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carriagelamp · 4 years ago

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Book Review - Summer Summary 2020

I didn’t get around to doing an individual post for the books I read in June/July/August, so I decided to choose a dozen that I read over the summer... I’d separate the wheat from the chaff for you so to speak. Though like you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all good by any means...

Crave

My girlfriend got this for me to “tide me over until Midnight Sun”. Between you and me, I think she was taking the piss. Anyway, Crave is very... standard fare paranormal YA school romance with the added flare of being written by an adult erotica writer, meaning the rhythm and tone of this novel is fucking bonkers. If you want to read the novel without reading the novel, just take Twilight and the entire Vampire Academy series, shove them in a blend, and force down the sludge you get from that. Normal Average Girl Goes To Secret School In Alaska For Vampire, Werewolves and Dragons. That’s this book. It is so big and so so so bad. I finished it out of spite, please don’t do that to yourself. Unless you are really craving (hurr hurr) some top tier trashy paranormal romance, in which case... no judgment.

The Last Firehawk

The Last Firehawk is a Scholastic “Branches” series, written for beginning readers (grade 1-3ish, depending on the child’s reading level). It has short stories, big text, and awesome pictures on every page. Guys. I unironically am adoring this series. It’s simple and is introducing children to a number of classic elements in the fantasy quest genre, but it is so charming. Friends Tag and Skyla discover a firehawk egg, and species that is supposed to have disappeared long ago. When Blaze hatches from it, the three are tasked with going out and finding the magical ember stone which was hidden long ago by the firehawks and which could be used to defeat the evil vulture Thorn and his dark magic... I read the first two books to second graders who ate it up and read the next four books because I personally wanted to continue the series. If you have young readers in your life (or just want a fun kid adventure) then please try these they’re the literary equivalent of nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3

All the kind people that still follow my tumblr and haven’t tried to murder me because of my Lupin obsession are not going to be surprised by this one. I finally read one of the manga for this series and honestly I’m delighted. Somehow even hornier than the show, but hilariously funny. I felt like I was reading a more adult version of Spy Vs Spy. It’s a bunch of short, individual bits/adventures with lots of visual gags and an artstyle that is really different and delightful.

River of Teeth / Taste of Marrow (American Hippo series)

I’ve talked about River of Teeth before, but I finally finished the American Hippo duology and need to sing its praise. This is an alternate history series composed of two novellas that explore the question What would have happened if the States had decided to import hippos as livestock...? Anyways, my pitch for you: queer hippo cowboys. That’s all it took for me to read it. You have a gay gunslinger who loves his hippo to death, a nonbinary explosives-expert / poisoner who is the main love interest, a fat con artist who spoils her hippo and is the only voice of reason in this entire series, and a latina mother-to-be who is the scariest assassin in the entire series and is obviously scheming. The four of them are brought together on a job to deal with the Mississippi’s feral hippo problem.

IT’S A QUEER HIPPO COWBOY HEIST NOVEL GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M STILL TALKING AND YOU HAVEN’T JUST GONE TO READ THIS YET.

Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone series)

The graphic novel adaptation to the McElroy family’s DND podcast The Adventure Zone. Most of you are probably aware of this? It’s a great adaptation, it hits all the important beats, shows off the characters really well, and still gets lots of good gags in even while condensing entire arcs into single book stories. This one is probably my favourite so far just because Petals to the Metal was one of my favourite arcs in the show... but you can also see how the art has improved and the chaos of the race is fun to see drawn out.

If you like The Adventure Zone but haven’t tried the graphic novels yet -- would recommend! If you’ve always wanted to listen to The Adventure Zone but don’t have time for such a long series or struggle to focus on podcasts then pick up the first book of this series (Here There Be Gerblins) and try reading it! It really is an enjoyable adaptation.

Pony to the Rescue (Pony Pals series)

I continued my April/May theme of reading old-school chapter book series to combat Covid Brain Fry, so I picked up a few Pony Pals books. I read these as a kid and always enjoy them -- there’s just something so appealing to a child about having a horse. It gives your child characters a level of independence and ability to explore that you wouldn’t get otherwise. These books definitely read young, but they were nostalgic to revisit.

Small Spaces

A really cool middle grade horror novel I picked up. Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of corn fields, but farm/scarecrow themed horror absolutely does it for me. One evening, after seeing a woman try to destroy a strange, old book, eleven year old Ollie doesn’t stop to think, instead stealing the book and running. That’s how she becomes wrapped up in the strange, sinister story of a cursed family and creature called the Smiling Man that seems to live out in the foggy fields. While unsettling, Ollie tries to remind herself that it’s just a story... but this becomes more challenging when her school bus breaks down one day out their own set of fields, and a fog is rolling in...

“Avoid large spaces. Stick to small.”

