Possibility of Life, Are We Alone Out Here Or?

If you read or watch and enjoy Sci-Fi in any form, I recommend reading or listening to this book. Jaime Green approaches the big questions of our existence and whether or not we are alone as a scientist who loves to read. The book is filled with what we know from science and how that informs our stories of the possibility of life. If you find non-fiction to be 'dry' give this book a try and I think you'll find it fascinating. I am giving it 5 stars because it will stick with me for quite some time and because she talks about some books that I will now seek out and read. 

Here is what it says on Goodreads about this book:

In The Possibility of Life, acclaimed science journalist Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus up through to our contemporary quest for exoplanets in the "Goldilocks zone," where life akin to ours on Earth might exist. Along the way, she interweaves insights from a long-standing tradition of science fiction writers who use the power of imagination to extrapolate and construct worlds that in turn inspire scientists.

Weaving in expert interviews, cutting-edge astronomy research, philosophical inquiry, and pop culture touchstones ranging from A Wrinkle in Time to Star Trek to Avatar, The Possibility of Life explores our evolving conception of the cosmos to ask an even deeper question: What does it mean to be human?

 

I Need 8 Days in a Week to Read All These Books-

I don't have a review today because I spent most of my free time the past few days watching Alchemy of Souls on Netflix. It is a very good show- I recommend it if you like fantasy with romantic elements. I am almost done listening to: 

In The Possibility of Life,  Jaime Green ties in discussion of how the universe works through a lens of science fiction, so she talks about Star Trek,  as well as Darwin and books such as The Golden Compass.  I will talk about that more later. 

Additionally, I picked up Charlie Donlea's latest release which was  on hold at my library:

And then I have two romances on Net Galley:

And then a friend recommended Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score and that looks amazing so I had to download it to read.

I am very tempted to read more and sleep less. I love that my current 'problem' is so many good books I get to read! Living the dream!  I am also working on the prep work to do my own writing. I have been reading and doing the homework assignments in the book Romance the Brand by Zoe York. This book is a guidebook on how to create not just one romance book but build a series of books that people will want to read. That is what I love about romance books, most of the time if you like a book, you get to read more happily-ever-afters in the same universe, and all the side characters get their day in the sun. Currently, I'm making a map of my imaginary town.  It will have a train station because I love a town with a train station. But enough talking, I've go to get back to reading!

 

Another Fun Paranormal Romance from Audible Originals

 I downloaded this book to listen to last week because it was written by Molly Harper and narrated by Amanda Ronconi and Teddy Hamilton. 

I loved Molly Harper's Mystic Bayou Series, so I was confident in giving this a listen. This story is about a woman who has lost her mother and moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at the behest of an aunt she has never met. Things happen and it turns out that Riley has some major family history. She can see the dead, she has always been able to see the dead but now she finally learns she has been seeing ghosts and why.  

Riley soon has a coven, a crush, and some major mysteries to solve.  The cast is likeable, the narration is great, the romance is just starting and I was delighted with how much was resolved at the end of the book and we have a nice juicy ongoing mystery to move into book two. 

If you like romance with a little magic, give this series a listen! 

4 stars

Wolfsong By T.J. Klune

 T. J. Klune's writing is spellbinding. I borrowed Wolfsong from the library because the book he has that just came out on 4/25 was not yet available for me to put on hold.  Not only re TJ Klune's books great reads, they have great covers. Look at this vibrant cover, I can't wait to read it! Oh, It looks like it could very well be a retelling of Pinnochio! 

Not only does T. J. Klune have the incredible ability to create universes filled with beautiful characters, and so many variations on love.  The world-building is just fantastic. I've read werewolf stories before, and this one is unique and stands apart.  I could post sentences from the book that struck me and we'd be here all day, so instead of that I highly suggest adding this book to your TBR if you enjoy fantasy books. 

Wolfsong is a long sweeping story about Ox, a human who grows up not fitting in, who has a crummy father and is scraping by as he goes through High School. And then the Bennetts move into the house down the road, then things change, and Ox changes. This is a story of growing up, finding your people and your place in the world, and what a person will do to keep the people they love together. It's told in first-person which I really enjoyed. 

This book has such a different cover than The Lives of Puppets.  So interesting. The basic black and white with the title in Orange (the color that the werewolves eyes change). 

Have you read any T.J. Klune? What did you think?

Moist, Actually A Short Sexy Comedy

This delightfully funny,  romantic novella started from a photo of Chris Pine that author Ash Dylan tweeted about.  Above is a snippet from the book. If you read romance, do yourself a favor and 1-click order this ebook, you'll laugh so hard and also appreciate how Ash Dylan also gives you all the feels over the course of a night with Elena and Rhys. 

The idea for this book all started on Twitter where author Ash Dylan commented on a photo of Chris Pine:

this looks like the cover for a romance about a literary fiction author who agrees to read his neighbor's novel, and he returns it with a note that says she uses the word moist too much and if she doesn't fix it he'll have to spank her, and her next edit has twice as many moists

You can click here to see the photo and the original tweet: Chris Pine Inspiration for Moist, Actually 

There are so many funny moments and swoony scenes, if you like romance and you could use a good chuckle or twelve, read this book! 

