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bookgeekgrrl · 7 months

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My media this week (17-23 Sep 2023)

sofie bikes is my hero

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Once a Rogue (Roaring Twenties Magic #2) (Allie Therin, author; Joel Froomkin, narrator) - satisfying 2nd adventure of Lord Fine & Sebastian de Leon keeping both the mundane & magical worlds safe from evil magic relics, featuring antimagic fanatics, missing friends, bootleggers, and, since Sebastian is involved, happy endings for stray kittens.

😍 A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel (The Doomsday Books #2) (KJ Charles) - another stellar KJC histrom with inheiritance chicanery, dealing with bad dad trauma and other horrible family members and hidden treasure! Delighted to back at Romney Marsh (or as near as).

😊 Unwanted Celebrity (Kryptaria, zooeyscigar) - 72K, stucky no-powers AU; "Fifteen years ago, a skinny kid from Brooklyn went to an arts summer camp, where he met child movie star Jimmy Barnes. Their unlikely friendship faded as the years passed. But now, a threat to Barnes' career brings Steve back into his life, in the most unexpected of ways. Or, the one where Bucky is a smooth celebrity, right up until Steve the snarky photographer shows up, and Bucky's whole world gets blown to pieces."

💖💖 +54K of shorter fic 💖💖

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Maine Cabin Masters - s6, e9-10

Only Murders In The Building - s3, e8

D20: The Unsleeping City - "Start Spreading The News" (s3, e1)

D20: The Unsleeping City - "Mutant Santa Melee" (s3, e2)

D20: The Unsleeping City - "Pigeon Plus Ones" (s3, e3)

D20: The Unsleeping City - "Scramble in the Sewers" (s3, e4)

D20: The Unsleeping City - "A New York Wedding" (s3, e5)

D20: The Unsleeping City - "The War of Bugs and Rats" (s3, e6)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Re: Dracula - September 17: The Blood is the Life

Re: Dracula - September 18: All the More For It

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Italy’s Bomb Squad

Re: Dracula - September 19: The Best was Made of Everything

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Getting lost in Golden Gate Park

Into It - How to Game the Billboard Hot 100

Switched on Pop - Doja Cat’s Satanic Suite

Cytochrome Hear Presents: The Tiger and the Dragon

⭐ 99% Invisible #553 - Cautionary Tales of the Sydney Opera House

Re: Dracula - September 20: Not For Your Living Soul

Vibe Check - Richard Pryor in the Morning? That’s a Sex Act

Outward - Mercury Stardust Helps Queer People Feel Safe and Sound at Home

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Ark of Citrus

Song Exploder - Laufey - From The Start

⭐ Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Subtitles: On

⭐ One Year - 1955: Siberia, USA

Today, Explained - The six D-words of climate change

Re: Dracula - September 22: Sadly and Without Hope

Dear Prudence - I Don't Want My Dad to Give Me Away at My Wedding. Help!

Into It - Hasan Minhaj’s Broken Truths, and Taylor Swift’s Broken Google

What Next: TBD - Did AirBnB Need to Go?

Endless Thread - The online legacy of 'To Catch a Predator'

Re: Dracula - September 23: After a Bad Night

⭐ ICYMI - Is “Algospeak” D@ngerous?

Today, Explained - Blame Capitalism: The 99%

⭐ Cautionary Tales - A Fascination with Failure: Death On The Dancefloor

Welcome to Night Vale - Bonus Episode: Behind the Scenes (September 2023)

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

my Liked Music playlist

Hard Rock Headbangers

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

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gremlinshipper · 6 months

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Ive started working my way through KJ Charles' books after reading the doomsday duology. Let me just say that the charm of magpies series is the perfect romance series to be reading around halloween.

#queer regency novel about witchcraft that strikes the right balance of creepy and cheesy? yes please #I'm a sucker for characters with abandoment issues #which kj charles writes so well #please do not look too deeply into that #charm of magpies #kj charles

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oldtvandcomics · 10 months

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Happy Disabled Pride Month everyone!!

Very needlessly specific question for this occasion: Does anyone have fantasy / science fiction short story collection recommendations that in some way center disabled people?

The ones I know are Defying Doomsday and Rebuilding Tomorrow duology, which are about disabled people during the Apocalypse.

[Screencap of these two collections from my Kindle.]

They were great and I would like more books like this. Short stories would be the best, because they allow for a bigger variety within a single book.

#disabled pride month #books #book recs #fantasy #science fiction #I really don't want stories where the protagonists 'just' happen to be disabled #at least not right now #those are great but I would like fantasy where disability is a central theme #disabled representation

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leojurand · 4 months

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top 10 8 books of the year

i ended up reading 63 books this year, but since about 17 of them were rereads, this is top 8 out of 46.

i usually don't do top 10s or anything similar because choosing is hard, but i wanted to "force" myself to do it this year, and here are the results!

8. the secret lives of country gentlemen, kj charles

kj charles is my absolute favourite romance author, and i think her formula was perfected with the doomsday duology, even though they're not necessarily my fave books by her. out of the two, i chose secret lives because it was so perfect to me! absolutely adored both mcs, individually and together. i always enjoy the kjc novels that have higher stakes, and i was super invested in this story, and the characters, and everything that happened to them. very beautiful romance scenes. can't wait to read whatever she comes up with next!!

7. the mask of apollo, mary renault

it's still crazy to be that i've only read two mary renault books this year, because i am completely in love with every aspect of her writing. the prose is so gorgeous, and this book was so atmospheric and immersive. i love the slow pace in her novels, and there's always moments of introspection that tug at my heartstrings. and that ending!!

