The monthly book post–and a great tool for readers
We’re talking books this week–what I’ve been reading, a nifty tool that lets you revisit your Kindle highlights, and of course the usual meme-y silliness. Oh, and weather bragging. We must have weather bragging. With apologies to those of you who live where winter exists:
Feel free to gloat in June when it’ll be approximately 872F here in Satan’s Anus. Right now it’s my turn.
Now that I have the weather bragging out of my system: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer, and the What’s On Your Bookshelf challenge, hosted by Sue, Donna, Jo and Deb. Grab a treat, have a seat, and let’s get to it.
The Christmas horror story is done!
I’ve whined off and on this year about how I’m struggling to get writing done. That’s still true, but I did finish a story last weekend (finally!). It’s called “The Fine Print,” and it’s a ~9200-word Christmas horror story about a grieving father who picks the wrong man to bare his soul to. I submitted it for the annual Deathlehem anthology and I’m now checking my Gmail every 1.9 seconds for a response. Because that’s a perfectly normal, mentally healthy thing to do.
Of course it is.
We writers are known for our healthy habits and constructive coping devices.
Books!
Here’s what I’ve read since my last What’s On Your Bookshelf post:
- Midnight, Texas trilogy (Midnight Crossroad, Day Shift, and Night Shift) – Charlaine Harris. I’ve been on a serious Charlaine Harris binge lately. I reread her Harper Connelly series two months ago and most of her Lily Bard series a month ago, and in the past month I blew through her Midnight, Texas trilogy. It’s a mix of urban fantasy and not-quite-cozy mystery with a wonderful band of quirky characters (two of whom are from her other series–Bobo Winthrop from the Lily Bard series and Manfred Bernardo from the Harper Connelly series). The plots develop slowly, so these are books to savor like a mug of hot chocolate on a rainy Sunday.
- Shakespeare’s Counselor (Lily Bard #5) – Charlaine Harris. Read the first 4 last month and the last one this month. See last month’s post for details on this series.
- Small Kingdoms and Other Stories – Charlaine Harris. This is a collection of linked short stories. Different from Harris’ usual work but good.
- American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI – Kate Winkler Dawson. This nonfiction book tells the story of Edward Oscar Heinrich, one of America’s first forensic scientists and a man with exceptional skills and a big ego. Some of the most fascinating parts to me were the stories of how juries responded to his testimony. Spoiler alert: about as well as the OJ jury responded to DNA evidence.
- Murder at the Lobstah Shack (Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery 3) – Maddie Day. I won this one from the author for leaving a comment on the excellent blog, The Wickeds. It’s a true cozy mystery–amateur sleuth, no cussing, no sex, minimal on-the-page violence and set in a small Maine town with the nosiest cast of characters you’ll meet this side of a Georgia PTA. Fun read.
Readwise: Revisit Kindle highlights and more
Do you highlight lots of passages in your Kindle books, then never look at those passages again? Me too! And now there’s a product for people like us. Meet Readwise! [Full disclosure: that’s an affiliate link, so I get a small cut in my subscription cost if you use it to sign up.]
Readwise gathers your highlights from Kindle, Libby, Apple Books, Instapaper, Pocket, Medium, and more. Then it compiles a few of them into a daily email so you can revisit them. You can also export your highlights to other tools like Evernote and Notion or as .csv or Markdown files, though I haven’t tried those features.
The daily email can be configured to include passages from recommended books based on your highlights (you don’t want to know how many books I’ve added to my to-read list because of that feature), and you can mark certain passages as favorites or remove them from the rotation. I look forward to reading my daily Readwise email because it’s both interesting and fun to revisit passages that resonated with me.
If you want to try Readwise, you can get a 30-day free trial without supplying any credit card info.
Memes for Book Nerds
If my TBR list becomes sentient:
As memes go, this next one’s dead accurate:
Spoiler alert: Gandalf has failed me. Unless you consider taking minutes at the next library faculty meeting to be an adventure.
With my luck, this is the kind of adventure I’ll get taken on:
Or maybe this one:
And finally:
*swoon*
Hopefully Long-Suffering Husband will be role-playing some of those romantic fantasies this weekend because we have a guest coming to visit next week, and the house looks like a tornado hit a meth lab.
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! (I think the rest of you already celebrated Thanksgiving, right? So have a happy ordinary, non-turkey-focused week.)
28 Comments
Retirement Reflections
Hi, Janet – Congratulations on completing The Fine Print. That’s an awesome accomplishment.
