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

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

Good luck, Audrey, with whatever it is you have going on this month.

This has not been the greatest week of reading for me. Part of it is because I'm trying to finish season one of MacGyver so I can get it back to the library. Part of it was because of my audiobook kind of killing my vibe to read.

A Tempest of Tea -3 Stars
I spotted this when flipping through the new books at the library and the cover intrigued me. After reading the synopsis I was hooked in and I ended up getting a copy a whole sooner then I expected. Basically this is a heist book set in a fantasy world based very loosely on the British Empire. The world building was rather interesting in this one as the country that this is set in is obviously supposed to be England. They had traveled the globe colonizing other countries to get supplies that they needed/wanted. There was the equivalent to the East Indian Trading company which played a part in the novel. Outside of that and some other smaller things the author really did what they wanted with this frame work and it's interesting way to do things. There was a heist, heist are always fun, enough said there. I also felt that the end of the book had a lot of really unexpected twists that I didn't see coming. That leads me into what I didn't really like though.

The ending of the book went on for a lot longer than I felt was needed. We had the heist which I expected to be the big climax of the book. Then the book just kind of kept going for a bit and it ultimately made the climax of things feel rather pointless and in some ways most of the book. I liked the ending but I think it overstayed it's welcome at the same time. I also wasn't a fan of the MC in this book. I felt like I was getting two different versions of the character. There is the character we were told about that I was really interested in and then there is what we actually got. The character we actually got only had moments where they matched what we were told about and the rest of the time they felt like someone else entirely. Then we get to the part of the book that really wore me down. The romance. I think I'm just done with this type of romance and it's something I just associate with a lot of YA books. It's the romance where nothing really happens but there are a lot of side glances, the tingly feelings, the flushed faces, oh I can't tell the other person how I really feel. It's pointless and just boring. What really wore me down with this book was that there were two different couples and we changed POV between three characters. As a result I felt like it was just a constant bombardment of the same repeated phrases and feelings every few pages. I wanted more heist stuff and instead I got side long glances, smirks, tingly feelings, and what not. Like I said this just all feels pointless as well. After a book of this stuff we might get a kiss as a payoff. This kind of stuff might be fine in smaller doses but when it starts to overtake the main story it just starts to get annoying.

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 1 (Volume 1) -4 stars
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 2 -4 Stars
I have been wanting to read this series for a while and I was so glad to discover my library finally got them in. This is a slice of life based around food with a splash of romance. There will be an inevitable comparison to Beauty and the Feast and I've seen a few comparisons already. My hot take is that this series is better already. A lot of that just comes down to the fact that the series doesn't have that weird element to it that I've mentioned before. The set up for this is simple. These two women are neighbors. One loves to cook but doesn't eat a lot so she only cooks small dishes. She dreams of being able to cook larger dishes but cant justify it until she meets her neighbor who loves to eat. This woman loves to eat and as the reader I love watching her joy when eating a great dish. They start out as strangers and slowly, very slowly, start to become more. I don't want to spoil anything but there is a moment in the second volume that I don't think I've ever seen explored in a manga and it was really interesting to see. I've got the third volume as well and I can't wait to get to it.

Dragon Ball (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 2: Includes vols. 4, 5 & 6 -4 Stars
More Dragon Ball and it's fun. This sees the conclusion of the first big tournament in the series with the big fight between Goku and Jackie Chun. Yes, if you're not aware that is a play on Jackie Chan. The book then gets into the next search for the Dragon Balls and the Red Ribbon Army. It's a fun read and I can't wait for more.

What is next.

One Dark Window
Still working on this audiobook and I'm not sure why. I think it's a combination of stubbornness and spite that is keeping me going at this point. I'll get into this more next weekend after I finish this thing but I am just bored. All that romance stuff I mentioned above in the first book, this book has it by the bucket load. Then there is the fact that this is just not a style of fantasy I enjoy. I'm more about the adventure and this book is more political scheming. I'm nearly 60% of the way into this book and it has probably been 59.99% talking up to this point. Just so much talking. Everything that happens needs about 20 chapters of talking before anyone can lift a single finger.

Murder by Lamplight
I'm starting this hard cover sometime today and hopefully it's better than the my other new book attempts I've had lately.

That's some awesome news

I hadn't heard about the Baltimore thing yet so I just went to look it up and holy shit that is horrifying.

Ahhh, sorry about not updating things. The reached a tentative agreement late that evening and the strike was called off. They voted again over the weekend and the union members have agreed to the terms but it only covers up to the end of this year. Which means we could be back in the same spot again next year.

Time for one of my weekly updates and this has been an interesting week of reading. I was kind of stepping outside of what I normally read and had a great time doing so.

