Saturday Reading Wrap-up 11/15/25 + Marketing

I don't really have anything exciting to report on the Reading Wrap-up.  I'm still working on reading The Martian by Andy Weir.  But there's an issue...  I made the mistake of reading the quotes on the back, wherein people, at some point, talked up the book.  All in all, not a bad thing, but there's one that says the book is like a cross between Castaway and Apollo 13.  Not that it's not an accurate representation.  Actually it is, but it's killing my reading enjoyment.

At first, I was like 'hey, yeah... it's Castaway on Mars... cool'.  Now I can't stop thinking about those two things in relation to the story I'm trying to read and making comparisons instead of enjoying the story. 

For starters, I loved both Castaway and Apollo 13 once upon a time.  Then Hanks went leftist and now I can't even watch the dude.  (I have a tough time enjoying entertainment once I learn the entertainer's politics are antithetical to my own.  It's definitely me.  Don't get me started on Bette Midler.)

Then I get to wondering... Is Watney supposed to be Tom Hanks?  He was played by Matt Damon in the movie.  First, I picture the character as Tom then I picture him as Matt... It's confusing.  

When Watney gets home is he going to learn his girlfriend married someone else?  

Anyway, we'll see if I actually finish this book.  I think I need to take a few days off from it and see if I can't get over it.

Now, onto the marketing portion.  This weekend only, get UNEQUAL absolutely free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Pick up your copy of this dystopian suspense today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LDVFWBS

This is probably it for the weekend marketing experiment.  I didn't move that many copies of Blink last week, and I'm not seeing much hope for moving books this weekend.  The energy output is not equaling the return, so make it stop.  

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/18/25

 I confess I didn't read much this week.  I think part of the problem is that I'm just not that into the book I'm reading.  I really need to DNF it and move on.  Except it's a Victoria Holt and I usually love her books.  :shrug:  I don't know.  Anyway...

No new books.

No Books Read.

No DNFs... yet.

Currently reading... The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt.  Like I said, it's not thrilling me.  So far, it's more like a soap opera than a gothic romantic suspense, like the others of hers I've read.  I'll probably DNF it, but I might give it one more chance.  We'll see.

What have you been reading lately?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/11/25

 Hello!  I know I'm not doing these as regularly as I used to, and thanks for stopping by anyway.  I didn't do much again this week.  It's been a slow reading year.  Things like this happen.  I'm woefully behind on my reading goal, of course.  It is what it is. 

No new books this week.  I did stop at a thrift store, but all I got was a bookshelf.  This particular store has jacked the prices up on all their used books and they're being such snots, I don't buy books from them anymore.  And after the experience buying the bookshelf, I won't be buying anything there anymore.  So sad, but them's the breaks.  The new-to-me shelf is only a two-shelfer, but it's holding my omnibuses, my Phyllis A. Whitney collection, and my Victoria Holts.  (This will mean more as you read below... I have a lot of both. LOL)

Books Read:

33) Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney (10/9/25) - romantic suspense - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Picked up from a thrift store for 50c.
Review: "I read it again, but only realized partway though that I had. Still just as awesome the second time around."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... a Victoria Holt I picked up from the thrift store.  I only just started it, but so far, so good.

What have you been reading lately?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 9/13/25

It's Saturday the 13th. Which isn't unlucky or anything, but I'm weirdly pointing it out.  Anyways...

Not a lot to report this week.  I didn't pick up any new books since the last update.

Books Read: 

31) Tales from the 'White Hart' by Arthur C. Clarke (9/11/25) - SF - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Picked this up for 25c from a thrift store.
No review.  

No DNFs.

Currently reading... the one new-to-me Agatha Christie I bought the other day.  I wasn't sure I was going to read it right away or save it, but I needed it, so I started it.  Sometimes a gal just need a little Agatha to make things seem better, ya know?

What have you been up to reading-wise?

 

At the Movies with B.E.

