Book Promo: Drawn to Her #Romance

Welcome to another book promo on Lipsyy Lost & Found where I’m always thrilled to support indie authors & publishers. This time the promo is for the first book in a new series by romance writer Jenna Harte.

Drawn to Her ~ Jenna Harte

Publication date:  April 12th 2016 by Penner Publishing
Genres: Romance

Feisty and outspoken, Lexie McKenna will do anything to protect her cantankerous and ailing patient—even if it means going up against his cold and calculating, but sexy and irresistible, grandson. After all, as a nurse, her number one priority is her patient.

Drake Carmichael doesn’t trust the nurse who’s taking care of his grandfather—despite how adorable and compassionate she seems. He refuses to let her get her grips into their hard-earned money.

But as the two square off and begin to battle about what is best for the dying man, Lexie and Drake realize they know very little about each other and that first impressions are deceiving. Once they finally give in to their desires, the battle has only just begin.

With a fight between family and fortune, love and lust, will either one be able to find the southern comfort they both truly crave?

Goodreads // Amazon

Meet the Author

Jenna Harte is a die-hard romantic writing about characters who are passionate about and committed to each other, and frequently getting into trouble. She is the author of the Valentine Mysteries, the first of which,Deadly Valentine, reached the quarter-finals in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013. She entered into a three-book deal for a romance series with Penner Publishing in 2015. Drawn to Her, book one in the series was published April 2016. Meant to Be is due September 2016 and Wed To You in January 2017.

She has a bundle of stories filled with romance, mystery, and even time travel rattling around in her head, and is eager for the day when a device is invented allowing her to download what’s in her brain onto her computer.

When she’s not telling stories, she works by day as a freelance writer, author, blogger and online entrepreneur. She lives in central Virginia with her husband, two college-bound children and a two fat cats.

Website // Facebook // Twitter

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jenna…

1) Writing always terrified me, so I’m baffled to how I got here.

2) My favorite fiction involves mystery and romance, but I prefer a mystery with romance as opposed to a romance with mystery, if that makes any sense. In either case, there should be at least one hot love scene!

3) My favorite authors are J.D. Robb, Janet Evanovich, Sandra Brown and Carl Hiaasen. I also love Jane Austen, but tend to stay away from literature unless I know it will end well.

4) Like my character Tess, I love good chocolate and old R&B tunes. I’m still working on getting Carine Gilson lingerie to see if I’d love them as much as Tess does. A set can cost several hundred dollars, so I have to wait until more books sell.

5) I long for the day when Apple or Microsoft invents a doodad that I can plug into my head, preferably when I’m sleeping, that will download my stories to my computer. My stories come to me when I sleep (and when I drive), but I can’t remember the details when I sit down to write.

 

If you’d like me to promote your book, please get in touch via the email on my contacts page 🙂 Thanks to Jenna and Penner Publishing for getting in touch!

This Week in Books (29.06.16) #TWIB #CurrentlyReading

Welcome to my weekly post, where I sum-up what I’ve been up to in bookland the past week. 

Hi guys, happy Wednesday!  If you’re joining in, don’t forget to leave the link to your post so I can come take a look later. 

Now: And I Darken ~ Kiersten White

I found this pretty slow to start with and I’ve had no reading time this week which doesn’t help matters, but I’m well and truly into it now.

Then: Save Me, Kurt Cobain ~ Jenny Manzer // The Foreshadowing ~ Marcus Sedgwick

My review of Save Me.. went up on Saturday, and the Sedgwick one will be up soon. 

Next: ??? 

I’m still thinking Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

New on the Shelves

Nothing this week. I’ve been very restrained. Move along. 

Waiting on Wednesday

(linking up with Breaking the Spine)

The One Man ~ Andrew Gross

1944. Physics professor Alfred Mendl is separated from his family and sent to the men’s camp, where all of his belongings are tossed on a roaring fire. His books, his papers, his life’s work. The Nazis have no idea what they have just destroyed. And without that physical record, Alfred is one of only two people in the world with his particular knowledge. Knowledge that could start a war, or end it.

