Book Rants - June 2025

The summer heat does not induce the urge to read so I read less than usual. But here are the books I read in June.

01 - A Slash of Emerald (Dr. Julia Lewis #2) by Patrice McDonough
What's about: art, murder, salacious men
This was good but lots of tough subjects - pornography, sex, slavery, hence salacious men. The ending (probably not a spoiler) with one of the main character leaving town abruptly is just another ploy I dislike. And people not communicating with each other, so this is a slow-burn romance but honestly, they should just get the romance over with so they can move on to the mysteries/murders but sadly, that's not how book series work. The third book is not released yet but I'll probably read it.

02 - The Anatomist's Apprentice (A Dr. Thomas Silkstone Mystery#1) by Tessa Harris
What's it about: autopsies, murders, romance, perverts, gross-out scenarios
Too many usages of similes and metaphors, almost after every two or three sentences, too many two-word names such as Lovelock, Fairweather, Peabody, Claddingbowl, Finesilver, Silkstone (the main character), a couple of perverts, a few gross scenes (i.e., autopsies, descriptions of dead bodies) - do we need two scenes of two different men getting their tooth pulled? I'm just glad I don't know the names of most internal organs or else I would not be able to read this.
    The mystery of the murders are okay but I think the culprit, or the main culprit seems lacking somehow. And the central romance is fine but really, why does it need it but then again, it's the main reason the main character took on the case - he fell in love with the dead guy's sister. And the title, The anatomist's apprentice, I thought the main character is the anatomist but I guess he's the apprentice but whatever, I'm not going to continue the series. I just don't like how this is written.

03 - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
What's it about: marriage, the past, one girl's first marriage, death
90% of the book is the nameless main character/narrator, the second Mrs. de Winter whose name is never disclosed, imagining scenarios (things that never happened), being overly emotional, overthinking about every little thing, being pessimistic, being paranoid, being insecure, giving extensive details to everything nature-related and 10% is the mystery of Rebecca and Manderley (the house).
    I thought this is too slow-moving and nothing much really happens until the end. I guess I was hoping for more of the mystery instead of the every day drama of a naive wife and a husband, Maxim de Winter, who most of the time treats his wife like a child and never seems to be communicating to her about anything and never seems to be around. Let's just say, these two characters are boring without Rebecca. Even the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, seems to have no no personality if not her devotion to Rebecca.
    We live in the main character's head way too much and she seems to avoid things that reveals more plot (by declining to do things) as if to slow the pace even more. In a way, this book is like a prelude to the secret of Rebecca because without that ending, nothing really did happen. To me, the ending is not a twist, more like a revelation that answer the mystery of Rebecca's death and it ends like there should have been more.
    I wonder why this is a romance or why people like this book when [SPOILERS AHEAD: Maxim killed his first wife, Rebecca, got away with it as there is no evidence to prove it. The second wife, the nameless character, just accepts it because he loves her and not Rebecca, and that is all that matters to her. Really? Why didn't the revelation that her husband killed another human being, mainly his first wife, bother her or frighten her? She's willing to be with him because he loves her and not Rebecca? The fact that Rebecca was a rotten human being and provoked Maxim to kill her doesn't mean it's right she was killed. Supposedly they soften the killing by making the fact that she was dying of some disease which is stupid. END SPOILERS]
    This is compared to Jane Eyre and I say, nope, nothing like Jane Eyre, there might be some similar things but it's barely a comparison. Apparently there seems to be a sequel but I won't be reading that since I find this too dull and only finish it to find out the mystery of Rebecca's death - that's really the only appealing thing.

04 - Bodies from the Library: Lost Tales of Mystery and Suspense from the Golden Age of Detection by various authors
What's it about: crimes, murders, short stories, early works
Out of the 16 stories (2 are plays), I like the first two stories and the last one (which is by Agatha Christie) and the rest are rather dull. I think since these are early works, they aren't that great because even great authors have not-so-great early writings. The biographies of the authors are interesting and list perhaps better works of these authors to check out. I have not read any works from these authors before aside from Agatha Christie. There's no libraries in any of the stories but I guess the title is referring to Agatha Christie's novel, The body in the library.

Have you read any good books lately?

A semi-organized digital life

I am, more or less, digital with my artworks and writings and my blog and previous blogs and various other things so I have thousands of digital files. They accumulate even when I try to delete and sort them. You might think if you can see everything at once, files on your screen and not physical boxes surrounding you, it would be easy to organize them but nope. But at least I'm semi-organized.
    I usually make folders and name them with numbers at the beginning in order of importance and sometimes if I want a folder at the top I use zeros so my folders look like this:

Example A

    I sort them by name so the numbered folders are in the order I want. And then there are sub folders within these folders so I have folders like these:

Example B

Example C

For my artwork, I organize them by years (see example B) so that's pretty simple. For my blogs, I also organized by years and then by months (see example C). For my writing, I mostly end up with folders such as finished, in progress or maybe finished. And for other things, it's whatever I thought makes most sense.
    I have two main folders - one for archived files (files I'm done with) and one for recent files (things I'm still working on) so I know where to put files. Having two main folders helps to keep clutter down although I'm more organized with my finished files than my recent files. It's gotten easier to find the files I want ever since I got organized with my files.
    Of course there is no single, perfect solution to organizing files because files (and folders) get changed, renamed or even sometimes corrupted but mostly I get messy and end up with loose files (sometimes with temporary names) not in folders. So I'll keep re-re-re-organizing my files until, well, who knows when. (Note: I use Macs only but I imagine you can organize files pretty much the same on any type of computer systems.)

How do you organize your digital files?

Fiction: A disorderly dinner

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Hilary Melton-Butcher and is hosted at Elephant's Child over here. This week's prompts are: tennis, Turkish, delight, melon, brook and/or officers, steps, conclusion, earliest, pan, asparagus.
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Fiction: A disorderly dinner
The asparagus had gotten cold but no one dared to leave any on their plate. A bird cry rang out 9 o'clock. The guests were fidgeting in their seats, widening their shirt collars, rolling up their sleeves, tying up long hair and fanning their faces. Did Mariel turn off the air conditioner? It was her house and no one liked to dispute her.
    This dinner was to celebrate Frank's return home. All 31 family members were there. As they started on the tomato soup, a few whispered conversations began.
    A little later, the clock struck ten with another bird cry. They all turned to glance at it, most wishing it was time to leave.