My friend, Cathy Maxwell, urged me to try a book called Dungeon Crawler Carl, and this last weekend was so nuts that I decided I needed something off the wall, which is Carl and his cat companion, Princess Donut. Aliens have taken the Earth to strip mine it, killing most of the population except for those millions who manage to find the escape stairs that the aliens have left for them to descend to the semi-safely of the levels of a TV survival game beamed out to the galaxy where they will be attacked by multiforms of monsters as they descend, getting more rewards and powers as get closer to whatever is down there. Fortunately one of the first skills Princess Donut gets is the ability to speak. I’m on Book Three. There are eight books. I’m pretty sure this series is more relatable if you’ve played the video games it’s based on, but fortunately the author, Matt Dinnamen, has a very agile imagination, and by the third book, has built a community of players, some of which do not survive. (The cat lives, as does the baby pterodactyl she adopts, Mongo. The thing about baby pterodactyls is, they grow.) (At least so far, they live.)
So that’s my reading week. What did you read?
111 Responses
•Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0, 2025.
An account of the Earth sciences and some related fields, thoroughly revised from a 2003 version. Bryson is a nonfiction writer willing to take on pretty much any topic (the last book by him that I read was a biography of Shakespeare). He apparently did a good job of researching this volume and of getting it vetted by experts, since reviews have mostly been favorable. The revision both updates the science and corrects identified errors in the first edition. I enjoyed the book and (as someone with not a lot of academic scientific background, but with a lifelong interest in popular science), I noticed only a few small problems, of which I explain a couple below:
In the Introduction, Bryson says, “There needn’t actually be a universe. For a long time there wasn’t.” There are some theoretical frameworks where it would sort of halfway be meaningful to talk about time existing outside of our universe, but my sense is that they are not very widely accepted, and in any case, in Chapter 1, Bryson more comprehensibly says, “Time doesn’t exist. There is no past for it [the universe] to emerge from.”
A point concerning the social surroundings of science rather than science itself is whether Buffon was “threatened with excommunication” for concluding in the 1770s that Earth was at least 75,000 years old. As best as I can make out, possibly under Jansenist pressure, Buffon’s conclusion was condemned by the Sorbonne (which did not have the power to excommunicate anyone), and Buffon issued a pro forma statement that he retracted anything he had written that was contrary to Scripture—without admitting that anything was in fact contrary. Thereafter he changed nothing in his writings and elaborated his ideas about an age for Earth longer than the most literal reading of Genesis might suggest (although far shorter than the figure that we now accept).
Any author of Regencies as unfamiliar with 1816’s status as the Year Without a Summer as is one ignoramus I could name, would benefit by reading Bryson’s penultimate chapter.
Overall, a lively and comprehensible treatment of the high points in cosmology, astronomy, physics, geology, paleontology, biology, and evolutionary anthropology. Bryson works a lot harder to make an essential minimum grounding in in the covered subjects pleasant and comprehensible than, probably, your high school teachers ever did. Recommended.
•Tess Baytree, Death Walks a Dog, 2020. Novella. Penelope Standing mystery no. 1. Penelope Standing, a divorcee in her fifties, is a part-time mail carrier and part-time professional dog-walker. She is also the girlfriend of her small town’s acting police chief. In her dog-walker capacity, she discovers the body of one of her clients, and complications ensue. Alas, I found this pretty forgettable, although in its favor, I did read it through to the end and nothing in particular struck me as objectionable. Neither the plot nor the characters particularly grabbed me. Tastes differ, but I don’t think I’ll be following this series.
•Carla Kelly, The Admiral’s Penniless Bride, 2011.
This started out as fairly interesting marriage-of-convenience romance, but factors including an implausible Big Misunderstanding pretty well killed it for me a bit past halfway through and I skimmed some bits toward the end. Moreover, although it ends with a personal HEA for the married couple, it delivers a perhaps excessive punishment for one of their servants, and a real downer of a (historally accurate) depiction of societal wrongs which the couple is incapable of putting right. So it decidedly fails to end with a typical genre-romance warm and fuzzy feeling. And yet it’s from Harlequin! Finally, as I just noticed, it’s set in 1816 (a favorite year for Regencies, being the new year after Waterloo), and there is nothing in the least odd about the weather or the color of the sunsets. “It was a glorious summer in Devon.” Not recommended.
Yuk, the glorious summer in Devon that was no summer at all in reality? Bad research.
•Ashes to Ashes, Peter Brichter mystery no. 3, 1988. Peter becomes involved with a case involving multiple arsons, organized crime, police corruption, and police-department internal politics. His social skills have improved only minimally since the earlier novels, so brainpower will have to see him through. In the personal subplot, Peter and Kori had agreed not to have children, on the theory that, thanks to personalities and to bad childhoods, neither of them is parent material. Kori has been trying to get Peter to renegotiate the point. Now, however, she has discovered that she is accidentally pregnant, making it look as if she had broken her word. She will not consider abortion and is postponing disclosure, trying to find the strategic time to tell Peter. In the meantime, the tension in the air is touching off arguments about other things.
This novel is a considerable step up from the previous Unforgiving Minutes, probably rising back up to the level of the first book, Murder at the War although the subject matter of that one attracted me more. Mildly recommended.
Just finished a wonderful tongue-in-cheek fantasy, The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale by CM Waggoner. The narrator reminded me of the cheeky, slightly acerbic voice narrating the Fractured Fairy Tales in the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Even though she’s never wanted children and has a jaundiced view of men, Gretsella reluctantly adopts a baby boy left on her doorstep. When he grows up into a lovely, kind young man, he’s ‘discovered’ as the missing heir. Poor Bradley gets his head turned by all the king business, something he’s totally unfit for, so Gretsella must find a way to save him from himself. Lots of fun with various entertaining digressions and sly commentary.
I enjoyed the Somewhat Wicked Witch too!
Dinniman seems to be everywhere at the moment. Glad to hear it’s holding your attention – must add it to the tbr.
Best thing I read this week was “Division Bells” by Iona Datt Sharma (2020) – a delightful UK-set m/m romance that uses the structure of parliamentary policy formation to drive the story and it really worked. Plus, I really liked both MCs, the competence porn, and the wish fulfillment functional albeit under-resourced workplace.
Almost equally good, although less happy-making, was the WWII story “The Paris Apartment” by Kelly Bowen (2021), focusing on two women, one French and one English, doing everything they could to fight the Nazis. Beautiful, sad and effective, and my only reservation was the modern frame story which I think Bowen over-crowded, but it does mean we get some lightness in the story and allows us to know what happened to the characters. Plus gave me some history I didn’t know.
