A Glimpse into my mind

My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When the 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge had a category of "choose your own adventure", I was not sure what I was going to do for the topic. But then I heard of "My Lady's Choosing", and being a not so closeted fan of well written Regency Romance, I knew I just had to.

In this book you are the heroine of the story and find yourself working as a lady's companion for a mean and spiteful dowager of a prominent family of London Society. At one party of the Season, you are given opportunities to change your fate. Do you run off with your employer's mysterious and dark nephew? The dashing man from the Scottish Highlands, or perhaps travel to Egypt with your employer's headstrong and independent niece?

Each branch brings to life a very strong and different Trope of the genre. I laughed my way through this book because the tropes were SOOOOOOOOOOOO obvious and ridiculous to be hysterical. The purple prose brought fits of laughter.

If you are a fan of Regency Romances and enjoy books that do not take themselves seriously, I really recommend this book.



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Art Of War by Sun Tzu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a book that has been on my TBR list for ages and several years ago I was gifted a copy for my birthday. I finally sat down and read it.

This is a book that I honestly think should be required reading for everyone, not just military. There are things in it, that while in the modern age are rather obvious and self-evident, can help with just about any situation. This is also a good book for business minded people.

I don't know what more I can say about it other than I'm sorry I waited until I was in my mid-40's to read it.



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Kittens Can Kill by Clea Simon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Actually a 2.5 but goodreads won't let me do half stars and it wasn't so bad it needed to round down.

This is the only Pru Marlowe book I've read (having picked it up at a used book sale because of the title). Honestly, you don't need to have read the first 4.

Pru is an animal behaviorist... sorta. More of a woman who walks dogs, helps pets get settled into new homes, deals with ousting nuisance animals. But she's able to have a "way with animals" because she's able to hear their thoughts. (yeah I know)

She gets called to help one of the bigwigs of her town settle in a new kitten. When she arrives, she find the man dead. She then gets embroiled in the dispute between the man's three adult daughters over the estate, who killed him and all that.

Frankly, I found there was very little redeemable about Pru. She drinks too much, is rather mean and rude to her love interests, does not seem to have an empathetic bone in her body and doesn't treat the animals with the care and such that I expect someone who does what she does for a living with her abilities to do.

Cannot say I will be looking for any others in this series or others by the author.



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Sugar and Iced by Jenn McKinlay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Mel owns a cupcake shoppe that she operates with her two best friends. She's hired to provide cupcakes every day for a beauty pageant taking place. Lupe, the girlfriend of one of Mel's employees, is goodnaturedly strong-armed into participating in the contest by Mel's mother. Lupe agrees because the grand prize is full 4-year scholarship to any college she wants and Lupe cannot afford to attend school if she doesn't win.

At the pageant, one of the judges lowballs Lupe for scores of the interview portion and things get heated, with Lupe coming to Mel's mother's defense. It only gets worse when that judge is found dead the next day, strangled with a pageant sash.

Mel gets drawn into the investigation trying to help Lupe clear her name and continue with the pageant. It doesn't help that Mel is also being pursued romantically by three different men (number one her Mother adores, number two is one of investigating detectives, and number three is a defense attorney).

This is book 6 of a series and I cannot say that I think I missed much by not reading the previous 5 books. This would classify as a cozy romantic murder mystery. I don't think it was great, but I did not hate it and do not regret reading it. But I do not think I will be actively looking for more in this series. This series, and books like it have a distinct reader base, and I am just not generally part of that base.

If you like cozy mysteries, you would probably like this one too.



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My Dad Wrote a Porno: The fully annotated edition of Rocky Flintstone's Belinda Blinked by Jamie Morton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For the actual story/writing/lack of punctuation = 1 star
For the ongoing commentary through the annotation = 5 stars

Oh my dear sweet ... what the &*(&?!?

I have been a fan of the podcast since Season One. The premise: Jamie's retired father asked him to read over a story he self-published called "Belinda Blinked". Little did Jamie realize that the story was a work of atrocious erotica that just barely avoids the "PWP" (Plot, What Plot) categorization of erotic literature.

Belinda is the newly hired Director of Sales for Steeles Pots and Pans. And this entire book takes place in maybe the course of a week where she loses her clothes without a second thought, boinking anybody who would stand still (or not she's not picky).

Not only is the premise horrible, but Rocky Flintstone (the pseudonym Jamie's father is writing under) has no grasp of proof-reading, editing or human anatomy for that matter. Long, run-on sentences, punctuation that is placed randomly, and sexual acts that are just NOT POSSIBLE.

