The Man Who Understood Cats by Michael Allen Dymmoch

Really enjoyed this book and even illustrated one of my favorite quotes:

2015 What I'm Reading #17

I made a trip to the library yesterday and picked up some books to read.  

 I am starting with John Dies at the End by David Wong.  I have already seen the movie and was very surprised when I discovered that it had started out as a webserial which later was published as a book.  The front inner flap has me hooked.

In other exciting news, I have officially met my reading goal for the year :)

Number of Books Read: 30

January

1. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
2. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
3. The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa de la Cruz
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
5. Blue Bloods: The Keys to the Repository by Melissa de la Cruz
6. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

February

1. Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz
2. Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

March
1. The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

April

1. The Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby
2. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

May

1. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
2. On Writing by Stephen King
3. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness

June/July

1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
2. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
3. Brida by Paolo Coehlo
4. 50 Things you can do with Google Classroom
5. Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller
6. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
7. The Journal Junkies Workshop by Eric W. Scott and David R. Modler

August
1. Everville by Clive Barker

2.  Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

September

1.  The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Baker

October

1.  Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

2.  The Man who Understood Cats by Michael Allen Dymmoch
3.  Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
4.  The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King

What are you reading this week?

Teaser Tuesday (Oct. 26)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teaser:
"'A friend described Sherlock Holmes as a self-medicating bipolar with obsessive tendencies,' Kate told them.  After a startled moment, everyone in the room began to laugh excessively, as if to relieve the personal direction the talk had been taking."
                          The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King, p.267

Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler

What it's about:
"A bomb rips through present-day London, tragically ending the crime-fighting partnership of Arthur Bryant and John May begun more than a half-century ago during another infamous bombing: the Blitz of World War II. Desperately searching for clues to the saboteur’s identity, May finds the notes his old friend kept of their very first case and a past that may have returned…with murderous vengeance. It was an investigation that began with the grisly murder of a pretty young dancer. In a city shaken by war, a faceless killer stalked London’s theater row, creating his own sinister drama. And it would take Bryant’s unorthodox techniques and May’s dogged police work to catch a fiend whose ability to escape detection seemed almost supernatural—a murderer who decades later may have returned to kill one of them…and won’t stop until he kills the other." - Amazon.com

What I thought:
At first, I had a difficult time getting into this book.  The language is really dense and it was slow-going, but once I found the rhythm I loved the writing and didn't want to stop reading.  

I especially enjoyed the character of Arthur Bryant.  The crazy long scarves of strange colors, the marijuana plant growing in his office, pranking friends with poisonous plants, consulting with covens and spiritualists, and his far-fetched theories made his character a joy. I'd love to meet him in real life.  I think we would probably get along :) and he has definitely made me want to read more of the Peculiar Crimes Unit Series.

Before reading this book, I had not realized how awful the London Blitz actually was.  I mean bombing is always awful, but the fear that Londoners must have been living with is incredible.  Reading the descriptions of life during the blackouts, the aerial raids and the destruction that the continuous bombings caused was an eye-opener.  I know that this book is fiction, but I believe that fiction can often give us a good glimpse into another time or way of living.  I cannot believe what people lived through at that time.

Some quotes I enjoyed:
"'She was a woman forced to survive in a world of harmful magic.'
'That's what witches are.  Do you think she was a witch?'
'Well, someone dropped a house on her,' said Bryant, 'so she might have been.'"

From the hilarious Appendix:
"Incendiary devices, inadvisability of using as paperweights
      Mistaken for thermos flasks
Jack the Ripper, ability to melt pavements
Landladies, unlikely swordsmanship abilities of
Lift, as device for removing feet
Lithuanian botanists, incidence of vampirism amongst "

Have you ever read this book or another from the Peculiar Crimes Unit Series?  What did you think?  I will definitely be looking for more.

Stuck in my Head: Birds

Stuck in my Head is a feature where I share the music I love and the songs that I just can’t seem to get out of my head. This time, the theme is birds, so here are three songs I love that are about birds.

"Alabama Chicken" by Sean Hayes

"Blackbird" by The Beatles

"Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley

2015 What I'm Reading Wednesday #16

A short post this Wednesday because I am still reading Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler.

Here is one of my favorite quotes so far:

"Well, your manifestation of guilt just killed someone with a cut-throat razor"

Here is my yearly reading progress so far.  The goal is 30 books:

Number of Books Read: 28

January

1. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
2. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
3. The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa de la Cruz
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
5. Blue Bloods: The Keys to the Repository by Melissa de la Cruz
6. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

February

1. Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz
2. Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

March
1. The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

April

1. The Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby
2. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

May

1. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
2. On Writing by Stephen King
3. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness

June/July

1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
2. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
3. Brida by Paolo Coehlo
4. 50 Things you can do with Google Classroom
5. Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller
6. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
7. The Journal Junkies Workshop by Eric W. Scott and David R. Modler

August
1. Everville by Clive Barker

2.  Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

September

1.  The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Baker

October

1.  Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

2.  The Man who Understood Cats by Michael Allen Dymmoch

What are you reading this week?

2015 What I'm Reading #15

Recently I have been on a mystery kick.  It all started one day as I was driving home and listening to NPR.  They had a story about a new James Bond book and the author who was attempting to imitate Ian Fleming's style while also updating the character and storyline.  It made me realize that I had never read a James Bond book.  This was a strange realization for me.  My granddad was a huge James Bond fan, and I grew up watching the movies in his living room.  

I immediately decided to take a detour to the library.  I found Casino Royale in the Mystery section and then picked up three more mysteries that had interesting covers.

image source:  wikipedia.org

I was hugely disappointed.  This book was not what I expected.  Where were the chase scenes, the crazy-bad-guy-with-the-complex-plan-to-take-over-the-world, the cool gadgets?  Are the movies so different from the original books?  I may have to try another Ian Fleming book just to be sure.

The Man who Understood Cats by Michael Allen Dymmoch was the next book on my list.

image source: goodreads.com

I really like the cover picture, where the cat and the hat blend together.  The book was also very entertaining.  Although I did think that cats were going to play a larger part in the story :)

Now I am reading Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler.  I'm not sure what I think of this one yet, but I am intrigued by the teaser quote that I shared yesterday.

What are you reading this week?  Have you ever read any of these books?  What did you think?

Teaser Tuesday - (Oct. 13)

Trying something new this week :)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teaser:

"The woman who answered his knock had a square, friendly face framed by ragged curls of bleached hair.  She appeared to have missed when applying her lipstick, and missed again with her eye shadow, so that she looked more like a confused plump poodle than a white witch."     Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler (p.261)

I'm intrigued :)

Do you have a teaser to share?  Have you read this book?  What did you think?