of my favorite KJ Charles books. I think she mean to write another book after “Spectred Isle” but its been so long!

  10. I am reading the books I saved for vacation, so it’s been a good week.
    I read Grace Burrows “Lady Violet Investigates” which was just what I expect from Grace, and a nice relaxing read.
    “We Solve Murders” which I initially found a bit annoying because it felt like he was just introducing characters and hinting at plot, but was totally delightful once he got going.
    “Summer Romance” was as good as everyone here said.
    “Murder At The White Palace”; the most recent in the matchmaking company series. I am impressed that she can keep coming up with relatively plausible plots. I would like to hear more about their matchmaking than I have in the last two books, but otherwise good.
    Now reading #8 of the Henri Davenforth mysteries. I liked the early ones the best. This one is throwing me off because there are so many people I am apparently supposed to remember from previous books, and I don’t. Even a character list (which I generally hate) would help. Nonetheless, another light, entertaining mystery to go with the sunshine and sound of waves.
    I will also read all the GBT posts, because so often my next good book is to be found here. For which I say thank you to all you regular GBT posters.

    2. I also routinely read GBT archives which started at some point in 2017. Great source of recommendations!

  11. The first in his Hazard & Somerset M/M series by Gregory Ashe — Pretty Pretty Boys. This is the first in a two detectives solving crimes and falling in love series and I enjoyed the first installment. The romance arc is going to be a slow build through the series and there are some real issues to keep them apart. I’ll definitely read the next one in the series at least. One warning about Pretty Pretty Boys – M/Ms knew each other in high school and there was some really ugly bullying going on. Bully to lover is not everyone’s favorite trope – not mine either but it was pretty well done without absolving anyone.

    I then read Mystery Magnet by Gregory Ashe a cozy M/M mystery which I finished but only because it was relatively short. Not my jam — it’s a cozy M/M mystery. The romance is going to be a long time coming as this is a multi-part series. It turns out that cozy mysteries are not my jam. The book is a send up of the Murder She Wrote type mysteries, complete with all the silly tropes you’d expect.

    I reread Caught off Guard by Catherine Cloud. Another wonderful M/M hockey romance between goalies on the same team. It stays on the reread pile.

    Not a book but I belatedly discovered a Podcast entitled Club30 which is hosted by former Rangers goalie Hendrik Lundqvist and entrepreneur Jay Liddell. They interview a wide range of people who are at the top of their careers or who have retired — current CEO of Verizon, Olympic champ Lindsay Vaughn, former Giants quarterback Eli Manning, etc. The discussions are wide-ranging but come down to how to have a meaningful life and how to be present in one’s life. I went back to the beginning (it started in 2023) and am working my way to the present. Each episode is short (30 mins) and so far I’ve found each one to be excellent.

    1. Another book where there is a M/M relationship that grows (and completes in one book, though there could be a sequel with all the wonderful characters), is Pansies by Alexis Hall. He doesn’t hit you over the head with it, but it seemed obvious to me that the bully back in the school days, picked on the other guy because he was attracted to him and didn’t know what to do with those feelings.

      When they meet later on, the vicim recognizes the bully right away but the bully, who is now out, doesn’t recognize the victim. It’s hard to take in some ways but is a wonderful healing journey for all concerned.

      1. The new edition of Pansies is about to come out in November iirc. Very nice cover, maybe a new audio version, too. Have already pre-ordered it 😉

          1. According to Hall’s website, there will be new stuff, he writes:

            “This dynamic, emotional LGBTQIA+ romance contains never-before-seen content and exclusive bonus material:

            – A foreword from the author
            – Annotations: Alexis Hall’s insights and commentary threaded through the novel
            – Alfie Bell’s Hashtag Eggplant Wednesday Lasagne Recipe, brought forward from the original release
            – Floriography: The Language of Flowers”

            Not sure if this enough for readers who already own the book.
            In Glitterland, he added an added chapter “Aftermath” to the book that does not feel like an epilogue but like the chapter that should have been there all along.

      2. I agree, Pansies is such a wonderful book – despite the bullying aspect of the past relationship. It is one of my top 3 of Hall’s and it’s’ a frequent reread/relisten.

    3. I really like most of Gregory Ashe, although warning, Hazard and Somerset is graphically violent at times. The Lion and the Lamb series is also good, and the Borealis investigations ones are great too, although ymmv for the humour.

      2. I started the first Borealis book and there were so many brand names dropped I found it alienating and dnf’d it very early. But I read the Lamb & the Lion trilogy and liked it on balance.

