OOPS!
Honestly, I could see myself doing that if I shared the app, I hope she doesn’t feel too bad about it.
I finished Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghio Vo. I enjoyed it a lot, though I think it should have been longer.
Also finished The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Brandy Shillace. Surprisingly good, I enoyed it a lot.
Started By the Pricking of my Thumbs by Agatha Christie. It’s her 4th Tommy & Tuppence Beresford book. It’s off to a great start.
She thought it was funny.
Oh good!
It is really, when I first read it, I thought “Well sh*t” then laughed.
I remember on Friends, Joey gave the book to his girlfriend, “because I know you like cheese.” 
Finished An Easter Sourcebook: The Fifty Days, edited by Gabe Huck et al, which had numerous wonderful passages of prose and poetry and Rose/House, a science fiction novella by Arkady Martine, which is one of the best works of fiction I’ve read this year.
Next up: April Morning by Howard Fast; and Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting, by Michael Perry. I’m also still reading Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards.
Finished Sparring Partners, a collection of three novellas by John Grisham. Very good. About what you would expect.
Next up is Honolulu Noir, a collection of noir stories by Hawaii writers, all set in Honolulu. Published by Akashic Books in Brooklyn, whom I have never heard of before but who have put out an impressive number of similar noir collections for cities all over the world.
I’m working my way through Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, an which I hadn’t read before. My wife, Pepper Mill, volunteered that she had.
“Does eventually start to make sense?” I asked. I’m pretty far into it, and it shows no signs of congealing into a coherent narrative.
“No,” she replied.
On audio, I’ve gotten tired of Breckenridge Elkins’ antics – I find I can only take so much of Robert E. Howards’ brainless Texas Conan – and have moved on to Stephen King’s Revival, which is turning out to be not at all what I thought it might be. Very well-written (as always) and involving.
Finished The Texas Murders by James Patterson. Not a bad read about two cases being worked on by the protagonist, a Texas Ranger. Lots of action, but a really unbelievable plot twist at the end which dampened my enthusiasm for this book.
Next up: The Locked Door by Freida McFadden.
Death on a Pale Horse Donald Thomas
A Sherlock Holmes pastiche (the fancy word for fan fiction) which has Holmes, Watson, and Mycroft battling a rogue British soldier turned murderer. More of a thriller than a whodunit. Pretty good all in all
Finished it. Very good stuff. And jeez, I’d forgotten just how messed up the protagonist’s marriage was! Turow wrote two sequels, Innocent and Presumed Guilty, and now I’d like to read them, too.
For the moment, though, my next audiobook is The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 by Garrett M. Graff, which includes actors reading the parts of people ranging from Laura Bush and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to a NY/NJ Port Authority cop and a schoolteacher who lost her husband on one of the planes. The new FAA director, also interviewed, took office that morning, the poor bastard. There are actual audio excerpts of panicked phone calls made by those on the hijacked planes - deeply moving and heartbreaking.
Finished April Morning, a historical novel about Lexington and Concord by Howard Fast which was very good; and Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting, by Michael Perry, which was outstanding. I’m also still reading Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards.
Next: Century Rain, a science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds.
Read The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi. Nice to know the shaggy dog story is still alive in certain circles; it’s eerily precient too, though I’m not convinced the current President has a brain in the first place.
Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming is a very good historical account of the first two years or so of the Revolution. Highly recommended.
I’ve finished Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (which actually did eventually draw together and make some sort of sense, although I’m not a fan), and have moved on to Dance of the Comedians: 75 Years of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote by Dan Sendker. It’s labeled “An Unauthorized History”, but that isn’t a put-down. It appears to be impeccably researched and is just under 500 pages long, not counting the endnotes. It was a gift from a friend who clearly knows my tastes. There’s probably more here than even I want to know.
On audio, I finished Stephen King’s Revival and am now listening to Peter Ackroyd’s Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution. It’s evidently the third volume in his “History of England” series, but this is the only audiobook of his I saw in the used book store. It’s fascinating stuff. James comes off as a real jerk. I’ve just started on Charles, and I can’t wait to get to the others.
Today I read Something In the Walls, by Daisy Pearce. It really wanted to be a horror novel, had a premise and a bunch of set pieces (black stuff leaking out of the walls, mysterious symbols appearing in various places, young girl speaks in a voice not her own, weird village traditions etc.), but in the end it was all piled together and left with no explanation. 
I FINALLY finished my reread of Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley. I knew I had started it at least a year ago but I hadn’t realized it was actually April of 2023! Goodness, time flies. 
305 pages in the last week…
Starting today on Paladin’s Grace, first in the Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher. And I have the rest of the series here as well, so I’m all good. 
That feeling when you have a lot of books in a series and you know they are going to be good…
Yeah, I waited until I had all four because I know I’m going straight through. 
silently goes green with envy