Nathan Blum works behind a desk at an intelligence office in Washington, DC, but he longs to contribute to the war effort in a more meaningful way, and he has a particular skill set the U.S. suddenly needs. Nathan is fluent in German and Polish, he is Semitic looking, and he proved his scrappiness at a young age when he escaped from the Polish ghetto. Now, the government wants him to take on the most dangerous assignment of his life: Nathan must sneak into Auschwitz, on a mission to find and escape with one man.

The One Man, a historical thriller from New York Times bestseller Andrew Gross, is a deeply affecting, unputdownable series of twists and turns through a landscape at times horrifyingly familiar but still completely compelling.

 Expected publication: August 23rd 2016 by Minotaur Books

  

So, that’s my week in books, now how about yours?

If you’re joining in leave the link to your answers in the comments so everyone can take a look 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday: Who’s winning at the half-way mark?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish (click the link t.o visit them) who pick a different topic each week.

This week the topic is…A freebie! Meaning we can choose any topic we like, or missed…

This couldn’t have come at a better time because I really wanted to do last week’s topic but missed it. I will therefore be doing my Top Ten Reads of 2016 So Far. Hurrah!

Links go to my review. 

All the Unicorns! (5/5)

5/5

• The Last Days of Jack Sparks
• The Madwoman Upstairs
• Sanctuary Bay

Best of the Rest! (4/5)

• Glass Sword (Wow, I’ve only just realised that I didn’t review this!)
• Into the Dim
•  The Crow Girl
•  The Foreshadowing (Review coming soon!)
• The Merciless
• You Know me Well
• Half a King (I read this around Christmas time and never got round to reviewing it. I really enjoyed it though.)

 

Feel free to leave your link and I’ll come see what topic you chose this week 🙂

Lazy Saturday Review: Save Me, Kurt Cobain #BookReview #YA

I started doing ‘lazy Saturday reviews’ as a way of getting reviews done in just 30 mins, and they proved to be quite popular. They are quick and snappy, and concentrate less on the plot (or content) and writing and more on my overall feelings about said book. They generally end up being a bit of a rant. My fave!

Title: Save Me, Kurt Cobain
Author: Jenny Manzer
Series: N/A
Format: Hardback, 272 pages
Publication Details: March 8th 2016 by Delacorte Press
Genre(s): Contemporary YA
Disclosure? Nope, I borrowed it from my friend Dora. Thanks Dora!

Goodreads 

What if you discovered that Kurt Cobain is not only alive, but might be your real father?

Nico Cavan has been adrift since her mother vanished when she was four—maternal abandonment isn’t exactly something you can just get over. Staying invisible at school is how she copes—that and listening to alt music and summoning spirits on the Ouija board with her best friend and co-conspirator in sarcasm, Obe. But when a chance discovery opens a window onto her mom’s wild past, it sparks an idea in her brain that takes hold and won’t let go.

On a ferry departing Seattle, Nico encounters a slight blond guy with piercing blue eyes wearing a hooded jacket. Something in her heart tells her that this feeling she has might actually be the truth, so she follows him to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest. When she is stranded there by a winter storm, fear and darkness collide, and the only one who can save Nico might just be herself.

Review

Save Me, Kurt Cobain was a super quick, entertaining read. I loved that Manzer used her love of Nirvana to shape this quirky story about an angsty teen who runs away from home to find out what happened to her mother who had disappeared years earlier.

I did find parts of the story slightly unbelievable, and it drove me mad that Nico never told ‘Cobain’ who she thought he was which made me think that even she didn’t believe it, but the rest of the story was full of intrigue and successfully evoked that sense of confusion or feeling lost that so many teens go through… even when they don’t have an actual mystery to solve. 

I really enjoyed the relationship between Nico and her best friend, and that he was always in her mind – he was her rock without even knowing it. And the dynamic between Nico and Cobain was entertaining too. 

