Daniel > Recent Status Updates

Hmmmmm.

77% and we learn he's bothered by the flickering light in the newsroom. Im going to scream.

Oh, this book. smh @45% we get Andy hand flapping as he monologues about baseball stats. I love autistic coded Andy, but why is this the first we're hearing about this? These guys have been joined at the hip for a year now. The timing in this book is just so off. Everything comes way too late. Bits of it might work better if it was Nick's pov only, but it's not. Was I too easy on her earlier books or is this worse?

ok, Andy's sexuality acceptably addressed. no infantilizing nonsense since the last bit. mostly just pleasant domestic type stuff. outlook much improved.

1. wtf is with dated sections in the first part, then switching to "chapters" for the rest of the book? amateur hour at the publishing house?
2. this is certainly looking like one of those gfy pieces of trash where one of the guys has mysteriously never had a gay thought in his life until all of the sudden, BAM. please tell me it's not. is this going to be my first miss for this author? 😒

Many Mansions - A scholar, definitely not a wizard, goes out to deal with a reported witch, and learns he's not all he was cracked up to be. One of the better stories here so far.
My Beautiful Life - skipped, already read as a standalone.

hmmm

91-92: Stubb is a con man. 93: Pip experiences racism, and other things.
Next up: Some, uh, "squeezing". aka the gayest thing since Ishmael and Queequeg's marriage.

The wideshots are amazing, but he draws Ishmael's head like a potato, with a second potato for a nose. Daggoo looks like a biker dressed for his office job.

All Love Excelling - Life's rough when your dad's the messiah. Funny, but it never grabbed me, I think I was too put off by all the pseudo-xtian stuff.

it sucked

Ishmael goes off on property rights. :)

switched to a paper edition, because of the typos in the kindle version.

Reading this on the kindle is nice cuz it's easy to look up the occasional french bits, but once in a while there's something that really seems like a typo and I wish I had another edition I could compare against to see if it's intentional or just sloppy ebook production.

A little alarmed at my last status update escaping containment there, people be staring at me.

And we arrive at the eponymous room.

Mightier Than The Sword: From the TOC it looks like every 3rd story is going to be one I've already read as a standalone ebook. Considered rereading, but given the length and that I only gave it 4 stars I think I'll just focus on the new (to me?) ones. You definitely get your moneys worth with his collections though.

Whale anatomy continues, next up some kind of story in a story I think. Not immediately recalling it from the chapter title.

Stubbornly keeps reading this crappy book. ~60 pages to go.

I must say, I found the first chapter rather ponderous and oppressive, breathless in a bad way, suffocating, I suppose. But chapter two was fantastic. :)

I'll still probably alternate between this and the Parker collection, though. Go slowly with it.

The Thought That Counts: 🎉💯 That one's a 5. Salonius, origin story of sorts. So good. 😁

The Return of the Pig - Sorcerer has to return to his hometown on a mission and isn't happy about it. Think I just made it sound better than it was. Really it was fine, nothing special though.

The bad thing about this series is that only a few of them are available on Kindle and the acidic fumes off these ancient paper books burn my eyes and nose. 🤧

Stuff's happening now, hehe. 💀🔎

Aside from a suspicion Gardner went to Hawaii on vacation before he wrote this, I have no idea what is going on and I love it. :) Lam is my favorite PI.

maybe it's my imagination, maybe it's deliberate to go with the shipboard setting so far, but the prose feels more relaxed than typical for ESG. anyway great so far. i do love his plots.

👍 Knew I could trust my man Erle Stan!

Bit of a bad streak with my reading lately. Need to pick a winner next, one of my reliable authors, I think.