Recent Thriftbooks Book Haul

I haven’t done a book haul in a hot minute.  I haven’t actually WRITTEN a blog post in an extra hot minute.  So I said, “what the hee-hah”.  I’ll combine the two forces (go Captain Planet), and see what the hell I can get out of the experience.  Mainly, I’m looking for my mojo for writing blog posts back.  I miss it.  And, considering in July I paid for another year of ownership of my domain name, I’ve got to get something here back in order...

(Already it feels good pounding on the keys.) 

So I’m going to share my recent purchases from Thriftbooks.  I have a few criticisms with the site–as a consumer.  Yet, I still use it because the books are in fairly good condition.  Also they're cheap and you get free shipping on orders $10 and over, which takes some of the guilt of purchasing books you'll take forever to even read away.  So they–essentially–have your ass over a barrel.  Anyway, I was inspired by these picks for a few different reasons, and I’ll share those reasons as I move along in the post.  And as always, for those of you who are familiar with the books, drop me a comment concerning your thoughts (though try not to spoil them) on each.  I always love hearing from other readers.

So one overarching reason I purchased at least three of the books is because I checked them out from my public library–though I never found myself in the mood to read them.  Or, in the case of Moon Called, I started reading the book a day before J. D. Robb’s latest release [Leverage in Death] came out.  Which, essentially, halted the whole process because everything stops with a new In Death release.  And I mean EVERYTHING, bih.

Nonetheless, here goes…

GUEST POST: Nocturne Variations by John Biscello

Unsolicited Press 

PRESENTS

Nocturne Variations by John Biscello

Title: Nocturne Variations
Author: John Biscello

Genre: Fiction

Release Date: November 30, 2018 (Available for Pre-Order HERE)

List Price: $18.00 

Publisher: Unsolicited Press

Synopsis: Dystopic Peter Pan meets surrealist noir in this cinemythical tale about love, loss and the illusions of shadow-play.

Los Angeles, December, 1989, is when we first meet the seventeen-year-old Piers, a runaway and a savant puppeteer.  Addicted to Sike, an experimental drug which promises a surrogate return to Childhood, Piers, in an act of revenge, robs a briefcase full of Sike from her dealer and flees L.A., pursued by two hit men.  Hiding out in the Southwestern town of Redline, where she meets and is taken in by a man named Henry Hook, Piers is soon confronted by the buried trauma of her past.

Comprising a jigsaw synthesis of narrative, journal entries, letters, monologues, film footage, poems, photographs, and press clippings; Noturne renders an interior world of fragments and parallels, and casts a tinted light on the neverland between dreaming and waking.

EXCERPT

They were spinning slowly, ever so slowly.

  Do you want to go faster, Piers reached down for the dial. I can make us go faster.

  No, Anya smiled. I like the speed. We’re moving so slow it’s like we’re not moving at all.

  Piers and Anya sat in the Amusement Seats, across from one another.

  Piers drew the cloth to her face, huffed, then passed it to Anya.

  Piers stared at Anya, half her face masked in cloth, an asthmatic bandit in the throes of huffing.

  Piers stared and stared,

  and her vision dissimulated into small birds,

  winging across the painted winter of Anya’s face,

  and into the rabbitpink of her eyes, a dying sun

  or lighted prehistory.

  And then, like a slow-motion dream in reverse,

  Piers found herself earlier in the night:

  Anya, on stage, a glacial Venus, dancing with the other Winter’s Brides,

  dancing to invoke snow, which came in the form of electro audio fuzz.

  Can you hear the snow falling, Piers elated to Trink,

  who nodded—Yea yea I can hear it babygirl, I can hear it.

  The Brides, rejoicing in prayer, intensified the frenzy of their dancing,

  as the snowfalling amped into a blizzard of white noise,

  that raged and raged and then

  Silence.

  A ribbed, cathedral silence,

  freezing the Brides into a penitent tableaux.

BookTube Community Tag–TAG

CHOP IT UP | Unnatural Causes by P. D. James (Adam Dalgliesh #3)

CHOP IT UP | Details at Ten by Ardella Garland (AKA Yolanda Joe)

CHOP IT UP: Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills

Sisters in Crime Spotlight | Broken Places by Tracy Clark

Gathering Some J. D. Robb "In Death" Hardbacks

My information on Immortal in Death was wrong.  I called him Leonard.  His name is Leonardo.  I knew that in the video, but for some odd reason second guess myself.  I suppose this too shall pass.

Turn the Page Bookstore where you can get your copies (not affiliate): https://bit.ly/2BGwvu6

Books Mentioned...

