March Books
Mar. 31st, 2023 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asphaltcowgrrlI had a very productive month book-wise. It looks like I read more than I did, but I managed to finish up a couple that had been hanging on my currently reading list for um… years in one case.
(YIKES this got long, sorry.)
What I read:
Rings on Her Fingers by ReGina Welling. This book frustrated me. The plot was good and the characters were interesting and likable. But the writing was horrible. Such a disappointment.
Wild Cowboy Country by Erin Marsh. A pretty good cowboy/park ranger romance. I really dislike the ‘his father did something bad and even though he was a child we’re going to forever hate on him, too’ trope. And they really played it up in this book. That aside, Clay and Lacey made a cute couple.
Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi. It’s been a while since I’ve read any straight horror and maybe an audiobook wasn’t the best choice here. 🤣 But I really enjoyed this small town with a dark secret story. Need to check out more of the author’s work.
Echo Park by Michael Connelly. Another good Bosch story. You can see how the author is fine tuning his writing with each book because the plots get more and more intricate as the series goes on. While I liked Rachel Walling in The Poet, she kind of started to get on my nerves in this one.
The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes. I really, really wanted to like this more than I did. And I actually rather loved the first half! The plot hinted at the supernatural even though there wasn’t anything woo woo in the end, but I still love that idea of ‘is it or isn’t it?’. The main character is a mess and rather unravels by the end. I’ll give the author another shot as this was her debut (I think), but man.
The Cook’s Herb Garden: Grow, Harvest, Cook by Jeff Cox and Marie Pierre Moine. This probably shouldn’t count, but I bought it (on sale! $1.99!) for my Kindle and it adds everything to Goodreads automatically. LOL That said, it’s very informative on how to care for your herbs as well as grow them either in a garden or in containers. Will prove to be helpful in the future.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. I picked this up after Taylor and I watched the Hulu series last year. I’ve grown up surrounded by LDS but had no idea about the history of the religion. Boy, was this book an eye opener. Even if you’re not fundie, I don’t understand how you can have any knowledge of the bullshit Joseph Smith pulled and still think this is a good religion. That said, the murder that the book is detailing is just sad. Dan and Ron Lafferty murdered their sister-in-law and toddler niece because she refused to conform to their fundamentalist beliefs and tried to get her husband, Allen, to cut his brothers out of his life. It all ties together horribly in the end. Very informative, but makes me extremely wary of the LDS now. My boss and his sons excluded. They don’t seem the crazy type. Hahaha.
The Overlook by Michael Connelly. A very short Bosch novella that didn’t skimp on the murder. I love when an author can write a story half the length of their usual and you don’t feel like anything was rushed or skimped on.
How to Marry a Cowboy by Carolyn Brown. This is the one that’s been on my shelf for too long. According to my tracker, it took me 1,792 days to read this. Super cute story about a woman with amnesia who winds up on a ranch. There are twin 9 year old girls that are a ton of trouble, but the author writes them like they’re several years younger. Great romance though and they’re a fun couple.
Reckless in Texas by Kari Lynn Dell. This was in an ebook duo with the above. This was definitely the better book of the two, although I liked them both. The rodeo setting was a lot of fun. Joe needed to be smacked occasionally, but we’ll cut him some slack. The best part though was that, although there were a few miscommunications, Joe and Violet TALKED THEM OUT. What a freaking revelation! Drives me nuts when all the tension in a story could be resolved by a conversation. My only disappointment was that Wyatt (Joe’s BFF) doesn’t get his story told until book 4. Hahaha.
The Tao of Healing: Medications for Body and Spirit by Haven Trevino. I picked this up when I was ordering another book from PaperbackSwap. I had the credits and it looked interesting. It’s meditations and affirmations of a sort written in poem form. Some were really good and others were just… wtf did I read? About 50/50 for me.
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. Back to Mickey Haller! I liked this one a lot. All the drama with his murdered lawyer friend and the big trial was engrossing.
The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly. I’m torn on this one. The story was good and intricate but there was something missing. The Poet was so gripping that I was excited to get to Jack’s next adventure. But it too so long to get moving! And Rachel… ugh. I’m starting to not like her at all. But that’s a me problem, I guess.
The TL;DR stats:
What I’m reading now:
You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa. Started a little slow, but has started to pick up. Set in Sri Lanka, so there’s a lot of culture and things that I’m finding fascinating.
Sign Here by Claudia Lux. I’m not very far into this yet, but it’s been amusing. It’s about a guy who works in Hell acquiring souls. He’ll get a big promotion if he can get one more person to sign. I’ve loved the bureaucracy and office politics that are included in this. I can so realte!
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. I haven’t actually started this yet, but I downloaded it when I got to work because I’d finished The Scarecrow on my ride in.
What’s up next:
All the ARCs I’ve acquired. Hahaha.
There’s No Coming Back from This by Ann Garvin
Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust by Mindy Quigley
There are more, but these are the ones due in April. Oops.
Bosch Book Challenge Update:
I read four Bosch Universe books this month, which is quite impressive to me. That brings me to a total of 19. According to my list, I have 21 novels and shorts to go. I think there is one more that I didn’t add to the list because at the time I could only get the abridged audio from the library. It doesn’t seem to connect to any of the others and, if you read Bosh, you know that the old cases and people are constantly being brought up. So, I might go back and read it once I’m all caught up.
