#j.s. Barnes

[bands-and-books]

"'Strange, are they not,' he said at last, 'the invisible patterns of our lives? And their unseen connections?'"

- Dracula's Child by J.S. Barnes

[libertyreads]

December 2024 TBR--

My main goal for the month of December (besides the one I have every month of just simply surviving) is to enjoy my hobbies more. I should finish up my program at the beginning of December which means I will hopefully get back plenty of time to read and watch Christmas movies. I have a couple of rereads lined up as well as some new releases and, of course, my one hockey romance for the month. Let's see the books:

The Weekend Guests by Liza North (NetGalley)--This is a Mystery/Thriller that follows a similar vein to others in the genre. We follow group of friends who meet up at an isolated location for a reunion of sorts that takes a dark turn. These friends swore each other to secrecy over a dark deed committed at university, but now someone is threatening to tell it all. Is there one in their midst who is turning on the rest? Will they all survive this reunion weekend?

Mistletoe Kisses by Nana Malone (Kindle)--A girl is forced to return to her hometown which is the site of a messy breakup eight years ago. She finds that her ex's best friend is still living there and he's committed to convincing her to stay. This is a billionaire romance which doesn't always work for me but I did just finish Games Untold by Jennifer Lynn Barnes so I think it could be the time to read this one.

Called for Icing by Cynthia Gunderson (Kindle)--This is book two in the Canadian Played series. I read book one last month and didn't love it. But I purchased this one for pretty cheap in order to round out my One Hockey Romance Per Month challenge that I didn't set out to do at the start of the year but ended up happening anyway. In book number two, we follow a physical therapist and a hockey player. We've seen a few romances like this in the past. In fact, I think I've read one of those this year. I'm hoping this one is better than the first.

The Relentless Legion by J.S. Dewes-- This is book three in the Divide series which just came out last month. I was searching for some serious SciFi at the beginning of the year and discovered this author. In this series, we follow a group called the Sentinels--the recruits, exiles, and court-marshaled dregs of the military--who live at the edge of the universe as it's guardians. But as the Divide starts collapsing, the Sentinels learn the truth about their mission.

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch--I'm continuing my reread of The Gentlemen Bastards sequence. I had been in the mood to reread this series for so long and I finally gave in and reread The Lies of Locke Lamora last month. And it was still so good. I remember I didn't love this one as much as TLoLL, but I'm ready to see Locke and Jean con, lie, and cheat their way through life.

The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore--Picking up this one was kind of a funny story. I love Christmas so I read the synopsis at a bookstore and decided to buy it. At which point, a bookseller asked me if I've enjoyed the series. Cue my surprised face. I had no idea this was a series. I looked it up and realized this was the author I've been hearing about in Romance spaces. I've also been told this series can be read in any order. In this one, we have a grumpy/sunshine romance that takes place at a Christmas tree farm. Say less.

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard--I'm rereading the Witchlands series before the release of what I'm expecting to be the final book in the series. Young witches Safiya and Iseult find trouble and mystery at court and things unfold from there. To be honest, I'm still a little foggy on which details come from each book. I read the series so fast the first time around so I think a reread will be good for me. Edited to add: I just now found out that the new book got pushed back to a November release date so I'll be pushing back this reread as well. It isn't the first time the release of book 5 got pushed back so I'll have to keep a better eye on that going forward.

I'll need to read almost 100 pages a day to get through my TBR this month (thanks to three pretty chunky books), but I'm hoping that'll be pretty easy once I get done with school.

[lifewithaview]

Mads Mikkelsen and Demore Barnes in Hannibal (2013) Fromage

S1E8

Lecter's patient Franklin Froideveaux worries that his friend Tobias may be a psychopath, but Franklin's growing obsession with Lecter is what concerns the latter more. Graham investigates the murder of a Baltimore musician who had his throat opened and a cello neck inserted through his mouth. Graham, with Lecter's guidance, interprets this as one killer serenading another. Graham's mental stability deteriorates further when he begins having auditory hallucinations of animals in pain and when his romantic feelings for Alana Bloom are rejected.

*Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) plays J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord in his office. This piece of music was first associated with the on-screen character of Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) during the escape sequence in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

[chasenews]

May 26: Maya Beiser Releases InfInIte Bach - Bach’s Six Cello Suites

cellist and producer Maya Beiser will release InfInIte Bach on her Islandia Music Records label – her first recording of the complete Solo Cello Suites of J.S. Bach. Maya made this album in her converted barn in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, recording the Suites while exploring the varying frequencies and resonances of the room, in order to create layers of sound acoustically. InfInIte…

[trascapades]

🙌🏿#ArtIsAWeapon This is fantastic news, and the @themuseumofmodernart #JustAboveMidtown exhibition was inspiring and empowering!!

"MoMA announces the establishment of the Just Above Midtown Archives in the Museum’s Archives, Library, and Research collections, following the Museum’s recent exhibition Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces. Started by #LindaGoodeBryant in 1974, Just Above Midtown (JAM) was an exhibition and creative space started by #Blackartists and curators that welcomed people of many generations and races in New York City until 1986. A hub for Conceptual art, abstraction, performance, and video, JAM proposed an expansive idea of #Blackart and encouraged thinking beyond its commercialization. The exhibition used archival photos, videos, and other contextual historical material from the #JAMArchives to give visitors a sense of the alternative model of art it championed to respond to a society in need. As a part of MoMA’s collection, the JAM Archives will be available for activation in the Museum’s galleries and for consultation and research at MoMA by curators, art historians, artists, journalists, researchers, students, and the public."

Reposted from @t.jeanlax “Artists’ imaginations and creativity shaped and made JAM what it was and what it continues to be today, fresh and alive. After 50 years in storage, the JAM archive has a home at MoMA where it can continue to energize, challenge, and inspire current and future generations of artists and those of us who are fortunate to engage and experience their work.” —Linda Goode Bryant 💐

S/o @michelleelligott chief of moma archives library and research collections who co-led on the establishment of the jam archives 💫

🎶: Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris Conduction® Conducted and conceived by #VernonReid, played by #GregTate’s Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber including Shawn Banks, Lewis “Flip” Barnes, Lisala Beatty, Jason Tobias DiMatteo, Chris Eddleton, Leon Gruenbaum, Bruce Mack, Jared Michael Nickerson, Shelley Nicole (first vocalist), Ms. Olithea (second vocalist), LaFrae Sci, Dave “Smoota” Smith, V. Jeffrey Smith, Mazz Swift, Ben Tyree, and J.S. Williams. Special guests: James Blood Ulmer and David A. Barnes. Projections: Allison Costa. Documentation by @orestionline Feb 9, 2023

#BlackGirlArtGeeks

[weaverofthreads]

Some out of season (come on, it’s always Spooky Season) reading and thematically appropriate snacking.

Originally posted on my Instagram.

[bornitereads]

Dracula's Child - J.S. Barnes

Read: July 2021

This is basically billed as a sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula. I wasn't sure what to expect from that premise. But it turned out to be very good. The characters were all familiar characters from Dracula, but with a few new additions. The child in question is the child of Mina and Jonathan Harker, Quincey. There are several storylines in this book, which of course, come together in the end game. My favourite, at the beginning, involve two Brits in Transylvania who fall "in love." It's a strange relationship that gets even stranger when vampires get involved. It's a slow build of a book that seems to go on and on, but it gets to the point eventually. The very end of the end game was kind of anti-climatic honestly. I was expecting a big to-do but it was kind of one of those out with a whimper rather than a bang situations. That's my only complaint, otherwise this is a worthy sequel to Dracula for sure.

Info: Titan Books, 2020

[housedraculesti]

a review

[topshelf2112-blog]

In today's edition of you-have-too-many-books: Show Your Teeth Thursday

Not that I suspect anyone much cares (LOL) but I am trailing on these not because I am out of books (hah!) but because the semester is winding up and people keep making me do stupid meetings (die, Zoom!) and pointless paperwork, leaving me little time to read and less time to write! All that said, enjoy some vampiric fun!

Recent Purchase: Powers of Darkness - a Stoker-certified official fanfiction/ spin-off, I am excited to see how this differs from the official Dracula.

Back catalogue: I enjoyed Dracula's Child so much (part of last year's book club with my amazing sister) that I eagerly pre-ordered City of Moreau.

Current Read: Something in the blood - I know some of the typical English Major stories about Stoker and am excited to learn more!

[book-marked-reading]

Book Review: Dracula's Child

Book Review: Dracula’s Child

Dracula’s Child by J.S. Barnes

At first, I thought this was a YA Dracula spin-off – but that is not the case. It’s an unofficial sequel, really, set just over a decade after the original novel. It follows many of the same characters from the previous book, namely Mina and Jonathan Harker, along with their son, Quincey. Despite being a modern publication, I found it to be really authentic in…

[rockislandadultreads]

Horrific Science Fiction: Book Recs

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes, Stacey Kade

A GHOST SHIP. A SALVAGE CREW. UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS. Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate. What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right. Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas

In this new collection, Richard Thomas has crafted fourteen stories that push the boundaries of dark fiction in an intoxicating, piercing blend of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Equally provocative and profound, each story is masterfully woven with transgressive themes that burrow beneath the skin. • A poker game yields a strange prize that haunts one man, his game of chance now turned into a life-or-death coin flip. • A set of twins find they have mysterious new powers when an asteroid crashes in a field near their house, and the decisions they make create an uneasy balance. • A fantasy world is filled with one man’s desire to feel whole again, finally finding love, only to have the shocking truth of his life exposed in an appalling twist. • A father and son work slave labor in a brave new world run by aliens and mount a rebellion that may end up freeing them all. • A clown takes off his make-up in a gloomy basement to reveal something more horrifying under the white, tacky skin. Powerful and haunting, Thomas’ transportive collection dares you to examine what lies in the darkest, most twisted corners of human existence and not be transformed by what you find.

