Vagabond Treehouse (2023) [Beware of Chicken 3 - December 4th] Showing 1,101-1,150 of 5,829

[Julian]

@choko you have no idea how sad I am over this too. I was in downtown next to the Bengals stadium watching it and the entire place just went silent when those last 2 minutes happened and the refs decided to rig the game.

[Julian]

@Emily if you can manage to get your hands ok any of these libraries you'll have be able to rely on the library for almost everything:

https://company.overdrive.com/2022/01...

I think that the Brooklyn Public Library allows for non residents to get an online card for like $50 a year.

[Choko]

*hugs* Julian! It seemed like the whole country wanted the darn Rams to win, may they never win again! It was a rough one...

Also, thank you for the link!

[Tonari no Emily]

Yeah I have Harris County, but they still don't have everything. There selection is pretty good though.

[Julian]

They wanted that Hollywood ending. LA being a big market means that they would make a lot more money if they win than if a smaller market like Cincinnati had won. I’m just upset about the last two minutes where the refs did everything in their power to give the rams the win.

I’m also salty that I stayed outside in snowy 20F degree weather all day for such a lousy ending. I got there 5 hours before the game started and it was already extremely packed. By the time the game ended my whole body was numb from the cold and temps had dropped to 16F. I was dressed almost identical to how I would going skiing and it was still colder than what I’m used to.

[Choko]

I feel for you, bro! It was totally scripted in my opinion as well... I am very salty with their owner, who wanted to go to that big market and made our city sound horrible, talking bunch of shit about us, just so he could move them out of here and to LA... And called us some nowhere Midwest town in the boonies, which was the kindest thing he said... Good riddance! But I was rooting so hard for your team... That's OK, next time:)

[Soo]

That game sounds lame as mud turds! Cold is weird.

The Redemption of Michael Hollister is appropriately more dark and wacked than book 1. Carrie is in this book though.

[Nirkatze]

Who are the Bangles, Choko?

[Soo]

Superbowl was last night, Nirkatze. Their team lost due to shenanigans.

Redemptin of Michael Hollister was good! I will post notes and thoughts later. It has it's pros and cons, but the overall arc was good.

[Soo]

Should we try to make a Discord for chatting?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I’m not sure… just griping…

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Re:Wraith: I’m enjoying it… Earth, but with a bunch of large fantasy races roaming around and ruling?… mostly in UK but Hollywood was mentioned…

Romance is a barely there thing that will maybe blossom later?… already past the halfway point and too much other stuff is going on… it’s a fated broodmare thing for Dark Elves… afaik it’s still standalone…

[Choko]

Nirkatze, you have a picture now!!! Awesome!

The Cincinnati Bengals are an American Football team and yesterday was the championship, which they lost under suspicious circumstances. Julian and I were rooting for them...

Soo, LMS V. 6 Ch. 2, haha! The Geomchis getting distracted by pretty women asking them to build them houses for nothing and refusing bunches of money if it's a man asking for the same - hilarious! Also, how could Lee Hyun not figure out that the college interview is for him, not his sister???

[Soo]

Hyun has narrow focus. He is all about getting stuff done for everyone else really and he never planned on going to college. He thinks it's an unnecessary money sink for himself. Cause he doesn't think about having a regular life. It's all about planning it out so that she can have a regular life.

[Soo]

Nirkatze, is the profile pic taken in Alaska?

[Soo]

Choko, don't forget we're reading The Redemption of Michael Hollister today-ish.

[Choko]

Soo, thank you so much for reminding me! I was just going to start another book way ahead of plan, because I was done with everything planned until tomorrow... Thanks! Starting it right away. I wander if he can really redeem himself...

[Choko]

TTT V. 2... Ch. 8 (view spoiler)[ I only wish this theory of life and string theory of multiple dimensions, as well as their creation, was true...

I am glad we have a continuation with the characters. Michael has obviously been abused by his father, but even if he is given the opportunity to relive his life all over again in order to change it, then all this baggage he is carrying in memories, it has still damaged his psyche... Wouldn't it kind of defeat the purpose? (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Yes! This one started super dark. Did you see my post above? But I thought the very dark tone was appropriate per topic.

Good questions! I think the story actually dealt with that aspect rather well. You shall see.

[Choko]

Wow, the thinking, that whatever happens to us, no matter how good or bad, we are just fine since we have an eternal life, wow!!! That is horrible!!! Talk about the horrendous stuff that we could be subjected to if all those "watchers" feel that way...!

[Choko]

TTT, Up to Ch 17... (view spoiler)[ Loved how he retaliated for his tree house by destroying that stamp!!! And I love the writer neighbor:) (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Me too, me too! Also, I like that we're getting more about the Game.

