Saturday, June 30, 2018

36:100 Half a Pound of Magic by Stefon Mears

Xorek is a legendary warrior, demon-binding warlock, and wielder of Shadowcarver.  It has taken some time but he now knows how to free his Lady from her curse but it requires a material not easily obtained and the one who has it won't give it up to the likes of Xorek, especially after having sent a pack of murderers to kill him as he prays. 

Unfortunately for him, Xorek tends to take things like that a little personally.

A fun fantasy romp that was over much too soon.


Page count: 37p/6,903p ytd/298,924p lifetime

Thursday, June 28, 2018

35:100 Wandslinger by Stefon Mears

Mitom has been wandering the land with his stick of holly on his saddle, unsure of what he will do next, when he comes across a raiding party who promises to pay him well if he will wizard on their side.  The price is right so Mitom agrees. 

He just didn't know exactly what he was agreeing to.

It's like the Old West meets Wizards on the Emerald Isle.  Fun!


Page count: 23p/6,866p ytd/298,887p lifetime

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

34:100 A Goblin Peace by Stefon Mears

Goblin clans have always been at war with other Goblin clans.  This is just how it is. Grik imagines a different future, a better future, where Goblins work together against the humans, the elves, everyone,  to have a better life.  In order to try and make that future happen, he has to start somewhere so he sets up a meeting with one clan to reach out and try to start the process. 

Goblins do not trust other goblins and they do not understand the concept of peace.  Grik must find a way to change that.

A fun short story about a race that is frequently overlooked when maybe they shouldn't be.


Page count: 19p/6,843p ytd/298,864p lifetime

Sunday, June 24, 2018

33:100 How Many Angels by Stefon Mears

It's 1962 in San Francisco and Theodore Smith, call him Dore, is a big man, he is simple, and has simple pleasures. Like chocolate covered licorice from Mr. Lee's.  Now this man is offering him the money to buy his licorice chocolate and if he comes back in 2hrs, he'll get $20 as well. But he has to go now, in broad daylight without his raincoat.  Dore can't figure out why but maybe someone else can.

A fun little historical mystery.


Page count: 20p/6,824p ytd/298,845p lifetime

Saturday, June 23, 2018

32:100 The Angle Between Worlds by Stefon Mears

There are other worlds. This is a fact that Daniel has known for years. He used to think there was something wrong with him when he could see things or people that no one else could see until the first time he interacted with what he saw and brought an object back to this world with him. He is just thankful that these moments of seeing other worlds are typically brief.

At least they were until today. Daniel is doing a stunt where he is 4 stories up when he looks down and realizes that the safety airbag is gone and in it's place is hard, sharp rocks and a couple of hungry creatures.  Now he needs to try and find his way home.

A fun read.


Page count: 26p/6,804p ytd/298,825p lifetime

Thursday, June 21, 2018

31:100 The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

Radium was the latest craze after Marie Curie discovered it and business was keen to get in on finding as many applications for it as possible but for the most part, it was too expensive for the everyday person but painting dials for fancy watches or aircraft?  That was just the ticket for a couple of the big radium corporations.  And for young girls, some as young as 14, trying to help their families make ends meet it was such a simple job.  Lick, dip, paint the number on the dial.  Lick, dip, paint some more.  If you were one of the lucky girls, you worked at the factory where you were allowed to play with it and see just what kind of a glow you could get when painting it on your teeth, nails, clothes, etc.

Except every time they licked their brushes to get them to the proper point, they were ingesting a little more radium paint..every.single.time..usually for years.

And then they started getting weird health problems. Abscessed teeth but the jaw wouldn't heal when the tooth was removed. Teeth just getting loose and falling out. Limbs shrinking. Tumors.

But the companies refused to admit any wrongdoing, even after reports were coming out that it was the radium.  Most lawyers refused to take their cases.  The laws at that time did not adequately cover radium exposure.  It was a fight of the people vs. big corporations and it was a fight that many did not think they could win.

Some didn't.  Some died before they knew what was happening to them. Some died before they could get a lawyer to accept their case. Some died while trials were going on. But there were many who fought and kept fighting.  Some won their cases and some lost. Some won settlements that were truly helpful and others won only a pittance.  Some were shunned by their communities but they kept fighting. 

