Episode #223: Let's Talk About Shiny New Books!

This is another example of The Completion Backwards Principle. If you can possibly manage the time, please play both sides at one meaning.*

*the intro to the Tubes album, "The Completion Backwards Principle", right before it goes into track one, "Talk To Ya Later."

Oh and the clock is from the Quad at Quinnipiac University, from which my lovely daughter Jenelle graduated from last Sunday May 12th.

So last week, we held a genteel talk about the eclectic tastes in my used books purchases. This week, we're going to have a not so genteel talk about my new book purchases.

In general, I am not a major acquirer of new books. For me, new books cost money, and I do not have a lot of excess income to play with. So I have a tendency to really space out my new book purchases {much like I do with my music purchases}. 

To give you an idea on how spaced out my new book purchases are, I have made a grand total of 14 new book purchases since 2019. Yes, you read that number correctly. That averages out to about 2.8 books per year, and if you take out a four book set that I had purchased directly from the author, that drops down to 2 books per year. In fact, for this year I have already met my quota, but I do plan on purchasing one or two more.

Today, I'm going to share with everyone nine of those books, along with the reasoning as to why they were purchased. So come along and join me on what's sure to be a very eclectic ride of books, some of which were written by Internet personalities who actually know how to write.

1} Once Upon A Time In Carrotland by 'Josh Carrott': The reason for the quotes is that Josh Carrott's lifelong friend/YouTube channel co-host {channel is called JOLLY} Ollie Kendal, actually hired ghostwriters for this autobiography. This is very much a lighthearted romp about Josh Carrott, with all of the proceeds, I believe, donated to the Ohakune Carrot Adventure Park, New Zealand. Highly recommend this fluffy read.

2} Out of Dreams: Nightmares by Charles Gramlich: I actually wrote a review about this book earlier in the year. Charles is a well known author in the Western, Horror, and Sword & Sandal Fantasy genres, whose books and stories can be found in various e-zines and e-tailers like Amazon and B&N. If you like fantasy horror, this book is for you.

3} The Verge- Reformation, Renaissance, And Forty Years That Shook The World {1490-1530} by Patrick Wyman: Patrick is a creator of two podcasts, Fall of Rome (inactive) and Tides Of History. At the time when this book came out, he was covering world history between the 12th and 17th century on his podcast. If you enjoy world history, this book, with an emphasis on British and European history, is definitely for you. If you enjoy world history in general, I highly recommend his podcast, which is presently covering very early world history {BC to about 500 CE}. You can also find his musings on Substack.

4} Razored Land by Charles Gramlich: This is another excellent fantasy novel that originally was two novellas released as e-books, Crimson Sacrifice and Blackest Of Hates, but recently released as a full length novel. Thus the reason why I'd purchased it, since I do not own a Kindle, or any other e-reader for that matter. I did have one back in the day, a NOOK, but it got to be a bit of a pain to deal with on consistent basis.

5} Grappler-Memoirs Of A Masked Wrestler by Lynn "The Grappler" Denton and Joe Vithayathil: This one came to me as a recommendation from a Facebook group page about all things wrestling. Believe it or not, I am a fan of pro wrestling {insert insults here}, but I haven't watched any since the early 2000s. I am, however, a fan of the product that I grew up with, the 1970's through the late 90's. I found it to be very informative, especially about the wrestling era from the 1980's through the early 2000's. Highly recommend it, and I also recommend any pro wrestling memoirs that are out there today if you want to get a really good inside look of the industry back in the day prior to the WWWF/WWE blowing up nationally.

6} The Monster And The Magpie by Brianna Fenty: This is a fantastic debut by Ms. Fenty, and it came to my attention as she is a member of a FB writing group that I belong to. It is very much a violent psychological thriller in the same vein as the series "Killing Eve". Took me about a week to read it, and I highly recommend it.

7} Me vs Brain by Hayley Morris: Hayley Morris is a wickedly funny TikTok/YouTube content creator who does shorts featuring anxiety battles between herself and her brain, as well as the rest of her body. This book was basically recommended to me via one of her video shorts. A very excellent memoir and I highly recommend it.

8} American Murder Houses-A Coast-to-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses Of Homicide by Steve Lehto: Steve Lehto is a lawyer from Michigan who also has a popular YouTube channel. He is also an accomplished author who mostly writes true-crime and non fiction. This one came as an indirect promo when he happened to be referring to the book during one of his videos. This is one of two books that I'd purchased from B&N, due to the fact that I had a gift card from them. Fun fact: he has a running "Where's Ben Franklin?" gag as he hides a fake C-note somewhere in his on-air studio.

9} Death In Yellowstone-Accidents And Foolhardiness In The First National Park {2nd edition} by Lee H. Whittlesey: One of my guilty pleasures in non-fiction are books that feature what we like to call "Darwin Award Winners", and this book is not an exception to this rule. The author in question is actually a National Service Park Ranger who is also a historian, and this book covers almost every conceivable accident/Foolhardiness that happened in Yellowstone Park. This book was referenced in a YouTube video that caught my attention a couple of years ago, and because it was so offbeat, I just had to purchase a copy. It's scary that a 2nd edition had to be written for this title. This was the other purchase at B&N for me.

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this little behind the scenes peek into what I like to read, and I hope you have the opportunity to check out the books/YouTube channels mentioned in this post.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved