Wednesday Reading Meme
What I Just Finished Reading: I'm actually now a little ahead of schedule with 5 books (well, 4 books and a short story) read this week: Murder Never Knocks by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, The Cool Kids by Jason Pelligrini, Phantom Pond by Juneau Black, Into The Forest by Jean Heglund, and Rise of the RAMs by Christopher Artinian. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm about 1/4 of the way through The Honeys by Ryan LaSala, which is very creepy.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: I bought a new charge cord and managed to get an old tablet working so that I could use Libby, so I now have access to at least *some* library books while my city continues to try to get everything back online after our cyberattack. So my goal is to alternate between library books and books I have, either physical from Little Free Libraries or from Kindle Unlimited.
The Honeys is a library book, so up next will be one of the books from my Dusty Bookshelf, probably Best Tales of the Apocalypse edited by DL Snell.
48. Murder Never Knocks by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
My first foray into the “hard boiled detective’’ genre, and I loved it! This is one of a series of books featuring the detective Mike Hammer. I knew of Mike Hammer through a vague remembrance of the ‘80s TV series and a sleazy looking Stacy Keach as Hammer, which was enough to keep me away. But I saw this book at a library book sale and decided to try something new.
Turns out the book is a fun trip into ‘40s style crime drama (though it technically takes place in the ‘60s) with a quick-witted bulldog of a detective and his lovely secretary/partner/girlfriend, the voluptuous Velda. I loved the snappy dialogue and the author absolutely nailed the era. The plot hinged around a contract killer who’s out to get Mike, while he provides security detail at a party and investigates an attempt on the life of his friend. It all came together nicely in the end.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Velda as more than just the girl on the side - she even saves Mike at one point. I’m not sure if Velda’s less “arm candy” role is because this book was written by Collins from a partial manuscript and notes left by Spillane (therefore Collins could modernize it a little)... I guess I’ll have to read a purely Spillane one to find out!
Dates Read: April 23 to 25, 2024
Page Count: 277
5 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - September E - set in autumn (48/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 17 - involving intelligence (45/52)
49. The Cool Kids by Jason Pellegrini
An incredibly simplistic and exceedingly boring story. 30-something Kevin relates a day of adventure he had with friends as a kid, then explains why he’s sharing this story, which involves an update on all three boys’ lives - all of which proceeded in the expected way (job, marriage, babies) and none of which are of any interest whatsoever. Thank god this was short.
Date Read: April 25, 2024
Page Count: 104
1 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - November B - brown cover (49/74)
50. Phantom Pond by Juneau Black
A Hallowe’en themed short story that had me grinning from ear to ear.
It’s Mischief Night in Shady Hollow, but when young squirrel Hannah doesn’t return from a game of hide and seek, it appears she could have been kidnapped by Creeping Juniper, a witch that lives deep in the forest - at least according to local legend. It’s Vera and her pals to the rescue!
I loved the camaraderie between the townsfolk and the little clues with multiple meanings. This one was really heartwarming.
Date Read: April 26, 2024
Page Count: 60
5 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - July L - leaves on cover (50/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 06 - wings on cover (46/52)
+ Challenges & Fandom Fan Favourites 09 - character with same initials as favourite actor [Bruce Willis/BW Stone] (12/16)
51. Into The Forest by Jean Heglund
I feel like this book gave me whiplash.
It starts out as a slow apocalypse. The breakdown of society begins with gas shortages, no food coming in, intermittent blackouts becoming regular blackouts becoming no electricity at all… There’s a war overseas and no one really knows what’s happening, and before you know it the end is here. All of that felt so real to me. That would be how the world ends.
Teen sisters Eva and Nell at first continue their studies (Nell reads, Eva dances) and wait for the day when everything will go back to normal and they’ll be rescued. Also reasonably understandable, if a little naive. But these are supposed to be homeschooled kids, so. *shrugs*
So when something that felt so realistic suddenly becomes all surreal and trippy, it was just off-putting. Because suddenly the girls realize they have to step up to the plate, and Nell becomes the rain man of survivalists, a pig-shooting, plant-identifying, medicine-making wonder woman. And then let’s just say that their reaction to a traumatic incident is so many worlds beyond normal as to shred every last bit of realism the story may have had.
But then the ending manages to top even that and be the most ridiculous thing that happens yet..
And what started as a sort of lyrical look at the end of the world becomes a lot of head-shaking WTF-ness. There’s multiple mentions of the girls (now-dead) mom warning them in the past about eating things they find in the forest. I was at the point where I thought, “Are they supposed to be tripping? Is that why they’re making these stupid decisions??”
I think I was too generous with my stars.
Dates Read: April 26 to 27, 2024
Page Count: 244
3 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - August G - green cover (51/74)
52. Rise of the RAMS by Christopher Artinian
The RAMs in this case are reanimated humans, aka zombies. When the zompocalypse happens, England and Ireland close their borders and quarantine the areas with outbreaks, hoping to stem the tide. I really enjoyed that aspect of the story because I could see it really happening this way: the government controlling the news, weekly rations at a local pick-up point, guards on the streets.
And then of course it all falls apart and our heroes decide to attempt to make it from Leeds to northern Scotland and their grandmother’s house. All in all I enjoyed the development of most characters and the action is very well-written. Probably the one drawback is the main character, Mike, a 20-year-old who’s done a stint in Juvie who nonetheless comes across as a hardened 40-year-old combat vet or something. One of the things he does is downright sociopathic, but it’s played in the book as him simply having anger management issues and wanting to protect his family. Oooohkay.
Generally speaking though, this was a fast-paced and action-packed take on the genre.
