Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 8/31/19

Hey all.  Busy week in the reading sphere this week.  Hang on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

A few new ebooks this week - a YA paranormal, a fantasy mystery, and a mystery.  After all the DNFs, I only have two left unread from before - a romance and a SF.  With all the DNFs, I'm surprised I found any new books.  I'm a little gun-shy about picking up new to me authors.  I did however stop by the 'super cheap books' thrift store.  Picked 6 paperbacks for a dollar and 3 hardcovers for another dollar. Got a few new to me authors and some old favs - Helen McInnes, Amy Tan, Andre Norton, Ed McBain.  I also got an old romance by Linda Howard.  I love finding popular authors when they were getting their start in romance.

Books Read:

81) A Holiday for Murder by Agatha Christie (8/27/19) - Mystery/  4 stars.  Christie is never new to me or underappreciated.  Another from the big Christie haul at the thrift store back in March, so 17c.
No review.
Note:  This one only got 4 stars because, for some reason, the way she wrote this one was kind of irritating me.  John says: and then drop down a line, Alice says: and then drop down a line.  I don't remember her doing that for any of her other books.

80) Demon in a Jazz Bar by Christopher A. Gray (8/25/19) - Urban Fantasy?*# - 5 stars.  New to me and way underappreciated.  Free through Freebooksy.
Review: "Not a typical urban fantasy story. In fact, I'm not exactly sure what this was. Sort of like a prequel to something along the lines of 'Callahan's Crosstime Saloon'* by Spider Robinson. All I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was over so quickly I was sad to see it end. And since I don't see any sequels hanging around in plain sight, I'm going to assume it really is over. =o\

If you've got an afternoon to get sucked into a really good story, take a chance on this one."

Note:  You know how sometimes you read a book and then you just sit there like a dummy staring off into space because you're still thinking about it and then your husband asks if you're alright but you can't explain that you're still stuck in the book's world because you don't want him to have you committed?  Yeah, this was that kind of book.

79) Lost Magic by Alexandria Clarke (8/25/19) - Paranormal Mystery*# - 4 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.  Free through Robin Reads.
Review: "I guess I didn't realize when I downloaded this that it was a book #7. Oh, it's a good story, but there were bits where I could tell I had missed some major stuff along the way. I did love the premise and the characters and the plot. It's loads of fun. I just tripped over my own expectations."

78) The Third Option by Vince Flynn (8/24/19) - Political Thriller - 5 stars.  Picked up at the thrift store for 50c.
No review.  It's Vince Flynn.  His books are already heavily reviewed, so they definitely don't need my two cents.  One thing I will say is that this particular book doesn't exactly wrap everything up, which cheesed me off.  I got more cheesed when I realized I do not own a copy of the next book.  Gah.

DNFs:

8/29/19 - MG fantasy. 17c.  Orphan kid pretty much alone in his guardian's home hears noises and discovers a secret passage that leads him to magical things. Kind of Secret Garden meets Harry Potter meets The Borrowers?  Except not nearly as well written as any of them.  (And written before HP became famous.)  Even kids would think this was lame and dumbed down.  Too bad because, in the acknowledgements, the author thanked another author I'd loved when I was younger, so I really had hopes for this.  =o(

8/28/19 - Legal thriller.  33c.  Liberal lawyer sues big corporation on behalf of little old man crushed by his daughter's untimely death.  Like The Firm meets that one movie from the '80s... Class Action.  There was supposed to be some dark conspiracy later, but I didn't make it that far.  Told in present tense, which I can read if it's done well.  I was just getting used to the tense when it started slapping me around with the liberal stuff.  Meh.  At least it was a thrift store find and I didn't pay much.

8/28/19 - 'Gripping Crime Thriller'.  $2.99.  Aarrgghh.  Gripping, my ass.  Another one of those writers who feel the need to drop the brand names for every little thing, as if that makes up for not really interesting or thrilling writing.  He took more care in the description of the car I'd never heard of than of the first murder.  Bo-ring.  And I paid full price for this one, which kinda pisses me off.   

8/25/19 - MG fantasy.  Free.  Also annoying me.  Yeah, I get that names in fantasy are supposed to be strange, but when I have to try and figure out what the hell every single one might possibly sound like (because when I read, it's like my own voice reading aloud in my head), it takes away from the story.  That and the book started out by making any potential plot impossible and I didn't want to think about what mental gyrations would be necessary to make anything happen.

