Tag: New York

Books

Book 915: A Novel Death – Judi Culbertson

Geoff W

This was one big “MEH . . .” Some of it was the writing, a lot of it was the characters, and the nail in the coffin was the overall storyline.

I got a copy of this back in March 2013 and it has sat on my Kindle ever since, not for any particular reason, I just never got to it. I’m a little surprised I didn’t read it sooner since it’s a mystery/thriller about a book with bookstores and libraries involved and those, in general, are like catnip for me.

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ARC, Books

Book 906: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson

Geoff W

When someone from the publisher reached out to me about Black Cake, it wasn’t an immediate yes or an immediate no.* I honestly had no idea what I was going to do, I thought it was a beautiful cover (even if I didn’t notice the woman on it for ages) and the multi-generational story drew me in.

What ultimately decided for me was that it was a debut novel, love those most of the time, and my reading list is seriously lacking authors of color and I’ve been saying for years I’m going to expand my reading list. And holy shit y’all I’m so glad I did, this book took me for so many rides.

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Books

Book 901: More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera

Geoff W

So I have talked about gut punches when reading books before, but Silvera took it to a different level with this one—and this was his freakin’ debut novel!

I’ve known about Silvera for some time and even read his co-authored What If It’s Us? with Becky Albertalli, but this is the first time I’ve sought out his work. I came across it on a list of must-reads and so grabbed it when I saw it was available at my library.

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Books

Book 899: Year One (Chronicles of the One #1) – Nora Roberts

Geoff W

WHOA. So, I’m really glad I didn’t read this book two years ago this time or I would’ve been freakin’ the f*** out as coronavirus took over the planet! Thankfully, I didn’t discover the fibercast Needles at the Ready (Instagram link) until late 2021 where one of the hosts, Ray, recommended this series.

It was bad enough when I read The Names We Take in May 2020 (or even Severance back in late 2019) where a virus wiped out huge swaths of the world’s population, but Roberts takes it to an entirely different level! The opening chapter is gut-wrenchingly dark and I actually stopped reading it in bed the first night I started because it was seriously creeping me out.

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Books

Book 864: Hold My Hand (One Man Guy #2) – Michael Barakiva

Geoff W

This was an adorable angsty follow-up to Barakiva’s One Man Guy. I feel like he could choose an emotion and keep going with Alek and Ethan exploring what that emotion means to the two of them and how it changes their relationship.

Hold My Hand picks up roughly five months after the end of One Man Guy, and Alek is facing fears of how and when they’ll take their relationship to the next level physically and honestly, it’s endearing and horrifying and hilarious all at the same time. (Seriously, read the second quote in the more quotes. DIED.)  The rest of this will contain spoilers so stay out if you don’t want to know the main plot point and what happens.

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