Vagabond Treehouse (2023) [Beware of Chicken 3 - December 4th] Showing 1,551-1,600 of 5,829

[Tonari no Emily]

Seanan McGuire is definitely one of my faves.. I haven't reread her stuff yet, but there were talks of doing a BR of October Daye, and I will definitely reread that if it comes up..

There are only a few things I haven't read by her. The Cheerpants one, Velveteen, and one of her Mira Grants is still on my TBR Final Girls
I also need to resubscribe to her patreon and read all the short stories in Toby-verse and InCryptid

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

@Julian: Conjuring of Assassins: finally reading this on my Android phone app, since I can't on my iPod app... the Android app is so much more annoying, or it's just my shitty Motorola being weird...

Anyway, despite only being 4-6 weeks since we read the first book, I found myself a bit lost at the start of this... wasn't clear if I was with a new character, or what was going on... and didn't feel like it was going as expected, from the ending of the first book that seemed to setup the second book...

I settled in after a bit, tho, and am 1/3 done, so far... mostly been antics so far, and some new characters...

Teo / Worst Case Scenario: (view spoiler)[I wonder if Teo has the same magic as our MC... seems unlikely, since basically everyone's magic is unique so far... but if so, it would explain why he thinks he is normal and has no magic... it's a persona he believes is real... would also explain the gaps in his memory/story... (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Legends & Lattes: About 50% in eBook

- I love the way Baldree has set up the various characters. They're all quirky, but not in an overbearing manner.
- Tandri (view spoiler)[I'm guessin' that she may be the leader of the mob/gangsters. lol (hide spoiler)]
- Magic Stone/etc: Pleased with the way information is dripped to the readers. I may even get all the answers I want from this round!
- The intro was a bit awkward due to Baldree trying hard to make the right impression, but the writing settled down within a few chapters. It's like he found his flow. I'm very pleased by how all details are being used and woven into layers within the light tale. =D

[Soo]

Audible Sale - I'm making a list. I'll probably wrap that up later today. That'll give everyone some time to browse or share their own discoveries in this massive sale hunt. =D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm probably not gonna buy much, unless I see some good stuff in you guys' lists...

I've already got 99% of the worthwhile cash purchases for my January challenge list (2021/2022 releases that I'm waiting for or missed)... most new stuff isn't cheap enough to pay cash for... better off using credits... and between that list, and all the stuff I bought on the smaller sales, my reading pile is large enough already to fill the year, I think...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm hoping Yokia/Puroland hits Hoopla... unlike you, Soo, my Hoopla has the Laundry Files... or it did, unless that changed recently?... now I need to go check...

Just checked... they have 27 stross books... Laundry Files, some of his standalones and fantasy stuff... and FINALLY, they picked up Dead Lies Dreaming... but not Quantum of Nightmares... I already used credits on those anyway... been trying to make time for Quantum of Nightmares...

Dead Lies Dreaming got an official series name recently, too: New Management... I love it :D (if your memory is rusty, that's the euphemism since (view spoiler)[Nyarlathotep took over as Prime Minister, and Cthulu is trying to become President of America (hide spoiler)])... you guys should seriously check out Laundry Files, it gets crazy past the halfway point in the series... I wasn't gonna use a spoiler tag, but if you guys check out the series, it's a mega spoiler for how much the stakes changes between book 1 and book 5/10...

[Soo]

I already checked out Dead Lies Dreaming on Hoopla with the February credits. =D

I'll be reading that within a week or so. Bwahahha

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "I already checked out Dead Lies Dreaming on Hoopla with the February credits. =D

I'll be reading that within a week or so. Bwahahha"

There's a House of Leaves element to it, that was pleasantly surprising...

And I'm not sure how tightly it connects to the main series...

I was under the impression it was the same world, but some outside sources have said it's a parallel/similar world... either way, I enjoyed it and can't wait to see what happens next...

[Choko]

Just bought the whole Laundry Files because of you, Iain!!! You better make time, some day, to read it with me:)))

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Me and Soo will probably do a re-read... there's only 1-2 full books left in the main series... so it'll be a good time to do a re-read, in the next year or 2...

[Soo]

Choko wrote: "Just bought the whole Laundry Files because of you, Iain!!! You better make time, some day, to read it with me:)))"

Did you even check the library before you made the purchase? LoL

I wasn't a fan of the first book of the Laundry Files. It took forever for me to read it, but the series totally grew on me. =)

My libary had most of the books when we were doing the BR.

