'Salvage the Bones' review

Title: Salvage the Bones

Author: Jesmyn Ward (narrator: Cherise Boothe)

Pages: 261
Format: Audiobook

Published: August 30, 2011

Rating: ★★★★ (out of five)

I first heard about this book and put the audiobook version on hold back in September of 2019... I finally got the notification that I'd gotten it May 10th, 2020. I have NO idea why it took the library so long - there were 50+ copies and you're not able to renew - but I'm glad to have finally got it. Cherise Boothe did a great job as narrator and it elevated the whole thing.

June Wrap-Up 2020 + July Goals

I think the theme for 2020 is going to be 'it's been rough' because, again, June was rough.

Pile o'notebooks & coffee sustenance 

I just started my old job again. Things are slow as everything is trying to pick up. I've seen no evidence of this, but I'm told it has. My biggest worry is getting laid off again since COVID-19 has spiked, again, and that was the reason I was laid off the first time. We'll see.

'Are You In?' Netgalley review

Received free copy on netgalley for an honest review.

screenshot from my review on Litsy

Title: Are You In? (Powerhouse #1)
Author: P.W. Steele
Page Count: 63pgs
Publish Date: April 1st 2020
Rating: ★★ (out of five)

This isn't typically my genre, but I wanted something short and sweet and figured why not? The description did draw me in, the gym setting seemed interesting. I like that Andy felt he was too small, which isn't something I've seen before. Seeing him struggle with the body dysmorphia would've been a cool addition except it seemed to go away rather quickly at the hot guys' attention.

Day 08 - Star #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here.

The eight and last prompt for the Book Review Blog Challenge hosted by Ann over at Great New Reads is star. So, I chose, for having star in the name, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry as suggested by Miss Camila on her post for the third prompt of this challenge, Golden Classics. I realized I hadn't read the book and saw the hold time for the audiobook at my local library wasn't very long... so I went ahead and got it. It only took a little over two hours to finish it on the morning of May 8th.

'The Girl and the Stars' ARC review

I got this ARC for review from Berkley and Penguin Random House - thank you!

Picture of The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence

Set in the same world as the Book of the Ancestor trilogy, The Girl and the Stars tells the story of Yaz, a girl with unique powers in a very inhospitable environment - above and below the seemingly never ending ice.

This story had an absolutely breakneck pace that took some time to get used to. Things just happened and happened without much breathing room. Yaz was an enjoyable narrator and handled all the craziness much better than I would've lol ... really, there's not a whole lot I can go into about this without there being spoilers. I in particular really liked Erris, too. Hope to see more of him in the second book, which looks like it's going to be coming out April 2021.

I gave this four out of five stars and look forward to looking to Lawrence's other books (especially Red Sister) while I wait for the rest of this trilogy.

I'm also sharing this copy with a reading group, and will have additional thoughts in 3-4 months or so. Will link everything there and here whenever that happens. Probably with an updated copy as this book travels across the country to three other people before getting back to me (hopefully - lol).

Arcs

OK, I'm bad at reading these, but sure are quick to ask for them. So one of my goals for this year was to read (some of them long overdue) all the arcs or otherwise free books I've been sent for review. I'm reading two right now, on and off (one I'm having a hard time getting into), but they're not priority compared to the book swap read that I was supposed to have done and sent off by the end of this month though that's likely not going to happen. This one is also an arc, so two bird one stone right? Ahem.

I guess I'm just going to list them here and will cross off/link when done. With the libraries closed for now, I have very few books that need read immediately, so hopefully I can jump on this? I'm going to list from the oldest to newest to the best of my knowledge.

Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys
Woman No 17 by Edan Lepucki
The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
The Last of the Stanfields by Marc Levy (translator Daniel Wasserman)
American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by KAte Winkler Dawson (current read)
The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence (review)
Mermaid Moon by Susann Cokal
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman
A Pale Light in the Black by K.B. Wagers
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles
Stolen by Shadows by Evelyn Avery

I also have about 15 or so that were gifts that I don't necessarily want to include on this list, but would really like to try and get to if I can get all these read soonish. This ties into my spring cleaning as I'm wanting to try and get as many of my physical books read so I can determine if I want to keep or purge. I have so many books and a vast majority of them sit pretty, collecting dust, unread. Also, I'd be nice if at some point in the future, I'm able to not have 10+ boxes of books while moving. Not that we're planning on moving, but positive thoughts?

Anyway, if I receive anymore, I'll add them to this.