Snot Girl #1 - #2

A Canadian graphic novel series by the creator of the Scott Pilgrim series! I love his work so I decided to give Snotgirl a try, even though it’s not generally my genre. I’m glad I did! First book took a while for me to get into, but by the time I hit the second I was really wrapped up in the mystery and character development. Snotgirl is about Lottie, a self-consumed fashion blogger whose biggest struggles are dealing with her allergies, frustration with her fellow-blogger friends, and how entirely her self-esteem is tied to her “beauty” and how people view her. But everything shifts in strange and horrifying ways when Lottie starts taking a new allergy medication, meets a new friend... and then witnesses that girl’s death. Or does she?

Seriously, or does she? I have no idea, I need to read the third book. This book is full of intrigue, complicated relationships, murder (or not?), and a healthy dose of magical realism to keep you guessing. If you like slice-of-life, crime, and abstract reality then this series is world a try. Plus the art is gorgeous.

Summer Wars #1 - #2

I recently rewatched Summer Wars (still one of my favourite movies) and decided to read the two-book manga adaptation. It was a really neat little adaptation. The creator of the movie gave the writer free range to tweak things to fit better in a manga format, which means some movie elements were allowed to fade into the background, whereas other aspects were fulled into the forefront and fleshed out to a greater degree. It was very cool, it kept the same story but gave you new things to think about which I wasn’t expecting. Reading this as a stand alone works just fine, but honestly if you’ve never watched the movie Summer Wars you should give it a try! It’s a great mix of slice-of-life, sprawling family dynamics that I relate to a little too well, cyber adventures, and fantasy. Super feel good.

This One Summer

Okay, last graphic novel, I swear. This One Summer was... weird and intense. It’s a coming-of-age Canadian graphic novel that follows a pair of pre-teens who meet up like they do every year at their family’s summer cottages. You see them both in the awkward phases between childhood and growing up to become teenagers, as they’re confronted with things like maturity, friendship, self-esteem, family problems, and sexuality. A beautiful read, but probably the heaviest out of all the books on my list.

Wild Thornberrys Novelization

I rewatched The Wild Thornberrys movie with my girlfriend earlier this year, and decided I wanted to hunt down the chapter book novelization because I’m kind of a sucker for novelizations. Honestly, this was about what you would expect from the era. 90s/00s novelizations, especially young novelizations, are generally just a transcript of the movie without much thought or effort put into them to make them anything but. That’s what this was. It was fine, and it really let me revisualize the entire movie, but honestly you’re probably better off just rewatching the movie unless you also really deeply love The Wild Thornberrys.

The Willoughbys

I saw that Netflix had done a funky looking adaptation of The Willoughbys and I decided I needed to read the book first before watching the movie. This was a little bizarre, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Over all, I think it was a net-positive experience. It’s an obvious satire on classic children’s novels, especially the likes of Mary Poppins (real Mary Poppins, not the Disney version) and while a little heavy-handed, it does a Series of Unfortunate Events vibe that redeems it. The story is about a group of horrible children (The Ruthless Willoughbys) who decide they are sick of their parents and would rather become Worth Orphans... and to do that, they’re going to have to dispose of their inconvenient parents, obviously. Conveniently their parents are also sick of having children and decide to do away with them as well. The Willoughbys sets up three (or four?) different subplots that are gradually woven together through a series of schemes and exploits. It’s definitely more ruthless (hurr hurr) than the Netflix version, which tried to make the children more sympathetic, and in some ways I think that’s a definite point in the novel’s favour. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it, but it was a fun romp if you want something short and off the wall (and a lot more fleshed out than the Netflix version).

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someplace-that-is-else · 4 years ago

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Diamonds in the Rough: Life as an Indie Author in Coronavirus U.S.

Zombie apocalypse.

That was my name for the Coronavirus pandemic.

It was not too far off. People were running around hoarding up on towel paper. People were let go from jobs. People were stuck at home. People wouldn’t wear masks even if it meant that they were saving people by doing it, foaming at the mouth in some cases. People thought this whole thing was a hoax. Wait…WHAT?!?

Meanwhile…I went to work. Well, one of my jobs. It was nice to be an essential worker. Otherwise, honestly I might be out on the street. So for that I was grateful.

The zombie apocalypse also had another unexpected side-effect. A lot of free time. One of two things could happen. All that free time could be a case for someone to get introspective. Or…it could be a case for a person to finish/work on something.

I experienced both.

Works and Finishes: How You can Tell You Like Your Writing Group

I was so proud of our group.

I had been a member of a writing group. Calling our group The Authors’ Table (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2502021803151042/), we were a group of indie authors who wanted to have a message board where we tried to be different from other writing groups. How? By interacting with our readers and fans by just showing off our personalities. While we did mention what we were working on and sales, for the most part, our page was a no sale zone. Teasers, samples, and the like. In fact, the only time we had sales was when we had events. Then there were games, prizes, freebies from gift cards to books to even a Kindle tablet.