[Choko]

I am don't have a library card and in order to get one around here, I can't do it on line and have to go in real life... I just don't feel like doing that... So I just buy my books and try to donate the ones I don't intend to keep, or just pile on my audible library:)))

[Soo]

*looks at her gigantic Audible library* That doesn't even count the other audiobook library I have on hard drive. Hahahha

I have to slow down on the purchases this year, and I was doing well with that until this sale came up. XD

I'm with you on the going in person to get the card thing. Don't mind doing that when the world is closer to normal, but not a good plan right now.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

You should get one, when a chance arises... there are so many online tools these days, once you have a card... I only have a card for Hoopla/etc... mid-pandemic I was able to renew for 2 years over the phone... next time I'll probably have to pop in for 5 minutes... totally worth it for 84 Hoopla credits/year (7 per month) and Libby/etc, if I used it... should be free if you live in the town/county...

[Soo]

Audible Sale - Stuff you may also want to get.
I can't see sale prices for books I already have. *whistles*

Audiobooks on this list are between $3-8 bucks

Books/Series:
- The Righteous #2
- Junkyard Veterans #4
- The Empire's Ruin #1
- Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust
- October Daye & InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire
- Where the Drowned Girls Go #7
- Revenant Gun #3
- Confederation series by Tanya Huff
- Locked Tomb #1-2 by Tamsyn Muir
- Kara Gillian series by Diana Rowland
- Divine Cities Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett
- Blackthorn & Grim series by Juliet Marillier
- Willful Child #1-2 by Steven Erickson
- Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight
- Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Sixth World series by Rebecca Roanhorse

Authors:
- Piers Anthony
- Robert R. McCammon
- Drew Hayes
- Neal Stephenson
- Diana Gabaldon
- Jeaniene Frost
- Dean Koontz
- Nnedi Okorafor
- Nalini Singh
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Kevin J. Anderson
- Martha Wells
- A. Lee Martinez
- L.E. Modesitt, Jr
- David Weber
- Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Dennis E. Taylor
- Peter Clines
- Octavia E. Butler
- Bernard Cornwell
- Margaret Atwood
- Michael Crichton
- Rachel Caine
- Dan Simmons
- Robin Hobb

Out of the 78 pages, I got to about 47 or so. XD

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Julian wrote: "Almost 80% of the way done with Chimera #2. So far it is more of the same for the most part with some additional characters. A big thing I've noticed is that where as in the first book events took ..."

Yea... the timeline in this one was tight... and there's a couple new characters... I really liked Teo... fish out of water story ;)

I missed the throwaway underwater city reference in the first book that you guys latched onto... but the developments in this one definitely have me interested in that aspect, more...

I really liked it, after a rough start... shame the 3rd book isn't on audio... and I wonder if the 3rd book is the end of it all, or the author has plans to revisit (or move to different characters like them underwater people :D )

Things definitely got more complicated in the last 1/3... I feel like there's a real Leverage (TNT show) aspect to it all, too... not sure if I thought that in the first book...

[Soo]

Audible Sitewide Sale ~ Here's my purchased list.
Excluding credit purchased audiobooks, these are between $3-8 bucks.

I did a mix of things to figure out what I wanted to get on this sale. It came at the worst time, because I had planned on not buying anymore audiobooks until after my membership is renewed in March. Hahaha! Plans. What plans? =P

Credit Buys:
- The Broken Room New Release that some of us will be BRing.

- The Beginning After the End Publisher's Pack #1-2 #1-2 Bundle - This is on sale for $11 but a credit is cheaper. The series has been on my watch list for a while. The rest of the series is in the sale price range, but I had to gamble on #1-2 being good. The books were fun & I added the rest of the series to the cart.

$3-8 Buck Sale

Standalone:
- The Salt Roads
- The Amulet

Series Books I've Started:
- The Righteous #2 Articles of Faith
- Lightning Strike #18 Cork O'Connor
- Revenant Gun #3 Machineries of Empire
- Forbidden Zone #11 System Apocalpyse
- Artorian's Archives series #8 & 9 by Dakota Krout
- Beginning After the End series #3 to 8 by Turtleme
- Threads of Fate series #2 & 3 by Micheal Head

TBR Books:
- The Empire's Ruin #1 Ashes of the Unhewn Throne
- Main Character Hides His Strength #1 & 2 by Road Warrior (Korean Translation Light Novel) Enemy of the World
- Great Library series #1 to 5 by Rachel Caine Ink and Bone

Roll the Dice & Try Books:
- The Dragon's Blade Trilogy: A Complete Epic Fantasy Series 46 hrs
- Station Cores: Complete 56+hrs
- Life in Exile Books 1-3: A LitRPG Series Box Set 59+hrs
- Hunt #1 (Iffy co-written book in series world created by Dakota Krout.)
- Prodigies #1 35hrs

Books to Complete Series in Audio:
- Cainsville: Betrayals #4 & Rituals #5
- Ex-Heroes: Ex-Isle #5 (This completes the series and I can read it now. I bought all of the audios in a sale.)


