Looking for Your Next Book

After enjoying the previous Crime Novels collection ( Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964 ) I was reading to dig in to four more crime classics. Three of these books I've already reviewed here on my blog and on Goodreads, though I'm including those reviews here. The fourth book, The Tremor of Forgery , I'm reviewing here first. Once again, I enjoyed this collection overall. I wasn't familiar with Margaret Millar, but The Fiend definitely thrills. Ed McBain is a name I'm quite familiar with (I've spent many years working in bookstores) but I've never read anything by him.  The Doll is a great introduction and does make me want to read more in the series. Run Man Run didn't sit well with me, but it wasn't the writing - Chester Himes does a great job - but the subject always puts me on edge.  And Patricia Highsmith is a name I've seen on the shelves but also hadn't ever read prior to this. The Tremor of Forgery is both subtle and

This is one of the oldest books in my ARC queue ... clearly no longer a 'new' book, and likely out of print since the publisher closed down a number of years back.  Still, I committed to reading and reviewing it, even if I am a decade (or more) behind! This book is the second in a trilogy (typical of my luck to pick up in the middle of a series) and jumps right into action, presumably from where the first book left off. Micah and Drystan are on the run from a circus that they both once worked for. Drystan takes them to a run-down old theatre to meet with Jasper Maske, once a renowned magician, who agrees to provide refuge for them. Maske promises to also teach them magic so that they have another skill they can use as they continue on their own. Micah discovers he has a special talent, having visions and seeing glimpses of the future, which will be important as their new mentor, Jasper Maske, is about to face an old foe. Despite my feeling just a little bit lost because this pi

I like reading Tim Waggoner books.  I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get, other than something that's bound to be a wild ride, unexpected turns, completely gruesome moments, and humor both bright and dark. Curious, I looked through some of the other reviews of this particular book and I see a real variety of ratings - from one star 'what is this crap' to five star 'this is fun' reviews, and I think that, more than most authors/books, Waggoner is an acquired taste. You really have to be in the right mood or the right frame of mind to dig in and enjoy. So I guess I'm always in the right mood for Waggoner. In The Atrocity Engine , the first book in a new series (yay!), Neal Hudson is a long-time employee of Maintenance - the secret organization dedicated to battling demons, creatures from all the different dark dimensions, and/or aliens trying to destroy the universe.  Whatever needs doing.  Neal has been with the organization for more than 20 years a

 Humans have been on the planet Anjiin longer than history has recorded, working alongside the Anjiin. The Carryx have a reputation as the galaxy's aggressive species, capturing and enslaving other civilization's wherever they go.  When the Carryx come to Anjiin, they wipe out whole communities and round up survivors. Among those captured is Dafyd Alkhor - he'd been a member of a noted research team, and worked closely with a scientist he considered to be one of the most brilliant minds he'd ever encountered. Now Dafyd finds himself a pawn in a Carryx game of extermination.  The humans against the Anjiin - losing faction is subjected to genocide, the winners become trusted confidantes to the Carryx. Dafyd finds himself at the center of multiple conflicts - against the Anjiin, but also, against the Carryx (is it possible they are not the unbeatable enemy the galaxy believes?, but perhaps more importantly, against himself ... forced to do some unspeakable acts for the gre

 A collection of short stories (Yay!) from one of the best urban fantasy authors out there? Wonderful!! I don't read a lot of magazines anymore so I rely on collections and anthologies to get my fix of short fiction. And since I have such a backlog of ARCs, I generally only read books of short stories when I get them as ARCs now. So getting a copy of Seanan McGuire's latest (and only second?!) collection of short works is truly memorable. There is not a bad story in this bunch. One wouldn't expect there to be, given that McGuire selected the collection, choosing "some of my best stories, and some of my favorite stories, and a few of my weirdest thrown in for good measure. It is the scope of me, and it’ll be a few years before we can do this again." Not only is there not a weak story here, I can't say that there was anything that stood out above the others - it truly is a marvelous, even collection. Of course most readers of Seanan McGuire know that she can wri

I am not familiar with author Katy Kelleher but the idea of essays on "desire and consumption" sounded really interesting. Overall, though, I was underwhelmed by this collection. The most honest aspect here was in the introduction in which Kelleher writes: "Beauty and depression are two central factors of my life." And she goes on: Beauty gives light to the darkness; it gives me hope and a sense of purpose. But beauty isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Beauty is also dark. Beauty is ugly. In all my beauty-seeking, I’ve never found an object that was untouched by the depravity of human greed or unblemished by the chemical undoings of time. There are no pure things in this world: everything that lives does harm; everything that exists degrades. Yet many of us are drawn to these pretty, depraved things. We want to possess and caress the very things that frighten us. She also notes: "I’m a fairly typical American middle-class woman, which means that I have feathered