Thoughts on MURDER IN AN ITALIAN VILLAGE

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? The end of September has arrived and it’s still in the 90s here. I’m sure we’ll get an autumn eventually, but not yet. Anyway, the last Wednesday of the month means it’s book review time! I decided to try something set abroad, but still well within my comfort zone (a cozy mystery). Murder in an Italian Village by Michael Falco was released on the 26th from Kensington Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

Murder in an Italian Village follows Bria Bartolucci as she struggles to fulfill her late husband’s dream, be a good mother, acclimate to a new home, and find herself in the process. Her new B&B is set to open in a couple of weeks when someone shows up dead in one of her guest rooms. She can’t let that ruin her opening, so of course she has to solve the murder! Throw in a couple of love interests, a family and bestie who encourage all of her antics, and police officers who actively seek her help and you’ve got yourself a typical cozy mystery.

The plot is pretty typical, but the way it unfolds is disappointing. Every time something happens or they make a big discovery, there’s a conversation about how it all makes sense, but it never makes sense. Bria or Luca make some wild guess that isn’t led up to in the story at all and it’s like the reader is supposed to go aha! but it’s just something that was pulled out of thin air. Like, why? Put it in the plot. Don’t just make it a random declaration. It’s not bad per se, but it’s definitely not a satisfying way for the story to move forward.

The writing. This is something I usually just mention in passing, but I was so distracted by the writing that I have to talk about it. The detail in this book is absolutely ridiculous. I get that authors do a lot of research and we want to include it all, but don’t. It’s not necessary and it makes for a slog of a read. I know nothing about the road system in Italy, so telling me stuff like “Bria took Viale Pasitea to Via G. Marconi and then hopped onto Strada Statale 163 toward Spiaggia di Tordigliano” etc. doesn’t help me at all. And anyone who lives in that area would know how to get from point A to point B, so you’re not really helping them either. It’s just padding and not very interesting padding at that. There’s a lot of that in this book. Also, there’s an entire chapter devoted to describing outfits. I’m all for clothing descriptions, but not an entire chapter’s worth. And only one thing relevant to the plot is mentioned in that chapter, so if you haven’t figured out who the killer is by that point, it becomes blatantly obvious who it is.

I liked the characters for the most part. Everyone is constantly screaming or shrieking, which I think is just poorly chosen wording, but other than that they seem cool. I wanted more from Giovanni. Marco was far too angelic (no kid is that good). Loved Bravo (the dog). Bria, Luca, Rosalie, and Nunzi were all pretty interesting. I thought some of Bria’s outbursts were out of character, like when she flat out accuses Daniela of murder and keeps repeating it. Nothing about that scene felt natural. Otherwise, the characters were the best part of this book.

Ultimately, I found Murder in an Italian Village a little too dense with useless trivia and a bit too thin when it came to actual plot. It was okay and if another one comes out, I’ll grab it if I see it. I won’t go looking for it, though.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It was fine. If you want to learn a crap ton about Positano, Italy thinly disguised as a cozy mystery, try it.

Writerly/Readerly Updates

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! What’s everyone up to this wonderful Wednesday? Dad and I are going to Garland. There’s a place out there that does leatherwork on vehicles, so we’re getting some work done on the van. I’m sure I’ll share pictures whenever everything is finished. But that’s for another day. Today, I figured I’ll ramble about the few writerly/readerly things going on. It’s really nothing much, so this will probably be a short post.

Writerly things:

1. I’ve slowly been working on the new Untitled Cozy Mystery novel. When I do write, the words come easy enough, but actually making myself open the file and write is the hard part. Right now, I’m using slushing for PseudoPod as an excuse to avoid writing, but that’ll be done soon enough. I tried writing on my phone the other night. It worked a little. I’ve never done it before, so I’m trying to figure out the app as I go. It was only 224 words and they need fleshed out, but at least it was something.

2. I read through the part of the UCM novel written thus far and I actually like it. It was very much one of those “what happens next… oh shit, I have to write it” moments. I don’t get that feeling, so it was weird and creepy. It also makes it more daunting because what if I screw it up or no one else likes it? But yeah. I like it so far.

Readerly things:

1. I got a free book. I didn’t even have to ask for it. Someone from Books Forward (a marketing/publicity firm for authors) reached out to me asking if I would be interested in reviewing a book. This sometimes happens through NetGalley, but apparently she just randomly came across my blog, liked it enough to get in touch, and I guess she read enough to see that the book she’s flogging is in genres that I like. So, yay free book! It’s called Magic by Any Other Name by Alison Levy and the review will go up on November 8th. But also yay for people actually looking at my blog!