I basically got over 30+ books for about $150. It's 30+ because several of these are bundle packs of 2 or more books. I'm not counting the 2 credits.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm sticking to my guns, and not going shopping this time around... I think I spent $1 on a 2hr short story for the Dead Djinn BR... 2nd short story is read on the LeVar Burton Reads podcast, and the 3rd is available on Hoopla... then the main book I already picked up...

Between that, InCryptid, Legends and Lattes, Andrea Vernon, and the many tomes on my pile, my next week or 2 is full...

Tomes: Wandering Inn 4th audiobook, Wisdom of Crowds, Fall of Babel (don't forget, Soo)...

Then, next week, Crowbones and Constance Verity Destroys the Universe come out...

Week after that is the Kaiju Preservation Society and some BRs in the Mystery thread with Tammie...

Then I might have a week or 2 free, unless Vlad Taltos and Dresden Files creep in with next entry BRs...

Maybe some time for more light reads turned BRs... Manners & Mutiny 3+, Finn Fancy Necromancy 1-3, etc (Choko)

[Soo]

Note that I did not buy the audiobook for Legends & Lattes. I'm reading that one via KU.

It was in my cart and I removed it during the culling process. Heh

[Choko]

I have most of those, but now I am going back to the site to get some more... Thanks a lot, Soo!!!

[Soo]

Legends & Lattes:

Finished! That was great! The intro was worked on a bit too much and come across that way to me. It was packed with particular adjectives, verbs, etc.

I LOVE the characters! They're the bomb! I love that we get to know them via actions, quirks, speech & events. My enjoyment due to meaningful details continued to the very end. Woo!

Just in case, I'll put the rest of my thoughts in spoilers.(view spoiler)[

Durias - Need more on this guy. Lots of loaded questions.

Amity - Who wants to bet that Amity is more than appears? =D

Stone - I like that questions about the stone were raised and kinda answered. The answers that were given only touch on the surface. It leaves a lot of room to explore if Baldree ever wants to do that.

Cycles - The story has great cycles about change, learning, growing, pain, etc.

The changes of the livery to rough starter cafe to rebuild was a great parallel to Viv's life changes. Very tidy fit.

Madrigal - Totally happy that I was wrong about Tandri being the mob boss. That the boss is an elegant + deadly woman.

Thimble - Was a delightful introvert with noms.

Names: Baldree did a great job with character names, nicknames and showing us the story & people vs telling.

Hem - Emily, I see him as a metro-sexual. The modern man that has academic hip tendencies. LOL

Yay to found family & warm fuzzies! (hide spoiler)]

This was a great debut novel! Such a fun slice of life with splashes of action. =)

[Tonari no Emily]

Ugh too tempting Soo! Lots I would want to read, but I'm already knee deep in unread audios and I don't like those to pile...

I'll probably credit the Peter Clines one because I've generally enjoyed his books.

[Tonari no Emily]

I have Conjuring of Assassins checked out on Hoopla, but it returns in 3 days... Maybe I'll be able to squeeze it in. I mostly liked the first one and it seems there's more elements to the second that has me semi-excited

[Tonari no Emily]

Glad you enjoyed L&L about as much as I did Soo! I kinda went through the intro pretty quickly so didn't feel as forced to me I think. But the characters are definitely the best thing about the book!
Good point on Hem too!

[Soo]

L&L - I read it vs listening to it. That made a difference. I know we gloss over stuff a bit when we listen. No different than the glossing that can happen when you read. Just different glosses. Heh

Story has it's own flow and pacing. Baldree did a great job of letting that flow happen and keeping it consistent. I can't say that the story had uneven pacing at all. It was a nice wave of events.

[Choko]

Soo and Emily, I am so glad we all enjoyed L&L! I really hope he starts writing more and doing less narration for other people's books:) I think this is his jam!

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "AV and Nevermore were definitely my favorite aspect of AV2... and Big Axe + Slammer... Bowling NIght, etc etc...

Senator Vernon is the most frustrating..."

Bowling night! I forgot about that! It's so cute they do couplesies.

Senator Vernon is totally annoying. He's supposed to be the big brother--he shouldn't be belittling his little siblings, but helping raise them up. Totally the Edmund in the family.

