Audiobook Review: Reticence by Gail Carriger (The Custard Protocol, #4)

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Dueling covers: US version

Bookish and proper Percival Tunstell finds himself out of his depth when floating cities, spirited plumbing, and soggy biscuits collide in this delightful conclusion to NYT bestselling author Gail Carriger’s The Custard Protocol series.

Percival Tunstell loves that his sister and her best friend are building themselves a family of misfits aboard their airship, The Spotted Custard. Of course, he’d never admit that he belongs among them. He’s always been on the outside — dispassionate, aloof, and hatless. But accidental spies, a trip to Japan, and one smart and beautiful doctor may have him renegotiating his whole philosophy on life.

Except hats. He’s done with hats. Thank you very much.

Reticence is a fun, enjoyable wrap-up to a delicious series. The Custard Protocol is four books of fluffy good times, as an odd crew of misfits and eccentrics set sail through the aether on their giant spotted dirigible, seeking danger and adventure all around the globe.

In Reticence, the last remaining unmatched member of the Spotted Custard’s officers finally meets his true love in the form of Dr. Arsenic Ruthven, a Scottish doctor whose no-nonsense approach and absolute devotion to learning and libraries secures her a spot in Percy’s antisocial little heart.

As Arsenic learns to love the crew and vice versa, they set off on a trip first to Egypt and then to Japan, seeking out more supernatural shapeshifters and a missing spy, and discovering all sorts of new and exciting mysteries to solve. With plenty of explosions, tea, and parasols along the way.

As the conclusion to both the Custard Protocol series and, it would appear, the Parasol-verse at large, Reticence features cameos by a who’s who of characters from all of the related books (including the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series). Because really, how could we possibly leave this amazing world without one more check-in with Alexia, Conall, Ivy, Lord Akeldama, not to mention Sophronia, Lady Kingair, and more?

Dueling covers: UK version

The adventure itself is fun, and seeing Percy lose his heart in the most awkward way possible is highly entertaining. With Percy at center stage, I did miss spending time with Rue and Quesnel, who are much more my favorites, and the wonderful character Tasherit spends most of this book literally asleep.

Once again, the audiobook is a total delight — so much so that I can’t imagine enjoying this series quite so much on the printed page. Narrator Moira Quirk is outstanding, giving each character a unique voice, capturing the silliness to perfection, and keeping the action sequences exciting and easy to follow.

I’m sorry to see the series come to a close. I know there are more related novellas in the works, but I do hope the esteemed Ms. Carriger decides to treat us to yet more full-length books (or, dare I suggest, four-book series?) set in this oh-so-special world. The Custard Protocol is a treat. Highly recommended.

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The details:

Title: Reticence (The Custard Protocol, #4)
Author: Gail Carriger
Narrator: Moira Quirk
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: August 6, 2019
Length (print): 339 pages
Length (audiobook): 12 hours, 21 minutes
Genre: Fantasy/steampunk
Source: Purchased

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11Sep2019

Shelf Control #182: Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots
Author: Seanan McGuire
Published: 2012
Length: 204 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Velveteen: How dare you? I never asked for you to hunt me down!

No, Velma Martinez hadn’t. But when you had once been Velveteen, child super-heroine and one of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, you were never going to be free, even if your only power was to bring toys to life. The Marketing Department would be sure of that.

So it all came down to this. One young woman and an army of misfit toys vs. the assembled might of the nine members of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division who had come to take her down.

They never had a chance.

Velveteen lives in a world of super-heroes and magic, where men can fly and where young girls can be abducted to the Autumn Land to save Halloween. Velma lives from paycheck to paycheck and copes with her broken-down car as she tries to escape from her old life.

It’s all the same world. It’s all real. And figuring out how to be both Velveteen and Velma is the biggest challenge of her life, because being super-human means you’re still human in the end.

Join us as award-winning author Seanan McGuire takes us through the first volume of Velveteen’s — and Velma’s — adventure.

How and when I got it:

My favorite local bookstore got a limited supply of the hardcover editions of the three books in the Velveteen series at some point last year… so of course I had to get them all!

Why I want to read it:

It’s Seanan McGuire! How could I not? When you have a favorite author, and when you’ve read everything available by that author except for three particular books, and when those three books basically fall into your hands… well, of course you’re going to want to read them. The story itself sounds quirky and offbeat and light-hearted, and I can’t wait to finally get started. Maybe I’ll set aside a long weekend (whenever I have one next) and see how much of the three books I can get through.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

9Sep2019

The Monday Check-In ~ 9/9/2019

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

Three more weeks in a cast! I’m ready to be done… but patience is a virtue.