During the zombie apocalypse, I noticed something.

Everybody was finishing something. Glacia Cronk just finished a new book in her Clockmaker series. Carlie Yates had a new book coming out and a sale on her previous books. Ashley Greathouse was super excited about her latest horror novel LILY. And James? James Fuller is always out and about talking about his books. A pirate series here. A thriller over there. Getting new covers for his first fantasy series over here. Busy, busy, busy.

And to paraphrase Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t help but wonder…what was I doing?

The pandemic had shut down my plans for DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES. The library still had not opened back up. They were not even taking back drop off books or cds. So there was no chance of me finishing my research over all the time periods that my short story collection involved. At least for now.

So what was a boy to do? Well a boy decided to focus on one of his other books. And while part of me wanted to start on my forthcoming CROSSOVER series, I figured since I had a LOT of free time now, I could continue to work on DARKENED TABULA, the latest in my THE DARKENED series. While it was finished for the most part. It needed a loooooooooong editing/formatting process. My policy was to do three sweeps before I seriously thought about publishing it.

Well…I did have time.

Meanwhile, memberships had grown over at the Authors’ Table. So much so, we decided to do another one of our events. You know…games, prizes, free books!!! Did I say free books? Haha!! Since I had been sending out a lot of invites while I was keeping my Facebook pages active, of course I was going to add in some free signed copies of one of my books.

I also did something else as well.

I started to post free sample chapters from DARKENED TABULA.

Are You or Aren’t You: The Pandemic and Perspective

It started when I was going through my editing/formatting process. I was ahead enough in my process that they were final drafts of my chapters. I figured that I should give my likers a taste of my forthcoming novel.

Boy was I nervous! The last book I released was DARKCHILDE. And that was back in 2016. I worried. Would anyone want to read chapters? Was it the right thing to do? How many chapters would I do? Should I do that? Would it take away from releasing DARKENED TABULA?

On the other hand, I was a writer. It had always been said that a writer should always be sure that new materials was consistently brought out. Let the readers have their supply to devour. Never let them go too long without.

I was also an indie author. I’ve been doing it since 2013 seriously. The emphasis on seriously. And that was hard work. There was the writing. There was the networking. The promoting. And if there was anyone who understood that and knew what the concept of hard work (2 jobs mostly) encompassed, it would be me.

Several of my friends had always had this saying. You are either working to live, or you are living to work? People who work to live were people who knew work was a means to an end, but knew also life was too short to not go after what you really wanted out of life. They never lost their focus. People who lived to work were people who did just that. They wouldn’t know what to do if they were not at work.

I wished I could say that I was the former. But most of my friends would say that I was the latter. Even when I was on vacation…true vacation…it would usually take me a day and a half to relax. I worked hard over the last year to get rid of that feeling. New eyes. New perspective coming into 2020. And then this pandemic happened. This zombie apocalypse. All this free time. With the Authors’ Table event around the corner, I made a choice. I made it this far because no matter what was going on in life, I knew what was important to me.

One thing the pandemic did for me was to remind me of that. When it hit, I found out that my sister and brother were both essential workers as well. So I immediately grouped us into a group text. While things had been a little less stressful since I did that, we were in regular contact in a way that we had not been since we were all young to be honest.

There were a lot of times I’ve laid in bed. My job was over for the day. And I just sat there. Depressed. Worries, fears, and regrets consumed me. It let up some when I returned back to my second job but, I found that I could not stay in this constant state of worry. Before this zombie apocalypse, I had started on a path of self-discovery for myself. I wanted better. I needed better. I deserved better. And no matter how bad it was out here in the United States, there was only one way to do it. And that was through hard work. But…not so much that I allowed it to consume me. There had to be a balance between working to live, but I had to…LIVE. Do what made me happy.

And what made me happy was writing.

I had an idea something was up when I pulled out my old list of potential agents. That grew as I was going over the formatting for DARKENED TABULA and I made sure to keep my old submission packages handy. Granted I had some drama with my residence like most people due to the pandemic, but I decided it was a way to have a fresh start. And with that in mind, I placed all of these items somewhere where I could easily retrieve them.

And…I started to work on them. All of a sudden, I was creating deadlines again. That formatting had to be done by here. This had to be a pdf there. I started writing short stories again. They were for the Book page (www.facebook.com/darkenverse). They dove deeper into things in my ‘Darkenverse.’ After doing nothing for a few years, here I was writing and planning when I would post them. And then there was the hunt for a cover. Rather than see my fellow authors working on things, I had joined them, my free time giving me a different perspective.

No.

Purpose. Direction.

And just like that, I was back in the game.

So You Got That Groove Back?

I could not believe it.