[Nirkatze]

TY for sharing your carts y'all! I'm going to be looking through that when I hit the sale tomorrow.

re: Seanan McGuire--I've not read any of her work yet, but she's been on my TBR for a while. Very excited to do some BRs. :)

[Nirkatze]

Just finished TT: Michael Holister. I really liked the focus on forgiveness. The ending scene (view spoiler)[with is father hit me too--I wasn't ready to forgive his father, and was mad at him for being so blind and not apologizing or even admitting he'd been wrong, but Michael just accepted it... that's what forgiving is all about--you don't forgive the other person for their sake, but for your own, so you don't carry around all that vitriol... In that scene, Michael was a better person than I. (hide spoiler)]

I also really liked that they had those little interludes with (view spoiler)[Carrie (hide spoiler)]. It was nice to both have that tie in to the first book, flesh out the weird sections from #1, and to see more of that character.

Going to jump in to #3 (and hopefully #4) so I'm up to date to read #5 with y'all next week.

It's #5 y'all are up to right?

[Tonari no Emily]

Yeah Senator Vernon felt a little forced/joke character to me... Idk maybe people are really like that, but he seems to be the only one in the family

Nirkatze, yes we'll be reading #5 Monday! I belive its TTVM or... The Emancipation of Veronica McAllister

[Choko]

Yep. And yes, Michael turned out to be a good and decent man. When I started reading that book, I had no faith that the author can make me forgive him, let alone like him, but he managed beautifully! Glad you are with us for the ride, Nirkatze!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "AV and Nevermore were definitely my favorite aspect of AV2... and Big Axe + Slammer... Bowling NIght, etc etc...

Senator Vernon is the most frustrating..."

Bowling night! I ..."

And Big Axe's reaction when he realizes he's befriending villains... :D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "TY for sharing your carts y'all! I'm going to be looking through that when I hit the sale tomorrow.

re: Seanan McGuire--I've not read any of her work yet, but she's been on my TBR for a while. Ver..."

for a second, I was like... I didn't see any cat pics, recently :D

[Soo]

TTMH - Yeah, I had many similar thoughts, but I guess living similar lives almost a 100x and doing something horrendous could lead to, Maybe that's not the life I want. XD

Ditto on enjoying how the author has us journey into dark areas and come out on the lighter side of each tale. This is definitely a feel good series.

[Julian]

My audible subscription ends soon, debating whether or not to continue it. Usually I look to the local libraries for like 90% of my reading. The Wandering Inn however.......

[Narilka]

Are we going to be BRing The Broken Room here?

[Soo]

Send the email to cancel your subscription. Audible will give you a counter offer a few times to keep you on, and it'll be a discount rate.

That will probably give you another 3 months. If you're doing the month to month, it's easy to cancel and restart.

[Soo]

Narilka wrote: "Are we going to be BRing The Broken Room here?"

Yah! When do you want to read it?

[Brian]

I am down to read it too. Just need to finish my current audio first.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Probably be a bit late, but definitely tagging along for Clines... I forgot it was out now, until yesterday... then I forgot to mention it...

[Narilka]

I have an hour left on my current audio book which means I should finish it this weekend. Does Monday sound good? There's a chance I'll start then regardless since I'm the slowest of our bunch and you all will catch up super fast :D

[Choko]

Would anyone be interested in any of the History books on sale to read with me? I have bought a ton of them, so let me know... I would really like to read Peter The Great by Robert K Massie...

[Soo]

Broken Room - Monday works. I'll either start on Monday or Tuesday. =D


Choko, what history books did you get? Only one more day in the sale. You make a list and I'll look it up.


Hey, where did the Master BR list go? Was that taken down again? I really liked having it back! *sniffles*

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

It's there, but I don't think it's been updated since New Year, since Jenna hasn't been around much, since she made the teams...

[Soo]

I went looking for it and couldn't find it. The group threads have been moved around again. I was trying to help Sonja on how to get used to FBR.

Master BR list would be a bit help for that. Well, if it was updated...

[Narilka]

They've broken "official" BRs into two folders - Upcoming Buddy Reads and Current. I'm not sure what they're using the old Author folders for other than storage?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The Master List By Month is sticky'd at the top of the first folder on the group/discussions page... it was last updated February 5th, so it's not completely defunct, just a couple weeks behind...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "They've broken "official" BRs into two folders - Upcoming Buddy Reads and Current. I'm not sure what they're using the old Author folders for other than storage?"

Yea... 99% of BRs these days are in the Current folder, the Upcoming folder, or the Book Club folder... and yea, I think author folders are uncleaned old system... they moved to the new system to make it easier to find the important threads each month...

[Soo]

I started Forbidden Zone #11 and paused it. Booooo~ This is the next to last book for the series. It's my fav SF LitRPG. I loved the way this series started, but I think I'm going to be upset with the ending. The ups & downs of book love affairs! It can be so cruel. XD

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

@Emily: Spelunking 25%: (view spoiler)[ I was leaning towards Naga manipulating Alice for profit before the map… flensing over and over is crazy/painful too (hide spoiler)]