Halloween Bingo 2018 | Update #4

Halloween Bingo 2018

hosted by Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue

So I think I've made all of my decisions for my squares now... not that it'll stay that way, because I've already changed my mind twice this weekend about what books I will read for which squares.  Having recently finished reading LynDee Walker's Front Page Fatality (review coming soon), I suddenly found myself determined to finish reading the rest of the books available for this series and wondering how I can incorporate all of them into Bingo.

After deciding which squares will work and thinking that I'd use Walker as my Wild Card Author... I received a ping from an e-mail that a book I had on hold was ready for check-out.  Barbara Michaels' Houses of Stone had been a recommendation I put into the library's e-book system and they decided to add that book to their collection.  I really, really want to read this book after having seen some really good reviews.  So now I had to figure out how to include this book into my Bingo.

THEN, I finally got to reading Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (which I will be finishing pretty soon, probably within the next few hours after posting this update), and so I'm considering continuing that series... but how to incorporate it into Bingo...

I finally decided to make a few compromises and so now we have a more solid plan for the rest of October... sort of.  I figure that as long as I have some sort of list to grab from as I finish each book, I might, just might, be able to Black out my card.  Maybe.  I'm still not entirely sure that I'll be able to Black out, but it's a better possibility than I'd had at the end of September after having only read about six Halloween Bingo books.

Anyway... very, very long story short:

I'm planning on reading, at least, the first three Nichelle Clarke books for Halloween Bingo.  It just so happens that the third book is called Small Town Spin, and what better square than 'Terror in a Small Town.'  The second book, Buried Leads will go into the 'Murder Most Foul' square.

Next, I'm choosing to insert Houses of Stone into the 'Terrifying Women' square.  That seems simple enough.

Finally, I'm totally dropping The Devil in the White City for now.  I'm not sure I can handle such a hefty book at this time, and I'm not really getting into it either.  Why I even chose to read it in the first place, I'm not sure, aside from the fact that it sounded interesting and I still needed a book for 'Creepy Carnivals.'  I'll probably come back to this book another time, because it still sounds quite interesting to me.  Had I had better progress in September for Bingo, I might have just stuck with it.  So instead, for 'Creepy Carnival', I'm going to be reading a short story by Seanan McGuire called Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea, from the Carniepunk anthology.

And now that I've rambled everyone's ears off... well, I guess I'm off to read so I can get caught up!

Updated Marked Card:

Dino Baby!  Rawr!  for Called Squares

Read Squares will simply be a book cover to the left of the square.

Currently Reading:

FOR

FOR

FOR

Squares/Books/Called Dates/Update Post Links:

Progress on my card:  19 squares called || 13 books read || 8 squares completed

Squares called that I do not have:
09/15/18 - Modern Masters of Horror
09/25/18 - Amateur Sleuth
09/29/18 - Supernatural

Halloween Bingo 2018: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Report Your Bingos!

October Group Read | Discussion Thread -- Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Halloween Bingo 2018 | Update #1
It's Monday! Plus a Halloween Bingo Update, Just Because... | 09/17/2018
Halloween Bingo 2018 | Update #2
Halloween Bingo 2018 | Book Rambles at Mid-game
Halloween Bingo 2018 | Update #3

*And also, when I've posted them, the book covers will link to my reviews.

Called:  10/01/18 Read:	Called:  09/21/18 Read:	Called:  10/09/18 Read:	Called: 09/09/18 Read:  10/05/18	Called: 10/05/18 Read:  09/18/18
~*~*~*~
Called: 09/05/18 Read:  10/11/18	Called: 09/03/18 Read:	Called:  09/27/18 Read:  10/13/18	Called: 09/17/18 Read:	Called: Read: 09/03/18
~*~*~*~
Called: 09/01/18 Read:	Called: 09/23/18 Read:	Called: Read:	Called:  09/19/18 Read:  10/01/18	Called: Read:  10/09/18
~*~*~*~
Called: Read:  10/11/18	Called:10/11/18 Read:  10/06/18	Called:  10/07/18 Read:	Called: Read:  09/27/18	Called:  09/13/18 Read:
~*~*~*~
Called:  10/13/18 Read:  09/24/18	Called:  09/11/18 Read:	Called:  10/03/18 Read:  09/22/18	Called: Read: 09/06/18	Called: 09/07/18 Read:
Halloween Bingo 2018 Ani's Book Abyss

Wild Card Author:

I haven't decided which author to use as my Wild Card yet, but I've been considering using Nora Roberts, as she is a writer of a lot of crime thrillers, romantic suspense, and supernatural, including the Circle trilogy I've chosen for this year's bingo.

Other authors I'm also considering are: Susanna Kearsley, who writes Gothic with a bit of supernatural; Elizabeth Peters, who has a lot of cozy mysteries; or another obvious option, Agatha Christie!

