Rules:
The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE
The cleric Chih finds themself and their companions at the mercy of a band of fierce tigers who ache with hunger. To stay alive until the mammoths can save them, Chih must unwind the intricate, layered story of the tiger and her scholar lover—a woman of courage, intelligence, and beauty—and discover how truth can survive becoming history.... Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in this mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Inconsistent psychic Leda Foley and Seattle detective Grady Merritt return to solve the case of a missing couple in this sequel to the “delightful” (The New York Times Book Review) mystery Grave Reservations.
When psychic travel agent Leda Foley is approached by a man searching for his sister, she quickly agrees to help. The missing woman disappeared with a vintage orange car, a fat sack of her employer’s cash, and a grudge against her philandering husband—a man who never even reported her missing. Meanwhile, Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt has temporarily misplaced his dog. While he’s passing out bright pink “Lost” flyers at the Mount Rainier visitor’s center, the wayward pooch appears—with a human leg in his mouth. Thanks to DNA matching, Grady soon learns that Mr. Leg has something to do with Leda’s new client, and soon the two cases are tangled. Theories abound, but law enforcement is low on leads. Lucky for Grady, Leda has a few ideas that might just be crazy enough to work. They’ll need one yellow dog, a fair share of teamwork, and perhaps a bit of Klairvoyant Karaoke to piece the clues together.
Cherie Priest is the author of two dozen books and novellas, most recently The Toll, The Family Plot, The Agony House, and the Philip K. Dick Award nominee Maplecroft; but she is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with Boneshaker. Her works have been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction, and have won the Locus Award (among others) – and over the years, they’ve been translated into nine languages in eleven countries. Cherie lives in Seattle, WA, with her husband and a menagerie of exceedingly photogenic pets.
Rules:
The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE
A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.
Last week, I talked about Rina Sawayama’s 2022 album, Hold The Girl. So today, I wanted to devote a post to all the other music that kept me entertained in October. I have two to talk about: Dirt Femme by Tove Lo and Midnights by Taylor Swift.--Dirt Femme by Tove Lo (Release Date: October 14, 2022)--
I’ve enjoyed Tove Lo’s work since the Queen of the Cloud (2014) days, and I was pretty excited when I heard she was coming out with new music in 2022. Sunshine Kitty (2019) was one of my favorites the year it released, and that influenced the expectations I had going into Dirt Femme. Tove Lo has always done pop with a grungy edge. Dirt Femme felt a little lighter, and was sold as dance/pop by the four singles that proceeded its release—How Long, No One Dies from Love, True Romance, and 2 Die 4—but the usual lyric and vocal complexity was present. Even the tracks where the production was scaled down and Tove Lo’s vocals were the focal point (I’m To Blame and True Romance) were songs I had on repeat so I could catch the full meaning of the lyrics. The album was telling a story, and I was along for the ride. Dirt Femme is another great one from Tove Lo!--Midnights by Taylor Swift (Release date: October 21, 2022)--
I’m not a consistent follower of Taylor Swift, but, over the years, I’ve amassed a list of favorite songs anyway. There’s been a plenty of good music released this year, so when I heard about her latest album, Midnights, I was interested in it too. This is probably my favorite Taylor Swift album to date, and I enjoyed pretty much everything about it. I have to give a special nod towards the production—which was consistent across-the-board—as well as the lyrics, for how poetic it was. There are so many examples I could give, but then I’d have to list the whole track list. Like I said above, it was consistent in its quality. All around, Midnights was an excellent album!
Rules:
One of my most anticipated albums of the year is Rina Sawayama’s sophomore album, Hold The Girl. Released on September 16, 2022, its two years since Sawayama’s self-titled debut. Since then, there have been a number of features, notably a duet with Elton John (Chosen Family) and Charli XCX’s Beg For You (Crash; 2022). However, I was more than ready to see what she would bring to the table with another solo studio album.
Hold The Girl is Pop, but it has a wide diversity of sound. Leading with the single, This Hell (one of my top favorites from the album), each track offered a different listening experience. There was a little bit of country, a little bit of R&B and rock with an early 2000s feel (It’s something she’s done before—for example STFU! from her debut album.) The songs here were bridged together by Sawayama’s vocals, lyric themes, and a smart arrangement.
Hold The Girl achieved an easy flow from one track to the next, and I was quickly immersed by the album. It was a lot of fun. And as far as sophomore albums go, this is a good one.
The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE
Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.
