Group Post E-Reader or Physical Book

We’re working our way through the alphabet with the A to Z Bookish Survey as created by “The Perpetual Pageturner.”  This week’s question is: E for E-Reader or Physical Book. 

Rebecca: Both! Ereader is fantastic for travel or on the go (or at night to read without a light on), but I still want physical copies of many books (and they're easier to get signed by authors :D)

Alan: Still prefer flipping pages, but I drive so much for work that I'm hooked on Audible now.

Jess P: Book, I still like flipping pages.

Rachel: Also both! I love reading graphic novels on an e-reader.

Eileen:  Both 🙂 I read a lot on my kindle app at work. And home is mostly paper or audio.

Jenn: I prefer a physical book. Like Jess, I enjoy flipping pages but I love the concevience my e-reader provides me by letting me access library books and NetGalley ARCs without leaving my house. 

NaomiRuth:  I definitely prefer the physical book. I am a kinesthetic learner so being able to touch the pages makes a big difference. Especially with non-fiction, as I tend to highlight/under-line/notate as I go. Usually the only ebooks I can get through are short or easy fiction reads.

What about you? What’s your preference? Share with us in the comments below. 

Camp Fear by Carol Ellis

Welcome to the fifth installment of Summer of Fear,  a weekly series of posts where I will review/revisit a classic YA Horror/Thriller from the 70s-90s.  This week I read Camp Fear by Carol Ellis originally published by Scholastic in 1993. It’s currently out of print but I hunted down a copy on eBay for under $5. 

This book opens with a classic horror movie premise; a tragic event years prior results in deadly consequences several years later. Rachael is the new girl and one of only two of the seven teenage counselors who didn’t attend Camp Silverlake as a camper in their youth. Rachael soon discovers that the other five are all harboring a secret about a tragic deadly incident seven years prior.  As each of them face their deepest fears, Rachael becomes more and more determined to figure out just what happened all those years ago and who is threatening them now. Despite the opening, this is more of a thriller than horror and Ellis does a fantastic job of setting the scene showcasing the beauties of camp, the camaraderie of the counselors but also the cloud a dread that shadows the camp. 

Definitely look for this little gem at your favorite used bookseller or eBay seller like I did.

🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen

Welcome to a TBT Throwback Thursday Review.  I am working on reviving this blog and catching up on some long overdue book reviews.

I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen is the 12th installment in the Rizzoli & Isles series. It was originally published in August 2017.

Two separate homicides, at different locations, with unrelated victims, have more in common than just being investigated by Boston PD detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. In both cases, the bodies bear startling wounds—yet the actual cause of death is unknown. It’s a doubly challenging case for the cop and the coroner to be taking on, at a fraught time for both of them. As Jane struggles to save her mother from the crumbling marriage that threatens to bury her, Maura grapples with the imminent death of her own mother—infamous serial killer Amalthea Lank.

While Jane tends to her mother, there’s nothing Maura can do for Amalthea, except endure one final battle of wills with the woman whose shadow has haunted her all her life. Though succumbing to cancer, Amalthea hasn’t lost her taste for manipulating her estranged daughter—this time by dangling a cryptic clue about the two bizarre murders Maura and Jane are desperately trying to solve.

But whatever the dying convict knows is only a piece of the puzzle. Soon the investigation leads to a secretive young woman who survived a shocking abuse scandal, an independent horror film that may be rooted in reality, and a slew of martyred saints who died cruel and unusual deaths. And just when Rizzoli and Isles think they’ve cornered a devilish predator, the long-buried past rears its head—and threatens to engulf more innocent lives, including their own. -barnesandnoble.com

This is my favorite (so-far) of all the Rizzoli & Isles novels. It’s revealed early on that the first murder victim, Cassandra was working on a horror movie at the time of her death. I loved the backdrop of horror filmmaking. There is also an intriguing religious angle at play. To say more would spoil the mystery. There are a lot of twists and turns in this caper.

Gerritsen is not one to shy from grizzly descriptions of the crime scenes so if you’re more of a cozy mystery fan, this may not be the book/series for you. However it’s not all procedural. There is also a lot of drama here with Rizzoli, Isles and their respective personal lives. Isles’ romantic entanglements always have me shaking my head. If you’re a Rizzoli & Isles fan and haven’t picked this one up yet, definitely do! Newcomers to the series and thriller fans can be assured that this installment could be read alone but the series is strongest when read consecutively.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Special Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Ballantine books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret Language of Stones by M.J. Rose

Welcome to another Totally Overdue Tuesday book review.  I am working on reviving this blog and catching up on some long overdue book reviews.

The Secret Language of Stones by M.J. Rose was originally published in July 2016.

As World War I rages and the Romanov dynasty reaches its sudden, brutal end, a young jewelry maker discovers love, passion, and her own healing powers in this rich and romantic ghost story.

Nestled within Paris's historic Palais Royal is a jewelry store unlike any other. La Fantasie Russie is owned by Pavel Orloff, protégé to the famous Faberge, and is known by the city's fashion elite as the place to find the rarest of gemstones and the most unique designs. But war has transformed Paris from a city of style and romance to a place of fear and mourning. In the summer of 1918, places where lovers used to walk, widows now wander alone.