        Ashe obviously can do a variety of styles, like Hall.

    4. Christina: Thank you, Anything that comes down to “how to have a meaningful life and how to be present in one’s life” has to be valuable: I shall definitely take a listen. Do you remember the name of the podcast?

  12. I’ve mostly been rereading Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I have read some of them enough that I can quote them, but it has been a long time since I last read others and I have forgotten large parts of the stories, so that has been a real treat.

    I read and very much enjoyed Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. I checked out the second in the series, but I have had a hard time getting into it and have started another SEP reread (Lady Be Good).

    I also finished listening to Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn is interesting but moves very slowly.

    I have switched back to listening to the Expanse Series by James S. A. Corey. The Expanse books are fast paced space adventures with a lot of family building. I’m on Nemesis Games now and am loving it.

    1. I love SEP’s books. My favorites are Breathing Room and First Lady, and both Phoebe and Molly Summerville book in the Chicago Stars series.

  13. After some fairly strong recommendations here of Finlay Donovan is Killing It, I started it but quit quite soon. Read a couple other things and then came back to it. Managed to get through it but I *really* dislike the MC. She is meant to be spunky and resourceful, but she is vindictive and lies cheats and steals. All the time. It’s a catchy plot line all right and I do like two of the other characters but I will not be reading more by this author. The sidekick is quite a delightful person though she is a bit too good to be true, running the household without complaint much of the time while Finlay goes off on adventures. Then there are the two potential love interests. I quite bonded with the first one and found the second one an annoyance. MC seems equally attracted by them. The author, from her notes in the back, is very taken with her heroine. Characters have to have flaws of course because: 1. They are meant to be human beings and 2. We have to have conflict and tension and things to overcome. I am just fed up with MCs who lack fundamental character in terms of honesty and integrity and being basically goodhearted.

    Went on to read Paris Daillencort is about to Crumble, second in Alexis Hall’s baking competition series. True, it is quite different from the Takes the Cake one that came first. I liked the first one but liked this one even more. No one does wry, surprising, delightful absurdity better than Alexis Hall in my opinion. He’s right up there with the wicked wit herself, Jane Austen. I was reading the Crumble book on a long plane ride – great choice! He is often exquisitely funny but this one made me laugh so hard and so often I thought I might shake the plane out of the sky. It gets more serious as one of the MC’s mental state deteriorates. A very good case of addressing mental illness in a realistic and sensitive way. It gets quite angst-ish before the end but the forces of good are prevailing by the end. One thing that sets this one aside from the rest of his books is that there is basically no sex in it besides kissing. What?! No sex in an Alexis Hall book, you say? True. Unusual. Another great work from a true master.

    Read a bunch of samples of books that sounded promising but again, were marred, in my opinion, by characters I just cannot admire or care about. Life is too short! I read the first two Murderbot Diaries to cheer myself. It worked, as it always does.

    I have lots more to share as I took two trips in a row – lots of reading! No time now but next time I will share the four *great* books I had the pleasure of reading right in a row. One was a Jenny Crusie I had previously been unaware of. Wonderful!

  14. I finally finished System Collapse. I think my problem early in the book was that I really had no idea what was going on. Eventually my brain kicked in and I began to enjoy it. It got better and better, and Murderbot did something fabulous toward the end, which is still making me smile. And cheer for it. I may go back and reread the whole series.

    Started reading The House in the Cerulean Sea. As far as I can tell so far, it’s a M/M romance in a world where there is strict governmental control of people with magical abilities. Good writing, great characters — can’t wait till evening when I can pick it up again.

    2. A sequel to House just came out and I quite enjoyed it. The end was a bit hand-wavy but I could live with that.

  15. If I’m binging, it’s on ‘Ring of Fire’ novels. I finished 1634: THE GALILEO AFFAIR by Flint and Andrew Dennis. Rather than pick up 1634: THE BALTIC WAR (Flint and Weber), I backtracked to 1633 and I’ll likely go to the first anthology, RING OF FIRE.

    I still have the second Olivia Lively mystery open in the Kindle ap. I’ll get back to it, sooner or later.

    Finally, the obligatory mention of the continuing serial word opera, VARIATION ON A THEME Book 5. This week’s chapters were Chapter 93: Year’s End and Chapter 94: It’s not out yet. I’m still reading. In fact, I skipped back 25 chapters and refreshed my memory.