Overall, this was a solid contemporary read with some really great moments, but essentially, I didn’t quite fall in love with it. It is an absolute must read for Nirvana fans though, the author clearly knows her stuff/did her research. 

Save Me, Kurt Cobain is out now!

This Week in Books #TWIB #CurrentlyReading

Welcome to my weekly post, where I sum-up what I’ve been up to in bookland the past week. 

Hi guys, happy Wednesday!  If you’re joining in, don’t forget to leave the link to your post so I can come take a look later. 

 

Now: And I Darken ~ Kiersten White

I’ve just started it. Haven’t got into yet, but it’s very early days! 

Then: Save Me, Kurt Cobain ~ Jenny Manzer // The Foreshadowing ~ Marcus Sedgwick

I had high hopes for Save Me… and it sort of lived up to them, but I also found it a bit blah in places. That made book #4 in a row that was just *OK* so I quickly remedied that by picking up one of Sedgwick’s books that I’ve been meaning to read for years. And of course he didn’t let me down – he rarely does! I loved this supernatural war-time read. Reviews will be up soon. 

Next: ??? 

I think I’ll finally give Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo a go.

New on the Shelves

From Netgalley: 

Everyone wanted to break me. But stars aren’t broken, they explode. And I was the ultimate supernova.

My name was Jude. They called me Judy. I was beautiful either way.

School was basically a movie set. We were all just playing our parts. The Crew, the Extras, the Movie Stars. No one was ever real . . . especially me. I didn’t fit any category.

All the girls watched me – I could walk so much better than them in heels, and my make-up was always flawless.

All the boys wanted to, well, you know . . . even if they didn’t admit it.

They loved me, they hated me, but they could never ignore me.

I only had eyes for Luke. A red carpet rolled out from my heart towards him and this year, on Valentine’sDay, I was going to walk that carpet and find my mark next to him. It would be like a dream.

But my dream was going to turn into a nightmare.

This is my story.

Waiting on Wednesday

(linking up with Breaking the Spine)

Winning ~ Lara Deloza

House of Cards meets Election in this wickedly entertaining story about an uber-ambitious high school junior.

Whoever said being nice would get you to the top?

Certainly not Alexandra Miles. She isn’t nice, but she’s more than skilled at playing the part. She floats through the halls of Spencer High, effortlessly orchestrating the actions of everyone around her, making people bend to her whim without even noticing they’re doing it. She is the queen of Spencer High—and it’s time to make it official.

Alexandra has a goal, you see—Homecoming Queen. Her ambitions are far grander than her small town will allow, but homecoming is just the first step to achieving total domination. So when peppy, popular Erin Hewett moves to town and seems to have a real shot at the crown, Alexandra has to take action.

With the help of her trusted friend Sam, she devises her most devious plot yet. She’ll introduce an unexpected third competitor in the mix, one whose meteoric rise—and devastating fall—will destroy Erin’s chances once and for all. Alexandra can run a scheme like this in her sleep. What could possibly go wrong? Expected publication: June 28th 2016 by HarperTeen

  

So, that’s my week in books, now how about yours?

If you’re joining in leave the link to your answers in the comments so everyone can take a look 🙂

Glove of Satin, Glove of Bone #BookReview #LGBTReads

Title: Glove of Satin, Glove of Bone
Author: Rachel White
Series: N/A
Format: Digital ARC, 205 pages
Publication Details: June 8th 2016 by Less Than Three Press
Genre(s): Fantasy; LBGT
Disclosure? Yep! I received a free copy in exchange for an HONEST review. 

Goodreads 

Enne Datchery and Muriel vas Veldina, ex-lovers and witches with a shared apprentice, are tasked by the Citadel, to repair an old grimoire together, despite the fact their relationship is tense at best.

The situation is further complicated when the book is stolen, and tracking down the thief stirs even more of Muriel’s past. It swiftly becomes clear to the two that dealing with their fractured relationship is going to be the easy part of the assignment—if they can live long enough to complete it.