Continued John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series with #3 “The Last Colony” (2007). Good and made me laugh quite a bit, especially the MMC’s wry leadership style, despite the generally serious subject matter. This was a re-read and it definitely works better with the first two books fresh in my memory. #4 “Zoe’s Tale” (2008) was new to me, and is definitely a companion piece, filling in missing parts of the Last Colony story. The first third was a bit bland but it got a lot more interesting. Ended up enjoying it and I liked the young FMC.
Best of the short fiction was Örjan Westin’s MicroSFF which I gobbled up. Not every story is a winner but there were plenty I loved and made me smile. Free at https://microsff.com/
I agree with you re “Division Bells”. I really enjoyed that one!
I love Division Bells. Please let me live in a world where politicians are acting for climate change.
•Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome, 2006. Stark (died 2022) was a sociologist of religion. In this work he attempts to apply statistical methods to interpreting the early history of Christianity. My own background in the use of statistical methods in the social sciences is limited to a couple of courses long ago, but for what it is worth, Stark’s effort here looks to me to be at best suggestive. This is due at least partially to data constraints making it hard to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt. I did tend to agree with most of his conclusions, which is not too surprising since Stark was mostly trying to determine which side was correct in various present-day controversies rather than to originate new hypotheses, and on important issues he comes down on the side of orthodoxy rather than various revisionist innovations. Some people might find it surprising to discover that he questions St. Paul’s right to be called an “apostle to the Gentiles” in the most literal sense, pointing out that Paul almost always preached in cities that already held Christians, and that his appeal evidently was to “God-fearers” who already had been attracted to the Hebrew scriptures and to what they heard as visitors in the synagogues, but who either felt no call to convert to Judaism or who hesitated before such a radical step. Christianity presented a less drastic alternative. But even that view of Paul was an established scholarly alternative before Stark. The book possibly holds too much of statistical technicality for some readers and is a little dated by now, but is mildly recommended.
I’m rereading through the Rogues to Riches series by Grace Burrows. I’m on the second one, A Duke by any Other Name, which is interesting and begins with “lady pigs” invading a walled orchard so that the owner of the pigs can meet the elusive duke who owns the orchard. I had no idea pigs could get so huge: 400 pounds.
The flooring people arrive today. My son and I went to get the rest of the supplies last night. They emailed me a “Shopping List”, and although I kept referring to it, he didn’t understand it was for supplies for the flooring. I think a better name would be List of materials, or List of supplies. Shopping list sounds more like a grocery list. Not his job.
I took a walk this morning. It was 72º. It’s creeping up every morning. The dogs and ladies were not out on the green. I have an alarm to set for these walks.
The sofa was delivered, and it’s going to be great. It’s long enough for me to have a nap on it, and the one I got rid of was too short for that. I have pillows ordered that match the burgundy drapes and my recliner. Things are coming together.
It sounds really odd and unhelpful that the flooring people don’t bring their own supplies! Do hope the work goes well.
Thanks, Jane. It turned out that one of the things on the list looked like a duplication to me, to I didn’t get it. They are now going to get it. It would have helped if someone had explained the list to me.
How is the new floor?
Unlike Chacha1, I didn’t take to David Lawrence’s Blackmailer’s Delight, and ended up skimming the last third. It’s a contrived farce that left me cold.
I then over-corrected and read Debbie Johnson’s The Hopeful Hearts Bookshop – slow and saccharine, with a lovely setting. Went on to reread Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe, which is pretty much the same story set in Dorset rather than Aberdeenshire. Liked this better the second time around because my expectations were so low. I’m not planning to read any more by her, though.
I also read (listened to) the Hopeful Hearts Bookstore. I gave it 3 stars. It left me feeling rather sad.
“The Final Problem” by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. A murder mystery. The main character is an actor who played Sherlock Holmes in numerous films. Starting out strong, I’m only in the third chapter so far.
Re-read “Project Hail Mary.”
This book series by Dinniman seems seems to be the rage right now, I’ve seen it recommended everywhere, including here on GBT.
I guess it’s not one for me as I don’t think I’ve ever played a video game myself yet … but it might be a nice present for kid #1’s upcoming b’day.
Or is there love and romance?
Kid avoids romance like it’s the plague. Yet. He should better get on with the concept though, he’s old enough not to cringe when the topic comes up lol.
Speaking of romance – I seem to not read anything BUT romance.
Some with spooky elements: SE Harmon’s series about Rain the medium is wonderful.
I’ve binged the audios of book 3 and 4 recently (it helps that the narrator is really, really good) and now I’m on book 5 and don’t want it to end. However, I don’t want the MC Rain and his person Irish be in danger of losing their lives so often, especially now that at least Rain’s hubby wants to have (adopted) kids (Rain will come around, he did so with the idea of getting married and with the idea of HOW they wanted their wedding to be – and how they tied the knot eventually was hilariously typical for those two). Book 5, sadly, is the last book, I’d love for the series to go on, but I guess the author knows when to end something good and not let it jump the shark. I trust her/him/them (?) to end it well.
I also read Fake Shot by CE Ricci. It had some really good elements (some of the every day, ordinary details like the falling in love stuff. But it also had some serious flaws, some of which were just too hard to get on board with – like the problematic ignoring some smut related stuff (save sex anyone? I just read the STD are on an all-time high), and implausibility of some biology stuff and the totally off hockey stuff (treating winning the Stanley Cup as if it was some every day game).
It didn’t bothered me as much in Iced Out which I listened to and was probably too hypnotized by one of my all-time-fav narrators. But this time I wanted to hurl the book across the room – no can do with my ebook reader!
Yes, I get why our resident hockey ladies are not in favour of this author’s books.
And because I’m too scatterbrained to listen to one book and read another, I’ve a couple unfinished ones and still started another one because it was handy when waiting at the bus stop for a bus that didn’t want to come. Our bus system seems to be completely out of whack, so either I decide on cycling from now on or get a lot of reading done while waiting endlessly for the bus to come – or not. Yes, I could also walk which I will likely do after work today – I’ve got my ear buds with me, but traffic noise is a bit detrimental to understanding.
Ah, and I’m episode 5 of Off Campus.
Caught myself pushing the fast foward button a couple of times.
I like that Hannah’s character looks healthy. i.d. not rail thin.
The leads seem sympathetic. One is even Canadian and knows how to skate. The others are learning. It shows.
I remember reading that the casting call asked for college hockey players to apply. Hm. But at least they got a real NHL player in between contracts as body double.
It’s nice. But I really liked the book. And they changed a lot. Had to make everything bigger, shinier.
I realized what details I liked in the Heated Rivalry adaptation: They filmed in real locations. It showed, it felt real. Because it was.
Here, the dorm room (make it luxury flat with loads of nice decorations) and the hockey house and even the theatre space are HUGE. And oh so nice. Everything is so big. Everyone talks so much (says the one who tortures Arghers with GBT texts that are way too long). Their emotions seem so grand.
Shane and Ilya didn’t talked too much. The emotions played out on their faces, in their body language. That’s captivating.