    On the TV front, I was sort of binging on The Rookie. Then I hit a particularly dark episode and stopped. I’m looking forward to new seasons of Star Trek: Brave New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks (both are labeled “Final Season.”)

    YouTube presented me with Sondheim’s Into The Woods, which was excellent. Much better than the Disney movie based on the play, although that was good, too. Now that I’ve seen the play, I’ll need to reread NO ONE IS ALONE.

    1. When does Star Trek start up again? I wonder if the particularly dark episode of The Rookie was the one that made me wander away from the show and never go back. It was years ago, but I only made it halfway through that episode and it ruined the entire show for me.

      1. If I read the reviews correctly, ST:BNW starts October 24. Not sure about Lower Decks.

        The episode of Rookie is the one where he burglarizes the crooked sergeant and the sergeant has set him up as the bad guy by planting the evidence in his new house.

  16. I noticed that my local library had FINALLY acquired Lower Decks Season 4 on DVD.  I’m avoiding paid streaming services,  so I hadn’t seen it yet.  I greatly enjoyed it, although I thought the extras in the DVD set have been better in some past years.  (This time fewer voice-over commentaries and extra video.)  I requested it last year, which means it should have been reserved for me and me notified when they got it, but it didn’t happen.  I had checked the catalog several times just in case, so I think it arrived only recently.  Lower Decks naturally had priority over nonfiction DVDs that I had checked out earlier, so those are going back overdue and unfinished.

    Possibly I’ll manage more reviews later today.

  17. I watched Hit Man at the cinema and it was a more interesting film than I expected. Not sure if I’ve seen any Linklater films before aside from School of Rock, which is perhaps not that representative? Anyway, we all had a good time and the romance works. I appreciate Glen Powell’s continuing commitment to the can-pass-for-a-decent-romcom genre.

  18. I’ve binged MC Beatons traveling matchmaker series. I read three in a row and enjoyed them and then took a break and reread some Jane Castle. I just got Fast women on sale and that’s next. Right now I seem to prefer reading on my Kindle. I will get back to my hardbacks.
    Saturday Night Live has had two new episodes. I did watch those. I love their cold opens and their newscast. I also watched John Stewart’s opening monologue on the daily show this week. Very funny.

  19. I’m rereading Maybe This Time. I’ve made it to the part where Andie has finally figured out that the Blue Dancing Princess who literally haunts her sleep is the kids’ deceased Aunt, and she calls North to try to find the body so she can burn it. It just gets more weird and more fascinating from there.

    My neighbor is sending me rants about her husband, who seems to be sliding into dementia. So, I’m reading those. I hope she can get some legal help for herself, and some anti-depressants for him. This is an ongoing saga, and just gets worse and worse. We aren’t really close, because we have totally different values, but I feel for her.

    Otherwise, “it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!”

  20. I’m loving Assistant to the Villain and am currently reading its sequel. Slow burn romance, ahoy!

  21. Re-read Lady Ludmilla’s Accidental Letter by Sofi Laporte. It is a regency romance involving a ‘big misunderstanding’ instigated by the male lead Addy. While I loved the letter correspondence romance between them I didn’t like what Addy did muddying the waters and causing confusion and hurt. That said the characters were vivid and I did enjoy it. Still on the maybe pile rather than the keeper pile though.

    All the Feels by Oliva Dade was really interesting. This is the second book in a series and I wasn’t sure I liked Alex in the first book but once I got to know him here I really did. A 39 year old man with ADHD struggling with his emotions, and his past. Didn’t quite get Lauren/Wren either but she helped me see how I have discounted my own feeling s in almost all my relationships – even with myself, putting my own pleasure first has never been a priority until now. I did enjoy this book and it taught me a lot about myself, and that even damaged people deserve a HEA. Good story well told.

    What She’s Having by Laura Moher. A great story about a teen relationship that ended overnight and neither of them knew why! Good characters, including a side story about two troubled teens. Loved the first book (this is the second in a series) completely new story but involving some of the same people in the same town as the first. Will happily buy the next instalment (next year).

    Then came two library books I DF because I hated them. Told the librarian when I handed them back and he said he had stopped half way through one of them too! It was a nice conversation about books.

    Going on my first vacation in 4 years on Monday (now I am mobile again – although not fully). Most important bit is what books to pack! I’ve lost weight and most of my clothes don’t fit well and I don’t have the energy or inclination to buy new for this holiday (coach trip with hotel included). Books have always been more important than clothes for me. Mostly I am just going away to get away, have someone take me places, meals cooked for me (and the washing up done too), and something new to see each morning when I open the curtains. My clothes may look tired but then so am I!!!🤣 Just want the break.

