Recent Updates and Currently Reading | January 13

The first half of the week was great for reading and blogging. The second half... not so much. My oldest turned 11 this week. We had family over to celebrate Thursday night. He, then, had a slumber party last night so I have extra kids at the moment!

I'm in the middle of a couple of amazing books, but I haven't picked them up in days! Hopefully I can gush all about them next week.

Posted Last Week

Last week I posted about my 2018 TBR Jar and the book titles I will be reading this year.

I also reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

Read Last Week

I loved having the contrast between the "old weird" and the "new weird" this week. (Thanks for the "new weird" term, Mogsy! It's definitely fitting.) My "old weird" read was another short story from Algernon Blackwood called The Listener. I could really see the influence he had on Lovecraft reading this one. I love Blackwood's writing, and all of his stories seem to be about hauntings. I'm loving making my way through his stories. I listened to a LibriVox recording of this one. If you aren't familiar with LibriVox, they are audiobooks of public domain works made by volunteer narrators. This recording was part of a collection called Short Ghost and Horror Collection 027. All of the stories were performed by different narrators, and the narrator for The Listener was Mike Pelton. He's really fantastic! He also narrated the H.G. Wells short stories in that collection so I will definitely be listening to those, too!

My "new weird" book was Jeff VanderMeer's Annihiliation. I know I'm a fan of old weird, but the verdict is out on the new. I did enjoy Annihilation - especially the beginning. You can read my full review here.

Review Copies

The Hematophages by Stephen Kozeniewski - I was offered a copy of The Hematophages by the author, and I immediately accepted. I have been hearing so many great things about this book, and it made several "best of" lists last year including reviewers I trust. I don't know much about the story itself beyond there being alien parasites. I'm looking forward to giving it a read.

Current Distractions

I finally finished watching The Punisher. I'm so happy! There were some twists and turns that did entertain me at the very end. The Punisher is definitely not one of my favorite shows, though. I do hear Jessica Jones will be back in March.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or watching) this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?, Tynga's Reviews' Stacking the Shelves, and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.