New month, fresh start. 

Going back to my Nixon Reading List and reading The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, which is their follow up to All the President's Men. Although I think this was a good reading project for me, the timing may be off considering....the state of the union so to speak.

NEA Big Reads for Wichita is Lab Girl by Hope Jahren; my real life book club is reading it as our leader/host is on the board that votes every year. There is a few events happening both on base library and my local branch that I hope to get to attend.

#IMOMSOHARD - man I love Kristin and Jen since I first saw their videos on FB. They are hilarious and real and I really want to see their show when they come to Tulsa next February....hint, hint Santa! Rather than doing non-stop toxic positivity, these ladies come straight out of the gate about the less than awesome things (deaths in family for example) or gross (adventures in toilet training), and motherhood with humor and grace. They are my inspirational mom friends.

I am still working through Connections in Death and I picked up Vendetta in Death since it was on the library's shelf, just calling my name. Seriously, brand new JD Robb title just sitting on the new release shelf with nary a waiting list - perplexed I was. I hope to be all caught up on the series by the time November comes around. I can't believe #50 will be published in February.

I need a palette cleanser in between the Eve Dallas books, so I picked up at the library Well, That Escalated Quickly by Franchesca Ramsey. I've listened to a number of podcast episodes with her and she seems funny and smart. 

I wanted something a little dark for this time of year and I am determined to get to Victoria Helen Stone's Jane Doe. I wanted something magical realism/cozy mystery, so Copycat Killing. And by the end of the month, the next novella in the Tourist Trap mystery series A Very Mummy Holiday will be on my NOOK and I can join the gang in South Cove for another round.

Finally, I picked up from the library Chris Hayes' A Colony in a Nation from my non-fiction wish-list. For those not in the US, Hayes is a tv host on MSNBC and former editor/writer for The Nation. Honestly, he is a little heavy on his love for a certain senator from a New England state, but he generally does do a good job of reporting and Ta-Nehisi Coates blurbed the book. I trust Coates enough to give the book a try.

I have just two new releases, one that I pre-ordered and one that I will get from the library. The one I pre-ordered is A Very Mummy Holiday (Tourist Trap Mystery #7.25) by Lynn Cahoon. This is going to be the last (for a while) of the holiday novellas, as Cahoon is working on the new full length novel for publication early next year. The other is a stand-by of September, the new In Death book titled Vendetta In Death. I am putting myself on the library's waitlist this weekend and hope to get to it sometime during the bingo but that is highly unlikely.

JD Robb/Nora Roberts 

Lynn Cahoon

Susan Elia MacNeal

Shelly Laurenston

Edgar Allen Poe

Victor LaValle

 Sometimes lately I feel like life is a chess match, and no matter how hard I look at the board I can’t see the next move. Or maybe I think I see it, but really I don’t. Like my pawn is sitting there, all ready to put the other king in check, and somehow my queen gets swiped and two moves later I’ve lost the game and my pawn is still waiting there, impotent and useless.

So Jason mother's Janice continues her bad decisions when it comes to men -- she leaves her husband for a new guy, who happens to be the dentist she's started working for. We met him in The First World Problems of Jason Van Otterloo, and they clearly didn't waste time resuming whatever it was they had back in high school. Janice has moved herself and Jason to her parents' house, enrolled Jason in a school filled with very friendly people, and tried to move on with her life.

Jason realizes full-well that his choices are a life with his grandparents and a much smaller school, hours away from his friends and girlfriend; or life with Rob, near them. As much as he doesn't want to be in Icicle Flats, he knows it's the better choice available. But he complains the whole time about it -- this is good for readers, Jason complaining makes for an entertaining read. This time, he's not just complaining in emails, he's set up a blog, too. I was wondering how the blog was going to work instead of the emails -- it's actually a really good move, allowing Jason to tell longer stories without the emails being too long.

Which is good -- because he has long stories to tell this time. There's a literature club he's involved with at school that's discussing books that ruffle the feathers of many, which leads to all sorts of trouble. There's a flirtation with pirate radio. A camping trip that is fantastic to read about (and probably not a lot of fun to live through). A disastrous experiment with eBay. And basically, a bucket-load of culture shock. Also, after a few short weeks of dating, Jason's first real relationship becomes a long-distance one. High school relationships are bad enough, throwing in a few hour bus-ride into things is just asking for trouble. So yeah, between emails and his blog -- he's got a lot to write about, and his friends have a lot to respond to. Somehow, they make it through the school year more or less intact.

Jason feels incredibly authentic -- immature, self-centered, irresponsible, but he's got his moments. He can put others before himself, do the right thing because it's right -- not to stay out of trouble; But man, he can be frustrating the rest of the time. There were a lot of opportunities along the way here for him to be a better friend, a much better boyfriend, son and grandson; and he missed almost all of them. He comes through when necessary, don't get me wrong and he's not a bad guy -- I just wish he'd grow up a bit faster. Which again, means that Bailey has nailed his characterization, this his how people his age should be.

I'm less than thrilled with Bailey's approach to religious characters in these two books. I'm not questioning that there are people like the characters he depicts running around everywhere and that the situations would've played out a lot like they did here (but some of it pushed believability). I just would like a small indication that there were some sincere people trying to do the right thing in the middle of all this.

Having talked about The First World Problems of Jason Van Otterloo just two weeks ago, it feels hard to talk about this book beyond some of the plot changes -- this feels like the same book, just with new problems. Which is pretty much the point, right? I still like Jason (as frustrating as he can be), his girlfriend is fantastic, I want good things to happen to Drew. Jason's already complicated life is about to get a lot worse, which should prove very entertaining for the rest of us. A strong follow-up in this series.

Challenges:

BL/GR: 98/100

2018 Pop Sugar: 35/50 prompts filled

Halloween Bingo: 12/25 boxes read

1. Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright - 3.5 stars (Flat Book Society; Halloween Bingo)

2. The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage by Bill Miles and Walter Dean Myers - 1 star (WWI Reading List)

3. Rockets Dead Glare (Tourist Trap #9.25) by Lynn Cahoon - 3.5 stars (Halloween Bingo)

4. A Deadly Brew (Tourist Trap #9.5) by Lynn Cahoon - 4 stars (Halloween Bingo)

5. Nancy Drew, Detective Girl #1: The Demon of River Heights by Sho Murase and Stefan Petrucha - 1 star (Halloween Bingo)

6. Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case (Jayne Frost #1) by Kristen Painter - 4 stars (Halloween Bingo)

7. Wolves at the Door (Shifters of the Glen #1) by Skye Jones - 2 stars (Halloween Bingo)

8. The Siren by Kiera Cass - 3 stars (Halloween Bingo)

9. Presumed Guilty by Tess Gerritsen - 2 stars (Halloween Bingo)

10. On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story by CDR. Richard Jadick - 3.5 stars