Category: Winner announcement

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 12-3-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

I had a bit of a “bail and flail” this week, and it made me think of an opinion piece on a review blog that I follow, Crossing the Pond Reviews. The author of the piece was talking about when it’s time NOT to read a book, and that fit perfectly with one of the books I intended to read this week – because I’d read the first two in the series – and I finally came to the conclusion that this particular book needed to go in my ‘Not Finished Yet’ or NFY pile. I DID read the first two, and I did like them both in the end, but I just wasn’t in the mood this week – or possibly this month – for a dystopia that was just that far down the road. I do want to find out how it ends, but not right now.

I kind of had the same reaction this week as one of the books I was planning to review this week got yeeted to the NFY pile before you even saw the list. The tone was just too arch, like way, way too high of an arch, and I’m not in the mood. We’ll see if what you see here is what you get later by this time next week!

The above picture is Hecate, posing in a very pretty little curl. But not nearly so little as the first time we captured her picture in this kind of curl – which Galen actually has on a t-shirt. Still, she’s a very pretty cat, albeit more than a bit on the round side these days, and this curl pose shows off all the beautiful colors on her hidden side.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Black Friday Giveaway is Carolyn D.
The winner of the In All Things Give Thanks Giveaway Hop is Debbi W.
The winner of the Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop is Peggy N.

Blog Recap:

A- Review: Anything with Nothing edited by Mercedes Lackey
B+ Review: Uncanny Vows by Laura Anne Gilman
B- Review: Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah
A+ Review: Shards of Glass by Michelle Sagara
Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (577)

Coming This Week:

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley (review)
Murder Crossed Her Mind by Stephen Spotswood (review)
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett (review)
Let it Snow Giveaway Hop
The Hero She Needs by Anna Hackett (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-19-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

This was one of those weeks where what I thought I was going to post was what I actually posted. Admittedly, that’s mostly because it was already mostly done at the beginning of the week. It was just that kind of week. This coming week has a bit more uncertainty in it, but I’ve already finished Monday’s book and DAMN that was good. You’ll see.

On the subject of seeing and not seeing, I realized that you’d all been seeing a lot of pictures of Luna and Tuna because they’re willing to pose – or at least sit still – for the human in ‘camera position’. But I caught Lucifer dozing on top of my gaming pillow, and he was too comfy to run off as Galen and I fiddled with lights and camera phones in order to get a shot where it at least looked like he had eyes. Without extra lights his handsome face was just a void. Which, may be a perfect description but not nearly as photogenic as what I had in mind!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the In All Things Give Thanks Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop is Heather

Blog Recap:

A- Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells
A- Review: The Star and the Strange Moon by Constance Sayers
A+ Review: Calamity by Constance Fay
In All Things Give Thanks Giveaway Hop
B+ Review: The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman
Stacking the Shelves (575)

Coming This Week:

Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas (review)
Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty (review)
Stephen Leeds: Death and Faxes by Brandon Sanderson (audio review)
Thanksgiving 2023 (Guest Post by Galen)
Evergreen Chase by Juneau Black (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-5-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Did you remember to “fall back” last night? And just how badly do you end up wishing they’d just make up their damn minds and stick to one or the other? I wish we stayed on Daylight Saving Time all year round, but then I’d also enjoy the day more if it started later. People who have to put kids on school buses seem to prefer Standard Time because it’s dark in the morning when they have to get the kids on the bus. I honestly don’t care enough to even argue the point. I’d be thrilled if they’d just pick one and stick to it even if it’s not the one I’d personally prefer. You’d think this would be a popular enough thing that even Congress could pass something, but NOOOOOO.

Rant over until March 10, 2024.

This week ended with a “flail and bail” where I flailed over the last two books I intended to review this week and bailed on both of them. I just hit a wall of “I can’t even” after several days of horror and horror-adjacency in a row, Halloween was OVER and the new month just screamed for different books. So it goes.

A couple of Sunday Posts ago I mentioned that Tuna’s size is a bit hard to measure because he doesn’t seem to pose for pictures where a size comparison can be made. Galen caught the above picture earlier this week with both Luna and Tuna in the frame. Tuna looks huge and Luna looks tiny by comparison. It’s still not a great way of judging Tuna’s size, as Luna isn’t really a small cat. She’s pretty much an average sized cat – she only looks small in comparison to her brother. Which means that Tuna in photo is even larger than he appears!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop is Will G.

Blog Recap:

A- Review: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather
B+ Review: The Dead Take the A Train by Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
A- Review: Warriorborn by Jim Butcher
B+ Review: Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens by Andrea Penrose
Stacking the Shelves (573)

Coming This Week:

Twilight Falls by Juneau Black (review)
The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman (spotlight + excerpt)
Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty (review)
Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
A Power Unbound by Freya Marske (audiobook review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-29-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

It turned out to be a FANTASTIC reading week. Everything I picked up was really, really, good, and an excellent reading time was definitely had by moi. That they all turned out to be “A-” reads makes it seem like they all fell short in one way or another, but I think that was mostly because all but one of the books was a continuation in a series that may not have risen above its predecessors but didn’t fall below them either. They were each just what I expected, no more but no less, either.