 

 

Cozy Mystery Book Club April Live Stream- Tomorrow at 7PM EST!

 

Join me in the comments tomorrow at 7PM EST with lots of other readers of Cozy Mysteries! 

This month's selection is A Brush With Murder by Bailee Abbott.  I had an ARC of this book from Net Galley back in 2021 and reviewed it here on my blog.  Here is a link to that review: 

A Brush With Murder

Each month people who comment in the live stream are entered to win books, so it's not only fun to comment, you can win a new book in the process!

Now on to a little food talk. I enjoy cooking, and a really enjoy eating good food, so about once a month I treat myself to a box from Blue Apron. This month one of the meals I picked was Oven-Baked Korean-Style Eggs & Rice. It was a meal that all you do is put together the ingredients and bake.  It was delicious and easy enough for me to make it myself in the future.  It's a good anytime of day meal. What do you think? Does it look good to you?

The Sunday Post Last Full Week of April is Upon Us!

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

HI! How are you?  I hope you had a nice week. I had an MRI of my foot which I hurt last month and found out that I need to wear a boot for another two weeks. The toe that has a stress fracture is not the toe the X-ray thought had a stress fracture. As you know I like to run, so being unable to run for over a month now, stinks!  I do tell myself, better to get this resolved so I can run again soon-ish than to wind up needing some kind of surgery. Sigh, still stinks though. 

The weather here this week is pretty blah, with highs in the 50s (10s in Celcius) and lows from 32 to about 38 (0 to 4 in Celcius) Below are books I'm working on for this week, and my poor foot.

I was thinking I'd have finished Wolfsong by now, but other stories got in the way, so I am working on finishing Wolfsong, which is very good, today. 

I have also downloaded the audio version of Flux by Jinwoo Chong, I am still determining where it will fall in my reading.  I attended a Zoom craft talk that Jinwoo Chong did and that was my inspiration to get Flux ASAP. 

Here is the back of the book blurb: 

A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his employers have inadvertently discovered time travel and are covering up a string of violent crimes.

Caged by Bella Matthews - Romance Sub Genres

 

I read this book for a book club.  This is the first book in the Defiant Kings series, but it's also the fourth book in Kingston Family books. Basically, I believe the way it works is Bella Matthews has three trilogies that are involving the siblings that make up the center family of the series. So this is and isn't the first book. If you read romance with any frequency you'll quickly understand that some of the brothers and sisters of Hudson (the male lead of this book) are living their best HEA lives so they must be the subjects of previous books. 

The family in this series are sporty billionaires.  Caged features Hudson who is an MMA fighter and Madison who is a very successful social media manager and yoga instructor.  There are also brothers who play pro football and hockey. If you are a fan of sports romance, this may be a big hit for you. If you prefer romance books where everyone is very well off, successful in their careers, and has great abs, this story checks those boxes. 

This story takes place in the 2020s and has all the trappings of the here and now but the story harkens back to the days of old.  (like 70s romance) Maddie is a virgin who doesn't like people to touch her and Hudson is a guy with a reputation.  But when Maddie is attacked Hudson stops the attack and then Maddie plays his nursemaid for a few days. Old school, friends to lovers. 

Here are a couple of lines from the book this is Maddie's brother talking to Hudson.  He-man- macho stuff, 

I think one of these characters had their book already 

A Fun Romance with a Clever Premise that Also Deals With Grief

 

I am here to recommend this audiobook, it's included with an audible membership and I loved the book's premise. In this story, Alice, a school teacher, has co-written and self-published a thriller that sold 73 copies.  One day a man comes to see her and he demands to know where she got the information disclosed in the story.  He looks and behaves just like her fictional secret agent main character!  

We quickly learn that Alice's book needs to be moved from the fiction section to the non-fiction section--and Alice has to figure out who to trust as she is taken on a wild adventure.  I wonder if Brynn Kelly wrote this in response to a "What if you met your book boyfriend?" prompt.  

The story is engaging, packed with action and romance, and a nice amount of humor--amusing references to writing. Important content warning: It has some heavy scenes that deal with the death of loved ones from cancer, and it is a fairly larger part of the book so take that into consideration.

4 stars.  Definitely worth a listen! 

An update on my lettuce container. At this time I don't know what are lettuce seeds beginning to sprout and what are weeds!  TBD! 

The Sunday Post for Mid April

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

Well, we had a wonderful preview of summer, and then today, back to mid-April reality.  Possible Flurries tonight. I am glad I put my lettuce seeds in a container that is easy to move into the house. Hopefully, we are almost done with freezing temperatures at night or the day.  Have you watched anything good on TV? We watched Transatlantic on Netflix. I liked that it didn't sugar-coat the American position of neutrality during WW2 prior to Pearl Harbor, especially the lack of American support for refugees. I also finished watching Unlock My Boss which was very enjoyable. 

This week I am working on reading and reviewing these books: