50:100 Rituals by Kelley Armstrong

The conclusion to the Cainsville series.  Things are coming home to roost, not just the legendary fae trio but Liv's mom, Pamela, and Gabriel's mom, Seanna, and the third fae group that has been silent up until now but has been manipulating things with designs upon getting Liv onto their side since she was a baby, the sluagh, dark bogeyman of the fae.  Now Liv must fight, not just for herself and her right to choose her own fate but also for Ricky and Gabriel as well.

This series has been a fabulous ride and the ending was everything I could wish for.  Watching Liv, Gabriel, and Ricky grow and evolve to embrace their fae sides while keeping their humanity and being able to make their own choices was a treat.  I'm very glad that Ms. Armstrong is continuing to write stories in this world as she has done for the Otherworld series so we don't have to say good-bye quite yet.


Page count: 471p/11,996p ytd/322,691p lifetime

49:100 Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Lois Clary is living the Bay Area start-up "dream". She is heavily invested in her job and enjoys it but it leaves her with no time for anything outside of work, even eating.  She has been starting to live on Slurry, a nutritionally dense but flavorless goo, when she sees a flyer for Clement Street Soup and Sourdough with the most unusual menu.  You could pick spicy soup, spicy sandwich, or combo (double spicy).  She called and placed an order for the double spicy and it changed her life.  The food was amazing and the bread was nothing short of heavenly.  Soon she was ordering constantly but when the brothers who ran the place had to move, they presented her with the sourdough starter and a copy of the music that needed to be played for the start to work its magic.

Now Lois instead of doing nothing but programming a robotic arm at work is learning how to bake and everyone is commenting on how amazing her bread is.  It's so good, she tries to get a place at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market but instead of getting in there, she is instead invited to join a different, more secret market.  Now she is mixing her programming skills for the robotic arm, the music, and the sourdough and creating something truly special...or is she?

I enjoyed this book soooo much!  The story was fun and light but with darker undertones and the characters were well written and engaging.  I didn't realize this was the same author who had written Mr. Penumbra's 24-hr Book Store which I also loved but I think I will now be following him to grab anything new he writes as I've loved everything I've read so far.



Page count: 272p/11,525p ytd/322,220p lifetime

48:100 Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi

Graphic novel of the story of the author's great-uncle's final days.  A lifetime of memories after he decides to give up living upon the destruction of his beloved instrument.  A future lifetime of memories he will not share with his children.  Last hellos and good-byes.  A poignant tale of love and music and life.


Page count: 84p/11,253p ytd/321,948p lifetime

47:100 Lucky Day by Stefon Mears

Carl is just a hitchhiking college student on his way back home for break.  He was so thankful when she pulled over to offer him a ride.

Next thing he knows, he's hanging by his wrists in chains with no memory of what happened to him or the lady who picked him up.  A car accident?  But where is he and why?

A fun little suspense tale.


Page count: 24p/11,169p ytd/321,864p lifetime

46:100 Saga Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!

And did I mention NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Seriously, I can't give any other review to this.  It's fabulous but heartbreaking and I many never be okay again.

And then it's going to be who knows when before we get the next installment.  I just can't.


Page count: 152p/11,145p ytd/321,840p lifetime

45:100 Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler

Patternmaster - Seed to Harvest #3

Earth but set into the future.  A father, who remembers a time before, driving with his two daughters, one of whom has incurable cancer, in a world where few people drive outside of their city neighborhoods and now that they've been abducted, he fully understands why.  But in this case, their abduction is nothing like he could have imagined in his wildest dreams.

Clay's Ark was a ship that went into space on a mission of discovery and that crashed back home with no survivors, or so everyone thought.  There was no way to know that Eli did survive but that he is no longer fully human but instead a hybrid host with a parasite from another world that is intent upon survival and spreading itself far and wide.  It is virulent, tenacious, and single-minded of purpose and initiates almost uncontrollable procreation instincts upon those it infects.  Eli has tried to maintain some parts of his humanity but really, the best he can do is keep himself and those he infects as isolate as possible to not doom the entire planet.  To transmit this to another human only requires fluid transfer and they continue to look human which makes it that much easier to continue to transmit but then the children are born and there is no way anyone could mistake them for human but the urge to keep them safe and make more is such a strong compulsion there is no resisting it.


This was written last in the Patternmaster series and it's inclusion here is strange.  I figured out pretty quickly that the Clay the ship is named from is Clay Dana from Mind of My Mind but he's not actually present.  There aren't any people from Doro's line which we've been following the last two books.  I'm sure it will make sense once I read Patternmaster but right now it seems like it belongs to a totally different universe, an interesting universe mind but just not this one.

Page count: 224p/10,993p ytd/321,688p lifetime

44:100 Betrayals by Kim Harrison

The 4th book in the Cainsville series.  Street kids are being murdered and someone is working hard to pin the blame on Ricky.  Of course Liv is going to start investigating which means that Gabriel will eventually end up on the case even if they are having personal issues between them at the moment.  However, the street kids aren't human but lamia, a Greek fae, who don't really fit in anywhere any more and they desperately need help and Liv can't just turn away from them no matter the risk to her personally. 

