Walking: Fri., 30-Dec. > Sat., 31-Dec.
Here’s a screen shot of my Apple watch workouts that were recorded while walking. My goal is to read walk for at least one solid 30-minute stretch per day.
Note: I’d rather walk laps in my house than on the treadmill, so I’m switching from using that. In fact, I’m giving the treadmill to my daughter who can use it more than me. I’ve got some long walking stretches in my house, and she doesn’t. So my reading may not always be directly tied to the walking, but they’ll share a post anyway. Keeps me motivated!
I’m also going to try to get out once or twice/week to walk either at a nearby park or maybe the mall. I’ll try to snap a pic somewhere along my walks to include with the data image. This time I did all my walking at home, so here’s a picture of Bonnie (aka mouse killer). She and Belle sometimes like to chase after the cat toy I drag along.
What I #AmReading…
Stranger in the House by Josh Lanyon
If you follow along at all, you already know I’m a Josh Lanyon fan girl. This is a book that I somehow missed—possibly because it was previously published in an anthology and might not have been available alone for all that long? IDK, but I only just discovered it.
This was a fun and exciting story about Miles, who has suddenly and unexpectedly inherited a valuable mansion and all its contents from his godmother Capucine in Montreal (he lives in California), and Linley, his childhood crush and one of two sons of the woman he inherited from.
Intriguing side characters include Oliver (the other son), and Agathe, the nearly deaf housekeeper who comes with the house.
The mystery is about how someone is pilfering and pawning valuable items from the house, laid out in a well-paced and well-written story, just as one expects from Josh Lanyon.
Tropes would include a formerly unrequited childhood crush which has turned into a current fairly-instant mutual attraction. A touch of second chance, since they’d clashed a bit when they’d crossed paths again a few years back when Miles was young and idealistic, and Linley was younger and newly making his way in the world, and not nearly as confident as he liked to project.
A lovely, feel-good story with a side of mystery, death, and drama.
The Snippets
All told from Miles’ 3rd-person POV:
Lovely description:
He crossed the wide, watery courtyard, passing the benignly smiling stone lions, sooty-colored with the recent rain, and a bronze lamppost, slightly forlorn with its five round white dripping globes—as though a balloon man had recently wandered away. The bricks gave way to squares of black slate. He waded through the sodden, multicolored leaves, went up the narrow, curved steps, past the stone urns overflowing with teary ivy, and stepped under the carved stone archway. The whisper of his rubber-soled Converses sounded like thunderclaps in that profound and watchful hush.
Funny and a bit sad at the same time:
Capucine had always seemed to regard her sons as amusing characters in an off-Broadway production that she happened to be financing.
Aww…
Miles’s heart plummeted from the highest hopeful peak and crashed all the way down, hitting rocks and cacti as it went until it landed in bits at the bottom of a gully.
LOL…
After a moment, Linley said, “You’re a very surprising person, Miles.”
Miles laughed.
“I’m serious. You have no idea how refreshing it is to—” He seemed to change his mind mid-sentence. “I thought I terrified you. We all did. You used to turn around and go in the opposite direction if you saw me down the hall.”
Miles shook his head. He could joke about it now. “I was just shy in your godlike presence.”
Linley’s eyes widened, he inhaled sparkling water, and began to cough. A lot. It was not a graceful or sophisticated procedure.
I love how this short snippet so elegantly shows Lindley’s character and conflicting emotions:
“I’ll call you,” Linley said as they were saying goodbye in front of the Metro stop. “Maybe we can have dinner again?” His smile was confident, but there was something tentative in his eyes.
Stranger in the House by Josh Lanyon
Contemporary Gay Romance/Mystery
Home is where the heart is?
Miles Tuesday’s memories of Montreal are happy ones, but now that he has inherited the mansion at 13 Place Braeside, everything feels different. Was Madame Martel’s fatal fall really an accident? And who is stealing her treasures?
One thing has not changed: Miles still wants handsome and sophisticated art dealer Linley Palmer to have a place in his life.
(This novella was previously published as part of the FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK anthology)
Spreading more book love!
Here are more of my…
✓ recent reads
✓ current reads
✓ re-reads
✓ want-to-reads
(all genres included)
These three books remain at the top of my TBR, but my next read is JMS Books’ 2022 Top Ten Gay Romance, which I plan to post about in two installments (and actually contains stories from each of these three fabulous writers):
About My Walking / #AmReading Posts
I started out with this being a Sunday thing, but sometimes I’d rather not mash multiple books into a single post, so now, you never know when you might see one of these posts.
Rather than give a true “review,” which I’m not entirely comfortable doing as an author myself, I share snippets from books I’ve read and enjoyed, letting the authors’ words speak for themselves.
As you’ve possibly noticed, if you’ve been following along, I highlight snippets for reasons of my own which might veer from what is often seen. Sometimes my highlights have more to do with a paragraph simply impressing the heck out of me for its fabulous writerly technique, other times it has to do with the lovely way it gives subtle insight into the story/characters. Still other times simply because it made me laugh.
Anyway, I sometimes add a little commentary, but not always, which is not in any way, shape, or form, to be taken as unwritten commentary. Most likely it just means I’m short on time and/or context isn’t needed to understand what’s happening, and/or my brain doesn’t feel like putting out the effort in that particular moment.
Also, I’m going to try to spread the book love by tacking on covers of more books at the end of the post that I’ve either recently read, am currently reading, or want to read. Not seeing a full post with snippets for any of these books is not a commentary on anything other than how much time I have available in a day either to read or to create a post about what I’ve read. It might also mean I listened to the audiobook only or that it’s a reread that I’ve featured previously, or it’s not M/M so probably not a good fit for featuring on this blog.
Happy reading!
