What Are We Currently Reading?

[Vanderboom]

3 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

I really wish Alexia Gordon would put out a new Gethsemane Brown

I know, right?! Apparently, there was some issue with the publisher that made her stop the series?

[Browncoat]

I just started "We Are Not Like Them", written by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza -- a Black woman and a White woman.  It matters, because the two main characters are a Black Woman and a White woman who have been best friends since they were about 5, and chapters alternate between them.  It starts out with the shooting of a Black child by White police, and explores the connections between the two women and their reactions/responses to the shooting.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, but it's really interesting so far.

[BlackberryJam]

4 hours ago, Vanderboom said:

I know, right?! Apparently, there was some issue with the publisher that made her stop the series?

Ugh… I hate hearing that. I could have cut out the supernatural element, but I loved Gesthemane and the school/village.

Have you read Raquel V Reyes? A Caribbean Kitchen mystery. Only one out but it has real potential.

[RealHousewife]

Pride & Prejudice ❤️

[DearEvette]

8 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Ugh… I hate hearing that. I could have cut out the supernatural element, but I loved Gesthemane and the school/village.

Right?  I enjoy the series but I do admit I kinda hated the last book.   I do like its little homage to the Ghost and Mrs. Muir.  I wish she had simply left it at that with Eamonn as Gesthemane's resident ghost bff and the series was just about Gethsemane and her settling into the village and the school and solving cozy mysteries.  But the last book went too hard into the paranormal/supernatural stuff. 

[sugarbaker design]

19 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

I want another Berger and Mitry book by him. I loved Mitch Berger and Des Mitry. 

Yes!  I heard another Handler book was coming out, when I saw there was no color in the title I was disappointed.

[DearEvette]

I am currently reading Crowbones by Anne Bishop. The latest book in her The Others series.  I love this world.  At this point this series is a comfort read.  This one so far is shaping up to be a murder mystery/whodunnit overlayed over the paranormal/fantasy aspects.  I wonder if it was originally supposed to be released in October?  It takes place during what is their version of Halloween and there is an added lightly spooky feel to it.

[grommit2]

13 hours ago, RealHousewife said:

Pride & Prejudice ❤️

Hi RealHouseWife...even better:  Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies.  A classic movie!

[Ceindreadh]

Endell Street - The women who ran Britain's trailblazing military hospital by Wendy Moore

It's about a group of suffragette doctors who set up and ran a military hospital in London during WW1 and it was staffed almost entirely by women.  (a few male orderlies, but all the doctors and nurses were women).

It's a fascinating look at the war through the eyes of women on the home front.

[peacheslatour]

I finished Mexican Gothic  the other day. I liked it better than The Pale Blue Eye but it did have marked similarities.

[isalicat]

I just finished the sixth or seventh (I'm losing count) Deborah Knott mystery by Margaret Maron and love them all (the next two are on the way and fortunately I think there are over 20 of them total!) Highly recommend! Also just re-read The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts on the recommendation of the lovely people here - it had been so long since I read this originally it was almost like the first time! Very cozy! Now back to the Shetland Islands with Ann Cleeves and Cold Earth. I will probably treat myself for my birthday in April with the most recent Elizabeth George so any advance reviews are very welcome.

[sugarbaker design]

3 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I finished Mexican Gothic  the other day. I liked it better than The Pale Blue Eye but it did have marked similarities.

I liked Mexican Gothic, although I do prefer horror novels a tad darker.

[peacheslatour]

7 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

I liked Mexican Gothic, although I do prefer horror novels a tad darker.

I knew it was going to be dark, I think my problem was, I had just read The Pale Blue. The two books don't really explore the same themes but the imagery is similar. I already felt mired. I should have mixed it up a bit and read different things instead of reading them back to back.

[RealHousewife]

8 hours ago, grommit2 said:

Hi RealHouseWife...even better:  Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies.  A classic movie!

Haha, that sounds like a fun watch, thank you! 

[GaT]

I'm getting close to finishing Sword and Shadow by Michelle Sagara, the 2nd book in the Wolves of Elantra spinoff from the Chronicles of Elantra series. It's dragging. I thought the 1st book dragged & if it wasn't for the fact that almost every book on my "I want to read" list gets delayed, I wouldn't have read it at all.

[Spartan Girl]

Reading Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, a novel depicting the family of John Wilkes Booth and how him assassinating Lincoln affected the rest of their lives. It’s pretty good so far. 

