Thoughts From Dead Souls by Angela Marsons

Dead Souls by Angela Marsons is really hitting me close to home.  Being born in the deep South, Alabama, I came to age when desegregation was hitting the South.  I remember going outside as a kid and finding flyers for KKK meetings littering the streets of our quiet neighborhood.  I remember miniature KKK comic books also left in the gutters for kids to find, making KKK members almost superheroes.

I remember the first black kids in my all-white school and couldn't get over how shy they were.  It took years for me to figure out they weren't shy, they were scared to death.  I remember being in the High School band where there was no racism, or so I thought.

I remember living in OKC, OK at 21 and making best friends with a Kickapoo Indian, attending pow-wows and learning their customs at these events.  I practically lived with them and watched how they were treated, and how some of their family reacted.

I remember moving to California and when visiting back in Alabama being asked how I could live around "all them Mexicans".  This was from a family member.

I was lucky not to have had racist parents, even though most of my peers were and I became racist at a young age through osmosis, I don't think I ever hated a group of people but I did do things that were hurtful.  I later found out that if you put yourself in the melting pot you could overcome and become to embrace the people that impacted my life, and many of these people I grew to love, my teachers, schoolmates, bandmates, and friends and learned how to correctly judge people.

Dead Souls is about racism, hate, and nationalism in the UK.  It's a work of fiction but I'm sure there's a lot of truth in it.  Marsons really brings to life the worst in people with her thrillers.  Marsons also brings out the best in people with her thought-provoking fiction.  

Dead Souls halfway through is a great book.

Blood Lines by Angela Marsons, Book 5 in the DC Kim Stone Series

This is another great series that I've got a love for.  Have you ever read a book and hated the fact that you couldn't read it faster.  For me, this is one of those kinds of books.  DI Kim Stone is thrown into another investigation and also being attacked by a Psychiatrist she put in jail in an earlier book.  Both of these 'chases' make a great thriller.  On one end you know what Dr. Alexandra Thorne is up to, well not everything but enough to know she's playing her mind games on anyone she comes in contact with, and on the other end is a set of murders that has Kim going frantically trying to find and stop the murders and murderer.

With Angela Marsons' storyline twists and the emotions she brings out in her characters this has become an extraordinarily great series.  I had another book in line to read next but now I want more DI Kim Stone.  This is one of the good things about finding a series after it's been released for a few years.  If you want more, you just read the next book.

I rate this 9 out of 10.

Blood Lines by Angela Marsons

Book 5 in the DC Kim Stone Series

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 7 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series

I think I'm going to have to start taking notes when I read this series.  Peter Grant is one busy guy, between all his magical friends of the rivers, the faes, underground people, his work, and his family, I don't see how he finds time to search for the Faceless Man.  But that's what this book is about, the scheming of the Faceless Man and Peter Grant's attempt to bring him to justice.

I'm not into spoilers, so that's why my reviews are short, plus this book has been out a while and lots of reviews have already been written on Lies Sleeping.  Also, this isn't the type of book that makes you reflect on your life or make you stronger.  It's just an entertaining read.  Other than that all I can say is that for Urban Fantasy, this is one of the best going right now.  With this book, I've caught up with the series and all 7 books in this series were great reads.  Now I have to wait for November for the next book to be released.  It looks like the next book in Urban Fantasy I'm waiting on is Fallen in the Alex Veras series by Benedict Jacka.

I'm open for suggestions on anybody else's favorite Urban Fantasy series they enjoy.

I rate this 8 of 10.

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

Book 7 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series

Orioles infielder Stevie Wilkerson pulls off HISTORIC save

Wilkerson becomes first position player to ever record a save

I think 55 was his fastest pitch.  Maybe the Angels need 12-year-olds to throw batting practice. One site said he never threw a ball faster than a semi-truck on a freeway.

The biggest thing is Stevie Wilkerson became the first position player to get a save in Major League Baseball. He faced 3 batters in the bottom of the 16th inning and got a deep fly ball for an out, a ground out, and a shallow fly out.  It was Wilkerson's third appearance this month, where he gave up one run.  Not bad for a centerfielder.