Dates Read: April 28 to 30, 2024
Page Count: 348
4 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - September R - from a series of at least 9 books (52/74)
.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm about 1/4 of the way through The Honeys by Ryan LaSala, which is very creepy.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: I bought a new charge cord and managed to get an old tablet working so that I could use Libby, so I now have access to at least *some* library books while my city continues to try to get everything back online after our cyberattack. So my goal is to alternate between library books and books I have, either physical from Little Free Libraries or from Kindle Unlimited.
The Honeys is a library book, so up next will be one of the books from my Dusty Bookshelf, probably Best Tales of the Apocalypse edited by DL Snell.
48. Murder Never Knocks by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
My first foray into the “hard boiled detective’’ genre, and I loved it! This is one of a series of books featuring the detective Mike Hammer. I knew of Mike Hammer through a vague remembrance of the ‘80s TV series and a sleazy looking Stacy Keach as Hammer, which was enough to keep me away. But I saw this book at a library book sale and decided to try something new.
Turns out the book is a fun trip into ‘40s style crime drama (though it technically takes place in the ‘60s) with a quick-witted bulldog of a detective and his lovely secretary/partner/girlfriend, the voluptuous Velda. I loved the snappy dialogue and the author absolutely nailed the era. The plot hinged around a contract killer who’s out to get Mike, while he provides security detail at a party and investigates an attempt on the life of his friend. It all came together nicely in the end.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Velda as more than just the girl on the side - she even saves Mike at one point. I’m not sure if Velda’s less “arm candy” role is because this book was written by Collins from a partial manuscript and notes left by Spillane (therefore Collins could modernize it a little)... I guess I’ll have to read a purely Spillane one to find out!
Dates Read: April 23 to 25, 2024
Page Count: 277
5 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - September E - set in autumn (48/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 17 - involving intelligence (45/52)
49. The Cool Kids by Jason Pellegrini
An incredibly simplistic and exceedingly boring story. 30-something Kevin relates a day of adventure he had with friends as a kid, then explains why he’s sharing this story, which involves an update on all three boys’ lives - all of which proceeded in the expected way (job, marriage, babies) and none of which are of any interest whatsoever. Thank god this was short.
Date Read: April 25, 2024
Page Count: 104
1 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - November B - brown cover (49/74)
50. Phantom Pond by Juneau Black
A Hallowe’en themed short story that had me grinning from ear to ear.
It’s Mischief Night in Shady Hollow, but when young squirrel Hannah doesn’t return from a game of hide and seek, it appears she could have been kidnapped by Creeping Juniper, a witch that lives deep in the forest - at least according to local legend. It’s Vera and her pals to the rescue!
I loved the camaraderie between the townsfolk and the little clues with multiple meanings. This one was really heartwarming.
Date Read: April 26, 2024
Page Count: 60
5 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - July L - leaves on cover (50/74)
+ Around the Year in 52 Books 06 - wings on cover (46/52)
+ Challenges & Fandom Fan Favourites 09 - character with same initials as favourite actor [Bruce Willis/BW Stone] (12/16)
51. Into The Forest by Jean Heglund
I feel like this book gave me whiplash.
It starts out as a slow apocalypse. The breakdown of society begins with gas shortages, no food coming in, intermittent blackouts becoming regular blackouts becoming no electricity at all… There’s a war overseas and no one really knows what’s happening, and before you know it the end is here. All of that felt so real to me. That would be how the world ends.
Teen sisters Eva and Nell at first continue their studies (Nell reads, Eva dances) and wait for the day when everything will go back to normal and they’ll be rescued. Also reasonably understandable, if a little naive. But these are supposed to be homeschooled kids, so. *shrugs*
So when something that felt so realistic suddenly becomes all surreal and trippy, it was just off-putting. Because suddenly the girls realize they have to step up to the plate, and Nell becomes the rain man of survivalists, a pig-shooting, plant-identifying, medicine-making wonder woman. And then let’s just say that their reaction to a traumatic incident is so many worlds beyond normal as to shred every last bit of realism the story may have had.
But then the ending manages to top even that and be the most ridiculous thing that happens yet..
And what started as a sort of lyrical look at the end of the world becomes a lot of head-shaking WTF-ness. There’s multiple mentions of the girls (now-dead) mom warning them in the past about eating things they find in the forest. I was at the point where I thought, “Are they supposed to be tripping? Is that why they’re making these stupid decisions??”
I think I was too generous with my stars.
Dates Read: April 26 to 27, 2024
Page Count: 244
3 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - August G - green cover (51/74)
52. Rise of the RAMS by Christopher Artinian
The RAMs in this case are reanimated humans, aka zombies. When the zompocalypse happens, England and Ireland close their borders and quarantine the areas with outbreaks, hoping to stem the tide. I really enjoyed that aspect of the story because I could see it really happening this way: the government controlling the news, weekly rations at a local pick-up point, guards on the streets.
And then of course it all falls apart and our heroes decide to attempt to make it from Leeds to northern Scotland and their grandmother’s house. All in all I enjoyed the development of most characters and the action is very well-written. Probably the one drawback is the main character, Mike, a 20-year-old who’s done a stint in Juvie who nonetheless comes across as a hardened 40-year-old combat vet or something. One of the things he does is downright sociopathic, but it’s played in the book as him simply having anger management issues and wanting to protect his family. Oooohkay.
Generally speaking though, this was a fast-paced and action-packed take on the genre.
Dates Read: April 28 to 30, 2024
Page Count: 348
4 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges 74 Letters - September R - from a series of at least 9 books (52/74)
.