[BlackberryJam]

22 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Yes!  I heard another Handler book was coming out, when I saw there was no color in the title I was disappointed.

Actually it does have silver in the title, but still, just a Hoag. I really feel like Berger and Mitry are two full realized characters with interesting backstories who just happened to live in a small New England town where they solve crimes.  

On 3/9/2022 at 8:28 AM, DearEvette said:

Right?  I enjoy the series but I do admit I kinda hated the last book.   I do like its little homage to the Ghost and Mrs. Muir.  I wish she had simply left it at that with Eamonn as Gesthemane's resident ghost bff and the series was just about Gethsemane and her settling into the village and the school and solving cozy mysteries.  But the last book went too hard into the paranormal/supernatural stuff. 

Way to hard into the paranormal. (@DearEvette your avatar looks like the cover of the Harlem Renaissance mysteries. I've read the first, and I think the series has real potential.)

Katy Munger has a Dead Detective series in which the ghost is just the narrator, rather than the crime solver. I like that level of supernatural.

I'm a bit burnt out on supernatural mysteries. They use the paranormal is ways that become silly. I realize most cozy mysteries have a silly element to them, but there is a difference between Murder, She Wrote silly and Gilligan's Island silly. Also, I'm so sick of protagonists doing stupid things, like turning off their cell phones. I haven't turned off my cell phone in a decade or so. Silent mode is as close as I come.

When life gets too...lifey, and the world seems to be crumbling, I find solace in mystery novels. I try to mix them up with what I call, "Improving" books. I'm not in a place where I can read anything to angsty or gutwrenching or enraging. So if anyone has more recommendations, I'm always open. 

 

[sugarbaker design]

20 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

When life gets too...lifey, and the world seems to be crumbling, I find solace in mystery novels.

Same here.  I'm always on the hunt for a decent cozy or cozyish series, although I'm not a big fan of the ones written today.  I find there's too much a stress on romance, which is not my bag and most of the time they're terribly overwritten, like there is 100 pages of plot in 250 pages of book.  If I find another plucky heroine who comes back to her hometown to save her family's business, solve a murder or two and romance the local lawman who happens to be her ex, I will scream.  I look to the 80s and 90s for mystery series that didn't take themselves too seriously, that had a decent puzzle and an affable antagonist in under 200 pages.  Along with the classics like Christie, Marsh, Sayers, Radly and Allingham, I've been through more contemporary stuff like Maron's Deborah Knott and Sigrid Harald, Sharyn McCrumb's Elizabeth McPherson, et al.  My recent find is Simon Brett's Charles Paris series.  Paris is a drunken working actor in England in the 80s who is always finding a corpse.  They're fairly witty and quite enjoyable, and never over 200 pages.  Brett has several series going (I've already read the Mrs Pargeters) but Paris was his first.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Blaaaaah. I'm just now on the most recent of Kay Hooper's Bishop/SCU series. What a slogfest. It started out so good, too, and y'all know how I feel about needing romance in my books; but she just stopped with that around book 5? 7? I can't remember because I burned through the first 15 at breakneck speed. And now it's all mystery (which is fine), but also being in the mind of the serial killer, which, no. I don't need or want to know what's in their minds or why they're doing this. While I do enjoy reading the relationship between Hollis and Reese develop, I'm peeved that I the reader didn't get to see their first time together. I'm not talking details, but a scene of Hollis, finally letting him know she was ready--and it's a miracle she is after what she's been through. Hell, they said their "I love yous" so why not have a pay off? That's how I roll.😜

But the last two or three I've read, not including the most recent, as I will start that today, just about new characters I don't know or don't care about. Kay used to slowly introduce characters that might have their own stories, in previous books. But the last few, it's like here are A, B, C, and D. Instead of revisiting other characters from previous books I'd like to see again, like Isabel and Rafe, DAMMIT, instead of a piddly line about them.

And hers is the series where I talked about inconsistencies with using contractions vs. non-contractions, and HELL. She used a non contraction and contraction in the same bloody sentence in Hidden Salem.🤬

I'm sooo going back to a re-read of Anne Stuart's contemporaries--because I love me a hero who is dark, and you never know, even if you know, whether he'll kiss the heroine or kill her.

Or maybe I'll go back to the beginning and do a re-read of the In Death series. Because, 💗Roarke💗*

*Shut up! Don't JUDGE ME!

