Books, Tunes, and Memes–What Else Could You Possibly Want? (Weekend Coffee Share #22, What’s on Your Bookshelf #2)

January 21, 2022 /

Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer and What’s on Your Bookshelf, hosted by Retirement Reflections. Let’s get these link parties started! First up:

Writing News

  • I applied to the Author Mentor Match contest, which is similar to Pitch Wars. It would be wonderful to have a published author as a mentor. And now I’m back to refreshing my GMail every 1.3 seconds. Send help.
  • I’m taking the Your First Five Pages: Reader Glue class from Lawson Writing Academy. So far, it’s been great! With help from the instructor and my classmates, I’ve reworked the first two pages of the novel I plan to query, and they’re much stronger. Just for fun, here’s the first paragraph:

The Pine Cone Motel in Ponderosa, Arizona, conjured images of Norman Bates slipping in for a little shower action. But after driving two thousand miles in three days, fictional serial killers with mommy issues weren’t at the top of my worry list. What was at the top of that list? Finding a home, a refuge, a sanctuary. Oh, yeah—and staying alive.

Opening of Vanishing, Inc., my novel in progress

Other News

As we used to say in the 80s: psych! There isn’t any other news. This week has been pretty routine. I kid you not, the most exciting thing I did all week was attend my first in-person work meeting with more than 2 people since March 2020. And the most bizarre thing about it was that it was exciting. And it felt amazing. A work meeting, exciting and amazing? No, I’m not high, just starved for in-person human interaction. Apparently the pandemic has broken my brain.

Books

What’s a morning coffee chat without books? Today’s the first What’s on Your Bookshelf link party since last year, so I’ll share my favorite reads from 2021. First, Goodreads has a fun feature called My Year in Books. If you haven’t tried it yet, check it out. Here’s mine.

I read 66 books in 2021, less than usual because I spent way too much time on my phone, but I still managed to read quite a few books I really enjoyed. Here are all my 5-star reads for the year:

Fiction

  • Buried – Jeffery Deaver. One of Deaver’s twisty short stories.
  • A Textbook Case – Jeffery Deaver. A Lincoln Rhyme short. I love, love, love Deaver’s short stories!
  • The Burning Wire – Jeffery Deaver. Why yes, I did read a lot of Deaver last year. This one’s a Lincoln Rhyme novel.
  • The Cutting Edge – Jeffery Deaver. Another Lincoln Rhyme novel I loved.
  • Nocturne: And Other Unabridged Twisted Stories – (you guessed it) Jeffery Deaver. I swear I read fiction by people other than Deaver.
  • More Twisted: Collected Stories Vol. II – Jeffery Deaver.
  • Devil to Pay – Not Jeffery Deaver Jeaniene Frost. I’m a sucker for Frost’s vampire romances–they’re so much fun! And I liked this short story even better than her novels.
  • The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood. Not sure how I got to be [redacted] years old without reading this classic, but here we are. It’s as wonderful as everyone says. I confess I hadn’t read a literary novel in a long time, and I came away in awe of how riveting the book was, even when very little actual action was happening. I was also impressed with how Atwood handles such disturbing subject matter without being traumatizingly graphic.
  • Fatal Intent – Tammy Euliano. I couldn’t put this one down. Euliano blends medical thriller with cozy mystery in a way that’s absolutely compelling. Read it.
  • Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories – Agatha Christie. I found a tattered paperback copy of this book in a Little Free Library. I missed out on Agatha Christie when I was young, a major gap in my literary education that I’m working on filling.

Nonfiction – Writing

Nonfiction – Everything Else

  • Atomic Habits – James Clear. I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages and finally did. Highly recommended if you want to form new, positive habits.
  • Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine – Damon Tweedy. Wonderful memoir told through a lens of deep compassion and difficult experience.
  • The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Great Vegetables – Lorene Edwards Forkner. Just what the title says it is–with lovely photos and solid, practical advice for newbies. I reviewed this one for Library Journal.
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism – Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Amber Ruffin is a writer for Late Night With Seth Myers, and Lacey is her sister. I listened to the audiobook, read by Ruffin. It’s both appalling and, dare I say it, entertaining (because Ruffin is freakin’ funny, even when she’s talking about racism). Fellow white folks, give it a read and learn a little about what it’s like to be a Black woman in the USA.
  • Authorized: Love and Romance – Faith Salie. This one isn’t technically a book–it’s an Audible original series that feels like a podcast–but it’s in Audible and on Goodreads, so it counts. Salie talks with some of the biggest names in romance writing, and it’s wonderful.
  • Dave Barry’s Funniest Stuff – Dave Barry. I’ve been a Dave Barry fangirl since the first time I read him, which was probably when I was in college. I only wish I could be as funny as he is.
  • Confessions of an Investigative Reporter – Matthew Schwartz. I picked this one up at a book signing (which I wrote about in Weekend Coffee Share #6) and *loved* it. Schwartz is a former investigative reporter for several local TV stations, including one in Tucson, and damn, the man has stories.

What I’m Reading Now

Tunes

I’ve shared music a few times as part of my Weekend Coffee Share posts, which seems appropriate, because if we were having coffee in person, sooner or later the conversation would probably turn to music. So I think I’ll make it a regular feature of these posts.

A week or so ago, Eric Alper asked a wonderful question on Twitter: What’s the most profoundly beautiful piece of music you have ever listened to? I highly recommend browsing the responses for some great listening across a bunch of genres. A few people posted a performance I’d never seen: Queen with Adam Lambert performing “Who Wants to Live Forever,” at the Isle of Wight Festival the day after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. It’s an incredible performance, and the emotion in his voice when he dedicates the song to the victims is gutting. Give it a watch/listen.

https://youtu.be/eHPv80jNoQU

Apparently I’ve been living under a rock, because this is the first time I’ve heard Adam Lambert with Queen. No one can replace Freddie, but Lambert has one hell of a voice. If, like me, you love Queen and want to hear more with Lambert, here’s a full 2-hour concert from Rock in Rio 2015:

https://youtu.be/6pH6z_CBWr0

And since we’re talking about Queen, let’s do a little pre-meme-ing (which is a little like pregaming but without the alcohol, i.e., nothing like pregaming).

And now it’s time for…

The Funnies

This week’s theme here at Meme Central is immature humor. If you have to ask why, you must be new here.

The state of my emotional and intellectual development, encapsulated in a meme. Damn, I love the internet!

This one is also pretty accurate:

I’m a 12-year-old boy trapped in a middle-aged librarian’s body. Send help.

Dad jokes

Because no one does childish humor like dads.

#BadInfoSecurityAdvice

And finally, not a dad joke but a good note to end on:

Dude, it’s 2022. Pants are so 2019.

And… that’s a wrap for this week. Now go do something immature this weekend–and tell me about it in the comments.

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