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

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

Time for the weekly update and this has been a busy week of reading for me.

-3 Stars
I read this for a quick book that I needed for a team challenge. It was one of those things on my TBR pile and it was a lot better than I expected. This was a middle grade/YA mystery novel in the vein of mystery novels like the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew etc except that it's set in ancient Japan. Something gets stolen, young boy who was a witness gets recruited by the authorities to help solve the mystery, Japanese stuff sprinkled throughout for flavor. I had to laugh about this part as it is something I have not seen since the old Hardy Boys books that I read. Whenever there was a foreign word it was done in italics. For instance "The young boy sent up a prayer to the Kami for help." It's such a weird thing to see in such a newer book. I read the ebook version of this so I can't really comment on the original novel but the formatting for this was rough. I can't really say that I'm surprised as I've seen this trend in older books that are not as mainstream that get an ebook format created. It's like the publishing company hired the cheapest person possible to type of the book and format be damned. Overall this was entertaining and I plan to keep reading at some point.

-4 Stars
Mercy Thompson is a series that gives me some mixed feelings. Overall I enjoy the characters, the world building, and a lot of the stories. That being said there are some books in this series that aren't as good as others. The first book is a great example of that in my opinion. I have warmed up to it over multiple rereads but it's still not a great novel in my humble opinion. This was one of those books that wasn't as good as others but it wasn't bad either. The first part of the book was rather slow and I was a bit fuzzy on the events of the previous book so there was a lot of "what's going on?" for me. Once the book picked up though it was an entertaining read for me. That being said I can't help but feel like this was a middle book. There was some bigger revelations and set up but overall it didn't feel like the events of this book had a massive impact on anything. It was just a interesting story set in the world of Mercy Thompson. That is not a bad thing either but it just kind of created this feeling that nothing happened.

-3 Stars
I'm finally returning to Valdemar and while I enjoy the characters and setting of this book the story itself was something I just don't enjoy. This book was essentially 400 pages of court drama. It was about a feud between noble houses and it just felt petty. There was a lot of talk about young women coming to court to get married, the men who came to court looking for a wife, and all the drama that comes with that. None of it felt like it had any stakes to it. Especially after the previous books in the series where we dealing with much larger and legitimate threats. Overall this was another Lackey book and it wasn't horrible but I'm just not a fan of all the pointless petty drama.

-5 Stars
This is me getting into all brand new territory in the Tortall universe and to no ones surprise I enjoyed this book. This was kind of court drama as it was about a mad king and the plotting between him and others in the chain of succession for the throne. At the same time it was so much more then that as well. Our MC is the daughter of The Lioness (the MC of the first series). She finds herself kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles where she enters into a bet with the Trickster god. She has to use all the skills taught to her by her father to win this bet and to survive. Aly is an interesting character and a nice change from the more straight laced characters from previous series. I also love how each series progresses the world while giving us a glimpse into the life of previous characters showing how their lives have progressed. I'm really excited to get to the next book in this duet to see how this wraps up.

-4 Stars
More Komi and I'm still finding this series enjoyable. There were some really sweet and touching moments and some moments of really nice art. There will be more in the future for sure.

As for what it is next well, ha, my library chose to release yet another batch of new releases and books long on hold so I find myself buried in books again.

For audiobook I finally got my copy of which I'm stoked to read.

For physical books I need to read for a challenge and then I need to start working through my pile of new books from the library.

- What did you think of this challenge overall?
Overall I had a great time with this even if it did highlight some slight issues with the library system.

- Did you read anything you otherwise might not have?
Most of what I read this year would have been completely passed over if it wasn't for this challenge. Outside of a few particular series I generally never paid attention to new releases.

- Did you try anything totally new to you?
Hmmmmm. Not totally new but I read a few more mysteries/thrillers this year than I normally would have.

- Did you feel better informed for the GR Choice Awards?
For certain categories most definitely yes. There were even some categories where I had more than one book I had read. There were of course still categories that I had no input on but those are genres I don't really read from or don't read the popular hip things that all the cool kids read.

- What would you say was your biggest surprise or success of this challenge?
Hmmmmm. Finding the new release section of the online library has been both a success and a living curse. I normally would only have 10-20 books on hold at the library at any one time but because of this challenge and this new awareness my holds shelf has been sitting in the 40's most of the year. I think this is the first time in a while that it has dipped down into the 30's but give me some time and I'll get it back up there.

Thank you so much for putting on this challenge this year. While it has greatly increased my TBR pile it has lead me to several interesting books that I just would have never even been aware of. I probably didn't read as many new releases as others have this year but for me it was an interesting experience. I now need to find that balance between new releases, all the things I'm already reading, challenges, manga, and what ever else I am trying/wanting to read.

Next week will be an "interesting time" for walks. After some really nice above normal temperatures things are once again plunging well below freezing for next week and of course there will be snow. I'm looking at temperatures pretty much all week that will be below -20c/-4f without the windchill for my morning walks. With the windchill there will be days where it is dipping below -30c/-22f. I know I have the warm gear to do this but there is definitely a mental hurdle that has to be overcome.

I love fantasy novels but there are ones like the one that I am reading currently that are just not fun. This is the fantasy novel that focuses more on the court drama then anything of any substance. Who is marrying who, who is feuding with who, who is conspiring with who, etc. I just find it petty and boring. Maybe it's just a guy thing but I'd rather read about hostile countries, evil lords, dark powers, an ancient curse, a dragon, or just a good old fashioned adventure.

