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Star Wars: Queen's Peril
Star Wars: Queen's Peril
E.K. Johnston | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
EK Johnson is so hit or miss for me as an author. I've only read her Star Wars related books so far, because of this. @Star Wars: Queen's Shadow was NOT a good book. However, this book is an improvement, it begins with the election of Padme Amidala, and ends after Phantom Menace. It mostly covers how the handmaidens came to be, and the relationship between them.
I liked how this book revealed a little more about Shmi, that she was also good with gadgets and fixed a screen so they could watch Anakin during the podrace.I want a book about Shmi now.
What I don't understand about these new SW writers is the need to slap in love interests and who is interested in who... I legitimately don't care, and it never adds anything to the story. Unless romantic interests/feelings drive a story, leave that crap out, I'm reading it for the Star Wars content.
Parts of this book I really liked and I would read it again. However, I still think Padme's character should have been given to Claudia Gray, rather than this author. I think Padme should be given at least one adult book, written by someone else.
  
Thirty and a Half Excuses (Rose Gardner Mystery, #3)
Thirty and a Half Excuses (Rose Gardner Mystery, #3)
Denise Grover Swank | 2013 | Crime, Mystery
5
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I don't read all that many mystery/romantic suspense books anymore and Rose's small Southern town sounds like hell to live in. Everyone knows everyone's business. If you don't go to church, how dare you. If you've been thrown in jail for something you didn't do, the stigma sticks to you like glue. I really have no idea why Rose is still in Henryetta.

Once again, though, Rose finds herself knee deep in an investigation after several older women in the town die of supposed natural causes, and some things just don't add up about it all.

I'll admit I wasn't the least bit suspicious about this person until very near the end so it was cleverly done and well thought out.

And as for the romance in this... I was never fully Team Joe, and after reading my review of the previous book it seems I liked Mason more then too.

I never really liked how Rose let everyone bully her into things and in this she actually started to stand up for herself more, so I did a little cheer about that.

This is definitely going to be the last of this series that I read, mainly because I don't read this subgenre anymore.
  
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Ian Anderson recommended Swingin' Machine by Mose Allison in Music (curated)

 
Swingin' Machine by Mose Allison
Swingin' Machine by Mose Allison
1963 | Jazz
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Many of our generation of white, British, middle-class musicians who went to art college all knew about Mose Allison from ‘Parchman Farm’ and one or two other songs in the early Sixties that had been done by British R&B bands. So I knew a little bit about him but I suppose like many people, assumed he was a black guy. He turned out to be a Mississippi white guy with pasty legs and an obvious understanding of jazz and its traditions. He did most of his work in a piano trio with a bass player and a drummer, and he sang in this very laconic and down-home way. I wouldn’t say his songs never touched on romantic lyrics but they were often about stuff. About real life – that’s what gave him credibility and a high level of authenticity, because you knew this wasn’t a guy making it up, this was a guy who had lived the things he sang about. I, like many people of my generation, was struck by his work. The Who recorded at least one of his songs. I expect today there are a few younger musicians who will know about Mose Allison in the same way they will know about Roy Harper."

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