I had posted the sample chapters for DARKENED TABULA, and they were doing good. Better than I expected by the read count. My short story INTO THE WILDS (https://www.facebook.com/notes/darkened-soul/into-the-wilds-a-tale-of-the-forryn/3427837373902981/) was also doing well on the Book page. And it had all led beautifully into the Authors’ Table event…a Member Appreciation Event. It was perfect timing to a surprise of my own: I had the OFFICIAL cover to DARKENED TABULA. And it would be released July 31. Yes, it was a week after the event. But I had drummed up good buzz.

My patience had paid off. I set deadlines. I was flexible as I could be. But…I met the deadlines. I worked hard on that formatting. And researching covers. And creating buzz through INTO THE WILDS and my sample chapters. And now I would be entering a new arena: active promoting of a new book!!! To think that months ago, I had nothing ready. All I was worried about was surviving in a zombie apocalypse. Now I was planning out my schedule for the foreseeable future which would include more editing of submission packages, a new Darkenverse short story timed with another surprise I was working on, and at least TWO novellas. That did not even include CROSSOVER which I was still itching to get back to. Not to mention DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES.

While I did not at the moment feel I would be releasing anything else this year, life was full of surprise. And if the pandemic had done anything for me, it reminded me what was important to me and who I was. And I should be going after it, following the path that I started at the start of the year.

I am an author. And whether I was a rich one or just a modest one as long as I was doing what I wanted to do and it made me happy, it did not matter. And...I was happy when I was writing.

So...let’s see how far this path went.

DARKENED TABULA

US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DMP47MK/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DMP47MK/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i3

#diamondintherough #rough #diamond #indieauthor #coronavirus #us #theauthorstable #writinggroups #zombieapocalypse #essential #glaciacronk #carlieyates #ashleygreathouse #jamesfuller #lily #carriebradshaw #satc #pandemic #worthit #balance #followthepath #path #happiness

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cromulentbookreview · 6 years ago

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Externally Screaming

Every now and again I come across a book I like so much I can't really express how I feel about it with words, just unintelligible fangirl squealing.

Aurora Rising is one of those books.

Seriously, the whole time with this book I was just

Sometimes, I will start reading a book and find I literally cannot stop. Other times I will force myself not to - to pace myself, rather than binge-read because I know that as soon as I’m done reading it, it’ll be well over a year until the next book. I am in general a slow reader, and for the most part it’s unintentional - I’m easily distracted, my attention span is shot, I work full time, have other shit to do, etc. - so when I tell myself “no, only a few chapters today, otherwise it’ll all be gone and then you’ll have nothing. NOTHING!” It’s kind of a big deal.

(Sorry, can’t not use a Ron Burgundy gif there).

I should preface my fangirling by mentioning that I am a massive fan of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s last trilogy, The Illuminae Files, which if you haven’t read it, stop everything, go read it, I will wait right here.

Oh my God those books are so good, right? I mean, nothing makes my librarian brain happier than stories that are told entirely through documents. Aurora Rising is a more traditional narrative told from multiple POVs, but we do get the occasional “fun fact” in-between chapters.

Behold! The jacket copy:

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm

A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates

A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder

An alien warrior with anger management issues

A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy. They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

If you think “that sounds awesome” you’d be right. It is awesome. Poor Tyler Jones - he is indeed a golden boy of the Aurora Academy, but the night before the draft - the event where leader-types like him get to pick who will be in their squad with the Aurora Legion - Tyler, unable to sleep, decides to log some time in the Fold. Now, the Fold is, of course, the folds in space-time that allow for super-fun-and-quick space travel. So... a wormhole. Anyway, whilst cruising around the Fold, Tyler picks up a distress signal from a ship that famously disappeared two hundred years prior. On the ship he discovers a bunch of people dead in their cryopods. Only one is still alive: a girl with a white stripe in her hair. Tyler barely manages to rescue the girl and get back to his ship before a Foldstorm hits.

One problem, though: while he was being Heroic McHeroface, Tyler missed the draft. He, the Academy’s #1 Golden boy didn’t get to pick the cream of the crop. Nope, he’s stuck with the population of the Island of Misfit Toys.

His twin sister Scarlett sticks with him, though. So does his childhood best friend and expert pilot, Cat. The rest of the crew...well... There’s Zila, who is brilliant but not good with people.

She’s now the squad’s Brain - the Science Division type who also serves as the ship’s doctor. Yikes.

There’s Finian, a snarktastic tech genius Betraskan (a humanoid alien spices with super pale skin) who relies on an exosuit in order to move around. He’s the squad’s Gearhead.

And there’s Kal, a Syldrathi - another humanoid alien, only these look like elves from Lord of the Rings. Lots of Legolas references thrown around. Kal comes from a specific warrior cabal and has a reputation for getting into fights for funsies. He’s the Tank - the squad muscle / enforcer / bodyguard-type person.

And of course, at first sight they all can’t stand each other. But they’re stuck together as Squad 312, so essentially, they have no choice. Hurray?