[BlackberryJam]

1 hour ago, sugarbaker design said:

Same here.  I'm always on the hunt for a decent cozy or cozyish series, although I'm not a big fan of the ones written today.  I find there's too much a stress on romance, which is not my bag and most of the time they're terribly overwritten, like there is 100 pages of plot in 250 pages of book.  If I find another plucky heroine who comes back to her hometown to save her family's business, solve a murder or two and romance the local lawman who happens to be her ex, I will scream.  I look to the 80s and 90s for mystery series that didn't take themselves too seriously, that had a decent puzzle and an affable antagonist in under 200 pages.  Along with the classics like Christie, Marsh, Sayers, Radly and Allingham, I've been through more contemporary stuff like Maron's Deborah Knott and Sigrid Harald, Sharyn McCrumb's Elizabeth McPherson, et al.  My recent find is Simon Brett's Charles Paris series.  Paris is a drunken working actor in England in the 80s who is always finding a corpse.  They're fairly witty and quite enjoyable, and never over 200 pages.  Brett has several series going (I've already read the Mrs Pargeters) but Paris was his first.

Finding good recent ones can be..tough. I am so sick of the plucky protagonist just out of a relationship with a city slicker who moves to charming hometown to waitress in the family dessert shop, no matter that she has a degree in astrophysics, only to come a cross the body of the big city guy who wants to buy her family’s store. 

SO BARFY.

I recommend the Raquel V. Reyes I mentioned before, which is modern and skips those tropes. My work is requiring a ton of driving right now, so I’m big on books on tape. I want more of the Knott books. I’m all right with some romance, but not…a ton. My big pet peeve is people acting stupid to further the plot. 

[JustHereForFood]

On 3/9/2022 at 7:34 AM, RealHousewife said:

Pride & Prejudice ❤️

Looking forward to your opinion on it once you finish.

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, BlackberryJam said:

I recommend the Raquel V. Reyes

Noted!

[Vanderboom]

21 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

If I find another plucky heroine who comes back to her hometown to save her family's business, solve a murder or two and romance the local lawman who happens to be her ex, I will scream.

I'll scream even louder if the family business is a bed/breakfast or involves food. I love a good cozy mystery, but hate the cupcakification of the genre.

[sugarbaker design]

1 hour ago, Vanderboom said:

I'll scream even louder if the family business is a bed/breakfast or involves food. I love a good cozy mystery, but hate the cupcakification of the genre.

Cupcakification is never good!

Edited March 11, 2022 by sugarbaker design

[blackwing]

23 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Same here.  I'm always on the hunt for a decent cozy or cozyish series, although I'm not a big fan of the ones written today.  I find there's too much a stress on romance, which is not my bag and most of the time they're terribly overwritten, like there is 100 pages of plot in 250 pages of book.  If I find another plucky heroine who comes back to her hometown to save her family's business, solve a murder or two and romance the local lawman who happens to be her ex, I will scream.

 

21 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Finding good recent ones can be..tough. I am so sick of the plucky protagonist just out of a relationship with a city slicker who moves to charming hometown to waitress in the family dessert shop, no matter that she has a degree in astrophysics, only to come a cross the body of the big city guy who wants to buy her family’s store. 

SO BARFY.

 

2 hours ago, Vanderboom said:

I'll scream even louder if the family business is a bed/breakfast or involves food. I love a good cozy mystery, but hate the cupcakification of the genre.

You forgot to mention that her mother, who is the mayor of this small hometown, is the one being accused of murder.  And the local policeman who happens to be her boyfriend or budding love interest is repeatedly telling her that she has to stay out of his case.  And that there has never been a murder in small hometown until the plucky heroine moved back home, and now there has been EIGHT within the span of a year!

I read cozy mysteries because they are light and easy, even if many of the plots seem similar.  I do tire sometimes of the plucky heroine who is trying to run her small business, romance the best looking dude in town, and solve murders.  Which is why I am always looking for more cozy series where a man is the main character.  These seem to mostly be written by men, there don't seem to be many female writers writing cozies with male main characters unless they are part of a tandem paired with a plucky heroine.

I'm going to start a cozy thread so we can discuss cozies without cluttering this main "what are you reading" thread.

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Cupcakification is never good!

There is a theory that says that if you can't have sex in the story, replace it with food.