Welcome to At the Movies with B.E.  This week, I'm going to try adding a ranking system using a 😻 (smiling cat face with heart-shaped eyes emoji) or a 🙀 instead of stars.  Hokey or not?  :shrug:  Anyway, let's get on with it...

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986) - starring George C. Scott, Val Kilmer, and Rebecca De Mornay.  I remember watching this when it was on TV way back when, so I loaded it up for watching.  It's a little "80s" but still a good treatment of the story.  😻😻😻😻

Ladies in Lavender (2004) - starring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.  I found this while searching through various Roku suggestions.  I admit I was a little hesitant, but we went ahead with it, hoping it didn't turn out to be shitty.  I'm so glad we did.  This is a lovely little movie about two spinster sisters in Cornwall in the 1930s and what happens after they find a young man washed up on the beach.  They take care of him until he's well and care for him afterwards, until he becomes a part of the town.  The ending was awesome and we really enjoyed the movie, despite the fact that they never really delve into why he washed up on the beach.  I think he was trying to get to America, but the exact nature of his problem was never addressed.  :shrug:  Oh, well, I can live with that.  I can always make something up in my head to cover that.  😻😻😻😻😻

Toast (2010) - has Helena Bonham Carter, but she wasn't the star.  The only other person I recognized was the guy who was in that one series about the young surgeon with Asperger's.  This movie started out okay and then got tense and then was okay and then got weird and then sucked.  We didn't finish it, but we watched most of it, which was enough of it to adequately give an opinion.  I was really bummed because it held the promise of being a really good movie and with some tweaks, it could've lived up to that promise, but it didn't.  :sad trombone noise:  🙀🙀

My Family and Other Animals (2005) -  this is based on a book by Gerald Durrell (as was a TV series called The Durrells on Corfu - which we watched on PBS years ago).  It's a goofy and funny show about a family who leaves dreary, rainy Britain for the sunny life on the Greek island of Corfu, and all the things that happen to them.  It was fun to watch, even if it did star the gal who played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies.  Definitely not a movie with anything major to say about anything, which is a nice change. 😻😻😻😻😻

I found several more movies to watch that I'm really looking forward to.  One in particular is called The Hippopotamus.  It looks like loads of fun, so fingers crossed.

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 8/30/25

Not a big reading week for me, but I did finish one, so let's get to it.

I bought some new-to-me books at the thrift store this week: a suspense, two literature, two SF. I also picked up a new ebook - paranormal romance.  Those should keep me for a while, I think.

Books Read:

30) Primordial Threat by MA Rothman (8/28/25) - SF* - 5 stars.  I hadn't read this author before, although I follow him on FB, but it's not underappreciated.  I snagged it when the author put it on sale for 99c.
No review.  He's got a boatload of reviews and there's nothing I could add that would gain him sales.

No DNFs.

Currently reading... I haven't picked out what I'm going to read next.  The urge is to read the Agatha Christie I picked up on 8/21, but I have so much to choose from right now that I might leave that until I need it.

What's on your reading list lately?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 8/23/25

I know I haven't been the best reader lately.  I have been the best anything lately, though, so it's not too surprising.  Anyway, let's get to the books...

I picked up 6 new hardcopies - 2 hardcover and 4 paperback - and one new ebook this week.  The ebook is paranormal romance.  The hardcovers are both romantic suspense and the paperbacks are mystery, crime noir, western, and NF.  I found an Agatha Christie I didn't have and hadn't heard of, a Zane Grey, a Don Hamilton, a Victoria Holt, a Phyllis Whitney, and the NF is by J. Edgar Hoover about the Communist menace.  Should be interesting.

Books Read:

29) Five Complete Hercule Poirot Novels (8/18/25) - mystery - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  I picked this one up in June of 2024 from a thrift store.  It was 50c.
Review: "This took a while to get through, because I was reading other books between stories, but it was an excellent collection for this Poirot-lover."

No DNFs this week.

Currently reading... a SF I'd been looking forward to for a while but didn't have the budget to buy.  Then the author put it on sale for 99c.  Woot.  So far, it's pretty enthralling.