And if you’re wondering “but what about the girl with the white stripe in her hair?” - don’t worry, I’m getting there. Her name is Aurora Jae-Lin O’Malley, aka Auri. 200 years ago, she was living on a dying Earth, preparing to make the journey into space to the colony-planet of Octavia. She goes into cryosleep and promptly wakes up two hundred years too late, with the Aurora Academy, and no one has ever heard of Octavia. Plus, there’s something wrong with Auri - two hundred years in the Fold will mess with your brain a bit, but it doesn’t explain why she’s got one white eye, why she can move objects with her mind, and why she starts seeing visions of the future. At first, it looks like the Aurora Academy is going to send Auri back to Earth, but instead she ends up stowing away...with Squad 312, our favorite ragtag bunch of misfits.

Only it very quickly becomes evident that the powers at be want Auri, and they’re willing to kill anyone she comes into contact with. So Auri and Squad 312 end up on the run, and they’re all forced to work together in order to solve the mystery behind Auri’s strange powers. It all seems to have something to do with Octavia: why did the colony get wiped off the map? What happened to the people there? What happened to Auri in the Fold?

Aurora Rising is the first in a planned trilogy, so, of course, we don’t get all the answers right away. There are enough answers to keep us from getting too pissed off, but enough unanswered questions to keep us on our toes waiting for the next book. And holy crap, I cannot wait for the next book. Aurora Rising starts out exciting and just continues to be exciting until the very last page (OK, maybe not the literal last page, those tend to be blank or just have information about the publisher on them, but you get my point). My one big complaint is that the one character I really wanted to get to know - Zila - gets the least amount of time in the limelight. Chapters narrated by her are mostly only a few sentences long - I know this is supposed to illustrate her blunt manner, but I was really looking forward to learning everything about what made her so peculiar. She does get a longer chapter later in the book, but we don’t learn all her secrets. And, I mean, come on, I wanted to know more about Zila, damn it! The rest of the characters are cool, though Tyler is a bit too much the bland leader-type and I had a hard time believing that Scarlett could be 18 and have over fifty ex-boyfriends (maybe they were just hookups and she just refers to them as boyfriends?). Finian’s chapters are fantastic because he is the group’s deadpan snarker - whenever things get intense, Fin’s ready to throw in some much-needed comic relief. Auri’s POV is by far the most compelling, though that may just be my own personal bias talking, because the Fish Out of Temporal Water is one of my favorite tropes ever...but it’s from Auri’s POV that we get all the Legolas references directed at Kal, and it’s just delightful.

gard...gard...gard...gard...

In essence: I needed books 2 and 3 of the Aurora Cycle sometime yesterday, please. I need full chapters dedicated entirely to Zila and her history - she’s the one member of Squad 312 we know the least about by the end of Aurora Rising, and I want to know more! Maybe because she strikes me as a fellow girl on the spectrum and I desperately want to see more accurate depictions of autism in girls, something that doesn’t just depict us as straight-up psychopaths. We’re not, we’re really not. Our brains just work differently, OK? Stop judging Zila you guys, gah!

Anyway. I fricking loved this book, from beginning to end. Am I biased because I loved The Illuminae Files and think Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are both fantastic writers? Yeah, probably. But, once again, I must direct you to the title of this stupid little tumblr blog. I promise cromulent reviews, not good or unbiased ones. Still - if any of what I described above sounds appealing to you, then you’re going to want to read Aurora Rising. And even if you’re still on the fence, read it anyway because some rando on a dying social media platform told you to.

RECOMMENDED FOR: fans of YA sci-fi, fans of fiction featuring a ragtag bunch of misfits, anyone looking for an exciting YA cross between Guardians of the Galaxy and The Expanse.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone not a fan of YA, sci-fi, misfits, fun, excitement, joy...

RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2019 (Illuminae fans: check out Jay Kristoff’s website for details on how to get a free printed Illuminae novella with a pre-order of Aurora Rising!)

RATING: 5/5

TOTALLY UNBIASED FANGIRL RATING: 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000/5.

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SEQUELS: Olympus Mons

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY RATING:

MY FACE WHEN I REALIZED I’LL HAVE TO WAIT A GOOD LONG WHILE FOR THE NEXT BOOK:

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inktae · 8 years ago

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Ok so I think I’m honestly just going to submit this because this is probably going to be long and the ask box can be a bit annoying.

So here we go ^^

If both story and writing style are important to you YOU NEED to check out the handmaids tale by margaret atwood! I don’t think there are many authors who combine the two as well as she does tbh. Tht is a bit slow paced (but NOWHERE near as much as atlwcs) but her writing is honestly everything and the atmosphere! Oh my gosh she’s so good at creating the right atmosphere. You know how dystopias often feel kind of unrealistic? This one feels scarily plausible (atwood actually didn’t include anything that didn’t exist somewhere at some point in history) and honestly with the way politics are atm, it’s actually pretty relevant. Her main character isn’t some badass bitch that conspires to take down the system either but a breathing flawed human being who feels incredibly real.

