Eight Millon Books to Read

Starting something new, which might make things more manageable for me to keep this up-to-date. Probably a weird time of year to be thinking of such things, but felt inspired to post last week and hoping to keep doing so. With that in mind I present my week in reading with my collected reviews of books finished for the week. This week it is filled with very differing types and tones of story, but overall quality. The Girl with the Stone Heart by Scott Grand My rating: 4 of 5 stars "Come on. You're a ghost in your own life. Just a witness. What happened?" I've become a fan of Scott Grand's work over the course of the year in anticipation for this one with Sport being a particular highlight. The Girl with the Stone Heart is very close to that quality and showcases Grand's ability to build unique character voices and has a melancholy tone that I so adore in my noir. Grace is running the town bowling alley in between doing jobs for "The Council",...

I've been reminded to post this one as I was back in the office today and saw the museum cabinet containing old weapons including a samurai type sword and police truncheons, which always makes me think of Joe Rey. It just feels like something that is crying out for Joe Rey to pilfer and use against the various weirdos and whackjobs that come into his periphery. Leins is a curious case for me as a reader. He was one of the first indie authors I read when he opened the Wrestle Maniacs anthology containing a multitude of stories based around the world of pro wrestling, which Leins then built upon with The Good Book (see below). This led me to seek out his Paignton Noir books, but the first couple left me cold. Something called me back to them though and I really found my groove with them as the story continued and Rey got in further scrapes. It's very likely the Joe Rey books are an acquired taste, but beneath the squalor of these down and dirty noirs is a protagonist with a r...