The problem, however, is that I usually chose which book cover to feature next to the recap based on which book got the highest grade – and that’s a bit of a conundrum this time around!

Howloween is the day after tomorrow, and after that we’ll all be falling towards the holidays at breakneck speed. And it’s going to start getting dark too damn early next Sunday – not that it hasn’t already been trending in that direction.

But there’s been a bit of a theme going on here at Reading Reality. I’ve been reviewing horror or at least horror-adjacent books for the last few days, and that trend will continue through Halloween. Then we’ll have a blog hop to get the month started right.

Of course, I have a cat picture for this spooky season. If you’ve ever seen the meme of the little black bat as the darkness who gives cuddles, at left (or above left) there’s a picture of Lucifer proudly sitting in front with Hecate hiding below. That little bat may be the darkness that GIVES cuddles, but Lucifer and Hecate are the darkness that DEMANDS cuddles.

Happy Halloween!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop  
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop is Alisa

Blog Recap:

A- Review: Under the Smokestrewn Sky by A. Deborah Baker
A- Review: A Duke’s Lesson in Charm by Sophie Barnes
A- Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume Four edited by Paula Guran
A- Review: Phantom Pond by Juneau Black
A- Review: Night Train to Murder by Simon R. Green
Stacking the Shelves (572)

Coming This Week:

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather (review)
The Dead Take the A Train by Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw (audiobook review)
Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
Long Past Dues by James J. Butcher (review)
The Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-1-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Banned Books> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Today is the start of Banned Books Week, an event which has always called attention to the books that are challenged and banned in school and public libraries across the country. It’s an event that has become increasingly both important and fraught with meaning in this moment, as the number of challenges has increased exponentially in the last few years while the themes of those challenges have emerged as being ever more chilling as, no matter what the challenges may claim, the overall desire that emerges is the need of some to erase the voices of those who are different from themselves, with the goal of not merely erasing those voices, but ultimately, the people behind those voices.

This has all happened before. Banned Books Week does its very best to drag the issue out of the shadows and into the light, so that it doesn’t happen again.

 

I usually read a book from the Banned and Challenged list this week, but I decided to try something different this year. The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church by Rachel L. Swarns is not on the Banned and Challenged list YET because it was just published this summer. However, it is exactly the kind of book that will find itself on the list in years to come, because it challenges the traditional perceptions of people and institutions that are considered to be great which got to where they are by abusing the labor and the very persons of people of color. It reminds me a bit of The 1619 Project, which I absolutely considered for this week but wanted to listen to because I’ve heard great things about the audiobook version. So, I bought it instead and plan to plan a little better next year.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop is Cali

Blog Recap:

Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop
A Review: A Duke’s Introduction to Courtship by Sophie Barnes
B Review: The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub
A Review: Bad Blood by Lauren Dane
A+ Review: Osprey by M.L. Buchman
Stacking the Shelves (568)

Coming This Week:

The Hunter’s Apprentice by Lindsay Schopfer (review)
Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor (audio review)
The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar (review)
Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop
The 272 by Rachel L. Swarns (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-24-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Today’s picture is Tuna again, this time in the midst of executing a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. He’s standing on Galen’s desk, using one of his computer monitors for balance, attempting to reach the overhead fan. Which he can, as dangerous an idea as that sounds. Galen snapped the picture and then executed a Tuna extraction because otherwise the literal fallout was going to be epically bad and full of broken glass from the monitor.

Tuna is just big. He can stand on the kitchen table and bat at the light fixture over head – which he does. Unfortunately, especially for a cat, Tuna possesses the family grace, meaning that he is every bit as klutzy as the rest of the family – both human and feline. His pratfalls tend to shake the house. We may not be in an earthquake zone, but we are absolutely in a cat-quake zone.

As far as bookish and bloggy things go, tomorrow’s Fall Seasons of Books Hop technically starts today, but the organizers are very generous about giving people a few days to hop on board. So tomorrow. Giveaway Hops are the BEST way to start a week!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop (ENDS Thursday!)

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Hello Autumn Giveaway Hop is Piroska
The winner of the Summer Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop is Suzie

Blog Recap:

B Review: The Quiet Room by Terry Miles
A Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi
A+ Review: Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
B+ Review: The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan
A Review: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Stacking the Shelves (567)

Coming This Week:

Fall Seasons of Books 2023 Giveaway Hop
A Duke’s Introduction to Courtship by Sophie Barnes (blog tour review)
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub (blog tour review)
Osprey by M.L. Buchman (review)
Bad Blood by Lauren Dane (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-17-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

After last Sunday’s picture of poor Tuna standing lonely on the inside of the house while Luna and George tease him from out on the catio, I had to post this picture this weekend to show that Tuna’s life is actually pretty darn good most of the time.

Seriously, is that a face, or is that a face? He’s adorable when he’s being a clown.

