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This is a Good Book Thursday, February 27, 2025

I’m currently reading books on Banksy, which is a lot of fun, although of course it’s also serious work. Kinda.

What did you read this week?

148 Responses

  1. Books about Banksy remind me of the Banksy exhibition that has been extended in my town to the end of April. I better catch it in the next few weeks!

    Readingwise I’m mostly re-reading and re-listening: The Last Guy on Earth by Bowen, and Common Goal by Reid (on first read not my favourite, but I basically love all her books and here I enjoy the slow burn among the two MCs a lot and the demi goalie discovering his bi-side in his early 40s – he’s got some Lundqvist vibes stylewise lol). Reid’s new one will be published next week, so this is a way to get into the her style again.

    Also, I’ve read into a lot of samples – soooo many books that sound intriguing. So I guess I’ll will get a KU subscription soon-ish again.

    The recent saving ebooks-marathon made me realize how many books are on my tbr-pile, many from stuff-your-kindle or bookbub promotions. Many that will likely not be winners.
    One of them is The Wrangler and the Orphan – a sort-of-cowboy romance. Part of a longer series. I don’t think I’ll read up on the series (have dipped into one about a farrier and an ex-con and neither felt quite right). The Wrangler etc reads nice enough and it’s a nice change from hockey. Brody the Wrangler was saved from an abusive home by a rodeo guy (father figure/friend who’s the MC of another title in the series). He pays it forward by saving a teenager left stranded at an awful situation by his not-so-great mom.
    The disparity of their situation is smoothed by Brody understanding what Kit is going through, so there’s not really a saviour – victim imbalance.
    The book would have needed an edit regarding the loooong stretches of horsey stuff (Brody’s happy place). Those I mostly skip. I don’t think it’ll be a book I’d re-read anytime soon but it’s interesting and the relationship (so far, ca. 60 % in) tender, a very slow arc of becoming friends and developing feelings.

    Also: more reading up on what to do and what to bring clothes wise to our Canada-trip.

    1. April is tricky in Canada. You can pretty much get all four seasons in one day. Layers, layers.

      1. Same here though probably not to the same degree: for Montreal I’ll take warm layers, for VAN it seems to be more important to get water resistant stuff.
        Three big scarves are always on my packing list (dh and ds mostly forget those, so 2 are to loan out), gloves and hats, too.

  2. I got A Season for Scandal by Laura Wood from the library – follow up to Agency for Scandal though it works as a stand alone. Really enjoyable story about a independent Victorian florist and a gruff Yorkshireman. Romantic, inventive, feminist, daring do and righting wrongs. What is not to like.

    Other than that am working my way through Laura Griffin’s Tracer series and the Lord Julian Mysteries by Grace Burrowes. Both truly excellent and somehow have been on my TBR shelf (honestly there is more than one shelf – blush) for far too long.

    I have moved back into my living room now. Only I have moved back some furniture but not all (as I don’t think I like some of it anymore or it no longer suits my life). The only other things I moved back in so far are the books. There are ten keeper shelves, one to be re-read shelf and two TBR shelves. Will not stop me buying books by my favourite authors as they come out but I hope I will refrain from random purchases this year. That said the GBT recommendations both caused some of overbuying. However, Arghers have introduced me to so many wonderful new-to-me Authors – so don’t stop telling me about the good books please. 🙂

    1. I read Lord Julian and Tracers this week, too! I lived in Austin for 30+ years and so Tracers makes me very nostalgic. And Lord Julian was so engaging! I couldn’t stop and read way into the night to finish it. I was surprised that the first book was copyrighted in 2023? What a delight to see how many books are in the series!

  3. I am reading Mindline still, because I am slow. I am happy that I had access to it from my library since I am boycotting Amazon, but I am worried that I won’t finish in time. Usually I only borrow audio books anymore and I get through them much faster. Still, growth experiences are good for me.

    And I listened to The Goblin Emperor and when it was done I wanted to go back and listen again, but I didn’t. My IRL tentacle friend had recommended a book and the library had it on audio, so I am most of the way through That Time I Got Drunk and Rescued a Demon by Kimberly Lemming. It’s better that I expected and to be honest, I expected to DNF it. Between the title and the cover I was unimpressed. But so far it’s enjoyable. Like Travis Baldree’s books, it’s a magical historical setting with a lot of modern sensibilities. More of a romcom than cozy vibe though. I wouldn’t by this book and add it to the reread pile I don’t think, but it’s fun for once through for free.

    1. Boycotting Amazon because they’re practically a monopoly? Because Jeff Bezos has decided the opinion section of The Washington Post will now represent “personal freedoms and free markets” and the opinion editor has quit? Because they’ve cut their DEI policies?

      1. Boycotting Amazon is tough- my partner uses it for work, my kids have low cost Amazon prime by virtue of being students. I use its Kindle store for e-books. I buy most things in person but the free delivery gets me sometimes. Tomorrow for sure no buying anything, I will browbeat my kids.
        I read the Goblin Emporer too this week finally for the first time. Absorbing, I liked it a lot but gee, a lot of names to keep track of. I remembered why I drifted away from Fantasy.

        1. Yes! Tomorrow is a no buying day to boycott the privatization of the US government. Of course, exceptions can be made for small businesses and emergencies, but if you’re in the US please try not to buy anything tomorrow. Do it today or Saturday instead.

        2. What is happening tomorrow? Why shouldn’t we buy anything tomorrow? I’m Canadian and I don’t follow the news. They always sour my mood, so I stopped long ago.

          1. Tomorrow is an economic blackout as a day of protest. No purchases to large corporations, and try to pay cash at any small businesses so that the card companies don’t get their cut.

            It’s a small thing, but hopefully we can teach ourselves and the wider public small acts of resistance.

        3. Lisa, I mostly just listen to the Goblin Emperor now. The narrator does a great job and the names make a lot more sense when you hear them.

      2. Boycotted Amazon years ago. Just no. I have two other ereaders. Works out just fine. (She says a little self righteously)

      3. Tammy, all of the above. I have been weening myself off for a while and will have to do a little more legwork for some purchases, but ultimately I feel like it’s worth the effort and I am more at peace with myself.

    2. Today I am getting rid of Prime because all I watch is Britbox anyway. I found how to stream Britbox without prime, yay.

    3. Also I’m assuming everyone has heard about Amazon removing the Kindle back-up feature starting this week? I hope everyone has downloaded their libraries!

      1. The save-to-your device didn’t work with kindle 2024 models anymore anyway.
        The amazon deadline was February 26, Yuri 😞

  4. Chacha1 made me spend my money on four novel/las last week which I promptly read all in one big weekend gulp so here are my reviews of those.

    The best by far was Brute, a fantasy novel by Kim Fielding, about a huge, ugly man who is treated like a beast of burden until he rescues a visiting prince from disaster – to his own cost. The prince in gratitude offers him a job guarding a special prisoner who’s been badly treated by his previous jailers. And of course – love ensues. I won’t say more than that other than to echo Chacha1’s statement: I loved this book and I think many Arghers would also love it.

    Of the three novellas, A Valentine for Violet, by KL Noone was a sweet favourite and I also enjoyed her Hexes of Bronze, although I do think you’d be better served by reading the whole series in order. I also enjoyed Happily by Kim Fielding although it was a fluffy soufflé of short story.

