The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 202

Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Goodreads Blurb: There are just 77 days to go before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Hank Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank’s days of solving crimes are over…until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.

Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace – an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees.

The second novel in the critically acclaimed Last Policeman trilogy, Countdown City presents a fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse – and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond “whodunit.” What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilised when civilisation is collapsing all around you?

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: Absolutely fantastic – once again another thrilling tale in one man’s journey to find meaning during the coming end of the world. Really makes you think 🤔

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s Seven Main Characters of the Gilmore Girls Franchise: The Heir Apparent

Lane Kim is one of the best characters on the show and I will stand on this hill and fight you on that point, if I have to. Oh, no one wants to fight me? We all agree that Lane Kim is often the best part of any scene she’s in and that her story of finding and building her own life, her own love and joy, away from the restrictions of her childhood far from falling short of what it could have been actually holds up even in the horror that was ‘A Year in a Life’?

Good, because it does people.

Lane isn’t a failed musician because she doesn’t appear to be famous – which by the way that’s not an indication of anything, it’s the 2020s fame looks very different than it did in the Original run of Gilmore Girls – because she’s still playing. She’s still rocking with her band. Yes, her and and her husband have day jobs – which they’re succeeding at by the way – but that doesn’t mean their art has failed. They’re making money, they’re making music, and they’re doing it all while raising two happy, healthy, twin boys. Okay, so we don’t get to see a lot of their dynamic in the sequel – but that’s mainly because unlike Rory and Paris, Lane is happy. There’s no drama there. Gee, I can totally see how a happy life equates to failure in the eyes of Gilmore fans – that’s not bizarre alien logic at all.

If you’ve enjoyed this wee post remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. Also check me out on X, Goodreads, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Kofi. And remember to subscribe to the Wee Mailing List before the end of the month to discover the Top Odd Character of Gilmore Girls. Until next time, stay safe and have a bonnie day.

The Wee Writing Lassie’s Seven Main Characters of the Gilmore Girls Franchise : She’s Seven Years Bad Luck

What Ho Wee Readers, and welcome to the newest Wee Writing Blog Series – The Wee Writing Lassie’s Seven Main Characters of the Gilmore Girls Franchise. The title’s a tad clunky I know but stay with me, this should be fun. Especially Since we’re starting with the worst character of all.

Rory Gilmore

Rory Gilmore is a terrible person. I think maybe that goes without saying for most people after A Year in the Life – but I would just like to say that I thought she was terrible long before the world stopped bending over backwards to give her an easy ride. That’s right I hated her from the very first episode – and I will stand on the highest mountain top and scream it to the heavens above. May the Gods strike me down if I speak false council this day. So, why is she on this list at all? Why not just dump her on the side of the road like the trash she is? Look she’s a main character, if anything it could be argued she’s almost the main character. So I had to include her, I don’t like it, you don’t like it, but this is the world we live in.

Let’s just be grateful it’s not the world she lives in.

If you’ve enjoyed this wee post remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. Also check me out on X, Goodreads, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Kofi. And remember to subscribe to the Wee Mailing List before the end of the month to discover the Top Main Character of Gilmore Girls. Until next time, stay safe and have a bonnie day.

The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 201

Too Good To Be True by Ann Cleeves

Goodreads Blurb: Too Good To Be True is a gripping Quick Read from Ann Cleeves, featuring Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez from the bestselling Shetland series.

When young teacher Anna Blackwell is found dead in her home, the police think her death was suicide or a tragic accident. After all, Stonebridge is a quiet country village in the Scottish Borders, where murders just don’t happen.

But Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez soon arrives from far-away Shetland when his ex-wife, Sarah, asks him to look into the case. The local gossips are saying that her new husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna. Could Tom have been involved with her death? Sarah refuses to believe it – but needs proof.

Anna had been a teacher. She must have loved kids. Would she kill herself knowing there was nobody to look after her daughter? She had seemed happier than ever before she died. And to Perez, this suggests not suicide, but murder . .

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: Once again another ending the reader won’t see coming unless they’ve been paying very close attention – as close as a copper one might say.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 200

The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman

Goodreads Blurb: WAR IS HELL…

It is 1918 and Graf von Dracula is commander-in-chief of the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The War of the Great Powers in Europe is also a war between the living and the undead. Caught up in the conflict, Charles Beauregard, an old enemy of Dracula, his protegé Edwin Winthrop, and intrepid vampire reporter Kate Reed go head-to-head with the lethal vampire flying machine that is the Bloody Red Baron… In the brand-new novella Vampire Romance, Geneviève Dieudonné, newly returned to England, infiltrates a singular vampire gathering in the service of the Diogenes Club.