Manjaro I3 Update

I think I'm going to like this desktop manager.  The resources used by my computer is minimal and even though I'm still fumbling through it, I'm not in a hurry to rush into all the customizations I want to do.  The next thing I want to tackle is the workspace bar at the bottom, but I'm not sure if I want to install Polybar or something else, but right now I will probably stick with configuring what I have and removing the things I don't want and maybe change the font and font size.  Also, I want a BAMA Football wallpaper but I want to customize that to go with the dark themes I like to use so It's not as bright on my old eyes.

Here's what I have right now.  It's not a thing of beauty but it works for me.

WWW Wendesdays, 07/24/2019

I like to push this along to everybody, the WWW Wednesdays is a great idea.  I'm not much of a reviewer but I like to leave a little something so I can review what I've read and see what other people are reading.

The Three W's are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?

Just fill this in by either a comment from the link in the picture or put it your own blog and add a link to your blog in their comment section.

Here goes. . .  (I.m still binging on the Peter Hill Series by Ben Aaronovitch but I'm finally on the last one, that is until False Value comes out in November.)

What are you currently reading?  Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch, the 7th book in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series.

What did you recently finish reading?  The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch, book 6 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series.

What do you think you'll read next?  Blood Lines by Angela Marsons, the 5th book in the DI Kim Stone series.  After that, I'm going to start the Nick Louth - DCI Craig Gillard series.

Make sure to follow the link by clicking on the picture above and leave your reply.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 6 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series

In the sixth installment of Peter Grant / Rivers of London series, we find Peter a busy guy.  First, he's looking into an overdose that is connected to one of the River's of London's family, Lady Tyburn, next he's looking for a stolen book penned by Sir Isaac Newton himself, and then his hunt for The Faceless Man.  I really enjoy his new partner, Sahra Guhleed.  She brings a non-magical presence to the series, even tho this is not the first book she's been in, she does play a bigger part.  One thing we've found out about Peter is that wherever he goes, destruction is sure to follow, even if it's Harrod's.

Aaronovitch is giving Peter more and more, with less Thomas NIghtingale's supervision, which makes for more action, mistakes, and destruction.  Okay, maybe not mistakes but lots of damage.  All the key players are back and the search for all the baddies is growing.

I'm rating this 3-1/2 stars, but it's still a great read.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch,

Book 6 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series.

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 5 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

This has been the best of the series for me as of late.  Peter Grant is on his own, with the exception of Beverly Brooke, his new girlfriend.  Peter has been sent on assignment from Falcon to help search the disappearance of you pre-teen girls and since this has the Falcon call sign attached to it, that means the Folly is involved and magic is in play.

Peter is now in a small village surrounded by cleared woodlands and is tasked with being attached to one of the families of the missing girls and has the help of Dominic, one of the local policemen assigned to watch over him.  Nobody wants magic around, and with the media coverage that meant Peter had to be at his best at concealing the magic.

The book is great, it really starts to define Peter, as a man, as his job as a policeman, and as his position as an apprentice at the Folly.   Aaronovitch doesn't disappoint us with his storytelling, the research he does of the area and the history of the area the book takes place in.  Aaronovitch pulls out a lot of probably his personal tastes and adding knitting them into his books.  I love Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's storytelling of the audio-book.  He really is the voice of Peter in this first-person magical mystery tour.  I've said before, if Urban Fantasy is one of your likes then this must be added to your TBR list.  But I know a lot of you have already read these.  So now onto The Hanging Tree.

I give this 9 of 10

stars, but of the first 5, this is the best so far!

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch,

Book 5 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

WWW Wednesday July 17, 2019

I found somebody doing this on BookLikes a couple of weeks ago and I thought the community fun with it, to see what other people are reading and show off what you are reading and making new friends would make it worthy,  So here goes:

The Three W's are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?

Just fill this in by either a comment from the link in the picture or put it your own blog and add a link to your blog in their comment section.