Also literary fiction but with a completely different approach are life after life by kate atkinson and station eleven by emily st. john mandel. I’ve read lal some time ago but I just remember being absolutely hooked. Super shortly put it’s about the main character (a woman born in 1910) who gets to live her life again and again with full knowledge of her previous lives. The story is super engaging and addictive and the plot is so so intricately constructed. Her style is really elegant but the structure’s even more so, there are so many timelines (taking place in alternative realities nonetheless) and so many recurrent themes but she makes it work so well! It also asks some really interesting questions about the definition of living a “right” life, individual responsibility and how much agency an individual really has and how much in life is up to circumstances/out of a persons hand.

Station eleven is about so many things at once but it mainly takes place in north america in the time during and after an apocalypse (not the dramatic zombie kind, but it’s literally just some flue if I remember correctly). It has a lot of different povs and timelines but as in lal it’s awe inspiringly elegantly organized. A central theme is definitely the importance of stories and storytelling for humanity as well as individuals, for example the book focuses partly on a shakespearian theatre company touring the post apocalyptical usa, but there are also multiple narratives relating to a comic book (it’s creator, it’s consumers, the people who derive meaning from it), an aspiring actor in the days before the apocalypse and the cost of fame etc and all the narratives are related to another and slowly come together as the novel progresses.

For space related stuff: consider checking out the book of strange new things by michel faber. The synopsis sounds incredibly weird, it’s literally about a priest assigned to convert aliens who has to leave his wife back on earth for his mission. But it’s actually equal parts literary and science fiction and a metaphor for the relationship between the author and his wife who was dying of cancer as he wrote the book (I honestly cried as I read the interview in which he said that). It’s super hard to describe so you should probably just read some reviews to get a feel for it. Ah and it’s also very readable if you aren’t religious even though the main character is a priest (I’m not religious and really enjoyed it and I’m pretty sure the author himself is an atheist (it deals very respectfully with religion though)). I think I like it slightly less than tht, lal and station eleven but it’s still a really great book and the concept is really something else and it’s space related too, so I figured why not include it. Also the covers of the canongate versions are gorgeous af (and maybe the reason I bought it in the first place)

I’ve only ever read the german translation (the original is czech I think), but if you are into books with more of a philosophical approach read the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera! I read this like three years ago and I have no idea how to summarise this but it’s really interesting

Another author I’ve only ever read in german is italo calvino (originally italian) of whom I really enjoyed if on a winters night a traveller and invisible cities. Invisible cities is a novella/poetry collection so it’s probably not everyone’s sort of thing but I really enjoy the images he creates. and ioawnat is really something else (it’s also written in 2nd person and I read it before I started reading fanfiction, so I found it very hard to get into at first). I really enjoyed the way he plays with different writing styles and the narrative structure (which is super complex, it’s sort of a book in a book in a book in a book…?) and it’s kind of a postmodern classic, so reading it does make you feel smart lol, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it if you’re in a reading slump, since calvino isn’t very plot or character driven.

Idk if you are into comics/graphic novels, but if yes: the sandman by neil gaiman! The first few issues are a bit weaker than the rest but it’s probably the best fantasy related series I’ve ever read. also if you should read it start with the main series and none of the prequels/spinoffs, it gets super confusing otherwise, and the artist changes all few issues/each arc to reflect the mood of the story which I think is super cool.

Space related and also comics/graphic novels: saga by brian k. vaughan and fiona staples, ok this one is super hard to summarise but imagine romeo and juliet in space paired with star wars and game of thrones? The art is probably my favorite ever but it’s also very explicit and gory (think game of thrones) which honestly took me a while to get used to (but I’m also a bit of a chicken when it comes to this stuff). It’s really really good though and the plot keeps you on edge, unlike sandman the series is still ongoing though.

Also wuthering heights by emily bronte is one of the best things ever written, just saying.

Aaaand if you are into chick flick/cutesy stuff fangirl by rainbow rowell is great!

I can’t believe this got so long, ugh I’m powerless against procrastination sdhfjkl :’). Anyways I hope some of these sound at least kind of interesting to you!