And laws were changed.

Not as many as needed. Some of these factories were still operating with similar procedures into the 1970s but things did change although it took many years and many of these shining women did not live to see it.  May we learn from what they went through as big corporations continue to thrive on the backs of their workers whom too many see as disposable commodities, easily replaced.

Many books have chronicled the court cases and looked at the story from a more technical perspective but this one tried to give the girls a voice about who they were, what their hopes and dreams were before this happened to them, and also after when they realized what was happening. It's a little too chipper at times and the voices of the girls tend to blend into one homogenized voice rather than hearing them as individuals but it's well researched and a very accessible read.


Page count: 496p/6,778p ytd/298,799p lifetime

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

30:100 The Great Orc Cook-off by Stefon Mears

The Chief of the Broken Tooth Clan of orcs has come to the realization that their Clan is too small in numbers to keep fighting with the other two local clans.  One of the other clans is also too small to keep up these fights especially as the third local clan has not been participating seems to be waiting for these two to become ripe for the picking.  So now Pawk, the Broken Tooth Clan Chief has bargained with Harek, Chief of the Splintered Spear Clan, to join their forces under one Chief but which one will it be?  A contest must be held to determine who will lead.

That contest... a cooking contest!

Each tribe will prepare one dish, the best their best cook can offer, and serve it to a panel of judges made up of the chiefs of each tribe and selected members.

Pawk has an ace up his sleeve, one of his best fighters is also an amazing chef.  Now Gorek has just a few days to go out in search of the perfect ingredients to make a dish to elevate his tribe, and just maybe himself as well.

A fun, perfect short story.


Page count: 26p/6,282p ytd/298,303p lifetime

Friday, June 15, 2018

29:100 Harvest Song by Yasmine Galenorn

The 20th book in the Otherworld series by Yasmine Galenorn, told from Delilah's POV.  Delilah's wedding is fast approaching as is her time for bearing the child of the Autumn Lord but there is still the war with Shadow Wing and while they have dealt him many serious blows and the Kerrastar Knights are now together and united under Camille, he is not down and out yet.  In his desperation, he has sent Yerghan the Blade to Camille's house on the night of their wedding shower and Shade has been injured with a soul blade that has sent his soul to another realm.  Delilah must find it and bring him home if he is to survive and then she and her sisters must make sure that Yerghan can never do this to anyone else ever again.

The characters are what really make these books.  The plots are usually pretty predictable without much in the way of twists and turns and all the major characters are going to make it out alive (secondary characters, not so much but that's what they are there for and it doesn't mean it won't sting when they don't).  But really, watching the sisters grow and mature, find and accept their paths, is what these books are really about and this book really showed just how much of that there has been.  Delilah was always the innocent and while that changed a while ago, you can see her mourning that in this book as well as get hit with it occasionally as things are changing at a breakneck speed now.  It was nice for the book to end with the wedding and then the three sisters together for a quiet break.


Page count: 292p/6,256p ytd/298,277p lifetime

Thursday, June 14, 2018

28:100 These Antique Fables by Seanan McGuire

A patreon short story set in the October Daye universe.  We met January O'Leary and Li Qin Zhou when Toby had to go into their kingdom for one of her quests. We knew that they loved each other but we never really knew a whole lot about them. In this story, we get to see a bit of January's "childhood" and how they meet for the first time.  A short, sweet tale of love and luck.

Page count: 20p/5,964p ytd/297,985p lifetime

Sunday, June 10, 2018

27:100 Goodnight, Sleep Tight! by Seanan McGuire

Jonathan Dawson had been the head librarian for quite a while and yet again was having the typical budget discussion with some flunky from the city.  Blah blah blah, we can't afford a library and definitely not updates to one of any kind.  Yet again, he had to keep his promise to protect the library and all those that need it.  But he is getting tired and his time is drawing closer...

A short little horror story of why you shouldn't mess with the library or the head librarian, masterfully done.


Page count: 10p/5,944p ytd/297,965p lifetime

Saturday, June 9, 2018

26:100 Jealous in Honor by Seanan McGuire

October Daye patreon short story. Cyne, the sister and murderer of Cailin's father who tried to pin it all on her mother Colleen is back in the Kingdom of Londinium.  Tybalt knows what he must do to keep his family and kingdom safe but it will mean playing a part he does not enjoy with unintended consequences and broken hearts to come.

