Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

I skipped the lengthy Trollope entry - which I plan to read later today - in favour of two shorter stories that were specifically written to scare people off drinking (in line with the GarbAugust Prompt called Moral Panic. One “story” was actually a series of fear-inducing illustrations by George Cruikshank…and in fact they formed two linked tales of their own. Anti-drink tales seem like they were not much into plot.

This will be a re-read. For GarbAugust, this will apply to the Host Recommendation Prompt. I think some BookTubers have recommended specific books, but since I’m trying to stick with books I have already, I’m revisiting a book by GarbAugust founder CriminOlly’s favourite author…also to see if I like this book more. I would say it’s one of the trashiest in the series.

Final GarbAugust Notes::
Final book for Anything Goes Week, actually Aug. 1-10. Not applicable to any Bingo Card Prompts, and it’s from a decade I already checked off. So, just a really entertaining Pulp whodunit.

I’m going to let this scoot ahead of Murder Gone Mad; I will see out the first phase of GarbAugust - Anything Goes ‘Week’ - with a book in the spirit of anything goes: it does not satisfy a Bingo Card prompt, I just want to read it this month. Note: special thanks to Oonya Kempadoo today, for having a new book at the bookstore when I got stuck somewhere for hours without a back-up book. Emergency browse….new Oonya!

Final GarbAugust Notes:
Anything Goes Week
Applied to Bingo Card Prompts: Cults, Sexy Vampires
Assessment: I could give this 4 stars, I guess, but all superhero comics seem the same now. I’m always there for Deadshot, though. Meanwhile - I thought this was a one-prompt wonder for GarbAugust, but I got the Kobra Cult…AND a sexy vampire surprise. Blade 2 Graphic novel still stays active for Novelizations Week.

Right. So when it comes to GarbAugust, this will be a free-floater - not for a Bingo Card Prompt, not for a new decade crossed off, and not for any weekly theme. It's just that I'm ahead of schedule (I think), and can afford to make time for some thing generally trashy. I suspect, though, this one would've been good for Sex and/or Violence Week. (Why am I doing this, again?...)

Final GarbAugust Notes:
Anything Goes Week
Read for Bingo Card Prompt: Gangs
Decade: 2010s
Assessment: Based on real events, but I have no idea if or where the fictional adornments come in. That said - it was fairly straightforward, with one big not that twisty twist, but - it was riveting. And a bit depressing.

This book is a novel worked from real-life events of 1992. As I was reading it, I thought of 1992, and I thought "1992 was probably the last year where there was any innocence left to lose...". But, with about 48 pages left - I think I'd have to put the last shred of innocence and decency a bit farther back. 1992 BCE, anyone?

This book is a novel worked from real-life events of 1992. As I was reading it, I thought of 1992, and I thought "1992 was probably the last year where there was any innocence left to lose...". But, with about 48 pages left - I think I'd have to put the last shred of innocence and decency a bit farther back. 1992 BCE, anyone?

Very happy with this, morbid as that is given all the slayings. It definitely works for the GarbAugust Prompt: Gangs. I will wrap it up some time tomorrow. August 11 will mark the change from Anything Goes Week, to Romance or Men’s Adventure. I have no books for either, that are not somehow a compromise! Thankfully, we can sub in films. I will still be reading for the Bingo Card Prompts.

To paraphrase CriminOlly, creator of the GarbAugust reading event, "There's something kind of trashy about True Crime books, isn't there?". On that basis, I am letting this book, which resists having a trashy vibe, into GarbAugust. It's based on real events back in 1992, Italy. There's also the notion that any genre fiction can be sneaked in as not quite highbrow. I need this for the Gangs Prompt - best I own.

Off to a good start, with 'The Body-Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson (I might have read this before). The stories will need more alcohol, though - uh, more than 8%. Apparently I will be in for some anti-drink and temperance-message tales. The grave desecration in 'Body-Snatcher' also worked for the GarbAugust Prompt: Moral Panic. Bonus Panic!

Reading for the GarbAugust Prompt: Giallo/Slasher. This is a bit of an odd choice, in that it's so early when it comes to the serial killer sub-genre. But unless the synopsis is some grand deception - and allowing for it not being the goriest of its type - this should be interesting, and on point.

Final GarbAugust Notes:
Anything Goes Week
Read for the Prompts: Stepback Cover, Drugs
Assessment: Compulsively readable, and Kate was a great protagonist - but in the end it's a bit of an average Thriller. It's first-novel-ness starts to show. I liked it, didn't love it. Perfect for two GarbAugust Prompts, though!

I’ll save the big finale for tomorrow morning. This is a 3.5 or 4 star book for me - a weak ending might put me in a ‘rounding down’ mood, but let’s hope for the best.

I’m really engrossed in this one; so far, I seem to be siding with the blurbs on the book, as opposed to the low website ratings average. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Evan from here on in, And Kate is a terrific main character.

Reading for the GarbAugust Prompt called Cults. This graphic novel features the Kobra Cult.

So, this will be applied to the GarbAugust Prompt called Gangs. I was about to read an Agatha Christie book, but I realized I covered the Long-Running Series Prompt when I read Perry Rhodan (so, I'm down to 20 books left for GarbAugust). The Cosy Cat Mystery I just finished was in memory of a Booktuber, and I'll save Agatha Christie (whom she also read) for September. This is getting complicated!

Okay! I have made changes to my GarbAugust plans. (a) I have decided that if a book covers more than one prompt on the Bingo Card, I will not feel obligated to read a separate book for the Prompts in question. (b) Where I had a book and a movie lined up, with the book not really fitting the Prompt anyway, I am just watching the movie. I wanted to stop pressuring myself to read 31 books as fast as possible. Now 21.

It's official: this book would have worked as well for the Drugs Prompt of the GarbAugust reading event, but it's my only stepback cover on a book (and that's because I went into a local Crime & Mystery bookstore, where they have a lot of older titles - new and used - and picked out the first suitable book I found, days ago). The hand on the stepback cover is actually not on the corpse. Inaccurate depiction!

Powerful and scary first chapter. I think it’s gonna be to Kate’s advantage she’s an ex-cop. I think she’s gonna be doing cop stuff…

Final GarbAugust Notes:
For Bingo Card Prompt: Cosy Cat Mystery
Anything Goes Week
Assessment: I liked it. It needed the solution to be clever, otherwise a lot of odd features would seem like fancy adornments to a dull finale. And it was pretty good reveal - I mean, I didn’t solve it. And got tricked by a few last-minute feints towards a suspect or two. I am very loyal to the author, at this point.

Was not expecting a werewolf angle. Nevertheless, this one is going well. I think it was one Bingo Card Prompt for GarbAugust that said we had to read either a Cosy Cat Mystery, or a book with Green on the Cover - but since I am doing 31 books for the event, one for each day of Aug., I decided to cover both. If 31 GarbAugust books spill into Sept., so be it; sooner or later I will fall behind, I imagine.

Very curious about the stories in this book, and reading it for the GarbAugust prompt: Moral Panic. A hint about the contents mentions that indeed at least some of the tales were written as warnings against the evils of alcohol…over-indulgence? Or just indulgence? We shall see. It will be interesting to see how often things get supernatural, as opposed to just weird…

Final GarbAugust Notes:
Anything Goes Week
Read it for Bingo Card Prompt: Weirdly Specific Sub-genre
Decades: 1910s, 1940s
Assessment: Several tales have offensive, out of date aspects, which is a pity because otherwise this is a GarbAugust pick with great variety. I am calling the poetry culled from pulp magazines, included here, a weirdly specific sub-genre, Pulp Poetry! Seems niche enough to me.