Here the actors don’t really get the chance to shine. They are nice. And have big emotions. I repeat myself…
Oh well.
The Canadian is a Kingwell, can’t remember his first name, nephew of my ex.
And I will definitely try at least one episode on your recommendation.
His part is one of those with a lot of changes to book 1. defintely makes Dean so much nicer.
He‘s the one who really plays/played hockey. It shows.
And wow, you knoe EVERYONE,don‘t you?
😉
Canada is a small country. We are the size of California.
LOL I don’t usually think of California as small!
For a while last year, there was a movement here to get California to join us.
Tammy, If all the blue states joined Canada, the only US seacoast on the Pacific would be in Alaska, and the east seacoast would start in North Carolina. But Illinois’s only access to the rest of Canada would be by water if over the Great Lakes (and Lake Michigan is currently US only, unlike the other Great Lakes), and the province of Colorado would have access to Mexico through the province of New Mexico, and neither would connect to the rest of Canada. The demographic shifts would make Canadian political life interesting. (I used the 2024 presidential election results to denote red and blue.)
Stephen Kalyn plays Dean.
Just watching with hubby. It’s nice enough, especially for the male commentary what a man would do or not do (well, there is a cultural and age gap). But no need to re-watch…
P.S. Makes me even more aware of just how well crafted and executed HR is.
Re Dungeon Crawler Carl, there’s a lot of swearing, sexual references and stuff that might not suit a younger kid (if you’ve seen the Rick and Morty series, I’d say it’s about that level). There’s no romance for the main characters (although the AI creeps on Carl via various fetishes which might not be to your kid’s taste).
I found the series surprisingly heart warming and sometimes devastating.
Thanks for the info, Annamal!
The kid is a young adult so the swearing is no problem, he‘s just not into love stories lol.
Addendum: a lot of books will get adapted it seems.
Just saw the alert that Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard which was recommended her got adapted with Leighton Meester and Jared Padalecki as MCs.
Anne Hathaway will also grace the movie and tv screen some more often. Which I will decidedly not watch. I’m still not recovered from Devil 2 (I loved Meryl and Stanley, but who wouldn’t).
But I’ve bookmarked a new HBOmax show whose trailer seemed promising: Allison Janney as grieving woman sent the gift of her son’s friend. Out on May 29. I only hope this is also the release date here over the pond – now that I have subscribed for one year, I better get a bit of money’s worth. Kiddo makes me watch The Pitt, usually while we are having dinner. Not recommended for a smooth digestion…
I also read Everyone in the Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson. This is a wild ride of confusing motives when 10 people trapped in a bank are all thieves in some way. It took me quite a while of flipping back and forth to see which of the 10 mysteries was being solved in each section. And, of course, Ernie made a lot of mistakes that, while given proper motivation by the author/narrator, still seemed obvious even in the moment. Consequently, Ernie ends up in the hospital yet again. These books are well constructed and entertaining, but I think I’d like to see Ernie come out with less than life-threatening injuries in the future. You’d think that after four books/cases he’d learn something about survival. Otherwise, he’s like Stephanie Plum and still letting the perp flee out the back door after nearly 30 books.
And I read The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting, which is book 2 in the series. Delightful follow-up in which Dante must learn to carry on “conversation” and learn how to “date.” Fending off a prospective assassin is a far more welcome, if slightly disturbing, prospect, but needs must when devoted fans of orchids swarm into town for a convention. Turns out the inspector is also an orchid hunter, so the gang is all together again when another murder occurs. Watch for a hilarious scene with Dante and his cat, and also a wild scene involving ketchup. Love this series!
I very much love the Assassin’s Guide series too – I’m on the mailing list from the author and get crazy missives in the middle of the night (she’s in NZ, I’m in the US) that are tons of fun.
I also love the Retired Assassin series. Can’t wait for the next book.
I’ve been all over the place with books the past week.
*Winter’s Orbit – which thank you all so much, that was adorable and I have the sequel on hold at the library. And I recommended it to my sister, who introduced me to the Hands of the Emporer.
*The Twisted Ones – picked up from the library as I was shelving books this week, as there’s no way I could have not read it, but I didn’t remember the plot at all. Now that I’ve finished it, I can see why I didn’t remember it – I didn’t read it more than once. I do love most T Kingfisher books, although the Clockwork Boys series remains my favorite.
*The Knight and the Moth – I’m doing this via audio, so it’s going to take me a while to finish, but I’m loving the narrator and the story is holding my interest. ( I am pretty new to the audio method, so this is only my 3rd try. Previously, I audio’d The Ex Hex and wow, two thumbs down on narrator and story and my ranting would not help anyone, but it is definitely not for me. )
*A Kiss for Hope – Grace Burrowes, she of the Lord Julian mysteries. Not a lot of surprises regarding the plot, but the development of the relationship was really very nice.
*Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil – and ok, I haven’t finished this, and while it’s clever and Pratchett-esque, if it doesn’t settle down a bit, there are no guarantees I will finish it.
I have a tendency to not finish if I can’t connect, with Dungeon Crawler Carl as a good example. I’m not gamer, although I did play more than my share of Pizza Hut Pac Man back in the day. I know these books aren’t necessarily for me, and I have non-gamer friends who have made their way through many of the books. More power to that author.
Just to note “Ocean’s Echo” isn’t a direct sequel to “Winter’s Orbit”, more another novel in the same universe, different planet. Enjoyed it btw.
I’ve been working my way through Platform Decay – 40 pages from the end, but it was getting late, and I had to be up early this morning. I can’t see how MB is going to solve everything in the next little bit. But maybe, it will get everyone safely to the escape ship and stop there.
I was also just reading this interview with Martha about Murderbot. I figure there are fans here who might like to check it out.
https://reactormag.com/martha-wells-on-platform-decay-found-families-and-whats-next-for-murderbot/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_r31DafQGvdnYGAYufbTvgAC2pK73cTB_VQvtt237dlZJR28-1z6zACrQUodnWkC-F6mofXhwfMdbnT_lQCsIv7ws5pw&_hsmi=419768571&utm_content=419768571&utm_source=hs_email
Nancy, Thanks for the link. I think Wells somewhat mischaracterizes what she is doing in the series regarding family, since in her universe group marriages (multiple males with multiple females) are depicted as a prevailing thing, at least in the Corporate Rim. I am aware anecdotally of a few recent times when this mode has been tried, and probably sometime, somewhere it has worked long-term, but it clearly has not been common in history, and instead various other patterns have had more staying power. So I don’t know if Wells thought that was realistic or just artistically useful, perhaps precisely because it’s strange in reality, although a bit more common in sf.
The theory I’ve seen is that economic realities required that more than two people assemble themselves into family units in order to survive and raise kids in the corporate rim and that is what made it more common (PresAux isn’t corporate rim but they did come from a population abandoned by a corporate rim company so they are still subject to that history).