What have you been reading lately?

At the Movies with B.E.

It wasn't the most jam-packed week for movies*, but this is what we watched.

Much Ado About Nothing (1993) - starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.  I love Shakespeare, but this is particularly good.  If you haven't seen it, I totally recommend it - even if you aren't that into the Bard.

Death Wish (2018) - Okay, so I swore I wouldn't watch this because I'm generally against when Hollyweird remakes old favorites. Then I saw that it starred Bruce Willis and I love Bruce, so I gave it a whirl.  I'm glad I watched.   It was awesome.  This movie was definitely not harshing on the Charles Bronson version and it was also totally not-woke.  I liked the juxtaposition of Bruce as a mild-mannered, peaceful surgeon before his family was attacked and the man he had to become to gain justice.  The end was satisfying and cool.  Yay.

I tried watching a couple other things, but they were duds, so I stopped.  Nothing worth mentioning here, even to pan it.

Have you seen either of these?  Did you watch anything awesome this week?

*we ended up watching several new-to-us TV shows instead.  If you want to hear about those, let me know and maybe I'll add those to the ends of these posts.

At the Movies with B.E.

Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) - This is THE definitive Sherlock Holmes movie.  So good, even after all these years.  

Bookworm (2024) - a weird little movie with Elijah Wood as an absentee father who suddenly shows up and takes his daughter on an adventure.  It's set in New Zealand, so there are some amazing scenes, but yeah, the story was definitely weird.  Good weird, but weird nonetheless.

A Month in the Country (1987) - starring a young Colin Firth and young Kenneth Branagh.  Plus, Natasha Richardson (who died way too early, in my opinion).  It was just a nice movie.  Not much to it, but nice.  Two men after WWI, struggling with their own horrific memories of war and striving to accomplish their own goals.  Set in the beautiful English countryside.

And Then There Were None (1945) - I thought I'd found a later version of this with Oliver Reed that I remembered enjoying, but it ended up being in another language with subtitles, so I searched again and found this.  I don't remember ever seeing this one.  It was pretty good.  It had a bunch of lesser actors I remember from several other old movies (the maid from Rebecca, Uncle Willie from Philadelphia Story, etc.) and Barry Fitzgerald (he was the matchmaker in Quiet Man, among other fine roles).  Definitely an enjoyable adaptation.

In the hopper are a WWII movie and a veterinarian movie set in Devonshire, plus we still have a couple Sherlock Holmes movies to watch.

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 8/9/25

 Hello!  Sorry I forgot to post last week.  You didn't miss much. Trust me.  Unfortunately, not much has gone on since the last wrap-up either.

I did pick up one new ebook. It's a fantasy I saw on a FB group and it sounded interesting, so I downloaded it.  We'll see.  Due to DNFs, I only have two unread ebooks left. One is an SF and the other is a fantasy.

No Books Read.  That's right, folks, I haven't actually finished reading anything since the last update.  Derp.

DNFs:

8/8/25 - legal thriller - free.  Maybe I was just so irritated after the previous DNF that this one irritated me more than it would've otherwise, but it did irritate me, so there ya are.

8/8/25 - YA Action/Adventure/?? - free.  It was going along fine, introducing all the hero characters and the general premise, but then the scenes with the villains started and meh.  I actually got about a quarter of the way into this one, which cheesed me off.  I hate wasting time on books I won't finish.  Bleh.

8/1/25 -  YA UF - free.  It made me remember why I hated high school.

Currently reading... I think I'll start the next Hercule Poirot story so I can finish that omnibus.  We'll see.

Have you been reading anything good lately?

At The Movies with B.E.

Time again for another trip to the movies.  This past week, I watched:

All of Me (1984) - Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.  If you haven't seen this, you're missing out on a hilariously fun movie.  Lily plays a rich lady who's dying and has plans to put her soul into a beautiful young woman, but the vessel falls out a window and hits her lawyer - played by Steve - in the head.  So, now she's in his body with him and he has to get her out.  Comedic genius on the part of Steve Martin with some cute verbal bits by Tomlin.

