In Pursuit of My Own Library

I have previously mentioned that every now and again I need a genre cleanse. I started reading way too many fantasy novels, and my head looses itself in the clouds. The whole world gets an aura of the unreal. So, I need a good grounding novel. I was searching through the ARC stack that had just come in to work. The title was intriguing; the cover was eye-catching; and the description seemed like a definite fit for my grounding experience. That is how I picked up No Baggage and definitely brought my head back to the Earth. I hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve and the best of wishes for 2016. No Baggage: A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering by Clara Benson This year has been a year; let me tell you. I have had some very strong highs and some incredibly low lows. I have had an existential crisis. What is the entire meaning of my life? Am I really doing what I want with it? The questions that we all ask ourselves at some point in our lives. Hopefully most of you have an...

I apologize for falling behind. The holiday season is a very non-internet focused time for me. I truly hope every enjoyed their time however they choose to spend it. There is just something magical about the end of the year. For me, it is time to reflect and release all the tensions that I have unwittingly let build up. I eat way too much unhealthy food and waste time playing with toys (and am grateful for every minute that I get to do those things). I do miss the snow, though. When I was a kid, this was the time when the first snows were coming, and they added to the magic of Christmas. Now winter doesn't seem to come around until January. Sigh. Two things for today 1. Congratulations to the contest winner Joyce M for getting an excellent book to kick off the New Year. 2. A book review Devices Brightly Shining by Shelley Adina I bought this when it first released but saved it to read on Christmas day. I am really getting on board with the little holiday novella concept....

I am pleased to announce that this review also comes with a FREE BOOK! That is right. I have a giveaway for an autographed, first edition of  Soul of Smoke  to get you started with the series if you have been holding off to see my final review on the value of the entire trilogy. Take this chance to get your copy and get started down a path you won't regret. Soul of Smoke Giveaway!! Truth of Embers by Caitlyn McFarland We have come to the conclusion of the Dragonsworn trilogy. And let me just say, it has been a journey. I felt the potential in the first novel, but that doesn't always pan out the way a reader hopes. I am very pleased that I decided to stick with this series. Every novel was better than the one before. The emotions were heartfelt, the tensions were greater, and the stakes for humankind were higher. We still get some excellent thrills from the dragon battles and tension from Juli the spy.  The war between Rhys and Owen hits a new level of strateg...

So why did I pick this novel? The description actually gave me some hope for a good mystery, but mostly it was the name. It has been sitting on my Kindle shelf for a little while being neglected in favor of my more favorite authors. And that just really isn't fair of me. I have found some truly good new authors on Netgalley. Very few picks have led me astray. Most all of them have been in a mystery/thriller capacity. I seem to be very hard to please in that matter. But this one got an award. It has to be better, right? Found out below. The Labyrinth of the Scriptorium by Hitoshi Goto Can I just take a moment to say--cool title!! I have spent many hours pondering why mystery/thriller genre titles do not amuse me (I know, I know, what sane person wastes hours pondering such things?--a bookworm). Modern mystery writers are too glitzy. That is what I came up with in the end. The stories now are so focused on some action or racy, edgy detail to set their mystery apart from every ot...

Today Murphy's Law just seriously took me to the cleaners. What I look forward to for the night is some time with a good book ( The Young Dread  releases today) and good cuddle with my poodles. So, I'll complete some catharsis and write up a review on a very special book. The Contrary Tale of the Butterfly Girl by Ishbelle Bee The second in the Peculiar Adventures of John Loveheart, Esq. series. If you recall, I could not rave enough about the first novel (review here ) this summer. The second in the series did not disappoint. These novels are seriously fantastic in their disturbing glory. I somehow end up at the last sentence wondering about my sanity. Should I really find these novels so good? Am I disturbed? The answers are yes and no. Sometimes you just need a good dark fairytale to shake the doldrums from your day. This go around John Loveheart falls in love. What do you get when a completely mad man falls in love with a brutalized, desensitized woman? The most wo...

With November comes chilly mornings and nights with plenty of rainy sessions in between. Bad for my motivation to knock things off my to-do list. Great for my to-read pile dwindling. The Land of the Green Men by Carolyne Larrington I'll have to give this one 3 stars. The author has clearly done years of research on the vast array of folktales around the British Isles, scouring oral history, preserved documents, and theses about all that history. She even brings modern fantasy big shots who use the very same mythic legends to develop their own tales for the modern reader to the argument table. An attempt to bring the ever changing, developing youth in touch with their rustic roots of wonder and awe. The part that is lacking for me is the heart, though. The whole essay lacks the essence of the fairy livelihood. It misses out on the actual wonder and awe part. All of it reads like a semi-dry lecture paper that gets buried at the back of the library to collect dust. And this ...

Like the snazzy new decorations on the blog? I felt that is was time to start getting festive with the theme. I hope everyone had an excellent Halloween. It is such a wonderful holiday. I thought about what review to post that would coincide with the creepy and really just could not choose an exact book to match, there are just too many good ones. Instead, I handed out treats to the little ones at work dressed in full Harry Potter regalia. Sweet nerd moments. And now we are into November. Crazy! Arrows of Darkness by B.I. Woolet The series continues to be a wonderful fairy tale in the constellations. The story opens pretty painfully but with something that is unfortunately all too prominent these days for young readers. You can tell from the title and opening chapter that this novel is going to deal with the darker side of our hearts.  While sadness rains down upon his family, Jackson eagerly pushes forward to his dear Arcas where there is no personal pain just hopeful ...