The Secret Place by Tana French
Holiday sales continue to be brisk, so I am drained after today. So have a 6 Second Book Review of The Secret Place by Tana French!
And then, because you are wonderful people, have the blooper reel:
Holiday Wish List
The holidays are upon us, and since I work in retail, the holidays are upon me like a plague. I like lots of things about the holidays, but the being on my feet running after things for 8 hours a day… not my favorite part. Although, sometimes I can help someone find that perfect book for someone and that is awesome. (I’ve sold complete sets of R.L. LaFever’s Theodosia series as well as Stephanie Burgis’s Kat, Incorrigible series in the last week!)
But, in all the craziness, I have, in fact, had time to think about what books I wish someone were going to get me for the holidays. So, I thought I’d share with you so you could see what I, in the midst of all the books in the store, want to take home. 
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart
I’m not even entirely sure what this book is about… A woman who has been in hiding and has to defend her family farm from a gang? Maybe? I don’t know. But I’m judging books by their covers these days and this one looks awesome. I love the 1910’s and women with bobbed hair and handguns (Miss Fisher, I’m looking at you,) so it just makes sense.
Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan Howard
Former homicide detective, Daniel Carter, has inherited a bookstore and a bookseller who happens to be the last direct descendant of H.P. Lovecraft (who was a terrible man, but that’s a different post) and is deeply uninterested in a new boss. As people start dying around them, it turns out that Emily’s progenitor may not have been writing fiction after all…
You know I love Cthulhu-related stories. Especially with female protagonists. Plus, I already love Howard’s work from the Johannes Cabal series, so this just makes sense. 
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Encyclopedia by Pablo Hidalgo
Do I really need to say anything about this?
What books are you hoping to get before the end of the year?
House Read – Six-Gun Snow White
What I’m Reading: Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente
Publisher: Saga Press, 2015 (Originally published by Subterranean Press, 2013)
Cover Artist: Charlie Bowater
Read This: when you’ve spent too much time with your family during the holidays. You’ll feel better. Probably.
Cat Valente writes unusual books. They’re awesome, but they’re not really like other things. Or, they are, but I don’t know what those things are.
They hit me in the same place that Poppy Z. Brite hit me back in the day. They’re not like that, they just fill the same place in my soul. Some of Seanan McGuire’s work, like Indexing, has a similar feel. It’s the fairy tales. I’m a sucker for them. Especially if they’ve been honed and brightened and cut you like a knife while you’re reading them.
Six-Gun Snow White is about a Snow White who is half Crow, half white. She flees from her stepmother who gave her her mocking name into Indian Country, hoping to find a home. And she does, of a sort, with seven furies; other women who have come to live outside society’s conventions.
The story plays out the way you learned. Up to a point. But Cat will never give you exactly what you expect.
This is a novella, and was nominated for the Hugo and the Locus in 2014 and the Nebula in 2013. So, it’s quality work. It’s also a fast read. It comes in at 153 pages in this edition, so it’s a good read to fit in around your holiday madness.
House Read: The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy
My Current Read Is: The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn
Published by: Avon Books 2015
Read This: when in the mood for a gothic romance
Sir Richard has less than a month to find, woo, wed, and return home with a wife. As he is a single man in possession of a large house, some wealth, and a great deal of desperation, he is very much in want of a wife.
Iris Smythe-Smith is not desperate to do anything except avoid another one of her family’s musicales. The only way out is to get married, but even the threat of another year behind the cello is not enough to make her overlook the unusual way Sir Richard has taken to perusing her .
The story plays out as one expects from a romance novel; he wins, they suffer misunderstandings, his secret is revealed, it all works out in the end. (It’s a romance novel, you knew that was how it was going to work.)
I can’t say this is one of my favorite of Quinn’s novels. I rated it a 3/5 on Goodreads. The twist was pretty obvious from the early chapters. It’s not quite one of those books where everything could be solved if the two characters just talked to each other, but it’s not far from that either.
I liked Iris pretty well, but Richard never quite won me over and their respective family members are pretty much just furniture as far as I’m concerned.
But, it kept me entertained in the line for Star Wars, so I will give it that! I will say, if you’re looking for a new romance novel, this one is serviceable, but the Smythe-Smith books aren’t holding up as well as Quinn’s Bridgerton series did.
Star Wars (no spoilers)
Dear Internet, no blog today. This is the reason:
I’m not going to spoil anything. I’m not going to review the film at this time. I’m just going to say that I had fun and I am going to bed now.
Good night, Internet. I’ll see you tomorrow. Also, don’t forget, my Seanan McGuire giveaway is running until the end of the month!
House Read: Nooks & Crannies
My Current Read Is: Nooks & Crannies by Jessica Lawson
Published by: Simon & Schuster, 2015
Cover Illustration: Natalie Andrewson
Read This: While fending off scheming relatives and murder at an English country house party.
