tricksters and villains apply within

Typically I read a lot of fantasy, modern (read: urban) and low-magic, but I also love a good historical fiction or horror novel. As not picky as I am about music, I tend to be pretty particular about the stuff I read. But lately, I've been a little tired of fiction, finding it difficult to get through the ends of books if it slows down even a little. I talked a little bit about it when I talked about reading Mamrie's book. But since then I've picked up a few other memoir/non-fiction/celebrity kind of books to read. They tend to be a little short reads, but since they're typically set up in short chapters/stories as well it feels like they're faster too. I finished Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick today. Memoir isn't really the right word but it's sort of a collection of her stories of getting into show business and the business of being a sort of an anxiety-ridden misanthrope. I'm a fan of her work both musicals and movies, I even saw Camp, whic...

I'm not sure if I've learned my lesson about buying audiobooks just because I like the narrator. I picked up The Buried Book by D.M. Pulley after browsing through a bunch of the books narrated by Luke Daniels... which is not the first time I've picked up a book narrated by Luke Daniels just because. Let me back up. Luke Daniels is a fantastic narrator whom I once described to friend thusly: "I hope he has little kids that reads stories to at night doing all the voices." Not that his voice work isn't lovely, but somewhere out there I'd like to know there are some super lucky children getting to hear him do a variety of voices for Where the Wild Things Are or Harry Potter, or whatever. I listen to a lot of audiobooks -- I got so fed up with the radio in Kansas City about five years ago and switched over to audiobooks for my commute pretty much exclusively. Although even before that when my husband and I could commute together, we often had audiobooks pla...

Eve at Twist in the Taile  has created the Orchestra book tag  that looks really fun, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Basically the idea is to assign books or characters to each instrument in an orchestra. Being both a book and music nerd, this seemed like fun. Conductor a character likely to mastermind an evil plan I think I have to agree with Kaz Brekker from the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology . However, he IS a criminal mastermind, so I feel like he's a little bit too easy of an answer for my liking. I think given time and purpose, Atticus O'Sullivan from the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne is a good choice. He's good- ish but with the morals of someone that's always playing the long game. If he had to, he could plan one hell of an evil plan. Violin a popular book you enjoyed The Martian , man. Hands down one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. It's amazingly fun and funny and boy does it play with your emotions at ...

My house has a bad Kickstarter habit that sort of have under control. Although sometimes we still go a little crazy on smaller projects, especially from repeat creators. This isn't that, this is a graphic novel I backed a WHILE ago. I'm not even sure how long ago, but I received all the fun stuff in the mail a few weeks ago and finally finished reading the comic this week. I'm bad about keeping up on comics, both physical and digital versions. These days I tend to prefer a graphic novel (in either physical or digital variety) because I like having a lot of story in my hands. And as much as I like superheroes, I'm not much for following the never-ending parade of storylines with recons and new beginnings and all the sort of things that come with it. I know some people do, but I prefer a nice tight story arc that's more reminiscent of novellas than a television series. Fangirl written by Tom Stillwell [Pencils & Ink by Jessica Lynn, Colors by Zac Atkinso...

I've Got This Round by Mamrie Hart Recently I finished reading I've Got This Round  by Mamrie Hart, a popular YouTuber. This is her second book and in both her first one, You Deserve a Drink  and this one, she shares humorous personal stories about her life. In her first book many of her wacky adventures can be written off by her youth, or her drinking, or both. In the second, the stories all take place within the two years since her previous book. So she's older and more successful than before but her stories don't feel that different. She's still telling stories about wacky adventures that don't sound much like she's changed. But really this isn't a review for her book. (Or it kind of is, and it's kind of more.) I mean, if you like her or her humor, read it. She's an engaging writer and you'll find her new round of stories fun and on-brand. I just don't think it's for everyone, which I'm sure even she understands. Howe...

I'm way behind. Bawse came out last year, and I just finished it yesterday. Though truthfully, I've been reading it about a chapter or two at a time since I got it on release day. This book is beautiful: thick demi-gloss pages, giant high quality pictures of Lilly at the start of every chapter, and bright, colorful graphics for pull quotes and end of chapter checklists. It's not exactly what I expected, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You know, by the look and feel of this book, it seems very much like it wants to be a coffee table book. It does make an impact. Through fifty chapters, Lilly outlines her values and ideas on achieving success in very clear, simple language. Given her YouTube audience, I'm not really in her demographic... but I am a regular viewer of her content because  I find her brand of positive and confident hustle inspiring. Which it's meant to be but not just for her audience but also for herself. And I'd be willing to be t...

Last night's show at the Lied Center was a pretty amazing hour of poems. I'm so happy I went. The stories that Andrea puts between the poems are maybe the best reason to go. I've heard or read most of these poems before, but the lead-up or the explanations that go after... they give them further context in a way that makes them maybe not more meaningful (although sometimes that too) but more powerful. When you're used to seeing artists on YouTube: dancers, musicians, poets -- sometimes it's difficult to understand exactly how they'll be in person. For example, there's a bellydance I LOVE to watch perform, but when I show people her videos online it's almost impossible for anyone to get a sense of exactly why I like her so much. Sure, she has the technical stuff down, but it conveys nothing of the tension she puts into her dance. I feel like as touching as Andrea's poems can be when read, or heard on YouTube, being present for a reading of them, t...

Miriam Black is a foul-mouthed young woman with a peculiar ability. She can see can see how you're going to die. The Miriam Black series is a series of novels about Miriam's many exploits. In the beginning, Miriam uses her ability to follow people she knows are about to die so she can steal their stuff. Pretty good racket it if you can get it. Problem is, something in the universe has it out for Miriam. And of course you can only steal from the dead for so long. Eventually someone's going to see you, someone's going to figure it out. Or... if you've got even a hint of a conscious, eventually, you're going to see someone die and try to actually do something about it. Yesterday, the fifth book in the series, The Raptor & the Wren, was released. And I aim to finish it pretty quickly. The Miriam Black series is quite possibly my favorite series on planet Earth. There's something about this extreme anti-hero doing her best to refuse both her abilities...