I refuse to believe we’re on Part Two on Whatcha Reading this month! HOW? WHEN? WHY?!
Either way, here is what we’ve been reading in preparation for December!
Catherine: I just finished The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) This is the most recent novel in her Invisible Library series, and it’s fantastic – a funny, clever heist story, full of twists and turns and dragon politics. Highly recommended (but you should probably start with the first book in the series).
Right before that, I read and loved Talia Hibbert’s novel, A Girl Like Her ( A | BN | K | AB ), which is sweet and moving and funny and occasionally enraging (for the right reasons), and also Can’t Escape Love by Alyssa Cole ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which has escape rooms and unashamed geekiness and a great, snarky, disabled heroine, and which I absolutely adored, so I’m having a really good week, reading-wise.
Sneezy: My ADHD brain has me scampering everywhere like a squirrel right now, so I’m bouncing between several books. It’s mostly an even split between The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai (FIIIIINALLYYYYYY, THE HOLD LINE WAS SO LOOOOONG), A Convenient Marriage by Jeevani Charika ( A ), and All Blood Runs Red by Phil Keith and Tom Clavin.
When I first read the synopsis of All Blood Runs Red, I thought Eugene Bullard, who the biography is about, sounded like he could be the basis of one or three of Beverly Jenkin’s heros. So far nothing in the book has dissuaded me from this feeling, even though romance didn’t really work out for him. There are some dudisms in the biography that makes me grumble, because I feel like there are some information about the world wars or the people involved in them that didn’t need to be there. Sometimes they give great context, and loops immediately back to how these things or people matter to Bullard, sometimes it’s just a geek out.
And look, I’m all for a geek out, BUT WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH MY BOY, WTF DON’T LEAVE ME HANGING. And yes, all the bits I felt like were extraneous felt SO DRY. But MAYBE these people turn out to Bullard’s friends or which ever battle they’re waxing poetry about DOES affect Bullard, so I can’t just SKIP. ARGH
Anyway, the title of the biography is actually lifted from Bullard’s AUTObiography that was never published. While the authors did apparently do a lot of leg work trying verify Bullard’s account of his life, I still wish they didn’t take his title, and Bullard’s autobiography could be published, warts and all.
Tara: I, too, am bouncing between a bunch of books. And yet, even though they’re all great, I’m not reading any of them right now because I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole of Rory/Paris Gilmore Girls fanfic, despite that not being one of my usual fandoms. I’ll probably climb out of it by tomorrow and will pick back up with Alone by E.J. Noyes. It’s a first person story about a woman who’s in a research study for life off Earth, which means she’s being paid a buttload of money to live in total isolation for 3+ years. At some point, someone will stumble on the property where she’s at, but that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m very curious to see how that relationship goes because I think this is supposed to be a romance.
Shana: I’m currently reading Not Since You by Fiona Riley, ( A | BN | K | AB ) a low-angst second chance f/f between a cruise ship bartender and her first love, a graphic designer who just happens to be a guest on the ship. However, the pace makes Mary Balogh’s books look frenetic—and I love Balogh, to be clear. I’ve started looking longingly at my recently arrived preorder of A Second Chance Road Trip for Christmas by Jackie Lau. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s a novella, so it probably doesn’t count as cheating if I just pop over and read it quickly.
Lara: I have just finished Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters and it makes me feel the same feelings I did after watching One Fine Day and Two Weeks Notice. Good Book Noise!
Kiki: I am ALSO bouncing around a lot of stuff and it’s all been really excellent!
I’m listening to Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is this wonderfully expansive critique of capitalist and technology-determined definitions of productivity and how it consumes our time, bodies, and environments. And the effects of refocusing our attention. Like I said, I’m listening to it right now, but I’m planning on buying the physical book so that I can mark it up with notes because besides being really affirming and grounding, the writing is gorgeous. I’m also really interested in any discussion of privilege—it’s been mentioned briefly although I’m still early enough in the book that it may come back.
I’m reading/listening to approximately three other things but I think it’s most pertinent to the folks here that I listened to my first Ilona Andrews last week and was DELIGHTED by how much I liked it! So now I’m just starting White Hot. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Aarya: *emerges from reading cave, certain that someone has just mentioned Ilona Andrews somewhere in the world*
In reading news, I just finished Erin A. Craig’s House of Salt and Sorrows ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and hated it. Uneven pacing, unmemorable MCs, unexplained worldbuilding aspects, undeveloped/bewildering romantic relationship, and too much horror for my liking. I’m really sad because the writing was lovely and the premise had so much potential. But those things aren’t enough for me to like a book.
I’m still debating what’s next but I think I’m going to choose Joanna Shupe’s The Prince of Broadway. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) I really enjoy her Gilded Age books and this one features a casino/gambling den (a setting that I can never resist. Ahem, Devil in Winter). Plus, the heroine is determined to open a women-only casino. I’m excited to watch her succeed.
Elyse: I just finished Trace of Evil by Alice Blanchard. It’s a really phenomenal mystery and the first book in a new series. It’s a police procedural but takes place in a town with a similar history as Salem so there’s a theme of witchcraft throughout. Highly recommend
Claudia: I did a re-read of one of the favorite holiday books: A Christmas Promise by Mary Balogh. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) It didn’t disappoint. I think it’s one of the few seasonal stories that the holiday is an essential/central part of the plot rather than background. You somewhat need your 1990s blinders on at times but not much.
Carrie: I just finished the latest Kopp Sisters book, The Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) Loved it, as usual.
Maya: I’m reading the graphic novel The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited which is based one of the D&D campaigns from the Adventure Zone podcast by the McElroy family. Carey Pietsch does the art. I love the Adventure Zone podcast and the McElroys generally, so this adaptation is a joy. The art elevates a story whose overall arc was one that centered and celebrated diversity without pandering or being performative. Love it!!!
Amanda: KISS YOUR DAD SQUARE ON THE LIPS!
Catherine: Carrie, the Kopp sisters are great fun!
Ellen: I just finished How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse and it was delightful and I might be in love with the Vizier. Now I’m reading Promise of Darkness by Bec McMaster ( A | BN | K | AB )–I’m very early in but I’m enjoying it. Also, so far the comparison to Court of Thorns and Roses seems quite apt.
Susan: Like Sneezy and Tara, I’m having a hard time focusing on one thing at the moment, so I’m bouncing between an ARC of All Fired Up by Lori Foster and Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey.
I nearly DNFed All Fired Up ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Scribd ) on the first page because it has the hero watching (and fantasising about) the heroine from somewhere she can’t see see him, while she’s stranded by car troubles, and the author clearly knows this is creepy behaviour because THE VILLAIN DOES IT TOO LATER IN THE BOOK! But it’s compelling, so I’m still reading it and just being grumpy about it.
Magic For Liars ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) on the other hand is REALLY GOOD so far – I love Ivy as a protagonist, because she’s a Disaster PI and the kind of unreliable narrator where I don’t doubt her explanation of the facts, but her account of her emotions is definitely a lie. I’m just having to take it slow because I KNOW it’s all about to go wrong and I’m not ready!
Charlotte: I’m reading an ARC of The Rebel Bride by Shannon McNear. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) It’s a Civil War inspie. That’s definitely pretty far outside my usual reading comfort zone, in both respects. I’m only about 10% into it, but it’s so unflinching in depicting the extreme trauma associated with living in a war zone and losing family that it’s hard for me to be in my romance-reading mindset. I have a lot of inherent skepticism around this type of plot (Union hero, Confederate heroine), but the introduction suggested the author is aware of the potential to go very wrong here, so I’m giving it a shot.
What were your hits and misses of the month? Let us know below!
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@Nom De Plume — especially since Disney has the reputation for being extremely protective of their intellectual property
Just finished Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas which was — better than the last Kleypas I read? But still meh for me. I think I am tired of the “woman broke my heart so I must get revenge” trope, but I did feel like this was one of those books where the entire conflict could have been avoided by an honest conversation. Instead the conversations they do have are the hero being more or less honest and the heroine “protecting herself” by making the conflict all the hero’s fault which it totally isn’t. IMHO the fact that they live on different continents was a better conflict to run with, and Kleypas should have switched the ending with Subplot Sister’s, which would have made a statement about the class differences that were the basis of the entire plot. Meanwhile I am not optimistic about Subplot Sister’s HEA with the hero’s alcoholic boss, knowing how alcoholism tends to work.
Don’t know what I’m going to read next; I’m in a terrible funk, too burned out to finish my current freelance project in any acceptable way, and just got kicked in the head by the news that my best and dearest friend for the last 40 years has terminal cancer. @Heather and @DiscoDollyDeb, sending heartfelt good wishes for recovery; this has been a rough month for all of us, I think.
I had a craving, so I’ve been re-reading some of the Lord Peter Wimsey detective stories. I read The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club for remembrance day (well, about a week late, because I was signing the ebook out from the library and somebody else must have had the same idea, so I had to wait for my hold to come in) and then I signed out the short story collection and Clouds of Witness. I’m not really re-reading in any particular order, just sort of impulse reading whatever library book happens to be available.
I signed out both ebook and audiobook of It Devours, the second Welcome to Night Vale novel, which I got halfway through when it first came out then got distracted from. Hoping I can finish it this time, I do love that podcast and that setting.
I felt like reading more webcomics, so I browsed webtoons for a bit and hit upon Gourmet Hound, which looks really good so far! A comfy comedy/drama about a young woman trying to find out what happened to the former chefs at her favourite restaurant.
… All of which is just procrastinating from reading (and more importantly writing) my own novel project for NaNoWriMo. It’s haaaaaard…
@DiscoDollyDeb: Hope you’re feeling better quickly!!
I travelled a bit so had time to zoom through a few wonderful books: I finished Sherry Thomas’s The Art of Theft (4th in the Charlotte Holmes series), in which there’s more character development of some of the secondary characters (older sister, Olivia, and Watson, in particular) and a terrific story, to boot.
Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke and Angelina M. Lopez’s Lush Money were both fast and terrific reads, though they couldn’t be more different in setting and heat level! Both novels, however, showed that women can be the heroines in their own stories, even when they find lasting love with a dashing hero.
Finally, I loved a not-at-all romance novel that nonetheless packed an emotional wallop: Lou Berney’s November Road. Stephen King (whose 1963 was an incomparable wonder) recommends it, probably because the two books both showcase their authors’ phenomenal skill at engrossing the reader in the setting and deliver a heart-wrenching plot line.
@EC Spurlock, I am sorry to hear of your friend’s diagnosis.
I’ve been reading lots of Sophie Jordan-so enjoyable! What would I do without SBTB to guide me?
Somehow I’ve gotten back into Bertrice Small-her books are a bit nutso, but I enjoy the hell out of them. Probably because I’m almost 59-and I have more tolerance for the crazy time stuff I grew up reading. You can really see her experience as an historian in her novels, she knew her stuff.
Spun Out by Lorelei James-her new one and I think maybe her last with her Blacktop Cowboy series. It wasn’t a favorite of mine-I loved Streeter, but I wasn’t as fond of Bailey. I felt it could have been a bit deeper.
Rosalind James has a new novel out. Just Say Christmas is part of her Escape to New Zealand series-I started reading it and stopped. I had to back up a few novels and re-read a couple before this one. Why? Did I not understand what was going on? Nope-I savor this woman’s writing, and wanted to get in the mindset for the new story. I ABSOLUTELY love her writing, and the fact this series is about rugby?? Every single box ticked for me. I LOVE ROSALIND JAMES!
Helena Hunting-her Shacking Up series is so good. My favorite was the first one-with Bane and Ruby. I could read another book just about Franny the ferret and Tiny the tarantula. I will say, a caveat at least for me on some of her stand alone novels. I think The Librarian Principle, which seemed like something I would have loved-I did not like at all. BUT-loved the Shacking Up series, fun and sexy.
I believe it was DiscoDollyDeb who recommended the Kate Canterbary series-The Walsh series. I’m on the 6th book, The Spire-and I’m addicted!!
@Maureen: Kate Canterbary (along with Kelly Hunter) has been my favorite “discovery” of the year. I started with FAR CRY, which was so good (unless I read a bunch of brilliant books before December 31, it will definitely be on my Top Ten of 2019), I couldn’t believe I’d never read anything by her before. Now I’m on a backlist glom—and my budget is glad that many of her books are available through KU. Canterbary has such a way with complicated characters, especially women.
I started a number of books and didn’t finish them; this is what stress and depression can look like (also perfecting my stress eating). I did finish two.
Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen. It was pretty good. This is Alex from the Bruisers series, we have met her, we know she has been dealing with IPV and is also pregnant. Our hero is one of the hockey players taking his brief summer vacation. He is sent to be her bodyguard by acting as her new boy toy. Forced proximity and let’s just enjoy it as a brief interlude. Some catnip there. I did have some problems with the way the heros family treated him and he put up with it. I hope they are not sequel bait because his brother is a major alpha-hole. Otherwise, a fun book.
Also read Riven by Roan Parrish. M/M set in the world of music, One is a young rock star, uncomfortable with what his life has become, and one is an older country music star who is now out of the limelight due to self-medicating and failing rehab multiple times. It was good though the younger man is portrayed in many ways as very immature and naive which was jarring.
I’m in the middle of a ton of books I haven’t picked up in a while like MILKMAN, SAY NOTHING, a biography on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and like 8 others.
I would say I’m actively reading LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME and TUESDAY MOONEY TALKS TO GHOSTS.
I also finished a few books this month, most notably 1. A GOOD KIND OF TROUBLE, which is a middle-grade book hitting a lot of the notes THUG did, 2. AMAL UNBOUND was another great middle-grade novel focusing on girls of color, 3. TRAIL OF LIGHTNING, which I read as an informal book club with my best friend.
@CLAUDIA, the other one: Is MILKMAN SAY NOTHING the title of the book about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton? If so, who wrote it? I couldn’t find it on Amazon or through an internet search. I read Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger’s FURIOUS LOVE, a really good bio of the Taylor-Burton marriage, a few years ago and I’d be interested in reading something else. When I was young (an eon ago), my mom read Photoplay and Rona Barrett’s Hollywood magazines and Liz & Dick were always on the covers—living their impossibly glamorous jet-setting lives.
@Heather, @DiscoDollyDeb, and @EC Spurlock, I’m sending good thoughts to all three of you.
As for me, my library suddenly decided to deliver my entire holds list on Overdrive all in the last week or so, which is a wonderful problem to have, but I have been reading every spare moment to try and get done before the due dates! Finished The Flatshare and stand by my statement in the last Whatcha Reading, I found it freaking delightful. I can see how it gets the women’s fiction classification vs. straight up romance but I’m not too picky about the label–if it has an HEA then I’m all good, and I really enjoyed this one. Next came The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare. Sometimes Dare’s books just don’t grab me, I think because they tend to be more slapstick than I personally like, but I had such a good time reading this one. Then I read Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren. I commented on the SBTB review of that book and will say the same now that I’m finished with the book–I normally love their writing but this one did NOT work for me. There was not anywhere near enough redemption for the hero, and the dad was just an awful character. True that there are awful people in the world and maybe a disproportionately large number in the entertainment industry so this was probably realistic, but the heroine did not seem to effectively deal with her issues surrounding her dad’s behavior. This combined with the fact that I felt like there would have to be lingering resentment for the hero’s actions made the HEA totally not believable to me. Won’t stop me from reading more of Christina Lauren’s work but this one was a miss for me.
Next up are more library holds, stressing me out in the best kind of way. I just started Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, and waiting behind that are Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore and Well Met by Jen DeLuca. I also was lucky enough to find the highly recommended holiday romance A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecelia Grant available for free on Kindle last week, so am saving that for when the house is decorated and I’m truly in the holiday spirit.
@Kareni and @KB, thank you. She is the sister I always wished I had (as opposed to the one I DO have)and was my lifeline through many horrendous years. She was also my coauthor on quite a number of projects and we just meshed perfectly. It’s going to be hard to keep writing without her input and inspiration.
@Laura J George: the “Kissyourdadsquareonthelips” is a reference to the authors'(3 brothers) closing joke in their podcast “My brother my brother and me”. They do an advice podcast where they give bad advice (which is where the joke originated from? i’m not completely sure). I’m really sorry that it was triggering for you! The brothers make a big effort to be be respectful and conscientious with regard to their large fan base-they do not in any way condone sexual abuse. I hope that knowing the context helped-I had never thought of it that way but now am finding it a lot less funny. Thank you for bringing it up!
@DiscoDollyDeb ah, no! Sorry, I was bad at making distinctions between the books. MILKMAN and SAY NOTHING are both books about Ireland during the troubles (MILKMAN is fiction, SAY NOTHING is more journalistic).