Meanwhile, I entertained myself with a jigsaw puzzle — my first one in years! And naturally, it’s book-related:

But now all I have left are the white parts around the edge, and I really don’t want to deal. Can my completist nature allow me to just walk away? And hey, if you’re interested in this puzzle (which is really quite fun), you can find it here.

What did I read during the last week?

The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire. The newest Toby book! I loved it, of course. My review is here.

Reticence by Gail Carriger: The 4th and final book in the Custard Protocol series! I finished the audiobook — review to follow.

Pop Culture

My Veronica Mars rewatch/binge continues! After finishing season 1, I moved right along to season 2. I’m now 6 episodes into the 2nd season, and loving it all over again.

Fresh Catch:

What do you know? No new books this week! Which is good, since the new Margaret Atwood and Stephen King books will be released this week, and those should keep me plenty busy.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Ten Thousand Door of January by Alix E. Harrow: Just starting. What a gorgeous cover!

Now playing via audiobook:

Doing a quick audiobook re-read of Carry On, so I’ll be nice and ready for Wayward Son when it comes out later this month.

Ongoing reads:

Two ongoing book group read right now:

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens — To tell the truth, I’m always falling behind on the group read, mainly because this book just isn’t grabbing me. It was endearing at first, but now I just basically want it to end. And I still have about a third to go.
Virgins by Diana Gabaldon — I’ve read this novella a couple of times before, but it’s great fun to reread it with the group. We’ll be done by the end of the month.

So many books, so little time…

8Sep2019

Book Review: The Unkindest Tide (October Daye, book 13) by Seanan McGuire

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I am beyond thrilled to have received an ARC of the newest book in the amazing October Daye urban fantasy series. Thank you, NetGalley and DAW Books! I love this series just as much now, 13 books into it, as I did many books ago… maybe even more! October herself continues to grow and change as a character, and the big-picture story arcs continue to evolve in a way that moves Toby’s world in new, exciting directions, all the while keeping us in touch with the huge cast of characters and letting us see their ever-changing roles and lives.

Hundreds of years ago, the Selkies made a deal with the sea witch: they would have the sea for as long as she allowed it, and when the time came, she would call in all their debts at once. Many people assumed that day would never come. Those people were wrong.

When the Luidaeg—October “Toby” Daye’s oldest and most dangerous ally—tells her the time has come for the Selkies to fulfill their side of the bargain, and that Toby must be a part of the process, Toby can’t refuse. Literally. The Selkies aren’t the only ones in debt to the Luidaeg, and Toby has to pay what she owes like anyone else. They will travel to the fabled Duchy of Ships and call a convocation of the Selkies, telling them to come and meet the Luidaeg’s price…or face the consequences.

Of course, nothing is that simple. When Dianda Lorden’s brother appears to arrest Dianda for treason against the Undersea, when a Selkie woman is stripped of her skin and then murdered, when everything is falling apart, that’s when Toby will have to answer the real question of the hour.

Is she going to sink? Or is she going to swim?

This book! This story! Toby… Tybalt… the Luidaeg… Gillian…

Ugh, someone stop me before I become a totally incoherent, mumbling nincompoop.

I just love them all so much!

The Unkindest Tide is EXCELLENT. I love the plot and the character development. I really don’t want to give anything away here, so…

In this newest book, Toby is called upon to pay her debts to the Luidaeg by using her magic to fulfill the Luidaeg’s vow to the Selkies, to force the Selkies to answer for their ancestors’ long-ago crimes. The backstory of the Selkies and the Luidaeg’s relationship to them never fails to make me want to cry. The Luidaeg has been portrayed throughout the series as the scariest thing around, but over the course of these thirteen books, we’ve been able to also see her heart and her pain, and I love her to absolute pieces.

In terms of the plot, the gang gets together to travel to the Duchy of Ships, a sort of floating kingdom where the Selkies gather to learn of their fate. But there are other political forces at play, involving violence and intrigue and murder, and Toby has a limited amount of time to fix it all, save the day (yet again), and be back in time to carry out the Luidaeg’s plans.

The end result of all this is the beginning of a new chapter in the world of the fae. I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens next!

