Not Just Another Grouchy Grammarian

Book Riot’s READ HARDER Challenge and GOODREADS Reading Challenge Update #10

And here goes another installment of my reading list and bookish pursuits.

It’s been a busy month. I read a trilogy and a horror anthology, finished one serial on Serial Box, started the final season of another and began a third, read the newest in a mystery series I love, and had enough real life to keep things interesting. All my reading this month was for the GOODREADS Challenge only, however, and I need to remedy that this month.

Book #76 (Goodreads Challenge): I began the month with a recommendation from Cindy Guentert-Baldo – Kevin Kwan’s trilogy. The first book in that trilogy is Crazy Rich Asians. I’m not much on popular fiction, but this was a delightful book – It’s not quite chick lit, and it’s not quite a rom-com, but it tells the story of Rachel and Nick in a very quick and frothy read with a few darker moments.

Book #77 (Goodreads Challenge): Kwan’s trilogy continues with China Rich Girlfriend. Here the plot shifts from Rachel and Nick to his cousin and her husband, and to the stories of other of the secondary characters. By now, they all felt like old acquaintances, and it was wonderful to catch up on their stories.

Book #78 (Goodreads Challenge): The final book of Kwan’s trilogy is Rich People Problems. The focus is heavily on Nick and his grandmother in this one. It ties up the series nicely. The whole series took me about two and a half days to read and was well worth the time spent.

Book #79 (Goodreads Challenge): I’m not a horror reader in general, but I was invited to a book launch for A New York State of Fright, edited by James Chambers, April Grey, and Robert Masterson, published by Hippocampus Press. I was – I admit – predisposed to like at least two stories in the book because I know the writers, Hal Johnson and Patrick Thomas. (Full Disclosure: I also know the publisher slightly. The opinions herein are my own, however.) Much to my surprise, while I loved both stories from my friends, I was more impressed with several of the other stories. Alp Beck’s “Heels,” which I heard partially read at the launch was my main reason for purchasing the book, and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, I only felt one story wasn’t superb – and that just because I thought the ending had been telegraphed too early. Again, while horror is not my jam, this was an excellent example of contemporary horror. Oh – and all the stories are set in New York – either state or city – a big plus for me.

Book #80 – 84 (Goodreads Challenge): As most of you know, I am rather fond of a website/app called Serial Box. I finished the five books of their BOOKBURNERS series this month. I’m sorry to see this serial end. It’s held my attention all the way through but leaves some loose threads. I want to find out what happens to several of the protagonists whose endings are not shown in the last chapter.

Book #85 (Goodreads Challenge): Serial Box has also released the first, preview, chapter of the final season of TREMONTAINE, which is how I found them in the first place.

Book #86 – 88(Goodreads Challenge): The new series I started on Serial Box is something of an experiment for them. They have teamed up with The Associated Press to do a non-fiction series called 1776: The World Turned Upside Down. It covers the year 1776, in 12 chapters – one per month. Each chapter begins with an overview of the events taking place that month and then goes into the story. If you are a history fan, you will find it quite interesting, and worth subscribing to. I have already read the first three installments, and have the fourth queued up on my computer.

Book #89 (Goodreads Challenge): Donna Andrews has released the next chapter in her Meg Langslow mysteries. is another enjoyable chapter. It’s fun to watch her boys growing up, and watch her indomitable mother and father, as well as the other characters. This is another series where the characters feel like old friends settling in for a visit, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

I didn’t get more reading done this month because of various real-life issues. I’ve been fighting yet another round of cellulitis, a friend has had sudden, unexpected brain surgery (he’s doing fine so far), another friend has developed what seems to be pretty much terminal cancer, various friends have needed tech support, and my sister has her usual crises, so my attention has been pushed in all sorts of directions other than books.

In September, I will be attending a conference for people who are in the planner community – which is one of the groups that ties in with the bullet journal communities. I met some of the other folks who will be attending this evening, and they seem to be quite friendly and welcoming. At least I will see a few familiar faces when I get there.

So that is where things are at for August. I will try to blog more in September, but with the High Holy Days and my birthday, it’s going to be a pretty full month.

