Book a Week 2022 - BW39: Bookish New and Author Birthdays

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday dear hearts!  It’s time for another round of bookish news and author birthdays.

2022 Hugo award’s winner for best novel is A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Hilary Mantel, celebrated author of Wolf Hall, dies aged 70

Romance author Nora Roberts helps save Michigan library defunded over LGBTQ books

Chances Are, Your Favorite Book Is On This List Of Books That Have Been Banned For Absolutely Absurd Reasons

How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters

100 Years of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha

 

And in anticipation of our October Spooktacular, check out

Goodread’s picks for Space Horror, and psychological thrillers.

75 Facts about Stephen King who just turned 75 last week.

 

Author Birthdays this week (excuse my laziness for not looking up the links this time.  Movie Time!!!)

9/24:  Horace Wadpole, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Brunner.

9/25: William Faulkner, Bell Hooks, and Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

9/26: Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, T.S. Eliot, and Jane Smiley.

9/27: Grazia Deledda, Louis Auchincloss, Josef Skvorecky, and Mark Vinz.

9/28: Kate Douglas Wiggin, Francis Turner Palgrave, James Edwin Campbell, and Elmer Rice.

9/29: Miguel de Cervantes, William Beckford, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

9/30: Michael Innes, Truman Capote, and Shamsur Rahman Faruqi.

 

And our A to Z and Back Again Letter and Word of the week are N and nouveau

Link to book week 38

Visit  52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini, and perpetual challenges.

[Robin M]

Currently reading #9 in Keri Arthur's Lizzie Grace series -- Sorrow's Song.  

"Lizzie Grace is trying to get on with her life now that she and Aiden have gone their separate ways, but it’s a difficult thing to do when just about everything reminds her of the damn man.

The situation is made worse when a body is found, and her job as Deputy Reservation Witch means she has no choice but to interact with him. At first, the death seems to be nothing more than an accidental drowning in a remote location, but it’s soon evident a supernatural entity is involved.

As they race to uncover what is going on, it becomes clear that this evil is not only targeting werewolves, but one particular pack—the O’Connor’s.

And the reason might well be the song of sorrow. A song that Lizzie’s grief might have given birth to…"

 

Gearing up for October Spooktacular. Have Dean Koontz on the shelves calling my name. Will have to decide which one want to read. 

 

[bookbard]

Thanks, Robin.

So, I just finished The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. It was one of those "If you liked The Goblin Emperor" recommends. I would agree with that, to a certain extent. There's magic and the gods are real. It's positive, there's a lot of relaxing bureaucracy stuff where the main character fixes things or sorts things or puts annoying aristocrats in their place. It's about relationships, but not romance. And it's about, hugely, colonialism and racism. Which is funny to read after reading Babel last week. Very different, as it's all happy and not "the only way to solve colonialism is through violence".

On the other hand, Kuang (who wrote Babel) is an Asian woman who went to Oxford and wrote an Asian character at Oxford. Whereas Goddard seems to be a white Canadian woman using details about the Pacific Islander culture and language in order to create her fantasy world. It made me a bit uncomfortable (considering the backlash about the Moana film, and that had a lot of Islander input). 

Apart from that, lots of re-reading - read the "Chalion" trilogy by Lois McMaster Bujold once again (prob the 2nd time this year?) and a few other bits and pieces. 

[mumto2]

Last week was a bit of a blur for me in terms of jet lag but I did finish a couple of books I don’t think I have mentioned.

First a French golden age type mystery by Jean Patrick Machette called No Room at the Morgue.  This series is compared to Mickey Spillane frequently and it was very similar.  I’m not a huge MS fan so my giving it a 3* was probably as good as it was ever going to get! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52656430-no-room-at-the-morgue

My plane book (after rejecting several!) was The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair.  It’s the latest release in her marriage bureau series and is probably my least favorite to dat.   A bit too heavy on the post WW2 secret spy part of the series and not enough matchmaking! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58724871-the-unkept-woman

Finally my audiobook and my Q…..Quarter to Midnight by Karen Rose was romantic suspense well done.   I was totally entertained. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59575977-quarter-to-midnight from GR

There are good cops. And there are bad cops. The question is…who wins?

After completing her tours with the Marines in Iraq, Molly Sutton knew she could take down any bad guy she met. But when her law enforcement agency in North Carolina turned against her, she joined up with her former CO Burke Broussard, who left New Orleans PD to set up a private investigative service for people who couldn’t find justice elsewhere.

Gabe Hebert saw the toll that working for the NOPD took on his dad and decided instead to make a name for himself as one of the best young chefs in the French Quarter. But when his father’s death is ruled a suicide after a deliberately botched investigation by his former captain, Gabe knows his dad stumbled onto a truth that someone wants silenced.

Gabe goes to his father’s best friend, Burke, for help. Burke assigns the toughest member of his team, Molly, to the case. Molly can’t believe she’s being asked to work with the smoking hot chef whose chocolate cake is not the only thing that makes her mouth water. Sparks fly as they follow the leads Gabe’s dad left them, unraveling a web of crimes, corruption, and murder that runs all the way to the top.

