Throughout the year, I’ll dig deeper into the prompts of The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2022. I’ll talk about the music, the prompt and recommend about 5 books I think would go well with it. The prompt of the week: How You Remind Me.
How You Remind Me is a song from Nickelback‘s third studio album, Silver Side Up which reaches its legal adult age this year. Can you fucking believe this song (and album) is 21 years old?! Am I the only one feeling old just now? It’s a pretty good album too, with songs like Too Bad, Never Again, and of course How You Remind Me. I daresay this album brought them mainstream success.
Listen to the album
Listen to the Song
So, How You Remind Me. I’m probably not far off the truth if I’m saying this was one of the very first rock songs I fell in love with. It was my entry ticket into a genre I never was able to leave behind. I even tried to translate the lyrics with zero success, because I didn’t start learning English properly until my last year in high school. This did not stop me from learning it by heart, though. And although it’s been AGES, I still love this song and sing along whenever it comes up. I know many people started hating Nickelback for some reason, and even I drifted away from them for a while, but Chad Kroeger‘s voice will forever remain one of my favorites and this is a hill I’m determined to die on.
It’s not like you to say sorry
I was waitin’ on a different story
This time I’m mistaken
For handing you a heart worth breakin’
And I’ve been wrong, I’ve been down
Been to the bottom of every bottle
These five words in my head
Scream, “Are we havin’ fun yet?”
I wasn’t quite sure about this prompt because although I love this song, as a prompt it’s not an easy one. So as a lifeline, I decided to include books that have adaptations in some form. Although, I probably won’t have to worry about this prompt, because there are a couple of books being released this year that will feature yours truly. There will be a post coming soon.
For this prompt, I’ll use a book that has a character who reminds me of myself or someone else I know. Or if it brings up memories of any kind. It can also work for a book that has an adaptation.
Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords by Benedict Patrick
I promise I won’t drag Benedict Patrick into every Listen & Read post, but Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords just fits here. The MC, Arturo reminded me of D’Artagnan and I even went to describe the book as Zorro meets The Three Musketeers. In a fantasy setting, might I add.
Don’t draw your blade in the City of Swords, unless you’re willing to kill… or ready to die.
Young and filled with idealistic fervor, Arturo packs his blade and travels to the fabled City of Swords in the hopes of joining the dashing Bravadori. Yet upon arriving he discovers these masked vigilantes have more in common with brutal thugs than noble monster slayers. Disillusioned and mocked, he stubbornly refuses to give up his dreams.
When an impending bandit attack threatens untold depravities upon a distant village, and no others will heed the call for help, Arturo joins forces with a worthless outcast and a walking legend to attempt the impossible, to traverse the demon-haunted wilderness and prove that in the City of Swords, true heroes can rise from the unlikeliest of places.
Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords is a gritty, action-packed standalone novel set in Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld, a land where folktales and fantasy mix, where the monsters from stories are real.
Start reading today to discover this epic tale of broken heroes and inspiring hope!
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
I very recently read Shutter Island which has a movie adaptation. Which led to me being unable not to see Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as I was reading.
The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
The Bone Ships by RJ Barker
Aside from the fact that the whole Tide Child trilogy is pure awesomeness, it also has a lot of Easter eggs when you know where to look. RJ Barker named several characters and places after his friends such as McLean’s rock. Some are well disguised, some less so, but if you know his circles, then that will give you extra fun while reading. Hell knows you’ll need every little bit of fun before he breaks your heart in a million tiny little pieces.
A brilliantly imagined saga of honor, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships is the epic launch of a new fantasy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.
Two nations at war. A prize beyond compare.
For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war.
The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.
Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
I included Rivers of London on my rec list for How You Remind Me, because, well, it’s set in London and I LOVE London. And I love books set in there so I can revisit it as many times as I want even if I’m stuck in Budapest. Stupid pandemic. Then again, even without the pandemic, my finances didn’t really make traveling possible. Anyway. The first book in the Rivers of London series introduces us to Peter Grant, a constable in London, mainly patrolling around the Covent Garden. I’ve only read the first two books so far, but it featured a couple of places I visited and that always gives me a little jolt when I see something like that mentioned. It also makes that traveling itch so much worse…
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
The Imaginary Corpse is one I keep recommending over and over again because more people should read it! I’m including it into my How You Remind Me list, because I connected with Tippy, the yellow stuffed triceratops a lot. It’s also a good reminder that we should treat everyone with kindness and respect.
A dinosaur detective in the land of unwanted ideas battles trauma, anxiety, and the first serial killer of imaginary friends.
Most ideas fade away when we’re done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from?
Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl’s imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. But when her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they’re too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas – until Tippy runs into The Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case, before there’s nothing left but imaginary corpses.
2 Comments