A brand-new edition, with additional novella, of the critically acclaimed, bestselling sequel to Anno Dracula. Written by popular novelist and movie critic Kim Newman, The Bloody Red Baron takes the story into the 20th century.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: This is a bloody, bloody, book – with a twist you’ll wish you saw coming. I think my favourite character is a toss up between Kate Reed and the Bloody Red Baron himself 😁

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 199

The Best Worst Christmas by Kate Forster

Goodreads Blurb: Lily is back from Australia for the first time in seven years to spend Christmas at her mum’s house in a small, gossipy English village. To her surprise, she returns to find that her mother is dating the man next door, who also happens to be the father of her ex-boyfriend Tom. Tom, who broke Lily’s heart all those years ago. Tom, the real reason Lily fled to the other side of the world and stayed there. Tom, who is also home for Christmas and right there, next door.

In what is shaping up to be the worst Christmas ever, somehow Lily and Tom have to try to get along and play happy families, but living with the man who she is clearly not over is proving to be difficult, and tensions are high. Add in some drunken caroling, a reindeer bite, a potent Christmas pudding and some meddling parents and Lily’s trip home will turn her entire life upside down.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: *metaphorically closes book* ….*sits in silence for two whole minutes* … *bursts into hysterical laughter*.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 198

The Great Book of King Arthur: and His Knights of the Round Table by John Matthews

Goodreads Blurb: The world’s leading Arthurian authority reimagines one of the most beloved and influential legends—the story of King Arthur and his Knights—for a new century in this gorgeous keepsake edition, illustrated with luminous full-color paintings and drawings by internationally acclaimed Tolkien artist John Howe. The stories of King Arthur and Merlin, Lancelot and Guinevere, Galahad, Gawain, Tristan and the rest of the Knights of the Roundtable, and the search for the Holy Grail have been beloved for centuries and are the inspiration of many modern fantasy novels, films, and shows. These legends began when an obscure Celtic hero named Arthur stepped on to the stage of history sometime in the sixth century, generating a host of oral tales that would be inscribed some 900 years later by Thomas Malory in his classic Morte D’Arthur ( The Death of Arthur ). The Great Book of King Arthur brings these legends into the modern age, using accessible prose for contemporary readers for the first time. In addition to the stories in Morte D’Arthur, John Matthews includes many tales of Arthur and his knights either unknown to Malory or written in other languages, such as the story of Avenable, the girl brought up as a boy who becomes a famous knight; Morien, whose adventures are as fantastic and exciting as any found in Malory’s work; and a retelling of the life of Round Table favorite Gawain, from his strange birth to his upbringing among the poor to his ascension to the highest position—Emperor of Rome. In addition, there are some of the earliest tales of Arthur, deriving from the tradition of Celtic storytelling. The epic hero is represented in such powerful stories as “The Adventures of Eagle-boy” and “The Coming of Merlin,” which is based on the early medieval text Vita Merlini and tells a completely new version of the great enchanter’s story. The Great Book of King Arthur includes 15 full-color paintings and 25 pencil drawings.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: This is a very well written, very well researched book that strives to shed light on stories of King Arthur often forgotten by history. It also tries to rehabilitate Sir Gawain – it did not succeed for me, I ended up wishing someone would stab him through his perfect face. Also not a book for Sir Kay lovers – hint for the future I should not be cringing in dread everytime I hear my favourite character’s name.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 197

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Goodreads Blurb: At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable novel about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: The ending, oh my god the ending. It is just so perfect.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 196

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

Goodreads Blurb: What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilisation rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: A well done mystery with a fascinating and heartbreaking premise.

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The Wee Writing Lassie’s 300 Books in a Year – Book 195

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Goodreads Blurb: The future of storytelling is here.

Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she’s suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister’s wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she’s not sure what comes next.

In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life – she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.

What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu’s life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.

(Goodreads Page)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Review: This was an amazing tale of the deep moving forces of culture, family, and love spanning even into the world of robots. Plus the profound communication between an author and her characters – and that twist at the end, my God, you don’t see it coming. Either that or I’ve completely misunderstood the ending. Whatever the case, would recommend.

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