 

[Kareni]

@bookbard, I enjoyed The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard some time ago. Do you plan to read more by the author? I picked up some of her other books but have yet to get to them.

I reread the first two Chalion books recently but skipped the third. I've forgotten if you've read the Penric and Desdemona novellas set in the same world; I've enjoyed those that I've been able to find.

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Some bookish posts ~

Jo Walton’s Reading List: August 2022

https://www.tor.com/2022/09/08/jo-waltons-reading-list-august-2022/

 

Seven Very Short Sci-Fi Stories That Can Be Read in Seven Minutes or Less

https://www.tor.com/2022/09/12/seven-very-short-sci-fi-stories-that-can-be-read-in-seven-minutes-or-less/

 

From McSweeney's: WE ARE A PICTURESQUE SMALL TOWN AND WE REFUSE TO BE THE SETTING FOR YOUR ROMANTIC COMEDY
by RACHEL MANS McKENNY

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/we-are-a-picturesque-small-town-and-we-refuse-to-be-the-setting-for-your-romantic-comedy

Regards,

Kareni

[SKL]

Still reading Un-F--- your Boundaries, little by little.

I decided to go ahead and read Peter Pan.  It seems delightful so far.

[Ottakee]

This was an excellent listen.   Not too light, not too heavy and left me wanting more.

[Kareni]

I recently finished The Evasion-English Dictionary: Expanded Edition by Maggie Balistreri, a short non-fiction book on language usage. A review I read mentioned a similarity to Ambrose Bierce, so I was expecting some humor/wit. I was disappointed.

"“Cultural criticism takes the form of a dictionary in this slender, amusing volume.” A must read for a post-factual world, the expanded edition of The Evasion-English Dictionary is an insightful roadmap to popular words and phrases that reveal what we really mean, despite our use of what Richard Lederer called “linguistic camouflage.”"

**

I also read another science fiction romance by Michelle Diener which I enjoyed ~ Trailblazer (Verdant String Book 3) by Michelle Diener

"Tally Riva is not what she seems, and even she's not happy about it. Infected, invaded, she's not quite sure how to describe it, but on a disastrous mission to a ghost ship, something burrowed its way into her body. Into her mind.

When her commander decides the best cure for what he thinks is Tally's trauma is to send her on the famous Veltos Trail, Tally goes without revealing what's really behind her mental anguish. Anything to be seen as normal again, anything to ignore what she's afraid is happening to her.

But Veltos isn't the safe place it seems. The chosen military personnel lucky enough to be offered the chance to walk the Trail are supposed to be the only people on Veltos. But Ben Guthrie, a captain in Arkhoran Special Forces, knows they're not. He and his team have been on Veltos for a month already, tracking suspicious enemy activity, and he's gone undercover on the Trail in search of a satellite his superiors are sure has been shot down.

When Ben's worst fears become reality, and they find themselves hunted by a cunning enemy through the thick forests of Veltos, Tally and Ben fight together to survive. And Tally has to decide if accepting the changes inside her will save them both, or be her doom."

Regards,

Kareni

[bookbard]

Just finished two books; The Librarian of Crooked Lane, which was a silly book and frustrating to read, and evidently supposed to be the start of a series, because nothing much happened (and she wasn't even a librarian. there was basically nothing about books; also, if you're writing about British people, doughnuts were not a big thing in the 1940s, do your research); and Embassytown by China Mieville, which is one of those classics that is quite interesting but also hard to wade through. It's about a planet with a indigenous people who only communicate literally and so need to create literal situations in order to make similes. I read a review from a linguist who hated it, lol, because it didn't make a lot of linguistic sense; but it was more supposed to be about colonialism, I think. The actual action wasn't so interesting to read but the ideas were.

 

 

[Kareni]

Fantasy author Melissa Caruso wrote about stumbling into a magical bookstore:

https://twitter.com/melisscaru/status/1574836243640324129

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

@mumto2, I hope that you and your family are all safe.

Any other Floridians or those in the path of Hurricane Ian? I wish you well.

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

I finished several romances recently and enjoyed them all. These have significant adult content and feature reverse harems (where it is a woman who has multiple partners).

Lola & the Millionaires: Part One and Lola & the Millionaires: Part Two

Here's the blurb for the first book:

"Lola Barnes only wants one thing, to get her life under control. No more chasing alphas who abuse and toss away betas like her. No more hiding in her cousin’s apartment licking wounds that won’t heal. Armed with her dream job and her less than dreamy apartment, Lola is ready to start a new chapter of her life without alphas.
But that’s easier said than done when one stumbling incident after another leads Lola closer to an alluring pack of captivating men. These alphas are everything Lola dreamed of, but they already have an omega—a playful male model who won’t stop flirting with her. And Lola is only a beta, one who comes with deep scars and an unshakeable aversion to alphas and their powerful presences. If only she could resist their perfect beta, Leo, whose patience and determination to see her heal breaks down one wall after another.
When the alpha who all but destroyed Lola tries to start a game of cat and mouse that’s all claws, the safest place for Lola may be the one she’s most terrified of, in the arms of an alpha pack."