Review

I had it in my mind that this would be a sort of YA Sarah Waters’ with magic, but I was wrong. It’s not even YA, although to be fair it read like YA and the only thing that made me realise it wasn’t was a sex scene which sprouted the C word. 

Muriel and Enne are ex-lovers and business partners in their thirties which is considered too old to be single so you can tell what kind of era this world evokes. Their apprentice is basically their adopted child and her upbringing is just one of many things they bicker about. Constantly. 

When the High Circle (magic HQ) ask them to repair a grimoire they fail to tell them anything about it, even what kind of magic it contains. It turns out to a book of destruction (which is bad) and Muriel’s other ex-girlfriend steals it and tries to destroy the world. 

I really thought this was a great basis for a story and don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed it the whole way through. But that’s all it was, a basis for a story. It was very short and very…basic. There were no sub-plots or twists; nothing going on outside Muriel and Enne’s bickering as they try to find the grimoire and stop the baddie. It felt like it should have been a short story to me. 

If you’re looking for a super quick read which has LGBT characters and magic, then give it go. It’s written well too, I just wanted more. Lots more. 

Book Promo: Rarity from the Hollow #SupportingIndyAuthors

Welcome to another book promo on Lipsyy Lost & Found where I’m always thrilled to support indie authors & publishers. This time the promo is for Robert Eggleton’s mind-bending children’s tale FOR ADULTS! All author proceeds from sales are donated to the Child Abuse Agency.

Rarity from the Hollow ~ Robert Eggleton

Publication date: March 16th 2012 by Dog Horn Publishing, republished 2016
Genres: Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Lacy Dawn’s father relives the Gulf War, her mother’s teeth are rotting out, and her best friend is murdered by the meanest daddy on Earth. Life in The Hollow isn’t great. But Lacy has one advantage — she’s been befriended by a semi-organic, semi-robot who works with her to cure her parents. He wants something in exchange, though. It’s up to her to save the Universe.

Will Lacy Dawn’s predisposition, education, and magic be enough for her to save the Universe, Earth, and, most importantly, protect her own family?

Rarity from the Hollow is adult literary science fiction filled with tragedy, comedy and satire. It is a children’s story for adults, not for the prudish, faint of heart, or easily offended.

Goodreads // Amazon US // Amazon UK / Doghorn Publishing

Meet the Author

Robert Eggleton has served as a children’s advocate in an impoverished state for over forty years. He is best known for his investigative reports about children’s programs, most of which were published by the West Virginia Supreme Court where he worked from 1982 through 1997, and which also included publication of models of serving disadvantaged and homeless children in the community instead of in large institutions, research into foster care drift involving children bouncing from one home to the next — never finding a permanent loving family, and statistical reports on the occurrence and correlates of child abuse and delinquency.

Today, he is a recently retired children’s psychotherapist from the mental health center in Charleston, West Virginia, where he specialized in helping victims cope with and overcome physical and sexual abuse, and other mental health concerns. Rarity from the Hollow is his debut novel and its release followed publication of three short Lacy Dawn Adventures in magazines: Wingspan Quarterly, Beyond Centauri, and Atomjack Science Fiction. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program operated by Children’s Home Society of West Virginia. http://www.childhswv.org/ Robert continues to write fiction with new adventures based on a protagonist that is a composite character of children that he met when delivering group therapy services. The overall theme of his stories remains victimization to empowerment.

Website // Facebook

A Little More About Rarity From Robert…

 

“My work utilizes SF/F cross-genre as a backdrop. It is not hard science fiction and includes elements of fantasy, everyday horror, a ghost — so it’s a little paranormal, true-love type romance, mystery, and adventure. The content addresses social issues: poverty, domestic violence, child maltreatment, local and intergalactic economics, mental health concerns – including PTSD experienced by Veterans and the medicinal use of marijuana for treatment of Bipolar Disorder, Capitalism, and touches on the role of Jesus.”

If you’d like me to promote your book, please get in touch via the email on my contacts page 🙂

 

This Week in Books #TWIB #CurrentlyReading

Welcome to my weekly post, where I sum-up what I’ve been up to in bookland the past week. 