    Then because I was in the novella mood I read two by R Cooper, MM romances both set in the same alt-history Regency, lightly steampunk era (emphasis on the steamy) – With Everything I Have and And I am Happy. Both delicious.

    And for you hockey lovers I read RJ Scott & VL Locey’s third in the LA Storm series, Shield, about a hockey player traded to LA who happens on a violent mugging in his doctor’s officer and connects with the detective sent to investigate. Not a lot of hockey, a lot more about the detecting work.
    Their hockey books are a go-to for me, never in the top tier but often reliable for a fireside read. The first in this series was terrific and the last two have been okay. I’ll still read the next one because I’m starved for hockey books but like Dodo, I’m highly anticipating Rachel Reid’s latest coming out next week.

  5. I’m again behind on writing up my reading, but here’s what I’ve got:

    •Jack Campbell,  In Our Stars, 2024.  The destruction of Earth in 2180 somehow blows a fragment of Lt. Selene Genji’s spaceship back through time to 2140.  The destruction came not from the friendly visiting aliens, but from a civil war among humans, where one factor of the dispute was Earth’s relationship to the aliens.  Genji, still aboard the fragment and alive, shows up in 2140 just before the aliens’ arrival.  She seems to have a chance to avert the catastrophe, but sinister operators are at work.  Almost no one believes her, despite the physical evidence of her ship fragment. Everything is classified ultrasecret and covered up.  Moreover, forces have penetrated the Earth Guard command system and have arranged an “accident” for Genji and the one person who trusts her, Lt. Kayl Owen—who already has a reputation as a troublemaker.  The two escape and go on the run, trying to force history to come out better this time around, which first requires staying alive.

    Although this work is not labeled as such, it seems to be a YA novel, not merely because of its twenty-something protagonists and their developing romance, but because of its seeming naivete.  Genji and Owen automatically assume that time is a “write-over medium,” and that any change to 2180’s history that Genji makes will alter the timeline enough to wipe her out of existence, a sacrifice she is prepared to make.  The pair do not even consider alternative theories of time, such as that her arrival has created a branch timeline (as in the _1632_ series) or that she has traveled not merely back in time but slantwise, to a pre-existing (or rather, pre-meta-existing) parallel world hitherto identical to her original timeline.  Eventually the fugitives learn that the aliens propose a time theory where time is write-over, but which predicts that Genji will continue to exist as a brute fact even though she has no cause in the altered timeline.  Genji’s continued existence is not too big a surprise to the reader, since the novel is only the start of a series.

    One interesting contrast with Campbell’s earlier Black Jack Geary series is that in the latter, Geary, revived after centuries in suspended animation, proves to be a better warfighter than the later generation since he hails from a time before officer education had been simplified and degraded by a long, grinding war.  Here, Genji is a better warfighter precisely because she has the training and experience stemming from an actual war, whereas the Earth Guard has allowed dead wood to rise to command because of a long period of peace—rather like Andrew Wareham’s description of the WWI Royal Navy that I mentioned in an earlier review.  (True, Genji also has genetic enhancements.)

    I found the book to be readable. The novel ends with some degree of resolution, but readers might well want before reading to wait for more volumes to appear that would explicate various mysteries.   For example, is 2140 society already so dysfunctional (with, per Genji, even worse to come in later decades on the original timeline) purely through petty human failings, or has something else (a different group of aliens, perhaps?) already infiltrated?

    One more book comment coming when proofread.

    1. I also got a distinct YA impression from In Our Stars, but I assumed that was just me as their was nothing obvious I could point to.

  6. Very brief from me as I’ve been busy and also am immersed in a long AO3 fanfic. Will report next week if it continues to be fab.

    I also read ‘The Little Library’ Kim Fielding, recommended by Chachal last week. I enjoyed it, quite low key MM romance. Interestingly the last 25% was, I thought, the best bit. This is in contrast to many books where I wish they would just wrap up around 75%.

    On audio have finished KJ Charles ‘Will Darling Adventures which is a really good series with a great reader. Started the final Murderbot (‘System Collapse’) and also David Nicholls ‘You are here’. Dual narrators, good but I’m not very far into it yet.

    2. Also can’t wait to hear about the fic since fanfiction seems to be the only thing I can read right now.

  7. •Amanda Elliott, Love You a Latke, 2024.  (Someone on the site recommended this earlier.)  Were it not for the added religious-slash-ethnic angle, this would be a pretty standard genre romance:  Abby owns a struggling small business in a picturesque small town, and has a very strained relationship with her parents.  Our hero Seth, whom she initially finds annoying, gets her to agree to fake-date him, and naturally that turns to love.  (I think that in every fake-dating film or novel that I’ve consumed, the heroine ends up with either the male fake-dater or with his brother.  Never even with his cousin or best friend.  Nor have I read a novel where the male fake-dater ends up with the female’s sister, although there may be some out there, and I’m sure there must also be LGBTQ variations.)  The Jewish angle, however, added a lot of novelty for me.

    The leader of the business association in Abby’s town gets the bright idea to hold a Hanukkah fair to distinguish it from the Christmas festivals held in the other Vermont towns.  If it works, the novelty will attract non-Jewish locals, many of the relatively few Vermont Jews, and hopefully also tourist fair-goers from the Jewish population centers of Boston and New York City.  Abby, as the town’s sole Jewish business owner, gets volunteered to organize it.  This being New England, “Seth” sounds like a perfectly normal WASP name, so Abby realizes that the loyal but annoying habitué of her coffee shop is Jewish only when she starts looking for someone who can put her in touch with Jewish-themed craftspeople and vendors in New York City (an area with by far the heaviest concentration of Jews in the US).  The Vermont town’s business association leader had had no clue that the dates for Hanukkah are observed by the Jewish calendar and vary from year to year on the Gregorian calendar.  In the novel’s year, it is already too late to put together a festival during Hanukah proper, but that is fine with Seth.  As a price for helping Abby put together the fair, in order to get his parents off his back about settling down, he wants her to fake-date him as his guest at his parents’ place in NYC during the celebration of real Hanukkah.  Together they can look for suitable Hanukkah-related crafts and vendors at the same time.  (Although I think it goes unmentioned, having a Hanukkah-themed fair in Vermont later than the real date will also make it possible for craftspeople and vendors to set up in Vermont during what otherwise would be their off season.)  Being estranged from her NYC parents, Abby has been cut off from her Jewish roots, but she reconnects with the Jewish community (although not with her parents) during her time in the big city. The ending could provide the setup for a sequel, perhaps with Seth’s non-Jewish ex-girlfriend Freya finding love, and Abby coming to some accommodation with her parents.   An enjoyable read.

    I don’t think I’ll have time to write up more books today, but I do have some to carry over for next time.

  8. This week I read “The Last Guy on Earth” by Sarina Bowen: second chance M/M hockey romance between coach and player. This was a lovely low angst easy read. I don’t know if I’ll reread it but I really enjoyed it.
    I followed that up with “Deep End” by Ali Hazelwood: a M/F romance between college athletes (swimmer and diver) and for me it was too long and had too much swimming and diving, and what felt like a contrived plot. Very disappointing as I really enjoyed Hazelwood’s earlier books. In the Deep End the characters are uber-smart (pre med students) academically but the hero is too perfect and the heroine is a just too dumb about herself and what is happening emotionally. It could just be me – maybe I’m too old to identify with this college diving star, quasi Olympic diver, biology genius, top-med-school-bound, 21 year old with no common sense social awareness — I constantly wanted to smack her. I felt a mix of relief when the book was finally over and anger at myself for having wasted the time.
    To clear my palate and inspired by chat on Josh Lanyon’s Patreon site, I have started rereading the Art of Murder series. M/M romance between FBI agents, one of them a member of the Art Crime Team. I love this series and both MMCs.

