Thursday, March 28

Monthly Bookshelf Review - March 2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 



Echo looked around at her sea of tomes, and a single word came to mind: Tsundoku. It was the Japanese word for letting books pile up without reading them all. ~from "The Girl At Midnight" by Melissa Grey

I don't know anything about the above quoted story, but the quote itself seems to describe my situation pretty well! I love books, and I want to read them, but I certainly do let my to-read piles grow larger without any real hope of being able to read everything I'd like to. Not a horrible problem to have!

March's Books Completed and Reviewed

A Fatal Illusion by Anna Lee Huber - Kiera and Gage investigate a very strange attack on Gage's father, who probably knows more about the motive than he is willing to tell them. Would Lord Gage risk their safety in order to protect his pride? (Read my review HERE.)


Ticker by Lisa Mantchev - A young woman joins with friends to find her parents, beat the erupting chaos in their city, and stop a mad doctor . . . who also happens to be the inventor of the clockwork heart that keeps her alive. (Read my review HERE.)


 




During March I started reading:

The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright - Two young women in two separate times are intrigued and frightened by the Castle Moreau and its mysterious residents and stories. What really happened within its walls?



The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai - This is sort of a cozy mystery meets short foodie stories book. A father and daughter team run a restaurant with the interesting mission of tracking down and recreating the special dishes that clients long to try one more time.



During March I continued reading:

Wimpy Weak and Woke by John L. Cooper - I haven't had time to get too much further in this book from Skillet front man John Cooper. It's also the kind of book that you need to be able to focus on, so I'd prefer to read in longer chunks of time and chew on it a bit more.



Where My Books Took Me in March . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month, along with One Word to sum up the ones I finished.

A Fatal Illusion is set in the north of England.
One Word: Pride

Ticker takes place in a fictional steampunk universe, in a city called Bazalgate.
One Word: Motives

The Vanishing at Castle Moreau is set in rural Wisconsin.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives have a restaurant in Kyoto, Japan.


Coming Up in April!

I'm limiting myself to one or two books in this section, because what's "up next" changes often, and I'm reading more slowly. I added a third this time, the likeliest "up next" title on my Kindle.

Voice of the Ancient by Connilyn Cossette - Has been "next" on my stack for way too long!
Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber




On my blogs recently . . . 

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:



On Homeschool Coffee Break:



And on A Fresh Cup of Coffee:



This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot; and (if I remember) at the weekly reading list meme hosted at Book Date.

bookworms monthly linky

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


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Friday, March 22

Friday Fun - The Friday 56 and First Lines for March 22, 2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


I'm pretty sure that someone in a past Friday 56 or First Lines featured this book and the intriguing premise and cute cover caught my attention. It's been sitting on my Kindle for awhile, and I started reading it last week. 

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Walking away from Higashi Honganji temple, Hideji Kuboyama instinctively turned up the collar on his trench coat.

~From the beginning of The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai


The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time?

Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by . . . 

The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person's treasured memories - dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.

A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.

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RimSP button

First Line Fridays is hosted at Reading is My SuperPower

*Share the first line or two of the book closest to you, then visit other FLF participants.
*Please keep posts family friendly or clean reads.
*Link back to Reading is My SuperPower within your post or grab a button.

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Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader.

*It's Book Beginnings on Fridays! Time to gather with our fellow book lovers and share the opening sentence (or so) of the books we are reading this week. Or share from a book that is on your mind right now -- whatever catches your fancy.

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'Oh, there's no such thing as rude or polite when it comes to food,' said Nagare, clearing away the rest of her dishes and wiping the table. 'What matters is that you eat it the way you like it.'

~at 56% in The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai




The Friday 56 was started and hosted at Freda's Voice. She is taking a break from hosting, but Anne at My Head Full of Books has volunteered to host for now, so I'll be linking up there.

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your e-reader.
*Find a snippet, short and sweet.
*Post it, and share in the Linky.


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And here is the weekly bookish question in the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  

This Week's Question: Do you remember your first library visit?

My Answer: I don't know that I remember my very first library visit, but I have pretty clear memories of my elementary school's library, and of the two public libraries that were near where I grew up. I spent a lot of time in the school library and I'd venture to say that was the first one I visited. I had plenty of books at home from a very young age, but being able to borrow even more books from a library (free!!!!) was so exciting! When we moved, the local public libraries were among the first community hubs I visited too, so I still remember the ones in Ocean City and Vineland, in Frederick and Westminster and Taneytown, and now the beautiful library in New Albany, Ohio.



©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


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Friday, March 15

What I'm Reading - March 15, 2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee.

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next! Although the Book Date link-up happens weekly, I don't update that often. Usually I do this around the middle of the month, and try to share my monthly bookshelf summary on the last Monday of the month. Here's what I've been working on lately!