Book Riot’s READ HARDER Challenge and GOODREADS Reading Challenge Update #9

So here is the next installment of my 2018 reading list for both the challenges I have committed to so far.

Book #63 (Goodreads Challenge): Okay. A friend suggested I read Amy Tangerine’s Craft a Life You Love: Infusing Creativity, Fun & Intention into Your Everyday because Ms. Tangerine had some pretty good suggestions and kept the Newage goop to a minimum. While both observations are correct, there really wasn’t anything new and exciting in here. Note: I am probably a good twenty to thirty years older than her target audience, so having a longer perspective may have something to do with my having “seen it all” before now.

That said, the exercises are interesting, and have helped renew my interest in art journaling, so I will give the book that much credit. And Amy’s story is interesting, if not a bit indulgent. Many of us who are trying to make it don’t have parents or a partner in the background to prop us up if we have a fall or a rough spot, and I think that far too many books of this kind overlook that. Ms. Tangerine at least acknowledges the help she got at crucial moments from her parents.

Still, it was a relatively quick, enjoyable read, and I’d say that there are people who could benefit from reading it. That I just didn’t happen to be one of them is no fault of Ms. Tangerine’s, and I wish her all success and hope many of her target audience find this book and buy it.

Book #64 (Goodreads Challenge): Went to a book launch party at Integral Yoga, and the swag was a copy of the book being launched. The book was Suzan Colon’s Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out. This book tells the story of the year she spent teaching yoga to a friend who had been severely injured in a freak diving accident. It includes actionable practices for the various steps of yoga, including breathing, mantra, and cultivating appropriate attitudes. I would definitely recommend this, just for Francesco’s story. Note: We got to meet Francesco
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Book Riot’s READ HARDER Challenge and GOODREADS Reading Challenge Update #8

Okay, I’ve been slacking a bit, but I’ve had some actual work to take my attention away from reading. Hopefully, I am heading back to achieving my daily reading goal. I find it helps me deal with the day better if I start by enjoying some time with a book.

Books #52-57 (Goodreads Challenge): Donna Andrews’ The Good, the Bad and the Emus, The Nightengale Before Christmas, Lord of the WIngs, Die Like an Eagle, Gone Gull, and How the Finch Stole Christmas bring the Meg Langslow series (mentioned in my last Book Challenge post) current. There are two more books in the series, but they won’t be released until later this year.

Book #58 (Goodreads Challenge): A Baby’s Bones by Rebecca Alexander is the first book in a new mystery series. It was pretty interesting, although my one gripe is that I really would like to see more female sleuths who are not dependent on a man. There is a more in-depth review in my post of 1 May 2018.

Book #59 (Goodreads Challenge): Spenser is back again. Ace Atkins continues the Robert B. Parker “Spenser” series with Old Black Magic>. This time, Spenser is without his old buddy Hawk, as he works to resolve a case involving a mobster with a grudge against him and some paintings that were stolen several decades ago. Further, he doesn’t have much help from Quirk or Belson, who have risen up the chain of administration. Spenser prevails, of course, but it’s always fun to watch how he gets there.

Book #60 (Goodreads Challenge): Roger Levy’s The Rig got reviewed in my post of 16 May 2018. It’s another book not to be picked up lightly, but is well-worth the read.

Book #61 (Goodreads Challenge): Madman Walking, by L.F. Robertson is an interesting look, through a fictional case, at the process of overturning the conviction of an innocent, but mentally-ill, man. I note that I received this as an uncorrected bound proof from the publisher, but – as always – my responses are not based on that. I did a more in-depth review on Goodreads.

Book #62 (Goodreads Challenge): The Crowns of Croswald, by D.E. Night is a book I was asked to review by the author’s publisher. I agreed, with the usual proviso that my review would be honest, and not influenced by the fact that I was given the copy.

That said, it was enjoyable. It started a bit slowly, and I had figured out the plot twist long before it was revealed, but that did not make the book less enjoyable. The story revolves around a young woman with a secret. A kitchen maid, she still somehow gets invited to join the country’s most important school to learn to be a scrivener. Being bright and inquisitive, as well as poor, she has some trouble fitting into her new surroundings. She also has a very powerful enemy, who has been searching for her for all of her life and develops two very close friendships, one male and one female.