8/25/19 - Mystery.  Free.  :shrug:  It was annoying me.  The storytelling was kind of all over the place and the backstory load was heavier than I wanted to slog through.

Currently reading...A Tess Gerritsen 'Rizzoli & Isles' that I picked up at a thrift store back in June.  I'm enjoying it, but it's so far down the line from the last one I read that I'm a little lost in the personal stuff.  Great suspense, though.

What's been on your reading calendar this past week?  Anything good?

*It's been decades since I read Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, but as I was reading this, I was struck with the thought that it could've been written as a prequel to a book like that.  If memory serves, CCS was an awesome book.  I should probably try to find myself a copy of that sometime.  (I checked it out of the library back then.)

Thursday This n That

2019 is the year of the bugs.  Oh, we're still dealing with the grain bugs from last year.  And there are always the spiders and crickets and cockroaches.  And ticks and mosquitoes.  It's all part of living in the woods.  But this year has been bad.  The oak mites are particularly rampant and rabid this year.  Then Kira got fleas.  (We're knocking them back, but it's an ongoing thing.)  And Tuesday, unbeknownst to me, the bags of corn I bought and hauled in the back seat of my car, were infested with maize weevils.  To the point where you could actually hear them inside the bags - crawling, scratching, chewing... :shudder:  Lucky for us, Hubs noticed before he loaded them into our attached garage, so they never made it inside the house.  I carted them back to the feed store and got some non-infested bags of corn.  Then we unloaded the car and proceeded to deep clean in there.  Dozens of weevils, crawling all over everything.  I even had them on the ceiling of the car - one dropped onto my shoulder and crawled toward my cleavage while I was driving home from exchanging the infested feed.  Gross.  I'll be so happy when cold weather arrives and knocks the damn bugs back a bit.  All I can say is thank goodness weevils don't bite.  That would suck.  Literally. 

Scrolling down the BookGorilla newsletter last night looking for free new books to read when I passed a cover that looked extremely familiar.  I scrolled back, certain I couldn't have seen what I saw.  Yep, there it was - Accidental Death in the BookGorilla newsletter.  I didn't do it.  I can't afford an ad in BG.  And since I didn't do it, it was listed at full price - $2.99.  It's pretty far down in the newsletter and I didn't see any sales as far as I could tell, but hey, it was a pleasant surprise.  Who knew BG did stuff like that.  Gee.

I woke up late this morning, which is to say, around 5 instead of around 4.  (Or in the case of yesterday, around 3.)

I had some time before a doctor's appointment yesterday, so I stopped at one of the local thrift stores.  Before this year, I thought they only carried clothing, but on a whim, I went in and looked around.  Way in the back, they have tons of books.  So, anyway, yesterday their stock was a little thin, but I still managed to pick up 6 paperbacks and 3 hardcovers.  All for $2.  Nothing really groundbreaking in there, and I've already DNFd one, but I'm happy with the haul.

Around here, the thrift stores get a little lean in the summer, what with all the tourists and summer people picking through everything.  But it rights itself in September when everyone starts cleaning out.  I really hope someone out there donates a lot of old crime novels.

A friend who knows I circle the thrift stores looking for books put in two requests.  So now I have a sticky note in my purse with two titles to look for - a Nelson DeMille title and something by Eric Larsen. 

I went to school with a guy named Eric Larsen.  Probably not the same guy.

Okay, that's enough out of me for now.  What kinds of things are you throwing into the this n that today?

There Was a Point There Somewhere

I took a hard-target walk yesterday evening.  (Hard-target walk wherein I set a pace and keep it for the entire walk, regardless of incline.)  I did roughly 1.6 miles in about 30 minutes.  So, approximately 3.2 miles an hour on average. 

I'm a little stiff this morning.  I pushed it and I knew I was pushing it, so I'm not really surprised.  I got about .6 miles into the walk and almost stopped.  I stood there next to the power pole I figure is .6 out and looked up the hill toward the farm wondering if I shouldn't just turn for home.  And then I started walking again. 