And yes, I really did love everything about this book, other than my ongoing annoyance with Gillian, who needs to stop being such a brat and start appreciating her mother. But hey, what kind of dramatic tension would we have if everyone got along perfectly?

I’ll wrap things up with a quote from the book, without providing any context, just because I love the writing and dialogue in this series so, so much.

Whatever. I’ve been mocked by better than a few octopus people…

A final note:

The Unkindest Tide includes a bonus novella, Hope is Swift, with Tybalt’s nephew Raj as the main character. It’s fun and affecting, and a nice bit of entertainment after the more intense subject matter of the main novel.

And, okay, a word from Raj, just for fun:

I don’t have my Uncle Tybalt’s skill with flowery, archaic declarations of love, a fact for which I’m genuinely grateful — sometime listening to him is like listening to the audio version of some dreadful period romance, the sort of thing where the men are constantly losing their shirts and all the women keep swooning at the shameful sight of their exposed pectorals.

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The details:

Title: The Unkindest Tide (October Daye, #13)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW Books
Publication date: September 3, 2019
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley

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4Sep2019

Shelf Control #181: The White Darkness by David Grann

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The White Darkness
Author: David Grann
Published: 2018
Length: 160 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon , a powerful true story of adventure and obsession in the Antarctic, lavishly illustrated with color photographs

Henry Worsley was a devoted husband and father and a decorated British special forces officer who believed in honor and sacrifice. He was also a man obsessed. He spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the nineteenth-century polar explorer, who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole, and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but he repeatedly rescued his men from certain death, and emerged as one of the greatest leaders in history.

Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. He was related to one of Shackleton’s men, Frank Worsley, and spent a fortune collecting artifacts from their epic treks across the continent. He modeled his military command on Shackleton’s legendary skills and was determined to measure his own powers of endurance against them. He would succeed where Shackleton had failed, in the most brutal landscape in the world.

In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton’s crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion, and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.

David Grann tells Worsley’s remarkable story with the intensity and power that have led him to be called “simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today.” Illustrated with more than fifty stunning photographs from Worsley’s and Shackleton’s journeys, The White Darkness is both a gorgeous keepsake volume and a spellbinding story of courage, love, and a man pushing himself to the extremes of human capacity.

How and when I got it:

I bought it last fall when it was released.

Why I want to read it:

David Grann is the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, which is one of those exceptional types of non-fiction books that read like a novel. Naturally, when I saw that he was releasing a new book, I had to have it. The subject matter sounds amazing. I’m definitely fascinated by Antarctica and the certain type of obsession it takes to explore there, and I always love a good survival story, so this book appeals to me in a lot of different ways. It’s a small, slim hardcover, with glossy photos, and looks like it’ll be a great read once I finally sit down with it!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

2Sep2019

The Monday Check-In ~ 9/2/2019

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Life.

On the road to recovery! I’m adjusting to life in a cast — which is good, since I’ll be wearing it through the end of September. I’ve even bought myself a few cute cast covers, (a) to keep it clean and (b) to make wearing it a bit more fun. Here’s an example:

It feels like it’s been a slower reading week, probably because I went back to work and couldn’t spend quite as much time with my nose in a book!

What did I read during the last week?

The Warehouse by Rob Hart: Fun, not as dark as I’d expected. My review is here.

Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal: A really enjoyable short story collection. My review is here.

I finished my audiobook re-read of Night and Silence, the 12th book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire — and adored it just as much the 2nd time around as I did the first time I read it. My original review is here.

Pop Culture

After watching the newest season of Veronica Mars, I wanted more (despite that ending…), so I’ve gone back to the beginning and am slowly working my way through season 1. The actors/characters are all so adorable and baby-faced!

Fresh Catch:

I picked up used copies of two non-fiction books this week:

Scatter, Adapt, and Remember was referenced in Wanderers by Chuck Wendig, and how could I possibly resist? It sounds fascinating! The San Francisco book is written by an author who writes a great weekly column on SF history, and I thought it was about time to give his book a try.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire: It’s the new Toby book!!! I’m so flipping excited to be reading this.

Now playing via audiobook:

Even though I bought a hardcover copy of this book, I decided to listen to it instead, since I’ve loved the other audiobooks in the series. I just started it this weekend, but I’m loving it so far.