This got out of control, sorry. If you made it this far, I owe you a Danish.
(YIKES this got long, sorry.)
What I read:
Rings on Her Fingers by ReGina Welling. This book frustrated me. The plot was good and the characters were interesting and likable. But the writing was horrible. Such a disappointment.
Wild Cowboy Country by Erin Marsh. A pretty good cowboy/park ranger romance. I really dislike the ‘his father did something bad and even though he was a child we’re going to forever hate on him, too’ trope. And they really played it up in this book. That aside, Clay and Lacey made a cute couple.
Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi. It’s been a while since I’ve read any straight horror and maybe an audiobook wasn’t the best choice here. 🤣 But I really enjoyed this small town with a dark secret story. Need to check out more of the author’s work.
Echo Park by Michael Connelly. Another good Bosch story. You can see how the author is fine tuning his writing with each book because the plots get more and more intricate as the series goes on. While I liked Rachel Walling in The Poet, she kind of started to get on my nerves in this one.
The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes. I really, really wanted to like this more than I did. And I actually rather loved the first half! The plot hinted at the supernatural even though there wasn’t anything woo woo in the end, but I still love that idea of ‘is it or isn’t it?’. The main character is a mess and rather unravels by the end. I’ll give the author another shot as this was her debut (I think), but man.
The Cook’s Herb Garden: Grow, Harvest, Cook by Jeff Cox and Marie Pierre Moine. This probably shouldn’t count, but I bought it (on sale! $1.99!) for my Kindle and it adds everything to Goodreads automatically. LOL That said, it’s very informative on how to care for your herbs as well as grow them either in a garden or in containers. Will prove to be helpful in the future.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. I picked this up after Taylor and I watched the Hulu series last year. I’ve grown up surrounded by LDS but had no idea about the history of the religion. Boy, was this book an eye opener. Even if you’re not fundie, I don’t understand how you can have any knowledge of the bullshit Joseph Smith pulled and still think this is a good religion. That said, the murder that the book is detailing is just sad. Dan and Ron Lafferty murdered their sister-in-law and toddler niece because she refused to conform to their fundamentalist beliefs and tried to get her husband, Allen, to cut his brothers out of his life. It all ties together horribly in the end. Very informative, but makes me extremely wary of the LDS now. My boss and his sons excluded. They don’t seem the crazy type. Hahaha.
The Overlook by Michael Connelly. A very short Bosch novella that didn’t skimp on the murder. I love when an author can write a story half the length of their usual and you don’t feel like anything was rushed or skimped on.
How to Marry a Cowboy by Carolyn Brown. This is the one that’s been on my shelf for too long. According to my tracker, it took me 1,792 days to read this. Super cute story about a woman with amnesia who winds up on a ranch. There are twin 9 year old girls that are a ton of trouble, but the author writes them like they’re several years younger. Great romance though and they’re a fun couple.
Reckless in Texas by Kari Lynn Dell. This was in an ebook duo with the above. This was definitely the better book of the two, although I liked them both. The rodeo setting was a lot of fun. Joe needed to be smacked occasionally, but we’ll cut him some slack. The best part though was that, although there were a few miscommunications, Joe and Violet TALKED THEM OUT. What a freaking revelation! Drives me nuts when all the tension in a story could be resolved by a conversation. My only disappointment was that Wyatt (Joe’s BFF) doesn’t get his story told until book 4. Hahaha.
The Tao of Healing: Medications for Body and Spirit by Haven Trevino. I picked this up when I was ordering another book from PaperbackSwap. I had the credits and it looked interesting. It’s meditations and affirmations of a sort written in poem form. Some were really good and others were just… wtf did I read? About 50/50 for me.
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. Back to Mickey Haller! I liked this one a lot. All the drama with his murdered lawyer friend and the big trial was engrossing.
The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly. I’m torn on this one. The story was good and intricate but there was something missing. The Poet was so gripping that I was excited to get to Jack’s next adventure. But it too so long to get moving! And Rachel… ugh. I’m starting to not like her at all. But that’s a me problem, I guess.
The TL;DR stats:
What I’m reading now:
You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa. Started a little slow, but has started to pick up. Set in Sri Lanka, so there’s a lot of culture and things that I’m finding fascinating.
Sign Here by Claudia Lux. I’m not very far into this yet, but it’s been amusing. It’s about a guy who works in Hell acquiring souls. He’ll get a big promotion if he can get one more person to sign. I’ve loved the bureaucracy and office politics that are included in this. I can so realte!
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. I haven’t actually started this yet, but I downloaded it when I got to work because I’d finished The Scarecrow on my ride in.
What’s up next:
All the ARCs I’ve acquired. Hahaha.
There’s No Coming Back from This by Ann Garvin
Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust by Mindy Quigley
There are more, but these are the ones due in April. Oops.
Bosch Book Challenge Update:
I read four Bosch Universe books this month, which is quite impressive to me. That brings me to a total of 19. According to my list, I have 21 novels and shorts to go. I think there is one more that I didn’t add to the list because at the time I could only get the abridged audio from the library. It doesn’t seem to connect to any of the others and, if you read Bosh, you know that the old cases and people are constantly being brought up. So, I might go back and read it once I’m all caught up.
This got out of control, sorry. If you made it this far, I owe you a Danish.
