*Top Ten Tuesday* Authors Who Reside In Colorado

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Joood - Hooligan of Platypire reviews bossed me into doing this, so I guess this is a thing I do now. 

This week’s theme is author's who live in my state. I live in Colorado, so I will be featuring authors who live in Colorado. And there are some popular options available to me. I'm going to try to only feature authors whose books I've read. Let's go!

Rebecca Yarros actually lives in my metro area, and I'm in book club with two different people who know her because their kids played sports together. She often stops by one of the local Barnes and Nobel locations to sign copies of her books too. 

Blake Crouch, the author of Dark Matter, lives in Colorado. If I remember correctly, I think he lives in the Denver Metro area. 

Shelley Read, author of Go As a River, lives here in Colorado. Amazon says she lives in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. 

Jay R. Wolf, author of A Sea of Unfortunate Souls, lives in Colorado. I'm fairly certain she is local to the Colorado Springs area, but she may be located closer to Denver. 

CH Lyn, author of Song of the Deep, is a Colorado resident, and I'm 95% certain she lives in my area (although as I write that I realize I'm actually thinking of another author whom I met at the same book fair as CH Lyn). 

Philip K Dick, author of The Man in the High Castle, is buried in Fort Morgan, Colorado. And I realize I'm stretching the prompt a little bit on this one, but it was necessary to get another Colorado author I've read...and surely we can agree that permanent resting place counts, right?

Michelle Sauer, author of Pacific Tails, lives in Colorado. And although I haven't read this book yet, I own both the physical and ebook copy, so I'll get to it sometime.

Erik Fox, author of Monarch, lives in Colorado. This is another book I haven't read yet, but it is the book my Thrills and Chills book club will be reading for our July meeting. 

Andrew D Meredith, author of Quaint Creatures, lives in Colorado. I haven't read anything by him yet either, but I have this one and his entire Kallattian saga in paperback, so I'll probably read them. 

Carly Stevens, author of Firian Rising, calls Colorado home. I haven't read this book (or the series) yet, but it is one I bought and own. 

I didn't manage to exclusively feature authors I've read, but getting 6 out 10 with authors I've read is still pretty good...and I've read three of Rebecca Yarros' books (it'll be four before the year is over as one of my book clubs is reading In the Unlikely Event this month actually). 

Have you read any of these Colorado authors? Who is your favorite author from your state (or country if you're not American)?

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below. - Katie 

*Top Ten Tuesday* Books with Colors in the Title

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Joood - Hooligan of Platypire reviews bossed me into doing this, so I guess this is a thing I do now. 

This week’s theme is books with the word (blank) in the title. I'm twisting it just a smidgen and featuring books with colors in the title. And these all came from my bookshelves. Let's go. 

The Olive Branch by Jo Thomas

              

Red August by Peggy Estes

Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Owning Violet by Monica Murphy

Blue Ridge Reunion by Mia Ross

Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

There you go. Ten books with colors in the title, and I didn't technically duplicate a single color. What is your favorite book with a color in the title? 

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below so I can check out your list. - Katie 

*Book Blogger Hop* Do I Have Enough Shelves for my Books

We are on to a new week for the Book Blogger Hop hosted by the lovely folks over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. This weeks questions is: 

Do you have enough shelves for all your books? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Nope. I sure the fuck do not. In fact I currently have several stacks of books on the floor of my office just waiting for me to find the energy to box up the middle grade and lower books taking up space on my shelves to put them in storage so I can display the adult books since my kids are past those reading levels now anyway. And you might be thinking "But Katie, why are you keeping those books at all then?" Because maybe my children will eventually have children, and their children will want to read all these books I've collected. Or they'll sit in storage and then it will be the kids job to do something with them when I die. It's really a win-win for me at that point. 

What about you? Do you have enough shelf space for all your books?

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below so I can check out your answer. - Katie 

*Top Ten Tuesday* Books that Surprised Me (22 April 2025)

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Joood - Hooligan of Platypire reviews bossed me into doing this, so I guess this is a thing I do now. 

This week’s theme is books that surprised me. But I typically go into books largely blind. I basically never read book blurbs before reading, and while serious book hype will absolutely get me to buy a book when I find it on sale for Kindle or at the thrift store, I usually forget the specificity of the hype by the time I start reading. And it's hard to be surprised by a book when you go into reading it with no expectations. So instead I'm going to focus on books that I enjoyed even though they made me mad while I was reading them. Let's go. 

Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - We can all agree that the patriarchy sucks, right? We get treated to a whole lot of the sucky patriarchy in Lessons in Chemistry, but Elizabeth Zott just kind of bulldozes her way through the bullshit. 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune - The first book in this series felt light-hearted and fun. This book was heavy and deep, with a lot of potentially triggering political bullshit. It was still a great book, but I hated the events described in large portions of it. 

