CHOP IT UP: What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr

COVER REVEAL ~ Nevada Barr's What Rose Forgot

Sooooooo, YEAH. We all know I love me some Nevada Barr. And, well, I love me some of her park ranger murder mystery solving character, Anna Pigeon. True enough Anna is somewhere on hold–after her last adventure in 2016's release of Boar Island. Yet, Nevada Barr is back with a stand alone titled, What Rose Forgot. I learned about this book last summer, and have since kept watch on any and everything related to it. But now, we finally have the cover! I miss Anna dearly, and hope Barr at least give us a book twenty in the series. Until then… well… you know where I’ll be come this September 17th!

"Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog, only to discover that she's been committed to an Alzheimer's Unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. 

When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she's "not making it through the week," Rose is convinced that if she's to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication, putting on a show for the aides, then stages her escape. 

The only problem is―how does she convince anyone that she's not actually demented? Her relatives were the ones to commit her, all the legal papers were drawn up, the authorities are on the side of the nursing home, and even she isn't sure she sounds completely sane. But any lingering doubt Rose herself might have had is erased when a would-be killer shows up in her house in the middle of the night. Now Rose knows that someone is determined to get rid of her. 

With the help of her computer hacker/recluse sister Marion, thirteen-year old granddaughter Mel, and Mel's friend Royal, Rose begins to gather her strength and fight back―to find out who is after her and take back control of her own life. But someone out there is still determined to kill Rose, and they're holding all the cards."

Anna Pigeon or no Anna Pigeon, this is how I am for What Rose Forgot

6 Ways to Tell a Book Club Edition Book From Original Publishing House Releases

Maybe this’ll sound a little snobbish and petty of me, but I recently received the final two books necessary to fulfill my Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon Mysteries collection.  So, yes!  Finally I have my own copy of book #17 and 18; The Rope and Boar Island respectively.  Anyway, I ordered the two through Thriftbooks.com; bypassing Amazon and Bookoutlet, I figured I would gives these guys a try.  Besides, I did the math and it was just cheaper to go with Thriftbooks.  Especially considering I’ve already read the books over the summer, via the public library.  I just needed personal copies to fill my shelf.  You know, in case one wants to re-read titles without fuss. 

So, without much thought after I placed my order, I waited a week and a day for their arrival.  Only to find out–as I retrieve the packages–that they were…

BOOK CLUB EDITIONS!

Standing at the kitchen table, I unwrapped them and a light expletive just burst out.  Had I done my research, I probably would’ve known better before I ordered them.  Yet, it is what it is.  Still why was I surprised to find my copies were book club editions?  

Then I thought about why in the hell do I carry this tiny stigma against them?  Part of me blames the OCD half of me.  Or the collector who wants his shelf of series-related books to look uniform with one another.  I mean not that I’m totally against book club editions, but that could be part of the blame.

Or not necessarily...

But hey, I'm not the only one!

Nonetheless, I decided to turn this scenario into a post on 6 things to look for between book club edition books and titles from the original publishing house.

1.  The obvious difference is the size of the book.  Book Club Editions are often smaller than the same title sent from the publishing house.  I don’t have a “house” copy of the The Rope to match book-for-book, but Destroyer Angel follows in the Anna Pigeon series.  Identical in their make-up, cover art, uniform, and marketability techniques; you get the picture.  

2.  Besides size and dimensions, Book Club covers lack the graphical effects of books sent from publishing houses.  In the above image, notice how the publishing house book has a metallic gold tint and 3d effect to the author's name and book's title.  Whereas the BCE is just one flat cover. 

Final Thoughts | Boar Island by Nevada Barr (VIDEO)

Library Reserves Came Through. Too Soon, Though?

So what do you do when you’ve put together this amazing monthly TBR (video and all) to keep you reading, while you wait on your library reserves to come in?  And what do you do when the catch is that the waiting time was shorter than you anticipated?  Talk about my inexperience with the whole reserving books thing.  

I just happened to stop by the library to get some blog posts drafts done, when I realized the books I placed on reserve Tuesday were in (didn’t exactly receive that email notification I, ahem, signed for).  What’s a guy to do?  Stick to the TBR and take breaks between planned reading?

