AllLifeWrap-Ups

January 2020 Wrap-Up

Posted on by J.W. Martin

January is over? Already? Finally?

On one hand, I can’t believe it’s already February, but on the other hand it feels like Christmas was 6 years ago. How does that happen?

Anyway, it’s been a while since I did one of the monthly wrap-up thingies, but I did a ton of reading (more listening) this month. Then there’s the Cheapskate Challenge to check in with, and my very first use of an awesome bookish gift from my wife!

Books I read this month

TEN! I don’t think I’ve ever read that many books in a single month before. To be fair, the majority of them were audiobooks, but even so… TEN!

Strange Exit
by Parker Peevyhouse

 Digital ARC

The Girl in the Tower (Winternight #2)
by Katherine Arden

Audiobook

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner

Audiobook

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
by Mark Manson

Audiobook

The Long Walk
by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

Audiobook

The Shining
byStephen King

Audiobook

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight #3)
by Katherine Arden

Audiobook

Mr. Monster (John Cleaver #2)
by Dan Wells

Audiobook

Obsidio (Illuminae Files #3)
by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Hardcover

Own the Day, Own Your Life
by Aubrey Marcus

Audiobook

 

The Cheapskate Reading Challenge

After the first month, I’m happy to see that my score for the Cheapskate Reading Challenge is 20!

For anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of the points for the books you read, I’ve built a simple spreadsheet, available for anyone who would like to use it. All you need to do is:

  1. Hit ‘Make a Copy’ or you won’t be able to enter any data.
  2. Then just enter your book titles and select the category of each book from the dropdown menu.
  3. The spreadsheet will assign each book the proper amount of points and give you a running tally.

 

What I’m Reading Next

Lastly, I made my first use out of the most thoughtful and creative gift from the holiday season. My wife, whose creative endeavours never cease to surprise, made me a reading scratch ticket.

Each rectangle has a book title underneath. Leading up to the holidays, my wife talked to some of people that know a bit about what I might be planning on reading soon, and she even convinced me to re-arrange our bookshelf by ‘read’ and ‘unread’ in order to put to right kinds of books on the ticket. Book number one, Iron Gold! 

 

How was your January? How are you doing the Cheapskate Reading Challenge? And how is February looking for you?

 

Fun fact about this post: On a side note, look at how immaculately clean Iron Gold is without its dust jacket. There’s no way it’s going to be that clean by the time I’m done reading it. No way!

 

 

 

AllFirst Impression FridayMemes

First Impression Friday – Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

 

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

Let’s talk about Wanderers by Chuck Wendig.

So, I’ve got the audiobook version for this one. I already knew it was a big book, but I was still pretty surprised the first time I opened it up and saw it was 32+ hours! That’s easily double and triple of “normal” audiobooks. But don’t let that scare you away.

The first few chapters have been dynamite. Not a ton of action, but intrigue is everywhere. Each paragraph fills my mind with more questions that I can’t wait to get the answers to. My inner monologue on this one has basically been:

“What? Why is… ohhhhh. Awesome. Hey, wait. Who’s that? Why are they…? AWESOME!”

Definitely looking forward to more and more and more.

 

My Prediction: 4+ stars

Fun fact about this post: Chuck has been one of all-time favourite bloggers (terribleminds.com). In fact, I was reading his blog posts way before I read any of his books!
BooksReviews

Pivot by L.C. Barlow – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

PIVOT
by L.C. Barlow

Self-Published
May 16, 2013

From Goodreads:

For some, the Devil introduces himself as an average man. For others, he crushes their souls and makes them bleed. For Jack Harper, the Devil renders himself a savior. But things are changing.

Once a loyal follower of Cyrus and an accomplished killer, Jack Harper now begins to question everything. There are new, strange forces at work that are intruding on Jack’s kills, abilities, and very being. Maybe, though, deep down Jack has been waiting for this intrusion, and maybe Cyrus is not as powerful as he seems.

The good people at NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of Pivot in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I didn’t know what to expect with this one. The description was pretty vague, but the book pulls you right in showing you a young girl (who I thought was a boy for half of the book since they only ever call her Jack) being trained in the art of killing. Pretty cool, right?

Jack’s training is being conducted by a cultish leader, which sounds creepy, but picture that leader being charismatic and irrefutably likeable. Evil, sure, but you kind of like listening to him talk. Like Negan. 

So creepy cult happenings going on everywhere, and you think you know what’s going on and have a grasp of everything and the stakes. Then a supernatural angle is brought in. Powers. And everything changes again. 

