Monday Malarkey

Today's stack photobombed by Fiona.

Recent arrivals (top to bottom):

• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt - purchased
• You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon and
• The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon - sent by author
• The Son of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning - from HarperCollins for review 

This was a much more normal set of arrivals than that huge stack that arrived the last two weeks. How Democracies Die is a book I read about somewhere, but I don't recall where. Siobhan Fallon kindly sent me You Know When the Men Are Gone after reading my comment that I regret giving away very few of the books that I pass on to friends but I've been wanting to reread You Know When the Men Are Gone for ages. And, then she threw in her latest! Obviously, Siobhan is my new super-secret best friend. I'll have to tell her about it, some time. ;) So, only one ARC, this week. One is a good number. My May ARC pile is huge! I meant to request fewer books, this year, so I'll have to work on that a little harder.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• My Coney Island Baby by Billy O'Callaghan
• The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves

Both were so good. Billy O'Callaghan's prose is pure poetry, enough to overcome my distaste for the fact that My Coney Island Baby is a story of infidelity. It's not often that I'm so completely besotted with a writing style that I don't even really care that the story makes me squirm a little. And, the characters in The Girl He Used to Know are the kind you really care about -- to the point that I couldn't bear to put the book down until I finished it.


Currently reading:

• Anything But a Duke (Duke's Den #2) by Christy Carlyle

I loved The Girl He Used to Know so much that I had a terrible time starting a new book. In fact, the first night after I finished it, I flipped through books and read a page here, a page there without anything at all succeeding at pulling me in. The next day, I tried Anything But a Duke and there was my remedy. I just needed to find something . . . fluffy? Lighthearted, at least. Romance is definitely good for recovery of any kind.


Posts since last Malarkey:

• The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Applehans (book review)
• The Binding by Bridget Collins (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)

I didn't post anything on Thursday because I was too busy to write on Wednesday, then on Thursday we had storms, so I stayed off the computer.


In other news:

We're still watching episodes of The Royal (first season) when we have time and while Husband was away on business I watched most of the third season of Our Girl, also on BritBox. One episode to go. It turns out Kiddo likes The Royal. I never know what he'll like, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Speaking of Kiddo, he chose a movie that was so terrible it was fun, this weekend: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Wow, was it bad.

And, at home, the construction on the patio replacement for our former deck (have I mentioned that?) has been going on for a month, now, but rain put a stop to it in the middle of the week and with the grass torn up, this weekend's rain has left our backyard a muddy, puddly mess. So, it will probably be a day or two before they return. Someday our new patio will be done. We're already enjoying it. In spite of the fact that there are no paving stones, yet, there's gravel and the dirt below it is well packed, so we've dragged chairs out onto the gravel surface, several times, (usually in the evening, after the construction crew leaves) and one day I sat on the steps to read.

As of this morning, I'm having some keyboard trouble with my ancient MacBook Pro, so I hope my blogging plans for the week won't be foiled. I'm scheduled to review some children's books on Thursday and planned to make this a children's week but I'm it looks like I may have a short in the keypad. It's not stuck keys but I'm typing along and letters are not showing up. I just had to hit the letter "i" 7 times before it appeared, and there are random spaces and extra letters showing up. If I disappear for a few days, it will be to deal with that.

Happy Monday!


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