1.  Glory in Death by J. D. Robb (Amazon affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2uStCb8

#1 New York Times bestselling author  J. D. Robb presents the thrilling second novel in her In Death series. When technology can reveal the darkest of secrets, there’s only one place to hide a crime of passion—in the heart… 

The first victim was found lying on a sidewalk in the rain. The second was murdered in her own apartment building. Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas had no problem finding connections between the two crimes. Both victims were beautiful and highly successful women. Their glamorous lives and loves were the talk of the city. And their intimate relations with men of great power and wealth provided Eve with a long list of suspects—including her own lover, Roarke. As a woman, Eve was compelled to trust the man who shared her bed. But as a cop, it was her job to follow every lead...to investigate every scandalous rumor...to explore every secret passion, no matter how dark. Or how dangerous.

2.  Immortal in Death by J. D. Robb (Amazon affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2H9FoAy

In the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling In Death series, Lieutenant Eve Dallas uncovers a world where technology can create beauty and youth, but passion and greed can destroy them...

She was one of the most sought after women in the world. A top model who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted—even another woman’s man. And now she was dead, the victim of a brutal murder. Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas put her life on the line to take the case when suspicion fell on her best friend, the other woman in the fatal love triangle. Beneath the façade of glamour, Eve found that the world of high fashion thrived on an all-consuming obsession for youth and fame. One that led from the runway to the dark underworld of New York City where drugs could be found to fulfill any desire—for a price…

***************************O T H E R ~ L I N K  S***************************

* B L O G G I N G      BOOKS | DRAWING | LIFE:  http://www.comictowel.com

* Z A Z Z L E    S T O R E:  http://bit.ly/2Axxhh5

* S O C I E T Y 6    S T O R E:  http://bit.ly/2qgCBkv

My Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TowelTroi

My Gaming Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM8CjrKZGkIRmfsI57pIVg

Thanks again, everyone!  Remember to stay inspired.  Be creative.  Share your voice with the world.  Or something to that extent.  

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX T R O I XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

B O O K S | D R A W I N G | L I F E

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Sister Mine by Nola Hopkinson

In all fairness, this "reaction" to reading video is probably a hot mess as well.  Yet, I felt the need to get it all off my chest anyhow.  Therefore, it is what it is.

Sister Mine by Nola Hopkinson on Amazon (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2q5QvmH

We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. She'd never have been able to push the two-headed sport that was me and Abby out the usual way. Abby and I were fused, you see. Conjoined twins. Abby's head, torso, and left arm protruded from my chest. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't. Far as the Family was concerned, Abby was one of them, though cursed, as I was, with the tragic flaw of mortality.

Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls gave Abby a permanent limp, but left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father, the god of growing things--a highly unusual childhood that made them extremely close. Ever since Abby's magical talent began to develop, though, in the form of an unearthly singing voice, the sisters have become increasingly distant.

Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life among the other nonmagical humans--after all, she's one of them. In Cheerful Rest, a run-down warehouse space, Makeda finds exactly what she's been looking for: an opportunity to live apart from Abby and begin building her own independent life. There's even a resident band, led by the charismatic (and attractive) building superintendent.

***************************O T H E R ~ L I N K  S***************************

* B L O G G I N G      BOOKS | DRAWING | LIFE:  http://www.comictowel.com

* Z A Z Z L E    S T O R E:  http://bit.ly/2Axxhh5

* S O C I E T Y 6    S T O R E:  http://bit.ly/2qgCBkv

My Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TowelTroi

My Gaming Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM8CjrKZGkIRmfsI57pIVg

Thanks again, everyone!  Remember to stay inspired.  Be creative.  Share your voice with the world.  Or something to that extent.  

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX T R O I XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

B O O K S | D R A W I N G | L I F E

3 Female Sleuth Debuts | #MarchMysteryMadness

3 Female Sleuth Debuts (Well, technically 2).

Amazon Affiliate Links:

1.  Contents Under Pressure by Edna Buchanan: https://amzn.to/2IfoEXQ

With a police cover-up and citywide outrage brewing in the wake of a black football star's suspicious death while under police custody, Cuban-American crime reporter Britt Montero steps in to uncover the truth. Tour.

2.  The Silent Dead by Tetsuya Honda: https://amzn.to/2GlBYh6

When a body wrapped in a blue plastic tarp and tied up with twine is discovered near the bushes near a quiet suburban Tokyo neighborhood, Lt. Reiko Himekawa and her squad take the case. The victim was slaughtered brutally---his wounds are bizarre, and no one can figure out the "what" or the "why" of this crime.