I love Tybalt but this is looking like things are being set up to show us how he ended up in the Bay Area and it doesn't look like it will be a happy journey for him.

Page count: 14p/5,934p ytd/597,955p lifetime

Thursday, June 7, 2018

25:100 Smoke by Dan Vyleta

It's England 100 years or so ago but not the England that we know.  Now when people sin, their body lets go of the smoke. The deeper and darker the sin, the deeper and darker the smoke that the body exhales from every pore.  You can smoke in your sleep and if you are part of the wealthy and elite, you will wake in the morning and check your bedclothes for evidence of sin in your dreams. This is the world that Thomas and Charlie live in at their boarding school.  Thomas who seems to constantly be smoking almost as much as he breathes and Charlie who barely ever seems to do anything that could be considered even the slightest of sins.  They are an unlikely pair but a friendship has formed so when it is suggested that Charlie accompany Thomas on holiday where he has been invited by an extremely influential family, of course he goes. 

That's where they meet Lady Naylor and her daughter. That's where Thomas starts learning more about smoke and where it comes from and how the elite use a special sweet to trap their own smoke to look more pure and a special cigarette that allows them to feel the effects of stronger smoke for a brief time. That's where everything changes and Tom, Charlie, and Livia end up becoming fugitives trying to figure out what Lady Naylor's end game really is.  They could never have imagined what she has planned if they hadn't seen it for themselves.

It's been a few days and I still don't know quite how I feel about this book.  Some of the concepts were interesting but I didn't feel like there was enough explanation to satisfy all the questions I had about the Smoke and how it worked. It seemed to be plot driven more than any specific set of laws.  Motives for everyone felt fairly weak and the story moved but didn't seem to go anywhere really.  The deeper explanations into personal behavior and motivation that it kept dancing around were what it seemed like it wanted to be about never materialized, instead staying to the outside like vague wisps of smoke when a fire is smoldering but never going to actually catch.  That is the story that I thought it was going to tell and the one that would have really interested me but I kept reading and waiting and it just never happened.  I guess I can say that this is a book that I read.  I didn't hate it but I also didn't see a whole lot of point to it.



Page count: 448p/5,920p ytd/297,941p lifetime

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

24:100 Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Autobiography. Trevor Noah offers a unique perspective of growing up colored (half black, half white) in South Africa during the end of apartheid.  His birth itself was against the law which meant that much of his young like before the end of apartheid was spent being hidden.  Out in public, neither parent could actually afford to acknowledge kinship with him without risking potential jail time and the government taking him away.  This meant a life of being inside almost continually where, apparently, he was very adept at getting into trouble but because he was half-white, most of his family let him get away with whatever horrid thing he had done.  But not his mom.  Throughout the entire book you can feel the love and admiration Trevor has for his mom.  The risks she took having him, keeping him safe, and trying to make sure he grew up to have a good life were a testament to her love and strength of will.

From a historical point of view, it was also an interesting read because I remember apartheid in South Africa being talked about a bit when I was in elementary school and being happy when it ended but as I've started to become more aware of how we treat non-whites here in our country, reading this has opened my eyes more to our own oppression of people of color, especially African Americans, and how closely it manages to mirror in many ways those of that apartheid in South Africa.  It's not written into law, as such, but when you start researching redlining, looking at how media and news portrays those of color in their word choices, lack of representation in so many areas, arrest and jail statistics, the parallels are pretty easy to draw.  I only hope that we can wake up and listen to the voices soon and start truly making this country a land of equality for all.


Page count: 288p/5,472p ytd/297,493p lifetime

Friday, June 1, 2018

New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 3rd Quarter 2018

My usual disclaimer:

Let me state, this is really based on authors or series that I'm already reading since those are the things I follow.  I'm not paid to write this blog nor do I have any affiliations with any publishers so I don't receive free books or advance notice of things except what I glean off Facebook from people who do have those contacts or what I research on my own (which again, leads back to authors that I'm already reading).  Maybe someday I'll be one of those who has the contacts and gets ARCs but it's not today.

