Category Archives: Reading

Linkity feels like a stranger (aka it’s been too long)

Hi all! HOW ARE YOU?! My feet are healing well and I can wear (very wide) normal shoes instead of surgical shoes. Wild times here!

Reading Update


Tall Harry is tall (and a chunk)! Intent Polly is intent!

Polly trying to maim the kitty brush (and bite her tongue?!) as Harry looks on.

Peekaboo Harry!

Polly is pretty!

Linkity feels like Frankenstein’s monster

Foot surgery successful! And now I’ll be clomping around in these surgical shoes for I don’t know how long… Probably no linkity for the next several weeks, as I’ve signed up for another class during my linkity making time.

Reading Update
Layers of Meaning: Elements of Visual Journaling by Rakefet Hadar. Gorgeous but otherwise disappointing self-published guide to the author’s specific method of art journaling.
Ghost of Gotham and A Time for Witches (Ghosts of Gotham 1-2) by Craig Schaefer. Good series about a reporter who debunks the paranormal, then finds himself in a complicated situation he can’t explain away.
Sworn to the Night, Detonation Boulevard, and Bring the Fire (The Wisdom’s Grave Trilogy) by Craig Schaefer. Ok side series of the Daniel Faust series that you need to read or the later books of the main series won’t make any sense.
Glass Predator, Cold Spectrum, Right to the Kill, and Black Tie Required (Harmony Black 3-6) by Craig Schaefer. Good series about an FBI agent and witch who becomes part of a black ops team meant to protect the country from supernatural threats. Also must be read or the later books of the Daniel Faust series won’t make sense.


Mayhem and Harry sharing a moment.

Mayhem and Polly sharing a moment.

Harry and the purple unicorn catnip toy.

“Not looking at you, Mom! Put away that phone camera!!!” -Mayhem

Linkity for stressed and/or judging kitties

Probably won’t be linkity next week – I’m having double foot surgery on Monday (bunion and tailor’s bunion) and I’m going to take things easy for the rest of the week.

Reading Update
The Long Way Down, The White Gold Score, Redemption Song, The Living End, A Plain-Dealing Villain, The Killing Floor, The Castle Doctrine, Double or Nothing, The Neon Boneyard (Daniel Faust 1, 1.5, 2-8) by Craig Schaefer. Good series about a small-time Las Vegas magician and thief who gets caught up in a much larger story. You definitely want to bookmark the author’s reading order page for this one, because it’s part of set of interrelated series and things will get confusing if you try to read any one series straight through.
Harmony Black, Red Knight Falling (Harmony Black 1-2) by Craig Schaefer. Good series about an FBI agent and witch who becomes part of a black ops team meant to protect the country from supernatural threats. You need to read it interspersed with the Daniel Faust series, or by Book 9 of the Daniel Faust series, you will be very confused.
Got Luck, Lucky Day, Got Hope, Got Lost (Behindbeyond 1, 1.5, 2-3) by Michael Darling. Good urban fantasy series about a PI who discovers there’s a heckuva lot going on just below the surface of the world than he realized.


Oh, poor stressed Polly!

And poor stressed Harry!

Mayhem is ABSOLUTELY judging you, me, the kittens…

Linkity returns! Now with even weirder links than usual!

Oh, hello there! Hope everyone continues to be pandemic fine, at the very least?! I am now fully vaccinated and the two weeks have passed. I’ve been “celebrating” by having a few long-delayed routine medical appointments… And I got my hair cut! It was past my shoulder blades – now it skims my shoulders.

Reading Update
Not everything, but some of what I’ve been reading…
Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children, #6)Across the Green Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire. Not related to the school at all, but still good. I just wish these had a bit more closure.
The Secret Chapter (The Invisible Library, #6)The Secret Chapter and The Dark Archive (The Invisible Library, #7)The Dark Archive (The Invisible Library 6-7) by Genevieve Cogman. Pretty solid in 6 and then WTF at the ending of 7.
The Last Smile in Sunder CityThe Last Smile in Sunder City and Dead Man in a Ditch (The Fetch Phillips Archives, #2)Dead Man in a Ditch (The Fetch Phillips Archives 1-2) by Luke Elliot Arnold. Good but tragic – these are mysteries set in a world which has lost its magic, which really messed up creatures that relied on magic to live, such as vampires, unicorns, etc.


Harry has very short, sleek fur. Polly’s fur is a bit longer. They both love the windows!

The look of resignation on Mayhem’s face (plus the side-eye she’s giving Harry), compared to the FOCUS on Harry’s face…

Meme-filled linkity, plus multiple kitten photos

Reading Update

  • The Dresden Files (1-17, including many of the stories in between the full numbers) by Jim Butcher. I hadn’t read anything in the series since 2009, so I started again from the first book. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed this series!
  • A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and A Minor Mage by T Kingfisher.  Enjoyable YA fantasies about being more than you think you are and definitely more than you seem.
  • Brimstone Bound, Infernal Enchantment, Midnight Smoke (Firebrand 1-3) by Helen Harper. Fluffy paranormal series about a newly minted London Detective Constable who ends up on the infamous “Supe Squad”.
  • The Noose of a New Moon (Wolfbrand #1) by Helen Harper. This follows up on Devereau Webb, a character from Firebrand #3.