2. My desire to read for fun is currently waning. I finished Carrie and haven’t even started my next fun book. Granted, I’m reading two review books at the moment (completely different genres so I won’t get anything confused). I just don’t feel like throwing in a third book again. Oh well.

That’s about it. Nothing exciting. Any updates from you? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or questions here or on my social media pages!

Random Life Updates

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things finally seem to be cooling down a bit, so yay for that. I don’t have anything writerly or readerly to ramble about, so I thought I would share some random life updates. It’s nothing exciting or profound. Just mundane life crap. Annoyances. All of the stuff that I tend to overlook as topics of conversation because no one really wants to know, right? The “nothing much” that drifts through my mind when people ask what’s up. Proceed at your own risk (of boredom).

1. Annoying thing 1: Resolved. Dad gets paid to take care of me via a Medicaid program. Medicaid decided to go with a new clock in/out system this year and we have to switch over on Oct. 1st. The new company requires training to use their system and sent a notice to the people who handle payments and stuff (basically the middleman between me as the employer and Medicaid so that I don’t touch the money) that the employer (me) has to participate in a webinar or in-person training (just no to people). The latest webinar they offer is at noon. I’m not up and in my chair by noon and I didn’t want to break my sleep schedule for them to tell me how to use a program that’s pretty self-explanatory. Anyway, I did some digging and found online training videos and asked the middleman if I could just do that. She said they didn’t exist, so I emailed her the link. Two days later she emailed back that I could use them. Why didn’t they just send her those in the first place? So, that’s on my list of things to do this week.

2. Annoying thing 2: Resolved but requires monitoring. Medicare/Medicaid got hit by hackers and some of my information was among the stuff accessed. That’s always fun, right? They gave me free fraud monitoring through Experian, because they’ve proven to be unhackable… oh, wait. Anyway, I tried signing up for everything the day I got the letter, but the Experian website kept saying they couldn’t load the page. Got signed up the next day though, which is good because their customer service people went off on a tangent that had nothing to do with the question I emailed them, then acted like that fixed everything. They did not get a good review. Ugh.

3. Our dog is a sadistic murderer. A few nights ago, she got hold of a small possum (maybe a large rat) and shook it into pieces. Of course she had to bring it in the house to play with it too. Dad found it’s liver in the kitchen despite the fact that she didn’t take it in there. Her doggy door is a little ways into the living room. She just whipped the poor thing around so much that bits flew, I guess. It was a traumatic event for everyone except Mardi. She tried to get another one (a little bigger) Monday night, but Dad was able to mostly keep her away from it. She’s a demon dog and once she fixates on something, it’s impossible to get her attention away from it.

4. Had a doctor appointment on Tuesday because I have a stubborn sinus infection. I took the antibiotic she called in a couple of weeks ago, but it came right back, so I went to see her. Got an allergy shot. Fingers crossed it works. She said to give it some time to work, then we can go get our flu shots and the new Covid vaccine.

5. I think I figured out how to fix my screenplay after all these years.

6. Carrie by Stephen King is so much worse than I remember. I guess when you’re 14 and devouring books one after the other everything seems better. It’s slow going this time.

I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think of anything else. How’s life going for you? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or questions or whatever here or on my social media pages!

September Books

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? This summer is never-ending. I like the heat, but even I’m tired of triple digits. Plus, I feel anxious for no real reason, so there’s this sense of impending doom lingering over me. That’s how I am! So, instead of rambling about anything remotely personal, I thought I’d share my book list for September. It’s not much, but I like it.

1. Murder in an Italian Village by Michael Falco. This is my September review book, so you’ll get to hear my thoughts on it on the 27th. I’ll say this, it’s extremely dense. So many words and factoids. I have thoughts already. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

2. Carrie by Stephen King. Danielle and I have started a kind of informal book club thing, so we decided to rotate through craft books, masters of their craft (originally started as just Stephen King because she hasn’t read much by him, but we thought it might get boring so we decided to include authors who are most well known in their genres, like Agatha Christie, Anne Rice, etc.), and randomness (just whatever we want to read). Last month she chose a craft book, this month I chose Carrie, next month she’ll choose a random book, then I’ll choose a craft book, and so on. I figured we should start at the beginning with King and it’s been a long time since I read this one, so yeah.

3. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4) by Rick Riordan. A new book in the series is coming out, so I decided to reread the first five. That’s all. I’ll probably start book 5, but won’t finish it until October.

4. Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand. I do those stupid Kindle Challenges where you collect virtual bookmarks as you complete reading challenges and one of the challenges this season is to read something from their Hispanic and Latino Voices section. The challenge is over on the 30th, so I chose one of the short books to squeeze in. If they’d have revealed this particular challenge earlier, I would’ve read Mexican Gothic.

What are you planning to read this month? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments and questions here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on THE SUNSET YEARS OF AGNES SHARP

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing on this lovely Wednesday? It’s the last Wednesday of August, so you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I opted for a cozyish mystery. The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann was released on the 29th by Soho Press. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp follows Agnes (duh) and her housemates as they try to solve a series of murders while keeping the police from looking too closely at the death of their friend. Sunset Hall is a place where elderly people go to have companionship without pity in their declining years. Their eclectic backgrounds make for an interesting group of sleuths. Throw a newbie and a grandson into the mix and things can get dramatic. Can Agnes and her friends solve the murders? Iffy memories and stiff joints don’t help, but they’re determined.

The plot started off strong. It’s pretty standard stuff: multiple murders, inept police, nosy people. There are even two sets of twins to confuse things. It’s also fairly predictable, which is fine. But as the story progresses, it becomes choppy and jarring. I understand the why, but it doesn’t make it any easier to read. The beginning flows nice and is pretty linear, but the end jumps around and timelines overlap and it’s just not cleanly done, so it gets confusing. It all comes together in the end. I just feel like the ride could’ve been smoother.

The POV changed a lot without warning. I’m sure usually a fan of jumping characters mid-chapter, but it was handled pretty well in this book. There were a couple of times where I knew the POV had changed, but I wasn’t sure whose it was until a paragraph or so in. That was annoying. But I enjoyed getting closer to the characters (including Hettie the tortoise), so a little confusion here and there was okay.

I loved the characters. Most of them have backgrounds like police detective (Agnes) or military (Marshall) or some kind of spy (Edwina) or possible gangster (Bernadette) or whatever. They may be old, but if you’re a criminal, they aren’t the right senior citizens to mess with. They’re well written and mostly fleshed out. And they have very distinct personalities, so they’re fun to read about. The only one I was hoping for more out of was the baddie. It’s really hard to flesh out a character like that without spoiling things, though.

The writing was nice. It was a pretty quick read that I had no trouble picking back up after I put it down for the day. I had no trouble putting it down either. Take from that what you will.

Ultimately, I thought The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp was fun. It’s probably not something I’ll remember a year from now, but I enjoyed it while reading it.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. If you’re into murder mysteries and like older characters, check it out. If not, give it a miss.

A Look Inside Giovanni

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this toasty Wednesday? Last Thursday, Dad had a doctor’s appointment over in Rockwall, so we decided to go to the Harbor (a fancy shopping place on the lake with a bunch of restaurants and stuff) and grab a bite to eat. There were only a couple of people inside and it was 109 degrees, so we sat inside. It’s the third time we’ve eaten at a restaurant since Covid started. The other two times (once in May and once in July), we ate outside. Anyway, I haven’t reviewed a restaurant since 2020, so why not do a food review now? The place is called Giovanni and it’s in the Harbor Rockwall. You can find the address and contact info at the websites above.

First, a reminder of my rating system:

MMMMM = Everything is magnificent!
MMMM = Great, but something is off.
MMM = Pretty good, but a couple of things could be better.
MM = The bad’s starting to outweigh the good.
M = Definitely more cons than pros.
… = I couldn’t find anything nice to say.

Borrowed from Google.

Accessibility: Getting from the parking lot to the restaurant is annoying, but in no means the restaurant’s fault. Whoever designed the Harbor really liked steps and put the curb cuts and ramps in stupid, unintuitive places. The steps are completely unnecessary (a nice gradual slope, not even a ramp, would be fine where most of the steps are) and they’re not aesthetically pleasing, but I’m not an architect, so what do I know. Also, the ramps are pushed off to one side of the steps instead of one on each end. A poor design all around, but I’m not taking points away from the restaurant for that. The accessibility of the restaurant itself is pretty standard. Easy to get through the door and the aisles to the tables were navigable, but I could see it being difficult if it were crowded. The tables themselves were good. A little high, which is fine with me. I just had to tilt my seat a little to sit comfortably.

Service: Wonderful. Dad did have to tell the waiter I could talk for myself, but only once. After that, he treated me like a normal person. He was attentive and made sure things didn’t come out too fast. Never rushed us. It was a good experience overall.

