Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/7/19

First off, since I was creeping pretty damn close to finishing my 2019 goal of 90 books read, I did the math (books read divided by 8 months times twelve) and, allowing for unforeseeable crap, bumped my goal to 120 books.  30 more books in the next four months?  I'm averaging 10 books a month as it is. So, unless I go off the rails, totally do-able.

I managed to find a few books to download this week.  I tell ya, the pickings lately have been slim (i.e. not my taste, doesn't meet my requirements of free/cheap and low review #s).  Anyway, I got a paranormal romance, a romantic suspense, and a fantasy (book 2).  Plus, I still have a fantasy mystery and a mystery left to read.  No new hardcopies this week.  I still have a bunch from my last hauls.

Books read:

85) How to Flunk Magic by Elena Bryce/Stella Wilkinson (9/6/19) - YA Paranormal Romance* - 5 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated.  Free off the Robin Reads newsletter.
Review: " Loads of fun in the YA paranormal romance. I can't wait to read the next."
Note: I can't wait, but I'm gonna have to.  It's not in the budget yet.  

84) The Tetradome Run by Spencer Baum (9/3/19) - Dystopian* - 5 stars.  New to me and probably less appreciated than it should be.  Free off the Book Barbarian newsletter.
Review: "Gripping may be an overused adjective to describe books these days, but that's the best word for this book. It was gripping and enthralling. A page-turner, definitely. And assuredly thought-provoking. Kind of Hunger Games meets Running Man in a alternate history/present sort of way. All I know is I inhaled this book and it's not a short book. I just couldn't stop reading it. I read instead of doing anything else I was supposed to do this morning - walk, eat, work... All I'm saying is don't start it unless you've got a lot of time on your hands.

And after all that, I still want more. Gah."

83) From This Moment On by Debra Clopton (9/1/19) - Romance* - 4 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated.  Free thru the Robin Reads newsletter.
No Review.
It was a nice, light read, but not really needing my two cents.

82) I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen (8/30/19) - Suspense - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  50c at the thrift store.
No Review.  If you like Tess, you don't need my review.  If you haven't read Tess, you probably shouldn't start with this book anyway, so a review from me would be pointless.  Go, read Tess.  (Do not go by that TV series.  The books are way better.)

DNFs:

9/6/19 - Suspense.  17c at the thrift store.  Okay, so not technically a DNF.  When I picked this up, I didn't realize it was a collection of short stories set in the author's popular series world.   I have to be in a special kind of mood to read short stories and I prefer, if they're going to be in a world, it's one I'm already familiar with.

9/6/19 - Rabbit, Run by John Updike.  50c at the thrift store.  I only picked this up because I remembered someone recommending it once a long time ago.  It started off kind of interesting in a 'man on the street' kind of way, but I wasn't a fan of the imagery Updike was presenting.  How you describe things sets the tone, right?  So, if you have a chance to describe shingles any way you want, and you choose to say their colors run from 'bruise to dung', it kind of tells the reader 'Beware, crappy sense of life ahead.'  :shrug:  Life's too short.  If you've read it and I'm totally wrong and this book has an awesome sense of life, feel free to change my mind.  The book hasn't gone back to St. Vinny's yet.

8/31/19 - Romance.  17c at the thrift store.  Meh.  The hero was a jerk and the heroine was whiny.  Too bad because I was in the mood for a romance.  And I was lucky enough to have an ebook romance ready to read on my Kindle (See #83).

Currently reading... an old Helen McInnes I picked up at the thrift store a while back.

And that's it for me.  How did your reading week go?