    1. I had this book on my watch out list but from all the snippets and quotes I’ve read so far, I grew hesitant. But now, after your review, I’m pretty sure I’ll kick this one off my list. I don’t like uber smart combined with female dumbness.

    2. I have Deep End on my TBR pile, since it was an impulse buy when I was in the Target and I have previously enjoyed her works. I’ll need to see if I have the same reaction as you.

    3. I’m very disappointed to hear about Deep End. It was on my near-to-reading queue. Ali Hazelwood has become very hit or miss for me, when she used to be all hits.

    4. Good to know. Audible keeps advertising Deep End to me and I’d been hesitant as my last Ali Hazlewood was a bit disappointing.

      1. Counterpoint, I enjoyed Deep End. The sex scenes showed their relationship building, people talked about their feelings and grew emotionally, and I thought the diving stuff was interesting.

          1. Yeah me too. Here’s how I’ll resolve it – I will start if and if it doesn’t capture my interest pretty quickly I will dnf it in a heartbeat.

  9. Speaking of Banksy, Jenny, have you seen his film Exit Through the Gift Shop? It came out in 2010 so it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it but I remember enjoying it.

    After starting several books and deciding I wasn’t in the right head space to read them, I reread Fast Women and thoroughly enjoyed again.

    I bought several of Nancy Martin’s books after recommendations here. I may read How To Murder A Millionaire next. Can’t decide between that or rereading Blonde Identity. It’s a known vs unknown thing. I also want to read Rocky Start and VNF again before HPP comes out. I remember wishing I had reread RS before starting VNF.

    1. While I loved The Blonde Identity, and am looking forward to the sequel (August?), I have reread How to Murder a Millionaire four or five times. The Blackbird Sisters (of which it is book 1) are great!

    2. The Banksy museum in Prague does indeed have you exit through the gift shop – even if it was intentional irony, still a bit jarring to spend time immersed in Banksy’s anti-capitalist, environmentalist message, only to be confronted with disposable, plastic, unnecessary STUFf to buy on the way out.

  10. I finished up Shards of Honor by Bujold, enjoying my re-read very much. It was the first part of a two-novel publication, the second being a Miles adventure called The Warrior’s Apprentice. This is a new-to-me volume. Miles almost always has to think his way out of situations. I’m getting close to the end, and I’m still wondering how things are going to end up.

    1. Does Shards of Honor have Barrayar in it ? Because the two books were written together and it’s kind of weird to have a two novel that has Warriors Apprentice instead. If it doesn’t have Barrayar you might want to look for it.

      1. Shards of honor is the first book in the Vorkosigan saga, where Cordelia and Aral meet.
        Barrayar is the next book in the internal chronology but was published much later.

        The Warrior apprentice was published before it but Barrayar is the continuation of Shards of honor and Bujold had written some of it before she decided to cut back on the story. She picked it up later and finished it.

        I think Barrayar is one of my very favourite Vorkosigan novels, after Memory.

          1. I read Shards of honor and Warrior apprentice right when they were published thanks to a American bookshop which used to be located on the avenue de l’opéra in Paris. I used to go there every week to browse their fantastic SF&Fantasy section.
            Cordelia’s competence and integrity blew my mind. There wasn’t a SF heroine quite like her at the time. Obviously, I was totally in love with Aral too 🙂

  11. Having enjoyed Sarina Bowen’s The Last Guy on Earth, I reread her m/f romcom Boyfriend – bit weaker, but still enjoyable. I tried a couple of samples by other authors that I didn’t take to, and then another Sarina Bowen m/f that someone had recommended: Brooklynaire. I liked the first half or so, but found it increasingly shallow and tedious. She really is hit and miss. To cheer myself up, I started rereading Alexis Hall’s How to Bang a Billionaire, and immediately found myself laughing. (M/m & lots of sex; but great characters and lots of emotional twists and turns.)

    1. I’ve been rereading various books by Elizabeth Cadell. Partly because I need total distraction from the mess that is our country but also as a kind of historical exploration. The unspoken assumptions about male female relationships are very hard to decipher sometimes. For example in one book there are three heroines. Two are passive timid people who let life happen to them and the third is organized and described as bossy although we don’t see it in action. The “bossy” one and one other have gotten into engagements and the timid one has to be rescued from it by the guy she really wants to marry. The guy who the “bossy” one really loves makes her break up with her fiancé and won’t interfere . So far so clear, if a pretty sexist idea of what appealing femininity is. But the guy who makes his love break up with her fiancé says he has to make her do it or he will be bossed his whole life. Huh? She didn’t ask him to interfere.
      I should add that most of her heroines do not fit this timid and retiring mode or I wouldn’t read her. But it is like visiting a foreign land. There are always moments where you realize you are not in Kansas any more.
      Also I’m still reading the Riemanschneider book.

      1. Also the child care is historically interesting. The same book has a 3 year old repeatedly allowed to wander off into the woods, which has a river, and I am pretty sure we are supposed to agree with the people who think that’s fine and he knows how to take care of himself and not the bossy heroine who at first worries about it. It was published in 1950.

      2. Elizabeth Cadell was my gateway for reading in the “grown up” section of the library when I was a tween, so I’ve always had a soft spot for her. I recently re-read most of her books — were still enjoyable, but it was like visiting a foreign land.

        Her heirs have done the recent republishing/e-publishing of her works and it has been interesting to read about the changes Cadell initially made to get her books published either in the UK or US. That does explain why the some of the stories are slightly different from what I remembered from the past. Still very enjoyable and angst free, which is a good thing these days.

    2. I did exactly like you, Jane. After I read The Last Guy on Earth, I wanted to stay in Sarina Bowen’s world. I didn’t go to the hockey books for my fix though. I decided to reread all the Vermont in order, starting with Bittersweet.

      I definitely like some books in that series more than others but I enjoy them all as a portrait of a very nice family. I like the Rossi a lot too. They are the slightly fucked up version of the Shipleys and Sarina Bowen has fun with that. I am a big fan of Zara Rossi in particular. She is the complete opposite of that old romance trope, the girl who never has had orgasms before the hero arrives with his magic penis and the first time I read it I thought that made for a refreshing change.

      I do like Brooklynaire a lot unlike you, mainly because I like Nate and especially Rebecca. Still, I could definitely do without the Butler AI and his idiotic British accent and I thought depriving Rebecca of stock options in the company because she was just a secretary pretty mean but then she would have just been a rich girl marrying a very rich boy.

      1. LN,
        have you read Holidate by Sarina Bowen?
        It’s a compilation of 3 shorter books, the third one new and featuring the older brother of Zara.
        I realized I better read her story first, so I can’t say how much I liked it but it started out quite fine.

        1. I borrowed it on KU. By the way, the title is « holidating » not holidate. I had already read the other two. One of them, « blonde date » is one of my favourite Sarina Bowen novella. I think she is very good at this format.

          In the Vermont series, among her protagonists she has Zara, Benito and Alec. Zara is the first one to turn up as a secondary but important character in the first book.

          There’s another Rossi brother who is off page but at one point we are told he has come back so I wonder if at some point she’ll pair him up. I don’t think she has done it yet but I may be wrong.

