Gord’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2017)

Gord’s comments from the Vampires, Weres and Fae! group.

I would love to attend a book convention at least once. Even if it's just to see what it's all about.

Meanwhile we are not even hitting the 50's here right now with the day time temps barely hitting the 60's. It's weirdly cool this weekend but I am down for it.

It has been a long week of reading and I have got a lot accomplished this week.

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a book that I had recommended to me and one that I've had sitting on hold for what feels like forever. I think this is my third book from this author and again it's a solid book. This was a story set in the late 1600's in a Puritan town in the colonies. I was a little concerned at the start of the story because I had a feeling I knew where things were going to go. The setting, the subject matter, the, what I thought, obvious villain. This book really flipped things on their head though. Yes, it touched on all the subjects that I expected but not in the way that I expected it to be done. I want to get in to details but I don't want to spoil so spoiler wall

(view spoiler)[ Very early on I figured that the head Reverend was going to be the main villain and that religious fervor was going to be main driving force behind things. The Reverend was one of the good guys actually and while religion was a driving factor behind things it was human greed using religion as a tool more then just religion by itself. It was a nice little twist on things. (hide spoiler)]

Overall it was a solid read that both surprised me and delivered on what I expected at the same time. I'm glad I picked this one up and gave it a read.

The Art Thief ⭐⭐⭐
Another nonfiction book and there was a part of me that was considering a two star rating for this book. I snagged this one for a challenge because it sounded interesting. It was a story about a modern art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser, who stole a ton of art in the late 90's and early 2000's. I am going to compare this to Secret Servants of the Crown that I recently completed not because they are similar but because of how different these two books were and we are not talking about just the subject matter. Secret Servants felt like a bit of a slog because of just how much information the book was throwing at you. It was a constant flow of names, dates, locations, events, etc. This book also felt like a slog but it felt like that because there was just so little here. Between the formatting of the book itself and the lack of content it just felt like there was a whole lot of nothing here. There were chapters that were a walk through of the heist performed by the thief, there were chapters explaining his childhood and upbringing, and there were chapters explaining his downfall and inevitable capture. This is all expected but it still felt empty. There is still so much we don't know about the story and that is because certain parties involved are not talking about what happened. The story is also padded with exploration of psychological explanations on why the thief might have acted the way he did. The way the author wrote this also makes it feel biased and like it was an effort to paint the thief in a more favorable light. Which is a problem for me because I found the man to be insufferable. Sure, it was interesting to see how he viewed a scene or how he pulled off a heist but when you got into his personal views, his actions, etc he was just an unlikable person for me. Long story short, I didn't hate the book but I really didn't like it either.

Paper Cuts ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I just love this series so much. It's a mystery novel that sits in this weird little niche. There are elements of this that feel like a cozy mystery, there are elements that feel like a normal mystery novel, there are elements that feel like it comes from a contemporary fiction novel. All these elements come together into this wonderful blend that is just a fun read. You have some drama, you have some murder, you have some romance, you have some feel good life stories, it's all here. In this one you have elements of our MC's life that she had left behind coming back into her life in a very unexpected way. Namely a low life ex-husband and all that baggage. Just a perfect audiobook for this week.

Now for the manga.

One Piece, Volume 8: I Won't Die ⭐⭐⭐⭐
After finishing my nonfiction book this felt like the perfect palette cleanser. This was the end of the Baratie Arc and the start of the Arlong Park Arc which is generally the part of the story that locked a lot of readers into becoming fans of One Piece. I'm just having fun continuing my reread of this series and visiting these old memories.

Dragon Ball (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 12: Includes vols. 34, 35 & 36 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This series never ceases to surprise me with it's abrupt tonal shits and changes in direction. That would normally be a bad thing in many series but in this one it just kind of works. The first probably two thirds of this book is the big fight with Cell. Which did not end in a way that I expected. Again, I have never watched the anime or read the manga so all of this is new to me. Going off of previous story arcs I had a idea where things were going to being heading until all of a sudden it wasn't. All of a sudden the MC just sits out and someone else takes the main stage for the final battle. That was not expected at all. There was also a death at the end that I did not expect. Not that death really carries a whole lot of weight in this series at all. Then the story cuts to Trunks story line in the future tidying up some plot threads and it feels like the series is done. All of a sudden we get a time skip, Gohan is the MC, and we are suddenly doing a high school manga. What? Where did this come from? This high school arc then turns into a tournament arc because why not. I also have to laugh how the entire world just doesn't seem to recognize any of the main cast of the story even though they have world numerous times. Also, I really, really, really feel sorry for the people participating in the tournament. Our boys have been sitting out for years and no one seems to know of them or their abilities. They are going to wipe the floor with the competition and I am here to read that.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Vol. 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reading this in single volumes I think is a test of my patience and sanity. In the single volume format of this story things are drip fed to you at a glacial pace. Yes, lots of things are happening and happening rather quickly but the actual story is still slowly unfolding. I really want to know where this is all going already. We are getting all these cards, there are cryptic hints at other characters and events happening, but nothing is actually being told to us and it is driving me batty.

