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Sounds good! Just ordered it from the library.
A box of books I'd previously ordered online arrived in today's mail, ahead of schedule, making for a nice surprise. Most of them were for Barb, but two are for me:
Real Dangerous Ride and
Real Dangerous Plan, both by K.W. Jeter.These would be the last two books of the author's Kim Oh series, which I've been following since 2014. BUT, the author has subsequently changed the name of the series, and changed all the character's names; and the last books of the original edition are out of print. So fans of the original series who want some sort of closure for it now have no choice except to read these editions. (Sigh!) I'm a staunch enough fan of Kim to want to know what becomes of her, even with a name change; but I'm not a happy camper. :-(
I picked up a copy of
Weyward from the charity bookshelf of a local supermarket. I also got a copy of
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House from a neighbour who I go shopping with and who was taking it to the shop's charity bookshelf.
Werner wrote: "A box of books I'd previously ordered online arrived in today's mail, ahead of schedule, making for a nice surprise. Most of them were for Barb, but two are for me: [bookcover:Real Dangerous Ride|2..."Why would they do that?
Dorothy, good question; and to my knowledge, the author has never publicly addressed it. I'm guessing (but can't prove) that the change was marketing-driven, so as to downplay Kim's Korean-American ethnicity to appeal to white readers who want a white heroine. I've always felt that Kim's ethnicity was a plus for the series, since non-white protagonists aren't numerous in American action-adventure fiction. For me, it reflects poorly on Jeter's artistic integrity. I'll read the new books, because I want to see how Kim's adventures finally pan out (even if I have to mentally translate her name every time I read "Jane"!); but this has completely torpedoed my willingness to recommend either incarnation of the series to anybody else.
Personally, I have enjoyed many books by Asian authors. I've just finished 'Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers' which is very funny and a delight to read.
Earlier this month Liane Zane, one of my valued Goodreads author friends, had kindly promised to send me a paperback review copy of the just-released final book in her Unsanctioned Guardians trilogy,
The Guardian Initiative. It arrived in yesterday's mail, earlier than expected, and I was delighted to get it! Since it's a review copy, it will be my next read, starting as soon as I finish my current one.
I recently read Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick and absolutely loved it, so I looked at some of his other books, and one was on sale on Kindle, so I bought it (even though I have hundreds of other books on my Fire Tablet). I liked the premise and there's a cat on the cover, which is always a plus for me. It's The Good Luck of Right Now. Looking forward to reading it and hoping to get to it later this year.
I've just come back from London, and amongst other things it did involve visiting a few bookshops, some secondhand bookshops where I picked up a couple of bargains, and the flagshop Waterstones store which is the biggest bookshop in Europe where I bought more books! Here's what I got.Cover Her Face by P.D. James - the first in her Adam Dalgleish crime series. I've fancied trying this one for a while.
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis - classic mid 20th century novel, comedic send up of academics and university life.
Orphan X by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz - first in a modern thriller series
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - 1995 novel about a 30 year old record store owner who is trying to figure out why he's unlucky in his relationships with women
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes - travelogue and memoir about the author buying and renovating an Italian villa (there's a film, but only very loosely based on the book apparently).
There's two books I didn't buy (no room in my bag) but earmarked to buy soon. They are Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham and Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene, both of which look good.
I bought Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra after reading a review of it. It's about someone living under a dictatorship and the narrator is a writer who writes about living under this type of government, and about his writing craft. The review was excellent, and it intrigued me so much that I looked it up on Amazon and it happened to be on sale for Kindle, so I purchased it. I'm a sucker for novels where the narrator is a writer him/herself, and when it's on sale, I just can't help myself. 😁 Hoping to get to it sometime this year, as well as tackling all these others on my TBR.
Recently, I ordered two books for myself online, using a gift card (long story), and they arrived today, earlier than expected. One is a short nonfiction work,
The Purposeful Love of God: Seeing God's Love from His Perspective by an author from New Zealand, William J. Laurence, with whom I've gotten slightly acquainted in another group.The other book is a supernatural fiction trilogy opener,
Chosen: The Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy by Barbara Ellen Brink. That one was a recent addition to my "maybe" shelf (it's now upgraded to "to-read"), and a bit of an impulse purchase. Both books I'd ordered (the other one is a gift) didn't cost enough together to qualify for free shipping, so this one was a promising enough total-booster. :-)
Timothy Snyder On Freedom
Just received in the mail: the latest book from Dr. Snyder, Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. I am bumping this book up to "critical must reads" before the November '24 elections in the US.
The Preface relates his recent visit to Ukraine in 2023. In it, he says "This is a book about the United States, but I draw comparisons with western Europe, eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany." Freedom is what we have always fought for in America, and a commitment to it was made by my ancestors in every war they fought since the Revolution.
Hubby took me to Barnes & Noble and bought me “What Lies In The Woods” by Kate Alice Marshall.
I bought myself 2 books: 'Lightning Strikes the Silence' by Iona Wishaw, and 'Death at the Sign of the Rook' by Kate Atkinson.
I'm currently reading a new book by my fave author. She gifted it to me as well, a few days before it's release.. Yes, I'm bragging. 🤣 I love her books! So as far as I'm concerned, Christmas came early😇 And I'm flying through it too. I had to make myself put it down earlier.