Despite the constant shift, this isn’t a story full of twists and turns. I found myself surprised a few times, but there were no moments that shocked me. Twists were brought on slowly. At the beginning of the reveal, you don’t know anything, but before the reveal is done, you’ve figured it all out. Always interesting, but always a bit like slipping into a warm bath. 

I feel like the characters were a bit lacking. The main few were pretty good, but anyone else was flat and often single-serving. They didn’t seem to have a life, or even an existence, outside of what our main characters needed them for.

This book would be a good fit for fans of Supernatural or Constantine. It was definitely a fun read, though I’m not sure if I’d be in for a sequel unless I knew certain characters would make a return…

Fun fact about this post: This might be the latest I’ve ever been reviewing an ARC…
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

5 Books I NEED to Read in 2020

Posted on by J.W. Martin

It’s Time! It’s the first Top 5 Tuesday of 2020! Shanah has some awesome topics cooked up already. The first one being the 5 books I need to read in 2020. This has been the first topic of the year for a while now, and I thought it would be depressing fun to look back on the last 2 years of these posts, and see how I failed did.

Top 5 Books I MUST Read in 2018

Invictus
by Ryan Graudin

DID NOT READ

That’s right. This book has been on my shelf for 2 complete years and I did nothing but stare at it and feel bad about myself. And guess what! It’s not the last one on this list with the exact same story!

 

Sea of Rust
by C. Robert Cargill

DID NOT READ

See? Told you.

 

Nevernight

Nevernight
by Jay Kristoff

READ IT!

Yay! I got one! See? I’m not completely useless!

 

All Rights Reserved
by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

DID NOT READ

I’m useless again. But since we’re talking about this book, author Gregory Scott Katsoulis recently started following me on twitter. Not sure what I did to deserve such a prestigious follower, but I’m pumped to have him.

 

A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E. Schwab

DID NOT READ

This one is probably my biggest shame over the past two years. It’s usually the first book I bring up when talking about books I need to read and it’s been on my shelf for over 2 years. smh

 

Okay. So 2018 didn’t turn out anything like I wanted it to. I still read a lot of great books that year, and it was also the year that I discovered the slippery slope of ARCs. I had no idea how common it was for requests for digital ARCs to be granted, and I spent 2018 almost exclusively reading ARCs. Let’s see how the year after that went…

 

 

Top 5 Books I MUST Read in 2019

The Lies of Locke Lamora
by Scott Lynch

READ IT!

Look at that! 2019 starting off with a bang! This one might have had to do with the fact that it was a buddy read with the Top 5 Tuesday creator herself.

 

Godsgrave
by Jay Kristoff

READ IT!

Two for two! There’s no way I can keep up these kind of results. Or can I?

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

DID NOT READ

Nope. I guess I can’t.

 

Scythe
by Neal Shusterman

DID NOT READ

I haven’t had this one on my shelf since the very beginning on 2018, but probably 6 months or more…

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
by Chris Hadfield

Apparently, being non-fiction doesn’t get you read any faster than anything else when it comes to my lists…

 

 

Hmm… Not much better. I’m seeing a trend developing. I was able to limit my requests of ARCs in 2019 by quite a bit, but still too many. Hopefully I’ll have even more control in 2020 so I can get around to reading the books I really want to read…

 

Top 5 Books I MUST Read in 2020

Gideon the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir

Who hasn’t heard about this book? I’ve been hearing about it everywhere and all of it ranges from good to great to amazing.

 

Sabbath
by Mick Mamatas

I only heard about this one at the end of last year. Basically, an eleventh century warrior dropped in present day New York to hunt down the living personifications of the seven deadly sins. See you there. I’ll bring the popcorn.

 

Darkdawn
by Jay Kristoff

Third year, third book of the Nevernight series. And considering the others are pretty much the only titles off of previous years’ lists to be read, I feel pretty good about this one.

 

Iron Gold & Dark Age
by Pierce Brown

I was trying to pick newer books, so I was going to go with Dark Age, but I haven’t read Iron Gold yet (I know I need my Red Rising fanatic card confiscated.)

 

Wanderers
by Chuck Wendig

This is the only book in this entire post that I don’t already own. That’s going to cost me some points in The Cheapskate Reading Challenge, but I think it’s going to be worth it!

 

Fun fact about this post: I now consider all 12 unread books on my MUST READ THIS YEAR list. Hold me to it. Please. Someone has to.
BooksReviews

Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

STRANGE EXIT
by Parker Peevyhouse

Tor Teen
January 14, 2020

From Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Lake spends her days searching a strange, post-apocalyptic landscape for people who have forgotten one very important thing: this isn’t reality. Everyone she meets is a passenger aboard a ship that’s been orbiting Earth since a nuclear event. The simulation that was supposed to prepare them all for life after the apocalypse has trapped their minds in a shared virtual reality and their bodies in stasis chambers.