Heroine? Saint? No, I'm an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! (Manga) Vol. 3 ⭐⭐⭐
No, I'm not going to try to sum up the plot again because this series is madness. I feel like we just sped through the demon king arc and I'm not really sure where we are going next with things. Honestly, there is a part of me that is just waiting for an alien invasion or something at this point.

Cosmos, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was a new manga that I snagged from the library and it's an interesting start. Our MC can smell when people are lying to him and is asked to look into a disappearance of a fellow classmate. That is where he discovers that his classmate is an alien and is recruited for a job by a ruthless insurance agent. Yeah, Cosmos is an intergalactic insurance agency who insure aliens who are coming to earth. Aliens are of course a big secret and all that so this agency is everywhere but also doesn't exist. We then get a couple more cases as our MC mulls over whether he actually wants to join or not. There is a lot going on in this first volume and it has caught my interest. I want to read on and see where this madness will go from here.

What is next?
Wicked Fox -My next audiobook
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (Light Novel) Vol. 8 -My next novel
After that I have a bunch of manga to get through

There was some temptation, some mighty temptation. I hit up my local Korean place at the farmers market and got some lunch. While I was waiting I happened to glance down and there is a kimchi doughnut. It looked like this deep fried pocket of kimchi and it also looked really good. Honestly, anything from this place is amazing. I was this close to adding it to my order but not today. I will be back for it in the future though.

I saw something this morning about a category 3 hurricane down around Mexico as well

I always feel a bit... weird talking about eating better. I have a bit of a history shall we say of doing well for a while and then inevitably falling off the rails. Not a full blown regression but falling into less ideal ways. That being said this has probably been the easiest transition I've ever had. Outside of the one day last week were I was borderline drooling over fries there have been no weird cravings, no "I'm starving" moments, nothing like that. It's just eating what I've been eating but less. This is going to sound stupid but measuring out some things like my breakfast. I had a bowl of Cheerios and normally I'd just fill the bowl to the rim and call it a day. I decided to experiment and I measured out a cup of Cheerios with some chocolate chunks (not normal chips, they only have three ingredients). It was more then enough for breakfast, I feel perfectly fine, and it was probably less then half of what I would normally eat. I've done that with pasta as well this week. Instead of a full pot I measure out a cup of dried pasta and pad the rest with veg. For lunch I've switched from pita bread and hummus three days a week to two days of veg and hummus and one day of fruit. Not saying I'm never going to have a week of pita and hummus but just swapping things up. I'll probably do one more week of veg/fruit and then do a week of pita again. I don't know, this feels good. Oh and I've kept up with the whole reduced salt thing. Not that I really need to but I recognize how much salt was in my diet and wanted to trim that back a bit.

Belles wrote: "Good job, Gord. It's HARD to cut down your morning coffee order. I go to a coffee shop across the street from me every day. I get a small/16oz latte with sugar free syrup and skim milk (the lowest ..."

That is my problem with this cookie. It's a ginger molasses cookie and it is fucking delicious. It's like a soft ginger snap with a sprinkling of sugar on top. I'm not saying that I am never having one again but maybe it's a once a month kind of thing instead of a once a week thing.

I decided to keep doing my Wednesday morning Starbucks run but instead of a venti with a cookie I'm only going to get a tall (basically a small instead of a large) and ditch the cookie. The smaller coffee is only 100 calories instead of the 200 calories of the larger one. I think I'm only going to stick with just the burger no fries thing for lunch. Again, just a few less calories, blah, blah, blah

I feel like dancing a jig. I just did my first home reading and the meds are definitely working. I don't want to jump to conclusions as this is first reading but compared to where I was two weeks ago I see a definite improvement.

It did hurt the feet initially but over time you feet "toughen" up and it's really not all that bad. There were certain things that were great to walk on. Things like puddles, mud, warm pavement, stuff like that.

It's kind of hard to do it where I live when mother nature is actively trying to kill you for at least half the year.

There was/is a barefoot movement actually. I was looking into it a very long time ago and actually did the barefoot thing for about a year.

Well that is... something

Now isn't that the truth

Seriously, for a second or two, I'm doing alright. Still kind of processing this whole thing a bit. It's nothing bad, just life.

Alright, new day, new direction, something, something, something, positivity.

The TLDR of my call is that all my stats look good but my blood pressure and weight are a concern. I need to get both down and that should fix my problems. I'm off to buy a blood pressure monitoring device this evening.

Today feels daunting. Just a lot of things going on at work, my virtual appointment, etc. There is just a bunch of things cooking all at once.

I decided to keep on this bit of a healthier kick. I got some unsalted peanuts, some unsalted cashews, and some pumpkin seeds. I'm going to throw them into a container with some spicy Mrs. Dash spice mix and there are my snacks for the week.

It has been an odd week but a good week of reading.