    2. If you’re talking about packing paper books, maybe load up a tablet instead, and then you can take a ton of ebooks with you and you don’t have to worry about which ones to take. That’s what I do; I still love my paper but ebooks are a lifesaver for traveling. And if you don’t want to spend money on ebooks then you can download them from the library. But you probably have thought of all this and I’m just preaching to the choir, lol. Have a wonderful time on your trip!

      1. Thank you Jeanine.

        I do not have a tablet – only just purchased a laptop and am a bit of a technophobe/dinosaur, so may not get there. Also I just love the smell and feel of a book! Though a tablet/e-reader would certainly save me space and money so I may come round to it.

  22. Short from me this week as I was focused on ‘Impaired Judgement’ (youcouldmakealife/Taylor Fitzpatrick on AO3, MM hockey) and made it through all 175 episodes and 460k words. It is enjoyable, relatively sweet (in Taylor Fitzpatrick terms) but does tend to meander for the last 3rd, Not one of my top ones of hers but I liked it.

    Have just started the first ‘Art of Murder’ series ‘Mermaid Murders’ (Josh Lanyon), enjoying it so far. I know it is a favourite here.

    Finally, on audio I am listening to ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Fiction inspired ( sort of, maybe) by Fleetwood Mac recording of ‘Rumours’. It works very well on audio as it is supposed to be a collection of interviews and the recollections of band members and others. All the different characters are voiced by different actors. I’m really enjoying it (almost finished).

    It reminds me of ‘Utopia Avenue’ a novel by David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas not the comedian/actor) and also the AO3 Heartrate of a Mouse which I loved earlier this year. All have the 1970s rock band theme and I’d recommend them all.

    1. I have re-downloaded Heartrate of a Mouse — sounds just like the change I need!

      I envy you just starting the Art of Murder series… Might have to reread them again before anything else, now that you’ve put the thought in my head! 😁

        1. Brief warning, it does use character names from Panic at the Disco. Luckily I didn’t realise that till I was well in and then I refused to look them up or anything. I just pretended it wasn’t happening.

          1. Thanks for that warning! Since I don’t know anything about Panic at the Disco I will definitely refrain from googling, etc.

    2. I just cannot understand AO3. Searches seem completely haphazard. This time it insists there’s no such work as Heartrate of a Mouse.

      1. Tried an online search & discovered it’s Heart Rate (2 words); but AO3 then offered works in Polish or Spanish. I give up. Really loathe the completely baffling way they present works.

        2. Yup, it is maddening and hard to understand how it can be so user Unfriendly. That said, there are some really good stuff there, so I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure things out enough so as to be able to download my favorite authors. But I would have no clue about some of the good stuff if it weren’t for GBT and determined Arghers who have figured it all out! You Know Who You Are – Thank you!

  23. I finished Big Witch Energy by Molly Harper and really liked it, although not quite as much as the first one in the series. Right now I’m reading a British book about an 85 year old curmudgeonly woman who gets it in her head to go visit a penguin research station in Antarctica before deciding to leave all her money to them. How the Penguins Saved Veronica, by Hazel Prior. Despite how unlikable the protagonist seems on the surface, the book is still charming. Apparently a second one just came out.

  24. Just finished Sherry Thomas’s RUSE OF SHADOWS, the most recent in her Lady Sherlock series. Excellent as always. Wrapping up HAUNT SWEET HOME, a short book/long novella by Sarah Pinsker about a different kind of reality show haunting. So much fun. I love both women’s writing, whatever they choose to tackle. Their respective writing voices slot right into the happy part of my brain. 😀

  25. Read and enjoyed Stephanie Burgis’s A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience (which she describes as a “gothic fantasy rom-com novella.” I’d say it’s more similar to her Good Neighbors than to the Harwood books (although I love them all — she’s been an auto-buy for me for years.)

    I can’t wait for her Wooing the Witch Queen next year!

    (If you’ve never read her work, The Art of Deception short novella is one of my absolute favs — magical library! clever swordsman! smart heroine! illusions upon illusions! witty banter galore!)

    1. I have the Burgis on my wish list (autocorrect wants to substitute list for lust, which works too, lol). I’ll move it into my shopping cart now. Thanks for the recc.