Annamal, Yes, but there has been plenty of economic pressure in varied societies on Earth, and yet in all of history and anthropology the closest equivalent here that I can think of are double monasteries in Ireland where celibate nuns lived on one side and monks on the other, and later a similar arrangement among the Shakers. It’s not something I hugely object to in sf and perhaps more than more explanation we could have used more of a view of the institution in operation. It’s all of course alien to Murderbot.
Thanks for the link!
I listened to Platform Decay in audio and really appreciated the heads-up about the book starting in the middle of a mission. My only complaint was that one of the character’s name was Naja. Every time the narrator said it I heard “Nausea”. It pulled me out of the story every time!
I noticed that too, although I don’t think it was every time. But even once was too often.
Yeah, I love Kevin R. Free (performer), but thought that was an odd choice. I don’t understand audio production enough to know WHO made that choice. Probably not the author (I had zero input into the audiobooks of my books published by Kensington), but most big-name audiobooks have a “director,” and I have no idea what role the director has, or whether pronunciation choices would be part of that job or left to the performer.
I have finished reading all 4 books currently out of Melissa J Cave Empire of the stars series. Be aware that the 4th book ends in a massive cliffhanger which really annoyed me as the fifth book is due to be published in November 2026. I am invested now, despite the inconsistencies, weirdly truncated French names, I want to know what happens next, now!
So I am back reading Celia Lake. I treated myself to a reread of Eclipse which is a lovely book, no cliffhangers, just two friends, one very battered by the 1st world war and family expectations, falling in love while teaching at a magical school. Good stuff.
I also read all 4 books. I have mixed feelings about this series, but despite my reservations I kept going and will definitely read the fifth and (hopefully) final book when it is released. I have been thinking a lot about how I got hooked and why I didn’t abandon ship.
The world is historical fantasy, with a hint of magic but mostly about power politics and birthrights. It all felt a bit superficial and some of the language was jarringly contemporary, while the tone felt a bit old-school; it reminded me of romances I read in secret around half a century ago. Especially the sex scenes.
I particularly enjoyed the secondary characters and the community. I wanted to know more about them (and still do).
I really liked the hero’s mission to build himself a glorious home city from the ground up. I don’t think I’ve seen urban planning in a fantasy novel before. It was fun to see his vision start to take shape.
I didn’t love the heroine. The most important thing about her is her divine blood as the illegitimate daughter of Emperor. She’s young, innocent, soft-hearted, beautiful, kind, super-intelligent, guilt-stricken (because backstory), and a bit of a martyr. She needs protecting because she rarely stands up for herself, freezes under pressure, and cries a lot. I accept that IRL someone who was badly damaged in childhood will always carry scars. In fiction, she needs to grow a backbone, change, and overcome.
I wasn’t wholly invested in the hero either. He’s a remarkable physical specimen, a warrior and a leader, driven by his terrible backstory. He wants to build a refuge and father a dynasty to replace everything that was torn from him. He initially wanted the heroine for her bloodline but didn’t trust her for the same reason. Later he’s all in, and desperate for heir(s). He fell kind of flat for me. I preferred his sidekicks.
There are multiple POVs and backstory time shifts, especially in the later books. I think they were necessary to offer clues because so much plot was withheld, but for me it added to the feeling of distance.
The plot is clearly planned out. Things happen because people with power are pursuing agendas unknown. The MCs are pawns. They ( and the reader) are in the dark, guessing and reacting. So the MCs have no agency. The plot happens to them, they don’t drive it. I felt as though I watched the story unfold rather than being immersed/engaged in it.
That said, I’m super curious to find out what happens. I suspect that once I know how the plot is resolved, I’ll be satisfied. It’s been interesting, but I don’t think it will be a re-read. I don’t feel the urge to seek out other series by this author.
For now, I’m back to re-reading Rachel Neumeier 🙂
You have articulated beautifully all my reservations about this series.
Like you I am more invested in the sidekicks than the main characters. Justenin, Huber, Auber (and that’s a Parisian metro station), Miche and Mionet. Also I have my suspicions about who is manipulating things behind the scenes and I’d like to know if I am right.
Some authors concentrate on the sidekicks and that can make for an amazing book. You only have to think about the Curse of Chalion or the Hands of the Emperor (which incidentally I believe was inspired by Chalion).
In that case maybe I should try Hands of the Emperor again .
My son loves Dungeon Crawler Carl, but judging by descriptions, I don’t think I would like it.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s latest, And the Crowd Went Wild, was lovely, simply lovely. I swallowed the book in two days and enjoyed every minute of it. Like everything this author writes, it is an F/M love story and also a story of a woman reinventing herself, finding strength to go on after everything in her life fell apart. In a way, Phillips’s entire body of work is a tribute to the resilience and courage of women.
The only thing that felt false in this novel was its ending – too pat, too simple, too sweet. I guess, the writer needed a happy ending and tacked it on to the last pages with no regard to the truth of it. But even the sugary, artificial ending didn’t spoil the story for me. Phillips is a great writer.
K.M. Shea’s Managing the Vampire’s Mansion was a standalone novel in Shea’s ongoing Magiford urban fantasy string of books, which consists of several interconnected trilogies. A couple years ago, I binged on them. I read all her Magiford trilogies in quick succession and adored them all. Of course, I bought this book as soon as it became available. Unfortunately, the magic is gone. I’m not sure if it is the book’s fault or if I’ve become a more discerning reader. I finished the novel, but it felt flat, unexciting. It makes me sad, as if I’ve lost a friend. But I still have hope. Maybe her next book will be better.
I read Elizabeth the First Wife by Lian Dolan and loved it to bits. Light, humorous, fun Shakespeare references. Smartly observed with a wink and a smile. Recommend if you need a change of pace.
Speaking of video-games: I read this great Children’s/MG novel this past week: MAYOWA AND THE SEA OF WORDS by Chibundo Onuzo. It was great: I LOVED the idea of being able to forward emotions to others from books by jumping on them! The characters were relatable, the story was also very good, I liked 98 % of it very much. It was a great way to show kids that they have a voice and have an impact on the world and the people around them, and how important it is to, for instance, take immigration-politics seriously. I was planning to give a shout to Lian Tanner about it, that’s how delightful I thought it was. Then I ran face first into this footnote that still annoys the hell out of me 6 days later.
I will paraphrase a bit because I don’t remember exactly what the book said and I didn’t make a bookmark, but it went something like this: “Mayowa’s mother didn’t want her to get a Nintendo Switch, because she was convinced that her brain would start rotting if she did.”
Footnote: This is true.