**

Good Deeds by Kathryn Moon 

As opposed to the above pair of books, this one is a science fiction romance. Here is part of the blurb:

"Nötchka Uumian, solo-scavenger and pilot, only came to Bandalier for business. But when her first ever heat cycle hits, she has two choices: get off the planet or find somewhere safe to ride out the heatburns. Determined to never end up mated and trapped in a kitchen, she heads into the Droid district. You can’t mate if the other person isn’t an organic right?..."

Regards,

Kareni

[melmichigan]

On 9/25/2022 at 3:10 AM, Robin M said:

Currently reading #9 in Keri Arthur's Lizzie Grace series -- Sorrow's Song.  

 

I forgot about this series.  I have read the first, so I just downloaded the next six from Hoopla.  

Recently I finished Devouring Darkness (Heirs of Chicagoland #4) by Chloe Neill. I'm bummed that it looks like this series will end with the next book because of sales.  I finally finished listening to Archangel's Light (Guild Hunter #14) by Nalini Singh.  I had put it off because there was some controversy around this book and I didn't want to be disappointed.  I wasn't, much. I also read Only Bad Options (Galactic Bonds #1) by Jennifer Estep. I'm looking forward to a sequel. 

A WOMAN WHO SEES EVERYTHING . . . 

Few people know the name Vesper Quill. To most folks, I’m just a lowly lab rat who designs brewmakers and other household appliances in the research and development lab at the powerful Kent Corp. But when I point out a design flaw and a safety hazard in the new line of Kent Corp starcruisers, everyone knows who I am—and wants to eliminate me.

I might be a seer with a photographic memory, but I don’t see the trouble headed my way until it’s too late. Suddenly, I’m surrounded by enemies and fighting for my life.

I don’t think things can get any worse until I meet Kyrion Coldren, an arrogant Regal lord who insists that we have a connection, one that could be the death of us both.

A MAN WHO CAN’T FORGET HIS PAST . . . 

The name Kyrion Coldren strikes fear in the hearts of people across the Archipelago Galaxy. As the leader of the Arrows, the Imperium’s elite fighting force, I’m used to being a villain, as well as the personal assassin of Lord Callus Holloway. Even the wealthy Regals who live on the planet of Corion are afraid of me.

But everything changes when I meet Vesper Quill. I might be a powerful psion with telepathic, telekinetic, and other abilities, but Vesper sees far too many of my secrets.

Thanks to an arcane, unwanted quirk of psionic magic, the two of us are forced to work together to unravel a dangerous conspiracy and outwit the dangerous enemies who want to bend us to their will.

 

 

 

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, melmichigan said:

I also read Only Bad Options (Galactic Bonds #1) by Jennifer Estep. I'm looking forward to a sequel. ...

I have this on hold at the library so am happy to hear you enjoyed it.

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Yesterday I read The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady (The King Henry Tapes Book 1) by Richard Raley; I quite enjoyed this urban fantasy and may actually (gasp!) spend money to read on. The title is very apt as there is a lot of foul language. It's written in an intriguing/interwoven way that covers three times in the lead character's life (teen years as a student at a school of magic; working in his twenties; later as the parent of a teen).

"My name is King Henry Price.

Yes, really. Don’t blame Mom, she was already a little Anima Mad by the time I was born. See, world ain’t as simple as you mundanes think it is. Whole lot more complicated, whole lot more messy, whole lot more foul.

Got your Vampires, not the sparkly pretty boys you’re expecting from romance covers, but blood parasites living in a human shell. Just waiting to cut your skin open and suck you dry from the inside out. Got your Weres, not a hunk among them and gangsters and thugs every one, transform into whatever the idiot first made their Totem decided to sacrifice, be it coyote, wolf, tiger or even your momma’s Shih Tzu.

Last, you got your mancers. That’s my group of misfits and malcontents. I first heard of the Mancy when I was fourteen. Smiling blond woman came to recruit me and I was insistent I'd be going nowhere. But when she walked on through my locked bedroom door like it wasn’t there, even a jaded, pugnacious, teenage punk like King Henry Price had to give the sales pitch a second thought.

Got trained, seven years at the Institution of Elements, or the Asylum as the student body calls it. I’m a geomancer, special kind of geomancer called an Artificer even. After graduation I made a deal with that same recruiter and opened my own Artificer shop, making magical items of power for all comers, be they Were, Vampire, or Mancer.

What I didn’t sign up for was a vampire named Annie B coming into my shop and kidnapping me. Never trust the pretty ones, especially the pretty ones want to eat on you."

Regards,

Kareni

[Robin M]

Link to week 40