This whole business about “hype” and “buzz” gets me riled. I’d love some of that for my books of course. At the same time, I think too much hype can kill a book. Hyped books that I tried: Remember the  The Da Vinci Code? Well, I ran out and bought it, read it, hated it, finished it because it was a hard cover and cost so damn much. What a waste of money. Lesson learned: At the very least wait for the paperback or go to the library. By the  way, you can still see Dan Brown laughing all the way to the bank.   The Night Circus. At least I had a Kindle by the time I bought and read this one, or rather tried to read this one, so I didn’t waste as much money. I found the bits I did read boring and...

Warning: These can be addictive.Original link

Davida Chazan blogged about reading series on The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog Here and Here Responding to her prompted me to write a blog of my own.   Somewhere in Between: I read several of the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books before I finally tired of them. (He shouldn’t have written so many!) I did like them because, although they were in Botswana and I lived in Mali, the books presented a picture of the gentle side of Africa and were in many ways a journey down memory lane — i.e. I enjoyed them for the nostalgia.       Awesome:  I discovered and fell in love with The Mrs. Polifax series and read every single one in order. If you decide to try them, start with the first — The Unexp...

Beware: These can be addictive.Original link

    All families have their ups and downs and idiosyncrasies. In Will You Ever Change? Valognes provides the reader with a gentle look at the dynamics of one family in France. That the story is infused with touches of French culture and French cuisine, enhances the enjoyment of this delightful light read. BLURB: As Martine and Jacques Le Guennec prepare for their annual family Christmas dinner, Martine reminds her husband to be on his best behavior. Their son Nicolas is bringing his girlfriend, Jeanne, to their home for the first time, and she doesn’t want Jacques to scare this one off.Jacques has always ruled his roost with patriarchal bravado, and he can’t help but verbally antagonize ever...

A group of writers mainly in the UK Authors forum have produced a new release collection: Personal Bests Journal.I interloped into UK Authors years ago in order to travel on their UKAway writing retreats and so I experienced such exotic writing resorts as Greece, Northern Cyprus, Southern Cyprus, Carmarthen and Newcastle!Selected from more than 130 submissions, the 31 stories in this first edition of the Personal Best journal have been chosen and edited by short story writer, novelist and (for 16 years) Prose Editor of Gold Dust Magazine, David Gardiner. My story has its title taken from a Zen koan (short saying bulging with meaning)“Don’t Bite My Finger…”The rest of the koan says because I ...

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To view this content, you must be a member of J. I. Rogers's Patreon at $1 or more - Click "Read more" to unlock this content at the sourceOriginal link

“Look left. Look right.”   Mother Goose honks sternly and the flock gathers.   “All clear. We’re good to go.” And so they do.   Before long, Mother Goose will be leading them south for the winter, but today they’ve enjoyed a bit of relaxation in the beauty of Victoria.   http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com   Original link

Walking my dog the other day, I see a woman sitting on the grass with a book, her dog nearby. The dogs decide a meeting is in order, so while they sniff noses, I ask the woman what she’s reading. This leads to a discussion of books, our reading preferences, and sharing of recommendations. I tell her to check out any or all of Jane Davis’ books. She tells me about Five Wives. I check the blurb (see below) and decide to try the sample. I’m mesmerized and buy the book. Five couples and their children go to Ecuador to bring the light to an isolated tribe–the Auca. Armed with what they deem to be good intentions, but with not even a superficial understanding of the natives and their culture, thes...

I read Jane Davis’ marvelous new novel, At the Stroke of Nine O’clock. I immediately turned to page one to begin rereading it which prompted me to post this question on Facebook. Have you ever read a book you liked so much that you turned back to page 1 to reread it immediately? If so, what was the book? The responses varied from “never” to “more than once.” Never: Nope. Too many good books to spend time reading a book more than once. No, never. But if I were to lie and say I had, it would probably be “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” or maybe “The Lazy man’s Guide to Enlightenment.” No, but I recently reread a book that I read when I was a teenager. I did not remember that I had read i...

  My daughter calls from Mexico in a panic. The ATM she was using clicked and chattered as they usually do, but no money was ejected from the machine. This has happened to me a couple of times over the years so I know the feeling. “I’m not at home and my phone charge is dangerously low,” she says. “Please check my account to see if I’ve been debited.” Yep. She’s been debited. I call her back and tell her I’ll phone our bank. I explain what happened to the young man and tell him that my daughter can’t call him herself because she’s running out of charge. “I just had a woman call from the US with the same problem,” he says. “Don’t worry, we can sort this out.” The young man at the bank needs i...

Warning: These can be addictive.Original link

Read a book by Jane Davis: These Fragile Things.  Think: Amazing. Riveting. So well written. Doesn’t get any better than this. Read another book by Jane Davis: A Funeral for an Owl. Think: Complex. Amazing characterizations. So well written. Doesn’t get better than this. When you’ve read all of her books and think Davis can’t possibly outdo herself, she writes a new book. And it’s even better. How does she do it? The magic of Davis’ writing is hard to define. It’s not just in what she says. The power comes from what she doesn’t say, but hints at. She gives the reader enough that the “missing bits” serve to strengthen the   characters and plot in the reader’s mind. The quote on the cover sums...

I bought this computer ten or twelve years ago, wrote and published seven novels on it and helped three other authors with their books. But for the past couple of years it’s been failing and slowing down and misbehaving so I knew the time had come to replace it. Of course sending it to my favorite computer shop to be euthanized meant I’d have to back up my files and pictures to an external hard drive. Files? No problem. Pictures? Could be an issue.   Now, you have to understand that I’ve never been a big picture taker so where did all these come from? Well, in 2009, the munchkin was born and I had a cell phone with picture taking ability. Did I go crazy? perhaps a bit. 12,901 pictures crazy ...

I’m currently reading Mr. Sawyer’s latest novel. Once again, his brilliance shines through as he weaves a fascinating tale of past events and speculates on the future. Could Earth really be destroyed by the sun in 2026? AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK go HERE to learn more. Sawyer writes: ” Magicians are reluctant to explain how a trick was done, and so I was loath to include an afterword in my novel The Oppenheimer Alternative that would immediately explain what parts of the story were real and which were imaginary. I wanted the book to sit with readers for a bit, as any other novel would, before delineating fact from fiction. But if you’ve come here, you’re clearly curious about that and so h...

Warning: These can be addictive.Original link

Exit, Pursued by a Bee is my first science fiction novel and was published by Double Dragon Publishing way back in 2008 and came second in a Readers’ Poll competition for best SF novel of 2008 with over 1,000 votes. The publisher is closing down so titles return to the authors. The idea for many of the original ideas in the book came while I was walking up Glastonbury Hill. Most science fiction books have to make their space vehicles leave a planet at escape velocity (ironically, the name of the magazine I co-edited at the time), use radio for communications, and in those days the pilots were men. So, in Exit the alien (although they were on and inside Earth long before homo sapiens existed)...

Social distancing (Pandemic shopping) for books at Victoria’s best book store. Munro’s Books now occupies a landmark location in the heart of Victoria’s Old Town, but its origins are much more modest. In 1963, Jim Munro and his first wife, Alice — yes, that Alice Munro — set up shop in a long, narrow space on Yates Street, near Victoria’s movie theatres. Bookstores were few and far between in Victoria; Jim’s main competition in those days came from the book sections at the local department stores. But the location was convenient for younger, movie-going customers, and the staff’s interest in new trends in writing and other art forms built a loyal clientele. The store relocated to larger prem...

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