The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-31-22

Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 2022 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

I saw Luna on the stairs just now, went to pet her, calling her “pretty girl”, because she is – and Hecate came running from out of nowhere. Hecate is still in the “leaky teakettle” phase of acceptance of the newcomers. Lucifer has totally adopted them – or perhaps vice versa, while George is still very concerned about it all.

I realized that I have not yet posted a good picture of Miss Luna (the dark of under the bed does not count as “good”), so here she is in all her glory.

We’ve learned this week that both Luna AND Tuna have tiny, squeaky voices. It is still hilarious that the big bruiser that is Tuna has a voice like a very tiny mouse. Not that Luna is small by any means, just that she’s less large than her brother!

Stacking the Shelves (507)

Posted on July 30, 2022July 29, 2022 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

I had to go an look at the covers together before I could figure out anything to write about this week’s stack. Because seriously, this bunch couldn’t be more random if I’d tried. Which I didn’t.

The prettiest covers are The Terraformers and Violeta, although they aren’t pretty in remotely the same way. But still, temptingly pretty. The one I’m looking forward to the most is Untethered Sky, because Fonda Lee. Even though it’s not Jade City, I still can’t resist. If you’re surprised I’m not saying Encore in Death, that’s because as much as the In Death series are comfort reads for me, I do pretty much know what I’m going to get when I pick one up. If I didn’t, it wouldn’t be a comfort read. Fonda Lee, on the other hand, whatever I get will be both fascinating and unexpected.

alone with you in the ether by olivie blake

calling for a blanket dance by oscar hokeah

swift and the harrier by minette walters

things we do in the dark by jennifer hillier

For Review:
Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
The Boys by Katie Hafner
Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah
Encore in Death (In Death #56) by J.D. Robb
The Golden Enclaves (Scholomance #3) by Naomi Novik
It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino
Light on Bone (Georgia O’Keeffe Mystery #1) by Kathryn Lasky
A Matter of Happiness by Tori Whitaker
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Nona the Ninth (Locked Tomb #3) by Tamsyn Muir
The Return of the Duke (Once Upon a Dukedom #3) by Lorraine Heath
Sinister Graves (Cash Blackbear #3) by Marcie R. Rendon
Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley
The Sleepless by Victor Manibo
The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee
Violeta by Isabel Allende
Wingwalkers by Taylor Brown

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-24-22

Posted on July 24, 2022July 23, 2022 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

After a couple of successful – meaning relatively quiet – supervised visits by the incumbent clowder, Luna and Tuna were officially released into the general population of household cats Thursday evening. As World War III has not yet occurred, this is considered a successful introduction.

In celebration, here’s a picture of George and Tuna comparing whatever it is cats measure when they meet. George’s tail is longer, but Tuna’s is magnificent in its own way. They are both certainly VERY big bois!

Back to books – always a popular subject at chez Reading Reality. After a couple of less than successful books – or at least books that may be popular with plenty of other readers but did not float my boat AT ALL, I decided to dive back into the virtually towering TBR pile a little more this week. The recent death of Eric Flint inspired me to take a look back at his marvelous Ring of Fire series – hence tomorrow’s review of the first book therein, 1632. And I was just in the mood for another hard-boiled mystery, which lead me back to Flavia Albia’s cynical view of Imperial Rome and Deadly Election – a title that is almost a bit too apropos in our troubled times as well as hers.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Summer 2022 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the Christmas in July Giveaway Hop is Nancy

Blog Recap:

A Review: Three Miles Down by Harry Turtledove
B Review: Till Sudden Death Do Us Part by Simon R. Green
A- Review: This Place of Wonder by Barbara O’Neal
D Review: The It Girl by Ruth Ware
A- Review: One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips
Stacking the Shelves (506)

Coming This Week:

1632 by Eric Flint (review)
The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair (review)
The Lost and Found Girl by Maisey Yates (blog tour review)
Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis (review)
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (audiobook review)

Stacking the Shelves (506)

Posted on July 23, 2022July 22, 2022 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

The books I want to highlight in this stack are the two I bought, 1632 and 1633 by Eric Flint. I read them back when they came out in 2000 and absolutely loved them. The premise is just so damn much fun, that an entire town in West Virginia on the cusp of the 21st century gets transported across the Atlantic and back in time to the middle of what will eventually become Germany in the year 1632, which happens to be about the midpoint of the Thirty Years’ War. The transport mechanism isn’t dealt with seriously at all in the novel, because it’s not the point. The point is what happens next when 3,000 or so people with late 20th century ideas and attitudes get stuck in the 17th century. It’s about people mostly rising to the occasion and changing history and the ways that history changes are fascinating. Flint passed away last Sunday, so I decided to see if at least the beginning of the series I remembered so fondly still held up over 20 years later. The answer is that it does, it’s still thoughtful and it’s still an awful lot of fun. The author will be missed, but he thankfully left behind a HUGE body of work in this series alone, so I’m looking forward to comfort reads for a long time to come.

And if you’ve ever had a yen to read alternate history, or if you read this series way back when and also remember it fondly, it’s definitely worth picking up now, whether again or for the first time.

all this could be different by sarah thankam mathews

lesser known monsters of the 21st century by kim fu

For Review:
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi
Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado
Demon Dagger by Russell James
The Direction of the Wind by Mansi Shah
Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
Heartbreaker (Hell’s Belles #2) by Sarah MacLean
I Remember You by Brian Freeman
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
The Lies of the Ajungo (Forever Desert #1) by Moses Ose Utomi
Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow
My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham
One for All by Lillie Lainoff
The Red Palace by June Hur
Take My Husband by Ellen Meister
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso
What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9) by Robert Dugoni

Purchased from Amazon/Audible:
1632 (Ring of Fire #1) by Eric Flint (2nd ed.)
1633 (Ring of Fire #2) by Eric Flint & David Weber

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-17-22

Posted on July 17, 2022July 17, 2022 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

This is one of the new members of our household. This is Luna. Her brother, Tuna is still being shy. They are both in the spare bedroom at the moment so that they can feel a bit more secure together while everyone has the chance to bat paws and sniff under doors at each other.

Luna and Tuna are both just over a year old. They’re a bonded pair and are biological siblings. This is the second time in their young lives that they have been re-homed because their human was no longer able to take care of them. We expect our home to be their forever home – even if that home moves location again sometime in the future. After all, our previous clowder moved with us, back and forth across the country, 11 times during their lives. Home, for us, is where the kitties are!