New Release: Things Half in Shadow

Things Half in Shadow is a roller coaster ride of a story, taking the reader through both high and low society in Philadelphia in 1869. Alan Finn has brought together spiritualism and showmanship, mediums and P.T. Barnum, in a tale of murder and suspense. Edward Clark, a young crime reporter, orphan, and Civil War veteran with a well-heeled fiancée, is dragged into the world of spiritualism through his job. He is asked to do a series of articles that debunk the various mediums operating in the city. The first one he goes after, Lucy Collins, turns out to be the wrong thread to pull, one that threatens to unravel his entire life.

Though the start of this story was a little shaky, it quickly picked up pace and ended up barreling through all sorts of crazy situations, one after another. Though the story went well into the realm of the unbelievable, it was of the best sort, the kind that makes for a very entertaining read. I believe this is first in a series and I'll be interested to see where it goes from here. (There are no cliffhangers or anything like that. This book works perfectly well as a standalone.)

The back of the book says "Alan Finn is the pen name of an acclaimed author of mysteries and thrillers". Well, unable to resist any mystery, I did a bit of Googling and and came across this fascinating article. It's worth a read if you've ever wondered why an established author might change their name mid-career.

Listening for bees,
K

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black

If you're a fan of freak shows or mad scientists, or even just a fan of unique and detailed art, The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth might be for you! I don't usually post book trailers but this one perfectly introduces Dr. Spencer Black, his life's work and, well, his madness.


This book is gorgeous and creepy. The story itself is heartbreaking. The first half is a biography, supported with letters, journal entries and drawings. The second half is The Codex Extinct Animalia, Black's own work detailing the species that he believes came before and between humans, the ones that one could catch glimpses of in the freak shows of the late 1800s. This is a unique book that horror aficionados will definitely want on their shelves. Closing the cover on the stuff of nightmares, K
p.s. Quirk Books was kind enough to provide me with a copy of this book for review.

Just a No-Nonsense Series Plug

I never quite know what to do for the blog when I'm further along in a series. Sometimes I write a nice big recap post of the whole series but today I've decided just to mention the two series books that I've read this year in case anyone is somehow unaware that these books and series exist. I wouldn't want anyone to miss something good!

If you have been reading here for any amount of time, you know that one of my all-time favorite series is Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series. The latest book, number seven, is As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust and it came out in January. It's a bit of a change in the series as it takes place at a boarding school. This one definitely didn't disappoint as we saw some growth in Flavia, had a compelling mystery with some creepy characters, and also enjoyed a refreshing change from the regular Buckshaw setting though, just like Flavia, I also missed Dogger and Gladys. But it was also nice to have some new peer interactions and to get Flavia out of the lab for a while. Now I have to wait another year for book eight ...

White Corridor is the fifth book in the Peculiar Crimes Unit Mysteries, also known as the Bryant and May Mysteries, by Christopher Fowler. This was a pretty dark entry in the series so, while I enjoyed it, it is not my favorite of the bunch. Plus, the detectives were in a situation that brought both my claustrophobia and my hatred of being cold into play and made me pretty uncomfortable. Luckily, there are twelve books in this series so I'm guessing when I pick up the next one, it will probably be something completely different.

Enjoying one after another,
K

Wrap-Up: The Sci-Fi Experience

Sadly it's time to wrap-up The 2015 Sci-Fi Experience. My thanks once again to Carl for hosting this event!

I ended up reading twelve Doctor Who short stories, a couple of stories from The Time Traveler's Almanac, and, because those stories included Connie Willis' Fire Watch, I also had to reread To Say Nothing of the Dog. It was the first of her Oxford time travel stories that I read a couple of years ago and, I have to say, that it was much easier to follow this time through now that I (mostly) understand how the time travel mechanism and rules work. I also reaffirmed that it's still one of my favorite stories. It made me almost want to get a bulldog!

Now I guess it's time to get through some non-genre reads before DWJ March and the Once Upon a Time challenge. But, for later, do you have any recommendations for Harry Turtledove or Kage Baker reads? I enjoyed the stories from each of them in the anthology.

In my standard time and place again,
K

New Release: The Year of Reading Dangerously

Remember how I did so well posting in December? I sure thought it would last, that I had my blogging mojo back, but then the winter blues set in and, every time I opened the laptop, I found I didn't have it in me to write anything just then. Luckily, today was a glorious day in Seattle and I've felt happy and productive all day. Therefore, I'm taking this chance to start playing catch-up with reviews.

The first book I read this year was The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life by Andy Miller. It got me started on my goal to read more non-fiction this year and it also helped to remind me why I choose some of the books that I do and how I should go about choosing what I read in the future.

