WWW Wednesday - Happy July 4th!

For those of you who write book reviews for a blog or other platform, or those who have wondered about those of us who do, I thought I’d write a little bit about my own process. Some might think that words flow magically from fingers honed by experience or talent, but that’s just not the case. It’s sometimes easy to write a book review, when you are inspired on the third Tuesday of the month, when Saturn is in its zenith, or something.  I love those times because you get a real sense of accomplishment when you are finished.  Most days, though, I will need to spend some time drafting in my head before it even reaches my fingers. I will “percolate,” as I call it, on a review for a while (just now, I was drafting this blog post in my head as I folded the mountain of laundry that comes from having a teen athlete (tennis/junior academy level) who plays in 100 degree heat these days. Ugh – and yes, he can do his own laundry, but I only have him for another year, and then it’s back to one basket a week, and I’ll miss it)!

Because the procrastination bug has bitten me a few times recently, I found the idea of “WWW Wednesday” quite appealing. (Thanks to The Bookish Chick https://thebookishchick.com/ who introduced me to the idea).  Instead of writing an in depth book review, on Wednesdays you just answer the following questions, on an abbreviated basis:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

On this holiday, and day off from work, it’s nice to just write casually about books!

What I am currently reading (I rarely read one book at a time):

Sadie by Courtney Summers and Star of the North by D.B. John.

I am fortunate to have access, occasionally, to books that aren't published yet called Advanced Reader Copies, either in print or digitally as e-galleys. Thanks to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and many publishers, including Macmillan, HarperCollins, Crown Publishing, to name a few, I may get print ARCs in the mail or get approved to download a digital copy. That’s how I was able to access Sadie, which will be published in September. The publishers prefer that no reviews be published less than 2 weeks to 30 days prior to publication, so I won't review it here. I will say that it is a mystery partially written as a serial podcast, and it's very good so far!  You can find out more about it here: https://amzn.to/2NpkyQo

I’m also reading Star of the North by D.B. John. It’s a thriller and a fictional account of three separate narratives, which ultimately connect, about the Juche era of North Korea (the ideology authored by Kim il Sung). Although it’s fiction, by reading the author’s extensive notes at the end of the book, it is clear that many of the things that happen in Star of the North are factual accounts. It gives the reader an inside look at what the people in North Korea have experienced over many years, and I find it fascinating.

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews, part of  The Iron Covenant Trilogy, which is a spin-off of the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series that I’ve been reading for years.  The final book in the latter series is out in August and I’m ever hopeful I will get a chance to read it before it comes out (let the begging commence)!  Iron and Magic is set in the same post-shift world as the Kate Daniels series, but occurs in Kentucky rather than Atlanta.  You can see my review of this title here: https://kellywellread.blogspot.com/2018/07/iron-and-magic-book-one-of-iron.html

What do you think you’ll read next?

This is a very hard decision for me, as I’ve recently received some excellent print ARCs from Macmillan and its imprints!  I’ve read a chapter in a book that comes out next April called The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves because one reviewer said “It’s comparable to The Rosie Project and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, but better,” and I loved those two books! 

This is one of the challenges of being a rabid bibliophile: picking the next book to read out of many, many excellent choices. Sometimes, it just becomes eenie, meenie, minee, mo or the flip of a coin!  And, whatever I decide to read next, I’m sure I’ll struggle over the book review, procrastinate, percolate, and then write it up on my blog. 

Until then, enjoy your holiday and Happy Reading!!