So it is from La Fantasie Russie's workshop that young, ambitious Opaline Duplessi now spends her time making trench watches for soldiers at the front, as well as mourning jewelry for the mothers, wives, and lovers of those who have fallen — jewlery that is very special.

Opaline has a rare gift: a form of lithomancy that allows her to translate the energy emanating from stones. Certain gemstones, combined with a personal item, such as a lock of hair, enable her to receive messages from beyond the grave. In her mind, she is no mystic, but merely a messenger, giving voice to soldiers who died before they were able to properly express themselves to loved ones. Until one day, one of these fallen soldiers communicates a message... directly to her.

So begins a dangerous journey that will take Opaline into the darkest corners of wartime Paris and across the English Channel, where the exiled Romanov dowager empress is waiting to discover the fate of her family. Full of romance, seduction, and a love so powerful it reaches beyond the grave...- mjrose.com

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but this beautiful glorious cover matches the lyrically stunning words inside. The Secret Language of Stones is the second novel in the Daughters of La Lune series and builds on the world created in The Witch of Painted Sorrows. However both titles can stand-alone and be read separately.  While not a romance, there are certainly romantic elements present along with a blend of supernatural and history to create a delightful, unique novel. I’ve also always been a bit of a nerd about minerals, gems and crystals. I used to carry around a little pouch of my favorites: rose quartz, tigers eye, lapis, snowflake obsidian...you get the gist, LOL. So I loved that Opaline’s gift involved stones.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

I can’t wait to read the follow-up novel, The Library of Light and Shadow. Look for all M.J. Rose’s novels at your local bookstore or click the link under the synopsis to visit her website.  Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books, for a free e-ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Meme Crush Monday

Forget about “Man Crush Monday’s,” here #MCM means Meme Crush Monday! For those who don’t have access or don’t wish to use Instagram, I’ll share a bookish meme right here weekly on the blog.


This Week’s #MCM Meme Crush Monday:

Not all film adaptations are bad. Share your favorite “best” or “worst” book to film adaptations in the comments below.

Group Post: Drink of Choice When Reading

Awhile back, we were working on completing "The A to Z Bookish Survey" that was originally created by Blogger "The Perpetual Pageturner."  For some reason, we didn't follow through after letter “C.” Now, we're back and continuing on with "D" for Drink of Choice When Reading.

Melanie and Jess P. chose coffee.

Naomi loves tea as does Rachel who takes hers with a little cream and sugar.  Eileen also favors tea or flavored seltzers if it's hot out.

Alan:  Okay, coffee's great. Tea's great. Whiskey's great. But those are all limited to one planet. If you're going to talk about drinks of choice, then there is no reason to go any further, anywhere in the galaxy, whether you're reading, writing, queueing up, or stealing a spaceship, than a GIN AND TONIC. It is a phonetic anomaly that transcends both space and time. As Douglas Adams explains in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe;"

"It is a curious fact, and one to which no-one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand variations on this phonetic theme.
The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian ‘chinanto/mnigs’ which is ordinary water served just above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan 'tzjin-anthony-ks’ which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the only one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that their names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named BEFORE THE WORLDS CONCERNED MADE CONTACT WITH ANY OTHER WORLDS."

Rebecca doesn't like tea or coffee and joked that she fails as a librarian as a result.  She prefers a flavored seltzer.

As for me (Jenn) I don't have on particular drink I gravitate towards when I'm reading.  It depends on my mood if I'll choose coffee or a glass of wine. I do love to try every beer mentioned by Harry Bosch of Michael Connelly's best-selling series.  The Anchor Steam he mentioned is terrific.

What about you?  What do you like to drink when reading?  Share with us in the comments below!

Funhouse by Diane Hoh

If it weren’t for the Boardwalk, the small town of Santa Luisa might disappear altogether. The amusement park employs half the town’s workers, pulls in tourists, and gives teenagers like Tess Landers someplace to hang out on the weekends. Tess is eating a hot dog when the Boardwalk’s roller coaster—the Devil’s Elbow—jumps the track, hangs for a moment in the air, and then plummets to the ground. One of Tess’s classmates is dead on impact, two are forever maimed, and over twenty others are taken to the hospital. It’s the worst tragedy Santa Luisa has ever seen, but it’s only the beginning. As people rush to help, Tess spies a black-suited figure running away from the crowd. The crash was no accident. Five more teens will suffer before the killer is through, and Tess may be about to put herself on the list of victims. -openroadmedia.com

Funhouse was the first “retro read” I’ve done that was truly scary: as it seemed like something that could sadly happen in real life.   I remember always liking Diane Hoh’s work as it contained realistic sounding dialogue and relatable teens. However, the cops in this book didn’t take Tess’ claims of someone tampering with the ride and someone sending her threatening letters seriously. In reality, I believe and hope that a  more thorough investigation would’ve ensued but if this happened, "the kids" wouldn't get to save the day.  I did predict "whodunnit" about 3/4 of the way through but Funhouse was a fun, trilling quick read.  ****/5

Funhouse was originally published in 1990 by Point Horror/Scholastic.  It has recently been re-released as an e-book along with many other Point Horror classics.  This e-book edition included a nice biography of the author with photos.  Look for a print copy at your local used book store or visit the publisher's site for the e-book or access it through Kindle Unlimited.