WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Personal:
Last week, I had done an update of what was happening with me (why I wasn’t posting). Here’s the update to that.
My arm is better. I got back my full range of motion but it still hurts when I move it in certain directions (like taking my bra on/off or brushing my hair). Other than giving birth naturally (which happened with Miss R), that is the most painful thing I have experienced to date and do not wish to experience again.
We got the results of Miss R’s sleep study. She was diagnosed with periodic limb movement disorder. I am still waiting to hear from the Dr but got the diagnosis from the patient portal when I logged on yesterday. I am expecting a phone call from the specialist today (maybe?) and then we will discuss what will happen going forward.
Mr. Z got his braces last Thursday!!! They only put on the top braces which weren’t something I was expecting. I had thought they were going to do top and bottom. But, ortho explained that he wants the top teeth to start to straighten out before he puts the bottom and the Herbst device on. Mr. Z wasn’t thrilled with that change in plan but oh well, what is he going to do?
Miss B had her doctor’s appointment yesterday (for her 16 well-child) and we found out that she has slight scoliosis of the spine. Her Dr wasn’t that concerned with it. She has reached her adult height of 5’0″ and the curvature isn’t going to affect her in any way. Still, was very surprised to find out.
Reading
I have been reading like a fiend. I have finished 4 books (I think) since last week and plan on finishing at least 2 more by the end of this week. I have caught up with all of my indie authors and now am working on my NetGalley backlog. So yay!!!!
But, I am very behind on reviews. I have two reviews due this week (one I am working on after I am done with this post) and then 2 more that need to get written by next week. I am planning on buckling down after this post and getting at least 2 reviews written today and hopefully the rest is written tomorrow (keeping my fingers crossed).
Watching:
I had been watching the Olympics and put most of my shows on pause while that was going on. I wasn’t too impressed with what was shown. I would have loved to see some of the lesser-known or newer sports on prime time. Instead, it was repeat upon repeat of the same thing. NBC dropped the ball on that one (and I refused to get Peacock to watch what I wanted). I had the same complaints about the Summer Olympics too.
Once they ended, I started watching my shows again. I binged Archive 81 in 4 days. I don’t know if any of you have watched that but it is freaking creepy. I also didn’t like the ending. Put it this way, I didn’t see it coming and wasn’t thrilled with what happened. But, it did lead into a Season 2 (maybe, hopefully). So, we’ll see. Right now, I am watching Chosen. It is a Dutch show about a girl finding out the truth about their small, quiet town. I am still on episode 1 and not really feeling it. But, I felt the same way about Archive 81 and ended up liking it, so we’ll see.
Making:
This week I am making a Philly Cheesesteak French Onion Soup. Not having high hopes for this recipe….lol. BK is home and he is making marinated chicken also, so there is a backup. Next week, I’m making a garlic lover’s pot roast.
So, that the catch up with me. As always, let me know if you have read any of these books and what you have thought about them.
What I Recently Finished Reading:
Marian has risked everything to bring King Richard the Lionheart to England.
But as the king’s heart turns toward vengeance who will be left to stand in his wake?
If you like inspirational heroines, unique love stories, and non-stop twists and turns, this action-packed fantasy retelling is for you!
I wasn’t a big fan of how this book went. It seemed a little rushed. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Mainly because in the first two books, Mare was portrayed as someone different and in this book, she did a 180. Still, would highly recommend this Robin Hood retelling!!
What I am currently reading:
Sexy, grumpy neighbor who is going to get in the way of your plans? Check. Unfortunately.
Grace Travis has it all figured out. In between finishing school and working a million odd jobs, she’ll get her degree and her dream job. Most importantly, she’ll have a place to belong, something her harsh mother could never make. When an opportunity to fix up—and live in—a little house on the beach comes along, Grace is all in. Until her biggest roadblock moves in next door.
Noah Jansen knows how to make a deal. As a real estate developer, he knows when he’s found something special. Something he could even call home. Provided he can expand by taking over the house next door–the house with the combative and beautiful woman living in it.
With the rules for being neighborly going out the window, Grace and Noah are in an all-out feud. But sometimes, your nemesis can show you that home is always where the heart is.
I am enjoying this book. It is a cute read and I am 100% team Grace. Noah is rubbing me the wrong way, even with him trying to make amends. I am about 50% (or so) through and I have a feeling this book is going to get a lot better!!!