Sorry, but this pushed ALL my buttons. To start with: I don’t think that kind of lecturing belongs in a children’s book. Fine if you’re not a gamer and don’t approve of kids gaming, but this is not the way to voice your opinion, or the place for that matter. Secondly, I realize that a not of non-gamers think it’s brain- and soul-killing to spend time on and in video-games, when it really does a lot of good in different ways depending on game: It enriches language and vocabulary, it connects people across distances and generations, it offers escapism, it lets people with social or physical disabilities “be someone else” for a while, it can improve cooperational skills, puzzle-solving is good for the brain, you learn to appreciate story (if applicable) and develop strategic thinking, consequential thinking and problem-solving, it tickles the rewards-system in the brain which can help battle depression, and so on and so forth. It isn’t the mindless brain-death some people want to make it out to be. I wouldn’t have taken issue with the comment in the story IF it wasn’t for that footnote. It should have been left out. To me, it comes across as condescending and mean. Now, if there had been some humour in it, it would have been different, but there was NONE. I don’t read fiction to be sneered at.
So, if we can ignore all the footnotes (which the narrator read out at the weirdest points in the middle of sentences by the way, also threw me out of the story a couple of times) it’s a great book and I recommend it. But I’m still annoyed. On the fence about whether to read book 2 or not, ONLY because of that stupid footnote.
Some people write great footnotes, by the way, like Pratchett. Love Pratchetty footnotes. More of those, please!
After that, I read TESSA MIYATA IS NO HERO by Julie Abe and it was very good. Nice MG taking place in Japan, where a girl must hone her skills as a warrior to battle an evil spirit escaped from an accidentally broken family heirloom. She’s haunted by the feeling of never fitting in, of having been left and made fun of by people, and by having the feeling that she’s a burden to everyone; something she has to learn to handle to save Tokyo, her family, perhaps the entire world. It has all the right ingredients for a good MG novel, and most importantly of all: HOPE. I really enjoyed it.
Now reading THE RELUCTANT REAPER by MaryJanice Davidson and so far, it’s a great ride. Death is dying, and his daughter will have to (temporarily???!) very reluctantly step into his shoes while she tries to figure out how to bring her father back from the brink of, uhm, death AND not to let her feelings for her best friend, whose upcoming demise she’s all too aware about, show. This, while other death-gods are doing their thing and everyone’s hinting about how she should get the reproduction going and her mother is pretending faaar too intensely that everything is just fine, fine, fine. There are dachshund hellhoundlets in this book, how adorable is that? I will get back to it as soon as I can drag my brain out of hiding again.
I’d just like to make absolutely clear, in regards to my rant above *cough* that I have 0 problems with people not liking videogames, or not liking that kids play them. That I can argue their case doesn’t mean the opposing side has to agree with me, and that’s all right. My mum would be 100 % in agreement with the book-mum. It was making it a footnote-statement like that that irked me to no end. To me, it doesn’t feel like the right place and time to put something like that into a book for children. I would have been just as annoyed had the subject been movie-making, or football, or snowboarding, or flower-arrangement, or writing poetry, or agility-training for bunnies or any other hobby I know little or nothing about. The subject wasn’t the point, really. I just needed to have that said. I’m not generally that touchy, it was the place and tone that did it. I’m sorry if I came across as a right bitch about it.
You didn’t, Shass – don’t worry. I think footnotes in fiction are often a mistake – they take you out of the story, smashing the illusion. With my editor’s hat on, I can often think of a better way to convey their meaning; or more likely I’d try to persuade the author to drop them.
Thank you, Jane, that’s a relief to hear. My brain just wouldn’t shut up about it.
I thought the footnotes in general in this book didn’t add much. Mostly they were used to clarify things like when a song was written and why, or what a political term meant, things like that. It didn’t really work out well for the story-flow.
Well we are all here for informed thoughtful rants about books!
Humour is so individual, because I laughed at that footnote *sorry*
And I agree I love footnotes, however I’m not surprised audio has difficulties with them. I ended up reading Jenn Lyons’ Dragon series in print because the footnotes were great, but the e-formats didn’t work with them.
I think delivery is important if you put in footnotes like this one. Again, most Pratchett-footnotes are great, also in audio, because the narrators also know how to deliver them and when. Here there wasn’t even a pinch of humour in the narrator’s voice softening it; it was a statement of fact, not a glint-in-the-eye wink wink. And that’s what felt jarring to me, I think. I’d probably appreciate the joke, if it IS a joke, better with a different delivery. So it’s a tossup whether it’s the author, the narrator, or my brain who’s messing up here. 🙂 I’d be inclined to expect the last one. 🙂
The narrator also had zero feeling for when to add them in – she’d literally read the footnote where it was marked, so most often in the middle of a sentence, and instead of becoming a sort of parenthesis-thing adding to it, it throws you right out of the story-flow. I’ve read enough Pratchetts with different non-commercial narrators to understand that a lot of them don’t know when it is the right time to read it – Right where it occurs? Once you’re done with the sentence? Or maybe at the end of the page, once you reach where they are? Personally, I generally feel the middle-option works best; option 1 disturbs the flow, and for option 3, by the time you’ve reached the footnotes-section, you probably already forgot what it was a note for. 🙂 I’d think that’s something the producer would catch? Oh well.
Thanks for your comment, it makes me think and that helps! My annoyance is dwindling a bit as we “speak”. 🙂
I think its probably the narrator – not your brain!
I often find humor in audio is very narrator dependent. I listened about a year ago to “Sense & Sensibility” in audio and the narration was so dreary I almost tapped out. OTH when Bill Bryson narrated his own book “A Walk in the Woods” it was hilarious, but when I read it in print it fell flat and I hated it (despite liking other of his works in print).
I finished Heretic by Catherine Nixey. It’s about the non canonical gospels and the history of how they went from being just another form of Christianity to absolutely unacceptable you die if you believe this. It was interesting but I may have reached my limit of interest in early Christian history.
I am now reading The Swerve: how the world became modern. And trying to read one letter or two by Jane Austen to savor them.
And I have been reading many many emails from the dad’s files trying to find witnesses and evidence for protective services. Satisfying and deeply grim. Also talking to the mom’s sisters who are completely willing to be witnesses to keep their niece safe. And we have just been told:
At this time, we have temporary guardianship of [ daughter], pending a court hearing. I would like to provide your contact information to the court evaluator, who is a court appointed attorney. The court evaluator can contact you in the next day or two for information, the same as you have provided to us in terms of [daughter’s] history.
I am checking to see if you are willing for me to provide your and your husband’s name to the court evaluator. If you are, I will get the full contact information for the court evaluator and provide it to you.
So yay, but also more time being grim. But I really think this is saving her life .
Spent over an hour on the phone with her and then sent her lots and lots of info and connected her to various potential witnesses. Poor woman must be completely overwhelmed ! I am so drained.
She’s probably delighted there are so many interested parties. It must be so dispiriting when there is no one to care. Good on you for stepping up Debbie.
There are indeed lots of interested parties which is great.