- coffee

DAMN I GOT SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW ALL THESE RECS OMG -

okay, I am definitely intrigued by the handmaids tale. I tried not to read the reviews too much but they seemed to find the plot quite compelling and that definitely caught my attention. also, someone commented about the blind assassin by the same author. have you read this one? it seems quite interesting as well :)

oh boy, life after life sounds very interesting. I saw a few reviews and they seem mixed, but I am still going to keep it in mind. and station eleven... I read the summary and !!! I love it already!! I adore apocalyptic universes and this seems to be a very original take on it. I might read this one first. ^^

ALSO ADULT SCI-FI, THANK YOU FOR THAT REC. yes it’s strange, and that’s what draws me to this book. :)) oh and I did read milan kundera’s book a few years back! it was actually a school assignment, and I ended up enjoying it a lot. I should give it another try though, because I think I would understand it differently now.

also!!! neil gaiman!! I’ve had his books on pending for ages, so thank you for reminding me about him. even though I have never read a graphic novel, I do enjoy mangas so I’ll probably enjoy this one quite a lot. ^^

AJLSD I THINK A FRIEND ACTUALLY READ SAGA AND WAS REALLY ENJOYING IT. the reviews are also astonishing! will def keep it in mind as well.

emily bronte is another author I’ve had in my pendings for a while (sorry sorry) and even though I haven’t read fangirl, I do know the author and I remember enjoying eleanor & park when I was younger. I might give it a try, even though I’m not sure if I’ll enjoy her style in the same way now :’D

anyway, thank you for all these recs. I think the handmaid’s tale and station eleven are on top of the list (for now). it depends on what I can find though - since I want to buy books in english and sadly it’s not that easy to find them here ;; but I’ll let you know if I get one of these in my hands!! :)

#submission #coffee anon

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mysteryshelf · 7 years ago

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MARCH ANNIVERSARY WEEKENDS EVENT: Blog Tour - Craks in a Marriage

Welcome to

THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF March Anniversary Weekends Event!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Great Escapes Book Tours. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

Craks in a Marriage (Mah Jongg Mysteries) by Barbara Barrett

About the Book

Craks in a Marriage (Mah Jongg Mysteries) Cozy Mystery 1st in Series Setting – Florida Self Published (February 6, 2018) Print Length: 204 pages ASIN: B079DCX8WQ

When Sydney Bonner overhears a fellow mah jongg player arguing on the phone with her husband, she realizes the couple’s “perfect marriage” isn’t all it appears to be. A few days later, the husband is found dead, his head bashed in. Fearing she’ll be considered the most likely suspect, the widow prevails upon Sydney and her three friends—Marianne, Kat and Micki—to find out who really killed him.

Though none of these four fun-loving, take-charge retirees has any training as detectives, the women agree to launch a secret investigation. As they dig under the happy veneer of their community’s social life, they find more than enough suspects, from shady ladies to resentful golf buddies, to keep them looking over their shoulders.

Could the murderer be lurking among the talent in a chaotic production put on by Sydney’s husband, who will do anything to keep busy in retirement? Could the sheriff, who may have more than a professional interest in chanteuse Kat, end up pinning the crime on the women instead? Each discovery during their investigations and their weekly mah jongg game keeps them running as they close in on the killer—but the killer may also be closing in on them.

About the Author

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

What initially got you interested in writing?

By my late thirties, I’d achieved several life goals. I had a wonderful husband, two beautiful children, a job I liked and a lovely house. Though advancement at work was still a possibility, I was at loose ends in my life. Until my favorite soap opera introduced a new character who was a romance writer. That sparked my imagination. I didn’t need the feather boas she wore to compose her novels, but I liked her otherwise glamorous lifestyle. I could do that, I told myself. Hadn’t my teachers from grade school through high school praised my writing? I could do what she did. I tell people now that writing helped me avoid a midlife crisis. (Although I still got a red convertible about that time.)

What genres do you write in?

I have been writing contemporary romance since my late thirties. I was first published over five years ago. I’ve published eleven novels and one novella. This past year, I returned to my love of mysteries and wrote a cozy mystery of my own, Craks in a Marriage. I’m using the same pen name of Barbara Barrett for both.

What drew you to writing these specific genres?

As noted above, I decided to write contemporary romance because that’s what my soap opera character wrote. My masters’ degree is in American History, but I chose not to write in this area, because I knew how much research would be involved, and I wasn’t ready to return to that after my thesis. As a former human resources management analyst who studied jobs in her former life, my characters’ occupations played a major role in developing their stories.

I started reading cozies when pregnant with my first child and needing something to keep my mind occupied. I fell in love with Agatha Christie books, especially the Miss Marple series. Later, when I’d gone through most of those, I turned to English country cozies.

How did you break into the field?

The rise of the digital book and the subsequent growth of digital publishing helped me enter the field. In just a few years, many more opportunities opened up to authors seeking a place for their works to be seen. I am very grateful to The Wild Rose Press for taking a chance on me. I published eight books with them before I felt I was ready to fly on my own last summer.

What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?

I want my readers to enjoy the read and be taken outside their daily life for a short period while going through the book. For my romances, which of course have the happy ending, I hope they take heart that many relationship problems can be worked through if both individuals contribute to the solution.

For my cozies, I hope readers have fun attempting to identify the murderer before my sleuths do and exercise their brains in the process.

