What's On Tap - June 2012

I’ve got good news and bad news.  The good news is that I was successful in meeting all of my reading goals for the month of May.  The bad news?  I wasn’t so successful in meeting all of my reviewing goals.  There are still three books I’ve got to review left over from my May What’s on Tap entry.  But then again, considering that I had ten total on the may list, that’s not too bad.  Oh well.  We’ll consider June a catch-up month.  Here’s the other stuff I plan to get to this month as well.

Something Red by Douglas Nicholas – I’m really excited about this one.  I mean really excited.  It’s historical fiction/horror.  Think, Dan Simmons’ historical fiction/horror mashup The Terror but set in medieval England.  That alone would be enough to get my juices flowing, but I’m also going to do a Q&A session with the author in a few months.  The only catch?  I can’t post the review until after the book’s publication date, some time in September.  That’s O.K., though, ‘cos by doing the review this far ahead of time is the first step in reaching my goal of getting one of my reviews quoted on a dust jacket.  I just can’t share the love for a few months yet.

Viva La Madness by J. J. Connolly – I mentioned this one in one of my Mailbox Monday posts from a couple weeks ago.  It’s an English crime novel in the same series as the much-acclaimed Layer Cake.  I got it from the Librarything EarlyReviewers program.  It’s one of three books from those folks that I still have to review.  I’m not sure why they keep on sending me books, given how long it takes me to get around to reading them, but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

While I’m Still Myself by Jeremy Mark Lane – My good friend Jessica at the blog Jess Resides Here was the impetus for this read.  I commented on her review of the same book, and I’ll be damned if she didn’t contact the author and tell him I’d be interested in a review copy.  He followed through, and now I have this spiffy ebook to read.  It’s a collection of general fiction short stories, and it looks pretty promising.

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland – I seem to be on a medieval historical fiction kick of late.  It’s hard not to be when you run across so many scrum-diddly-umptions titles in that vein.  This one is my current audio book read—probably the only one this month, ‘cos it’s fairly long as far as audio books go.  14 discs, all told.  But that’s O.K., because the subject matter is, as I said before, scrum-diddly-umptions.  It’s a retelling of the Canterbury Tales set in England in 1349 when the Black Death first made its appearance on the island.  So far it’s been really entertaining, and the writing has been phenomenal.  I look forward to finishing it and being able to turn out a review on this puppy.

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – In honor of Ray Bradbury’s passing today, I thought it would be a fitting tribute to read and review his sci-fi classic, Farenheit 451.  It’s been sitting on my shelf unread for a little while, and what better time to give it a little love?  I’m also going to be showing Jess a little love, too (or maybe it’s the other way around) since this review will be posted as a guest spot on her blog. 

All in all, there’s a lot (for me, at least) to be excited about this month.  If I can squeeze in another one, I’m definitely going to do something from Seventh Star Press.  I’ve gotten way too many books from those people, and haven’t reviewed a single one of them.  I need to get off my duff and read one.  Though, I guess I kind of need to be on my duff to do much reading… but you get the point.