But I think what was overwhelming was the vast range of facts we covered. It wasn’t like we were reporting one or two incidents . We covered 15 years.
Also the facts are truly bizarre. I don’t want to give too many details because I don’t want to identify people. But I keep saying to people I discuss this with “it’s a good thing you’ve known me a long time or you would think I was making it all up”.
It is also a little freaky that it bears out part of my daughter’s book — the section on how when something happens that shows a belief is wrong, cognitive dissonance means people just find an explanation that fits in their belief system rather then give it up. In this case mom has decided it was the daughter’s “extended fast” that made her able to eat again. This means if daughter had another bad spell mom will starve her again. It’s very weird to watch DD book be proven in real life.
On a completely separate note I have so far been polite with house guest but I don’t know how long it will last, in part because every time we hear of a new possible rental for them it becomes available a week later. God knows when she will get out of here.
I re-listened to the last two Murderbot books and liked them both much better the second time around, one right after the other. I still don’t think that the latest is the strongest, too long in the beginning and to abrupt at the end, but it wasn’t as grim in my head this time. Just goes to show what I was bringing to the book.
I’m rereading Cover of Night, an older Linda Howard. Still enjoying it as much as the first time.
I have Dungeon Crawler Carl and started it but had trouble getting into it. Maybe I’ll try again. My son bought me The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening so I might put that at the top of the TBR.
Jenny, I’m glad you’re up and running again and I hope it did not involve too much hassle.
I read Tano in the Tuyo series and am reading Hedesa now. Sorry LN but I just have to finish Tano’s story! Will move on after this I promise.
Sorry to tell you (not really a spoiler) that Tano’s arc does not conclude by the end of Hedesa. There will be at least one more book and I guess maybe another before his story is complete. I absolutely love his thread in Hedesa and am desperate for things to work out for him. I can’t remember the last time I was so invested in a character.
I think the next Tano book is expected towards the end of this year, so you’ll have time for Rihasi (SO good) and maybe Bereket (fascinating secondary character from Rihasi).
Nooooo!!!! I need a conclusion! Or at least one I can access quickly. Sigh. At least I will have time to go down a side tunnel.
Don’t worry, you still have Sekaran to read too and that’s very good too, if slightly different as we see Sekaran’s life through key moments rather than a continuous stories. I ended up really liking him.
Between the recent unseasonable heat, now gone but having left its impression, and a mild adventure yesterday, I’m having a light-duty day today. Yesterday, after doing some chores at home, I went out for groceries to Lidl. I had done my best to stay hydrated, but I think I was running behind, and their drinking fountain was broken. So I don’t think I was running at full efficiency. The last I had heard, the cold front, bringing storms, was scheduled to arrive in the evening, and when I started out it was just late afternoon. As I drove, on the radio I was hearing reports of storms tens of miles away in the metro region, but no forecast for anything locally. Even so, it was starting to look cloudy and the wind was picking up, so I brought into the store the jacket that I keep on the car on the off chance that I needed it for rain protection, but in view of the forecast I expected the clouds to blow over without rain. But when I got out of the store, it was lightly raining. Lidl is one of those discount stores where you have to bring your own bags. I generally find it easier to leave the bags in the car, take the shopping cart out there and bag things there. I started doing this even in the rain, but then the rate picked up to the point where it seemed more expedient to just shove the remaining groceries in the car, return the cart, and leave. It was a nasty drive home through heavy rain, puddles, and in places fog. I took inside a couple of grocery bags and locked the car, putting everything in the bags away, drinking some water, and resting a bit. I think I repeated that once. By that time the rain had finally let up and I was able to bag the loose groceries, and haul everything remaining just inside the door in one effort as normal. Then things needing refrigeration went up the inside stairs as a priority, then things in somewhat delicate packaging. Some canned goods and such are still sitting just inside the door, but I’ll get them stowed today or tomorrow. One cardboard egg carton had been soaked to the point that it was starting to fall apart, but I think everything else was just a little damp on the surface, and of course most inner packaging is waterproof these days.
Absolutely the best thing I read this week was Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier. I glanced at it a couple of years ago, but didn’t buy it. Thanks to Tammy’s and LN’s comments last week, I decided it was worth a closer look, and loved it to bits. Amazing world building, and the clash between the two cultures is fascinating. Plus the two main characters are just wonderful. I’ve bought the next one in the series and I’m looking forward to it.
I also read Abby Jiminez’s Say You’ll Remember Me, which was enjoyable, but not one of my favourites. And Rennie Airth’s The Death of Kings, ditto. The latter was a good mystery, but didn’t have the impact of his early books.
I’m looking forward to your take on all the Tuyo books, Lian!
It’s funny isn’t it. I got hooked a while back thanks to someone recommending the series here and now we are having another wave of interest. Eventually, we will all have read everything that everybody raves about 🙂
Now I wanna read Tuyo, too! I’ve had it on my list forever, and what with everyone loving it so much…
I loved it so much, Shass. And of course the delight of knowing that there are 12 books in the series!
And more to come!
Dark Horse, White Knight by Josh Lanyon. M/M romance between an actor and his FBI body guard. It was good reading even though it isn’t her best. I had read it before but it must have been a long time ago because I totally blanked and had no memory of reading it before, so it was like new. The romance was a bit unconvincingly resolved but it was still a pleasure to read. I’ll read anything she has written with pleasure but this won’t be a (re)reread for me.
The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian. M/M between the psychologically tortured lord of the manor and the con man who poses as his secretary. It was a lovely story and while it wasn’t her best it was good and provided all the feels.
I am now comfort rerereading “Between the Teeth” by Taylor Fitzpatrick — a M/M hockey romance between players. So well written, so much pining, such a great story. IMHO she remains the top hockey romance writer.
I watched two episodes of Off Campus and gave up. It all feels “plastic” to me and I didn’t much care about what happened next. I’ve read the book (The Deal) and really enjoyed that — I’m just not convinced by the tv adaptation.
I also read Dungeon Crawler Carl. It was a slow start for me but I was glad I stuck with it. Loved the cat; the mentor figure, who I pictured as Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride; and all the people from the old folks home. I’m waiting for the sequel from the library and looking forward to figuring out what Agatha’s deal is.
Will have to go read all the comments tomorrow, since it is 10:30 pm my time and I just realized I never got an email notification about the GBT post, and came searching to discover it did in fact exist. Plus I’m exhausted from traveling and catching up from traveling, so you’ll have to settle for a brief posting.
On the plane on the way to CA, I read Sally Kilpatrick’s Little Miss Petty. Charming romcom with great characters and a very satisfying ending. Especially great if you like found family and strong quirky women. (Which I do, obviously.)
On the way home I read The Faraway Inn, the newest book by Sarah Beth Durst (The Spellshop, The Enchanted Greenhouse). Absolutely lovely, both the writing and the book itself, whose paperback version is gorgeous with colorful decorations on the page edges. In theory a YA, but very adult in feel, it was full of magic and surprises and just a joy to read.