March 2020 Wrap-Up + April Goals

This month has been absolutely chaotic between the oldest's school being cancelled for basically forever (I think the tentative date back right now is April 28th?), other shutdowns (libraries, bookstores are my most upsetting ones - especially the ones that may not come back after all this starts getting better),  and my job's hours being reduced before me ultimately getting temporarily laid off (I spoke to our HR gal and she's assured me they'll call all of us back - we'll see). I've had to nativagate filing for unemployment for the first time in my life, avoid people more than usual (because certain people I live with either can't or won't). I've been trying to support as locally as I can, but it's going to start getting tough if the other earners in the apartment get laid off as well.

So of my goals I set in February, I've solidly finished two. I got everything for my book swap and got the box sent out, luckily before the post office closed (currently, it's still open, but a lot of the other folks in the swap have been talking about theirs being closed, so I doubt everyone's going to get their box when they're supposed to). I spoke with the person that's supposed to send me my swap and I likely will fall into that 'get it later' category. That's ok. The world is crazy right now.

I also posted about Twelve Nights at Rotter House. See that here. My goal about that book club was only really half completed as there's no longer going to be face-to-face meetings and I haven't heard of a virtual one for horror group yet. But I got The Exorcist and listen/read it and also watched the movie. See that here.

I've been chugging away at The Girls and The Stars and while it is so fast paced and interesting, I think it's also bogging me down at bit with how breakneck it is and the world building is just so vast. It's lovely, but it's taking me longer to complete than expected. I may not get it out to the next in line before I get the one sent to me.

Have been social distancing and haven't been able to get out to do any magnet fishing. I think technically we can, so long as we stay away from anyone else, but the motivation to do things like that with everyone is slim. I also wrote next to nothing besides a few notes and scenes over the course of the month.

The chaotic-ness of me trying to get any work done (piles of notebooks, books, cords, and my laptop)

All those people saying that this time of being cooped up should be time everyone should be working on their creative endeavors obviously hasn't had a houseful of kids and paranoid people, with an endless barrage of bad news on their phone, and stress shutting off every creative synapses in their brain. I've been an almost useless puddle of goo.

I finished three books.

The Exorcist, obviously. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated by Gunny Tapley Takemori), which was a quick and entertaining palate cleanser. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, which I listened to it narrated by him and it was a little bittersweet. I miss seeing the man travel around to interesting places and eat interesting things.

Anyway, I'm not going to give my self any strict April goals as I got a feeling it's going to be just a ridiculous as March.

• Finish a book
• Write anything at all
• Try not to be on social media 24-7

'Twelve Nights at Rotter House' review

Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker (published in October 2019) is his first adult fiction book. Mostly, he's written travelogues about horror locations and history, so not a huge surprise that the main character of this, Felix, is also a horror travelogue author. I got this for my horror book club, but didn't finish it in time for the meet, which is disappointing as I had some things to say.

The premise of this one is that Felix, not a believer of ghosts, convinces the owner of Rotter House to let him stay alone for 13 days for a book. Immediately, you know things are going to go wrong seeing as the book is twelve days, but alas. The first couple of chapters detail him exploring the abandoned, ramshackled house and have some eerie moments. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he's joined by his friend Thomas. There's some tension between the two of them as they haven't spoken in over a year due to some falling out that isn't mentioned for some time. Both are horror junkies, though Thomas believes in ghosts/supernatural stuff, and it goes from there.

pictured is 'Twelve Nights at Rotter House' by J.W. Ocker

So, my biggest issue with this had to do (besides the ending) with pacing. It dragged so much, separated by days where much of the time nothing happens except the two men having long conversations about their history and horror stuff. It seemed to delve more into a drama than a horror/haunted house. Sometime after the halfway point it starts to pickup and dive headfirst into crazy town.

At this point, I could not put the book down as the tension between the two is revealed and some of the hauntings feel very personal. And then the ending, which threw me for a complete loop and made me angrily shut the book. I do not like endings like that.

For what it's worth, it did had some creepy parts and the horror trivia was fun, but I ultimately dropped the star rating from a four to a three after mulling on it for a couple of days. I'd suggest it for haunted house fans, but I guess be warned there's a twist ending.

'The Exorcist' review (book + movie)

I picked this up as my local bookstore was reading it for horror bookclub (it was rescheduled to April and then outright cancelled. I think they're going to try to do an online meetup, but we'll see). I heard from tons a folks that it was really scary and honestly, it wasn't.

I think it said a lot about gender and cultural norms and mental health (probably not intentionally in some cases) and overall I found it interesting. It was gross and perverse and though it had tons of scenes of research... we never got an explanation as to how Regan got possessed.

