Thankfully Reading Weekend

Happy almost Turkey Day, y'all! In honor of the occasion (and the long weekend for most) Jenn over at Jenn's Bookshelves is hosting her annual Thankfully Reading Weekend!

This is my official kickoff post.

Since we're staying home this holiday, we've been invited over to our friends' house for dinner. Which means I don't have to worry about cooking a turkey! But I am cooking a few dishes for our contribution. In between prepping and eating, though, I'm planning to tackle James S. A. Corey's Caliban's War, the second book in the Expanse series. It's a big honking monster (just under 600 pages!), so we'll see if I'm able to squeeze in anything else besides :)

I'll keep you posted!

In the Blue Hour by Elizabeth Hall

Hi, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Elizabeth Hall's In the Blue Hour. 

Elise Brooks had a dream about a car accident. The road was snowy, the car was hers, but in the dream she couldn't see the driver. She never told anyone because she never believed dreams could be real. 

But then her husband died - driving her car on a snowy road. 

Elise senses that her husband may still be with her. And though she never believed before, she recognizes that even those around her are open to the idea. As time goes by, she begins to believe her husband might be trying to tell her something. Something important. And so Elise embarks on a journey to find the meaning of her husband's messages.

This is a quite different book from Hall's debut, Miramont's Ghost. It begins in New Mexico, in the time since her husband's death, Elise hasn't really dealt with the loss. She's holed herself up in their remote cabin, closing herself off from the world. As we meet her, she's entering her husband's studio for the very first time. It's her first step to rejoining the world in the wake of her loss.

With some prompting from her best friend, some help from a psychic and fellow widow, and a surprising new acquaintance, Elise begins to heal from her loss while unraveling the message she believes is coming from beyond the grave.

Hall's characters are wonderful - full of depth and emotion. And I loved how place itself became almost becomes a character as well. New Mexico - its life and spirit, culture, food... - are all a big part of the story. As is the Native American lore of the area. From there, Elise travels to Tennessee, a place she barely remembers thanks to having left early in her childhood. These places anchor and inspire Elise and her story. They all - the characters and settings - come to life in Hall's prose in a way that allows the reader to easily slip into and become completely immersed in the story.

I quite enjoyed In the Blue Hour. I've been in something of a reading rut of late, taking what feels like ages to finish even one book. But I found myself sucked into In the Blue Hour from the start, finishing the first third of it almost before any time at all had passed. And of course then had to continue!

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Books a Million | Barnes & Noble

The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Good morning, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for the final book in Erika Johansen's Tearling trilogy, The Fate of the Tearling.

WARNING: If you have not yet read The Queen of the Tearling and Invasion of the Tearling do not read any further!

Kelsea has given herself and her sapphires over to the Red Queen, brokering a peace agreement she hopes will protect her kingdom. But it also means being captive and prisoner of her enemy all the while stripped of the powers the stones once gave her. Except it seems Kelsea's ability to see beyond her own time hasn't left her. Visions of a girl living in William Tear's time, just after the crossing, have replaced those of Lily, giving Kelsea a look into her kingdom's earliest days. But what wisdom can be gained by these visions? 

Meanwhile, Mace has been left in charge in Kelsea's stead. As public sentiment suffers thanks to the damage left behind in the Mort soldiers' wake and the church's attempts at destabilization, Mace is also tasked with cleaning out the dirty underbelly of the city. All this as he and the rest of the Queen's guard try desperately to figure out how they can save their queen. 

So when we last left Kelsea she had surrendered both herself and the sapphires to the Red Queen. Her strategy did leave her prisoner, but it also made it possible for her to discover the identity of the enemy that has been tormenting her kingdom for so long. And it also revealed the fact that the sapphires are apparently useless to anyone other than Kelsea.

Kelsea had also been having visions of a pre crossing woman named Lily. The visions were attributed to the power the stones had apparently given her. Her physical powers left her with the stones, but in the days after her surrender Kelsea realizes that the visions haven't gone at all. They have changed, though. Rather than seeing and feeling Lily's pre-crossing experiences, she's now seeing a girl born just after the crossing.

These visions allow the reader to see more of the history of Kelsea's world, a history that's not really understood by even Kelsea and her people. And there's a suspicion, as the visions continue, that something very important is being conveyed to Kelsea. Something that (considering this is the final book in the trilogy) must lead to some sort of resolution. But Johansen does, as with the prior two installments, keep her cards close, leaving the reader guessing as to what might be coming for Kelsea, the Red Queen, and even William Tear and his people.

The scope of the world of this trilogy is amazing. I never suspected, in the opening pages of The Queen of the Tearling that the world was anything close to what it turned out to be. It's funny, too, that Johansen herself notes some of the feelings I had while reading in her acknowledgements. The fact that the history of the world is limited to what the characters know - and they really know very little at all -, that identities are hidden, that information is just plain lost, was at times incredibly frustrating. Don't worry, it was never frustrating to the point of discouragement, but instead in the most I-must-keep-reading-I-must-know-what's-going-on agonizingly edge of your seat kind of way. It's made the wait for this third and final installment quite difficult, let me tell you.

If you ignored my warning above, I did try to go no as no spoilers as possible. You do have to read the trilogy in order, though, in order to have any inkling of what's going on. It's a highly inventive trilogy and a fabulous world, though, and I definitely recommend checking them out.

If you have read them all, or at least the first two, then you may have missed this recent little extra over on Bustle (a short story about a young Mace called "The Boy"). Mace is probably everyone's favorite character (or maybe that's just me) so don't miss it! 

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Erika Johansen and her series you can like her on Facebook and visit her on Tubmlr.

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Arena by Holly Jennings + a Giveaway

Kali is a gamer - a professional gamer. Every week, viewers from around the world tune in to watch her team, Defiance, battle it out on the virtual field. But just before the start of the latest RAGE tournament, Defiance - the favorite to win, is beaten by a new team. They still have a chance to come out on top, but it will mean battling it out with the rest of the losing bracket before once again taking on InvictUS, the team no one seems to be able to take down. 

Though Kali is confident, she and her team are shaken when one of their own dies of an overdose. And while Kali's still reeling from the loss of her teammate (and lover), Defiance's owner names her captain of the team - the first female captain in history -, and recruits a new member. One comes with the burden of responsibility while the other threatens the strength and cohesion of the team. 

If you're a fan of gaming, this first in Holly Jennings's Arena - series, duology? - is for you. My own diving in comes at a fortuitous time: I was victorious in obtaining one of the shockingly few released Nintendo Minis last week! Our classics are Kali's classics as well and quite a few of the games I grew up with appear as pop culture references in Jennings's debut :)

So Kali's world is one in which virtual reality has evolved to the point that gamers must be athletes in order to succeed. She and her team train physically in order to be able to duke it out in the programmed world. And if they're hurt inside, they feel it when they unplug.

The popularity of virtual gaming is such that Kali and her team are subject to the whims of owners, sponsors, and media (much like real sports and celebrity today). And image is everything. Which is why the team must win and must appear to have recovered even after one of their teammates dies. Which becomes tough considering Kali's much more affected by the death than anyone wants to admit.

Jennings's story isn't just about gaming. She's taken the trappings of celebrity - the constant attention, the pressure to be at the literal top of the game at every moment, and the need to live up to the expectations and narratives created by the media - and illustrated just how much that can affect a person. Kali is a leader and a passionate player, which means walking away isn't an option. The careers and futures of her teammates rests on her shoulders. And it's getting to be too much to handle on her own.  

Arena is fun, readers, and I can't wait until next spring and the release of Gauntlet! (It's synopsis on Goodreads does include spoilers for Arena, so I'd wait to check that out until you've finished the first book.) I kind of wish there had been more detail of the world and the tournament themselves, but the depth of the characters and the evolution of their relationships as a team and beyond make it easy to get wrapped up in their story.

Thanks to the publisher, I get to offer up one copy of the brand new trade paperback edition of Arena today! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, November 28. Open US only and no PO boxes please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Grape, Olive, Pig by Matt Goulding

Good morning, readers! Today I'm kicking off the TLC blog tour for Matt Goulding's latest, Grape, Olive, Pig.

Part travelogue, part history, and all food, Grape, Olive, Pig offers an in depth look at the culture and cuisine of Spain. Beginning in Barcelona, where Goulding not only fell in love with everything edible but also the woman he'd eventually marry, the book takes readers through a crash course in Catalan history and the literal lesser known hot spots for the best drinks and tapas. From there, he takes readers on a winding trip throughout the country: Salamanaca and the story behind jamón ibérico; Valencia and paella; Basque Country and Goulding's own education in their dishes and techniques; Cadiz and the famed bluefin hunters; Asturias with José Andrés; percebes in Galacia; cocida and cocido variations in Madrid; and finally migas in Granada.

Of course there's more to each section than the dishes and people I mentioned above. Enough to inspire the traveler in you to book a ticket and begin planning a feast!

Goulding's focus on spots beyond tourist favorites is one of the highlights throughout the book, giving readers interested in a real Spain experience tips on how and where to accomplish that. But of course the best part of the book is the food. Unfortunately, if you're looking for recipes for the dishes Goulding mentions throughout, you're kind of out of luck, but behold the beauty of the internet!

My favorite pieces, beyond Goulding's own personalized tales and the honestly stomach-growling inducing descriptions of the food, were the bits in between chapters. Anatomy of a Dish pieces, Life Skills: Eat Like a Spaniard, Amazing Shit in the Middle of Nowhere, profiles of chefs, and Tapas Truths: Tapas Taxonomy.

Grape, Olive, Pig is the latest collaboration between Anthony Bourdain, Roads & Kingdoms, and Matt Goulding, which kicked off with Goulding's Rice, Noodle, Fish. Again, if you're in search of a Spanish cookbook, this is not the book for you. If you're in search of mouthwatering and insightful travel writing, though, you can't go wrong with Grape, Olive, Pig.

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. And for more on Matt Goulding, his eats, and travels, you can follow him in Twitter.

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

New Releases 11/15/16

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

Desolation Flats by Andrew Hunt

Chaos by Patricia Cornwell (11/17)

Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich

Ruler of the Night by David Morrell

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

No Man's Land by David Baldacci

Nest by Terry Goodkind

The Sleeping Beauty Killer by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke

This is Our Story by Ashley Elston

The Girl in the Picture by Alexandra Monir

The Turncoat's Gambit by Andrea Cremer

My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier

Flashfall by Jenny Moyer

New on DVD:
Finding Dory

Short Fiction Friday: How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea and Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus by Mira Grant

This summer saw the release of Mira Grant's Rise, the collected shorts and novellas of the Newsflesh series. I had already bought most of the novellas individually, including today's, but didn't get around to diving into about half of them until the collected volume released. Since I'd already started covering the stories individually, though (here and here), I figured I'd continue in that vein.

First up, How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea finds intrepid reporter Mahir Gowda traveling Down Under to see how Australia handles their little zombie issue. And in true down under fashion, it's nowhere near as uptight as the way others do. Of course this means that Mahir is in more danger than unusual, but that's pretty much to be expected in his line of work.  

This one is a lot of fun because, while Mahir has featured in most - if not all - of the other shorts, this is really the first time he's been an active part of the story. And it's fun to see the world expanded to include Australia. Which is, according to the author's note in Rise, pretty much why and how this tale came about - to illustrate the global effects of the outbreak.

This one is a chunky novella - clocking in at 115 pages, making it the longest short in the series. Which is doubly great because it means spending that much more time with Mahir and the zombie wombats!

Next up, Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus is connected directly to book three and The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell. I did debate about revealing the latter, but considering it's part of Grant's own intro to the tale in Rise, I figured it was ok to mention the connection.

Dr. Shannon Abbey has made her lab a virtual fortress. It's location is all but secret and entry is heavily protected. But when a delirious and malnourished woman makes her way onto the grounds, Abbey takes her in and decides to nurse her back to health. The decision is one that she may come to regret, but Abbey and her people certainly aren't going down without a fight. 

So the woman in question is Foxy and this tale is a companion to The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell, which is Foxy's origin story. I loved Day, so it was especially glad to see a return to that character. Though I was sad to see how things had shaped up for her. Hers is a story of survival, but at a cost.

Shannon Abbey, on the other hand, is fabulously snarky and exceptionally wonderful to return to. She's such a fun character, and one I think has a wonderful ability to analyze situations, even possibly disastrous ones, and keep her cool while working out a solution. She's faced with exactly that scenario in Please Don't Taunt the Octopus, but this time without the benefit of the Masons.

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm pretty sure Mira Grant is one of the busiest people in publishing. I was talking her up just the other day and commented that if there's a genre anthology out, she's likely part of it. And that's above and beyond the multiple worlds she's writing in: Newsflesh and the finished Parasitology trilogy as Grant; October Daye, Incryptid, Wayward Children, and more as Seanan McGuire. And those are just the series. She's got a ton of stand alone tales, like the upcoming Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day. It seems I stumble upon something new from her every month: the upcoming Black Feathers anthology, the What the #@&% is That anthology that released this week, last month's The Starlit Wood anthology, Urban Allies from July... Which of course is perfect for a fan girl like me because it seems to mean an endless supply of her work to feed my book junkie needs!