#bookreviews — Public Fediverse posts

WITTY URBAN FANTASY sets a powerful interdimensional being down in 1982 Chicago, embodied in the form of a cat. Can Mr. Whiskers help stave off the apocalypse while navigating endless metaphysical bureaucracy? Fun and absorbing. B PLUS

https://joshuakoester.com/#book

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #fantasy #urbanfantasy #comicfantasy #SelfPublishedSunday

WITTY URBAN FANTASY sets a powerful interdimensional being down in 1982 Chicago, embodied in the form of a cat. Can Mr. Whiskers help stave off the apocalypse while navigating endless metaphysical bureaucracy? Fun and absorbing. B PLUS

https://joshuakoester.com/#book

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #fantasy #urbanfantasy #comicfantasy #SelfPublishedSunday

WITTY URBAN FANTASY sets a powerful interdimensional being down in 1982 Chicago, embodied in the form of a cat. Can Mr. Whiskers help stave off the apocalypse while navigating endless metaphysical bureaucracy? Fun and absorbing. B PLUS

https://joshuakoester.com/#book

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #fantasy #urbanfantasy #comicfantasy #SelfPublishedSunday

WITTY URBAN FANTASY sets a powerful interdimensional being down in 1982 Chicago, embodied in the form of a cat. Can Mr. Whiskers help stave off the apocalypse while navigating endless metaphysical bureaucracy? Fun and absorbing. B PLUS

https://joshuakoester.com/#book

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #novel #novels #fantasy #urbanfantasy #comicfantasy #SelfPublishedSunday

I give you Counts As Writing, my latest entry:
https://darlingsthatkill-harbinger.author-pages.com/blog

There you can find 13 (so far), short, ye olde tyme blog entries that cover the gamut: #microfiction and #poetry , #BookReviews , opinionated and snarky sociopolitical commentary, the skinny on movies and pop culture, and thoughts about the craft of #storytelling in these...interesting...times. 😉

Just a little something for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!
#Writing #WritingCommunity

I give you Counts As Writing, my latest entry:
https://darlingsthatkill-harbinger.author-pages.com/blog

There you can find 13 (so far), short, ye olde tyme blog entries that cover the gamut: #microfiction and #poetry , #BookReviews , opinionated and snarky sociopolitical commentary, the skinny on movies and pop culture, and thoughts about the craft of #storytelling in these...interesting...times. 😉

Just a little something for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!
#Writing #WritingCommunity

I give you Counts As Writing, my latest entry:
https://darlingsthatkill-harbinger.author-pages.com/blog

There you can find 13 (so far), short, ye olde tyme blog entries that cover the gamut: #microfiction and #poetry , #BookReviews , opinionated and snarky sociopolitical commentary, the skinny on movies and pop culture, and thoughts about the craft of #storytelling in these...interesting...times. 😉

Just a little something for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!
#Writing #WritingCommunity

I give you Counts As Writing, my latest entry:
https://darlingsthatkill-harbinger.author-pages.com/blog

There you can find 13 (so far), short, ye olde tyme blog entries that cover the gamut: #microfiction and #poetry , #BookReviews , opinionated and snarky sociopolitical commentary, the skinny on movies and pop culture, and thoughts about the craft of #storytelling in these...interesting...times. 😉

Just a little something for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!
#Writing #WritingCommunity

This is not a story about politics. It’s about brothers. About duty. About staring death in the face and not blinking.
#books #bookreviews #RealHeroes #NoEasyDay #Nonfiction
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/mission-that-killed-osama-bin-laden/

This is not a story about politics. It’s about brothers. About duty. About staring death in the face and not blinking.
#books #bookreviews #RealHeroes #NoEasyDay #Nonfiction
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/mission-that-killed-osama-bin-laden/

This is not a story about politics. It’s about brothers. About duty. About staring death in the face and not blinking.
#books #bookreviews #RealHeroes #NoEasyDay #Nonfiction
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/mission-that-killed-osama-bin-laden/

This is not a story about politics. It’s about brothers. About duty. About staring death in the face and not blinking.
#books #bookreviews #RealHeroes #NoEasyDay #Nonfiction
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/mission-that-killed-osama-bin-laden/

The Lost Here – A Dark Romance Premade Book Cover Without a Face

https://coverlog.wordpress.com/2026/10/04/2591/

The Lost Here – A Dark Romance Premade Book Cover Without a Face

https://coverlog.wordpress.com/2026/10/04/2591/

The Lost Here – A Dark Romance Premade Book Cover Without a Face

https://coverlog.wordpress.com/2026/10/04/2591/

The Lost Here – A Dark Romance Premade Book Cover Without a Face

https://coverlog.wordpress.com/2026/10/04/2591/

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

I downloaded this because it was recommended by Emily St. John Mandell in an interview promoting her latest novel Exit Party (which I have not yet downloaded). The tenor of her recommendation was that it was little-known but deserved a wider readership.