Hi guys, I hope you’re all having a good week. If you’re joining in, don’t forget to leave the link to your post so I can come take a look later. 

Now: Save Me, Kurt Cobain ~ Jenny Manzer

I’ve nearly finished this. I like it but it isn’t blowing my mind. 

Then: Glove of Satin, Glove of Bone ~ Rachel White

This was another one (that’s three in a row if you’re not keeping up) that I enjoyed enough, but didn’t love. Not a lot happened in this and it was very short! My review will be up either at the weekend or on Monday, life depending.  

Next: ??? 

Definitely something from my TBR pile (yes, I know I keep saying that). Right now I fancy something dark so maybe The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick…

New on the Shelves

From Netgalley: I was approved for Labyrinth Lost which was my Waiting on Wednesday pick last week so I’m really happy about that one. It looks amazing. It was also on my anticipated reads list yesterday. But other than that nothing new this week!

Waiting on Wednesday

(linking up with Breaking the Spine)

The Sunlight Pilgrims ~ Jenni Fagan

It’s November of 2020, and the world is freezing over. Each day colder than the last. There’s snow in Israel, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to drift just off the coast of Scotland. As ice water melts into the Atlantic, frenzied London residents evacuate by the thousands for warmer temperatures down south. But not Dylan. Grieving and ready to build life anew, he heads north to bury his mother’s and grandmother’s ashes on the Scottish islands where they once lived.

Hundreds of miles away, twelve-year-old Estella and her survivalist mother, Constance, scrape by in the snowy, mountainous Highlands, preparing for a record-breaking winter. Living out of a caravan, they spend their days digging through landfills, searching for anything with restorative and trading value. When Dylan arrives in their caravan park in the middle of the night, life changes course for Estella and Constance. Though the weather worsens, his presence brings a new light to daily life, and when the ultimate disaster finally strikes, they’ll all be ready.

Written in incandescent, dazzling prose, The Sunlight Pilgrims is a visionary story of courage and resilience in the midst of nature’s most violent hour; by turns an homage to the portentous beauty of our natural world, and to just how strong we can be, if the will and the hope is there, to survive its worst. y Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.  Expected publication: July 19th 2016 by Hogarth

  

So, that’s my week in books, now how about yours?

If you’re joining in leave the link to your answers in the comments so everyone can take a look 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipated reads/TBR this summer #TTT #SummerReads

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish (click the link to visit them) who pick a different topic each week.

This week the topic is…Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half Of The Year…

I’m tweaking this week’s topic because I haven’t done a summer reading list yet and I want to (not that I ever stick to them but y’know). I’m hoping my summer reading will be a mixture of new releases (anticipated reads) and some from my physical TBR self, so here I’ve chosen 5 of each!

Anticipated Releases:

And I Darken ~ Kiersten White: “No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.” The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she’ll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive. July 7th

When Everything Feels Like the Movies ~ Raziel Reid: “Everyone wanted to break me. But stars aren’t broken, they explode. And I was the ultimate supernova…My name was Jude. They called me Judy. I was beautiful either way. This is my story.” August 4th

Labyrinth Lost ~  Zoraida Córdova: “Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.” Beautiful Creatures meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone with an infusion of Latin American tradition in this highly original fantasy adventure. Sept 6th

Phantom Limbs ~ Paula Garner: How do you move on from an irreplaceable loss? In a poignant debut, a sixteen-year-old boy must learn to swim against an undercurrent of grief—or be swept away by it? Sept 13th

The Sunlight Pilgrims ~ Jenni Fagan: “It’s November of 2020, and the world is freezing over. Each day colder than the last. There’s snow in Israel, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to drift just off the coast of Scotland…” The Sunlight Pilgrims is a visionary story of courage and resilience in the midst of nature’s most violent hour. July 19th

From the dreaded TBR pile

The Forgotten Garden ~ Kate Morton: A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.