Swallows and Amazons (2016) - this was a sleeper I found when I was just looking for something nice to watch.  It's about these kids in England on holiday in 1935.  They go to a home on a lake and get permission to take the boat out to this island, where they stay the night, but there are other kids who have already claimed the island and they have a 'war'.  It all works out and they become friends, and they defeat some Russian spies, too.  We really enjoyed this one.

Death on the Nile (1978) - Peter Ustinov as Poirot.  Need I say more?  Personally, I prefer David Suchet as Poirot, but I love Peter Ustinov, so I couldn't really go wrong watching this. It's a pretty good adaptation, if you can get past the '70s kitsch. 

The Mirror Crack'd (1980) - this had a star-studded cast, including Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.  Angela Lansbury made a fine Miss Marple.  (Margaret Rutherford was the best Miss Marple, but that was a longer time ago.)  I've never seen another adaptation for this book, so I guess this would be the best one.  Not the best Agatha Christie based movie I've ever seen though.  Fun, but I'm not a huge fan of Elizabeth Taylor.

Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt (2012) - Another awesome Jesse Stone.  Although this one did kind of leave things hanging that weren't addressed in the next and final movie of the series.

Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise (2015) - This was the final Jesse Stone movie.  It was a pretty good one, even if it did start out a little sad.  I was sorry to have finished this series of movies and I definitely know we'll be revisiting these at least once a year from now on.

Murphy's Romance (1985) - a cute little romance between a divorcee (Sally Field) and a older pharmacist (James Garner).  She moves out to a small town in AZ, I think, to start her own ranch and escape from her life in CA.  She meets the pharmacist and over time they become friends.  Then her ex shows up like he's trying to win her back, and it's clear to everyone but her that Murphy 's tossed his hat into the ring for her.  Anyway, it all works out in the end.  HEA abounds.  Yay.

That's it for me... I know, it was a lot.  It'll taper off this week, as I'm running out of movies and watching more shows.  Eh, maybe I'll start talking about those, too.  We'll see.  Did you watch anything good lately?

At the Movies with B.E.

Okay, twice in a row.  This is a trend.  Anyway, here are the movies I watched in the past week:

The Name of the Rose (1986) - I hadn't seen this one in a really long time, but I remembered liking it, so when I found it, I slapped it on my Save list.  I still liked it.  Hubs totally didn't.  To each his own, and perspectives, etc.  It's rare that we differ on things, but when we do, the thing is entertainment.  :shrug:

Jane Eyre (although strictly speaking this was a mini-series in 1983) - this is the version with Timothy Dalton as Rochester :swoon:.  I saw this one back when I was living in Illinois, so it had to be 1992.  There's a lot cut from this to make it short enough for TV, but all in all, a pretty faithful adaptation of the book.  And did I mention Timothy Dalton :swoon:?  Hubs enjoyed it, but he had a completely different and interesting perspective on the whole thing, which actually made the discussion of it enjoyable.  He really didn't appreciate Rochester's treatment of Jane.  I never thought about it that way before.

Jesse Stone: No Remorse (2010) - this was #6 in the series.  It was pretty damn good, too, like the others.  Something about Tom Selleck in this role makes me happy.  I really need to pick up the books.

Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost (2011) - another good installment of Jesse.  

Invitation to a Murder (2023)  - searching through all the things to watch, I stumbled across this.  The blurb for it sounded interesting, and it delivered.  It seemed like it was going to be a knockoff of And Then There Were None, but ended up as a nice, all around nod to Agatha Christie.  Not a thrilling movie, but a good one.  

Have you watched anything good lately?  Got any good suggestions for things I might want to watch?  

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 7/26/25

 Yeah, yeah, it's been a while, but then again, it's been a while since I finished a book.  Here's what's happened since last I posted a Reading Wrap-up...