[Tonari no Emily]

Through Part One of uh.. TTM :D

I really appreciate books that make you think about philosophical questions. Again (view spoiler)[ Where did young Michael go? He asked that question here too. Wonder if Inmon will touch on that later.

Also: the Machine sounds really effed up? Like everyone is immortal so who cares what pain and suffering they go through? Totally agree with Choko here (hide spoiler)]

I didn't realize Michael was abused, but not too surprising. (view spoiler)[ I was horrified at him killing his parents over and over again (What happens to those other dimensions?) at first. But at least now I understand where Michael was coming from. (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Choko wrote: "TTT, Up to Ch 17... [spoilers removed]"

Yes! That neighbor was great. I wonder if (view spoiler)[ he would have been allowed to stay (not get shipped off to Military school) and got more influence by his neighbor and the housekeeper if he could have turned out less murder-y (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "Nirkatze, you have a picture now!!! Awesome!

The Cincinnati Bengals are an American Football team and yesterday was the championship, which they lost under suspicious circumstances. Julian and I ..."

In contrast, the BANGLES are musical group from the 80s ;)

[Choko]

Iain, hahaha!!! Believe it or not, I actually remember them:):):) It didn't get any cheeser than the Bangles:)

Emily, I was thinking the same, but I am up to Part 3 in TTM, and I think this was the best thing that could have happened to him... I do worry if having (view spoiler)[ the girl he killed as his watcher would still make life miserable for him. I am glad he is actually finding a group of friends and people who would stand up for him. He hasn't had that in his lives before, so maybe he will not turn out to be a murderous slime this time around... We can only hope! (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Choko wrote: "Iain, hahaha!!! Believe it or not, I actually remember them:):):) It didn't get any cheeser than the Bangles:)

Emily, I was thinking the same, but I am up to Part 3 in TTM, and I think this was th..."

Through Part 3 now as well and (view spoiler)[I'm surprisingly rooting for him now? He seems to be making better decisions so far and hasn't tried to murder anyone... again lol

The whole system just seems massively messed up to me though. Carrie has to watch the boy who murdered her?? Like wth. (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Another thing... So every time (view spoiler)[ Carrie killed herself another dimension was created. Does this happen every time anyone kills themselves? Also why did two people end up in the same dimension last book? Wouldn't their suicides each create two new dimensions instead of converging on the last one? Plot hole? (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Carrie watching him was horrible, but it did (view spoiler)[ lead to her understanding him and ended up forgiving him. To me, forgiveness is about the peace of the soul of the person who forgives much more, than for the person who is forgiven...

I finished it and I ended up liking it better than the first book. I liked that we are getting more of the big picture of those watchers, but just as Soo said, that "Machine" sounds pretty fucked up... I would rather not have such horrible things happen just so strong emotions would feed it...

I loved that Michael ended up taking care of the cadet school and the disabled boy! That made me cry at the end, when he said he didn't want to play that song on the bugle again!!! *crying*...
But we still don't have enough questions answered about how exactly the system of creating all those parallel universes works, or we just can't comprehend the infinitive nature of the process... (hide spoiler)]

So, we do the next one same time next week?:)))

[Tonari no Emily]

Choko, I liked this one more too! Michael ended up making better decisions than Thomas, and I liked his redemption arc. I mean the title of the book did say that LOL

(view spoiler)[ About Max.. Right?? that did make me tear up a bit.

Since there's so many more books, I'm thinking we'll get more info on the "Machine". I hope it's just divine workings are just beyond understanding rather than so intentionally cruell...

But I guess it's all fed by individuals including the people watching over the Earth people like Carrie.

I'm also getting strong The Good Place vibes from this series... (hide spoiler)]

Yes, next Monday will do just fine for me:)

[Tonari no Emily]

Oh wow I'm getting notifications from a few days ago when it stopped working 😂

[Soo]

Are we making a new acronym for the series? Hahahahha

I think Mondays will work great for us to BR this series. It's a light read that can be done within a day and chat.

Didn't you guys read my book notes from Thomas? I noted the dimension changes. Yes, every time they kill themselves and get another chance, it's in a new dimension. The author is good about noting the number of times and changing the chapter info accordingly.

Next book will be about Dominick Davidner. The one that was set up during that frame up.

With the careless attitude of the immortals, it does seem like the Machine is "bad" or potentially up to no good, but I'm still holding judgement. My knee jerk reaction is that it's not okay, but that's because we want everythihg to be happy and roses, right? But life is a mix. Not all good or bad.

I was actually relieved to hear that feeding the machine is about any emotion. Emotions are a big part of how we decide what is good or bad for us as individuals. What would it be like if people were all detached from feelings? Would that make people, not people? More like robots?