Also in reference to last Sunday’s Post, I did manage to actually finish ALL the books I’d planned on reviewing. I think it’s been a while since THAT happened. This week is looking pretty good too, because I’ve already finished the first three books and The Book Club Hotel is for a blog tour so that settles that. I’ve been really looking forward to The Last Devil to Die so I think I’m set but we’ll certainly see in the week ahead!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Hello Autumn Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop is Darlene

Blog Recap:

9/11 2023: Remember the Sky (Guest Post by Galen)
B Review: Fury Brothers by Anna Hackett
A+ Review: Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
B Review: An Unsuitable Heiress by Jane Dunn
A+ Review: Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen MacDonald
Stacking the Shelves (566)

Coming This Week:

The Quiet Room by Terry Miles (review)
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (audio review)
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo (audio review)
The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan (blog tour review)
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-3-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Last week I was not exactly in the village of Running-on-Time when I put the Sunday Post together and I neglected to include a cat picture. Therefore, this week’s picture includes not one but two cats. As an added treat, it’s a picture of the very rare sighting of Hecate and Luna co-existing peaceably and in proximity. They don’t really fight the way the boys do, they just generally refuse to occupy the same space at the same time. The kitty television outside the windows must have been particularly good that day!

This was the first week in quite a while where the books I thought I was going to read were the books I actually read. This coming week is probably the same, if only because there are only three of them. Galen is continuing his series of holiday guest posts tomorrow for Labor Day, and there’s a blog hop on Thursday.

Friday’s book is the second book in the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, after the previously reviewed Watching the Clock. It’s the kind of book I normally pick up at the last minute because I’m desperate – or at least desperately flailing – but this time it’s a deliberate choice because Friday, September 8 is Star Trek Day. I thought about reading more of the Star Trek Autobiographies series (I loved The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, after all) but I’m feeling a bit weirded out by them now because they were all published before Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds happened. Which means those ‘autobiographies’ have been superseded by events that were not yet revealed when they were written. Which led me back to the Department of Temporal Investigations because even though some of those events may have been superseded by later reveals, we wouldn’t know anyway because the whole point of the Department is to smooth over that kind of thing. And the first book was  oodles of fun, so I expect a good reading time no matter what.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Old School Giveaway Hop is Brigette

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: Big Little Spells by Hazel Beck
A- Review: A Duke’s Guide to Romance by Sophie Barnes
B Review: Devil’s Gun by Cat Rambo
A- Review: The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (564)

Coming This Week:

Labor Day 2023 (Guest Post by Galen!)
Payback in Death by J.D. Robb (review)
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (review)
Holiday Kickoff Giveaway Hop
Forgotten History by Christopher L. Bennett (review)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 8-27-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

I did better this week than last week on actually reading the books I intended to read. Howsomever, by the time the end of the week closed in – which is actually on Wednesday for the purpose of reading Friday’s book – when I started Wolfsong I just wasn’t feeling it, even though I really wanted to read it. But it’s 500 pages of slow burn and that just wasn’t the mood I was in AT ALL. So that will come back around at some point later when that’s a bit closer to the mood I’m in at the time.

This week’s schedule may actually hold up – even though the name of Friday’s giveaway hop does me in every single year. I want it to be ‘Glitz’ instead of ‘Glits’. I’m not even sure what a ‘glit’ is! But it’s the Glam and Glits Giveaway Hop and that’s just the way it is.

Also it’ll be the OMG first of September and that’s just the way that is as well. It feels like August has lasted FOREVER, melting us all in the hot summer sun.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Old School Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Back to School Giveaway Hop is Anne

Blog Recap:

A- Review: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
A- Review: Cursed at Dawn by Heather Graham
B+ Review: Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz by Garth Nix
A- Review: Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose
A+ Review: Contrarian by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Stacking the Shelves (563)

Coming This Week:

Big Little Spells by Hazel Beck (blog tour review)
A Duke’s Guide to Romance by Sophie Barnes (blog tour review)
The Devil’s Gun by Cat Rambo (review)
The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman (review)
Glam and Glits [sic] Giveaway Hop

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 8-20-23

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

I almost wrapped up this post for the “Coming This Week” bit with “two players to be named later” or just TBD (to be determined) because this has just been one of those months where things fall apart at the end of the week. C’est la vie.

This week specifically went to bits because one of the ‘mystery’ Kindle Achievements was revealed to be ‘Series Summer’ that required reading a book in a popular series. Clearly Amazon’s definition of ‘popular series’ was different from mine, because I hoped that the Sebastian St. Cyr book would cover it – but it didn’t. This week’s Thursday Murder Club book, on the other hand, absolutely did! But the next Wrexford & Sloane book in my catching up read has been calling my name, so I’m just admitting up front that I’ll be reading it this week.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Back to School Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Old School Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2023 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Apple A Day Giveaway Hop is Daniel M.

Blog Recap:

A Review: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
B Review: Wild Spaces by S.L. Coney
Old School Giveaway Hop
C Review: Kinauvit?: What’s Your Name? by Norma Dunning
A- Review: Where the Dead Lie by C.S. Harris
Stacking the Shelves (562)

Coming This Week:

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman (review)
Cursed at Dawn by Heather Graham (blog tour review)
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz by Garth Nix (review)
Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose (review)
Wolfsong by TJ Klune (review)