The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen ⭐⭐⭐
This is another book series in the same vein as Before the Coffee Gets Cold and I am becoming a fan of this little weird subgenre I've stumbled into. It's not like anything else I really read but I love the vibes of the books even if they do hurt me emotionally more often then not. This is a collection of short stories all based around this little restaurant on the beach. Rumors say that if book a reservation, and things work out right, you can have one final meal with someone who has passed on. I love the concept for this one and the stories were good but I also feel that it just didn't have the polish of something like Before the Coffee Gets Cold. The process doesn't seem to have an established rule set as we see by the end of the book which leaves things very open. The stories themselves were emotional but they didn't have that emotional gut punch of other series that I have dabbled in. This was a good entry in this little niche but it needs some more polish. If my library gets more books I will definitely give them a read.

The Crawling Darkness ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This volume was such a fun read for me. This book just took the formula from the first two books and gave it something extra. We get a little backstory for the characters. Not a lot, but more then we've seen so far. The ghost of the week felt like a bigger threat and there was more urgency to the hunt. The hunt itself had previous connections to our group of hunters. It felt like there was just a little bit more here. Now there was one other thing that was added that I wasn't a massive fan of and that was the romance. To be clear I didn't hate it, honestly, it was a rather inoffensive romance, and had very little spice. It just felt weirdly out of place and kind of shoehorned into the book. The first two books felt more like mysteries if you will and this felt like the author was trying to shift to more of an urban fantasy vibe which of course has to include a romance. It just felt weird to have the romance bloom while the lead was in the process of hunting down a ghost that is actively trying to hurt/kill people. Priorities is all I'm saying. This also adds to my frustration, if the series continues like this I could see this becoming a fun popcorn read that I could listen to between things or when the mood strikes. Unfortunately there are only two more books available to us out in the wild. The rest of the series, and there are a lot of books, are all locked away in Amazon jail on either Kindle or Audible. I don't blame the author for this but for a library user, this just sucks.

Demons of Eden ⭐⭐⭐
Speaking of popcorn reads that I can listen to whenever. The next installment in this series that I have been slowly plugging away at for a while now. It was another action adventure story full of guns, explosions, and sex. There is one thing that I want to touch on though. This book dealt with a lot of Native stuff and the way is was handled was a little yikes. Don't get me wrong, this is far from old cowboy movies of bad but this book pretty much leaned into every stereotype possible. Natives connected to the land and can talk to animals because of primitive religion/magic. Yeah, it went down that path pretty hard. It also leaned really hard into a lot of the psudeoscience mumbo jumbo you hear spouted a lot. Lost technology helping primitive people and all that junk. It would be easy to hate on this book but this is far from a book that should be taken seriously.

Secret Servants of the Crown: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence ⭐⭐⭐
It's taken me a couple cracks with the library but I finally got this nonfiction book done and what a read it was. I'm just going to get this out of the way early. Yes, this is the type of nonfiction book that I am not really a fan of. Not because of the subject matter but because of the endless parade of names, numbers, and dates. It makes sense in a book like this that spans decades and covers the lives of numerous women but man did it make getting through the book a slog to get through. With that aside, I found this book so fascinating. As the title states this book was about women who worked in British Intelligence. It spanned basically the first half of the 20th century with a real focus on WWI and WWII. It touched on the lives of women in all sorts of roles. Those that worked as secretaries to the women who were agents on the front lines setting up resistance networks or actively spying for their nation. These intelligence agencies ran on a back bone of women. Numerous times throughout the book it would mention typist pools going from 30-50 women prewar to hundreds of women during the height of the war. Then there were the women who were secretaries to the heads of these intelligence agencies. Women who knew all the same secrets that their bosses did and spilled none of them. These were the women who took these secrets to their graves. Another thing mentioned in this book is how many of these women would be seen burning letters and photos toward the end of their lives. It was fascinating reading about women working on offices in Moscow, Berlin, etc who were helping people escape, passing on coded messages, gathering information, etc. It's a word I've used a lot here but it was just fascinating. It was also infuriating seeing the actions of men who refused to listen to some of these women simply because they were women. How a lot of these job simply ended after the war because it's a mans world and you are no longer needed here. Even though many of these women were doing a better job than their male counterparts.

Now for the sole manga I read this week

Lady Snowblood, Vol 1: The Deep-Seated Grudge, Part 1 ⭐⭐⭐
This is a manga I've had on my radar for a very long time and is written by the same author as Lone Wolf and Cub. This originally came out in the 70's and it feels like a product of it's time. This felt like an old exploitation movie made into a manga. It borrows from things like the revenge movie and the female prisoner movie (yes, that is a movie subgenre). Our main character is an assassin known as Lady Snowblood and each arc is basically here completing one of her jobs. There is a ton of nudity and violence in the story as our female lead using her beauty and body to gain access to her target before murdering everyone. There is also a story arc about her mother and what led her to this life. To sum it up, Japanese history, rape, revenge, blood debt passed from mom to daughter while mom is in prison. This is a solid manga and I can see how it is still around to this day but at the same time I don't feel like it was mind blowing either. That's not just me looking at and judging it with modern knowledge either. It just feels like something from the 70's.

As for what is next.
Paper Cuts my next audiobook
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery an ebook I am currently working on
After that I haven't made up my mind yet.