Fair enough, I thought, on many counts. I could not recall ever having heard of Dan Chaon. I’ve read since that he has had short stories featured in The Best American Short Stories, an annual edited collection of which I have several volumes in the house. I used to buy them religiously back in the 90s (when I was doing my degrees), and then my younger daughter started buying them when she was doing her degree. But I’d never heard of him and I’d never heard of this, which was published in 2009. I’m not really a lit-fic guy, so it’s not a surprise, but you’d think something that was “critically acclaimed” would filter through.

So: was it a solid recommendation from St. John Mandell? Is this worth a wider readership? Short answer: yes. If you, like me, had not heard of it, don’t be afraid.

“The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways–and with unexpected consequences” runs the one-sentence description of the book. Would that I could come up with something as punchy for my own books. In that one sentence you get what makes this interesting. You’ve got three narrative strands which appear to have nothing to do with each other. Your puzzle-solving mind (of course) starts looking for connections and thematic links, and you begin to find some. And then at a certain point, you make the breakthrough.

Reading the author’s own description of how he composed the novel (starting with fragmentary images which he somehow knew were part of the same thing and then starting to write scenes until he had an epiphany) it seems that the reader undergoes a similar process. That, there, is very clever. You’re somehow transmitting the experience of a creative breakthrough from author to reader, through the medium of words on a page.

Miles Cheshire is a failure of a man whose life has been blighted by the antics and (probable) schizophrenia of his missing twin. The twin, Hayden, has been in the wind for years, and Miles simply cannot get on with his life because he feels he needs to track Hayden down. We join him on an epic road trip into the wilds of Canada, following clues he is convinced Hayden has left for him.

Lucy Lattimore is a recent high school graduate who goes on the lam with a man who was very recently one of her teachers. Ew, you’ll be thinking, and yes. They end up in a deserted motel in Nebraska where Lucy begins to question her life choices.

Both Miles and Lucy have abandoned their old lives; both of them are orphaned. The third in the triumvirate is Ryan Schuyler, who also walks away from his life having discovered that his parents aren’t his parents. It is Ryan’s story which gives the novel its title—which is typical of the kind of scam email you might get from identity thieves.

Identity—who you are, where you come from, what it is that makes you you, that is the major theme of the novel. How easy is it to walk away from yourself? Remember the Flitcraft story from The Maltese Falcon? A man walks away from his wife and family and his conventional life following a near-death experience. He is found by a detective a few years later living a few miles away, leading a completely conventional life with another wife and another family. Whereever you go, there you are.

The three point of view characters are all curiously passive, caught up in things, allowing themselves to be led. The narrative includes multiple digressions and analepses. A character picks up the phone, hears a woman on the line, and several pages later the phone call continues. This kind of thing can get a little irritating. The other thing I’d say is, sometimes you get more invested in one or other of the characters and it can feel frustrating when the focus shifts to the others. But stick with it, because when it comes, it’s a pleasure.

I won’t say much more. As you read, you see the commonalities. You understand the futility of Miles’ quest; with Lucy, you know straight away she’s making a horrible mistake, but the nature of that mistake hits you when it hits her. And Ryan? Well, let’s sat that there’s a metaphor there that’s a little heavy handed.

(Short note on the Kindle edition: I was surprised by the ending because there’s actually a lot of gubbins after the actual novel ends. Not just acknowledgements but an interview and a load of ‘book club’ discussion points.)

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

I downloaded this because it was recommended by Emily St. John Mandell in an interview promoting her latest novel Exit Party (which I have not yet downloaded). The tenor of her recommendation was that it was little-known but deserved a wider readership.

Fair enough, I thought, on many counts. I could not recall ever having heard of Dan Chaon. I’ve read since that he has had short stories featured in The Best American Short Stories, an annual edited collection of which I have several volumes in the house. I used to buy them religiously back in the 90s (when I was doing my degrees), and then my younger daughter started buying them when she was doing her degree. But I’d never heard of him and I’d never heard of this, which was published in 2009. I’m not really a lit-fic guy, so it’s not a surprise, but you’d think something that was “critically acclaimed” would filter through.

So: was it a solid recommendation from St. John Mandell? Is this worth a wider readership? Short answer: yes. If you, like me, had not heard of it, don’t be afraid.