6. gaudy night, dorothy l. sayers

pretty sure the fact that i spent like half an hour talking to a classmate about how amazing the sayers's writing is makes her my author of the year. and it couldn't be any other way! of the lord peter wimsey novels, i think gaudy night is her magnum opus. it was a very personal novel for her, and it shows in the care she put into it. i love harriet vane so much, and i adore peter, and i'm so happy that the peak of their romance and their feelings for each other was reached in such a wonderful book.

i only wanted to choose one book per series, but my other two faves are unnatural death and murder must advertise (i have yet to read busman's honeymoon)

5. the ruins, scott smith

and the award for biggest surprise of the year goes to this book! its adaptation is a very nostalgic movie for me, and last month me and my girlfriend decided to watch it together. i decided that was the perfect time to finally pick up the book, since i'd heard so much about it being so much better, as is usually the case. and god, it is much, much better. fantastic writing, and the characters feel so much more human and real than their movie counterparts. great atmosphere, and the gore? oof. one of those novels that makes me stop in the middle of whatever i'm doing and i think "man, the ruins was so good"

4. the winter prince, elizabeth wein

now, this book truly never left my brain since i read it. i picked it up on a whim and it hit me like a truck, which i didn't expect at all from such a short story. it has one of my favourite styles of prose: simple but so, so pretty. it was so easy for me to connect with the characters, especially medraut, and with the messed up dynamics that are shown here. such a wonderful book, i can't explain

so, do i have any excuse for not having read its sequel yet? no! and i'm planning to do that next month

3. the heaven tree, edith pargeter

this is a trilogy but i think of it as one story, so this includes all three books. the heaven tree gave me everything i wanted it to give me: breathtaking prose, drama, fucked up dynamics, beautiful dynamics, characters that are complex and messed up and that i don't agree with so many times, but i could always understand (well, almost always. the romance in the first book is nonsensical and stupid, but i love these books enough to forgive it). such a beautiful story, with a villain who was as easy to hate and to admire simply by how layered he was.

2. the sparrow, mary doria russell

this is the only book on this list that i've already reread, that's how serious this is. also the most "staring at a wall for an hour after finishing it unable to move" book of the year. made me feel so many emotions i can't even begin to explain. the amount of love and pain in this book can't be measured. emilio sandoz character of all time.

1. fire from heaven, mary renault

second mary renault on the list, and one i've read! also one of my earliest books of the year, because i read this in january. and it has stayed with all these months; my love for it didn't falter for even a second. you know when you consumed a piece of media and think "this was made for me"? well, that's how i felt reading fire from heaven. everything about it was perfect to me, from the prose to the pacing to the dynamic between alexander and hephaistion. you can really tell alexander's story was very important to mary renault (she was pretty much obsessed with the guy, and how very relatable), and now it's important to me too.

so, again, how come i haven't read the sequels yet? well, i tried to the persian boy soon after finishing this one, but 50 pages in and i couldn't get into it, which is sad so i decided to leave it for another time. i think i love fire from heaven too much to fully embrace the change in perspective in the second book. maybe i'm petty because the persian boy is considered the best of the trilogy, and maybe renault's best along with the charioteer. and i just don't think i'll feel the same way! it's hard to believe that it will make me feel the way fire from heaven did. and that's why it has to be number 1 on this list, i'm so incredibly attached to it, 11 months after reading it.

and there it is! it's hard to rank books when they're completely different from each other, but i tried. i would say overall it was a pretty good year... hard to compete with last year because well. i did read 15 dorothy dunnett novels almost back to back then. but still! i'm pretty happy

#books #obviously not tagging all of those #me trying to talk about my faves: such a wonderful book.... such a beautiful story.... amazing prose #rinse and repeat

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lavenderfables · 2 years

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what's a book you like that you're surprised more people haven't heard of?

I am very disconnected from the book community, so take what I think of as unheard of books with a grain of salt.

The Trelian Trilogy (The Dragon Of Trelian, The Princess Of Trelian, The Mage of Trelian) by Michelle Knudsen

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones

Song For The Basilisk by Patricia A McKillip

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Prisoners Of Peace duology (The Scorpion Rules, The Swan Riders) by Erin Bow

Mechanica duology and companion novels (Mechanica, Venturess, The Forest Queen, The Circus Rose) by Betsy Cornwell

Shadows by Robin McKinley

Roses And Rot by Kat Howard

Beneath The Haunting Sea and it's companion Beyond The Shadowed Earth by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Burn by Patrick Ness

Driftwood by Marie Brennan

The Smashed Man Of Dread End by J.W. Ocker

Horseman by Christina Henry

Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick

Honeycomb by Joanne Harris

#anon #book recs #replies #long post

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rhetoricandlogic · 9 months

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Blackout - Connie Willis

Connie Willis returns to the shelves after eight long years with an absolute monster of an epic, a time-travel saga so rich in scope that it's taking two volumes to tell, yet so intimate in its observation of character that what you take away from it are not thrilling action setpieces but those moments of bonding people share — warm, funny, confused, trivial, angry, heartfelt — that take on a new and infinitely greater meaning in the shadow of death. One theme is driven home throughout: time is the most precious commodity we have.

This is Willis's gift as a storyteller. An obsessive researcher, she cares about the effects of great events on individuals, and views the momentous through the perspective of the mundane. In this story, the setting is London and surrounding areas during the Blitz in the late summer and fall of 1940. As in her earlier novels Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, time-traveling Oxford historians from the mid-21st century hop into their wayback machine to witness historical events firsthand. Blackout follows three of these travelers as they seek to observe, not the activities of the most renowned heroes and villains of the time (there are actually specific rules that prevent historians from getting too close to, and perhaps altering, the events they're observing), but the everyday heroism of everyday people.

I think Willis is living vicariously, as many authors do, through these characters. And that's all right, because what person captivated by the past would not like to project themselves into it once in a while? Willis knows that doing so wouldn't be nearly as romantic as you might think (especially if you're plunging into the middle of a world war). But why let that stop you?

It bears mentioning at this point that Blackout is not the first novel of a duology, but the first half of a single, two-part novel. Knowing this going in will help to smooth any frustration over the way the book doesn't so much end as stop, without a climax, and with just the barest of cliffhangers to lead you into part two. There are also a couple of unresolved plot threads, one of which provides the story with its rare moments of comic relief, involving two additional time travelers. There will be more to learn about these characters in the second volume.

Polly Churchill is transported to London in the midst of the Blitz. It's her task to observe the lives of shopgirls working in department stores by becoming one herself. Mike Davies intends to pass himself off as an American journalist covering the Dunkirk evacuation efforts. And Eileen O'Reilly lands a job among the servants at a wealthy estate in Warwickshire, in order to observe the hordes of evacuee children being sent from London in droves. Everything seems routine, but from the start we can sense something ominous. Schedules for time travelers are being shifted at the last minute. A young friend of Polly's with a desperate crush on her is deeply worried about something. And once the historians arrive at their various destinations, they notice an unusual degree of "slippage," missing their target dates not by hours (which is normal) but days. It isn't long before something potentially disastrous is made plain.

