BW43: More spookiness. Yes, no, maybe!!!

 

It's book week 43 in our 52 book quest and continuing our October Spooktacular. 

I've been thoroughly enjoying M.L. Buchman's Miranda Chase series about an autistic NTSB agent and her cohorts.  I caught up with the series just in the time for book #11 Skibird which is being released tuesday.

"Those who work there call Antarctica “The Ice.” A secret Russian cargo jet crashes into a crevasse near an Australian Station. The Aussies call in the top air-crash investigators on the planet.

The best of them all, Miranda Chase, must face the Russians, Chinese, and use her own autistic abilities to keep her team alive. As the battle spreads across The Ice, are even her incredible skills enough?

Or will they all be buried in the frozen wasteland?"

And excited for the new release of Nalini Singh's 15th book in the Guild Hunter series "Archangel's Resurrection on the 25th as well. 

Tonight our family movie choice was Replicas with Keenu Reeves. It was quite intense as he is a neuroscientists and tries to clone his family when they die in an accident. 

James M's review of IDW Sonic Scrapnik Island issue 1

 

Sorry about this, IDW Sonic fans, been a while since we last did a review of IDW Sonic comics. I'm back now, with a review of issue 1 of the new Scrapnik Island horror miniseries.

So, what's the story?

Scrapnik Island is a horror anthology miniseries about Sonic and Tails fighting to survive on an island filled with old Badniks from their past and they must battle an old enemy: Mecha Knuckles, who was last seen in the GBA game Sonic Advance. The story is written by Daniel Barnes, who previously wrote a story about Omega and Gemerl battling it out in a story of the IDW Sonic 2022 annual. 

Issue one showcases the duo making an emergency landing on the island and discovering the ruins of the Death Egg, they're surrounded by Badniks and then run into an E series robot whom fans initially mistook for Gamma. But this is not Gamma, this robot is E-117 Sigma (who was previously mentioned in Archie Sonic somewhere, making him the latest Archie Sonic-made character to finally be utilized in the IDW series. So far, the series is promising and seeing new talent write IDW Sonic stories is a perfect way to balance out the old blood i.e. a longtime writer like Ian Flynn. Issue one gets a nine.

See you later, fans. Sorry if we were short...

-James M

BW42: Noah Webster

 

Today is Noah Webster's birthday, the father of the American Dictionary. October 16 is named Dictionary Day in honor of Webster.  We have the second edition unabridged Webster's dictionary which is humongous at 3194 pages, and a slightly smaller fifth edition collegiate edition at 1274.  It's interesting to compare them to the modern 2022 edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary, a mere 960 pages.  I prefer the older versions which are much more fun to peruse. But I’d also like to get my hands on an Oxford English Dictionary one of these days.  When I'm writing, I always have Dictionary.com or Thesaurus.com tabs open in my computer and explored different words. I prefer the online versions over the current Merriam Webster edition which has definitely been dumbed down.  

Noah Webster's Story

Noah Webster and the Dream of a Common Language 

Noah Webster’s Impact on Education

An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin & Noah Webster’s Spelling Revolution

Project Gutenberg's A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings, by Noah Webster

I'm currently reading Ghostrider, # 4 in M.L. Buchman's Miranda Chase Political Technothriller.

"When sabotage threatens the US Air Force’s newest gunship, there’s only one woman to call. An AC-130J “Ghostrider”—the latest variant of America’s most lethal aerial gunship—goes down hard in the Colorado Rockies. Except the flight data doesn’t match the airframe. Air-crash genius, and high-functioning autistic, Miranda Chase leads her NTSB team of sleuths in to investigate. But what they uncover reveals a far greater threat—sabotage. If she can’t solve the crash in time, a new type of war will erupt. One far too close to home which threatens to shatter her team."

BW41: Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts! Oh My!

 

Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts! 

Oh My!

Our spooktacular reading month continues and it isn't all about horror.  Oh no! Especially since I'm not into blood and guts violence.  I like the type of books that get your adrenaline going, keeps you guessing, finger nail biting, keep you up all night reading suspense.  There are a number of ways to go with psychological thrillers, gothic, paranormal reads that run the gamut from the supernatural to urban fantasies. Books full of bad guys, ghosts, and scary as well as delicious vampires, and werewolves.  

Clearing my palate with a fluffy romance before I dive back into James Rollin's thriller Kingdom of Bones.  Also on the nightstand is the suspense novel The Last Second by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison.  I like one author's writing and the other's not so much and I can tell the difference in their writing so expect I'll like only half of the book. LOL! 