At the .8 mile mark is an old farm house.  I stop in the driveway before turning back and heading for home.  No one lives there, so I can take all the time I need.  But I didn't need that much time.  In the past, I would've been huffing and puffing at the top of that hill.  Not anymore.  My legs were tired, but the ol' cardio was chugging along fine. 

Walking out is mostly uphill, so walking back is mostly easier.  The hardest part is the last bit where I have to walk a steep stretch to get to the house.  Yesterday, the steep stretch was broken by encountering a neighbor right in the middle.  It was the new guy from in the woods across the street and his bloodhound puppy.  (7 months old and so damn cute I wanted to snuggle her up.)  By the time we got done chatting, that last bit of the walk was easy-peasy.

Anyway, I had a point I was going for there somewhere, but as with last night, I got distracted by the puppy.  All floppy ears and loose skin and big soulful eyes.  And her name was Gertrude, which seemed to fit.  I mean, who could resist?

Ahem... the point...

Goals?  Determination?  Fighting through the pain to get where you want to go? 

I could hop into the Wayback Machine and remind myself that there was a time when I was told I would never walk right again.  I still have my cane in the corner of the bedroom.  But it's covered in dust now because I never need it and I don't remember it's there long enough to run a rag over it.  And that's where thoughts of my bad leg belong - in the corner, covered in dust.  Right now, the cane's best purpose is self-defense.  I could conceivably grab it and swing for the fences at any intruder.  (The handle is specially molded to be wide and spread any weight over a greater area of my hand.  Imagine getting whacked upside the head with that sucker.) 

Maybe that's the point... not hitting an intruder with a cane, but the idea that despite what we are told we cannot do, we need to move forward and do it anyway.  Screw the naysayers.  Even when the biggest naysayer is that little voice inside ourselves.

Sunday Update - Week 34

It was a week.

Let's see...  We started out the week cleaning up a kitty accident.  (The last time I ignore the cat in the middle of the night, lemme tell ya.)  Since we'd ended the previous week cleaning for fleas, and then Sunday hit, it totally crapped out my gumption for Monday and Tuesday.  Don't even ask what happened those two days, because I don't remember.

I spent some time mentally berating myself for not working.  I thought it would help.  It didn't.  I'm in that place where not-working has gone on so long I'm finding it hard to start back up again.  I know I need to just suck it up and do it.  Jump in anywhere for godsakes.

The sale for Unequal happened, so I did some marketing.  Sold one.

I finished reading one book I could include in the wrap-up on Saturday and I finished another after the wrap-up went live.

On the activity front, I managed 4 out of 7 days.  Anyway, it was all cleaning and walking.  I've been eating a lot, though, so I'm not even bothering to step on the scale.  I saw a meme on Pinterest the other day "I run so I can eat more.  Don't judge me."  Substitute walk for run and there I am.

I made more granola bars yesterday.  Hubs is really getting a kick out of them, so I'll keep making them.  It's better than buying them, I guess.  I haven't really done the math on ingredients vs store bought.

Starting today, the genie books are on sale again.  The first is 99c.  The other four are $1.99ea.  I have an ENT ad going out on Tuesday.  Fingers crossed because August has really blown chunks so far.  I'm hoping to close out the month with a bang.

Speaking of sales and ads, I did spend some time updating back matter on my books - sticking verbiage about reviews back in again.  Here's hoping it helps.  I got some new ratings on Goodreads, but no new reviews in a long time.  =o\

Okay, that's my week in review.  What went on in your Week 34?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 8/24/19

It hasn't been a really readerly week here.  I only finished one.  I had hoped to finish another yesterday, but yesterday got out of control.  I should finish it today.

I did pick up a few new ebooks - a romance, a SF, and a suspense (one I've been wavering on buying for a while now and finally sucked it up and slapped my money down).  I still have four from before - the oldest downloaded on 7/12.  I'll get to it eventually.  The tally right now is one each paranormal mystery, UF, MG fantasy, mystery, romance, SF, and suspense.

Books Read:

77) Curtains for Romeo by Jessa Archer (8/19/19) - Cozy Mystery *# - 4 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.  Free off the Book Adrenaline newsletter.
Review: "Fun. And a fast read. Hits a lot of the 'cozy mystery' tropes along the way, but ultimately finds a way to differentiate itself from all the others. Definitely worth a read."

