Tag Archives: Ben Aaronovitch

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Linkity’s breathing a sigh of relief after Wednesday

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Reading Update
Dues and Don'ts (Ordinary Magic #0.5)Dues and Don’ts; Gods and Ends; Rock Paper Scissors: Ordinary Magic StoriesRock, Paper, Scissors; Dime a Demon (Ordinary Magic, #4)Dime a Demon (Ordinary Magic 0.5, 3-5) by Devon Monk. Decent fluffy paranormal romance series about a town called Ordinary, where the gods vacation without their powers.
Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story CollectionTales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection by Ben Aaronovitch. Enjoyable collection of short stories, most (but not all) from Peter’s POV.

*radiating malevolence* -Chaos

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And a very linkity New Year to you!

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Reading Update
Obviously WAY too long since I put one of these together. D’oh!
This Is How We FlyThis Is How We Fly by Anna Mariano. Good YA fiction about a high school student just trying to survive the summer before senior year without her stepmom melting down at her and leaving again. Her best friend gets her into real-life quidditch.
The Poetry of Strangers: What I Learned Traveling America with a TypewriterThe Poetry of Strangers: What I Learned Traveling America with a Typewriter by Brian Sonia-Wallace. I gave up on this about 1/4 of the way through it. I just didn’t care. Perhaps due to my 2020 mood? Not sure.
Dead Lies Dreaming (The Laundry Files, #10)Dead Lies Dreaming (Tales of the New Management 1) by Charles Stross. Initially I was disgruntled about this being set in the Laundry Files world with a new set of characters. But then I got completely sucked in after a while, so… :shrugs:
Mark of the Demon (Kara Gillian #1)Mark of the Demon, Blood of the Demon (Kara Gillian #2)Blood of the Demon, Secrets of the Demon (Kara Gillian #3)Secrets of the Demon, andSins of the Demon (Kara Gillian #4)Sins of the Demon (Kara Gillian 1-4) by Diana Rowland. Ok paranormal series about a police detective who secretly summons demons on the side. But then something goes awry…
Rivers of London Volume 8: The Fey and the FuriousThe Fey and the Furious (Rivers of London 8) by Ben Aaronovitch. Ok addition to this comic book series.
Silent City: A Claire Codella MysterySilent City, Forgotten City (Claire Codella Mystery #2)Forgotten City, and Unholy City (Claire Codella #3)Unholy City (Claire Codella 1-3) by Carrie Smith. Pretty good series about an NYPD detective who’s just returned after 10 months of treatment for lymphoma. (Not sure there will be any more to this series.)
Stuff I've Been Feeling LatelyStuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook. Good book of poetry with the first half of the book being the poems and the second half being the “remixes” (blackout versions of the poems).

 *blep* -Chaos, derpily

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It’s beginning to look a lot like linkity! (It’s sure not looking like spring)

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Life in These Pandemic Time

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Reading Update
False Value (Rivers of London, #8)False Value: Rivers of London #8 by Ben Aaronovitch. Peter goes to work at a software company.

“You’re all still here?! Sheesh.” -Mayhem

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Linkity’s waiting for green things to start growing

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Reading Update
The Truth (Discworld, #25)The Truth (Discworld #25) by Terry Pratchett. In which the printing press and first newspaper arrive in Ankh-Morpork…
Rivers of London Volume 7: Action at a DistanceAction at a Distance (Rivers of London #7 ) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good flashback into Nightingale’s past.