*blank* -Harry

“What do you want now, lady?!” -Polly

Harry tummy! Type = Not Forbidden!

“I know she secretly likes me!!!!!” -Harry

“Are those kittens STILL HERE?!” -Mayhem

Linkity is now 1/2 vaccinated!

Reading Update
Working my way through the Dresden Files and completely not keeping Goodreads updated. I hadn’t read anything in the series since 2009, when I was traumatized by the ending to Turn Coat. I did better with it this time!


Harry is going to be a Large Cat. He’s on a standard-sized pillow – nose on one end, hind end dangling off the other. He’s 7.5 months old! 😮

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Harry and Polly

An odd mixture of linkity indeed

Reading Update
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion (Haunted Bookshop Mystery, #5)The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion (Haunted Bookshop Mystery #5) by Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle. Think I’m all caught up with these now – I didn’t read them exactly in order.
Calculated Risks (InCryptid, #10)Calculated Risks (InCryptid 10) by Seanan McGuire. Well, I guess the cliffie wasn’t QUITE as bad as the one in book 9…
On the Wings of War (Soulbound, #5)On the Wings of War, An Echo in the Sorrow (Soulbound, #6)Echo in the Sorrow Down a Twisted Path (Soulbound, #0.5)Down a Twisted Path (Soulbound 5-6, 0.5) by Hailey Turner. Now to wait for the series conclusion to come out later this year, if I don’t forget all about it…
Wormwood Summer (San Amaro Investigations, #1)Wormwood Summer, A Haunting at Midwinter (San Amaro Investigations, #0.5)A Haunting at Midwinter (San Amaro Investigations 1, 0.5) by Kai Butler. Good paranormal romance series about a fae magic using PI and an alchemist cop who get thrown together in the course of a case.


“Falalalala!” -Mayhem, quite stoned on catnip and silverine

“Wow. She is fascinating!” -Harry

In which there’s linkity, plus bonus kitten content at the very end

Reading Update
All Souls Near & Nigh (Soulbound, #2)All Souls Near and Nigh, A Crown of Iron & Silver (Soulbound, #3)A Crown of Iron and Silver, and A Vigil in the Mourning (Soulbound, #4)A Vigil in the Mourning (Soulbound 2-4) by Hailey Turner. Ok paranormal romance series about a werewolf and a mage who now works for a government bureau that deals with supernatural crimes.
The Ghost and the Dead Deb (Haunted Bookshop Mystery, #2)The Ghost and the Dead Deb (Haunted Bookshop Mystery 2) by Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle. Ok series about a woman running a bookshop in a small Rhode Island town and solving mysteries with the help of the ghost of a 1940s PI.

“Did I just hear those dratted kittens?!” -Mayhem

She probably did! They’re out and about quite a bit these days. It’s possible Harry will learn his name as “Oh, Harry” (despairingly)…

Intent Polly, Harry REALLY loves sparkle balls, Polly and the apple, both of them, Mayhem observes.

 

The linkity in which Mayhem went to Mars

Reading Update
Hidden (Alex Verus, #5)Hidden, Veiled (Alex Verus, #6)Veiled, Burned (Alex Verus, #7)Burned (Alex Verus 5-7) by Benedict Jacka. Good continuation of this urban fantasy series about a London mage specializing in divination, although you’d think his specialty was finding trouble! Taking a little break – things got too ominous for me.
A Ferry of Bones & Gold (Soulbound, #1)A Ferry of Bones and Gold (Soulbound 1) by Hailey Turner. Ok paranormal romance about a sort of burned out former military mage who now works for a government bureau that deals with supernatural crimes.
Bad Moon on the Rise (Six-Gun Shifters #1)Bad Moon on the Rise (Six-Gun Shifters 1) by Annie Bellet. This is the pretty good beginning of a series spun off from a minor character (a tiger shifter) in the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series.


“Mom, there is SOMETHING going on in the kitty room! I have concerns!!!! Why am I locked out of the kitty room??!??!!” -Mayhem

Whirlwind linkity from server update day

Reading Update
The Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4The Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 by Benedict Jacka. Reread. Good urban fantasy series about a London mage whose power is divination. He’d be perfectly content to be left to quietly run his magic shop, but things never work out that way.
The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & MagicThe Rules & Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic (Rules 1) and Monster of the Week (The Rules #2)Monster of the Week (Rules 2) by FT Lukens. Fun YA paranormal romance series about a high school senior who takes a most unusual part-time job – and still fines time to pine whilst crushing on the star football player. The first book is definitely the better of the two books in this series.
Balancing the Scales (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #10)Balancing the Scales (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress 10) by Annie Bellet. Good conclusion to the series.


“What??!” -Mayhem