The only thing that saves it all is the annotations that Jamie and his friends make throughout the entire book. Having listened to 4 seasons of the podcast (each season is a new book in the series) I can tell which of the commenters wrote what notes.

The notes, comments, cultural and linguistic insights that are made throughout the book had me laughing out loud so much that at one point I thought I was going to pull a muscle. There are just some things that you cannot get across in the spoken form because, as Jamie reads the book in the podcast, he natural adds things like periods and commas where they belong. You don't see the semi-colon just hanging out there, backwards elipses for no reason, lack of quotation marks, etc.

In short, had I stumbled upon Belinda Blinked 1, as an e-book, I would not have made it past the title of the first chapter, let along be engrossed enough to be waiting for Chapter 2 of book 5.

If you are a fan of the podcast (and if you are not, why not? It's hysterical) you will like this version of book one.



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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow. Just Wow. This is book will be added to the list of ones I name when asked for a book recommendation. Especially an audiobook recommendation as Angela Brazil's reading just brought this poignant and touching story of these women to life.

I had heard some things about The Radium Girls (the young ladies hired by various companies to paint dial faces with luminous paint containing radium - all encouraged to use their lips to form perfect points on their brushes), but until this book I had no idea the true suffering they endured, not to mention the groundbreaking work they did in the legal system that ended up creating such things as OSHA and revision and workers comp law.

I was moved by so much of this story and found myself looking for any excuse to turn the audiobook back on just so I could keep going.

HIGHLY recommend.



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I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I always forget how much I have a secret love of true crime books until I read another one. Especially serial killers. And this one was no exception.

I admit that I knew next to nothing about the Golden State Killer other than he was a serial killer. This book was a very interesting take on the usual True Crime genre because at the time, he had not been caught and this book is more about the author's almost obsession on following leads and helping to find him. I actually found myself feeling sad for the fact that the author died before knowing that the work she did helped police finally track a suspect down.

It is amazing how far forensic science has come in the last 40 years. I was alive when the GDK struck on a different coast, but I was too young to know and listening to the book I kept having to remind myself that this all happened before there was the technology to run genetic testing, profiling was not as strong as it is now, information is not as rapidly shared among jurisdictions.

If you are into True Crime/Serial Killers and/or Rapists, I highly recommend this book.



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Storm Front by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


I first read this book when it came out in 2000. I knew Jim through a elist that we were both on for a different author's fans and he had mentioned that he was publishing his first novel. I picked it up to support an "online friend" and have been hooked on the world of Harry Dresden since.

I now read and/or listen to then entire series at least once a year. To be honest, being the first book in a series and the introduction of a new world so to speak (it takes place in modern Chicago but there's a lot of world building that still happens), the pace it a bit slow, but I personally don't care because I just love Jim's writing and the worlds he creates.

I'm constantly trying to get people to try this series and join me in the Dresdenverse.



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Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have heard really good things about this series and was happy to find that what I heard was correct. If you like the Dresden Files, I believe you would like this series as well. A wonderful combination of Urban Fantasy, Police Mystery and maybe a touch of Noir.

I think what made this book even better was the reading of the book by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. He very much brought the character of Peter Grant to life for me and made me want to keep returning to the book.

I have every intention of returning to this world again.



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I say "something new" as it was published this year.

Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I finished the book. I can't say I disliked it, but I can't really say I liked it either. When it was done I was rather... meh about it.

What I did like... it was a story of Abraham Lincoln we very rarely see... his twenties, before he married, before becoming more than just a country lawyer who did not see much in putting on aires and dealing with social graces. This book is told from two very distinct points of view... Mary Todd, the young woman who sets her sights on Lincoln and the ordeals she had to endure of his social backwardness and sometimes down right unintentional rudeness; the other Joshua Speed, the man with whom Lincoln forms a close friendship with and helps him navigate proper society.

What I didn't like... there were times that it was just down right boring. There was hint and inuendo of more than friendship between Lincoln and Speed, at least on Speed's side of things. But nothing said. Almost like the author was afraid to say it. Now some research has shown that there is speculation that there was more than a good friendship between the two, but I really disliked the veiled hints and innuendos. The jealousy Speed seems to feel when things become serious between Lincoln and Mary just felt forced because there was nothing straight forward about it.

It was a nice take on history, and the two readers were really good (though if Lincoln was supposed to be in his twenties/thirties, I wish neither of them had done his voice to sound like he was sixty but at least they were consistent between them).

I can't say I'd recommend this book, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it either.



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