Thoughts: The Big Over Easy

The Big Over Easy

by Jasper Fforde
Book 1 of Nursery Crimes

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

It's Easter in Reading—a bad time for eggs—and no one can remember the last sunny day.  Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town.  All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.

But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary remain unconvinced, a sentiment not shared with their superiors at the Reading Police Department, who are still smarting over their failure to convict the Three Pigs of murdering Mr. Wolff.  Before long Jack and Mary find themselves grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, bullion smuggling, problems with beanstalks, titans seeking asylum, and the cut and thrust world of international chiropody.

And on top of all that, the JellyMan is coming to town . . .

This book just sucks you right in.  And I'm entirely sorry that I'd set it aside in my attempts to get some other books finished, because I should have just kept reading.  I most definitely would have finished it a lot earlier.

Slow paced as it is, it's also a lot of fun to read, and the investigation kind of intriguing to follow, even though Jack is the worst at jumping to conclusions before gathering all his facts.  He's a great detective and all, you can see that, but I had to sigh at each time he came up with his conclusion about how Humpty Dumpty died, but then a new piece of evidence would embarrassingly make him eat his words--especially since each time he would be announcing his conclusions confidently to his boss.  Granted, it's great that he readily continues on with the investigative flow once he finds out that there's more to the story than he'd thought, though.

Did anyone else get a sense of dramatic cliff-hanger after the end of each chapter when a new reveal was announced?  The dialogue felt kind of dramatic, and I kept imagining the "Dun Dun DUNNN!" music in my head.

I know the cards actually say "Dum Dum Dummm!" but I still love this gif.

Just me?  Okay...  Moving along...

The book itself was really just addictive and delightful, even if there are references dropped left and right about things you don't quite understand; but for the narration, seems perfectly natural to hear in everyday conversation, like how Rambosian's only speak in binary.  Or how Prometheus can speak toddler gibberish, but not infant gibberish, or something like that.  It's extremely silly some of the things that are narrated, but at the same time, in a way makes perfect sense.

I wish that some of the characters DID stand out a little bit more, but I feel like the book was so focused on introducing the world of the Nursery Crimes that it kind of sacrifices some character development.  Specifically, Mary Mary's revelation somewhere at midpoint in the book felt like it should have been a bit more life-affirming... but we just kind of move on and so does she.

And the issue about Arnold is never really addressed, so I'm lead to believe that this might be a running gag throughout the series (what's left of it, anyway, since there's only one other book, and a third supposedly in the works).

On a side note, I was very amused by the references to Jack being a giant killer, then the scene where he has his mother's painting of a cow exchanged for magical beans just hit the spot.  Especially when we give the scene more of an art fraud spin.

Meanwhile, I found myself enjoying the dynamics between the Nursery Crime Division, and liking the camaraderie between Jack and his crew.  I'm also quite happy with the fact that Jack's personal life is depicted in such a healthy way, with a loving wife, great kids, and a basically stable relationship with all of them.  I'm sure tense family relations are the "thing" now-a-days in a lot of books, but I like that Jack's wasn't angst-ridden.

The incorporation of all things nursery rhymes, fairy tales, mythologies, etc, was done quite cleverly, and worked really well to add to the Nursery Crime world as well as this book's plot, in general.  And I also kind of liked the short newspaper articles at the beginning of each chapter... except when we got closer to the end and I just wanted to know how everything turns out... which, that twist at the very end of the book was interestingly... unexpected.

I would have liked to see more of a comeuppance for Friedland Chymes... but I suppose not everything has to be rounded out.

I will definitely be going onto the next book in this series, and just as well, will check out more of Jasper Fforde's work, having seen and heard a lot of great things about his Thursday Next series.

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Halloween Bingo 2018
(mystery with noir elements including authors like James Ellroy, Ian Rankin, anything that falls generally under the category of Nordic Noir, Tartan Noir, Granite Noir, etc.)

Other Possible Squares:  A Grimm Tale; Murder Most Foul

Thoughts: Sick of Shadows

Sick of Shadows

by Sharyn McCrumb
Book 1 of Elizabeth MacPherson

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.5 Stars

When delicate Eileen Chandler is set to marry, her family fears the man is a fortune hunter.  Thank goodness, Eileen's cousin Elizabeth MacPherson comes early for support.  Unfortunately, Elizabeth also has some detecting to do, as a dead body is found, and none of the wedding party is above suspicion....

First of all, the only summary blurb I can find for this book is extremely misleading, in spite of the fact that it's mostly true.  Because as you find out from the beginning of the book, Elizabeth does not actually "come early for support," and actually spends the first two pages of the book making fun of her cousin and her cousin's family in a letter to her brother.