"Galactus, France’s answer to SpaceX, has just launched a communications satellite into orbit, but the payload actually harbors a frightening weapon: a nuclear-triggered electromagnetic pulse.  When the satellite is in position, Galactus’s second-in-command, Dr. Nevaeh Patel, will have the power to lay waste to the world with an EMP. A former astronaut, Patel believes she is following the directions of the Numen, aliens who saved her life when she space-walked outside the International Space Station. She is convinced that with the Holy Grail, just discovered by the owner of Galactus—eccentric treasure hunter Jean-Pierre Broussard—she can be reunited with the Numen, change the world’s destiny, and become immortal with them.

The countdown has begun when Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine are thrown into the pending disaster. They must stop the EMP that would wreak havoc on communication and electronic systems on Earth, resulting in chaos and anarchy.

Werewolf by Night

 *******************

I wasn't ready to leave the world of Keri Arthur's Lizzie Grace series plus it is spooktacular so read the whole series again, delightfully finding there were one or two books I hadn't read in the mix. 

We watched Marvel's Werewolf by Night last night. A one hour special on Disney +.  I'd seen the previews and decided it was too scary for me. James insisted we watch it and held my hand. Turned out not to be so bad. It was scary mixed with humor. Enjoyed it. 

BW40: October Spooktacular and the Unreliable Narrator

October Spooktacular and the Unreliable Narrator

It's book week 40 in our 52 Books Quest and this month October's spooktacular is all about the unreliable narrator. 

This month is full of chills and thrills, spine tingling adventure stories, and unexpected, jump out and surprise you, don't turn the lights off reads. If you are anything like me, gruesome horror isn't your thing. However, psychological, mind bending, Hitchcock type thrillers full of suspense are my favorite type of reads, along with paranormal, ghosts, vampires, were wolves and the weird.

If you haven't read the classics, now would be a good time to read Frankenstein or Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey or Something Wicked This Way Comes to name a few. Put away your expectations because you may be surprised when they don't turn out how you suspect they will. 

And this month's crime spree category fits the bill with the Unreliable Narrator.

The first rule of reading books by an Unreliable Narrator is to not read anything more about it than a brief description. All the charm in this genre is surprise so you must be diligent in avoiding spoilers.

Currently reading James Rollins thriller Kingdom of Bones in his Sigma force series which fills the bill for a spooktacular read. 

"It begins in Africa . . .

A United Nations relief team in a small village in the Congo makes an alarming discovery. An unknown force is leveling the evolutionary playing field. Men, women, and children have been reduced to a dull, catatonic state. The environment surrounding them—plants and animals—has grown more cunning and predatory, evolving at an exponential pace. The insidious phenomenon is spreading from a cursed site in the jungle — known to locals as the Kingdom of Bones —and sweeping across Africa, threatening the rest of the world.

What has made the biosphere run amok? Is it a natural event? Or more terrifyingly, did someone engineer it?

Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force are prepared for the extraordinary and have kept the world safe, vigilance for which they have paid a tragic personal price. Yet, even these brilliant and seasoned scientific warriors do not understand what is behind this frightening development—or know how to stop it. As they race to find answers, the members of Sigma quickly realize they have become the prey.

To head off global catastrophe, Sigma Force must risk their lives to uncover the shattering secret at the heart of the African continent—a truth that will illuminate who we are as a species and where we may be headed . . . sooner than we know.

Mother Nature—red in tooth and claw—is turning against humankind, propelling the entire world into the Kingdom of Bones."

BW39: Bookish News

 

It's book week 39 in our 52 books quest and time for a bit of bookish news:

2022 Hugo award’s winner for best novel is A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Hilary Mantel, celebrated author of Wolf Hall, dies aged 70

Romance author Nora Roberts helps save Michigan library defunded over LGBTQ books

Chances Are, Your Favorite Book Is On This List Of Books That Have Been Banned For Absolutely Absurd Reasons

How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters

100 Years of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha

 

And in anticipation of our October Spooktacular, check out

Goodread’s picks for Space Horror, and psychological thrillers.

75 Facts about Stephen King who just turned 75 last week.

Currently reading #9 in Keri Arthur's Lizzie Grace series -- Sorrow's Song.  

"Lizzie Grace is trying to get on with her life now that she and Aiden have gone their separate ways, but it’s a difficult thing to do when just about everything reminds her of the damn man.

The situation is made worse when a body is found, and her job as Deputy Reservation Witch means she has no choice but to interact with him. At first, the death seems to be nothing more than an accidental drowning in a remote location, but it’s soon evident a supernatural entity is involved.

As they race to uncover what is going on, it becomes clear that this evil is not only targeting werewolves, but one particular pack—the O’Connor’s.

And the reason might well be the song of sorrow. A song that Lizzie’s grief might have given birth to…"

Gearing up for October Spooktacular. Have Dean Koontz on the shelves calling my name. Will have to decide which one want to read.