No one can get off the ship until all of the passengers are out of the sim, and no one can get out of the sim unless they believe it’s a simulation. It’s up to Lake to help them remember.

When Lake reveals the truth to a fellow passenger, seventeen-year-old Taren, he joins her mission to find everyone, persuade them that they’ve forgotten reality, and wake them up. But time’s running out before the simulation completely deconstructs, and soon Taren’s deciding who’s worth saving and who must be sacrificed for the greater good. Now, Lake has no choice but to pit herself against Taren in a race to find the secret heart of the sim, where something waits that will either save them or destroy them all.

The good people at Tor Teen and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of Strange Exit in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This the second Parker Peevyhouse novel I’ve read and while I’m convinced she has an adoring audience, I don’t seem to fit in. 

I really like the premises she comes up with, but the novels never hit me the same way. I’m a very linear reader and I get the impression that Strange Exit would be enjoyed a lot more by non-linear readers who can follow the story no matter how many times it jumps off the track, does a 180, and backflips into something else.

Most of the time I was reading this book I just found myself confused. Confused where the story was going, and confused with why the characters did what they did. 

The resolution brought the experience up a little, just because I was able to make a bit of sense out of it, but overall this book just wasn’t up to my expectations.

I wanted to like this book, I really did, but unfortunately I just couldn’t.

AllCheapskate Reading Challenge

The Cheapskate Reading Challenge

Posted on by J.W. Martin

UPDATE: For anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of the points for the books you read, I’ve built a simple spreadsheet, available for anyone who would like to use it. All you need to do is:

  1. Hit ‘Make a Copy’ or you won’t be able to enter any data.
  2. Then just enter your book titles and select the category of each book from the dropdown menu.
  3. The spreadsheet will assign each book the proper amount of points and give you a running tally.

 

 

Reading challenges are a great way to give you a little extra motivation. However, the ones I’ve been doing the past few years aren’t always the best for reading the books that have been sitting on my bookshelf long enough to collect a respectable layer of dust.

This year, I looked for something to specifically pointed toward reading books that I own. And while challenges like Beat the Backlist were very close, I still wanted something a little more specific. So I’ve come up with a challenge of my own: The Cheapskate Reading Challenge.

If your bookshelf has way too many books on it that you just haven’t been able to get to, I encourage you to join the ranks of the cheapskate. The challenge has been designed to not get in the way of various programs you might be involved in. ARCs, subscriptions, library books, it’s all good here.

Basically, the Cheapskate Challenge is a point system to be played out over the year with the main goal to have a score in the black and not in the red. Here’s the breakdown.

 

Those with Audible, or Scribd, or KU, or any other number of subscription services might not like that they give ZERO points, but let me explain. There’s great value in those subscriptions. It’s an efficient way to spend money, but it still ends with money being spent.

Books that result from a gift (whether you’re given a book or a gift card) can be considered a book you already own.

If you like this challenge, please feel free to join in and tell your bookish friends who have bookshelves filled with shame. Also, feel free to use all graphics included in this post and declare that this is the year you’re finally going to read those books on your shelf. Shout it out in the comments and come back once in a while to let us all know how the challenge is going.

Fun fact about this post: I know I’m a little late to the party to be putting a reading challenge out there, but it just came to me yesterday!
AllFirst Impression FridayMemes

First Impression Friday – Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

 

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Let’s talk about The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood.

This is a big, beefy book that I received as a digital ARC. It’s certainly not the biggest book I’ve ever read, and probably not the biggest I’ll even read this year, but it’s still intimidating. Especially because every single character has a name that I’m too dumb to be able to pronounce without the help of the pronunciation guide (which is about 15 digital pages long!)

But beyond all my crybaby nonsense, this book is gripping. The chapters are long and the description is thick, two things that usually drive me away, but in the case of this book I just want more and more and more.

An odd concern that’s never come up before, and probably won’t apply to most readers, is that I can see where it might be heading and it’s in a very similar direction to a book idea that’s been dominating my free thoughts for the past month. For someone trying to bust into the writing world, that’s very concerning. What if my ‘original’ idea is just like this book?!

I’m just hoping that it steers away from that direction and that I’m only seeing it as a possibility because of my own story. I’m also hoping that if it does prove to be just like my idea that the temper tantrum that will follow won’t affect my rating of The Unspoken Name.