If the last book was all about the love triangle between Olivia, Gabriel, and Ricky with the ending being a somewhat forced break in even the friendship of Olivia and Gabriel than this book is much more a mystery with the romance angles taking the backseat.  Gabriel manages to get over himself and his insecurities enough to actually talk to Liv and she, in turn, gets over all of her hangups about his hangups to really open up and talk to him.  Bout freaking time is all I can say there.  Liv and Ricky are really starting to learn more about their powers, how they work, and are coming into their own realizations of the legendary figures that they are the reincarnations of.  In all, I don't know how much this advanced the resolution of their reincarnated issues but it was a good installment in terms of character growth and development along with more playing in the world that has been created than previously which is always fun to read.


Page count: 416p/10,769p ytd/321,464p lifetime

43:100 The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin

Human habitations start out small, they turn into town, and then maybe into cities.  Once a city is big enough though, it must be born through the efforts a midwife who will sing it into being.  It's a sacred trust as there are forces out there that can't stand the thought of new life being created and will do everything possible to stop it and the midwives are few and do not always know their own power.

An interesting concept and world building short story.


Page count: 26p/10,353p ytd/321,048p lifetime

42:100 Blood Crime by Kim Harrison

The 2nd graphic novel giving us some backstory on Ivy and Rachel before we meet them in "Dead Witch Walking".  When your usual collars are two-bit, petty criminals it definitely seems strange when you start having several close calls with death while on a case but that is just what is happening to Ivy and Rachel.  Somebody is definitely trying to stop them and they need to figure out why before their luck runs out.

Always nice to get the backstory on favorite characters and this is definitely a fun medium for that.

Page count: 150p/10,327p ytd/321,202p lifetime

41:100 The Final Survey of Andrei Kreutzmann by Stefon Mears

Andrei is an explorer and surveyor.  He's just come across a planet that looks rich enough to set him up for the rest of his life, get his shipped spruced up, and he's hoping maybe even repair his relationship. 

And then he's ordered to do a suicide survey in the middle of an enemy fleet.  Some days it just doesn't pay to answer your comms.

A space-military short story.  Ok for what it was but not my taste in genre.


Page count: 20p/10,177p ytd/321,052p lifetime

40:100 On the Side by Seanan McGuire

The racists have won (hopefully temporarily) but for now, any culture other than what those people have deemed as "American" has been banned slowly but surely.  Clothes, cuisine, arts, anything that they don't feel is white-bred American is out.  Trying to stamp out the culture since they hadn't yet been able to actually stamp out the people themselves. Of course, that just means that it is hidden (and those white-bred racists don't get to enjoy it).  Enter in the covert food trucks like the one that Avi and Preeda run.  Buying forbidden ingredients to make forbidden dishes and bribing the police with free food (even if that food is technically illegal).  Maybe some day things will get better but in the meantime, you can still get a good curry if you know where to go.

A bleak outlook at the kind of America some people want and how much of our identity we stand to lose if these ideologies are taken to extremes.



Page count: 20p/10,157p ytd/321,032p lifetime

New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 3rd Quarter 2019

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.

Well, school is finally over for the kids and I'm now looking to my own schooling beginning as I start college classes this summer.  We will see what that ends up meaning for my reading time.  It shouldn't have a huge impact this summer and I'm almost caught up to where I should be for making most of my goals so here's hoping I can keep it up. 

Only a few books this quarter and mostly in series that I'm not caught up in but it starts with Reticence by Gail Carriger, the fourth book in the Custard Protocol series.  I've only read the first one so far and had a hard time getting into it which is probably why I've got the others sitting on my shelf not read but I've been so thrilled with Ms. Carriger's other series that I'm hoping that this will get better and Percy's story may be the one that really pushes it over if I can get through the other ones first.

Release date: August 6

Next up is another book that is the fourth in a series but of which I've only read the first one, Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews.  This is part of the Hidden Legacy series but the first one that doesn't have Nevada as the main voice of the story.  I read the first one and was intrigued by the world building but have just had so many other books to read (and that stupid life stuff) that this series got kind of pushed to the side but I'm really looking forward to finishing Nevada's arc and learning about Catalina.

Release date: August 27

Last up is the latest book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, The Unkindest Tide.  The Sea Witch is calling in Toby's favors as she goes to tell the Selkie that the time for them to pay up for their mistakes is at hand.  Toby has no choice but do as the Luidaeg demands and even though that is not a simple task, this is Toby so of course there is more going on with Dianda being taken prisoner and a Selkie woman stripped of her skin and then murdered.  I really can't wait to read this one!

Release date: September 3

39:100 Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Sally and Gillian Owens were orphaned at a young age and were sent to live with the aunts in a large house with few rules but teachings about plants and ancient lore.  The aunts were rumored to be witches and one night, a woman came to the backdoor and the girls, instead of going to their room as they were instructed, watched and learned that the rumors about their aunts were true.  Then they saw how the woman's deepest desire came true and the misery that came from it and they both determined that they would not get caught up in the mess.  Gillian ran away with a boy and went from boy to boy and from man to man, never able to settle down.  Sally found love, had two beautiful daughters, and then lost her love to the death beetle's curse. She broke down and moved away to live as normal a life as possible, far away from the aunts and everything they stood for.

And then Gillian came back and she was in trouble.  She had been living with a man who was evil in ways she was both attracted to and repelled by and now things had gone too far and he was dead and she was scared so she came to Sally to fix it.  But some things aren't so easily fixed and some times the dead don't rest so easily and that's when you need to call your aunts.

I really enjoyed the movie so when I found the book on Freecycle a few years ago, I grabbed it.  It's not quite what I was expecting as the feel is much darker than the movie and there were a lot of differences but it was enjoyable as it's own thing.


Page count: 244p/10,137p ytd/321,022 lifetime