Amid the growing suspense, Willis builds an engrossing work of humanist fiction that avoids pathos and easy sentiment in depicting the quiet practicality and occasional heroism (and yes, the callousness) of Londoners surviving the Blitz. Memorable characters abound, and Willis's gift for natural dialogue brings scenes to life in a way that makes you feel you're in their presence. And she never pulls the lame stunt of creating a character for you to love just to kill them as an exercise in cheap button mashing. We get to know every one of the people with whom Polly shares a shelter every night, like the blustery, avuncular stage actor Sir Godfrey Kingsman, who quotes the Bard every time he opens his mouth yet whose personality rings true all the same. Eileen finds herself saddled with two of the most ill-behaved children in history, and yet you kind of like them, especially because, as a sort of brother-and-sister demolition duo with an appallingly indifferent and irresponsible mother, you realize they've only ever had each other. I'd think one very real risk a time-traveler would face would be to bond with someone from their distant past. See history unfold amongst the people who lived it, and you no longer have the safe emotional distance of words on a textbook page.

Finally, Mike ends up in an unintended situation that makes him fear he's violated the ultimate taboo and done something to alter the course of history, though he's reassured — not always convincingly — that rules regarding "divergence points" would make that impossible.

At first, the little ironies that frustrate Eileen, Polly, and Mike are funny — it seems they're forever just missing someone or something by minutes — then become more and more unnerving as the bombs keep falling. If I have to complain about something, it's that the final third of Blackout feels overextended, with our principals trying and failing to connect with one another over and over to the point it nearly gets redundant. But there is a much bigger story here, and in a quietly profound way, missed opportunities ("For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost."), and the way minor events can influence and illuminate whole histories, play a main role in it. Times of crisis like the Blitz were times when a person might live another day or die based on whether or not they paused while leaving home to put on their favorite hat. When what little time we have on this earth can be snuffed out so completely in such short notice, then there's no time to do anything but look ahead, and never look back.

#Connie Willis #Blackout #mahreviews #long post

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cartograffiti · 7 months

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September '23 reading diary

I finished 5 books in September, plus 3 re-reads, and enjoyed all of them thoroughly.

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater is a very charming fantasy of manners romance about a woman who discovers half her soul was stolen by a faerie. Dora's emotions and social skills are unusual as a result, and her family believes she will never marry, but she hits it off with the highest-ranking sorcerer in England and the two of them tackle curses and class issues with a lot of reflection and heart. There are more original romances and fairy-based fantasies, but all the elements together are (like Dora) more than the sum of their parts. Refreshing.

Something Human is the second of A.J. Demas' stand alone fantasy Mediterranean novels I've read, a lovely chewy romance about a not-Greek official and a not-Celtic or Germanic(?) warrior priest who save each other's lives after a battle in which they fought on opposite sides. The first of two parts is my favorite, focusing on their recuperation and fledgling romance while they hide in a deserted temple. They cooperate to achieve political and personal peace, and the narrative has a lot of faith in humanity without making it too easy. Well worth seeking out.

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel is the second of K.J. Charles's Doomsday Books duology, and while I latched onto the first more strongly, this is still a five-star top-tier of her work pick from me. A troubled teen from book 1 now stars as a hugely likeable adult with ambitions to resolve a mystery introduced then, and he's formulated the perfect plan...if he has to help the warm-hearted, short-fused sexy local earl get a handle on his paperwork in the process, that's not a problem, right? Great atmosphere, thrillingly horny even by KJC standards, and very moving writing about trauma.

The Last Devil to Die is the fourth Thursday Murder Club mystery by Richard Osman. A group of friends, most of them elderly, crack murders together, this time because someone they know was shot in some sort of heroin deal. I solved this case more quickly than previous entries, but not in an annoying way. Don't start with this one if possible, go right to the beginning, but these are highly personable books with wonderful character portraits.

I also grabbed the next Wells & Wong book I needed, First Class Murder. Not my favorite of this series's cases either, because it's a homage to Murder on the Orient Express and at moments it had a slight retread quality, but it's very much its own story. It deals heavily and effectively with Hazel's relationship with her father, and how both of them are treated as Asians in Europe. A favorite character of mine from book 2 reappeared, to my delight, and I continue to be impressed by how much more emotionally honest and sensitive this middle grade series is about the death side of murder mysteries than many written for adults.

My re-reads this month were a Band Sinister canon review for a K.J. Charles fanfic exchange, which remains a favorite, and two of Tamora Pierce's Emelan books, Sandry's Book and Tris's Book. I'm a little behind in the group read of Emelan and am excited to catch up. There's a lot of striking and moving content in this series about craft and personal growth. Sandry's book is noticeably stronger on a plot level than Tris's, but the difference isn't great enough to be a letdown.

#reading diary #bookblr #September glows like old amber

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ash-and-books · 1 year

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Rating: 4/5

Book Blurb: From New York Times bestselling YA author Rebecca Mix comes the first book in a breathtaking middle grade fantasy duology about a young fairy who has always lived in her heroic grandmother’s shadow, but now must step up and embark on a quest to save her mother from the ever-creeping mold overtaking their world. Perfect for readers who loved Brandon Mull's Fablehaven, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, and Endling: The Last by Katherine Applegate.

The mold takes all.Twelve-year-old fairy Canary Mossheart knows this better than most. A few years ago, the mold took her papa, and even her famous, former-chosen-one Gran never found a cure. So when Ary's beloved mama falls ill, Ary decides it’s taken enough. Armed with only a bucket and a prayer, she sneaks out to find a magical, underground lake whose healing waters are straight out of Gran’s adventures.But when Ary gets there, the lake’s bone dry, and instead of healing waters, she finds a terrifying secret: Her entire world is actually trapped inside a giant terrarium—one they were meant to leave centuries ago. Worse, Gran knew and hid the truth, dooming Ary and her generation to a dying, rotting world.Now, allied with only her doomsday-obsessed frenemy, a timid pill bug, and a particularly grumpy newt, Ary has one week to unravel the clues and find a way out of the terrarium—or they’ll be trapped for good. .