“The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways–and with unexpected consequences” runs the one-sentence description of the book. Would that I could come up with something as punchy for my own books. In that one sentence you get what makes this interesting. You’ve got three narrative strands which appear to have nothing to do with each other. Your puzzle-solving mind (of course) starts looking for connections and thematic links, and you begin to find some. And then at a certain point, you make the breakthrough.

Reading the author’s own description of how he composed the novel (starting with fragmentary images which he somehow knew were part of the same thing and then starting to write scenes until he had an epiphany) it seems that the reader undergoes a similar process. That, there, is very clever. You’re somehow transmitting the experience of a creative breakthrough from author to reader, through the medium of words on a page.

Miles Cheshire is a failure of a man whose life has been blighted by the antics and (probable) schizophrenia of his missing twin. The twin, Hayden, has been in the wind for years, and Miles simply cannot get on with his life because he feels he needs to track Hayden down. We join him on an epic road trip into the wilds of Canada, following clues he is convinced Hayden has left for him.

Lucy Lattimore is a recent high school graduate who goes on the lam with a man who was very recently one of her teachers. Ew, you’ll be thinking, and yes. They end up in a deserted motel in Nebraska where Lucy begins to question her life choices.

Both Miles and Lucy have abandoned their old lives; both of them are orphaned. The third in the triumvirate is Ryan Schuyler, who also walks away from his life having discovered that his parents aren’t his parents. It is Ryan’s story which gives the novel its title—which is typical of the kind of scam email you might get from identity thieves.

Identity—who you are, where you come from, what it is that makes you you, that is the major theme of the novel. How easy is it to walk away from yourself? Remember the Flitcraft story from The Maltese Falcon? A man walks away from his wife and family and his conventional life following a near-death experience. He is found by a detective a few years later living a few miles away, leading a completely conventional life with another wife and another family. Whereever you go, there you are.

The three point of view characters are all curiously passive, caught up in things, allowing themselves to be led. The narrative includes multiple digressions and analepses. A character picks up the phone, hears a woman on the line, and several pages later the phone call continues. This kind of thing can get a little irritating. The other thing I’d say is, sometimes you get more invested in one or other of the characters and it can feel frustrating when the focus shifts to the others. But stick with it, because when it comes, it’s a pleasure.

I won’t say much more. As you read, you see the commonalities. You understand the futility of Miles’ quest; with Lucy, you know straight away she’s making a horrible mistake, but the nature of that mistake hits you when it hits her. And Ryan? Well, let’s sat that there’s a metaphor there that’s a little heavy handed.

(Short note on the Kindle edition: I was surprised by the ending because there’s actually a lot of gubbins after the actual novel ends. Not just acknowledgements but an interview and a load of ‘book club’ discussion points.)

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

I downloaded this because it was recommended by Emily St. John Mandell in an interview promoting her latest novel Exit Party (which I have not yet downloaded). The tenor of her recommendation was that it was little-known but deserved a wider readership.

Fair enough, I thought, on many counts. I could not recall ever having heard of Dan Chaon. I’ve read since that he has had short stories featured in The Best American Short Stories, an annual edited collection of which I have several volumes in the house. I used to buy them religiously back in the 90s (when I was doing my degrees), and then my younger daughter started buying them when she was doing her degree. But I’d never heard of him and I’d never heard of this, which was published in 2009. I’m not really a lit-fic guy, so it’s not a surprise, but you’d think something that was “critically acclaimed” would filter through.

So: was it a solid recommendation from St. John Mandell? Is this worth a wider readership? Short answer: yes. If you, like me, had not heard of it, don’t be afraid.

“The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways–and with unexpected consequences” runs the one-sentence description of the book. Would that I could come up with something as punchy for my own books. In that one sentence you get what makes this interesting. You’ve got three narrative strands which appear to have nothing to do with each other. Your puzzle-solving mind (of course) starts looking for connections and thematic links, and you begin to find some. And then at a certain point, you make the breakthrough.

Reading the author’s own description of how he composed the novel (starting with fragmentary images which he somehow knew were part of the same thing and then starting to write scenes until he had an epiphany) it seems that the reader undergoes a similar process. That, there, is very clever. You’re somehow transmitting the experience of a creative breakthrough from author to reader, through the medium of words on a page.

Miles Cheshire is a failure of a man whose life has been blighted by the antics and (probable) schizophrenia of his missing twin. The twin, Hayden, has been in the wind for years, and Miles simply cannot get on with his life because he feels he needs to track Hayden down. We join him on an epic road trip into the wilds of Canada, following clues he is convinced Hayden has left for him.

