What's On My Reading List--Summer 2017

Hi! If it's not obvious yet, I'm doing a bit of a summer series, where I tried to bring the season's vibes into each of the blog categories I have here. Today we're doing books, so I thought I'd share with you a few of the books I'd like to get to this summer. This is probably the most obvious time for me to catch up on my Reading Challenge and I fully intend to feature some books that fulfill some of my entries, but I also want to read some of these purely for enjoyment, not to fulfill a challenge. I love my smut, probably always will, but I'd like to expand my horizons a bit this summer and read different kinds of books. Here are some that I've recently downloaded and hoping to read this summer:

Influence--Chris Parker

I've actually started reading this book already but found another book in my Kindle carousel that I wanted to read more, so I put it away. lol Influence is a murder thriller about a man who has most, if not all, of the answers. As a public figure, he helps other people unlock the gift to having the answers and welcoming prosperity into their lives. But when people begin to die and the finger of blame lands on him, he realizes that he doesn't have all the answers after all--namely, who's framing him for the murders. lol 

Limelight--Emily Organ 

This is part of a series (as many books these days seem to be) but I believe each entry can also be read as a standalone, which I like. Limelight is a period murder novel set in London in the late 1800s and is about an actress who is found drowned in a river. The extra rub here is that the same actress was reported as having been murdered some five years prior to her drowning. As her friend works with Scotland Yard to uncover the secrets of her friend's death, she learns much more than she bargained for about the person her friend was and why she made the choices she made. 

Souls: Seeing Others Under the Light of the Son--Tyro Fledgling

I found this and a few of the other books on today's list from Smashwords, which is another site I find books and work with authors on. The synopsis was what drew me in. This book focuses on the question "How would you see a person if the physical traits that make you love, despise or take interest in a person were stripped away?" That kind of question can go so many ways and I'm really interested to see how this book answers that inquiry. It says it's a spiritual devotional book, so I'm guessing it's probably about how to look past someone's exterior in order to find the love you want. We'll see.



The Microwave Torture of Ed Snowden and Julian Assange--Richard Lighthouse

I've said this before, but I love me a good conspiracy theory. The microwave torture theory is one I've heard before, but never bothered to explore because it sounded kooky to me. But the conspiracy theorist in my brain always says, "That's what they want you to think so you'll disregard it," so here I am. lol This book explores the research into the theory of Snowden and Assange being targets of a microwave CIA program and even as it sounds quite off, I'd like to see the research put forth on the subject.



The Traveling Man--Michael P. King

I found this book a couple of weeks ago and the summary sounded interesting, so I'd like to get around to reading it soon. This book is about a con artist named Mike who, along with his wife Patty and their partner Buddy, plan to rake in the dough by creating false documents and selling a piece of land, based off of those falsified documents, to a local gangster. At some point, Buddy flips on them and ends up being part of the team trying to hunt Mike and Patty down, so Mike has to work harder in order to keep Patty safe and get to the bottom of everything. In wrestling mark speak that would technically be considered a 'double turn,' even though initially there are no good guys in this crew. They're con artists trying to screw someone out of their money. But Buddy turns on Mike and Patty, putting himself in the villain spot and making the latter two sympathetic characters, so while they still technically aren't the 'good guys,' they've effectively become better than Buddy, so it would be a double turn. I'm here for it.



How to Defeat Procrastination--Mugilan Parimalam

I didn't get much of a synopsis for this book as the title pretty much told it all, but in case it hasn't become blindingly apparent by now, I have an issue with punctuality. The larger issue at hand here in many cases is procrastination. When I feel overwhelmed by something, have a post concept or idea but no structure in mind, or when I'm tired of doing the headless chicken dance (that's mainly for more complicated posts, like my Inspiration series), I procrastinate. This often throws me off my schedule, makes things insanely late, and stresses me out beyond words. My life has gotten busier even as it somehow remains stagnant, so I really need to figure out how to stop procrastinating and build up the energy to do what needs to get done. On time. I'm hoping to pick up some tips from this book that I can actually utilize because I've read quite a few books and articles on how to stop procrastinating, but none of them seem to stick.



Handbook to Success and Personal Growth--Simon Roche

I guess this goes hand-in-hand with the previous book in terms of attempted self-improvement. I just need some tips on how to cultivate lasting personal growth in myself. Usually when I discover that I've grown, it's by accident and not something I intended to change at that time. There are a few areas of my life that could use a little TLC, so I'd like to see what this author recommends in the way of cultivating success and personal growth. In short, I need help and lots of it. I need help from the heavens and from life. lol



The Butchered Man--Harriet Smart

This book is actually the first in a series about two Victorian police detectives in Northminster. Hopefully this won't end on a cliffhanger and I can treat it as a standalone. In The Butchered Man, detectives Vernon and Felix have to investigate the events surrounding a mutilated corpse being dumped in a ditch, but the different trails that it leads them on bring them in conflict with each other and threatens their case.


The School of the Seers--Jonathan Welton 

✋Hol' on, hol' on. Hold your tomatoes and judgment and I'll explain. 

Okay. Although these days my faith falls more in line with non-denominational Christian toeing the line of agnostic, I still like spiritually based books like this. I know for a lot of you, especially in today's culture where over half of the people I meet or follow online are agnostic or atheistic, this book sounds a little 'woo woo' to bother with and I don't blame you. It sounds a little more 'woo woo' to me now than it did years ago when I found this book at a thrift sale. I'd mainly like to read this out of curiosity; what made me gravitate toward this years ago? Why did I not see it as suspect as I do now? More importantly, can I gain anything from it with my viewpoint on religion having wavered the way it has? 

A Quiet Coup--Rob Lubitz

Small confession: I've actually already read this book and a review is on the way, but I just wanted to promote this book and its author. A few years ago, I reviewed a book called Beyond Top Secret, and it was by far one of my favorite books of the year. It's probably on my list of Top 100 books, it was that good for me. It was a political thriller based off corruption at all government levels, murder, and desperate cover-up attempts that ultimately failed in some ways, while they succeeded in others. Rob recently published A Quiet Coup, which is the conclusion of the series (it was a trilogy), and was nice enough to contact me and ask if I'd like to read and review a copy. This, too, is a political thriller that involves all levels of government, a few randoms who get caught in the middle, and a bloodhound reporter who doesn't know when to let something go. But underneath all of the secrets, lies and blood in this series lies a love story. That was touched on in Beyond Top Secret but was explored a bit more in-depth in A Quiet Coup. I really enjoyed the book and a review will be up soon, but if you want an actual summary, go check out the book's Amazon page.

I wanted to add more, but keeping it at 10 9 is ambitious enough for me these days; I have quite a bit going on right now, one of the more stressful of those things being my need to have my laptop repaired. I just bought it 8 months ago, am actually still paying for the damn thing, and on Saturday my screen completely went out and now I have to send it back to ASUS for repairs. Summer Under the Stars is starting over on ATV on August 1st, which means I have 31 posts to prep from jump. I'm also trying to finish up the remaining posts for summer I wanted to put out here, so in total we're talking nearly 40 posts in a matter of days. And that's just the tip of the iceberg; I have so many irons in the fire I can't keep up with them all.

The rest of my life has been about as pleasurable as a mosquito bite on the vag and as stressful as trying to figure out how to treat the vag bite without rubbing alcohol on it. lol So I think keeping it to 10 things is the safest option for me right now. It'd be lovely if I could read more than that, though. Since I won't have my laptop for a couple of weeks, I may have no choice but to read more than 10. lol If you'd like me to do an update post at the end of the summer on these books or you'd like to see an individual review of any of them, let me know. What are you planning to read this summer? See you soon!