Mystery and Thriller Releases for Fall 2018!

We are officially-unofficially into the beginning of my favourite season!

Hoodies and pumpkins and leaves changing colour and no more sweat under my boobs or mosquito bites covering my flesh like bubble wrap. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

You know what else there is to love about autumn? New book releases!

Here is my list of the top crime fiction/mystery/thriller/blah blah blah releases coming our way this season. Get your TBR shelves ready for the added weight!

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Top 10 Books On My Completely Arbitrary Buzz Index Scale!

What are books with buzz you might ask? Or maybe you won’t. Maybe you just inherently understand the concept of buzz and things having buzz.

If not, here’s the idea: these are the books I keep hearing about. They are also probably the books you keep hearing about.

It’s the incessant little noise that floats around you, that you’re picking up on without really even intentionally acknowledging it.

bzzzzzzz….read me….bzzzzzz

Son-of-a-bee-sting, these are the most buzz-worthy books around right now…

PS. my “buzz index” is a completely arbitrary scale that means basically nothing. Enjoy!

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#YAWeek: My TBR’d YA Mystery-Thrillers!

I’ll be honest, I enjoy YA fiction under specific circumstances. I am obviously no longer the targeted demographic for such novels, and sometimes that’s painfully obvious when I try to read them and find myself agreeing with the adults over the teen protagonist. And that’s why I try not to review them too much around these parts. They aren’t written for me anymore, like for ~~almost two decades~~ …a while. You know what, let’s not get into specifics about ages and dates. Those are all technicalities.

Sometimes, I can feel a bit weird when I’m interested in reading a YA novel. A sense of “I know I’m 30-something, but please don’t judge me for reading this” can wash over me. But then I remind myself that all books are for all people because books are how we experience situations we might otherwise never be in; that expands our empathy and worldview. It’s probably why right-wingers really don’t read. But I digress…

I try to let myself like what I like. The term “guilty pleasure” shouldn’t really exist because if it brings you pleasure why do we need to feel guilt about it? Unless, like, what brings you pleasure is something really fucked up on the dark web or whatever. Stop that. Get some therapy.

Anyway, I remain dedicated to my search for an amazing YA mystery-thriller that I will LOVE the same way I LOVE some adult thrillers. One that feels honest and genuine and manages to pull some real twisty punches has so far been hard for me to find. But in honour of #YAWeek, I’m going to be taking a look at the YAnovels floating around my TBR pile, giving me good vibes.

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My Top Five Favourite Villains in Crime Fiction

Omigod, you guys, it’s Friday! I can’t believe I made it. Honestly, I almost fell asleep at work numerous times. Anyone else feel like this week dragged on foreverrrr?

Whatever, now IT’S FRIDAY!!! As if I’m going to party or something. No. You should know me better than that by now. I went to the Foo Fighters concert last Thursday and it took a LITERAL WEEK for me to recover from being up until 3:30 in the morning. That is not even a joke. I wish it were.

Welcome to your 30s.

Even if I did have a quicker recovery time like I used to, I’m an introvert. I don’t want to party. Ugh, what a nightmare!

busy bel powley GIF by Carrie Pilby The Movie

A blissful Friday to me looks more like laying in bed, eating cheese and crackers and not worrying about how late I read or watch TV because I don’t have to be up for work the next day.

Paradise.

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Female Sleuths You Need To Know! (Other Than Nancy Drew)

Most of us ladies who are obsessed with crime fiction, likely got our start reading Nancy Drew when we were young girls in pigtails; young girls who didn’t really want to play the games our friends were playing. We liked puzzles and being observant and maybe kids thought we were weird or awkward. We watched Goonies and Ghost Writer and read The Babysitters Club. We wanted to go on a mystery adventure and solve a crime!

So we played at being Nancy Drew with our Sailor Moon “casebooks,” watching from our windows and writing down the neighbours’ activities as if we were going to catch them doing something sinister, like rolling a body into a carpet.

calm down bruce campbell GIF by Ash vs Evil Dead

And as we got older, we moved on to more adult crime fiction mysteries but always gravitated towards Nancy-like characters – Veronica Mars, Olivia Benson, Clarice Starling. Because Nancy had taught us it was okay to be into what we were into. We’ve never forgotten Nancy even though we have grown up. She’s frequently cited as an inspiration by writers and readers alike. I, myself, have been working on a collection of her books for a few years, picking them up from antique markets and used books stores. (Only the ones originally published by Dunlap & Grosset, thank you.)

But let’s be real for a moment – in hindsight, Nancy was kind of tame. A true basic bitch. She was rich and white and polite, doing her sleuthing in sweet collared dresses and Mary-Jane pumps with a perfectly coiffed flipped bob. Of course, the series started in the 1930s, so what do you expect? There wasn’t really any room for Nancy to change societal norms drastically, nor was there a market for it.

Really, if you go back to those original books, you’ll find them to be racist and anti-feminist in a lot of their elements. Again, what do you expect from the time? Context is everything.

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My Top Five Friday The 13th Reads!

Happy Friday the 13th, book friends!!

I love any kind of creepy, superstitious day like this. I’m waiting with bated breath for Halloween. My head is swimming with all the ways I’m going to decorate my front porch. Skeletons, spiders and the spookiest pumpkins I can carve up.

Before we get into my list of spooky novels to read today, I want to share something a little personal. On July 13th, 2012, I walked into a Tim Hortons near my home and met the man I had been talking to online for three months. He had driven five hours from New York state and crossed my Canadian border (no pun intended) so that we could finally meet in person. We had been talking every day, on the phone, over email, texts, and DMs… just constantly talking and falling in love.

We’ll celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary on October 13th, at the time of writing this. Yes, the 13th.

Tonight, we’re going to celebrate the day that changed our lives with pizza and weed and watching Friday The 13th, the classic 80s horror movie. But I think everyone should be celebrating this weird and superstitious day. One way to do it would be turning out the lights and curling up with a scary AF classic horror novel, because this day deserves a little old school creepy.

Here’s my list of the top five classic horror books to read on Friday the 13th!

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Five Canadian Authors You Should Know

If you’re in the US right now everything is red, white and blue for Independence Day. The month of July gets y’all fired up and feeling aggressively patriotic. Fireworks and eagles, and 1 in 3 people predicting a civil war, and immigrant children in cages. It’s amazing.

Here in Canada, July has a similar effect. The 1st is Canada Day, our birthday. Everything is red and white, beavers and fireworks and our Prime Minister probably out somewhere taking selfies. True North, Strong and Free, eh!

Most people don’t even realize we’re celebrating a thing at all. And that’s fine, really, because we know, and we go all out, covering ourselves in maple syrup and doing sexual things with hockey sticks. Maybe. Probably. Whatever. Don’t judge.

But it got me thinking, we Canadians have a lot to be proud of that doesn’t necessarily get recognized across borders until someone like Justin Bieber becomes an international sensation and people start screaming “take him back, Canada!” and we’re like, “but we don’t want him either! You made him weird! He’s too religious now!”

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Mystery & Thriller Releases for Summer 2018!

Summer officially started last week! Do you feel it – the unbearable heat? Do you hear it – the sound of mosquitos eating me alive? Awww, summer.

The stepkid – hereby referred to as “15” for the purposes of this post – had his last exam and is leaving on Saturday for an extended visitation with Crazy Pants, the bio-mom.

…and to me that means FREEDOM!

*slowly starts to paint face blue*

I’m kidding.

I whine sometimes, but being a stepmom is really not that bad compared to the horror stories I’ve heard in my support group. (It’s still a hard thing to do, hence the support group.) But, the kid is pretty clean and polite and doesn’t think I’m an evil twat, so I think I’m doing okay.

I will say, I’m glad the older one moved out because cishet-teenage 👏 boys 👏 are 👏 fucking 👏 gross👏

My clean/organized neurosis couldn’t take it anymore.

So, obviously, It’s all coming up Milhouse for me right now… you know, except for the stuff that isn’t. But, I have a good feeling about this summer *knocks on wood.*

Some people can’t wait for summer because it means the beach and amusement parks and camping and whatever the hell else extroverted, outdoorsy people do. I can’t wait for summer because it means quiet and a warm breeze coming through my bedroom window while I sit around in no pants (apparently you have to wear pants around stepchildren) reading the summer’s hottest books.

And what might those books be you ask? Well, I’m happy to tell you.

Here is my list of the new mystery & thriller books coming your way this summer. Get your TBR ready!

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My Five Favourite Book Series…es

I’m an unabashed book series lover. If a book is the first in a series, as opposed to a standalone, I’m 80% more likely to read it (I just pulled that percentage out of my ass, but it’s probably accurate.)

With that in mind, I have no idea how I’m going to whittle down my favourite series to just my top five, but at the very least an attempt will be made and I’m proud of myself for that.

Without further ado, and in no particular order – actually in a very specific order – here are my choices.

Trust me when I say, this was agonizing in the most bookish way possible.

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Inauguration Day

…and just like Trump, I’m sure the audience for my first official blog post is going to be the biggest blog crowd ever. EVER. Where’s my personal Sean Spicer when I need him? Or like, the actual Sean Spicer. Good Ol’ Spicey doesn’t seem to be doing much these days, maybe he could use the work, here, reporting on my…blog post…crowd…you know what? Never mind.

So, after much hmmm-ing and uhmmm-ing, and also sometimes not thinking about it for long stretches of time, I have decided to take my casual book reviewing on Goodreads and create something a bit more “hobbyist.” Bear with me as I work out the kinks… or don’t. Whatever. You do you. No pressure.

I’m just here to have fun and read and be immersed in horror, thrillers and murder. Like, other people’s murders. Not my own, and not in an exploitative way, I assure you. And certainly not murders I’m involved in, just to be clear, because I’ve never murdered anyone. Honestly. It’s all fiction, baby!

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