Lucy Lattimore is a recent high school graduate who goes on the lam with a man who was very recently one of her teachers. Ew, you’ll be thinking, and yes. They end up in a deserted motel in Nebraska where Lucy begins to question her life choices.

Both Miles and Lucy have abandoned their old lives; both of them are orphaned. The third in the triumvirate is Ryan Schuyler, who also walks away from his life having discovered that his parents aren’t his parents. It is Ryan’s story which gives the novel its title—which is typical of the kind of scam email you might get from identity thieves.

Identity—who you are, where you come from, what it is that makes you you, that is the major theme of the novel. How easy is it to walk away from yourself? Remember the Flitcraft story from The Maltese Falcon? A man walks away from his wife and family and his conventional life following a near-death experience. He is found by a detective a few years later living a few miles away, leading a completely conventional life with another wife and another family. Whereever you go, there you are.

The three point of view characters are all curiously passive, caught up in things, allowing themselves to be led. The narrative includes multiple digressions and analepses. A character picks up the phone, hears a woman on the line, and several pages later the phone call continues. This kind of thing can get a little irritating. The other thing I’d say is, sometimes you get more invested in one or other of the characters and it can feel frustrating when the focus shifts to the others. But stick with it, because when it comes, it’s a pleasure.

I won’t say much more. As you read, you see the commonalities. You understand the futility of Miles’ quest; with Lucy, you know straight away she’s making a horrible mistake, but the nature of that mistake hits you when it hits her. And Ryan? Well, let’s sat that there’s a metaphor there that’s a little heavy handed.

(Short note on the Kindle edition: I was surprised by the ending because there’s actually a lot of gubbins after the actual novel ends. Not just acknowledgements but an interview and a load of ‘book club’ discussion points.)

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

I downloaded this because it was recommended by Emily St. John Mandell in an interview promoting her latest novel Exit Party (which I have not yet downloaded). The tenor of her recommendation was that it was little-known but deserved a wider readership.

Fair enough, I thought, on many counts. I could not recall ever having heard of Dan Chaon. I’ve read since that he has had short stories featured in The Best American Short Stories, an annual edited collection of which I have several volumes in the house. I used to buy them religiously back in the 90s (when I was doing my degrees), and then my younger daughter started buying them when she was doing her degree. But I’d never heard of him and I’d never heard of this, which was published in 2009. I’m not really a lit-fic guy, so it’s not a surprise, but you’d think something that was “critically acclaimed” would filter through.

So: was it a solid recommendation from St. John Mandell? Is this worth a wider readership? Short answer: yes. If you, like me, had not heard of it, don’t be afraid.

“The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways–and with unexpected consequences” runs the one-sentence description of the book. Would that I could come up with something as punchy for my own books. In that one sentence you get what makes this interesting. You’ve got three narrative strands which appear to have nothing to do with each other. Your puzzle-solving mind (of course) starts looking for connections and thematic links, and you begin to find some. And then at a certain point, you make the breakthrough.

Reading the author’s own description of how he composed the novel (starting with fragmentary images which he somehow knew were part of the same thing and then starting to write scenes until he had an epiphany) it seems that the reader undergoes a similar process. That, there, is very clever. You’re somehow transmitting the experience of a creative breakthrough from author to reader, through the medium of words on a page.

Miles Cheshire is a failure of a man whose life has been blighted by the antics and (probable) schizophrenia of his missing twin. The twin, Hayden, has been in the wind for years, and Miles simply cannot get on with his life because he feels he needs to track Hayden down. We join him on an epic road trip into the wilds of Canada, following clues he is convinced Hayden has left for him.

Lucy Lattimore is a recent high school graduate who goes on the lam with a man who was very recently one of her teachers. Ew, you’ll be thinking, and yes. They end up in a deserted motel in Nebraska where Lucy begins to question her life choices.

Both Miles and Lucy have abandoned their old lives; both of them are orphaned. The third in the triumvirate is Ryan Schuyler, who also walks away from his life having discovered that his parents aren’t his parents. It is Ryan’s story which gives the novel its title—which is typical of the kind of scam email you might get from identity thieves.

Identity—who you are, where you come from, what it is that makes you you, that is the major theme of the novel. How easy is it to walk away from yourself? Remember the Flitcraft story from The Maltese Falcon? A man walks away from his wife and family and his conventional life following a near-death experience. He is found by a detective a few years later living a few miles away, leading a completely conventional life with another wife and another family. Whereever you go, there you are.

The three point of view characters are all curiously passive, caught up in things, allowing themselves to be led. The narrative includes multiple digressions and analepses. A character picks up the phone, hears a woman on the line, and several pages later the phone call continues. This kind of thing can get a little irritating. The other thing I’d say is, sometimes you get more invested in one or other of the characters and it can feel frustrating when the focus shifts to the others. But stick with it, because when it comes, it’s a pleasure.

I won’t say much more. As you read, you see the commonalities. You understand the futility of Miles’ quest; with Lucy, you know straight away she’s making a horrible mistake, but the nature of that mistake hits you when it hits her. And Ryan? Well, let’s sat that there’s a metaphor there that’s a little heavy handed.

(Short note on the Kindle edition: I was surprised by the ending because there’s actually a lot of gubbins after the actual novel ends. Not just acknowledgements but an interview and a load of ‘book club’ discussion points.)

CIA Directors rarely speak. But when they do, you listen. Whipple did. And he wrote it down.
#books #bookreviews #SpyAgencyBook #MemoirLovers #IntelligenceCommunity
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/cia-directors-book-review/

CIA Directors rarely speak. But when they do, you listen. Whipple did. And he wrote it down.
#books #bookreviews #SpyAgencyBook #MemoirLovers #IntelligenceCommunity
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/cia-directors-book-review/

CIA Directors rarely speak. But when they do, you listen. Whipple did. And he wrote it down.
#books #bookreviews #SpyAgencyBook #MemoirLovers #IntelligenceCommunity
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/cia-directors-book-review/

CIA Directors rarely speak. But when they do, you listen. Whipple did. And he wrote it down.
#books #bookreviews #SpyAgencyBook #MemoirLovers #IntelligenceCommunity
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/cia-directors-book-review/

Delta Force, SEAL Team 6—these elite soldiers were the tip of JSOC’s spear. They hit hard, fast, and silent.
#books #bookreviews #DeltaForce #SEALTeam6 #RelentlessStrike
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/joint-special-operations-command/

Delta Force, SEAL Team 6—these elite soldiers were the tip of JSOC’s spear. They hit hard, fast, and silent.
#books #bookreviews #DeltaForce #SEALTeam6 #RelentlessStrike
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/joint-special-operations-command/

Delta Force, SEAL Team 6—these elite soldiers were the tip of JSOC’s spear. They hit hard, fast, and silent.
#books #bookreviews #DeltaForce #SEALTeam6 #RelentlessStrike
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/joint-special-operations-command/

Delta Force, SEAL Team 6—these elite soldiers were the tip of JSOC’s spear. They hit hard, fast, and silent.
#books #bookreviews #DeltaForce #SEALTeam6 #RelentlessStrike
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/joint-special-operations-command/

My latest read: "Stage 3" by Ken Stark

Looking for a novel twist on zombies and the infected this spooky season? Give this one a try! 👍

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8982266933
Book Radar
https://thebookradar.com/review/5593
StoryGraph
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/86710dea-119f-428b-b271-4f3e3b0522ca

#specfic #horror #scifi #bookreview #bookrec #bookreviews #bookrecs #books #booksofmastodon #readersofmastoon #speculativefiction #sciencefiction #reading #readingcommunity #bookstodon #booktodon

My latest read: "Stage 3" by Ken Stark

Looking for a novel twist on zombies and the infected this spooky season? Give this one a try! 👍

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8982266933
Book Radar
https://thebookradar.com/review/5593
StoryGraph
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/86710dea-119f-428b-b271-4f3e3b0522ca

#specfic #horror #scifi #bookreview #bookrec #bookreviews #bookrecs #books #booksofmastodon #readersofmastoon #speculativefiction #sciencefiction #reading #readingcommunity #bookstodon #booktodon

My latest read: "Stage 3" by Ken Stark

Looking for a novel twist on zombies and the infected this spooky season? Give this one a try! 👍

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8982266933
Book Radar
https://thebookradar.com/review/5593
StoryGraph
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/86710dea-119f-428b-b271-4f3e3b0522ca

#specfic #horror #scifi #bookreview #bookrec #bookreviews #bookrecs #books #booksofmastodon #readersofmastoon #speculativefiction #sciencefiction #reading #readingcommunity #bookstodon #booktodon

My latest read: "Stage 3" by Ken Stark

Looking for a novel twist on zombies and the infected this spooky season? Give this one a try! 👍

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8982266933
Book Radar
https://thebookradar.com/review/5593
StoryGraph
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/86710dea-119f-428b-b271-4f3e3b0522ca

#specfic #horror #scifi #bookreview #bookrec #bookreviews #bookrecs #books #booksofmastodon #readersofmastoon #speculativefiction #sciencefiction #reading #readingcommunity #bookstodon #booktodon