          She has many books published and many connections between several series so it is difficult to keep up!

          Kate Canterbury, another contemporary author I like as a very well laid out map on her website which helps keep straight all the connections between her characters and series. I wish Sarina Bowen had one too!

          1. Sorry about the spelling errors, especially « as »for «has »! Honestly, my English is better than that 🙂

      2. I really liked “Bountiful” – I thought Zara and Dave were the most sensible secret baby parents ever – not usually one of my favorite tropes. So refreshing when characters talk to each other and react maturely and kudos to Ms Bowen for making it engaging.

        1. I’m a big fan of Bountiful. And I agree she is really variable.
          I love Accidentals and The year we fell down and really dislike some of her recent books. I guess I should see if she’s back on an upswing .

        2. I totally agree Yuri. I am not a fan of the secret baby trope either. It’s really nice to see how they avoid the dreaded misunderstanding and communicate.

      3. LN and all of us (potential) Bowen-readers:

        I just received a newsletter that her book Golden Touch is on sale for 0,99 Euro/Dollar for the next couple of days.

        And although my first instinct would have been to check with amazon, today is February 28, plus I try to find other venues, so no amazon-search.

        It is, in fact, available via rakuten/kobo for the same discount.

        I will get it in the next few days because the easiest way for me to purchase it would be via paypal and this I will refrain from doing at least today (February 28!!).

        1. Disclaimer: I haven’t read Golden Touch yet so this is not a recommendation, just an information for the Scrooges among us (of which I’d say I am one).

  12. I finally started reading (listening to!) Murderbot. The library has long wait times on some of them, so now am buying the later ones. I’m sure I’ll relisten at some point and buy the early ones then. I’m not a scifi person most of the time, but am really enjoying these. It only took me a few years to catch up.

    Also am rereading Krentz/Quick’s Arcane books. They get samey when glommed quickly and have a lot of gender essentialism (I can tell it’s a man by his dream prints) (her feminine curves) (his powerful, manly chest). But still I love them. I even reread the books I don’t love as well.

    1. Phyllis, I am also reading the Murderbot Diaries, FINALLY, thanks to Arghers, and thoroughly enjoying them.

      I am listening to “Pony Confidential” by Christina Lynch, which is a murder mystery told in alternating chapters by Penny and Pony. Penny was 12 when the murder of a vicious horse trainer happened, and now, 25 years later, she’s accused of murdering him and is jailed in Ithaca. When it happened Penny’s parents moved the family to Chicago and sold Pony. Meanwhile Pony has spent the time in many different places and jobs, while nursing a grudge that Penny sold him and never even said goodbye. The Penny chapters are more serious as she tries to find out why she’s been accused of murder and ruminates about her separation from her husband, her troubled daughter who is in a boarding school, and her Pony, who she still loves and misses. The Pony chapters are hilarious, especially if you know pony personalities. A friend who has read it and Murderbot pointed out that Pony is the equine equivalent of Murderbot, and she’s not wrong.

      2. To my surprise, I learn that ponies can live all the way to age 50 or so, so even after 25 years, if there’s a reunion there may still be time for some HEA.

      3. Pony sounds interesting. I have always loved horses, I hope she captures the “mischievous ” side of ponies. That’s my experience, the smaller the equine the more of an Ass they are.
        I would like to know what Ithaca is like now, I went to school there a long time ago. Thank you for the suggestion!

    2. You are not alone being late to the Murderbot-party, I read the first one only 1.5 week ago. 🙂

  13. I’ve read several webcomics this week, as usual.

    And on a total derailment of my thought train, why is it called “The Princess Bride?” Buttercup is not a princess. If she married Humperdink, she would have become one, but spoiler, she doesn’t say “I do.” Sure, it’s a catchier title than “The Peasant Bride” or “The Serf Who Might Marry into the Nobility, Thereby Becoming a Princess” or “Level Up! The other Peasant Wenches Hate this One Trick!” I actually thought the title of the movie was “The Prince’s Bride” for a while, which would make more sense. Or “The Prince’s Fiancee,” really, but that’s kind of spoilery.
    -Dave Barack, GRRL POWER Webcomic

    Yes. Today’s GRRL POWER was one of the webcomics, from which I pulled the quote.
    Grey Wolf’s VARIATION ON A THEME, Book 6, Chapters 19 through 21. The 85-86 school year at Texas A&M has begun. Most of the gang are sophomores, and Gret Wolf is throwing bunus chapters into the mix.

    I’m still giving the Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper a break this week.

    I’m haven’t worked on the JENNIFER CRUSIE BUNDLE. I haven’t started “Charlie All Night”. I’m gonna, but…

    I’m reading GENTLEMAN JOLE AND THE RED QUEEN. ’nuff said.

    In the meantime, I started Michael Dalton’s DEMON HUNTER: The Complete Series Books 1-3. I finished book 2 last night. I love Michael Dalton’s books. When he writes about an engineer saving people (Goblins) from a Goblin Apocalypse, the engineer is very competant. When he writes about a street racer and shape-shifting people, he’s a very competant auto mechanic and driver. Now he’s writing about witchcraft and demonology, not for the first time.

    1. It’s called The Princess Bride because when William Goldman asked his two daughters what that nights bedtime story should be about one said ‘A princess!’ and the other said ‘A bride’, and so he told them the story of Buttercup, The Princess Bride.

      2. But if the bedtime story version is true, then by the logic quoted by Gary J, the daughter that wanted a princess never got one. In fact she had a potential princess dangled before her nose, then taken away!
        Goldman favored one daughter over the other, a huge negative in our culture. (Unless Goldman favors a Platonic philosophy such that the the very idea of a princess implies the existence of an ideal achetype of the princess in some higher reality, so that the story features the Platonic ideal of a princess, just not any imperfect realization of the ideal.)

        1. Strangely enough, the book is one of the few taking up the 0.5 shelf-feet of space in my room. There are claims in the comments section of today’s webcomic that in the movie, Humperdink elevated Buttercup to princessness (or is that princessitude?) before the scheduled wedding. I do not want to reread the story any time soon.

          Jaq
          February 27, 2025, 5:34 am | # | Reply
          One of Goldman’s conceits in ‘The Princess Bride’ was that Buttercup was raised in status to the level of princess before she married Humperdick so that the marriage could occur & be considered a union of equals – at least in part because it caused the peasantry to love her more – thus ensuring their united outrage when she would be murdered.

          Or how about:

          M
          February 27, 2025, 6:39 am | Reply
          There is the concept of “morganatic marriage”, where one spouse doesn’t get any of the privileges that would otherwise happen. Usually used when a noble marries a commoner – the commoner *didn’t* become a noble.
          I think it may have been an attempt to control the number of nobles.

          Florin, being a European country (sounds vaguely Italian), probably had rules about that. So the author likely explained that Buttercup was raised in rank before the marriage to avoid people objecting on that account. IIRC it was only in the book – the moviegoers probably wouldn’t have time or inclination to object.

          Marquar
          February 27, 2025, 6:46 am | Reply
          Buttercup is elevated to Princess early on in the movie. Humperdinck presents her to the people as “Princess Buttercup”. Note that this is not her nightmare, in that, Humperdinck introduces her Queen Buttercup.