Tabitha Crum’s only friend in the world is her mouse Pemberley, but since she is a child in England in the early 20th century, she is fairly philosophical about it. She has devoted all the time and energy that might have gone toward forming relationships with other people into developing her deductive capabilities. Her great passion in life is to become an investigator for the Metropolitan Police, a.k.a. Scotland Yard.
Her parents, the Crums, are reprehensible on a Vernon & Petunia Dursley sort of way. They have determined that Tabitha is going to be dropped off at the orphanage now that she is almost twelve. Again, Tabitha is fairly philosophical about it.
However, before that fate can befall her, she receives an invitation from the Countess of Windermere to a weekend party at her estate. There are two downsides to this:
1.) The Countess may or may not be a murderess, but her manor is definitely haunted.
2.) Five other children, including the pestilential Barnaby Trundle, have been invited.
Neither of these things bode well for Tabitha, but the reality is even stranger. The Countess has a penchant for carrying knives in her handbag, the maid is terrified of the ghosts, and most of the art in the manor seems to be centered around ghastly murders from history. This is certainly the sort of place for Tabitha to stretch her deductive skills.
This book is aimed at the middle grade market, so it’s not very difficult for an adult reader to work out the mystery, but it’s still fun watching Tabitha put the pieces together. This is very much based on the English house party murder of yesteryear. Since I happen to love those (I have every book every published by Nagio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Dorothy Sayers, and most of Agatha Christie,) the whole thing works for me.
Tabitha is a little precious, but that is to be expected from a protagonist. I think her parents were a little over the top, but but they work well in structure that Lawson is writing in.
If you’re looking for a fun read for yourself or something for a younger reader who likes mysteries this would be a good choice.
The book has some very fun illustrations by Natalie Andrewson at the chapter headings with larger, full-page illustrations scattered throughout.
Lighting!
There was a sale and I got some fancy twinkle lights and then this happened:
What do your bookshelves look like? (Note, this is one of twenty, but it’s the only one with lights!)
Holiday Cards
If you follow me on any of the other social media outlets, you may know that I’m slightly obsessed with the postal service. I write letters and post cards. I am a member of the Letter Writer’s Alliance! I make jewelry out of stamps!
art by Geninne Zlatkis
How, you might ask, does this impact you? Well, I’m sending out holiday cards and if you would like to get one, I have a handy-dandy Google form you can fill out and then delightful mail will shortly thereafter arrive in your mailbox! (Note, this is open to international readers too!)
So, help me entertain myself and use up all the holiday cards I got!
Six Second Book Reviews!
Or, how I lose my mind by trying to say tongue twisters way too fast.
This is my review of Shades of Milk & Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
House Read: Digger by Ursula Vernon
My Current Read Is: Digger: the Complete Omnibus by Ursula Vernon
Published by: Sofawolf Press, 2013
Cover Illustration: Ursula Vernon
Read This: while contemplating geology and the interfering nature of gods
The Digger Omnibus is a brick. It can, as Ursula has pointed out before, kill a man if you really, really want it. Granted, the hardcover would probably do a better job than the paperback, which is what I have, but still. 850 pages of pure awesome is nothing to be sneezed at.
So, Digger is, as you might have noticed, an anthropomorphic wombat. She is very, very practical. Wombats have very little whimsy in their souls. This makes it especially interesting when Digger ends up wandering into some supernatural machinations and digging right up into the temple of a talking statue of the god Ganesha.
Before long, Digger is dealing with oracular slugs, cranky hyenas, baby demons, and undead gods. It’s all a bit much for one wombat to cope with, but wombats are practical and there’s no one else to do it all.
Digger has gotten amazing accolades. She won the Hugo Award. She won the Mythopoeic Award. She is a very celebrated wombat. The comic started as a webcomic and is now available in six volumes or in the omnibus edition.
I love Digger. I realized after I finished it that somehow my two big tattoos are retroactively relevant to my Ursula Vernon fandom. I’ve got giant mechanical bees on my left arm, which tie into Castle Hangnail and Bryony & Roses. So that’s cool. What was a tattoo tied to one book has become a tattoo tied to three! But, I also have a giant Ganesha on my side, which is very specifically a tattoo of a statue of Ganesha. So, that’s nifty.
Ursula has an amazing ability to make me feel intense emotions for non-human characters; a little burlap doll, a slightly insane hyena, a malicious rosebush, a little animate inkblot. I can’t even explain to you how much she is able to impact me. I was sobbing into my pillow over something she wrote last night.
So, read her with caution, probably not in public, which, given that Digger weighs almost 4lbs kind of rules it out for your daily commute anyway. But definitely read it.
Medusa's Library 