Anyway, per my recent rash of Anna Pigeon obsessed posts, I finally got a copy of Barr’s latest Pigeon book, Boar Island (Anna Pigeon #19).  After this, I’ll be done with Anna Pigeon for another two years.  At least I believe Barr's next book is due in 2018.  Anyway, not exactly impressed with the turn out of Pigeon’s 18th adventure, Destroyer Angel, I have to admit that I’m kind of ready to finish this up and go on hiatus.  The last few books in the series were hit-or-miss.  And the worse yet was book #16, Burn.  I haven’t been hearing a lot of good reviews on Boar Island; some reviewers citing there is less Anna and too much returning characters from her previous adventure.  One reviewer even suggested readers skip to the last 50 pages and call it a day.  We’ll see.  Knowing this book will involve a few characters from the previous book, I have to say I’m not exactly excited to revisit them either.  You know how it is, when the star of the show isn’t present.

And finally another China Bayles book.  Haven’t read her since mid-May, when I finished book #6 in the series, Love Lies Bleeding.  Literally been waiting around for a copy of book #7, Chile Death.  And now it’s in my hands.  Rented, but present.  Looks like China will be attending an annual chili cook-off in her home of Pecan Springs, Texas.  Evidently a cook-off judge dies from an allergic reaction to peanuts.  But who puts peanuts in a pot of chili?  Somebody who knew exactly what he or she were doing.  That’s who!

Anyway, here’s to more fun summer reads.

Do you reserve library books often?  And when they come in, do you drop what you're reading to get into your reserves?

Out of the Woods Into Magic | August TBR (Video)

BOOKS MENTIONED (All links Amazon affiliate)

1.  Boar Island by Nevada Barr (Anna Pigeon #19) 

2.  A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison (The Hollows #10) 

3.  The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #1)

4.  Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio

5.  Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia Macneal (Maggie Hope #1)

6.  Pawper to Pedigree by Angel M.

Angel M. on the Twitter  

Angel M.'s Website

Final Leg of the Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon Summer Tour | Library Haul

I’m four books away from the ending of my Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon Park Ranger Mystery tour.  Whew.  That’s a whole sentence and a half.  Anyway, this has been a fun spring/summer finding my joy of National Parks, strong female leads, and murder underneath the rugged atmospheric prose of Nevada Barr’s series.

5 National Parks Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon Books Got Me Scared Of

My summer of reading Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon park ranger mystery series continues.  I’m currently halfway through book #14, Winter Study.  If the title doesn’t give away any hints, the story takes place in Isle Royale during the winter season.  Between October and May the park shuts down to tourist.  This allows fifty-plus years of research to continue, regarding the study of the moose/wolf activity surrounding the island.  And that’s a dollop of information best left to experts and the internet to explain to you.  I could break the research down–coming from what's given to me via the book.  However, it would appear as weak as pre-generic Dollar Store coffee.  So with one operational gear of Winter Study aside, my issue is that the book takes place in fiercely below freezing terrain.  Terrain chillingly described within Barr's juggle of metaphors (lots of movie references in this one) and icy prose.  So far as my reading, Barr's Anna Pigeon has slept in this literary blizzard outside in a tent!  A tent which found her and her team under attack by an unidentified creature.  (Similar to what happened in Blood Lure, if you're familiar with the series.)  However, as of where I stand, the team believes it’s a mutated wolf of some sort.  So I must keep reading to see.  

Anna has also skidded across a froze Siskiwit Lake while setting up wolf traps, apropos the research.  And, as such elementally-heavy mystery books go, she immediately found herself thrown over into the icy waters to nearly drown.  What else crazy happened?  Oh, the team has to collect snow for water; an interesting nugget of information mentioned that quickly boiled snow is actually bad for you.  I never would've known.  Also, Anna and the team spend a day dissecting a wolf and examining moose body parts.  Cool but grizzly by way of Barr's description of rotting flesh and bloody innards.  

There's just a slew of craziness taking place in Winter Study.  But because a murder hasn’t happened yet (except for a couple of moose and a fallen wolf), I got a feeling the story is about to get crazier.  Like, Jason Voorhees level crazy!  Especially as ice and cabin fever sits in.

Yet, this is precisely why I enjoy this series; Anna’s always in some crazy-ass situations.  And it's in these situations where she has to think her way out, before she gets the ax.

So before I run off to fix a cup of coffee and throw myself into Winter Study, I want to share a few of the national parks Anna Pigeon has got my ass scared to go to!  In order from least scary to MOST!  But, being the nature lover that I tend to be, this listed is for fun.  So of course I’m not serious, because all I've wanted to do since reading these books is start a GoFundMe to see if I can tour all Anna's spots.

So the list goes...

Ultimate Nevada Barr Haul

THE OUTS

One tends to lose his or her mind in all the book-loving concussion.  Which leads to this current obsession–excuse me–Friday book haul.  More or less knowing what I was getting myself into (having spent two days desperate for another Anna Pigeon book to quell my forever fervent soul); I decided the best method to cut into the approaching madness was to turn some books in for credit.  Though the two Sandra Brown books (see two posts previous) didn’t garner any attention.  Apparently they were overstocked with her titles, because she doesn’t move well.  Yet the mass markets weighted in perfectly.  (FYI: I only gave up Stephen King's Misery because it's been over three years of me hating this particularly unread copy.)  And, two different stops later, this is what I came up with…

THE INS

With absolutely zero shame, the Anna Pigeon series haul list goes…

Blood Lure (Pigeon #9)

Hunting Season (Pigeon #10; has to go back because of the previous owner's widowed mark-ups)

Flashback (Pigeon #11)

Hard Truth (Pigeon #13)

Winter Study (Pigeon #14)

Borderline (Pigeon #15)

Burn (Pigeon #16)

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon mysteries for DAYS...!  Good-bye sleepless nights fueled by melancholy.

Putting the Public Library to Use this Weekend

The book/series collector in me says, “no, no, no.”  The hungry reader says, “yes, yes, yes.”

A.     My ordered copy of Liberty Falling is slated for a June 14th delivery, instead of the May 27th that was originally tracked and posted.  This, effectively, cut me out of ever ordering books from this particular marketplace seller.  May 23: SHIPPED.  June 14: DELIVERED.  Do the math.  Or maybe I’m just tripping.  But I mean, really?  I have to wait until June 14 to get my hands on Pigeon #7?  Hell, no!  

Waiter!  I want my check!  PLEASE!  

Backstory stuck in the middle. Going about my Saturday morning (after a post office and Dollar General trip), a light bulb lit up in my brain.  Why not go to the public library and check out a copy of Liberty Falling until your personal one comes in.  Bing.  Bing.  Bing.  And take your laptop along to also get some blog post drafts together, Mr. Lazy. 

B.      As for Susan Wittig Albert’s Rueful Death, I tittered around until I decided to take it.  It’s book #5 in Albert’s China Bayles series.  I’m currently less than 90 pages away from the end of book #4, Rosemary Remembered.  And, just in case I get impatient and don’t want to order and wait for a personal copy, I grouchily took Rueful Death.  Will catch up on ordering a personal copy later.  In the meantime, China Bayles is too charming to not take home.

Oh, check it out!  I also found out I have a $3 outstanding balance at the public library.  Now where did that come from?  And when did I last use my card?  Oh…wait….  I didn’t use my card for myself last time.  I let...

NICHOLE DID THIS!

LOL.  HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND, FOLKS!

WDEA 1370 AM Interview with Nevada Barr on New Book, Boar Island

The Anna Pigeon Beat Goes ON!

Just finished the amazing Blind Descent and must gathered Anna Pigeon #7, Liberty Falling.  After all that used bookstore issues, this was an immediate choice.

Need to know what happens in the next book!

Weekend Read: Nevada Barr's Endangered Species

But we saw this coming...!

I won’t go over the excitement again.  But let’s just get to it.  Endangered Species by Nevada Barr.  Anna Pigeon #5.

This time Anna is on the Cumberland Island, off the Georgia coast.  With all its history, Anna’s there on fire presuppression duty.  But no matter how tedious it is to wait around for the potential of fire, the job pulls her into overtime.  So, it is what it is.  However, things don’t stay boring for long.  A drug interdiction plane crashes on the island, killing its only two passengers.  Once some sabotage is discovered, park ranger, Anna Pigeon, steps forward to find a killer.

Oh, Yeah! This is FINALLY Happening!

So yes.  After all the moaning I did about not finding Nevada Barr's Endangered Species (Anna Pigeon #5), in town, I just shut up and ordered it.  A Barnes & Noble 20% coupon was expiring in hours, and being a member, shipping is free.  Double NO-EXCUSE!

The excitement to continue Anna's murder-solving, park ranger adventures are continuing forward.

PS: My bemoaning recent post where I mention the series is HERE.

Me waiting on Thursday, 5/12: