Stacking the Shelves (Aug. 31, 2014)

Tynga of Team Tynga's Reviews has a meme to spotlight the books we receive each week. Visit her site to check out the linky and see what everyone gets. I guarantee that your TBR pile will grow.

Skin of the Wolf by Sam Cabot is a thriller that I saw on someone's blog leading me to buy a copy at Amazon Marketplace.

The Hot Zone by Jayne Castle is the latest in her Rainshadow futuristic romance series. She is an auto-buy author for me no matter what name she writes under.

The Beautiful Ashes by Jeaniene Frost is a new series for her. I bought this one for my Kindle.

Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson is also a book I saw on someone's blog which led me to getting a copy through Amazon Marketplace.

I added a couple of review books to my stack too.

Harbor Island by Carla Neggers is the latest in the Sharpe & Donovan series. I am set to be on the blog tour for this book.

Liesmith by Alis Franklin was a science fiction book that I got an email about. It was available at NetGalley. The book is an ebook only release in October.

What did you add to your stack?

Book Review: Eight Million Gods by Wen Spencer

Eight Million Gods
Author: Wen Spencer
Publication: Baen (June 4, 2013)

Description: First entry in a new urban fantasy saga by the creator of the popular Tinker contemporary fantasy/SF series. A young American expat writer in Japan suffering from OCD tries to figure out if she’s crazy or not while solving a murder that may be part of a war among Japanese deities.

A contemporary fantasy of mystery and death as American expats battle Japanese gods and monsters to retrieve an ancient artifact that can destroy the world.

On Saturday afternoon, Nikki Delany thought, "George Wilson, in the kitchen, with a blender." By dinner, she had killed George and posted his gory murder to her blog. The next day, she put on her mourning clothes and went out to meet her best friend for lunch to discuss finding a replacement for her love interest.

Nikki is a horror novelist.  Her choice of career is dictated by an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction.  She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable.  Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender.

Reality starts to unravel around Nikki.  She's attacked by a raccoon in a business suit.  After a series of blackouts, she’s accompanied by a boy that no one else can see, a boy who claims to be a god.  Is she really being pursued by Japanese myths—or is she simply going insane?

What Nikki does know for sure is that the bodies are piling up, her mother has arrived in Japan to lock her up for the rest of her life—and her novels always end with everyone dead.

My Thoughts: Nikki Delany is on the run from her mother. She is currently in Japan. Nikki has OCD and a condition that forces her to write. Her mother has had her committed to mental institutions, medicated and under the care of a huge number of psychiatrists who all try to convince her that she is insane. Nikki's mother is a rich, powerful senator. The only way to keep from being institutionalized again is to run.

Nikki uses her compulsion to write in order to write horror novels. When she is telling her friend Miriam about a scene that she has recently written and shared to her blog, she is overheard by a police officer. The Japanese police arrest her because someone seems to be recreating Nikki's fictional murders in the real world.

It is at this point that the story takes a turn to the paranormal. Her writing leads her to a katana that holds a kami, a Japanese nature spirit, who takes control of her body and moves her around. She is attacked by a tanuki impersonating one of the police officers who interviewed her. She writes about and then meets a shapeshifter that she first calls Scary Cat Dude.

The Scary Cat Dude, actually named Leo, is searching for his adoptive father and finds Nikki because she wrote about him and hopes she can write more and find out where he is. Nikki learns that she writes the truth which is horrifying to her because everyone she writes about dies in gruesome ways. Now she has written herself and her friends into the story and has to find a way to change the ending.

I really enjoyed the writing and the details about Japanese mythology. I loved Nikki who wasn't at all sure, at first, that she wasn't going insane. I loved her courage and her determination to have a life free from her mother's control.

Fans of urban fantasy, anime and Japanese culture are the ideal audience for this one.

Favorite Quote:

Nikki's stomach was full of cold snakes. Getting into a car with a practical stranger was a huge personal "no no" for her. Only someone who was stupid as well as crazy would do it. Horrible things were done to them and their bodies were hidden away where they would never be found. She know almost nothing about Leo except that he knew what it was like to snap a person's neck with his bare hands. It wasn't a particularly reassuring factoid. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Eight Million Gods by Wen Spencer

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

This week I am spotlighting Eight Million Gods by Wen Spencer. this is the first book in a new urban fantasy series by an author I enjoy. It has been sitting on my TBR mountain since June 8, 2013. Here is the description:

First entry in a new urban fantasy saga by the creator of the popular Tinker contemporary fantasy/SF series. A young American expat writer in Japan suffering from OCD tries to figure out if she’s crazy or not while solving a murder that may be part of a war among Japanese deities.

A contemporary fantasy of mystery and death as American expats battle Japanese gods and monsters to retrieve an ancient artifact that can destroy the world.