      1. Marriage is one of her lighter ones, which is exactly what I was in the mood for. Hope you enjoy it too!

  26. Okay, one more review, mostly so I can return a book to KU.  As I mentioned earlier, I spent most of Tuesday reading.  Most of this was devoted to Sarah Wynde’s Tassamara series (2012–2022, 5 shortish novels plus 1 short story included in the omnibus of the first 3 novels), as previously recommended here.  This is a series with fantasy (or at a stretch, science-fiction) elements centering on a remote Florida town where a wealthy eccentric has recruited a number of psychics for research and with the hope of resolving a personal problem, and where other psychics seem to find their way on their own.  I would have been happy with a genre fantasy series featuring Akira, the heroine of the first book, but Wynde instead envisaged a genre romance series, meaning that we need to repeatedly switch the focus and pair off a new couple in each book.  On the whole, Wynde does this with originality and verisimilitude.

    It did strike me later that Akira never would have got into print the paragraph that supposedly ruined her academic career, since journal editors or peer reviewers would have insisted on its deletion.  But this could have been fixed (a preliminary draft posted on the internet, say) without much altering the plot, so no big deal.  In the last book there’s also a matter of transferring to a new person a ticket and its associated reservations at Disney World.  The author confesses in the afterword to having taken liberties here.  Before I read that far, I had head-canoned it as the result of the influence of the second person’s powerful host family, hidden from the new person so as not to make her realize how badly her hosts wanted her along.

    In all almost the books after the first, we have the rather large difficulty that Akira could solve the whole plot problem if she knew about it and were at hand, so that the author has to manufacture reasons to keep her away.  A parallel situation arises thing in some Ilona Andrews books. Conceptually, the problem is similar to that of the transporter that could solve most Star Trek problems if not for those pesky ion storms that keep interfering with it, or even the cellphones in mystery novels that keep losing charge or running into in zero-bars areas.

    Wynde has written many books outside the Tassamara series, and I will have to investigate them.

    1. Patrick, I have enjoyed reading this series too. The author also writes as S. J. Wynde. Under that name she wrote Cici and the Curator which I l enjoyed even more than the Tassamara series.

  27. I finished Death by Misadventure, a Lady Emily mystery set around Neuschwanstein in 1868 and 1906. The two timelines took a long time to connect, and I enjoyed “visiting” the castle. Not sure if I’d read another in the series. I didn’t connect with the main characters as much as I did with Wrexford and Sloane in Murder at Kings Crossing. Now I’m re-reading the first 4 Murderbots as a palate cleanser while waiting for my library holds to arrive.

  28. Mary Lancaster’s Letter to a Lover was a decent historical mystery/romance. It wasn’t my favorite among this author’s oeuvre, but it was a quick and easy read and an enjoyable one.
    Grace Burrowes’s The Dreadful Duke was meh. Adequate. It was a historical romance too, but I like this author’s shorter mysteries (e.g. Lord Julian Mysteries series) much more than her longer romances.
    Katherine Center’s The Rom-Commers was supposed to be a romantic comedy. I don’t think it quite succeeded in that regard. Anyway, I didn’t enjoy it. It wasn’t funny, and the romance aspect hardly touched me. Center is a good writer, no doubt, and the book was superbly edited, but its verbosity was excessive, and its protagonists, Emma and Charlie, didn’t invite my sympathy. They didn’t seem real at all, more like the author’s idea of a perfect rom-com couple than a flesh and blood man and woman struggling towards mutual understanding.

  29. I’ve started Grace Burrowes’ Lord Julien mystery series. It’s enjoyable.

    I mostly liked Hitman, to my surprise.

  30. I have reread (just for fun) the first two Murderbot books and am currently rereading the third one. Ialso finished reading Petteril’s Thief by Mary Lancaster and liked it enough to download the next few in the series.

    2. And then Exit Strategy! best of the four and one of the very best books ever written IMO. There are so many delightful moments and aspects to it. I have grown to love all the Mrderbot books more and ore as I have re-read them, and Exit Strategy remains my all time favorite.

  31. I read a couple of books recommended here in the last couple of weeks.

    The Vanishing Hour by Laura Griffin is a mystery with some romance about a lawyer who has inherited her father’s search and rescue dog, the dog is great, and has also moved from Houston to a small town in Texas where she and her partner are the only lawyers in town. But after finding a missing child in a State Park she stumbles across an abandoned campsite, when she returns to check it out with the hunky new sheriff’s deputy it has mysteriously vanished. Then she finds out about several women who have disappeared in the state parks over the last couple of years, and that they may be connected.