3.  Blue Moon by Walter Wager: https://amzn.to/2J4NLxZ

Alison B. Gordon finds herself aiding a Mafia ganglord whose Las Vegas interests are threatened by an international terrorist group that will destroy the city's casinos and hotels if its demand for five million dollars is not met. 

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Where I'm Bound by Allen Ballard

Where I'm Bound by Allen B. Ballard on Amazon (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2pJV0Dr

A former slave turned cavalry scout becomes a hero for an African-American cavalry regiment in the Civil War. But, as the war draws to an end, the soldier, Joe Duckett, embarks on his most dangerous mission yet-to return to the plantation from which he escaped to find his wife and daughter.A Washington Post Notable Book. Also a winner of the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association."The important story of black soldiers in the Union Army has finally found a writer of historical fiction equal to the occasion." James A McPherson, Professor of History, Princeton University

#MarchMysteryMadness | My 6 Eye-Burner Mystery Reads

Hi, guys.  Here are 6 mystery books within any given series that has caused my eyes to burn (more so than glisten) with tears.

All links are Amazon affiliate (the books' descriptions are from Amazon as well)...

1.  Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell: https://amzn.to/2IZC0Zt

A reclusive author, Beryl Madison finds no safe haven from months of menacing phone calls—or the tormented feeling that her every move is being watched. When the writer is found slain in her own home, Kay Scarpetta pieces together the intricate forensic evidence—while unwittingly edging closer to a killer waiting in the shadows.

2.  Promises in Death by J. D. Robb: https://amzn.to/2Ia4YER

Amaryllis Coltraine may have recently transferred to the New York City police force from Atlanta, but she’s been a cop long enough to know how to defend herself against an assailant. When she’s taken down just steps away from her apartment, killed with her own weapon, for Eve the victim isn’t just “one of us.” 

Eve starts questioning everyone while her husband, Roarke, digs into computer data on the dead woman’s life back in Atlanta. To their shock, they discover a connection between this case and their own painful, shadowy pasts. The truth will need to be uncovered one layer at a time, starting with the box that arrives at Cop Central addressed to Eve, containing Coltraine’s guns, badge, and a note from her killer: “You can have them back. Maybe someday soon, I’ll be sending yours to somebody else.” 

But Eve Dallas doesn’t take too kindly to personal threats, and she is going to break this case, whatever it takes. And that’s a promise.  

3. O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton: https://amzn.to/2GdorUv

O is for once upon a time. . .

Let’s talk about Kinsey’s past. We know of the aunt who raised her, the second husband who left her, and her long-lost family up the California coast. But what about Kinsey’s husband number one? He was always a blip on the radar―until now.

4.  The Lily Bard Series by Charlaine Harris: https://amzn.to/2IVnemu

While trying to prove her innocence in the murder of her landlord, Lily Bard, karate student and cleaning service proprietor, finds plenty of skeletons in the closets of Shakespeare, Arkansas.

5.  When Death Comes Stealing by Valerie Wilson Wesley: https://amzn.to/2DZaiIQ

Struggling as a single mother to make ends meet on the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey, ex-cop-turned-PI Tamara Hayle races against time to find a murderer when someone begins killing her ex-husband's sons--and her own son might be next.

6.  Blind Descent (Anna Pigeon#6) by Nevada Barr: https://amzn.to/2GivefX

When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna swallows her paralyzing fear of small spaces and descends into Lechuguilla to help a friend in need. Worse than the claustrophobia that haunts her are the signs-some natural, and some, more ominously, man-made-that not everyone is destined to emerge from this wondrous living tomb. All the skills Anna has honed in the terrestrial world are called into play on precipitous climbs, exhausting treks, and descents into canyons that have never seen the sun. The terrain is alien and hostile, the greed and destructive powers of mankind all too familiar. In this place of internal terrors, Anna must learn whom she can trust, and, in the end, decide who is to live and who is to die.

#ReadSoulLit FauxCast | Ruby by Cynthia Bond

The audio quality drops mid-way.  I do apologize.  We have glitches we can't control at times.  

Ruby by Cynthia Bond (Amazon affiliate link): https://amzn.to/EBiagq

"Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city—the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village—all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. 

When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy.

Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage. This wondrous page-turner rushes through the red dust and gossip of Main Street, to the pit fire where men swill bootleg outside Bloom’s Juke, to Celia Jennings’s kitchen, where a cake is being made, yolk by yolk, that Ephram will use to try to begin again with Ruby." ~ On Amazon