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THE CALAMITIES - Chuck Wendig

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Mourning Mayne is the reluctant heir to one of the world’s most powerful families, a dynasty whose wealth and influence come from a very dark source: they are fiends who buy human souls and turn them into an elixir that sustains their supernatural power. When Mourning’s estranged father summons him home and unexpectedly names him heir, Mourning is pulled back into the family business he has spent years trying to escape. Soon he finds himself caught up with Key, a woman who traffics in souls, Quinn, an artist with secrets of her own, and Silas, another member of the strange world of fiends. Before long, family politics, occult mysteries, demonic creatures, and some very unpleasant discoveries collide. I’m a big fan of Chuck Wendig, so I was looking forward to The Calamities . I enjoy his writing in general (it was his dark, YA Miriam Black series that first got me interested in Wendig) and I really enjoy his horror because it tends to sit nicely between psychological horror and splatter...
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CORPOREALITY - Hollis Seamon

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Looking through my first Kindle after seeing if it would still take a charge, I discovered this very old ARC. It didn't surprise me that I would have requested a collection of short stories, but I was/am not at all familiar with author Hollis Seamon. This was an odd collection of stories. I'm not sure how one would classify them - these tend to be general fiction but with an uncomfortable twist or hook. Can you imagine reading a story about two garbage men who find babies being tossed out with the trash and get them to a hospital? Or how about a story about a pair of terminal teenagers who are in hospice care together going through SUTHY syndrome ("Somebody Up There Hates You")? Or perhaps a story about sibling rivalry with three sisters, one of whom is oddly deformed? There are a few lighter stories - there's a story about a fat, old, blind terrier who protects his owner from the Grim reaper, and a story about a woman who rescues a cat...and then another... and a...
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LADY OF UNCANNY CHARMS - Charlie N. Holmberg

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I really like Charlie N. Holmberg's books. She is a fantastic fantasy writer, and I particularly enjoy the way she combines magic, romance, history, and just a little bit of darkness into her stories. I might easily place two of her books in my top ten favorites. The Whimbrel House series, however, is not among my favorites, so I was looking to Lady of Uncanny Charms  with some trepidation. This is the fifth and final book in the Whimbrel House series. This time the story focuses primarily on Owein and Cora. Owein has arrived in England expecting to marry Cora, but Queen Victoria has other plans for him. She wants to use Owein and his unusual magical abilities for her own purposes, leaving Cora to figure out what is happening and how she can help him. Before long, the two of them are caught up in a much larger magical conspiracy. There is a lot to like here. Holmberg has created a really interesting magical world, and I continue to enjoy the way magic is woven into an alternate ver...
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THE BOOKSHOP - Andrew Pettegee

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I have always enjoyed bookstores. There is something about walking into a bookstore and looking at the shelves, seeing what catches your eye, and discovering a book you didn't know you wanted to read. (You know you've done this!) So a book about the history of bookselling sounded like something I would enjoy, and I'm thrilled that Andrew Pettegree's The Bookshop did not disappoint. The Bookshop: A History of Bookselling From the Dawn of Print to the 21st Century takes a look at how books have been sold from the earliest days of printing through the bookstores we know today. What I found particularly interesting is that the modern bookstore, as we know it, is actually a fairly recent development. Who knew? For hundreds of years, books were sold in all sorts of ways and in all sorts of places, and booksellers had to continually find new ways to get books into the hands of readers. Pettegree covers a lot of ground. There are stories of early booksellers, traveling seller...
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DAVID STARR, SPACE RANGER - Isaac Asimov

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David Starr, Space Ranger is the first of Isaac Asimov’s Lucky Starr books, originally written for younger readers. David Starr is a young member of the Council of Science, an organization that essentially combines science, government, and law enforcement. When people on Earth begin dying from poisoned food imported from Mars, Starr is sent undercover to investigate what is happening and who might be behind it. Once on Mars, he meets John “Bigman” Jones, a small but very energetic Martian who becomes his friend and companion. I first read this book when I was a young teenager, and I remember enjoying it then. I'm not sure I was aware that it was written by Asimov at the time as it was first published under the name Paul French. Coming back and reading the book again now, I wasn’t sure whether the story would hold up or whether I would simply be remembering how much I enjoyed it at the time. Fortunately, I enjoyed it again. This is definitely an old-fashioned science fiction advent...
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HOOKED - Xenatine

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Earlier this week, on my blog, I gave a two star rating to a book and complained that it had too much gratuitous sex at the expense of the story. I thought it might be appropriate to follow that up with another book that had more than a decent amount of sex but managed to have a complex (romance) story, showing that it is possible to combine story and explicit sex in a book. I don't typically read romance books but mostly because there are other books I'd rather read first.  In my admittedly rather complicated method of 'what to read next' system, this is what popped up. And, wow ... I really liked this. "Cat" is a confident young woman who loves to skateboard. She's tough and adventurous and she's not looking for anyone or anything to interrupt her life.  She's a graffiti artist when she's not at work as a graphic designer. Her best friend and house-mate is a gay male, Jay, and the two get along fabulously.  She surprises herself then when a m...
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AMERICAN VIKINGS - Martyn Whittock

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Due in large part to my Scandinavian heritage and growing up in Minnesota, I have been fascinated with the story of the Vikings in North America. Most people are familiar with Leif Erikson's voyage to Vinland, but how much farther did Norse influence reach? In American Vikings , Martyn Whittock explores not only what we know about Viking exploration of North America, but also the many theories, legends, and controversies that have grown up around the subject. Whittock begins with the historical evidence surrounding the Norse settlements in Greenland and the archaeological discoveries at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, reminding the us that Viking exploration of the New World is no longer a matter of speculation but an accepted part of history. But even with this knowledge, there is still much debate as to the extent of the Vikings' reach. The book examines runestones, disputed artifacts, medieval sagas, Native American encounters, and the sometimes outlandish claims tha...
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