I picked up one new ebook.  It's by a popular author that I've been wanting to read and when I saw he put this on sale for 99c, I snapped it up.  That one's a SF.  I also still have a YA action/adventure, a UF, and a legal thriller to read.  Yay!

Books Read:

28) The Devil's Angel by Margaret Bernard (7/26/25) - UF*# - 5 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.  Free off Amazon's Top 100 Contemporary Fantasy free list.
Review: "I really enjoyed reading this. It has an interesting premise, a thrilling plot, and intriguing characters. The end and lead-in to the next book(s) was so-so, but not enough to lose it a star. All in all a good book."
Note: Available in Audiobook.

DNFs:

7/15/25 - UF - free.  Thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure this was written by AI.  At least I hope no human writes like that.  It was pretty bad.

7/15/25 - UK thriller - free. I don't remember exactly why I DNF'd this puppy.  Lame characters, poor dialogue... something like that because the premise was good.  :shrug:

Currently reading... since I just now finished the UF, I haven't started another ebook.  I'm still working on that Hercule Poirot omnibus.  One story left to go on that, I think.

What have you been reading lately?

At the Movies with B.E.

Okay, so not really 'at' the movies.  I'm home.  I'm always home and I don't do theaters anyway.  Still, I've been watching some things that I'd like to share.  Maybe I'll make this a regular post.  We'll see.

The first movie up is A Birder's Guide to Everything (2013).  If you know me, you know I'm a bird nerd, so when I saw this title on the Roku movie list, I had to stick it in my Save pile.  I sat down to watch it on Saturday morning.  It was fun and lighthearted in places, serious and heartwarming in others.  It's about a teenage guy who's into birding.  He sees a duck he hasn't seen before and he's pretty sure he's identified it as one thought to be extinct, so he convinces his friends to take a trip to try and find the duck again.  So, here's these three boys and a photography-nerd girl on the road, looking for a duck, and things happen.  It's kind of a coming-of-age thing, and a friendship thing, and a family thing with birds.  Think The Big Year combined with Stand by Me.  The main character was played by an actor I've never seen, but the MC's best friend was Spencer in the newer Jumanji movies.  And Ben Kingsley was in it, too.  I really enjoyed it.  So far, Hubs hasn't seemed interested in it, but I'll convince him to watch it.  I think he'll enjoy it almost as much as I did.  

Next up is an older title... The January Man (1989).  It's a quirky suspense starring Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth Mostrantonio.  Kline plays a disgraced police officer called in to help with a crime the NYPD hasn't been able to solve, because he's some kind of crime-solving savant.  Once a month, someone is strangling a young woman and this has been going on for 11 months now.  (Which is a little far-fetched that they wouldn't bring in help earlier than after the 11th death, but I rolled with it.)  The movie also has Alan Rickman, which was cool.  Love Alan.  I'd seen this ages ago and loved it, and it held up pretty well to my memory of it.  (Although, I don't remember the nudity.  Maybe I'd only ever seen it cut for TV. :shrug:  Eh, it was the '80s.)  Hubs liked it, too.  

We also watched several Jesse Stone movies.  They star Tom Selleck as an ex-LAPD officer who's now the police chief in a small town in Massachusetts.  They're gritty and suspenseful, and we really enjoy them.  We'd seen a couple before, but we're trying to work our way through them all. We're going to start over from the chronological beginning and re-watch the first five before we move on to #6, just to get everything straight in our heads.  (And because they're awesome enough to re-watch.

Next up on my watch list was Dragonslayer (1981) - a movie I haven't seen since my folks took me to the theater to see it when it came out (probably because my brother wanted to see it and I begged to go, too).  It's still pretty awesome.  A group of townsfolk show up at a sorcerer's place to get him to come take care of their dragon problem, but something happens and the sorcerer's apprentice ends up going instead.  There's daring-do and magic, surprises and romance, and a happy ending.  Yay!  