So last quarter I was thinking that as I got more used to the job, I would find a better balance and have more time for reading.

Yeah, not so much.  What I have found is that this job cycles from crazy to insane when an election is drawing near.  I probably should have figured that out but apparently I'm either an optimist or deluded (probably the later LOL).  I'm really enjoying it but it has definitely proven to be a lot more than I originally bargained on and my reading has greatly suffered.  Add in two deaths in my immediate family in a two week span of time, end of school year craziness, and volunteer work craziness and well, I'm lucky to read a few pages a day.  I haven't finished a book club book since February and have had almost no personal reading time.  With the primary election cycle just about done, I'm hoping to get some things caught up and balanced a little bit better before school and the general election craziness starts up but I'm thinking that my goal of reading 100 books this year is looking like a pipe dream unless I find a whole lot more short stories and comics.  LOL

None of this means that I haven't been keeping an eye on books that I want to read (and in some cases adding them to my growing To Read pile) so here's what is currently on my radar:


Yasmine Galenorn has been very prolific since going independent with several new series going all at the same time and I have not been able to keep up with them but the second book in the Wild Hunt series, Oak and Thorns, is coming out.  I haven't had a chance to read the first book in the series yet but the series looks interesting with this one hitting political intrigue, shadow magic, a serial killer, and the King of Thorns.

Release date - July 2

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is not part of an actual series except that it's another her reimagined fairy tales, this time Rumpelstiltskin.  I really enjoyed Uprooted which is her version of Beauty and the Beast and I can't wait to see what she does with this one.

Release date - July 10

Next up is the third book in the Custard Protocols by Gail Carriger.  Competence sees Miss Primrose going from Singapore to Peru to pursue some of life's most challenging questions such as "Can the perfect book club give a man back his soul?"  I have not yet read the other books in this series but I've loved the other series set in this universe and am looking forward to getting to these.

Release date - July 17

Also coming out this day is Seanan McGuire's second book in her Ghost Roads series, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown.  Rose Marshall has been dead for 60 years now and still looking for her killer.  She's been an avenging killer in her own right but still she wants the one that got away, the one that made a deal with the Crossroads that won't let him die...Bobby Cross.  But now Bobby is back in the picture and will it be one that Rose can continue to haunt?

Release date - July 17

Another double release for the end of July starts with Portents by Kelley Armstrong.  While the Cainsville series is technically over (although I still need to read the last two books), Ms. Armstrong is doing like she did with her Otherworld series and giving us other tales set in the world.  Some have been previously released and I've read before, others seem to have been previously released and I haven't heard of, and at least one is new for this collection.

Release date - July 31

We also get a new Dorina Basarab book in Shadow's Bane by Karen Chance.  I have enjoyed Dory's stories much more than the Cassie Palmer ones lately and it's been a long time since we got a new one and I'm really looking forward to it.  Dory is now the newest member of the Vampire Senate and as their war with the Fae is heating up, she is finding out that the slavers who may have her friend's relative may be up to something far worse than arranging death matches.

Release date - July 31

Only one book is on my radar for August but it's a huge one as Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews is said to be the conclusion to the Kate Daniels series.  The Witch Oracle's visions are becoming more intense and then Kate receives a delivery from an ancient enemy who has almost destroyed her family before.  To save Curran, her child, her friends, her city, Kate must team up with the most unlikely of allies even knowing she may not survive because otherwise everything she loves will die.

Release date - August 28

I get to go from one favorite series to another as we get the next installment for October Daye the next week.  Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire does not promise to be sweetness and light for October though since Jazz and Tybalt are still trying to recover from their ordeal at the hands of October's mother.  Toby is also hurt as she can't just snap her fingers and make things better for her family so the universe has given her a distraction in the form of kidnapping her human daughter, Gillian, but we know that nothing in Toby's life is simple or easy and this case will prove no exception.

Release date - September 4

Closing out this quarter's books is Time Convert by Deborah Harkness.  Set in the world of her All Soul's trilogy, this bounces us between Matthew's conversion of Marcus to a vampire during the American Revolution and then Marcus's conversion of Phoebe in modern times and how will some things change, some things will remain the same. 

Release date - September 25