Bread and Appetizers: The only thing were actually disappointed with was the bread basket with oil and vinegar. The bread was basically just undercooked dinner rolls. The appetizer was yummy. We had the crab cakes. They were soft and fluffy and came with a small salad of tomatoes, pickled onions, and arugula I believe. Plus a dijon cream. There were two, so we each got one.

Lobster ravioli.
Fra diavolo that has a few bites missing.

Entrees: Really good. The portion sizes were actually normal instead of huge, so there weren’t any leftovers. It was odd, but nice. I would say it’s it’s because we ordered from the lunch menu, but the prices are the same on the dinner menu, so I’m guessing the portions are the same too. Anyway, I had the lobster ravioli and Dad had the fra diavolo. Mine was delicious. I got three ravioli, one topped with a shrimp, another with a scallop, and the last with crab. Some wilted spinach was there to sop up the sauce. Everything was tender and lovely. Dad’s fra diavolo had a nice heat level, but the bell peppers slightly overpowered the seafood. It was good though.

Dessert and Drinks: Yum. I had the creme brulee. It was nice and creamy and came with a couple of raspberries on top. It was wonderful. I also had the espresso martini. It was chilled and yummy. If you like Bailey’s, you’ll probably like it.

Borrowed from their website.

Price: A little expensive, but nothing out of the ordinary. Especially for seafood. And Covid prices.

My rating:
MMMM

While it was enjoyable and the food was good, I took away an M because there wasn’t really anything drawing us back. I’m sure if it was closer and we were in the mood, we’d go again. But when we left, there was no discussion of what to try next or excitement to go again. There wasn’t anything worth driving across the lake for, really. It was good. That’s about it.

Something Pretty

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone? I’m tired and annoyed. Haven’t slept well in a few days. Been trying to get something straightened out with the Internet that should’ve been easy peasy, but it’s being a dick. So, I don’t feel like writing an actual post today. Here’s something pretty by Yuumei as an apology.

Typing Is Annoying

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are okay. I’ve been procrastinating like usual, despite having an outline and basically knowing how the first couple of chapters should go. I blame Dad and TV, but I just can’t find the motivation to actually write. I don’t know why. So, I’m procrastinating even more by trying to find a faster way to type. I use the onscreen keyboard with the cursor, which is great, but slow compared to how I used to type. Anyway, I don’t type anymore because the laptop keyboards sit too far back for me to reach. I don’t know if I lost some range of motion or if touchpads got bigger or what, but I haven’t been able to actually type since two computers ago. So, I’ve been looking for alternatives to the onscreen keyboard. Fun, no? No.

I figured since I couldn’t reach the keyboard, I’d try getting a cheap plugin one that I can pull right up to me or into my lap to see if that would help. It’s the one pictured above. A Snpurdiri 60% wired keyboard. I got it on sale for less than $20, so I won’t feel too bad if it doesn’t work for me. It comes in different colors and it’s backlit, so that’s neat. The keys are easy to press and it’s small enough that I can pull it to me and into my lap, then get it back onto my computer and push it out of the way. But it’s too tall for me to use at the moment. I’ll try again when Dad’s not busy. Maybe a towel or something to prop my arm on will help. But it’s cheap and cute enough. If it works, huzzah! It’ll give me a better idea of what I actually need in a decent one when it dies. If not, meh. I’ll try something else.

The other option I’m considering is dictation. I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking when it first became a thing (yes, I’m old), but it was horrid and turned me off of that kind of program before I even started hating my voice. But Windows actually comes with dictation software now (it’s under the ease of access settings) and my camera has a microphone, so I don’t have to buy anything just to try it. However, I don’t like this option. Talking is not my favorite thing. People can’t hear me. I’ve been accused of mumbling. I’ve been told I have a slur (which I don’t believe I do, so wtf?). I use a ventilator, so I usually have a tube in my mouth. Even when I remove it to speak, I still have to repeat myself all the time. And I speak softly, which seems to create more issues. Talking is just not something I enjoy. At all. Plus, I run out of breath easily. So, this would be my last ditch effort to speed up the word flow and strictly used when writing.

I’m sure if I looked harder for adaptive typing aids, I could find other things to try, but I won’t. I’m not really that worried about it. Sure, I hate taking an hour and 45 minutes to type 1,000 words with the onscreen keyboard, but I’ll keep doing it. It’s not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I’m just procrastinating and I know it. At least I’m being semi-productive about it.

