Special February book recommendation, freebies, and discounts for my lovely subscribers!

Thank you, Rebecca Bryn, for featuring Injury and Earthbound, my free books.

Rebecca Bryn

First, a recommendation. If you love science fiction/techno thriller, Spectral State by Senan Gil Senan is for you. It was my favourite book of 2019, and I read some really good books.

Grab it while it’s only 99c.

This was my 5-star review: Wow, just WoW! One of the best books I’ve read for a long while.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but I can’t wait for the sequel to come along. The subject is handled with an authority that makes the scenario totally believable and assures your trust in the author. I love sci-fi, but this amazing tale goes beyond normal science fiction into altered realities, dreams, and remote viewing that leaves you questioning your own existence. Are we all figments of someone’s weird dream, or have we been conjured by a machine with artificial intelligence and its own game plan?

Hano is a…

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List of Books Read in 2019

In 2019 I decided to keep track of the books I read, and, as it turns out, I set a lively reading pace. By the end of December 2019, I’d read a total of sixty-three books, most of them fiction. Only those books I finished made the list. If I set them aside or am still working on reading them, I left them off the list. Titles in bold are books I’ve read before and reread in 2019. Two are my books (more on that another time).

I’m trying to get a handle on what it is about the books I read quickly that captivate me so much that I can’t put them down, or if I must put them down, I can’t get them out of my head and must pick them up again as soon as possible. I think the writing style has the most to do with it and genre the least. This also goes for authors that grab me so much with their stories that I have to read everything they write. As you can see from the list, Sue Grafton has me hooked, and I started reading her books in March 2019 with A is for Alibi.

I used to read more non-fiction, but lately, I prefer the escape of fiction, though literary fiction isn’t the same type of escape as genre fiction. Most literary fiction rubs your nose in reality rather than allows you to escape it.

A number of indie books made my reading list. I’m an indie author and I read other indie authors. I often get them in e-book format, which takes me much longer to read. When I find a compelling story, though, the format doesn’t prevent me from getting addicted to it; however, it might prevent me from picking it up as frequently as I do paperback stories I’m addicted to.

Here is my complete reading list for 2019:

Month	Title	Author
January	The Host	Stephenie Meyer
January	The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion	Fannie Flagg
January	Leaving Time	Jodi Picoult
January	Whiskey Sour	J. A. Konrath
January	The Haunting of Hill House	Shirley Jackson
January	Saving Grace	Hannah Howe
January	Watership Down	Richard Adams
February	Dune	Frank Herbert
February	Leverage in Death	J. D. Robb
February	The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman
February	Save the Cat! Writes a Novel	Jessica Brody
February	The Rules of Magic	Alice Hoffman
March	The Lake House	Kate Morton
March	A is for Alibi	Sue Grafton
March	Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency	Douglas Adams
March	Stones from the River	Ursula Hegi
April	Of Blood and Bone	Nora Roberts
April	Final Year	MJ Moores
April	Sam’s Song	Hannah Howe
April	Twe12lve	Ceri Bladen
April	The Lucky One	Nicholas Sparks
May	B is for Burglar	Sue Grafton
May	C is for Corpse	Sue Grafton
May	Half-Blood Blues	Esi Edugyan
May	Blood and Circuses	Aliya Smyth
May	The Birth House	Ami McKay
May	The Great Alone	Kristin Hannah
June	Blithe Images	Nora Roberts
June	Strands of Starlight	Gael Baudino
June	Death of an Expert Witness	P. D. James
July	Bloody Mary	J. A. Konrath
July	A Fatal Inversion	Barbara Vine
July	Soothed by Magic: Hidden Coven Series Book 2	Kim McDougal
August	Anna Karenina	Leo Tolstoy
August	Blank Space	Jennifer Young
August	The Wonder	Emma Donoghue
August	Dark Sacred Night	Michael Connelly
August	The Midnight Line	Lee Child
August	Past Tense	Lee Child
August	Connections in Death	Nora Roberts
September	The Accidental Tourist	Anne Tyler
September	After Eden	Jennifer Young
September	An Irish Country Girl	Patrick Taylor
September	Born a Crime	Trevor Noah
September	Persuader	Lee Child
September	One Shot	Lee Child
September	Lo’ Mae	John Erwin
October	Assassin’s Apprentice	Robin Hobb
October	Inborn Magic: Hidden Coven Series Book 1	Kim McDougal
October	The Godfather	Mario Puzzo
October	The Hunted	Val Tobin
November	Innocence	Roald Dahl
November	Trigger Magic: Hidden Coven Series Book 3	Kim McDougal
November	Odd Thomas	Dean Koontz
December	Practical Magic	Alice Hoffman
December	Body in the Harbour	Nanci M. Pattenden
December	Two Solitudes	Hugh MacLennan
December	Could it be Forever? My Story	David Cassidy
December	E is for Evidence	Sue Grafton
December	F is for Fugitive	Sue Grafton
December	Storm Child	Jennifer Young
December	G is for Gumshoe	Sue Grafton
December	Earthbound	Val Tobin

TENT CITY BULLDOZED, BELONGINGS DESTROYED, BY THE NATIONAL CAPITAL COMMISSION

Cold and heartless actions in Ottawa by the NCC. Destroying the precious few things these homeless people had left. Disgusting.

Overdose Prevention Ottawa

OTTAWA – On December 10^th, International Human Rights day, residents of Tent City and their supporters stood by as their tents and belongings were bulldozed by employees of the National Capital Commission under the supervision of the Ottawa Police Service.

On Monday, some residents of Tent City were provided with temporary accommodations – a motel room – in Vanier so they could shower and sleep somewhere warm. Residents accepted this offer with the understanding they had 48-hours to come back to the site near Bayview Station to collect their belongings, which included items the community generously donated to support their survival. Unfortunately, residents woke up 7am Tuesday morning to news that the NCC and the Ottawa Police were already at the site, dismantling their tents.

“This is what the criminalization of poverty looks like,” says Leila Attar, advocate and member of Overdose Prevention Ottawa. “[The city has] no…

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Too Good to be True? Scams on Social Media by T E Hodden

Informative article on social media scams in Mom’s Favorite Reads July magazine.

Mom's Favorite Reads

If you spend any length of time on social media, it’s growing increasingly likely that sooner or later you are going to see a friend, or a friend of a friend, sharing the kind of competition or deal that seems too good to be true. You know the sort of thing: Holidays given away for liking a page, vouchers for everybody who shares a link, or some free gift for filling out a survey.

A lot of the time, they come from sites that look like they belong to the real company, and even the most wary of us could be forgiven for thinking it might be worth taking a punt.

After all, they aren’t asking for money, so what’s the worst that can happen?

Read the full article in our magazine

https://issuu.com/momsfavoritereads/docs/july_2019

Please note. For your reading pleasure we would like to embed the magazine here. However, Issuu and…

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Injury

Fascinating exploration of the origin of the word “injury.” Thank you, Millie.

Glossologics

It’s time for another article highlighting an author, and this time the choice is Val Tobin.

A multi-genre author, Val has written books ranging from supernatural thrillers, paranormal romance, romantic suspense to mystery and suspense, and even horror. I have chosen the title of one of her award-winning books, Injury, for today’s word exploration.

Injury

It’s interesting to think about what ‘injury’ actually means. We think of it as hurt or damage, perhaps to a person; an injury playing sport, a serious head injury following a car accident, and so forth. But of course, it also has a legal sense, a violation of rights that may not incude any bodily harm.

It’s worth remembering this second usage as we look into the origin of our word. Compared to some, it does not measure an enormously long history in the English language,, having entered it some time during the late…

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Hauntingly Good

Thank you so much for the lovely post, Ronesa!

Discover the Magic of Bulgaria

Today’s visitor from Mom’s Favorite Reads authors is Val Tobin. She writes in a variety of genres: romance, paranormal, and horror.

I hadn’t read any of her books before this time, so I decided to take a look at one of her paranormal stories. I chose Earthbound. It’s a book those who love paranormal will enjoy. It resonated even more with me since I had earlier listened to a podcast where Val talked about some of her own unusual experiences.

Here’s a bit from the book description:

Nothing says bad day like waking up dead.

Software developer Jayden McQueen is dead, but it’s not in her stubborn and controlling nature to say die. When she’s offered a chance to return to the physical plane to bid a final farewell to her loved ones, she seizes it.

Who wouldn’t want to attend their own funeral?

One part of the…

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Guest Post; Val Tobin

Thank you for a great interview, Anna!

So where's the snow?

This week’s featured author from Mom’s favorite reads, welcome Val!

Tell us a little about yourself

I’ve had a lifelong love of reading and writing but was too insecure to pursue writing as a profession so I went into software and web development. At the same time, my fascination for the metaphysical had me investigating meditation and a variety of holistic modalities. I also wrote for an online tech magazine for a while (Community MX, based in Florida) and that was a bump to my confidence as a writer. In 2004 I became a certified Reiki Master/Teacher and then in March 2008 I went to Kona, Hawaii, to study angel therapy with Doreen Virtue. I received my Angel Therapy Practitioner Certification with Advanced Standing in October 2010. I’d started work on a Bachelor of Science in Parapsychic Science in 2008 and received the degree in October 2010. Then I went…

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