I finished reading . . . 

 A Fatal Illusion by Anna Lee Huber - Kiera and Gage are investigating the unusual highwayman attack on Gage's father. Are his attackers the same band that styles themselves after Robin Hood? And since the motive wasn't robbery, was it revenge or retribution? To complicate matters, Lord Gage is not telling them everything he knows. (Read my review HERE.)



Ticker by Lisa Mantchev - Penny has a clockwork heart that continuously needs rewinding, and a possible love interest to make her heart beat faster. She teams up with her brother and friends in a race to find the inventor of her clockwork heart before his madness causes more death and destruction. (Read my review HERE.)



I'm currently reading . . .

The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright - there is definitely something strange and frightening going on at the mysterious Castle Moreau, in both timelines. Cleo and Daisy are the two young women, separated by decades, who try to hide from their fears and failures at Castle Moreau, but find that it may not be a place of safety at all.



The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai - I chose this for my next Kindle read, and just got started. I'm still getting a feel for the characters that have been introduced but it's quite promising.



Wimpy Weak and Woke by John L. Cooper - Working on this a little at a time. I need longer blocks of time to concentrate on it, and I don't have a lot of those right now.



Up Next . . . On the TBR stack . . . 

The stack grows faster than my ability to read it, especially lately! No guarantees, but these are the top contenders for me to pick up next:

Voice of the Ancient by Connilyn Cossette
Sisters of Fortune by Anna Lee Huber





On my blogs recently . . . 

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:



On my main coffee break project, A Fresh Cup of Coffee:



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And here is the weekly bookish question in the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  

This Week's Question: On average, how long do you spend writing a review?

My Answer: Well, unfortunately, it's been taking me much to long to get started on reviews! However, once I actually sit down to write, I can usually get it done in about twenty minutes or so. Depending on how many times I'm interrupted or get distracted. I might have to set a timer and see if I'm telling the truth!



What are you reading?


This post will be linked at What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World. 

 ©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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Thursday, March 14

Recent Reads - Ticker

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


Ticker by Lisa Mantchev - It took me awhile to get moving on this one again, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed this YA steampunk novel. Penny Farthing is a girl with a clockwork heart - her damaged heart has been replaced with a Ticker, but it's showing signs of failing too. The brilliant surgeon who invented it wants to give her an upgrade, but he's on trial for murder, and it's discovered that there is a very dark side to his experiments and wishes to "augment" people who have injuries or physical defects.

As the doctor's trial is wrapping up, the Farthings' factory is bombed and Penny's parents disappear, and Penny teams up with her brother Nic and a couple of friends to find them - and find the doctor who escaped from the courthouse in the chaos. What is really going on and is Dr Warwick behind it all?

Finally, Penny reluctantly accepts help from Marcus Kingsley, a young military commander, to find her missing family and the research that has gone missing with them. And while the story is full of action at breakneck speed, there's also a rather sweet romance slowly developing in the background.

This is an action-packed race through the fictional city of Bazalgate, with interesting world-building and shifting loyalties. I occasionally got lost in the descriptions of imaginative mechanical devices and then realized that a relationship shift or motive hadn't been clear. There are places where it feels like the logic or plot details might have a few holes, but they seem to be small ones, and I enjoyed the story almost as much this time as I did the first.


A girl with a clockwork heart must make every second count.

When Penny Farthing nearly dies, brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick manages to implant a brass "Ticker" in her chest, transforming her into the first of the Augmented. But soon it's discovered that Warwick killed dozens of people as he strove to perfect another improved Ticker for Penny, and he's put on trial for mass murder.

On the last day of Warwick's trial, the Farthings' factory is bombed, Penny's parents disappear, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom note demanding all of their Augmentation research if they want to see their parents again. Is someone trying to destroy the Farthings . . . or is the motive more sinister?

Desperate to reunite their family and rescue their research, Penny and her brother recruit fiery baker Violet Nesselrode, gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling, and Marcus Kingsley, a young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.

This is a book featuring a grieving character (#14) for The 52 Book Club's 2024 Reading Challenge.
#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024




©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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Recent Reads - A Fatal Illusion

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


A Fatal Illusion by Anna Lee Huber - Every time it seems life is about to settle down for a bit, Kiera and Sebastian Gage find themselves involved in another investigation. They respond to a message that Lord Gage, Sebastian's father, was attacked while traveling to Scotland, and when they see how unusual the attack was, they decide to investigate. After all, Lord Gage's young footman was killed, and Lord Gage himself is seriously injured. Sebastian and Kiera follow up on reports that there is a band of robbers that styles themselves after Robin Hood, but no one in the village wants to give information.