There is some really interesting reads coming down the pipes. It also gives me the excuse to finally read Murder Bot that everyone and everything has been recommending to me forever.

I'm a lumberjack
And I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day
I cut down trees
I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers
I put on women's' clothing and hang around in bars

I know it's not a single word but those lyrics popped into my head. For those that are wondering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FshU5...

Beards

Moria

I would love my vacation to start today and last until the end of December. Not because of work or anything like that. I find myself swamped with a lot of hobby stuff right now. This true crime series dropped a new hour and half video, I have all my usual anime and YouTube stuff I watch, the Laid Back Camp movie released on streaming last night, I have one novel and two manga that I need to get read before Sunday so I can return them on time, I have my team reading challenge I'm working on, my library dropped ten new books on me this week. There is just so much stuff I need to get done and not enough time.

I find myself deep in that bookception that I try very hard to avoid. This wasn't really planned and kind of happened because of due dates. On audiobook I have a long running fantasy series with established characters and lore that is is divided up into smaller little series. This particular series is about a young girl trained to be a spy by her father. She of course finds herself in a situation where this skill set must be put to use. On ebook I also have a long running fantasy series with established characters and lore that is is divided up into smaller little series. This particular series is about a young man who has been trained to be a spy and is using his skills to help the kingdom.

I'll admit that the finer details are different as well as the writing styles but there has been a couple times where I've had to pause and separate the two books in my head.

Thief

Is there anybody in there?

John wrote: "Gord wrote: "After a couple nights of not so good sleep I slept like a rock last night and it felt great. With that great sleep came an interesting dream.

There were four of us random strangers t..."

I have no idea. Not all of my dreams are like this but when my brain decides to dream big I'm practically in the scene.

After a couple nights of not so good sleep I slept like a rock last night and it felt great. With that great sleep came an interesting dream.

There were four of us random strangers that met up in the hotel lobby early one morning. As we were leaving the hotel there was this old hotel manager at the door. She was giving us a look and could be heard saying something along the lines of "the first one is covered in blood, the second is innocent, and the third is covering for them". Three of us became friends over that statement. We ended up talking about what was said and what she could possibly mean. Turns out one of us knew the fourth person and that the fourth person was this creepy guy that had been following one of our companions for a while now. After a scene where we get to see his creepy guy being, well, a creep. We decided to sneak into his room to prank him and set him straight. We come up with this elaborate plan involving spicy bacon. I don't understand this point but spicy bacon was involved. Not nuclear level spicy bacon but spicier then normal bacon. Regardless, we execute the plan that night. I jimmy the locks open and the two women sneak in and do something with the bacon. Turns out the guy is deathly allergic to bacon and he ends up vomiting up blood and his stomach contents before keeling over dead. We all panic and try to figure out what to do next. We decide to flee the room. First out was the woman who gave him the bacon who was covered in his blood, next up was me, and last was the other woman who stayed behind to lock the door from the inside before sneaking out through a side window. As we are running out through the entrance of the hotel the camera (focus of the dream??) shifts over to this shadowy corner of the hotel lobby. Standing there is the old manager woman and as she is watching is flee out the front door she could be heard muttering to herself "the first one is covered in blood, the second is innocent, and the third is covering for them". She then picks up the phone and says "Richard, we have another dead body somewhere on the premise". Fade to black as I wake up.

Dollies

On a non downer note I created a new shelf here on Goodreads for potential audiobooks that I want to listen to next year. Time to build a new TBR pile.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but the holidays are not my favorite time of the year. My birthday is a week before Christmas so growing up my birthday was a minor thing. I never had a birthday party because mom didn't want people over at the house so close to Christmas. I'm not saying it wasn't celebrated but it was just a low key family thing. Gifts of course got rolled together, "here is your birthday/Christmas gift" kind of thing. Christmas usually involved a bunch of family drama as well.

As an adult neither day is a big deal for me. I'm a single guy with no family so I just don't celebrate things. For any other holiday it's not a big deal as the world keeps moving but Christmas is a different beast. Everything shuts down for Christmas. Nothing is open, there is less traffic on the road, even the noise in the apartment building gets turned down. For a good 2-3 days life just seems to still for a while. Some years it doesn't really bother me and other years it's like a month long funk fest.

It's a hard thing to explain my feeling about turning 40. It's the same kind of feeling I get when I'm about to try/do something new and I get this overwhelming sense of dread that everything is going to go wrong. I know it's stupid and everything will be fine but my brain is telling me that it is the end of the world and everything is doomed. Sorry, I should be saying DOOMED.

Personally I prefer Libby over the other services but I mostly use it on my desktop and then just sync my reader up. Hoopla has some interesting features such as the one that allows you to scroll through a chapter instead of just flipping a page. I also prefer their comic reader over Libby. That being said there are a lot of things that I hate about Hoopla. Top of the list is the constant resetting of my reader. Keep in mind that I use these on my computer. I've learned that I need to finish a chapter before taking a break because if I click away from the screen long enough the chapter resets to the beginning. For the audiobooks the reader resets out to the main page after sitting idle long enough. Meaning that I need to pick the book and reload it every time I go to listen to my audiobook.

Don't want to adult today. I'm finally hitting my stride with Mercy and I just want to read now.