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - Do I even need to explain why this one made the list?

From the Moon I Watched Her by Emily English Medley - This book read like the memoir of a female child raised in a cult. There were so many messed up things that happened to Stephanie that I couldn't help but be mad, but the book kept me pretty engaged too. 

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner - This is a story about women who are mistreated by men, typically men who are close to them. I'm kind of starting to see a theme in my choices of books this week. 

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold - This is not the Damsel that Netflix turned into a movie, but both stories have a similar feeling to them, and in both cases they feature young women being lied to and tricked by a young prince and his family. There's that trend again. 

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris - This is the story of a woman who survived Auschwitz only to end up in a Russian gulag because of how she survived Auschwitz. She was judged for what she did to survive, and her actions didn't even harm others. This was just such a powerful story. 

Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel - This is non-fiction about the lives of a few members of 2-16 Infantry Division out of Ft. Riley, Kansas after a deployment to Iraq during the surge. My husband served in this unit during this time, so this felt a bit personal to me, and it highlights the way we let our veterans down every single day, after they've sacrificed because they believed they were protecting us. 

Counting the Cost by Jill "Duggar" Dillard - She came to fame by being one of the 19 Kids and Counting on TLC, and while it had been obvious for a while that the family was run by a rather horrible person, seeing it through Jill's eyes was heartbreaking. I always felt sorry for the daughters growing up that way, but it seems that the older girls were lucky enough to get married to actually decent guys. 

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - This historical fiction shows the lives of two young Chinese women who emigrate to America under somewhat false pretenses (although they don't realize that at the time, and had no say in the matter anyway). Then they get to America and are treated very poorly by the patriarch of the family they've been sold/married into. And there's that theme again. 

So there we have it. Ten books that I enjoyed even though they pissed me off while I was reading them. Have you read any of these books? If so, did they piss you off too?

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below. - Katie 

*Stacking the Shelves* 19 April 2025

(Titles link to Amazon via Amazon Affiliate links)

Stacking The Shelves is a feature/weekly meme run by Reading Reality in which you share the books you are adding to your shelves, both physical and virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Now, I already have a monthly post I do featuring the books I get in the mail (and it's a lot because I have a serious Goodreads First Reads giveaway addiction), and I'm posting my monthly Read-A-Thon posts again too, which covers the books I receive through Netgalley. So my STS post will feature all the books I've been one-clicking on Amazon, winning through Goodreads First Reads giveaways or buying in an actual store. 

On that note, here are the books I picked up this week. I've separated the books based on how I obtained them, as per usual. And since I skipped a week, this is two week's worth of books. Let's go. 

Purchased

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis - I added the audiobook of this to my previous ebook purchase so that I could finish the book in time for a book club meeting the next day. Adding the audio was only $1.99 though.

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton - I grabbed this on sale for just $1.99 because not only did I enjoy The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Turton, but also a book club friend just bought the physical copy of this and I have FOMO. 

Malas by Marcela Fuentes - I got this on sale for just $1.99 because it had been recommended in one of my book clubs, so I have a feeling it will eventually be a book selection. Now I own it. 

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister - I got this on sale for a mere $1.99. I don't remember why I thought I needed to buy this one, but with 14 different book clubs, there's an okay chance this will eventually be picked as a read. 

This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole - I grabbed this book on sale for just $2.99, because I requested it on Netgalley and was denied...Of course, I still need to buy the first book in the duology, but that's Future Katie's problem. 

Vampires: A Handbook of History and Lore of the Undead by Agnes Hollyhock - I grabbed this on sale for just $3.99 because I'm starting a cult (The Church of Vampire Jesus) and I need some inspiration for our "bible". I am still looking for more founding members so...

A Botanist's Guide to Flowers and Fatality by Kate Khavari - I grabbed this on sale for a mere $1.99 because the covers of the books in this series always grab my attention. 

A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets by Kate Khavari - I got this one for just $2.99, which means I own all of the books in the series that are currently published, and I got them all on sale. Go me. 

The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore - I got this on sale for just $1.99. With a title like that, I could totally see at least one of my 14 book clubs picking this at some point. 

The Rising: The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant - I grabbed this whole trilogy omnibus for just $2.99. Now I just need to read it. 

High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners by Maya A. Howard - I grabbed this cookbook for just $.99 because I got it on Netgalley but didn't have time to really try any of the recipes before it was archived. Now I can. 