Review:

In a world where fairies live inside a terrarium that is being consumed by mold and slowly dying... one girl will have to find a way to go on the journey that her grandmother had gone on, break the curse, and free the fairies from the terrarium if she wants to save her mother. Canary Mossheart is the granddaughter of the great hero who saved the terrarium... or so they say. The terrarium is being overrun by mold, food is scarce, and people are dying. When the mold starts increasing and Ary’s mother is infected, she knows she must go find a way to cue her mother and that means going on the quest that her grandmother had gone on all those years except her grandmother has been hiding so many secrets and has so many lies and when she discovers the truth, it will change everything she ever knew about her family and her world. Ary embarks on a journey with nothing more than the hope in her heart, making unlikely friends, and discovering her own family secrets. This was such an enchanting and epic adventure, it’s the first book in the duology but it ends so well and I can’t wait to see where the next book goes. Arya is just trying to save her mother and living in her grandmother’s shadow is not easy, especially when everyone compares her to her grandmother. Arya just wants to find a place for herself, to save her family, and to prove that she is worthy. The story blends magic with adventure and high stakes with a bit of horror and I had a blast!!

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray for sending me an arc in exchange for na honest review*

#book rebiew #bookish #the mossheart's promise

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patioclus · 4 years

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alright, fantasy book recs (and sorry if you've read any of these!!): six of crows, wicked saints, there will come a darkness, the kingdom of back and ashlords

sci fi recs: illuminae, white space/the dickens mirror (duology), once and future and jane unlimited

darker fantasy: to kill a kingdom, stepsister, the darkest part of the forest and the never tilting world

historical fiction: salt to the sea, mrs. everything, all the light we cannot see, lovely war, lady rogue and the nightingale

must-reads: i'll give you the sun, rayne and delilah's midnite matinee, circe, red white and royal blue, tiny pretty things, hello girls, hot dog girl, the opposite of always, let's call it a doomsday, jellicoe road, aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe, dare me and the past and other things that should stay buried (that last thing is one title!!)

wow! thank you so, so much for taking the time to send all these! I have read and loved a couple of these, but i’m definitely adding the rest to my tbr!!

send me book recs!

#iris messages #eraseyourbookofstories #seriously thank you so much for taking the time to send all of these!!#book recs

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kurowrites · 5 years

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flange5 replied to your post “inukagome15 replied to your post “I love travelling but packing...”

in grad school with my advisor bc we both loved Passage but weren't sure how to read the end and like it *better* for that.

flange5 replied to your post “inukagome15 replied to your post “I love travelling but packing...”

anything by Connie Willis, but To Say Nothing of the Dog, Passage, and Bellwether are my go-tos that I reread at least once a year. doomsday book is also good but more grim-it's in the same world as tSNotD but a very different feel. Blackout and All Clear are also in that world, and a duology that I really should reread. Time traveling historians get stuck in WWII while a pandemic rages in their time. Bellwether is a delightful romp, and I remember long convos

Thanks! I actually don’t know Connie Willis at all, but these suggestions do sound very promising! Will check them out!

#flange5 #kuro answers

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bookgeekgrrl · 1 year

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My media this week (12-18 Mar 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰👂‍The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books #1) (KJ Charles, author; Martyn Swain, narrator) - another knock out hit from KJC!!! I loved that most of the conflict was external - they had some shit to sort out but it was not drawn out excessively. Great sense of place. Really looking forward to the next book in the duology, but not because this one left me wanting. [audio narrator's voice was lovely-sounding but the pacing was TERRIBLE - very, very slow with drawn out pauses in the middle of sentences, just weird & annoying. I read it on 1.45x speed and it was just bearable but I mostly read it in text when I could]

🥰 All the Things Money Can't Buy series (Lys ap Adin (lysapadin)) - 62K series (45 main story, rest later vignettes) - Sheith modern sugar daddy AU, complete with a delicious 'snowed in together' section and a cute dog named Potroast 🐶

😊👂‍Death In Irish Accents (The Dublin Driver Mysteries #4) (Catie Murphy, author; Ruth Urquhart, narrator) - Megan just can't stay away from murders - literally opens with a body falling on Megan & her girlfriend while they are having coffee - absolutely love it!

😍Monoclonius (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 62K, stucky AU with single dad/environmentalist Steve & dino scientist Bucky - absolutely delightful, loved loved loved it to bits! Genuinely loved the OCs (including a very important stuffed trilobite; found family vibes off the charts (even outside of S&B)). Also there's a very decent amount of hot sex! THIS FIC HAS EVERYTHING.

😊👂‍Christmas at The Grange (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #3.5) (T.E. Kinsey, author; Elizabeth Knowelden, narrator) - novella

💖💖 +70K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Cross (lightgetsin) - Dresden Files: Dresden/Marcone, 33K - haven't read DF in years bc I'm well done with that canon but shout out to the inimitable @drunktuesdays, who threw this pairing onto my radar and 🤯🥵🤯🥵🤯

cybersex series (Adure) - Stranger Things: steddie, 7K - friends-to-accidental-sexters - short, sweet but super hot

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Ted Lasso - s1, e6-10; all season 2; s3, e1 [x2]

Maine Cabin Masters - s7, e10

Schitt's Creek - s2, e3

Dickenson - s1, e1-3

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Menus To Be Buried With - Judgement Day! • Comic Relief 2023

Richmond Til We Die: A Ted Lasso Podcast - I Love You Guys So Very Much ("Season 3 Preview")

Shedunnit - The Trials of Madeleine Smith

Desert Island Discs - David Sedaris, writer

⭐Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Soundalikes

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Exploring the underworld with Jessica Leigh Hester

You're Dead To Me - Frederick Douglass

⭐Hit Parade Plus - Raise Your Glass Edition

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - NYC’s Most Beautiful Public Bathroom

Vibe Check - I Stand In Exhausted Solidarity

⭐99% Invisible #528 - A Whale-Oiled Machine

You Must Remember This - 1988: Kevin Costner, Sean Young, No Way Out & Bull Durham (Erotic 80s Part 11)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Manuscript Writing Cafe

Welcome to Night Vale #224 - Liminal Spaces

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Blurred lines with Stacy Horn

⭐Switched on Pop - Modern Classics: Seal - Kiss From a Rose

Into It - Are We Into Tom Cruise Skipping the Oscars, Nancy Meyers, and M3GAN's Sartorial Debut?

