What else are you reading - June 2024

[Jonathan]

Just started The Knight

[Clyde]

I put The Game of Kings on hold. Seems I am not in the mood for it. Perhaps later. 🤔
Started Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. Off to a promising start. 🙂

[Joseph]

I'm reading a couple of 1970s anthologies (of mostly 1950s stories) edited by Brian W. Aldiss: First, Space Opera and now Space Odysseys.

[Ruth]

I’m taking a break from SFF with a bit of cosy crime: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

[Phil]

Just finished my current "bathroom book", Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller. I usually don't bother listing the books I read on the toilet because they're most often things like Peanuts or Family Circus collections that I first read as a kid but I thought this deserved a mention.
Max Miller does a series on YouTube, also called Tasting History, where he takes a recipe, anywhere from about 40 years ago to several thousand, and tries to replicate it. In the time between starting the recipe and finishing it he'll talk about the culture and circumstances of where it's from. I find the videos quite engaging and entertaining.
The book is very similar. He'll introduce a dish, spend a page or two telling a story related to it and then present the recipe. I don't imagine I'll ever make any of the dishes but I enjoyed the histories.
I recommend both the show and the book.

As a side note, the author that Goodreads links to the book is the wrong Max Miller but I couldn't find a way to tell them that.

[Phil]

Ruth wrote: "I’m taking a break from SFF with a bit of cosy crime: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman"

I'm curious to hear what you think of that. I've become familiar with Richard Osman through the British quiz shows I watch on YouTube and wondered if his books are worth a try.

[Joseph]

Ruth wrote: "I’m taking a break from SFF with a bit of cosy crime: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman"

Reported it in the Goodreads librarian group; I'm sure somebody will be able to fix it.

[Trike]

Phil wrote: "Just finished my current "bathroom book", Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller. I usually don't bother listing the books I read on the toil..."

TM-friggin-I

[Phil]

Trike wrote: "Phil wrote: "Just finished my current "bathroom book", Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller. I usually don't bother listing the books I rea..."

Hey, at least I didn't mention that each entry was just the right length for a poop....

[Phil]

Joseph wrote: "Ruth wrote: "I’m taking a break from SFF with a bit of cosy crime: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman"

Reported it in the Goodreads librarian group; I'm sure s..."

I assume this meant in relation to my Max Miller comment. Thanks for that. I emailed him and he's also looking into it.

[Ruth]

Phil wrote: "Ruth wrote: "I’m taking a break from SFF with a bit of cosy crime: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman"

I'm curious to hear what you think of that. I've become ..."

When I first heard that Richard Osman was publishing a book, I was annoyed. Bloody celebrities crowding out real authors with their probably ghost-written crappy pap! Then, following recommendations from some friends, I read the first book in the series, The Thursday Murder Club, and I was even more annoyed because it’s actually really good. A fun cosy mystery with a great cast of characters, set in a retirement community. There are some genuinely moving parts as well as the characters struggle with the effects of aging - in particular there’s a storyline about one of the supporting characters who has dementia that had me wiping away the tears. So Osman is in fact a talented writer, damn him.

[Seth]

Agreed on the Thursday Murder Club, good fun and plenty of heart as well.

[Seth]

Back from a week of vacation. Didn't really like the book of the month or The Library of the Dead. Quite liked True Grit and Navola.

[Phil]

Cool, thanks Ruth and Seth.

[John (Taloni)]

Read Dungeon Crawler Carl. It was...okay. Seemed to be equal parts Hunger Games and Fred the Vampire Accountant, with a side of the flippant humor of Hitchhiker's Guide. I objected to the premise, the idea that we start off with the death of most of the human race and everyone else would be killed eventually. It made most of the humor attempts fall flat for me. Fred the Vampire Accountant also went on and on for eight books and I loved every one. There the premise matched the tone of the books.

I wasn't bad tho and I've screwed my TBR by not taking my library holds off suspension, or I'd be reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye right now. Also I can't handle poop monsters and the like for insomnia reading so the BOTM is out for casual reading even tho I have it.

So I've gone ahead and gotten the 2nd Dungeon Crawler Carl book. It'll probably be...okay, just like the first.

If any of the further readers of this franchise are about, how does the series play out? Does it reach a conclusion?

[Joseph]

Phil wrote: "I assume this meant in relation to my Max Miller comment. Thanks for that. I emailed him and he's also looking into it."

Yes, sorry. And one of the GR Librarians did fix it within a matter of hours so now it's linked to the correct Max Miller.

[Joseph]

Myself, I decided it was time to go back and finish my Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser reread, so I read Swords and Ice Magic and just started The Knight and Knave of Swords.

[Phil]

Thanks Joseph. I've let him know.

[Tamahome]

Reading James Rollins' Sandstorm. The pace is blazing. Sigma Force unite!

[Trike]

I’m struggling with The Sword of Kaigen because there are so many italics. Like, entire passages, making it hard to read. I hate when authors do that.

So instead I read the non-fiction account of the women oceanographers who helped win WWII, Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II. 4 stars.

[John (Nevets)]

Trike wrote: "I’m struggling with The Sword of Kaigen because there are so many italics. Like, entire passages, making it hard to read. I hate when authors do that.

So instead I read the non-fic..."
Funny, when listening to this one I don't hear the italics. The narrator does sometimes do slight voices, but not as egregious as some narrators do. ;-)

[Trike]

John (Nevets) wrote: "Funny, when listening to this one I don't hear the italics.."

:p

It’s just… ugh. So much.

(view spoiler)[

https://ibb.co/qnRzp5H

(hide spoiler)]

[Seth]

John (Nevets) wrote: "Funny, when listening to this one I don't hear the italics"

Things aren't italicized to indicate emphasis. In this book they're italicized to indicate what language people are speaking. Kaiganese is in regular print and imperial is italicized - listening, there'd be no difference. Reading it, maybe it makes sense, I don't know. Also, re-reading your comment, maybe you're making a joke, in which case, please ignore this comment.

[John (Taloni)]

^ Yeah, it's kinda like in comics when they use symbols to indicate a different language. Which I can't picture for sure right now but IIRC was something like (say it's Wolverine in Japan) >>So, Yashida-San, if it is battle you want, it is battle you will get!<<

[John (Nevets)]

Seth wrote: "John (Nevets) wrote: "Funny, when listening to this one I don't hear the italics"

Things aren't italicized to indicate emphasis. In this book they're italicized to indicate what language people ar..."

Thank you for the clarification. I was trying to make a bit of a joke, but at the same time I appreciate knowing what I was joking about. I didn't grok from Trikes original comment, that that was what they were being used for. It does sort of make sense. I did feel both the text she was reading, and the narrator herself gave indications of when they were speaking the different dialects, but I may have missed instances that would have been more obvious in the written text.