          1. Yes in some countries… you needed to be of a certain social status to be eligible for certain titles. In some cases Kings would get around it by promoting their father or grandfather from minor nobility to nobility to make them eligible. Or in other cases,if their brother managed to ellevate the family to a high social status through their work or if your family just loaned or donating money to the current King whenever there was a crisis . Like they said in The Ordinary Princess, populace’s can be quite snobby

          2. Hi, Kay!

            In THE VIENESE WALTZ (Flint/Goodlett/Huff, a Ring of Fire novel) Emperor Ferdinand ennobles several of the “Barbies” in order to stabilize his economy:

            Hayley groaned and, though it didn’t sound it, the groan was complicated by the fact that it was starting to look like she wasn’t going to be a serene highness after all. Just a highness. What Bob said was true. A serene highness didn’t rule a principality. It was a court title, and most of the Barbies were going to be serene highness. But the way it was shaking out, Race Track City was going to become a postage-stamp-size principality, and one with Imperial Immediacy, meaning that the ruling prince—or in this case—princess, would have a vote in the imperial diet.

            A few paragraphs later in Chapter 33:

            First, Ferdinand III will be making you and Ron, as well as Mom and Dad, counts. And your place, and Mom and Dad’s, will be tax exempt from local taxes. After that, it’s your choice whether to take a buyout of the Sanderlin-Fortney Investment Company or to maintain your ownership in it. Considering what you just said, keep your share. The income will be considerable over the years. Brandon will inherit Mom and Dad’s countship, and Bob is going to be getting an imperial knighthood, which will also make his place tax exempt.

    2. As an update, I have finished CHARLIE ALL NIGHT and GENTLEMAN JOLE AND THE RED QUEEN and it is still GBThursday. I believe I’ll start the third Demon Hunter book.

  14. Along with finally tackling The Goblin Emporer, I read the first Veronica Speedwell mystery ‘ A Curious Beginning’ and liked it very much. A Victorian lady lepidopterist at the heart of the mystery. I will continue the series.
    Maia is a good character in The Goblin Emporer. I have mixed feelings about the plot and all the characters but it was an absorbing world to inhabit for awhile.

    1. I have a Curious Beginning in my audible library, possibly even downloaded. I’m glad to hear it was enjoyable as I have yet to listen to it.

      1. Veronica Speedwell was rather annoyingly smug in this first book, but once I got past that, I’ve eagerly consumed the rest of the series. And Stoker is a great hero.

  15. I’m thrilled that Chirp has just introduced me to a long, fun series (14 books, the first three on sale for $2.99 each) of murder mystery cozies featuring Major Heathcliff Lennox. Set in 1920’s, Lennox is a cool guy who is clueless to his coolness (RAF fighter pilot, 6’3”, 30-ish, handsome, loves animals, but doesn’t know how to talk to females he’s attracted to). He just wants to hunt and hike with his dog. The first book, Murder at Melrose Court by Karen Baugh Menuhin, is set at Christmas and Lennox is reluctantly drawn into a murder investigation because the DI in charge seems satisfied to pin it on Lennox. The books are droll tongue-in-cheek first-person narratives with details of grand manor living and servant interaction that make reader immersion complete. The plots are fresh and quirky with good pacing. Lennox takes his beloved dog everywhere and in book 2, The Black Cat Murders, they acquire a black kitten that pals around with them thereafter. Lennox refers to them as his family. (Awww.) The Black Cat Murders has lots of art crime facets along with some opera links. The narrator has a wonderful voice and does an exceptional job with male accents and character differentiation. (Unfortunately some of his women are falsettos if there are lots of female characters.) Karen Baugh Menuhin, based in the Cotswolds, just started writing at age 60 and “the stories came pouring out” since 2018. She has also spun off Miss Busby, a Marple-like character introduced in the second book, who has four books already. Available in Kindle Unlimited as well as Chirp, these books are pitched as Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey meets Bertie Wooster. They’re a perfect cozy escape!

  16. I finished the cozy mystery I was reading, which I liked except for the bit where the female protagonist does something really stupid which could potentially mess up her current relationship. But it doesn’t, because. Argh.

    Currently reading Katie Fforde’s newest book With Love from London, the 3rd in her series set in the 60’s. I don’t, honestly, like these three books nearly as well as her usual ones. The protagonists (female) all seem very young and naive and extremely sheltered. Mind you, I don’t know what England (and France) were like in the 60’s, but these read more like regencies than anything set in the modern era. They’re still well written, and I’m enjoying this one, but I hope for her next book she returns to things set today.

    1. Deb, I’m listening to the Wagtail Murder Club and had to force myself to continue after the TSTL episode. Life these days is frustrating enough without having it show up in my supposedly soothing entertainment. Argh indeed.

      I’m reading Clara Parkes’ The Yarn Whisperer, a collection of essays that are just hitting a very satisfying note for me.

    2. I always imagined London in the 60’s as much more Jilly Cooper than Katie Fforde, but I first went there in 1977. so what do I know? I only remember a comic strip that the Milwaukee Journal ran one holiday season in the late 60’s with the mini skirted herione getting off a train and saying,”London, Fab!”

    3. I grew up in outer London in the 60s and 70s and remember that we were much more buttoned up than we are today. I was 12 in 1968 when the book starts and a little young to judge but Fforde herself was 16 so in a much better place. I do remember a lot more Mr and Missing, my dad wore a bowler hat to work in the city I went to an all girl school and I think we were 14 or so before we had the sex education lesson which as I recall was mostly about other species. Sex before marriage was not talked about (out loud). A girl from my school was rumoured to have been expelled for taking her socks off in front of the gardener. Fforde was quite a few rungs higher on the social scale than me and therefore probably even more sheltered. I suspect she’s telling it as she experienced it.
      I read a few of her earlier books but I’m not a great fan so had to check a few things on wikipedia. Where I fell down quite a rabbit hole with her grandfather who was a central figure in the royal baccarat scandal around Edward VII. Arrogant, handsome, brave, but a womaniser, cheat and pottymouth. He sounds like quite the catch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Gordon-Cumming,_4th_Baronet

  17. I finished the book “Chatter” by Ethan Kross. I listened to the audiobook. I think I’m going to try to check it out from the library because the last chapter is a nicely summarized list of things you can do to help calm the chatter in your head. I realized I already do some of the things naturally, like organize/clean stuff. I’d recommend it if you have found you’re more anxious lately.

    I also read the book “Bad Kitty” which was fun and silly. The entire book is from the viewpoint of a 17 year-old girl wanna be detective who is on vacation with her family in Vegas. Chaos happens around her often and she is blamed for it, but not always fairly. She gets involved with a mystery after a cat jumps on her chest and digs in. She has friends with skills who come to help her. It’s very ScoobyDoo like and there’s a hint of romance with the cute guy.

    I’m currently listening to the 7th book in the Countess of Harleigh mystery series, “An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder” by Dianne Freeman. I’m enjoying it.

    Finally, I read all the Arresting Anna posts from 2020 that I could find on the blog along with the 3 chapters and I LOVED them!! I am so disappointed that there aren’t more available and equally elated that this is the book Jenny and Bob are working on next! I actually had a solid 45 minutes where I completely forgot about real life as I read the chapters. I love these characters! Also, I didn’t have a problem with any of the names.

  18. Unintentionally, my reading this week could be taken as pushback against what some are calling ‘growing support for traditional gender roles,’ to which (as the longtime breadwinner in my childfree household) I say F.U.