Switched on Pop - Switches Brew

You're Dead To Me - The Columbian Exchange

It's Been a Minute - Silicon Valley Bank and the sordid history of 'Palo Alto'

⭐ICYMI Plus - Pedro Pascal Is the Internet’s Daddy

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Remixes

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

TRUSTFALL [P!nk] {2023}

P!nk

Carly Rae Jepsen

Little Freddie King

The Hamilton Instrumentals {2015}

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motherwasapapafucker · 6 years

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Question--if somebody was looking to get into the VNAs and EDAs, which ones would you recommend to them as must-reads? (I've already got Human Nature, Sky Pirates!, The Room With No Doors, and Lungbarrow on my list for the VDAs and Vampire Science, Alien Bodies, Interference, and Taking Of Planet 5 for the EDAs.)

So beyond the novels you’ve already mentioned (Highly recommend the lot of them) I’d suggest the following. Inevitably these are more personal suggestions and I’d never pretend that someone of them are great fiction but as Who books go they all have something or other to offer. I’d also note that beyond a few teething troubles, both the VNA and EDA lines reached a level of consistent quality so you’re usually safe to pick up one on a whim….that said avoid St. Anthony’s Fire like the plague. Anyway, here are the VNAs. Love and War: I’m not particularly big fan of Cornell’s prose work, but it’s a solid story that sells Ace’s break with the Doctor while also doing a great job of building Bernice up as a character. The plot itself is by the numbers, but this tends to add to the shock of the Doctor’s actions rather than turn the thing into a dull slog…for the most part.

Birthright/Iceberg: Following on from the same event, the TARDIS coming close to deconstruction, Birthright is the first Doctor-lite book from Virgin, but because this is a VNA that means it uses Seven’s absence to explore the ramifications of the Doctor as arch-manipulator, keep an eye out for Muldwych and his uncharacteristically physical take on a particular concept. It’s very much Who in it’s moral dilemma mode, and gives the book room to explore Ace and Bernice’s personalities in relation to their views on the Doctor. Iceberg meanwhile follows up on the Doctor’s experiences after the above incident, throwing him into a fairly traditional Cyberman adventure, but alongside Birthright this is works to highlight the Seventh Doctor’s personality. Placing him in a B.U.S. set-up with characters we have no prior experience with to play “The Mysterious Doctor” up to the fullest extent. Blood Heat: So, this is the first part in a quadrilogy of alternative universe books and while the rest of them are solid enough Blood Heat is leaps and bounds ahead of them in terms of quality. Thrust into an alternate universe where he died during the events of “…and the Silurians,” The Doctor has to contend with a world where the Silurians now rule and are engaged in a vicious guerrilla war with an increasingly unhinged Brigadier. It’s not a pleasant book, but it’s one that uses the it’s increasingly bleak vibe to highlight Who’s more consistent moral thematics. I’d also recommend reading the author’s “Director’s Cut” that divorces it from the A-U story arc and takes the book off in a far stranger direction, it’s got a truly unique Alt-Doctor, but I really don’t want to say too much because reading it without foreknowledge only adds to it. Theater of War: Bernice Summerfield meet Irving Braxiatel, or; the one that introduces everybody’s favorite bastard. In all honesty that’s the main selling point of the book, the plot itself is fine but it’s drowned out by foreknowledge of what it ultimately set-up, but the Benny and Brax sequences are worth the price of admission. All-Consuming Fire: So this was the first VNA I read, but beyond that it takes something that could have easily been an exercise in cloying fanboyism and produces a story that actively works for the two worlds being merged. Lane as a few Watsonian tendencies that leap out now and then, but his Doyle pastiche is one of few that manage to nail the style without drifting into parody, that he manages to maintain this when Holmes and Watson leave the planet is even more impressive. There’s nothing overtly gained from the crossover but his obvious enthusiasm for the two franchises makes it hard not to get swept up in the spirit of the story. Fittingly, it’s the closest the VNAs come to pure pulp, makes for a nice break after some of the more thematically heavy books that preceded it. First Frontier: McIntee writes a damn good Master (Give or take Dark Path squandering its potential) and this serves as a nice follow-up to “Survival,” featuring Ainley still suffering from the effects of the Cheetah Planet allying himself with the Tzun Confederacy in the 1950s. This works particularly well in relation to the earlier books, if Survival is about the Doctor refusing to stop to the Master’s level then First Frontier shows this conflict at a stage where the Doctor has done borderline unforgivable crimes that have begun to wear him down, which contrasts with a Master who’s taken a direct shortcut to the novel and gets to leave it free of the baggage of the past. Not to say it’s overly maudlin, because at it’s heart it’s still “Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with UFOlogy.” The Tzun are a fun little concept, genetic engineers that via their skills effectively serve as every conspiracy theory Alien in one species, The Master/Doctor dynamic is just a nice bonus that adds a personal edge to the events. Falls the Shadow: Broadly speaking this is the Seventh Doctor vs. a sociopathic riff on Sapphire and Steel, but that’s selling the book short. O'Mahony is arguably one of the finest writer’s Who has ever seen, and while his début novel has the sort of issues you’d expect, it’s a fantastic bit of high-concept sci-fi. Well worth reading, even if only as an introduction to O’Mahony’s work. Christmas on a Rational Planet: Like O’Mahony, Lawrence Miles début novel as the usual issues as well as more than a few iffy elements (part of the parcel with most Who writers) but it’s ultimately style a book with a lot of potential that clearly helped Miles build his skills as a writer. An essential bit of early Miles-Who mythology that reappears in one form or another across all his work, it’s also deeply funny which is an aspect of Miles’s stuff that tends to be overlooked.Eternity Weeps: So I’m probably alone in liking this one, given it takes Mortimer’s tendency towards mass-decision to hilarious new levels, but it’s the ultimate encapsulation of the VNA Seventh Doctor and he only shows up for a few dozen pages. Written in the lead up to Virgin losing the Who license, the idea behind the book was to test Bernice as a solo protagonist, so much of the book is centred around the collapse of her marriage while she hunts for Noah’s Ark, at the same time a deadly plague is sweeping the earth and things get terribly doomsday esq. What the book ends up being though, is an examination of the Doctor as a force, something that can twist people’s fates with little effort and the books structure reflects that, with everything that occurs spinning towards or out of his handful of appearances. This is Time’s Champion at his most mythological and is worth reading just for that atmosphere. Cold Fusion: Now this one’s a total cheat given it’s a missing adventure but it’s also fundamentally a story about the Fifth Doctor stumbling into a Virgin New Adventure plot, in this sense it can be viewed as something of a predecessor to the Interference duology. Mixing Parkin’s more experimental side with his knack for writing blockbuster style adventures the book sees both five and seven drawn into a human colony’s experiments with something that might be a prototype TARDIS, the book containing a number of revelations about the Doctor’s past the tie-in with the VNAs ongoing plot-line. It’s a solid plot that makes nice use of the more traditional TARDIS team working alongside Seven, Chris and Roz. Some of these are a bastard to get a hold of, and the BBC clearly has little to no intention of re-releasing most of them, but there are ways around that, not that I’d ever endorse that sort of thing. *audible wink* Given the length of this I’ll follow up with my EDA recommendations shortly.