This was a little off-putting since we learn that Eileen Chandler had been admitted into a mental care hospital not long ago in her life.  The fact that Elizabeth spends even an ounce of time poking fun of that was quite tasteless and unnecessary.  I'm not sure if this has to do with the time this book was written in 1984, but I didn't care for it.  It was a bad first impression of the main heroine in this series.

Secondly, Elizabeth doesn't so much do the detecting, as let clues fall into her lap at intervals.  In fact, there is a set of policeman in this book who probably have more book time than Elizabeth, and who actually do the detecting.  This is a bit of a change from what I'm used to in cozy mysteries--at least the cozy mysteries I've read--wherein the police force is either missing, incompetent, or the asshat of a main male love interest.  Instead, the two police detectives are definitely there to investigate and they kind of edge Elizabeth out of the book's limelight.

Then there's a twist in the end, pertaining to the murder investigation, that bugged me a lot because it didn't make sense, really.

Sick of Shadows wasn't a terrible book--it wasn't even a bad book, to be honest, and was actually written quite well.  But the writing was really all that it had going for it.  Well, all except for the part where the dialogue read like British instead of Southern U.S.A.  I'm not sure if the perception was my fault since I'd been listening to an Agatha Christie mystery in audio book, narrated by Hugh Fraser, but aside from Aunt Amanda, I could not formulate a southern drawl for anyone else in the book.  When I tried to "hear" the dialogue of any other character that way, it just slowly morphed into something more British.

I don't think I'd ever had that problem before with books that took place in the U.S. south.

But moving along...

Truth be told, the rest of the story was pretty flat.  The characters were a little hard to grasp, and our main heroine--of whom the series is named for--doesn't really play much of a role in this book, as I've mentioned already.  Instead, Elizabeth spends time doing the stereotypical feminine chores around the house to be helpful, interrogates people around her about future career prospects, and kind of just fades into the background.  All of her cousins are described as eccentric, despite the fact that she describes them as crazy, and yet they come off as entirely too over-the-top, in my opinion.  And you never really get to know them, any of them, well enough to care about their emotions or even their existence.

This is a pretty mediocre start to a cozy mystery series that, according to other reviewers, will pick up in the next book.  So I'm not writing it off immediately, but I'm not going to hit up a store just to get a hold of the next book.  I will wait patiently until my library picks up an e-book copy, or barring that possibility, I might give inter-library loan another go... another time from now.

I DO wish that Elizabeth had had more of a direction and some development to her character.  As it is, she's really just another side character in a book full of side characters.

As I already mentioned, I'll give this series another spin some other time and hope that things are a little better outlined.

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Halloween Bingo 2018
(mystery, supernatural, suspense, or horror set in the Southern part of the United States)

Other Possible Squares:  Genre: Suspense; Country House Mystery; Terror in a Small Town; Cozy Mystery; Amateur Sleuth; Terrifying Women; Murder Most Foul

Monthly Reading Wrap Up -- September 2018

So September didn't quite turn out the way I had planned, but it still wasn't too bad.  Unfortunately, at the rate I'm going for reads, I have the distinct feeling I will NOT be getting a Blackout for Halloween Bingo this year.  This strikes me as a little disappointing, because despite how overwhelmed I'd felt the previous two years, I still managed to finish a book for every square--and both years I even had time to read extra books.

Of course, in the month of September, I DID sort of spend extra time finishing two books for a series I was adamant about finishing.  So maybe if I pick up the pace, I'll be able to catch up.  For one, this month was filled with books I had a hard time enjoying; however, since my stubborn streak is strong, I persevered.  There are at least three or four books I have planned on for Halloween Bingo that I will be getting to in October, all of which are by authors I have enjoyed in the past--like, really, really enjoyed.  And then I'm also considering reading a romantic suspense series involving serial killings or murder that will fit at least four squares for each book of the series.

Worst case scenario, I suppose, I can quickly search up a bunch of short stories just to fill squares... but I don't really want to do that.  I'm not big on short stories anyway.

September Reads

Books Dropped/Put On Hold

None this month!  Yay!

Currently Reading

September Reading Stats

Total works read:  8

• 7 print/e-book novels
• 1 audio book

Average rating: 2.69 Stars

• Highest Rated:  The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson // 4.0 Stars
• Lowest Rated:  Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts // 2.0 Stars

Series I started reading:

• Nursery Crimes by Jasper Fforde
• Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Series I completed:

• The Liar's Club by Celeste Bradley
• Circle trilogy by Nora Roberts

Series I have made progress on:

• None

Favorite reads:  It's quite unfortunate that the month of September had this year's lowest monthly book rating average, as you can see above.  There was really only one book I enjoyed, and fortunately it was a very enjoyable book, so it's not like The Name of the Star became my favorite book by default... even if it sort of did.

Disappointing reads:  The Splendour Falls was a book I was very much looking forward to, being by an author I've come to enjoy after reading two other of her books.  Susanna Kearsley is great with her writing and imagery, but unfortunately, The Splendour Falls just didn't hold up very well.  Meanwhile... if I really had to list all of my disappointing reads, then September will start looking even more pathetic.