The similarities to Harry Potter will, I think, make the book resonate with its target audience, which I believe is YA. There are enough differences, however, that those similarities do not detract from the story.

I further note that I am now awaiting the next book in the series since the ending of this book sets up the heroine’s next quest.

So, those are my recent books read. I am a touch behind where I want to be, but that happens around this time of year. I fully expect to get to where I should be over the summer.

Book Riot’s READ HARDER Challenge and GOODREADS Reading Challenge Update #7

So. I haven’t gotten to the last six books for the Book Riot Challenge just yet. Reading has been going a bit more slowly this week, as I have been a bit under the weather. Also, the book I am working my way through actually requires you to think, so it’s taking a bit longer than lighter fare.

Book #32 (Goodreads Challenge): The Last Stand, by Mickey Spillane is the last novel that Spillane completed before his death. It’s packaged with one of Spillane’s early novellas that has not been published before, “A Bullet for Satisfaction.” This volume is being released by Hard Case Crime, who kindly sent me an ARC, to celebrate what would have been Spillane’s 100th birthday and begins a year of events and releases. Neither story is a “Mike Hammer,” so if you are looking for Spillane’s most famous character you will be slightly disappointed. The title story is one of the best I’ve ever read, and the characters will definitely stay with me. It’s clear that no matter how old Spillane was when he wrote it, his abilities were still top drawer. This is funny, scary, tense, and delightful in general – all at the same time. There is some stereotyping of Native Americans here, but it’s made clear early on that the author has contempt for those stereotypes. The earlier piece has a lot of violence and also has some stereotyping, mostly to the tropes of the characters – the hard-boiled ex-cop turned investigator, etc. If you can remember that this piece was written in the late 1940s/early 1950s, you can keep in mind that those were how the reading public of that era wanted that particular sort of protagonist. Still, this is one volume that I am delighted I had a chance to read, and I hope you love it as much as I did, even with its obvious faults.

Book #33 (Goodreads Challenge):My friend Marie recommended that I read Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni. I ordered it for my Kindle, and there it stayed – at the bottom of my reading queue until she asked me during this past week if I had read it yet. I’ve been working my way through a different book, so I sheepishly admitted I hadn’t. I then bumped it all the way up to “Read Now” status. I’m glad I did. It’s set primarily in New York in the late 19th century. The mix of characters is intriguing: a female golem, a jinni, a wizard reborn as an amoral rabbi, an apostate Jew, an Orthodox rabbi, a Syrian tinsmith, a pretty heiress, a possessed doctor, and various immigrants that helped make up the melting pot we know as the Lower East Side. The story starts out in a fairly straightforward manner: a man in Danzig wants a wife, so he pays an amoral rabbi to create a golem for him, which he then attempts to take to America. Having been cautioned not to wake her before the boat docks, he does so anyway, then dies from appendicitis, leaving the golem masterless. Meanwhile, in the Syrian quarter of New York City, a tinsmith is given a flask to fix. When he unstoppers it, he releases a jinni – who has no memory of how he ended up in the flask, just that a wizard put him there. Both golem and jinni have to learn to adjust to living with humans. This not only puts restrictions on their natural abilities so that they are not discovered, but it requires them learning how humans think and feel. The tinsmith becomes the jinni’s protector, while an Orthodox rabbi becomes the golem’s. Like all the best books, this one can be read on many levels. First, there is the story itself, entertaining as is. Next, it can be read as a tale about the human condition: what are feelings, what is duty, what is faith, what is our obligation to our fellow person. Finally, it can be read as a quest to fully realize oneself. It’s not preachy, however, and is – in fact – quite an enjoyable way to pass a weekend day. Give this one a shot – you may enjoy it as much as I did, if not more.

