The Sherlock Holmes stories only books that come close to convincing me that crime writing can work as short fiction. Arthur Conan Doyle manages to whittle down the relevant details so nothing feels rushed. The other crime short stories that I’ve read just don’t manage to get all the details across adequately in a shorter form. When I heard about Lauren Wilkinson’s short story A Scandal in Brooklyn, I had to see if she could do what Conan Doyle had managed.
I don’t know about you but, when I get the chance to read a short story that is “an updated Holmesian tale with a technological twist”, I take it. This short story by Lauren Wilkinson sounded so good that I jumped at the chance to read it. The story is released today as an Amazon original and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a quick and fun read that will please any fan of Arthur Conan Doyle. Below you’ll find out more about the story and its author. There’s even a giveaway to celebrate today’s release! I’ll post a separate review of the book.
Listening to audiobooks at work is normally fine. I don’t get too distracted and I’m not the kind of person who normally has strong physical reactions to what they listening to. By which I mean that I don’t laugh out loud or anything. At least I didn’t until this book. On a couple of occasions, I had to stop myself from breaking down in tears. Considering I knew what was coming, this is even more of a ridiculous thing. I know I didn’t get enough sleep the night before but come on.
Do you remember how I had vowed to slowly make my way through all of Agatha Christie’s books by reading at least one per month? Yeah, that went out the window in recent months. So, I decided to pick one up in June. How did I decide? I went on Spotify and found the first audiobook that was in English. I also don’t think I’ve ever read this one before. If I have, it didn’t leave enough of an impression on me. As long as I didn’t need to know anything about golf then I knew I was going to alright.
Am I the only one who didn’t know that Spotify had audiobooks? It’s a revelation. I stumbled upon this book the other day and I obviously thought it was something sketchy. I have since discovered that it’s a thing. I’m not sure how many there are on the platform but I intend to find out. Especially now I’ve paused my Audible account. If I get access to some audiobooks for free then why not listen to them. Even if I had no intention of reading them.
As you can tell from my weekly rundown, I tend to get a little excited when I buy books. I’m one of those people who will buy an entire series of books without reading a single one. There are only two books in this series so far but I bought both pretty close together. Meaning there was more pressure to enjoy the book. If I hated it, I’d just end up with a book I was never going to read.
Every year I set aside a bunch of LGBTQ+ books and authors to put on my Pride TBR. Inevitably, I never actually read them and I end up feeling guilty about it. So I decided that 2022 was going to be the year I did Pride right and finish my unread books. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve already finished 2 Pride books. Although, neither of them was on my TBR. Instead, I bought the first 2 volumes in this series. It’s everywhere right now that I had to do it.
There was a moment a few days before the end of May when I realised just how few books I’d read that month. So, in a desperate bid to up my numbers and feel less guilty, I listened to a couple of short audiobooks at work. They’re both books that I’ve had in my Audible library for a while and ones that would take less than a working day to finish. Both great reasons to pick a book. Who cares about plot anyway? I didn’t have a great deal to say about either of them so I’ve bundled them together here.
I’m still not doing very well when it comes to reading this month but this week I’ve managed to finish 2 whole books. Mostly because they were audiobooks and I was able to listen to them at work. I guess I was feeling musical as both were related to the music industry. The first was The Beastie Boys book and the second was this novel by Nick Cave. I’m a fan of Nick Cave so I was expecting something a bit weird and very lyrical.
I don’t often read non-fiction but I do like to buy it. I have a section of my TBR that is dedicated to music-related non-fiction books. This is one of the ones that I’ve had for the longest and also one that I was most excited about. I was already intrigued when I heard Adam and Joe talk about it on the Adam Buxton podcast. I was so easily swayed that I tracked down a copy as soon as possible. Then I put it on a pile and never thought of it again.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 