No DNFs.

Currently reading...  The Third Option by Vince Flynn.  This is another case of trying to work my way through a collection.  I love Vince.  And it still makes me sad to think that he's gone and won't be writing any more books.  Stupid cancer.  (Don't even talk to me about Mitch Rapp books that are still being published.  Those weren't written by Vince and I won't buy them.) 

What things were you reading this week?

Thursday This n That

I don't have a smartphone, I have a dumbphone.  I've had it for like 10 years.  It doesn't do apps.  It doesn't need wallpaper.  It doesn't have a camera.  I could text with it, but what a pain in the ass.  Once, I tried to use it to access the internet.  It did not go well.  I pay $19.99 for three months worth of service.  It makes phone calls.  And it's for emergencies - like when my car battery dies while I'm out at the lake, or when I forget the grocery list, or when I witness something I might need to let the police know about.  Or if something happens that someone might need to let me know about when I am not at home.  I also use it when the landline is out, but I have to walk out to the road because the signal in the house sucks.

Sometimes when the world gets particularly heinous, I go to Pinterest and look at the pretty pictures I've pinned.  So there's that.

Last night, I had thought about going fishing this morning, but it's all weathery out there with more weathery stuff throughout the morning.  Rolling boomers in the sky.  Don't need to go fishing bad enough to risk getting zapped.

Isn't the English language an awesome thing?  I write 'weathery' and even though it's not a word, you know exactly what I mean.  Same thing with writerly.  And who hasn't heard a book described as 'unputdownable'?  With English, you can throw parts of words together and make a new word that other English speakers can still understand. 

I need to clean the coffee maker.  It's been getting progressively slower and this morning it's spitting and sputtering like the percussion section of a spastic symphony.  I do not need it to die right now.  Time to run vinegar through it again.  But first, time to drink more of its awesome elixir.

The other day, I did my weekly Wallyworld trip and wouldn't you know it, I forgot to buy a beverage for the trip home.  It's too hot to drive without a beverage, so I stopped at the feed store - cuz even though I didn't need feed, they carry a limited selection of beverages.  I got Orange Crush.  Anyway, while I was there, my favorite in-person reader friend (FIPRF) was training a new cashier and while the new gal was ringing me up, my friend nods at me and says "She's a writer, you know.  You've probably read some of her books."  At which point, I about fell over laughing.  The new girl was thoroughly confused, but we explained it all and I gave her some swag.  Maybe I'll have a new reader soon.  FIPRF really does try to generate new readers for me when she gets a chance.  She's awesome.

And that it for me today.  What's the this n that skinny for you today?

Gooey Oatmeal Cake

Sunday, I was a little antsy and looking for something to do that didn't involve being outside, so I baked a cake.  I'd been wanting to try this recipe for a while anyway.  Here it is with my tweaks...

Gooey Oatmeal Cake

Cake:

1 ½ cups boiling water

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup butter (melted)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1.2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

dash cloves

½ tsp salt

 Topping:

¼ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

1 cup flaked coconut

6 T butter (melted)

¼ tsp vanilla

¼ cup milk

Put oats in a small, heat-resistant bowl.  Stir in boiling water until oats are well moistened. Allow to cool.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 9x13” cake pan.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs.  Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Stir dry mixture into wet mixture until combined.  Stir in prepared oatmeal.  Mixture will be thick.  Spread into prepared pan.  Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

While cake is baking, in medium bowl, combine white and brown sugars.  Stir in coconut.  Stir in cream and vanilla.  Stir in butter until mixture is well-combined.  When cake is ready to come out, remove it from the oven and set oven to Broil.  Spoon topping mixture in small lumps onto cake.  Lightly spread the topping mixture over the cake until its completely covered.  Place under broiler for 2-4 minutes or until bubbling and slightly browned.  Remove and cool completely before cutting and serving.  To serve warm, microwave individual pieces of cake for 15 seconds.  Top with vanilla ice cream.

The original recipe called for nutmeg... which I hate... so I threw in a dash of ground cloves.  It also called for cream in the toppine, which I don't keep in the house, so I used milk.  Which might've made the topping a bit wetter than intended, but the wet makes it gooey, I guess. Next time I make this, I might not use the topping and just see how the cake is without it.