*judging all of us, every single one* -Mayhem

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*gasp* LINKITY

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Reading Update
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being CreativeSteal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. Pretty good (and very short) ebook that’s exactly what the title says.
Lies SleepingLies Sleeping (Peter Grant #7) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good continuation of the series – it’s all hands on deck trying to catch Faceless Man #2 (and Lesley) before they do Something Very Bad.
Rivers of London Volume 6: Water WeedWater Weed (Rivers of London #6) by Ben Aaronovitch. Very good addition to the series. I hope everyone who read the Rivers of London series knows that the graphic novels aren’t standalone but actually develop the overarching story arc, too.
The Everything BoxThe Everything Box and The Wrong Dead Guy (Another Coop Heist #2)The Wrong Dead Guy (Another Coop Heist 1-2) by Richard Kadrey. Ok series about magic-resistant thief Charlie Cooper and the Department of Peculiar Science.
Countdown City (Last Policeman, #2)Countdown City and World of Trouble (The Last Policeman, #3)World of Trouble (Last Policeman 2-3) by Ben H Winters. With only a few months to go before a surprise!asteroid takes out Earth, society has completely broken down but a former police detective hasn’t given up looking for answers.
Roses and RotRoses and Rot by Kat Howard. Very good story about two sisters who are accepted for a nine-month artists’ retreat and slowly realize they’re living in a faery tale.
CharmingCharming and Daring (Pax Arcana, #2)Daring (Pax Arcana 1-2) by Elliott James. Good series about John Charming, former member of the Knights Templar, not-quite-werewolf, trouble magnet.
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the FutureThe Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll. As you’d expect from the guy who came up with bullet journaling, this book has very clear how-to explanations and examples. The tone reminded me why I don’t read productivity books – they exhaust me.
Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life TogetherDot Journaling: A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together by Rachel Wilkerson Miller. reread. I reread this since I was reading The Bullet Journal Method – Miller’s book is a nice example of a slightly different way to bullet journal. And her many layout examples are frequently more helpful than those of The Bullet Journal Method.
The Sound of PaperThe Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron. Abandoned because too much of the advice was higher power based.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

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Linkity thinks we’re having entirely too much rain all at once

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Reading Update (Brace yourselves – have I mentioned that I read really, really fast when I’m in a reading mood??! It’s safe to say I was in a reading mood this week.)
The Watercolor Sketchbook Kit by Curtis Tappenden. I only have the book part of the kit ($1.49US at a thrift store), but it was an enjoyable overview of watercolor basics. You’d best look elsewhere if you want something that goes into detail.
Memory Zero, Generation 18, and Penumbra (Spook Squad 1-3) by Keri Arthur. Decent paranormal fantasy trilogy about a police officer who doesn’t remember anything about her life before age 14. Then everything in her life is turned upside down when it suddenly seems as if nearly everyone is out to get her. Delightfully free of sex (but not sexual tension), I wish things had been tied up a little more at the end of the third book. (The books were originally released in 2004/5, then rereleased with new covers a decade later.)
Detective Stories and Cry Wolf (Rivers of London 4-5) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good additions to the series – and I really appreciate the timeline in the back of these that shows you where each of the graphic novels fits with the other books.
Dirty Magic, Cursed Moon, Deadly Spells, and Fire Water (Prospero’s War 1-3, 0.5) by Jaye Wells. Good series about a cop who, as teenager, walked away from her life as the heir to a branch of the magical equivalent of the mob. She’s sworn off magic, but her fellow (non-magical) officers don’t really trust her. And then she gets a chance to work with the MEA – the federal Magical Enforcement Agency.
The Brimstone Deception, The Ghoul Vendetta, and The Myth Manifestation (SPI Files 3-5) by Lisa Shearin. Pretty good paranormal romance series about a Southern seer who works as an agent for Supernatural Protection and Investigation in New York City. Her boss is a vampire, his boss is a dragon, and her wanna be boyfriend is a goblin dark mage.

“One fish, two fish, red fish, NIP FISH!” -Chaos

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In which linkity is surprised when winter becomes wintery

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Reading Update
The Furthest Station (Peter Grant #5.7) by Ben Aaronovitch. Pretty good continuation of the series, but not great. Not sure if it was me or the book, but I kept getting tangled up and having to go back and reread bits.
The Question of the Missing Head (An Asperger’s Mystery #1) by EJ Copperman & Jeff Cohen. Samuel is an Aspie (of the very male type, familiar to many) who has recently started a business answering questions. He is not a private investigator, which he has to explain to people quite frequently.
The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband (An Asperger’s Mystery #2) by EJ Copperman & Jeff Cohen. Pretty good continuation of the series – enough so that I’m on the wait list for books 3 and 4 at my library.
Written Off (Mysterious Detective Mystery #1) by EJ Copperman. Pretty good mystery about a mystery author who’s contacted by a man who bears an uncanny similarity to the main character in the mystery series she writes…
Edited Out (Mysterious Detective Mystery #2) by EJ Copperman. I didn’t find the second book quite as enjoyable as the first, but now I’m curious how long the author can sustain this amusingly ridiculous premise.
Asperger’s on the Inside by Michelle Vines. Ok autobiographical account of growing up in Australia with undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome. I still can’t complete figure out why this one didn’t work for me. The spectacular overuse of exclamation points was a tiny part of it, I’m sure – it’s hard to read a book that exuberant.