    1. ‘Wild’ by Cheryl Strayed, adventure memoir (hiking the Pacific Crest Trail) by a person whose decisions are almost entirely opposite what mine have been, or would have been. Well written head-shaker.

    2. [re-read] ‘Something Wild and Wonderful’ by Anita Kelly, M/M contemporary set on the Pacific Crest Trail in which I could honestly relate to both MCs even though I would never choose to hike the PCT.

    3. ‘Original Story By’ by Arthur Laurents, subtitle: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood; research reading and an excellent source. Published in 2000 when he was 81 and his 12-yrs-younger husband (not legally married) was also still alive. There’s a lot here about freedom of conscience, McCarthyism, and the difficulty of maintaining working relationships and friendships in an intensely competitive profession. Laurents wrote ‘Gypsy,’ ‘West Side Story,’ and ‘The Way We Were,’ among many other films and plays.

    4. a binge of Kim Fielding shorts first published by Dreamspinner, which gave me the icks a bit because I kind of doubt she gets paid anything when these sell, because Dreamspinner is a bag of dicks. But. Note, these are all early work, for completists. 🙂
    ‘The Tale of August Hayling:’ combines Gold Rush frontier with a centuries-old dragon quest. Liked it but the resolution felt a bit rushed.
    ‘Housekeeping:’ a guy down on his luck falls into a series of house-sitting gigs in the Bay Area, and eventually falls for one of the homeowners. Liked this one a lot, it felt like a complete story with character development throughout.
    ‘Speechless:’ set in Portland, OR, feat. a one-eyed machinist and an aphasic former thriller writer. The romance here is nice but the arc feels a bit formulaic.
    ‘The Gig:’ a very short epilogue story to ‘Speechless’ which basically settles the machinist’s employment issue introduced in the main story. Some confusingly unnecessary internal monologue speculating on a side character’s gender.

    5. [re-read] my own M/M novel ‘A Little Turn.’

    6. ‘The Way I Was’ by Marvin Hamlisch, memoir by the EGOT and Pulitzer-winning composer; engaging, informative, ends on an up note (he married at 45 and they were together 23 happy years until his death).

    7. ‘The Darkness Outside Us’ by Eliot Schrefer. Well written, great concept, inevitably grim. Four stars and no desire to read the sequel.

    7.5 [re-read] my own trans F / bi M novelette ‘Star of Wonder,’ as an antidote.

    8. ‘Istanbul Crossing’ by Timothy Jay Smith, a nail-biter about a gay Syrian refugee in Turkey who ekes out a living helping other refugees cross into Europe; he gets drawn into a double-agent role between a CIA agent and an ISIS plotter. Short timeline, quite tense, relieved by a brief affair with a client and proceeding to an affair with the CIA agent, with whom the POV character decides to stay instead of seizing an opportunity to GTFO. The romance reader in me wanted more than an embrace on the beach to support the idea of a workable future for them. He’s better off but by no means safe, and I’d’ve liked to get to that angle of repose, so four stars not five.

    9. ‘The Rest of the Story: A Life Completed’ by Arthur Laurents, afterword by longtime friend David Saint. Written a few years after his partner of 52 years, Tom Hatcher, died and completed very shortly before he died himself at 93. An excellent look back over the previous memoir; for those who want more about the relationship, this is the one to read.

  19. I never thought I would DNF any of Lois McMaster Bujold’s books. I love the author. I read everything by her and re-read most of her books at least once. Her Vorkosigan novels are amazing, her Penric novellas are delightful, and her Challion cycle is powerful. But when I tried to re-read (for the first time) her first fantasy, The Spirit Ring (1992), I couldn’t go beyond chapter 7. The story resisted me. It has all the ingredients I dislike in fiction: it is dark-ish, it is YA (both protagonists are teenagers), and it has too many long and flowery descriptions of clothing and landscapes. Being an alternative history with magic didn’t help it in my view. Historical is not my genre. So DNF, even though I feel sort-of squirmy inside, as if I’m betraying one of my favorite authors.
    T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone was also a re-read, but I liked it. Well, maybe ‘like’ is not the right word. But I definitely appreciated it. It is gripping and tense and somewhat sad, but it is also a powerful story, a story readers remember long after they finish the last page.
    Tasha Black’s Alien CEO Needs a Nanny was a new book for me. It was also #4 in a series, and I enjoyed reading all 4 of these short novels. Like the rest of them, this one was sweet, primitive, and spicy alien romance. It doesn’t have any depth to the characters, nor complex ideas to the plot, but just relates a love story, as could’ve been told by teenagers. I liked its simplicity.
    Another new book – Sofi Laporte’s The Forgotten Duke – was a disappointment. Last year, I binged on this author’s books. I joyously devoured all her regency romances published by then and hankered for more. But this book – meh. Its idea had merits, but the execution sucked, and the editing was horrible. For example, one character, Theo, a stepson of the heroine of the story, was introduced as a 12-year-old boy at one point and as a man of 21 at another. He behaves like a young teenager throughout the story though. If he were 21, an adult in any culture, why doesn’t he work and support his family financially? Why does the burden of money-making falls on his stepmother, while she has three other young children to care for? Nope, it didn’t work for me.

    1. Your reaction to The Spirit Ring is interesting because mine is quite opposite. It sat on my shelf untouched for years because I remembered it as not being very good, and then I reread it and liked it much better. I have read it since then and it’s held up, though obviously it’s not among her best.

    2. Olga, I really like Nettle and Bone. It appeals to my need for justice, and for the end to the abusive treatment of women. The quirky animals, and the backstories of the characters really add to it, too. The bone dog captured my heart.

  20. I’m reading the latest Lord Julian – very enjoyable.

    Also am re-reading Do We Not Bleed?, the first in the two James Enys novels by Patricia Finney. It’s a good story – I had forgotten that Shakespeare is one of the characters. Fun. I love her Elizabethan-era stuff, especially the Sir Robert Carey series.

  21. Several different nonfiction books about the Granada Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series, a book about architect Louis Sullivan, and re-read some of the Kate Daniel’s series by Ilona Andrews.

  22. I read Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis and it was quite enjoyable. It reads somewhat like a YA, and many of her books that I enjoy *are* YA, but the main characters are in their early twenties. He is an Archduke who has been completely controlled by his regent since was thirteen, until he escapes and heads to the neighboring country for refuge, because she is the Witch Queen of said neighboring country who escaped her own evil regent (her uncle) and then recently came back and overthrew him. When he arrives she mistakes him for the Dark Wizard she advertised for to organize her parents library, and since he overhears her cursing out the horrible Archduke who had done all the horrible things his Regent had done in his name he decides to *not* confess his real identity. Hijinks ensue.

    1. I’m so glad you enjoyed Wooing the Witch Queen too! For me, the characters and their issues and perspectives read like mid-20s adults, but the style is fun and has a quick, smooth, easy-to-read flow, similar to some YA novels and some adult books written by authors who also write YA, like Lish McBride, Ally Carter, and T. Kingfisher’s Paladin books.