    The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is a romance that starts when two old high school friends have breakups that go viral online. Then a picture of the two of them in suggestive position gets posted and The Revenge Exes goes viral. A friend of hers suggests that they hang out together and let her take pictures so they can draw customers to her struggling tea shop. The problem is that he really did break her heart in high school, and isn’t over his ‘Ex’.

    I really liked both of these.

  32. I am reading Godkiller,, which has been enjoyable so far. Except that I just realized that it’s the first in an ongoing series, and I’ve been trying to find more stand-alone fantasy books. Well, I’ll see how I feel once I finish it I guess.

    On the tv side, we’re having a good time watching Kaos. Jeff Goldblum as Zeus is as fun as you’d expect, it’s moving along at a good clip, and pretty much everyone in it is great. Last weekend, we made it three episodes into Nobody Wants This, I think I may have to bail on this one.

  33. I will try, for the third time, to finish The Framed Women of Ardemore House. I check it out, put it down, life happens, and it’s out of renewals and I have to take it back. Life has not been conducive to reading.

  34. I took a break from my re-read of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series to read “Masquerades of Spring” by Ben Aaronvitch. The book was enjoyable and it’s always nice to see The Nightingale in action. I do wonder, however, what happened to the macguffin to make it not appear in the Peter books.

    1. Have you read any of Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell books? I think they have some great early-Amelia Peabody energy.

      1. They do indeed! I’ve gobbled up all of them so far. Also read all the Amelia Peabody books and have most of them on my keeper shelf.

  35. I red Bad Liar by Tami Hoag and then reread The Thursday Murder Club because it’s my book club’s pick. Enjoyed it just as much the second time. I’m currently reading We’ll Prescribe You a Cat. I’m liking it but not in love with it. In nonfiction I’m reading The Tropoholic’s Guide to Internal Romance Tropes by Cindy Dees. Someone recommended it to me. I just started it but it looks like a good resource.

  36. Signs that you have Watched Too Much YouTube (strips):

    1. You are reading Pratchett and someone addresses, “Death-” and you picture the response “Yes, my mortal companion?”

  37. I received an ARC of Catherine Cloud’s new book Call it Home and apparently that’s what was needed to break me out of my months long reading slump. The book is wonderful and has all the things that I love–gentle humor, found family, hockey, friends to lovers. It’s just full on cozy deliciousness and I can already tell it’s going to be a comfort read for me. Hoping this gives me momentum so I can finish several good books that I wandered away from this summer.

  38. I have some really long reading journal entries this week, let’s see what it adds up to.

    1. ‘Man of His Dreams’ by Kim Fielding. A delicious M/M novella set in New Orleans feat. a downhearted writer, a historian, a city full of ghosts, and a revelation. Magic realism? Urban fantasy? IDK, I loved it.

    2. ‘Check Me Out’ collection of 4 novellas with a supermarket theme that I bought for the one by Kim Fielding, “Lost In.” It was DEEP and, again, I loved it.

    2.5 [re-read] my own M/M novella ‘Third Time Lucky.’

    3. ‘Second Shot’ by Con Riley. I always like Con’s books – she tends to be concerned with themes similar to mine – and I liked this one too, though it begins with a bit too much telling vs showing.

    4. ‘Never Leave, Never Lie’ by Thea Verdone, a *heavy* M/M contemporary about a Northern California contractor, his boyfriend / business partner with an obscure past, and the Victorian house they’ve been renovating together in between income gigs. MC1 is a well-drawn character whose life gets smaller and smaller as he tries to help MC2 keep his footing on a slide into deep depression, suicidal ideation, and an eventual sincere attempt. The narrative skips between modern day and MC2’s history; I didn’t find that distracting and thought it helped maintain the pacing as well as providing character truths that MC2 can’t/won’t express. Another content alert is the appearance of infidelity, which as MC1 points out has the same emotional effect as actual infidelity. The pivot point in the book and in their deteriorating relationship is the suicide attempt, after which MC2 spends 2 months of intensive inpatient therapy & medication during which he gets his grip again, leading to a credible reconciliation and hopeful epilogue. Tough, unusual, realistic, and rewarding. 5 stars for me.

    5. ‘You Had Me at Happy Hour’ by Timothy Janovsky, this one didn’t work so well for me; felt a bit contrived; I found myself thinking “this is where X happens” and never being wrong.

    6. ‘The Emperor and the Endless Palace’ by Justinian Huang. A strange, sad, violent, and occasionally happy novel blending Chinese history and folklore with a reincarnation love story that mostly ends badly, though the present-day MC manages to kick the tragic habit and escape. The other two storylines are in year 4 BCE and 1740 or so, and they really don’t go well. Absorbing, impressive, not much fun.

