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.

Fiction: The almanac of motherly advices

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: almanac, vegetables, smoke, rocky, pursuit and/or tides, data, pearly, block, hedge.

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Fiction: The almanac of motherly advices
In the almanac of motherly advices given to her by her grandmother, June Apples searches for the answer to her dilemma. She runs a finger down the index under F for fights but there is none so she flips back a few pages and searches the A's for arguments and turns toward the particular page.
    If your husband or partner hits you and blames you for doing something wrong when you didn't, strike back.
    She has been correct. Looking down at her unconscious husband on the floor, she smiles. The set of frying pans Paul got for her 30th birthday has been useful after all. Now, should she eat dinner first or take Paul to the hospital?
    As she washes the vegetables, she ponders why she regrets marrying Paul. He, not only demands his meals ready for him every day, he also expects her to keep their apartment clean with barely enough money to purchase a bottle of bleach or even an orange. On weekends, she has to help entertain the brothers' friends who eats and drinks freely and never pays either brothers anything. A housekeeper would have done the same things but she would probably get paid while June can't even get a dollar for a band-aid.
    The almanac says marriage makes people happy but June doesn't seem to be one of them. She wonders if her pursuit of happiness should have involved marriage. As she eats the chicken and vegetable casserole, she tries not to breathe in the scent of Paul's cigars which he smokes once a day.
    When she is finished clearing away the dishes, the doorbell rings. June hesitates in answering. The clock on the livingroom wall says five minutes after nine - the time when Paul's older brother comes for his weekly visits.
    Junes walks over toward Paul lying on the couch with a blanket over him. She holds a finger under his nose. Faint air. Still alive. She pulls the blanket over his head. He doesn't like sleeping with the lights on.
    She suddenly recalls watching the tides while sitting alone on the sand on the beach. The water had looked like pearly gems, sparkling under the bright sunlight. But then the clouds came and blocked the lights and made everything dull and lifeless. That day was June's tenth birthday and her family's promise to spend a day with her on the beach was forgotten because the light breeze was too much for June's nine-year-old brother, James, even though a wind machine couldn't have budged James' oversized body. June refused to leave so they just left her. It was the eighth time they left her alone on her birthday. She didn't know why she kept hoping they would change but that day, she stopped waiting.
    June dismisses the memory and picks up the largest frying pan and proceeds to open the door. Rocky, with his wide eyes on the verge of popping out, stalks inside. June closes the door.
    "How are you doing, sister?" he says. His sneer makes her want to slap him. He moves closer to her and opens his arms wide. "How about some sisterly love for your brother?"
    "Sure," she says and strikes him on the head with the frying pan. He falls to the floor, unconscious. Her fingers weakens and the pan slips from her hands and lands on the wooden floor with a loud bang. Did she give him too much sisterly love? She checks his pulse. Nope. Just right.
    Paul has always hedged on the issue of Rocky molesting her. He keeps saying Rocky is just being brotherly. June had let it go thinking when Paul gets promoted, they can afford to move to their own house and away from Rocky's charity as it is his apartment building they are living in but it has been four years and Paul has yet to get that promotion.
    After a few moments of frozen fear, June walks back to the table where she has left the almanac. With a shaking hand, she flips the pages until she finds the answer. When you're in trouble and you doubt what to do, go on vacation. Yes, the almanac is right. She needs a vacation. Perhaps Hawaii or some small island where people still uses real phones and mail takes a few weeks to get anywhere.
    Without hesitation, she takes a spoon from the kitchen and enters the bathroom. Kneeling on the floor, she pries the tile up by the toilet and lifts out from the hole the plastic-wrapped bundle of cash and puts the tile back in place with bits of toothpaste to make it stick. Back out in the livingroom, she takes Rocky's keys from his jacket pocket and marches out of the apartment and next door to Rocky's where she does the same thing. The brothers often share the same habits as taught by their father.
    Back at the apartment, June finishes with her packing and drags the suitcase toward the door but pauses to glance at Paul and Rocky. Has she become a statistic? There was a show she had seen about spousal behaviors and the data revealed most violent crimes are committed by a spouse against another spouse. Statistic or not, she's not a killer. She takes out Paul's phone from his pants pocket and calls for an ambulance. In the future, she will never marry again. No marriage is worth going through hell.

IWSG June 2025: Short Author Bios

I often read those short author bios (or what I call mini bios) at the end or at the beginning of a book or the back of book jackets and find them quite easy to read but to write them is not so easy. How can you write a couple of sentences (under 200 words or less) and give people a basic portrait of who you are? I have noticed most bios consisted of these things: your name, education, job title and function, experience, accomplishments/accolades, where you live, something personal and usually written in third person. But these bios change with the author so accolades are added later and any changes to the author's life is also reflected. How creative and what you choose to share is up to you but I have noticed most bios are straight forward with bare information. For me, I would put only things that I'm comfortable to share.
    Here are some drafts of my author bio. If you feel incline, give me your honest thoughts on them and pick the one you think is the best. (M. Faith is my pen name.)

~ 01 ~
A transplant New Yorker, M. Faith often likes to believe she is a high-functioning and quiet introvert but shares her bias thoughts freely on her blog. While not working as a graphic designer, she spends a bit too much time roaming the web. When she is writing, she is often lost in whatever wormholes she may hypothetically find while pursuing a character who may have a penchant for disappearing into thin air.

~ 02 ~
M. Faith is a graphic designer by day and by night (and all other free hours), she is a multi-task blogger with a penchant for writing paranormal stories full of obstinate heroines and disguised good guys. A transplant New Yorker, she rarely leaves home but loves to travel around the internet.

~ 03 ~
M. Faith is a public-school educated graphic designer, writer, artist, blogger, procrastinator and sometimes rebel. She lives in New York and has never wandered too far from home but likes to travel when writing, often going off to worlds full of paranormal beings and highly obstinate heroines.

~ 04 ~
M. Faith is a transplant New Yorker who graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Currently working as a graphic designer, she spends her free time running a personal blog where she complains too much and shares her artworks and short fictions. Sometimes when she has the motivation, she writes stories with a penchant for the paranormal, the weird and the mildly amusing.

~ 05 ~
M. Faith is a lifelong introvert with a history of talking too much on the internet especially on her blog. She is a life-long book lover with a penchant for writing paranormal stories with weird and highly stubborn heroines.

How would you write your mini bio? I invite you to write your mini bio in the comments or on your blog.
  
[More about the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog here]