On Saturday afternoon, Nikki Delany thought, "George Wilson, in the kitchen, with a blender." By dinner, she had killed George and posted his gory murder to her blog. The next day, she put on her mourning clothes and went out to meet her best friend for lunch to discuss finding a replacement for her love interest.

Nikki is a horror novelist.  Her choice of career is dictated by an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction.  She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable.  Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender.

Reality starts to unravel around Nikki.  She's attacked by a raccoon in a business suit.  After a series of blackouts, she’s accompanied by a boy that no one else can see, a boy who claims to be a god.  Is she really being pursued by Japanese myths—or is she simply going insane?

What Nikki does know for sure is that the bodies are piling up, her mother has arrived in Japan to lock her up for the rest of her life—and her novels always end with everyone dead.

Beginning:

"Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is escape your powerful, control-freak mother," Nikki whispered to the mirror hung on the back of the apartment's door.

Friday 56:

Nikki lifted out the bag, undid the ties, and shifted the fabric aside to look closer at the sword inside. Gold swallowtail wings gleamed on a violet field.

Book Review: Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay

Books Can Be Deceiving
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Series: A Library Lover's Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Berkley; 2nd Print edition (July 5, 2011)

Description: Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey's friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children's book, but Beth's boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he's found murdered-and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast before they throw the book at the wrong person.

My Thoughts: BOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING was an entertaining cozy mystery. Lindsay is new at the Briar Creek Public Library. She came there after losing her job in an academic library and shedding her cheating fiance.

Her best friend Beth is the children's librarian. Beth is also an aspiring author who is dating a famous children's author. When Beth shows her portfolio to a visiting editor, she is surprised to be called a plagiarist because her boyfriend Rick is set to publish an extremely similar book. When Beth visits the now ex-boyfriend with Lindsay and a local ship's captain, she finds that he has been brutally murdered. The local police chief is convinced that Beth is the murder.Since Lindsay refuses to believe that Beth murdered her plagiarizing ex, she begins her own investigation and discovers interesting and disturbing things about Rick.

I liked Lindsay's new group of friends at the library. The book had some laugh out loud moments when describing Lindsay's attempts to learn the various crafts that were done as a part of the crafting book club. I liked the references to other books and authors. I liked that Lindsay knew the favorite authors of many of her patrons. I liked that Lindsay was beginning to feel at home in Briar Creek.

Fans of cozies and libraries will enjoy this entertaining story. Interesting additions to the book include a discussion guide to one of books the book group discusses, a knitting pattern for the hat Lindsay makes, and a recipe for hot chocolate which was served to Lindsay by the boat captain Sully after a harrowing experience.

Favorite Quote:

"Nothing," Violet said. "But...um...what are you knitting it for?"

"My dad."

"Oh, so he is real," Nancy said. there was a twinkle in her blue eyes that should have warned Lindsey, but she missed it.

"Of course my father's real," she said.

"Wow, so how does it feel to be a descendant of Bigfoot?" Beth asked. She muffled her laughter with her knitting.

"What?" Lindsey asked and then looked at the sock on her two circular needles and frowned. "Oh, you. It's not that big."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Hammered by Kevin Hearne

Hammered
Author: Kevin Hearne
Series: The Iron Druid Chronicles (Book 3)
Publication: Del Rey (July 5, 2011)

Description: Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully—he’s ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he’s asked his friend Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare.

One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus’s home base of Tempe, Arizona. There’s a vampire turf war brewing, and Russian demon hunters who call themselves the Hammers of God are running rampant. Despite multiple warnings and portents of dire consequences, Atticus and Leif journey to the Norse plain of Asgard, where they team up with a werewolf, a sorcerer, and an army of frost giants for an epic showdown against vicious Valkyries, angry gods, and the hammer-wielding Thunder Thug himself.

My Thoughts: HAMMERED was another excellent addition to the Iron Druid Chronicles. In this episode, Atticus needs to keep his promise to Leif and get him to Asgard where he can finally take his revenge on Thor. Now, Atticus has gotten all sorts of good advice from both Jesus and the Morrigan who tell him that this is a major bad  idea. But Atticus has given his word.

Along with Leif and the werewolf alpha Gunnar are three other supernatural beings who also have a need for revenge against Thor. They include an Asian named Zhang Guo Lao, a Finnish semi-forgotten god named Vainamoinen, and a Russian thunder god named Perun. In a somewhat Canterbury Tales mode, we hear each of their stories about their reasons for wanting Thor dead.

I am always amazed and informed about various world mythologies when I read this series. The juxtaposition of characters out of legend with current culture makes these stories amazing. This is probably the first time I have ever gotten an ear worm from reading though. Atticus walks in on two frost giants making love and quickly needs something to erase the image from his mind. He chooses to focus on It's a Small World After All which he says is one of the most annoying songs ever. I agree!