Finally, I found a movie from 1980 that my father loved.  I mean, he must've loved it because he rented it like every other weekend.  And I loved it, too - but hey, I was a kid.  It's called Hawk, the Slayer.  I made it about 15 minutes in before I gave up.  It's really really bad.  Hokey beyond measure.  Bad acting.  Bad writing.  Bad special effects.  So bad I'm not even linking to it.  Sorry Dad, but it's the truth.  Even for 40 years ago, it's bad.

All in all, not a bad week for movies.  I have several movies ready to go on my Save list for the coming week.  No spoilers in case I do this again next week.  I really should spend less time in front of the tube, but I doubt that'll happen.  

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 7/5/25

Not the most exciting of reading weeks here.  Eh, it goes like that sometimes.

No new books.

Books Read: 

I didn't finish any books this week.  Well, not free-standing books.  I finished Murder on the Orient Express in that omnibus of Poirot stories, though.  It was awesome, as usual.

DNFs:

7/4/25 - free SF humor - OMG, this was so poorly written I just couldn't even.  It seemed like every single thing a writer can easily catch and fix during edits was missed by this person.  And that was only in the first few pages.  It really bummed me out because I was actually excited about the premise, which is why I downloaded it.  =o\

Currently reading... a different SF humor.  This one is good so far.  I'm over halfway through, so I hope it doesn't take a turn for the crappy.  

What was on your reading plate this week?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 6/28/25

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by my Saturday Reading Wrap-up!  I hope you find something fun or at least interesting while you're here.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a banner week for finishing books.  

I picked up 8 ebooks this week - all free, of course.  In there are 2 SF, 3 UF, 2 thrillers, and a YA action/adventure.  Should be some fun reading in there somewhere... I hope.  No new hardcopies. 

Books Read:

26) Sweet Harmony by Noel Bailey (6/25/25) - magical romance*# - 4 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.  Found this for free off the Kindle Freebies I found Today Facebook group.
Review: "This was a fun story. I loved the premise and, being a former band nerd, the heroine's problem raising money for the music program. But I wasn't 100% keen on the hero's dilemma. I mean, he took care of it, but I think he needed to be more forceful with his father. Be the hero his lady needed him to be. Right then and there. :shrug: It's probably just me."
Additional note: This was a 'magical romance', but there was very little magic or mention of magic in it.

DNFs:

6/25/25 - post apocalyptic - free.  It jumped from 2055 with one MC to 2075 with another MC with no clear connection and then to yet another MC.  Too much in too short a time made it really confusing.  Like I need more confusion in my life. LOL

6/24/25 - suspense - free.  I really wanted to like this.  I'd read several things by this author before and I was thrilled to see this one offered for free on his Facebook page.  Sadly, it read like he either didn't bother to edit it or he ignored his editor's suggestions this time.  I tried, but after a while, I couldn't take it anymore.

6/23/25 - suspense - free.  A suspense is supposed to be quick and... well... suspenseful.  This?  It seemed like the author put every sentence through the 'quotable sentence' generator.  For good story telling, snappy sentences should be sprinkled throughout, not poured on like hot fudge.  (I like hot fudge, so it's over EVERYTHING.)  I gave up after a few pages of slogging through that.

Currently reading... I'm in the middle of Murder on the Orient Express in that Poirot Omnibus I'm reading.  When I finish it, I'll hit the ebooks again.

What was on your reading plate this week?  Yummy things or brussels sprouts?  ;o)

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 6/21/25

Well, hello there.  It's that time again.  Let's see if I have anything interest to impart today.

I picked up one new ebook this week.  It's a magical romance of some sort that I saw on one of the FB groups I post to.  We'll see how it goes.

Books Read:

25) The Danger by Dick Francis (6/15/25) - thriller - 5 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  I picked this one up at a thrift store for a quarter.
Review: "Wow. This is an excellent read. Everything I love about Dick Francis with a twist of the likes of Fleming's or McLean's knack for international intrigue thrown in. Definitely more thriller than mystery. And totally awesome as a result."

No DNFs this week.