Everless by Sara Holland - I grabbed this on sale for a mere $1.99 because I have a weird obsession with books with hourglasses on the cover. I'd also already bought the sequel in July of last year, so now I can at least start at the beginning when I get around to reading it (if I get around to reading it). 

Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert - I grabbed this on sale for just $3.99 because I don't know jack squat about the Tulsa Race Massacre, and I should rectify that. This will help. 

Clean Eating Meal Prep by Emily Kyle and Phil Kyle - I grabbed this on sale for just $2.99 because I'm tired of being overweight, so I'm hoping that this might help me make some dietary changes that will help remedy that. Of course I have to read it first. 

Giveaway Wins

In This Crystal Sky by Nox Zephyrus

Open Your Eyes: Discover Who You Are in the Realm of the Spirit by Vince Baker and Vasyl Pechko

The Family We Choose by Lamar and Liana Golden

Addicted to the Unthinkable by Kiva Hart

The Goldilocks Team by Minal Joshi Jaeckli

The Strategic Procrastination and Stealthwork Model by S.A. Chapman

A Tropical Frontier: The Brigand by Tim Robinson

The Psychology of Leadership by Sebastien Page

Not Quite My Tempo by Dom Thatcher

Emotionally Invested by Mary Clements Evans

Who Will Remember by C.S. Harris

Good News About the World Falling Apart by Ananda Forest

A Rival Mating by Wren Elton

Outmarket the Competition by Nick Doyle

Vegan Diet and Healthy Cookbook Bundle by Jordan Riley

The Commander and the Ship by Steven Alford

Grit and Grace by Sara Corckran

And that is all the books I got over the past two weeks. Not a single freebie in the bunch, except for all the Goodreads wins which were free for me at least. Any of them sound like something I should read sooner rather than later? 

What new books have you added to your shelves lately? 

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below so I can check out your new pretties. - Katie 

*Book Blogger Hop* 18 April 2025

We are on to a new week for the Book Blogger Hop hosted by the lovely folks over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. This weeks questions is: 

Do you know the Night Song in the Jungle? (submitted by Aishwariya @ Aishwariya's LittLog)

And the really short answer is no. But I couldn't just leave it at that, so I went to Google. Turns out it's a choir/oboe composition based on a Rudyard Kipling poem. So now we now. I'm still not familiar and I did not go so far as to actually listen to it. 

Did you know The Night Song in the Jungle before this week?

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below so I can return the visit. - Katie 

*Review* Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos

 

Genre: Mystery

Published: July 16, 2024

Pages: 344

In the usually quiet high desert of Nevada, Sheriff Porter Beck faces one of his greatest challenges—a series of unlikely, disturbing and increasingly deadly events of unknown origins.

Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, doing the same lawman's job his father once did now that he's returned home after decades away. With his twelve person department, they cover a large area that is usually very quiet, but not of late. One childhood friend is the latest to succumb to a new wave of particularly strong illegal opioids, another childhood friend—now an enormously successful rancher—is targeted by a military drone, hacked and commandeered by an unknown source. The hacker is apparently local—local enough to call out Beck by name—and that means they are Beck's problem.

Beck's investigation leads him to Mercy Vaughn, the one known hacker in the area. The problem is that she's a teenager, locked up with no computer access at the secure juvenile detention center. But there's something Mercy that doesn't sit quite right with Beck. But when Mercy disappears, Beck understands that she's in danger and time is running out for all of them.

I won a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program and also received an ebook version through Netgalley (before I'd noticed the notification about the win through Goodreads). Ultimately I borrowed the audiobook through my library. This is my honest review. 

I probably would not have finished this book as quickly as I did if I'd been reading with my eyeballs. I've found that I really struggle to enjoy books with seemingly perfect male action heroes because I can't help thinking about the double-standard that would apply if the character were a woman. However, Porter Beck isn't actually perfect and his position and skills were reasonably explained and connected. Also,  Brinley is a badass woman with some serious skills of her own. But it could have taken me a while to get to that part of the story. 

Other highlights of the story included Mercy, the teenage hacker chick who would probably also be awesome at chess. She seems to be 300 steps ahead of everyone else, except she can't predict every wild card. 

Overall I give Shades of Mercy 3.8375 out of 5 stars and would definitely read more from this author. - Katie 

Amazon

Bruce Borgos lives and writes from the Nevada desert where he works hard every day to prove his high school guidance counselor had good instincts when he said “You’ll never be an astronaut.” He has a lifelong obsession with words and stories and a fascination with how telephones work. When not writing, you can usually find him at the local wine store.

Visit his website at: https://www.bruceborgos.com/

or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BruceBorgos

or catch him on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/bruceborgos