September Reading Log:

 

September 1:  I currently have Steve Berry’s 4th book in his Cotton Malone series up next – Thc Charlemagne Pursuit.

“As a child, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone was told that his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic. But what he now learns stuns him: His father’s sub was a secret nuclear vessel lost on a highly classified mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.

Twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk are also determined to find out what became of their father, who died on the same submarine–and they know something Malone doesn’t: Inspired by strange clues discovered in Charlemagne’s tomb, the Nazis explored Antarctica before the Americans. Now Malone discovers that cryptic journals penned in “the language of heaven,” conundrums posed by an ancient historian, and his father’s ill-fated voyage are all tied to a revelation of immense consequence for humankind. As Malone embarks on a dangerous quest with the sisters, he will finally confront the shocking truth of his father’s death and the distinct possibility of his own.”

My Q book is The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn which I’m slowly reading right before bed.

Continuing my reread of Patricia Briggs Mercedes Thompson and currently on Smoke Bitten.

Saturday Night Movie:  Watched Oppenheimer tonight which has left me totally exhausted with all the machinations involved.  Enjoyed Fat Man and Little Boy more so than this.

September 4:  #59 in J.D. Robb’s Passion in Death arrived today!

September 8:   I’m currently reading Passion in Death by J.D. Robb which is another pen name for Nora Roberts.  I just stumbled upon Rules of Engagement written by Selene Montgomery which happens to be the pen name for Stacey Abrams who previously served as a state representative for Georgia. Dean Koontz is another favorite author who wrote under several pen names including David Axton, K. R. Dwyer, Richard Paige, and others. Stephen King used Richard Bachman as another pen name while Anne Rice used A.N. Roquelaure or Anne Rampling.   Fantasy author Charles De Lint wrote dark fantasy novels aka horror under the name of Samuel Key which were scary good.

It’s always fun to search out books written under a different pen name by authors because you’ll never know what amazing stories you’ll find.

I finished my reread of the Mercedes Thompson series and picked up on so many things I missed on the last read of each book.  I’m sad to be leaving Mercy’s world, but now I’ve got the urge to delve into Charles and Anna’s world in Alpha and Omega.

Passions in Death was very convoluted.  I couldn’t keep the characters straight, and the story seemed to go on forever and the ending was a bit anticlimactic. Not one I’d read again.  Started Cry Wolf last night and I was tempted to set In Death aside and get back to it later, but decided to finish it as they are always quick reads for me.  Disappointed.

September 12:  The next In Death will be out in Feb 2025.  I watched a youtube discussion yesterday between book tuber Merphy Napier and another book reviewer and she said something that I think I’ll adopt.   The story didn’t vibe with me or it just wasn’t my vibe.  Not very often one of the In Death stories doesn’t vibe for me. I think there are three or four I would never read again just because of the subject matter. Squicky! 

September 13:  My brother just offered to preorder a copy of Jason Pargin's newest book The Black Box of Doom – for me when he ordered his copy.  I had no idea who he was or what he writes. Went online and looked intriguing enough to order John dies at the End while waiting for the new book to come in – . Sounds like a good Spooktacular read.

September 15:  In the midst of my Patricia Brigg’s Alpha and Omega reread. Waiting in the wings is Steve Berry’s Charlemagne Pursuit, Calvino’s Complete Cosmicomics, as well as Japanese author Satoshi Yagisawa’s Days at the Morisaki Bookshop.  Plus I’ll be putting together my plans for our October Spooktacular next month.  Think I have my eyes are bigger than my stomach syndrome.  LOL!

Saturday Night Movie: Watched the 2nd movie in the legacy planet of the apes movies – Beneath  the Planet of the Apes.

September 20:  I’m not sure where I stand with my a to z. I’ll have to go through and see what’s missing.  Probably q and z.  Hee hee.  I’ve just about decided I need to go back on my buying ban for the rest of the year, at least until Christmas, and concentrate on the trilogies I started, for which I have the next two books, and finish those. Plus work through my TBR. Have all these great books, some pretty chunky ones I have been ignoring.  So revising my reading plan. Now I just need to stop downloading all Kindle Unlimited Books and read the ones I have. I keep rotating, adding a new one and deleting odd the oldest whether read it or not,  Slap myself on the hand, Stop that.  

 I just finished The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. 4.5 stars.  Too much happened to confine to a simple review, with multifaceted characters, from children to grownups, that took place during the tumultuous years of the 1920s through wwII.  I’ll have to ponder for a while as I have a book hangover.

September 21: I’m in the middle of Steven Berry’s 4th book in his Cotton Malone series – The Charlemagne Pursuit which is quite interesting.  Waiting in the wings is Samantha Shannon chunky book – A Day of Fallen Night (Play on the word fall plus fall colors on the cover) which is from the Roots of Chaos duology.

“Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose.

To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.

The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate.

When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.”

I'm rereading something from my past for my bedtime book – The Ancient One by T.A. Barron with a lot of trees, both on the cover and in the story. (52 books task of the week) 🙂

“When Kate travels to Blade, Oregon, for a quiet week at Aunt Melanie’s cottage, her plans are dashed by the discovery of a grove of giant redwood trees in nearby Lost Crater. For thousands of years, no humans have entered the fog-filled crater–except possibly the Halami people, who lived in the region centuries ago before vanishing without a trace. Long a source of deep mystery, the crater is now a source of conflict, pitting those who see it as the dying mill town’s last hope against those who see it as a rare sanctuary that should be protected.

Caught up in this struggle, Kate follows an old Halami trail into the crater, and suddenly is thrown back in time five hundred years. Accompanied by the trickster Kandeldandel, the loyal Laioni, and the young logger Jody, she meets strange and enigmatic creatures, none more frightening than the volcanic Gashra, bent on destroying everything he cannot control. To defeat him, Kate must find the answer to an ancient riddle–and the courage to make the most difficult choice of her life.”

Saturday Night Movie: Inkheart with Brendan Fraser!

September 24:  I finished #4 in Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series – The Charlemagne pursuit.  Cotton wants to know what happened to his father who supposedly died in a military submarine accident. His request and receipt of the classified files leads to everyone getting involved from the President on down. Secrets are revealed and an assassin tries to keep those who know the most from talking. And revelations about Charlemagne, cryptic journals about “the language of heaven” and ancient history. All fascinating.  Berry reminds me of James Rollins whose books I really enjoy, so will be working my way through the rest of the Cotton Malone series.

Clearing my reading palate with paperback Amanda Quick’s When She Dreams which is #6 in the Burning Cove series and ebook Ben Aaronovitch’s #6 in his Rivers of London with The Hanging tree.

Then I’ll attack Samantha Shannon’s A Day of Fallen Night.

I’ve been watching videos on annotating my books and now I want to mark up all my books as I read.

September 28:  Reading Pargin’s dark comedy thriller I’m Starting to Worry about This Big Box of Doom right now. Have quite a few ebooks that I’m perusing to see which ones I want to read for October. I know I’ll read only one or two because I’m more of mood reader.  Maybe Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls or perhaps Ward’s The Last House on Needless Street.  Physical bookwise have a few Dean Koontz to select from.

Debating  between Dean Koontz 77 Shadow Street and Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves.  I think House of Leaves is winning.

Currently working my way slowly through Louise DeSalvo’s The Art of Slow Writing.

Lied about not adding more books to my shelves.  Scrolling through Instagram and following way too many book bloggers has caused my TBR to grow exponentially.

Saturday Night Movie:  Despicable me 4!!!