I have two theories. I haven't done any research into what people are thinking and I know there's a sequel but I haven't looked into it so no clue if it delves into it. So, first... she didn't close the ouija board. It was such a minor thing though and wasn't spoken about again once Regan started to really go off the deep end, but maybe? I mean, ouija is bullshit, but in the realm of possessions and such, it could be a possibility.

OR it's all just a visceral allegory. Regan is hitting preteen age and going through puberty. I've heard somewhere that some people think that during that time you're open to possession, but I think it's more simple than that. Just an ew, yucky thing. I mean, the possession could've been scary and apart from a few creepy moments, the entirety of it is just sexual. She asks people to fuck her, she masturbates, sometimes violently. A good chunk of her insults to taunt the priests are sexual in nature. For a seventies crowd, that is horrifying seeing a young girl talk/act that way. Overall, girls don't do that. People still feel that way now, to an extent.

Another thing I was annoyed with was Chris' atheism and how it wasn't really explored well in my opinion. She comes off as dumb and a bit of a floozy and it sort of felt like victim blaming at times - a 'where's the father, your broken home caused this' or 'well, your lack of belief brought this demon into your house' sorta thing. I would've liked the utter horror at finding very convincing evidence that there's something else, more. But she just kinda cowtails. I do appreciate that they explored every avenue of health/mental health before even suggesting such a thing, especially consider this was set/written during the time where women were basically doped up on tranquilizers to be "normal" and there was no real exploration beyond that.  Tranquilizers are used quite often in both book and movie.

I also watched the movie. It was good, the practical affects were really interest to try and figure out (and in some cases, google - looking at you cold breath). I think they were trying to lean more into Karras' crisis of faith and everything with his mother, but it didn't come through as strongly as in the book and so that final scene I think wasn't as potent. I also found the pacing to be... bad. We don't get to see Regan slowly descend, she just IS one day and there really was no build up. I think that was the probably, as a mother, the creepiest thing while reading - thinking about these little things adding up to a child who I don't recognize anymore and nobody knows how to help.

For what it was, it is a masterpiece of horror literature/film, an entire genre of horror films wouldn't exist without it and overall, I'm glad for the experience.

January 2020 Wrap Up (w/some Feb goals)

Books Completed:

Storm Front - Jim Butcher (finished Jan. 05) review here

Guts - Raina Telgemeier (finished Jan. 11) 4 out of 5 stars, read because my oldest daughter gave it to me to read after she did. She has all her graphic novels and has liked them all. They're pretty good books!

Monstress Vol. 4: The Chosen - Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (finished Jan. 29) 4 out of 5 stars, this entire series has been interesting and beautiful, so far. Pretty great world building, too!

The Wives - Tarryn Fisher (finished Jan. 20) 2 out of 5 stars. I have a bone to pick with this book. It was seriously terrible. I may just dedicate a review post to it, but we'll see. (If I decide to, I'll link it here, too.)

I won a book (The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence) and recieved a book I won back in December (American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson). Both are have jumped up the immediate TBR pile (behind Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer, the bookclub horror pick for February: Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker, and my current reads).

picture of My Grandma and Me by Mina Javaherbin

Books Read With bb: 11 (plus plenty of rereads)

Her faves of the month:

First Numbers by Tony Mitten and Ant Parker & 12 Lucky Animals by Vickie Lee and Joey Chou (her Chinese zodiac is the dog!)

One of the picture books I read to the bb,  My Grandma and Me by Mina Javaherbin and Lindsey Yankey, completed 3 prompts for 3 different challenges I'm loosely working on. It was a pretty book and sweet.

January was rough for reading. Haven't gotten into the swing of this new year and new schedules so, especially audiobooks, reading has been all over the place. Also, all of my adult reads last month were just.. bad with the exception of one and current reads (though Just Mercy is upsetting in a different kinda way).

Here's hoping February is better! Loose TBR for February is: finish up Just Mercy (physical book for nonfic bookclub), The Princess Beard by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (audiobook), Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer (physical library borrow I've /patiently/ awaited), Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker (physical book for horror bookclub), American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson (physical copy for review), and probably a few chapters of The Way of Kings.

Other Unnecessary Stats:
Active TV shows: Grimm S5E9, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina S3E4, The Great British Pottery Throw Down S3E3
Movies watched: The Witch ****, Paranormal Activity 2 ***, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ***
Video games playing: Dragon Age: Inquisition (3rd replay, on hard) and picked up No Man's Sky again