Role Playing -4 Stars
This was another one of my random snags, probably from something I saw on Goodreads. I was a bit hesitant heading into this as I wasn't sure if this was going to be a romance I enjoyed or one I loathed reading. As you can tell by my rating I enjoyed this one. I was a little hesitant in the beginning as it was setting up both characters and their stories as I still wasn't sure what type of romance it was going to be. Once it got going though I quickly became charmed with the characters and their romance. There was no instant fated romance, there was no love triangle, there was none of that negative stuff. The FMC was 48 and the MC was 50 which is a massive positive as it wasn't the usual teens or early twenty something romance story. Both had their own history, hangups, and responsibilities as one would expect from a longer life. This isn't a massive spoiler or anything but I loved that the ending wasn't "they kissed/had sex/what ever and the world was perfect and there was never any problems again". It was just another step in life. Some things changed, some things didn't. I also have to say that I loved the representation in this book. I won't spoil anything but someone in this book has a different sexuality and it's not treated like it's the their defining character trait. It's merely part of who they are. Part of many other things that makes them a person.

With the Fire on High -5 Stars
I snagged this one up to help with a challenge that I was stuck on. I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary novels as a rule but the synopsis sounded interesting enough. This book is a shining example of why I love reading. This book is about a young teen mom from one of the rougher neighborhoods in Philly. She is in the final year of high school and is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Does she pursue her passion for cooking? How? Does she do college? Go straight into the workforce? How will she make this all work with a two year old child? Her experience is something I know little about and this book was essentially a peek into a foreign world for me. The book was well written and was an emotional experience from start to end. There were times where I just wanted to hug the MC as she has already seen so much in her young life. There were ferociously nostalgic moments when it was dealing with the uncertainty of what comes next after graduation. Seeing her struggle, her uncertainty, her support network that she has. It was just an emotional and well written book. I think I was about a quarter of the way into this book and I was already checking out other things from this author as I wanted more.

Beauty and the Feast 09 -3 Stars
My opinion of this series really hasn't changed in a while and honestly if this was much longer I would probably consider dropping it. As it stands though I only have a couple more books left and I'll see it through to the end. It's just this weirdly conflicting message with one element really throwing everything off. On one hand you have a slice of life manga that revolves around cooking food. This element of the book is great. There is the weird romantic element that the author doesn't seem to want to fully commit to but teases throughout the series. The MMC is in his teens and the FMC is 29. You could maybe downplay these elements if it wasn't for the sexy splash pages between chapters. I don't know, this series started out promising enough and then it just kind of got weird as time went along.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 9 -4 Stars
More of Frieren's journey to the North. This one is setting up a new big baddie and I'm fully on board with things. It's a little bittersweet as the first season of the anime just ended. I've got rather used to Frieren Fridays and now I have to wait for the next season.

What is up next?

One Dark Window
I started this audiobook yesterday as I've heard a lot of good things about it. I'm about an hour into the audiobook and I have some mixed feelings so far. I don't hate it but I'm not sure if it's pulling me in either. Now part of that could just be me as I wasn't in a good mindset when I started this. I've just got a lot of things on the go currently.

A Tempest of Tea
This is my next novel that I need to get back to the library. I requested it earlier this year because it sounded pretty interesting. Outside of this I have some more manga and another book to get done this week for the library.

Hopefully all goes well with the surgery and the recovery is quick

That is a perfectly timed article. I've been feeling a bit stressed now for the last couple weeks. Work is getting a bit busier, I've had three dentist appointments in about a week and a half, getting food for the week, etc and I just don't feel like I have a chance to properly unwind and do all the things I want. It also doesn't help that I am swamped with a lot of hobby/fun stuff that I need to get done as well.

Feels a little weird but today is my ten year anniversary at my current work, not counting the time I worked as a temp here. Before that the longest I worked anywhere was four years.

Time for another weekly update and this week I have novels to talk about.

Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives -3 Stars
As many of you probably know I was a fan of the first book in this series and I have been meaning to read the second for a while now. Thanks to a buddy read I finally got around to reading it and meh. It tried to capture the feeling of the first book and just ended up feeling kind of lackluster. By the end of the book I can kind of see what the author was trying to do and see the message but I think there was something that just kind of fell apart in the execution. The drama between Cole and Rust felt pointless and ate up way to much page space. The character motivations didn't make sense at times. Then there is the big epic climax. In the first book it felt great with all sorts of twist and turns that just kept the reader engaged. In this one, as mentioned above, it tried to do that but it just didn't have that same "wow" factor. There were a couple reveals that I just didn't care about, very little action, and then it just kind of ended. Stepping back from the book and seeing that there is a third and the author is talking of maybe even more in the future I think this book also suffers from middle-book-itis. Especially the ending where it's more of a set up for things to come then an actual conclusion to anything. The book was still entertaining at least and I'm here to buddy read the third one when it comes out later this year.