Their suspicions continue to rise, even while their infant daughter provides a tenuous bridge to an improved relationship with the cantankerous Lord Gage. Lord Gage continues to withhold information, and is short-tempered and harsh with Sebastian. He refuses to acknowledge Henry as his son, and he is frosty towards Kiera, but even Lord Gage has a soft spot for his baby granddaughter, it seems. The attempts at relationship-mending provide an interesting background to the challenges faced by Sebastian and Kiera as they try to fit the pieces of information together, and decide what is related to the stagecoach attack and who may have been involved in a crime. Then there's the question of motive for the attack, and there are plenty of puzzles to work on in this story!

New parents Lady Kiera Darby and Sebastian Gage look forward to introducing Sebastian's father to his granddaughter, but instead find themselves investigating an attempt on his life . . .

Yorkshire, England. August 1832. Relations between Sebastian Gage and his father have never been easy, especially since the discovery that Lord Gage has been concealing the existence of an illegitimate son. But when Lord Gage is nearly fatally attacked on a journey to Scotland, Sebastian and Kiera race to his side. Given the tumult over the recent passage of the Reform Bill and the Anatomy Act, in which Lord Gage played a part, Sebastian wonders if the attack could be politically motivated.

But something suspicious is afoot in the sleepy village where Lord Gage is being cared for. The townspeople treat Sebastian and Kiera with hostility when it becomes clear they intend to investiaget, and rumors of mysterious disappearances and highway robberies plague the area. Lord Gage's survival is far from assure, and Sebastian and Kiera must scramble to make the pieces fit before a second attempt at murder is more succesful than the first.



This is a book awith a palindrome on the cover (#37) for The 52 Book Club's 2024 Reading Challenge.
#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2024





©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


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Saturday, March 9

Friday Fun - The Friday 56 and First Lines for March 9, 2024

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


I might have to redo my entire graphic if I keep doing these on Saturdays instead of Fridays! I guess what I should do is make sure I put it together on Thursday. Oh, the joys of planning my blogging hobby around my work schedule!

Anyway, I started reading this book months ago and got interrupted. It stayed on the postponed pile for much longer than I'd anticipated, but I started it again. So I have teased it before, but since it was such a long while back, I hope no one minds that this is a repeat!

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MAY 8, 1801

When I was a little girl, my father would often come to my bedside after my screams wakened him in the night. He would smooth back my damp ringlets, the mere feel of his callused and strong hand inspiring an instantaneous calm.

~From the beginning of The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright


A haunting legend. An ominous curse. A search for a secret buried deep within the castle walls.

In 1870, orphaned Daisy François takes a position as housemaid at a Wisconsin castle to escape the horrors of her past life. There she finds a reclusive and eccentric Gothic authoress who hides tales more harrowing than the ones in her novels. As women disappear from the area and the eerie circumstances seem to parallel a local legend, Daisy is thrust into a web that could ultimately steal her sanity, if not her life.

In the present day, Cleo Clemmons is hired by the grandson of an American aristocratic family to help his grandmother face her hoarding in the dilapidated Castle Moreau. But when Cleo uncovers more than just the woman's stash of collectibles, a century-old mystery and the dust of the old castle's curse threaten to rise again . . . this time to leave no one alive to tell the sordid tale.

Award-winning author Jaime Jo Wright seamlessly weaves a dual-time tale of two women who must do all they can to seek the light amid the darkness shrouding Castle Moreau.



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RimSP button

First Line Fridays is hosted at Reading is My SuperPower

*Share the first line or two of the book closest to you, then visit other FLF participants.
*Please keep posts family friendly or clean reads.
*Link back to Reading is My SuperPower within your post or grab a button.

***************


Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader.

*It's Book Beginnings on Fridays! Time to gather with our fellow book lovers and share the opening sentence (or so) of the books we are reading this week. Or share from a book that is on your mind right now -- whatever catches your fancy.

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She sucked in a sob, pushing back the thoughts that threatened to be remembered. Memories buried under layers of the dirt of life, grinding them into the ground and determining to lock them in a coffin that shouldn't ever be exhumed.

~from page 56 of The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright




The Friday 56 was started and hosted at Freda's Voice. She is taking a break from hosting, but Anne at My Head Full of Books has volunteered to host for now, so I'll be linking up there.

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your e-reader.
*Find a snippet, short and sweet.
*Post it, and share in the Linky.


***************

And here is the weekly bookish question in the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  

This Week's Question: Do you use a book's synopsis for your review?

My Answer: Yes, I try to give an overview of the plot and what the major conflict and dramatic questions of the story are. But without giving away the twist or the ending! I also include the book blurb, which usually has something of a synopsis as well.



©2008-2024 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


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