What do you find most rewarding about writing?

I enjoy the journey taken by my brain and spirit when I write, as I travel in my head and on the computer screen from the mere germ of an idea to a full-blown plot with an ending that satisfies and makes sense. The whole time I’m putting together a book, it’s like I can’t go fast enough to finish it, even when temporarily blocked, and yet when it’s done, I feel lost and alone. Until I start the next one.

What do you find most challenging about writing?

Finding the right words to convey the true story I want to tell. I was tempted to say “finding just the right words,” but I’ve learned there comes a time to stop. The revision process is hard. Grueling. But so important. Not just for being true to the story but for helping the reader understand the characters’ thoughts and motivations.

And, of yeah, I have a terrible time with character development. Love writing dialogue.

What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?

Figure out what types of writing excite you most and explore writing in them. Keep what works and move away from what doesn’t.

Educate yourself about the publishing world and the current publishing process and decide on your entry point: large publisher, small publisher, digital-only publisher or self-publish.

Know that the publishing world has become super-competitive. You probably won’t realize how much until you break in, but even with your fore-knowledge, realize you’ll be shocked and you’ll have to work harder than you ever thought necessary.

Unless you’re picked up by one of the top publishers and offered lots of money and support, plan to do most of your promoting by yourself. Or pay a bundle to have someone do it for you.

Finish the book. It may not be the one that eventually gets published, but the self-confidence that comes with completing an entire story is fuel that will charge your brain to create more and proof that you can do it.

Write every day. It takes a while for the discipline to be established, but in time, it’s like exercise, you can’t stand to be away from for any length of time.

Get feedback. Not from your friends and family but from other writers.

Join a writers’ group. The support you’ll receive is more fuel for your spirit and brain.

What type of books do you enjoy reading?

Love reading mysteries. I’d rather listen to thrillers on tape. Several years ago I joined a book club, mainly as a social outlet, because we chose to meet each month at a different restaurant. But this experience has exposed me to stories and authors I might never have discovered were it not for book club.

Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?

So far, we haven’t talked about the subject of Craks in a Marriage, the game of mah jongg. Like the book club, I initially learned how to play the game as a way of meeting other people when I moved to Florida. Over time, I’ve come to love the game. I play two versions a week. When I decided to write a cozy, what better concept than to make this game the central feature? While I was at it, I chose to make my characters retirees like me, who live in the fictional town of Serendipity Springs in central Florida.

I also live in my home state of Iowa five months a year. My husband designed the house we built when we downsized five years ago.

What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?

Start with my website www.barbarabarrettbooks.com. I have combined both the romance and cozy mystery elements of my career there. You can find descriptions of all my books and buylinks for them.

Next, consider liking and following my author pages, http://bit.ly/2aXZvG9. I tend to update it more frequently.

You can email me at [email protected], especially if you’d like to sign up for my mystery newsletter.

If you want visuals of who and what I envisioned in my novels, check out my Pinterest page, http://pinterest.com/barbarabarrett7.

Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.

Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn’t at her day job as a human resources analyst for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and one novella, she has returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.

Craks in a Marriage, the first book in her “Mah Jongg Mystery” series, features four friends who seek the murderer of another mah jongg player’s husband before she is charged. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbara’s imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series.

Anticipating the day when she would write her first mystery, she has been a member of the Mystery/Romantic Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of America for over a decade. She credits them with helping her hone her craft.

Barbara is married to a man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.

Now retired, she is a resident of Florida, although she spends her summers in Iowa, her home state. She earned her B.A. degree in History from the University of Iowa and her Master’s Degree in History from Drake University.

When not in front of her laptop creating her next story, she plays Mah Jongg, knits, and enjoys lunches with friends.

Author Links

Website – http://www.barbarabarrettbooks.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Barrett-Author-1678443865812386/

Twitter – www.twitter.com/bbarrettbooks

Pinterest – pinterest.com/barbarabarrett7

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8181756.Barbara_Barrett

Subscribe to my newsletter: [email protected]

Purchase Links

Amazon B&N

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

February 28 – Texas Book-aholic – REVIEW

February 28 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST

March 1 – Babs Book Bistro – GUEST POST, GIVEAWAY

March 2 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

March 2 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – GUEST POST, GIVEAWAY

March 3 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

March 4 – Laura’s Interests – SPOTLIGHT

March 4 – Mysteries with Character – GUEST POST, GIVEAWAY

March 5 – Readeropolis – AUTHOR INTERVIEW, GIVEAWAY

March 6 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW

March 7 – Valerie’s Musings – REVIEW

March 7 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT

March 8 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW

March 8 – Socrates’ Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

March 9 – A Blue Million Books – GUEST POST

March 9 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW, GIVEAWAY

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MARCH ANNIVERSARY WEEKENDS EVENT: Blog Tour – Craks in a Marriage was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf with Shannon Muir

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