Hell Divers -4 Stars
One of the formative series for me growing up was the post-apocalyptic series Deathlands. No, it's not peak literature or anything. In fact they are cheap pulp novels about a post nuclear world but it really helped shaped what I pictured a post-apocalyptic world to be. That gritty and unforgiving world full of all sorts of horrors both human and monstrous. These were basically men's adventure novels full of guns, action, and women. These type of novels just aren't really made now a days and I've never really found something that quite scratched that itch until this series. This is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity lives on floating airships above the earth. To keep these ships afloat brave men and women dive to the planet surface to find supplies. Simple premise but man is it oh so satisfying to read. There is tons of action, tons of adventure, and just a fun read. This book was also great at setting the stakes. I swear the climax of the book started at about the 50% mark and just kept raising the stakes from there. I don't want to spoil the ending but it was a twist that I never saw coming and I'm very curious about the next book.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives -5 Stars
This was a random snag from the library and was a surprise hit for me. It's tagged as a cozy mystery and I guess it fits in a very broad sense. This is not a mystery in the sense that there was a crime that was committed of that there is some sort of bad guy running around. It's a simple story about a father and daughter connecting people with long lost food dishes. The story is a collection of loosely interconnected short stories all centered around the Kamogawa restaurant. This is not a place you could easily find on your own as there is no signage up outside and the only advertising is a single sentence in a gourmet magazine. The owner simply believes that if you find his place then it was meant to be and neither him or his daughter want anything to do with all that online weirdness. They have no menu and don't charge for their detective services. They simply provide you with an account and you can pay whatever you feel the services were worth to you. The short stories all have the same format where we follow the guest for the story and are split into two parts. The first part is the guest finding the place, eating some amazing sounding food, talking to the daughter about what they want found, and setting up a return date. The second half is them coming back, trying the dish, an emotional reveal, and them leaving. Broken down like that it sounds really basic and simple but the execution is simply wonderful. In a very short time you get a great feel for the guest character and their story. A few of the big emotional reveals at the end had me in tears. It felt unique and cozy even while sometimes dealing with heavier subject matter. It was just one of those books that felt special and made me glad that I read books.

His Majesty the Demon King's Housekeeper Vol. 5 -3 Stars
More fantasy housekeeping. It sounds odd but it's a fun little read.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 3—Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 3 -4 Stars
Where do I even start with this one. This had some of the weirdest fights I've probably seen in a really long time. In particular the fight between Joseph Joestar and the Empress stand. This felt like the most bizarre and over the top version of a childhood game of "stop hitting yourself" except your controlled hand isn't trying to hit you, it's trying to kill you. I don't know how else to explain it other then that. It was so strange and yet amazing. This might a bit early but I don't feel like the main JoJo, Jotaro Kujo, is the strongest character or JoJo we've seen yet. He is just kind of this brooding character in the background that really doesn't do a lot. That might be because of the larger cast of side characters but he just kind of feels like he is there and not much else.

Here is where I get to talk about what is next for me.

With the Fire on High
This is my next audiobook and so far it has been interesting. It's a challenge book and kind of outside the realms of what I normally read. Hopefully it continues to be good and I have great things to say next week.

Role Playing
This was another random snag from the library and probably the biggest question mark in my current library pile. On the plus side it's a nerdy romance with older characters then I normally see in romance novels. I'm just wondering if this one of those romance novels that I'm just not a fan of or if it will be one of those ones that I really get into.

Outside of these two I have a monster stack of library books out, more than I can read in the allotted time really, and so I'm just going to be finishing up ones that I can't renew and go from there.

Gord loves when this silliness comes around every year.

It's kind of starting to look like there might not be a strike and I find myself sitting on nearly 30 books from the library. Totally not sweating right now. I'd book some time off to help with all this but work is looking busy the next couple of weeks.

It is, but there is a part of me that is kind of worried that it will only be a couple days and then I'll be scrambling to get this all done.

Well nearly everything that showed up in transit the last couple days is now ready for pick up so I'm doing a last minute run before everything closes down. I'm going to be really swamped with books but I guess that is a good thing.

Meels wrote: "Gord, she was talking about the pose, not the outfit. *giggles*"

I saw the part about clothing inspirations and that was the first thing that popped into my head.

Alright, hear me out, this is my weird sense of humor at play here but rubber boots and a long yellow rain coat. It goes well with the rain theme and it would be super unique.

Sorry, like I mentioned, weird sense of humor.

We're just shy of 40 today and I've got my windows open. It feels nice after the cold snap we just had.

I have nothing available to pick up currently. I'll see where things are at Wednesday evening and if there is anything ready I'll do a special run.

I was expecting this but the library announced today that as of 11 AM Thursday the library will be closed until further notice. I will still have Libby and Hoopla so I'm far from out of books. It just looks like I'm taking a break from manga and comics for a bit.

The strike thing that I mentioned in previous threads is taking its next step this morning. After a month of back and forth the union is serving strike notice this morning at 11 AM. It's a 72 hour notice so if no deal can be reached this week the union will be on strike Thursday morning at 11 AM. From what I've seen so far I'd say that the strike is inevitable.