, Demonchild: A Dark Fantasy Romance
A hardcover review copy of the newly republished (2023) fantasy novel
The Eye of Ebon, which I'd been expecting, arrived in yesterday's mail. It's a generous (the more so since he knew I'd intended to purchase the paperback edition!) gift from the author, P. Pherson Green, whom I "met" electronically earlier this year through another of my Goodreads groups.
At the start of this year, one book I particularly hoped to read in 2024 was
The Tokaido Road: A Novel of Feudal Japan, by Lucia St. Clair Robson. Now, it looks like that project will have to be carried over into 2025; but I recently made it come a step closer by ordering a copy online, so that I won't have to borrow it by interlibrary loan. It came in today's mail, so I'll be able to work it in more easily sometime next year.
Today was the BU library's first day open since Dec. 12, and my library colleague Paula presented me with a thoughtful Christmas gift: a copy of
The Accidental Keyhand, the opener for the Ninja Librarians series by Jen Swann Downey. I'd never previously heard of the author or the series, but it definitely looks intriguing. (It was also purchased at an independent, brick-and-mortar bookstore in Fredericksburg, Virginia, another plus!)
Goodreads author Theodore B. Ayn is a fellow member of another Goodreads group that I help moderate. Earlier this morning, I downloaded his short (though at 73 pages, it's at the longer end of that spectrum) e-story
Stepping Outside: Where a Fight is the Path to Redemption. It's free for Kindle through June 26, so it's technically not a review copy; but I plan to treat it as one.Sometime back in the spring, I tried to download the short post-apocalyptic e-story
What Hard Times Hath Wrought: A Novelette by Joe Vasicek to the Kindle app on my old home computer (which still ran on Windows 7); but the program refused to allow the download. Having later installed the app on the new computer (which runs on Windows 11), I discovered on June 12 that this download is now accomplished; but I forgot to mention it here until now.
Recently, I ordered several books online. They're mostly gifts for other people, or for the library where I work; but I did order one for myself:
The Swordmaster's Daughter, by Terri Green. It has been on my to-read shelf for about two and a half years, ever since it got a four-star review from one of my Goodreads friends; so I added it to my "cart" in order to raise the price high enough to qualify for free shipping. :-)
Just now, I also realized that I forgot to mention an e-story (which Goodreads counts as a "book") that I downloaded a couple of months ago. Goodreads author Theodore B. Ayn is a fellow member of another Goodreads group that I help moderate, and I downloaded his story
Stepping Outside: Where a Fight is the Path to Redemption while it was free for Kindle.
The Avram Davidson Treasury: A Tribute Collection is another book I ordered from Amazon to pad the price of an order (we had wound up posting three separate orders for various non-book things, that could have been combined with more forethought --sigh!), and it arrived yesterday. I've read and liked several stories by Davidson, and have long wanted to read more of his work.
The American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places was a favorite book of my youth, but was given away or sold in my many moves in early adulthood. When I started working at the BU (then BC) library years ago, I discovered a copy in the collection there, and it was like reconnecting with an old friend! Now, since the library needs to downsize its collection, and the book doesn't have a lot of real value for academic research, it's been discarded, and I took it rather than put it on the free rack. It has value to me for the nostalgia if for nothing else. :-)
Late last month, I received a paperback ARC of
The Tale of Admiral Benbow from a Goodreads author friend of mine, D.A. Holdsworth. This is exceptionally kind, because he's a British author, and the physical copy (which he sent because he knows I prefer that format) had to be shipped across the Atlantic; I greatly appreciate this! I haven't had time to post about this until now, what with everything going on, here and in "real life."
Werner wrote: "Late last month, I received a paperback ARC of The Tale of Admiral Benbow from a Goodreads author friend of mine, [author:D.A. Hold..."Werner, that's pretty cool that you received a copy from your friend overseas.
I just purchased a copy of The Neverending Story
by Michael Ende, a book I never read as a child but hope to read soon.
I'd forgotten to post earlier that one of my Goodreads author friends, Ron Andrea, recently gifted me with a paperback review copy of his newly-published debut novel (his previous book was nonfiction),
Reluctant Revolutionary: A Hessian Comes to America. It's an historical novel, written from an uncommon perspective.My Christmas gifts this year included two books, both of which I actually picked out myself. One of these was a reprint edition of a book I originally read back in my college days, but want to reread (though I probably won't get around to that until 2027 at least),
Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible by John William Haley. (The BU library doesn't have a copy, so I was glad to spot one in a local thrift store.)The other one is
Bad Blood: Book 1 of Val Sherwood, Teen Werewolf by the husband-and-wife writing team of James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle. A solo novel by Macdonald, The Apocalypse Door, got four stars from me back in 2018. When I learned that he also co-wrote novels with his wife, the description of this one piqued my interest.
Well, looking back over the year, my 2025 intention — to only pick up book club books I couldn't check out from libraries so that I would work down my stash — failed miserably. While I read every chance I got, my bookcases are still full — I figure three years worth at least.Oh, well ... I have loads of books to read for the new year. And once again will try to hold the line.
On the last day of 2025, the mail delivery brought me two short story collections:
Spirit of the Wolf(Wolfsinger Publications, 2025) and
Pilgrim Tales: An Anthology of Fiction by the Catholic Writers Guild, both gifts from a Goodreads friend I've often mentioned on this thread, Andrew M. Seddon, who has stories in both books. He kindly did this because he knows I like reading these kinds of collections, with no request for a review of either; but I plan to prioritize them as if they were review copies.
That sounds like a good book, John. I hope she likes it too!