    7. ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’ by TJ Klune. Can I give this 6 stars? Absolutely loved it.

    8. ‘Icarus’ by K. Ancrum. An excellent YA M/M romance/thriller, another 5 star book for me, and another heavy one. It’s built around the POV character’s status as his art restorer / forger / thief father’s skilled apprentice and the father’s obsession with stealing from a very rich former friend, in whose house the son discovers his father’s enemy’s son who’s basically under house arrest but by the rich father rather than law enforcement. The rich father is an absolute shit and the art father isn’t much better. Suspenseful denouement leads to the boys (17-18) being free of their progenitors and safe with friends. This is unusual as a YA book centering on a very strong & capable character who has to soften & learn to accept help.

    9. ‘Talio’s Codex’ by J. Alexander Cohen. subtitle: A M/M Fantasy Legal Thriller, which is very accurate, though I wouldn’t advise expecting a romance. There is M/M entanglement between POV character, a person who betrayed him 10 years ago, and a new person whose status as a member of a religious minority complicates *everything*. It’s Grisham levels of law. So much law. So much religion (there’s a state religion, one of my least favorite things in the actual world). The nature of this society’s magic is not well defined. We do get a happy ending in the sense that POV guy and the new guy find themselves admitting to feelings, with the true bad guys shown to be so and therefore no longer a threat. But there’s slow burn and then there’s suffocation by smoke inhalation. Only one of the main characters reliably tells the truth about his feelings, so naturally I found him the most sympathetic, and he’s not part of the happy ending. Ambitious, well-written, unique, not wholly a success for me.

    10. ‘The Troubleseeker’ by Alan Lessik. This, on the other hand, was a huge success and yet another 5 star book for me this week. I discovered this author during my research for the skating book – he’s half of a similar pair who’ve competed at several Gay Games. This book was inspired by the true life of his late partner. Begins in 1962 when the main character is 14. Set in Cuba to begin, then about halfway through the MC is part of the Mariel boatlift. He gets to the US just in time to contract HIV. Manages to hang on long enough to get on protease inhibitors which take him from a near-terminal case of AIDS to manageably HIV+. The narrator is a demigod, the deified Roman Emperor Hadrian, who sees in the main character an avatar of his true love Antinous. Also present are other characters from the Greco-Roman mythos as well as numerous oricha of Santeria. Intensely literary in the best way, while at the same time simply the story of a life. Fair warning, the main character chooses suicide after years of mental illness including depression. It’s foreshadowed in the prologue and amply documented along the way, so I was prepared for it and was mostly sad for the surviving partner. Beautifully written.

    1. Wow chacha1, once again I am in awe of your ability to distill the essence of books & characters.
      Loved ‘there’s slow burn and then there’s suffocation by smoke inhalation’ it made me LOL sitting in a very staid specialist’s waiting room.

      And totally agree with rating THITCS as 6 stars or even eleventy twenty as my GD would say.

  39. I listened to What Time the Sexton’s Blade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley, the new Flavia DeLuce book. It took me a bit to get into it, partly because I really wanted something with a male narrator (so I swapped it out for the newest Simon R. Green The Holy Terrors and John Scalzi’s Starter Villain) and partly because I felt like I had left Bishop’s Lacey for the last time and it was a bit odd to be returning. However, in the end, I was glad I went back.

    I also listened to Not Til We Are Lost, the latest in Dennis E. Taylor’s Bobiverse SF series.

    I started the audio version of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive but the narration was terrible that I actually had to pull off the road and switch books I couldn’t stand to listen to it. I’m interested in the book, but it’s going to be a reader not a listener for me.

    I’m reading Kill Creek a horror novel about four horror authors in a haunted house. I picked that one up last weekend when Paul went to a football game and I my evening plan was hanging out in our hotel room. I took it with me on Tuesday when I went to Edmonton with him for a course he was taking for work. They were supposed to be done by about 11:30 and it wasn’t over until almost 2. I got in a good hour and a half of reading after my errands were done.

    1. Office*Wench*Cherry, you got me curious about the terrible narrator. Well, I didn’t even manage to listen to the whole sample on audible. Wow!! Like narrating IN BOLD LETTERS. A good narrator can elevate a book, a great narrator can make even a only good book seem great. But it is an artform in itself for sure.