  23. I didn’t get around to posting last week, so I have 2 or so weeks worth of books.
    I finished book 3 in the Witchlings-series by Claribel A. Ortega, “House of Elephants” and really really liked it. The series is getting progressively darker though. It’s still very charming, but dang, it did take a turn to a darker place there. Very much looking forward to book 4 later this year!
    After this, I discovered the joys of Murdertasking and read “All Systems Red” by Martha Wells. The combination of the book and being busy was phenomenal. I’m happy I gave it a try. Gonna read more when possibility strikes.
    In a race to catch up with Sven, I picked up the second book in the Millennium-trilogy by Stieg Larsson, my wild guess would be that the English title is “The Girl Who Played With Fire”. (He finished just a few hours ahead of me! but also had a 15 hour head start.) Thank goodness it had less triggers for me than the first book. It was very good, although some parts of the end felt quite unrealistic. But fine, I’ll read book 3 too, when I can find a version with a narrator that is bearable.
    Together, Sven and I finished “Daughter of the Empire”, book 1 in the Empire-trilogy by Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts. It was his first read, my… 5th I think? Anyway, it was good. He grumbled a lot about the world and the characters and the pace at the start, but he warmed up to them all eventually and is now enjoying things. We’re now on book 2: “Servant of the Empire”.
    “The Fairy Godmother” by Mercedes Lackey was, unfortunately, not as fun as the blurb on Audible, but it was all right. Quite slow, though. Perhaps a more upbeat narrator would have made it better justice. Not sure if I will read more in that series, but I don’t regret reading it.
    I found more romance in “The Happy Ever After Playlist” by Abby Jimenez and loved it. I think I’d give it a 4.5-4.75 out of 5, because it did not hit all the best spots, BUT it made me laugh, kept me reading, and the MMC was definitely my kind of guy. I found out it’s a series, so I’ll check out the other books too when I can and see if they are as enjoyable. There’s stilll hope for romance, hurrah!
    Very early this morning (around 4AM) I finished “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches” by Sangu Mandanna, and it too was an enjoyable book. Great found family, characters that are just quirky enough to still feel real, problems that can be solved, love that can be had. It was a nice read. I can’t help wondering though if one of the children is also written as if she has a constantly stuffed nose? Because the narrator gives her that kind of voice, making all m into b, n into d etc. If anyone here has read it in print, I’m curious to know!
    Now reading “His Majesty’s Dragon” by Naomi Novic and it is a great read so far. Triple just flopped down on my lap as I wrote that sentence, so it’s probably time to stop writing and go back to reading.

    P.s. Speaking of Triple! I mentioned on WW last week that the vet was coming. Long story short is that home-call vet adviced us to take her to get an x-ray of the lungs and they found discolouring, meaning infection, so she’s been on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for almost a week now and takes her meds like a champ. No coughing has happened yet (KNOCK ON WOOD!) so hopefully that means this is all and no further investigation needs to happen. She also handled both vet-interactions very well. I’m so incredibly proud of her. <3 AND both home-call vet and the vet at the clinic we took her to get the x-rays done were amazing, so we're gonna take her to this place instead of our previous IF the home-call vet isn't enough in the future.

      1. Thank you! It hasn’t been this easy before, not if I needed to put something in her mouth at least, like a capsule for instance. She also won’t take meds if they’re mixed into a cream snack or liquid snack or whatever, she’ll refuse to eat it. This time however, thanks to MIL giving me the idea, I’ve been hidig the pills inside chunks of treats she really likes, so it’s been surprisingly easy. We discovered these mini-sticks fairly recently, and I’m so happy we did. She gobbles them up with meds and all and is none the wiser. She has been overjoyed to get so many treats every day. But, whatever works, right? 🙂 I guess I could try to do the same for capsules in the future, now that we’ve figured out she 1. likes these meat sticks very much and 2. they’re soft enough to shove a small pill into. Very happy to have found a cat-hack that works! <3 Also cred and kudos to MIL for being the best MIL, vet-taxi and cat-grandma. <3

      1. The term is definitely one of my new favourites. Thank the husband, please! And also thanks to you for sharing it with us. <3 I hope it's okay that we borrow it?

    3. Congratulations on the good news on Triple. Knowing you have a vet or 2 that you like makes all future interactions less scary.

      1. Thank you! Yes, these vets have been worth gold. Not only did they treat Triple (and the home-vet also Matcha) with respect and kindness, but they also interacted with me as though I’m a normal person and not a scary blind person that will eat them or inflict blindness on them if they address me directly. Meaning: They talked to me, not over my head to MIL or whatever, and they listened until I was done explaining things. The home-call vet even helped me deworm both cats without extra charge, because it was a matter of 2 seconds of drops in the neck and it makes a huge difference to me if someone helps out. And, the vet’s assistent at the new office didn’t just talk directly to me, but also thought ahead regarding the medication: “Look, the antibiotics are square, so I’m putting them in a square box, and then the painkillers are round and I’ll put them in an envelope, so you know what is what.” These kinds of interactions make me wanna hug people and thank them with flowers and chocolate and sing their praise to everyone I meet.

    5. Shass, I loved the Temeraire series by Novik – very different voice for her – although some of the books are not as strong as others. I will be interested in following your progress on this one.

      1. I think Temeraire is adorable! I’d love to hang out with a dragon like him. Only Novic I’ve read previously is Uprooted, and this one is indeed quite different, but so far, I really enjoy it. I hope the rest of the aviators will warm up to Lawrence soon, because underneath the occasionally stiff exterior, he’s a very loveable guy. He deserves so much better than the coldness he’s getting from most humans so far. At least the dragons all seem to take to him immediately.

    6. Pity that “The Fairy Godmother” doesn’t have a better narrator as its quite a fun book, and I love Lackey’s notion of the Tradition. I think its the best of that series, until book 5 “The Sleeping Beauty”, which has a different set of characters – although I think I missed a bunch of the Wagnerian references in that one.

      1. I know! When I read the description I was SURE it was a book for me, but the narrator doesn’t convince me. I think you read in audio too sometimes, right? Do you know how some narrators seem to read with a tone that is almost…sad? Melancholy? That’s how she reads. The melody becomes a minor where it should be major. She isn’t bad as in boring or unemotional or anything like that, but the reading would have done well to be read in a “major key” with less blue notes.
        That said, I definitely don’t regret reading it, and I wholeheartedly agree with you that Lackey’s twist on the tradition and how Ella handles it is spot on. That probably also says a bunch about the book, that I kept reading even though I didn’t feel the narrator and the story were the perfect match. And when she does dialogue, it’s very good, so it’s more her tone inbetween that slows it down and takes a bit of the fun out of it. Some more… spring and bounce in it wouldn’t have hurt. Oh and! The epilogue was very good!

        1. I usually try audio when the book is reputedly funny and I’m not getting it – often the narration pacing makes the humor come alive for me. To have the reverse happen sounds somewhat awful.

      2. In general, some voice actors are great, many are adequate, and some can ruin a novel (or if bad enough, even a nonfiction book). I just finished the third novel in a book series. (I hadn’t read the earlier ones, but it stood okay without them.) I thought its narrator was if anything better than the novel deserved. I then borrowed from the library the second audiobook in the series. It turned out to have a different and considerably worse narrator, although it’s possible I’ll get used to him. But he certainly does not seem any better than the writing quality of the novel.

  24. I read books this week, but apparently I was too buried in reading politics to read much fiction. I DNFd Mary Balogh’s Always Remember, after some time ago DNFing an earlier book in that series, so it’s not for me, even though I love the Bedwyns and the Westcotts. I finished my Jessie Mihalik reread, and I’m just starting to reread one of Malka Older’s books, but I can’t even remember which one, so reading the news and writing letters to politicians about it is eating up most of my reading time. And brain.