#doctor who #doctor who eu #vna #eda #oppinion #books #virgin new adventures #eighth doctor adventures #recomendatons #virgin missing adventures #just kidding #not oppinion #solid fact #bbc books #whoniverse

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msbarrows · 4 years

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Reading Rec: Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

I know I’ve recommended this book (and the “Oxford Time Travel” series it’s a part of) before, but I think this is a good time to rec it again.

Why? Because it’s set in a near-future time that, as well as having worked out the basics of time travel, went through a pandemic about 40 years before the time in which the books in the series are set, and Connie Willis does an excellent job of portraying some of the changes a post-pandemic society would have - things like a case of a new flu showing up not just being “oh, it’s just the flu, no worries”, but cause for an immediate mandated response. The book deals with both then-modern and past pandemics in the course of its story arcs. And, like all but the Blackout/All Clear duology in the series, can be read as a stand-alone.

It’s one of my personal favourites of her time travel books for reasons I can’t really get into without spoilering a bunch of it; suffice to say I love the entire series, and while most of them have at least some part that makes me cry (which, in my mind, is generally a good thing in a book dealing with emotional situations), is also the one that I would say requires packing at least an entire box of tissues. I love the characters, I love their stories. And, while some readers might find the subject matter a little too on-the-nose for current events, I plan a nice cathartic re-read sometime in the coming week.

An excerpt from the beginning of the book, where the FMC, Kivrin, is about to set out on her practicum, a trip back in time, much to the dismay of her unoffocial mentor Mr Dunworthy, who doesn’t feel that medieval England is a particularly safe place for an unattended female student (he’s not wrong):

Mary came closer and stood beside Dunworthy, clutching her handkerchief. “When I was nineteen—which was, oh, Lord, forty years ago, it doesn’t seem that long—my sister and I travelled all over Egypt,” she said. “It was during the Pandemic. Quarantines were being slapped on all about us, and the Israelis were shooting Americans on sight, but we didn’t care. I don’t think it even occurred to us that we might be in danger, that we might catch it or be mistaken for Americans. We wanted to see the Pyramids.”

Kivrin had stopped praying. Badri left his console and came over to where she was standing. He spoke to her for several minutes, the frown never leaving his face. She knelt and then lay down on her side next to the wagon, turning so she was on her back with one arm flung over her head and her skirts tangled about her legs. The tech arranged her skirts, pulled out the light measure, and paced around her, walked back to the console and spoke into the ear. Kivrin lay quite still, the blood on her forehead almost black under the light.

“Oh, dear, she looks so young,” Mary said.

Badri spoke into the ear, glared at the results on the screen, went back to Kivrin. He stepped over her, straddling her legs, and bent down to adjust her sleeve. He took a measurement, moved her arm so it was across her face as if warding off a blow from her attackers, measured again.

“Did you see the Pyramids?” Dunworthy said.

“What?” Mary said.

“When you were in Egypt. When you went tearing about the Middle East oblivious to danger. Did you get to see the Pyramids?”

“No. Cairo was put under quarantine the day we landed.” She looked at Kivrin, lying there on the floor. “But we saw the Valley of the Kings.”

Badri moved Kivrin’s arm a fraction of an inch, stood frowning at her for a moment, and then went back to the console. Gilchrist and Latimer followed him. Montoya stepped back to make room for all of them around the screen. Badri spoke into the console’s ear, and the semi-transparent shields began to lower into place, covering Kivrin like a veil.

“We were glad we went,” Mary said. “We came home without a scratch.”

The shields touched the ground, draped a little like Kivrin’s too-long skirts, stopped.

“Be careful,” Dunworthy whispered. Mary took hold of his hand.

Latimer and Gilchrist huddled in front of the screen, watching the sudden explosion of numbers. Montoya glanced at her digital. Badri leaned forward and opened the net. The air inside the shields glittered with sudden condensation.

“Don’t go,” Dunworthy said.

#Reading Rec #Connie Willis #Doomsday Book #Oxford Time Travel Series #Pandemic

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surejaya · 4 years

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Day Zero (Day Zero Duology, #1)

Download : Day Zero (Day Zero Duology, #1) More Book at: Zaqist Book

Day Zero (Day Zero Duology, #1) by Kelly deVos

If you're going through hell...keep going. Seventeen-year-old coder Jinx Marshall grew up spending weekends drilling with her paranoid dad for a doomsday she’s sure will never come. She’s an expert on self-heating meal rations, Krav Maga and extracting water from a barrel cactus. Now that her parents are divorced, she’s ready to relax. Her big plans include making it to level 99 in her favorite MMORPG and spending the weekend with her new hunky stepbrother, Toby. But all that disaster training comes in handy when an explosion traps her in a burning building. Stuck leading her headstrong stepsister, MacKenna, and her precocious little brother, Charles, to safety, Jinx gets them out alive only to discover the explosion is part of a pattern of violence erupting all over the country. Even worse, Jinx’s dad stands accused of triggering the chaos. In a desperate attempt to evade paramilitary forces and vigilantes, Jinx and her siblings find Toby and make a break for Mexico. With seemingly the whole world working against them, they’ve got to get along and search for the truth about the attacks—and about each other. But if they can survive, will there be anything left worth surviving for?

