Back in the saddle

Well, that was unexpected.

Apologies to those who pop in to take a look at my reviews. I never meant to go missing for a month, but due to circumstances beyond my control, that's unfortunately what happened. I'm back, however, and plan on starting to post again next week. I've missed a month's worth of new releases at the twenty e-publishers I haunt, which will take some catching up. But if you've read something new in the past month that you loved and would whole-heartedly recommend, I'd love to hear about it. It kills me to think I might miss something great.

The Infinite Instant by Danielle L. Parker

It's going to be very obvious things are a little different today. I wrote a review, all pretty and very positive, then discovered when I was putting it together with links that it is no longer for sale. Not at the publisher, not at Fictionwise, and there's nothing at the author's site to indicate that it would be for sale someplace else. That's the downside to how I handle my reading and reviewing. I bought this book a year ago, though it came out in 2008, and only got around to reading it this past weekend. It was an intense read when I did. I couldn't put the story down. My daughter complained that every time she looked out at me from third base, my head was bent. I'm a little disappointed it's no longer available. I would have wanted others to try it out.

This incident reminded me of a comment I made last week on Kassa's LJ. She was talking about how to pick from the dreaded TBR pile, and as I'm completely anal about organization, I decided to share my method. This is what I posted:

In case it's not obvious from my reviews, I organize things to an inch of their lives. My rubric for scoring is typical of how I approach my TBR pile, too. In that case, I use spreadsheets. Two actually, one to keep track of books I've yet to read and one to keep track of books I've reviewed. I can sort them by date published, author, publisher, genre, and length at that point, all to my heart's content. Because I have certain criteria I've placed on my own blog - m/m or menage on Monday, never review more than one book by an author or publisher per week - that allows me to put filters on the spreadsheet so I can only look at the possibilities that fit for that day.

At that point, I randomly select three titles and pick from there. That allows me to take into consideration how much time I have for the review and what I'm in the mood for. I probably have more freedom than people who review for group blogs because I don't feel constrained by purchase/publishing dates. My philosophy is, I bought it and if I'm not in the mood to read it, I'm not going to force myself. I'm sure the author would prefer me approaching their work with enthusiasm rather than dread.

Whittling is another story. That just doesn't happen effectively. I have just as many print books as I do e, because I have a tendency to buy books as soon as I become aware of them, rather than wait and forget a potentially wonderful book.

Of course, my method bit me in the butt this week. I didn't bother checking to see if the book was still available, because it never even occurred to me it might not be. I won't be changing my methodology any time in the near future. What this taught me was to check a book's availability before I read it for reviewing for now on. C'est la vie.

And the book I liked so much? The Infinite Instant by Danielle L. Parker. It's a futuristic sci-fi, with noir sensibilities and some highly literate writing. Tons of action, lots of twists and turns, and no easy answers. Plus, it had a heroine who, if she was a little bit too physically perfect, was more than a little gray on the morality scale. With the hots for the crime lord's pimp son. It was a great break from the safer stories romance offers, so I would say that if you ever find it available again, jump on it. There's an excerpt at Fictionwise for those who might be curious. I wonder, though, if that means the sequel won't ever be released. That's a shame. I would have loved to read it.