Screams from the Void by Anne Tibbets

For two years in deep space, the freighter Demeter and a small crew have collected botanical life from other planets. It's a lesson in patience and hell. Mechanics Ensign Reina is ready to jump ship, if only because her abusive ex is also aboard, as well as her overbearing boss. It's only after a foreign biological creature sneaks aboard and wreaks havoc on the ship and crew that Reina must find her grit - and maybe create a gadget or two - to survive...that is, if the crew members don't lose their sanity and turn on each other in the process.

The City of Dr Moreau by J.S. Barnes

The island was just the beginning... In H G Wells' 1896 novel The Island of Dr Moreau a shipwrecked traveller finds himself alone on an island ruled by a mad doctor and inhabited by creatures who are at once both beast and human. He escapes to civilisation only after the scientist is dead and the beast-men have taken absolute control. Yet this is not the end of the matter. The peoples of the island are not done with humanity. Now the conflict between the two has begun in earnest. The City of Dr Moreau presents a sprawling history of the islanders, and an alternative vision of our own times. Spanning more than a century, criss-crossing across numerous places and many lives, we witness the growth of Moreau's legacy, from gothic experiments to an event which changes the world. From the wharves of Victorian London to a boarding house with an inhuman resident, to an assassin on a twentieth-century train ordered to kill the one man who knows the truth to a diplomat whose mission to parley with beast-men will surely be her last, we follow secret skirmishes and hidden plots which emerge, eventually and violently, into the open.

[bands-and-books]

"We must remember and respect our history, even the very worst and the most bloodstained of it, lest we doom ourselves to repetition."

- Dracula's Child by J.S. Barnes

[libertyreads]

2023 Most Anticipated Releases--

AKA: The Shut Up and Take My Money List

Make a Wish (Spark House #3) by Helena Hunting--January 24, 2023

Upon a Waking Dream by J.S. Bailey--March 7, 2023

Teen Titans: Robin (Teen Titans #4) by Kami Garcia--March 7, 2023

The Foxglove King (The Nightshade Kingdom #1) by Hannah Whitten--March 7, 2023

Defiant (Skyward #4) by Brandon Sanderson--March 16, 2023

Stars and Smoke (Stars and Smoke #1) by Marie Lu--March 28, 2023

Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1) by Alexandra Bracken--April 4, 2023

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker--April 4, 2023

The Marriage Act by John Marrs--May 2, 2023

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren--May 16, 2023

The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games #4) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes--August 29, 2023

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7) by Martha Wells--November 14, 2023

The Ruined (The Beautiful #4) by Renee Ahdieh--December 5, 2023

Fallen City (Fallen City #1) by Adrienne Young--Unknown

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid--Unknown

Untitled (Moose Springs, Alaska #4) by Sarah Morgenthaler--Unknown

Untitled (Crescent City #3) by Sarah J. Maas--Unknown

[fersrsbizniz]

Would like to know/catch up with you [tag game!]

Rules: Tag 9 people you would like to know/catch up with.

I was tagged by @lone-gunwoman-of-the-week . Thank you! (And sorry about any weird formatting, I’m on mobile)

Last song: I’m on a nostalgia kick so I was just listening to “Tribute” by Tenacious D.

Last Movie: There was a movie I half-heard as background noise and I can’t remember it’s name, so I’ll just put the last one that I can recall the title for — Dune. I really enjoyed it, but it being half of the story I’m not entirely shocked some people don’t know what’s really up with the main character.

Currently reading: Dracula’s Child by J.S. Barnes. I picked it up out of curiosity and we shall see how I feel afterwards.

Tagging: @greaterdog @jewishmatsuda @itachiisabitch @moonmadara @mandi-cakes @carpentergothic @fade-steppin @cloverinblue @yesiplaygamez

[ashintheairlikesnow]

When you get this, feel free to respond with five things that make you happy~! Then if you're up for it, send this to the last ten people in your notifications anonymously. You never know who might benefit from spreading positivity~! (No pressure though! :

1. Iced oatmilk lattes are my jam right now for some reason. I just. I love them.

2. I am reading a book called Dracula's Child, which is a 'sequel' written by someone entirely unrelated (J.S. Barnes). It maintains the epistolary format of the original and also the voices of the characters are pretty consistent. It's just really interesting so far. I tried reading Dacre Stoker's "sequel" and found it fucking awful, but I'm enjoying this one.

3. Jazzy music with singers with a certain kind of deep, husky alto voice

4. Candy-colored houses and cars

5. A couple nights ago I got it in my head to make a soup using ingredients i had bought to make something else entirely and it ended up being fucking amazing. I'm pretty good at soup.

[ram-reads]

October 2020 TBR Pile

Books

Dracula’s Child by J.S. Barnes

Westside by W.M. Akers

It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell 

The Battlemage by Taran Matharu

and even though it’s not in the pic because I haven’t decided what version to buy yet

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Manga/Graphic Novels (also not pictured)

Undead Messiah by Gin Zarbo

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

I’ll be participating in a handful of book challenges in October on both here and Goodreads. My life will be busier next month so it probably wasn’t the best time to plan all of this but I’m excited regardless!