Tag: Galley

ARC, Books

Book 661: Poorlier Drawn Lines – Reza Farazmand

Geoff W

When the publisher reached out about this and a few other books, I recognized the style and remembered enjoying it, so selected this one as a light read between other books.* But the most miraculous thing is that I’m actually publishing this post the day the book comes out (November 19!). Usually, I’m weeks behind and struggling to catch up, but I guess with a book of comics you can meet any deadline 😀 This is a short review because it’s a pretty small collection (under 200 pages), but even shorter review: worth the read.

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Book 658: The Children of Harvey Milk – Andrew Reynolds

Geoff W

I’m not sure how I stumbled across this one, but when I did back in May I requested a copy from the publisher and they kindly obliged.* I was interested because of the subject matter, but also because Reynolds is based at UNC Chapel Hill (my undergrad) and his name rang a bell because he’d chaired the Sexuality Studies program there at some point in the recent past. And then with my master’s degree focusing on the Civil Partnership Act (2014) in the UK, of course I was going to want to read this book and see what he had to say.

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Book 654: Law and Addiction – Mike Papantonio

Geoff W

Unlike, Off the Grid, this book was worth saying yes to the publicist.* This book was engaging, a fast read, and had characters that were written well and believably realistic from the newly minted idealist lawyer Jake Rutledge to the West Virginia county chief prosecutor Eva Whistler, all of these characters felt real.

Law and Addiction is the story of Jake Rutledge and his battle against the opioid epidemic and big pharma after his twin brother dies of an opioid overdose. And, honestly, you couldn’t get more timely with a book release with all of the news stories about Purdue Pharma (Google News search) and the crackdowns in Boston after a corrections officer was attacked via Boston 25 News.

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Book 653: Off the Grid – Robert McCaw

Geoff W

I requested a copy of this from the publicist, when they reached out to me about my next read, Mike Papantonio’s Law and Addiction.* Unfortunately, I probably should’ve just stuck with the latter. This book has a lot going for it, the protagonist sounds interesting (a veteran, a cop, a dark secret), the location is exotic (Hawaii), and international intrigue, but nope nothing pays out.

I’m honestly not sure whether I should be more mad at the author or the editor. I’m not sure there was an editor, based on some of the super repetition (that had nothing to do with the story or dropping clues) and the super formal/stilted way the characters spoke to each other. Seriously, it was painful at some points. I did look into Oceanview Publishing and it says it’s an independent publisher, but based on this book I had to wonder if it was more vanity than independent, which doesn’t reflect well on them.

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Book 651: Sorted – Jackson Bird

Geoff W

I am always on board for reading anything from LGBTQ+ authors, but particularly nonfiction (memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, etc.). So when the publisher reached out about this one I downloaded it (and somehow actually got to it the week it was published).*

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I mean page one is a J.K. Rowling/Albus Dumbledore quote, of course I was going to enjoy this. I had no idea about Bird’s connection to Harry Potter (or that the Harry Potter Alliance, now known as Fandom Forward even existed)! This being said, I wasn’t totally enamored with the book and didn’t figure out why that was until roughly 80% of the way through the book.

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