I don't wanna Monday today

 

 Monday

 I finished ROLE PLAYING by Cathy Yardley on Friday. I gave it 4 stars. It won't be a romance for everyone. It deals a lot with his sexual identity. 

I struggled a little about what to read next. I didn't want to get too involved in a big book because of the new releases tomorrow. Also, I didn't want to read a fantasy because that would be too similar to the one tomorrow. This book I'm currently reading, I apparently purchased in 2017 and never got around to it. I don't know why. I'm really liking it.

 NO HONOR IN DEATH by Eric Thomson. 1st of 8 in Siobhan Dunmoor sci fi series.

 Siobhan Dunmoore was not having a good war.  She's had more ships shot out from under her by the invading Shrehari Empire than any other officer in the Fleet. Some called her overly aggressive. Others simply called her reckless. What the enemy called her was something else altogether. That she gave the Shrehari a good drubbing along the way didn't matter in the least, because not all her enemies wore an Imperial uniform. A reputation for bad luck was pretty much the only reputation she had left.The frigate Stingray was known as the unluckiest ship in the Fleet and her Captain had just been removed in disgrace for cowardice. Some in the Admiralty would dearly love to retire the old warhorse. After all, she was the last of her type left in service, and perhaps it was time to break up the jinx permanently, along with the crew. But in the midst of an interstellar war, every ship that could fight was needed. In short order, Dunmoore went from staring down the Empire's finest on the bridge of a wrecked battleship to taking on a demoralized, semi-mutinous crew, scheming Admirals and a deadly mystery. Stingray's bad luck wasn't just superstition gone rampant. Between a crew that won't talk, political enemies who want her gone, and her personal demons, she's got her hands full. Taking the frigate into battle under those conditions would seem foolish to anyone else, but Dunmoore was never one to shrink from a good fight.  Failure was not an option, and defeat not an acceptable alternative, for there was no honor in death.

Published 2014; 342 pages.

This weekend I picked up a new webcam. An upgrade. The only down side is that the lens is wider so it was picking up the messy room behind more than the other camera. BUT ... this camera lets me choose different fake backgrounds so you don't see the room. 

 Had a good weekend otherwise. I don't have reading sprints on my channel this evening but I will be turning in to the readings sprints after work on another channel. I'd like to finish this book this evening so I'm free to read the one -- maybe two! -- new releases. I'll tell you about it (or them) tomorrow.

 Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Looking at the weekend ....

 TGIF

 Reading sprints last night went well. That was the last for this week. I'm glad I'm doing this.

Goal: 1000 pages

7/23: 327 pages

7/24: 97 pages

7/25: 105 pages

7/26: 148 pages

7/27: 98 pages

7/28:

7/29: 

Total Pages Read: 775 pages / 225 pages to go

No plans this weekend other than my haircut tomorrow morning. I have others' readings sprints on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Good books to read.  Otherwise, I hope to have a restful yet productive couple days.

Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Let me out!

 Thursday

I finished the Connie Berry book, A DREAM OF DEATH. 3.5 stars.

 

I couldn't decide what to read next even though I have a list of "near-ish" TBR. So I'm trying out three. Currently reading GREEN RIDER by Kristen Britain. 1st of 8 in fantasy series. (library loan).

 

While running away from school after a fight that will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her uncertain future. As she trudges through the immense Green Cloak forest, her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves, as a galloping horse bursts from the woods. The rider is slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king of Sacoridia. Before he dies, he begs Karigan to deliver the “life and death” message he bears to King Zachary. When she reluctantly he agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission, whispering with his dying breath, “Beware the shadow man...”Taking on the golden-winged horse brooch that is the symbol of the Green Riders, Karigan is swept into a world of deadly danger and complex magic, her life forever changed. Compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is accompanied by the silent specter of the fallen messenger and hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

 Published 1998; 481 pages.

 Also reading ROLE PLAYING by Cathy Yardley. Stand alone romance.

 Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch. Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée. Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian. When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own. Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

Published 2023; 331 pages.

 And then PRINCESS ELIZABETH'S SPY by Susan Elia MacNeal. 2nd of 10 in series featuring Maggie Hope, a typist turned spy for MI-5, in 1940s London.

 

 As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5. Spirited, strong-willed, and possessing one of the sharpest minds in government for mathematics and code-breaking, she fully expects to be sent abroad to gather intelligence for the British front. Instead, to her great disappointment, she is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle, where she will tutor the young Princess Elizabeth in maths. Yet castle life quickly proves more dangerous—and deadly—than Maggie ever expected. The upstairs-downstairs world at Windsor is thrown into disarray by a shocking murder, which draws Maggie into a vast conspiracy that places the entire royal family in peril. And as she races to save England from a most disturbing fate, Maggie realizes that a quick wit is her best defence, and that the smallest clues can unravel the biggest secrets, even within her own family.

Published 2012; 409 pages. 

So a little bit of everything. Next week I'll have the new Jacqueline Carey (fantasy) and hopefully the Nathan Lowell (sci fi).

 

Goal: 1000 pages

7/23: 327 pages

7/24: 97 pages

7/25: 105 pages

7/26: 148 pages

7/27:

7/28:

7/29: 

Total Pages Read: 677 pages / 323 pages to go

I've got reading sprints again tonight. For next week, I don't know yet if I'll do sprints all three days, Tuesday through Thursday. I don't know if I'll do it every week; it IS a lot. But I'm doing it this way for this week because of the page number challenge and because it's early days on my channel and I'm trying to build it up while I'm learning the ropes.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Halfway thru the week, Pookie

Wednesday

Listening to the audio of FOOL MOON by Jim Butcher. 2nd of 17 in series Harry Dresden, the only wizard listed in the yellow pages in Chicago, in the Dresden Files

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment. Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work — magical or mundane. But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise. A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses--and the first two don't count...

Published 2001; 432 pages.

Goal: 1000 pages

7/23: 327 pages

7/24: 97 pages

7/25: 105 pages

7/26:

7/27:

7/28:

7/29: 

Total Pages Read: 529 pages / 471 pages to go

Steve's got the gun range. Tonight I've got live reading sprints again. Wednesday nights will be my regular time slot -- perhaps -- but this week, I'm doing the three evenings, Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. Last night went well. I really enjoy doing it. I'm up to 68 subscribers (some are probably bots).

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

It's not the age, it's the mileage

Tuesday

 

If you recall, in the online book world, some months have themes by which you try to read, if you choose to participate. In August, it's GarbAugust -- reading books that you deem are "trashy." I was going to participate in the mid-year GarbAugust earlier this year but I don't think I actually did. Well, August is just around the corner and once again, I'm thinking of participating. These are the books I'm considering as my options:

 I may read one or two from this list. MAGNOLIA PARKS (toxic romance) is the trashiest of them all, in my humble opinion. And that's what this is, the reader's opinion only. Some people love these books and that's okay. The Patterson books and the Cornwell book are available to me via the library so they are strong contenders for a crime fiction version.

 Speaking of reading ... (when am I not?) ... I'll be doing live reading sprints tonight.

 

 I'm doing it partly because it's 1000 Page Read Challenge week.

 Goal: 1000 pages

7/23: 327 pages

7/24: 97 pages

7/25:

7/26:

7/27:

7/28:

7/29: 

Total Pages Read: 424 pages / 576 pages to go.

And I'm doing it partly to start getting some hours in on YouTube. To get monetized not only do you need 1000 subscribers, but also apparently 4000 hours of content.  

 

 Much to do. Gotta go.

Have a good day

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Preparing for the week ahead

Monday

 This weekend  I read THE AGATHAS byby Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson. 1st of 2 in series.

 I really loved it. 5 stars. I read it in two days. It's a mix of A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER and Veronica Mars seasons one and two (not season 3). I look forward to the second book.

 Currently reading A DREAM OF DEATH by Connie Berry. 1st of 4 in series featuring Kate Hamilton, a widowed Ohio antiques dealer sleuthing in the United Kingdom

 

 On a remote island in Scotland, an American antiques dealer a brutal killing staged to recreate a centuries-old unsolved murder. Autumn has come and gone on Scotland’s Isle of Glenroth, and the islanders gather for the Tartan Ball, the annual end-of-tourist-season gala. Spirits are high until an unexpected turn of events takes the floor. A recently published novel about island history has brought hordes of tourists to the small Hebridean resort community. On the guest list is American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton. Kate returns reluctantly to the island where her husband died, determined to repair her relationship with his sister, proprietor of the island’s luxe country house hotel, famous for its connection with Bonnie Prince Charlie. Kate has hardly unpacked when the next morning a body is found, murdered in a reenactment of an infamous unsolved murder described in the novel—and the only clue to the killer’s identity lies in a curiously embellished antique casket. The Scottish police discount the historical connection, but when a much-loved local handyman is arrested, Kate teams up with a vacationing detective inspector from Suffolk, England, to unmask a killer determined to rewrite island history—and Kate’s future.

Published 2019; 315 pages. This may be my choice for the first scavenger hunt in August,

 Gotta go. Work is being a Monday.

Have a good day

 Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster

Weekend plans

 Friday. TGIF

 I finished THE TRAITOR by Ava Glass. 2nd of 2 in Alias Emma spy series. I'm giving it 4.5 stars. It's off half a point because Emma makes a silly choice at one crucial moment (I like my super spies to be super all the time, right?) and I knew who the bad guy was pretty early on.

 But I loved the ride and I've purchased a physical copy of the book before I got the ARC and I'm still adding it to my collection. I recommend highly reading this series but be sure to read the first one first, ALIAS EMMA.

     

And I'm hoping the series continues. Reading-wise I'm back to the Andrea Penrose and I'll probably be starting THE AGATHAS.

       

I've completed my first week of doing my live morning show on my YouTube channel, Bookeemonsters. I have 47 subscribers as of this morning.

 I'll be doing a live sprint tomorrow afternoon because Sarah the Bookish Knitter is going to be gone. I'll be tuning in to Tiffany's reading sprint on Sunday afternoon per usual.

I picked up the diamond painting (beginner) kit last night. I'm not sure when I'll dabble on it yet, but here's the image:

Otherwise, just the same weekend stuff. Walking Keo. Reading. Watching YouTube. Napping. No plans. 

 

Have a good weekend

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster