Recent Updates and Currently Reading | March 18

I'm going to try to keep this crazy update as brief as I can. My husband and I have been trying to get our old house ready to sell. We still had a lot of our stuff in it, and the attached garage had gotten to the point where it really just needed to be removed from the house.

We decided my husband would take off spring break (this past week) with the kids and schedule all of the work to be done that week. That gave me a deadline to go through everything we owned to either donate, bag up to put in the demolition dumpster, or crate up/set aside to keep. All of my extra time and energy after work has gone to meeting that deadline.

Fast forward to this past week, the demolition of the garage went extremely well. My husband spent the rest of the week having the electricity and water lines capped off that were running to the garage and getting things cleaned up. By yesterday he had found a realtor that we really liked and was able to do a walk through with her yesterday afternoon. All we had left to do was get our stuff out and put it on the market.

We were just settling in last night when the fire department called to tell us our old house was on fire.

Life is so weird. It was an electrical fire in the back wall of the house. The fire department says it wasn't related to the demolition. They found some wires in the wall that were bare and touching. The scary thing is they must have always been that way. I'm assuming they had to have moved because of the demolition or the breakers being turned off and on had something to do with it. Or life is just so, so weird.

More than anything I'm thankful no one was hurt.

My plan was to return to blogging after this week, but I don't know, guys. I might not get my mind back for a while. I'm going to see how this week goes, and I'll post another update next weekend.

I haven't done much reading in the past couple of weeks. Thankfully Bonnie invited me to read The Fellowship of the Ring with her. It was the perfect book choice for me since I've read it a few times already.

Currently Reading

Review Copies

The Return by Joseph Helmreich - Joseph Helmreich sent me an ARC of The Return. This is on my list of must reads for this year. It's half alien abduction scifi, half man on the run globe hopping thriller. I'm really hoping I can manage to read it this week.

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror edited by Mark Matthews - Garden of Fiends is another priority read for me. Look at this list of authors: Kealan Patrick Burke, John FD Taff, Jessica McHugh, Jack Ketchum, Max Booth III, Glen R. Krisch, Johann Thorsson, and Mark Matthews.

The Hidden School by Dan Millman - The Hidden School showed up on my porch the other day. It's the third book in a trilogy that I've never heard of. Have you read the first book Way of the Peaceful Warrior? It's supposed to be a life changing bestseller. It's fiction but also autobiographical and a self-help book... I'm all kinds of confused. It has great reviews, though, so let me know if you have any experience with this series.

So that's where I'm at and where I've been. Regardless of how my blogging goes, I do plan to catch up with everything that has been going on with you guys. I apologize for not being around and for the comment bombs that are likely about to take place. Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?, Tynga's Reviews' Stacking the Shelves, and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

February 2017 New Horror Releases | Horror Spotlight

Better late than never, here are the February 2017 new horror book releases! It's exciting to see so many horror releases in February. I've already vouched for a couple of these (The Final Reconciliation, The Devil Crept In). I'm looking forward to checking out a few more, especially the new J.H. Moncrieff psychological sea monster book and Universal Harvester. Each book cover is linked to the appropriate page on Goodreads.

Were you able to read any of these this month? Did any of these make it on to your wishlist? If you know of any horror books that didn't make it on to the list, let me know!

Book Review | Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley

Beautiful Sorrows is a short story collection from Mercedes M. Yardley.

There is a place where sorrows pile up like snow and rest in your hair like cherry blossoms. Boys have wings, monsters fall in love, women fade into nothingness, and the bones of small children snap like twigs. Darkness will surely devour you—but it will be exquisitely lovely while doing so.

Mercedes M. Yardley’s Beautiful Sorrows is an ephemeral collection encompassing twenty-seven short tales full of devastation, death, longing, and the shining ribbon of hope that binds them all together.

Beautiful Sorrows is a collection of short stories and flash fiction from Mercedes Yardley. The stories in Beautiful Sorrows are the kind of short stories that capture moments in people's lives. They aren't the kind of stories that contain an unfolding plot, they are more like moments plucked out of time.

Beautiful Sorrows is carried by Yardley's writing. This is the first book I've read by Yardley, and her writing has a quality I really love.

I have to admit I almost dnf'ed Beautiful Sorrows. I try my best to avoid books with child abuse, and the first two stories had too much for me. After marking it on Goodreads, it dawned on me I was reading an anthology. I decided to skip ahead in the collection and give it another try. I'm glad that I did.

Overall, I enjoyed Beautiful Sorrows. I don't think I have a single friend on Goodreads that gave it less than five stars.  The writing was beautiful, and there was so much imagination to the stories. If I could have one wish right now it would be a middle grade dark fantasy written by Mercedes Yardley. The fact that this isn't getting a higher rating from me is purely subjective. I don't feel like I require plot in my short stories, but over the length of an entire book I probably do.

6/10: Good Read

Book Review | Fender Lizards by Joe R. Lansdale

Fender Lizards is a coming of age novel from Joe R. Lansdale.

The unmistakable accent of the Piney Woods of East Texas rolls from the pages of Fender Lizards, Joe R. Lansdale’s tale of the life and love and work of one Dot Sherman, who delivers on her promise that her story is “the real thing from beginning to end.”

Dot waitresses on roller skates at the Dairy Bob, doesn’t care for smoking at least partly on account of her dad having never returned from a cigarette run, and carries on the family tradition of philosophizing. Life hasn’t done her any favors in her seventeen years so far. But if there was ever a heroine built for turning things upside down and seeing what shakes out, it’s Dot. Determined to find out who she is and why she’s the way she is, an opportunity presents itself when her heretofore-unknown uncle suddenly moves his camper into the front yard.

As in his classic novels The Bottoms and The Magic Wagon, multiple-award-winning Lansdale instills place with character and character with place. Here is an overlooked world and a cast of real folks that prove unforgettable, all rendered in one of American fiction’s most authentic voices.

Fender Lizards is the story of how Dot came to be in the roller derby.

Reading about roller derby is like reading about quidditch in Harry Potter or stopping in the middle of Twilight for a long game of baseball. It's not an exciting time. (Is it taboo to make references to Twilight? Sorry.) Some of you will know what I mean.

I'm from Southeast Texas so Lansdale automatically puts me at home. I can hear and feel East Texas in his writing. This is a big plus for me.

I loved the characters in Fender Lizards. Dot was definitely the heart of the story. Fender Lizards was much more about Dot and her family than it was about her joining the roller derby, but that aspect bored me so I'm harping on it.

Overall, Fender Lizards was a decent read. I didn't love it. I felt like I wanted more to be happening. It was easy to put down, and it took longer than it should have for me to finish it. I didn't dislike it, either, though. It reinforced the fact that I need to be reading a lot more Lansdale outside of my Hap and Leonard binges.

5/10: Decent Read

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | February 18

I had another light reading week last week. Are you guys able to read through anxiety? I really hate that my favorite escape fails me when I need it most. I am incapable of following the simplest of stories when my mind is like that. Any tips?

On the flip side, I only have one episode left of Longmire. I'm about to have the worst Netflix hangover! HELP! What are some of your favorite Netflix shows?

Posted Last Week

Combined review post for:

• Loch Ness Revenge by Hunter Shea
• The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
• Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

Book Review | The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Books Read Last Week

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Review Copies

Skitter (The Hatching #2) by Ezekiel Boone - After posting my review of The Hatching last week, I decided to see if there was a copy of Skitter available for download on Edelweiss. Lucky me! If you aren't familiar with this series, it revolves around killer spiders! 🕷️🕷️🕷️

What about you? What are you reading this week? Be sure to let me know in the comments or leave me a link!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?, Tynga's Reviews' Stacking the Shelves, and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.