    1. And this morning, before I’m through reading news and blogs and go on to fiction, I’ve already written FOUR letters to politicians! Gah.

  25. I’m late getting to this, but my VISA card rolled over, so I can begin to spend again, and tomorrow is “Don’t buy anything” day, so I needed to shop.

    I reread What the Lady Wants, and had some fun thinking about a possible collage for it, with Jenna Elfman as Mae. She’s very graceful and artful; then Jeff Daniels as Mitch. For Stormy, I chose Rosamund Pike in her character of Jane, in Pride and Prejudice, 2005. She has an ethereal beauty. Carlo is John Cusack. For June and Harold, I chose Blythe Danner and Harrison Ford. My favorite line from this book is “Not a gentleman’s agreement?” Mae’s sarcasm was thick and acid.( To which Mitch replied,) “You need at least one gentleman for that. The butler was in the hall…”

    I reread the next Nora Roberts in the Born In… series. I rewatched Keeping the Faith, which is where I got the idea for Jenna Elfman. It’s about two men and a woman who grew up together, and they become a priest, a rabbi, and a high-powered CEO. Then Cupid steps in and causes all kinds of havoc. It’s also about redemption, and overcoming prejudice. There’s some great humor in there, too.

  26. This week I found another classic on my mountain of TBR books, the fantasy Redwall. I’m not generally fond of omniscient narrators, but the story is good and the world-building superb.

  27. I re-read Patricia Briggs’ Sianim series – “Masques”, “Steal the Dragon”, “When Demons Walk” and “Wolfsbane”. It would be nice if Patty could go back to this series. I would dearly love to read how Reth – a country filled with magic and dragons – resisted the Armies of Altis – a god bent on conquering the known world.

    I am now reading a book recommended by someone here on this blog – “The Stranger Times” by C.K. McDonnell. A woman down on her luck applies to and gets a job at a newspaper very much like The Weekly World News (the one that kept reporting on Batboy), but where The Weekly World News had fake stories, The Stranger Times might be actually reporting on true stores. It’s pretty slow going so far. I’m on Page 101 and The Stranger Times has not yet become involved with the weird.

  28. I finished reading Sixteen Minutes by K.J. Reilly. Teenage time travel novel. Overall I enjoyed it, but it does have slow pace and my one major critique would be to move faster on the action. The concept is cool–a descendant from the future arrives trying to save a kid’s life with a drug that would cure her 77 years later, and there’s a “domino effect” overall plot about trying to save the world by saving some people’s lives. There is also an emotional threesome/near polyamory(?) situation that surprised me in a teen novel, but presumably you can’t do much with that.

  29. This week I listened to the audiobook of Sarah Beth Durst’s “Spell Shop”. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It reads as YA. Really loved her best friend the spider plant and his side kick “Meep”. I always have a soft spot for librarians and the message that knowledge is to be shared.

  30. Finished a couple of series this week – notably the Administration series by Manna Francis (with the exception of a couple of the shorts I couldn’t source). Solid series, excellent world-building. The final book wasn’t the best of the series, but still good. I’m sure I’ll come back to this world again.

    Cheating, but I’m counting the TV series “Teen Wolf” as it’s absorbed a lot of time that would have otherwise gone to reading. Very enjoyable, surprisingly funny – just don’t get too attached to any particular couple. Have now read my first Teen Wolf fanfic, which was adorable (“Stilinski’s Home for Wayward Wolves” by owlpostagain), and I forsee a happy few weeks ahead of fanfic reading.

    I finally got around to Ari Baran’s Penalty Book series with the first one “Game Misconduct” which I really enjoyed – on to the next one.

    Random query for the German speakers on Argh if I may. My recollection is that the personal pronoun “du” is for intimates and God – would one also use it for the Devil? The character was a 1917 German soldier and it really threw me out of the story but I was thinking maybe its correct usage?

    1. Yep. The “du” used to be intimate.
      But the relationship to God is also an emotionally “intimate” one, like father and child.
      Therefore “du”.
      The devil is near to us, too, knows how to tempt us, thus “du”.
      “Sie” signals not only respect, but distance. And neither Gott nor the Teufel would be distant.
      I haven’t been around in 1917 😉 and it’s ages since I read a German classic of that time, but in my ear Mephistopheles (the devil) in Faust is on a du-basis with the hero. I might be wrong in ghat Goethe wrote ist differently, but in my imagination they’re using “du”.
      The book might capture not the views of the early 20th century but very correctly that of the later one.
      I hope that helps?

      1. Thank-you, very helpful! Part of my issue was that he asked “Wer bist du?” which felt very weird to my ear, but sometimes what’s correct can sound wrong in my head, hence so nice to have a native speaker’s viewpoint. Whether or not the author intended it, it can be read as the character suspecting his interlocutor is the devil.

        1. I hadn’t read this when I wrote my earlier comment. (Which I should have, my bad.) This clarifies the situation, but fortunately I guessed right.

    2. Comment from a decidedly non-native and not very fluent speaker: But Wer best du? is “Who are you?” If the soldier is asking that, out of context it doesn’t sound like he knows who he’s talking to. So should the question hinge on what guise has the Devil assumed when he appears? At least according to the grammar books, “du,” besides being used of intimates, is also used to social inferiors, such as children (even random ones you don’t know) and servants, and can be used to show your contempt for someone by treating them as a social inferior. And the notion of intimates stretches pretty widely, such as (nowadays at least), between fellow students and, I imagine, fellow soldiers of fairly equal rank. So if the soldier is showing scorn for the apparition, he might use du, or if he thinks it’s a fellow soldier or a social inferior he could do the same.

      1. It all reminds me of a more general issue: Use of the second person singular varies a lot by situation across languages. I was once watching a Russian film set in WWII. It had scenes with Hitler speaking German, followed by Russian voiceover translation. Use differed between du and ty. As I recall, the German had Hitler using du to speak in a friendly manner with his military officers, while the voiceover used third person vy in Russian.

      2. I think it was the spellchecker, not my typo, that turned bist to best above. It didn’t help.. Sorry!

  31. I’ve been DNFing a lot lately, but one book I thoroughly enjoyed was Mr. Pickwick’s Guide to Marriageable Young Ladies by Jill M. Beene. The premise is that Victorian high society has been turned on its head by an anonymous publication purporting to reveal the true natures of the ton’s debutantes, both for the better and the worse. It was exciting, the characters’ actions and motivations were logical, and their personalities were a lot of fun. That being said, I don’t know anything about Victorian England (or, for that matter, what sets it apart from Regency or any other period), so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the portrayal. I can say that there were several moments where I felt the author could’ve used a good proofreader, but I enjoyed the book so much that I could overlook the errors I came across. I’m interested to read the author’s other works, especially since she writes in one or two other genres as well.

  32. Just finished Sex, Lies and Online dating by Rachel Gibson, this time I listened on audio and it was great! Love books with quirky humor. I also started reread/listen to Liz Danger series and I think the narrators are awesome. They totally have the right voice and delivery so make this good book even better! I wish I could find more books in this style. A romance/murder/mystery with great characters and lots of snark and sass.

  33. Currently listening to Dianne Mott Davidson’s Goldy series narrated by Barbara Rosenblatt. She is a good narrator, I like her Mrs Pollifax audiobooks too. Anyway back to the Goldy series… some nice recipes, decent characters and some murder mystery. I do like the food, may make almond cookies this weekend

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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