Books #34 through 49 (Goodreads Challenge): My friend Kathy recommended the first book in the series, Murder with Peacocks, to me when I asked for recommendations as part of one task in the 101 in 1001 Challenge I’m doing elsewhere. She negelcted to tell me it was part of a series though. I’m up to the 11th book in the series, Swan for the Money. The series is delightful, if a touch formulaic. It has memorabe characters, titles that are all bird-related, puns, literary allusions, and the books are short enough that a fast reader could get in two per evening if he/she tried. The titles in order (of the ones I’ve read so far) are:

Murder with Peacocks
Murder with Puffins
Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
We’ll Always Have Parrots
Owls Well That Ends Well
No Nest for the Wicket
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
Cockatiels at Seven
Six Geese A-Slaying
Swan for the Money
Stork Raving Mad
The Real Macaw
Some Like It Hawk
The Hen of the Baskervilles

and the one I am currently reading: Duck the Halls.

Book #50 (Goodreads Challenge): Killing Town, by Mickey Spillane and Max Collins. It’s a wonderful thing that Spillane hand-chose Collins to be his literary executor. When Collins finishes a Spillane manuscript, it’s virtually impossible to tell where Spillane left off writing and where Collins began it. This book is no exception. I do note that I received the book as an ARC, but all opinions of it are mine and are in no way influenced by its receipt. This is the very first appearance of Mike Hammer – yes, before even I, the Jury. It has all the hallmarks of Hammer to come: it’s gritty, there’s violence, there are beautiful women and plot twists within plot twists. Overall, it was a highly satisfying way to spend an evening.

Book #51 (Goodreads Challenge): Steve Allen’s “Dumbth”: The Lost Art of Thinking With 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind requires some thinking. This is not the first time I have read it, nor will it be the last. It’s one of those books that works best with several re-readings because you will concentrate on different suggestions by Mr. Allen on how to improve the use of your brain. Even better, there is finally a Kindle version of it. Now if I can only get the four books of the MEETING OF MINDS series for my Kindle….

Anyway, that’s it for this time. I am hoping to get back to reading a bit more in the near future. I just don’t feel right if I can’t read for an hour a day.

Book Riot’s READ HARDER Challenge and GOODREADS Reading Challenge Update #6

So. I still have six books to read for the Book Riot Challenge. Reading has been going a bit more slowly this week, as I have been a bit under the weather.

Book #28 (Goodreads Challenge): Karen S. Bell’s Brooklyn Rhapsody is a quick, pleasant, easy read. It’s pretty much a vignette about a single woman living in Brooklyn, who is dealing with family who cannot see any of her accomplishments unless she manages to get married.

Book #29 (Both Challenges): I had Gabourey Sidibe’s This Is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare on my TBR queue for a while now, so when I needed a celebrity memoir it seemed like a good choice. It was. Ms. Sidibe has a very refreshing viewpoint, and she openly discusses things that shaped her, both for good and bad. The one thing I was not so pleased about is that she still seems to need to make the jokes about herself before others might do so. Then again, that is a skill that many of us who are different learn, and it’s a damned hard one to break.

Book #30 (Goodreads Challenge): Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War is a solid, thought-provoking piece of military sf. It reads like a cross between Ann McCaffrey’s “The Ship Who…” books and David Feintuch’s “The Seafort Saga” books. IT makes you think; it does not sugar-coat its tale of war’s legacies, and it does not shrink from calling things what they are. You really want to read this book, even if military sf is not your normal beat.

Book #31 (Goodreads Challenge): Haldane Macfall’s Vigee Le Brun is an interesting short biography of painter Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. I read this for a project I’m involved with, and it was interesting enough to keep me going, even though the language is a bit odd. Written in 1922, the language is more than a bit flowery, and I get the feeling that the writer was off by a hair when using certain words to describe things. Still, if you like artist biographies, this one is worth exploring. It was a quick read (less than a morning) and covered the life of a fascinating woman who spent twelve years after the French Revolution as an exile and an official enemy of the State. The book also has colored illustrations of some of her works, and those are a true delight.

I am in the process of rereading one of my favorite books – Steve Allen’s marvelous “Dumbth”: The Lost Art of Thinking With 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind, and will report on that next time. After that, I will get back to my other reading challenge.