My Prediction: 4 stars

Fun fact about this post: And before you ask, YES, I had this idea BEFORE I started reading this book. Sheesh. Give me a little credit.
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

DEAR SANTA, I WOULD LIKE THESE 5 BOOKS!

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week is extra special!

It’s the gift-giving season, and what better gift to give (and receive) than books?! And I can’t even say that the list I’ve put together is my top 5, because who can narrow it down?! So this list is 5 of the most recent books to make their way onto my WANT list. Enjoy!

 

 

GIDEON THE NINTH
by Tamsyn Muir

Necromancers in space? Hell yeah.

 

THE INSTITUTE
by Stephen King

I’m done fighting the idea that I’m a casual King fan. I’m all in.

 

 

SABBATH
by Nick Mamatas

An eleventh-century warrior finds himself dropped into contemporary Manhattan to kill the living personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins. As if the title wasn’t metal enough!

 

FATE OF THE FALLEN
by Kel Kade

I love stories that take “the chosen one” trope and turn it on its head.

 

 

DARK AGE
by Pierce Brown

Yes… even though I haven’t read Iron Gold, this is still on my list. I have no doubts whatsoever.

 

Fun fact about this post: Today is my birthday, so this list doubles as a birthday wish list as well. *wink, wink*
BooksReviews

Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

INTO TO CROOKED PLACE
by Alexandra Christo

Feiwel and Friends
October 8, 2019

From Goodreads:

The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive.

Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her.

Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him.

Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself.

And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge.

Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other.

The good people at Feiwel and Friends and Raincoast Books provided me with an ARC of Into the Crooked Place in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was such a fan of To Kill a Kingdom that I only needed to see Alexandra Christo’s name on the cover to say yes to this one. Unfortunately, whatever magic TKaK had, this one wasn’t quite at the same level.

The characters were well done. They were singular, each had their own strengths and flaws. Well-rounded and felt very real. The relationships between all the characters made up a complicated but interesting web. The friend of someone’s friend was the enemy of a different friend, so on and so on.

The magic system was pretty great, too. For the most part, spells were self-contained in physical form. The people using the spells had to carry them around in much the same way a person who uses a gun had to carry a number of bullets. I thought that was really interesting. Actually, I would have loved to have read a lot more about the finer points—the strengths and limitations—of that unique magic system.

Where this one fell short for me was on the plot itself. It sets itself up well, and then it just dies. The majority of the book just kind of drags on and I couldn’t really tell where it was going. There was a journey involved, and what really threw me off was that despite the fact that the journey’s end was stated, there was nothing given to create reference to length of the journey. Five minutes or five months. Without that being established early on, it felt a little aimless.

It’s hard to say if I’ll be picking up the sequel. I’m not going to be running to the book store when it comes out, but the characters are interesting enough to make me want to know what happens to them next.

Fun fact about this post: This review is so late!
AllWriting

NaNoWriMo 2019 Wrap-Up!!

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Okay! This post has been a long time coming (too lazy to write it) and publicly demanded (by no one) to talk about gargantuan NaNoWriMo efforts (sitting at a keyboard) and explain why I didn’t blog for a month (which no one noticed).

November is always a tough month for me when it comes to spare time. Having a full-time job and kids that are into their own extra-curricular stuff means “spare time” is already hard to find. Now imagine taking that small amount of time and cramming 1,667 words of writing into it. Let me just say some sleep was sacrificed.

 

I felt bad that I wasn’t blogging during that time, but I just couldn’t fit it in. Could barely even think about it. Even my reading time suffered, which was one of biggest struggles of all.

However, despite all the hardships (oh, poor baby) I WON! 50,000 words in November!

The story I was writing, which I think will end up being about 100K all in, is about a group of detectives trying to catch a serial killer in a smallish town. What I found to be interesting is that the chapters from the perspective of the killer were way easier to write than the ones from the side of the law. I obviously know more about being a serial killer than I do about being in law enforcement (Quick! Someone call the cops!)

Now I’m faced with a particularly annoying quandary. I have 3 projects all begging for my attention.

  1. This NaNo project is going to need another 30-50K to be complete.
  2. A first draft from last year needs some attention and a new draft.
  3. A BRAND NEW story that popped into my head last week has taken over my every waking thought. It just walked up to me, slapped me in the mouth and dared me to do something about.

As desperately as I want to write the brand new idea, I know myself. If I don’t finish that first draft on number 1, I might never finish it. It might remain abandoned forever. What to do, what to do…

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Fun fact about this post: Does anyone else hear a random voice shouting insults, or is that in my head?