Reviews & Notable Posts

Reviews Written

• Serial Hottie by Kelly Oram | Review transfer
• Storm by Brigid Kemmerer | Review transfer
• Zodiac by Romina Russell | Revew transfer
• Lake Silence by Anne Bishop
• Liar's Club series by Celeste Bradley
• The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
• Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright
• Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts
• The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima | Review transfer

Memes

• It's Monday! Plus a Halloween Bingo Update, Just Because... | 09/17/2018

Other Posts

• Collective Reading Updates: Get Well Soon
• Halloween Bingo 2018 | Update #1
• Random Reading Updates: The Big Over Easy
• Pre-Review Thoughts: The Splendour Falls
• Halloween Bingo 2018 | Update #2
• Halloween Bingo 2018 | Book Rambles at Mid-Game

Coming Up In October

Tentative TBR

Other Stuff

September turned out a bit lacking in posts--at least more lacking than I'd been planning.  I was hoping to be back in the blogging game, but one thing after another came up, and then I just simply got really lazy.  With the fewer number of books read, I had fewer updates to make for Halloween Bingo, and so fewer posts went out.

I mean, I even desperately filled in one of the 'It's Monday!' memes just to have something to share.

Meanwhile, I'm really hoping to exponentially increase my number of books read for October, which will also hopefully give me things to blog about.  As you can see for my tentative reads for October, I might be overshooting my ambitions a little bit... but that never hurts too much.  At least not until I do my wrap up for the month and realize how far off the mark I ended up.

2018 Wrap-Ups 

Past Monthly Reading Wrap Ups (2016 / 2017)
See Also: 2015 Reading Wrap-Up posts (scroll to bottom of page)

(updated as year progresses by month)
January | February | March | April | May | June
July | August | September | October | November | December

Random Reading Updates: The Big Over Easy

The Big Over Easy

by Jasper Fforde
Book 1 of Nursery Crimes

~ Goodreads ~

Any subsequent updates I decide to make will be added to the top of each new repost.

Halloween Bingo 2018

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Progress on 10/7/2018:  115 of 383 pages (30%)

First there was The Strand, the original magazine for which Dr. Watson so painstakingly penned all Holmes adventures.  Following Sherlock's retirement The Strand went through a sticky patch and was relaunched in 1931 under the title True Detection Monthly and featured Guild of Detectives stalwart Hercule Porridge and newcomer Miss Maple.  The summer of 1936 saw both these characters abscond to the newly formed Real Detective Magazine.  Lord Peter Flimsey and Father Broom, however, favored Extraordinary Detecting Feats, which folded after two issues, to be replaced by Sleuth Illustrated.  The end of the "golden era" saw a shaking up of the true-crime franchise, and Real Detective, Astounding Police, Remarkable Crime, and Popular Sleuthing merged into  Amazing Crime Stories, which is now regarded as the world leader in true-crime adventure.

hehe  This book is turning out quite addictive, though I must admit that it's taking a little more time to pick up than I was hoping.  Of course, the investigation is going forward.  And I can see why we need to spend so much time sort of "introducing" the world, since a lot of it is quite hard to keep up with.

As far as I can tell, it's not how well you solve a criminal case, but how much sensational story-telling value the case has that's the breadwinner for each detective.

I'm also suspecting some inter-office corruption or some sort of conspiracy going on that may or may not involve the over-arrogant DCI Chymes... but that's just my interpretation.  Poor Jack Spratt will have to watch his back for the time being, I fear.

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Progress on 9/8/2018:  5 of 383 pages (1%)

Briggs drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment.

"Do you want to hear me play the trombone?"

"Might it be prejudicial to my career if I were to refuse?"

"It's a distinct possibility."

"Then I'd be delighted."

Okay, so call me immature, but for some reason, after reading this passage, the first thing I thought about was, "Wow, that escalated fast!"

Okay, so maybe my mind was in the gutter, and maybe I somehow connected trombone with some strange... euphemism... for other things.  After all, Mary Mary is interviewing for a new position with Briggs as her superior... and the whole trombone thing just kind of came out of nowhere.  O.o

Anyway, don't mind me.  Moving right along.

This is my first foray into Jasper Fforde, and I've heard and read a lot of great things about his Thursday Next books, of which are also on my TBR for some day.  So I'm kind of glad that this book was listed as an approved suggestion in the Halloween Bingo 2018 - Modern Noir reading list!  While I'm not very familiar with the 'noir' genre, I'm also not sure I was up for hardcore 'noir,' especially reading about what kinds of elements populate it.  And also because I might be remembering the chaos that was our 2017 Halloween Bingo buddy read for Classic Noir.

Anyway, off I go, starting a whole new book before finishing the other three!