What I'm Reading Wednesday
WHAT I FINISHED
Three books down this week.
1. Blood Drive, the vampire urban fantasy that I'd been reading. A little shallow in the end, but readable, so I'll stick with the series for now.
2. Off Limits by Cara McKenna. This is an erotica anthology from EC that you can't get anymore. McKenna is one of my auto buy authors, especially when it comes to hot stuff, but I have to admit, this anthology didn't work for me for the most part. There's only three stories in it, and while the first was okay, the second two pushed the wrong kind of buttons in me. Sure, they were hot, but in the second, an m/m/f menage, one of the men hates that he's gay and it seeps through every word. The third is about an engaged woman who can't get her attraction to the man who saved her life out of her head, so her fiancé gives her permission to have a fling and get it out of her system. It really needed to be a much longer story for the resolution she gave, because there was too much emphasis on the sex and not on the emotion for the ending she wanted.
3. I finished my re-read of the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy, in preparation of finally succumbing to reading Snow's book.
DID NOT FINISH
I started and stopped A Hero to Come Home To by Marilyn Pappano. It's a contemporary romance about military widows finding love again, but it's also an Inspirational romance which I don't read. There wasn't any indication that it was when I got it, otherwise it never would've ended up in my TBR pile.
WHAT I'M READING
1. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond: This won the Pulitzer a couple years back. It's the story of eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. It's fascinating and heartbreaking so far, as well as immensely readable.
2. The Kill Clause by Gregg Hurwitz: I've read a couple Hurwitz novels so far and enjoyed them, so I picked up this first in his Tim Rackley series as the next. I almost put it down in the first couple chapters. It's a story about vigilante justice, but the book starts out with a marshal finding out his young daughter has been brutally murdered. The local cops, who work with his wife (also a cop), catch the guy but before anything else, they set it up and bring the marshal out to kill him. The cold-bloodedness of the set-up as the police attempt to enact justice of their own, going outside the law, really rubbed me the wrong way in the current political climate. I stuck it with the grieving father opted not to take the law into his own hands, but it's still a tough read so far. It might take me a while to get through it.
3. House of Whispers by Margaret Lucke. Another book that's out of print, apparently, and isn't available for Kindle. This is a haunted house mystery about a newly divorced real estate agent who takes on the sale of a mansion where a family was murdered only a year earlier. It's an easy, superficial read, but I'm not hating it, so we'll see how it goes.
4. The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris: Historical fiction, weaving two different stories together - one about an Alcatraz guard's daughter going missing in 1937 and the other about a young Irish pub who dreams of coming to America in 1919. I have no idea what the two stories have to do with each other yet, but the author's voice is rich and her sense of character really compelling. I'm looking forward to finishing this one.
ETA: Totally forgot about today's meme question: Have you ever survived a natural disaster?
Not anything I was real direct threat from. The fires here in California aren't fun, but we've never been close enough to be evacuated. That's probably the closest.
8 What’s the most unusual or random item in your purse, bag, or wallet?
9 Are you musically inclined? Do you sing or play an instrument?
10 Have you ever called someone the wrong name during sex or been called the wrong name by your partner?
11 What’s a form of entertainment that everyone seems to enjoy, but that you do not?
12 What three things are you most thankful for?
13 What is something you've never done but would like to try to do? Why don't you?
14 What is something you've tried but would never do again?
15 If, without being detected, you could spy electronically for the next month and watch anyone, anywhere, anytime like a fly on a wall, would you? If so, who would you watch and how closely? If not, why not?
16 If it were the only way you could remain with the love of your life, would you be willing for both of you to wake up tomorrow as native speakers of an unfamiliar language, knowing that within a week, you'd permanently forget the language(s) you now speak and largely be cut off from your friends and culture? If so, what new language would you want to speak and why?
17 If a movie were being made of your life, which actor would play the starring role?
18 Write the words that you need to hear today.
19 If you had to be obsessed with money, sex, sports, religion or food, which one would you choose?
20 What do you love most about yourself?
21 Ignoring all financial considerations, would you rather spend the next 5 years confined to an urban mecca (e.g. New York City, London, etc) or a beautiful, isolated coastal town somewhere?
22 How would you react if you learned that a sad and beautiful poem that touched you deeply had been written by a computer?
23 What is a character trait you despise in others, but you know you also have that same trait?
24 What is the most serious law you've broken doing something you thought was morally right, wouldn't hurt anyone, or was no one's business but yours? How bad would the punishment have been if you'd been caught and given the maximum sentence?
25 If you were on a jury, would you be willing to convict a person for something you didn't think should be considered a crime?
26 If your heart were damaged beyond repair, but you could regain your health for a few more years by getting a heart transplant from a genetically engineered pig, would you?
27 What is your favorite question to ask people?
28 What stage play is your favorite?
29 For $100,000 (or equivalent in your currency) would you put on 40 pounds/18 kg and keep it on for 3 years? How much money, if any, would induce you to put on 100 pounds/45 kg for at least a year?
30 If you were president/prime minister/supreme leader etc. of your country, what is the first thing you would do?
31 What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
Three books down this week.