I couldn’t remember the name of the Richard Burton/Liz Taylor book, but it’s actually FURIOUS LOVE! Which is so good! Maybe you would enjoy SAPPHO GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, which focuses on Marlene Dietriech’s and Greta Garbo’s possible relationship?
@CLAUDIA (the other other one): thank you for the clarification and the recommendation. A number of years ago, I read a book called (I think) THE SEWING CIRCLE that speculated on the sexuality (lesbian or bi) of the great actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Era. Naturally, both Garbo and Dietrich were mentioned.
I’m also thinking MILKMAN SAY NOTHING (or MILKMAN, SAY NOTHING) would be a great title for a post-modernist novel set in working-class Yorkshire in the early 1960s.
After I went on a binge of all Penny Reid, I’m feeling very meh about books lately. I DNF’ed Fix Her Up (premise was so meh to me and the characters bored me right from the beginning) and Last Night With the Earl (it was interesting but I felt like the tension/chemistry wasn’t really there so I just stopped forcing it). Historicals haven’t been doing it for me lately and I have several in my TBR pile. I’m debating on whether I reach for my book club selection for the month or try a Smartypants Romance.
@DiscoDollyDeb I’ll look up THE SEWING CIRCLE because that sounds so interesting!
And yesss, that would be the perfect novel for that title.
@Claudia (the other other one):
https://www.amazon.com/Sewing-Circle-Hollywoods-Greatest-Secret/dp/1559722754/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=The+sewing+circle&qid=1574809263&sr=8-2
I was way too busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and other deadlines to read Whatcha Reading until today. But thank you everyone for the recs, I have added The Widow of Rose House, Murder on Astor Place, and To Resist a Scandalous Rogue to my TBR list!
And to @Claudia & @DiscoDollyDeb, Marlene Dietrich was definitely bisexual, I have that from my ex-MIL knew her back in Europe, before she came to Hollywood.
I read the MeToo exposés SHE SAID by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, and CATCH AND KILL by Ronan Farrow. And Fiona Hill’s deposition.
Well, actually I bought CATCH AND KILL first, as an insurance policy because I was worried Dylan Howard might possibly win his local defamation suit against Farrow down the track and then probably it would get yanked from Australian shelves (digital and physical). But I finished SHE SAID smartish, whereas I’ve got the last part of CATCH AND KILL still pending. No problem with the writing, just inevitable considering the content: I can’t stomach the two-faced people in the media trying to stop publication in underhanded way (and then, the gaslighting to hide it; cover-up upon cover-up).
I kept thinking, “I need to re-read THE ART OF POLITICAL MURDER (Francisco Goldman),” i.e. I need something that focuses on cover-ups more heavily. There’s a type of things Goldman covered in that context which are present in the zeitgeist lately, very reminiscent of ‘patadas de abogado’ (desperate last-minute legal manoeuvring/excuses, a grim pun on ‘patadas de ahogado’, drowning man’s kicks). I’m sure I could glean a bit more by revisiting. …Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it would be a false equivalence; seems modern character assassination techniques more or less match the smokescreens thrown up to hide assassination plain and simple.
Btw It certainly wasn’t quite as macabre reading overall as I’m making it sound. There was a lot of Resistance fighting back – and winning. Plus men *listening* to women and girls and acting on their advice.
The balance just wasn’t so heavily weighted with pendulum-swing-to-uplifting in the position where Farrow found himself. With my true crime fan reference points, it even reminded me a bit of the Family Court murders, in the emotional and professional toll it took on Farrow (and the fact that he was being followed). The Family Court murderer’s first victim was his ex’s supportive brother, whose place she had fled to.
@Zyva, wow, I guess I need to find that Francisco Goldman book. The only thing I’ve read by him was his autobiographical book about his wife’s untimely death. A beautiful and thought-provoking book about grief, but heartbreaking to read.
@Karin, just a heads up, Political Murder is twenty types of heartbreaking and very macabre. Extreme content warnings. *I had read Human Rights Watch reports before, and it was still shocking.*
CW/TW. Some nadirs. There was the ugly murder of activist María del Rosario Godoy Aldana, her brother, and her two year old son.
Also the training of paramilitary kinda CIA-equivalent officers included raising then killing a pet.