Download : Day Zero (Day Zero Duology, #1) More Book at: Zaqist Book

#book #zaqistbook #epub #kindle #GreatReads #MustRead #WhatToRead

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hollymbryan · 4 years

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Blog Tour + #Review: DAY ZERO by Kelly deVos!

Welcome to Book-Keeping and my stop on the @inkyardpress blog tour for Day Zero by Kelly deVos! I am so thrilled to share all the details of this incredible thriller with you today, along with my review, so let’s get started!

About the Book

title: Day Zero (Day Zero Duology #1) author: Kelly deVos publisher: Inkyard Press release date: 12 November 2019

Don’t miss the exhilarating new novel from the author of Fat Girl on a Plane, featuring a fierce, bold heroine who will fight for her family and do whatever it takes to survive. Fans of Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It series and Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave series will cheer for this fast-paced, near-future thrill ride. If you’re going through hell…keep going. Seventeen-year-old coder Jinx Marshall grew up spending weekends drilling with her paranoid dad for a doomsday she’s sure will never come. She’s an expert on self-heating meal rations, Krav Maga and extracting water from a barrel cactus. Now that her parents are divorced, she’s ready to relax. Her big plans include making it to level 99 in her favorite MMORPG and spending the weekend with her new hunky stepbrother, Toby. But all that disaster training comes in handy when an explosion traps her in a burning building. Stuck leading her headstrong stepsister, MacKenna, and her precocious little brother, Charles, to safety, Jinx gets them out alive only to discover the explosion is part of a pattern of violence erupting all over the country. Even worse, Jinx’s dad stands accused of triggering the chaos. In a desperate attempt to evade paramilitary forces and vigilantes, Jinx and her siblings find Toby and make a break for Mexico. With seemingly the whole world working against them, they’ve got to get along and search for the truth about the attacks—and about each other. But if they can survive, will there be anything left worth surviving for?

About the Author

KELLY DEVOS is from Gilbert, Arizona, where she lives with her high school sweetheart husband, amazing teen daughter and superhero dog, Cocoa. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. When not reading or writing, Kelly can typically be found with a mocha in hand, bingeing the latest TV shows and adding to her ever-growing sticker collection. Her debut novel, Fat Girl on a Plane, named one of the "50 Best Summer Reads of All Time" by Reader's Digest magazine, is available now from HarperCollins. Kelly's work has been featured in the New York Times as well as on Salon, Vulture and Bustle.

Connect with Kelly: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

My 5-Star Giveaway

Although Ms. deVos’ first novel, Fat Girl on a Plane, has been on my TBR since before it released, I haven’t yet had an opportunity to read it. So when I had the opportunity to join this blog tour for her second novel, Day Zero, I jumped at the chance to finally check out her writing. I wasn’t expecting to be absolutely blown away by this book, but I definitely was!

It has been a while since I’ve read a thriller that I wanted to race through so quickly it felt like my Kindle was on fire, but Day Zero was all that and more. This story is so propulsive, it’s simply a master class in writing a story that literally *forces* the reader to keep going. It’s like watching a movie where you really have to get up to get a snack or use the bathroom but can’t find a good point at which to press the pause button! There’s almost no breathing room while you’re reading, and I love that so much.

In addition to just being an incredible, fast-paced story, I have to admit that the premise is also absolutely terrifying. I don’t know if it would officially be classified like this, but I’d call this like near-future thriller, something like 20 years from now. The implications for just how quickly America can devolve into an autocratic dystopian nightmare are terrifying and, well, let’s just say especially relevant to current events. There is, in addition to a thrilling story, some biting social commentary in this book. I wrote down several quotes that felt particularly applicable to the current state of America, at least from my perspective. I’d love to chat with other readers to see if others feel the same way!

Basically, I love this book and highly recommend it to *everyone*. If you love stories about conspiracies, thrillers, dystopians, kick-butt girls, propulsive narratives, etc, PICK THIS UP! I am now on pins and needles until I can get my hands on Day One to see how this story concludes.

Rating: 5 stars!

**Disclosure: I received an early e-copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Kelly deVos for including me on this blog tour!

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illbefinealonereads · 4 years

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Blog tour day! Today, I present to you an excerpt from Day Zero by Kelly deVos, the first book in a duology. Keep scrolling to read more about the book!

DAY ZERO Author: Kelly deVos ISBN: 978-1335008480 Publication Date: November 12th 2019 Publisher: Inkyard Press

Social Links: Author Website | Twitter: @kdevosauthor | Facebook: @kellydevosbooks | Instagram: @kellydevos | Goodreads

Excerpt:

Dr. Doomsday’s Guide to Ultimate Survival

Rule One: Always be prepared.

I exhale in relief when Makeeba pulls the car into the Halliwell’s Market parking lot. The store is one of the only places in town with Extra Jolt soda, and I have to buy it myself because Mom won’t keep any in the house.

She thinks too much caffeine rots your brain or something. Halliwell’s is a low squat brown building that sits across the street from the mall and is next door to the town’s only skyscraper.

The First Federal Building was supposed to be the first piece of a suburban business district designed to rival the hip boroughs of New York. The mayor announced the construction of a movie theater, an apartment complex and an indoor aquarium. But the New Depression hit and the other buildings never materialized.

The First Federal Building alone soars toward the clouds, an ugly glass rectangle visible from every neighborhood, surrounded by the old town shops that have been there forever. Most of the stores are empty.

We park in front of the market.

Our car nestles in the long shadow of the giant bank building. Charles gets out and stands on the sidewalk in front of the car. Makeeba opens her door. She hesitates again. “Listen, I know you might not want to hear this or believe it. But my book report wasn’t about hurting you or getting revenge. I’m trying to get you to see what’s really happening here. That Carver’s election is the start of something really bad. We could use you at the rally. You’re one of the few people who understands Dr. Doomsday’s work. You could explain whathe did. How he helped Carver cheat to win.”

“I’ve been planning this raid for months,” I say. My stomach churns, sending uncomfortable flutters through my in-sides. I don’t know what it would mean to talk about my father’s work. What I really want to do is pretend it doesn’t exist. Pretend the world is normal and whole.