Currently reading... I started an omnibus of Hercule Poirot stories.  I might read one and then read something else, so a bit of back and forth until it's finished.  Which reminds me... I still haven't finished that HG Wells anthology.  :shrug:  Sometimes life is that way.  I'm currently 7 books behind on my reading goal, so I better get some stuff finished, I guess.

What was on your reading list this week?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 6/14/25

Hello again.  Not the most exciting of reading weeks, but reading was accomplished and DNFs happened, so here we are.

No new books this week.

Books Read:

24) The Face in the Water by Kathleen Pennell (6/8/25) - mystery*# - 5 stars. New to me and underappreciated.  Snagged this one for free off Amazon's top 100 free Murder list.
Review: "A fun combination of gritty suspense and cozy mystery! I really enjoyed reading it."

DNFs:

6/11/25 - 25c mystery.  I just couldn't get into it.  Of course, it didn't help that the cover fell off when I started, but that's the risk you take when you buy used books.  I'll repair it and then take it back to a thrift store.

6/10/25 - 25c SF.  It wasn't bad, per se, but I just wasn't in the mood for a story with thinly veiled leftist politics.  Eh, I'm never really in the mood for that.  Back to the thrift store this one goes.

Currently reading... a Dick Francis paperback.  It's different from the other Dick Francis novels I've read, but it's still pretty awesome.  (Yes, it still has a tie-in to horse racing.)  

What have you been reading lately?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 6/7/25

It wasn't the busiest of reading weeks, since I only finished one book, but I did spend some time on a couple books I ended up DNF'ing.  

I picked up one new ebook this week - a suspense novel by an author I'd read before, but it was free, so yay.

Books Read:

23) Blade Runner (or Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep) by Philip K Dick (6/5/25) - dystopian - 5 stars. New to me but not underappreciated.  I picked this up at regular price from Amazon, so $7.48 for the paperback. (I needed to round out an order to get free shipping and this was it.)
No Review.  What could I say about this book that hasn't already been said?

DNFs:

6/5/25 - free - noir mystery - The beginning of this was written three different ways and they were ALL in the book I downloaded.  Like first draft, then second draft, then final draft.  By the time I got to the third iteration, I was confused and tired of it.  Too much work for what might've been an interesting story.

5/31/25 - free dystopian/SF - I made it over halfway through this and then it got weird, and not in a good way.  Which is too bad because I was really enjoying where it had been heading before it shot off down a murky, ill-advised path.  :shrug:  I paused this to read something else and then decided to just DNF it.  Life's too short.

Currently reading... A little underappreciated cozy mystery.  I'm not sure yet if I'll finish it.  The beginning has the same problem as that noir mystery I DNF'd this week - repeating info, which is annoying but not as bad as here as with the noir.  We'll see if it gets better.

What have you been reading lately?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 5/31/25

Whoa... last day of May.  Where's the time going this year?  

Last week, I stopped at the thrift store and picked up 4 books for a dollar - mystery, suspense, fantasy, and NF.  The NF was Trees of Missouri, and it's awesome.  It didn't even look like it had been opened, but the spine is light like it's been sitting in the sun.  Hubs was very impressed that it was only a quarter.  No new ebooks this week.

Books Read: 

22) You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (5/29/25) - action/hard-boiled crime - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Got this for a quarter at a thrift store.
No Review.
Extra note: This is the last of the Bond paperbacks I picked up.  I probably won't be reading more of these unless I happen across some at a thrift store.

21) On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming (5/24/25) - action/hard-boiled crime - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Got this for a quarter at a thrift store.
Review: "I really should take a star away for what Fleming did at the end of the book, but I can't. This is an awesome story, so well written and thrilling. Lucky for me, I have #12 sitting right here to start, so I can find out if James really does exact some justice."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... a SF/dystopian ebook.  So far, it's pretty interesting.  As long as it stays that way, I'll finish it.  If not, into the DNF bin it goes.

What's been on your reading list this week?