This is also a story that begins lots of changes for Atticus. He will have to run and hide to avoid the ire of the rest of the gods. He spends time saying goodbye to his life in Tempe. He is leaving with not much more than his apprentice and his dog. His leave-taking brings up one of the downsides of a really, really long life. People you love don't live forever and every loss brings pain.

This is an excellent series for fans of urban fantasy. It just keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to read more.

Favorite Quote:

It used to be so easy for me to run, to care about nothing but myself and the earth underneath my feet. That had been my modus operandi ever since Tahirah died; I never stayed anywhere long enough to be bound by commitments, never entangled myself with the lives of others, and told myself it was all about avoiding Aenghus Og. That was more true than I realized: What I'd truly been avoiding was love, the strongest binding there is, and the pain that scrapes at your insides when the bond is forcefully broken.

It has been more than five centuries. I still miss her. She smiles in my dreams sometimes and I wake up weeping for the loss.

I bought this one on July 7, 2011. You can buy your copy here.

Teaser Tuesday: Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser:

"You don't have to go with me," Beth said. "I can handle this on my own."

"Normally, I would agree with you," Lindsay said as she paused to sniff the cologne sample in the magazine. To citrusy; why was men's cologne always heavy on the citrus? "But given that you threatened to feed him to the sharks in front of a listening audience, I'm thinking I should be there."

This week my teaser comes from Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay. It is the first book in the Library Lovers series. Because I can't resist books about libraries and librarians, I added it to my stack on March 2, 2012. Here is the description:

Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey's friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children's book, but Beth's boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he's found murdered-and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast before they throw the book at the wrong person.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Aug. 25, 2014)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I really enjoyed my last week of summer vacation. My friend came to visit and we watched all of the sixth season of True Blood. Neither of us could really imagine how stressful it would have been to watch it when it was first shown on HBO. Every single episode ended with a cliffhanger! We also watched Divergent which makes me really want to read Insurgent and Allegiant which are waiting on my Kindle. The weather was mostly grey, foggy or rainy but we did manage to do some sightseeing on Wednesday afternoon. We climbed Enger Tower to get a good view of the city of Duluth, Lake Superior and the harbor. My calves were still sending protests every time I moved until Saturday. I think I did more flights of stairs in one afternoon than I had done all summer.

At the end of the week I was busy packing and loading the car. I came back home for the school year on Saturday. Since then, I have been busy unpacking although most of the books are still in bags. I have been getting organized for our week of workshops. Monday isn't so bad but Tuesday and Wednesday are twelve-hour days because of the Open Houses that kick off our school year. Officially, Thursday and Friday are days off but I know that most of us teachers will be there at least part of the time getting ready for classes to begin on Tuesday.

I'm excited to begin another year but a little apprehensive because I will be trying new things, i.e. Google Classroom with my fifth graders, and I don't yet have class lists or plans for the first week of school.

Read Last Week

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios was the beginning of a new trilogy that takes place in contemporary America and jinnis. The main character is the last surviving member of the ruling class. There is also a sort of love triangle as she is torn between her master and the leader of the revolution that wanted to overthrow her caste. My review will be posted on October 1.

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin was a middle grade story about an autistic girl and her dog. It is written in her voice and was a great story. My review will be posted on October 4.

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare was my first Scholastic approval at NetGalley. This was a modern day family about a young boy who doesn't want to be a mage but who passes the tests despite his best efforts and learns that being a mage might be exactly who he needs to be. My review will be posted on Sept. 8.

Stray by Elissa Sussman was a fantasy set in a fairy tale world where only women have magic but are forced by society and culture not to use it and to feel that it is shameful. Aislynn is a young princess who wants to follow her society's rules but her failure to control her magic changes her future. My review will be posted on Oct. 9.

A Penny for the Hangman by Tom Savage was an excellent thriller. My review will be posted on Oct. 1.

Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez was also great. It was part thriller, part  romance, and part coming-of-age story. My review will be posted on Oct. 8.

Currently

I have just begun Even in Paradise by Chelsey Philpot. This is a contemporary YA ARC I got from Edelweiss. Thus far it is reminding me of The Great Gatsby.

Next Week

I am going to be concentrating on YA books this week while I wait for some highly anticipated adult books to show up in my mailbox or on my Kindle.

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis

Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst

Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker

Centaur Rising by Jane Yolen

Reviews Posted

• Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis
• Hidden by Sophie Jordan
• Memory Zero by Keri Arthur
• Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes
• Mercy Burns by Keri Arthur
• Feral by Holly Schindler
• Irresistible Force by D. D. Ayres

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

• Inside of a Dog
• Ms. Martin Teaches Media

That was my week. What was your week like?