I really loved Castle Hangnail. It was a fun book, with a fairly serious message for kids.
This has been bugging me since I wrote it, so I checked – Becquerel’s discovery of radioactivity was in 1896, so this book couldn’t have been written in 1894. That’s what I get for simply copying from the back cover. The book actually appeared in 1909, which is more believable.
I finished Gail Carriger’s newest book The Sumage Solution today…actually it was released today as well. 
It’s a very well done male/male, smutty urban fantasy. Definitely one of my favorite books of hers.
Today I finished Nothing Left to Lose by Dan Wells, the last book in his John Cleaver series (about a sociopath who hunts demons). I’ve enjoyed the whole series and think it wrapped up nicely.
I think that series is on “to read” list…with some 2k other books 
Started this morning on The Keep by F. Paul Wilson. Vampire vs. Nazis, pretty good so far.
Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll be right in the middle of it when the weekend strikes. So much to do then that I don’t get a chance to read. I’m probably one of the few people who dreads Fridays.
Great book! I reread it a year or so ago. Skip the Michael Mann movie - it’s ponderous and cheesy, despite the Tangerine Dream score.
I’m slowly working Iain Pear’s “The Dream of Scipio”. I read “An Instance of the Fingerpost” years ago and liked it. “Dream” is a book about the (I think) story of a manuscript/philosophy as it influences the lives of three men in very separate eras (The decline of the Roman Empire, early Middle Ages, and WWII). Unfortunately, the book is very slow moving and didactic, mostly telling and not showing and taking long enough to get to the point that I’m still not sure where he’s going or why. The Amazon reviews more or less said “This book is good, but not for everyone”, and I may be one of those everyones. I guess I’ll try sticking it out and see where he takes this, but so far, in style, if not in subject matter, this is one bloodless book.
Okay, this will be ridiculously long, because I have been ridiculously bad about updates and have read/dnfed/started approximately ONE MEELION books lately.
Recent reads:
The Element of Fire (Ile-Rien, #1), by Martha Wells. She’s really really good. If you like Lois McMaster Bujold (and you should), I think you’ll like Martha Wells. High fantasy.
Denton Little’s Deathdate (Denton Little #1), by Lance Rubin. Imagine a world where everyone knows exactly what date they will die on. Now imagine snarky teens, a weird conspiracy, and people turning hilariously purple. That’s this book!
Fallen, by Celeste Bradley. Really terrible romance temporarily enlivened by graphic random sex scene of two minor characters.
Missing May, by Cynthia Rylant. Part of the Newbery reads. Very poignant and sad but strangely not depressing.
Goose in the Pond (Benni Harper, #4), by Earlene Fowler. Cozy mystery with super arrogant macho dickhead cop and his irritating wife. And yet I enjoyed it!
Hearse and Buggy (An Amish Mystery, #1), by Laura Bradford. I should have hated this cozy, but it was competently written and I swear those are hard to come by.
Even Money, by Dick Francis. Not one of my favorite of the Francis thrillers, but so readable.
Doggie Day Care Murder (Melanie Travis, #15), by Laurien Berenson. One of my favorite cozy series. It’s like fast food for your brain.
It Happened One Midnight (Pennyroyal Green #8), by Julie Anne Long. Romance with some solid moments and a lame-ass ending.
Gluten for Punishment (A Baker’s Treat, #1), by Nancy J Parra. DNF cozy mystery where characters explained things in dialogue. “As you know, you drive a van…”
Wicked Game (WVMP Radio, #1), by Jeri Smith-Ready. Imagine an urban fantasy with vampires that I found readable and even good! I’m shocked. I hate vampires. This is a different treatment of them, which I appreciated.
Death by Darjeeling (A Tea Shop Mystery, #1), by Laura Childs. No. Just no. Cozy.
Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter (A Dixie Hemingway Mystery, #1), by Blaize Clement. DNF. Author has a weird fixation on cat anuses. Cozy.
The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman. Newbery read. Good, but could stand to be longer.
The Probability of Murder (Sophie Knowles, #2), by Ada Madison. Cozy DNF, sleuth too stupid to live.
Currently reading:
The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co., #2), by Jonathan Stroud. Barely started. YA fantasy.
The Last One, by Alexandra Oliva. Barely started. SF.
Shame on You (Fool Me Once, #1), by Tara Sivec. Barely started. WTF. Almost certainly a DNF.
The Spirit Lens (Collegia Magica, #1), by Carol Berg. Barely started. Fantasy.
Beauty and the Spy (Holt Sisters Trilogy #1), by Julie Anne Long. Barely started. Romance. Almost certainly a DNF.
The Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox. Barely started. Newbery.
A Geek Girl’s Guide to Murder (Geek Girl Mysteries #1), by Julie Anne Lindsey. Barely started. Cozy.
The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black. Barely started. YA fantasy.
Death at Breakfast, by Beth Gutcheon. Barely started. Cozy.
The Crossword Murder (Crossword Mysteries, #1), by Nero Blanc. Barely started (sense a theme?) Cozy.
Now we actually get to the books I’ve read more than 10 pages of!
The Lie Tree, by Frances Hardinge. Good fantasy. Just got distracted.
Crimson Bound, by Rosamund Hodge. Fantasy. Probably a DNF. Isn’t holding my attention.
Range of Ghosts (Eternal Sky, #1), by Elizabeth Bear. Fantasy. My library check out expired and I have been waiting to check it out again. I’m not in love.
The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare. Newbery. When Jesus entered the plot, I grew wary.
Julie of the Wolves (Julie of the Wolves, #1), by Jean Craighead George. I’m a bit baffled by this book.
Killer in Crinolines (Consignment Shop Mystery #2), by Duffy Brown. Funny cozy but not clicking.
Freckles (Limberlost #1), by Gene Stratton-Porter. Oddly overwrought. I’ll finish someday.
The Sayers Swindle (Book Collector Mystery #2), Victoria Abbott. Funny cozy but not clicking.
Dark Currents (The Emperor’s Edge, #2), by Lindsay Buroker. Good fantasy! I got distracted!
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Non-fiction I will finish.
Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye, by Michael Shermer. Non-fiction I will finish.
The Essential Ellen Willis, by Ellen Willis. Non-fiction, I am bored.
jsgoddess, The Whispering Skull is a fantastic book, the whole series is crazy awesome. The latest one is out in September, I believe.
Oh and Emperor’s Edge series is a blast. I took a small break this month because
- I had 4 preorders arrive this month
and - I’m almost done with the series and I don’t want to say bye to the characters.
I’ll have to check that out!
I recommend Castle Hangnail as well. Ursula Vernon’s writing is a lot of fun, and she delivers a well written lesson about responsibility with bludgeoning her audience. I am WELL past the target age group and still enjoyed it.
Just finished Nathalia Holt’s Rise of the Rocket Girls. Good and worth reading, but not as interesting as Hidden Figures, which covered a similar topic. Also, the author’s habit of periodically stopping to put in a page or two about things like the history of pantyhose and what women’s wedding gowns looked like, etc., was something I found distracting.
Just started reading Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now, by Mark Steyn.
Jeez, that’s supposed to be withOUT bludgeoning her audience. :smack:
What if we want to be bludgeoned, huh?
Come out to Utah, I have big books and I know how to use them! 
Eep!
I also have a wall of mystery books, many of them cozies… here kitty kitty
Is that purring I hear…?
Oooh, I’ll be interested to know what you think of this one…