Provably (that was meant to be probably but provably also works) since Josephine Tey was mentioned last week, I took out The Complete Works of… from the library as an ebook and am making my way through it.
I find that I enjoy reading Tey but that she was not really a very nice person, by modern standards at least. Quite reactionary, believed very much in heredity as a determiner of a person’s moral worth, believed one could tell a murderer or a sex fiend by their eye colour, was scornful of activists. ( see The Franchise Affair)
Dorothy L. Sayers was a bit of an intellectual snob, but Tey was a class and racial snob. Unless she is putting these words into her characters’ mouths for some other purpose, but she doesn’t challenge these concepts at all.
The time these writers worked in was a sort of golden age for heredity, with the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel’s work on inheritance (in plants) and a better understanding of genetics. But we know now where getting overexcited about good genes leads.
Luckily the next in my Tey series is The Daughter of Time, as I am getting a sour taste in my mouth.
Sorry to reply to myself, but I wanted to say that one of the comforting aspects of reading and re-reading certain authors is that the way their characters interact with others and with animals and with their surroundings gives you the inner conviction that these writers are Good People.
Thank you Jennifer Crusie for being a case in point!
That “blood tells” thing has been going on for a while in multiple levels of literature by Tey’s time, newly rationalized first by distorted Darwinism and then by distorted generics. Edgar Rice Burroughs had used that both in the Tarzan (the lost heir Lord Graystoke) and John Carter (scion of the Virginia slaveocracy) series.
I am really getting tired of my autocorrect changing “had” to “has,” as in my first sentence above. There seems to be no way to remove just that possible correction in Gboard.
Haha. I turned off my phone’s autocorrect entirely in a fit of frustration only to find my own mistakes were worse. The repetitive wrong ‘corrections’ are super annoying though. ( I would have spelled repetitive wrong there if not for autocorrect 😂).
Some of you may have noticed that I have been saying I am reading “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern” for months now on and off. I kept picking it up and putting it down.
I am now hooked. It took until chapter 8, arguably violating Jenny’s advice. But it comes with huge credentials -won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award — so I would occasionally pick it up to see why.
It’s about how an early renaissance scholar took a break from serving popes (because his last pope, the first John XXIII, had been tried for and found guilty of murder, rape, piracy, and 16 sins too evil to be reported publicly) to go looking for ancient manuscripts and found a poem by Lucretius that sets forth a lot of the principles of atomism in physics and evolution in biology. I sent my son some screen shots and after he critiqued in detail my initial description of it as particle physics he agreed that Lucretius is very cool.
He said he saw an interview with some historian who was looking for atheists in medieval history and was like if they’re anywhere they’ll be the people studying Lucretius Because modern atheism really requires understanding things like evolution and physics. Otherwise you just have to assume it’s all god doing everything. But even the people studying Lucretius weren’t remotely atheists. And she (the historian) was very disappointed.
My kids are far better educated than me but they are kind enough to share their knowledge. Although I think he was disturbed that I didn’t understand tbe difference between atom and particle physics.
I left out sodomy and incest. Apparently the undisclosed sins were religious like heresy, simony, and schism. There is a general sense that he was innocent of some of these.
As I recall, Lucretius was not an atheist, he just asserted that the pagan gods had been randomly generated. I don’t know if Lucretius followed his own logic. If he did, after being randomly assembled, some pagan god could have found the world formless and void and proceeded to impose order on the chaos much as in the Babylonian creation myth borrowed by Genesis.
Well, according to the book he wasn’t an atheist but thought the gods had no interest in humans and wouldn’t respond to prayers or penalize them for acts. The point this professor made was more that you had to accept some of his orher ideas to be an atheist because otherwise you just said it was all determined by god(s).
But I’m still reading.
I think I read The Swerve but it was a while back and I remember little but it’s coming back that he indeed said the gods were indifferent. Palmer touched on him in Inventing the Renaissance too. I think the indifference of the gods was an additional assumption that Lucretius made and I don’t know why he bothered positing their existence at all if he wasn’t going to accept what tradition said about them. Possibly as an attempt not to get charged with atheism like Socrates?
GooBooThu
Audiobook TUNNEL IN THE SKY By Robert A. Heinlein as 16 MP3 files. Many of my fellow Science Fiction Readers lay claim to one or another of Heinlein’s so-called juveniles as their introduction to the genre. I don’t. I can’t. It was STEP TO THE STARS by Lester Del Rey that got me started. I read all the Del Rey books that library had (four of them), the last being MAROONED ON MARS. Now, having read an SF novel about Mars, the next book was Heinlein’s RED PLANET. THEN I read all the Heinlein juveniles and any other Heinlein I could find.
Tunnel is one of those that, instead of inventing Warp Drives or Hyperdrives or some other Faster-than-Light (FTL) travel, some professor found a way to step through a portal to somewhere else. “Stargate 1955,” as it were. In this book, a high school survival class is marooned during “final exams” scheduled to last less than two weeks.
Some students try to live like Swiss Families, others like Lords of Flies.
When he wrote the juveniles, Heinlein already was a star within the then-small adult sf reading community and I think he knew that they would also be reading the books and he put in things that would go over kids’ heads. In any case, the books do repay reading by adults even nowadays. This one came out simultaneously with Lord of the Flies, so that wasn’t an influence on Heinlein even if it seems to be. (I know you were making comparisons, Gary, not tracing influence. )
Gary, I read your post too quickly and thought you had read a book called MORON ON MARS. It struck me that, in a few years, this could be classified as non-fiction.
Moron on Mars! haha
Read Dungeon Crawler Carl a few weeks ago. The imagination and humor delighted me, although I’m not a gamer, so I’m sure there’s a lot that I missed.
Currently listening to Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarrow. About halfway through. Is there a single page where she’s not at imminent risk of death?
I started the reading week with a DNF: ‘This Finer Shadow’ (1941) by Harlan Cozad McIntosh, in The Green Carnations collection of “classic queer fiction” which I have been reading off and on for literally years. This one had 30 chapters. I tapped out after Ch 5, skipped to Ch 30, confirmed that the MC ends up back where he started (on a commercial freighter), still self deluding & unpleasant & having learned nothing. Why the editors consider this a classic is beyond me. Utterly failed at making me care.
2. [re-read: I first read this way back in grad school when I was mainlining all things French Revolution] ‘Scaramouche’ (1921) by Rafael Sabatini. The ebook file was glitchy but this is a cracking good adventure in which all the people we’ve come to care about survive/escape and the slow & conflicted underlying love story gets a happy conclusion. Plus, as I am feeling somewhat revolutionary these days myself, I appreciated the anti-plutarchy sentiments.