1. Blood Drive, the vampire urban fantasy that I'd been reading. A little shallow in the end, but readable, so I'll stick with the series for now.
2. Off Limits by Cara McKenna. This is an erotica anthology from EC that you can't get anymore. McKenna is one of my auto buy authors, especially when it comes to hot stuff, but I have to admit, this anthology didn't work for me for the most part. There's only three stories in it, and while the first was okay, the second two pushed the wrong kind of buttons in me. Sure, they were hot, but in the second, an m/m/f menage, one of the men hates that he's gay and it seeps through every word. The third is about an engaged woman who can't get her attraction to the man who saved her life out of her head, so her fiancé gives her permission to have a fling and get it out of her system. It really needed to be a much longer story for the resolution she gave, because there was too much emphasis on the sex and not on the emotion for the ending she wanted.
3. I finished my re-read of the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy, in preparation of finally succumbing to reading Snow's book.
DID NOT FINISH
I started and stopped A Hero to Come Home To by Marilyn Pappano. It's a contemporary romance about military widows finding love again, but it's also an Inspirational romance which I don't read. There wasn't any indication that it was when I got it, otherwise it never would've ended up in my TBR pile.
WHAT I'M READING
1. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond: This won the Pulitzer a couple years back. It's the story of eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. It's fascinating and heartbreaking so far, as well as immensely readable.
2. The Kill Clause by Gregg Hurwitz: I've read a couple Hurwitz novels so far and enjoyed them, so I picked up this first in his Tim Rackley series as the next. I almost put it down in the first couple chapters. It's a story about vigilante justice, but the book starts out with a marshal finding out his young daughter has been brutally murdered. The local cops, who work with his wife (also a cop), catch the guy but before anything else, they set it up and bring the marshal out to kill him. The cold-bloodedness of the set-up as the police attempt to enact justice of their own, going outside the law, really rubbed me the wrong way in the current political climate. I stuck it with the grieving father opted not to take the law into his own hands, but it's still a tough read so far. It might take me a while to get through it.
3. House of Whispers by Margaret Lucke. Another book that's out of print, apparently, and isn't available for Kindle. This is a haunted house mystery about a newly divorced real estate agent who takes on the sale of a mansion where a family was murdered only a year earlier. It's an easy, superficial read, but I'm not hating it, so we'll see how it goes.
4. The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris: Historical fiction, weaving two different stories together - one about an Alcatraz guard's daughter going missing in 1937 and the other about a young Irish pub who dreams of coming to America in 1919. I have no idea what the two stories have to do with each other yet, but the author's voice is rich and her sense of character really compelling. I'm looking forward to finishing this one.
ETA: Totally forgot about today's meme question: Have you ever survived a natural disaster?
Not anything I was real direct threat from. The fires here in California aren't fun, but we've never been close enough to be evacuated. That's probably the closest.
8 What’s the most unusual or random item in your purse, bag, or wallet?
9 Are you musically inclined? Do you sing or play an instrument?
10 Have you ever called someone the wrong name during sex or been called the wrong name by your partner?
11 What’s a form of entertainment that everyone seems to enjoy, but that you do not?
12 What three things are you most thankful for?
13 What is something you've never done but would like to try to do? Why don't you?
14 What is something you've tried but would never do again?
15 If, without being detected, you could spy electronically for the next month and watch anyone, anywhere, anytime like a fly on a wall, would you? If so, who would you watch and how closely? If not, why not?
16 If it were the only way you could remain with the love of your life, would you be willing for both of you to wake up tomorrow as native speakers of an unfamiliar language, knowing that within a week, you'd permanently forget the language(s) you now speak and largely be cut off from your friends and culture? If so, what new language would you want to speak and why?
17 If a movie were being made of your life, which actor would play the starring role?
18 Write the words that you need to hear today.
19 If you had to be obsessed with money, sex, sports, religion or food, which one would you choose?
20 What do you love most about yourself?
21 Ignoring all financial considerations, would you rather spend the next 5 years confined to an urban mecca (e.g. New York City, London, etc) or a beautiful, isolated coastal town somewhere?
22 How would you react if you learned that a sad and beautiful poem that touched you deeply had been written by a computer?
23 What is a character trait you despise in others, but you know you also have that same trait?
24 What is the most serious law you've broken doing something you thought was morally right, wouldn't hurt anyone, or was no one's business but yours? How bad would the punishment have been if you'd been caught and given the maximum sentence?
25 If you were on a jury, would you be willing to convict a person for something you didn't think should be considered a crime?
26 If your heart were damaged beyond repair, but you could regain your health for a few more years by getting a heart transplant from a genetically engineered pig, would you?
27 What is your favorite question to ask people?
28 What stage play is your favorite?
29 For $100,000 (or equivalent in your currency) would you put on 40 pounds/18 kg and keep it on for 3 years? How much money, if any, would induce you to put on 100 pounds/45 kg for at least a year?
30 If you were president/prime minister/supreme leader etc. of your country, what is the first thing you would do?
31 What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?