Life and Things
On a fun and happy note, we went to see our first play of the season, Something Rotten, Thursday night. It was hilarious! Well worth seeing despite the fact I didn’t feel great.
On a squee note, I was invited to join the Red Coat PR Review Team, and was approached by Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours to host a spot in the Black Bird of the Gallows blog tour. I’m slowly making connections and getting out there. I also submitted to be a tour host for Rock Star Blog Tours, but have not yet heard back. Fingers crossed!
Speaking of… here are a few cool bookish blogs you really should be following:
http://www.herdingcats-burningsoup.com
On a less than pleasing note, I had my first hepatologist visit this week, and a likely diagnosis of NASH. Because why not… I have another battery of blood tests upcoming, that will check for indicators for a variety of autoimmune conditions. I have an appointment next week with a hepatic nutritionist to help me fine-tune a dietary plan. Within the next three weeks, I’m having a catheterisation biopsy, meaning instead of a giant-ass needle in the side, they thread a cath through one of the big vessels in the neck, down into the liver. Its called a trans-jugular biopsy. I’m f’ng terrified. But they need to know why the liver is inflamed, and how bad the scarring is. Thankfully, the hepatologist thinks that, if not reversible, then it can be halted. Theoretically, this type of biopsy is less invasive, and allows for more precision.
On the most displeasing note- the American president is a grade A arsehole. Just in case you were wondering.
Books read, reviewed, and posted/scheduled this past week:
The Governor’s Daughter by Sambath Meas, 5*
The English Slave by David Eugene Andrews, 4*
Hamilton and Philosophy edited by Aaron Rabinowitz. 5*
Finding My Badass Self by Sherry Stanfa- Stanley, 5*
Favourite read of the week:
Finding My Badass Self by Sherry Stanfa- Stanford, 5*
‘Fighting midlife inertia, Sherry Stanfa-Stanley chose to stare down fear through The 52/52 Project: a year of weekly new experiences designed to push her far outside her comfort zone. These ranged from visiting a nude beach with her seventy-five-year-old mother in tow to taking a road trip with her ex-husband—and then another one with his girlfriend. She also went on a raid with a vice squad and SWAT team, exfoliated a rhinoceros (inadvertently giving him an erection), and crashed a wedding (where she accidentally caught the bouquet). While finding her courage in the most unlikely of circumstances, Sherry ultimately found herself.
For midlifers, fatigued parents, and anyone who may be discontent with their life and looking to shake things up, try new things, or just escape, Finding My Badass Self is proof it’s never too late to reinvent yourself—and that the best bucket list of all may be an unbucket list.’
Current Read:
Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller (releasing Aug 29)
‘”I love every aspect of this amazing book—a genderfluid hero, a deadly contest, and vicious courtly intrigue. Get! Read! Now!” —Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author
I Needed to Win.
They Needed to Die.
Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class—and the nobles who destroyed their home.
When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand—the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears—Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.
But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.
More Praise for Mask of Shadows:
One of the Most Anticipated YA of 2017!
“Compelling and relatable characters, a fascinating world with dangerous magic, and a dash of political intrigue: Mask of Shadows completely delivered. Fantasy fans will love this book.” —Jodi Meadows, New York Times bestselling coauthor of My Lady Jane
“An intriguing world and a fantastically compelling main character make for a can’t-miss debut. Miller’s Mask of Shadows will make you glad you’re not an assassin—and even gladder Sal is.” —Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of And I Darken and Now I Rise’
Next Up
The Brightest Fell by Seannan McGuire, Sept 1 or 6, Berkeley
Fate of the Stars by Arwen Paris Sept 5, Xpresso
Temptation Trials by B Truly. Sept 7, XPresso
The Smallest Thing Sept 13, XPresso
Remember, Remember by Anne Elliot (Sherlock) NG
The Brothers Three by Layton Green, Independent
The Spirit Mage by Layton Green, Independent
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends by Lydia Sherrer ASAP
Your Crossroads, Your Choice by EP Apicello. ASAP
Sun Born by Kathleen O’Neal and W Michael Gear CBR
Skeleton God by Elliot Patton. CBR
Mad or Bad by David Vaughn CBR
Book Haul
No hardcopy books this week, but several egalleys. I’m most looking forward to:
Sleep, Savannah, Sleep by Alistair Cross (Releasing Sept 25th)
‘The Dead Don’t Always Rest in Peace
Jason Crandall, recently widowed, is left to raise his young daughter and rebellious teenage son on his own – and the old Victorian in Shadow Springs seems like the perfect place for them to start over. But the cracks in Jason’s new world begin to show when he meets Savannah Sturgess, a beautiful socialite who has half the men in town dancing on tangled strings.