What books I think I’ll read next:
All of these books are NetGalley ARC’s that are past their publication date. I am expecting to get to at least the first 3 by next Wednesday.
There’s something out there that’s killing. Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.
2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother—the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she is punished for using it.
2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape—both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waves her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.
As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty.
Chelsea Martin appears to be the perfect housewife: married to her high school sweetheart, the mother of two daughters, keeper of an immaculate home.
But Chelsea’s husband has turned their home into a prison; he has been abusing her for years, cutting off her independence, autonomy, and support. She has nowhere to turn, not even to her narcissistic mother, Patricia, who is more concerned with maintaining the appearance of an ideal family than she is with her daughter’s actual well-being. And Chelsea is worried that her daughters will be trapped just as she is–until a mysterious illness sweeps the nation.
Known as The Violence, this illness causes the infected to experience sudden, explosive bouts of animalistic rage and attack anyone in their path. But for Chelsea, the chaos and confusion the virus causes is an opportunity–and inspires a plan to liberate herself from her abuser.
But when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in the village, Nell is kidnapped. Her father has sold her, promising Jasper Jupiter his very own leopard girl. It is the greatest betrayal of Nell’s life, but as her fame grows, and she finds friendship with the other performers and Jasper’s gentle brother Toby, she begins to wonder if joining the show is the best thing that has ever happened to her.
In London, newspapers describe Nell as the eighth wonder of the world. Figurines are cast in her image, and crowds rush to watch her soar through the air. But who gets to tell Nell’s story? What happens when her fame threatens to eclipse that of the showman who bought her? And as she falls in love with Toby, can he detach himself from his past and the terrible secret that binds him to his brother?
Moving from the pleasure gardens of Victorian London to the battle-scarred plains of the Crimea, Circus of Wonders is an astonishing story about power and ownership, fame and the threat of invisibility.
Los Angeles is a city of sunlight, celebrity, and possibility. The L.A. often experienced by Homicide Lt. Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware, is a city of the dead.
Early one morning, the two of them find themselves in a neighborhood of pretty houses, pretty cars, and pretty people. The scene they encounter is anything but. A naked young man lies dead in the street, the apparent victim of a collision with a moving van hurtling through suburbia in the darkness. But any thoughts of accidental death vanish when a blood trail leads to a nearby home.
Inside, a young woman lies butchered. The identity of the male victim and his role in the horror remain elusive, but that of the woman creates additional questions. And adding to the shock, Alex has met her while working a convoluted child custody case. Cordelia Gannett was a self-styled internet influencer who’d gotten into legal troubles by palming herself off as a psychologist. Even after promising to desist, she’s found a loophole and has continued her online career, aiming to amass clicks and ads by cyber-coaching and cyber-counseling people plagued with relationship issues.
But upon closer examination, Alex and Milo discover that her own relationships are troublesome, including a tortured family history and a dubious personal past. Has that come back to haunt her in the worst way? Is the mystery man out in the street collateral damage or will he turn out to be the key to solving a grisly double homicide? As the psychologist and the detective explore L.A.’s meanest streets, they peel back layer after layer of secrets and encounter a savage, psychologically twisted, almost unthinkable motive for violence and bloodshed.
This is classic Delaware: Alex, a man Milo has come to see as irreplaceable, at his most insightful and brilliant.
January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.
Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.
Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.
None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.
On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.
January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders.
There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.
But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.
At once a dazzlingly time-twisting murder mystery and a story about grief, memory, and what it means to—literally—come face-to-face with our ghosts, The Paradox Hotel is another unforgettable speculative thrill ride from acclaimed author Rob Hart.
You didn’t miss much with the Peacock Olympics—yes, you could watch but there was no commentary so a lot of the pleasure (for me, at least) was missing. Back I went to NBC and USA but I agree it was less than exciting and that wasn’t all because of the pandemic restrictions. It’s time for some other network to have a go at it IMHO.
I figured as much and I also figured that it would be the same as the Summer Olympics (I was right). I also agree with another network doing it. Maybe they’ll do a better job.
I’m reading The Paradox Hotel right now and it’s pretty good so far. The Violence was amazing😁
That makes me super excited to read it!!!! I’ve heard that about The Violence and that’s another book I can’t wait to read 😀