The premise of Miller's book is that he had pretty much stopped reading much and/or anything of quality and so, for self-improvement and a change of habit, he made a list (originally thirteen books) of books that he had always wanted to read and that he thought he should read ... because, in a lot of cases, he had already told people that he had read them. This book follows his journey through those books and also delves into his thoughts on reading, Dan Brown, book clubs, and more.

"However, what I really got from reading was this: it was the one thing at which I truly excelled."

I loved the parts of this book that told how Andy developed his love of reading as a child and the stories of the times he met Douglas Adams. I enjoyed hearing about how he finally fit reading back into his life after he became a parent. I also found it useful when he explained his process of how to chose which books to read. I've only read 9 1/2 (stupid Moby Dick) of his list of fifty books and only intend on reading 4 or 5 others but he doesn't advocate that everyone read the exact same books he did. He thinks (as I do) that a list like this is personal. You don't have to read books that are uninteresting or distasteful. Instead, read the books that you have always meant to get to, the ones that will fill in the gaps in your own web of literature.

The second appendix of this book is a list called The Hundred Books Which Influenced Me Most. I love this idea and am planning on assembling such a list of my own. If I ever get it done, I think it will make it obvious which books I should place on the next list -- Books I Still Intend to Read. I've tried in the past to co-opt other lists (e.g. 1001 Books to Read Before You Die) but I start feeling guilty as I mark books as "will never read" because they are simply ones I have zero interest in. To make my own list, one that changes as I change and as I read more and more throughout life (and as more lovely books are written, of course), seems far superior to giving in to the tastes of others.

Also reading dangerously,

K

Today at The Estella Society: The Golden Compass

Today, over at The Estella Society, I'm talking about The Golden Compass. This was a reread of one of my favorite middle grade books!

Shooing you over,
K

Sci-Fi Experience: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories

Remember how I said I was only going to work through my big time-travel anthology for The 2015 Sci-Fi Experience? Well, that was before I got this for Christmas --

Doctor Who: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories is a gorgeous set of stories from lovely authors who have created a new story for each of the twelve doctors (obviously ignoring the War Doctor). There's a nice one-volume set (shown below) but I really wanted the box set that has each story in its own book with the doctor represented on the cover (and a matching postcard for each one). This actually began as e-books of 11 Doctors, 11 Stories and then a compilation paperback, but Puffin decided to reissue it all after Peter Capaldi joined the gang and they added a story for him too.

As you can see, the author list for this project is amazing. There honestly wasn't a dud story in the bunch. I'm one of the fans who joined at the reboot but, even though I don't know some of the older Doctors very well, I still really enjoyed the stories featuring them. I'm not even sure I could pick a favorite story because they were all so wonderful. I highly recommend this collection for any Doctor Who fan or even for any reader wanting to get a taste of what the Doctor is like.

Waiting to become the next companion,

K

2014 Stats and 2015 Goals

Happy New Year, my friends! It's time to wrap up the old year and take the first step into the new one. Let's start by taking a quick look back at some 2014 stats:

Pages read: 32545
Books read (or listened to): 105
Books from my TBR: 51
Re-reads: 16
Non-fictions read: 6
Books in translation: 3 (Spanish, German, Norwegian)
Most read author: Diana Wynne Jones, of course (13)
Longest book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (734)
Oldest book: The Woman in White (1860)
(Not Fun fact: Both the oldest and the longest would have been Moby Dick (1851) if I hadn't quit at 370 pages in.)

And now for my 2015 goals:

First, I want to spend some of my reading time with some long-awaited rereads. My list will change based on my mood throughout the year, of course, but right now it looks like this --
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (before the miniseries),
To Say Nothing of the Dog (and possibly Blackout/All Clear),
a few of Josephine Tey's books,
Un Lun Dun,
some DWJs (Eight Days of Luke, The Islands of Chaldea, The Time of the Ghost),
and I'll have a few rereads for the 100 Chapter Books project: His Dark Materials series, The Little Prince, My Father's Dragon, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The BFG.

Second, I want to get to some of these new-to-me authors:
Jo Walton
Kate Milford
Patrick Rothfuss
Peter S. Beagle
Anthony Trollope

Third, I'll give in and set some "number" goals. I want to read at least 50 books from my TBR again. I also want to read more books in translation (10+) and more non-fiction (8+).

Finally, here are some 2015 new releases that I'm looking forward to:
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust - Alan Bradley (6 Jan)
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances - Neil Gaiman (3 Feb)
Get In Trouble: Stories - Kelly Link (3 Feb)
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland - Catherynne M. Valente (3 Mar)
The Last Bookaneer - Matthew Pearl (28 Apr)
Two Years, Eight Months and 28 Days - Salman Rushdie (?)
and a new Kate Morton (?)!

So which book have I decided to start 2015 with?

Which book are you starting the new year with?

Bookishly,
K