I liked the plot arc for #2 a lot, because it was a satisfying process of such terrible things and still striving for something ELSE than murder and mayhem.

But! I thought that the way the story was told was done too much in summary fashion and lacked the personal POV of Michael and Carrie. I was super happy to see Carrie in this arc. I wanted to know what happened to her and we get to know right away. That was awesome! I hope she'll continue to be one of the immortals as we link into other stories.

While Tommy as annoying in his naivety, we did get a great look at what he liked, thought and why he did what he did. That was done in a different manner for Michael. We got a few personal touches and lot of what others did around him to show us that he is not the same Michael we met in #1.

[Tonari no Emily]

Or just changing the last letter to whoever the book's about? LOL

Soo, I saw that about the dimensions.. I just didn't like that two people ended up in the same dimension because it should have created two separate ones for Carrie and Thomas according to... my interpretation about the internal logic hahaha

I'm trying to hold judgement too... but I don't like it so far. But I do like that the watchers seem to be humans... given a promotion? So they are also part of the whole thing. (Do watchers have watchers? :D)

About the summarizing bit, that is my biggest complaint about the two books so far. The first one did that a bit too, but it was more noticeable on this one.

[Soo]

I believe the immortals are outside of these dimensions. Did anyone's brain explode? Bwahahahahah

The summary style was what kept the book from being 4 stars for me. Idea and execution wise, it was solid in doing what the author wanted done. Then again, the books aren't that long and maybe the author cut out a lot of fluff to keep page count down? Who knows.

I do believe the watchers have watchers.

Did you guys like the part where Carrie was being trained and she was the first person to admit that she couldn't do whatever it was? I really liked that! I realized that we get focused on getting stuff done and may give more weight to more tangible actions that provide yes, no, etc. Yet, it's important to understand that it's okay to not know and that you may not be able to do something.

[Soo]

We could call it Time Travels to Another Dimension TTAD

I really want to call it TaDa. XD
hahahahaha

Iain, these are easy reads. Catch up with us. =D
**Anyone that wants to read with us, really. Wee~

[Julian]

Notifications are finally working again!

[Soo]

The notifications are sorta working? Mine are still catching up.

[Nirkatze]

Thank you for the information on the Bengals and the Bangles! I'm sorry y'all's team didn't take home the trophy, but I hope it was a good game.

The picture was taken by a coworker on Thursday, when we had some Aurora going in the morning...

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "The notifications are sorta working? Mine are still catching up."

Mine too. I'm just now getting notifications from the 12th lol

[Soo]

Nirkatze wrote: "Thank you for the information on the Bengals and the Bangles! I'm sorry y'all's team didn't take home the trophy, but I hope it was a good game.

The picture was taken by a coworker on Thursday, wh..."

Aw, that's awesome! I wanna see the Aurora. Yay nature!

[Choko]

TaDa. 2, haha! I gave it 4 * and I think it was mostly because of Max's character... I know, I am a sap!

I noticed the numbers of the dimensions as well, so I get that part, mostly... But I liked how Carrie was able to get into that dimension Carrie's head and say what she did to Michael. Good stuff. I don't particularly mind the summarization, so I rolled with it:)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'll try and join, at some point... I'm generally hopping from 1 BR to the next, at the moment... bunch of BRs around the 15th, and we keep zooming on Wandering Inn... gonna run out of WI audiobooks, soon...

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I'll try and join, at some point... I'm generally hopping from 1 BR to the next, at the moment... bunch of BRs around the 15th, and we keep zooming on Wandering Inn... gonna run out of WI audiobook..."

Not looking forward to running out of audio D:

[Nirkatze]

Emily wrote: "Not looking forward to running out of audio D:"

Triple ditto to that.

Really hoping the next one comes out next month.

[Tonari no Emily]

Haha if I were Carrie in that situation and finally gave up on what I was doing, I would be super frustrated that that was the thing that worked xD

Also sometimes thinking about time travel and dimensions within dimensions has me like

[Soo]

You can think of the immortals being in the shell in which all dimensions are formed. Does that make it better? Hahahah

[Soo]

Dead Set by Richard Kadrey - I got it via Hoopla and it was good! It was better after I stopped wanting the story to be a Sandman Slim story.

It's teen angst + monsters + family bonds. Edgy, uncomfortable, not creepy to me but may be spooky to others and well woven details for a good set of adventures.

[Nirkatze]

I have a few Kadrey books but I haven't read him yet. Nice to see a little review!

[Soo]

Which ones do you have? =)

[Nirkatze]

Hm... *consults list* Dead Set and Devil Said Bang. Though I'm not sure that that's all...my list probably needs updating. Got them at the last Library book sale.