Thank you for joining us at What’s On Your Bookshelf and sharing your recent reads. I especially like those romance novels! 😀
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! And yeah, those are the best romances.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50
Hi Janet, well done on publishing The Fine Print! I love your memes in the post and also you have shared some interesting reads for us to consider. Thanks for joining in WOYBS and look forward to you joining us next month. x
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! “The Fine Print” isn’t published yet, but at least it’s done. I’m still checking my Gmail obsessively to see if it will be accepted for Deathlehem.
Joanne
Now those are some romance novels I’d LOVE! LOL. Your weather does look perfect… so perhaps instead of being a snowbird in Florida for the winter when I grow up I want to be a snowbird in Arizona.
Janet Alcorn
We have lots of snowbirds! It really is gorgeous here in the winter. Florida has one advantage over us though–beaches and oceans. We have cactus. But no alligators.
Jennifer Jones
Congrats on completing The Fine Print Janet. It must feel great to have it done. I haven’t read any books on your list, so a few more for the fast growing TBR list. Thanks for the pointer to Readwise, which I haven’t heard of, so will be checking out over the weekend.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! I hope you like Readwise. I love revisiting books I’ve read, and sometimes a quote will strike me at just the right moment.
Maria
You so deserve that lovely weather 🙂 Enjoy! I just came back inside from an hour long bike ride with heavy winds and 27F.. the hot coffee is well needed on my part. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
Janet Alcorn
Wow, you’re brave! I don’t mind cold weather… as long as I’m inside. Congrats on being much tougher than I am.
Maria
Have a great week!
Janet Alcorn
You too!
Maria
Thank you!
trent
This morning I finished my wash and opened the drier. Full as usual. I then… folded her laundry. Maybe they’ll write a true romance novel about me some day 😉 Of course, when I do become famous for doing romantic things like washing the dishes and folding laundry, I may move to Arizona – for the month of November and the month of March.
Nope, Gandalf never came for me. I’m still waiting….
Hope you are having a great weekend!
Janet Alcorn
Congratulations–you are now a romantic hero! A photographer will be arriving shortly to do your cover shoot.
November and March are excellent times to be in Arizona. And the Tucson Festival of Books happens in March, so there’s more incentive.
Gandalf is a slacker. Hope you are having a great weekend too!
Jo
Good luck with the short story entry – I love the competition name… and yeas, that’s perfectly normal and rational behaviour for a writer. As always a great set of memes and thanks for linking up.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! Deathlehem is a holiday horror anthology published every year with proceeds going to charity. I’ve read the last 2, and both contained some great stories.
Debbie
Well done Janet, I hope the email appears soon, and I would say your behaviour (while waiting for said email) is perfectly normal :). A fun lot of memes – love the odyssey one! Thanks for joining us this month.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! We writers are rarely described as “perfectly normal” 🙂
Natalie
Congrats on finishing The Fine Print! That’s a huge accomplishment. AZ weather in November sounds wonderful. Brag away and enjoy every minute of it. Thank you for your weekend coffee share.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! I’m trying to get outside as much as I can before the inferno returns.
Kathleen Howell
Can’t wait to hear about your story! Do let us know.. I have discovered Christmas horror this year and have a small stack accumulating that I’ll never finish in December. 🙂
Janet Alcorn
Ooh, check out the Deathlehem anthologies. I think there are 8 or 9 now. Some great writing in those.
leannelc
Hi Janet – I hope you’ve heard back from the Deathlehem people now and don’t need to keep checking your email. Loved all your memes as per usual.
Janet Alcorn
Not yet.
*checks email*
Still not yet.
Gary A Wilson
Hi Janet,
I was struck by the notion of a tool that would help me manage my highlights in my Kindle reading. I don’t ever do that mostly because it’s very rare that I would revisit any of the novels that I read there. Most of what I read via Kindle is strictly for fun, one&done kind of experiences. When I suspect that a book might be more important to me and back-referencing might happen – that turns into a purchase of a real book.
I read dozens of different hard-sci-fi authors, all via Kindle but I also spend time most days with Thomas Sowell’s work. I buy, or Christmas list his books because I can’t just read his work, I have to slowly digest and look things up from his works.
Anyway, congrats on getting “The Fine Print” across the finish line. At least your submission has a definite timeline and you won’t be hoping for a response for very long.
The release date for the anthology likely has a hard date and you’ll either be in it or not.
Here’s hoping you’ll be part of the “In” crowd.
Blessings.
Janet Alcorn
In fiction, I highlight passages that strike me as especially good writing, so it’s both fun and educational to revisit those. I also read a lot of books on the craft of writing as well as some personal development books. I highlight the crap out of those and benefit from rereading those highlights.
And yeah, you’re right about the timeline. I should hear literally any day now. Thanks for the good wishes!
joylene
Cheering for you!