Ongoing reads:

Two ongoing book group read right now:

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Virgins by Diana Gabaldon

So many books, so little time…

1Sep2019

Word Puppets: A collection of short stories by Mary Robinette Kowal

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Celebrated as the author of five acclaimed historical fantasy novels in the Glamourist series, Mary Robinette Kowal is also well known as an award-winning author of short science fiction and fantasy. Her stories encompass a wide range of themes, a covey of indelible characters, and settings that span from Earth’s past to its near and far futures as well as even farther futures beyond. Alternative history, fairy tales, adventure, fables, science fiction (both hard and soft), fantasy (both epic and cozy)—nothing is beyond the reach of her unique talent. WORD PUPPETS—the first comprehensive collection of Kowal’s extraordinary fiction-includes her two Hugo-winning stories, a Hugo nominee, an original story set in the world of “The Lady Astronaut of Mars,” and fourteen other show-stopping tales.

Talk about a fascinating author! Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Hugo-winning novel The Calculating Stars (one of my all-time faves) as well as other works. She’s also a highly gifted audiobook narrator (narrating, among other books, the October Daye series and other works by Seanan McGuire). And on top of all that, she’s a professional puppeteer! Yes, a puppeteer. So yeah, given her eclectic talents and interests, I’m not at all surprised that this collection of short stories is varied, unusual, and very, very entertaining.

Eighteen of the nineteen stories in Word Puppets were originally published elsewhere and featured in various anthologies and other publications, with one story (set in the Lady Astronaut world) original to this collection. The publication dates for the stories range between 2005 and 2015.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection (which is shocking for me, since I usually have an aversion to short stories). Of the stories included in Word Puppets, I strongly preferred the ones leaning more toward science fiction and speculative fiction rather than the stories I’d classify as fantasy.

My particular favorites:

Chrysalis: About an alien race for whom adulthood means the end of serious study, as they metamorphose from larvae to beautiful winged creatures, but leave their scholarship and ambitions in the past.

Rampion: A short but powerful take on the Rapunzel story.

Clockwork Chickadee: About some devious and tricky mechanical animals.

Body Language: A really clever kidnapping/heist story, in which an expert puppeteer works with a gifted AI to save the day. (So awesome!)

Waiting for Rain: A vineyard owner in India deals with family obligations and honor while trying to cope with the financial struggles of having to subscribe to controllable weather.

First Flight: A 105-year-old woman is assigned a time travel task, and uses it to change history.

Evil Robot Monkey: Very short, very good, very surprising.

For Solo Cello, op 12: Wow, this one was great! About a concert cellist, an awful injury, and the even more awful way he might be able to heal.

The White Phoenix Feather: Talk about adventures in dining! This is an action story about a woman who provides dangerous dining experiences to those who can pay. Full of flying dinner knives and hurled soup and flaming baguettes.

Finally, the last three stories are all set within the world of The Calculating Stars:

We Interrupt This Broadcast: This story offers a possible explanation for the events in The Calculating Stars, and it’s frankly creepy. I’m choosing to interpret this story as an early version of events that the author eventually decided didn’t work in the context of the larger series, because otherwise I find it too upsetting.

Rockets Red: A fun interlude on Mars!

The Lady Astronaut of Mars: The story that started it all! I read this story when it was first published on the Tor website in 2013, and absolutely loved it — which is why I was thrilled to death when the author ended up expanding this world into the Lady Astronaut series. This story works as a stand-alone, set decades after the events of The Calculating Stars, and provides a different take on Elma and Nathaniel and the space program. (Fun note: This story was originally written as part of the audiobook collection Rip-off!, in which an assortment of sci-fi authors wrote new stories using the first lines of classic books as a starting point. The Lady Astronaut of Mars begins with the opening line of The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.)

All of the stories in Word Puppets are great, in my humble opinion! If you enjoy Mary Robinette Kowal’s writing, or even if you’ve never read her before, give this collection a try. The stories all stand on their own, so if you’re like me and are generally reluctant to commit to reading a book of short stories start to finish, Word Puppets is a nice choice to keep on your nightstand and dip in and out of whenever you feel like reading a story in 15 minutes or less!