“What lunch bag cooler? I don’t see a lunch bag cooler anywhere!” -Mayhem

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Linkity from the land of rain-not rain-rain-not rain-oh look it’s raining again

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Reading Update
The Confident Creative: Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind by Cat Bennett. Ok look at using drawing as a sort of mindfulness meditation. Definitely a book and reader mismatch on this one – I read the whole thing, but I was annoyed at it/about it most of the time. YMMV.
Black Mould (The Rivers of London Graphic Novel #3) by Ben Aaronovitch. Very good continuation of the series in which Peter and Sahra are on the trail of some particularly lively black mould… According to the timeline in the back, this takes place after The Hanging Tree and before The Furthest Station.
Sidney Crosby: One of the NHL’s Top Scorers by Jeanne Nagle. Maybe I can’t rate this fairly, being pretty far out of the target audience (grades 5-8). It seemed kind of disjointed to me. But I did learn some bits of Sidney Crosby trivia I hadn’t known before, which was cool.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Excellent young adult fantasy novel about (wait for it) a girl who drank the moon. 😀 Recommended. (And from a Minnesota author!) I’m already on the list at the library for more of her books.

*purring* -Chaos

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In which there’s lots of linkity

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But you might want to ration it, since I have a bookbinding class next Thursday evening – which means no linkity next Friday.

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Reading Update
The Hanging Tree (Peter Grant #6) by Ben Aaronovitch. reread. Definitely read Rivers of London: Body Work and Rivers of London: Night Witch before you read this! I hadn’t, so I spent a certain amount of the book being annoyed about the graphic novels sneaking into the series. Update upon reread: There were even more references to the graphic novels than I realized…
Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper #1) by Daniel Jose Older. Good young adult urban fantasy about a teenager who’s been asked paint a new mural on a building and discovers that there’s an awful lot more going on around her than she realized.
Revisionary (Magic Ex Libris #4) by Jim C Hines. It was ok. I started to get annoyed about how all of Isaac’s powers made everything so very convenient. Not sure that makes sense – but I definitely didn’t get sucked into this one.
Full Dark House (Bryant & May #1) by Christopher Fowler. You’re either going to love or loathe this book about a British detective in his 80s who finds himself revisiting the first case he worked on (60 years ago) with his partner in the Peculiar Crimes Unit. Be warned that this is not a fast-paced book and it is, unsurprisingly, filled with flashbacks. Flashbacks usually drive me crazy, but I was ok with them in this book.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

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In which there’s no linkity because cranky

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No particular reason for my crankiness, either. I must’ve been radiating it, because everyone at work gave me space and didn’t pester me today. So! Have a bunch of half-assed reviewettes and a very cute cat picture instead. 🙂

Reading Update
The Home Crowd Advantage (Peter Grant #1.5) by Ben Aaronovitch. free ebook. Good short story, set during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, that ties back an incident during the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.
Broken Homes and Foxglove Summer (Peter Grant #4-5) by Ben Aaronovitch. rereads. Linking back to the series page on Goodreads – you can get to my reviewettes from there if interested.
The Hanging Tree (Peter Grant #6) by Ben Aaronovitch. Definitely read Body Work and Night Witch before you read this! I hadn’t, so I spent a certain amount of the book being annoyed about the graphic novels sneaking into the series.
Body Work (Rivers of London #1, Peter Grant #5.1) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good graphic novel addition to the series. I just wish I’d known about the graphic novels before I read The Hanging Tree – guess I’ll just have to reread it with the proper context. 🙂
Night Witch (Rivers of London #2, Peter Grant #5.2) by Ben Aaronvitch. Another good graphic novel addition to the series. This makes sense of the “Maksim” references in The Hanging Tree…

“I’m cranky, too!! Maybe I need another nap…” -Mayhem