Here goes. . .  (I.m still binging on the Peter Hill Series by Ben Aaronovitch so all the books are easy to figure out.)

What are you currently reading?  Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
What did you recently finish reading?  Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
What do you think you'll read next?  The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

I love finding a good series and sticking with it.  I've done a lot of series this way,  some have stopped and some are still going.  Either way, enjoy what you're reading.

"Stranger Things 3" Behind-The-Scenes Facts That'll Blow Your Mind

It looks like BuzzFeed wet to a Comic-Con panel and put the answers on a nice little facts page.  I like the last little fact, that 40 million people watched Stranger Things 3 in 4 days. I was one of those.  How many people would sit and watch a basically an 8-hour movie in one day?  Well, it's nice to be able to pause and take breaks while watching, 'cause it was worth every minute of it.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 4 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

Broken Homes takes our special task force members into the 1960's concrete architecture of London, putting Peter and Leslie 20 plus stories up doing undercover work to find "The Faceless Man".  The architect of this particular building turns out to be a suspected magician that fled Germany before WWII and designed this building with a special feature that nobody knew about. 

Aaronovitch does a lot of good research for his books so he can tackle his subjects and themes of his books with strong knowledge.  All I can say without spoilers is that this book leaves you like a batter facing that aging pitcher that puts a 100+ fastball over the plate and the batter just watches it with his mouth wide open.  Not that slow curveball but a fastball that just makes you wonder where that came from.  Really a great ending and a what will surely be a great subject for the 5th book, Foxglove Summer,

I rate this 4 out of 5 stars.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch,

Book 4 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

Stranger Things Season 3 Easter Egg

Want to call Murray Bauman?  Remember Joyce Byers giving Murray's phone number to the FBI?  (618) 625-8313?  Give it a call and you get this;

Hi! You have reached the residence of Murray Bauman. Mom, if this is you, please hang up and call me between the hours of 5 and 6 PM as previously discussed. Okay?! If this is Joyce, Joyce, thank you for calling, I have been trying to reach ya. I have an update. It’s about, well, its probably best if we speak in person. It’s not good or bad, but it’s something. If this is anyone but my mother or Joyce, well…  you think you’re real clever, getting my number, don’t ya? Well, here’s some breaking news for you. You’re not clever. You’re not special. You are just simply one of the many, many nimwits to have called here, and the closest you will ever get to me is this prerecorded message. So, at the beep, do me a favor and hang up, and never call here again. You are a parasite. Thank you and good day!

One of the small things that make lie more fun. 

I can't wait for season 4! 

I also see books out now for Stranger things.  I don't know if these are new or not but I gotta at least try one.

Well, It's I3 Now

I got another SSD drive yesterday and used Clonezilla to load a backup of Manjaro XFCE that I made a couple of weeks ago.  It's perfect and did what it was supposed to do.  Now I'm running a perfect XFCE setup, or what I was enjoying anyway.  But I got bored and wanted to do some distro-hopping.  So this I got smart and downloaded the Oracle Virtual Machine.  I fired it up and . . .  I didn't like it.  Not I3, the juries still out on whether I can handle a window manager instead of a desktop environment but I did not like the virtual box.  Now, what to do?

I decided to just load I3 but this time I'm dual booting it with my XFCE.  After loading I3 I went to the community to see how to do simple things like screen resolution.  My screen resolution was now set at 800 X 600 and my old laptop runs at 1366 x 768.    Talk about complication, wow everybody was doing this and that, with your config file or xrandr.  I finally went to the bmenu and found I could change it there and then save it.  As I stumble through I3 things get easier and easier.  But I will never master it, but all I have to do is get it the way I can work with it and be comfortable.

Linux is the cake and everything else is the cake decorations.  It all comes down to what programs you run and how comfortable you are when getting to them.  System resources are important, you don't want to be slowed down by what else is running in the background.  That's why I like XFCE, So now I have to see how I3 fits into my life.  Right now it's fun, learning new things on my Linux journey.  Learning things I can change in the dot config files is really going to be fun.

As long as it's simple and easy, or gets easier.