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The details:

Title: Word Puppets
Authors: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: Prime Books
Publication date: November 19, 2015
Length: 319 pages
Genre: Short stories/Science fiction/Fantasy
Source: Purchased

28Aug2019

Shelf Control #180: The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Seduction of Water
Author: Carol Goodman
Published: 2003
Length: 400 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Iris Greenfeder, ABD (All But Dissertation), feels the “buts” are taking over her life: all but published, all but a professor, all but married. Yet the sudden impulse to write a story about her mother, Katherine Morrissey, leads to a shot at literary success. The piece recounts an eerie Irish fairy tale her mother used to tell her at bedtime—and nestled inside it is the sad story of her death. It captures the attention of her mother’s former literary agent, who is convinced that Katherine wrote one final manuscript before her strange, untimely end in a fire thirty years ago. So Iris goes back to the remote Hotel Equinox in the Catskills, the place where she grew up, to write her mother’s biography and search for the missing manuscript—and there she unravels a haunting mystery, one that holds more secrets than she ever expected. . . .

How and when I got it:

I have no idea! But it’s a pretty safe bet that I picked it up at a library sale at some point.

Why I want to read it:

Considering I’d forgotten I even had this book, I’m not sure why I originally grabbed it… but I do know I’ve heard good things about the author, and I like the sound of the plot. I like that an old fairy tale might hold clues to a mystery, and I’m curious to see how it all unfolds.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

26Aug2019

Take A Peek Book Review: The Warehouse by Rob Hart

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

“Take a Peek” book reviews are short and (possibly) sweet, keeping the commentary brief and providing a little peek at what the book’s about and what I thought.

Synopsis:

(via Goodreads)

Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities.

But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices, and vast warehouses…well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering.

Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him.

As the truth about Cloud unfolds, Zinnia must gamble everything on a desperate scheme—one that risks both their lives, even as it forces Paxton to question everything about the world he’s so carefully assembled here.

Together, they’ll learn just how far the company will go…to make the world a better place.

Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that’s at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business–and who will pay the ultimate price.

My Thoughts:

Hmm. The synopsis gives the impression that this is a much darker read than it really is. I experienced The Warehouse as a more of a satire than a thriller, for the most part. In The Warehouse, Cloud is everything, and has basically taken over much of what we might consider normal life, including privatizing government agencies such as the FAA and creating their own energy sources. No matter what you want, Cloud can provide, and Cloud seems to be the only source of steady employment left in the US — providing not only a paycheck, but also housing, access to material goods, and even to rare commodities such as hamburgers.

Of course, there’s a price, like a total lack of privacy, having every move tracked, having performance rated in real-time, and having no say over work assignments — not to mention an economic set-up that’s like a throw-back to the days when workers owed their souls to the company store.

We get to know Cloud through the experiences of Paxton and Zinnia, two new employees learning the ropes, each with their own agenda, as well as through the blog entries of Gibson Wells, Cloud’s multi-billionaire founder and CEO, now ailing and attempting to create a record of his legacy before his death.

The plot moves along quickly, but I didn’t altogether connect with the book as a whole. I wasn’t particularly interested in Paxton or Zinnia as individuals, and while the inner workings of Cloud were interesting and disturbing, the book’s uneven tone (is it dark? is it dark humor? is it a thriller?) left me mostly unengaged. I should probably mention that a particular reveal made me want to hurl… but hey, maybe you have a stronger stomach than I do!

Overall, The Warehouse is an entertaining read, but without the solid impact I’d been expecting.

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: The Warehouse
Author: Rob Hart
Publisher: Crown
Publication date: August 20, 2019
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley

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26Aug2019

The Monday Check-In ~ 8/26/2019

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Life.

I’m still in my big, bulky splint — soon to be replaced by a hard cast for another month. I’m adapting, but my typing is still slow, awkward, and full of annoying typos.

**Random question: Has anyone tried a split keyboard? I’m wondering if this might be a possible improvement for me.

Please forgive me for not commenting on more of your blog posts! I’m “liking” as much as I can, but I find actually typing responses is really tiring.

And I realize that overall I’m blessed with good health and feel a bit guilty complaining about a temporary situation… I’m trying my best to grin and bear it without getting too whiny!

What did I read during the last week?

New reviews — I wrote a two-in-one review for these two incredible, powerful books:

Our War by Craig DiLouie
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

I also read the graphic novel version of The Handmaid’s Tale, which was stunning and beautiful. There’s no substitute for reading Margaret Atwood’s original novel, but this is a worthy, well-done companion. The artwork is a visual treat — as with the TV series, the use of color is powerful and evocative. Highly recommended.

Pop Culture

Anyone else watching Four Weddings and a Funeral on Hulu? I binged seven episodes over the weekend — such fun!