Shadow and Bone ~ Leigh Bardugo: “The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.” Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance. Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and Laini Taylor.

The Seeing Stone ~ Kevin Crossley-Holland: “The year is 1199, the place the Welsh Marches. Young Arthur de Caldicot practises his tilting and archery, learns to be a dutiful page to his father, and waits impatiently to grow up and become a knight. One day his father’s friend Merlin gives him a shining black stone. When Arthur starts to see stories in the stone, his life quickly becomes entwined with that of his namesake, the boy who pulls the sword from the stone”

Monkeys with Typewriters ~ Scarlett Thomas: Exploring how fiction works, this manual shows you how you can learn to understand it well enough to crack open any fictional narrative, and, if you like, start creating your own.

Reckless ~ Devon Hartford: “Now that Samantha Smith has confronted the demons from her dark past in Fearless, she’s excited to jump into adulthood with newfound confidence and friends Romeo, Madison, and Kamiko…Samantha will be tested to the limits of her resilience, and must discover how truly Fearless she can be in the name of love.”

(Edited synopses taken from Goodreads)

Will you be reading any of these over summer?

Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet #BookReview #JuneReleases

Title: Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet
Author: H.P Wood
Series: N/A
Format: Digital ARC, 368 pages
Publication Details: June 7th 2016 by Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre(s): Historical Fiction; Mystery
Disclosure? Yep! I received a free copy in exchange for an HONEST review. 

Goodreads 

 

May 1904. Coney Island’s newest amusement park, Dreamland, has just opened. Its many spectacles are expected to attract crowds by the thousands, paying back investors many times over.

Kitty Hayward and her mother arrive by steamer from South Africa. When Kitty’s mother takes ill, the hotel doctor sends Kitty to Manhattan to fetch some special medicine. But when she returns, Kitty’s mother has vanished. The desk clerk tells Kitty she is at the wrong hotel. The doctor says he’s never seen her although, she notices, he is unable to look her in the eye.

Alone in a strange country, Kitty meets the denizens of Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet. A relic of a darker, dirtier era, Magruder’s is home to a forlorn flea circus, a handful of disgruntled Unusuals, and a mad Uzbek scientist. Magruder’s Unusuals take Kitty under their wing and resolve to find out what happened to her mother.

But as a plague spreads, Coney Island is placed under quarantine. The gang at Magruder’s finds that a missing mother is the least of their problems, as the once-glamorous resort town is abandoned to the freaks, anarchists, and madmen.

Review

Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet is a nicely written, interesting romp through the early 20th century Coney Island – a place where anything can happen!

Young Brit Kitty Hayward has lost her mother. Sent from their hotel to pick up some medicine when her mum is taken ill, Kitty returns to find that her mother has vanished, and the hotel are pretending they’ve never seen her before. How curious. 

Kitty ends up on Coney Island, with no money or belongings, but is fed and taken in by a family of ‘unusuals’ – the members of a freakshow who all live at Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet. 

I loved the setting of this book. I found the descriptions of the fun, freaky, and often fake entertainers who inhabit the resort and how Kitty quickly became a valued addition to their gang really interesting. I thought it was going to be a simple mystery, but as the story develops we realise that it’s more about a plague that is sweeping through the island than it is about a girl trying to find her mother. 

I wasn’t expecting it to be such a dark, and often depressing story, and while I initially enjoyed that surprise I felt like the middle of the book could have been more exciting – something was lacking for me. 

The star of the show was definitely the characterisation. Each character was unique (as you’d expect from Freakshow performers), and they interacted beautifully with each other. I especially fell in love with Rosalind -who today you would describe as Gender-Fluid, but back then he was seen as an abomination –  and his relationship with lovely Enzo, the ‘half-burned man’. 

It’s quite clear that the author had done her research, and I found the portrayal of side-shows, circuses and freak-shows of the time realistic and intriguing. I also enjoyed that the book makes you look at prejudice and discrimination and made me eternally thankful for how much society has changed since the 1900s.

Overall, I feel like Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet was definitely worth a read, even if it left me a little deflated.