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Monday, June 1, 2020

#SciFiJune #Readathon and TBR Schedule

Hello all,

Today I am pleased to share with you my plans for this month's SCi-Fi June Readathon that is hosted by Michelle Miller at www.seasonsreading.blogspot.com/.  I always look forward to this RAT as I usually don't pick sci-fi as by go to read.  Don't get me wrong.  I love reading science fiction, but I usually reach for mysteries, thrillers, whodunnits, horror... everything but sci-fi.  So this readathon puts a little diversity in my yearly reading. This readathon starts at June 1st at 12:00 am CDT to June 30th 11:59 pm CDT.  Now, on with the show:



The first read on my list is a novel by Phillip Jose Farmer.  It was originally written in 1971 and is the first in a four book series.  What happens when you die? The last thing you would expect to do is awaken naked on a foreign planet along the shores of a seemingly endless river. But this is how the book starts.  This could be an interesting book and with three more in the series, I may know what I will be doing in the near future.



The next book on my list is the newest of the group. It is titled All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai.  Books now have trailers, and are a lot better at describing the book than me,  so I will direct your attention here: 


The final selection in my book list is called Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney. Published in 1966, this sounds like a very interesting read, regardless of the time it was written. The main character is a top linguist, acclaimed poet, and former military cryptologist. When the Alliance military come across a new code used by the enemy, which is beyond their ability to crack, they come to her for help. She informs them that it is not a mere code, but an actual language, and agrees to accept the challenge.  What could go wrong?


There you have it.  My ambitious TBR for the month of June.  If I do somehow make it through all of these books with time to spare, I have a back up book. Dragon on a Pedestal by Piers Anthony.  I wish all of you a fantastic sci-fi reading month and will check back with you soon.  I will post my journey on twitter at twitter.com/MysterNightOwl.





Friday, May 29, 2020

Between January and June


It's been a long time since I wrote on this blog,
And I'll tell you all about in a later post.
I've come a long way, since January,
Oh, I can't wait to tell you about it in an upcoming post
When I write a new post.
 
A ton of stuff has happened in a short time of five months.  I, like the rest of the world, are dealing with the new reality of a world dealing in a pandemic.  I wish everyone health and love and hope you are all doing well.  I will delve into this at a later time, but for now I have work to do.
 
The main purpose of this blog is to state my intentions of participating in the month long readathon in June, called Sci-Fi Summer hosted by Michelle Miller at https://seasonsreading.blogspot.com/. If you haven't signed up yet, I encourage you to do so immediately.
 
 

What a crazy time we are living in.  And what a perfect way to escape reality and delve into some fantastic fiction.  The deal with this readathon is that you can read sci-fi or fantasy. Which makes my decision on what to read during these next 30 days a bit of a dilemma.
 
I have been introduced into a number of amazing series in the last little while and I am at a complete loss as to what to start with.  
I have discovered the Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer which is a deep look at interactions of individuals from many different cultures and time periods.  
There is the lighter side of sci-fi by Robert Aspirin, The Phule's Company series where a group of ragtag military rejects are forced to prepare for battle when the aliens decide to attack them.  
Or I can dive into the fantastic world of Xanth by Piers Anthony.  It is a series of 40 plus books that take place in a world of magic and puns where the author sometimes questions the meanings of reality, politics, and all other matters.
I have also recently started to get into the Doctor Who books, in which there are so many!  
Or should I finally start the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

I plan to post my reading intentions and my TBR very shortly.  Until then, stay safe, stay healthy.
 
It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again...
Lyrics by Charlie Puth

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

January is Here!


Happy New Year Everyone!  This is the beginning of a brand new year.  I love everything about a New Year.  The air is crisp and sweet smelling (in our part of the world).  Everyone seems excited and energetic.  We all partied till the wee hours of the morning, sending out the old year, and ringing in the new one... or went to bed early, which is ok too :)   A colleague of mine reminded me how the year 2020 sounded so space age and futuristic when we were young, and now.. it is here.  We are all living it.  For better or for worse, we are all still here on this fantastic “blue marble” called earth.  I always remember a quote from Brad Paisley at this time of year. “Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”  This is of course, what we all intend to do, but sometimes, life throws us curve balls or places barricades in our way, and we need to muster up what energy we have left to try to keep that smile on our face and keep the good energy flowing.  This is what we all need to do to make this world a better place.  A million small acts equals the same result as one big one.  Always remember, you can make a difference.  You never know how your small genuine act of kindness can change someone’s day.
I do have a few New Year’s resolutions to declare.  I know, I know.  New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken, however, there are many reasons people do make them, and sometimes, the reasons you resolve to change or act differently, could be a result of some life changing news, or just because you want to make your life better with small changes.  I will get to that later.  
I also want to mention that I have had some issues with my old hosting site. They have lost all of my data and their servers have been down more than they have been up.  I am no longer using my own hosting site and have decided to move everything over to Blogger.  I do have some back ups of my old blogs and I am converting them over to Blogger. So far, I am not disappointed. I made the move to my own hosting site with Word Press for the creativity and endless personalization I could do with it.  Guess what?  I spent more time designing and tweaking my blog pages, than actually blogging!  Please bear with me as it will take me some time to get everything working properly. Many of you may not even see my posts but I am going forward with it anyways!
For now, I am here to state my intention of participating in the 2020 Winters Respite Readathon. 

There are so many books to be read, and with me joining this seasonal readathon, it keeps me on track and I get to interact with some fantastic people online, who have the same interests as myself.  So, with no more hesitation, please enjoy the following TBR list for the  2020 Winters Respite Readathon.

The first book I'm choosing for the first read of the year 2020 is The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn.  I've seen the previews to the movie coming out this year, and have heard many good things about this book.  I am VERY excited to start this book for the Winter's Respite Readathon.
The second book of the new year 2020, will be a book I bought that was on sale through Kobo.  It is call The Hunting Party and it is by  Lucy Foley.  This book was priced right and the synopsis intrigued me.
That is my goal for the first month of the new year.  In between piecing together my blog site, reading and working, I will also be reviewing many of my previous books I have read, but have not yet had a chance to review.  Stay tuned and again, thank you for your patience!  Here is hoping the new year is kind to all of us and I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all.