  40. I’m in the reading doldrums, stuck halfway through several books. Not sure if it’s me or them. I’ve been rereading and beginning to edit the fourth book in my eco-futurist PNR werewolves series. It’s… very uneven, but there’s a lot to like. I’ve only written about 18k words, so lots of plot still to explore. Otherwise, I’ve been doing a lot of crosswords on my iPad. I had a very itchy reaction to a shot that was supposed to help with my itchiness, and I think the itching is sapping a lot of my energy.

    1. When in doubt, try a Georgette Heyer Regency. Then, when almost giving up on the written word, try Jenny Crusie.

      I read Venetia, in bits and pieces. It was not as radiant as usual, because I’d lost a whole lot of sleep the night before, and I had a headache and a toothache, both on the same damn head. Not a good combo.

      Plus it’s only been three nights since we decided to agree with our very perceptive vet that our poor cancer-ridden cat was in a lot of pain, and looked like he’d made it to the end of his existence. We said goodbye, stroked his back and scratched his chin and told him he was the Best Cat in the World, and then the anesthetic shot came, and finally the second shot, and he was gone.

      I realize that this was not as tragic and shocking as poor Elinor K., returning home to find one cat had quietly died while she was gone for a few days. In our case, we knew it was happening since the appointment, about 3 months ago, when we were told about the cancer. But it’s been really hard. I know there are many of you who understand the deep connection people have with their non-human friends. It’s good to be on a website where people have a lot of compassion.

      Thank you, Jenny

      2. Oh Jinx, I’m so sorry to hear about your cat. It’s a heartbreaking decision to make, I know. Take care, and know that a lot of us understand your loss. xx

      3. So sorry for your heartbreak about your companion, Jinx. Even knowing it is the ultimate & final act of caring it is such a very hard thing to do. Take care.

      4. So sorry for your heartbreak about your companion cat, Jinx. Even knowing it is the ultimate & final act of caring it is such a very hard thing to do. Hugs.

        1. Not sure what tech no glitch happened. First comment froze so thus the second one. And obviously I can’t remember from one moment to the next what I wrote 😳.

      5. Aw, I’m so sorry about your kitty. We said goodbye to ours almost a year ago to the day—will be a year on the 13th, which is our daughter’s birthday, so sadly easy to remember. Such a hard thing.

      7. So so so sorry to hear about your cat. Lose a beloved pet is one of life’s hardest things. I hope his memory will bring smiles rather than tears soon.

      9. I’m so sorry. It’s hard, even when you know you’re doing the right thing. Glad you had a great vet to point you in the right direction.

      12. I am so sorry jinx. It’s so hard to lose a beloved fur kid, even when you know letting them go is a mercy for them. Hugs!

      13. So sorry for your loss Jinx. It is really hard to let them go, even when you know it is for the best. Know you are not alone in grieving over a beloved pet. Sending hugs.

  41. I started and DNF four books this week, all of them seemingly innocuous, but all just … irritating. Maybe it’s me.

    However then I read Dreadful by Caitlin Rozarkis, a very funny fantasy about a man who wakes up after an explosion to find himself in the workshop of a Dark Wizard. And gradually comes to realise that the Dark Wizard is him. Thanks to whoever recommended this, it was very clever and deeply enjoyable.

  42. FREEFALL webcomic:
    Florence: You guys have tried… almost everything.
    Capp: Yep.
    Capp: At this point, if we were planetside, I’d try sacrificing a live chicken.
    Capp: We sacrificed a bucket of chicken flavored mycoprotein. Didn’t fix the vibration problem.
    Florence: It’s a rare god who keeps up with the times.

  43. Isn’t New Who great? Matt Smith remains my favorite, but Tennant and Eccleston are also good, and I’m liking Ncuti Gatwa so far as well. I liked Capaldi and Whittaker as well, but the writing for those episodes isn’t as good IMNSHO.

    This week I re-read both Loretta Chase’s “Lord of Scoundrels” and Sherry Thomas’ “The Luckiest Lady in London”, both of which have MMCs shaped by unloving childhoods, and the similarities between the MMCs really highlighted for me the masterful way Ms Chase uses omniscient third POV to give context and a tone of amused fondness in talking about the MMC’s emotional immaturity that inspires sympathy in the reader – at least this one. TLLIL is good, but despite needing a comprehensive STD screening, I find Chase’s MMC much more appealing and I think that omniscient third is part of the reason.

    Also read the next October Daye book, “Be the Serpent” by Seanan McGuire. Solid urban fantasy, and the next one looks like fun!

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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