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Hello Everyone,

It is hard to believe July is nearly half over. Last night our 36 year old deep freezer died at 11pm. Thankfully we also have a spare 36 year old refrigerator in the baesment that is usually turned off and now everything from the deep freeze is packed into the that while we research current freezers. We leave next Tuesday for a nearly 3 week trip so we are so thankful we were home when this happened and we didn't lose a lot of food.

Anyway, I finished Veridian Sterling Fakes It. It was average. There were some parts that I didn't see coming so that kept it a bit interesting. If you're into art it might be more interesting to you.

I finished a bunch more Amazon collection short stories on Audible. They are:
The Magician, Poppy's Story, both were average and from the Good Intentions collections.

In the Getaway collection I've so far read Shell Game which was terrible! It is one of the rare 1-star ratings I've ever given. If it wasn't such a short story to begin with I'd have DNF'd it. Getting to the end, there was basically no point and no plot. The MC was creepy, on the edge of being a pedophile.

And I also finished Catch Her in a Lie which I liked a lot. The author considered that short story to be the 0.5 novella for a series. I liked it enough that I searched out the first book in the series with the same MCs.

I'm now partway through Belle Mer also in the collection.

On my kindle I'm now reading Friends with Secrets. I just started it last night so no idea what it's about yet. It was a free download from Amazon where I get to pick one book per month.

QOTW:
Would you rather like a book everyone hates or hate a book everyone loves?

My answer is less about what I would prefer but more about what always seems to happen. I rarely love a book everyone hates, but frequently dislike (not necessarily hate) popular books. Recent and top of mind books that I did not like but everyone else seems to rave about are:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Lessons in Chemistry
A Man Called Ove
Ready Player One
The Vanishing Half
anything by Kristin Hannah

Happy Friday! Things have been pretty quiet here, just suffering through a bit of a heat wave.

Finished:
Just some comics and manga:
The King's Beast Vol. 13
The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag

Currently reading:
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - for Popsugar's book about pirates. Still enjoying this, it's just been slow going because I haven't felt like reading much during the heat.

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 2 by Natsu Hyuuga - not for a prompt.

QOTW:
Same as you, Susan, I am more likely to dislike a book that others like. (Although I did like a couple off your list.) I rarely like "literary fiction" or the darlings of the moment that people are raving about.

Wow, 36 years? That's impressive!

Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration - This was about various technologies developed to track bird migrations. (I was expecting "the mystery of bird migration" to be about how birds navigate, but it was not that; it was about where they go.) It was somewhat interesting; the best part was the one guy who was somehow involved in a bunch of new developments over multiple decades and kept popping up chapter after chapter.

Death of an Author - This is very hard to describe, as it comes out of the gate hard with two twists and then really keeps you guessing the whole way. It involves the identity of a mysterious author who may have gone missing. I didn't think the solution was all that strong, but I liked the author's style and the sort of meta-cheekiness of writing about writers. There's another book by this author with good reviews, so that's definitely on the list.

QOTW: I agree that what usually happens is that I don't like something popular, but I'd probably prefer the opposite. If everyone loves it, I feel like maybe I missed something or there's something wrong with me. It doesn't feel great to have people denigrate something you like, but at least in that case you can tell yourself they're the jerk for yucking someone else's yum.

Heat wave is right! And it's just going to get hotter as the week goes on over here.

Hiding in my A/C this week I've read:
Heart of the Sun Warrior, sequel to Daughter of the Moon Goddess - I didn't think it was quite as good as the first book, but it tied up some loose ends and I'm glad I read it. I think if you go into the duology keeping in mind that they are fairy tales and not intended to be at all realistic, they're worth picking up!

The Last Werewolf: this was INTENSE. I've always enjoyed werewolf urban fantasy (like the Mercy Thompson and Kate Daniels series), but this is more horror than urban fantasy, with the gory reality of what a werewolf would actually be like. I loved it, but I think I'm going to take a break before reading more of the trilogy because it's...a lot.

Cliffhaven: A Novel Of Romantic Suspense: full disclosure, the author is my cousin. But I really do recommend this if gothic romantic suspense is your cup of tea! I put off reading it for a while because it's not my favorite genre and I was afraid I wouldn't like it an wouldn't know what to say to my cousin when she asked what I thought, but I should have given her more credit! I want her to get more exposure, but I wouldn't bother to recommend it here if I didn't think it was worth reading. FWIW. :)

I'm now on Starling House, which I just started. I didn't intend on reading two creepy house books in a row, but this library loan just came in so what can you do?

QotW: either, I guess? Like the rest of you, I'm accustomed to liking books that are a bit out of the mainstream, so I long ago stopped caring about whether other people liked what I was reading or whether I liked what they were reading. I'm just grateful for the Internet so I can find my fellow genre lovers to talk books with!