3. ‘Asmodeus: or, The Devil On Two Sticks’ (1707) by Alain-Rene le Sage, transl. J. Thomas, another glitchy ebook file; not what one would now consider a novel. This is one of the 18th century’s greatest bestsellers (in many different formats from French book to English book to serials to chapbooks to stage productions), according to that thing I recently read about the social use of books in England. It’s a moral tale in which a licentious Spanish student, fleeing men with swords who surprised him in the bedchamber of a lady he shouldn’t have been with, finds refuge in a temporarily deserted magician’s chamber where a demon speaks to him from his imprisonment in a witch bottle and convinces the student to let him out. The demon then takes the student on a 12-hour tour of the city (Madrid, I believe), telling stories about all the people they see, mostly illustrating that people are lustful, greedy, faithless, violent pigs, but throwing in some tales of virtue, occasionally rewarded. Along the way, they observe a house fire in which a young lady is trapped. The student begs the demon to get her out. The demon assumes the student’s form and does so; the student is then assumed to be the hero and is, ultimately, offered the young lady’s hand in marriage as a reward from her rich father. The conclusion involves the magician discovering his escapee and summoning the demon back to captivity, while the student presumably goes on to live a more virtuous life. Weird and nothing but talk (occasionally taking the form of philosophical dialogue), but entertaining. My 1820 characters would definitely have been familiar with this, which is why I read it.
4. ‘Death by Petticoat: American History Myths Debunked’ by Mary Miley Theobald, a history professor and former docent at Colonial Williamsburg. Most, but not all, of this I already knew; it’s short & entertaining, recommended.
I’ve read several on this list, but couldn’t get into Dungeon Crawler Carl. I gave it my mandatory 50 pages to catch my interest, but it never did. I’m glad you like it!
Dungeon Crawler Carl isn’t based on a video game. It’s based on all RPGs and “nerd” style games. Though I think Dinniman is a gammer. In the books the System AI takes aspects of video games, DnD, Magic, Pokemon, and other Earth game formats and makes the crawl. Also, the books just keep getting more detailed as you go. His world building is fabulous. I’m personally not into audiobooks, but Jeff Hayes (the voice of the audio books) is magic. Find a video of him reading portions and switching between all the different voices. It’s like amazing.
I can’t remember who recommended it but I am now starting Book 2 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. I too never played this particular game but it did play ‘Wizardry’ a long long time ago. Carl is that guy who didn’t know he was a hero or smart or kind and there is something to be playing games as a life skill. Doughnut is a prize winning cat who can now speak and she is playing her life and death version of chasing the laser toy. Mongo is actually a velociraptor. With everything going on I am seeking out comfort reads, including Crusie/Mayer and Crusie on her own. Mayer is not a comfort read; case in point HOWL. I am also reading Avery Maxwell’s books for the 3rd time – these are a mix of small-town romance, romantic suspense, billionaires and found families. The challenging read at this time is the ‘Hail Mary Project’. There’s math, a lot of math. There’s astrophysics and just plain physics. Also, in honor of its’ 250th anniversary I am reading the ‘Declaration of Independence. TV worth watching: I finished ‘Undercover Miss Hong’ a Korean work-place series on Netflix. I am now watching Seasons 1-13 of ‘Midsomer Murders’, the ones with John Nettles that began in 1997, on Acorn. I started by watching the Neil Dudgeon episodes, Seasons 14 – 25. Oh, and today marks the beginning of the Canadian Grand Prix. Most of the watching I can do because I am knitting swatches.
Sue, If you can work through the math, more power to you. (Maybe I could have myself many decades ago, but not any more. ) Even if so, you could spare yourself some effort and make like the rest of us and just take it on faith that the math is right and jump to the consequences. The physics with the astrophage is a little hand-wavy but credible enough for science fiction so again you can just take it as given and move to the consequences.
Whoops. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a Literary RPG which is a mashup of all sorts of on-line and table-top games. Brian Norden’s Quest Academy series is dystopian but it also contains magic and elements of a portal fantasy – the earlier books are through Kindle Unlimited. The current one is ‘Quest Academy: Ventures’ which he is writing in real time. Because I am a Patreon sponsor I get the fresh chapters each week – I immediately stop everything and read them. Ilona Andrews is also writing LitRPG, including ‘The Inheritance’ and ‘This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me’ (Book 1 of the Maggie the Undying series. In the immortal words of Bob Mayer – Nothing but good times ahead!!
I read directions for social media platforms I don’t usually use (Threads, Bluesky) because — drum roll — I had to boast over there about my little book being at the top of my city’s fiction bestseller list.
I know it’s fleeting and I know it’s powered by the many supporters I had at last week’s book launch, but it’s still kinda nice.
https://bookpublishers.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Edmonton-Bestsellers-List-Week-Ending-2026-05-17.pdf
Definitely worth enjoying it while it lasts! Positive feedback is so fleeting in the storytelling biz!
Yes. Little payoffs should be treasured.
Congrats!
Thank you!
I hope this is only the start of its success!
Thank you, Patrick!
Congratulations, Helen!!
I’m still working my way through CS Harris’s Sebastian St. Cyr series in audio. Just started book 10 or 11, which I think is the last one I read before (ebook, not audio, that time), so after this, they’ll be new-to-me. I’m noticing occasional authorial tics (e.g., corpses always have “unseeing eyes”) that I wouldn’t notice if I hadn’t read them back to back like this, but on the plus side, I’m not sure many series would hold up this well to being read this intensively without feeling extremely repetitive.
And returning to the topic of pronunciation choices by the performers of audiobooks (mentioned above about Platform Decay and the character Naja), the whole Sebastian St. Cyr series has the same (British, I believe) narrator, and she’s really really good, but sometimes she pronounces things …. oddly, and I’m never quite sure if it’s a difference between American and British pronunciation. In one book, she pronounces “cadaver” with the emphasis on the FIRST syllable! I decided I was just going to assume it was a British pronunciation and not look it up, but then in the next book (and subsequent ones), she pronounces it the way I thought was correct (emphasis on the second syllable). I just looked it up, and there is no emphasis difference between US and Brit pronunciation, so now I’m wondering who noticed the mistake and got it changed in later books.
Also wondering why it wasn’t corrected in the earlier book. I know (from my own audiobooks published by Gemma Halliday Pub) that it’s possible to fix a word or sentence in a recording before it’s sent to distributors, but don’t know how complicated the process might be later on. Maybe there was a different person in charge; I should check to see if there was a change of director.
I’m reading Million Dollar Date by Susan Harper. A woman gets a ticket on her way to a blind date. When she gets to the restaurant, the blind date is the cop who gave her the ticket! ❤️😂
This is currently free on at least US Kindle.
I’ve been trying for weeks to place an old romance novel and I finally remembered the author was Kathleen Korbel aka Eileen Dryer. It’s light, verging on silly, and a lot of fun, so I’m going to read it now.