I reassure myself with the reminder that there’s no way Makeeba is going to the rally either.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Charles give us a small wave. Before Makeeba can say anything else, I get out and grab my backpack.

Inside Halliwell’s, I pick up a blue basket from the stack near the door. The small market is busy and full of other people shopping after school or work. The smell of pine cleaner hits me as we pass the checkout stations. They are super serious about germs and always cleaning between customers.

We come to the produce section, and I leave Makeeba and Charles at the Click N’Go rack checking out the seed packets that my brother collects. Dad got Charles hooked on this computerized gardening that uses an e-tablet and a series of tiny indoor lights to create the ideal indoor planter box. Each week, they release a new set of exclusive seeds. Their genetic modifications are controversial.

All the soda is in large coolers that line one of the walls of the market. They keep the strange stuff in the corner. Expensive root beers. Ramune imported from Japan. And! Extra! Jolt!

I put a few bottles of strawberry in my basket. I snag some grape too. For a second, I consider buying a couple of bottles of doughnut flavor. But that sounds like too much, even for me. The chips are in the next aisle. I load up on cheese puffs and spicy nacho crisps.

They keep the Click N’Grow kiosk in the store’s tiny produce section between small tables of apples and bananas. Charles has selected several handfuls of seed packets. My brother dumps them in my basket.

Makeeba grimaces at the top packet. “I still don’t like that first one. It’s pretty. But still. It’s…carnivorous.”

Charles smiles. “It’s a new kind of pitcher plant. Like the Cobra Lily.” He points to the picture on the front of the seed packet. “Look at the blue flowers. That’s new.”

“It eats other plants,” Makeeba says.

“You eat plants.”

“But I don’t eat people,” Makeeba says. “There’s got to be some kind of natural law that says you shouldn’t eat your own kind.”

Charles giggles.

My brother’s gaze lands on my selection of soda and chips. “Can I get some snacks too?”

Crap.

I usually don’t buy unhealthy snacks when I’m with my brother. I smuggle them in my backpack and have a special hiding space in my desk.

“What’s your number?” I ask him.

My brother has type 1 diabetes, and he’s supposed to check his blood sugar after meals. He can have starchy or sugary snacks only when his glucose level is good, and usually only on special occasions.

Charles pretends he can’t hear me. That’s not a good sign.

“Charles, what’s your number?”

He still doesn’t look at me. “I forgot my monitor today.” “Well, I have mine.” I kneel down and dig around for the spare glucometer I keep in the front pocket of my backpack. By the time I get it out, Makeeba has already pulled Charles out of his blazer and rolled up the sleeve of his blue dress shirt. I wave the device over the small white sensor disk attached to my brother’s upper arm.

After a few seconds, the glucometer beeps and a number displays on the screen.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

“Charles! What did you eat today?”

My brother’s face turns red. “They were having breakfast-for-lunch day at school. Everyone else was having pancakes. Why can’t I have pancakes?”

I sigh. Something about his puckered up little face keeps me from reminding him that if he eats too much sugar he could die. “You know what Mom said. If you eat something you’re not supposed to, you have to get a pass and go to the nurse for your meds.”

My brother’s shoulders slump. “No one else has to go to the nurse.”

Charles is on the verge of tears and frowns even more deeply at the sight of my basket full of junk food.

“Look,” I say. “There are plenty of healthy snacks we can eat. I’ll put this stuff back.”

“That’s right,” Makeeba says, giving Charles’s hand a squeeze. “We can get some popcorn. Yogurt. Um, I saw some really delicious-looking fresh pears back there.”

“And they have the cheese cubes you like,” I add.

We go around the store replacing the cheese puffs and soda with healthy stuff. I hesitate when I have to put back the Extra Jolt but I really don’t want to have to make my brother feel bad because I can drink sugary stuff and he can’t.We pay for the healthy snacks and the seed packets.

I grab the bags and move toward the market’s sliding doors. I end up ahead of them, waiting outside by the car and facing the store. The shopping center behind Halliwell’s is mostly empty. The shoe store went out of business last year. Strauss Stationers, where everyone used to buy their fancy wedding invitations, closed the two years before that. The fish ’n’chips drive-through is doing okay and has a little crowd in front of the take-out window. Way off in the distance, Saba’s is still open, because in Arizona, cowboy boots and hats aren’t considered optional.

I watch Makeeba and Charles step out of the double doors and into the parking lot. Two little dimples appear on Makeeba’s cheeks when she smiles. Her long braids bounce up and down. Charles has a looseness to his walk. His arms dangle.

There’s a low rumble, like thunder from a storm that couldn’t possibly exist on this perfectly sunny day.

Something’s wrong.

In the reflection of the market’s high, shiny windows, Isee something happening in the bank building next door. Some kind of fire burning in the lower levels. A pain builds in my chest and I force air into my lungs. My vision blurs at the edges. It’s panic, and there isn’t much time before it overtakes me.

The muscles in my legs tense and I take off at a sprint, grabbing Makeeba and Charles as I pass. I haul them along with me twenty feet or so into the store. We clear the door and run past a man and a woman frozen at the sight of what’s going on across the street.

I desperately want to look back.

But I don’t.

A scream.

A low, loud boom.

My ears ring.

The lights in the store go off.

I’ve got Makeeba by the strap of her maxidress and Charles by the neck. We feel our way in the dim light. The three of us crouch and huddle together behind a cash counter. A few feet in front of us, the cashier who checked us out two minutes ago is sitting on the floor hugging her knees.

We’re going to die.

Charles’s mouth is wide-open. His lips move. He pulls at the sleeve of my T-shirt.

I can’t hear anything.

It takes everything I’ve got to force myself to move.

Slowly.

Leaning forward. Pressing my face into the plywood of the store counter, I peek around the corner using one eye to see out the glass door. My eyelashes brush against the roughwood, and I grip the edge to steady myself. I take in the smell of wood glue with each breath.

Hail falls in the parking lot. I realize it’s glass.

My stomach twists into a hard knot.

It’s raining glass.

That’s the last thing I see before a wave of dust rolls over the building.

Leaving us in darkness.

#day zero #kelly devos #booklr #blog tour #tour #excerpt #i'm haven't gotten around to reviewing this book as i'm busy with nanowrimo #but it's excellent and you should read it #enjoy the excerpt

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