Do you use any special typing equipment? What about dictation software? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts or comments or questions here or on my social media pages!

Quick Thoughts on THE FIRST BRIGHT THING

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this first Wednesday of August? It’s hot, so Dad has been lazy and watching TV. Since I have very little will power, that means I have also been lazy and watching TV. Though I did recently finish a beat sheet (Save the Cat! style) for the unnamed cozy mystery (the winner of the poll from a few weeks ago), so I’m going to start writing again. Soon. Anyway, it’s late as I’m writing this, so I decided to do a mini-review of J. R. Dawson’s The First Bright Thing. I don’t usually review the books of people I know (because bias), but I sincerely enjoyed this one so much that I decided a small review sans spoilers wouldn’t hurt.

Plot: the beginning is kind of a slow burn, but seeing the life of the circus and getting to know the characters makes it worth the wait. I loved the intertwining timelines and how the focus starts super wide, but gradually narrows down. It highlights the idea that if you focus on too much at once, you miss the chance to change the little things. And little things can have the biggest impact. It’s also cool how everything comes full circle in the end.

Characters: there are cripple characters! And not token cripples there to tug on heartstrings. They just exist. Like people. It’s cool. Rin is even disabled in a way. But aside from that, the main characters are all fleshed out and interesting. As a lover of villains, I admit I’m partial to the Circus King. He’s a jackass and not good despite what he thinks, but I still want to hug him and squeeze him until all his insides are squished together. And no, I don’t know why I’m like this.

Writing: I love how Dawson incorporates details about the circus and theater and Jewish life in this book. I learned quite a bit and nothing felt like an info dump. It flowed naturally, which I appreciate.

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Overall, I gave The First Bright Thing 5 out of 5 stars. That’s rare, even for books by friends (maybe I’m a little harsh). But this one just gave me all the right feels. Now that I’ve read it, I can confidently say that if you like fantasy, circuses, and/or found family stories, you should try this one.

Thoughts on THE WITCH HITCH

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this last Wednesday of July? Things here are mostly okay. But it’s book review time, so let’s get to that! This month, in a panic since the other book I’d chosen moved up a week, I decided on something that seemed relatively quick and cute. The Witch Hitch by Elizabeth Bass was released on the 25th by Kensington Books. I didn’t realize it was the second in a series until I was halfway through, so remember that I’m coming at it without having read the first book. Anyway, as usual, I must thank Kensington Books and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do it!

The Witch Hitch follows Bailey Tomlin as she prepares for her upcoming wedding. All she has to do is pick a dress. Easy, right? Not so much. And the wedding preparations are only complicated even more when her birth mother shows up. What a witch! Throw in a blast from the past (1930 to be exact), a pompous parrot, and a wicked witch of the aether and the wedding jitters just explode.

Like I said, I went into this not knowing it was a sequel. It reads just fine on its own. The only reason I discovered it was a sequel was because I glanced at the “also by…” section. I’m not even sure if the events of the first book come up here or if it’s one of those series that are only connected by the setting. The whole wicked witch in the aether thing could’ve come from book one, but it’s explained in a way so it doesn’t really matter if you’ve read book one or not.

As far as the plot goes, it was convoluted. There’s a wedding. The groom’s ex is still in the picture and she’s insane. The bride’s birth mother shows up and informs the bride that that entire side of the family are witches. A new love interest is pulled from 1930. An evil witch with no body is causing mayhem. And that’s just part of the drama. There’s too much going on and nothing really has room to breathe in this book. It’s very clunky. The romance part feels forced and unnatural. All of the relationships feel that way, actually. With everything going on, there isn’t time for feelings to build naturally in the story, so instead of a growing attraction to Seton (or warming to Esme and the cousins, or gradual detachment from Wes, etc.), we get random bounces of emotion that make no sense.

The characters are all cute, if somewhat flat. None of them do anything surprising or out of the box. They’re all very much the cookie cutter stereotypes they’re meant. There’s nothing wrong with that. It makes for a quick and cute read, but it also means that I’m not particularly invested in what happens to them. I couldn’t even remember most of their names while I was writing this if I’m being honest. But all the expected roles were there, so it wasn’t a bad story.

There wasn’t anything noteworthy about the writing. It was cute and quick despite the plot being clunky. Not a bad little read in the end.

Ultimately, I enjoyed The Witch Hitch for what it was, but have zero desire to search for other books in the series. It’s just not my cup of tea.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. If you like cheesy romances and don’t mind a cluttered plot, check it out. But you’re not missing much if you skip it.