Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs

I have to say, I enjoyed this a lot more than the first novel, Deja Dead. Maybe it's because I've completely managed to divorce it from the TV show Bones, or maybe it's because I haven't watched Bones in a long time because of season 11.

Death Du Jour opens with the subplot, where Brennan is asked to authenticate the bones of a (possible) Saint (if the paperwork goes through). That connects to the main plot, which is of a gruesome family murder.

One case is tied to another, and soon, Brennan is deep in what possibly could be a cult-related case.

I found this case to be very interesting, and I didn't even mind the long explanations of things like the definition of cults and such because I thought it was fascinating. But if you're sensitive to info-dumps, well, you've been warned. I didn't think it was that bad, but it toes the line.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book were the relationships - Brennan and her daughter, Brennan and her sister, even Brennan and Ryan, which definitely have a Brennan-Booth vibe going on, now that I think about it. But my favourite was definitely Brennan and her daughter, because they seem to have a good relationship, which is quite refreshing to read.

Plus, that scene with Birdie (Brennan's cat). No spoilers, but it was a heart-clenching one for me.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable story. I gobbled it up, and I'll definitely be reading more in the series.

Once Upon a Time X Reading Challenge (Early Roundup)

It's not quite June 21st yet, but I'm going to be busy on that day, so I might as well do an early round up of the challenge while I have the time and still remember what's going on. I can always come back and update if it turns out that I've read more books in the meantime.

Books I have read for the challenge:

The Complete Alice in Wonderland by C.S. Lewis, adapted by Leah Moore, John Reppion, Erica Awano (Fairytale)
Memories of Ash by Instisar Khanani (Fantasy)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (Mythology)
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George (Fairytale)
Sabriel by Garth Nix (Fantasy)
The Folklore of Discworld (Folklore)

That's six books in four categories, which means that I finish...

*drumroll*

AND

Plus, I blogged about Grimm (and by the way, the season 5 ending was AMAZING, I can't wait for season 6!!), which means that I also finished

That's three quests, which is one more than I was aiming for. Plus, I read a few more books that I wouldn't have otherwise - as much as I love the Once Upon a Time tales, I don't tend to seek them out, rather, I pick them up when I stumble across them. It was a nice change to go looking for them, and I found two new authors to follow!

Although it would be hard to pick a favourite, I know which one I didn't enjoy as much - The Penelopiad. I do know a history major who loved it, though, so I'm probably just not intellectual enough for her :p

Yay for this challenge, and hopefully I can sneak in one more book before it official ends(:

Online Marketing for Busy Authors by Fauzia Burke

I requested this book because it's a topic that I'm very interested in. How can I, as a full-time student who also happens to be job hunting, do online marketing without burning out?

The book is basically divided into three sections:

1. Know yourself
2. Know your audience
3. Ways to reach the audience

Or at least, that's how I see it. The book itself says that it's divided into three phases:

1. Getting Organised
2. Turning your thinking into action
3. Staying the course.

Either way, it's the same thing.

What I liked about this book is that there were concrete exercises on how you can define your author voice and how you can narrow down your target audience. The advice on how to promote pretty much corresponds to everything I've heard and read from self-publishing advice podcasts and books. Actually, I think The Creative Penn, Rocking Self Publishing and the like may be slightly more advanced with the type of marketing they're trying.

Most of the advice seems to be more suited for the non-fiction author, although I think that fiction authors can probably adapt the advice.

The only thing I didn't really agree with was the line "if you are self-publishing your book, you will probably get fewer reviews than if you were published by an established publisher." If you're talking editorial reviews, then I can see how this is the case, but if you're talking about customer reviews (aka Amazon/Goodreads/Kobo/etc reviews), then I don't see how being traditionally published is going to automatically get you more reviews. I think your marketing is going to play a bigger part.

All in all, the advice seems pretty solid and aimed at the beginning author (like me). But, if you're willing to listen to the various podcasts, read blogs, you can probably get much of the same information for free. The next step would be putting it into practice (which I am admittedly lagging behind on)

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

Ask a Policeman by The Detection Club

I got this mainly because it said "AGATHA CHRISTIE" in really large font on the cover. As it turns out, she only wrote the preface. But I guess she was the most well-known member, so her name has to be biggest.

Ask a Policeman is a group-mystery. Basically, someone wrote the set up (unpleasant man gets murdered, everyone has a motive) and 4 members write their deduction down.

The twist is, all of them are writing with a detective that isn't theirs. In other words, it's Fanfiction (of a sort).

After all four of them have given their solution, an actual solution was presented. Oh, and all four accused a different person of being the culprit, so clearly they weren't going for the "everyone is right" type of book. Unless we're talking about that Poirot story where everyone was a murderer.

I think my problem with the book is that I'm not familiar with any of the characters. I only know Peter Wimsey, who was written by (if I remember correctly) Dorothy L. Sayers. So I have no idea which aspects were parody and which weren't.

Out of the four sections, I think the second, "Sir John takes his cue" by Gladys Mitchell was my favourite. So.... Gotta check out who this Sir John was, and what Gladys Mitchell wrote.
My least favourite section was "The Conclusions of Mr. Roger Sherringham" by Dorothy L. Sayers. It was just too ridiculous and felt like it was dragged on. I guess out of the four, it most resembled parody. Or a farce. Either one.

By the way, the Lord Peter section (by Anthony Berkeley) was a little bit silly, but not bad. It reminded me that I might want to check out more of Lord Peter's books, since I've only read one.

All in all, it's not a bad book. I'm quite tempted to read all the author's works, then come back and reread this, because I have a feeling that I've missed a lot of important details.