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Linkity would like you to remember that’s 2 weeks worth of reading

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Reading Update
Ten Second Staircase (Bryant & May #4) by Christopher Fowler. Pretty good addition to the series, as Bryant and May struggle to close both a current case and one of their cold cases while the Home Office looks for ways to shut down the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
Half-Resurrection Blues (Bone Street Rumba #1) by Daniel Jose Older. Half-alive, half-dead, Carlos works for the NYC Council of the Dead, dealing with problems between the living and the dead. I was a lot happier with this before the tragic love interest showed up. :sigh:
Midnight Taxi Tango (Bone Street Rumba #2) by Daniel Jose Older. Good continuation of the series – this adds several other points of view, which was good, as Carlos definitely wasn’t my favorite of the book.
Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #1) by Jodi Taylor. I have really mixed feelings about this one. While it was a pretty enjoyable read, every similarity to Connie Willis’ time-traveling historians of Oxford annoyed the heck out of me. Plus the first-person POV character, Lucy, is one of my least favorite types of characters – she’s the type that has nearly everyone half in love with her and her natural charisma and leadership qualities shine through, blah blah blah. (See Anita Blake for reference.)
Handmade Books by Ray Hemachandra. It’s a coffee table book for a very, very tiny coffee table. Lovely to look at, but one you should get from the library instead of buying (unless you find it used, as I did). The materials used on the included books range from egg cartons to bird spines to acrylic sheets to copper.
The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan. For a book published 5o years ago, this short book has aged very well (beyond a few references to the technology of the times). Still can’t believe that we didn’t read this in my graduate program, since so many authors name dropped McLuhan.
Sidney Crosby: The Inspirational Story of Hockey Superstar Sidney Crosby by Bill Redban. Awful. Wikipedia is probably more informative and the writing is definitely better. Plus 66 pages is only achieved with a large font and lots of empty pages between chapters, etc.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Chaotic stealth tabby!

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which there’s an awful lot of linkity and reading

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Pace yourselves, people – no linkity next week because I’ll be at another book binding class during my linkity making time.

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Reading Update
The Water Room (Bryant & May #2) by Christopher Fowler. Solid addition to this series about a pair of 80-something detectives in London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. Again, not necessarily a fast-paced read, but very engaging.
Seventy-Seven Clocks (Bryant & May #3) by Christopher Fowler. This one’s about a Bryant and May case from the early 1970s. If anyone guesses whodunnit on this one, I will be beyond surprised!
Child of Fire (Twenty Palaces #1) by Harry Connolly. Dark urban fantasy about a guy, freshly out of prison, who’s working for a powerful spellcaster as she tries to find the source of a magic that’s killing kids in a small Oregon town.
Game of Cages (Twenty Palaces #2) by Harry Connolly. Good continuation of this series in which Ray starts out assisting an investigator for Twenty Palaces who’s trying to get information about a predator being auctioned off. Things fall apart really fast…
Circle of Enemies (Twenty Palaces #3) by Harry Connolly. I didn’t realize this paranormal/urban fantasy series wasn’t continued past this book. D’oh. The ending does leave things in an ok place, I guess. But still. Hmph.
What We Found in the Sofa and How It Changed the World by Henry Clark. Cute ya scifi book about three friends who discover a mysterious sofa sitting near their school bus stop and then their lives get really, really weird.
The Book That Proves That Time Travel Happens by Henry Clark. Good ya tale about two middle-school boys helping a girl who works at the circus find a mysterious item – and then things get weird. Fun read, with unexpected social commentary.
The Last Dragonslayer (The Chronicles of Kazam #1) by Jasper Fforde. Delightful ya tale of an indentured foundling trying to keep a magical talent agency running in a world rapidly losing its magic.
Salsa Nocturna: Stories by Daniel Jose Older. Very good collection of interconnected stories about a half-dead guy who works for the NYC Council of the Dead, solving problems when the living and the dead intersect. Apparently, if you’re planning to read Half-Resurrection Blues, it’s helpful to read this collection first.
Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Map Making by Jill K. Berry. Highly recommended if you’re intrigued by the idea of making creative, artistic maps of yourself, where you live, where you travel, and where you dream.
Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman. Very good take on cleaning and organization – much more realistic than some! 🙂 I liked the focus on preventing those exhausting marathon cleaning sessions, which I am prone to. Plus the author actually acknowledges that if you have a chronic illness (be it of body or brain), you’re probably going to need to modify things a bit. As you might surmise from the title, if you can’t handle a lot of cussing, this isn’t the book for you.

*SCHLURP* -Chaos

*purring* -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

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

Reading, Reviewettes

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

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Linkity from a 64F day in Minneapolis, MN, in mid-February

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Reading Update
Alien Taste, Tainted Trail, Bitter Waters, and Dog Warrior (Ukiah Oregon #1-4) by Wen Spencer. Not her best work (it’s pretty old), but at least the writing improved as the series went on. Unfortunately, this is the entire series and it doesn’t feel finished to me.
The Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho, and Whispers Underground (Peter Grant #1-3) by Ben Aaronovitch. Rereading this excellent series again. Just as good (if not better) the second time around.

“That’s enough out of you, Mayhem!” -Chaos

“Mom!!!! The big kitty is being mean to me again!!!!!” -Mayhem

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Linkity fears the news

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Reading Update
No Excuses Watercolor: Painting Techniques for Sketching and Journaling by Gina Rossi Armfield. I really can’t recommend this – glad I got it from the library. Definitely not worth $12/Kindle or $17/paperback from Amazon. This felt more like a series of vaguely connected blog posts than a book.
The Fuller Memorandum (Laundry Files #3), Overtime (Laundry Files #3.5), The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files #4), The Rhesus Factor (Laundry Files #5), The Annihilation Score (Laundry Files #6), and The Nightmare Stacks (Laundry Files #7) by Charles Stross. Since this was a series binge reread, I’m just linking to the series on Goodreads, from which you can find my reviews.
Exploring Watercolor: Creative Exercises and Techniques for Watercolor and Mixed Media by Elizabeth Groves. Very good introduction to watercolor – it has a bunch of techniques and ideas that I’m looking forward to trying!

“Feedmefeedmefeedmefeedmefeedmefeedmefeedmefeedmefeedme!!!” -Chaos

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Linkity’s not lyrical

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Reading Update
Wireless by Charles Stross. Good collection of scifi short stories, including one from the Laundry Files (which I’d already read as a separate ebook). Some of these were mindbending. As always with Stross, I skimmed all of the technobabble and jargon. 🙂
The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files #1), The Concrete Jungle (Laundry Files #1.5), The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files #2), Down on the Farm (Laundry Files #2.5), and Equoid (Laundry Files #2.9) by Charles Stross. Rereading the Laundry Files, which are mostly from the first-person point-of-view of applied computational demonologist Bob. I’m just linking to the series on Goodreads – if you’re curious, you can find my reviews from there. 🙂

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

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This week should make up for the utter lack of linkity last week

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Reading Update
A Pacific Northwest Nature Sketchbook by Jude Siegel. Pretty good detailed description of how to keep a nature sketchbook/watercolor journal, with lots of specific examples from the Pacific Northwest (that bit got old by the end). I did get some great quotes on creativity out of this one.
The Nightmare Stacks (Laundry Files #7) by Charles Stross. Don’t start this one anywhere near your bedtime… D’oh! This is about one of the PHANG’s we met in a previous book, who is trying to adjust to working for the Laundry instead of for an investment baking firm.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

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Linkity from the land of ice and snow

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Reading Update
Wolf Who Rules (Elfhome #2) by Wen Spencer. Any book that has me awake until after 2 am to finish it gets an automatic five-star rating. Will be rereading this one. (In fact, read it twice this past week.)
Elfhome (Elfhome #3) by Wen Spencer. Another one I basically read in a single sitting and will be rereading! (I really hate the cover, though.) (But read it twice this week anyway.)
Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood (Elfhome #0.9) by Wen Spencer. Very good free short that takes place as the first chapter of Tinker starts.
Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden (Elfhome #1.5) by Wen Spencer. Very good, very funny free short about a documentary film crew trying to film some of Pittsburgh’s dangerous flora and fauna.
Peace Offering (Elfhome #3.5) by Wen Spencer. Very good short that takes place during Elfhome #3.
Wood Sprites (Elfhome #4) by Wen Spencer. Very good tale of two twins in New York City who are from the same batch of fertilized eggs as Tinker, only implanted a decade later.
Project Elfhome (Elfhome #4.5) by Wen Spencer. Very entertaining collection of shorts and drabbles that expand on and tie up some loose ends from the four (so far) main books. (It includes the three shorts mentioned above.)
Endless Blue by Wen Spencer. Good tale of the outer space equivalent of the Sargasso Sea, with an unfortunately rushed feeling ending.

I’m not sure how he manages to be baleful and cute at the same time, really. Apparently it’s a gift.

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Linkity is ready for spring…

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Reading Update
Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age by Sarah Hendrickx. Excellent overview that highlights exactly how little research there has been about women on the spectrum, particularly older women. Recommended.
Tinker (Elfhome #1) by Wen Spencer. Any book I read in a single sitting tends to get top marks from me. This book reminded me a lot of the Bordertown books, with a bit of quantum mechanics and scifi tossed in.

*exerting kitty mind control cuteness powers whilst looking vaguely worried* -Mayhem