[BlackberryJam]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

There is a theory that says that if you can't have sex in the story, replace it with food.

Is that the Joanne Fluke method? Where her protagonist is a grown adult owner of a successful business she never, ever even makes out with either of the love interests?

Ugh. 

[OtterMommy]

I finished The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James.  It was definitely fun and unputdownable, and, of course, a bit creepy.  It was also a tad predictable, but I still enjoyed it.  I wouldn't say it is my favorite of her books (that would be The Broken Girls), but definitely in the top 3.

I started Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande.  I had never heard of this book until I found it in a LFL and it looked interesting.  It's about two young women from Mexico--so far, the characters have yet to meet, but I'm sure that is going to happen at some point.

I'm also working on The Sentence by Louise Erdrich.  Now, there is a book that is bad for your TBR.  I think I've put 10 books mentioned in it on my TBR and did a little online impulse shopping at Birchbark thanks to that one!

[Browncoat]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:28 PM, Browncoat said:

I just started "We Are Not Like Them", written by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza -- a Black woman and a White woman.  It matters, because the two main characters are a Black Woman and a White woman who have been best friends since they were about 5, and chapters alternate between them.  It starts out with the shooting of a Black child by White police, and explores the connections between the two women and their reactions/responses to the shooting.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, but it's really interesting so far.

Quoting myself to recommend this book.  It was really well done.

[DearEvette]

On 3/10/2022 at 11:27 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Or maybe I'll go back to the beginning and do a re-read of the In Death series. Because, 💗Roarke💗*

Lol @GHScorpiosRule I would never!  In fact whenever I need a comfort read I cherry pick through my favorites.  Right now I am listening to Portrait In Death.  It is one of my five-star graded installments of the series. 

I love it because it hits on all cylinders, the mystery is a good one, we learn Crack's real name (under the most heartbreaking conditions), one of my favorite minor characters, Troy Trueheart gets some great face time,  and best of all  --- the personal development re: the revelation about Roarke is one of the absolute best in the whole series!  Also I think this is the one where NR finally learned to lean into dark humor.  It is surprisingly funny.  I had forgotten about that.  Peabody deliberately drops little teasers about her sex life even though she knows it gives Eve the agita and Eve is at the height of her biting, sarcastic humor.

[GHScorpiosRule]

27 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Lol @GHScorpiosRule I would never!  In fact whenever I need a comfort read I cherry pick through my favorites.  Right now I am listening to Portrait In Death.  It is one of my five-star graded installments of the series. 

I love it because it hits on all cylinders, the mystery is a good one, we learn Crack's real name (under the most heartbreaking conditions), one of my favorite minor characters, Troy Trueheart gets some great face time,  and best of all  --- the personal development re: the revelation about Roarke is one of the absolute best in the whole series!  Also I think this is the one where NR finally learned to lean into dark humor.  It is surprisingly funny.  I had forgotten about that.  Peabody deliberately drops little teasers about her sex life even though she knows it gives Eve the agita and Eve is at the height of her biting, sarcastic humor.

Oh ABSOLUTELY! But Vengeance, JUDGMENT!!!! Holiday, Conspiracy, DIVIDED(!!), Origin, Loyalty, Witness are my favorites (aside from the original 4). There are others, of course, but I sooo love the ones when Eve and Roarke butt heads and when he loses his temper and Nora writes his brogue  coming out and the inventive Gaelic curses. Sue me!

I’m a third into the latest Kay, Curse of Salem, and while it’s better, I’ve noticed another writing weakness. She keeps writing her characters answering and looking at ”his partner and lover”, “his partner and wife”, “her partner and lover”, “her partner and husband”, “her partner”, “his partner”, as if the reader needs constant reminders who they are to each other, instead of their names. 
 

[Starleigh]

On 3/11/2022 at 10:14 PM, OtterMommy said:

I finished The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James.  It was definitely fun and unputdownable, and, of course, a bit creepy.  It was also a tad predictable, but I still enjoyed it.  I wouldn't say it is my favorite of her books (that would be The Broken Girls), but definitely in the top 3.

 

I have this on hold at the library but unfortunately, even though I am #3 on the reserve list, my library takes a looong time to process new books and put them into circulation. So, it may be a good few weeks before I get it. My favorite of her books is The Sundown Motel. As an insomniac, who was going through a particularly bad patch of sleepless nights when I first read it, I found it oddly soothing to read a story set during the night shift at a creepy motel, lol.

Right now I'm rereading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, and am enjoying it just as much as the first time around. I was happy to see she has a new book coming out soon.

[Haleth]

I'm only a little way into a new book I picked up called Small World by Jonathan Evison but I'm enjoying it.  It takes place in two time lines, 1851 and 2019, with the older characters being the ancestors of the current day ones.  In both time lines the characters cross paths, briefly intersecting then moving on with their lives, but I think in the current day timeline they will all meet when a tragedy occurs.  The older characters include Chinese and Irish immigrants, a Native American orphan, and a runaway slave.  Their descendants include a retiring train engineer, a culturally conflicted Chinese American family, a teenage basketball phenom, and an abused wife.  The only complaint I have is that with so many moving pieces it's hard to get much depth to the characters.  The chapters are short so there is lots of jumping around.  But they are all appealing characters and I'm interested in all of their stories.  Stay tuned.

[Ohiopirate02]

On 3/11/2022 at 10:14 PM, OtterMommy said:

I'm also working on The Sentence by Louise Erdrich.  Now, there is a book that is bad for your TBR.  I think I've put 10 books mentioned in it on my TBR and did a little online impulse shopping at Birchbark thanks to that one!

I loved that book until it became a bit "too soon" with the events that happen.  Louise does end the book with a handy booklist featuring all the titles she drops into the narrative plus others.  The last thing I need is anymore titles on my TBR, so I returned the library ebook before I got distracted.  

[Luckylyn]

I’m reading Melissa Gilbert’s biography Prairie Tale.   It’s an interesting read and she isn’t shy about sharing the events of her life.  

[Angeltoes]

I just finished There Were Complaints by Sharon Gless.  It turned out to be one of my favorites that I've read this year.  She has a good sense of humor and seems fun.  I don't remember watching Cagney & Lacey back in the day but would like to see it now.

Melissa Gilbert has another book coming out in May.  I was surprised that her little brother pretty much cut ties with the family.  Maybe he needs to write a book.

Alison Arngrim's (Nellie Olsen) book was good, too.  Although the part about her brother makes your skin crawl.

Wow, Melissa Sue Anderson will be 60 this year!  

[dubbel zout]

Started With Malice, by Eileen Cook. It's about a teenager who was in a car accident in Italy that killed her best friend. The Italian authorities want to talk to her because they think the crash wasn't an accident. Teenager has amnesia so remembers nothing, but she's slowly getting flashes of what happened. I'm about halfway through, and it's a very quick, slightly creepy read. I'm enjoying it.

[blackwing]

James Rollins is one of my favourite authors.  His Sigma Force thrillers always have a great blend of action with a bit of history and science thrown into the mix.  However, he apparently got his start as a writer in fantasy, and now he has returned to the genre with The Starless Crown, which I assume will be a trilogy or ongoing series.

The general plot is that on some fantasy version of Earth, a young girl discovers she has some magical powers and embarks on a journey to save the world, while collecting various companions and creatures along the way.

If that sounds a bit uninspiring, it's because it is.  I listened to this book on audiobook, which may have been a mistake.  Fantasy series always have lots of names and places and there were too many names, and I was at times lost and confused.  I never really got a good sense of where each place was in relation to the others, what was there, and why the characters were there or going there.

Above all, the pace of the book is just slow and plodding.  Yes, it takes time to build a world, but for a new world with new characters, fantastical creatures and a hint of magic, it was surprisingly boring.  To make things worse, he introduced us to a new fourth point of view character fully one-third of the way through the book, just when I thought I had finally figured out who everyone was.

The book did pick up a bit, especially the last third, but it's really terrible that after finishing the book I still can't fully articulate in words what the main character's quest was and why the villain didn't want her to complete the quest.  I thought it was to save the world, but why would the bad guy want to prevent that?

I will give the next book in this series a try because hopefully it won't suffer from the issues this one had in developing the world and the characters.  But as it is, I thought this was a rare miss from James Rollins.  I am looking forward to his next Sigma Force book and I hope he will continue with them.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Curse of Salem by Kay Hooper was just...let's just say there was a lot of the characters just talking, talking, talking, and doing nothing. And the end was just so anticlimactic. She tends to write her Bishop series in threes/trilogies, even though it's the same series. Curse was the second. I have a feeling Book 21, will also take place in Salem, NC. 

So, as I posted up thread, I started re-reading Naked in Death last night. Interesting that when Nora wrote this, even though in 1994, she created this world which was set in 2058, the dialogue and the words she used, were still very 20th century. She had words like movies, videos, witnesses, instead of vid, wit, and having Eve talk in military speak when she was relaying her report to the Commander, as she started to do around book 4? I think? And she was familiar with idioms and phrases like "walk on egg shells" in this first book, only to have her not knowing what the hell it meant in later books. But I'm loving visiting when we first meet these characters. 

It also gave me a giggle to read the line how guns were banned in 2023! And here we are in 2022, and...no gun ban! Hee.

[peacheslatour]

I'm reading Dodging and Burning by John Copenhaver. The title comes from a photographic process. It's a murder mystery set just after WWII. I'm enjoying it so far.

[Pickles Aplenty]

Well, I'm reading my first Terry Pratchett novel, Equal Rites.  I'm not the biggest fantasy reader, but I'm really enjoying it.  It's a lot of fun.

[Anduin]

2 minutes ago, Pickles Aplenty said:

Well, I'm reading my first Terry Pratchett novel, Equal Rites.  I'm not the biggest fantasy reader, but I'm really enjoying it.  It's a lot of fun.

I'm a big Pratchett fan. While that's a good one, I feel it's before he really hit his stride. Not really a big fan of the witches in general. The first one I love is Guards! Guards!

Still, if you enjoy it, I'm happy for you. Feel free to ignore me and my opinions. :)

[peacheslatour]

7 minutes ago, Pickles Aplenty said:

Well, I'm reading my first Terry Pratchett novel, Equal Rites.  I'm not the biggest fantasy reader, but I'm really enjoying it.  It's a lot of fun.

I've always wanted to read Terry Pratchett. Being a huge Tolkien fan, I like fantasy but I was too intimidated to read Pratchett.

BTW, I love your user name!

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I've always wanted to read Terry Pratchett. Being a huge Tolkien fan, I like fantasy but I was too intimidated to read Pratchett.

What's intimidating about Pratchett? So many books? They aren't long or hard reads. Good to knock off over a couple of afternoons, and they aren't grimdark either. Even his most serious book, Night Watch, is nowhere near some others I could name.

[Ceindreadh]

16 hours ago, Pickles Aplenty said:

Well, I'm reading my first Terry Pratchett novel, Equal Rites.  I'm not the biggest fantasy reader, but I'm really enjoying it.  It's a lot of fun.

I envy you having it all to look forward to!

 

[MaggieG]

Just finished The Unsinkable Greta James. It wasn't super exciting but I found it enjoyable. It was very touching in some parts.

Up next: The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James. I've loved her previous books and I'm excited to read this one.

[Anduin]

The Expanse book 6, Babylon's Ashes. I have a love/hate relationship with the Expanse. I love the low-tech space opera, so many great ideas about how humanity could survive. I love the big ideas, the protomolecule and advanced alien weirdness.

But while I can read and watch grimdark, I've never loved it. I just want people to be better to each other. Quit this politicking. Get on with a good adventure. I want to take all the cool ideas and stick them into a different story.

Does this make any sense, or am I a bit crazy for feeling this way?

[BlackberryJam]

Read The Final Case by David Guterson and what a meandering piece of crap. This was my first experience with the author and why why would anyone publish that?

It’s sort of the story of a man whose father is an elderly defense attorney defending a woman accused of murdering her adopted Ethiopian daughter. Yet the writing is so, I don’t even know, that I was completely unable to invest it the horrifically sad tale of this little girl. Then it’s sort of a story about this man and his father and then the last section of the book is just terrible.

Ugh. I hated this book so much I had to share. 

[Snow Apple]

I'm reading Alan Cumming's second autobiography. I'm only on the second chapter but am already hooked.

[Anduin]

I finished Babylon's Ashes. Very good. You know, the bad guy isn't entirely wrong. At the heart of it, he has a good point. Only he's way too extreme and narrow-minded in his methods. Very Killmonger from the MCU in that aspect.

However, I'm not entirely happy about the grand finale. Naomi figures out both the pattern and how to game the system? She's good, yes. But that good, I'm not so sure. It just doesn't feel right.

I started Strange Dogs, but I couldn't continue. I find that reading the Expanse is a hard experience. Maybe when I've read other, lighter, things for a while, I'll dive back in.