Books

Book 1,010: The Inside Edge – Ashlyn Kane

So, if we’ve learned anything over 13 years of blogging, I enjoy most MM Romances tropes, but for some reason this past year I’ve been obsessed with hockey/figure skating romances. I don’t know why, maybe it’s that I’ve finally acclimated to New England, but they are just giving me life these days. This is the sixth one I’ve read in 2023 and I have at least 2-3 more coming before the calendar turns (but reviews won’t appear until early 2024).

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ARC, Books

Book 928: Going Public (Jade Capital #2) – Hudson Lin

I requested an ARC of this one from the publisher after I saw it in their upcoming titles email that I get monthly.* The fact that there was not just one non-white man on the cover of this MM Romance novel, but TWO of them was a definite ‘okay let’s give this Hudson Lin person a try.’

Totally on me, but I also thought it was written by a man (damn you pseudonyms!), but that didn’t change my opinion or reading of the novel, I was just excited that there were BIPOC protagonists AND they were on the cover. Add in that I don’t think I’ve read many with Asian protagonists and it caught my attention.

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Books

Book 768: Merry Cherry Christmas – Keira Andrews

As I cross the 3/4 mark with book nine of my 12 MM Holiday Books of 2020, I’m finding it harder to judge the books. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re starting to run together, they totally are, or if it’s because they’re dividing pretty quickly into those that I really enjoy and those that are just sort of meh (this is the first).

In Merry Cherry Christmas we have Jeremy (aka Cherry – his little brother couldn’t say his name growing up and it stuck) another virgin desperately trying to no longer be a virgin, and his knight in shining armor Max, the super fit and attractive captain of the university football team. But really, Andrews wrote it best: “a nervous nerd and protective, jealous jock.” Not going to lie, this one gave a lot of the same things that A Guy for Christmas did, but Andrews did it better, for me at least.

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Books

Book 480: Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood

I picked up my copy of Cat’s Eye back in December of 2011 and I’ve waited WAY too long to read it. I’ve been looking at my bookshelves thinking I needed to read more of those books and so I went back to my list and looked at the oldest on there and this was one of them.

I’m glad I read this because every time I read a another Margaret Atwood novel I ask myself why in the hell I waited so long between novels. I’m doubly glad I read this as it’s kept my belief that the short and long list booker prizes are more approachable than the winners. I haven’t read the 1989 winner yet, it’s Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day, and it could break that streak with how much of an impact Never Let Me Go left on me.

I think what has always drawn me to Atwood are her strong female characters, her awesome speculative fiction, and what seems like her fascination with age and aging. I thought it was weird at first, but then I realized that some of these novels I’m reading from the late 80s were when Atwood was already in her late-40s/early-50s. So it made a lot more sense when I realized that. Continue reading “Book 480: Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood”

2013 Challenges, Books

Book 169: In the Skin of a Lion – Michael Ondaatje

Now, having read two books by Michael Ondaatje, one thing is certain: his writing is incredibly smooth and beautiful, especially when it comes to the description of scenes and settings. The best comparison I can think of is a deep voice talking soothingly (like James Earl Jones or Donald Sutherland. And in all honesty, I’m pretty sure I read Ondaatje’s books with a Sutherland voice in my head. In the Skin of a Lion is my third Mount TBR book, but not an officially listed book, but one I expected to read.

As I read the story, I kept forgetting that the novel is told as a retelling of the story. It starts out with, this is when (and how) this story is told and I just forgot about it. And forgetting about this really affected my ability to enjoy the story. I kept thinking this is pretty disjointed and wondering who the narrator was talking to. Rereading the ‘forward’ helped put it back into perspective, but I should’ve paid more attention from the start.

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