When she goes missing, secrets begin to surface, and Jason becomes ensnared in a dangerous web that leads to murder – and he becomes a likely suspect. But who has the answers that will prove his innocence? The jealous husband who’s hell-bent on destroying him? The local sheriff with an incriminating secret? The blind old woman in the house next door who seems to watch him from the windows? Or perhaps the answers lie in the haunting visions and dreams that have recently begun to consume him.
Or maybe, Savannah herself is trying to tell him that things aren’t always as they seem – and that sometimes, the dead don’t rest in peace.
“Sleep, Savannah, Sleep hooks you with a small-town atmosphere that quickly turns ghostly cold. Beware a plethora of twists and turns …” – Michael Aronovitz, author of Alice Walks and Phantom Effect’
The Crow Garden by Allison Littlewood (releasing Oct 5th)
‘Susan Hill meets Alfred Hitchcock in Alison Littlewood’s latest chiller.
Asylum doctor Nathaniel Kerner is obsessed with the beautiful Mrs Harleston – but is she truly delusional? Or is she hiding secrets that should never be uncovered?
Haunted by his father’s suicide, Nathaniel walks away from the highly prestigious life of a consultant to become an asylum doctor. He takes up a position at Crakethorne Asylum, but the proprietor is more interested in phrenology and his growing collection of skulls than the patients’ minds.
Nathaniel’s only interesting case is Mrs Victoria Adelina ‘Vita’ Harleston: her husband accuses her of hysteria and delusions – but she accuses him of hiding secrets far more terrible. Nathaniel is increasingly obsessed with Vita, but when he has her mesmerised, there are unexpected results.
Vita starts hearing voices, the way she used to – her grandmother always claimed they came from beyond the grave – but it also unleashes her own powers of mesmerism…and a desperate need to escape.
Increasingly besotted, Nathaniel finds himself caught up in a world of séances and stage mesmerism in his bid to find Vita and save her. But constantly hanging over him is this warning: that doctors are apt to catch the diseases with which they are surrounded – whether of the body or the mind….’
Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir (releasing Feb 13, 2018)
‘Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize, Hotel Silence is a delightful and heartwarming new novel from Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, a writer who “upends expectations” (New York Times). Told with grace, insight, and humor, this is the story of one man’s surprising mid-life adventure of self-discovery that leads him to find a new reason for being.
Jónas Ebeneser is a handy DIY kind of man with a compulsion to fix things, but he can’t seem to fix his own life. On the cusp of turning fifty, divorced, adrift, he’s recently discovered he is not the biological father of his daughter, Gudrun Waterlily, and he has sunk into an existential crisis, losing all will to live. As he visits his senile mother in a nursing home, he secretly muses on how, when, and where to put himself out of his misery.
To prevent his only daughter from discovering his body, Jónas decides it’s best to die abroad. Armed with little more than his toolbox and a change of clothes, he flies to an unnamed country where the fumes of war still hover in the air. He books a room at the sparsely occupied Hotel Silence, and there he comes to understands the depths of other people’s scars while beginning to see his wounds in a new light.
A celebration of life’s infinite possibilities, of transformations and second chances, Hotel Silence is a rousing story of a man, a community, and a path toward regeneration from the depths of despair.’
Wow! love your site. great place. So glad you found me!! Will be checking more out about you. 🙂
And thanks for mentioning my blog. I appreciate it. -Jay
Thank you!
And you are quite welcome. I enjoy your blog.
🙂